As I think about how life has changed over the past few years since becoming a mommy, much of the change is evident by the possessions in my house. Before I was a mommy, the following were nowhere to be found in my home...
1. Bins full of crafts - play dough, construction paper, glitter glue, beads, bubbles and more!
2. Huge stains on the carpet from poop, spit up, throw up, pee, etcetera.
3. Miniature backpack filled with wet wipes, a change of clothes, and an epi-pen in case of life threatening peanut ingestion.
4. "Habitat" with fake hamsters that live inside of it
5. A turtle sandbox in the backyard.
6. Sand in the grass - everywhere - that has been dumped out of #5
7. Popcorn, goldfish, and pretzel crumbs all over the wood living room floor
8. Faint marker stains on my kitchen table that never came completely out
9. A running stroller, toy car, and tricyle all parked in what is supposed to be my formal living room.
10. A fridge covered in reward charts, preschool projects, and Bible verses organized by letter of the alphabet.
But most importantly there was not a sweet little girl dreaming in her bed upstairs. I could never have imagined one little person capturing my heart so much!
Friday, May 28, 2010
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Butterfly Garden
At Christmas I purchased a butterfly garden for KK with much glee. I thought it was one of the neatest gifts ever for kids.
I am now here to report that for this mommy, it turned out to be very creepy.
We received our caterpillars a few weeks ago, which I found to be a little bit gross. As one of my friends said: "It sounds like a little bit too much nature for me!" Then they entombed themselves into chrysalis form, which was just very bizarre and...well - creepy! My glee over this gift was turning into dismay that, as a loving and devoted mommy, I had to now follow through with this experiment for the sake of my child. Shudder. Luckily, there are things that are meant for daddies to do, and Gene willingly transferred the cocoons into the butterfly net at the proper time.
I must inform you that the cocoons do not all remain perfectly still either. Sometimes some of them would shake violently, further adding to the creepy factor. One of them did this during transfer which really freaked me out.
Finally they began to burst open, and things just got gross again at that point. The empty cocoons looked like that stuff that snakes leave behind when they shed their skin. Then, the new butterflies dumped meconium all over their habitat, which looks a lot like bright red blood.
Once they all hatched (after a few days) I informed KK that it was time to free them to the wild. Luckily she did this with joy and didn't question my timing. (No reason for her to know they could have lived in their habitat for weeks....) She did seem to enjoy the whole butterfly process and for that I am glad. But I won't be doing it again for a loooong time.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
More Transitions
Little KK continues to deal with the impending knowledge that a baby brother will be showing up soon.
I think she will be a very sweet big sister and a good helper to mom. She gives my tummy lots of kisses and hugs. Lately, she sings lullabies while cradling my belly. She also announces "It's your big sister Katelynn!" directly through my belly button. She frequently tells me that she can't wait to be a big sister. Tonight she even asked me if she could share her blankie with her little brother.
On the other hand I can tell the little girl is struggling a bit with the transition of no longer being the only child who gets all of mommy and daddy's attention. When she was at her Nanna and PopPop's house for a couple of nights, we moved the big La-Z boy recliner from her room to the baby's room. I set up a special play area in the big space left in her room. When she got home, she noticed immediately and informed me that I needed to "move Katelynn's chair BACK to HER ROOM." She became a little frantic and teary-eyed when I explained that it was mommy and daddy's chair and that mommy needed it to feed the new baby, but that she could still sit in it anytime. We read books in the chair that night which seemed to appease her some.
As reported in this post , she has also insisted that the pack-n-play be set up in her room next to her big girl bed. She slept in it for weeks, but now seems to be showing a preference for the bed again - hallelujah! She has grown so tall that she really looks ridiculous in it. When she does occasionally fall asleep in it, she allows us to move her back to bed after a couple of hours. However she really does not want it put away or moved to her baby brother's room. My friend Sarah had an ingenious idea - she is going to pass along a princess "bed tent" to me soon. KK will not be allowed to use the bed tent unless the pack-n-play is put away. I'll have to report back on how that works out!
I'm sure there will be many more transitions ahead, both positive and negative, especially once baby brother is actually here on the scene.
I think she will be a very sweet big sister and a good helper to mom. She gives my tummy lots of kisses and hugs. Lately, she sings lullabies while cradling my belly. She also announces "It's your big sister Katelynn!" directly through my belly button. She frequently tells me that she can't wait to be a big sister. Tonight she even asked me if she could share her blankie with her little brother.
On the other hand I can tell the little girl is struggling a bit with the transition of no longer being the only child who gets all of mommy and daddy's attention. When she was at her Nanna and PopPop's house for a couple of nights, we moved the big La-Z boy recliner from her room to the baby's room. I set up a special play area in the big space left in her room. When she got home, she noticed immediately and informed me that I needed to "move Katelynn's chair BACK to HER ROOM." She became a little frantic and teary-eyed when I explained that it was mommy and daddy's chair and that mommy needed it to feed the new baby, but that she could still sit in it anytime. We read books in the chair that night which seemed to appease her some.
As reported in this post , she has also insisted that the pack-n-play be set up in her room next to her big girl bed. She slept in it for weeks, but now seems to be showing a preference for the bed again - hallelujah! She has grown so tall that she really looks ridiculous in it. When she does occasionally fall asleep in it, she allows us to move her back to bed after a couple of hours. However she really does not want it put away or moved to her baby brother's room. My friend Sarah had an ingenious idea - she is going to pass along a princess "bed tent" to me soon. KK will not be allowed to use the bed tent unless the pack-n-play is put away. I'll have to report back on how that works out!
I'm sure there will be many more transitions ahead, both positive and negative, especially once baby brother is actually here on the scene.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Pregnancy #2 - So much easier!
Now that I am nearing the third trimester with LittlePeanut2 ("LP2"), I thought I would update my previous note about pregnancy the second time. It certainly has been different than the first time around!
1. No charlie horses (YET). I remember having them all the time with my first pregnancy so maybe I am out of the woods. To me, they are like labor pains in your leg. Such awful pain. So glad they have stayed away.
2. My appetite is so much better. I had a long list of aversions with my first pregnancy and happily this time my palette does not seem to have changed much.
3. Perhaps as a result of #2 - I have gained more weight - 17 pounds so far. I am just now entering the 3rd trimester and I am only about 5 pounds below my maximum weight with pregnancy #1. It really still seems to be all in my tummy though - I'm glad that part is the same! So maybe this is just going to be one really big baby boy.
4. No heart palpitations. No spells of nearly passing out in the grocery store.
5. My sleep has remained much more normal. By this time with pregnancy #1 I was spending a lot of time on the couch in that one position that felt comfortable. So far, I have been able to remain in my bed for the most part. I wake up a few times to flip sides, then I'm snoozing again.
6. I am definitely not as exhausted (at least since getting past that first trimester).
7. This little boy kicks me a lot harder than I ever remember KK kicking me! He is also more active.
1. No charlie horses (YET). I remember having them all the time with my first pregnancy so maybe I am out of the woods. To me, they are like labor pains in your leg. Such awful pain. So glad they have stayed away.
2. My appetite is so much better. I had a long list of aversions with my first pregnancy and happily this time my palette does not seem to have changed much.
3. Perhaps as a result of #2 - I have gained more weight - 17 pounds so far. I am just now entering the 3rd trimester and I am only about 5 pounds below my maximum weight with pregnancy #1. It really still seems to be all in my tummy though - I'm glad that part is the same! So maybe this is just going to be one really big baby boy.
4. No heart palpitations. No spells of nearly passing out in the grocery store.
5. My sleep has remained much more normal. By this time with pregnancy #1 I was spending a lot of time on the couch in that one position that felt comfortable. So far, I have been able to remain in my bed for the most part. I wake up a few times to flip sides, then I'm snoozing again.
6. I am definitely not as exhausted (at least since getting past that first trimester).
7. This little boy kicks me a lot harder than I ever remember KK kicking me! He is also more active.
Monday, May 24, 2010
Future Engineer?
OK, Nanna, you have guilted your daughter into catching up on the blog. In all honesty, I have had a list of blog ideas for some time, but they have gone to the back burner in lieu of getting ready for another baby, digital scrapbooking, babymooning, and general life. But I will try to get a little more consistent.One thing I have wanted to document for some time is the handy tendencies we are seeing in KK. She is definitely taking after her dad in that regard. About a month ago, we got all of KK's baby gear down from the attic to examine it and decide what we needed for LittlePeanut2. It was quite a project and stuff filled our foyer. Katelynn zeroed in on the exersaucer which was in numerous pieces and started playing with it. I was busy organizing and not paying much attention to her; I was just happy she seemed to be entertained. After about 15 minutes she came and announced, "Mommy, come look! I put the exersaucer together!" Much to my astonishment, this turned out to be true. Now she couldn't quite figure out how to snap the top to the bottom (which is definitely too complicated for me!) but she had set the top gently on the bottom, and snapped all the toys into the little holders on the top. Mommy was impressed with this 3 1/2 year old.
Fast forward a month. Gene has spent quite a bit of time over the past week assembling a bookshelf and dresser, and reassembling the crib, for the baby's room. In the past Gene has labeled me "assistant girl" for projects such as these and asked me to fetch tools, hold things steady for him, etc. This is a task which I have always abhorred and complained about continually until the pain was over. Much to my delight, my daughter makes the most perfect assistant girl ever. She absolutely loves to help her daddy with these projects. She is learning all the names of the tools and is very eager to please and impress her daddy. She won't spend 30 minutes with me working on her alphabet, but she will sit and watch a piece of furniture go together for hours. Gene has informed me that she is a much better and more pleasant assistant girl than I. I have no issue with this!
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