My Little Nurse and Baby on Board

To anyone on Facebook, this is not a surprise, but we're expecting Baby #3!!!  We've had one ultrasound at six weeks and everything looked good (as good as an itty bitty little poppy seed can look, I suppose), and I go back next week for a 10 week ultrasound to check growth and see if everything is still on track.  We're super excited, still a little nervous, and just incredibly thankful.  While being pregnant is amazing and I don't really want to "complain" about this little miracle, I'm in the middle of the toughest part.  At least, toughest for me; being large and in charge can be tough, too, but the first trimester for me is always the hardest.  I get SO SICK.  James is convinced we're having another girl, since I'm SO SICK yet again.  We'll see, though!  We're going to wait until the midpoint ultrasound to find out so we have awhile to wonder.

It's definitely a different experience being pregnant with a toddler running around.  At this point in my pregnancy with Cami I would come home from work, make cheese quesadillas, and park on the couch to play Final Fantasy (true story...I didn't have to move, but was entertained) until I had to make dinner.  Now, I get done with work, pick up Cami from Grandma and Grandpa's, make her dinner, give her a bath, get her ready for bed, put her to bed, and then immediately make our dinner while attempting to not be sick from smells associated with all of these tasks.  Somewhere in there we play and tickle and laugh, too.  In some ways, this is harder, but in other ways, I'm distracted by everything I have to do, so I'm not sitting around moping in my own nausea (or playing enough Final Fantasy to rival one of my 8th graders).  It also makes things go really fast, and makes me feel like Baby on Board will be here before we even know it.  If it's a girl, no biggie, we're ready.  If it's a boy, well, he might just have to wear some pink until we get it together enough to buy him his own stuff.  

Another thing that's funny about being sick with Cami on the loose is her complete and total understanding that something is amiss when I'm getting sick.  The first time she saw me get sick, she came and gave me pats on my shoulder until I was done and then bent down to look me in the eye to make sure all was well, and then leaned in for a hug.  Sweetest baby EVER.  Last night, she saw me get sick again, and this time just came over, gripped my arm and put her head on my shoulder until James was able to call her away.  She's totally calm, too, while this is going on.  Just my little nursemaid lending her support.  She was upset last night, though, that she couldn't see that I was okay before she went to bed.  She saw me get sick, but then, while James got her ready for bed, I was in and out of her room and then James put her down.  Cami started bawling.  This was not just "I don't want to go to bed" toddler fussing, this was "something is wrong and I can't figure it out and need help" bawling.  After a few minutes I want back in (which I NEVER do) and gave her some hugs and the poor little thing had tears streaming down her face and just leaned in and put her head against me.  I assured her everything was fine and left (to the restarting of the bawling) and finally she calmed down and went to sleep.  My sweet, empathetic little girl.

Rubber Legs!!

Wow, I haven't written anything down since December!  There's time flying by for you.  Cami is a drastically different baby than she was at Christmas time (although I probably should throw out the term baby in reference to her....full blown toddler around here).  She is well into her Terrible Twos, despite only being sixteen months old.  Her opinions have recently become the MOST important thing in the world and she's testing out the "if I cry really hard maybe they'll just let me do what I want because I really want it" tactic.  Her other favorite is the "jelly leg" in which she is being guided to a certain destination and her legs suddenly give out.  Being as how we, literally, NEVER give in (since these dramatic attempts usually involve non-negotiables such as diaper changes and bedtime), we're hoping this is short lived.  Naive?  Probably.

Despite all of the brief theatrical episodes, Camster is also SO incredibly loving, and becomes sweeter and sweeter all the time.  Yesterday morning I got my first "love you" back after saying I love you to her, and she loves to give a big hug and then lean back and grin at you and give another big hug.  It's adorable.  She loves to be tickled and collapses to the floor in a fit of giggles.  She's also recently started looking for my toes and/or neck to tickle.  

Cami also still LOVES her books, and, funny enough, some of her favorite ones are the ones that just have pictures and words about the world around her.  I think she likes categorizing all the words in her little mind so that she knows what we're talking about.  Not that she doesn't love a good story....two favorites are her Sofia the First and my old Little Mermaid story books.  She's become a true Disney baby and loves the princesses, especially Ariel and Rapunzel.  That might have something to do with MY love of Disney and her massive exposure to these characters.  Maybe.

Lastly, she's learning new words all the time, but her current favorites are "EAT!!!" (said loudly, repetitively, and with almost all lack of a "t"), "Papa", and "Peeaase" (please).  I told her once there was an L and drew it out like "Puh-lease" and go a "Puuuh-eeeaase" in return.  :)  Crazy baby.

Talk Talk Talk

Quick Post.....Cami can now:
Open presents.  Fairly proficiently thanks to her birthday and Christmas being so close together.
Throw her diaper in the garbage.
Help get herself dressed.
Help feed herself with a spoon (sometimes).
Say Diaper.
Say Uh-oh.
Say Turtle (well, kind of).
Say Cracker (and point to a bag of crackers).
Say Papa
Say Daddy (instead of just Da-da)
Amuse herself by playing Peek-a-boo with a napkin.
Sit quietly with her books and page through them (one of my favs).
Play chase.
Give REALLY good hugs and pats.
Walk super well, borderline RUN half the time.
Play her piano.
Shake her head no (we're working on yes).
Sit correctly when I ask her to.
Lay her head back in the tub and kick her legs.
Pick her nose because she thinks it's funny (that's a great one).
Eat more than any child ever in existence.**
Count to 100 (just kidding).


This list is more for me when I'm going back to fill in her baby book.  The blog is way faster!

**We're cutting back on milk.  In the past 24 hours Cami ate:
4 chicken nuggets, a waffle, and a bunch of peas 
2 whole eggs with cheese on them, 1/2 an English muffin, and about 3/4 of a medium sized banana
1 entire container of Easy Mac (I maybe had four or five bites), and a container of Gerber fruit.
Snack of Cheerios.
 That's IN ADDITION to all of her whole milk.  Which she drinks more of then you're "supposed" to.  I think there's a hole in her foot, I just haven't found it yet......

Oh Dear

Let me preface this entire post by saying Cami is an absolutely easy, wonderful, loving, funny, gleeful little baby.  I am sometimes amazed by how much I love her simply because I enjoy being around her.  She constantly cracks me up, and is working so hard at walking (we have a record of four steps...FOUR!) and trying so many new things to be a "big girl".  She rarely acts scared (except for those darn elevators, weird), and never makes a peep when I hand her off to Grandma in the morning.  However, this lovely, strong-willed personality is making me quake in my Sperry's as I see her become more certain of what she wants to do.

I've written before that she sometimes smiles at me when I say no and then does the action anyway.  The other night was on a whole new level.  After Cami's bath, she crawled into the bonus room.  We have a TV in there that she has been told repeatedly not to touch (as is the case with all TVs).  She crawled up, touched the TV, and immediately looked at me (she so knows what she's doing).  I said "No, no, Cami," rather loudly.  She smiled, and while looking at me with a serious "and what are you going to do about it?" look, smacked her hand on it again.  I gave her my teacher face, which easily stares down crazy, pubescent 8th graders, and said no again, louder.  SMACK.  Turn.  Smile.  At this point I decided it was time for a hand pop.  She knows what she's doing, she knows what "no" means, let's do this.  I walked over, said no, and popped her on the back of the hand.  SHE LAUGHED.  While looking me in the eye, she laughed.  AND THEN DID IT AGAIN.  So I popped her a little harder, and she laughed again.  Sigh.  This clearly has no effect at this point.  I proceeded with the tried and true "get as far from the TV as possible" strategy and we went downstairs.  Where she started messing with the blinds in the living room.......

Inspector Gadget

We have taken to calling Cami Inspector Gadget.  This little baby can suddenly have Go Go Gadget arms (or legs, or toes) and grab anything around her.  Things we think we've placed out of reach magically appear in her hands after she has used her Extend-O-Arms.  It's also quite applicable because she is curious about EVERYTHING.  The other day she stood up at the dishwasher and was able to stand on tippy toes to reach the top of the kitchen counter.  Oh no.

This is also combined with her being really close to walking.  Toddling is a quite applicable term for how quickly she can get moving holding on to finger tips.  Quick mover and Go Go Gadget arms.  Bad combination. ;)

Bobby Pin Conundrum

Before Baby That Puts Everything in Her Mouth:  Darn it, two bobby pins fell out of my hair.  Oh well.

After Baby That Puts Everything in Her Mouth:  Two bobby pins are gone!!!  Where did they fall out???  Cami's going to eat them!  (scouring every room in the house after baby is in bed)  I can't find them!!!!  Oh my gosh, they're probably in her crib!  She's going to eat them in the middle of the night and choke and then have to have surgery to remove them after the perforate her intestines!!!!  WHERE ARE THE TWO BOBBY PINS??????????



They are still missing.

Hanging out at our friend, Robert's, birthday. :)  This was before the Bobby Pin Incident.

Freeze Crawl

Cami fully understands the phrase "no no."  She fully understands many phrases (some quite complicated, like "why don't you take your soccer ball through your tunnel?"....what???), but sometimes I wonder if her compliance with what I ask her to do is coincidence.  But, I know she knows what no no means because she is fairly good a stopping what she is doing and turning to look at me.  However, she has a new response, the freeze crawl.  In this response, I say "no no, Cami."  Mid-stride, she completely freezes.  Then s-l-o-w-l-y continues her motion towards whatever she is trying to get.  I say "no no" again and get a freeze....but a shorter one until the molasses crawl begins again.  I think she thinks I'm not going to notice she's moving if she does it really slowly.  I suppose the freeze crawl is better than the times she stops, looks at me, smiles, and does whatever I told her not to do anyway.....