22 Months

 Ruby was 22 months old yesterday. Does anyone else think this is the cutest picture ever? It shows her personality well. Such a goof.

I'm posting a day early because tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and then we're going to be gone for the weekend. So enjoy the early post, and there will be lots of pictures coming next week.

The big news this week was that she slept through the night twice in a row! But then she went back to waking up once or twice. It's progress though for sure. Hopefully that will become more of the norm now that she is night weaned.

Ruby's been throwing bigger tantrums lately when we're all done doing something she really wants to do, like coloring or playing at the library. Not quite sure what to do about that... We try to talk to her and give her warnings that we're almost done with an activity, but she gets upset anyway. I've had to put her in her room until she can calm down a few times. :(

 Morning cuddles with Daddy.

 Helping Mommy put things away.

 Horsey rides.

 She loves to help me stir, supervised, of course.

 Morning cuddles with Mommy.

 Toys!

 We helped the youth group with the canned food drive on Saturday. She liked rearranging the cans.

 Building a tunnel with Daddy.

 Wrestling.

 She loves putting her hands in her pockets. It makes her look so grown up.

 Cutie in a diaper.

 Cutie in a prefold.

 We played at the library on Monday after we went to Motion Monday. She had fun with the cookie jar.

 More from her 22 month photo shoot. She loves to lay down on the blanket and smile.

Play dough with Daddy last night.

16 Weeks

We're 16 weeks along now. Sometimes it feels like it's going really fast, but other times I think about the fact that we still have over 5 1/2 months to go and it feels like forever. It takes a while to grow a baby. It's about the size of an avocado now, 4 1/2 inches or so long. I guess that's big enough to feel, because...

I felt the baby move this week! Andy and I were out to dessert on Tuesday, and I felt a little kick or flutter or something. I guess it likes chocolate mousse. :) So fun. I can't wait until Andy and Ruby can feel it too. I've felt it a few times a day since then too. That's probably my favorite part of pregnancy.

Ruby's so sweet. She gives the baby kisses and says "I yuz you" to my belly. I'm not sure if she knows what's going on or if she just does it because she knows I like it. She's going to be a great big sister though.

I've been having this thing where if I don't eat enough protein, or enough food, I feel really yucky, like I'm about to pass out. It's no fun. I wonder if I'm just not getting enough calories in. I've tried to eat a bit more in the last day or so and that seems to help. It's not like morning sickness though, it's maybe like hypoglycemia where I get all shaky when I need food. I'll talk to my midwife about it when I go this week. At least I have a great excuse to eat a ton of food at Thanksgiving this week!

Changes this week: Movement! And I'm feeling pretty good. Still tired, but not taking a nap doesn't completely wipe me out like it did. I still enjoy naps regularly though. :) I can wear maternity clothes and am in maternity shirts most of the time now. I've still been wearing my regular jeans with a belly band and that's fine too.

Cravings this week: Dark chocolate and olives. Not together of course, that's gross.


Link to Ruby's 16 week post

Songs

Ruby has started singing everything. She sings songs that I sing her, she sings songs from Motion Monday, and she makes up her own songs too. It's adorable. She can quote a lot of her books too, and it makes it look like she's reading them.

This nasty cold is still lasting forever for both of us. We're going on 3 weeks now and it doesn't seem to be letting up. We slept a lot better last night than we have been sleeping, which was nice. We're working on night weaning, and most nights I don't nurse her. She had a few nights of not going back to sleep even if I nursed for like an hour or more, which is never fun. Poor girl, I'm sure it has to do with her cold. Hopefully sleeping through the night is in our near future.

Andy and I got to go out on a fun date this week. On Tuesday we went up to have dinner with his parents, then we left Ruby there and went out to dessert and a show. It was lovely.

  She really wanted to water the plants (there was no water in the pitcher).

 Helping Daddy peel potatoes.

 Cooking time.

 She loves when I make triangles out of play dough.

 Helping me unpack from our overnight in Portland. And using my tooth brush.

 What better to vacuum with than a croquet mallet.

 Praying hard.

 Naked baby!

 Daddy reading morning stories in bed.

 Playing at the park with Ruby's friend Penny.

 Ruby's new dolly from Uganda. We named her Pauline.

 Not sure what she's doing here, but it was funny.

She wanted to sit on the potty before it was time for bed, so I put her in her underwear for a few minutes. She loves them.

15 Weeks

Little baby is about the size of an orange this week, about 4 inches from head to rump. Some days this pregnancy seems like it's going by super fast, but today it seems like I've already been pregnant forever, and I still have almost six months to go! We can't wait to meet this little bean.

We've had such a busy week that I haven't had time for naps! Well, I've tried shortening them to 20-30 minutes instead of an hour-and-a-half. And that's been tough. Tomorrow I'm planning on snoozing as long as Ruby's still asleep. Hopefully that will help with this exhaustion. They say that you get your energy back in the second trimester... so far that hasn't happened yet this time. Maybe soon.

My bump is getting so big that I've somewhat transitioned to maternity clothes this week. I got a box of them from my friend Sara, and I bought some more of my own (on sale). And my belly button's pretty much sticking out too. I've definitely had a few people rub my belly already. Hah. Good thing I don't really mind. Apparently in Pennsylvania it's illegal to rub a pregnant woman's belly.

Changes this week: Morning sickness is pretty much over, but I still feel like I'm going to pass out sometimes if I don't eat protein. It's starting to get a little uncomfortable to sleep on my sides. I might have to bust out my pregnancy pillow soon.

Cravings this week: Mashita Teriyaki. Good thing it's right down the street!

Link to Ruby's 15 week post

Mommy's girl

 Ruby knows this thing is for making applesauce, although she doesn't quite get that the apples need to be cooked first...

She's going through a little phase where she wants Mommy for most things. Her favorite phrases are "Mommy do it" and "Mommy come eewe." She cries for Daddy sometimes though too. And he's super fun to play with. :)

She's getting over her cold slowly. We took her to church on Sunday, but I kept her with me just for the music and then went home. She loved it and was mostly just observing everyone. On Tuesday we had to miss my women's group, but then on Wednesday I had Mops, and Andy stayed home with her so I could go. :) They built a fun tunnel out of blankets and furniture in the living room. We went to Story Time at the library today because she wasn't too snotty, and she had tons of fun. She brought her turtles to share and just walked around like she owned the place. The library lady really likes her. She's got quite a personality!

We were working on night weaning Ruby and made it through a few nights, but then she got sick and we went back to nursing once or twice at night. When she's better we'll start again.

The real big news this week was that Ruby went poop in the potty! She had a tiny bit in her diaper when I was changing her one morning, and I could tell she had to go some more. So I sat her on the potty and she didn't really want to sit, but then she pooped! She was so excited and talked about it all that day.

 Playing dominoes with Daddy. She loved when they all fell down.

 Styling Daddy's hair.

 My leg after Ruby got done with her stickers.

 Practicing to be a big sister.

 Such a cool girl.

 This may be my favorite picture. It captures her love for books. She constantly wants me to read to her and loves looking at books herself. She even knows a lot of the stories already and can say parts of them.

 Lazy morning.

 Shape sorting!

 Eating the end of Mommy's burrito.

 Rocking and playing with her cars.

 The flash surprised her, but this is how droopy and snotty she was this week. :(

 Building a Lego house.

 Hiking up her pants.

 The weather was really nice one afternoon, so we all bundled up and went on a nice walk. She liked her pockets.

Playing "night night" this morning. She stayed there for at least a minute or two.

14 Weeks

Second trimester! Yay! Wow, I'm already getting huge. The baby is the size of a lemon now, head to rump. Ruby has taken to kissing my belly this week and she was whispering to it the other day. She probably saw Andy do that. So cute. She's going to be a great big sister. We're excited to see her in that role.

I've really been needing my naps lately. Ruby refused to nap yesterday, so I was super tired. It's nice to be able to sleep when she does. Hopefully this tiredness will let up soon.

I think I'm about ready for maternity clothes. My friend Sara is letting me borrow hers again, which will be so nice. I have some from last time and I've bought a few more things. I've been wearing my belly band with my jeans so I can unbutton them. Sitting is a lot more comfortable that way. And I'll be switching to maternity shirts soon too probably. It's kind of nice to get to wear a new wardrobe.

We've talked to Amy our doula from Ruby's birth, and she's going to be our doula again. I don't think it would have been as fantastic as it was without her. She knew exactly what I needed, and we really like her a lot.

Changes this week: Getting bigger. I thought morning sickness was over, but it comes back some days and I feel a little yucky. Especially if I don't have protein for breakfast. Hopefully it will be gone for good soon.

Cravings this week: I'm still wanting milk all the time. And I can tell I need lots of protein. I really haven't had that many cravings this time, not like I did with Ruby.

Link to Ruby's 14 week post

Sick again, and rainy day activities

 This is Ruby's cute hair after she was in her carseat.

We've had a pretty uneventful week, except that Ruby caught a nasty cold again. Yesterday morning she woke up with lots of coughing and a runny nose :( I think she keeps getting it from the kids at my women's group. Hopefully she'll feel better soon. I got it a little bit, but not too bad.

We've been going to the library for Motion Monday lately, and Ruby absolutely loves it! They sing and dance for half an hour with lots of other little kids. She gets right in there and is learning all of the songs. It's like her favorite thing to do, so cute. Lots of our friends go too, so it's fun to hang out.
On Saturday we went to Salem and took a tour of the Historic Deepwood Estate, which is an old house from the 1800's. It was fun, but Ruby did not like to sit or stand still while the lady was telling us about the house. Alas, we do not have any pictures as we were both preoccupied with keeping her busy with bandaids, hair ties, and snacks. :)

 She wanted to look through her Halloween candy. I'm still not sure what to do with it all.

 We made play dough on Sunday night and she loved that too.

 Cutting and rolling were her favorite things.

 Andy got out his box of old Chevron cars. Apparently Ruby thought they were dirty. :) She has fun with them and likes to crash them off the table.

 She sure loves her paci's. She only gets them at nap and bed, but sometimes she likes to carry them around and put them in her cup.

We went out to breakfast on Wednesday, but apparently I forgot to take a picture. It was nice to have a little family date. We've been so busy with Andy doing seminary and working a lot.

 Last night we busted out her pool and some rice. She spent at least 30-40 minutes in it just scooping the rice and having fun. Miraculously, most of it stayed in the pool. She's too fun.

Coloring very intently.