$600+ later…

we have a new computer! I am SOOO happy. Not too much about the money spent, but I have peace of mind now.

I woke up one morning and saw that my computer screen had gone crazy and black (saying things that I don’t understand) so I had it. I am way too nervous to lose any more precious photos or videos – that also includes my many hours of uploading old VHS videos to our computer…anyway, so we took the plunge and now have a brand new computer – not to mention I have my live writer back and blogging has become easier and more enjoyable.

Now, I am exhausted. I finally feel pregnancy taking a toll on me – that is pregnancy and my stubborn ways of thinking I am invincible and can still do things I normally do un-pregnant. So no more moving furniture, no more lying on the floor to wrestle with Elijah or the pets, and no more organizing the basement. I hate saying I can’t do something, but I am going to take it easy and relax (something that actually comes hard for me! – especially if it’s before 10:00 pm)

I’ll post more later. I have some incredibly cute videos of Elijah walking around the mall, and great photos of our first visit (for all three of us really) to Grant’s Farm today. We’ve had a busy day. It’s after 10:00 now, and our new computer is up and running so I will go and relax and rest assured my precious photos and videos are safe (er).

A birthday and a funeral

We've been busy, let me tell ya. So Elijah turned one July 15th! It's such a fun milestone! That day we went and got the cheesy pictures taken to commemorate his birthday. He got a little present (trucks) and basically had a pretty uneventful day.

The next day we went to the doctor and he is 29 inches long (which I'm not too sure about...the nurse had to remeasure because she kept shrinking him from his previous visits!) and weighs 18 pounds and 13 oz. Still <3% which makes me feel great knowing that he has been on formula since 10 months old and hasn't jumped in percentile. Basically I am relieved to know my breast milk wasn't starving him the first 10 months - he's just a skinny guy. :)

Saturday we had his birthday party. It was a lot of work, but fun in it's own way. To be honest though I probably wont do a big party again until he (and I) can appreciate it more. Maybe when he is 5 or something. It was too nuts and I didn't get a chance to talk with people I wanted to visit with. He got so many fun things though - I'll have to post pics soon. I can't now - I re-downloaded windows live and it's still giving me crap and I hate blogging through blogger.

The bad news is during his birthday party Brad and his family found out his grandmother passed away that morning. It was so upsetting because we were to go to Iowa the next week for a family reunion and see his Grandmother, but instead we had to leave Sunday to Wednesday for her funeral. The only semi-neat thing is that Elijah received a birthday card from his great grandmother on his birthday - just 2 days before she passed.

Oh, and poor Brad had to fly to Chicago for work Thursday morning and then DRIVE back Friday evening thanks to flooded runways. He is sitting on the couch now, relaxing - exactly what he should be doing!

Needless to say things around here have been on hold. It's Sunday evening and things are starting to feel like normal again. All except that baby pea is kicking like crazy and waking me up all hours of the night. I'd say I love it, but I'd be lying. It was exciting when it was new (around 19 weeks) now I just want her to sleep!! -- And she isn't even born yet! Good grief, I'm nervous about what's to come....

I've started achieving my goal from Elijah's pregnancy - which was to organize videos and photos. For some reason I feel this urgency to organize and share the boxed-up memories. I guess because life is short, unpredictable and needs to be shared to it's fullest. So far so good. I have all of the 1980's VHS's uploaded, now I just have to do the 90's, 2000's and then I will start scanning in generations of photographs. Since my parent's are using my basement as storage there are just ridiculous amounts of photos everywhere. Oh...and I did get a new hard drive that I am protecting with my life so I don't lose any more photos like I did of 2009.

Anyway, I'm tired and I want to snuggle with Brad on the couch. I'll post the pics tomorrow so you can see....AND a video of my little guy walking like a zombie. He is SOOOO sweet, and non-stop walking everywhere.

Here she is!

Being a girl, it was hard for me to see any infamous 3 lines, but what I do know is that there was nothing inbetween her chubby looking thighs...and that was proof enough for me!

I hate blogger sometimes. With my computer issues I had to delete my live writer, and I miss it bad. It would never turn pictures the wrong way!

and Baby Pea is a....

perfectly healthy baby!!

We went to the doctor yesterday for the big ultrasound!! Brad barely made it because he had to change some meetings around, so just incase he couldn't come Christie (Brad's mom) came with me to help with Elijah. Luckliy Brad made it in time to find out that he is having a DAUGHTER!!!

IT'S A GIRL! I knew it, knew it, knew it!!! We are so excited. I can't stop smiling about my little girl!! Honestly, a little boy would have been so fantastic for Elijah to have a brother so close in age, but I really can't describe my joy of having a girl. It means so much more to me than I imagined. Perfect, really perfect!! ---and she is! She is a little wiggly-worm, but wasn't shy to show us her little girly bits. She has long legs, pretty little hands and the sweetest ultrasound profile I've ever seen -we did get a few Skelator shots too though :)

I will post them asap -- but with my computer problems, I just wanted to share before I had to start typing this for the second time.

a little GIRL!!! Can you believe it!!!!????!!!!

Back from Mexico!

It was so fun and exhausting at the same time. Elijah did great! He did so well on the airplane, it was like he was at home (well, at least for the first 2.5 of the 3 hour flight)

We got there Saturday the 26th and it poured rain, actually right in the middle of our outdoor lunch. We didn't do much that day but hang aournd the lobby and people-watch. That was Elijah's favorite thing to do - hang around the lobby and push his stroller around.

Sunday - more rain, but we managed to get a nice swim or two.

Monday - a little less rain, more swimming.

Tuesday - hardly any rain and lots of swimming. That was a good tanning day for all of us.

Wednesday - visited Isla Mujeres island. The boat ride was 45 mintues away and the ocean was SO rough that people were falling out of their seats. Even piano benches were flying. Thankfully Brad had taken some dramamine (he gets awfully motion sick) and had Elijah safe and sound. Me on the other hand....I puked everywhere. It was flowing down the stairs, splashing people - it was sick. I was so upset and embarrassed. The whole day I could catch conversations about "...and one girl puked down the stairs..." - ugh. Luckily they didn't notice who I was because I changed out of my barf stained clothes.

Other than that the day was AWESOME! I got to zipline down the mountain side and over the ocean. It was amazing! We snorkled, saw dolphins, and my favorite part of all was probably napping in the hammock with my usually-not-so-snuggly guy. I loved every mintue of it.

Thursday - tried to recoop from the island trip. Elijah was a CRAB!! It wasn't that fun of a day, we were pretty ready to head home. Our days typically started at 7:30 and ended around 8:00 in our room...plus a few naps in between.

Friday - had breakfast, then went home!

It was definitely worth it. Honestly, i think Punta Cana was way more beautiful and relaxing, but Iwould definitely go back to Cancun. Never will I go again being pregnant though...all I wanted was a beer!!!

In other news, it's been a busy weekend/week. Friday after we got back Elijah took his first steps!!! As of Monday he has gone about 6-7 steps on his own but sits down after everyone starts cheering :)

Also this weekend my grandma and aunt were in town. It wasn't the ideal visit considering my gma had to be taken to the hospital Saturday morning (she's still there). She is in good spirits, but would much rather be a home (at Becky's house).

I am having computer woes again. We put in some new RAM and our computer restarts ALL the time. So I feel like I am tying against a time bomb. So I have basically typed this blog a few times, so it better work.

I saw baby pea today!

I am so excited about it too!  Let me start from the beginning.

Obviously I went to Dr. Chen for my 16 week appointment. Firstly I was pretty devastated in the waiting room because a young woman is so upset from miscarrying her baby that was also due in December. It got me thinking how thankful I am. I felt terrible for her, but at the same time glad it was her and not me (that sounds really bad, I know). 

For me, so far so good, that little ball of a uterus is getting harder and harder. There is a little bit of bad news. He wants to monitor me very closely because I have lost too much weight and he is concerned that the baby will suffer. He told me I need to eat 2800 calories a day, including ice cream if that’s what I’ll keep down. 2800. That is a LOT! I think I’ll eat at max 1100. It’s not intentional, I just eat what I like, that is raw foods lately (and absolutely no meat whatsoever).---I re-watched Food Inc not too long ago, so that explains it--- So I have to go back in 3 weeks this time to make sure everything is going okay…which also happens to be the big ultrasound scan.

I am SOOO antsy. I want to find out now! I have never been good with surprises. I’m so terrible in fact I almost found out today!! As I was setting up the next appointment me and the ultrasound tech were talking (our boys are close in age, and don’t sleep well – so we’ve become sort of friends in a way). I guess my ‘antsy-ness’ was contagious and she snuck me back to the ultrasound room so we could find out!! I was peeing my pants, I was so excited. We were looking for a half an hour! I think initially I saw a little penis, but it wasn’t 100% clear. We had such a hard time because  Baby Pea kept grabbing him/herself down there blocking the view! So…I feel more and more convinced that it might be a boy….because my little girl wouldn’t play with herself in the manner we saw! :)

What was even more frustrating is that Christine (the u/s tech) couldn’t even give me her gut feeling about what she thought. It was completely 50/50 in her opinion. I’m totally confused now! My gut said girl because this pregnancy is SOOO different than Elijah’s, but I could have sworn I saw a penis.

I got some really great photos though! I was SOOOO close to finding out the sex. Yea…I probably should have waited for Brad…but I warned him if I had the opportunity to know, I would find out. Oh well, at least we get to do it together next month. July 6th.

Look at my little pea!!

 

Look at that beautiful little femur!!!!!!!!!!

A little blurry, but SOOOO sweet !

The best for last!! Look at this little baby looking at me!!---it’s kind of creepy looking, but nonetheless I love it!!

eek, in all honesty, it looks like a creep skeleton :)

Oh, and of course. What kind of mom would I be if I didn’t wish my sweet Elijah a “Happy 11 months today!!!

Isn’t he TOTALLY Brad in this pic??

Elijah found his penis!

Bath time is a lot more interesting now! It is so cute too. Tuesday night during bath time he was (what I thought) looking at his belly button, but he was actually trying to move his teeny belly out of the way to grab his little penis. I was cracking up. It’s so intriguing to him. The best part is when he stands up to throw all of his toys out of the tub (I’ll be glad when he’s grown out of that phase) he starts peeing and must sit down right away to inspect this new discovery.

Along with new discoveries, he is walking non stop – assisted that is – everywhere we go. He no longer wants to sit in the shopping cart, he has to push it. Kind of annoying, but so cute. He started that last Friday. This little video is him in Sports Authority on Saturday.

The video isn’t the greatest thanks to the crap phone, but you get the idea.  This next video was just yesterday and it cracks me up. I wish the quality was better so you could see Aubrey’s expressions.

In other news work has begun in the basement! Whoohoo! We decided to do this ourselves. We got some pretty reasonable quotes for labor, but in the end we couldn’t afford to furnish AND finish the basement. So now the plan is Brad and his friends will do everything but the mudding and tapping of the dry wall. So here are a few photos of the progress from last night. I’m really excited. You’d understand even better if you saw the toys that have invaded our living space. I mean, we’ve got a blown up baby pool full of balls  as a make-shift ball pit.  what can I say, I’m a sucker for making Elijah happy. But it’s time for the toys to be out of site.

This pic is taken from the corner of our future rec area.

They built three frames last night, one is set in place. This is the rec room where the bar will go. (opposite from the above pic.

This is the other end of the rec room where the tv/entertainment area will be.

This is where the future “bedroom” will be. My dad will probably move down there so we can prepare his room for the new nursery. It is not a legal bedroom because there is no egress window, but my dad is skinny enough these days to squeeze out of that window if he had to. I felt safer having the egress window more accessible where kids will be playing.

As you can also see, there is SOOO much stuff down there. My parent’s whole house is in our basement.  What you see is just a fraction of what is down there, but I’m sure we will manage to make space.

That is the latest in our world. I go visit Dr. Chen for my 16 week appointment on Tuesday. I haven’t told him about me leaving for Mexico the week after, but I’m sure he will be okay with it. I haven’t had any complications or bleeding. The cramping is slowly fading, but my queasiness is still lingering around in the morning (I am 15 weeks now and I still puke in the morning…something better give soon).

We’re going to the Zoo today. I’m excited because Elijah hasn’t been there before. So I’m sure I will have tons of fun pictures to post later on!