low baby! preparing - and please try these cookies!

wow this baby girl is a low-rider.  i find myself reaching down to hoist up my belly and with 13 weeks til the due date, my belly will probably be down to my knees oh dear. petey was low but she is  really really low!  wonder if that means she'll be early. please-oh-please be early so daddy can meet you, sweet lady bug!  anyway, other than riding low in my belly, she is quite busy. i feel her moving so much more often than i felt petey. i'm not sure if its because she is more active or because my core isn't as strong as it was with petey or what - but it sure is fun. nothing painful, no jabs, no taking away my breath- just business that makes me smile.  i'm really excited to shift gears in a week or so and get her room all dolled up!  going to take care of all the bedding at home with the help of my mom and grandma - i am all about team projects when it comes to sewing!  its only mid-february but may is going to be here in the blink of an eye. its hard for me to fathom really, if i'm honest with myself, that she'll be here SO wonderfully soon. i'll be cuddling her close to me in no time at all! how lucky i am.

we've been lucky to enjoy perfect weather since the weekend, shorts and t-shirts and as much outside time as we can handle.  its heavenly - not sure how we feel about voluntarily going to the midwest next week but are very excited to see our families!  daddy is busy packing tonight for his training trip so its nice to have our trip home on the horizon, it'll make his month-long trip to the desert go by much more quickly.

some new things petey is loving lately:
grapes
corndogs
feeding himself
using a fork sometimes
dipping everything he can in some sort of sauce
going down slides
walking barefoot outside
giving kisses
hearing mommy sing the itsy bitsy spider and adding his version of hand motions
being tickled 
brushing his teeth
putting his shapes into the correct holes of the box lid (with help)
putting his stacking rings back on the pole (unassisted)
riding in the wagon
climbing up into big people chairs and his high chair all by himself and then looking at at the world with a big grin on his face
banging things into other things to make a glorious noise
putting laundry into the laundry basket. no matter if its clean or dirty
pushing the garage door button when we come back from walking the dog
immitating: dogs, crows, morning doves, leaf blowers, baxter's wierd growling cough and most any noise i make
lifting up my shirt to show me where my belly button is and pushing it in like a doorbell
waving bye-bye and waving hello
going to great lengths to appropriately greet any dog he spies
playing with water - even if its 1 cm in the bottom of the watering can
running
dancing, but only to music with a really good beat - waving his arms around and stomping his feet!
he's been kissing/licking the ground in the backyard, whether its dirt, cement, mulch - its gross but he thinks its funny and he's learning about his environment. eek!
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i have to tell you about these amazing oatmeal raisin cookies......oh man are they wonderful.  i made them last night in my pre-reid-is-leaving-so-i-can't-sit-still-or-i'll-think-too-much-and-get-sad frenzy.  somehow after dinner i managed to make cookies, make a lasagna and work on taxes with reid's help. we both fell into bed in a big heap. but it kept my mind off of his departure and definitely helped whittle away at my to-do lists which are so wonderfully short now. anyway, the cookies are great - you must make them asap. i made them with raisins but the blog link above makes them with craisins. either way, the perfect amount of thick and wholesome and chewy and soft and sweet and the raisins and oatmeal make it feel like you are nibbling away with out a nutritional care in the world. :)

our wonderful long weekend

thank you for the presidents and their day. we enjoyed a lovely 3 day weekend with daddy - and san diego weather was just perfect so we enjoyed a lot of time outside.

trips to the park (and stopping for breakfast burritos on the way, oh-so yummy!)

 

valentines day treats from grandparents

a trip to balboa park

 

  

daddy putting together his gear for training and trying on his "outfit" as aunt briana says

 enjoying the sunshine and going barefoot was a treat!  he hopped right in the basket unprompted and rode down there across the entire park!

hiking torrey pines and stopping at the beach on our way home

ooh, momma - that water is cold!

a grandparents video

click here to see a video (7 glorious minutes) of petey eating dinner. he was dipping his food in ketchup and using a fork on his own. its nothing fancy or fabulous, just showing you how well he is eating these days. because i know my grandma jan will ask, he is eating avocado, orange slices and a corndog. :)

remember when we were so excited about him eating slop off a spoon so many months ago? i love watching him conquer new things!

talking, painting......and good night

i am 900 percent sure this little guy just said "nigh-nigh" to me as i was laying him into his crib just now. what a sweet moment. he is communicating and mimicking so much now, its amazing to sit back and listen. we go for a walk and he barks when he hears dogs barking, caws at ravens in the trees when they caw as we pass and tonight out of nowhere started cooing after hearing a morning dove on a nearby roof.  he absolutely understands the concept of the sign for "more" and uses it to ask for things now, mostly food. "hi", "bye-bye" and waving are all interrelated concepts and he greets most people and dogs we see when we're out and about with a grin.

 

he definitely knows reid as "da-da" and points, grins and waves when i show him pictures of his daddy. we clicked through our wedding album on the computer today and petey was absolutely mesmerized and his face lit up each time he saw his daddy. there was also recognition of grandma and grandpa nannen after spending a week with them so maybe during our visit at the end of the month he'll learn to put a name with those smiling faces too!  i'm going to have to work on my own name since we spend all day, every day together.

we played with some crayola paint this afternoon. i was going for a specific kind of project and of course my sweet son taught me that this is all about the doing and not at all about the outcome.  we had a grand time and learned how to smear paint on the page and then played with some new oily crayon-markers i got him today. you don't have to press as hard as real crayon to make a mark because they are oilier so i thought it'd be easier for him to understand and he seemed to enjoy it. still wants to eat them but did get some doodling on the page.  little activities like this are a great boost to the mid-afternoon-what-do-we-do-now crisis.  i need to scour the earth to find more age-appropriate activities for my little man to explore.

 

thank you!

a big thank you to grandma and grandpa nannen for the week they spent with us, allowing me to go at a slower pace while recovering from my little surgery.  grandpa left on sunday and grandma is on her way home right now.  petey had a blast with all the extra attention and activity around the house....and the help was so very much appreciated!  looking forward to another round of fun with the grandparents when we are home in two weeks!

had a checkup with the dr. today who took off the cast and removed the stitches. i've got an agonizingly-still-more-restrictive-than-i-want splint on that i get to use 24-7 for at least 2 weeks and then as needed after that. i go back in 4 weeks for another check up to see how its doing. the tendon area they operated on feels stiff and weak as is to be expected from cutting surgery and immobilization but not necessarily painful, especially since its still immobilized (at least i can remove this splint for showering and at times when i am relaxing, etc -but still have to sleep in it). its probably a good thing to help me limit the use of it until the healing can complete but it is frustrating to be so slow and clumy at normal tasks and especially challenging when trying to parent a very active - and lately seemingly rebelious 14 month old.  he is certainly beginning to explore his independence, his limits and the bounds of my patience.  i'm wholly aware that this is a delicate dance that will continue to varying degrees until he moves out and begins his adult life someday - but boy is it challenging! i am going to try over the next week to introduce some new activities, age-appropriate crafting/projecting to stimulate him. i think he is bored in his times of naughtiness so i need to find new was to keep him happily occupied. i also need to once again reexamine my priorities so i can say "yes" to him a lot more instead of constantly saying "no"....here we go!

petey pics from the week

helping grandpa nannen measure shelves for the closet

 

  

talking to grandma nannen on the cell phone

 

  

cute as a bug

 

crazy-AJ-asian face (AJ used to make this face when he was a baby)-posing with grandpa nannen at the see's candy store

 

 

making himself at home for the superbowl

 

surgery report

to play catch up, click here to read about the condition i had in my left wrist tendons which required surgery to repair.

well the surgery tuesday went well....it was an interesting morning, howver.  every single nurse told me i was the first pregnant woman they'd ever prepped for surgery, no one believed that i was only having local injections of lidocain at the surgery site vice general anesthesia and therefore decided to treat me as if i had been doped up with general anesthesia (which meant no one wanted to give the very thirsty/preggo anything to eat or drink during recovery for fear i'd become nauseated).  they also required i have aprecautionary i.v. "just-in-case" which i was not pleased about.  my orthopedic surgeon, dr. winternitz was awesome, the surgery team was great and very sweet to me during the entire procedure which sadly they refused to let me watch and the requisite anesthesiologist present for the whole thing who had no job to do teased me about being a high maintenace patient because i was pregnant.  i didn't mind the teasing, its hard to have your feelings hurt by a sweet old guy with a south african accent and a twinkle in his eye.

recovery is ok, just frustrating and uncomfortable but a mondo-ice-pack and the help of my hubby (who sweetly opens everything with lids and child locks for me helps me dress and bath and sweetly teases me all the while) and my in-laws make it all ok.  sleeping in the recliner isn't my first choice but seems to be my only option until my wrist is feeling better. until i can type 2-handed again i probably won't post much...splint/cast and stitches out next wednesday...