Twenty-teen

Jessica Kathryn- it has been such an amazing experience watching you grow and learn. In just the past few months you have gone from baby to little girl. You are now talking and having conversations, you are counting, you are singing, you are playing with your friends. I am so proud of you, and sooooo sooooo grateful to have Shuckleberries at home so I can work and also be with you every day and see you learn. I was in shock when you just started counting one day, and didn't stop until 12. Then less than a week later you counted to "twenty-teen." So precious- and I'm so proud! You've also only been singing for a few months, but you sing every single letter of the alphabet. When its over and you sing "Now I know my ABC's........." you start over "DEFG." So cute! You're learning all your colors, you know so many shapes. You know who's cup is who's at school, and you know that Daddy is a Teacher and teaches Big Kids. Though for awhile I think you thought Daddy went "To get the fish" (fishing) on a boat every day. Every day you have more words, and can remember more things. Even though I work with kids every day, I'm still totally in awe and shock to watch how much your little brain is absorbing. I'm pretty sure you have your Daddy's smarts ;)

I love you so much and am so very proud of you, and so blessed to be able to watch you learn and grow every day.

A few pictures of Jessica doing the school thing ;)

The Stawberry Math game

Who doesn't love to play with big blocks? Her favorite is to build a big tower, then knock it down!

We made volcano's, and Jessica LOVED watching them errupt! "Look at the bubbles! So silly" she would say. Then afterwards she had to check it out to see what was inside

Getting muddy while making the volcanos. But oh so much fun :)

Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend! I'm going to be getting ready for Jessica's 2nd bday party next weekend!!!!

Wishing that insurance covered home births..............

Yeah- right now thats pretty much what I'm feeling. As I've said before, this pregnancy has been way different. One of the differences is how I don't feel like I've been thinking about it as much as I did with Jessica. Second mommy guilt.
On Wednesday I got a call from the dr's office saying they needed to do another ultra sound because the radiologist wasn't able to get a good pictures of the baby's spine. Nothing to worry about, most likely the baby's position. But this call came after over 24 hours of a funky stomach (do I worry about this? do I call the doctor? is this normal? is the baby getting enough food? etc.) and I was about to call the dr anyways, as well as feeling like I wasn't feeling the baby move enough. I had felt those really strong kick, in fact steve had actually felt the move move, about a week or so ago. But I hadn't felt those strong ones in a few days. I felt like the baby was not moving as much as Jessica had at this point in my pregnancy. Anyways, so on top of those two things, to get the call about needing another ultrasound (which did not happen with Jessica)- I just became crazy emotional psycho pregnant woman and broke down. We decided to go in to get a ultrasound to make sure everything was ok. I had to call Steve at work and, through hysterical sobs, asked him to come home so he could go with me. Had to make sure I had assistants around to help out w/the preschool- luckily my mom was there to help out as well.
We get to the dr's office, only had to wait a few minutes (thank goodness!). The first thing we do is weigh in, as always- but I had lost a pound. I had never been so scared to lose weight in my life! Granted it was only a pound in a week, so the nurse said it was nothing to worry about, but still. Then we got in, and I was measuring a week ahead (a good thing- maybe baby dos will come a little early? or baby dos is just HUGE), and we got out the ultrasound and saw baby dos partying it up in the uterus. We also noticed that my placenta is very thick, and its positioned in such a way that I probably can't feel all the kicks cause it cushions it. We also saw the spine, which looks good and strait, but we still need to do an "official" ultrasound for the radiologist to see. Anyways, such a relief! Steve couldn't stop teasing me about having a thick placenta ;) (which, by the way, is a good thing. Baby is nice and healthy. It could be more blood at the end, but nothing bad!)
So yeah, thats just one example of how this pregnancy has been so different! That was my crazy day. And since then, Baby Dos has been kicking constantly. Kinda like- oooh, thats what you wanted me to do mommy? HA!

Another way I've been tyring to get into pregnancy by watching some documentaries. And I want to let everyone knows about some of these! Really, even if you dont' want a natural birth, I think its important for every woman who has children, or who wants to have to have children, to watch them. Its kinda scary how uneducated our society is about birth. Actually its very scary.
The first I watched was Pregnant in America. It was the guys first documentary, so it won't blow you away by those standards, but the facts and information they have is important. Check it out!
The next one I watched was documentary by Ricki Lake, that came out after I had Jessica. The Business of Being Born. A much better documentary for sure. A lot of the same information, but still pretty amazing to watch.
The next one I want to check out is this. Orgasmis birth. That would be nice. I saw parts of it in the Bradley class that I'm dropping in on for a refresher. Looks interesting- not sure if I believe the hype, but might as well check it out!

Anywyas, so thats my speil. I know that there are a few lurkers out there who don't comment. So really really check out those videos, or learn a bit about Ina May. Pretty much an amazing woman. And crazy interesting. And thats my hippie natural childbirth advocate self.
Hope everyone is enjoying their weekend!!!

A few cute pictures of Jessie K.

Her with her first barbie- very fittingly from my best friend and her namesake, Jessica R. in NYC
Pink and a mermaid? She's in heaven.....

Painting her nails with mommy- so pretty- and showing daddy

not only is she into dress up, she is also into dressing up her babies

just cause she's a nerd ;)

she's been killing me lately with her sentences and words. her new answer is "cause." no idea where she got that. i know i don't say it. but its so funny- it sounds like a kindergardeners answer. and she can count to 12! and up to 20 but missing lots of numbers and getting them a bit out of order, but still. and a few weeks ago she decided to start singing- so she does, ALL THE TIME. its really cute, and funny. She sings a song from little mermaid new beginings that has a line "shake your body" so thats all she sings over and over. and "under the sea take it from me" love it! i love that she's so into the little mermaid. i loved that movie when i was little, so its fun to listen to the songs and sing along again ;)
actually planning her bday party to be an under the sea theme. just finished making the invites, need to order some decorations, and before i know it my baby will be 2 years old!

Six months- can you believe it?
And I'm freakin HUGE
not sure how that works. i haven't gained as much as i had at this point w/jessica, but i look 2 months further along! seriously, i swear i look like i did at 8 months with jessica. le sigh. what are you going to do?
not sure which i like. my legs are incredibly white (but how jealous are most of you that i'm wearing this dress out in january??)
but they are also still skinny, kinda want to flaunt that ;)

some silly outtakes. steve and i have to get our kicks some how ;)

Anyways, thats my six months pics. i have jessica pictures to post next. and we're trying to get a video up of her singing her abc's - tooooo cute! she can also count to 12. i'm a proud mama ;) (and pretty stoked that it seems she got her daddy's brains!)

Besides the Holidays, what we've been doing :)
(click on the collages if you want to see them bigger)

Jessica's first haircut at a salon- she got bangs!

Jessica's first visit to the Dentist! She did soooo good, I was proud :) Of course, she had to bring the 2 babies with her.....

Holiday Bowl, Oregon vs. Oklahoma. Jessica made it to halftime on only a 20 minute nap. Not bad!

Our trip to the San Diego Zoo!!!! SOOOOO much fun, so glad we have passes!! Jessica loved the monkeys and the panda, which she refers to as "kung-fu panda." Cannot wait to go again.


Also, I'm trying to figure out a good blog title. Obviously its can't be all about baby jessica once dos gets here. Thinking of maybe Post Happenings: Post Family events here. Or something cheeseball play on words like that. Any ideas? And should I start a whole new blog, or keep it here? Hmmmmmmmm.............
Hope everyone is enjoying 2009!!!!

Just because I love this picture
3 generations of blond hair, blue eyed ladies
(shhh, only one is still a natural blond.........)