five on friday: pizza, paint, and kisses

ONE. My dog obviously failed “Cuddling 101.”Processed with VSCOcam with c1 presetTWO. We got pizza last weekend… and Kaya thought that all the sausage was for her (especially the pieces that were on Michael’s plate)!IMG_20140228_200717

THREE. Lately, she wants to eat all her meals on my lap (and since I still miss our cuddle time from nursing, I don’t mind at all. She also seems to eat a lot more food if I sit with her and help her take bites). She loved these pumpkin muffins!
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FOUR. Sometimes I feel like a “sub-par” mom because I don’t plan a lot of crafts or structured activities for Kaya to do. Well, this week, we painted, and it lasted all of maybe three minutes. She got paint on herself and cried in the first millisecond that we started, so maybe I don’t feel so guilty about not planning these sorts of things for her. I don’t think she’s quite at the age where she can enjoy it yet._MG_1507FIVE. There are no words to describe how adorable this is. Watch it, it’s worth it!


Linking up with Natasha, April, Christina, and Darci today!

baby #2: 23 weeks

_MG_1533Baby’s size: Crown-to-rump length is 8 inches (overall length is over 11 inches)! Weight is about a pound.
Maternity clothes?: Yes to maternity jeans, and without nice long tank tops under most of my shirts, they’d be just a tad too short.
Gender: Our second little princess!
Sleep: Some good nights, some not. Kaya is doing better these last few nights so it’s been great to have (mostly) uninterrupted rest.
Movement: Michael FINALLY felt her move this past week! I also got him to feel her last night and he said “she’s getting strong!” Yup. I know. She does seem to be most active early in the morning and late at night, and if I turn on music or a video of Kaya, her activity tends to increase, too.
Cravings: I think I ate poptarts three or four days in a row… also, ice cream sundaes and Wendy’s chicken sandwich and fries. Nothing healthy. Yikes.
What I miss: Nada.
Anything making you queasy or sick?: We all had colds this past week, and I think the congestion was what made my nausea come back. Sunday was particularly bad… Our friends Ben and Brittany cooked a whole chicken parmesan dinner and I didn’t eat any of it.
Belly Button in or out?: In.
Exercising?: Ran 20 miles.
Mood: Really anxious to get started on some projects for baby girl… but Kaya has needed a lot of extra cuddles lately, so that hasn’t happened yet. I won’t ever complain about extra snuggles though!
Best moment this week: Having Michael feel her move 🙂
Comparison: 23 weeks with Kaya!23weekcomparisonOther notes: I’m pretty sure Jax knows a change is coming. He’s been crazy and acting out, including eating a tupperware lid and a whole bottle of sprinkles from the pantry. He’s also trying to be in our personal space constantly. Crazy dog! I seriously hope he isn’t jealous when Peanut actually gets here.

{more than} halfway

Four more months until our new little lady gets here.babyirwin24dultra (Custom)

Passing 20 weeks felt like a much bigger milestone during my first pregnancy. I didn’t really have much of a baby bump, but I felt like people had to notice then because I was already halfway DONE. It felt like an accomplishment.

This time, passing 20 weeks feels different. This time, I know how fast the second half goes by. Instead of seeing all the weeks we’ve already completed, I’m more focused on the dwindling number of weeks that remain.

Only 18 more weeks until she’s in my arms.

This time, I know how amazing that’s going to feel.

There are a million things on my to-do list before she comes, and 18 weeks doesn’t seem like a whole lot of time.

This time, I already know how much I’m going to miss feeling her kicks and having her with me all the time. I already know how intense labor and delivery can be, and sometimes, I’m not sure if I’m ready to do it again.

Only 18 more weeks of it just being the three of us, although, it’s already felt like “the four of us” to me for a while now. It seems like Kaya and Jax can both sense that a change is coming.

18 more weeks until everything doubles.

Twice the crying.
Twice the laughter.
Twice the fussiness.
Twice the cuddles.

A million more dirty diapers and a million times more love.

18 more weeks until I can kiss those sweet little cheeks.

We love you, Peanut.

kaya- 17 months!

(I’m so late on this because I am so picky about the picture I use for these posts… I was planning on taking a new one, but then found this from the 24th and decided it was perfect. She’s in a cute outfit, wearing her favorite necklace, and taking the bow out of her hair. This is so Kaya!)_MG_1462 (2)Clothing size: Both 9-12 and 12-18 month pants, both 9-12 and 12-18 month onesies, some 2T tees (we like them long) and 12-18 month jammies. Size 5 shoes.
Eyecolor: 
Hazel/Gray.
Teeth: 
Sixteen, which I think means we’re done getting any more teeth until her 2-year-molars come in.
Eating:
With her “sleep regression” (more details about that below), she lost interest in a lot of her favorite foods. It came down to her getting very hungry, which meant she’d get very cranky… so she had a lot of muffins, pretzels, and tortilla chips this month, because eating those was better than her having a meltdown due to an empty stomach. We’re doing better now and she’s recently enjoyed pizza and black bean tacos!1392656910460Words: Dadada (daddy), Mama, uh-oh, up! Still lots of gibberish most of the time, but it does sound like she tries to repeat us every once in a while. She definitely understands everything we say to her.
Favorite things: 
Riding her rocking horse, hugging her Valentine balloon, wearing shoes, putting on her necklace so that she’ll look “sooo pretty”, hide-n-seek, dancing, throwing the ball for Jax, and talking on the phone (real or fake)!_MG_1463 Dislikes: Baths still, for the most part.
Sleep: Well… I don’t even know what to say about sleep lately, except that it doesn’t feel like anyone is getting a whole lot of it around here! We think she started the “18-month sleep regression” because suddenly, she’s waking up at night, multiple times, and often resisting naps (but as I write this, she is taking a 3-hour-long nap… so it’s inconsistent). We still try to make her go to bed between 7 and 8 pm but everything else is just hit or miss right now.
Milestones, etc.: -Climbing out of the CRIB!!! She got way too good at it all at once so we converted the crib to a toddler bed. She ends up asleep on the floor most nights/naps, but at least we don’t have to worry about her hurting herself.
-Trying to sing along to songs (she’s got the “ohhhhhh” down in Old MacDonald)
-She’ll sit on our laps at meals and feed us… It’s just a little hard to eat with the way she holds the fork/spoon.
-She’s really good at understanding requests/commands now. Yay for having a little helper! 🙂

Dear Kaya,

You get sillier all the time and I LOVE it. We play hide-n-seek a whole lot and it makes you giggle so much!

_MG_1381I love when you climb into my lap to cuddle. I could spend all day with you nestled up to me, and it still wouldn’t be enough. Lately, you love to “help” me bake (usually you just stand on a chair at the counter and play with the measuring cups). You love everything we make, so I guess you inherited my sweet tooth.IMG_20140211_085553

Love you, Birdy. Thanks for making every day brighter!

march goals

So… I completely neglected to make any goals for February, which means that I’m still talking about January’s goals (and I feel like I didn’t do so well with those, either). Here’s how it went:

1. Book of Mormon 365. Obviously, it will take a year to finish this, but we are still going strong and reading together!

2. Make some felt food for Kaya’s play kitchen… or get started on a quiet book. Grandma made her a quiet book, and I decided we already have plenty of play food to clean up at the end of the day, so I tossed this one.

3. Get rid of things we aren’t using. I have piles and bags… it just still hasn’t gone anywhere.

4. Get some space-saver bags for all of Kaya’s outgrown clothes. Whoops.

5. Make homemade bread. DONE! Everyone loved it.

Hopefully I do a little better in March

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1. Don’t buy any sandwich bread… which means that I’m compelling myself to make it. I’m really hoping that this will help me master the art of bread-making and get into a routine with it.

2. Finish reading two books. I am loving the Kindle Paperwhite I got for my birthday, so this should be an easy one.

3. Complete two craft projects. I have about a million ideas pinned on Pinterest, and I also have a few things I really want to make for Peanut (I already feel like I’m running out of time to finish things… although my due date is four months from tomorrow!)

4. Try four new recipes.

5. Start going through Kaya’s baby clothes. I need to take inventory of what we have and what we might need more of. I want to go shopping, but I just can’t until I really know what we’ve already got packed away.