Will is definitely excelling beyond his age level in vocabulary right now. Since he turned 18 months, it is like his brain flipped a switch and he just blossomed with words. He shocks me frequently with words he remembers or has heard us say. Our little parrot repeats quite a lot of what he hears. (Don't worry... I'm not about to tell a story of a cursing 19 month old.)
So the other day, I was reading his tractor book from Aunt Kelly and we got to a page with a big yellow tractor on it. He knows the word yellow and that it is a color, so I was saying to him "yellow tractor". Well he kept repeating something that sounded like "com-bye". I could not figure out what that was, mainly because I wasn't expecting him to know what KIND of tractor it was. But he was saying it very well... he was trying to tell me it was a COMBINE! I was totally shocked! Craig says he probably learned it from Grandpa Riedeman or from the millions of times that book has been read to him. Well I thought, maybe he thinks all yellow tractors are combines. So I found a page with lots of different tractors on it including 2 yellow ones that were NOT combines, and I asked him "where's the combine?" HE POINTED RIGHT TO IT!!! My kid's a genius. :)
It is so much fun to be able to communicate with him. And he understands much more than he speaks too. He still loves books and farm animals and cars - those are the favorites. Now he can voice when he's thirsty (usually "milk", "wawa", or "cup") or a specific food he wants ("gape"/grape, "appo"/apple, "caca"/cracker, "ray-ree"/rasin, etc. or he'll just say "bite?" or "peas?" if we're eating something he wants to taste). Will knows the names of all his close family members as well as the babysitter and some friends at the sitters. He knows there's a baby in mommy's belly and now calls her "Sophie" instead of "Sofa".
Other new favorites include "jump" (when daddy tosses him in the air), "towel" (for bath), "eat", "coat", "hat", "bus", "airpane", "tut" (truck), "pie" (pray), "toys", "play", "hippo", "monkey", "pretty", "pizza", "paper", "yight" (light), etc. etc.
I love this age.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
A Belly Comparison
25 weeks with Will (excuse the attire)
26 weeks with Sophia
BIG DIFFERENCE!!! (No wonder it feels like my stomach muscles are about to tear.) I will be shocked if she's not bigger than he was.
26 weeks with Sophia
BIG DIFFERENCE!!! (No wonder it feels like my stomach muscles are about to tear.) I will be shocked if she's not bigger than he was.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
"Happy Day, Mommy!"
This is what Will learned to say last week for my birthday. He had to be coached on each individual word and "birthday" was a little too challenging. But it was so cute to hear him say "Happy Day, Mommy!" Mommy is probably his new favorite word. Last week it was cow and everything was "cow". This week he says "mommy" over and over and over. My mom watched him for a couple hours on Thursday so I could get to the grocery store while Craig picked up our new bath tub, and she helped him make a homemade birthday card for me. Isn't it sweet?
I also reached 27 weeks in my pregnancy on my birthday:
So I turned 28 on Friday and we celebrated by going out to dinner after work with friends. Craig picked up an amaretto cake from the bakery for us to share and it was delicious! It was a nice day.
I also reached 27 weeks in my pregnancy on my birthday:
So I turned 28 on Friday and we celebrated by going out to dinner after work with friends. Craig picked up an amaretto cake from the bakery for us to share and it was delicious! It was a nice day.
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Move Over Spiderman!
Make room for frisbee man!
Will currently has an obsession with wearing the little plastic frisbee he got from the dentist office around on his head. He calls it his "hat". I'm sure it won't be long before the Superhero capes are all the rage. Or maybe just "underoos" with cowboy boots and a baseball helmet like his daddy did as a child. :)
He finally fits into this sweatshirt I bought for him before he was born. Craig and I loved the camo stuff and the smallest size baby Gap had this in was 18-24 months. And I still love it!
Holding Will is a little awkward. He either keeps his legs straight on one side of my belly or I have to lift his front leg up over my belly so he's not digging his knee into it. So he's carried up high still, never really on the hip. But his weight doesn't bother me so far. I still feel pretty good!
Will currently has an obsession with wearing the little plastic frisbee he got from the dentist office around on his head. He calls it his "hat". I'm sure it won't be long before the Superhero capes are all the rage. Or maybe just "underoos" with cowboy boots and a baseball helmet like his daddy did as a child. :)
He finally fits into this sweatshirt I bought for him before he was born. Craig and I loved the camo stuff and the smallest size baby Gap had this in was 18-24 months. And I still love it!
Holding Will is a little awkward. He either keeps his legs straight on one side of my belly or I have to lift his front leg up over my belly so he's not digging his knee into it. So he's carried up high still, never really on the hip. But his weight doesn't bother me so far. I still feel pretty good!
Squatting... and other public bathroom feats.
I've reached a point in my pregnancy where using a public restroom becomes a bit more of a challenge. :) LOL
The reason why? No self-respecting woman is going to plunk her hiney right down on that disgusting seat, right? Well, squatting with a big belly isn't always easy... especially when you can't see AROUND said belly to... ahem... AIM! This becomes even more difficult when the aiming vicinity reduces to the size of the small cup they want you to pee in at the doctor's office each visit. So you're squatting, holding a small cup down there, and can't even see the 1 1/2" diameter circle you're aiming for. Eew! Thankfully, I haven't peed on myself yet.
None of this compares to the challenges I anticipate when trying to use public bathroom facilities with 2 little ones in tow. I remember once when Will was probably 9 months, going to the pediatricians office and just carrying him in. He was getting heavier and the infant seat was a pain, but he wasn't yet standing along. Well, before leaving, I had to use the restroom... and I wasn't about to sit my baby on the dirty bathroom floor. What's a mom to do? I managed to hold him in one arm and get my jeans unbuttoned, pants and undies down, pee, wipe, get the pants back up, and wash that one hand. That, ladies and gentleman, is talent! It's also the epitome of being a mom, right?... having to be creative in awkward situations. P.S. - I used a squirt of hand sanitizer once I got to the car just for good measure. :) But what will I do with 2 kiddos? That may require some fancy acrobatics with a baby to worry about and a toddler trying to open the door while I'm still in "action". Oy!
The reason why? No self-respecting woman is going to plunk her hiney right down on that disgusting seat, right? Well, squatting with a big belly isn't always easy... especially when you can't see AROUND said belly to... ahem... AIM! This becomes even more difficult when the aiming vicinity reduces to the size of the small cup they want you to pee in at the doctor's office each visit. So you're squatting, holding a small cup down there, and can't even see the 1 1/2" diameter circle you're aiming for. Eew! Thankfully, I haven't peed on myself yet.
None of this compares to the challenges I anticipate when trying to use public bathroom facilities with 2 little ones in tow. I remember once when Will was probably 9 months, going to the pediatricians office and just carrying him in. He was getting heavier and the infant seat was a pain, but he wasn't yet standing along. Well, before leaving, I had to use the restroom... and I wasn't about to sit my baby on the dirty bathroom floor. What's a mom to do? I managed to hold him in one arm and get my jeans unbuttoned, pants and undies down, pee, wipe, get the pants back up, and wash that one hand. That, ladies and gentleman, is talent! It's also the epitome of being a mom, right?... having to be creative in awkward situations. P.S. - I used a squirt of hand sanitizer once I got to the car just for good measure. :) But what will I do with 2 kiddos? That may require some fancy acrobatics with a baby to worry about and a toddler trying to open the door while I'm still in "action". Oy!
Friday, January 16, 2009
26 Weeks
Sophia was moving a lot during these pictures, so I thought they'd appear distorted.
I know my belly is higher than with Will because I can still button some of my pre-pregnancy pants. But it feels like it's in my lap when I sit and it's LOOKS like it's pointing down. I don't remember feeling my stomach muscles pulling and stretching like this the first time. My skin feels fine but the muscles ache sometimes. I am most definitely bigger this time, though, and I have a feeling this baby is going to be bigger than Will.
Weight gain so far: 15# 14oz.
New this week: cankles. At the end of a work day, I look like I have 2 giant sausages below my knees. They're all puffy and swollen. ALL my socks cut into my skin from the elastic. Ah well... I anticipated this - it was the same with Will.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Bathroom Progress
Well, it's been a few weeks since I reported our bathroom and plumbing issues. Since then, Craig & his dad have fixed all the plumbing problems on their own, including moving the upstairs toilet to an appropriate-looking position. Allow the photos to explain:
Here's the original position of the upstairs toilet. When the upstairs loft was added on by the previous owners, the guy just placed the toilet directly above the one in the downstairs bathroom to keep the pipe in a straight line. In reality, turning the pipe would not have been difficult and would have prevented this ridiculous looking toilet position, which is left of center, partially in front of the window, and 1 foot away from the wall. It looked like it was out in the middle of the room. Ridiculous.
So now, in this current picture, here are a few things to note: the new position of the toilet centered up against the wall (hooray!) and the small vent on the floor to the right of the laundry basket. Since we're renovating anyway, we decided to add a forced air vent in the bathroom floor to get rid of the space heater we'd been using. The vent runs directly up through the downstairs bathroom through a new wall we created down there. (You'll see that further down.)
Craig was an inexperienced plumber, learning as he went, but he was genius enough to fix it all and I'm so proud of him.
So now, we're in the midst of remodeling the downstairs bathroom. To view a "before" picture, see the December post "When it rains, it pours". Craig's cousin, Jim, is doing the majority of the work. He's framed in the new beadboard ceiling (dropped a bit lower than before) and constructed the new wall that will be between the tub and toilet to facilitate the upstairs floor vent. These were taken in the middle of last week:
The new wall will also allow the shower curtain rod to run from wall to wall, instead of making a bend and being suspended from the ceiling (again, see the "before" picture for clarification). Since the above pictures, I spent 6 hours removing wallpaper on Sunday, allowing Jim to put in the cove molding and trim as well as finish and prep the walls for paint.
Tonight, Craig picked up the floor tile and grout and plans to put that in himself this weekend. Following that, I get to paint the walls and beadboard. We had to special order a smaller tub size to accomodate the new wall and that isn't scheduled to be in till the end of the month. So Jim will return to place that and finish the baseboards later. We've picked out a new pedastal sink, mirror, and accessories. Mostly, I'm looking forward to having a toilet on the first floor again, in light of my frequent trips as a 2nd trimester preggo.
In other household updates, we have made progress on the basement/office transition and will soon be readying Will's new bedroom. Here's a few old photos of the office/den as it was. The door in the first picture is a walk in closet with built in drawers and shelves. That will become Will's clothing closet and eliminate the need for dressers.
It currently looks the same, only empty. Will's going to be using a full size bed frame that goes with Craig's and my bedroom set (we have a king size bed), a small night stand handed down from my sister, and a new toy/book storage unit that he got for Christmas from us and my parents. The room really won't hold much else. I've had fun purchasing new bedding and room-darkening roman blinds for the room. We still have to put in clothing racks in the closet and patch a few soon-to-be holes in the wall once the TV and pictures have been removed. I'll post more pictures as the room is completed.
So our unfinished basement has become our new office area out of necessity. There really is no other place. But it's not so bad. We got a new piece of indoor/outdoor carpet for the floor and set up the desks with all the computer equipment (Craig had to run new cable and electrical). It's sort of the overflow storage for a lot of stuff, not to mention the laundry room, but we actually kind of like it. It feels like we just added a huge living space to our home. The other side of the basement is our workout area.
And just for kicks, I thought I'd take another step back in time to our first pregnancy and major, indoor renovation: the kitchen. It makes me relax a bit now to think that ANYTHING is better than that. About 2 months before my due date with Will (which was June 16th), our kitchen project had just begun. These pictures were taken towards the end of April 2007 once we'd torn out some of the original cabinets, Craig had built the new soffits, and we'd begun drywalling everything. Dust was everywhere!
Here's me with a big 'ole belly, priming the walls:
This picture was taken 11 days before Will was born, after paint, in the midst of cabinet installation, and before granite counters, tile floor & backsplash...
When Will arrived, the cabinets were in... but I didn't have floors, counters or a stove... So like I said, ANYTHING is better than that.
Here is the kitchen now:
There's a lot more to it than that photo offers, but you get the idea. It was worth it in the end, but the project itself was very painful. At least this time it's a smaller scale project. And it is SO NICE to come home from work and see progress made on the bathroom. We're still doing some of it ourselves, but Jim has helped expedite the whole thing.
Ah, the life of being homeowners...
Here's the original position of the upstairs toilet. When the upstairs loft was added on by the previous owners, the guy just placed the toilet directly above the one in the downstairs bathroom to keep the pipe in a straight line. In reality, turning the pipe would not have been difficult and would have prevented this ridiculous looking toilet position, which is left of center, partially in front of the window, and 1 foot away from the wall. It looked like it was out in the middle of the room. Ridiculous.
So now, in this current picture, here are a few things to note: the new position of the toilet centered up against the wall (hooray!) and the small vent on the floor to the right of the laundry basket. Since we're renovating anyway, we decided to add a forced air vent in the bathroom floor to get rid of the space heater we'd been using. The vent runs directly up through the downstairs bathroom through a new wall we created down there. (You'll see that further down.)
Craig was an inexperienced plumber, learning as he went, but he was genius enough to fix it all and I'm so proud of him.
So now, we're in the midst of remodeling the downstairs bathroom. To view a "before" picture, see the December post "When it rains, it pours". Craig's cousin, Jim, is doing the majority of the work. He's framed in the new beadboard ceiling (dropped a bit lower than before) and constructed the new wall that will be between the tub and toilet to facilitate the upstairs floor vent. These were taken in the middle of last week:
The new wall will also allow the shower curtain rod to run from wall to wall, instead of making a bend and being suspended from the ceiling (again, see the "before" picture for clarification). Since the above pictures, I spent 6 hours removing wallpaper on Sunday, allowing Jim to put in the cove molding and trim as well as finish and prep the walls for paint.
Tonight, Craig picked up the floor tile and grout and plans to put that in himself this weekend. Following that, I get to paint the walls and beadboard. We had to special order a smaller tub size to accomodate the new wall and that isn't scheduled to be in till the end of the month. So Jim will return to place that and finish the baseboards later. We've picked out a new pedastal sink, mirror, and accessories. Mostly, I'm looking forward to having a toilet on the first floor again, in light of my frequent trips as a 2nd trimester preggo.
In other household updates, we have made progress on the basement/office transition and will soon be readying Will's new bedroom. Here's a few old photos of the office/den as it was. The door in the first picture is a walk in closet with built in drawers and shelves. That will become Will's clothing closet and eliminate the need for dressers.
It currently looks the same, only empty. Will's going to be using a full size bed frame that goes with Craig's and my bedroom set (we have a king size bed), a small night stand handed down from my sister, and a new toy/book storage unit that he got for Christmas from us and my parents. The room really won't hold much else. I've had fun purchasing new bedding and room-darkening roman blinds for the room. We still have to put in clothing racks in the closet and patch a few soon-to-be holes in the wall once the TV and pictures have been removed. I'll post more pictures as the room is completed.
So our unfinished basement has become our new office area out of necessity. There really is no other place. But it's not so bad. We got a new piece of indoor/outdoor carpet for the floor and set up the desks with all the computer equipment (Craig had to run new cable and electrical). It's sort of the overflow storage for a lot of stuff, not to mention the laundry room, but we actually kind of like it. It feels like we just added a huge living space to our home. The other side of the basement is our workout area.
And just for kicks, I thought I'd take another step back in time to our first pregnancy and major, indoor renovation: the kitchen. It makes me relax a bit now to think that ANYTHING is better than that. About 2 months before my due date with Will (which was June 16th), our kitchen project had just begun. These pictures were taken towards the end of April 2007 once we'd torn out some of the original cabinets, Craig had built the new soffits, and we'd begun drywalling everything. Dust was everywhere!
Here's me with a big 'ole belly, priming the walls:
This picture was taken 11 days before Will was born, after paint, in the midst of cabinet installation, and before granite counters, tile floor & backsplash...
When Will arrived, the cabinets were in... but I didn't have floors, counters or a stove... So like I said, ANYTHING is better than that.
Here is the kitchen now:
There's a lot more to it than that photo offers, but you get the idea. It was worth it in the end, but the project itself was very painful. At least this time it's a smaller scale project. And it is SO NICE to come home from work and see progress made on the bathroom. We're still doing some of it ourselves, but Jim has helped expedite the whole thing.
Ah, the life of being homeowners...
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