What's been going on...

Since it's been over a week since I've posted and Todd is really tired of the picture tag picture that I posted last time I decided it really is time to start blogging again. Nothing really eventful has been going on at our house, we've been busy, but nothing really excited has been going on. I'll just give you a little update as to what has been going on at our house.

Hailee's special diet. Avocado and chicken sandwich, pear, and pink milk shake.

Special Diets....good grief every single on of us in on a special diet. Todd is on a low sodium diet, I'm on a diabetes diet, and Hailee is on a gain a few pounds diet. With Todd I've been trying to get better at cooking again so he doesn't have to eat in the cafeteria at work (making enough at dinner so he has leftovers to take.) It seems to help his health more than anything else these days. My blood sugar levels have been good, but it seemed this week they have started going a little crazy and I'm not doing anything different. My doctor told me this was normal as I get later in my pregnancy (only 4-weeks left now!!!!) and that I'll just have to keep trying new things. The lastest is that I have to have a snack in the middle of the night. I tell you what, I am so tired of eating all day long...and now I have to have a snack in the middle of the night. Agh! After being sick for the month of January Hailee lost a lot of weight (okay 2-3 pounds, but on her that is a lot) so we've been trying to get her back up to what she was. She has been enjoying Pink Milk Shakes and lots and lots of avocado in the last few weeks. She has loved every second of it. But who wouldn't love 2 or 3 shakes a day and all the avocado you can eat. She is such a good little eater that when people see how much she can put away they are shocked, you just wouldn't expect it by looking at her, all thanks to her dad's metabolism. We went to Costco yesterday and she ate an entire hot dog all by herself, then came home and wanted some ice cream.

Speaking of my sweetest little girl, I can always count on finding some very interesting pictures on the camera when I download pictures off the camera. She loves taking pictures and has so much fun finding fun things to take pictures of. Sometimes I find pictures of me that I have no idea when she took them. She is doing so good and I can't believe that it's time to go to kindergarten orientation. Really is she that old? She keeps asking me when she can go to school every day like her dad. I guess she is ready. Once every six weeks or so I get to go be the parent helper in her preschool class. Today was my day and it was so much fun to see her interact with all the kids. The first time I went I was worried that she would be clingy and not play normally with her friends. I couldn't have been more wrong. She liked having me there and wanted to sit by me, but for the most part she just played with her friends. She loves being at preschool.

I don't write enough about Todd on the blog. He is doing so well at work, he loves he people he works with and is doing really well. He has gotten so many nice comments from co-workers, good reviews from managers, and recognitions from work. He loves what he is doing and is very happy doing his job. I'm don't totally understand what he does for sure (just looking at the spreadsheets he works on gives me a headache), but from what I understand is this... His responsibility is to work with 30 or so analysts from all the parts of DEG (a large group in intel) get all their numbers for quarter and year close as well as the different plan phases. He then does something with them all and reports to the CFO of intel and external reporting (the people that report to Wall Street and investors.) Todd loves working with all the people and problem solving all the things that come up. It really plays up to his strengths. With all the crazy things going on in the economy things have been especially crazy with planning and then replanning and replanning again, but we are just happy to have a job and especially happy that his evening work can be done at home so we don't have miss him too much.

The baby is doing well. I have two appointments a week now and they do NST and ultrasounds at every appointment, but everything is looking fabulous and so far we have a very healthy and happy baby. His favorite thing as of late is to do resistance and strength workouts in my tummy. He will push out as hard as he can for up to 20 minutes at a time. I'm not sure why he enjoys doing this, but it's his favorite thing. One evening when starting his exercise program Todd decided to see if he could tickle him. So he started tickling on the spot where he was poking out (it's very easy to see where it is because he pokes out so far). Sure enough he would stop pushing when Todd tickled him, then wait 30 seconds or so before starting again. They went back and forth for quite a while. I really love this phase of my pregnancy. Hailee is also getting very excited for her new baby brother. Every time we go shopping she wants to pick something for him. He probably won't get a moments rest once he get here. Hailee will be to busy mothering him to death. She has informed me that she wants to do everything except change the poopy diapers.

The other fun thing that happened this week was Todd's aunt and uncle were up from southern Oregon. We got to visit with them for a while. It's always so fun and Hailee just adds them to her list of grandparents. When I told her we were going to see Uncle David she was confused until I called him Grandpa Duck, she was thrilled. It's nice having family fairly close that we get to see every so often.

So there you have it, lots going on, just nothing too eventful. I feel like we are getting nice and settled here in Oregon and we absolutely love it. This week is the first time we've had a taste of what Oregon winters are suppose to be like (wet and cloudy) and we have been loving it. I love the temperate days, the rain falling, and overall just pleasant. So far people have said it's been colder and drier than normal, and if this is as cold as it gets in Oregon we will get along just fine.

Picture Tag

Tag Post
1. Go to where you store your digital photos and open the 4th folder.

2. Post the 4th picture in that folder.

3. Explain the picture.

4. Tag 4 people.

April 11, 2007

My sister Stacie tagged me and it was so much fun to do this. I love going back and looking at pictures. My computer organizes my pictures for me so I had to add a few extra numbers. The 4th folder, 4th folder, 4th folder, then the only picture that was in that folder. This picture was taken during Todd's first year in MBA school. It was just before we moved to Corvallis for the summer, only we weren't sure we were going to make it. Todd was still having a hard time walking at the time because of Meniere's Disease. Hailee loved spending all the time with dad (she was most sad when he got better and had to actually leave home). Usually Todd was working on his laptop and Hailee was watching movies on hers., but today they had both fallen asleep. What a cute little pair. Hailee was also going through her dress phase where she had to wear a dress every single day.

Happy Valentine's Day

It has been so fun as Hailee has gotten older to see her get excited for holidays. And how could you not get excited. She gets multiple packages in the mail (presents from her grandparents), parties at school, and just lots of exciting things going on. We started out the festivities with getting her Valentine's all ready. She wanted to give bracelets to the girls and play-doh to the boys. She helped me make the bracelets (she picked out the beads, the pattern they went in, and then helped me put the bigger beads on). Once we got them done she decided that we needed to make matching necklaces as well. When we were putting them together she also made sure that the boys got their favorite colors. "Mom, Jay's favorite color is orange...he needs the orange play-doh." On and on until they were all addressed and ready to go. Later I asked Jay's mom if his favorite color was indeed orange and it was. I was impressed that she tried to do that for each of them. She explained all her reasoning behind the choices.

The boys valentine's.

The girls valentines.

All ready to go to her Valentine's Party at preschool.

When she got home from school she sat on my bed and read every single Valentine. She loved every single on. I have to say they have gotten so much better with Valentine's, I remember as a kid being horrified about having to give boys in my class lovey dovey valentines. They have so many cute "friend" valentines now. It's about time.

On Valentine's day we got a babysitter for Hailee and Todd and I went on a date. It was so much fun. It's been a while since we've been on a real date, but life is settling down a little and since Valentine's was on a Saturday we could do it earlier so Todd was feeling better. I think Hailee was excited about our date as we were. She picked out my clothes for me, helped me brushed my hair and chatted with me about things while I was getting ready. She kept saying things like "When you get home you'll have to tell me everything you did on your date mom." She was so pleased.

For her and the babysitter I tried to make things a little fun as well, we ordered them heart shape pizza and I had the stuff ready for them to make Valentine's house together. Hailee was very excited to be having a babysitter come over, I just hope she didn't wear her out. It sounds like they did a lot of stuff.

Hailee's Valentine's House

Todd and I went into Portland to a French restaurant. I have to say Portland has a lot of fun places to eat. I love that we live so close. It was a fun restaurant in the Pearl district. I had never had french food before and it was to die for. (It made me add France to my list of countries I need to go visit.) I think that Todd finally understands my infatuation with good "crusty" bread. Now I just need to find a bakery here that makes it or learn how to make it myself (I guess I can worry about that once I'm off my diabetic diet.) I had the roasted duck breast and Todd had a seafood soup of some kind. I absolutely love how they paired their flavors up. We had a yummy cheese with honey walnuts and an orange sauce, Lobster Beignets, and for dessert Todd had a chocolate banana thing and I had an apple tart. Everything tasted so good and I completely ignored my diabetic diet for one night. (Even with all the yummy bread I wasn't too far over my numbers anyway and at my appointment today the doctor wasn't upset at all.)

It was all so wonderful. Hailee was excited to hear how our date went once we got home. She was a little surprised all we did was go to dinner. "Did you see a show or a circus." Not so much, when we explained it was a restaurant like where Remy cooked in the movie Ratatouille. She got very excited and asked it had a rat working there, yeah hopefully not. She was happy we had a good time and went to bed so good shortly after we got home. She must have really worn the babysitter out, because she was exhausted. But she really is such a sweet kid.

I spoke too soon...

Well I guess I spoke too soon about everyone being healthy. Hailee has a little bit of a cold (but not really anything to slow her down). And Todd woke up Saturday morning with the stomach flu. Since it's been over a week since we had it, I really thought we were out of the clear, but I guess it's still going around. He could have easily picked it up somewhere else...or just was slow about getting what we had. Satuday he was really miserable, and even today he still isn't feeling great. I hope he starts feeling better soon. Saturday Hailee and I were talking and I explained that daddy had what she had last week when she was throwing up. She remembered all too clearly how horrible it was to be throwing up all day so she started making him card and pictures to cheer him up. Below is the card she made. It made Todd's day. When he was feeling so miserable she went in and brought him the sweetest pictures and card she had made for him.

front of the card

inside the card
It says "Dear Daddy, I hope you will feel better soon. I love you. Love Hailee"

She really is such a sweet little girl and quite empathetic. Sunday I got up and was getting ready for church. I was debating as to whether I should leave Hailee home, Todd was still miserable and she had a little cold. She informed me that she wanted to go to church so I got her all ready. I figured we could at least go to sacrament meeting and see how it went from there. While I was finishing up getting ready she decided that she needed to stay home because her tummy hurt. A little worried that she had picked up the stomach flu again I decided to let her stay home with Todd. I woke Todd up (at least I thought I did) and let him know I was going to church and left the two of them all snuggled in bed. After sacrament meeting I decided to run home (we live 2 minutes from church) to check on them. I got back to find them still snuggled in bed together, Hailee was awake and Todd was sound asleep. Hailee was happy to see me and it seemed like everything was normal until I noticed that Hailee's water paints were out. Then she informed me that she had painted me a picture and played some of her computer games. At first I was worried that she had kept Todd awake and he wasn't able to get some rest, but then she said, "Sometimes my dad would open his eyes to check on me and it would crack me up." So then I asked her if her daddy helped her get out the paint. To which I discovered that he hadn't and she had done it all on her own. (What a wonderful mother I am leaving my 4 year old to fend for herself). Todd was vaguely (very vaguely) aware that they were both home, but that is as far as it got.

She decided that since Todd slept the whole time that she was in charge and later as we were talking she informed us that she had been "man-sitting." She thought it was the greatest thing in the world. She also informed us that she didn't want to do any baby-sitting any time soon, because babies get poopy diapers and she doesn't like poopy diapers. Dad was just fine, because he doesn't wear diapers. I'm just glad nothing serious happened and that everything was just fine when I got home. I like to tell myself that if something would have happened that Todd would have woken up.

My little guy...

First I want to wish congratulations to my sister and her family. She had her baby on Wednesday and our new little one will have a little boy cousin just his age. We are excited everything went well and that both Stacie and the baby are doing great.

I've decided it's time to update information on the baby. I have to say that the third trimester is usually my favorite time of pregnancy. It's finally a time where every smell doesn't make me want to throw up, I finally start to feel a little normal again (other than being huge), and you really start seeing the baby's personality come through. I was really looking forward to the third trimester and it started out okay and then January hit. It seemed every week Hailee got sick. She was sick 3 times and the last time I was sick and throwing up too. I also was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes. Lets just say we are so happy it's February at our house. It was nice to say goodbye to January. So for a month I didn't get a lot of sleep and I was really feeling the side effects. I didn't know if I could make it another seven weeks.

But now that things have settled down (although Hailee woke up a few days ago with a runny nose, it's nothing serious yet) we're finally getting more sleep and I'm feeling much better. I have to say I'm not nearly so anxious to have this baby here, I' fine with waiting so he is nice and healthy.

Since I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes I got to have another ultra sound on Wednesday to make he wasn't getting too big. Thankfully he is still right on schedule (just over 4 pounds) and my blood sugars are doing great, not shots or medicine for me. I have to say I love having ultrasounds. It's so fun seeing a little glimpse into what his life is like in there. Our ultrasounds was at 7:00 in the morning so he was still sleeping and not moving around too much until the end. The ultrasound tech was having a hard time getting a good shot of the chord, but other than that they got everything they needed. I think this little one is going to be a night owl like Hailee. He wiggles so much at night before I go to bed and then I usually don't feel him moving again until the next morning until about 9:00. It was so much fun to see him, he had one foot clear up by his head and was sleeping so peacefully.

Yesterday afternoon Hailee decided that she wanted to read to her baby brother so she snuggled up by my tummy and read to him all of her favorite board books. It was so cute. He even started moving around so she could feel him moving. She was so pleased. I can hardly wait to see her in action once the baby comes. Last night he decided that he needed some more room. He is always the most active at night before going to bed. For over an hour he pushed and pushed on my stomach, which was funny until he started pushing on my belly button. That wasn't so comfortable. But it has been so fun to get to know this little one a little better.

Today at my doctors appointment I found out my amniotic fluid was on the low end of normal so we'll be getting to see him at the rest of my appointments. They have a small ultrasound machine at my doctors office. I also have to say I really enjoy my new doctor. This is my third doctor this pregnancy (one in Utah, one on our first insurance here, and then this one with our new insurance). I loved my doctor in Utah, my second wasn't my favorite, but I like my new one. He is cautious but doesn't panic and he is really good at explaining everything they are checking for. It's nice to feel a little settled....and to finally get a little sleep.

When I grow up...

The last month or so Hailee has been talking a lot about what she wants to do when she grows up. A few weeks ago when we were at the doctors office she said...

H: Mom when I grow up I want to be a doctor like Dr. Kelly (she was her pediatrician in Utah)
N: That would be fun.
H: Or I want to work at Burger King.

That got a few laughs from the people around. She continued debating the pros and cons of which one would be more fun. I guess there is just a difference of about 16 years of school. When I was telling Todd about the conversation later she remembered something else and said, "If I'm a doctor then I won't have to get married." Not sure where she got that idea. The only thing I can think of is that Dr. Kelly wasn't married when we first started seeing her and then got married a little later.

Other ideas have been a mom and an astronaut. Last night I went to a baby shower so Hailee and Todd got to spend some time together. She was busy playing on the computer while Todd was getting a little work done and she made a story on pbskids.org. She printed it out and was so excited. She informed Todd that when she grew up that she wanted to write books. Todd told her that is what you call an author and then told her that I used to help authors publish their books. She was so excited when I got home. I think for the first time she finally was impressed with what I did. I told her that we could start working on a book and she was so excited. She has reminded me 10 times this morning that after preschool she wanted to start working on her book. I have to say I'm quite excited to see how it turns out.

Ballet pictures

I've been meaning to take some pictures of Hailee in her little ballet outfit. Yesterday we tried out a new ballet class so I figured that it was a good day to try and get some pictures. She wasn't really excited about doing it and would complain and give me fake smiles, but when she saw the finished products (after about 80 pictures) she exclaimed, "Oh I did pretty good mom."

These were some of my favorite. I can't believe how grown up she is looking....ah what happened to my baby girl.