Daddy and Daughter

Just a couple of cute pictures of Ivan and Emery .. Emery loves rough housing with her Papa and he loves his little girl to pieces. They are so cute together!

32 Weeks

Time continues to fly by. I was 32 weeks on Wednesday and still going strong. Everything is going really well and my Dr appts are quick and to the point. At my last appt, Dr Quinn asked me twice if I had any concerns, questions, pains, etc and my response was, "nope, I feel fine". He then asked me if he could see patients like me all day long. I jokingly (with some true seriousness to it) said that we could have my appts over the phone and I'd be fine with it.

There's just something about driving all the way from work in West Valley to the Dr in Riverton every 2 weeks for a 15 min appt that includes being weighed, peeing in a cup and hearing the heartbeat. It's nice to hear the heartbeat, but when I feel the baby moving all of the time, I pretty much know everything is fine. I guess I should just be grateful that I'm having another uneventful pregnancy, right?

Anyway, we are starting to make some progress on preparing for baby #2. We finally traded in my Accord for an Armada (hoping to post picutres of "Mama's big car" as Emery calls it). Yes, I have thoroughly convinced myself that a new car was required in the preparation for baby #2. We also bought and put together Emery's big girl furniture. We still need to get a mattress and move all of her clothes to her new room before I can start sorting through all of the bins of baby clothes/gear that I have in our storage room. That's next on the list.

Names - nope, still don't have any. I like Aliya, but I'm not in love with it quite yet. 7 1/2 weeks or less to go so we better get on it.

Lagoon Day

We headed out to Lagoon earlier in the month when Makayla was here (yes, I'm WAY behind on blogging once again). We went the weekend of July 4th and it was the perfect time to go. The weather was decent and there weren't any lines for any of the rides. Unfortunately, I was only able to go on a whopping 2 rides - the carousel and one haunted house but we still had a great time overall.

The whole gang ..


Emery loved most of the kiddie rides. It was funny because she got shy when she came around to where we were standing and could see her. For the first few rounds of each ride, she would bury her face and not look up at anyone. But, she loved them all.
Ivan and my Mom even took her on some swings and she liked those too.
Sweet cousins

This is a ladybug ride that shoots you straight up in the air and then has some pretty large drops. The first time people went, Ivan took Emery on it. Not the greatest idea - she cried the entire time. They also took Emery into the haunted house right at the entrance of Lagoon as the first ride - once gain, not a great idea. Emery came out of the ride saying, "I scared of monsters". We continue to hear a lot of "I scared of monsters" to this day. Oops - hopefully we haven't scarred her for life.

I can't dance!

We went to the South Towne Expo Center tonight to check out the Days of '47 Parade Floats. My Mom and Lola joined us for dinner and the festivities and it was a great night hanging out with family.

While we were at the Expo Center they had a stage where different cultures were dancing and playing music so we stopped to check it out. There were 2 couples from Chile dancing and they were amazing.

Ivan then asked Emery if she wanted to dance and tried to get her into it. She immediately started yelling "I can't dance, I can't dance!" Ivan didn't give up and tried to get her to start dancing with him. The poor girl sat down on the floor and started balling and yelling "I can't dance". I had to rescue her and tell her that I can relate. I have no rhythm at all, I am a 100% white girl!

It will be interesting to see if Emery gets comfortable with dancing. All of Ivan's extended family loves to dance and they are great dancers. I always think back to our wedding reception and how much fun the Real Family made our reception by getting out on the dance floor (and dragging all of the white folks out too) and having a good time. Hopefully with time, Emery will get more confident in her dancing skills and we will learn that she will take after her Papa's side and not mine. I feel bad for her if she takes after me.

Bad Habits

Have you ever been in the midst of creating a habit that you know will end up bad but it's too enjoyable at the current moment to change anything about it?

Yes, that's what we are currently doing. For the last several months, Emery has been waking up between 8-830a. I know that doesn't seem early to most people, but prior to that, the earliest she was waking up was 930a and one hour does make a big difference when Mama and Papa are late night owls.

Anyway, we are creating a habit of bringing Emery to our bed when she gets up to watch about 30 minutes of a movie to allow us to wake up a little more before actually beginning our day. We are starting to get ourselves into trouble though. Emery woke up this morning at 530a to go potty. I took her potty and put her back to bed. About 15 minutes later, she woke up again - here's how it went:

Emery: "I sleep in Mama's bed"
Me: "It's still night night time, you need to go back to sleep"
Emery: "I got to Mama's bed and cuddle. I want to cuddle Mama"

Now, what Mom out there can turn down their toddlers request to cuddle? She gets me with that every time. So, I brought her to my bed and we slept and cuddled until 830a when she started her non-stop chit chat for the day. (Who has that much to say at 830a? Oh, Emery has plenty to talk about).

I figure that I've started to acknowledge there is a problem forming and that's the first step to correcting it right? My plan is to break the habit when we finally get Emery into her big girl bed. For the time being, I will enjoy the cuddle time with my baby.

29 Weeks!

I'm one week late on this post but I figure it's better than never. I'm now 29 weeks along and time is still flying by. We have not done anything to prepare for the new baby. We don't have a name, still have Emery in the crib and still need to trade in my car before my due date gets here. I'm hoping to make some progress on the above to do items in the next 3 weeks, but no promises here.

Overall, I am feeling pretty good. I haven't gained as much weight this pregnancy but I do feel like everything I have gained is in my tummy. I have been able to manage my acid reflux by eating raw almonds nightly which has been nice.

However, I finally had my 2nd life experience with HEARTBURN over the weekend. It was horrible. I woke up at 6a with acid reflux and was up for about an hour. I went back to sleep and when I got up at 9a for the day my chest felt like it was on fire! I was miserable but I didn't want to ruin the plans for the day so we still went to Murray Park. We left the park around 2p because I had lasted as long as I could. We stoppped to pick up some Prilosec and Mylanta. I remember seeing my Great Grandma drinking Mylanta straight out of the bottle and I started doing the same thing. I was in so much pain I finally went to Instacare. I was pretty sure they couldn't do anything but I was miserable and it had been 5+ hours. The Dr. walked into the room and said, "so you are 7 months pregnant and have heartburn. What would you like me to do about it?" Not exactly the response I was looking for.

Luckily, I went home and was able to take a nap and woke up feeling better. The heartburn came back later that night but I've been keeping up on Prilosec and raw almonds and I've been fine since. I hope I am able to manage the heartburn because it is horrible.

4th of July Festivities

We went to Murray Park on Saturday to enjoy the 4th of July festivities. Before we left, Emery had to go potty - she took it upon herself to grab her Cinderella book so she had some light reading to keep her busy while she did her business.
We had a good day at Murray Park. We spent the majority of the time sitting down and enjoying the nice weather and some good food at the festivities. We all know I'm about food and people watching and Emery and my Mom like to do the same thing, We've also rubbed off on Ivan a bit so he enjoys the food and people watching right along with us.

The one activity that Emery wanted to do was the bouncy house. When it was finally her turn to get it, she didn't want to go because there were other kids in the bouncy house. Luckily, we stuck with it and calmed her fears. With Makayla by her side, she jumped in and had a great time. As soon as she got out, she wanted more and more. The girls played in the jumpy house another 2 times before we headed home for naps and the opportunity to get out of the heat.

Kamayla?

As Emery is learning to speak there are often times that she mispronounces words. I would say 90% of her words I can understand while most people can probably understand 60-75% of them right now.

For a long time she called Carter, the dog, Dashu. She's also been calling Makayla by Maya for as long as she's been able to call her anything. We finally taught Emery how to pronounce Carter's name correctly.

Makayla is here with us for 2 weeks this summer. I am determined to teach Emery how to say her name correctly during this trip. We have made progress, however, Emery is now pronouncing Makayla's name as KaMayLa. Very cute, but not exactly what we are aiming for. We have another week to go, hopefully Emery will master the correct pronunciation of Makayla's name by then.

We've been having a great time with Makayla here and have been very busy. Last week, the girls made a trip to the pool. It was very windy and the water was freezing so we didn't stay long but we still had a good time.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

We went to Olive Garden last night for dinner. We were lucky enough to be seated by a family with 5 kids and the Mom and Dad. They were, well, a little ghetto. The kids were making a ton of noise and a huge mess. The lady from the table across from us kept turning around to glare at the family. Trust me, she wasn't trying to hide her anger, I was waiting for her to ask to be moved. Ivan and I just kind of sat and watched the show in amazement. The family was ridiculous and the kids were out of control. I think there are times where you just have to admit to yourself that your kids should not go to dinner in restaurants if they can't behave, but that is just my opinion.

A few minutes before the family left, one of their little boys, probably 4 years old, comes over to our table and was definitely invading in our person space. He walked right over and started jumping around and just making noise. Emery quickly stands up, puts her hand out in a "stop motion" and says "Careful boy, Papa's Coke." She kept repeating it until the boy left the table.

It was hilarious that Emery just spoke her mind and Ivan and I were grateful that she ran the boy off. She is protective of coke, milk, food and toys wherever we go. Ivan and I started laughing hysterically and we just couldn't stop. I felt bad because I know the family thought we were laughing at them, but we really weren't. It was just so funny that Emery was the only one at the table that could run the boy off without people thinking we were totally rude.

Moral of the story, don't take your kids to restaurants if they can't behave or you will be "that family" and keep a 2 1/2 year old around to say what everyone else is thinking.

Ouch!

I've never been the most coordinated person in the world. I will be traumatized for my entire life from my family teasing me when I was little about the way I run. I clearly remember being at my Great Grandma Ruth's house and my family egging me on, telling me to run down the long hallway that runs from the dining room to the bedrooms. Meanwhile, my family would stand in the dining room laughing at the way I run. Apparently, I stick my but out, my elbows go way back and I look like a hot mess.

Anyway, coordination aside, I am also more accident prone while pregnant. Sunday night I was ironing Ivan's work clothes and burned my wrist. It hurt so bad! So I have this nasty burn on my wrist.

Yesterday at work, I totally ate it and fell on all fours. I was walking down the stairs with someone from my team. As I stepped off of the last step, I started slipping and luckily caught myself, well, kind of, and landed on all fours. As I was trying to get up, I started slipping again but I was able to get up without falling again. I felt so stupid and really bad for the guy with me. He just kept saying, "I tried to help and catch you". Um, that may have been worse. I just imagined him trying to catch me and falling with me and both of us ending up on the ground and then a stranger walking in and seeing us. Wouldn't that be a great rumor and good old Discover Card "some guy was in the stairwell making out with a prego girl ... I bet it's his baby" Ha ha. Anyway, it ended up that someone had spilled water on the floor and obviously didn't bother to clean it up or tell facilities so they could clean it up. I told facilities about the spill so it could be cleaned up and hopefully nobody else would fall.

I am fine other than my knees hurt like hell. I am surprised that they aren't all bruised up today. My boss kept teasing me that I'm not allowed to go out on leave until September because they aren't ready. Luckily, nothing serious came from the fall, other than some bruised knees and me being quite embarrassed. I will try to stay away from irons and stairs for the rest of my pregnancy but I'm sure more embarrassing stories will come.

Ear Infection - Really?

Emery was fighting a nasty fever for a few days last week. Then she was fine for one day and on Saturday night she came down with a horrible cough. She was supposed to go to the zoo on Sunday but I decided it was best for her to stay home since she wasn't feeling well.

I took her to the pediatrician today to get checked out. This was literally the first time she has seen any doctor aside from her well baby visits. I took her to get her cough checked out and it turns out she is fighting a small ear infection. So, it's also Emery's first round of antibiotics. I am so impressed that she has made it this long without really getting sick, other than the normal cold, and without having to be on antibiotics.

Emery was really good at the doctors. The toughest thing was getting her onto the scale (she weighs a whole 26 lbs!). She did great with Dr. Ring taking her temperature, listening to her lungs and checking out her mouth and ears. Emery is my little trooper! Hopefully she kicks the ear infection and cough soon and we don't start having issues with ear infections. Keep your fingers crossed for us!

New Jammies

I have recently fell in love with the store Carter's. I've shopped there occasionally in the past, but there was never one close by to make it a store to shop at regularly. Well, there is now a Carter's in Fashion Place Mall and by South Towne Mall (they have probably been there for a while, but I just discovered them). Anyway, I am in love with their clothes, prices and regular coupons that are emailed to me.

I made a quick trip to Carter's on Saturday for some summer jammies for Emery. I was so excited about my purchases and came home to show them off to Ivan and Emery. I saved the below jammies for the last revealing because I was most excited about them.

What do you think of Emery's new jammies?

Do you notice anything wrong with them? Umm .. how about the fact that Emery is going to be a BIG Sister, not a LITTLE Sister. This is the "pregnancy brain" that I am having to deal with these days. The funny thing is that when I pulled them out of the bag, I immediately noticed the problem and even a few days later, I am still so confused. I'm hoping that the rack of jammies I was looking at actually said Big Sister and I just happened to not look at the correct sized jammies that I grabbed. But honestly, I could have been looking at Little Sister jammies the entire time, I couldn't tell you.

Please pray for me. Who knows how many stupid mistakes I will make in the next 3 months. The worst part is that I get dumber and dumber with each pregnancy and I swear, it never comes back.

6 Months!

I hit the 6 month mark last Wednesday. I cannot believe how quickly the time is going. We are wanting to buy a new car before the baby comes since my lease is up in October and I don't want to have to go through the hassle with a newborn. I was talking to my friend Mandy today about how much time we have before we have to start actively looking and I said we will start in August. Then I realized that's only 2 months away!

We still have done absolutely nothing to prepare for this little one. We are going to be moving rooms around, the current office will move to the extra bedroom and Emery's big girl room will be in the current office. We finally have appointments for phone lines and cable lines to be installed in the new office, but that's it. We need to clean out the room, paint Emery's new room and buy her big girl furniture. We better get on it.

I am still feeling pretty good. I have been dealing with some pretty bad acid reflux, but I learned that plain, raw almonds right before bed can soak up the acid. So I have a large bag of almonds and a large box of Tums on my nightstand. I am having lower back pains as well. By the end of the day I am waddling pretty bad and it's entertaining. Luckily, the next day I am back to normal and walking without waddling.

Everyone tells me how huge I am, so we will see if I continue to post these pictures and updates. I took pictures monthly when I was pregnant with Emery and I think it's nice to document the pregnancy. But, at times, I want to lie to people about my due date. I actually avoid the conversation and giving my due date whenever possible. I have gained less in this pregnancy, but it is 100% belly. I can still fit into my regular jeans which is nice.

Make Up 101

While I was showering this morning, Emery helped herself to some of my eye shadow. It was put all over her cheeks and she was so proud of her masterpiece when she showed it to me. She said "I done getting ready Mama". What a little cutie!

Crib Talk

This is the one sided conversation that Emery had with herself this morning after waking up:

"Mama"
"Mama"
"Papa at school"
"Mama"
"Mama"
"Mama no hear you"
"Papa at school"
"Mama"
"Mama"
"Papa go to work"
"Papa go to school on the school bus"
"Mama"
"Mama"

Yes, I finally went in to get her up for the day. Ivan and I were in bed cracking up after hearing her conversation with herself. She is too funny and entertaining!

Starfall.com

I came across this website, well, while blog stalking a friend of a friend and I'm so glad I did. Emery loves it and it is really helping her learn her ABC's and pronunciation of her letters.

She goes through spurts on which letter is her favorite. It's been: D for the dancing doll, S for the skateboarders (the open skateboard is for Emery, she just needs her helmet) and her current favorite letter is W.

Emery has even learned how to use the mouse from playing on the website. I'm still amazed everyday at how much Emery is learning and how she is so independent.

Mama? Grandma?

Emery is in this phase where she thinks every female is either a Mama or Grandma. Cute, right? Well, it is, until you are in store and she decides that someone is a Grandma.

We were in Target yesterday and Emery started calling the lady in front of us Grandma. The lady seemed to be of Grandma age, but it was a little iffy. And even if it is, it's still uncomfortable for Emery to just start calling someone a Grandma because, well, she thinks they look like one. So after every time Emery said "Grandma" I followed up with "yes, we are going to see Grandma because Mama has to go to work".

I hope she grows out of this before we completely offend some woman that maybe isn't quite old enough to be a Grandma but looks older than her age.

20 Weeks - Halfway There!

I can't believe I am already halfway done with this pregnancy. Time sure does go by quicker with your 2nd. We found out two weeks ago that we are having another girl and Ivan and I are both thrilled. I think everyone else wanted us to have a boy, but we are perfectly happy to have another little girl running around the house.

We haven't done one single thing to prepare for this baby. Name? No. Cute baby stuff? No. Moved Emery into a big girl bed so this baby can have somewhere to sleep? No. Nope, nothing, nada! I have looked a little bit for big girl beds and furniture for Emery and a double stroller, but that's about it. I'm still surprised at how much less time I have to focus on this pregnancy than I had when I was pregnant with Emery.

Pro's of this pregnancy:

• Knowing I have a little baby growing inside me
• Laying in bed at 5a listening to the birds chirp and feeling the baby move all around (yes, I did this on Sunday morning and it was wonderful!)
• Having Emery kiss and hug my growing belly
  

Con's of this pregnancy:

• Acid reflux - there have been plenty of nights that Ivan has come to bed and I'm sitting up, half asleep munching on Tums. Yuck!
• Back pains - Emery now says "my back hurts" because she hears it from me so much
  

Emery's BFF's

Emery has two best friends right now. One is Max. He is well, a little bit of an imaginary friend. He is from the kids show Max & Ruby. Have you seen it? If not, you're one of the lucky parents out there. I really don't like the show, but Emery loves it. For the past few weeks, she has been talking to and about Max daily. Today, she was playing with her guitar, telling Max he wasn't allowed to play with it. It's so fun to see that Emery is able to use her imagination and make up activities and friends.

Emery's second best friend is Carter, or "Dashu" as Emery calls him. She's always called him "Dashu" and we hear it so much that Ivan and I find ourselves calling Carter "Dashu". I've been correcting Emery with his name and hopefully soon, she will call him by Carter. Emery loves to play with Carter all day long. He takes the playing, or abuse sometimes, really well. I think it's because he gets all of the food that Emery doesn't eat, which is a lot.

I had to add in this picture of Emery. It's not the best picture to use as an example, but when Emery gets mad, she says "I'm mad!" and makes this crunched up face. She totally has her Mom's facial expressions! When she's done being mad, her face lights up and she says "I"m happy!". Too cute!

California Trip - Disneyland & California Adventure

Wow! I can't believe how long it has taken me to post about our trip to California. Finally, this is the last one, with a million pictures.

Before heading to California, Ivan thought Emery was too young to really enjoy Disneyland. I was convinced that she was the perfect age and would love it. I was praying that I would be right because if I wasn't, I would have never lived it down. But, like we all know, a mother's instinct is right and Emery loved Disneyland and California Adventure!

The first day we were heading to Disneyland. The plan was to meet there at 9a. Ivan got up to go to the gym and when he got back, the girls were still sleeping and I was getting ready. He filled me in on the fact that it was pouring outside. We had great weather the entire time we were in California, except for our first day at Disneyland. We decided to wait a few hours and got to Disneyland around noon. It was disappointing that we lost a few hours of play time, but the weather ended up being perfect and there was hardly anyone at Disneyland. Most lines were only 15-20 minutes and we had a blast.

Day 1 - Disneyland



This was towards the end of the day. I just love how Emery is so relaxed and chillin in her stroller.

Emery loved the Michael Jackson 3-D show. She kept reaching her arms out trying to catch the animals that were in 3-D.
Day 2 - California Adventure
Emery was totally mesmerized by Snow White. She couldn't take her eyes off of her and was in shock that she was that close to a real princess. She did lean over to give Snow White a kiss - it was the most adorable thing ever.
Ivan and Makayla were on bumper cars that Emery was too little for, so my mom took Emery on this ride that goes in constant circles. Neither one of us knew how she would do, but she loved it.

California Adventure had a huge kids "playground" type thing. I think this was Emery's favorite part of the entire trip. She had Ivan running through the playground for hours - literally. She wasn't scared of anything and was running across wobbly bridges that older kids were scared of. Both Emery and Ivan got a good workout in the playground.

Emery is my little Ms. Independent. Why would she want to ride in the stroller when she can stand behind it and push it??

We had a great trip to California and can't wait to go again next year.