Boy names

As you can probably imagine, we've been discussing boy names ALL weekend. It's really fun - I seriously had never even LOOKED at the boys section of our baby name books. So we are open to suggestions. Here are my requirements:

His middle name is Landon after Ken's dad, so the first name has to be a saint.

It has to go with our last name, which is the difficult part. Unfortunately we can't use Max or Jack or Zack or Luke, etc....

And of course it has to go well with Father - I'm not gonna lie, I'd be THRILLED if he was called to be a priest :)

So what have you got??

Black Friday

Today I got to do something I haven't done in almost 21 months.... go shopping kid-free! My mom and I hit the Black Friday sales this morning and Madeleine stayed with her daddy. They had a great time - he took her to Barnes and Nobles and they read books, had a bagel, and played with the trains. Then they went to Arbys for lunch and he put her down for her nap. My mom and I hit two malls and some more stores, then mom bought me lunch at Subway. We got a few presents for people on our list, and several more ideas. I felt like we got a lot accomplished since we didn't have to drag the stroller out at every stop! :) And Ken is such a great dad I didn't worry one bit. I can probably count the times on one hand I have left her for 6 hours in her life!

My mom and I checked out some boy clothes at a few stores - SO cute. And I hit my favorite yarn store and bought some brick red super soft alpaca yarn and started on his very first V-neck sweater vest :) Speaking of that, I'm going to go work on it.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Madeleine just woke up, so this'll be a quick post!

I'm thankful for:

1. Madeleine. She is the greatest blessing of my life.
2. My little boy!! Wow I'm going to have my very own little boy, I still can't believe it!
3. Ken. He's been slaving away in the kitchen all day and he is just the perfect husband for me!
4. My family, they are wonderful!
5. My friends, in real life and on the blog.
6. Getting to be an almost full time stay at home mom - my dream come true.
7. That I'm over my morning sickness for Thanksgiving dinner!!

OH MY GOSH!!!

It's a..................

BOY!!!

So do you want to know if it's a boy or girl?

ME TOO! But we have to wait until tomorrow!!! I am so excited I can hardly stand it.

Right now I'll leave you with a picture of what went on in our kitchen tonight.....

Our house was built in 1968 and yes, those are the original cabinets and stove. I know. You're jealous.

I go through this every night!

Ken says this is the most true to life thing he's ever seen! As I write this, I'm laying on my couch with the laptop on my legs and my cat is draped over my chest with her face about one inch from my face! She's been doing this a lot lately.

A sensitive soul

One of Madeleine's favorite books is Madeline - the original. (Thank you Susan!) On one page ("and sometimes they were very sad") it shows the little girls looking at a wounded soldier - his leg is in a cast. Madeleine always stops at this page and says "Leg hurt! Girls help!" She is really concerned about him and wants the girls to help him. She usually gives him a kiss too and says "Make him feel better." One day I told her that the girls could help by saying prayers for him and asking God to help him. So now when she sees him she says "Girls say prayers and help him!" I also told her that when she saw someone who was hurt or sad that she could say some prayers and ask God to help them.

This morning we went to Barnes and Nobles and I got her a Charlie Brown Christmas book to look at. She saw Charlie crying on one page and said, "Boy hurt, Madeleine kiss it. Madeleine say prayers help him." Wow I was impressed. Then she gave him a kiss.

So this afternoon we went to a birthday party and someone was playing a video game. It was a cartoon but it involved someone being hurt. I looked over at her and she was silently watching the tv with her eyes filled with tears!!! It absolutely broke my heart into pieces. They turned it off and she wanted me to hold her and hug her for a minute. I was so sad that she saw that and I hope she forgets that she saw it. But I hope she never loses this sensitive, gentle quality. I can see that she really cares for other people already, and I'm SO proud of her for that.

Prayers at 20 months

She can actually do them better than this, and say the entire prayers. But this is the best I could capture on video!

Don't show this post to Madeleine

I found the perfect train table for her! It's very inexpensive, the perfect size, and looks like she would love it! It also comes with extra tracks and trains that are not even shown here. It's up by my dad's work so he's going to pick it up for us on Friday! I'm SO excited and can't wait to see her face when she comes down on Christmas morning!!!!

I have one holy kid.

Today I went to the Mother's for Children group at church. Fr. W, who prayed over me to conceive and then blessed her for the first time, shared his pictures and stories from his pilgrimage to the Holy Land last month. He had some amazing stories and pictures! I never really had a huge desire to go until now. But I'll wait until my kids are older and hopefully bring them.

Anyway, they had mass in all the important places, and even had a Eucharistic procession in the Garden of Gethsemane. Fr. W had a small crucifix that he brought with him and touched to everything - the tomb of Jesus, the birthplace of Jesus, John the Baptist, and the site of the Annunciation, the rock in the Garden where Jesus prayed before his crucifixion, the tomb of Lazarus where Jesus would have touched the rocks, everything! After his talk he had everyone come up and he blessed them with the cross. When he blessed me, he also blessed little "Six." Wow! It was beautiful. I'm so blessed to live in this place and have such great holy people in our lives.

I feel good.

So good. So good. I got you! :)

I'm enjoying this while it lasts! The second trimester is the BEST trimester! I felt horrible the first one but now, seriously, if it weren't for the baby kicking me I would totally forget I was pregnant! I feel totally normal. Last time I had lots of pain - round ligament pain, hip and pelvic pain, etc. I guess Madeleine must have stretched everything out last time around because I'm feeling nothing. And I'm very grateful. I can even drink coffee again!

The only other thing I've noticed is it's getting a *little* harder to bend over and pick up stuff on the ground. But that is it! I hope this continues for a while....

Christmas ideas

I've been looking online for a Christmas gift for Madeleine today, mostly on craigslist. I think I want to give her one nice present that she'll use all the time, and then maybe just a few things to unwrap under the tree. My two ideas are a play kitchen or a train table. At first I was pretty set on the kitchen, and I found a really cute little retro style one with two little chairs and a little "diner table." But then I thought about how much she loves to play with the train table at Barnes and Nobles. So I looked on craigslist and there are 3 or 4 really cute ones that come with a bunch of trains and accessories. One of them is even right in our town and has the train tracks already glued down to the table - in excellent condition. It has trees, tunnels, accessories, a whole little town. It's the right price too. We do have a living room that we hardly ever use, except the computer is in there and two couches. It is right off the kitchen. So the table could go in front of the couch. I'm not sure which one she would enjoy more, and get to use more. I know all her friends would love to play the the trains too.... I'm not sure. What does everyone think? Any other ideas?

Lack of privacy

Subtitled: Will I ever go to the bathroom by myself again?

Every time I go (quite often these days,) she wants to "come" (in quotes because that's what she yells when I say I'm going) and runs toward the bathroom. She sits on her little potty, and gives me a play by play commentary on what I'm doing. "Mama go pee pee in potty! Mama wipe! Mama flush! Mama close potty! Mama wash hands!" Nice. She's doing great on the potty today though!

We had a much better night last night. That vaporizer really helped I think. Although this morning she woke up with a fro! It was pretty cute. She still has a stuffy nose but I think she's getting better. We made some pumpkin bread and it's in the oven right now - the house smells delicious! She loved helping me pour the ingredients in, mix, and taste the "cake batter." (She calls it "cake." It might as well be cake, it has 3 cups of sugar and a cup of oil and it makes two loaves! It sure is delicious, though!

I need a nap.

I cannot BELIEVE how much this kid has been awake over the past few days! She has had a cold and a fever, and her nose has been totally stuffed up. I've learned that a stuffy nose and a little girl who sucks her thumb are NOT compatible.

So Tuesday night I was changing her into her jammies, and she started violently shaking like she was freezing! I touched her belly and she was burning up. So I took her temperature and it was over 102 (I couldn't get her to keep it under her arm long enough to get the true temp.) So I gave her tylenol and she slept pretty well that night. Then yesterday she took a 20 minute nap. Then last night was one of the worst nights we've ever had since we brought her home from the hospital. From 7:30 - 12:30 she was up every 10 - 20 minutes screaming and crying. I tried saline and suction with her nose, more tylenol, sitting in the bathroom with the hot shower running, drinking water, etc. Nothing worked except just holding her and rocking her until she went back to sleep. Then she'd wake up 10 minutes later and we'd start it all over. Finally I gave her tylenol cold/cough and she slept a little better after that, thank God. But she was still up every hour or two through the night.

So then she woke up as happy as can be this morning! SHE was happy and seemed well rested. I needed a venti starbucks (which I did not get!) I just needed it! I thought for SURE she'd take a good nap after that night. I bought a vaporizer, rubbed baby vicks on her chest, used the saline, etc and she was exhausted. I laid down in my bed right after I put her down, and she was up 30 minutes later!!! WHAT?!

THEN, I put her to bed tonight at 7:30, and she has been talking and singing up there for an hour and a half! What is going on? I need sleep!! After The Office I am in bed, hopefully for the night this time! Please God!

Funny girl

Madeleine has decided that she doesn't like to wear a diaper. Whenever I change her she says "Naked girl?" She wants me to let her run around with no diaper. Sometimes I let her and she runs through the house yelling "Naked girl, Naked girl!"

So yesterday we were upstairs, I had just got her jammies on and we were in our room and I had just gotten mine on. Ken came home and came upstairs, and he said he was going to get his on too. So he took off his shirt and Madeleine looked at me and said, "Daddy naked girl?"

Adventures on the potty

We've been home a lot lately, and when we're home Madeleine usually does great on the potty (if I let her run around with just a shirt.) She knows if she goes on the potty she gets to watch a 4 minute frosty the snowman video on youtube or a 10 minute elmo video. So today I went and bought her some Dora pullups. There are a few issues with this. First of all, the smallest size they had was a 4, and she's still in a size 3 when she wears disposable (hardly ever.) So they are a little big on her. Also, apparently the big cloth diaper is the ONLY thing that is holding her pants up. So these 18 month pants she's been wearing are falling down around her ankles when she walks. I could dig out her 12 month pants but I'm sure they'd be too short. So I am going to have to pin her pants on.

Anyway, today after her nap I told her she got to wear "Big girl dora pants," made a huge deal out of it and instructed her that she was not to go pee pee on Dora. She was so proud of her pants - we must have gone into the bathroom 20 times in about 3 hours so she could sit on the potty for one second. But she did NOT go pee on Dora - and we even went to the grocery store. She did really great and was really proud of herself.

Any tips on potty training? Or getting her pants to fit? I know she's not ready for nap or night time training because she always wakes up wet. How do I know if she's ready? And another issue is when we're in public - she gets scared if she's on the big tall potty.

My little heathen child

I guess we've been going to mass more than usual lately. A few times on Tuesday mornings (the only day the kids at school don't go) and a few Saturday morning masses as well. Plus confession and some other things at church. For the past few weeks, she makes it until about the homily and then starts saying "All done church." Loudly. Today we went to 5:30 mass and my parents were there. Of course she was thrilled. But she did the same thing - around the homily she said "All done church. Grandma's house." My parents both thought that was hilarious. The she decided she was going to say all her prayers - over and over, in her normal voice. There was no stopping her, but at least she was praying! When we left, she said very exuberantly, "Bye Bye Church!"

So our bedtime routine goes like this - brush teeth, read 3 books, change diaper, say prayers (Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be and Angel of God) and then sing this little song from her music class. The song goes.. "I'm so happy to see ____, I'm so happy to see _____, I'm so happy to see _____, everyone has fun in music class." In the class, they go around saying all the kids' names. At night, she tells me what she's happy she saw that day, for example, today she said, "Happy I saw Grandma, Papa, her three friends who sat in front of us, etc." But then she said "Happy I saw Bye Bye Church!"

Maternity clothes

I have issues. The companies that make maternity clothes must think that tall people don't get pregnant. I am 5'9", so it's not like I'm Amazon woman or anything, but I do need "Long" or "Tall" sized pants. Well, they don't HAVE any in maternity. Seriously. I've looked. I mean you can order some, but I buy my maternity clothes off the sale racks and in regular stores there are no pants long enough for me. Anyway, I inherited 90% of my stash of maternity clothes (again with the great friends!) So I pretty much always look like I'm ready for the flood.

I'm kind of at the awkward stage. Like I NEED to wear maternity pants, but maternity shirts look ridiculous on me. So I am trying to find regular shirts that are long enough to cover the stretchy part of my pants. I have about 3 shirts long enough and they are getting a LOT of wear. When I say "awkward" stage, I mean that if people were really looking when I stand up, they might think I look a little pregnant. However when I sit down, it looks like I just have a big fat roll/spare tire. Oh so attractive, especially with my short pants.

Doc appointment

I had my 16 week appointment today and it went great! I had my favorite doctor. Our next door neighbor is my very favorite nurse there, and she switched me from the stupid Pill-prescribing, Obama-supporting doctor to Dr. P. (who delivered Madeleine.) It would have been a quick appointment if not for the blood draw - she measured me and listened to the baby's heartbeat. She asked how I was feeling and I told her I felt so great that sometimes I forget I'm pregnant! And that I can feel the baby move around now and she seems like an active one. When she was trying to hear her heartbeat, she kept moving away! Dr. P. was actually laughing out loud because she said she was a gymnast doing flips! She finally got her to stay still and I got to hear her heartbeat. Then we scheduled my big ultrasound.... for the day before Thanksgiving. That is less than 3 weeks away and we'll get to find out if she is REALLY a girl or if "he" was fooling us! I can't wait.
Dr. P. told me that I won't believe how much I will love this kid - she has three kids and she said when she was in labor with number two, she was thinking "What have I done to my first born?!" But then she absolutely fell in love with her daughter as soon as she saw her, and that it was even better because she got to see their relationship develop. That made me feel really good because it's really hard to imagine loving someone as much as I love Madeleine! (I know I will, but I never imagined I could love ANYONE as much as I love her!)

Then, I had to get my blood drawn. I am not a big fan. I have the worst veins ever, but after I drank two big glasses of water and told the girl to use the butterfly needle, she got me on the first stick. That never happens. I usually get stuck about six times and then get sent down to the lab to "Big Mama." You think I'm kidding.

THEN, we got to spend some time with my good friend and her adorable son Jack. Madeleine and Jack played so well together. And they are giving us their swingset! They moved to an apartment and couldn't take it, so Ken and our friend went and got it today. I love it and I know Madeleine will love it too! Thank you guys so much!!

And back to my regularly scheduled blogging

I don't want to talk about it. Yet.

Madeleine is 20 months old today. Her verbal skills amaze me every day. She uses complete sentences. She says "Let's watch Elmo together!" and it's so cute. But I have to make sure she doesn't turn into a couch potato. I try to keep her to two elmo shows/ day (we tape sesame street and fast forward to the "elmo's world" part.) So about 20 minutes total. She's been using the potty several times/day on the days we're home. She's also starting to really enjoy playing with other kids. Whenever another kid has something she wants, she says "I wanna SHARE!" Today we had a playdate with her friend Michael. They sat at the table eating a snack together and they had a 5 minute conversation about my name. She said "Mama!" and he said "No, Mrs. ___!" haha!

The best thing that's happened lately is that I can feel the baby moving every day now. She gets really active in the evening, especially if I have some chocolate. I LOVE that feeling and it's my very favorite part of being pregnant. I think that ever since the bleeding incidents, I have been a little scared about this pregnancy. Feeling her move all around gives me so much joy and confidence that everything will be ok.

Everything.