The Belly

So, I feel like a complete slacker with this pregnancy...I blame it on having a little one to take care of. :) This is the ONLY belly picture we have taken this time, and it's from a couple of weeks ago. I need to get another one, but this will do for now. :) I've had a few requests to get one up, so here it is!


Overall, this pregnancy has been smooth like the first one. Nothing too crazy to report, which is good, and I feel great for being over 30 weeks along. It will be nice to be able to put socks on without grunting and to wear normal clothes, but I am really trying to soak this up, as it will most likely be the last time I get to have a little one in my tummy. I may be more laid back about this one, but I still can't get enough of feeling our little bean doing gymnastics in my belly. Austen (I'm sure everyone's figured out that this is her name:)) does seem to move around more in the middle of the night than Kaitlyn ever did, so that makes me a bit nervous! "They" say that their awake times in the womb are many times consistent with how they will be in the outside world, so...we may be in for it. I hardly ever felt Kaitlyn in the middle of the night, and she was a great sleeper from the start. Oy.
We have now been telling Kaitlyn that Mama's ever-expanding belly is "Baby Austen." She lifts up my shirt and says "Aw-tee" whenever she gets the chance. I'm sure we are completely confusing the poor thing, but it's pretty darn cute! She has no idea what's ahead. ;)
That's about it...we can't believe that we only have a little over 8 weeks to go until the due date (April 3rd) - this has absolutely flown by!

Pictures

Kaitlyn has been into "arranging" things lately. She'll get pretty focused for up to about 30 minutes on a task that she's given herself. One of the latest is stacking her toys on the back of her chair. Notice her day care disheveled hair. :)

Getting more:

We officially have a walker. :) She gets better and more independent at it every day. She gets so proud of herself when she does it...pretty cute :)

She continues to enjoy reading to herself. This is another thing that she can sit and do by herself for pretty long periods of time. Of course, this makes her teacher mommy proud. ;)

She is such a happy kid! Overall, she is very laid-back and flexible. Now that I've said this, of course, the big tantrums will start tomorrow. :) She has definitely started minor ones, especially when she's tired.

Reaching for toys that fell from her chair. I tried to get a picture of just her feet hanging in the air, but this was the best I got:

Our little tornado :)

Yet another one of her "projects." She loves to put on socks, pants, shirts, etc. She hasn't quite gotten the hang of it yet. Here are her socks on the tips of her shoes :)

Playing blocks with Dada:

Kaitlyn is doing a lot of mimicking these days - I love it! Here she is filling the bath cup with water, just like we do when we rinse her off:

Helping Dada with Riley's bath:

This last weekend, we went up to Crystal Mountain again to Jeff's dad's cabin (Grandpa Rick and Grandma Sue). They were nice enough to let us use it for a little getaway as a family of three before Austen arrives. :) We had a great time relaxing and spending time with Kaitlyn. It did make it harder to come back to work this morning, though!

She loves to get a wipey and "clean" everything. She'll go around wiping down surfaces, her sippy, her face, you name it.

Happy girl after a long nap:

She LOVES this stool. She'll push it around the kitchen all day if you let her. Picking it up was the big deal this weekend:

Playing with her Little People (I've been busy on Craigslist:)):

And Kaitlyn's New Hobby...

In one of my recent posts, I told about how Kaitlyn is into putting "necklaces" on. This includes anything that resembles a necklace at all, such as Mama's (clean :)) underwear. This is what we found after she had been helping fold laundry for a bit. (And this will mostly likely be the most risque post you'll end up seeing here, so don't worry!)

New Hobby :)

And here is project #2. Not much is getting done around the house, as this is what I'm spending Kaitlyn's nap time doing...oops! This is a little pouch for my crochet hooks. Yes, I'm a nerd. (I'm adding this to a previous post, so these are out of order.)

I decided last weekend that I was going to learn to crochet. I've tried my hand at knitting, and it has gone okay, but I kept hearing that crochet can go a bit faster. So, I bought a book and used Youtube for how-to videos, and made my first project. Here it is...obviously not perfect, but it's my first! :) (Oh, it's a baby beanie with cherries - yep, those big, red balls are supposed to be "cherries" :))

And the Rest...

Here are a ton more pictures from the past two weeks. They are all in reverse order, of course, thanks to my superb blogging abilities.

Last night, our first work night in a while (and Kaitlyn's first "school night"), we realized that we are not the only ones affected by having a later bed time during break. Kaitlyn wasn't quite ready for bed, so she got to come have a snack in Mama and Dada's bed.

Climbing on top of boxes has become a favorite activity. Hanging out on top of boxes is even more fun!

Grandpa Rick and Grandma Sue got Kaitlyn a "Little People" Noah's Ark. It's amazing how long she can sit and rearrange all of the animals. She's focused!

My college friend, Jamie, got married on New Year's Eve. It was quite an event!

Happy New Year!

The Girls:

We went to Rick and Sue's cabin last week for a night. It's up near Crystal Mountain, and a really nice little getaway. This herd of Elk hangs out in the area. We saw them on the way out resting in a back yard. Can't imagine seeing this at home!

Grandpa Rick and Grandma Sue :)

We took Kaitlyn up the mountain while we were there. I'd be curious to see if she likes snow when she's actually had a nap. She wasn't a big fan that day. :)

Sue made her this adorable hat. It cracks me up!

Trying on Mama's new hat and gloves :)

Uncle Rob sharing with his favorite niece:

Grammy Debbie and Papa Dave got her the "Mega Playhut." She loves it! Luckily, it collapses easily. :) It was on Kaitlyn's Christmas list.

Do you think she likes it?

Kaitlyn loves to play the piano with Aunt Stacey! She even started saying "Stacey" last week. :)

"Grandma Great" LaVonne, "Grandpa Great" Allan, and Grandma Bonnie. Grandma LaVonne is no longer with us, so this picture is pretty special and will be treasured:

This pretty much sums up the past two weeks. Kaitlyn has been a trooper through all of the craziness of the holidays, and just continues to crack herself up. :)

Grandma Bonnie and Grandpa Roger got Kaitlyn (and Austen) this cool wagon. It has seatbelts, two facing seats, and even cup holders! We can't wait to pull our girls around in it (and Kaitlyn will enjoy it until her sister is here).

Bonnie found Jeff's Mickey Mouse hat:

Checking out my parents' tree on Christmas morning:

Jeff and I cooked breakfast on Christmas morning so that my mom could actually relax. :)

Reading one of K's new books at home on Christmas morning. It's called I Love you Through and Through. I highly recommend it; it's very cute. :)

Kaitlyn kept biting into the Satsumas. She liked the peel! Of course we had to pry it out so she didn't choke. :)

Excited about her new puppet:

Okay, these are out of order, but this is after our Benihana dinner on the 22nd. This is a yearly tradition in December for my family. My cousin Katryn has been in town from Texas, and Rob was home for the holiday, so the five of us walked over to the gingerbread houses after dinner.

The fam after dinner:

Family shot with our silly girl :)

Checking out her yummy Benihana food:

Okay, now time for some randoms...

Important parenting lesson that I really should have known: If they are "too quiet," they are most definitely up to something...

I took Kaitlyn to a playdate with some people that I used to work with (and my good friend Gina). I think there were about 18 kids there! Kaitlyn enjoyed playing with the doll house:

Emptying the kitchen drawer for the 1,344,644th time. I think it's time to make a "Kaitlyn drawer" :)Katryn, Jeff, and I went down to Seattle for a day before Christmas. We had fun walking around Pike Place Market, etc. Someone was a little tuckered out in her reindeer hat:

Katryn and me at the fish market:

Crazy guy with misletoe on a fishing pole. Couldn't pass that up!

And there you have it!

Holiday Update

I was going to include more pictures, but don't have time, so here are some for now! There are a ton more, of course!

Kaitlyn on Christmas morning. She got a baggie of Pirate Booty in her stocking and didn't care about much else! :)
Enjoying her new toy from Aunt Lori:

Of course playing with the box more than the contents. This box got pushed all over the room:

And using the box as a drum with Aunt Lori...

With Aunt Charlene:

One of her many new "things" (I feel like there is at least one new thing every single day) is putting on "necklaces." She put this on the other day after finding it in my work bag. It's my work ID. I thought it was pretty cute :)

That's it for now. There are many, many other pictures from our other holiday gatherings that I will get around to sharing this week. These were all from Grandpa Rick and Grandma Sue's on Christmas Eve. More to come!

Merry Christmas!