Just a quick little bit about Kacey, she turned 18 months on the 28th. How crazy is that? In related news, we got home from our vacation and last night was her first night back. This morning she climbed out of her crib. So not quite on her 18 month birthday but as close as she could. AGH! I am sitting here uploading pics and she is in her room crying (She is sick and having trouble sleeping) I just heard a loud thump. Yep, ran into her room and there she was on the floor. Ugh, guess it wasn't a one time fluke. Looks like we need to be converting to a toddler bed ASAP!

Not much time to write much stuff so I will update via pictures.... so behind!

Here she is signing the charge receipt at Joselitos! She bought us lunch!

At Descanso Gardens riding the train. She has done this a few times with Grandma Pat and daddy but it was my first time!

At the Arboretum with daddy sniffing a desert rose.

Learning how to play the piano withcousin Megann.

We went up to the Sequoia's for Thanksgiving and this year Grandma Pat and G.G. were able to come too! Here we are on a little hike.

Kacey LOVES hiking!

Kacey and mommy in front of the tree I take a picture in front of every year. 2 years ago I was holding a twig, last year I was holding the real thing! This year, Kacey is holding the twig for me. WOW, next year's picture will be amazing!

Kacey eating snow. (BTW, she calls it noes.)

Snowman that daddy and Kacey built.

This one didn't make the cut for the Christmas card but it sure is cute! The dress was sent to Kacey by her Grandma Rie and Grandpa Babu!!! Thank you, it's gorgeous!

Kacey and daddy taking a walk.

Big enough to buy a candy bar!
And finally a video of Kacey's first playing in the snow experience. She walked in it, ate it and went sledding in it with the help of the turkey roasting pan!

I posted a link to the October pics... look over there ------------>

I went in for another check today and Jamie was able to go to work late and go with me. My doctor had promised to do and u/s and she did. It was so fun to see the baby dancing around, waving it's arms and kicking it's legs. It sure is moving! I have felt an odd little poke a few times down, bottom right and sure enough, that is where the legs are. Still not sure it wasn't just gas but I think it's more fun to think I have felt a bit of kicking. :) She did look between the legs but there is so much umbilical cord in the way that she made a guess but didn't sound very sure at all. Oh well, who cares! Jamie and I both just enjoyed seeing s/he moving around and hearing the heartbeat. Everything looks good, baby is a good size, couple of arms and a couple of legs. We even saw the spine, heart thumping and a hand waving. We could even make out the fingers!

I came home and made my appointment for the big u/s which will be 4 weeks from Wednesday. I will be 19 weeks that day and will definitely find out the sex just in time for Christmas.

I still cannot believe how blessed we are with this amazing miracle. Maybe I am even starting to believe it. :)

Sorry Taline but Dash is all Kacey talks about these days. She has taken to pointing at the computer and saying "Dash". We then open up Dash's blog and she grins from ear to ear. I can't tell you how many times she and daddy have watched the same Dash videos over and over again. (Jamie is getting a bit tired of them now...) She smiles and points and just cannot get enough! It's getting pretty close between Dash and Elmo.

On Friday, Kacey got really fidgety at nursing time. She barely ate on one side but did fine on the other. I was down to 2 minutes each side and I really don't think she was getting much. It has been a little sad though because the last few days at nap time she has said "Boo-Boo" and pointed at my and at the rocking chair. We haven't nursed at naptime in months so I don't know if she is just missing it at night or what.

On Saturday night, Jamie and I had a date night so my mom watched Kacey and put her to bed without any complaints. Since she had hardly nursed Friday and not at all Saturday I decided to let Jamie put her to bed last night and see what happened.

She went to bed fine. No crying, no yelling, just a bit of chatting and then quiet. She didn't miss nursing as far as I can tell. This is bittersweet. On one hand I would prefer this as an ending, no drama and no trauma. But on the other hand, I am sad because she doesn't need me anymore. Of course she needs my love and all of that but nursing was just me and her. No one else could give that to her. I wanted to be done by her 18 month birthday so this is only a few days early.

I must admit this is really sad and hard for me. My baby girl is growing up.

Here is a picture Jamie took when she was 3 weeks old. It's the only nursing picture I really like and I think that's because it is modest on my part and she looks so sweet.

I would like some suggestions from you!!! I have lots of questions about how it is going to work with a second baby. I know lots of people do it all the time but it is new to me. I am fortunate to have found out that four (OMG! four) of my mommy friends are pregnant but I am the farthest along so I will be experiencing all of this first. I do have one very good friend who has a 2.5 year old and a 4 month old so I am learning a lot from her (yes I also have friends with older kids but seeing an example right now of what I will have in 6 short months is better than seeing a 6 and 8 year old.)

I have a couple of blogs I read that have similar situations but I would like to find a few more. Please leave me a comment with a link to a blog (or two or three) that you read and like where they have one child and are pregnant with a second or have a second newborn. I would be especially interested if they have a small 2 bedroom house and are wondering where to put that second child. (Kacey's sandbox is really soft and has a cover....)

Thanks!!!

Kacey is feeling much better, yay!

Yesterday afternoon we went to the park. My little daredevil has decided the last few times we have gone to try to give mommy (or daddy or grandma, whoever she is with) a heart attack. On most plyground structures there are these open spots that have a ladder or pole for an older kid to go down. Kacey likes going to those and just trying to walk off. Jamie caught her once mid-fall and it scared him so bad they left the park immediately. My tactic is to tell her no and take her down. The second time we do a time out where I take her to a bench sit down with her on my lap facing away from me and I hold her around the waist. She does not like it. That is the point. After a minute she has either learned her lesson or more likely just gotten distracted enough that she does not go back to do it again. At least not right away.

Yesterday SHE tried a new tactic. While we were doing time out she kept turning her head to look at me, I try to ignore her since it is quiet time but she kept persisting. She then got me. She started blowing kisses at me. How do I resist that??? This child has recently stopped kissing me, Jamie and grandma and only shares kisses with her animals, pictures in books and random plants. So this melted my heart. I kissed her back and time out was over. Oh that girls has us wrapped around her finger!!!

Here is a cute pic from the park. She wanted to bring her monkey backpack with her but did not want it on her back. It was hard to hold and climb at the same time so I attached it to the front of her. She liked having her hands free and monkeys face right at kissing level. To get her to smile for the picture I again told her to say please, works like a charm!



Another cute pic, we had stir fry last night and Kacey was fascinated by my chopsticks so I gave her a pair. She thought that was fantastic and tried SOOOOOOO hard to use them!



A final story, yesterday morning she kept saying "EMMO" and pointing to the tv. It was not time for tv yet so I said no (she gets to watch it during snack time to keep her still and that is supposed to be it.) She went and got the remote, put it in my hand, pointed it at the tv and said "EMMO!" I again told her no and she looked up at me with that sweet face and said "Peeeessss??" Ugh, guess who gave in and let her watch some Elmo?

Yesterday we had a fun day with Alex and Taline. We were at the mall to run some errands and ended up playing in the little climbing area. I wanted a pic of the girls together and this is what I got....



I kept telling the girls to say cheese and that wasn't working so I finally said "Say PLEASE!!!" That worked because they are both into saying please these days. Kacey says it more like PEEEESSE but she gets the biggest smile! So here is how that worked.



Today she woke up with a fever though. She has had a cold for a few days but it must have really gotten her. She asked to watch EMMO on tv (Elmo) so we obliged.



She does look pretty cute though! I did take her to the doctor and she is going to be fine. She was running all over the waiting room, you never would have guessed she was sick at all. Hopefully she will be 100% very soon.

Well here we are, 2 days into the 2nd trimester of a pregnancy I could not have imagined in my dreams. I am feeling much better these days, still pretty tired but going to bed by 8:30 seems to help. My belly is definitely expanding and I feel like it is obvious I am pregnant. Here is a pic we took yesterday. I was 13 weeks and 3 days...



compare to 13 weeks with Kacey.....



but I really think I look more like 21 weeks....



I have another doctor appointment in one week. My doctor is going to do an u/s and is hoping to get a sneak peek at the sex. If not we will find out around Christmas at the big u/s. I am thinking boy as we have a definite name picked out and we have nothing for a girl.

One last baby item, I wanted to get the H1N1 vaccine for myself but couldn't find it anywhere. A mommy friend found a listing and there was a clinic over the weekend pretty close to me. She told me that she went to one of the clinics and they had a pregnant women line. So I went ahead and tried it this morning and ended up 4th in line!!!! I was done within 10 minutes. That sure beats the 7 hour waits I have been hearing about!

---------------------------------------------
Now on to Kacey pics.

On Friday we went to the Arboretum and met a bunch of mommies there. On the way we stopped at Pan.da Express for lunch. I crave it all the time and can't stop thinking about it. I know fast food is bad for Kacey and for me but sometimes... oh well. Turns out it isn't that bad for Kacey. Check out what her favorite item is....


Yep, that's broccoli. She eats a ton of it, but only at Pan.da. She also ate onions and red bell peppers. What a nut.


At the Arboretum, she tried to make me have a heart attack by climbing up this teepee shell. She would have gone higher but we stopped her. Not quite ready for this yet.



She then went back to the Arboretum with daddy yesterday. As they drove into the parking lot they saw Dave, Gwynn and Dash!! Woo-hoo! Kacey loves following Dash around. (Side note, when I am changing her diaper, if she acts up I give her a little framed pic of her and Dash together. She loves it and just keeps repeating Dass, Dass, Dass, it's a great distraction) So they had a ton of fun together. I saw these pics and just love looking at them. They are so adorable together.











and finally, a cute little video that Jamie took this morning. A little girl trying to fill some very big shoes....

Oh my just had to post about this. Kacey was standing in front of a wall this morning and saw her shadow, she looked for a minute and then leaned in and kissed it. I laughed my a$$ off, too cute and funny!

I know I am not posting much. The main problem is that I am always sleepy. I go to be between 8 and 9 (9 is REALLY late for me) and I am usually napping during her nap time. This is leaving me little to no blogging time. There really isn't too much to say and pictures are slowing down. I'll try to get better. I'll be in the second trimester as of tomorrow and rumor has it that my energy will pick back up.

I am trying to let Kacey "help" me more often now. She always wants to see what I am doing and gets so proud when she "helps". This morning I was unloading the dishwasher and asked her if she wanted to help. She nodded yes emphatically. I pulled out the stepstool and she climbed right up it. I then put the silverware in front of her and opened the drawer. She would take something out and I woudl point to where it went and she would put it there! She had so much fun. When she was done she tried taking some back out of the drawer to put back in the washer but I told her we were done. :)






Other things I am letting her do that gets her more involved.
~ Get in the refrigerator to help pick a snack.
~ Put her dirty clothes in the laundry hamper
~ Pick up lemons off the ground and put them in a bag in the backyard
~ Throw trash away (I think this is her favorite)
~ Put clothes in the washer, I have to lift her up with each item but she is still helping. She also gathered most of the towels out of the bathroom for me to wash the other day. She looked so big, pulling them off the rack and carrying them. :)
~ Yesterday I bought her some new cups from Tar.get. They had stickers on them that needed to come off before they got washed. I would start the sticker and she would pull it off and throw it in the trash.

Think of all the things she could do if she were just a little taller :) Let's hope she keeps this helper mentality for a while!

One more picture... we went to a mexican restaurant this weekend and guess what her daddy and uncle let her do......

Yes, today is my birthday and it is a very good one. If you had asked me 10 years ago where I thought I would be now, I would have told you where I hoped I would be. I hoped I would be happily married, with 3 kids, working a nice high end corporate career. Alot changes in 10 years, including your hopes and dreams. Fortunately the most important aspects stayed the same and even came true. I am very happily married to a wonderful husband and father. I have the most beautiful little girl and another little one on the way. Instead of the dream corporate job, I have the dream job that I decided I wanted in my early 30's when the mystique of corporate life wore off. I can't imagine a more perfect job for me. I love being home with my little Jo, I am a very blessed person with a charmed life. I know it, I appreciate it and I thank God for it every day.

Now 10 years from now? A second bathroom and some sidewalks please :)

What a fun day!!!! It started after Kacey's nap. I went and got a bunch of balloons while she was sleeping. When she woke up I put one little bunch in her crib and she beamed. Daddy got her up and changed her diaper and then let her go. She came out of her room and saw all the balloons in the living room and broke into a full run screaming!!! She played with them a bit and then helped me take them outside to set them up.

We got all the setup done and then everyone started arriving. It was so nice to see them all. It's harder to see moms and babies now that some are working or different nap schedules. I think I got a chance to chat with most everyone at least a little bit.

We did try to get all the kids in one picture. Here is last years...



and this years... well let's just say complete chaos. Believe it or not, this is one of the best ones Jamie got. I know Alex actually got on top of a chair so hopefully she got a better pic.



It really was a lovely afternoon, the weather was gorgeous and ALL the kids were very well behaved and had fun together. Taline won the contest again as a little Dutch girl, but it was a close one as so many of the costumes were adorable.



To see all the pics, click here.

One final thing to end with. We were cleaning up and I turned around and found Kacey getting frosting off a cupcake and eating it. She would then turn around and do a little happy dance. Too cute! I got it on video, so enjoy!

SO MUCH FUN YESTERDAY!!!!!! After Kacey's nap we had lunch then got her dressed up (she did NOT want to put her costume on, but mommy won the struggle) We went over to Grandma's Aunt Shirley's and visited there. Kacey REALLY liked taking candy out of the bowl and putting it into her pumpkin. She also handed out little candy corn treats to everyone since she was the Candy Corn Princess after all. We then went to GG's house and visited her neighbors. More treats in bowls, hey she was getting the hang of it very quickly! A quick stop by the Pratt's (where she was given an adorable candy corn bear) and then over to Taline's house for some trick or treating!

The girls both got right into it. They walked down the sidewalk with purpose and were not afraid to go up to the doors. They both liked taking the candy out of the bowls and seemed disappointed when people just gave them a handful and put it into their baskets for them. We did both sides of the block and that was definitely enough. Kacey started getting distracted by planes and cats and Taline was busy squeezing a crunch bar until it melted enough and the wrapping undid enough and she was able to eat some! Sneaky girl.

It was a very fun time. I had no idea the girls would be so into it and so well behaved. I loved watching Kacey walk down the sidewalk holding daddy's finger. I also loved watching her take a candy and very thoughtfully putting it into her pumpkin basket. Just so very heartwarming :)

Hope you had a wonderful Halloween too!!! I'm off to get ready for our Halloween Party we are hosting for Kacey's friends today!