Cancun 2011

Dean and I just got home from Cancun last night...it was exactly what I hoped it would be. Relaxing. Very different to be on this particular trip without consuming a drop of alcohol especially when it's all paid for but I had my fair share of virgin mudslides and daiquiris. :) I pretty much spent the week laying around eating and drinking more bottled water than I've ever had. I don't think I've ever been as hydrated as I was. I was such a bum that I didn't even bother to use my camera much. In fact, we only have 18 pictures from this trip. Yep, 18. Extremely out of the ordinary for me. I really needed those few days to unwind and enjoy being lazy and it was fun to be able to get dressed up and go out for some amazing dinners that lasted more than a couple of hours...a rarity these days. Before we know it, we'll be up to our ears in diapers and running on no sleep. At over 32 weeks pregnant, I think this is a very good cut-off point for traveling. It wasn't horrible, but I was uncomfortable enough on the plane to not want to do it again. My belly felt very tight for the first day and a half there...not sure if it was a result of the traveling or not. I told Dean that I'd really been feeling pretty decent up until this week. Bad timing. I just felt very very pregnant all of a sudden and couldn't seem to get comfortable no matter what I did. It could be a long two months til my due date.

Is this not the cutest little bottle of Tobasco you've ever seen?

Dean was offered 20 bucks to chug this bottle of sake. He did it. Sigh. Before dinner with Dean's boss, the regional vice-president and co-workers from Des Moines and Cedar Rapids.At our last dinner on Friday night. Amazing Italian restaurant...they sat us in the wine cellar. Very cool.Waiting to get on the bus to head to the airport.Thank you to our parents for watching Ayla...we are so lucky to not have to worry about her while we're away. She loves being with them...very comfortable and very happy. So much so that she was often too busy to talk to us when we called. :) As always, it was nice to get away for a few days, but I was definitely ready to come home and squeeze my little girl.

32 weeks

I used the self-timer on my camera today to take my belly pic so that's why it looks a lil different. I had the camera propped up on the couch with a bowl, piece of tile, and a throw pillow. It worked. Kind of. :)And just for sh*ts and giggles, I came across this next picture. Remember when I looked like this? Ha. I don't. Talk about instant depression. This was my very first belly pic while I was pregnant with Ayla nearly three years ago...8 weeks along. Hmph. Crazy skinny bitch.
So anyways. I just got home from my check-up and everything is still going well. Amazingly, I did not gain any weight since my last appointment two weeks ago. I'm shocked. Dr. Bishop asked me a couple times if I was eating well and I laughed at her and said oh yes. I asked her how much I gained, thinking it was going to be a lot if she mentioned eating twice. Nothing, she said. Weird. I decided to stop at McDonald's for a chocolate shake on the way home. :) I really feel like my belly has gotten sooo much bigger this last week. PIP loves to be right up against my ribs...those little knees and elbows are very busy in there. My ankles and feet still look like ankles and feet...no swelling yet, thank goodness. Eventhough I only work a few hours a day, my back has started to ache by the end...nothing excruciating, just a bit bothersome. That's my only complaint, so I think I'm doing pretty well.

Dean and I are heading to Cancun in the morning for his company incentive trip, so I wanted to get a final okay from Dr. Bishop to go. She said all is well and gave me a few pointers--obviously, don't drink the water, no fresh fruit or veggies (bummer), make sure everything is cooked, and on the plane, make sure I get up and pee and move my legs often enough. She sent me home with my medical records just in case. I asked if she wanted to come with us just in case. :) I'm looking forward to a few days of relaxation...the sun, the ocean, room service...this is our last trip before PIP comes and we enter the crazy world of having two children. As much as I need this break, I, of course, am going to miss my Ayla so so so much. I hope she isn't mad at us for leaving her when we get home. She loves being with both sets of grandparents though, so I think she'll have a good time.

Adios!

Car show

I've been terrible at taking pictures of Ayla this month. I'd love to take her outside to play in the snow and snap a few, but it's been way too cold for that.Dean took her downtown to meet Aunt Marla and Grandpa for the car show this morning and let her run around and "test drive" a few cars.

Rockin' Daddy's hat

Potty update: She has been doing so well! Accidents are happening less and less and if we're out for a short amount of time, she comes home dry. If we're out longer though, she still will say she has to go but then refuses to even sit on the toilet and asks for her little potty. Eventually, can't hold it any longer and ends up going in her Pull-Up. (We call Pull-Ups her "going out underwear" and when we're at home, she wears regular underwear). Erika and Taylor--I think I will have to try the fold-up potty seat for when we're out. I'm not sure what else I can do to ease her fears about it.

Potty advice

It's been about two and a half weeks since we officially started potty training Ayla...it feels like a lot longer. She's actually been doing pretty well. There have been a few days here and there where she had accidents all day long and I questioned whether or not she was ready but the last couple of days, she has been doing great. Yesterday, we were out running around for over three hours and she stayed dry. Problem is, she has developed a fear of going on a "big potty." For a little while, she thought it was cool but now she's completely freaked out by it. She'll tell me she has to go so I sprint to the restroom wherever we are and as soon as we get in there, she screams and changes her mind. It was great that she stayed dry yesterday, but there's bound to be a time when we're out longer and she really needs to go. Any suggestions?

Purses!

We were out shopping before and after Ayla's nap today...she's happiest when we are out and about. She repeatedly said, "I don't want to go home!"

We stopped into the Coach store tonight for just a small crossbody purse that I have been wanting...I've purposely avoided going in there ever since it opened quite a while ago because I was worried that I would leave the store with something I didn't need. When we went in, Dean said, "Pick out whatever you want." !!!!! My plan really was to just get the small one, but his comment just opened up a whole new can of worms. It was like a time warp. I have no idea how long we were in there, but at one point, I had an armload of purses because I couldn't decide what I wanted...and I was all sweaty. I finally narrowed it down to two and Dean said, "Get both." Umm. Okay. I'm giddy about them. :)

While I was drowning in purses, Ayla made herself at home on one of the chairs. She asked if she could pick out a purse too. :) She could reach some of the small bags and coin purses, so she kept plucking them off the shelf one by one and would settle in on the chair to check them out. :)

Coat

I found a maternity peacoat at Target yesterday for 75% off! It was 12 bucks!! I was going to try and make it through the winter with what I had, but I was starting to look pretty ridiculous. Now I have a coat that will button up all the way and I don't look like I've been vacuum-sealed into it. :)

30 weeks...and croup

I had another check-up today...nothing new or exciting to report. Everything is still going well. At this point, I have gained 22 pounds. Yikes. Dr. Bishop assures me that that's totally fine. I just feel like I'm eating all the time. PIP has become extremely active the past couple of weeks. She likes to wedge herself right up against my ribs and hip bone and s-t-r-e-t-c-h. It's a bizarre feeling. It'll be interesting to see how that works out as she gets bigger and has less room in there! I don't remember Ayla ever doing that.

We had a scary night with Ayla on Sunday. Up until then, she just had a runny nose and slight cough. We figured she was on her way toward a cold...bummer, but not a big deal. Dean put her to bed with no issues at 8:30. A couple hours later, she woke up coughing and it turned into a hoarse, wheezy sound. We went in there and she was pretty upset. She couldn't seem to catch her breath and had to work really hard to get a breath in...she sounded horrible. We've never heard her like that before. I picked her up and tried to calm her down but she insisted on getting back into bed. We let her lay down and just stood there and waited until she was relaxed. She fell asleep after a while and another couple hours later, she woke up doing the same thing. She was so panicked and we obviously were too...we didn't know if we should bring her to the hospital because her breathing was so labored. She, again, was able to calm down and go back to bed. We cranked her humidifier and she slept until morning. We were so worried about her...it was a nerve-racking night.

The next morning, she woke up and seemed totally fine. So weird. I called the doctor anyway just to get an opinion. They said to go ahead and bring her in. Dean had taken a quick video of her so we could show the doctor what she sounded like. After a second of listening, the doctor said "croup." He prescribed a steroid that would reduce the swelling in her airways. He said usually just a dose or two will do the trick. I gave it to her once before her nap and another before bed and she slept all night without a peep. Amazing, considering how awful she was the night before. (And just a side-note--she did soooo well with the doctor! Not only did she stay calm, she did everything he and the nurse asked her to do. A lovely change from the crying-puke-fests from before.)

The doctor also warned me that a possible side-effect of the meds is increased moodiness, crying, tantrums, etc. Not going to lie, I kind of just waved if off. But Lord, he was not kidding. Today was probably one of the most difficult days I've had with Ayla in a very, very long time. She whined, cried, threw up a few times from getting so upset, didn't listen to a word I said, and was just plain naughty. She is so not like this on a regular basis (thank goodness) so I didn't quite know how to deal with it. I was so ready for her to take a nap and I figured she'd go down without a problem since she was probably worn out from all the crying, but no. To top off the lovely morning we had, she didn't really sleep...only a half hour, at best. Needless to say, she went to bed early tonight. I was worn completely thin by that point. Can I have some wine yet?

I managed to capture a few pictures of her during a nice moment today. Dean put the doors back onto her closet and it's become a new little place for her to play. When she was really little, it was fun to see the teeny-tiny clothes hanging in there, but two years later, her clothes are much bigger and she has acquired a lot more stuff so it just looks a bit messier...time to hide it with the doors.She's obsessed with bouncy balls...we probably have dozens of them stashed throughout the house.

Ponytails and Potty-Training

Ayla's hair is finally long enough to pull into a ponytail...I was waiting on two more strands by her face to grow just long enough. It looks so cute...I love seeing that adorable little neck. I just need to work on my hairstyling technique. I pretty much grab whatever hair I can, throw a rubber band around it, clip on a bow and call it good. I'm in awe when I see little girls with perfectly parted hair without a single strand out of place. I'm not that good.


Excuse the unbuttoned onesie hanging out of her pants...those snaps are too time-consuming while potty-training.
Last week while Dean and I were both off of work, I decided to really dive into potty-training. Up until then, she was just going on the potty before her bath. I know she's smart enough to get it, so we've been working on it. It's been a little over a week and she's getting the hang of it. Still an accident here and there, but that's to be expected. Going poo is touch and go...she always announces that she needs to go but once we run to the potty, she sometimes doesn't want to do it. I'm trying not to push it too much. I don't want her to be afraid of it. M&Ms have lost their luster, so I've been switching to other treats--jelly beans, Smarties, Pez--one for pee, two for poo. I know a lot of people are anti-treat when it comes to potty training, but it works and we're okay with it. :) We're hoping to not have two kids in diapers so we have about two months to get her completely trained.

I passed my glucose test

I just received a call from my doctor's office telling me that I passed my 3-hour glucose test. I honestly wasn't too worried about it, but it is good news...one less thing to think about.

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As most of you have probably heard, there was a school shooting in Omaha yesterday afternoon. The assistant principal who passed away, Vicki Kaspar, was my homeroom teacher through all four years of high school and was also my English teacher one of those years. She was a wonderful person and a great teacher who was so genuine and kind. I am so incredibly sad. Sad that this had to happen. Sad that this world had to lose another innocent person. Sad for her family. I can't imagine what they are going through right now. It was the first day back at school after winter break and she went to work...an assistant principal at a high school. It's not supposed to be a dangerous job but she ended up losing her life because of a senseless, selfish, cowardly act.

I can't wrap my mind around it.

It's always terrible to hear news like this no matter where it is in the country or the rest of the world, but this time it has really hit me. It happened in the area I grew up in. My high school. My teacher.

My thoughts and prayers continue to go out to everyone who has been affected by this--especially Dr. Kaspar's loved ones and Dr. Curtis Case who is still in the hospital recovering from his injuries.