Christmas & New Year's Vacation

We had a wondeful Christmas vacation for the most part. My parents flew in from Texas for a week. They hadn't seen Owen since early July, and there've been so many changes since then. It was wonderful to get to spend time with them and to see them with Owen. My parents were quite tickled by the fact that Owen can differentiate between types of balls (volleyball, football, baseball, etc.) . They also got a huge kick out of "Quick Feet." We'll tell Owen to do quick feet and he jogs in one place really fast (like he's warming up for football or something). Pretty funny.

We had a fairly low-key holiday together. Of course Christmas Eve and Christmas were spent preparing or eating food and unwrapping gifts. Owen actually got into the unwrapping part this year, and had a great time with all of his new toys. One of his toys was a Radio Flyer wagon from Nana and Pawpaw (Robbie's parents). It was cold and rainy so we set it up inside the foyer which has a hallway long enough to run down briefly. It was too cute, we'd back up to the "Starting Line" going "beep, beep, beep" (Owen would remind us to beep if we weren't doing it). Then we'd say are you ready and he'd hunker down in an aerodynamic racing position and say "Go!" and we'd take off. He loved it!

Unfortunately, the rest of the week with my parents was forced to be low-key as almost all of us were sick. Robbie had a virus, Owen had a virus and then and ear infection, and my dad brought laryngitis with him. I managed to get all three. Owen was pretty funny at the doctor though. He was already on drops for pink eye when we went in for the ear infection. So as she was writing the prescription, we asked if it was drops, and she said no it was oral. We said, "Oh good, less torture!" (Owen hates the eye drops). And Owen pipes up quite clearly saying "torture." Oh my gosh! What a little mimic he's become. We really have to watch what we say around him these days.

My parents went back home the Tuesday following Christmas. We miss them tons already. Next time we see them will be late May/early June when they come to help after the baby is born. We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's holiday!!!

Pregnancy #2 - 20 Weeks

It's amazing how when you have a toddler things like weekly pictures just don't happen like they did with your first pregnancy. Here's the 20 week pics - but now I'm 24 weeks. Look for 23 and 24 week blogs soon...

We are now 20 weeks - 1/2 way through! And we found out last Friday - it's a GIRL!!!!! We are so thrilled to be having one of each! The ultrasound showed that all was healthy and good.

She weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. She's also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel (about the length of a banana) - this week the baby is finally big enough to measure length from head to foot instead of rump. The baby's sensory development is exploding! Her brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that she may be able to hear my voice now. She is proving to be quite active - but so far mostly during the day. I'm hoping this means she'll be a good sleeper at night. That was Owen too.

I continue to feel good. We are gearing up for the holiday season - with Robbie's company Christmas part last Friday, my team Christmas part (hosted at our house) thisFriday, and my parents in town for the holiday shortly after that. On top of the usual end-of-quarter craziness at work and - of course - decorating and Christmas shopping. So I fully anticipate total exhaustion over the next few weeks. But it's a good exhaustion.

See below for belly pics.

Pregnancy #2 - 20 Weeks

Pregnancy #1 - 20 Weeks

Owen Vocabulary-o-meter

Update 12/4 - Owen has hit the stage where he's adding 5-10 words a day. So not really going to keep on tracking the progress. Below is our final list of words by Thansgiving time-frame (so almost 17 months).

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We decided it would be fun to track Owen's growing vocabulary. I'll update this regularly and bump it up in the postings when I do. :)

Word count (56)
dog (daddy) - 10 months
uh-oh - 10 months
hi - 10 months
balloon (boonboon) - 12 months
ball - 12 months
door (do) - 12 months
turtle (ttl) - 12 months
shoe (doo) - 13 months
daddy (dada) - 13 months
bottle (baal) - 13 months
bubble (buul) - 13 months
book (bu) - 13 months
toes (doez) - 13 months
hat (ha) (w/ patting head) - 14 months
tree (tee) - 14 months
throw (tow) - 14 months
baby - 14 months
bird (bidy or bee) - 14 months
duck (duc) - 14 months
spoon (poon) - 14 months
football (booball) - 14 months
bye-bye - 14 months
bowl (bow) - 15 months
truck (duc) - 15 months (sounds the same as duck, but he points to pictures separately)
nose (doez) - 15 months (sounds the same as toes, so we're not entirely sure about the word - but he can point to it when asked)
down - 15 months
fish (bi-ssss) - 15 months
bear (bay) - 15 months
bee (bee) - 15 months
boat (bow) - 15 months
cheese (tchee) - 15 months
bib (bi) - 15 months
plane (pane) - 15 months
Mama - 15 months
giraffe (rara) - 15 months
bite - 15 months
more (mo) - 15 months
tractor (dacto) - 15 months
mouth (mau) - 16 months
sock (dock) - 16 months
ear (ee) - 16 months
eye (ah) - 16 months
apple (a-uhl) - 16 months
jacket (jaga) - 16 months
watch (waa-) - 16 months
PawPaw - 16 months
snack (sna-) - 16 months
night-night (ni-ni) - 16 months
bed (be-) - 16 months
car (jaa) - 16 months
owie - 16 months
turkey (tuky) - 16 months
bike - 16 months
frog (ro) - 16 months
hair (hay) - 16 months
bath (bat) - 16 months

Animal Noises (8)
Dog - wowowo - 15 months
Lion or Tiger - rar (but sounds more like gurgling) - 15 months
Elephant - phffft (tries to immitate Robbie's sound which for Owen sound more like a raspberry- this includes waving one arm up and down like a trunk) - 15 months
Sheep/Goat - baa - 15 months
Cow - moo - 15 months
Monkey - ooo-ooo-ooo - 15 months
Cat - mau-mau - 16 months

First Sentence...
2 words - Bye-bye doggy. - 15 months

Pregnancy #2 - 18 Weeks

Oops! We missed week 17. Sorry!

We are now 18 weeks pregnant. This is the point in my pregnancy with Owen where I finally started showing just enough to take pictures. This week the baby is about 7oz. and about 5.5in long from head to rump (about the size of a large bell pepper).

I've started feeling little flutter kicks this week. It's not often, but it's about 3-4 weeks before I could feel anything with Owen. Feeling Owen move was my favorite part of my previous pregnancy. I am feeling much better. The sickness and exhaustion from the first trimester now seems to be completely behind me. So happy about that.

We've also started telling Owen that there's a baby in Mommy's tummy. He knows the word baby, so now he points at my belly and says baby. I'm sure he doesn't understand really, but it's a good start. :)

Below is this week's belly pic. Plus the 18, 19, 20, and 21 week pictures from my first pregnancy. I think I'm tracking closer to the 20 to 21 week pics, so still about 3 weeks further along.

Pregnancy #2 - 18 Weeks

Pregnancy #1 - 18 Weeks

Pregnancy #1 - 19 Weeks

Pregnancy #1 - 20 Weeks

Pregnancy #1 - 21 Weeks

Happy Thanksgiving!

We were very blessed this Thanksgiving! Robbie's parents came out to visit us in CA. They hadn't seen Owen (or us) since late May - so lots of changes. They also hadn't yet seen the new house.



We had a fairly quiet week of visiting. It was just so nice to be able to spend time with them. They flew in on Tuesday. On Wednesday while Robbie was at work, I took them to Owen's school for the Friendship Feast. Thursday was the big turkey day - we got to use our dining room for the first time. So much nicer than eating a fancy meal in the kitchen like we had to in the rental house.

Friday was a big shopping day, and much of the weekend was spent watching football (either on TV or Owen throwing his). Obviously we were happy with the Cowboys game, but not all that thrilled (understatement) with the Aggie and Mizzou games. We were very happy that OU beat out Texas and Tech.




Our friends Ariel and Damon brought Owen's friend Alex over on Sunday for dinner (so another chance to use our dining room!). The kids are really hitting an age where they "play" more together - or at least notice each other. So fun to watch them interact.

Bob and Dottie flew home on Monday. We were very sad to see them go. All week Owen has been asking about Pawpaw (which is what he calls both of them). Can't wait to see them in March along with Mike, Tracy, Collin, and Carson for our Tahoe ski trip!!

Pregnancy #2 - 16 Weeks

So at 16 weeks I think I'm finally showing enough to start my weekly belly pics (like I did when I was pregnant with Owen).

I've actually been showing somewhat for the last three or four weeks. It's odd, you pop out sooner, but then you kind of "hold." Since I'm showing sooner, it will be interesting to see if I catch up with where I was size/week-wise from my first pregnancy.

So I figured it would be fun to show side-by-side comparisons. :)

Last time, I started sending out pictures at 18 weels, this time, starting at 16. See below and decide for yourselves, but I think I'm closer to the size I was week 19 more than 18. So 2 1/2 to 3 weeks ahead in size. :)

Pregnancy #2 - Week 16

Pregnancy #1 - Week 18

Pregnancy #1 - Week 19

At this point in the pregnancy the baby is about the size of an avocado. He/she is ~4 1/2 inches long (head to rump) and weighs about 3 1/2 ounces. Over the next few weeks the baby will double in size (and likely so will I ;) ).

Trick or Treat

This year we decided to take Owen trick or treating. We figured that even though he's still a little too young to understand what's going on, he would still enjoy seeing all the kids out. Our neighborhood has tons of kids. We probably saw about 200 kids out trick or treating.



It rained all the night before and drizzed some in the morning. But we lucked out and it cleared up somewhat - just in time to go out. We started the evening out with dinner at Ariel and Damon's. Then we took both kids - Owen as a cowboy and Alex as bunny - and walked back to our house, stopping at a few houses for candy on the way.



Both of the kids were soooo cute. Alex has no fear. She would walk right into a house if Damon and Ariel would let her. I see a future in skydiving for that girl. And she had a great time working her way through wrappers to get to the candy.



Owen for the very first time allowed his hand to be held and for us to direct him where to walk. Usually if you try to hold his hand he'll jerk it away. Mr. Independent. He wanted to carry his little candy holder on his own, so that got dragged behind us the entire way. He wouldn't go within 4 feet of the doors to the houses though. He still is very cautious around strangers.



We ended at our house where we munched some of the candy loot. Our street is actually fairly quiet, so not too many groups of trick or treaters - but all big enough groups to eventually wipe out our candy supply.




All in all quite a successful Halloween!