parts

Luke would like to demonstrate some of his vast knowledge. He's trying to prepare for the anatomy portion he'll need to know to become a doctor someday. :)

He is so big!

He lifts up his bib to show where his belly is.

Piggies.

Hair.

Fingers.

Nose.

Ears.

Good job Luke!

punkin patch

While I was on Fall Break, Keith took a day off of work so we could take Luke to Mother Nature's Farm for their Annual Pumpkin Festival. I was so excited to take Luke; I have this slight obsession with "punkins" and had been waiting for months to take Luke to pick out a pumpkin and take pictures with pumpkins. The day was even that much better that Keith was able to come with us. It ended up being a seriously good thing because there would have been no way that my pregnant self would have been able to keep up with Luke solo. That kid can run.

Anyways, right after you went in , they had a set up of baby chicks that had just hatched and Luke was enthralled with them. I think he would have still been as happy as can be if that was the only thing he got to see the whole morning.

Next up was the petting zoo portion of the Farm. Luke loves animals and he was excited to see turkeys, goats, sheep, horses, cows, and pigs. He even moo'd when he caught sight of the cows.

From the petting zoo, we meandered over to where you wait for the hayride. We passed the moon bounce/jumpy house thing on our way and Luke took off into a full sprint trying to get to that thing. Poor guy is still way too small to be jumping around with the larger kids, so Keith was the lucky one who got to explain that he wasn't going to be able to go on that. At the rate Luke is growing though, he'll be able to fend for himself next year.

We finally got on the hayride and as it started, Luke shot me this look:

To me, it screams, "Seriously, Mom, this is not a hayride. It is a giant cart with three bales of hay in the middle so they can claim its a hayride. We going along a really bumpy, really dusty road looking at the junk the farm's neighbors have spread across their property. Waste of my time."

After the fiasco of a hayride, we headed over to the area where he was able to pick his own pumpkin to decorate there. After roaming through and trying to figure out which one to pick, he took a seat to think it over. I think the one he ended up picking was one he sat on. Never judge the methods to picking out a quality pumpkin.

The farm had a neat little covered area where they had tables set up with peel-n-stick decorations for the pumpkins. Luke and I enjoyed picking out stickers and putting them on the pumpkin.

The last stop on our day of pumpkin fun was the pumpkin patch area to take the required pumpkin pictures.Luke was near the end of his rope by this time, so the majority of the shots look like the first one: just his back as he's running away from us. At least he was laughing as he was doing it!

Although the whole thing only took about 1.5 hours, we had a great time sharing pumpkin picking with Luke. Can't wait for next year!

dinner with long-lost friends

In October at some point, the Arnett's had us and the Duran's over for a wonderful dinner. We love getting together with them, even though it happens far less often then we'd like. The kids love getting a chance to play together and we never miss an opportunity to take the standard group photo of the three of them together. The girls were so sweet trying to show their bellies and say "cheese!" as we all took countless photos of them.Luke was mostly running around like a nut in the background which is why he only made it in one of the pictures. Got to love the difference between boys and girls!

anniversary

Should have been posted: October 17, 2009

It's official; Keith and I have been together for 12 years now. On October 3rd, we celebrated (or commemorated since we didn't actually go do anything that day) the day we started dating 12 years ago as sophomores in high school. Our first date was to an ASU game, so in reliving the moment, we were able to go to another ASU game a week later.

our view

Let me just say, the game sucked. ASU played horribly and I'm pretty sure we were booing our own quarterback multiple times throughout the game, but I couldn't imagine spending the day with anyone better. I have been so blessed to have someone as amazing as Keith in my life for such a long time already and I can't wait for the years to come.

Keith-I'll love you forever and always and always and forever. Happy anniversary.

18 months

Should have been posted: October 15, 2009

Luke is growing up so quickly! It's hard to believe that my baby is already a year-and-a-half old. Where did the time go?

Here he is at a month old...

And now 18 months.

When he was born, he weighed in at 8 lbs. 11 oz. and was 21.5 inches long. At his check-up, he weighed 29 lbs. and is 36.5 inches long. Amazing the growth that happens in such a short span of time!

A year and a half ago, our first picture together (that is appropriate for me to post):

And where we are now:

He is growing to be such a ham who loves to get laughs out of people just so he can laugh back at you. Since starting daycare, Luke loves to be able to sit at the kitchen table for whatever reason because he feels like a big boy;snack time, coloring, watching tv, just because. His vocabulary is expanding by leaps and bounds and we are constantly amazed at what he understands and can even repeat now. Because his baby sister will be here before we know it, we've switched his crib to a toddler bed and he is doing wonderful so far. Keith and I sometimes find him in crazy positions in the bed, but at least he stays there and sleeps. That's all I really care about.He's also so ridiculously tall that he switches the lights on and off throughout the house. He thinks this is the greatest game ever invented. The neighbors must think our house is haunted or we have some serious electrical issues in our house.

Luke is becoming quite the little boy, and is leaving the baby stage behind. I'm sad to see him grow up so quickly, but I'm also excited to see what he'll do and learn next. Love you buddy!

more drama for her mama

Apparently Keith and I purchased some of the tainted hamburger meat sold by Safeway a few months ago, but since we buy it in bulk when its on sale and freeze it until we need it, the thought never seemed to cross our minds that when the recall was sent out that it would actually apply to us. Big mistake for this post #1 (Keep track here people).

I decided to be a good wife and bake lasagna for dinner on Sunday night. This way, there would be plenty for dinner plus leftovers and I already know that it is a food that Luke will consume, so even more bonus points for me, right? No. Oh, heavens no. Both Keith and I began to feel sick on Monday morning around 10am, but because we were both at work and weren't able to contact each other, I thought I just felt off from being pregnant and stressed and all the other fun stuff that goes into the last week of school before Christmas Break. And I don't think the running around at Faculty Follies practice that morning helped my cause either. Needless to say, the pregnant lady in me thought that eating would solve my tummy dilemma and I ate another entire portion of lasagna for lunch(Big mistake #2). By 1:15 I was miserable and had to leave work.

I barely made it home before the fireworks began. I'm not going to give the juicy details, but I have a picture taken today, 3 days after this all started and my eyes still look like this.

All the little red dots are broken blood vessels. Now imagine those on my eyes too and my eyelashes are covering the same dots underneath my eyes. That was some forceful vomit that happened. Enough said.

Monday night was miserable. I couldn't get comfortable and I kept waking up with what I thought were those pesky Braxton-Hicks contractions and stomach pains which I attributed to the bad food. Turns out they were real contractions that were waking me up from a dead sleep. Instead of calling the doctor because I didn't want to wake him or bother him (Big mistake #3, if you're still counting), I decided to not tell Keith and tough it out. I never really had had regular contractions with Luke because I was induced and the pitocin at the time sent my labor from 0 to 100 in no time flat once it worked. I had no clue that what I was experiencing were real contractions.

By 4am, I was convinced that I wasn't going to go into to work on Tuesday so I called the sub line to request a sub and tried to get some sleep on the couch. My "Braxton-Hicks" contractions are probably 5-6 minutes apart by this time, but I'm so tired and nauseous, I don't really care. When 6am rolls around, I convince Keith I'm fine to go into school to make my sub plans and as I'm pulling out of the driveway, I had two contractions 4 minutes apart. For some reason, when the thought rolled through my head at that point "this isn't a really good idea" I totally didn't listen because I was so intent on completing those plans (Big mistake #4).

As my contractions continued to come 4ish minutes apart the entire drive in, I knew I had to make it quick at the school so I could call the doctor. Part of me looks back now after all is said and done and thinks, why had I not called the doctor already? Duh, Katie. Get with the program. Half and hour later with sub plans done and secretary notified, I put the call into the doctor's answering service. By the time I hear back 20 minutes later, I'm already home and he tells me to head to the hospital so they can check me out because I'm probably just dehydrated from all of the fun I'd had the night before. As I waited for Keith to come home from work (poor guy didn't really understand what was going on at the time because I didn't want him to worry-Big mistake #5), my contractions start to come 2 to 3 minutes apart. Not good.

Keith gets home, we head to the hospital, and we have to check in at the E.R. Lucky me, because I'm pregnant, I got to wear a sweet mask in the E.R. while waiting for transport services due the Swine flu. *side rant commencing: Who makes a pregnant woman who is already nauseous and disgusting and can hardly breathe wear a mask to protect her from some flu she's already been vaccinated for?!? I get it was for my health and safety, but I thought I wasn't going to survive that part of the ordeal from lack of oxygen.* We get up to L&D and the nurse asks me a million questions about my health history, gets me ready to be hooked up to an IV to start getting fluids in me, and at the end decides to check me to see if I've dilated at all. Apparently she didn't think my contractions were that special before, but when she looked at me and said "That's disappointing," her mind had been changed. I was already 3.5cm dilated and she had to call the doctor.

I ended up being admitted to the hospital overnight and put on some wicked medication that blurs your vision and relaxes all the muscles in your body. It thankfully stopped the contractions and our sweet girl is still cooking in there for the time being, but my doctor said he be excited if we made it another 3.5-4 weeks. Keith and I decided our goal is at least 2 weeks since she'll be 36 weeks at that point and be at a much lower risk for complications.

Like I said, the medication they gave me was some crazy stuff and since I had to be on a fairly high dosage to slow things down quickly, I thought about some random things during my brief stay there. For instance, although I do remember some of the really important things the Neonatologist came to talk to us about, I basically remember thinking it was somehow funny he was wearing a Bengals jersey. Some people take mini-vacations before their child is to be born. We actually did that this time-at Hotel de la Mercy Gilbert. Most expensive vacation ever, but worth every penny. My parents had been begging to keep Luke overnight. I know that it was at our house, but at least Grandma had the chance; maybe Pop Pop won't have to work next time. I make some really stupid and not smart decisions. I really put my child's life in danger by thinking that I had to get stuff ready at work (although in my defense after the lack of sleep and food in my body at the time, I can't really be held responsible). I learned what a real contraction feels like and when it is time to hightail my rear to the hospital.

Most importantly, my sassy girl is doing fine, still growing away in the ever-ginormous belly, and is back to kicking the bejesus out of her mother. All is right in the world again.

turtle

I feel like I'm in the home stretch of this pregnancy.

I have slightly less than 8 weeks until the expected date of arrival and although my body has started to ache more, the heartburn has become much more manageable and because she's running out of room, she hasn't been able to beat me as forcefully. I'm now contending with rolling and pushing instead of punching and kicking. I'll take these new movements any day over what she was doing to me before. All-in-all, I'm feeling much more positive now about the second-baby experience than I was even up to a few weeks ago. You could also attribute some of my new found enlightenment to the fact that its has occurred to me that there is an end in sight and that I only have two more weeks of school until I get a glorious and much needed two week break.

So until the time she graces us with her presence, I will enjoy (or try to enjoy) the feeling of being a turtle stuck on its back when I try to get up from the couch or out of bed. It sure makes for some good laughs and that laughter has sure helped boost my spirits.

kisses

I love the randomness that is my kiddo. Please enjoy the kisses he wanted to share!

luke

To my baby:

I love you.

You are such an amazing bright spot to my day, no matter how sick or tired or overwhelmed I may be. You manage to do some of the silliest things things and say some of the craziest things that can always make me manage to smile when I feel like the day might never have a positive moment to speak of.

I love that you run everywhere and don't walk. I love that you think farting and burping is hilarious. I love that you shout "Bye Moon!" every single time you see the moon now. I totally love that that references the book we read to you every other night. I love that you can be running along, trip on your own feet, and look up with the silliest grin on your face and say "boom." I love that you say please and thank you without prompting. I love that the first thing you look for in the morning when you open your gorgeous blue eyes is not your dad or I, but Rosco. I love that you put your piggies out every morning waiting for Rosco to kiss them. I love that now we get full-on squishy hugs where you grip us as if your life depended on it. Sometimes, my life does depend on those squishy hugs. I love that when you point to and name body parts, your boo-boo on your hand is just another part to list off. I love that you say bye to random people when we check out at stores, but clutch for me in a panic if they try to initiate contact. I love that you can make anything require a truck noise of some sort. I love that you kiss my belly when we ask you about the baby.

In a few short weeks, your life will change forever when your sister makes her grand entrance. I may not always be able to drop everything to play with you and I may not be able to dote on you as much as I want. I hope you'll look back on this post someday and realize that you will always be my baby and that I will always love you for everything you do. Although you won't always be the baby of the family, you'll always be my first baby and that is something that I will always hold very dear to my heart and treasure.

Just remember, Mommy loves you.

just for fun...

I love these boys. Enough said.

blah blah behind

I'm currently stuck in the seemingly endless race that is life at the moment.

When I first found out I was pregnant with this kiddo, I swore to the high heavens that I could document this pregnancy far better than I did with Luke's. I think I might have posted a total of 5 times over the course of that particular pregnancy and it's looking fairly sad that I'm probably shooting for an equal amount of posts for this baby's incubation time.

Who knew that chasing, shushing, and actually teaching 29 third graders could be so demanding? Or that essentially being a first year teacher again due to the grade level switch and placement at a brand new school would be so draining? Add in to the mix an extremely active 19 month old who doesn't understand the word sit unless it involves Little Einstein's. And who can forget the ever-present belly that keeps expanding to accommodate a child that can now spend the next three months kicking me ever so forcefully in the ribs? Poor Keith...the majority of nights I'm passed out on the couch by 8:30. The house isn't nearly as clean as it should be, dinner has been forgotten on way more than a few occasions, and laundry is a constant work-in-remembrance. Is it sad that I wake up at 3 o'clock in the morning to go to the bathroom and start planning blog posts in my head, only to become slightly short of comatose by the next evening when I have time? There are a million other things I should be doing right now, and really, a million other blog posts I need to get out and written down, but-no.

Really, I need to get things in perspective. I have an amazing husband who is supportive and doesn't complain too much when he has to go pick up dinner. Again. I have a healthy, strong, hilarious son who manages to always keep things interesting-and moving. I have an active daughter who is growing and is becoming ready to meet her already-doting family. I have a stable job, which is more to say than a lot of other people in this sucky economy. We have our health, our home, transportation, food, each other.

Really, in the midst of feeling behind and blah, I just need to feel blessed. Because I am.

luke's new best friend

Recently, Luke has begun chatting up a storm. We really have no idea most of the time what he is saying (except for the occasional piggie or uh oh! thrown in), so its hilarious just to sit back and listen or try to keep up a conversation with him. Since his verbal skills have taken off, he has also decided that he would like to converse with people on the phone too. He'll actually talk, wait for an answer, and respond in his own special verbiage.

These are all pictures of Luke holding a conversation on the phone with someone. He gets so serious and will even try to walk away so that he can better concentrate on what the other person is saying...or so that he can push buttons without us noticing.

almost with pictures

So Day 1 of Fall Break and we were invited to go to San Tan Mall with Jill and her kiddos. 'Great idea!' I think to myself. A wonderful picture taking opportunity that I can actually document on-time on the blog!

Yeah right! We get there and I took Luke to the younger area first to get ourselves warmed up because we arrived a few minutes shy of our planned meeting time with the Hildwine's. He starts climbing the steps, attempting to get in the adirondack chairs they have there for adults that he can't quite manage to get out of on his own, and making fast breaks for the handicapped ramp to run to wherever he can get to. The actual toys? Not worth the time of day.

So we migrate on over to the older area of the play area and I am completely overwhelmed by the sheer amount of kids there, let alone the size and speed of them. Luke may be big for his age and could probably pass easily as a 2-year-old, but he didn't really stand a chance against the three and four-year-olds running through there. Add in the fact that he has a tendency to bolt from the play areas to begin with and that I'm 24ish weeks pregnant, we didn't last long before I was having Braxton-Hicks contractions and a minor panic attack.

Total amount of time spent at the mall play area: 40 minutes. Number of pictures taken while at play area: 0. Understanding now that neither Luke or myself are ready to tackle the play area again with Keith present to tag team with me: priceless.

goals and (possible) lofty ambitions

I'm going to be extremely realistic here: working full time, chasing a toddler, and becoming more and more huge with a very active baby growing in my belly has put a severe dent in my previous blogging capabilities. I swore to myself that I would blog more during this pregnancy so that when it came time to create her First Year book like Luke's, I would have way more documentation of what had happened over the course of my 10 months of pregnancy for her to look back on years down the road when she may be experiencing the exact same things that I am right now. That was crazy talk.

I barely stay awake long enough after Luke falls asleep to grade the mounds of papers that make the trek home with me each day and if I do stay awake, I'm fighting the insane amount of heartburn this sweet girl is causing me. I do have to say, however, that I think I may have found a winning combination of prescription Zantac, Mylanta, and Extra-Strength Tums that are doing the trick. The ice cream and never-ending bowls of cereal have seemed to support the health of my esophagus, too.

I do admittedly compose various sorts of blog posts in my head at 3am when she's spinning somersaults in my belly, but I am way past attempting to launch myself out of bed at that point to actually type anything out.

All in all, with my grading completed and the next week miraculously school-free, I will spending time updating (and updating and updating) this lovely blog. I will. And if I keep repeating that to myself, it might actually happen.

superman

Just a quick shot of Luke from Saturday morning. I was trying to fold his laundry and he was running around the house doing his best Superman impression that Keith taught him. He runs around yelling "Ahhhh!" with his hands raised in the air. My thought: every Superman needs a cape, right?

He got a big kick out of using a baby towel like a cape. I was impressed that he a. left it on at all and, b. let me take a picture of him with it. Good look for you my toddler of steel!

think pink

For those of you who voted girl in the poll, you were right!

Here is the first shot of our sassy girl. She spent the majority of the time during the ultrasound crossing and uncrossing her legs, throwing her head back to put her little nose in the air, and using her arm to protect herself from the paparazzi (us). It was amazing to watch and we are so glad that she looks completely healthy. I was even excited when the tech said that she's measuring as if her due date was January 23rd instead of January 28th. I have absolutely no doubt she'll make a fashionably late entrance just like her big brother, but it gives me hope that it will happen sooner than later!

And for Kristi, I'm so glad to be sharing a due date with you-again!

poor baby

All week long I look forward to the weekends when I get to spend oodles of time with Luke. The anticipation builds all week so by Friday afternoon, I am ready for some quality time with my little man. The hardest part of going back to work has been not being with him everyday. Oh-and the daycare debacle. That's been tough too. Too much drama there, so I'll get back to my story.

Saturday morning I wake up pumped for a day with just Luke and I. I go to get him and the poor kid is miserable. He's got a nose that is running like a faucet and he's crabby as all get out. No fever, but a clingy guy nonetheless. After dealing with craptastic naps and fighting him to use the nose sucker all day, I was sad that the day hadn't turned out quite like I planned and was ready for Keith to get home.

Sunday was basically a repeat of Saturday's events, but with the extra added bonus of Keith's constant state of freak out that Luke wasn't eating nearly as much as he typically does. Duh sweetheart! He doesn't feel well! I'm still trying to convince Keith that Luke will survive the few days that he's sick without eating the amount of food you feel necessary. I finally had to make a deal with Keith today that while Luke is sick and can't breathe through his nose, he can't stuff the amazing amounts of food in Luke's mouth at one time that is typical for him. Poor Luke's mouth was stuffed so full tonight that food was falling out when he opened his mouth to breathe. Sad.

Tonight after Luke's bath as we were getting him ready for bed, he was fussing again. I happened to look into his mouth and was able to count 5 brand-spankin' new teeth popping through in his little mouth, one of them being his first molar. No wonder he's been such a sour puss the past three days. I think his mouth is making up for being a slow starter in the teeth department; since they didn't come earlier, apparently now he thinks he needs to play catch-up to get them all in at once.

Poor baby.

shoes

One of my proudest mom moments so far happened a few weeks ago. Keith and I were pushing Luke through the shoe section at Target when Luke repeatedly started saying the word "shoes" until we handed him a pair. I mean, the kid's vocabulary consists of Momma, Dada, Rosco, yeah, and boom. And now Shoes!

Since his shoe discovery, Luke has wanted to put our shoes on as well. This is a video of Luke trying to walk in Keith's flip-flops. He gets super determined and I apparently offended him when I said "all done." That launched him into one of his other new favorite things: tantrums.

The aftermath of the tantrum went something like this.

You are very welcome for not taping that. Not something you would have wanted to hear anyway. Trust me.

18 weeks

This is a few weeks old at this point, but I was thinking to myself the other day: I love to see pictures that people post of their pregnant bellies. Maybe I'm completely weird, but in case any of you have the same tummy infatuation that I do, enjoy.