Flu Scares

Well, I finally made a decision about all this flu stuff... after talking with a few people today - mainly my friend Amy who's husband is a dr and she is due in 4 weeks with her 2nd one... she actually pulled Dunn out of preschool and is taking Tamiflu as a preventative... heard more stories where pregnant mommies were really sick or worse but the baby's were fine and others where there have been underlying causes that made that happen and if you are healthy you should be ok... so what to do? I finally heard from my dr but she's out of the office so left another message for her to call me because the nurse I did talk to wasn't her usual one and she sounded quite confused by all my questions! So for now, I canceled my plans to go to storytime tomorrow, playgroup for Friday and Saturday's Girl Scout event. I'm hoping to hear from my dr. by Friday but if not then my plans for helping out next week at school are canceled too - I want to see if she wants me to hold off on close contact with the kids until I get the vaccine or until the baby is born... so I'll keep you posted. We've also canceled our plans to attend our church dinner Saturday night... our babysitter's sister (Joelle) is really sick.. high fever and all... so I figured Julianna would be or could be sick by Saturday and I just don't want to risk exposure right now. So that's where we stand with things. Nora crashed early tonight right at 6:00 and Emily is having fun practicing her sewing skills that we learned yesterday at Brownies by making a little purse.
So to end this evening's update... I received my week 21 update on Peanut... I'm feeling good especially with the cooler weather - it's been in the upper 30s or low 40s in the morning and 70s during the day... my nausea seems to be gone and I'm feeling the baby kick a little more - still a lot more quiet compared to the girls. But anyway - here's the update: "Your baby now weighs about three-quarters of a pound and is approximately 10 1/2 inches long — the length of a carrot. You may soon feel like she's practicing martial arts as her initial fluttering movements turn into full-fledged kicks and nudges. You may also discover a pattern to her activity as you get to know her better. In other developments, your baby's eyebrows and lids are present now, and if you're having a girl, her vagina has begun to form as well."

Back up and running - kind of....

We headed out to school this morning this last day of Mom's visit. Emily squeezed out every minute of Mimi time this morning before heading to school. We then had a quick errand and then back home to pack and clean up. We had a great visit ... too short of course... but a great visit. So off we went to the airport - sent Mom on her way - so hard to say goodbye once... but as we were heading home got a call from Mom... she forgot her cane.. so back we headed again - harder to say goodbye a 2nd time. Nora fell asleep on the way home which gave me some quiet time once back home again. When she woke up we played... finished getting ready for Brownies and out we went. A crazy but fun meeting (the girls were learning to sew)... then home again for leftovers and soccer practice. They didn't have a game today but it was a good practice. While there Nora was having fun with her shadow in the setting sun... thought it an appropriate ending picture for our day (I'll get pictures from the rest of the weekend together soon).

Trip to the airport

So great today - Mom got here! YAY! :o) We started out at storytime this morning after I renewed my license - a birthday gift to myself... then after storytime we ventured up to the airport... Mom's flight was on time - so we gathered up her stuff and headed to lunch. After that headed home and waited for Emily to get home from school...
After some play time we ventured out through all the motorcycles (it's the big Bikes, Blues and BBQ festival here so we are swamped in motorcycles, vendors and shows)... got Morgan and headed to Red Robin for dinner.Tomorrow Emily has the day off of school so we'll be hitting the stores, playing lots and just enjoying each other's company... have a great night!
:o)

24 Hours of Fun

... and lots and lots of laundry!!

Emily woke up last night throwing up - for about 3 hours we were helping her - and doing laundry - what a mess! I kept her home today but I think she's fine.. not sure what it was. She did eat some fruit snacks covered with yogurt after soccer (different families are assigned to bring snacks for after the games) - she came home after eating that and took her shower.. when she got out she said her stomach hurt real bad. She was able to get to sleep but woke up around 10:30 throwing up. Morgan and I are wiped out today... Nora slept through it all and woke up at 6:30... thankfully the girls did pretty good today playing, vegging in front of the TV and just taking in easy.
I received my 20 week update today so here's the latest on Peanut... interesting though - in the update it said that the baby's about 10 1/2 ounces.. .the tech yesterday said that Peanut was 12 ounces... anyway - here's what it said:
"Your baby weighs about 10 1/2 ounces now. He's also around 6 1/2 inches long from head to bottom and about 10 inches from head to heel — the length of a banana. (For the first 20 weeks, when a baby's legs are curled up against his torso and hard to measure, measurements are taken from the top of his head to his bottom — the "crown to rump" measurement. After 20 weeks, he's measured from head to toe.)

He's swallowing more these days, which is good practice for his digestive system. He's also producing meconium, a black, sticky by-product of digestion. This gooey substance will accumulate in his bowels, and you'll see it in his first soiled diaper (some babies pass meconium in the womb or during delivery)."

Days of Catch Up

Where did the last few days go?! Whew! Unbelievable! Sunday was crazy, yesterday wasn't much better and today was finally relaxing and exciting with our ultrasound today.

To catch you up some - Sunday was Emily's first day of PRE (religious ed) - her big year where she's working towards her 1st Communion! She can't wait! Then after that, church then home to finish preparing for my stamp camp. Thankfully the one person coming canceled but she still wanted the pieces to make the projects at home but at least I wasn't under a time crunch to get it ready. Morgan headed out with the girls to do a little birthday shopping - they were so cute when they came back in..

Yesterday was back to back activities.. MOMS club event in the morning with toddlers making fall projects. Nora had a great time making stuff and playing with the other kids.
After the kids left we ate a quick lunch and then I had a meeting with the co-chairs for the dinner and auction at our church. This is the program that I've been working on - 36 pages of letters, ads, donation items, etc... we worked up until 10 minutes before I had to get Emily. Then home again for a few minutes to do homework and then out again to the Kappa Delta house. The sorority girls had a pajama party for the Girl Scouts. Emily had a great time and thankfully my friend Celeste said she could bring her home so I took Nora home, feed her and put her to bed so I could tutor and finish the program.
Moving on to today - it was such a nice quiet day.. we had all morning to just hang out. It was raining and cold but that's ok.. it was just nice to catch up and hang out. The temperature dropped throughout the day and was actually in the 50s all afternoon! I sent out the update to all of you of our dr. appt. It was so neat to share all that with the girls... here are the full size pictures from the ultrasound that we got (in case you want to see bigger pictures of any of the pictures on the blog - just click on them and it should open them full size). The video of the ultrasound is still loading.. it's a separate post on here ... if you can't find it just let me know and I'll send you the link.

Peanut's 20 Week Ultrasound

Here's Peanut's 20 Week Ultrasound that we had today:

Crazy Saturday

This morning started off interesting... Nora slept through the night... but Emily didn't. It's like they can't get it together... at least if they were both up at night maybe we'd have one night sleeping through for us! :o) Morgan found Emily on the stairs this morning around 5 or so. She said she had a dream and didn't like being in the dark anymore so she sat in the stairwell in the light from upstairs. So into bed she came with us - I'm not sure if she fell back to sleep but at 6:30 in toddles Nora so there we all were until about 7:00 when the girls finally went off to play in Emily's room a little bit.

Morgan then headed out to tackle the lawn after breakfast - with all the rain we've had it really needed it! We headed to Emily's soccer game. She did really good - her coach is so good and swaps out positions - Emily was doing a lot of running and almost scored a goal. Good game!After soccer, lunch and finishing the yard.. it started to rain again... another cool, rainy day! We then went to go see another 5 bedroom house - very nice.. really nice piece of property - still in Holcomb's district (down the road from the horse farm up the hill)... a nice 3 car garage workshed in the back... here's the link to the MLS listing if you feel like peeking at it (there's more pictures if you click on the picture of the house):
http://nwa.mlxchange.com/Pub/EmailView.asp?r=775499462&s=NWA&t=NWA
After seeing the house, we went for haircuts - Nora got one too - she was so excited! We then went to Walmart - avoiding all the Hog traffic as tonight is the first home game of the season! Nora fell asleep on the way home and Emily's reading in bed now.. .whew! I'm ready to sleep too... hopefully I'll get to soon!

To finish off though - here are a couple pictures of Tigger. Gabby was upstairs with Morgan while I was downstairs - Tigger decided to come out - lounge around with me and spent some time cuddling on my lap... wow!

Wrapping up the Week

Overall today was a good day even though Nora was up again last night. We had playgroup this morning - and Nora and her buddy Samantha actually had a few moments where they were playing together - and interacting! Wow! :o) After they left Nora found some Halloween books and was talking about Trick or Treating and came out with her witch costume on and wanted a pumpkin for Trick or Treating.
I then had a meeting to start finalizing the program for our church's dinner and auction. This is the 2nd year I've done the program - it's nice to be able to help out. Nora had fun just chatting away with them.

After Emily got home we had a little snack time...
Then off to piano - Nora wandered around while we waited and Emily was excited to have two songs to practice this week. After that we headed to pick Morgan up - leaving his car in the garage on campus for the night. They have torn up the parking lot he usually parks in so it's either paying $300.00 for a parking sticker for the spots close to his building or parking far away or using the garage. Yesterday he had to park in a lot behind the Walton Arts Center.. it's just crazy.

Storytime Thursday

We actually made it to storytime this morning at the library - Nora really likes going and checking out books as well as the puzzles that she gets to check out. After storytime we met a friend for lunch and then home again. We spent the rest of the afternoon reading her new books and playing dress up. After Emily got home I took advantage of the time to vacuum - Nora's not fond of the noise so having Emily to keep her company helps. While I was doing that the girls got into this crazy story/playtime - all I know is it involved a lava pit, a ghost, a spook and who else knows what.
They were so disappointed when I had to stop them to come eat dinner... so fun to see them playing together.

Coughing, Stuffy and Rain

It's been a tiring couple of days. It's been raining most of the week and chilly. Today it hasn't gotten above 66 and it's really windy outside... definitely feels like Fall! Emily is still coughing but not as bad. I've been battling my own stuffiness, asthma issues and just tired. Nora's feeling fine but still is getting up at night - last night it was 3 times and each time full of conversation - one time telling me she wanted to go back to It's A Small World and she was describing the ride in detail, another she was telling me that "Peanut" is a girl.. cute conversations but not at 2 and 3 in the morning!

Yesterday was Brownie day - we now have 12 girls. They did pretty good but the weather is definitely getting to them. They need to get out and run!!! They only have 10 minutes of recess now in 2nd grade but you can tell when they don't get it! We did have soccer last night but it was pouring and between me not feeling well and Emily coughing we skipped it. Hopefully the weather will be good for Saturday because she really likes it this year!

To back track, a few days ago the girls put on a fashion show - Emily dressed up Nora in her clothes and Emily raided my closet. Real cute...

Nora also decided that her room was a beach... so she had to get on her bathing suit and play in the sand.
Then today was our day to help out in Emily's class. Nora is doing really well meandering around helping out too. We were there for announcements this morning and they sing this song each day about "It's a Great Day"... and so on... well, Nora was singing "Great Day Great Day" the rest of the day. It was really cute. Then this time when I decided to make a video of it she stopped at the end saying she had to say cheese for me to take her picture. She's something else!

And to finish off for the night - a Peanut update. I am now officially 19 weeks along. Here is the update that I just received "Your 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 your voice now, so don't be shy about reading aloud, talking to her, or singing a happy tune if the mood strikes you.

Your baby weighs about 8 1/2 ounces and measures 6 inches, head to bottom — about the size of a large heirloom tomato. Her arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and the rest of her body now. Her kidneys continue to make urine and the hair on her scalp is sprouting. A waxy protective coating called the vernix caseosa is forming on her skin to prevent it from pickling in the amniotic fluid."

Rainy Day

It has been a rainy day all day - not a heavy rain but a drizzly just there rain. The temperatures have stayed nice and cool though - more signs of Fall for sure!We started off early this morning when Nora came and woke me up at 5:40am! She slept through the night last night but now we need to get back to having her sleep until she usually does. Then we headed to church where we taught Children's Liturgy.. the kids were crazy and chatty today... then we stopped in for the St. Raphael's Festival.. whew! We didn't stay long - it was quite chaotic and I had to get back home anyway - thankfully!

Once home we had about a half an hour before I had to go to a stamp show - it was a good one and close to home which is always nice!

We made pizzas for dinner - always a hit.. and now wrapping up for bedtime. Nora crashed on time - not early like I was thinking but without any battles so that's good. Emily is finishing up necklaces that she's making and will be heading to bed shortly too. She still has a nasty cough but with all this up and down weather it's just that time of year - but if it continues we'll be heading to the dr. for it.. so we'll see!And to wrap up for tonight - here's a movie of Nora dancing. I actually recorded it last night but I had already sent out the email so I figured I'd tack it onto tonight's. Enjoy her "awesome twirls" and her "wiggles"... she's too funny!

JDRF Walk

Today we had the JDRF Walk for Mary Claire. We had a great time! We're all pooped by this point - vegging in front of the TV. Thanks to everyone who sent in donations - I'll be working on Thank Yous this afternoon... got some cute pictures to include in it. We raised $375.00 which surpasses our goal of $300.00 - yay!

Here are a few pictures from the walk - but if you would like to see all of them you can go to the Walmart album where I uploaded them all. Here's the link for that:
http://photos2.walmart.com/share/p=854121252777953768/l=429218004/g=3401034/cobrandOid=1011/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB

Sleepy Day

This morning 6am came way way too early. I was so tired (Nora's been getting up at night at least once every night) but had to get up. Today was our first day helping out in Emily's class and I told the librarian that I would help her staple some book fair papers while I was there. So we got up, all ate, all dressed and ready to go. It started to rain as we pulled out of the garage and has basically been raining all day.

Nora did great at school - thankfully most of what needed to be done was copying so she sat and did her puzzle book or snacked and never fussed. We were there until about 9:30. We came home and sat for a little bit before heading to lunch with a friend. Nora was all over the place - didn't really want to eat, climbing the booth, getting down... all over the place!! On the way home she was a little fussy but nothing major. Once home it was back to puzzles - except this time she thought it would be fun to take the two 100 piece puzzles that we did earlier and mix the pieces up! So we had to do both to separate them out again.. great fun! After that I got her to veg a little in front of the TV - but when it was time to get Emily she lost it. She basically cried while I gathered things (we were going right to piano) and the whole way to school and the whole time waiting in the carpool line. She never fell asleep - just cried!

So we got the kids.. dropped off our carpool buddy and off to piano we went. As we pulled into the neighborhood Nora fell asleep. She slept through the whole lesson and woke up when we pulled in the garage. We ate and then got ready for bed. She's only now falling asleep (6:50) but after lots of fussy and crying and wanting things.. the doorbell ringing (yet another roof company - we've been having at least two a week since the hail storm in August) and Gabby barking.. .Nora screaming... ahhh... finally she settled down and is asleep.

Emily is tired and stuffy - Nora I think it's teeth - she's actually getting a molar in so maybe that's it - but it could be she's getting stuffy too. The weather was cooler today after a warm weekend and start to the week... so it's just that time of year!

Well, to end - today I got my week 18 update. Peanut had a few quiet days (always worries me) but today has been bumping around a little more so that's good. But here's what they say is going on with it:
"Head to rump, your baby is about 5 1/2 inches long (about the length of a bell pepper) and he weighs almost 7 ounces. He's busy flexing his arms and legs — movements that you'll start noticing more and more in the weeks ahead. His blood vessels are visible through his thin skin, and his ears are now in their final position, although they're still standing out from his head a bit. A protective covering of myelin is beginning to form around his nerves, a process that will continue for a year after he's born. If you're having a girl, her uterus and fallopian tubes are formed and in place. If you're having a boy, his genitals are noticeable now, but he may hide them from you during an ultrasound."

Labor Day

Today was a nice day at home... not too much Laboring - it got warmer again today which zapped my energy pretty quickly! We had made the decision to not travel to NC to visit our great friends Cecilia and Bryan this weekend with me getting so tired - after seeing what the heat did to me again today I think it was a good choice but we'll hopefully see them soon after Peanut is born. Emily spent the morning playing Barbies in her room before getting ready for a friend's birthday party where she was all afternoon.Nora woke up with a mission to be Dorothy - all day! I for some reason was the Wicked Witch and Morgan was the scarecrow. She wanted her Dorothy shoes on, Dorothy braids and picked out her Dorothy dress. Pretty cute!

To finish up the day, we spent a little time outside trying to fix this one area in the front garden bed but boy was it hot! I then tried another baked and freeze dinners - this one being a Chicken Pot Pie - not bad.. we'll see how the frozen one is when we eat it.

Emily finished her required piano practicing for the week tonight - she really liked the songs she got this week. This one being her favorite - here's a recording of the one that I told you a few days ago that she said "this song rocks". :o)

Emily's pretty tired after her busy day and plus she was up coughing a lot last night... Nora obviously conked out pretty quickly while reading her books at night. Yes - this is really how she fell asleep tonight!

Rainy "Fall" Day

It was a great day for staying at home and getting things done. It was raining all morning and early afternoon - stopped around 2pm. The temperature never got above 69 and that was only when it stopped raining and the sun made an appearance. Otherwise it was around 55 all day.. great weather! Thankfully I didn't have any plans of getting anywhere - but I did get some straightening up and some laundry done.Then the phone call came - it was from the school district saying there had been a water fountain that had mechanical problems and caused one of the hallways to fill with smoke. The kids were evacuated (remember the rain) to the gym which requires being outside. The message said that this caused some kids to get quite wet and if you wanted to bring clothes in for them to change you can do so. This was 11 o'clock. I then remember hearing the fire trucks earlier - maybe around 8:30 or so - what a crazy morning for them! So I emailed Emily's teacher knowing she would have a chance to check it since the kids would be at lunch. She said that Emily was ok but her shoes were quite wet. I told her if she was ok with it then I would leave it but then she wrote back saying that she was asking for a new pair so up to school we went. Nora loved it because she got to splash in every puddle on the way into school.

Back home to finish up a few things, veg for a minute and then head back out to get Emily.
Once home she did her homework, practiced her piano and got a little TV time in before we made dinner. The girls love making their own pizza!After dinner we discovered a pretty big walking stick outside so the girls explored that before heading to the bath and shower. Nora is asleep already and Emily will soon follow - she was pretty wound up last night after soccer but did great!I also received my week 17 update.. so here's what's going on with "Peanut" - Emily already wants to start working on names.. :o)
"Your baby's skeleton is changing from soft cartilage to bone, and the umbilical cord — her lifeline to the placenta — is growing stronger and thicker. Your baby weighs 5 ounces now (about as much as a turnip), and she's around 5 inches long from head to bottom. She can move her joints, and her sweat glands are starting to develop."