Easter Egg Hunt

I was determined not to let the birth of TJ to interfere with P having a fun Easter. My neighbor and I planned a small egg hunt in the yard. I filled eggs and EZ was on call in case I was in the hospital still. But we managed to come home on Saturday and still had our fun little egg hunt Sunday afternoon in beautiful weather. P had no concept of what we were really doing, but loved finding eggs in the yard and putting them in her bucket and then opening them all later to see what was inside! Enjoy the pictures (most of them sporting her new shades from Papa).

P Update

I have been meaning to post a few pics of P during the last couple weeks. She is growing like a weed now it seems and her vocabulary is ever increasing. In terms of the eating department, she is still a bit picky, but has started to eat more and more what we are eating now which is nice. A few of my favorite lines from her are:

When we ask her what she wants to eat for a snack, she goes to the pantry and says "how about...." and does a long pause before she picks something.

When she knows she is not suppose to do something, she has started to say "No no Piper". I about lost it when she said it to me the first time about a week ago. Then she continues what she is doing that she isn't supposed to do. Funny girl.

Fun times at a birthday party:





Diva:

Tatum Jean Zack

Tatum Jean Zack was born Friday April 6th at 6:47am weighing 6lbs 9oz and 19inches long.





Quick Recap: My water broke at 10:15pm Thursday night (although it really was more of a tear and didn't fully break). We arrived at the hospital about 12:30am. My contractions were pretty bad by about 2:30am. I got an epidural around 4:15am and at that point I was only 7-8 cm. They came in to check me around 6:20am and I was fully dilated and complete and they called the doctor in. By the time they had me all ready to go, the nurses told me not to push because she was already about to come out. Each contraction I had, she was coming out on her own. They called in the midwife just in case I had the baby before the doctor got there. I don't know when he arrived, but I pushed through two contractions and Tatum was born. A very different birth than Piper, thats for sure!

How did we come up with Tatum Jean: Her due date was almost halfway between when my grandpa passed away last year on April 2nd and when my mom passed away 2 years ago on April 17th. So I wanted to honor them in some way. I decided that I wanted to give her my moms middle name Jean who was also named after my grandpa (Eugene). Then I thought naming her with something beginning with D after my mom (Debbie), but Eric and I couldn't come up with a D name that we liked, so then I asked him could we come up with a T name after my grandpa (Troy). And so we decided on the name Tatum Jean.

We are all doing well though and settling into a routine of being a family of 4.

Still Pregnant

Today marks 38 weeks.

In my last two appointments, the first doctor said, "I don't think you'll make it to your due date, you will go at least 5-10 days early." My appointment last Wednesday, the doctor said "I don't think you will make it another week." These comments make every day a emotional roller coaster for me. Every little small contraction I have, I think, oh, maybe this is it. But yet here I am, still pregnant. I have another appointment tomorrow...we'll see what the doctor says this week.

Because of the doctors comments, we asked my MIL to come down a week earlier than planned. She got here yesterday. Now I wonder if baby 2 will decided to stay curled up in my belly for another 2 weeks (or more).

I wasn't sleeping well at all, so last week I asked the doctor and they gave me a prescription for some sleeping pills. This was the best decision I could have made. I haven't taken them every night, but because of the pills, I have been able to get a few nights of really good sleep in the last week which I know is helping me since I know I won't be getting much sleep once the baby arrives.

We are all ready to go here at the house. EZ has been busy doing all sorts of lawn stuff (his version of nesting). The house is somewhat together and the nursery is all ready to go. P loves her new room and is happy as can be in there. She is talking up a storm and says all sorts of words and phrases. She can even count up to 10 pretty well, as long as we start her with 1. If not, she tends to count 9, 6, 10. Not that she understands what the numbers mean, except maybe 1 and 2. Sometimes she will pick up two of something and say I have 2 ___. She is lots and lots of giggles and fun right now. I hope I can remember this when I am sleep deprived again!

Full Term

Today marks 37 weeks, which is pregnancy lingo means full term. I'm still pregnant and chugging along. I have high hopes that I can make it through this week since I have stuff I would like to get done! I told myself I wouldn't run anymore, but the problem is when I go for a walk, I walk pretty slowly, so my heartrate doesn't really get up that high and I feel like I'm not really getting a workout in. So I decided I would keep running but keep my running to no more than 10 minutes on any given day, and no more than 3 times in a week, so max of 30 min running per week. I think that is fair enough. I did run 10 min on Saturday and it wasn't pretty nor comfortable by any means, but oh well. Today I opted for 35 min on the elliptical instead. Whatever works.

This post is solely for the purpose of posting some pictures of P...

She had a crash at daycare and cut her eye pretty good-it didn't really phase her though:


Testing out the infant car seat now that we have it back together:


Happy Girl:


I bought some larger clothes for her and she came home and wanted to put on this 5T dress I got over her clothes, she had lots of fun playing in it:

Nesting

I don't know if I have been nesting or just getting panicked that baby 2 could arrive any day. At my 36 week check up on Monday I turned out to be 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced. Basically, the doctor said she could come any day but would probably be at least 5-10 days early. I'm hoping to at least make it to 38 weeks which would be March 26th (official due date is April 9th). I ran on Monday too, before my appointment, total of only 26 min broken as 2x13 min which walking before, after and inbetween, but it is definitely getting harder and more uncomfortable. Not to mention on Sunday I carried P about 1/2 mile along with her scooter home from the park since she didn't want to walk or ride the scooter. That was probably more difficult than the running to be honest. :)

Either way, we got P's new room together and she is in there now and seems perfectly happy. We have told her there is a new baby coming but she doesn't understand at all. She does like to put all of her dolls/stuffed animals to sleep by flipping them on their bellies and covering them up with a blanket, then smacking their backs really hard saying "nigh nigh". I think this is one of my biggest fears, that she will try and do that to the baby!

Her vocabulary has gone through the roof. She talks a ton now, and I can understand most of it. Still some words I have no idea, but she does do really well with most words and putting words together. She loves to read books and look at them and play music and dance as well as color. Lots of fun at the house right now. She still though has become really picky with food. She has stopped eating bread too. She loves cheese and yogurt though as well as hot dogs (which I'm not crazy about the fact that she eats these). Some days though she eats a ton and other days not as much. She is also picky about what she will try. I cut up a piece of cantaloupe, melon and pineapple for her and she only ate the cantaloupe but wouldn't even touch the other stuff.

I have pretty much got the nursery back in order. I have washed so much clothes in the last week, all of P's baby stuff and sheets and blankets, burp clothes, ect. And I finally managed to pack a hospital bag and get the infant car seat back out and washed too (not in the car yet). In addition, I got all of P's stuff in order for who is to take her at different times provided my MIL isn't here yet. And finally, yesterday I got 5 freezer meals put together for post baby. I might get ambitious and try to do another round of perhaps 5 more come next week.

Been meaning to post this...these are from a birthday party last month at a bouncy house place. P LOVED it!! The video is absolutely priceless (if I can get it to work)! I've actually taken some more photos in the last week, hopefully I'll get those up this week/weekend.

Lazy

Wow...I've really been lazy on the posting. Even worse...I still haven't taken any pictures of P. :( I do however have a couple good videos on my phone I need to upload on here from a birthday party we went to a couple weekends ago. Maybe next week when I have some time, maybe.

I give my final exam today which is crazy. I technically don't have any more work to do after today. But I do have a lot that I would like to get done in the next month before baby 2 arrives. We'll see how productive I can be after a girls weekend and then a trip to a math conference next week. Then its get down to business with some research, 5th year review stuff for work and getting the house in order. Which entails getting P moved into her new room to get adjusted and making a bunch of freezer meals as well as some cleaning I guess.

On the exercise front, I'm hanging in there but man its getting rough. This week I finally had to slow down past 10 min miles, for that though I am super proud of myself. I am 5 1/2 weeks out and I was hitting way slower paces at this point with P. I am only running maybe 15 min at a time and then walking and over the course of the week only running maybe 45min to an hour. The rest is walking and the elliptical. But I just keep telling myself to keep going and hang in there. It is going to make it easier post baby. Plus it doesn't help that my weight is now at what I was at with P and I know I probably still have another 5 pounds perhaps and I definitely don't help myself with ice cream addiction-occasionally having two bowls at night. :) At least I have an excuse!

P is growing up fast it seems. She has much more of an attitude now and has become extremely picky when eating. She has officially learned the word no which is her answer to almost everything. Most nights, it is a struggle to get her to eat something that is not crackers. Most of the time she wont even try whatever it is we are eating, just screams no and gets upset if we put something on her plate she doesn't want. Oh well. Hopefully she'll come back around to eating well again!

Getting Better

I think we are on the mend. I ended up getting a bit sick but it was very short lived and actually don't know if it was related to what P had or to baby 2 hitting a nerve in my back that shut me down on Friday. Although P is still a bit on the cranky side, I think she is definitely feeling better. The stellar parents that we are gave our child cookies and ice cream for dinner last night since she wouldn't eat hardly anything and the medication she has to take she has to take with food. But she needs the calories too after not eating much for the last week. This morning though she took down a whole nutragrain bar plus a few bits of banana and then ate cheerios at school when she got there which is a good sign.

Still no pictures from me...but I did get a picture sent from daycare this morning as they decided to try out a ponytail in her hair (she won't keep bows in):

Getting Sick

As long as P has been around, she has been really healthy. Hardly ever getting sick, only a few times really getting high fevers, really only a few trips to the doctor for sick type things in almost 19 months. Unit this past week. Last Wednesday she had a fever at daycare so I left work to pick her up. No other symptoms for 5 days but an up and down fever. I thought she was done with this virus on Monday so I sent her to daycare hoping she would make it through the day, but no, she ran a fever and had to go get her. Luckily, I had made an appointment for the doctor in the afternoon anyway just because I wanted to double check. Lo and behold, ear infection. First one, which is apparently pretty good at 19 months old.

Monday night antibiotics and yesterday EZ stayed home with her, by the time I got home she seemed pretty good and happy. Very playful in bath and everything. Good deal I thought, maybe I would stay home half a day today with her and then take her in if things were going good. As I laid her down to sleep in her bed she threw up all over the crib. Yikes, she was a bit scared, but ok after I gave her a little water. First thought was the medicine, or just too much milk with running around and guzzling bath water.

An hour later she cried out and I looked on the monitor and she was standing there in her crib, then she roamed around and laid down on the opposite side and I pointed out to EZ it looked like she had thrown up again based on the colorings on her bed. We head up there and holy cow, she had thrown up a couple times, over the side of the crib and in the crib, walked around in it, everything. Man oh man, we got her up, cleaned her up switched the sheets and wiped down as much as we could and she went back to sleep. At 1am she cried out again and everything got repeated as she had thrown up again...clean up, new sheets, pjs, ect.

Luckily that was the last time she did and she hasn't done it again. I spend the morning disinfecting her room and doing lots of laundry. Called in to the daycare and they said there is some stomach bug going around. And I thought to myself, really...she was there for only 6 hours on Monday and somehow picked up this bug.

So after 19 months, we had our real first bout of sickness (besides common colds, ect), ear infection doubled on top with a stomach bug. I still have to remember how lucky we are that it too this long!

Must repeat again...I pray that baby #2 is as great as P! :)

9 more weeks

Wow...how did it already get to be 9 weeks until due date for baby #2. I'm not at all prepared for what is about to happen again. Not ready for the no sleeping again and breastfeeding. I am fully prepared though for baby 2 to probably not be the "angel child" that P is. I can honestly say, I feel very fortunate that P is so laid back and easy going. So cooperative and happy (98% of the time). All of this makes me think that baby #2 is probably not going to be so easy. I can always hope that we could be one of the lucky ones that get two easy kids though right??

I'm still running/jogging a few times a week and trying to walk on days I don't run. I have more pressure and uncomfrtableness than I did with P but the doctor says that is very common with the second pregnancy. P's new room is painted and we just got a dresser to put in there and ordered a few things. I plan on moving her into a new room and then having her room (since nothing has changed) be the new nursery. We also caved in a bought a minivan. Never thought I would be one to drive a minivan but they are super practical for little kids.

As for P, she is growing lots and lots. I feel like she says new words everyday. She loves crackers and hot dogs, loves to read books (or have books read to her) and color and loves to go to the park and swing and go down the slides. She also likes sitting on her own chair at the kitchen table with us so we are planning on switching to a booster seat and getting rid of the high chair until baby #2 needs it. Stills loves baths and blowing bubbles and getting water dumped on her head. I feel terrible, as I haven't taken any pictures since xmas of her....will have to change that soon!

Potty Training and Other News

At daycare P has been interested in the bathroom and for most of the month of December he sheet at school would say that she tried to use the toilet. We were super impressed by this, I guess when you see other kids doing it, you do it too right...peer pressure. After the holidays we decided we would casually introduce it at the house. Really we just have one right next to the bath tub that we started sitting her on before and after baths and then I try in the mornings to put her on it when she gets up before we get dressed. That is how most days goes.

Last week she actually used it for the first time and then since Friday has gone at least once in every day, even at school. She isn't really telling us she has to go, we just sit her on it and she will sometimes go and she gets super excited that she actually went. We still aren't pushing it at all, but it is fun to watch the progression. I have no hopes/expectations for her to be potty trained by the time baby 2 comes in a couple months.

Her language is really progressing it seems at rapid speed now. Lots of new words and constantly trying to say a word for something. I still love that she wont say horse, but just "neigh" and wont say sheep but just "baa" and typically cow is just "mmmm", and monkey is "ee-ee". Although when I ask her where a certain thing like a horse is in a picture, she points to it (and then says neigh). New words are blueberry (booberr) and cheese, hot dog, pig, fish, boots, pants, shirt, but "ta-tas" is still my favorite for cracker.

I'm still working out. Some days are better than others. I was running quite a bit a month ago, but that has slowed down. Incorporating a lot more walking into my runs and it varies on the day with how I feel. This morning I ran/walked 4 miles but ran probably 3.5 miles of it and only walked 1/2 mile. What is interesting is that I am much faster than I was at this stage of my pregnancy with Piper. I am still running sub 10 min pace, somewhere now between 9:30-9:45 which I am super thrilled with.

We still haven't picked a name for baby 2. But might be narrowing down the list...just over 10 weeks now to go. Crazy.

18 month Update

P had her 18 month check up earlier this week. We are 24 lbs (50th %) and 32 inches tall (also 50%). And I'm a bit late on uploading photos from the holidays. So here we go...

Unwrapping my gift from Great Grandma and and playing with the blocks!




My Christmas outfit and a close up:


With the nieces in NY:

Opening presents at Papa's:

Amelia reading to P:

Uncle Ethan (or E-E as P calls him) reading to the girls:


A took P for a few rides on her new jeep:






My sis and I bought matching running shirts and ran a bit while up in the cold...and here is evidence that yes I really am preggers:

Bit Behind

I have been meaning to post about xmas but have been busy and lazy and I just keep forgetting to bring the picture card from the camera to work and usually don't bring my laptop home from work to upload photos. Oh well.

We had a nice 11 day trip to visit both families. P was an angel in the car. One of us sat in the back with her to keep her happy and entertained, but it was worth it to have a 12 hour trip, then a 7 hour trip and then 14 hour trip all go smoothly! We spent xmas with EZ's family in Buffalo and then drove to see my family in Michigan for New Years. P loved running around with all the cousins. I think she is going to like being a big sister (after little sister grows up a bit to play with).

She has started becoming very vocal. Lots of words now all the time, some make sense and some don't, but she is babbling away like she has lots to say. Last night she stated she wanted blueberries which came out somewhat like boobare but I actually realized that was what she was saying. And this morning, she found a heart label on one of the insoles of her shoes and kept saying heart. We haven't ever even used that word yet and she seems to know it (thanks daycare!) She still loves playing peek and boo and is such a fun easy going toddler. She really has a good time and makes me laugh.

We started using the potty this past week too. Not enforcing it by any means, but we put her on it as we get ready for bath at night and then right after. She has actually gone in it twice, but she still doesn't recognize that is what she is doing. We weren't planning on doing this so soon, but most days when I get her report at daycare it says she has tried to use the potty, so we figure we might as well start using it a bit at home too to enforce that.

She also has become super picky on the eating front. She use to be such a great eater and now, she could eat something one day and love it and the next day she won't touch it. Her favorite food right now is crackers (which she says "ta-ta's" for which I find funny).

I'm still cruising along...almost 28 weeks. Are we ready for number 2, absolutely not! I guess we still have about 3 months to get ready!

GF Cookies

I baked a bunch of GF cookies over the last few days to bring to the families for the holidays. Here is what I made and my thoughts:

Crockpot Chocolate Peanut Clusters- These made A TON. Holy cow. I did use some butterscotch chips and white chocolate chips in place of 1 bag of the regular chocolate chips. These are yummy and addicting and would be great for any occasion.

White Chocolate Peppermint Crisps-This I kind of just made on the fly. I usually make peppermint bark with White chocolate chips and candy canes, just melt the chocolate down and stir in the crushed up candy canes and spread it on a flat pan to cool, then break apart. This time, I threw in some GF rice krispies and dropped little spoonfuls on parchment paper to cool. These are super super sweet, but fun for the holidays.

Oatmeal Butterfinger Cookies-I got this recipe off of Gluten Free Cookie Swap on facebook. Currently they are having their GF cookie contest, so I saw these and thought I would try them out. I really like them. They are a little crunchy but good. EZ however didn't care for them all that much. Here is the recipe:
1/2c butter [room temperature]
1/2c sugar
1/2c brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup Jules GF Flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/3 c gluten free oats
1 Butterfinger candy bar [the big kind!]
MAKES ~ 2 DOZEN (adapted from bakingbites.com)

1) Preheat the oven to 350 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper
2) Cream the butter and sugars together
3) Beat in the egg then the vanilla extract
4) In a separate bowl whisk the flour + baking soda + baking powder + salt together
5) On low, mix the flour mixture into the butter mixture then add in the oats
6) Add in the Butterfinger (after mashing it into tiny bits with a hammer outside [the hammer part and outside part is optional])
7) Drop 1 inch balls 1.5 inches apart on the baking sheet and bake 10-13 minutes until brown on the edges

Fantastic 5 cookies-Again from the GF Cookie Swap. These were by far the simplest to make as there is hardly anything in them, I choose to use hershey kisses to make them like PB blossoms, and they are decent. Some people said they were the best cookies they had ever had, and one of my friends loved them. I thought they fell apart pretty easily but had a decent taste.

1 c. creamy peanut butter
1c. brown sugar
1 egg lightly beaten
1 tsp baking soda
1c. chocolate chips, reeses pieces, m&m's or other chips. (you can also choose to not put the chips in and top with a hershey kiss or reeses peanut butter cup immediately after taking them out of the oven.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients together with a spoon until blended. (Do not use a mixer). Drop by spoonfuls (size depends on you) onto a greased cookie sheet. Cook 9-10 minutes. Let cookies cool before removing from cookie sheet.

Monster Cookies-I grew up making these with my mom and still have the recipe. My mom's recipe is practically identical, hers called for a little more peanut butter and a little more M&M's plus a bit of corn syrup. I took Paula's recipe and made it with only 4 cups oats as that all I had and did half as is with the recipe, then followed my friends advice and added a bit of cinnamon and added raisins and made the rest. This recipe made 7 dozen regular sized cookies even though she said it only makes 3 doz. I have a lot of these too but wow are they super good and so easy to make GF by using GF oats. Yum.

I also made a recipe for Banana Blueberry Muffins out of the book "Free for all Cooking" By Jules Shepard that my sister gave me for my bday. These are wonderful too! Oh man, I must admit, these are the best GF muffins I have had, SOOOO light and fluffy. Yummy. I have made a few things out of this book and so far all have been superb! Highly recommend it for any allergy issues. She has recipes for all sorts of allergy free dishes not just GF but vegan and eggs, nuts, ect. It is a great book so far!

Alright, enough about food! Happy Holidays!!

Ramblings at 24 Weeks

How did I already end up at 24 weeks pregnant and plus a huge amount of weight, I don't know. Last week at the doctor when I stepped on the scale I had gained 10 lbs in the last month. I about lost it. I never had that much of a jump with P but the doctor didn't seem to care. Since then, I have worked out every day (but still have been eating cookies and ice cream.) :) I thought running was going to go out the window, but I am still able to run 3/4 miles 3/4 times a week. And managing to run 9:15-9:30 pace most days which is impressive to me for as much weight as I have packed on.

P still has no concept of what is going to happen. I finally said to her there is a baby in mama's belly the other day, but she could care less I think. She is happy as can be and is lots of fun. Running around and babbling up a storm. The talking is coming very slowly. She definitely says mama, dada, piper, all gone (all ga), more (she signs this too), papa, go, car (ca), dog (da), cat (kind of), bye, hello, hi. and tries to say a few other words for people she knows like her friends at school and in the neighborhood. She can also sign a few words too like please, more, baby. The cutest thing is her trying to say I love you which you can tell she says the I and love part but doesn't get you.

And she can do a few animal sounds, cow (which she only does mmmmm), bear (grrrrr) and lion (roar). Quite fun.

I finally finished up the semester of 4 tues/thur classes which was exhausting. My spring though will be super nice. Just one class that will meet 3 days a week but only for 8 weeks, so I am done at the beginning of March. It is a brand new class, but having only one will be super nice. I am hoping to get two papers written and submitted to be published though before baby number 2 arrives.

Last up a few photos:

Having fun in my new P sized chair:
Hello:
I can fit inside a file box:
Loves to read:
Close up:

Helping decorate the tree:

Photo Shoot

We had a mini photo shoot at the end of October and got some great photos with Two Clicks Away Photography. Here are a few (minus the one we actually used on our xmas card so it can be a surprise). How can you not love her!