Blakely Lately

A few things about my girl recently.  

She is obsessed with her nightgowns.  That is all she wears when we are at home and it is a struggle to get her into real clothes to leave the house.  She had quite a few that were too small but you couldn't tell her that.  Finally I convinced her to put the small ones away for baby sister by getting her two new ones that fit her great.  She was thrilled.  I mean the look of joy on her face when I presented her with a new Sno.w W.hite and Cin.derella nightgown was enough to make me teary.  She happily packed up the too small ones.  She doesn't just wear them either.  She uses them as a blanket for her peeps.  She lays all of them out so it is a constant maze in my living room.  She changes into a new nightgown about every 30 minutes or so.  Thankfully she has learned how to do that herself so I don't have to help her anymore.

If she is not in a nightgown (rare) then she is dressed up in some sort of super hero/princess dress.  

She is little miss sassy pants.  She has started talking back and it drives me nuts.  When she gets in a mood she will talk back or yell at me NO!  I'M NOT GOING TO DO THAT!  Ummmm...yes.  Yes you are.  We have been using timeouts but what really seems to work is taking away a privilege.  We have talked to her a lot about all of the fun toys she has and the fun things that she gets to do and how those are privileges that she can lose if she is naughty.  So when she acts like that she loses something.  We usual talk about what it is going to be after her timeout.  The main things that she hates losing are her nightgowns (lol), her peeps (babies and stuffed animals that she constantly plays with), fingernail polish or her show before bedtime.  Honestly it makes my life more difficult when she loses one of those things but it seems to get through to her so we press on.  

The days of me picking out what she has to wear are few and far between now.  She has such an opinion.  Well really she just doesn't want to wear what I pick out.  It doesn't matter what it is...it could be her favorite thing but she will say no just because it is what I suggest.  I see this happening a lot.  With her food as well.  If I offer it then she doesn't want it.  She wants to come up with the idea herself.  I am learning to maneuver around this.

Me:  I think this tank top would be great to wear in this 30 degree weather.  

B:  No I want to wear this sweater.  (MOM WIN)

She likes to help me cook.  I try to let her as much as I can but I am probably not as good at this as I should be.  I just want to whip it up and get it done.  Having her help me takes so much longer and makes a much bigger mess.  I am going to try and do better at this because she is always so proud to tell Lonnie what she made for dinner.  We have been making some sweet treats lately (thank you pregnancy) and she LOVES to help with that.  She always says we are "making sumptin in the oven for Daddy".  

She DOES NOT want her picture taken.  I have to bribe her to even look towards the camera.  Hopefully this is just a phase...a long one.  :/

She definitely has a best friend.  We will call her R.  They were in the same gymnastics class for about a year until last summer when R stopped doing it.  Then R started going to MDO and that is when they really started being BFF.  They are also in the same dance class and now R has started back up in gymnastics.  It is pretty cute to watch them.  When we get to MDO or class or whatever they run and give each other a hug and immediately start playing.  Her mom and I have become friends and we laugh at how much they talk about each other when at home.  

She is very helpful.  Most of the time anyway.  She constantly wants to help us do the things we are doing.  Whether it is making a smoothie, organizing her toys or sorting Daddy's coin collection she wants to have a job to help us.  Just today I went through my dresser drawers and it was her job to put things into the different piles.  I hope this keeps up when the babies get here!  

sorting Daddy's coin collection

making a smoothie

She asks "why" all.  the.  time.  She wants to know the why about everything.  Sometimes it can drive me crazy if I feel like I have answered her more than once.  But normally if you just explain things to her then she is okay.  She just wants to understand.  Why is it raining?  Why do you take a bath every night, Mom?  Why do we need to get gas in the car?  Why are we driving Daddy's car today?  Why does Daddy have to go to work today?  There are about 4 follow up "why's" to each of these.  She is not satisfied with a "that's just the way it is" answer.  Sometimes I really have to think about how to explain things to her.  

She used to be such a snuggle bug in the morning.  She would come get in bed with me when she woke up and cuddle for a good 30 minutes.  Now she wakes up ready to GO GO GO.  She refuses to come into my room and just want to go upstairs and play.  This is super hard on mama...it takes me a while to roll out of bed in the mornings.  

This was at 7 am.  She brought these paper dolls to me while I was still sleeping and told me she was ready to play with them on her tea party table.  Also....her eyes and lips.  I mean...

She will still snuggle before nap though so I shouldn't complain!

She loves watching gymnastics on tv.  Grand called me one night to tell me college gymnastics was on tv and she thought B might like it.  I recorded it and we have watched it a lot since.  She runs around all over the living room trying to do what she is seeing on the tv.  Cartwheels, jumps, rolls and twirls.  She finally made us bring her trampoline in the living room so she could get more air during her moves.  It is pretty cute.  When her routine is over she runs over and gives us all a high five like the "big gulls" do.  I am just waiting for the time when she just does a back flip off the couch.  Matter of time.  I love this video so much.  

She is eating constantly lately.  And I am not kidding.  She normally has 2 breakfasts before 10am.  The first is usually 2 pieces of toast either with butter or peanut butter and some sort of fruit.  Then the second is another fruit, yogurt or some eggs.  Then she wants lunch around 1030!  She wants to snack all the time.  I am pretty strict about no snacking when it is close to a meal time because it was always ruining her dinner.  But right now she could snack and then eat a large meal as well.  She has always eaten dinner and then nothing after that.  Now she has to have a snack before bed.  I guess it is just a growth spurt because she is sleeping better too.  

Some funny things she has said lately.  

Me:  That was a good idea B.  Who taught you that?  

B:  No one, Mommy.  It was just in my brain!  


Sarah and I were having a conversation and she was trying to get our attention.  Finally she got frustrated and walked right over to us and said, "Stop the words!"  We cracked up and stopped talking to see what she wanted.  


She spent the night with my mom last Saturday night.  She kept asking GranDi when the "Tomball" game was on.  Ha!  I guess I have been talking a lot about the Sup.er Bo.wl lately.  

Random things she likes:
pears
hide and seek
rinsing off her own dishes
crafts
her piggy bank


Random things she dislikes:
putting her hair up
brushing her hair
water in her eyes
our dog :/
washing her face after meals

Lately Lonnie and I will just look at each other sometimes and be like "omg she is such a little girl".  She is definitely not a toddler anymore so I guess the next description is preschooler?  She is very logical and can be reasoned with most of the time.  We find if we talk to her like an adult or explain her discipline to her like an adult then she responds really well.  I can't believe we got so lucky to be her parents.  She is so full of personality and is a joy to be around.  She makes us both smile and can brighten up any foul mood.  I have loved watching her grow and I can't wait to see her bond with the new babies!  

Go Patriots!

Just dropping in on a Sunday to say GO PATRIOTS!  

This pic was taken 2 Sundays ago during the AFC Championship game but we will be rocking the same gear today.  The only difference is the belly size!  

Y'all know I love me some Patriots.  Which is weird since I live in Arkansas and every other human here is a Cowboys fan.  But not these girls!  In this house we cheer for the Pats.  We are all pumped for the game.  And the food.  Excited for that too.  

Let's bring home the win boys!  And as Blakely would say....GOOOOOO TOM BABY!  LET'S WIN THE TOMABALL GAME!  :) 

Whew!

What a week!  

Lonnie has been off so I had our organizer girl come three full days (M, T, W) this week so we could tackle the things that we needed his help with.  He is not off again until mid March and I knew we needed to get these things done because I would like to have the garage sale as soon as possible.

I tried to prepare him for what I wanted to do but I don't think he fully understood.  9-4 each day going through things, cleaning out things and sorting things.  There was not going to be any, "oh I don't want to go through that box" or "oh, I'll go through that one later".  No.  We were doing it.  Right then.  We started in his office which was a freakin' wreck and once that was done we moved to the master closet downstairs.  There were a ton of my keepsake boxes from college and high school that I went through and consolidated.  Then we moved to the garage.  This forced Lonnie to go through a bunch of boxes that he has been putting off going through.  His Dad died almost 10 years ago and he has a lot of his stuff.  He went though all of that and I was so proud of him.  About midway through the second day he was done.  Over it.  But I made him push through just so we could finish.  And we did.  Whew.  He was mad at me but I think he's over it now ;)  And he loves the fact that it is done.  

We got a lot more done than I even imagined.  I wanted to complete his office but we were able to do that plus empty out the closet downstairs (which is where we will store the sorted boxes AND it is the nursery closet...it is really big) and then move to the garage.  I did NOT think we would get to the garage but that is why I hired this girl.  She keeps us on track!  I will post pictures when everything is final.  All areas are still a work in progress until we clean out all other areas and then have the garage sale.  

Also on Tuesday we interviewed a lady who is going to help us with housework a few days a week when the babies come.  An entire post on that later.  But that was just one more thing to add to the list of stuff to do (and prepare for).  Then Blakely had dance and that night and my MIL came over.  

This morning we took B to gymnastics and then came home so I could finish going through a few more things while Lonnie took a nap.  Then he went to an afternoon and evening full of meetings.  I am WORN OUT.  So I am propped up on the couch typing this while B watches F.rozen.  

Tomorrow we have a window guy coming to give us an estimate on new kitchen windows because one of them is broken.  Turns out they aren't tempered glass and they are supposed to be (but weren't required to be when this house was built).  They go to the floor so we are looking at replacing 2 others besides the broken one.  Fun.  Lonnie has to go through the last bit of paperwork in his office (future guest bedroom) or my head may explode.  I am ready to rearrange the furniture and hang stuff on the walls to actually complete a room.  I honestly try really hard not to nag Lonnie ever.  I never make "honey-do" lists for when he is off and I just let him get around to doing certain things in his own time.  But this week I have really been on him.  He knew it was coming but I think he will be glad when this week is over and he can go back to work!  Ha!  

I also have a friend coming tomorrow to look at our bedroom set that is in the babies room.  Hopefully she is going to buy it because then I will actually have a nursery.   Whoop!

It has been a long week but a crazy productive week.  I have felt pretty good and that helped a lot.  My girl is coming 2 days again next week so we can tackle my crazy areas of the house (craft closet...oy).  Things are moving faster than I thought and we already have a ton of garage sale stuff.  Man I can't wait to get that crap outta here.  It is going to feel so good!   

Medicine cabinet

The other day Lonnie got tired of the craziness in our medicine cabinet and decided to clean it out.  He said I didn't even need to help him.  Wait.  What?  

Obviously I told him to go for it.  I didn't take a before picture but you can just imagine three shelves overflowing with medications and vitamins.  A lot of it was leftover stuff from IVF and then just random bottles of Ty.lenol, etc.  

Anyway, we went through every single item and ended up with quite bit to take to the hospital medical waste.  I had some leftover medicine that I donated to my clinic since they were unopened.  

The point of this post is not about the cleaning out of the cabinet.  The point is that I wanted to show you this picture.  

That is 10 full sharps containers.  TEN.  FULL.  The one on the far right is about halfway full but the other are brimming.  All of these are from trying for baby #2.  When I was working at the hospital while trying to get pregnant with B I would take them occasional and empty them in to the sharps containers there.  But now that I don't work there they have just piled up over the last 2 1/2 years.  These are the needles from one frozen embryo transfer and 3 IVF's.  Geez.  Just call me a pincushion!  

It felt good to get rid of all of that...the medication included.  Part of me wanted to wallow in the fact that I even had to poke myself that many times.  Wah wah wah.  But ya know what?  It was worth it and I knew that it would be.  That is why I kept going.  I am so thankful to be where we are right now.  I am so thankful that we were ABLE to keep going.  Sometimes it still feels surreal.  Like I am going to wake up and all of this was just a dream.  Then I get a swift kick to the bladder as a reminder that THIS IS HAPPENING.  This girl is so happy and so in love with these two tiny miracles.  

Baby girl

Baby boy

20 weekers with the twinkers

How Far Along:  20 weeks.  Halfway.  Although surely we will be taking these babes before 40 weeks! 37 weeks is my goal.  I can do this.  

19 weeks

Maternity Clothes:   Oh yes.  I found some amaze maternity jeans (thank you Jes.sica Simps.on).  When I get tired of wearing leggings (HA!) then at least I have a pair of jeans that look nice.  I also brought up my bag of maternity clothes that I had with Blakely.  It is mostly tank tops and a few pairs of shorts but I got them all washed and ready for spring.  Come on SPRING!  I can't wait to be able to just wear dresses with or without leggings instead of all these dang layers.  

Sleep:  Sleeping hard.  Blakely is sleeping better too so yay!

Best Moment of the Week:  seeing these precious ones on our ultrasound.  They looked perfect and cooperated great so we could see everything that needed to be seen.  So thankful for that.  I will have growth ultrasounds now every 4 weeks and have appointments every 2 weeks.  

Movement:   yes.  I feel them pretty often and it is getting stronger and stronger.  I feel baby boy the most because he is low.  I do feel baby girl up high but just not as strong yet.  I love it so much and I can't wait for Lonnie and B to feel them.  I have been able to feel some kicks a couple of times from the outside so it is just a matter of time.  On the ultrasound today she was trying to get some pictures of baby girl but baby boy kept kicking her so it was making her jump even thought it wasn't her doing the actual moving.  I foresee a lot more of that!  

Symptoms:    still the same as last time although I think my "super fun pain" is a little better.  Or maybe I am learning when I need to rest and not overdo it.  And the girls have started leaking.  I expected it as this is about when they did that with Blakely.  Real fun.  

Food Cravings/Aversions:  Can I just let y'all know that I wake up with the appetite of 10 men.  I act like I haven't eaten in days...all day...until about 4:00 and then I'm not so hungry anymore.  I want all the pasta that was ever made in the world too.  Should be good for the poundage.  

What I Miss:  nothing right now!

What I'm Looking Forward to:  getting things together with the house.  It is so hard to find coordinating boy/girl crib bedding.  I know what I want but finding it has proved to be a little difficult.  Although yesterday I think I found a lady on E.tsy who can do it for me for a reasonable price.  I just purchased each babe a quilt and I can't wait for them to get here.  I hope to sell our bedroom furniture this week or next so then I will have a baby room to play in.  Fun!  

Also, naming these babies!  We have about 5 girls names that we would both love to use.  Boy names?  So much harder.  Seriously.  I don't like ANY of them.  Or I like them but it just isn't his name, ya know?  We have a family name for him that we always thought we would use but now it is super common so we are kind of backing off on it.  But it just seems like nothing will live up to it.  We will see.  We have time!  

Milestones:  reaching the "halfway" mark and just getting one week closer to meeting these babies!  

Blakely's take:  Blakely talks about the babies a lot so I thought I would add this in to these little updates.  Right now she tells me that she has babies in her tummy too.  Which is pretty funny because she raises up her shirt and pokes her little belly out.  My mom sent me this the other day...

When I am making her pick up her toys before bed she tells me that she can't bend down because of the babies in her tummy.  Smart girl really. 

We were sitting together at the window waiting for Lonnie to get home 2 days ago and she reached over, rubbed my belly and said, "I can't wait for the babies to come out".  Sweet girl.  Although I am pretty sure she is going to want them to go right back in once they do come out.  

Someone asked her if she was excited about becoming a big sister in a few months.  She said I ALREADY AM A BIG SISTER!  

She wants to feel them move so bad.  She comes over and puts her hand on my belly for a minute and then says that they must be sleeping and we should be quiet.  

Yay for another week in the books!!

The house

There are about eleventy billion things that need to be done in our house to get ready for the twins.  I made a list the other day of all the things that need to be sold, bought, organized and rearranged and it was 12 pages long.  Lordy. 

I want to document here the progress that we make because I am sure not all of the things I want to get done will actually get done.  I know you are dying to hear ALLLLLL about it....

Here is the thing.  We haven't really "finished" our house since we moved in 8 years ago.  Granted this house was move in ready and there weren't any big projects to finish but I mean like finishing decorating each room and stuff like that.  Want to know why?  Infertility.  I can blame a lot of things on it but this is a big one.  I feel like our life has ben on hold for the past 6-7 years.  I didn't want to turn our bar into a big fun adult pool table/ping pong room because I had hopes that it would be a playroom for children.  And then that didn't happen in the time frame that I was expecting so everything just got put on hold.  I didn't want to make one of the bedrooms downstairs into a super nice guest room because I want to make it a nursery!  So basically we did nothing.  We had our master upstairs and then some furniture in a room downstairs and called it a guest room.  Then of course when B came along we made her a nursery.  But other that that we have quite a few rooms that were/are not being used to their full potential.  

So that brings me to now.  We have to make room for 2 babies!  Let me give you a little rundown of the way our house is laid out.  

The upstairs is the main floor, the floor you walk in on and the floor where we spend most of our time.  This is where the master is (as well as the living room, dining room, kitchen, and laundry room).  We always lived in this room until we had B and then we moved down to the guest room beside her room which is where we live now.  

The downstairs has three bedrooms and then a large (bonus?) room that has a nice bar and lots of space.  We have used this as a bar/storage room.  Grrr.  One of the bedrooms is smaller and is my husband's office right now.  It has no windows and tile floors.  We call it the dungeon room.  It is a nice room but the others are more spacious and have windows and doors that look out to the lake.  

Anyway.  Basically we are rearranging our entire house before the babies come.  Or at least it feels like it.  Here is small(!) list of the big things that we have to do before babies.  

1.  The twin's nursery is going to be the room we live in now downstairs.  So we have to sell the bedroom set that is in there to make room for baby furniture.  Then we have to move back to the master upstairs.

2.  Move all of the furniture in Blakely's room (crib, dresser, chest of drawers, queen bed and glider) to the baby room.  Buy B all new furniture.  She's getting a new white bed and dresser and a room makeover.  No paint (her room is green) but lots of other new stuff.  

3.  Make the office into a guest bedroom.  There is already a queen bed in there so mainly this will be a bunch of organizing books (L is a book hoarder...have I mentioned that?).  We are going to sell the desk and desktop computers that are in there so it is less office-y and more comfortable for guests.  Ya know, since it has no windows :/

4.  The bar/storage room is being turned into a family room/playroom.  I think this space will need its own post.  It is crazy right now but I have big plans for it in the future.  One day it will be just a playroom but for the immediate future I see it as a family room and a playroom.  It is huge so that will work for now.  

So how am I going to get all of this done?  Well the first thing is I am having garage sale.  I have never had one before and I may never again but I feel it is the best way to get rid of all of the junk we have.  (Side note...where does all the crap come from?)  I am in the biggest purging mode right now.  I want to throw away EVERYTHING.  Ugh.  It is driving me crazy.  I think once we purge a bunch of our stuff then we can start to get the rooms to come together.  The problem is that I can't physically do all of these things.  I have a few good hours on my feet a day and the rest of the day is spent sitting down or laying down with some spurts of "getting shit done" in between.  

So I hired someone.  She organizes for people for a living.  I may or may not be in love with her.  She has been here one day for 6 hours and we completely went through the bar and organized it.  I sat the entire time.  She would bring me a box or something and ask what I wanted to do with it and that was it.  She doesn't get tired or distracted.  And she is totally OCD.  I am so thankful I found her!  She is going to help me get everything together for the garage sale and then work the sale with me also.  I feel like once we can get all this excess crap out of here I will be able to breathe and feel better about bringing a ton of baby stuff into the house!  

We plan to have this garage/yard sale in about 8 weeks....so late March.  For right now she set up the bar downstairs as a garage sale and we are pricing things as we go.  So now when we clean out the craft closet, for example, we (she!) can just take things into the bar to the home decor section or the kids section she has set up and toss it in a box with a price.  I think it will make going through the rest of my house much easier.  Then we just have to bring all of it upstairs right before the sale.  Yikes.  My list of things to clean out/organize with her are:
-bar (done)
-craft closet (it is mostly organized just a few months worth of stuff that I didn't put back in place and threw on the floor.  Ha!  lots of purging will happen here)
-the baby's closet (this has a bunch of sports equipment, puzzles, luggage, large baby items, etc in it)
-Blakely's closet (I have done most of this but still some left to do)
-help get Blakely's toy situation under control.  (pregnant mom + 3rd birthday + Christmas has sent the toy sitch into overdrive)
-laundry room (my god the laundry room)
-office (have to have Lonnie around for this)
-garage (have to have Lonnie around for this)
-our closet upstairs (all of our clothes and shoes)
-pantry (not for the garage sale but just for my sanity)

She is going to organize as we clean out too.  So the laundry room will be a completely usable space unlike the 25% that is usable right now.  

Once we sell the bedroom set in the twin's room (have a few people interested already) we can move all of B's baby furniture in there and order her a new set.  Then we we will actually have a space to put baby stuff and I can begin to go through some of the clothes that I saved from when Blakely was a baby, get the swing out of the attic, etc.

I am thrilled to get started on this huge project and I am so happy that she said she would help me.  To me it seems like a ton to do but she says it will move quickly now that we've gotten started. She's not overwhelmed like I am!  I didn't really start doing a thing for Blakely's nursery until about 28 weeks but I needed to start sooner because we have a lot more to do and because I could end up on bed rest or something too.  Not to even mention if the babies come early (please stay in there!).  I don't have the energy to do all of it and Lonnie works too much.  It would take us a year!  And yes, I will probably pay her as much if not more than I will make in the garage sale but I don't care a bit!  Totally worth it.  

Oh, you want to see pictures?  Okay....  I will take some before and afters for sure.  We organized the bar but since it is the storage place for all the garage sale items it is still pretty hectic.  I want to wait to post before/during/afters of that until the playroom/family room is set up.

Eeeek!  I know you are all as excited as me!  

tag along

I had an OB appointment the other day and I usually schedule them on the two days I know Blakely will be in MDO.  Well I have kept her out of MDO this week (and probably next) because the flu is so rampant here and I am stressed about us getting it.  SO she got to tag along to the appointment with me.  

I told her in the morning all about it and that she was a big girl to get to go and meet Dr. Jaime.  She had all kinds of questions about him.  I explained that he took care of babies while they were in tummies and that he took care of her when she was in my tummy.  She thought that was cool and then asked about a million other questions.  

Since we haven't left the house much lately I tried to make it somewhat of a date for the two of us.  We left the house early so we could drive thru chi.ck-fil-a then we drove to the hospital.  We parked and I let her get in the front seat with me.  We ate our food while listening to the Fr.ozen soundtrack.  

This was just a quick checkup so I thought it would be a breeze taking her.  She was very interested in the fact that I had to pee in a cup.  She wanted to do it too.  Took me 5 minutes to explain that she could not.  She was really cute during the appointment.  She sat in the chair and let me talk to the nurse and then the doctor.  About halfway through she got up, came over to me and asked if she could give me a hug.  I said yes of course.  Then she went back and sat in her chair.  

Turns out he wanted to check me again (because of the vagina pain...fun).  So I strategically placed Blakely at the head of my bed and gave her my phone.  She was totally engrossed in the phone so I don't think she even realized I got half naked!  

Everything was fine.  Which makes me feel (and him) feel better.  I am really hoping to avoid being checked next time.  I go back in 2 weeks for the big ultrasound.  Once I got dressed and we walked out into the hall he asked Blakely if she wanted to see the babies.  She of course said yes not understanding what that meant.  The sonographer wasn't busy so we got a sneak peek at the babes and Blakely thought it was pretty cool.  She kept saying "that's baby sister on top and baby brother is on the bottom".  

She did great with me and I am glad that I got to take her AND that she got to see the babies.  She keeps asking to feel the babies move but she can't feel them yet so I think seeing them move around in there was fun for her.  For a few minutes and then she was back to digging in my purse and pulling things out.  :)

When we were on our way home I was telling her that she was such a big girl and maybe she could go with me again.  I said, "I really love it when you go to the doctor with me" and she responded with, "I really love it when you go by yourself and I get to spend the day with Daddy".  Ha!  So there may not be a next time but I am glad there was a first time!  ;)