I've hit mid 30!

I turned 35 today (well, I guess yesterday now that it's almost 2am)! I have been dealing with a cold all week, so Rich and I just rested today (he also has a cold). Bella spent the day with my dad, and apparently, she kept saying to him, "happy to you Mommy" (that's how she sings Happy Birthday) and then she realized, "where's mommy?" I missed her today, but I'm glad we had a chance to get some rest. Hopefully this cold will finally leave this weekend!

A few weeks ago, I talked to Rich about getting a new computer for my birthday...a Mac which would be a switch for us. After deliberating, we decided it was too much to spend right now with the economy being so uneasy and not being sure of his job. I was pleasantly surprised last week when he said that he wanted to get me the computer for my birthday and asked me if I had done the research. Well, of course I didn't since we agreed not to get the computer, right? He said, well you need to tell me because your birthday is next week! He's so funny!

Today, he gave me for my birthday a book, Switching to the Mac, and two Mac magazines. I think that is a clear indication that the Apple fairy is coming soon! I am so excited!

It seems my current PC laptop must know something is amiss. It's starting to hang up and I actually got the blue screen of death today. I immediately backed up everything (I don't keep much on this though thankfully). Rich wondered if I was just saying that things were happening to reaffirm that I needed the Mac. I said, Nope, it's really happening!

A lot of people get a bit depressed about getting older and hitting these milestones. I do wonder how I wound up being 35 already, but I look at my life and I am thankful for all I have - a wonderful husband, a beautiful daughter, a comfortable home, loving family and friends, and another beautiful baby on the way. How can I ask for anything more??

PS. I just felt the baby really move hard! It wasn't just a quiver, but it really felt like a kick! Whoo hoo!

President "Bama"

I never paid much attention to politics. I always vote in the presidential elections, but never really invested much into the campaigns, elections, and inauguration. Today, Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th president of this country and I was so emotional. As I wrote before, I never talked politics until this election. I was not an Obama supporter in the beginning, but by the end of the campaign, I believed he was the best candidate. And I still feel that way. When they introduced him at the inauguration and I saw him come down the steps and through those doors, I was in tears. I felt so proud of this country and how far we have come. When he gave his address, I felt confident and charged with energy, as I have whenever he gave a speech. I feel hopeful for this country and how we will look to the rest of the world.

I tried to get Bella to watch CNN but of course, no Dora and close to naptime equals meltdown! Thank goodness I DVR'd the inauguration! She took a nap and after she woke up, I tried to get her to say Obama. She's so funny though. She can say all the syllables perfectly... O - BA - MA. But when I say it all together, she says, "bama!" I told her, no, and accentuated the O first. She makes this huge O with her mouth and says Oooooo, pauses, and then bama. She'll figure it out. I need to tape her doing it though. It's really cute.

16 weeks and feeling movement

It is amazing how quickly the time passes when you have a toddler. It seems like yesterday that I took the home pregnancy test and here I am 16 weeks along. I've been anxiously waiting to feel movement just as an affirmation that everything is ok. I know deep down that everything is fine, but having a m/c and just not being blissfully unaware as I was with Bella tends to make me nervous. I guess I will be slightly nervous until this baby comes out. I also want to feel connected to this baby. With Bella, I felt connected immediately. Perhaps it was because it took so long, but also because I had no one else to divide my attention (Well, Rich but he was traveling all the time!) Now I have Bella, and she consumes my thoughts. She is so fun and I think she will make a great big sister. She says hi to the baby and kisses my belly all the time, especially if my shirt is up. But when she's done, she will put my shirt down and say, "Bye baby!"

When I was pregnant with Bella, I felt movement around 19 weeks. I was hoping to feel it sooner with this baby since they say experienced moms can usually tell what they are feeling sooner. For the last few days, I have been feeling something, but I wasn't exactly sure. Today, I am pretty sure that the little quivers I am feeling is the baby!

Welcome to our new blog home!

I've been negligent in posting to our blog for quite some time. I am starting to realize that I am missing out on keeping track of Bella's new developments and how things are going with the new pregnancy!

Bella turned 2 this past weekend. She was so excited! We had a small party at home for her, and we got her Dora balloons and a Dora cake. She absolutely adored her cake! When we were ready to sing to her, I asked if everyone was ready. She turned around and said, "I'm ready Mommy! I'm ready!" It was so cute! And when we were done, we asked her how old she was. She said, "4!!" She loves that number. I even put up two fingers and said two, and she will unfold my other two fingers and say, "No, 4!" She wore the dress that Jaime bought for Chloe for her birthday. She loaned us the dress when we left CO in November. It's so cute to see pics of both of them in the same dress for their birthdays. Of course, I've been slacking on taking actual portraits of Bella, but maybe this weekend. Unfortunately, she got a cold the day after the party and of course, I got it too.









She was so good about taking pics with everyone but even she had her limits!
















I'm not sure if it's turning 2 or the cold, but Bella has been having major meltdowns every day since Monday! She is usually so laid back and even if she cries, she will stop within a minute or two. Now it can be 10-15 minutes of uncontrollable hysteria on the floor. The first day, I tried to console her and it made it worse. Then her behavior was so ridiculously insane that I actually started laughing. I know that sounds horrible, but I really did. So now I just leave her alone. When she starts to wind down even for a second, I try to divert her with something else. The worst was yesterday. She freaked out about having to take a nap. That alone is so odd since she usually starts going up the stairs and heads straight to her room. I had to carry her kicking and screaming up the stairs. She was still quite upset when I put her down in her crib, but I think exhaustion hit and even though she was trying to resist, her eyes started closing and she finally stopped. It's so funny how these kids can behave!!

Another thing she's been doing is feeding Jordan. She loves to pour Jordan's food in the bowl, put the cup back in the bin, and lock it. Then she has to carry the water bowl to Jordan's food stand. Of course, I have to hold it and she really just has her fingers on it, but she is so proud of herself afterwards. It's really cute if Jordan is in the way. Bella will say, "scuze me Jor..an! scuze me Jor..an!"

She now knows her shapes (circle, star, square, triangle, heart, rectangle, diamond) and colors (red, blue, orange, yellow, purple, green, and pink) - some in Spanish too. She knows numbers but she needs a little prompting to say the numbers in order correctly. She can say up to 15 (number of stairs in the house), but she always likes to put 4 in there more than once! We're still working on the letters, so now we watch Sesame Street in the morning. They do the letters very well on that show, so it helps her to learn. She got a wood alphabet book for her birthday and she knows all the pieces (apple, butterfly, cat, etc) and says them as she puts them back in. It's really cute how much she has learned and grown!

She's also become quite the girly girl. She has a pearl necklace and gold bracelet from her Uncle Mike and Uncle Ed. She adores her jewelry! She asks to wear them every day! And she's so proud of them that she will show and tell everyone about them! Tonight, I gave her a bath after her nap and she insisted on wearing her jewelry, having a bow clip in her hair, and putting on silver sparkly shoes!! Yikes!

As for me, I am feeling ok. I am now 14 1/2 weeks along. We had an ultrasound at 7 weeks 5 days and we saw the baby's heartbeat.



We had an appt at the end of December and we heard the heartbeat then too. It's so exciting to hear. Bella is not quite understanding yet about the baby. Sometimes she will hug and kiss the belly, but otherwise, she has no problems divebombing my body or jumping on my belly (of course, I have to block her!) We will probably have our next ultrasound in about 6 weeks, so hopefully the baby will let us see what he or she is! I was ok with being surprised but Rich really wants to know!

That's it for now. I'm going to post pics when I get a chance! I also have video but we are having technical difficulties downloading it so it may be a long time before I get that up here!