Three Times!

Sorry to stray from my usual "this is what's happening in my life and the life of my child" posts but I just have a question that I must ask.

I was just reading on people.com, getting caught up on my celebrity news for the day. There was a link to a story titled "Kate wears the same jeans - three times!". I just laughed. Seriously? Three whole times? What a poor girl that she must wear the SAME jeans again. Not only again but THREE TIMES! Guess what? I wear the same jeans hundreds of times! New story on MSN - "Regular girl wears jeans more than just three times!". Would it be the biggest story of the day?

Some of you may also read another celebrity magazines at times (US, I can't even think of another name of one). I only indulge in purchasing these magazines when flying. And I usually only buy People, US only gets purchased if a cover story is interesting enough to warrant another purchase of pretty much the same material. Anyway, I believe that US has a section called "she really loves her..." and is followed by pictures of celebrities using or wearing an item more than one time! She really loves her... louis vitton bag! Well, no shit, she spent like $800 on it, she should use it more than once. Plus, how annoying to change your crap out of a bag every single day so you won't be seen with it more than once? When they go on trips, do they really bring a new bag for every day? And what do they do with the bags that have - gasp! - been used once?

Forgive me if I'm being a little too... thrifty... but isn't that the point of purchasing items and then washing them? So you can use them again? These poor famous people who must use things more than once, or three times if you are Princess Kate, welcome to my world. If I wore something only one time, or even just three times, I would be sad that I spent the money and never used it.

Ok, I'm done with my rant for now - good luck on your day of wearing *side eye* something you have probably already worn three times!

24 Weeks

Yesterday, I marked my 24 weeks as a preggo lady. I had my 24 week check up and everything is looking great. The baby is the correct size and the heartbeat was in the mid 130's. My doctor seems fairly sure it's a girl but she doesn't know for sure (the ultrasound techs don't tell her, they know she can't keep a secret). The baby is moving around a lot the past few days so it'll be an active one for sure!

Here are some belly pics from the past 4 weeks.

21 weeks

22 weeks

23 weeks

24 weeks

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 24 Weeks

Size of baby: my doc says that the baby is about a pound and a half at most at this point. My pregnancy app says that it's as long as an ear of corn (about a foot long).

Maternity Clothes: yep, wearing them every day. I'm so glad it's summer, I just wear dresses and skirts every day!

Gender: still a surprise! Doc thinks it's a girl, some friends seem very sure it's a girl, others think it's a boy.

Movement: all the time, mostly when I stop moving (sit in my chair, lay down at night, right when I wake up in the morning).

Sleep: actually getting a little better. Being exhausted at the end of the day helps to fall asleep, I still take a half a sleeping pill to stay asleep.

What I miss: breathing well. The past week or so the baby has started to take over my lung space and I can't seem to get a good breath most of the time.

Cravings: coffee. and cheese. Oh and my new craving is a veggie Jimmy John sandwich, I could have one every day!

Symptoms: getting a little better overall, been sleeping better, not throwing up as much, headaches have lessened a bit. I still get a little bit of heartburn but not too bad. The biggest symptom at this point is a large, swollen belly!

Best Moment this month: Reed is still hugging and kissing my belly a lot. I love that he does that without being asked. He has started to hug my belly a lot lately and it just warms my heart. I love that every time we ask him if he wants a brother or sister he always says "sister" in his cute little voice (he only said brother once and I think he says sister because that's the last word we say rather than he actually knows what it is).


I'm hoping to get Reed's new room put together fulling in the next few evenings so that he can start taking a nap in there this weekend. I've got the walls painted, the dresser repainted and his artwork done (I painted a picture for him). Fogg put together his big boy bed last night and he seems pretty interested in it (he laid on it for 20 minutes or so). I just need to vacuum, put together two bookshelves, arrange the furniture and hang the wall things. Then move his stuff in there! He seems excited about the idea of a big boy room, I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out so far. Hopefully I can post pictures of it next week when it's all done!

Cheers for now~

Yay America!

Wow, what a busy and exhausting weekend we had celebrating the fourth of July, friends and a wedding. I'll try not to bore you with all the details but that very well may happen.

Our friend Max got married on Sunday and we had some friends come into town for that. We got to spend some time with them (Brett and Rachel) prior to the wedding on Saturday morning. We had a big fat breakfast and let the kids run around and get dirty. After heading home for a nap for Reed, we headed down to Salt Lake City to attend a housewarming party for another friend (Sean and Melissa). It was SOOO hot on Saturday, I think everyone lost a few pounds sweating. Our friends new house is beautiful and it was nice to catch up with a few people. Then we jetted home for a quick dinner, a bath for Reed and a change of clothes for all of us. Then it was off to another shindig, this time a summertime BBQ at yet another friends (Chris and Jen) house. Reed enjoyed playing with their yard games - bocce ball and crocket (not sure if either of those are spelled correctly!). Off to home to recoup from the day and get ready for the next!

Sunday morning, Fogg went for a bike ride with Pete and Brett and Doug before it got to hot. We loaded up a bunch of crap to donate to the church yard sale then headed up to the valley. It was another hot day so it was nice to be in the upper Ogden Valley where it's a tad bit cooler (by cooler I mean 97 instead of 100). After church, we unloaded a lot of stuff from our truck and many other people's. We also helped start organizing but bailed a bit early so Reed could take a nap. In the afternoon, after I finished some final touches for Reed's new room (now all I have left is to put it together!), we got ready for the wedding and headed off to the Branch's to drop Reed off for the evening. Reed was very excited about riding Papa's tractor.
He was also enjoying picking strawberries with Papa. Nana said that Reed pretty much wasn't a few inches from Papa the whole night. He finally crashed on their couch.
We had a great time at Max and Saydee's wedding, catching up with so many great old friends. It was fun to spend time with Pete and Amy, and Brett and Rachel without kids, we could have conversations without running out mid-sentence to catch a child. We also got to catch up with old friends Jackie and Alex White. Saydee looked amazing, I wish I had gotten a picture, her dress was beautiful.

Amy and Pete Gompert

Brett and Rachel Paradis

Of course, us.

Sunday morning, we got up early to head up to Huntsville for the breakfast and parade. Every year, they do a big breakfast in the park along with all kinds of games and booths for people to enjoy. By the time we finished eating, it was almost time for the parade. We went to the corner where the church is and sat with our friends. Here is my patriotic son playing with a few flags.

He got a ball during the parade, along with a lot of candy that was thrown. It was a funny parade, very small town. Reed really enjoyed the horses and tractors.

Our friends, Sarah and Jared and Ava
At the church, there are four of us that are pregnant (Amy had her baby a few months ago). Katie (40 weeks), Sarah (38 weeks), Kaytee (31 weeks), me (24 weeks)
It was Katie's due date on July 4th! She is my hero, she walked a full 5K, had a big breakfast, watched the parade, went to a BBQ and enjoyed the park activities (including "face/belly" painting) all on her actual due date! Can't wait to hear when she finally has that baby!

After the parade, we went home for a nap and to pick up food for a BBQ. We enjoyed a nice relaxing time with friends in the afternoon then it was finally time to head home for the rest of the day. We were so exhausted! I totally crashed on our drive home, not feeling well at all. I spent the rest of the evening laying on the couch, eating a bowl of cereal for dinner and taking a shower. It was nice to crawl into bed at the end of the day. We didn't watch any fireworks, it's not really our thing, I was kinda annoyed at the neighbors that were lighting fireworks past midnight (don't they know I have to work in the morning!).

Anyway, it was a fantastic holiday weekend full of tons and tons of friends that we really enjoy and rarely see! Now I need a weekend from my weekend!

Toilet Talk

So this past weekend we launched into some potty training. Beware, this post is about pee and poop so reader be warned. Reed has been using the potty on and off for the past several months, just peeing every once and a while. We always made a big deal about it but he wasn't consistent. About 2 weeks ago, he started going pee in his potty at least once a day. We thought that was a good sign that he was ready and we decided to try the whole shabang this past weekend. I work from home on Wednesday and Nana Branch watched him Thursday. Fogg was home with him on Friday and together we had the whole weekend. That's five full days of good "family" supervision so we gave it a try.

Wednesday I didn't do very well. He pee'd in the potty several times, pee'd on the deck once and the rest of the time everything in the diaper. He did alright for Dianne on Thursday, using the potty a few times at her house. Still no number 2 though. Friday morning, I went to work and received a phone call from Fogg and Reed saying he had pooped in the potty! How exciting! Fogg took him to the splash park to have some fun for being such a big boy.

When I got home in the afternoon he had set up these two chairs in front of the TV. Elmo is his potty training companion (he also has a sippy cup and potty). Reed has taken Elmo under his wing the past few days, taking care of him. He is cute, gives him drinks, asks him if he wants to do stuff, saying "there you go!" like we must do. He sat Elmo next to him to watch some TV (disregard that I was watching a little Chris Rock). He was talking to Elmo at this point, not sure what he was saying.

Saturday morning, we were both there but I was up painting Reed's big boy room and Fogg said that he had a number 2 accident on the floor. Apparently Reed was very upset about that. Later, when Reed was napping, I was cleaning the play room and found that he not only pooped on the floor, but he also pooped in a play construction vest and hid it. Fogg had no idea about it, Reed knew he must have done something wrong. Each time he had a success we celebrated, hugged and gave him a treat (most of the time a marshmallow). Each time he had an accident we would remind him that he should pee or poop in the potty and he would always say "tay" (which means ok).

Sunday morning we were feeling like failures but Reed went pee in the potty pretty much every time he was naked (which was every time we were home). That's one success I guess. He did still pee in his diaper when it was on though. He was acting very much like he does before pooping and we decided to be like hawks on him so we didn't have another construction vest incident. We kept asking him if he needed to go to the potty and he was getting a little irritated with us at that point, saying "no" like "stop asking me!". We told Reed that if he pooped in the potty we would get him a new toy dirt bike (he other one had just broken). So after a little avoidance apparently the need overwhelmed him, he stopped what he was doing, dropped the things his had in his hand, yelled "potty!", ran over to it and pooped! We were thrilled! Immediately, we got dressed and went to Toys'R'Us and got him a new dirt bike! He was excited the whole way over to the store, saying "dirt bike" over and over again. Then after he got it, he wouldn't let it go, kept saying "dirt bike! mine!". I guess it was a good reward for him. Unfortunately, it didn't stick, he pee'd and pooped in his diaper the whole time we were out. He pee'd in the potty a few more times yesterday afternoon. The other exciting thing is that he has mostly kept his pull-up diaper dry when we are out. He still doesn't get that he can just tell us he needs to go potty when we are out and we'll take him.

Anyway, not complete success but not a complete failure either. Potty training is definitely a difficult task for both the child and the parent but one day he'll get it! Any advice from my very few readers would be much appreciated! We think that we should continue with the training, even if our first attempt was spotty. Right now, our technique is to have him naked from the waist down when we are home and constantly ask him if he needs to go potty. We reward him and tell him how proud we are of him when he does it right. When things aren't quite a success we will tell him that we don't pee or poop in the diaper (or wherever), we should use the potty and he agrees. Pee is for sure a lot easier to get him to do in the potty than the other but we'll get there. We have some backup dirt bikes for other milestones in this process.

In other news, I painted Reed's new big boy room this past weekend and am working on repainting a dresser and other art work that will go in his room. We have a busy fourth of July weekend, but maybe I can squeeze in some room decorating time. I hope to have it finished within the next two weeks so Reed can start using it. I think it'll make him feel even more like a big boy to have a new room and a big boy bed. I'm excited about how it's going to turn out and will post pictures of it when it's complete!

That's all for now!

Daddy Day

This past weekend was Father's day. Fogg didn't express a strong need or want to do anything in particular but we came up with some winning activities anyway. It was a rare weekend that we had nothing planned and we got to spend the whole weekend together as a family at home. On Friday night we hosted a few of the Wasatch Back Relay teams at our house for a few hours so they could get a little shut-eye before they started running again. Saturday morning, Fogg went on a bike ride and Reed and I just chilled and played. After running some errands in the afternoon, Fogg and I did a little bit of house reorganization. We prepped Reed's new room to get painted in the coming weekends by moving the furniture out of there. Therefore, we had to find places to put all the stuff! Of course that lead to reorganizing/cleaning up the storage room/warehouse in the basement. Which lead to reorganizing/cleaning up the shop area the following day. It feels good to get things organized actually. In the afternoon after Reed got up from his nap, we went down to a local park that has a miniature train ride. Reed enjoyed it quite a bit. Then he played at the playground with his Dad. Notice Reed's sweet father's day shirt.

Sunday morning we got up and headed to get some breakfast. This is one of Fogg's favorite things to do so he enjoyed it quite a bit. I love how Reed has his hand on Fogg's shoulder. He spent the entire breakfast holding on to him. Reed is also in a phase that he doesn't want his picture taken so he will scowl.

We then hit the Home Depot and then off to church. We took a nice family photo.

While Reed was down for his nap in the afternoon, we cleaned up Fogg's shop, another thing that I'm sure he enjoyed for father's day. Unfortunately it rained off and on all day so we weren't able to get outside and do anything fun. We just hung out at home the rest of the evening as a family!

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful husband! Here he is recreating a photo from when he was about 10 years old. He had this exact same dirt bike and has a picture with his leg slung over it like this. We found this at a bike shop in Moab and he almost bought it off the guy. Now he is on the search to find himself this bike - in orange of course.

Reed giving it a try - a natural?

Marshmallow Dreams

A few weeks ago, Reed unfortunately had another ear infection. He got put on an antibiotic and sometimes that will cause some serious diaper rash. This time around it was particularly bad. He hadn't taken a bath in a few days because of it and it was severely needed so I forced him to bathe. He cried and cried and was so very sad. I bribed him to finish the bath with a treat (a marshmallow). It was sort of late and he was tuckered out from such a traumatic event. He fell asleep on my shoulder while holding the marshmallow. When I put him in his crib, I tried to take the marshmallow out of his hand and he instinctively held on to it and wouldn't let me take it. So here he is clutching his marshmallow while asleep.


He is gaining more and more of a personality every day. He will always say "thank you" when you give him something, he's learning to say "please" more and more. He will even say "your welcome" when you say thank you to him. The cutest thing is that he has started to say "bless you" when you sneeze. What a cute little bug!

140 down, 140ish to go

I have a handy little app on my phone called babybump. It tells you on the opening page how many days to go - which up to this point has been very discouraging (in the 200's!). On another page about the details of that day or week, it will give what day or week you are on currently. I've been anxiously awaiting the day when both pages say the same number of days - 140. Which also means that I'm exactly 20 weeks (assuming I have the baby on the due date). So I've survived 140 days and have 140 days left - ish.

I've been feeling a bit better the past few weeks, though sleep is still a major issue. My mind won't stop working, it almost works harder at night than it does during the day! I forget a lot of things during the day but at night, I work through actual events, actual future events and possible future events. It doesn't stop! But I've stopped throwing up (thankfully), am eating well and feeling pretty good overall. I have a few things that are annoying that I didn't have with Reed, like heartburn and headaches, but those are manageable.

I read another blog that is a relative of a friend of a friend - she doesn't know me from Adam, but I really enjoy her blog. Anyway, she posts this along with her pregnancy updates that I thought was kinda fun.

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 20 Weeks

Size of baby: at my 20 week ultrasound (which was done at 19 weeks) they said the baby was around 11oz, so it should be a little bigger now. That is actually a little big for my due date, so hopefully that means the baby comes early rather than just being big. A girl can wish!

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Gained 6 lbs.

Maternity Clothes: Fully in them now, though some shirts still seem too big. Some of the more drapey clothes hide the belly a bit but it seems fairly obvious that I'm pregnant now.

Gender: don't know! We love the surprise. Some days I'm convinced that it's a girl and other days I'm convinced it's another boy.

Movement: This baby is a mover! I've been feeling it moving quite a bit. It moves after meals and when I lay down at night.

Sleep: like crap! I even take a half a sleeping pill which helps a little bit. Pretty constantly up at least once a night to pee.

What I miss: not much cause you sort of adjust to being pregnant. I suppose I do miss the occasional evening cocktail.

Cravings: not much more than usual stuff - ice cream, fresh fruit, carbs. I guess I've been craving a lot of cheese. My favorite craving (which is mostly over now) is the baked goat cheese (pasteurized of course) with fresh pear and tomato and spring mix from Red Rock Brewery.

Symptoms: not to sound like a complainer, but here is the list of "abnormal things". Heartburn, headaches, not sleeping well, tailbone hurts, occasional severe back and hip pain on the right (comes and goes).

Best Moment this week: Feeling the baby move a lot more, seeing it moving. But by far my favorite was Reed giving the baby a hug and being "nice" which means he just rubs my belly. Then he pulled my shirt over my belly and said "night-night". Love that kid!

18 weeks

19 weeks

20 weeks

Reed was playing last night before bed. He took all of his cars out and started lining them up on the ottoman. He would keep saying "car!", "truck!", "tractor!", then proceed to add it to the line up. Sometimes there was a "big" in front of it if it was large. When he felt it was complete (as demonstrated by the empty bin behind him) he sat down next to it and said "sit down". I asked him if I could take a picture of his parking lot and he said "YA!" so I told him to go stand by it and I would take a picture. Here he is very proud of his cars and parking lot.
Cheers~