2 Year Checkup

Height: 34 1/4 in {75%}

Weight: 28 lbs {75%}

What an appointment!  Allie is a shy little thing.  Men scare her, particularly old men.  She also still hasn't gotten over her bad experiences with the eye doctor last year.  Since our doctor is older, male, and a doctor she of course started screaming and tried to climb over me to get away from the doctor when he walked through the door.  The doctor was very patient with her though and towards the end got her to calm down. 

In the beginning the doctor was confused and started asking questions for a five year old, since he thought he was doing Lily's checkup.  I kept answering yes to a lot of questions until he got to can she ride a two wheeler with training wheels.  I said, "Well no what two year old can?"  He got a good laugh when he realized from my answer that he had been asking the wrong questions.  But before moving on to the right questions he asked if Allie could really do things like count to 3, talk in sentences, know shapes, know animal names, etc. Affirming that was all true he was surprised at how much she knew!  Yay Allie!

After the "questions"  we went on the physical portion of the checkup began.  The doctor reassured me that even though Allie is 75% in both height and weight it isn't a problem.  She is built well proportioned apparently.  Lily was this way when she was younger so I'm sure Allie will thin out as well.  We did find out that Allie had two different kinds of infections which would attribute to why she cried every time I have to change her diaper.  A little over the counter medicine should clear everything up though.  

Things had started to go better as the doctor calmed Allie down, but then the nurse came....Two shots, one each leg.  Boy did that get Allie going again!  The nurse gave her a sticker which helped and by the time we got to the car she was fine.  Doctor visits are so hard with this phobia of hers.  Hopefully she grows out of it soon.

Runt

This pregnancy has been a bit unusual for me.  I don't really look pregnant, I've just barely started wearing maternity clothes, and I haven't gained a single pound with this pregnancy.  Russ and I have come to the conclusion that I am much smaller this pregnancy than with Lily and Allie.  So we've nicknamed the baby Runt.  We've determined he might be the runt of the family.  Which I'm okay with if it means I don't have to have another 9lb baby! LOL!  This nickname led us to start calling Runt a "HE" as well, because wouldn't it be funny if we finally have a boy and he is smaller than his to older sisters.  Okay, well me and Russ found it funny.....{crickets chirping}.

Next week is the much anticipated date of the ultrasound.  It feels so early since down in here in good ol' Texas they have you come in at 18 weeks instead of 20. In light of this I thought it will be fun to see what ya'll think we are having.  Are we going to be blessed with a boy or girl?  Cast your vote on the sidebar of my blog!

Our House: Mantle

Many people have questioned me when I am going to put up pictures of our house.  I keep giving the answer that as soon as I finish a room I'll post pictures.  Well four months later I have yet to completely finish a room.  By the time Russell finally stopped traveling a ton and could do some house projects that needed done to unpack, I was pregnant and too sick to do unpack.  I'm feeling better and Russ has finished a few of the projects so we hope that in the near future we will have a few rooms finished and ready to show of :)

Feeling a little down about this whole situation I decided today that I was going to finish something so I could feel like this house is making progress.  So I picked the small task of decorating my mantle.  I knew I could get this done in one day, and it wouldn't totally where me out.  {Please don't think I'm lazy, just know that this baby has been worn me out more than any other baby and I'm still not sure why.}

Okay after that long intro here is my finished mantle....

And a close up....

It is a work in progress.  I can live with this instead of the cluttered mantle it was before, but I'm sure things are going to change.  For example, I'm probably going to find something better to lift my candlestick than an upside down Christmas bucket. LOL!  The frames are also going to get painted and/or replaced.  The flowers need trimmed, replaced, and filled with rocks.  I also need to figure out the balance better and how to overlap my pictures.  For now I'm done and happy with it....YEAH!!!!  However, if you have a suggestion on how to make it look better leave me a comment because my interior designing skills are lacking

Conversations

Walking through the living room today I glanced at the couch and found this.

I went in for a closer look of what exactly was going on...

Obviously Lily was up to something, so I called her over and  asked why the pictures were like that.  She gave me an exasperated look and said, "Mooommm, me and Allie are talking!  We needed to keep each other company"

How silly of me, why didn't I realize that pictures can have conversations with each other!

Lil' Reader

  Allie loved her caterpillar book {The Hungry Caterpillar} since she was young., but she has never enjoyed looking at other books.  Recently Allie has become very involved in reading books.  Many times it will be quiet and look around for Allie and she is in some little corner reading a book she's pulled off the shelf.  Today I loved watching Allie read this book.  It was so interesting to watch her point at the pictures and look at them intently before whispering to herself what it might.  I loved that she was interacting with the book as if I was right there by her side.  Sigh...just another proof to me that my baby is growing up right before my eye.

Oink, oink!

Taking a risk today, I asked Allie if she would like pigtails in her hair.  She responded with a hearty, "YEAH!"  Allie has never liked getting her one pony tail done, so I was nervous about doing two.  She did sit down well but screamed when I put in the hair things.  I swear I wasn't pulling on her hair , but apparently it was hurting her.  We got through the experience and Allie was the proud owner of pigtails for church. 

Front

 

Side

Back, and yes I know they are crooked but I wasn't about ready to redo them once I noticed.  Oh and look at her little curls in the back.  Just like Lily's started out!

New calling

Last night I was out shopping when I got a phone call from one of the counselors in the bishopric.  He asked me to come in tomorrow so that someone in the bishopric could talk with me.  Immediately I realized I was getting released.  A lot of changes have been going on in our ward when a couple moved out of the ward.  They were both presidents in an auxiliary.  Also the primary president I have been working under has been in her calling for over three years.  That is a pretty long time.

After realizing I was getting released I then realized I was getting a new calling.  Since our ward is fairly small there is rarely a time anyone goes without a calling.  I then started fretting what it could be.  I fretted until today when me and the girls met with Bro. Whipple.  He laid out my calling and I breathed a sigh of relief. 15 minutes later I was released as the Primary secretary and sustained as the Primary 2nd counselor.

I felt relieved that I hadn't been called to many other more time consuming calling.  At the same time I feel completely overwhelmed with this new calling  It has been awhile since I have taught children.  I feel rusty with my teaching skills.  Then there is the gospel aspect.  The last primary president really emphasized to us that children learn the foundation of the gospel and their testimonies in primary.  I worry that I won't be able to teach these eager children the principles that I need.

BUT......I'm so grateful that I received this calling.  I have always loved working with children, and I feel comfortable there.  I'm sure if I just do my very best the Lord will help with the rest.  I'm being thrown into my new position fairly quickly, as next week I get to teach sharing time!  Gratefully it is going to be a combined sharing time and singing time.  Our chorister is a wonderfully strong teacher and a good friend.  I'm sure teaming up with her will ease me into this new {and wonderful} calling.

Shrug it off

 ***This post involves numerous mentions of the joys of being sick.  Read no further if you are squeamish!***

It was one of those days where being pregnant just adds fuel to a roaring fire.  I keep telling myself that I need to shrug it off and move on, but I'm having a hard time with that.  So I'm going to write it out in the hopes that it will help me feel better.

Things started out fairly normal with us getting up and having breakfast so we could go to swim lessons.  While I was rounding up swimsuits and towels I heard Allie coughing from the kitchen.  Then Lily chimed in, "Eew!  Moooommmm, Allie threw up!"

Great, not what I wanted to hear.  I check and sure enough Allie had been sick.  She was fine though and insisted on more cheerios.  I figured her cold she had made her cough and gag reflex kicked in.  Nothing to worry about right?!

Merrily we got ready and headed to swim lessons.  No problems there.  Directly after we headed to playgroup that was at a small splash fountain.  No problems there other than Lily scraped her arm on the sidewalk, and preceded to show everyone her boo-boo.  By this time I was exhausted.  Swimming and sun always were me out.  So I took the lazy rode and went to McDonald's.

I got home got the kids all settled with their food when I noticed water spilled on the floor.  I shook my head in frustration because three times earlier today and yesterday I had cleaned up water in the exact same spot.  I thought I was going crazy.  I mopped it up, sat down next to Allie just in time to here... cough, couch, gag, gag.  This time though it was on my pretty beige carpet because mommy thought it would be fun to have a picnic....without a blanket.  Oh, and lets not forget that Allie had eaten a TON of watermelon at playgroup that another mom had brought for the kids.  In case you don't know...red watermelon stains beige carpet.  GAH!!!

I stripped Allie down sat her on a towel and let her resume eating.  She was hungry even after that!  I washed her clothes out and sat down to my cold lunch.  Russ would have to steam clean the carpet, i just wasn't up to that.  Rest assured though I did wipe up most of the....ummmm...gunk.  After sitting down Allie promptly turns to me and says, "Need to go potty"  I being the wonderful {and lazy} mom that I am tell her to go.  See the thing is, whenever the girl gets declothed she feels like she should try and go potty.  As of yet, not successful attempts, so I figured she could go by herself.

Happily she runs off and I hear a tremendous SPLASH!  In my mind I think, that was too fast to be pee.  Sure enough it wasn't.  She had messed all over the floor.  By this time I also recollected that she had already messed her diaper 3 times this morning.  By now I was starting to realize maybe this wasn't just a cold Allie had.  I was also eternally grateful to Allie for messing on tile NOT carpet.

Dutifully I cleaned up Allie and the mess.  I made sure to get a diaper on her so we didn't have splash accident number 2!  By this time I had given up on the idea of  eating so I went into the kitchen to throw away my food.  I looked down and there was that stinking puddle of water again!  Except this time it looked white not clear.  I sat there and stared at the water for awhile until I noticed the whit drip marks all down my cabinets.  Then I saw the "explosion!"  A watermelon that I hadn't quite got around to cutting up had exploded on my counter top!  There were holes in it seeping with....ooze.  And it was EVERYWHERE!!!!

I turned went to the couch and began to cry.  I managed to call Russ and sob out the story.  He asked if I was trying to make him want to stay at work.  Hmph!  "He then gave me the encouraging words of clean up what you can and I'll help with the rest when I get home" After getting off the phone I felt a little bit better, but those stupid pregnancy hormones kept me thinking awful things about the kind of mother/wife I am.  On a normal day I could have handled this, on a pregnant day...not so much.

I did my best to clean some of the watermelon up but it stank so bad {apparently it had gone rotten and I hadn't noticed} that I had to stop or get sick myself.  By this time Allie was screaming bloody murder about something and I went to check on her.  The poor girl had messed her diaper again and a nasty blistery rash was taking over her bum.

I hauled her into the bath where she cried for the first ten minutes of the bath then apparently received some relief.  The rest of the day was spent with me trying to rest {remember I was tired from swimming?} between screams from Allie.  I finally called the doctors to see if they could give any suggestions to help her out, but they weren't helpful at all.

Russ came home a few hours later and saved my sanity.  I don't know what I would do without him.  He cleaned the carpets, mopped up some of the watermelon explosion, carried around a screaming Allie, and worked on killing an ant nest{that is a story for another time}.  Typing this all out has helped me "shrug off" the bad day and bad feelings.