Who Would Have Thunk It

Well, here we are at week 16 and the baby it still growing strong. I had my 16 week check up yesterday and had some blood drawn this afternoon (how I hate to get my blood drawn). I got to listen to the baby's heart beat and feel him/her moving around in protest to the heart monitor pushing on my belly. I was very pleased to learn that I had lost 6 pounds since my appointment 6 weeks ago. I was a little worried about my weight when I first found out I was pregnant, because I had really wanted to lose some weight before I got pregnant again. So my next option was to hope that this pregnancy would be similar to my first pregnancy, where I lost 10 pounds instead of gaining weight.

I know, who would have thought that getting pregnant would be a good diet plan. Well, honestly it isn't, but it really makes me think about really taking care of my body for my baby's sake. Plus, it really doesn't help that I started my pregnancies out being overweight. With Olivia, I managed to maintain my weight for most of my pregnancy, then I was diagnosed with Gestational Diabetes. Because of that, I really had to watch what I was eating to make sure that there were no complications with the baby or myself. Mostly I was worried about the baby. Thankfully, I was able to keep my blood sugars under control and because of it I lost 10 pounds during the last 10 weeks of my pregnancy which put at a very healthy weight for my pregnancy. Once I had Olivia, I told myself that I was going to keep to the diet and that with nursing I would be back to the weight I was before I was married. Well, I got lazy and relied too much on the fact that I was nursing so I was already burning calories.

So, here we are with baby number two on the way, thankfully I'm not as overweight as I was when I started off my pregnancy with Olivia, but slightly overweight non-the-less. Even though it hasn't been confirmed yet that I have gestational diabetes, I am treating my body the same way. Even if I don't have gestational diabetes, which isn't likely to happen, I intend to keep going with this diet so I can be at a healthy weight when this baby arrives. And this time, I've got a head start.

Catching Up on the Ole Noodle

"I figure while Mom and Dad spend their time
catching up, I'll just take a munch break and
chow down on this tasty spaghetti noodle.
Mmmm Nmmm!"

Well, it's a bit late for our holiday updates, so lets just say that we had a blast. Really, the biggest news right now is that we are expecting baby number 2 on August 30th. We were both completely shocked when we found out, because we were thinking of trying in a few months, but this baby had other plans for us. We are very excited; shocked, but excited for this new addition to our family. At my first appointment with the doctor, he said that everything was looking great and that the baby was a wiggler. I seem to remember him saying the same thing about Olivia. I am very glad to be back with Dr. Olsen, because he knows what to expect with my pregnancies. Even though I didn't feel like I had a difficult pregnancy with Olivia, I know that having gestational diabetes can be dangerous so I'm glad that he knows how to handle it and that I know how to take care of myself. Even though it doesn't tend to show up in a pregnancy until around week 28, he will be testing me at week 20 to make sure it doesn't show up earlier. Since that is the case, I will be going back on my diet now that my morning sickness is passing.

Life is moving right along for our little family. I can't tell you just how happy I am that I get to stay home with our little girl; it is such a blessing. I'm grateful that Frankie has a good job that allows him to support us. It is so much fun to stay at home to see just how fast Olivia is learning and growing. She is starting to pick up words here and there that she adds into her nonsense jabber. Slowly, but surely, her language skills are building. There is a funny little story behind her first word phrase, "get down". When Olivia started to become mobile, we had to move the cat dishes onto the table so that Olivia wouldn't eat their food out of their dish; we really didn't have any other option. So whenever we eat dinner, or any meal really, the cats try to sneak up on our food and eat it. So, we are constantly yelling at them to get down. At times we will smack the table to try and scare them down because yelling at them just doesn't work sometimes. Well, a few weeks ago Olivia and I were just playing with some of her toys in the living room, when Winston jumped up onto the cat food bin just to perch there. Olivia saw him there, stood up and practically ran toward him. When she reached the container she yelled "Get down!" and smacked the lid of the food bin. It startled Winston, so he ran off, but I just couldn't stop laughing and just couldn't wait to tell Frankie what our little girl had learned. Now whenever she sees the cats in the kitchen, she just starts to yell, "Get down!" at them regardless of where they are. She loves to play with the cats, even though they don't like it so much. She loves it whenever she can get one of the cats to chase a string or play with a stick. But she really loves it when we can get Millie to chase the laser pointer. The first time she saw Millie running around, being all crazy just made her laugh uncontrollably. We just had to capture it on camera, but are having a hard time getting it to load, so maybe next time. In the mean time, please enjoy our late, late Christmas photos and some recent photos.

"I just woke up and now I get to go see what
I got from Santa. This is sooo Awesome!!"

"It's Christmas morning and here I am, stuck waiting
for Dad to grab his camera. Oh well, I guess I'll at
least check and see if anyone called me..."

"Whooaa! This Santa-pede is enormous! I always
wanted one of these! Dad says I'll have to share it,
but I think he's just jealous. This is soo cool!"



"Hmm... It's hard to say which binkie I like more.
I mean, the pink one helps me stand out and all,
but I feel like I don't exactly need that cause
the yellow one is like, hey, look at me. I'm cool and
I can handle myself. Yeah, we'll go with the yellow one."



"Dad, it's a good thing you're the one behind the
camera cause 1) I'm the cute one who gets to open
presents here and 2) you have a booger on your face."


Olivia! The Musical

"Welcome to my first showing of 'Olivia! The Musical,
starring myself. Please no flash photography during
this unrehearsed performance and hold your applause
to the end of the show."


"da da da dummm... ping! Maa maa maa geeet
dooowwn maaaweee geeet dooowwn maaweee!!


"And now... Act 2! Now what page was it again...
This would be so much easier if I had bigger hands!"



"Hey! I said no flash photography! If you want my
signed photograph, I'll be signing albums after my show.
Now beat it! Oh, Hi Dad, it's just you!"