It's a Boy!!

This one is just for Daniel:

We found out we have a little boy on the way!! The due date is estimated to be Feb. 14, 2012 per the ultrasound. We are super excited that we'll have one of each. I went through Jillian's clothes up until now and pulled out the pieces of clothing that he will be able to wear. I went to the secondhand children's clothing store this weekend and found him a pair of long-sleeved onesies in the 0-3 month size. One is olive green with a fuzzy bear on the front and the other is olive green and brown striped thermal. They had plenty of other cute boy clothes but I resisted. For now.

Garrett started working on the siding of our garage this weekend. He is taking today and maybe tomorrow off to continue working on it while the weather is perfect. A friend of ours came out and showed us how to get started on it and he will hopefully be coming back out to help install some of it. I'm really excited about it and it's going to look so nice.

Jillian is in full walking mode. She gets excited and tries to start running but her feet aren't ready for that just yet. We are having lots of spills and tumbles but then she just starts laughing. She has two more teeth coming in around her bottom two incisors. It looks like she has skipped the top two incisors for now so she'll look extra cute until the top ones come through. She'll be extra cute anyway, just saying. She has taken to mouthing rocks. When we walk onto our driveway she leans way over while we're holding her to look down at them. If we're in the yard, she cruises over to the gravel. She is keeping us very busy.

That's about all for now. Enjoy some photos. The swing photos are of her first time in a swing. She liked it. She gets into her old bouncer and bounces on it. She typically stands on it, holds on to the back and bounces with her legs. She's a funny girl.

Soon

The one thing that has come to mind all week is that our ultrasound is tomorrow. I'm so excited and can hardly wait. I've noticed the baby becoming very active in the past week with lots of jabs. It kept me awake for a little while the other night because it was so active. It's been fun feeling that little life inside me wiggling around. I had really missed that after having Jillian. I've been feeling good. Everything is stretching out again. My cesarean incision hasn't been achy but the round ligaments are lengthening, which makes it hard to hold Jillian's hands half way bent over while she walks. Yes!! She's walking!!

Jillian cruises along if she's holding our hands or pushing her little car around the house. She loves walking! She gets a look on her face like she is on a mission and very determined. The most steps she's taken at once without holding anything is 13, two nights ago. The gate is going up at the stairs as she has become an expert at crawling up them. The crawling, scooting down them will take some time as right now she just turns around and starts heading down them without getting her footing. She has good balance, just needs to get her confidence up a bit and she'll be running. I'm happy she's walking because that means I won't have to carry her everywhere with the expanding belly, but I'm also sad because that means she's growing up. While walking down the stairs last week I didn't see one of the cats on the step and I stepped right on him and nearly fell while holding Jillian. It scared us all but I caught myself by bracing against the sides of the stairwell. My back muscles were cramped up for a few days afterwards but got through it just fine.

Jillian went through a phase where she was hitting our faces and swiping her food across her highchair tray. She has stopped hitting but continues the food swiping occasionally. With some good advice, we figured out how to redirect her actions and saw almost an immediate result. She is continuing to struggle with ear infections. We are getting over #4 in 3 months. The timeline is 6 within 6 months so she is well on the way to getting tubes, especially coming into cooler weather seasons. She was on one antibiotic that wasn't helping at all, only giving her unpleasant side effects but we didn't know it until she ran a fever of 102 and vomitted. When we took her back to the doc last week they switched her to a previous antibiotic and it seems to be helping for now. I caught something last week also and had a sore throat for the week and ran a fever for a day. Last night my throat became very sore again so hopefully it's nothing.

Garrett's work seems to be getting busier while mine is slowing down. It's normal for mine to start slowing this time of year but it is really slow and looks like it will be that way for a few months. Good for you, because I may have more time to post on the blog! Garrett's busy with his Stryker project and now they are talking about making his wind turbine setup bigger. That will be quite the job. He continues to work hard on the garage. I'm not sure of the last thing I mentioned about that but he has all of the insulation up, walls and ceiling, and is starting to install the drywall. In two days we was able to get the east wall and corners completed. It's really looking nice. We have a friend coming out to the house possibly tomorrow evening to give us (well, Garrett) tips on putting up the siding. We really need it up soon due to weather. Once it's done he continue work on the inside.

That's about all I have at the moment. Happy Autumn!

Travels

After going to Minnesota for a week and Missouri for 4 days, we are happy to be home for a little while. We drove to Eden Prairie, MN where Garrett had training at MTS. It was a very nice area. We got up every morning and had breakfast at the hotel, Jillian and I dropped him off at MTS and she and I went for a walk at nearby parks. Eden Prairie was voted the top place to live in the US in 2010. While there, she had another ear infection so we spent some time at the pharmacy to treat the infection, then to treat the side effects. We also went to a few discount children's clothing stores and found her some cute clothes and a few toys. The three of us went to the Mall of America to visit the Lego store and aquarium. The Lego store was fun to see. Jillian really enjoyed the aquarium. She had been a little fussy that afternoon so we weren't sure if we wanted to chance buying the tickets and she getting upset during the tour or if we would go back another day. We decided to try it and she did great! She intently watched the swimming fish and talked to them in her animal speak. She has a distinct tone of voice she uses when she sees animals of any kind. One evening we drove to a nearby REI store. It had a grand entrance with a curving pathway that led to the front door, lined with trees and mostly wild flowers. We walked across a short bridge over a fish pond. To the side of the entrance stood Charlie Brown and Lucy from the Peanuts crew. We also went to Gander Mountain, Ben & Jerry's, and a local BBQ restaurant. We had a good time. We traveled to Missouri 4 days later for Garrett's cousin's wedding. It was very nice and good to see all of the family, even if for a short time. We sure miss spending more time with everyone. The past two weeks flew by and we are glad to be back home. We have a few projects we need to finish, some to start and finish, hopefully before the baby arrives.

I've been feeling pretty good. I've had some lower back aches and my c-section incision has been sore. My belly has really popped in the past two weeks and I've been feeling the baby move. I haven't noticed as many distinct movements as I did with Jillian at this stage, but more of the fluttering. I had a cherry coke yesterday and the baby became very active for a few minutes. I'm excited to feel more movement. My next checkup is next Friday and then we'll schedule the ultrasound. I have a feeling it's another girl, the Belgian relatives that we saw this weekend think it's a boy. We'll find out soon!!

Jillian is a crawling machine. Yesterday evening she was zooming across the floor from room to room so quickly she was getting out of breath. She would take off as fast as she could, stop and turn to look back at me, smile and take off again. She also climbed stairs for the first time last weekend. She went up and back down the first two steps twice, then off she went, with little pausing. I know she'll keep up hopping soon, more than we know, but at least I won't have to carry her as much. It's getting quite difficult with the growing belly. She pulls up to a standing position frequently and she is standing without support for up to a minute. She has tried to turn or move but hasn't yet been able to get her feet to follow. My dad predicted she'd be walking in 30 days. I think he may be right.

Keep in touch everyone. We love getting calls and emails.

As begged for....

Jillian and......

Hi there! Jillian has been sick for the past few weeks, starting with a double ear infection, then a bad stomach bug with fever, now back to a double ear infection. In the midst of her having the stomach bug, her ears were fine. We took her back to the doctor yesterday because she wasn't drinking or eating hardly anything and the doctor said she has a bad ear infection again. So, we are trying a different antibiotic and hopefully we can avoid tubes as long as it doesn't recur 6 times. Jillian is so great even when she's sick. Even though she has felt lousy she has smiled a few times and then remembers she doesn't feel well. Her stomach bug started Tuesday evening on the drive home. Garrett stayed home with her on Wednesday, then he caught the bug and was home Thursday and Friday. Mary came to visit for the weekend and it was really great having her help. We sure hope she didn't catch it. Amazingly, I have been able to escape it so far.

On a happy, exciting note...... We are expecting a new baby Thorne in February! We had our first appointment July 15. When we arrived the nurse practitioner takes care of the first appointment for expectant families. Garrett of course was with me and the NP told him "good job" and we all laughed. She could not find the heart beat after searching for a few minutes and I was concerned so they give me a quick ultrasound to make sure the baby was ok. The doctor in the office said he had a little time so we took a look and everything looks great. The baby was wiggling and we could see it's little heart fluttering. Amazing! I am excited to hopefully hear the heart at our next appointment next week. We are quite happy that Jillian will be a big sister and hope the two will be good friends (eventually). The official due date is February 11, 2012. I have to say that I'm happy I don't have to carry a large furnace around through the whole summer. We are trying to decide what we need in terms of a car seat and if we want another crib for the new baby or a toddler bed for Jillian, then give the crib to the new baby. We will also need another high chair so we'll be talking about that also. There are some seats that look like a high chair without the legs that sit on a big person chair, but they aren't quite a booster, but convert to a booster when necessary. That seems confusing. We really don't need much. In fact, we haven't even put away Jillian's bouncer or "bubble" chair that she outgrew a few months ago. We are planning to find out the gender and should know at our appointment in September, yet to be scheduled.

Between Garrett reaching a stopping point on the garage fix-up and illness with Jillian and him, we haven't done much of anything else. We were hoping to see Part 2 of Harry Potter over the weekend but that wasn't a good idea for obvious reasons. We'll see it sometime. Our jobs are about the same. Not too busy, not too slow. Our cats and Huntley are all doing well. We try to take walks when the weather isn't smoldering. Neighbor Frank let us go into his garden last Monday and pick green beans and sweet corn. Garrett and Mary blanched and froze the corn and we need to do something with the beans. They were more than ready to be picked so they aren't the best beans but it was very nice of Frank to let us take some. He said he already canned 37 quarts of beans and hadn't mentioned how much corn he'd picked. He sure has a lot of both and more to come that he planted after the first crop. We have some tomato and pepper plants that are producing very well. I need to get out there and work on the garden. With the heat I haven't been out there much and it looks like a jungle. I went out to pick a few cherry tomatoes for my salad a few nights ago and there was something in the tall weeds making noises at me and moving around, but not moving away. I quickly picked the tomatoes and jumped over the knee high fence. I'm guessing it was an opossum but it's hard to know. It sounded like a quick hiss/spit noise. Perhaps a snake?

I don't have my cable with me to hook up my iPhone to the computer to post any photos but I will try to remember to grab it.

Happy August!

Whew!

Jillian is in full crawling mode. She has mastered crawling and pulling up and she crawls faster every day. She has both of her bottom incisors poking through and I think she will have more soon. She has been chewing a lot again and a little fussy. Generally, she continues to be a happy girl. We received all of our cloth diapers a few weeks ago that my friend made for us. They have been great. I enjoy using them in the fact that we're saving money and contributing less to garbage. I don't enjoy them so much in scraping and washing but they are overall great. They have adjustable elastic so as Jillian grows we can alter the fit.

My work has been very busy the past few weeks and Garrett has stayed busy, too. He continues working on the garage. He finished up running the interior gas line, now we need to have the gas company run the exterior line. He finished insulating the walls and has about 1/3 of the ceiling insulated. He has taken a few days off from garage work due to hot weather. I've been staying busy chasing Jillian and trying to get housework done. We've been so worn out we haven't gone anywhere fun in a while. We hope to make a camping trip with Jillian soon. At this point, it will have to wait until fall when it cools off a bit. We bought a nice Kelty pack to carry Jillian in and have been using it some on our walks. It will be handy for hiking when we take a little weekend trip. There are a number of camping/hiking locations within a couple hours from us to choose from.

That's all I have for now. I'll try my best to post photos soon. It's time to pick up my Sugar. Hope you're all doing well.
Our love,
~Chris

AHHHH! Baby on the move!!

Jillian crawled last night! It was nearing bedtime and she and I were playing on the floor in the living room. I had eaten some fruit snacks and set the wrapper next to me. Apparently that wrapper was very interesting to her! She got onto her knees from sitting, started rocking, and moved each knee an inch or so. Then she sat back down. She did that two more times, then didn't stop for a good 3 feet! By then she had reached the wrapper so I sat her back a few feet. I was in shock. I could hardly believe I'd just seen her crawl. She did it again, and again. I could hardly contain myself due to excitement so she and I went out to the garage to get Garrett and he came inside and saw her crawl. I was able to get it on video and will get that posted as soon as possible. I think she was excited because then she didn't want to just sit like she has for the past few months. For the past week or two she'd been trying to go from sitting to standing so I thought she would completely skip crawling. She has been pulling up on things from sitting to up to her knees for about a week. So, today over lunch I drove over to Walmart and bought a couple of gates to go at the top and bottom of the stairs. It has a swinging door so we won't have to take it down repeatedly. Oh my, the exploration has begun! When I picked Jillian up from daycare last Thursday, one of her caregivers predicted she'd be crawling by Monday. She was very close! Not by Monday, but ON Monday! I'm curious to see how she did for them today. It's so exciting, but oh am I nervous now!

Jillian has been eating lots of baby food! She has been eating 3 jars each day in addition to rice cereal and milk. She's also been taking good naps and sleeping most of the night. I think her napping pattern may be changing into a short 15-20 minute nap in the morning and around lunch time, then a longer 1-2 hour nap in the afternoon. She seems to only take the longer nap if she and I both lay down together. She doesn't nap much at daycare other than a couple of 20 minute naps. She continues to grow so fast.

So far we have 3 hummingbirds from what I can tell. We hope to get more but we sure have a lot of other birds. We've seen robins, cardinals. indigo buntings, the goldfinch, cedar waxwing, and some kind of thrush that we aren't sure about. The cedar waxwings are so soft looking. We only saw them for a few minutes one day last week. It was a breeding pair.

On Saturday I was outside walking in the yard and heard a crazy, loud animal noise coming from the crazy neighbor's yard. We left the house later that day to run an errand and saw they now have a donkey. I never realized they were so noisy! Such a big noise coming out of a little animal! I'm guessing they got it to protect the goats (from coyotes). Yikes!

For our 5 year anniversary on June 4, Garrett surprised me with a Kahr K9 pistol. I was totally surprised and excited. We took it out to the range a few miles from our house and put some rounds through it. It shoots very nicely. Jillian had fallen sleep so we parked the car and checked on her every couple of minutes.

We had talked about returning to MO in July but we decided to postpone the trip since most people were going to be busy. We'll try again, just not sure when.

Keep in touch,

~Chris