What a Full Weekend!

This weekend was full of fun for Kayla and I.  (Unfortunately not for Jeremy, who was stuck on the couch with a hurt back.)  First up was Arley's birthday party at Kiddie Park.  Arley is the daughter of a former co-worker of mine.  We were lucky to be pregnant at the same time, on the same team, and next door to each other.  Kayla and Arley were born just 3 weeks apart.  So fun!  I was so excited to see how Kayla would like all of the rides at Kiddie Park.  The only one I was allowed to ride on was the carousel--most of the rides were kids only, which scared me to death!  The worst was the first one she rode--the boats.  She wasn't crazy about it and kept tipping it. 

I was impressed she actually wanted to ride the horses on the carousel.  She was scared but made it through!

 She loved the gun on the pink plane.  :)  She did great on the other rides as well...the school bus, the horse-drawn carriages, and the train cars.

 This was the best pic we could get of Kayla and Arley...ahh, toddlers.

After Kiddie Park we headed over to O.P. for Cheyanne's party.  Abby Cadabby was there and Kayla just walked around smiling up at her.  I didn't know she liked Abby that much!  She got a wand as a party favor and absolutely loves it. 

 Once again, a picture with the birthday girl was a little disappointing, but we had a great time with Cheyanne and her family.  I love that Kayla has these sweet little girls and boys her age to play with.










On Sunday we made a trip with my cousin and her son, Kyle, and my dad to the Botanical Gardens for their BOOtanica Event.  It was warm, but a lot of fun.  There aren't many places that don't look touched by the drought in San Antonio, but the gardens are one of those beautiful places.   

Our first stop was to make slime.

 My little cupcake!  She was a trooper with the hat and the tights.  I was surprised at how much she liked the tights--she didn't want me to take them off even though it was getting pretty warm.  Silly girl!

 A beautiful smile for the camera!  Rare that we were able to capture it. 

My sweet cousin Sarah and her baby Kyle. 

 We went through the butterfly maze, a special exhibit going on right now.  They had cute little things set up for them to look at, climb on, and peek through.

 Peek-a-Boo!

 Kayla was so happy to be with her grandpa.  She played with him under the trees as she ran away from him and hung on branches like a monkey.  Grandpa has always been her favorite entertainer.  :)

The weekend ended with some work in the nursery, which is coming along very well.  Can't wait to share some progress pics soon!

38 Weeks and Waiting

I am entering a stage of waiting a little more patiently for Sabrina's arrival.  I feel huge, tired, and have aches and pains while (trying to) sleeping, but with 2 weeks to go I am suddenly ready to have time go by a little more slowly. 

I have some not so good reasons for this, the main one being fear.  Having already gone through a tough labor, having a hard time breastfeeding, and remembering the sleepless nights of those first few months, I know better what is ahead.  I don't like being fearful, so I'm working on just trusting God to take care of me no matter what arises.
I have good reasons, well one really good reason, to really sit back and let time pass slowly:  Kayla!  She is such a joy in my life and I can't imagine her not being the central little one to my day. 

 She is such a helpful person, wanting to be a part of everything we are doing.  She is learning the difference between doing something "for real" and pretending.  Like any toddler, she highly prefers the real thing. 

 Her new love is bubbles, and now that she can blow her own I don't have to hyperventilate to please her.  :)  We have had fun making our own bubble solutions and taking advantage of the great weather in the backyard lately.

 Kayla loves to be in the kitchen (and loves tatoos, as a side note, uh-oh!).  This little apron and chef's hat were a birthday gift from my aunt and she just loves to wear it while helping me cook.  Her favorite chores are pouring and stirring.

 Here she is helping me with the laundry.  She pours in the soap and then rinses out the cup in the water.  She has watched me do this so many times that I haven't had to tell her what to do.  However, she did get a little gung ho about putting the clothes in for me and managed to sneak some dark clothes into this load of whites I was bleaching. 

For her birthday she got a slew of baby care toys and this, along with Sabrina's stuff, has revived her interest in taking care of her babies.  She is very gentle with them and tells me when they are crying.  We decide what her baby needs: a bottle, a clean diaper, or a bandaid (they get boo-boos often).  She tells them "It's okay!" and rocks them to soothe them in her rocking chair.




So, I will continue to wait, somewhat uncomfortably, until Sabrina arrives and enjoy my last few weeks as mommy of one.

Busy Day (But Not for Me)!

Nursery plans have kind of been on the back burner lately, which has made me sad.  This month has been super busy for every one.  Plus, my hands have been pretty sore with pregnancy induced carpal tunnel.  God knows how to slow me down when I won't do it on my own.  I was able to complete all of Sabrina's bedding, and we got our laundry room set up with shelving so that we had additional storage for things that were in our front room closet.  Jeremy and I also got Kayla's room fixed up a bit to be more of a toddler room.  So, it was finally time to work on Sabrina's room and we had to hit the brakes.
Today, however, my mom graciously offered her painting skills so that we could make one more step toward getting her nursery ready.  Yay!  Kayla was a big help.  :)  We found that gray is a tricky color, looking blue, purple, or gray depending on what light it is in.  The camera caught pretty true gray, which is what I was after.

We also got trees planted this morning, from Rainbow Gardens.  One guy came to do them all in about 2 hours!  I was super impressed, and glad that we didn't have to do this ourselves.  He mentioned the vast quantities of rock several times.  Although our grass is dead and our yard has been taken over by {green} weeds, the addition of trees makes up for it!

 What a busy Saturday...for everyone but me!  :)

A friend of ours was kind enough to take pictures of Kayla for her 2nd birthday.  She did an awesome job, as usual!  We went to the McNay Art Museum and were blessed with great weather and green grass.

There are more to come, she took a ton! 

Nursery Progress

Still just in the sewing phase of getting Sabrina's room ready, which means her room still looks like this....

My mother-in-law will be staying in this room in less than 3 weeks....

It has been a catch-all for Kayla's old stuff and my sewing stuff.  Oh, well.  I can see a light at the end of the tunnel now that sewing is almost done.  So far her diaper holder, dust ruffle, quilt, and bumper are completely done!  I'll be moving on to a cornice, embellishing store-bought curtains, and a nursing cover-up soon.

While working on the bumper, I learned a bit better how to do applique on the sewing machine.  It really simplified things, but made me realize I needed to change how I did it already on the quilt.  Actually, Jeremy helped me come to this conclusion....arg.  He helped me seam rip (my least favorite thing!) to remove the other appliques from the quilt.

 Here is the finished quilt, appliques resewn, quilted, and bound.  My first quilt to ever completely finish. 

The only bad thing about fixing the appliques after the quilt had already been quilted and bound was that I couldn't hide my back stitching from redoing the bee and the S.  We both reasoned that a backwards bee and S would be better than the original anyway.  He still looks cute.  :)

My Baby is Almost 2!

Is she really that old?  I still think of her as my squishy, snuggly baby...

7 months old

In just under a month she will be 2 years old.  I have just been realizing lately how many of her baby ways she has turned from...
no longer attached to me constantly, but very independent
snuggles and hugs last no more than a few seconds
asking for help frequently, to now having a fierce determination to accomplish tasks on her own--even if it involves screaming in frustration  (most of my attempts to help her get an "I do it!" response)
being very content when I drop her off somewhere

Of course, she is still little in so many other ways.  It is just such a change from this time last year.  I am excited for her growth and development, but it also makes me have excited anticipation for Sabrina to bring baby ways back into my life.

Zoo Trip

We had a fun trip to the zoo yesterday to celebrate the cooler weather in San Antonio.  Kayla had her buddy Will had a great time watching the animals.  It was funny to watch the personality differences between them.  Will studied each exhibit while Kayla glanced for a few seconds then demanded "more."  On to the next one!

At the Africa Live exhibit, we were lucky enough to see both of the hippos walking around.  One of the zoo employees also pointed out a dolphin fish swimming around.  Will had his hands tucked in his pockets throughout this exhibit--what a cutie pie!  Will's Mommy, aka Luisa, is preggo too and due in December with another little boy.

 

 

True to toddler-form, I was unable to get posed shots of Kayla or Will doing anything.  We are in a very candid stage of life.  The shot above is as good as it got.  We also visited the Butterflies!  Caterpillar Flight School.  This was right up Kayla's alley being that they flitted around just like she did.

 What a fun morning!

32 weeks

Getting pretty large!  32 weeks marks 7 months along.  Just 2 more months until little Sabrina makes her arrival.  We can't wait!  Until then, we are busy little bees, not only preparing the nursery, but also celebrating Kayla's 2nd birthday and working on some home projects while we still have the time.  What will life be like with two little ones running around??

Sabrina's Nursery...Just Beginning

Just wanted to share some of what we're putting together for Sabrina's room.  It will be gray/yellow with bees...

So far, I have made a dust ruffle and a diaper stacker.  The other pieces are still in progress.

The quilt is pieced together, but not yet quilted and edges finished...

The other gray square will have an "S" applique in it.

The applique is something new to me, and it is pretty challenging.  I am done with the quilt ones, and I'm going to start making larger ones for the bumpers.  I think those will be a bit easier.

Counting and "Jumping"

Kayla has grown to love counting lately.  My parents said that they actually heard her count to 19!  I have my doubts, though, because all of her "teens" sound the same.  :)  But, she does count to 10 quite often and we are teaching her to also recognize the numbers.  So far she has them all (even zero!) but confuses 9 and 6. 

All the energy her brain has been using to learn to count and recognize her numbers must be taking away attention from learning to jump, though.  She really wants to do it, but can't quite coordinate getting both feet off the ground at the same time.  I love her precious attempts, and today I caught her on video jumping off her potty.  She also jumps off her bed, from the ottoman to the couch, and into the pool. 

Big Girl Bed: Night 1

Kayla climbing out of her crib yesterday prompted Jeremy and I to go ahead and convert her crib into a toddler bed.  We figure that she may not be super ready right now (I know I wasn't planning on transitioning her yet) but if we wait until she climbs out again it might be too close to Sabrina's arrival for us to make the transition, and have a good amount of "practice" time. 

Kayla was very excited once the bed was finished and kept exclaiming, "Big girl bed!"  We let her explore it before bed, climbing in and out, covering up with her blanket, and so on.  We also took some things out of her room to make the transition safer and easier: toys (not including books) and the glider with ottoman.  We planned on being very strict about not getting out of bed, but just in case she did... 

As bedtime approached, my anxiety grew.  This could be a long, sleepless night for all of us.  We went through our nighttime routine and crossed our fingers as we laid her in bed and closed the door.  She actually went to sleep very quickly!!  Woohoo!  I checked on her a few times before going to bed myself and she was still in a good position, asleep. 

She ended up waking 3 times during the night, and we were very quick to go in and calm her down so she wouldn't feel the need to get up.  I think she picked up on the fact that we were coming in much quicker than usual (we usually give her a few minutes).  Plus, Daddy got up too, which was an added bonus for her.  The third time I told her we wouldn't be coming back in because we all needed to sleep.  Each time she had stayed in her bed and waited for us to come in!

When she woke up (early...) I found her on the floor--I had put a blanket down--and I think she was a little unsettled by that feeling.  I snuggled her a little, then put her back to bed so she would get the feeling of waking up in bed.  About 30 minutes later we got her up and celebrated her "big girl bed" accomplishment!  She even demonstrated how she had "fallen" out of her bed by sliding down on her belly and then "cried." 

Nap time is just around the corner, but hopefully we both do well!

25 weeks

Wednesday marked 25 weeks through this pregnancy.  I have still been feeling great and having high energy (so high it is hard to sleep well).  Sabrina is moving around a ton and also seems responsive to Daddy's voice and Kayla when she snuggles in with me.  She shows this by kicking!  I wish I could look in and see what body parts she is moving around!
Kayla definitely knows where Sabrina is and loves to kiss and hug my belly.  She talks to her a little bit and was singing to her today!  I can't wait for these sisters to meet each other.

15 weeks/ 3 1/2 months to go!!