February 27 - 28 Library & Zoo!

 
 
 
 


Another busy weekend for the Turner girls!

On Friday, Katie and I went to Story time. Katie loved the Bubbles the librarian was blowing and kept hunting for them saying in a sing-song voice, "Bubbles" when she'd find one and also shouting for them when they were elusive

After story time, Katie lingered for about an hour playing with the toys. She seems particularly obsessed with the plastic fruit. She mostly held the watermelon and honeydew melons, but she also spent time with the grapes, strawberries, kiwi, pear and other fruits. Katie took a peach and walked over near the librarian and started brushing her cheek. The librarian asked if Katie knew sign language, and she was VERY impressed that Katie knew the sign for peach. I was quite proud :-)

After playing with the toys, I finally managed to entice Katie to leave by suggesting we go for a walk (she LOVES being outside, walking around and exploring). She immediately headed for the park. Katie wanted desperately to slide. On the big kid slides, of course. She struggles with the idea that she is too small to do anything on her own. Given that she wasn't tall enough to climb up to the slides, she relented and allowed me to help her and to slide down with her.

It was when she wanted to go on the smaller kid playset that things took an unfortunate turn. The slide was soaking wet and I just didn't want to have her sliding down. Next time I will bring a towell with me!! So, I tried to give her some Love & Logic choices (I'm not very good at it yet)

I suggested we could either swing on the swings or we could walk back to the car. She kept saying, "No, No, No" and doing the sign for "no". So, I said, "What a shame" trying to sound empathetic (even though I was screaming inside with frustration). I picked her up and had to carry her to the car. That was a bit of a struggle given my pregnancy, the diaper bag I was hoisting, and her squirming and crying.

I feel like I did the right thing. We went home, I gave her a nice lunch, and then she settled down for a nice nap, about 90 minutes, if I remember correctly.

On Saturday, we met Renae and Alyssa at the zoo. It was C-C-C-OLD!!!! The weather was supposed to be in the 50's, but it was probably in the 40's with a bitter wind. This was pretty much the first time Katie hasn't protested wearing her hat. She wore her mittens for all of 30 seconds and then refused. Don't know if you can see in the pics, but her hands are nearly purple they're so cold!

I brought Katie's wagon for her to sit in. She preferred walking, though. We kinda held up Renae and Alyssa, but they coped very well. They'd move along, and we'd catch up at our own pace.

We rode the Zoo Train, which Katie liked very much. She had it easy... She rode on my lap while my bottom was parked on the freezing megal train seat :-)

We didn't get to see the baby elephant, but maybe next time.

We were at the zoo for a few hours, and by then my back had had enough. I managed to get Katie to the car and into the car without too much protesting (from Katie and my back). Katie fell asleep in the car before we even hit the Interstate bridge! I got home and had fairly significant trouble getting out of the car. I must admit, the zoo was probably a bad idea for me, though I enjoyed the company and Katie's pleasure being at the Zoo. It was just much too hard on my back.

Katie slept in the car for maybe 15 minutes after I got home (Kevin was watching her). I went upstairs to laydown with a heating pad on my back.

I admit, I was pretty much down for the count the rest of the day and into Sunday. My poor family.

I really feel for people with chronic back pain. I probably should get this looked at!

February 22 - Nice weekend!

We Turners had another lovely weekend. On Friday, our morning started FAR too early at 5 AM. Katie woke up and seemed to want to stay awake. After a diaper change, Kevin tried rocking her in the glider in our bedroom. After a time, she got down and came over to where I was laying and said, "Hi-yee". I asked her if she wanted to come up and see Mommy and she said, "OK". So, Kevin brought her into the bed. She immediately started pawing at me because she's pretty much programmed to nurse when she gets into bed with Mommy and Daddy. I gently told her no, and that led to lots of tears. She was lying on my chest and I just kept rubbing her back and talking to her softly. This was followed by restless activity, talking to mommy and daddy and climbing all over the place. Finally, and gratefully, Katie fell asleep until around 7:30. I think she slept for maybe an hour.

Later that morning, Daddy and I took Katie to the Toddler story time at the Ridgefield Library. Katie hadn't been since she was under a year. The last time I took her, she ended up with a cold, so I just hadn't found my way back there :-)

Katie was quite shy and clingy, but she loved the bubbles the Librarian was blowing, and she enjoyed shaking bells, and she seemed to enjoy the stories. After story time broke up, some of the kids hung around to play with toys and to pick out books. Daddy and I picked out 3 books to check out for Katie. She LOVED playing with the toys and watching the other kids. She went up to one girl who was sitting in a chair and kept saying "Hi". The girl was unresponsive-- probably was wondering who this kid was who was in her personal space!!

After we left the library (which took some convincing), we went over to Davis Park to check out the new play structures. Katie thought that was just swell!! They have a play structure for 2 - 5 year olds. Katie is a bit small to climb up to the slide herself, but that didn't stop her from trying! Daddy was her guardian angel on the structure while I helped her pick up some speed on the slide (by lifting her feet up just a bit.) Katie was on cloud nine! There were a couple other children playing on it as well, and she loved watching what they did, too.

The changes in the park are just wonderful. My only complaint is that they did not add a toddler swing to the swings. Katie wanted to swing by herself, but it just wasn't possible. It's too bad she's outgrown the baby bjorn. Could be worth strapping her in just so we can swing!

We'll try to make sure we get over to Story Time and the Park much more often! Kevin was the only Daddy at Story time (no big surprise), and it was so nice having him there. Especially at the park. I don't know how I'll do being Katie's helper up to the top of the play structure and then down the slide. I guess I'll figure something out, but it'll get more challenging as the weeks go by!

After we left the park, Katie had a nice lunch followed by a very nice 2 hour nap!! After she woke up, I brought her over to Grandpa's. She helped plant bulbs while I ran some errands to the mall and Costco. We got there so late that Katie was able to stay long enough to see Grandma. Oh, Katie loves seeing Grandma and Grandpa!

On Saturday, Katie started the day bonding with Daddy. Kevin was reading her stories while I was upstairs resting (another sleepless night), and Katie kept saying, "See Mommy?" Daddy would tell her that Mommy is resting. I came down around 8 AM and Kevin was feeding her breakfast. And what a breakfast it was!! Katie had a tangerine before breakfast. This was followed by 2 Eggo waffles and close to a cup of sliced strawberries. WOW!!! After breakfast, Katie had a nice bath. My belly is starting to interfere with bathtime (I am having some difficulty washing Katie's hair because I can barely reach the sink!), so Kevin shampooed and soaped up Katie, and I got to enjoy the rest of the bath time-- lots of playing with cups and rubber duckies. Katie's funny. We're practicing counting. She is very good at counting to 10, with the exception that she frequently omits the number 4. So, I asked her to count the rubber duckies (there were probably 5 or 6 ducks in the water). She'd take them out 1 by 1, but she'd only take out 3 at a time. So, she'd count "woooonnnnn, twoooooooo, fwee!" and then clap and cheer. It was pretty funny.

After bath, we went on a field trip to WaMu to add my name to the bank account. Katie was very good in the bank, especially considering how long we had to wait.

We got home, I made a quick lunch (couscous with beans & peas) for Katie, watched her wear more of it than she ate, and then I was off to a baby shower for a gal in the neighborhood. Turns out the baby came 2 weeks early, so Delya (the baby) was able to enjoy her mom Ami's baby shower. She is an adorable baby.

There is something seriously in the water in our neighborhood. Out of 5 ladies at the shower, 3 were pregnant and 2 had just had babies (Candace was there with her 3 week old daughter, Opal). There's a woman there who has a daughter 3 months older than Katie. She's pregnant and due about 1 week after me. They are having a boy. I asked her his name, and she told me (Reese). Someone asked me what I was going to name the baby, and I don't know if it's because I hemmed and hawed or because I said we *think* we're naming the baby this, but when I said Margaret, the entire room went quiet. It's like I said I was naming my daughter "E.F. Hutton" So then I said, "but we'll probably call her 'Maggie'" and the women were like, "Oh, that's a great name" or whatever. HUH???

As if I didn't feel awkward enough. The women at the shower all live within a few blocks in the same street and they all know each other really well. We live at the top of the development in a flag lot, and I never see these people. So, I was already feeling like I didn't belong and then the above happened. It could be my pregnancy hormones, but that really bothered me. I guess if I want to be friends with these people, I really need to reach out. Right now, Kevin and I just see them at Christmas and July 4th parties. The new mom, Ami, asked others what they thought about doing a book club. Everyone thought that was a great idea. I thought it'd be fun, but I thought in the back of my mind, "When are you gonna have time to read??? Can I find these books on Audible.com???" We'll see.

I was grateful to be included in the baby shower, especially when I found out I wasn't invited to Candace's a few weeks earlier. Maybe the book club thing will happen and I will have more opportunities to get to know these ladies.

Kevin and I have many thoughts about trying to move back into the 'Couve (maybe eastside or into Camas), so maybe I shouldn't let my left-out feelings bother me so much. Who knows when we'll be able to move, with the housing crisis right now-- could be tough to sell.

ANYWAY, after I got back from the baby shower, we headed over to Joe & Debbie's house. Katie had the BEST time with Joe & Debbie's girls Meaghan (6) and Catlin (4). Katie was grinning ear-to-ear all night, chasing after them, trying to do what they do, etc. We were having sort of a celebration for Ross & Lynn's engagement. We got there around 5:20, Ross/Lynn maybe an hour later, and Andre and Trudy showed up around 7 / 7:15. It was SUCH a bummer we had to wrap things up early, but it's not good to mess with a child's bedtime. Because we forgot to bring Katie's milk, we had to make sure we left at a decent time. As it was, we didn't get home until around 8:30 (30 minutes past her bedtime), and she didn't get to bed before 9. BUT-- she slept very well and didn't wake until 7 AM

The same cannot be said of me. Max got me up around 10:30 and again 1:30. I was wide awake after the 2nd wakey-wakey. That was frustrating. Que sera, sera.

Katie had a good breakfast of oatmeal (with only a little milk this time) and frozen blueberries with, of course, a side of blueberries (and a few rasberries).

Oh yeah-- if I hadn't mentioned it, Joe & Debbie ROCK-- they gave us a bunch of toys, puzzles, books, DVD's that had been slated for the GoodWill. We got lots of story and puzzle time in before she went down for a nap at 11. One of the books is on Potty training. I started reading it to Katie, and when it talked about the potty, I asked her where her potty chair was. She got up and walked over to it. I asked her if she wanted me to read to her while she sat on the potty, and she said, "OK". So, I started reading the book about Prudence and her Potty. There's a few pages that show Prudence in her birthday suit. It talks about her various body parts and what she can do with them. When they talk about her bottom, there's a shot of the baby bent over with her hands on the ground. Katie saw the picture and said, "Upside Down" We have it on video, and it's pretty darn cute!!

Katie took a 2 hour nap and woke around 1 PM and...... YEAH--- she'd POOPED!!!! We were on Day 4, which meant we were gonna have to give her a suppository if she didn't have a BM.

I think we'll have to consider taking her into the pediatrician to figure out why she's so plugged. We do lots of things right with her food, and she gets lots of activity, but something is obviously broken in the plumbing department.

We have some new double-fiber bread (I call it colon blow) that has 6 grams of fiber per serving. She likes the bread very much, so I'm hoping it'll help a little. She gets fruits and veggies every day (LOVES peas, broccoli, green beans), so I'll keep increasing those foods. When I talked to the advice nurse a few weeks ago, she said that couscous is a "neutral" food, meaning not great fiber, but not binding, either. So, we'll keep feeding her the couscous/peas/beans thing and keep trying to give her the whole wheat pasta (which is a little hit/miss)

I HATE giving her the suppositories, even though they work awesome. We've had to do that twice, and now Katie will often refuse to open her legs for us to clean her up when we change her diaper. So, we obviously need to try another way to get her regular. I know a few people who give their toddlers Miralax. I bought some, but I won't use it unless we get the OK from Doc Bader's office.

Oh, I hear the Peanut and Daddy heading downstairs (Daddy gave me some Grown-Up time and took Katie for an hour or so), so I'd better sign off. This blog entry is a borderline novella anyway!!

February 19 - Outside-Outside

Katie LOVES being outside. Here are some pictures and a slide show of our girl exploring in our backyard

 
 
 

February 18 - Lots of love

Katie seems to enjoy when Max not only gives her lovins, but gives lovins to Mommy as well. I've noticed recently while looking at videos & photos we've done in the last month that I seem to be in my Penguin (pen-yen) Jammies a LOT lately. MAYBE it's because we mostly take video in the morning (and these are the only Jammies that fit right now). That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.

Here's one pitiful thing. Recently, Kaite has started to say "I'm Sorry", and we have no idea why. She sounds so pitifully upset and almost tearful when she says it, and she'll repeat it over and over. It just TUGS at our heartstrings. We'll either ask why she's sorry (which of course she can't say why), or we'll say "it's OK", and she'll keep apologizing. It's very cute, but so very sad at the same time. I suppose she'll learn the appropriate use of I'm sorry (like, I'm sorry I broke your favorite plate, Mommy) in the future :-)

 
 
 
 

February 15 - New Potty Chair & Elephant

Here are a few pictures of Katie sitting on her new potty chair. She seems to like it pretty well, though she hasn't "used" it yet.

I also had to take a picture of the "Elephant" Katie drew on her MagnaDoodle. We love her artwork!!

 
 
 
 

February 15 - Pretty!

Just a few pictures of my lovely Valentine Roses (from my loving husband) and my lovely Daughter

 
 
 
 

February 13 - Practice Yawn & Katie's first PB&J

Here are a few pictures of Katie taken on lucky Friday the 13th. She was "practicing" her yawn in her Elmo Jammies. She looks like such a big girl in her 2 piece pajamas!

At lunch, she didn't seem to want to eat her pasta, so I let her try some of my PB&J. It was light on the PB and fairly heavy on the "J", so she liked it VERY well!!

I have SO much stuff to catch up on in the blog. I'll work on it this week. Katie is just amazing to us these days. She is doing a great job putting together 2-4 word phrases. I was singing "Hush Little Baby" or whatever the title of the "Mockingbird" song is, and Katie was able to give me the last word to each line. She got about 80% of it correct.

Same with Itsy Bitsy Spider. We try to catch some of this on video, but she gets wise and just wants to watch herself on the video when we're recording :-)

 
 
 
 

February 9 - Nice Day

Katie had a good night's sleep... no early morning calls for Ducky or waking in the middle of the night.

She had a good day at Grandma & Grandpa's. She got to play outside with grandma. She also learned how to sing "rain, rain, go away", and Katie spend about 3 hours playing and singing and chattering in her crib (at the expense of a nap, unfortunately)

Unfortunately, Katie is still having trouble with regularity. She was trying very hard to have a movement. Grandma ended up having to give her a suppository :-( Katie responded by having 3 BM's :-)

We're still trying to figure out what's causing her to be so bound up. We'll continue to monitor her protein intake.

February 7 - The Zoo and Worms in the Yard

 
 
 
 

Katie had such a great day today. The 3 of us went to the zoo and got there at a respectable 9:30 a.m. before the rush of crowds! The first thing we did was look for otters (they weren't out-- this will be a theme, as you'll see!), so we went to the Sea Lions. Katie was so funny. She kept calling out to the sea lions, "Sea Wyons! Sea WY-Ons!!" WIsh we would've had that on video!

We next went to see the penguins, and she thought that was pretty neat.

We were off to see the Effants next. Katie was calling for the Elephants all the way down to the elephant exhibit: "EFFANT... EFFANT!!!" at the top of her lungs-- so cute!!. The elephants were a tad elusive, however. At the viewing area behind the main exhibit, they were tucked into a corner just below us, and you could only see 1 elephant's head. There was a single elephant in the main viewing area, and Katie was very excited about seeing him!

We headed over to the Africa exhibit next. Katie got SO excited to see the hippos ("hi-whoa") and zebras. She also loved seeig her reflection in the viewing glass and couldn't help but give herself a few kisses (mommy tried not to think about the germs!!)

We let Katie out of her spiffy Radio Flyer Wagon to stretch her legs and so she could get a better view of the Zebras. Unfortunately, Katie has 1 speed and was running on the concrete path. As Daddy was reaching down to take her hand, she face planted. I thought she had mostly done a bodycheck with the pavement, but no, her forehead did suffer a bit in the fall. Fortunately, it turned out to be a small scrape. With a few hugs and the suggestion to go see more Zebras and the giraffes, Katie felt much better and we went on our merry way.


The giraffes weren't out, which was disapointing, but we did see the tallest (16'3) inside his "cell" munching on some food. It's absolutely amazing how tall he is!



After we finished Africa, we went to see the polar bears, and then we headed out via the Pacific Northwest exhibit. We saw several bears, which is neat, because it seems like the black bears are never out when I'm at the zoo. It was kinda funny leaving through that exhibit. Most people START the zoo by going through there. So, the entire time I was in that exhibit, I felt like a Salmon swimming upstream to spawn. It's a little challenging navigating a wagon through the enclosed areas, but we managed not to run over anyone's toes.

Katie fell asleep in the car on the way home, but fortunately she did it while we still had 25-30 minutes left. She woke up when we got home, and we weren't able to get her down for a nap. That's alright. She had a very nice lunch, and she enjoyed playing inside with Mommy while daddy took a quick cat nap sitting on the couch.

It was SUCH a nice afternoon that, around 3 PM, we all went outside. I tried pulling some weeds, but it didn't take long before my back was aching. I traded jobs with Kevin and ended up aerating about 1/3 of the lawn in the back yard. Katie had such a great time looking for "baby rocks". Kevin found a large earthworm (it must've been 6" long, even before it stretched out) and showed it to Katie. At first she didn't know what to think, but before long she was picking the work up and squealing with delight. She put the worm down for a while and moved on to other things, but after a bit, she came looking for the worm again. "WoRRRRM!!! WOOOOOORM!! WOR-MMMMM!" It was too much. We caught some of it on video (of course, we never catch the first moments when she's most amusing. I'll try to post some video of it.

We were out in the yard nearly 2 hours before my back had had enough. With some difficulty, we managed to get Katie back into the house (I swear she would have slept out there, given the chance). She was SO tired that she took an hour nap on Daddy. Probably would have napped much longer, but by then it was 6 PM.

She had a yummy dinner of Tomato Basil soup with brown rice and some whole wheat toast. Then, she had a fun bath and settled down into the evening routine of picking up toys, reading books, and having her last milk of the night.

She went to bed very well around 8 PM, and except for waking us up at 5 AM Sunday yelling, "DUCKY!!! duckEEEEE!!", she slept great!

Really pleasant day overall!

February 6 - Elmo Jammies

After a swell nap, Katie came downstairs with Daddy. I was surprised to see her sporting her Elmo Pajama top. Apparently, Daddy was putting clean clothes away (I sure love Katie's Daddy!!), and Katie saw the Elmo Pajamas. She wanted to wear her pajama top, so Daddy put it on over her regular shirt.

It actually worked out well... Katie has been "enthusiastically" resisting bibs, so having a shirt to wear over her clean shirt kept the 'preferred shirt' nice and clean.

And she was SO happy wearing her Elmo pajama top, as you can see from the pictures.

 
 
 
 

Katie had an excellent day today. After a morning of playing and a good nap, she had a good lunch and then the 3 of us went to Costco and Fred Meyer. She loves it when Mommy & Daddy play hide and seek with her, and it works out well when one of us needs to sneak down an aisle to grab an item. Tag teaming grocery shopping is SO much better than doing it alone!

One downer about the evening is that Katie hadn't had a BM in 4 days. We called the Pediatric Advice Nurse, and she gave us many suggestions. We were doing most things right, but we were still probably giving her too much dairy. So, we loaded up on fruits and vegetables at Costco & the grocery store. We also bought a bottle of Children glycerine suppositories. We said if she hadn't had a movement by 7 PM, we would need to plug her. The bad news is, we had to plug her. The GOOD news is, she ended up having THREE movements tonight. We're hopeful that her diet change will lead to better BM experiences. Although we'll use it only in a pinch, I'm glad we have something that will help her have a BM!

February 3rd - pictures!

As promised, here are some pictures from the month of January



Katie had a good day today. She had a GREAT time at the g'rents. She was outside for about 3.5 hours. She went looking for rocks, calling for squirrels, played in the dirt. She had TWO good naps, in the morning and afternoon. She woke distraught after the afternoon nap.

Grandma said that she was inside making lunch while Katie was outside with grandpa. All of a sudden Grandma heard Katie yelling "rit-AAAH!" "REE-TAAAH!!" Very cute. She also had a bit of a tantrum when she was outside. Katie had figured out how to climb into the red wagon in the back yard. She was very proud of herself. At the same time, she wanted to pull the wagon and wouldn't let go of the handle. Grandma tried to take it so she could pull her. Katie had a meltdown. Grandma said, "we don't have a fit when we're outside". The meltdown continued, so Grandma brought her inside, which didn't solve matters, if I remember the story correctly. :-)

I imagine she'll sleep pretty hard tonight after such a big day with the grandparents!! She's having a sleepover tonight, because Kevin and I have an appointment with the midwife on February 4th.

Katie had a very painful poop last night. I felt SO bad for her. She was leaning against me while she was trying to have her BM. It took about 5 or 10 minutes for her to finish. Her face was so red with exertion. I just kept rubbing her back and encouraging her. I'm gonna try laying off the bananas and adding a lot more fruit and veggie to her diet to see if she will get more regular. Otherwise, I think we will need to contact the pediatrician to see about getting her some laxative or stool softener.


That's all for now!

February 2nd - Groundhog Day

6 more weeks of winter... does that mean Mommy has 6 more weeks to catch up on my blog??? My GOODNESS-- it's been a month since she's posted. Yes, she's tired and unmotivated and pregnant. But, c'mon Woman!!

Ok-- it's mommy here. I don't know what happened with doing the blog. I think I've been unmotivated because all I've wanted to do was try in VAIN to catch up on sleep. And Katie has been a lot of fun and a lot of work lately. She's picking up new words every day. Unfortunately, she's also picking up the tone in which they're said. In addition to her "BOOOOOOOOOB" for hailing Grandpa, she's started yelling, "MAAAAX" and "NisssSSSHY" every time I open the front door to bring the dogs in from outside. Boy, you've really got to be careful around the parrot!!

She's also become a bit (OK, a lot) more fussy with the food and started to become more assertive about everything. She really wants to be able to walk up and down the stairs by herself. Her spirit is willing, but her height and coordination are weak :-) So, she'll wave off our hands or push us away, but we'll be right there in front or behind her (depending on the direction) to keep her safe. If you want her to come to you, she'll run in the opposite direction! Changing her diapers has become a 2-man operation. If you ask her a question (do you want to read a book, do you want milk/juice/water, are you hungry, etc), she'll answer with an exasperated "NOOOOOO" and/or start whining or crying. She also has started having fits when we try to put her bibs on her. In short, she seems to have arrived at the terrible two's.

It's remarkable how quickly she goes from laughing to crying to laughing and from crying to laughing to crying. It's very predictable, how unpredictable she is :-)

She might be fussy because she's bound up these days. For months, she's been having a BM every other day. Lately, they've been fairly hard, and for the last few weeks, she's had her BM after she's gone to bed. That requires us to wake her up so we can change her (which also requires me to nurse her back to a state of relaxation). It's Monday now, and she hasn't had a movement since Friday. I dread what this one is gonna be like, the poor girl. Might need to see about getting a laxative or adding prunes / more broccoli to her diet or making her juice a bit stronger (though I would feel awful if she ended up going from bound up to the opposite problem)

There are some things we recognize we will need to start disciplining her on (like standing on the furniture, throwing things other than balls), but we haven't quite figured out how we will do that yet. Safety issues are our primary concern. The rest is the rest. I feel like we got a bit of a late start on this stuff... we knew it'd be coming, but I haven't been keeping current on all of my parenting books (I don't think Kevin has, either.)

I recognize that I need to be more careful about my facial expressions (eye-rolling or scowling when she gets especially trying), because I don't want her to pick up on that. Same with the sarcasm or joking around around her. I don't want to make things worse by hurting her feelings, especially since all she'll understand is that Mommy is upset with her. I'd like to think I hide most of my frustrations from Katie when she is at her fussiest, but I also know that there are many sighs, head shakes, and eye rolls that come from this body when she's keyed up.

Kevin and I also recognize that these changes are just the beginning!! And we appreciate what a wonderful child we've had up until now, and what a wonderful child she'll continue to be. I am hopeful that as she acquires more language and can express herself with words, some of this stuff will settle down.

SO much to learn about being a parent!!

Back to the language thing. It's so fun how she's trying so many new words and putting new phrases together. The other day she was taking a bath in our sink and said, "Bath all done" and proceeded to try taking out the drain plug. I was so proud of her! She also will ask for Apple Juice without being prompted. It's cute, because she'll do the signs for apple juice while she's asking. And she's FINALLY started to work on "Thank you". She has been signing that for almost a year, but it's only been in the last few weeks that she's started trying that phrase. Makes her momma proud!!

As far as the NEXT Turner Chicklette... things seem to be progressing great with her. I've started packing on too much weight like last time, but I think I'll be better about keeping it under control. I'm hoping for no more than a 40 lb weight gain, but I'll be OK with it if it's up to 45. :-)

I feel the baby kick daily now. I think I felt the first flutter around week 14. Definitely could feel flutters by week 16. I'm 25 weeks now, so the baby is getting bigger and stronger all the time. Last weekend, Kevin and my mom were both able to feel the baby move. That was nice to share.

We have a very tentative (VERY tentative) name picked out. For the last several weeks, I've been calling her No-Nah-Me (NoName) Turner. Right now, we kind of like Margaret Ellen Turner. We'd call her either Maggie or Meg. Lots can happen over the next 15 weeks. It's kind of funny. Kevin looked through some old IM strings, and we had the SAME exact conversation about whether he liked the name Margaret 2 years ago when we were working on a name for Katie.

I've continued nursing Katie through this pregnancy, but I think we're about done. It's getting quite painful to nurse these days. I think she has too many teeth and they've gotten too large. I don't mind the occasional discomfort, but it's now uncomfortable a lot more than it's comfortable. Makes me a little sad, because I really enjoy our one-on-one time. And I appreciate that I can still comfort her by nursing when she's upset. Still-- she's 20 months now, and the sooner I can bring myself to wean her, the less she'll hopefully remember about nursing when the new baby comes.

Katie has learned a BUNCH of new signs, thanks to Baby Signing Times discs 3 & 4, which came out in late 2008. It's so cute, too. She'll use the sign for opposite and say, "Ops-fit". Her "cold" and "hot" are adorable, too. We should really try to get a single video of her doing as many signs as she's willing to do. She must know between 75 and 100+ signs. I'll have to count them sometime. Of course, they're HER variation on signs, but that's OK as long as we know what they mean. And it's pretty awesome that she's also trying the words that go along with the signs. As stated before, she's picked up TONS of new words!!

Anyway, I think you're about caught up, and I'll try to do better. I have probably a month's worth of pictures to go through and I'll pick the better ones out to post. Her fetish with putting my underwear around her neck may warrant its own back-dated post, so I'll work on that. Most of the pictures didn't turn out, but the few that did are with a thousand words :-)