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 :-)