Halloween is almost here!

Another crazy day!  Sam was not enthused about going to school.  She did not even want a kissing hand, but she came back at the last second and gave me one.  She has mostly been fine with drop off, even asking me to leave if I stay talking to other parents or the teachers.  She did well at school though, except she had her first big melt down.  And it was over pumpkin guts.  They let the kids help clean out the pumpkin and she cried when her hands got yucky.  They said it took a while to calm her down, even after washing her hands.  When we got home, we had no power.  We almost made it to the park to waste some time, but when I talked to Nick he told me they had expanded the tornado watch.  So we went back home and hung out until time to pick him up.  He got done early and we grabbed a quick dinner before going to a mother's club event.  It was a trunk or treat event at a local school and we had a table to pass out candy and give out flyers to recruit more members.  It had to be moved into their small gym because of the storm.  Sam enjoyed hanging out in her Fancy Nancy dress and running around, but when it was time to go to tables they called up the kids and it was so packed that no one could move.  They stood there for 10 minutes, I am not even exaggerating, it was ridiculous.  They finally lured some kids to go play games, but Sam was over the standing in line and being pushed.  We let her have some of the candy from our table.  We headed home for bedtime, but we did not end up getting power back until 9:15 or so.  

Here is Sam trying to not have her picture taken.  The dress is way too big, so it was just over her clothes.

 Here she is eating some chocolate.

This morning I took Sam to have her picture taken at Picture Me.  I joined their club when I did her birthday pictures.  And I had a coupon from doing a survey from before.  So I thought it would be fun to do a back to school in a cute dress and a Halloween picture in her actual costume.  I do not even know why I bother.  Every time I go, they frustrate me.  They do not let you combine anything.  And then they get annoyed when you do not want their $400 package.  They also only take like 2 pictures per pose, so they often miss the great smile or looking at the camera.  I really miss being near a Portrait Innovations.  There is just almost nothing around here.  But we did get a few cute shots and they ended up being an okay deal, just frustrating because the photographer was acting like I could combine. I will not be rejoining the Picture Me club.  I did get a lead on a local photographer for birthday pictures.

We go out for trick or treating tomorrow night.  It is a tradition to avoid having kids out when college students are partying.  And Sam has a class party on Friday and an event at the Art Museum on Sunday.  I will post pictures of her in her actual costume after those.

Ups and downs...aka the terrible twos

Wow, this is my 205th post.  Sam has been a bit challenging recently.  She is usually loving and wonderful, but she is very sensitive to lack of sleep and preschool had 2 days last week in which they had extra outside time and cut naps short.  Being tired led to rough afternoons and bedtimes, usually carrying over to the next day and thus spiraling the sleep problem.  She gets upset far too easily and has quite a temper when she is tired.  Our systems of rewards, timeouts and taking away toys was no match for the Sam that was at our house last week.  She is doing much better now, so we hope for a better week.  The joke around the house last week was something along the line of, "And you wanted another one of these" :)

 My mom's friend from Krystal, Janie, sent Sam this witch mask and she has enjoyed being scary.  Although she is super excited about being a princess for Halloween.  I tried to sell something more original or an animal, but she was insistent.  And she really liked the costume from Old Navy and they had it on sale, so that is her costume.  Although I think she was really excited because it came with a wand, even though she has I think 4 wands already.

I think this is from when we were watching football.  Saturdays are full of football in our house.  Sam was funny on Saturday.  She got down and said, "Pause it."  I assumed she just wanted to sing us a song since she has been very big into making up songs lately and she wants a very attentive audience.  Instead she had to go to the bathroom and said, "I don't want to miss any football."  She is very cute echoing whatever we say, like great catch or Go Irish, get the touchdown.  Or even Dud, you should have caught that.

Helping Daddy make tortilla pizzas.

Here she is with a doll that was mine.  It is no longer as big as she is.

Here she is in May 2009 with the same doll.

Here is another older photo that I just downloaded.  Our friend Ray took it when we were at their place in July.

Here she is giving a concert.  She loves playing her guitar and singing.

And here is the video of the same concert series. 

I am doing well.  Hard to believe I am already 23 weeks along. This pregnancy feels like it is flying by.  I know the next few months will be super fast as we move between Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Sam's birthday and the last few weeks of preparation.  I am enjoying the second trimester without sickness and without being too huge, but this semester is pretty rough.  The baby is very active, which is reassuring.  I am not the best sleeper with being a little uncomfortable and having to go to the bathroom anytime I wake up, but I know it will only get worse, so I am enjoying any amount I can get.  Of course, it does not help that Sam has an atomic inner clock and is up before 7 almost everyday.  

More Fall Fun!

We continue to stay busy.  Sam and I went with the moms club to a nearby park.  It is called Harveytown and is a farm theme.  It is my favorite park in the Huntington area.  Here is Sam on the play structure.

And with a friend on one of the statues.  She loved this sheep.

 We also went to a health fair that included inflatables.  Nick and I are also keeping busy with grading.  We just gave out tests and a few assignments.  Last night was a big night, too.  Sam's school had an event at the local McDonald's called McTeacher night.  Teachers helped serve in exchange for 20% of the nights profits.  We enjoyed the event a lot.  Ronald McDonald was there giving out stickers, frisbees and personalized, autographed photos.  There was also an amazing face painter, the best I have ever seen.  He did very elaborate paintings.  Sam just wanted something with pink in it, so she ended up with a butterfly.  It was sad that it had to be washed off.

Here she is sporting her face art on the way home.  

Last night was also a big first for Sam.  Nick and I had tickets to see Daniel Tosh, from Comedy Central's Tosh.0 show.  It was somewhat late, so we got references for babysitters and have been having them come so Sam could get used to the idea.  She loves having them come over to play with her.  And it means fun meal and a movie.  Last night was the first time a babysitter put her to bed.  It has always been Mama, Daddy or Nana, with an occasional Papa thrown in there.  She did very well and we are lucky to have found such great babysitters thanks to a good friend who was willing to share.  

Another funny story.  Sam's logic is so impressive.  Yesterday I lost a logic battle with her.  I was wearing the red shirt from the picture above.  Sam loves to help me get dressed and she always wants me to wear a necklace.  She said I should wear a purple heart necklace.  I said it was too long and did not really match, meaning purple and red.  She looked at me and said, "But it's a heart and your shirt has hearts on it."  Which it did.  Game point to Sam.  I wore the necklace.  I think we may be in for some trouble with logic like hers at 2 and a half.  

Preschool update

I forgot to include this in the last update.  Sam has been doing great taking naps in preschool, except for yesterday when she was put next to a girl that does not really nap and they kept chatting.  It has made life a lot easier to have her nap out of the way and not have to rush after class.

I also wanted to share an interview they recently did to learn about each kid.  A lot is pretty standard, Sam said that she had 2 dogs and no siblings currently.  She said her favorite activity is dancing.  Her favorite color is purple, which she sometimes exchanges with pink, depends on the day.  Her favorite toy was reported as lion, so I am not really sure what that was is since she has a few stuffed lions and none seem to be a favorite.  And the shocker was that she reported that her favorite food is carrots, even though she will hardly eat them now.  They must have had them for lunch that day and it was her favorite of the lunch.  I would put her favorite at fruit snacks.  She also really likes french fries.  In terms of healthy food, she really likes fruit and a current huge hit is edamame.

Busy week!

We had a busy week again.  We went to friends for dinner last Monday, the family that I did care swapping with last year.  Sam decided it was a good idea to get in the exesaucer.  Hmmm...

We also had some Mother Club friends for dinner (I made lasagna) and a collegue over for the ND-Pitt game
(she made chili).  Sam had a blast playing with all the kids.  Nick and I also had a date night.  We are going to see Daniel Tosh and wanted to get Sam used to having babysitters.

When my parents were here, we entered a contest at Borders for an American Girl doll.  Sam was sure she would win it, and she did.  I was amazed when they called.  We picked the doll  up on Sunday.  Sam loves it.  We are still working on a name, so right now she calls it her American doll.

Here she is before we opened it.

                                  

Hanging out and having a drinking yogurt.

Playing with her doll.  She even slept with the doll.

What a lucky girl!

Sam has also been showing more and more imagination.  Car rides are funny.  One hand will have a conversation with another.  Her my little ponies go on a date because they are married.  And this morning, Johnny, a doll that was my brothers, hit her new doll and had to get a time out, apologize and have a talking to about how we do not hit.  It is so cute!  And really impressive.

20 week ultrasound

We had our ultrasound this week.  Most everything looks great.  They did discover that the baby has a two vessel cord or single umbilical artery (SUA), which is seen in only about 1 in 100 babies.  Usually there are 2 arteries and a vein, making a total of three vessels.  We had never heard of this before, but after a lengthy discussion with a doctor, it is not a big deal.  There is a lot of stuff on the internet, but basically what usually goes along with SUA is cardiac problems.  The ultrasound technician did a thorough analysis of the heart, including multiple views, and everything looks great.  The baby does have an echogenic intracardiac focus, which is basically a white spot seen on the heart during an ultrasound where the valve connector connects to the tissue.  This is pretty common and becoming more common with the improvements in ultrasound technology and resolution.  Neither of these two things are medically concerning.  They do act as soft markers for certain chromosomal disorders, but I had a negative Papp-A indicating no elevation in risk and everything else was checked very carefully because of these findings (nasal bone, heart, facial structure, head shape, etc).  I essentially had a level-II ultrasound or a targeted ultrasound.  Because of the SUA, I will be delivering with a doctor and not just midwives.  There is a small possibility for a lower birth weight (like 5-6 pounds) and everything is monitored a little more closely to be sure the baby is getting everything he or she needs.  Our practice also does a routine ultrasound around 28-32 weeks that examines facial structure, so weight will be closely checked then as well.

This first scan is a little creepy, but it shows how the baby was for most of the scan, with his or her foot above his or her head. The other two are the more typical profile shots.  It is kind of hard to tell, but it appears that this baby will also have the Kelling nose :)

                                    

Halfway there!

Nick just spent a week in San Francisco for HFES, which was why my parents came, to help me and watch Sam while I taught our classes.  It was a crazy week.  Sam really missed her daddy.  She was so excited when he got up on Saturday.

I went to the farmers market Saturday with a friend and found this cool white pumpkin that I got Sam to paint.

 Here she is in action.

 Here she is with a preschool art creation.

Before my parents left, we went to the 5th Avenue Baptist Fall Fest.  They had a lot of cool kids things and everything was free.  There was a cupcake walk and the nice lady made sure Sam won one.  She was delighted.

Here she is in the car, sporting her face painting.

 There was also pumpkin bowling.  Sam started off rolling it towards the pins.

It did not hit too many, so she rolled it back towards the pins.

And then rolled it around until they were all knocked down.  It was pretty funny.

 And she even got to ride a horse!

She seemed to enjoy it, but was a bit scared I think.

Today was Sam's first day staying at preschool to nap.  She has been fighting naps at home and we originally decided to pick her up since she took such great naps and we did not want to short change her.  But the battle was not worth it, so we decided after my parents left, she could stay until 2:30.  She did great, even falling asleep on her cot.  We rewarded her with this little people zoo set we had gotten on clearance and saved until she was older.  Well, she loves it and was really cute playing with it.

 And here I am today at 20 weeks.  I am starting to be too big for a lot of my clothes.

And for comparison, here I am when I was 20 weeks pregnant with Sam.