Khun Noi

Back in Katy is a little Thai restaurant called Khun Noi. I miss it severely, especially since I can't find an Asian market out here to buy Massaman curry. Since my dad served his mission in Thailand, I asked him what Khun Noi means: "Little Man". James is my Khun Noi so far away from Houston - I could just eat him up daily. Look at that squooshy face!

Lily's New Trick

For a long time, Lily's favorite game with Mike was called "One, two, threeeeee". On "three", Mike would toss Lily as high into the air as he could. Recently she has decided that it is a scary game. Luckily, Mike taught her a new game that she adores. She plays it over and over until she can't stand up any more. We haven't named this game yet, any suggestions? (Look at the pictures from top left, down - up to top right, and down. I couldn't get a collage that just put them from top to bottom in one row. Hrmph.)

9 Weeks

Baby is the size of a: GRAPE (mmm, frozen grapes)

Mama looks like:

Yup, Friday at my OB appointment, I couldn't stop dry-heaving, so I got sent next door to the hospital to get an IV for dehydration and some anti-nausea meds. I was very hopeful they would knock out this yucky feeling, but no such luck. Today at a follow-up appointment, the OB dashed my hopes and said some women just have to plan on spending one day every week in the hospital until the nausea passes on it's own. I'm going to see if I can tough it out until my next appointment in 3 weeks, and just work really hard at drinking fluids and taking it easy.

I know some people might disagree with our announcing this pregnancy so early, but I'm just so thrilled we are pregnant again, that I couldn't hold it in (literally HA!), and on that same train of thought, I couldn't keep it from Lily (or James). Ever since James started walking and became a "little boy" and not a baby, Lily has been insistent that we have another baby. Lily is SO excited for a baby. Every day she asks me if the baby is growing, or hungry, or going to get wet from my shower. Every day she asks "What is the baby's name?" and I remind her we don't know if baby is a boy or girl, so for now, we'll call it "baby". (But don't you worry, this Type A mama has already picked out a boy and girl name, and even had those names embroidered on Christmas stockings; I can't pass up good Christmas clearance deals! The only problem we'll run into on names is if we end up with identical twins. My finger's are crossed for that possibility, though!) Almost every day, Lily tells me the baby is a girl, and that James thinks so too. She must be telepathic, because he sure isn't talking to me. As tight-lipped as he is, we can still tell he is excited. He takes any opportunity to pull up my shirt and pat my belly while mumbling "bay-bay". Love these little people. After a particularly rough day, I love tucking them in and being reminded why I'm choosing to do this again.

New Year's Party for the Littles

In the past, Mike and I celebrated New Year's by blowing things up :) In Montana, you were allowed to set off fireworks for a week before and a week after New Year's Day. And we did. In Houston, you could buy pretty big fireworks and they were lots of fun to set off. Here in Colorado, there were no firework stands, no fireworks in the store, and no fireworks in our box of holiday supplies. Sad. We were so lucky to be invited to a friend's New Year's party, and it opened my eyes to a new way of celebrating with littles. We celebrated with potluck appetizers, sparkling juice, and a countdown to noon instead of midnight. The family who hosted it dropped a pinata from the ceiling for the kids to break into. Afterwards we tried to light sparklers, but it was too windy. I think we'll try to make this a tradition - Countdown to Noon with the Littles!

8 Weeks

The baby is the size of a: KIDNEY BEAN (which to me seems smaller than a blueberry, but maybe we just get really big blueberries here in Colorado)

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Mama looks like:

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Wait, no, that's what I've looked AT all week. My bad. There has been no change in my belly size, except maybe it's smaller and tighter because of the *fantastic* abdominal workout I've taken up.

Fair warning, what follows is a big, fat whine session. If you want to continue believing my life is filled with only rainbows, adorable children, unicorns, and tasty food that always stays in my belly, stop reading now.

Mama feels like: crapola. 

I'm not new to the nausea game, by any means. With Lily's pregnancy, I was sick all day, every day, for almost 6 1/2 months. Zofran saved my life. I only started taking it around 9 weeks because I threw up so hard I blacked out in the bathroom in the middle of the night. I tried to stop taking at 12, then 14, then 16 weeks because *darn it* that's when you're supposed to stop being "morning" sick. Each time, I was thrown into a tailspin of back-to-back barfing, every 20 minutes for a few hours, until my body was exhausted enough to keep down the next Zofran. The end result was worth it:

With James, lather, rinse, and repeat, but this time I remained under the influence of Zofran until 3 hours after (yes, you read that right, AFTER) James was born. (I did still try to go off of it at 14, 20, and 30 weeks.) Again, so worth the struggle:

Needless to say, I did not expect this pregnancy to be any different. But my beloved Zofran has failed me. Starting at 7 weeks on the day, I have been sick; too sick to walk to the mailbox, too sick to care that my children are jumping on the couch (as long as they're not jumping on me!), too sick to make dinner (thank HEAVENS there is an A&W in this teeny town), even too sick to sleep. I had a few dozen Zofran left over from James' pregnancy, and they are not working! And before you ask, no, they haven't expired. I take them faithfully, hoping beyond hope that *this time* they will kick in. Of course, I have good days, too. I was able to take Lily to the dentist yesterday with no horking until we got home :) I have an appointment tomorrow, and I'm hopeful the doctor will have a solution.

END RANT :)

I am SO thankful for modern medicine. Unisom (with the active ingredient doxylamine) has helped me sleep at night without nausea. Nutritional supplements (prenatal vitamins, vitamins B6, D3, folic acid, magnesium, zinc, and flax seed oil) help ease my mind that this baby is still getting the nutrients it needs.

I'm thankful for my family and friends who have done their own research and offered sound advice (whether or not it has worked!). My sister in particular read all about papaya as a nausea aid. Another friend reminded me about ginger, which reminded me of the small success I had with homemade lemonade (extra sour). I'm not sure who pointed to me to this blog post, but I've read a few more articles about how protein can help with nausea and I must admit that the days I have felt best, I started by eating scrambled eggs, or chicken deli-slices (microwaved to prevent listeria poisoning), or an egg-salad sandwich.

I'm especially thankful that my littles are so easy-going. When naptime hasn't gone as planned, they have been content to play with the toys in Lily's room while I take a 30 minute nap.

Soon the worst will be over and I will have a sweet little person to hold in my arms, and this will all have been worth it.

Christmas in Utah

Our first exciting Christmas present was discovered before our trip to Utah even started: I am pregnant with baby #3! I am so thrilled, and Mike is surprised :)

The 8 hour drive was much shorter than our last Christmas drive (25 hours from Houston), but still awful. I'm not sure how I'm able to make the drive by myself with the kids and be fine, but when we take Mike with us, all bets are off. Maybe the kids just like to see Mike anxious and are worse for him, or maybe I can just tune them out easier. Either way, we were SO glad to get to my parents' house.

Morgan's had plans to fly out to California for Christmas, so we celebrated an early Christmas with them on the 23rd. Lily wasn't feeling 100% so Nana got blessed with lots of snuggles :)

It was fun to Skype with Mike's brother and sister-in-law as well. They are in Cambodia with the Peace Corps, so the kids don't get to see them very often. We made a Buche de Noel (no picture but it was fantastic!), lined up on the stairs,

opened presents (James didn't quite understand, and kept trying to put his presents back in their wrapping),

 and got an egg from the chickens.

On Christmas Eve, the boys (Mike, my dad, and Matt, my brother-in-law) kept up our family tradition of going shooting. 

They had more than enough guns and ammo between them.

Christmas morning for us was very relaxed. Lynsey and Matt had spent the night with his family, so we told Lily we wouldn't open presents until they got home. We went to church at 9,

 

then came home for a nap. Lily had to be reminded several times "Presents after Aunt Lynsey and Uncle Matt get home". The second they walked through the front door, she attacked the presents! It was hilarious. She didn't know who's presents she was opening, nor did she care. She just knew they were home and she was free!! We hurried and sorted the gifts and set the kids loose.

This was really the first year that Lily understood what was going on, and she loved it. I have the BEST husband who got me a fantastic camera!

I'm so excited to learn how to use it!

The next day we went down to a park in Centerville and let the kids run through the city's light display. It was my first big photo-shoot with my new camera.

And now, random pictures from the rest of our trip:

Isn't my dad's hat fantastic?

Matt's throwing gang signs again...

Beautiful Gramma

Making little pancakes with Gramma

Blowing on oatmeal with Grampa

Lily loved finding out that her pigtails were swing-y

December Fun

Close to the beginning of December we got a little snow, and Lily begged every day to build snowmen. There wasn't enough snow outside to roll up into balls, so I pulled out the felt and we made snowmen for her wall! She and James each got a snowman to decorate. I had made felt Christmas trees for each of them (complete with ornaments), so we just used the trees as our background.

The kids and I visited Durango's Festival of the Trees. It was just the right size (read: small) to keep the kids' attention spans - AND they got a cookie at the beginning!

We got invited to a birthday party down in Farmington, NM. It was at a big bouncy house type place. There were probably two dozen blow-up castles the kids could climb up, bounce on, and slide down. It was their first time doing anything like it. Lily LOVED it and couldn't be stopped long enough for a non-blurry picture. James wasn't so sure about it and spent most of the time trying to open our little friend's birthday presents.

7 Weeks

The baby is the size of a: BLUEBERRY

Mama looks like: