Daddy's little girl

Lazy rainy Sunday

We spent the majority of our Sunday lazing around in the living room, playing with Stasa and watching football. She had a great time - especially since she had free reign of the downstairs. And she's such a chatterbox, though the majority of her conversations are still held in her own language. We love watching her grab our phone, put it up to her ear, say "hi!" and then continue on talking to an imaginary person on the other end. She does this again and again, but the minute you put a phone up to her ear with an actual person on the other end - she clams up. 

Check out these baby blues...

13 Weeks

TheBump.com:



Parents.com:



From TheBump.com:

Your fetus is forming teeth and vocal cords... savor this, their non-functional phase. Baby is approaching normal proportions, with a head now only one third the size of the body. Intestines are in the process of moving from the umbilical cord to baby's tummy.

I'm still tired a lot, but it's getting better or I'm just getting used to functioning while half asleep. Although it might be a good thing to get used to because I'm going back to school and my first class started this week. It's all online, so I can go at my own pace, to a degree, but I have a feeling I'll be feeling a little more exhausted each day.


And recently one of my appendectomy scars has started to really hurt, so I'm going to make a note to ask the OB at my next appointment. I'm sure it's just do to things shifting around, but this is the smallest and most superficial of all of my incisions, so I'm surprised it's hurting this much. 


Not much else going on in baby land yet. No movement, no sickness, no trouble. Just tired and hungry. 

Today on the Stasa channel...

Running around

One of Stasa's favorite things is running around outside. In fact, we let her walk the last leg of our daily walk yesterday and she threw a huge fit when we got home because she wasn't able to be outside anymore. We have a huge field behind our house that's all common area, so I took her out the other day to burn off some energy. She didn't want to stop. 














Towards the end of our playtime, she walked into a pile of branches and leaves and became hysterical - it was like they paralyzed her and she hated them. 

12 weeks

How big is Baby Merkel #2 this week:
Parents.com: a pacifier:



TheBump.com: a plum:



I'm now waking up with a visible-to-me bump, so I guess it's not all bloat anymore. My good friends heartburn, headache, and teenage acne have become frequent visitors, though I'm ready for them to pack their bags and head home. My all-day sickness has finally passed, for which I am grateful, but I'm still craving late afternoon naps. 


Speaking of cravings, this time around I can't seem to get enough orange juice and am going through gallons each week. Tom thinks I'm going to shock my system with Vitamin C from the amount I drink each day. At least it's a healthy craving - it could be milkshakes or chocolate bars. 


And to wrap up the third month, here's what the baby's been up to in utero:

• Vocal cords begin to form
• Eyes begin to move closer together 
• Ears shift to their normal place on the side of the head
• Intestines move farther in to your child's body
• His or her liver begins to function 
• The pancreas begins to produce insulin

Oh and for fun, here's me at 12 1/2 weeks with Stasa:

Catching up, again

WARNING: picture overload

Tom's Uncle Manoli came to visit:

Stasa got new shoes and wanted to show them off:

And then she managed to get into all of our freezer bags:

More park time:

Climbing up the big kid slide:

And then climbing up the wrong way:

Playing on the big kid equipment:

Finding one of her favorite toys: a stick

And stopping for a quick ice cream:

Relaxing with Daddy (she's going through a major daddy addiction phase, or maybe she's just a daddy's girl):

Surprise!

Most of you already know our big news thanks to a little postcard we mailed out. We found out on July 24 and couldn't be happier! I, of course, used a few tests because I didn't trust the first two since they were blue dye tests. Digital is the only way to go. So here we go - on our way to number 2, who's due April 2, 2011.


We went in on September 9 to hear the heartbeat and the nurse found it right away - a strong and healthy 169! And Stasa got excited and pointed when she heard it and even lifted her shirt up to show her belly. Monkey see, monkey do. 


We won't be finding out the sex of this baby either, so it'll be a surprise until the big day. We are in the process of setting up a big girl room for Stasa and will move her in it by the end of the year so she doesn't associate losing her old room with the arrival of the new baby. We bought her a big comfy chair for the corner of her new room and are going to repurpose the bed and bureau already in there. All that's left is to paint and decorate. 


And we didn't want to lose a guest room, so we moved our office downstairs (which looks much much better) and will turn the old office into a new guest room, complete with bunk beds. 

Yardsaling

Tom and I walk nearly every day and take extra long walks on weekend mornings. Last Saturday we were on our way home and came across a yard sale with a ton of little girl clothes. We had a few dollars on us, so we decided to stop and check it out. They ended up having a lot of great stuff. We ended up with a Reebok track suit and four long sleeve shirts for $3.00. Then on the way back from running errands we caught up with another yard sale and picked up a few Osh Kosh sweatshirts and sweatpants for a couple of dollars. 

So now we have a small stash of singles in our stroller compartment for our weekend walks. No way am I paying more than $0.50 for a piece of clothing now. 

We also took advantage of the Labor Day sales and hit up the Carter's store near our house. The clearance section was 30% off the reduced price and then an additional 20% off the entire purchase. We grabbed a lot of clothes in 2T - 6T, but only found a couple of pajamas, which was our goal. 

Now I'm looking forward to our weekend walks even more. 

First sentence

"Hi, daddy."

"Hi, mommy."

Stasa's first sentences. "Hi, daddy" came first and we almost couldn't believe our ears. It came out in this sweet soft little girl voice and was accompanied by a hand wave. Now she can't say enough "hi, daddy" and "hi, mommy" and we're loving every minute of it. 

What a loon.

Yes, she put herself in there, but we model parents added the balls. 

Playground fun

Ohhhhhhhh man, Stasa LOVES our playground. It's huge and has multiple sections. We usually take her on the one built for the smallest toddlers and she'll run around and climb on the equipment and swing. 


Oh, look! She's eating mulch!









The other day we decided to try out the 2-5 year old fenced in playground and she went crazy. There's a little bouncy bridge connecting two of the larger pieces of equipment and she spent most of the time running across that or standing at the end and jumping. She loves sliding, but gets so mad when she can't climb back up those slides because they're too steep and she just doesn't have the upper body strength to pull herself up yet. 


I wanted to try yet another playground section, so after the 2-5 year old one we headed over to the BIG kids playground. Our kid is such a big girl. She was fearless and wanted to go down all of the tallest slides and tubes and was able to climb back up one of the tallest slides. She spent about 30 minutes sliding down and climbing back up, the whole time saying "vweeee!" 


I can't wait until the weather is a bit cooler and the slides aren't as hot so we can spend more time at the playground. Oh! And they even have a volleyball court and we saw some other smaller kids making sand castles on it, so we're going to bring her sand toys next time. 


And when your kid spends all of that time running around and climbing up and down a slide, they are EXHAUSTED on the way home.