Happy 18 Months, Penelope!

Wow! 18 months have just flown by. I can't believe she started like this:

To this:

I'm a little nervous to see what the next six months will bring. I hope she doesn't hit terrible twos too hard. Hopefully the new baby will help mellow her out or she'll not be a happy camper. She has grown up so much. Penelope does so much and is so independent. She has a strong personality. Let's just say you don't want to see her angry or frustrated. But I have to say she's a pretty happy girl more often than not. She loves books and learning. I feel like she's my little sponge and I want her to learn what is right. Lately, she's been a little singer. As she goes down for a nap, you can hear her sing "A B C..." and then stop and start again. She's recently discovered Winnie the Pooh and likes doing the "up down up" song he sings when he gets hungry.

Happy 18 months, Penelope! We love you.

Big News

(4/16) Today, we received some exciting news- I'm pregnant. It was a little surprise but not totally unexpected. I think this is my year to get tons of things done: first an appendectomy, second my knee surgery, third physical therapy, and now a baby on the way. Thank goodness for insurance! I'm feeling pretty good about it all. The timing of when this little one is going to come means we're going to be in California for Christmas this year. I joked with my mom that we'll visit every other year, or at least that'll be the case for the last two years and then this year.

I'm thankful for my doctor for being prepared for anything that may come- when I was pregnant with Penelope it was a rough first trimester. I lost 40lbs and was hospitalized. My doctor has said I can call at any point and just ask for zofran if I need it (a fun medication that *should ease any nausea (*It didn't help much with Penelope but the doctor keeps telling me every pregnancy is different)). I'm not too worried about how Penelope will handle it. She really likes babies right now and is gentle with them. I guess I know what she's getting for her birthday: a big girl bed. I hope this time around things go better. The doctor says I should only gain about 15lbs during the whole pregnancy. I feel like this time around I have a better handle on my weight and how I'm eating. I hope I'm able to breastfeed this time around not just for cost reasons but for bonding purposes too. I'm not saying that I'm not bonded with Penelope but I know it's something I missed out on. I feel like I know what I should expect more this time around as far as feeding is concerned. I feel like I have support around me. Chris is still digesting this I think. Although Chris is happy we found out sooner this time so that I can get all the DHA, folic acid, and electrolytes that I can for the first trimester.

 I joke that I just got called into nursery because one of the women who was released from that calling, after she was called into nursery, got pregnant too. So, getting called into nursery must be a pre qualification of some kind when thinking about baby number 2.

Wow, another baby. I guess we're in a big enough place right now too where we don't have to worry (when I had Penny, we were in a one bedroom and didn't move out until she was about 6 months old). So many changes that we'll have to do.... I probably sound like I'm in a daze. I feel like I've got it mostly wrapped around in my mind that this is happening but it's still like a deer in the headlights mode. I heard Penny wake up for a brief second a while ago and she fell back asleep (thanks to Chris grabbing a sippy cup with milk) but I stayed awake for over an hour just thinking. There's so much to think about but at the same time not much to think about.

I was looking at the calendar and for my birthday I'll get to find out the gender of the baby. I think that's an exciting part. At this point, I'm not partial to whether it's a boy or girl. I remember while I was pregnant with Penelope, I had very strong feelings early on that she was going to be a girl. No such feelings yet. I just want this one to be as healthy and strong as Penelope was.

(5/15) Today, I went into the ER. I have been having a bit of a rough time with nausea/vomitting and keeping easy things down. I had called the doctor yesterday and she had me come in today. I feel truly blessed with this OB/GYN because we've  been down this road before and we know what needs to be done and at what points. I was pretty dehydrated and so she upped the dosage for one of my medications, added another, and said to go to the ER to get some fluids in me before I felt worse. She says if this doesn't work in by a week or so then she can still add another medication before we look at being hospitalized again. I think I'm just gun shy because I know how bad it can get- I've been there. It was not fun. But our hope is really that something will click this time around that didn't last time and that we nip this in the butt before it gets bad.

(6/7) I had a doctor's appointment today to just check the heartbeat and to let her know how I've been feeling. I have been doing SO much better- I've only been sick a few times and I think I owe it to a friend's advice of ginger ale and fruit to start my day with my medication. I'm finally not loosing weight at   this point, just staying where I am and not rushing to put any weight on. The doctor tried to find the baby's heartbeat with her little machine but was having a difficult time. She said she could hear it very faintly but decided that she would take a look via ultrasound just to make sure everything was ok. I felt reassured by her willingness to take a look. Everything looks great- we could see the little one moving around and could see the heartbeat with no problems. The doctor went ahead and measured it to see if it was the same as our first predicted due date..... Well, the baby is measuring a week and a day further than initially thought. So, next Friday I have my "12 week" ultrasound, where they check the spine and brain and whatnot. The doctor said they'll be able to have a more accurate measurement of when the baby will be due than her ultrasound machine. Now, I'm really anxious and excited to find out. I could already be past my 12 weeks if the reading today was right!!

(6/15) We just got back from the ultrasound appointment! Everything looks fantastic. The baby's official due date is now December 22, 2012. We are very excited and are looking forward to this wonderful new addition. I'll be posting ultrasound photos here this weekend (we got a disc that we have to get it into the computer). I'm still on two medications that are working well to keep nausea at bay. I've been doing really well and am only down about 14 lbs from my starting weight but have been floating at the same weight for a couple weeks now. I'll keep everyone updated as thing progress.

YAY!!!

Penelope Is Learning New Things!

I have been reflecting on these last six months that we last saw our family and am amazed at how much our dear little girl has learned and grown. She has learned to go up and down stairs, walk turning into runs, holding hands when walking, a plethora of words to express herself, climbing on to anything and everything mommy and daddy will let her, and so on. She is also now taller than the dining room table. Penelope has also started having one LONG nap during the day (anywhere between 3 and 4 hour nap or else she'll take two smaller naps that equal about 4 hours). We have a friend of ours who is a school nurse about our age who is always interested in seeing what Penelope is doing now. She came over the other night and asked if we'd started colors with her. Well, we just finished up some animals and their noises but we hadn't started colors. So, these last couple days we were curious to see if she could point some colors out to us. She won't really say the color names very much but Chris decided to conduct an experiment tonight with her. We know from past experience that she understands and can do things before we realize (she started crawling and cruising the furniture the same day- so we realize now that she knew how to walk before we got it on camera).

Here's the experiment: We have a star stacker (instead of a round cone stacker) with 4 colored stars of different sizes. The colors are orange, blue, pink, and green. As Penelope was playing with them this evening, Chris asked her to hand him the blue star. She did. Then he asked for the green star. She handed it over. He then waited for a time to pass before trying it again. Instead of him asking tho, he had me ask for the blue star. Penelope handed it over, a little hesitant because she was playing with them still. We will try the experiment tomorrow to see if it's still the same and then use different objects that are different colors and see what she does. But we're pretty sure she knows what each color is, just doesn't say them to us yet.

Penelope has so many words now, including animals and some of their noises (what noise do you make for a giraffe?). Her favorite phrase during the day is "'atch elmo" (watch elmo), although I don't give into it more now. She loves identifying letters and what they say ("j" says "jump", and she proceeds to jump). She can correctly identity a handful or so of letters. Chris took her to the park one Saturday and she walked up to a woman (with a magazine) with her daughter and as Penny approached her, the woman asked what Penny was in to and Chris said that she loves learning her letters. The woman then said "Isn't she a little young for that?".  I feel so much every day that Penelope is just a sponge, absorbing everything  said and seen. I am trying to take advantage of that as much as I can when she's focused (which is not all her waking hours, trust me). Penelope has learned the word "happy" from nursery (we have music time and we sing "if you're happy and you know it"). She claps as I sing "If you're happy and you know it" and it is so precious.

I am loving being a mom right now with such a sweet spirit of a daughter. I am also very lucky to be able to stay home with her and watch her learn and grow. My other luck is that I have a wonderful husband who helps when he is home. My sweet, darling husband plays with his little girl (and she is such a daddy's girl at this point) and gets up with her in the morning so that I can rest a little longer. Being a parent is exhausting sometimes but I know it's what I'm meant to do right now in my life.

Well, speaking of exhausting, I'm headed for bed. I hope you all enjoy reading about my little girl's growth and progress.

Update on physical therapy, Penelope, and life

I have really enjoyed physical therapy. I have made so much progress in such a short time that the physical therapist didn't think I'd need to use all of the appointments that the surgeon wanted me to. I am able to go on a stationary bike and ride normal at around 70-80 rpms. I'm so glad things are going so well. I also did some other exercises while I was there that are easier to see than to describe. There was a dimple with one of the scars on my knee and so when I went in, the therapist massaged it to get the dimple to go away. I didn't realize that the reason she did that is not only so it looks normal again but if the dimple were to stay there then the surgery would be for not. It would actually cause me more pain then I had before the surgery. I am just learning more things every day. On the days I didn't have therapy, I've starting to do some yoga which means going on my knees. It doesn't hurt as much as it did before I started therapy.

I am so grateful to those wonderful women who were kind enough to watch Penelope while I got this taken care of. When I picked Penelope up afterwards, she would usually go down for a nap that lasts over an hour which says to me that she had fun and stayed active.

Speaking of Penelope, we got her a little kiddy slide. She LOVES it to say the least. We've got some videos of her going up and down the slide. She's also been working on more words like "grandpa" (which I'm sure they love to hear). She's also learning that people have names so she calls out kids names that she knows as a way to say she wants to play with them. She is such a little talker now. We've also busted out the kiddy pool from Grandma and Grandpa Wright where she goes in naked (at this point) and splashes all the evening long. She's had a bit of a runny nose lately- we're thinking it's just allergy season and this will go away.

I recently got called into the Church nursery where they're allowing Penelope to come with me. I'm with the younger group (between the ages of 18 months to 2 years old). We have been loving it so far. The leaders are glad that she's independent because they're going to let me sit out once in a while to go to normal Sunday classes. Penelope has learned very quickly to hold hands now when we go for a walk outside with the kids in nursery and is slowly learning how to drink from a very small dixie cup. It's a blessing to see her learn and grow.

Well, today I was dehydrated to the point my doctor sent me to the ER to get fluids pumped in me (through an IV). I'm feeling much better now and am happy for modern medicine. Not much else to report. I am sorry this took a while to post but it's been crazy here. Here's a picture to sum it up:

Physical Therapy, weight loss, a cute pic of Penelope

I had my first physical therapy appointment yesterday. Can I just say I am really glad I am working with a person I really get along with?! She is so nice and understands my limitations and that I have a 15 month old that I need to care for. We had an hour appointment and she gave me 4 different things to do 3 times a day. I am making sure I do everything she suggests because I know she is the expert and I want to get better fast. We did some strengthening exercises, when on a bike just swinging my legs back and forth, iced it before I left, etc. It was GREAT!

As a treat the night before, Chris decided we should watch "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" which I had never seen before. It was fun to relax and enjoy some time with Chris.

Most of you can see the little chart on the side bar of my blog with my weight loss. Well, I am SO EXCITED!! I'm the smallest I've been since I had Penelope oh those 15 months ago. In fact, I'm so excited I'm willing to show you a picture.

 I haven't been able to wear this jacket since we left Ohio (a little over 2 years ago). I was so happy that I was able not just to put it on but able to button it. I've lost a little over 18 lbs and counting. I still have a ways to go and I'm doing it the smart, healthy way. It's amazing what will make your day, right?




Penelope is a cutie, I'm not going to lie. She's been dealing with a  little rash as a reaction from her MMR shot two weeks ago (it's just about gone now). We haven't been worried because it's not bothering her at all. We noticed that she wasn't fitting into her size 3 shoes any more so I had to go to the store and get her some. We got 3 pair- two size 4 and one size 5 (for good measure). We got all but the sig-zag ones in this picture (we of course tried them on her little feet before buying them):

As you can clearly see, Penny has a thing for shoes. In fact, here's another picture of Penelope's shoe fetish:

                 

Well, that's all for today. Sorry for the delay there for a little while. Enjoy!
  

Post surgery

Here I sat, with my legs elevated on the couch, knee wrapped up so much that it looks like football padding, compression tights on. I was not allowed to unwrap my knee until I see the surgeon. I am allowed to put full weight on it. I could attempt to bend it but because of the padding I really couldn't. I took 3 Vicodin the first day- once when I got home, once in the afternoon when it was bugging me again, and once before bed so I could sleep and not worry about pain. The surgeon took out a "big" (he said that not me) piece of cartilage from behind my knee, took care of a meniscal tear, and one other thing (being drugged when they tell you what they did isn't too helpful).

I am now able to walk around with few problems (pain sometimes, going down stairs HURTS, etc.). I feel so luck to have gotten this done and to move forward from this. I still have to do physical therapy for a month to get it back to normal (being able to bend down at the side of the tub to give Penny a bath among other things). I'll have it on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the next 4 weeks around lunch time starting this Wednesday. I am very grateful for a friend who immediately said she would watch Penny on Wednesdays for me.

Penelope has learned a fun new trick. She has been climbing up on the furniture for a while but now she's getting adventurous and trying to climb up on the dining room table chairs (which have little rockers on the back). Today, she tried going up and fell down (Yes, on the tile). I hope she learns not to do that any more.

Everything comes faster than expected

Well, this last week has been jammed pact. We had a family come over Friday night for a pizza and movie on the wall night. It was very fun. Hopefully, we'll be able to have their whole family over next time. I loved holding their little 4 month old. It reminded me of who old Penny is getting. We then had General Conference this weekend. There were some amazing talks that I really want to look up and re-read or listen to.
Monday we had to deal with the DMV. We had received a letter in the mail post marked the 23rd of March so we tried to renew our tags online. Chris kept getting an error message. This letter we got wasn't a renewal statement so I couldn't do it over the phone. At this point, we knew we'd be paying fines for it being late. I, after looking at wait times for each of the closest DMVs, picked one and packed Penny in the car. It wasn't a long line to get a number. In fact, it wasn't that long of a wait after I got my number. I knew to bring in last years renewal letter, the letter that we had received, and our car registration. Now, we recently refinanced our car from the car dealership to Chase bank. It wasn't a fun process. In fact, it was a LONG process even though Chris had been approved a while ago. So, we had to take my name off the title which wasn't a big deal to me. So, as I talked with this nice DMV woman, she went through the history of the car. She then saw the letter and that my name was taken off the registration and that the lean holder had changed. She also noticed that the process Chase did to refinance the car took from November to March 19th (registration on the car was due March 2) and she said that is why we never received a letter for the renewal of the car registration. This sweet woman then gave me a paper that Chris had to sign and told me what exactly to write in the statement to waive the fees for it being late. She reassured me that this was not our fault and that next year this should be back to normal (that we would get a reminder of renewal in the mail). So, she then set up an appointment for me to come back today to give them the paper and get the new sticker for the car. This is the best experience I've ever had with the DMV.

After that appointment yesterday, I called Chris to let him know the late fees would be waived. He was happy to hear that. Then one of my sisters called to talk for a little bit and then a phone call came in from the surgeon's office. I picked up that call. Turns out the surgeon is being called out of the OR on Friday and was there anyway I would be willing to move my surgery to this Wednesday morning. I then said I would have to call Chris, since he was going to be the driver to and from the hospital. Well, apparently after I had called Chris the first time his phone had died or shut itself off. So when I tried to call to see if this change would be okay and that he would be able to take work off. He finally was able to call me back and say that it would have to work. I was going to have to wait until today to hear what time. Now, the hospitals rules are that no children under 13 can be in the waiting room. I was in a bit of a panic. I now had 2 days to find someone to watch Penny while I went into surgery. Thankfully, there was no cookie dough in the house.

Well, today I heard from the hospital. My surgery is now going to be at 6am and the hospital requires me to be there an hour and a half early to prep and, because it's in Fremont, takes half an hour to get there. So, we have to drop Penny off at 345a for my 6am surgery. I should be out of the hospital by 8/830am. My mom is such a smart woman. After I arranged everything for tomorrow, she asked if Penny couldn't just stay the night at someones house so no one has to be woken up at a strange hour. I'm still waiting to hear back to see if that would be okay with the person she'll be staying with.

I'm not nervous or anxious about the surgery. I'm very curious as to when I can be walking for long periods of time and getting to the gym. I won't know until tomorrow when I talk to the surgeon. I'll have a follow up Thursday afternoon with the surgeon. I'm so grateful for Chris' boss being so willing to let him "work from home" on short notice. He (Chris' boss) must think I'm high maintenance lately with all these hospital visits these last few weeks.

Penelope is a darling girl lately. She is climbing on furniture and talking so much. We try to make her say words before we do something for her (like if she's done eating at the highchair, we have her say up, down, or done). She can reach the top of the dinning room table. A few days ago, she gripped the front door handle.

Well, life keeps moving at a fast pace here.