So I realized that I had not announced on the blog that we are pregnant and that Kelsey is going to be a Big Sister at the end of May. Most everyone who reads this blog should already know that, but just in case....
If you can quickly do the math..I am 20 weeks pregnant! Today we had our anatomy scan and we brought Kelsey with us. All along she has been asking for a brother AND a sister, she is learning to deal with disappointment as there is only 1 baby in my belly. The ultrasound today went well and the baby looks great. Everything is normal and baby is looking healthy!! The tech never got a great picture, but she tells us that this baby is a GIRL..so Kelsey is going to have a little sister in a few months.
An hour or so after the appointment we got a call from the office saying the Dr. read the ultrasound and it looks good, except....my placenta is low lying. They said it normally will move on it's own, but that they want to see me back in 6 weeks for another ultrasound to check it. AND they are putting me on placenta rest for the next 6 weeks!! Aaaaagggghhhhhh, that means I am not allowed to work out like I do. I did have them clarify and I am still allowed to walk for fitness, just no jogging, jarring movements, or lifting heavy weights. It's going to be a long 6 weeks and I pray at the end of it I am allowed to return to my normal activity level.
After we came downstairs to see if Santa had brought K anything else....Santa leaves his gifts in our house unwrapped by the tree so they are the first thing you see when you come in the room. Santa brought Kelsey a Spring Rocking Horse and a junior quad car. She was very excited about the quad car and got on to ride it right away in the house. She was not quite as excited about the horse, but still got on it and rode. I think the horse is bigger than her friends, so it was a little intimidating. We had a great morning finishing opening gifts as a family at our house. She got a fantastic princess castle from Gma Roselli, all the disney character stuffed animals from her Roselli side aunts/uncles, lots of very cute outfits, and a music box.
Kelsey & Aunt Jennifer
Kelsey & Daddy watching eveyone open gifts (she wanted to help so bad and was being so patient waiting as we went around in our normal 1 at a time opens a gift routine)
Kelsey & Allison coloring
Hugs from Aunt Jenny
Riding on Grandad's shoulders..check out that smile on her face
Our Christmas Princess
"aaahaahahahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!"
Isabel helping Kelsey open her gift from Angela
Trying to wrestle with Uncle Glenn
Our Happy family...my belly is being covered by my pashmina
Santa's Little Helperthat I go and check on K every night before I go to sleep (around midnight, I know I really need to change that) It was freezing again last night, so we had put Kelsey in footie jammies with socks on underneath. We even had the space heater in her room because it was supposed to get into the 20's again. Well, this is what I found when I went to check and say goodnight:
I took her out and put a diaper on her and new jammies. Before I placed her back in I felt her bed and sighed....it was wet!! I took her in and laid her in our bed with Lou while I went back and changed her sheets. I layer her bed with sheets and waterproof pads just in case something like this happens in the middle of night, it also makes it much easier just to take sheets off when they need to be cleaned as well. BUT, wouldn't you know it...she peed on the 5 inches that the waterproof pad doesn't cover, so both of the sheet layers were wet. Luckily I had clean sheets upstairs so I quickly threw a new pad and sheet on. I went to go get her out of our room (in the dark) and she was all snuggled up with Lou. After untangling them I put her back to bed in a clean dry bed with nice warm jammies!
Kelsey and I made jello for the first time on New Years Day night. She's never had it before, so I was not sure how she would react to it. She did like it! She didn't eat a ton of it, but it was fun to watch. Notice the trepidation in her face in the first picture :-)
We had an orange in the house and Kelsey asked for some, so I peeled it and then cut it into segments and put it in a bowl for her. After she finished, she asked for more. I had some mandarin oranges in the fridge so I put them in her bowl and gave them to her. She said "No Mommy, I want real oranges!" LOL I explained to her they were real, they were just a different kind and smaller. She's so funny :-)
Kelsey loves her some Panera French Onion Soup. It was freezing last night and I wanted some soup. Knowing K can't have most soups because they are creamy (milk) based, I decided to get some French Onion from Panera. After looking it up online last night, it's prob not totally in line her restrictions, but oh well. She devoured it!! To the point that she picked up her bowl and tipped it to her lips to suck down the last few yummy drops from the bottom of the bowl. I was very proud of her with how well she was using the spoon with her soup, she definitely had her share on herself, but she did a great job for not having practice with soup.
Finger Licking Good!!! (I finally found my photo card to get pics/videos off my cell phone..that's why this post is sooo late)
I kept putting this off and finally the evening before Christmas Eve set it up so Kelsey could help me with the cookie cutters. She had a blast using the rolling pin and then choosing which cookie cutter she wanted and pressing it into the dough with both hands. Then I had her help me make the dough for the candy cane cookies. She had fun using the kitchenaid and knew how to turn it on and off right away.
This is one of the few foods we have not been able to get Kelsey to eat, with the exception of some roasted sweet potatoes I made a few weeks ago. Well, tonight there was a break through folks!! Kelsey and I had stopped by Gma/Gpa McDonald's house after taking daddy to the airport. Gma made dinner for us, roast chicken, peas (K LOVES these) and mashed potatoes. As always I tried to get her to taste my mash potatoes and she gave me a look of terror and said no, which I had her turn into "no thank you" Then when she was doing something I snuck a bite into her mouth. She ate it with trepidation. I then glued some peas onto the next bite of mashed potatoes and she ate it willingly. We did the same gluing technique with the chicken. When she finished her plate she even asked for more of everything, including the potatoes!! Today was a good day!!!
Granted I prob majorly screwed up b/c I'm sure they had butter or some type of dairy that she's not supposed to have...just a day in the life of me!!
We had debated before buying either this one or the Learning tower, but just couldn't see paying the $$ for it. Soooooo worth it! She loves it and we love it! She pushes it around the kitchen from the center island, where she likes to help, and over to the sink to wash her hands. Even her cousins enjoyed using it when they came to stay with us.
We're a little unconventional and the Angel went up first to make sure we could fit her on. This year we gave in and bought a 9 foot artificial pre-lit tree. It pretty much goes to our ceiling, so Lou had to tie the angel on with fishing line
Since she had so much fun, I ended up buying her a little tree of her own for her bedroom. I wish I had my camera with me. She was dancing and singing as she was putting the ornaments on, that she got to pick out at the store. We even bought a little battery powered strand of lights. I turn the tree on during her naptime for her everyday.We have the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics, which Kelsey really likes. She likes to press the green button which sings the ABC's. She also puts letters in and then as it sings the phonics part she sings along. I should clarify that her singing along is funny. She now makes up words, and some not so real words, to the songs.
If you get this as an email update, I think you actually have to go to the blog to play the video. Remember to hit the triangle play button.
Like always....she's a jabber mouth until I start filming her. At lunch we were talking about Santa and she was telling me how she wanted presents but had to be a good girl for mommy & daddy, and how she wants a horse from Santa. It was so cute I wanted it on video, but as soon as I turned it on she got shy and I had to ask all the questions instead of her freely talking..oh well. Don't forget to press the triangle to play it.
Before lunch Kelsey was playing outside (on this gorgeous but gray day). She said "Mommy, look what I draw" I came over and asked her what it was and she said" it's me!" with a great big smile. So enjoy Kelsey's 1st portrait...I figured I had to take a picture of it since it was on the chalkboard and not on a piece of paper I could put in a frame.
Searching/Finding pine cones in the empty lot behind our house.
All ready to start...plate of birdseed, spoon, peanut butter, & pine cones (next time I will put a smock on her)
Spreading the peanut butter on with the spoon, she was trying to be so clean! Lou and I used our fingers to finish spreading enough peanut butter on
Sprinkling birdseed on the pine cone...
We told her it would work better to roll it. Birdseed was sticking to the peanut butter on her fingers and she kept trying to flick it off.
After we finished we tied ribbon around the pine cones. Kelsey was so happy. I hung them in 3 different places around our yard.
The next morning while we were getting breakfast ready, we saw a cardinal sitting on the fountain trying to get to the pine cone. So we went outside to go watch. Kelsey was very excited to watch the birds at her pine cone
If you look closely you can see both the male & female Cardinal in this picture. Female is on the dead palm branch. We did not see the female until I uploaded these pics.
