Catching Up - 2013 So Far

As promised, some pictures of Julianna's birthday, only 3+ months late...

Jules' second year is turning out to be so much fun! She is such a hammy little ham hock. She expresses her dissenting opinions freely and at maximum volume, and just when you think "GAR! What is this kid's problem!?" she leans in for a sweet kiss, a snuggle and a squinty, breathy chuckle. Kinda like this:

In short, she is irresistible.

Since time plays tricks with the mind, I want to document the words she is saying right now because soon she'll be speaking in complete sentences just like Jonathan. She has learned so many words recently!

Spoken:
Uh-oh (her first)
Ball
Dada
Papa
Hat
Foof (what a dog says)
AAUGGHHH (what all other animals say)
Hi
'Sdat? (what's that?)

Signed:
Milk
Banana
Bird

No "momma" in sight yet. :(

Meanwhile, in Jonathan news, he is so big and getting so grown up! At three-and-a-half, he is a full-fledged "kid," certainly no longer a toddler. We switched his school back in October and he has been flourishing there. He makes friends so easily and I hope that is something he carries with him his whole life.

One of my favorite things Jonathan has started doing these days is saying "Mommy, I love you" out of nowhere. He doesn't say it simply as a response to me saying it to him. He doesn't say it to get what he wants - for instance, 3 seconds before asking for a cookie. He just says it to be sweet. It is the most rewarding thing to hear from a tiny being who, as nature intends, has spent 99% of his life receiving, rather than giving love.

Here are a few recent pictures of our sweet and sensitive little guy.

Superheroes are BIG right now. Exhibit B, featuring cousin Will:

Finally, Jer and I always go in and check on Jonathan every night before we go to bed. Inevitably, he is passed out in some unnatural sleeping position which involves arms and/or legs sticking up at funny angles,  or him sleeping on top of the book he was "reading" to himself to fall asleep.

I couldn't resist taking this adorable shot of our sleeping monkey, involving the following critical items for a good night's sleep:
Turtle
Shark
Dolphin
Light-up Dog
"Mr. Marbles," his lovey
Elmo book
Thomas blanket

Our next big Team Duguid adventure is coming up soon. We're heading up to Chattanooga to see (and ride on!) the "real" Thomas the Train. We're going with Jer's parents and it should be a great weekend!

Julianna is One!

We hosted family for Julianna's birthday party on Saturday.  I cannot believe our (likely last) baby is one already.  It is certainly bittersweet.  On the one hand, we'll probably never have a tiny little squishy baby again and on the other, she is becoming more fun and filled with toddlery mischief every day.  I absolutely love the time between one and two!

The party was really awesome.  Our friend Jaime was in town and we had a lot of fun with her over the weekend.  Plus, she helped a ton with the party - couldn't have done it without her.  It being so soon after Christmas, and just having gotten back from vacation a few days before, I did not go crazy with a theme and hard core decorations.  We straightened up the house and hung up some pretty tissue pom poms and that's about it.

The kids alternated between playing in the basement and watching Cars 2 in the family room, and the adults mostly stayed upstairs, ate and chatted.  There may have been some fawning over Jules and her super cute birthday outfit.  She was in a fantasticly happy and silly mood all day.

It was a simple celebration in this time of crazy Pinterest-inspired overproduced events but it could not have been a more special way to celebrate our little beauty..

Photos to come shortly...

2013

I can't believe it but I haven't blogged in 7 months! It's a new year though, and although I do not make resolutions per se, I am using the dawning of 2013 as a reason to recommit myself to documenting our boring little lives. :) Our kids change too fast. Julianna is almost ONE! And I want to remember the silly things they say and do right now, before they are suddenly 25 and I wonder where the time has gone. So, I'm not making any aggressive goals like "I'll blog once a week" or "ever" but here I am, trying. We had a really lovely Christmas and New Year's with our families. The last week we were in Amelia Island and Jonathan was in heaven with cousins, grandparents, a heated-to-90-degrees swimming pool and trains galore. Julianna had good days and bad, but her high point was defnitely an early birthday celebration when she devoured a piece of cake in about 10 seconds flat, miraculously without getting any in her hair, clothes or ears. It was actually quite remarkable and a total opposite of Jonathan's experience which has caused him to have a strained relationship with cake to this day. We're having a party for Jules on her birthday, this Saturday. Let's hope for a good mood day. This little lady is such a cliche - total drama queen!

Bye bye diapers

We have potty training success! For months Jonathan has peed on the potty but has flat out refused to poop. That all changed abruptly this week when something clicked and he decided to give it a try. Today makes 6 days in a row that he's pooped on the potty. And he's loving every minute of the cookies, gummy rings and Thomas episodes he's gotten as rewards! In Julianna news, her little personality is really blooming. She is so sweet and happy. I just melt when she flashes me her crinkly nose smile. She is especially crazy about Jonathan and the feeling is mutual. Jonathan likes to share his trains with her and tries to calm her down in the car when she is fussy. "Shh, Julianna, we're almost home Julianna." So.darn.cute. At her 4 month appointment, Julianna was 25.25 inches and 13 lbs, 10 ounces. That translates to about 75th% for height and 50th% for weight (just like Jonathan always was). Things are pretty hectic but we're enjoying life with our two little ones!

2 Months with 2 Kids

And no time to blog!!

Jonathan has been so great with the baby. He loves to kiss her on the head and always asks about Julianna.
"Where's Julianna?"
"Julianna come too?" (when we are going out as a family on the weekends)
"Here Julianna, come sit here next to Jonathan."

Other cute things he's been saying lately -
When I told him I'd put a little cheese on his peas - "No, I want some BIG cheese."
After correctly identifying a parrot in one of his books, and upon seeing a picture of an eagle on another page - "Dat a scary parrot??"
While observing me pumping - "I wanna pump too."
When he falls down (which he usually does on purpose) - shaking his head, "Oh, MEEEEE-AAAAAAN!"

In other Jonathan news, daycare is going full steam ahead with potty training, although I suspect he isn't really ready. He is very excited about wearing his Thomas the Train underwear, but mommy is not terribly excited about cleaning pee and poop out of it. We'll see if things change soon, but my inclination is to back off for a while and try again in a month or two. Daycare just isn't flexible about that stuff though so I hope he doesn't get confused.

Meanwhile, Julianna has been a joy (for the most part). We've had some issues with her fussiness - which it seems is due to gas. Things are getting a little better so I'm hopeful that we've turned a corner with her moods (and her discomfort, poor thing).

She is a good nighttime sleeper, regularly giving me 5 hour stretches of sleep and occasionally 6 and even 7 hour stretches. She is such a gorgeous little baby and when she smiles, she smiles big. She has just started really beaming and cooing which makes it all worth it!

I want to do a baby book for her eventually, so here are her one-month and two-month stats before I forget:

One Month - 2/5
9 lbs, 12 oz (75th%)
20.5 in (60th%)

Two Months - 3/5
11 lbs, 4 oz (60th%)
22.5 in (55th%)

Finally, I got a job! I will be working at Manheim, which is a Cox company. I'm excited about the role (in product strategy for their online products) and also about staying at Cox. It's a great situation. I start in April. Now I can relax and really enjoy the next month that I'm home with the baby! :)

Baby sister is here!

On 1/4 I had my 38 week appointment and the midwife said I was 4cm and 80% effaced. Say WHAT?!? And I wasn't in labor...how?

That night I felt crampy and went to bed thinking I would maybe just wake up in full labor.

At 4:53am on 1/5/12, I woke up to a really intense contraction. Since I'd been having contractions on and off for a couple of weeks, I wasn't sure that this was the real thing. But 20 minutes later, I had another big contraction that caused me to double over in pain. Then, 13 minutes later, then suddenly 7 minutes after that, they kept coming. At 6am I woke Jeremy up and told him I was prety sure this was the day!

Jeremy's parents were on their way to our house, but I was in so much pain and scared to death of giving birth in the car, so I called our fantastic neighbor Jennie to come sit at our house until they got there. She was so understanding (thanks again Jennie!).

We got to the hospital around 7 and I signed in and basically demanded my epidural - the front desk lady was like, "umm, ok." But when they checked me and saw that I was 8cm dilated, I felt vindicated - and not a little freaked out that it might be too late to get my epidural.

"No worries," my nurse and midwife assured me in calm voices, "you'll get your epidural. All we have to do is get this entire IV bag into you and run some labs and then you can get the epidural." Ahh, how reassuring. Did I mention I was EIGHT CENTIMETERS and moving KINDA FAST???

I have never felt pain like that in my life. And I hope I never will again. We're talking "clutching the rails of the bed, groaning, moaning and screeching pain." Not cute.

The good news is I did get my epidural, and by then I was already at a 9 or 10. So basically, I did labor unmedicated. Woot. Here's some advice - DON'T.

Luckily I did not have to push unmedicated, because it took an hour and 15 minutes. You see, as we learned moments before the doc yanked her out with the vacuum, she was sunny side up - the little stinker!! I am going to milk this for all kinds of guilt trips down the road.

Our beautiful Julianna Mae was born at 10:06am, 7lbs, 9oz and 19.5 in long. She is just perfect! Luckily, she was a great nurser right off the bat, and we haven't faced the challenges that we did trying to get Jonathan to eat those first few weeks.

Jonathan is a sweet big brother. He loves to run into the room after school and peer at baby sister. He knows that we have to be soft with the baby ("no hit it?") and likes to give her kisses on the top of her head. Otherwise he pretty much ignores her. That's about as much as we could expect from a 2 year old.

Now, how to change the URL of this blog to babydmakesfour.blogspot.com?

Fun December

We've had a lot of fun with Jonathan lately - so the photo chronicle of December follows. I have never been able to properly format captions in my blog, so I'll narrate the photos up here, then you'll have to use your imagination and powers of deductive reasoning to match the pics to the descriptions. You can do it. You're smart like that.

We took Jonathan to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens Holiday Lights Display. His favorite part were the cool trains, including Thomas(!). He enjoyed the lights too, and was especially fascinated by some green and purple lights strung in the shape of a Christmas tree over a reflecting pool. "Lights go down deah in da wawer!"

A couple of times over the last month we've taken him to a nearby place along the Chattahoochee where you can almost be guaranteed to spot some ducks and/or geese. It's the poor man's zoo, minus the drive, expense and crowds. Plus, there's a playground right there for play afterwards.

Jonathan absolutely loves feeding the geese, although he was quite obsessed with the concept that we had apparently drilled into his head that the geese might bite him if he didn't stay close to mommy and daddy. Poor kid. Randomly we'll be sitting at home and he'll inform us that "Geese BITE you."

Christmas was a blast. He didn't really "get" the concept of Santa, but he enjoyed the Christmas tree, talking about Santa and the reindeer and singing Rudolph and Jingle Bells. Next year he will totally get it.

We celebrated the morning of at our house with just the 3 of us (3.5 of us??) then went over to Grandma and Papa's house. Jonathan had fun playing with cousins and opening presents. But he and Will were absolutely giddy rolling around in the discarded wrapping and tissue paper.

Happy New Year!! Will the next blog post include a birth story? Considering my current once-monthly blogging frequency, it is a safe bet that it will. :)

So...yeah. My blog.

It's been a busy month-and-a-half since I last wrote!

On November 16th, I got the news that I was laid off. :( It was hard to deal with at first, but honestly the timing isn't all bad since Baby D#2 will be arriving soon anyway. Since then, I've kept extremely busy fixing up the house, running errands, and setting up networking lunches to try to position myself well for getting a job next year.

The last couple of weeks have been a mad scramble to get the baby's room ready (it is!) and to get everything bought and wrapped for Christmas (I did!). Now, at 36+ weeks pregnant, my goal is to lie around and send this baby girl vibes to stay in there as long as possible. Of course, by "as long as possible," I mean "until like 38 weeks, and then you're free to join us" because our latest ultrasound shows that she is BIG - 80th percentile!

Jonathan has been continuing daycare since I've been home over the last month. He loves it and it allows me to get everything done and rest a little bit too.

I worry about how his new little sister is going to change his life. He is going through a "mommy stage" and I think it will be rough on him when I am majorly occupied with breastfeeding and baby care. It should be a good chance for Jeremy and him to develop even more of a special bond though.

Finally, no blog entry is complete without the "cute things that Jonathan is doing lately" section:

- He likes to sit in his car seat and sing the ABCs at the top of his lungs. At the end, he likes to be tickled and will specifically request it if we don't act quickly enough.

- He loves our Christmas tree. Every day after school, he runs into the family room and asks for the tree to be turned on. He gets this amazed, wide-eyed look every time the lights go on. Then he runs around, pointing out the Santa Claus ornaments, requesting to touch the tree and reminding us that the train ornament near the top came from Grandma and Papa.

- He sits at the table each evening and colors while we make his dinner. Inevitably the first thing out of his mouth is, "Mommy, Daddy, come sit right heah. Next to Shashan."

- If there is football on TV, he volunteers "Gooo NOLES!"

- When we put him down to bed at night, we always ask for big hugs. He gives them, then says "KISS!" and puckers up.

- Sometimes I see him give our black lab Kahlua a big hug and say "K'lua a gooood gull."

Halloween!

Jonathan was a pretty darn cute Cookie Monster for Halloween this year. He was quite unhappy about the costume, but we cajoled him into wearing it. Of course, wearing the hood was even less appealing. We did manage to get him to put it on for a few pictures by using a bit of bribery ("Jonathan, leave your hood on and you can have a bite of pizza").

We went to the neighborhood Halloween party and he ran around throwing his football and generally having a great time. Then Grandma and Papa came over for dinner, which was a fun treat! We intended to go trick-or-treating, but we ran out of time, and honestly, it was just as well. Jonathan didn't know any better and I'm not sure how well he would have done with all the walking. He was totally fascinated with the kids coming to the door. He kept peeking timidly around the doorframe at them.

It was a fun night, and I look forward to next year when he will be old enough for trick-or-treating and young enough to not notice that we steal 3/4 of his candy.

Baby Sister

We are so excited that Jonathan's baby sister will be here in 3 months or less! We've been talking to him about her frequently, although he doesn't seem terribly interested. Typically when asked if he wants a baby sister, he says something along the lines of "No - OOOOH! I find da football, daddy."

But over the past few months he has taken an interest in babies at daycare.

"Baby! Das a baby right dere mommy. Hi baby!!"

He's also been quite sweet and gentle with little baby Denley, our friends' 7 week old. They were over last night and he "shared" (read: shoved towards her face) his spaceship placemat with her.

"Heah, baby Dee Dee, heah."

And it's very promising that he likes to kiss my belly goodnight before bedtime. All in all, he is such a sweet and loving boy - I know he will be a fantastic big brother to the littlest Duguid.

Two Years Old

Jonathan turned two on September 30th! The time has flown and our baby isn't a baby anymore. It was a very emotional day for me. But soon enough we'll have another little baby to remind us how hard having an infant is and how easy a crazy, wild toddler can be in comparison.

We had a few friends over to celebrate last Saturday and had a really nice time at J's "choo-choo train party." The kids played on the playset and in a bouncy house we had rented. Jonathan looked completely bewildered as people sang "happy birthday" to him, but really enjoyed the balloons. He halfheartedly ate a cupcake and two bites of ice cream - he just isn't that into sweets. We MAY need to conduct a maternity test with this one.

Here are a few pics from the day:

Our Chatterbox

Jonathan is talking up a storm now. He has always been a talker, but now you can tell he is really speaking in full sentences, even though 75% of it is still unintelligible.

Here are a few of the cuter (and more understandable) things that come out of this kid's mouth:

"Thank you daddy. Thank you mommy" (sometimes unprompted, when we hand him a toy or some milk)

"MOVE Emmy." When the dog is in his way.

"Hippo Thomas" When referring to a hippopotamus (I think he thinks the hippo is named Thomas, like his current fave, Thomas the Train).

"No, daddy." When Jeremy attempts to sing.

"NO Gus. Not NIIICE." At random times, unknowingly tattling on his friend from school.

"Heh Heh, Dee Dee pizza?" Said all the time. Apparently we have pizza too often with our friends Jeff ("Heffay") and Jaime.

"Daddy's juice." Beer.

"Fire truck! WEEEEEEOOOOOOOWEEEEEOOOOOOOO!!!...Uh oh...where fire truck go?" Just talking to himself in the backseat of the car.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, favan, ett, nine, ten, 'leven, thirteen, thirteen, thirteen..."

"A B C D E...mumble mumble...Q R S!!!!...mumble mumble V! W X!!!! Y and Z!"

While he is giving us a little more resistance now that he's really entering the toddler years, we are also enjoying him more than ever now that he can communicate so well. And his personality is really shining through. He is so full of joy and energy!

Froggy Potty!

We recently purchased a potty for Jonathan. It arrived about a week ago and he's been sitting on it every night since.

It was pretty cute to watch him attempt to sit on it for the first time. He was practically standing on his head in front of it, trying to figure out how to get on that thing. Now he's got it down to a science and it's his favorite part of the evening. He sits, we read three books, including a new book about going on the potty which he really enjoys, and then we have to practically drag him off of that thing for bathtime.

No actual pottying has occurred yet (unless you count the time he stood two feet in front of the potty and peed all over the floor), but we're just taking it slow. For now, I'm just glad "Time to go sit on the potty, Jonathan" is getting him to go upstairs willingly at night!

Jonathan has been a little defiant lately. Heading upstairs for bathtime is the worst. He dawdles, he delays and he flat-out disobeys.

And I've been struggling to keep my patience with him. Now that I'm 18 weeks pregnant with our little girl (YAY! - more on that in a future post), leaning over is getting more and more uncomfortable and picking up a 27 lb toddler is getting difficult. I want him to just listen and cooperate so I don't have to lean over and grab him kicking and screaming.

But I came to a realization about the personality traits that are causing this defiance and I hope it will bring me a change of attitude.

Jonathan is stubborn. The positive view of this is that he is determined. This quality shows itself in his willingness to try, try, and try again to buckle his own carseat or get his shoes off. But you know what? It pays off. He eventually gets it.

Also, Jonathan is the happiest, most fun-loving little boy you'll ever meet. He loves to run and spin and tumble and laugh. And going upstairs for bathtime gets in the way of all that joy. But you know what? There are worse things than a child filled with happiness and delighting at the simple things in life.

So I think I need an attitude adjustment. And Jonathan needs a little more patience and understanding from mom.

Aaaaaand...the occasional timeout.

Our ebullient boy:

"No, mommy"

Jonathan's favorite new saying is "No, mommy."

It's not what you'd expect - this is not screamed in fits of frustration or 2-yr-old rage (well not usually anyway), rather stated quietly, calmly and in a tone of voice that says, "Oh geez, here she goes again (long-suffering sigh)."

Me: Jonathan, it's bathtime. Let's go upstairs!
Jonathan: No, mommy.

Me: Jonathan, how was your day at school!? Did you have fun playing with your friends!?
Jonathan: No, mommy.

Me: (singing along with his Music Class CD) Little red caboose, chug chug chug!! Little red-
Jonathan: No, mommy.

Annoying my kid already at the age of 22 months. That's gotta be some kind of a record.

Wyoming Trip!

We made our annual trip to Jackson, WY earlier this month and had such a fantastic time, as always. Jonathan was really able to appreciate the experience this year, including such Wyoming-specific attractions as the club pool, rocks in Grandma and Grandpa's driveway, and legos.

OK, so maybe he doesn't appreciate the amazing mountains and prolific wildlife, but he had an absolute blast. I felt guilty for taking him home.

One of the biggest highlights of the trip was definitely trips to the pool, where Jonathan was able to stand and run around in the very shallow water. He has absolutely no fear and would plunge headfirst or flop sideways while spinning at a million miles an hour only to laugh hysterically and do it again moments after we rescued him from under the water.

Another popular activity was exploring "Nana" and "Peepa's" yard. He wanted to be outside the whole.dang.time. Throwing rocks, chasing Cricket, playing basketball or tee-ball, it didn't matter as long as he was outside. I didn't mind because we had fantastic weather compared to the crazy heat wave we'd been having in Atlanta.

Jeremy and I had the chance to get away one evening and look for animals - we saw a few things, including a moose, which was my goal all along! We also saw some elk in the backyard, so I got my wild animal fix on the trip. The other non-Jonathan-related highlight was a fancy party we went to on the last night. The rich lady had hired musicians from the Houston orchestra and flew them in for her party. We got a private violin/guitar concert.

I took it easy on the hiking - just going on a 2 mile walk one day - but Jeremy and my mom went on a really long hike. Mom went 8 miles and Jeremy ended up going 10. WOW.

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for a wonderful time as always. Here are some pics from the trip that pretty much sum it up. Please note - I did actually have more than one shirt with me on the trip.






























And just for fun, a pic of Jonathan on the swings last year vs. this year. Last year's pic was the very first time he was ever on a swing.

Jonathanisms

Just a quick note today to talk about a few of the cute things Jonathan says:

"Shoshy"
Said when referring to himself, things that are his, and also whenever we bring out our phones or computers - because he believes that the sole purpose of those devices is to display pictures of...well, Jonathan.

"Gocka ball"
Refers to his soccer ball. Also used to describe the photo of our beloved late dog, whose picture is still hanging in our hall. We like to go through the pictures and talk about which doggy is which. Emmy, Kahlua and Oscar have become "Eee," "LaLa" and "Gocka Ball." We find this so adorable.

"Uh-tide down!"
Shouted when daddy grabs him by the ankles and flips him upside down in the air. Giggles and requests of "'gain?!" ensue.

Can I even catch up or are we too far gone?

Once you've abandoned your blog for 3 weeks, you start to think, "there is so much to update, I can't even bring myself to try."

But I'm not giving up on the blog! So, to all of my legions of readers, you'll just have to deal with the quickest three-week-update of all time. Starting...now!

Jer and I went on a Baltic cruise - the weather was beautiful, we met some fun people on the boat and saw some cool cities and cathedrals.

Jonathan meanwhile was living the life with Grandma and Papa, aunts, uncles and cousins. I knew he had a great time when they pulled out of the driveway and Jonathan gazed forlornly out of the window, lower lip quivering, sharp little intakes of breath threatening to erupt into full hysterics at any moment. He held it together though, and things are back to normal now.

Except that in the 11 days we were gone, he is a completely new, grown up boy.

Exhibit A - when we asked him if he had fun playing with cousin Maggie, he said, "I pay wif Mannie!" I swear he did. He said it twice. I have never heard him put more than two intelligible words together.

Exhibit B - "Buttball" is now "Beatball." I am not sure that is really progress towards the real word, "football," but it is a big change - he'd been talking about "buttball" for 6 months.

Exhibit C - Yes and No! He was saying "no" before like any good 1 year old, but now he will say in a quick little breathy voice, "No, no, no, no" while shaking his head and turning away. And while he still doesn't say "yes," he will smile broadly and nod his head.

We missed our sweet little boy so much. I don't ever want to be away from him that long again. Remind me that I said this when he's a teenager.

Weekend at the beach

We had a wonderful time in Amelia Island last weekend! As you can see from the pictures, swimming was a big hit with Jonathan - that is, when he wasn't talking about, pointing towards or gingerly poking at his favorite object at Grandma and Grandpa's house, the clay duck by the pool. "Hi, Duck." "Bye-bye Duck." A big hit with Jer and me were the 3 hour naps that Jonathan took EVERY DAY.

PS - Proof that Jeremy was there too in the last photo.