Weekend Fun

A couple of weeks ago our church had an evening picnic and concert. I thought it was a lot of fun! They played music from the 50's to the present. Tyler ran the spotlight atop a rickety set of scaffolding.
Maggie loved getting a balloon animal and the picnic dinner...
But not the music. This was the nicest of her faces for the rest of the evening. All other faces were accompanied by "I don't like this music, can we go home yet?" At the time I think she was coming down with a little cold, so Maggie and I packed it up early and went home just after it got dark. Also, she was terrified of even the smallest of flying bugs, even though she had bug spray on.

I Want to Ride My Bicycle

New last section of our development has gone in, and with it a fairly flat stretch of road! Zayli and family came over Labor Day weekend for dinner and we went for our first ride. Maggie has been fairly terrified of her bike since we live on a hilly road. Having a friend there to encourage her and show her it's OK was awesome. Now that the evenings are cooler, we've been taking her out a lot more, too.
This new stretch is off the main street, so my hope is after it's built up it will still be bike-friendly. And that by that time Maggie will no longer be scared of hills.
Here she is trying SO hard. She looks so much older here - no longer my baby or toddler - but a real "big kid." Seems like yesterday she just learned to crawl, and tomorrow she'll be getting her driver's license.

12 Weeks

Still tired most of the time. Life has slowed down quite a bit, but I do have some weddings in the near future. I am still taking naps most days, which I know is a luxury, but I am so glad Maggie still naps! I have greatly decreased my computer time, so that's one reason the blog is behind, so check below, I did a lot of updating this evening.

Morning sickness still comes and goes. I don't have constant nausea like I did with Maggie, but this time around it attacks quickly and with stealth. I am especially sensitive to all kinds of smells, and thoughts (yes, thoughts) about food. So that makes it hard to eat - the thought of most food makes me gag and almost throw up. The smell of most foods makes me feel sick to my stomach. I will say that I have a weakness for good deli-meat sandwiches (lysteria fears be darned - I'm eating it anyway this time around) and, strangely enough, cheese and potatoes. Even plain, undoctored, boiled potatoes. Could eat copious amounts for every meal. And I am finding new ways to get my veggies in since the very thought of having to cook them makes me gag. No joke. It is just so bizarre. I don't remember having this many aversions with Maggie.

Those of you that know me well know I am never far from a can of diet Dr Pepper. I can't stand the stuff right now - it makes me have heartburn and tastes gross. I look at the cases in the pantry longingly, and I tried one the other day, and I just can't drink it. BIZARRE!

OK, enough about me. Check out this amazing illustration of what baby #2 looks like right now (from babycenter.com)
The baby is about 2 1/2 inches crown to rump, and weighs about 1/2 ounce. So, so tiny and beautiful.

Now if only I was as thin as the model...

Beautiful Creation

Look at this sunset! The summer storm abated a couple hours before sunset and look at that! I love the clouds peeling back and the sun peeking out. Amazing.

The LORD is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1

In the Lines

This past year has been frustrating at times with Maggie wanting to learn how to write, use scissors, color in the lines, etc. She has inherited some bad traits from both Mommy and Daddy (as children, we're not like that now, right?) - like if she can't do it right the first time she just gives up. I cannot tell you how often I have had to say to her "You have to practice if you want to learn... Not everything is going to be easy, so you have to practice... You have to practice, practice practice (I even have a song about it)."

So it is difficult "sometimes" to try to teach her how to do something that takes a lot of work, effort and practice. No amount of happy encouragement from us seems to make any difference. Perseverance is so hard to teach!

At this point she can write her name and most letters and can cut with scissors - each time she went through many days of frustration on each ability until she decided she could do it herself and to her satisfaction. But coloring in the lines has been the biggest challenge to date. Most of her friends are at least 6 months older, and their development/motor skills are ahead 6 months, so when she sees that they can do it and she could not, her frustration comes to a head and she ends up angrily scribbling on her papers and often takes them right to the trash.

Well: Last week she declared she can now color in the lines (whereas 2 weeks ago all she would bring home from Mother's Day Out and Sunday School were scribbled pages) and does a great job!
This kitty is still a calico, but it's all in the lines.
I am pleased that now she is happy to color, mostly staying in the lines all the time now, and not getting frustrated when she makes a small mistake.

Dancing! For Real!

Early this summer, a friend from high school mailed Maggie a gorgeous tutu (picture here)! She is a small business owner in the Seattle area, you can check out Kara's online shop here: hopesydaisy.com

Anyway, since she got that tutu she has told everyone that would listen that she was going to do ballet in the Fall. Well, a couple of weeks ago when I realized we had about a week analyze the budget to see if we could fit it in and get registered and get her outfit and shoes, she was all cold feet. We decided she would do it until Christmas despite her protests, and see how it went, then reconsider.

Getting ready for her first lesson pretty much sealed the deal. Once she put on her tights and leotard and I had her hair ready to go, she was all smiles.
Standing still for me. I forgot to put her ballet shoes on, but you get the drift.
And her bun! Her hair is getting really long so I had plenty to work with. She was so excited to feel it up there.
She is taking a combination class of ballet, tumbling and tap. Her classroom is behind closed doors - parent supervision kinda messes with 3 & 4 year old attention spans - but they have closed-circuit TV in the waiting room. So I can still see her doing her dance lesson. Here she is in the very front right of the screen.
I have to say that watching her on that screen just made my heart soar with parental pride and happiness and so often I just want to laugh out loud as I watch her. So for two lessons now, I have just loved to watch my little girl spread her wings and learn to do something new totally apart from me. Her favorite part I think is the freestyle dancing where they pretend to be animals and flowers.

A quick video of her explanation of her first class (she mentions one ballet position then moves on to the freestyle stuff):

A Second Time, Really?!?!?

Saturday afternoon, 8/14, a tree fell in our yard. For the second time in 4 years, the Spaid family has had a close call with nature. You will recall that a tree fell during a storm at our old house.

Tyler was doing car maintenance in the afternoon, and the weather turned nasty - lots of thunder and lightning, and then the rain started. So he moved the car in the garage and kept working. The thunder decided to sit right on top of our house it felt like. And then Tyler came running in - a tree had just fallen in our driveway! And NO wind, so we know for sure this time it was lightning.

Tyler moved the car in the garage about 20 minutes before the tree fell, and I am SO glad, he could've been smooshed by the tree! We are so very thankful that only the grass sustained any damage - the dead tree gouged some pretty deep holes in the ground next to the driveway.

The bulk of the tree JUST missed the roof. Tyler had to crawl out of Maggie's window to clean up the small branches that ended up on the roof and in the gutter. THANKFULLY, there was no damage to the house or our cars.
That debris is right where Tyler and his car were about 20 minutes prior.
The tree resides on private property that abuts our property line. The "stump" is still about 20 feet high, but even if the rest of it falls now, it can't touch the house.

An Odd Bit of Babysitting

Right after Tyler got back from Mozambique (his post will be up someday - work for him is really busy right now) we watched his coworker's dog for the weekend.

Ellie is a miniature Chihuahua in the extreme! She was the runt of the litter, and weighs about 3 pounds. Maggie was overjoyed to have this little buddy for the weekend (and asked for quite some time when we were going to get a puppy). And I will say that Ellie was a VERY sweet dog, and not your typical chihuahua - not yippy, not too crazy, and NOT a nervous pee-er. But, I am fairly certain our weekend of babysitting has solidified for Tyler that we will not be getting a dog any time soon. And our cats did not appreciate having a new creature in the house AT ALL. Olive did not come out of hiding until the dog had left the premises completely.
Here she is on Tyler's lap on the way to a friend's house. We went to a friends for dinner, and knew we couldn't keep her kenneled up for that long: tiny dog means tiny bladder. So she spent the drive cuddled up on Tyler's lap. TOO SWEET! Our friends' kids loved Ellie, too. And Ellie loved being carried and mauled by them (and Maggie).

TURKEYS

I cannot help but be happy every time I see these ridiculous birds! There are several groups that frequent our neighborhood. And I just love them! Now that we live out in the sticks, we see them quite a bit as we drive to where ever we need to go that day.

I would set out food for them if I could be sure I wasn't attracting rats, possums or raccoons, but I can't, so I am happy to see them at random intervals. Last week we had a group come through with their 2 babies (2nd and 3rd from the right). They appeared to be from two different mamas because they were so different in size. This view is from my sliding glass door in the kitchen, looking out to our neighbor's backyard. Sorry it's small, I didn't want to go outside and risk scaring them.

First Look at Baby #2

Before I post the picture: I don't know what to call this baby yet. I feel bad that I keep calling this baby "Baby #2". Mostly because I like poop humor a little too much for my age, I guess? Anyway. Just my own problem. Sorry. I'm a mess over here.

Monday Tyler and I got to see our baby for the first time on ultrasound. Being nearly 10 weeks before my first appointment really messed with me, I tell you! By the week before my appointment, I got a little worried that all my "symptoms" were psychosomatic simply because I wanted a baby so badly for so long - that maybe I'd finally cracked and was making it all up (I think a lot of that is because this pregnancy has been quite different from when I carried Maggie). I KNOW it sounds crazy. But, the thought crept into my mind more than once. So, when the ultrasound started and I saw the big black egg shape that was my uterus, and then it moved onto the baby, I was overjoyed to say the least!
The baby is head down. You can see the little hand and foot, too. The best part was seeing the baby move. Must have been dancing time, because it was moving all over! So very exciting.

Baby's due date is still March 9th. I calculated the date right, and the ultrasound tech said at this stage the measurements can change by 3-5 days, so to just stay with the 9th. It would be nice if the baby could come 8 days early, for a great 33rd birthday present. =)

And now, back to my regularly scheduled nap time!