It's About Safety People

As a big rear-facing advocate, I'm so happy to see the new car seat recommendations that came out today. Hopefully parents can put the safety of rear facing above the convenience of forward facing so that children can ride safer. Linked is the article and new guidelines from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration - check it - and keep your kids safe:
http://www.nhtsa.gov/Safety/CPS

Spring Fever

Yep, I'm going there again. We are so so ready for spring. And today kind of feels like it...in the rainy thunderstorm super grey kind of way. But it gets me thinking that its close. Thunderstorms are one of the first big signs that spring is on the way. You know, that whole in like a lion thing:) So, with our very grey weather today that seems to be keeping me on the computer and on my couch instead of behind the vacuum, I find myself searching online for a perfect Easter dress for Little Lady. I have found quite a few cute ones but the thing I am most excited to have found is a big wide brim white Easter hat. I had one when I was a little girl and I loved it...anytime I dressed up in the spring I would want to wear that thing and I remember thinking that I looked "so sophisticated" in it. My favorite outfit to go with it I remember to be a kind of teal skirt with a white button up shirt with a peter pan collar that had rabbits on it. I mean how much more of an Easter feeling do you need. I remember loving my white patent leather "heels" that would come about every spring and the brown scuffs they would get on them from the brown sole hitting the other shoe:) Awww, memories. I want my kids to have the same fondness of memories too. Loving to wake up Easter morning to see what good amounts of fun are going to be in that basket...searching for eggs with candy in them...and knowing that they are decked out in the finest Easter garb this spring lovin' mama could find them!

The Fish Debacle

We have recently gotten Little Lady a small fish tank for her room. It sits on her nightstand and makes a fantastic nightlight. Well, needless to say, like any almost two year old sometimes she gets a little wild when playing in her room. The other night was no exception. I was playing in her room with her and it became one of those moments where you see it happening in s-l-o-w motion but there is nothing you can do it about it. She was running backwards hit her nightstand and the fish tank went flying. I went flying after it, thinking in my head, that there was someway in this world that I was going to be able to catch it. Yeah right! Water went everywhere, rocks went everywhere, and her three little fish went flopping. Little Lady immediately started crying and I told her just to sit on her bed with her animals for fear that she would stomp a fish- further traumatizing her....I yelled for the Big A and I went to the task of trying to catch the 3 said flopping fish. I caught the green one, no sweat. Then I saw the orange one and I was going after him and low and behold he flopped himself under the door frame and got stuck. Big A went and got tweezers and a flashlight and I was slopping water under the door frame to try to keep the fish alive. While he is working the extraction process, I go to work looking for the pink fish. I turned that room upside down. I picked up area rugs, moved the toy box, I was looking everywhere to no avail. About that same time Big A had success getting the fish from under the door frame and which fish does he pull out but the PINK one. So, yes, both pink and orange made their way under the door frame. We get pink in with green in the little bitty bit of water still in the fish tank and we go to work on the extraction of orange. At this point, I'm thinking that it has been over five minutes so there is no way pink is going to live let orange who is still stuck. Finally, after about another five minutes Big A gets orange out and puts him in the little bit of water too. He is damaged, bleeding a little under the skin from the tweezers. We are thinking for sure that we are down at least one fish if not two. We get the rocks, the water, all the little decorations back in the fish tank, put a little food in, and tell each other we will see how they are doing in the morning, since by this point it was bed time. We couldn't believe it when we woke up in the morning and had three very alive fish. They are still healthy and swimming a few days later. So, my suggestion is this, if you are going to get your kids some fish and you want them to be hardy and live awhile - purchase GLOFISH. I am completely convinced they are the hardiest of fish and they are not even 1 inch long:)

A Note on Co-Sleeping

I wish I had a picture of my bed last night. It was quite hilarious so try to picture it in your head. We have a king size bed and this is how the line-up went...Mommy,Baby Ariel, Mommy's pregnancy pillow, Little Lady on top of Mommy's pregnancy pillow, Penguin, Monkey, Daddy. Monkey ended up cuddling with Daddy, Penguin cuddled with Little Lady, and Baby Ariel got to hang out up with the headboard because she isn't very comfy to sleep with;)

Different Kids, Different Pregnancies

Now that I am in the 2nd (gasp) trimester, I have noticed some distinct differences in each pregnancy.

1-With Little Lady I was sick from DAY 1 till about 22 weeks or so. Sick from the moment I got up till the moment I went to bed, praying to throw up to get some relief but never finding any.
With Puppy the sickness came and went. It would have to have a trigger - the smell of coffee, getting hungry, etc.
2-Which brings me to point number 2 - with Little Lady I was never hungry during the first tri because I felt sooo sick.
With Puppy (and this is still true) if I get hungry I feel really sick.
3-With Little Lady I didn't feel as exhausted as I have this time. Maybe it was because I sat a desk all day but I didn't feel like I couldn't move by the end of the day.
With Puppy I was COMPLETELY exhausted. If you would have seen my house during the first tri you would have been sure that it was not this slightly OCD womans house. For sure.
4-Their locations are completely different. When I would go in for a heartbeat check with Little Lady she was ALWAYS down low, like really low. This baby is up HIGH, like REALLY high. The doppler for Puppy is typically right around my belly button.
5- A similarity! The smell of popcorn can send me into feeling like throwing up in the nearest trashcan. It's terrible. I like to eat popcorn, but to smell it has to be the worst thing you could throw at this pregnant woman during those long 40 weeks!

Itchin for Spring

Last week when Little Lady and I left gymnastics we took the top off the jeep, had a picnic, and spent the afternoon in the park enjoying a nice 70-some degree day. Yesterday we spent the afternoon in the backyard swinging and enjoying a breezy but nice 60 degree today. I woke up in the middle of the night to a thunderstorm, woke up again early in the morning to sleet, and we left gymnastics class driving home through slush and snow. We are READY for spring. Granted, I love snow. I think it's beautiful and peaceful. I got married in Colorado in the winter for guaranteed snowfall during the wedding. But, after being in the house for months on end without sunshine or outside play and a little girl that stands at the back door asking to swing come rain, snow, or shine- we are ready. We are ready for the park, the pool, the childrens zoo, the big zoo, swimming lessons, fishing. You name the summer time activity and we are ready for it! So, while I do love snow in all its peaceful glory, can we get some spring please, and soon (minus tornado weather - I'm not ready for that:))

Let the IMAGINATION begin!

Little Lady's imagination has really taken off lately. She will make food in her kitchen for all of her stuffed animals. She will wash their hands in the play sink and then sit them at the table. She makes "nummy" noises for them. The other night she told me she was a "dog-dog" and put a play plate on the floor and pretended to eat like a dog on all floors with her nose to the little pink plate. I love it. I mean I really love it. I gives me a chance to see the world through an almost two year old point of view and it's fantastic. I love when she is rocking her babies and telling them "shhhh, it ok." And I love that she has hit a naked phase and that her babies need to run around with no diapers on too! But her imagination hit an all time peak of cuteness yesterday - a little background first. She has been really into Happy Feet. It would soothe her when she was a little baby and now she wants to watch it at least once a day. The word LOVE does not begin to describe how this girl feels about her beloved "pengins." She even has a stuffed one that used to be Sissy's that she is in love with and since her love affair with this stuffed animal has started she often times has to put a bow that matches hers on the penguins wing - which by the way has started to lose the stitching because she drags it around by the same wing. She also has a book that I swear has almost every animal in the world in it but she keeps it open to the penguins page and leaves it on her nightstand. The same nightstand that has her fish tank which also has a penguin mommy and baby in it. So, you get the picture, the girl loves a penguin. Yesterday, she dressed up the said beloved penguin in her baby's dress (yes, that would be the baby that is currently naked) and she was pretending it was her baby and then what does she do but pretend that she is regurgitating fish into her penguins mouth because that is after-all what momma penguins do. Like I said, peak of all time cuteness.