Rediscovery!

I'm not one to blog about food. I find it especially annoying when people post what they are having/making for dinner on their facebook. I don't care! But I am not showing off my cooking skills or searching for people to comment "yum! save some for me!" here. I just want to tell you about my newly rediscovered love.

Pizza Huts' personal pan pizza.

Yes, I eat the whole thing! Don't judge!

Back when I was in grade school, we participated in Pizza Huts' Book It! Program. Each month we would get a voucher for a free personal pan pizza. Oh, the greasy goodness. I had forgotten they even existed until last month when my mom and I got one.

Not only did I bite into a personal sized pizza of extra greasy goodness, but also a bit of childhood nostalgia. These pizzas do not taste like ANY other pizza! I don't even like Pizza Huts' regular pizzas but these.... these are in a league all of there own.

My new pregnancy tradition is to get one every Monday when we go over to spend the day with my mom. I make myself feel better about it by setting it on some paper towels and blotting the grease off the top. That cuts the calories in half right? (the paper in back was from the top.)Next time you feel like you need some extra fat in your diet, try one! You won't be sorry!

Well, unless you are like Claire and just don't like pizza. She would eat it but she prefers her meat and cheese sandwich instead. We always pack one along instead of buying her her own pizza - cause I'm not sharing!

Life Changing Purchase

Can something as simple as an alarm clock change your life? YES! Yes, it can!

For two solid months after the new year, Claire has been waking up between 6am and 6:40am. I am sorry, but she goes to bed at 9pm so I expect her to at least sleep until 7am. I do not think that is too much to ask. Every morning, we would go in her room, tell her it was not time to get up yet and then leave, she would lay there for about 10 -15 minutes and then start yelling between sobs "I'm awake! I waked up!" I got really tired of this really fast. I decided to take action and make a purchase I had been wanting to make for quite a while, I just had enough reason to justify it now.

Taaa Daaa!!! The Okay to Wake alarm clock! ( I ordered it from Amazon) When you set the alarm, the red light turns on until the time it is set for, then at 7am, (or whenever) the light turns green. (no sounds, although there can be if you want)


(**side note** Claire has also recently learned about the traffic lights while driving and we literally can not go ANYWHERE without her yelling "No! No Momma, don't go! The light is red!" Then I let her know it is sometimes okay to turn right when the light is red. But this is too much for her little brain to handle apparently because she stills yells at me everytime.)

So anyway, needless to say, even though it is not the most attractive clock, Claire is in love with it. (and so am I)

We explained that "When the light is red, stay in bed! When the light turns green... wake up!"
She caught on quickly and is so excited every morning when she sees it turn green and runs out of her room shouting "It's green! I wake up now!" Often times, she insists that I come look at her green light to verify that yes, it is green and praise her for staying in bed.

We used to have a baby gate in front of her door so she couldn't get out in middle of the night or too early in the morning. (We have never let her sleep in our bed and we never will. ) I hated stepping over that gate though, lifting her up every time she had to go in and out of her room was not fun - especially when I was heavily pregnant. Now, we are gate free and have no worries of her coming out when she shouldn't. She feels like such a big girl too since she can go in and out and wake up on her own.

I set the alarm clock for nap time too. That way I for sure get 2 hours to myself. (before I never knew if I would get 40 minutes? and hour? and hour and half? Now that she is used to it, she usually sleeps the whole time but I noticed that if she does wake up early she'll see that is is red and go back to sleep, or just lay there and think and wake up a little before she can come out. When that happens, she comes out a much happier girl.

We have had this clock for about a month now and I have noticed that for the past month Claire has gotten out of her needy, grouchy stage and has been an absolute joy.Yes, an alarm clock CAN change your life. It has changed ours for the better:)

Collector

Today after church, Claire was walking around looking for bballs (as usual) and found a dollar under a rock - supposedly, I didn't see it happen. Then someone gave her a cup and wrote her name on it to put her dollar and bballs in the cup. While I was talking with a few people, Claire went around showing her cup to everyone and people started putting more money in it! Next thing I know she comes over to me with a cup overflowing with money. Somehow she ended up with $13 and 30 cents. (and 8 bballs)

We decided that next time we have a fundraiser we'll put a sandwich board sign on her and give her a cup. Then I told Claire "Well, we'll use that as a start for the tea party donations" ( I am planning our Ladies' Spring Tea) Then Claire said she wanted some tea so I gave her some. She walked around with two cups, one with money and one with tea and she told me (very excited) "Look! One for tea party, one for my tea!"

Have Patience

We have been working on the concept of being patient. We sing this song several times a day. Claire sings it to the cat while she is eating her breakfast and he is waiting for her milk. She says "Be patient Meow!" Now, when I tell her we have to wait for something, she says "Oh, I need to be patient."


Have patience, have patience
Don't be in such a hurry
When you get impatient
You only start to worry
Remember, remember that God is patient, too
and think of all the times when others
Have to wait for you.

That last part it so hard!

First Haircut

For a while now I have become increasingly aware that Claire's hair is lacking in the attractive department. I don't know where she got her hair because Josh's is really thick and mine has always been thin and blah but not nearly as bad as hers. Also, the under layer of hair in the back is curling and the top layer is hiding the cute curlyness so it just look weird right at her neck - it kind of bulges out.

We decided it was time to cut it - just to get rid of the wispy ends.

Before: Untouched by scissors - ever.
During:
So it turns out ALL of her hair is a wispy end....

the first cut - "the tail"

That's all I cut - but what a difference!

After:


It turned out MUCH shorter than I had envisioned, but it looks so much thicker and healthier- not scraggly at all. It makes me sad that it's not long but I think she looks much cuter.

I Chose To Fight the Wrong Battle

At church today, Claire was a little extra clingy and emotional. She was sad because all her "friends" left right after church got out because it was cold and rainy.

Once at home, she was hungry and whiney so I made her (and myself) some scrambled eggs. She kept whinying and wouldn't eat much of her eggs. I was sick of it so I settled in for a looooong battle -which, of course, I always win but Claire can be stubborn so it takes a while for my victory to come around. I kept reminding her to "take another bite!" and then my reminders turned into threats. 2 spanks and 3 time-outs later, she was still only half done with her eggs. Is it really too much to ask to eat an egg? With cheese melted in it no less?

Claire kept saying her tummy hurt, a common complaint ever since about 2 months ago when I told her I couldn't jump on her trampoline with her because I had baby in my tummy and my tummy hurt. So I didn't think anything of it. Finally, after one of her time outs, I went upstairs and said "Are you ready to finish your egg? and she said "no" in a sad voice. I said she needed to take her nap then and I shut the door. About 20 minutes later, she was calling for me so I went up and she said "Mama! I choked! I choked in my bed!" I of course then felt terrible for being all in her face about eating her eggs.

(still in her church clothes)

Needless to say, she needed a bath and is now watching Dinosaur Train, with bouts of "tummy hurts" every 15 minutes or so and just threw up again! Poor baby!

After cleaning all that up, I'm not going be able to eat eggs for a long, looooooong time.

So It Begins...

We are extremely happy to announce that we are expecting again! Reading that positive pregnancy test was such a bittersweet moment. Relieved for a second chance but not happy that we need one.
I asked Josh if I should make Claire a 'big sister' shirt this time - like we did with Will's pregnancy, but this time it would say on the front "Maybe this time... (and on the back say) I'll be a big sister?" He thought that sounded too morbid, but it really does wrap up our attitude toward this pregnancy.... Who knows? Maybe we'll get a baby, maybe not. We'll believe it when we are holding it and it is breathing.

This pregnancy is a whole new ball game for us. We decided we do NOT want to find out if the baby is a boy or girl. As horrible as it sounds to the baby, we want to be as emotionally unattached as possible. If we were to find out it's a boy or girl for sure, we would have a name in the back of our minds, be looking for gender specific items and just get our hopes up too much. I feel like I need to guard my heart as much as possible and distance myself as much as I can. (which isn't much at all when you have the baby growing inside you) Besides, it'll be fun to have a surprise.

That ultrasound of the baby was done last week when I was 10 weeks along. I have never had an u/s that early on, it was amazing to see how developed the baby was already. The picture is not that greatest, but he/she was actually waving his/her arms and legs around, fully formed (except that the head is still disproportionate) It has a strong, fast heart rate so things are currently looking good for our little person.

I was anxious for my first prenatal appointment because I wanted to find out what would be done for me differently this time. I went to the same office I went to with Claire. I was told that at about 34 weeks they will do weekly non-stress tests and then I will be induced the moment I am full-term - which sounds good to me! That knocks off a whole month of pregnancy! I think the most amazing thing to find out is that my due date September 9th, 2011. EXACTLY one year after I gave birth to Will.
When I was in the hospital having Will, I knew that we had to wait 3 months before we should try to get pregnant, then 9 months of pregnancy, which adds up to make one year. I pleaded with God "Please! Let me be holding a live baby next year at this time!" What an amazing God to orchestrate this pregnancy to have the due date one year later - to the day! I feel like it's God's promise to me that everything will turn out alright this time.

You may have noticed that my blog had been severely neglected. I have had much worse morning sickness and fatigue with this one so I'm lucky if Claire gets fed and a bath each day, let alone housework, grocery shopping and my blog. Thankfully I am starting to get out of that funk now and can go more than 4 hours without needing a 2 hour nap.

Please pray for us as we embark on the next longest 6 months of our lives.