Christmas Lights

On Saturday evening we went over to a house off I-640 that has the lights on their house synchronized to several songs. These guys are sponsored by a local radio station and the music is broadcast on the radio. We parked on the street outside their house and watched the show for about 20 minutes. Carter was interested enough (it was his bedtime so he was a little tired).

Here are a couple of videos I took of the show ...

Caffeine

I am EXHAUSTED. Lately I wonder how other people seem to get so much done and I get NOTHING done. I can barely muster the energy to play with Carter all day. I remembered everyone else's secret today ... CAFFEINE!!! I broke down and got a Pepsi at the gas station this afternoon. And now I'm bouncing off the walls with energy. I've gotten so much done during Carter's nap. I've been really good so far with not drinking caffeine (except for a sweet tea every once in awhile when we go out to eat) but I didn't think I'd make it through the day today without some help. I can't wait until July when I can freely drink caffeine again!

13 Weeks

I'm 13 weeks along with baby #2 today. I'm still at 119 lbs so I haven't gained any weight yet but I do have a little baby bump.


I've started my pregnancy "glow". For me, it's breaking out - yuck. I hate that part of being pregnant. The morning sickness is still hanging around but is still manageable. My hips aren't hurting so much when I sleep but I know that will come back and be even worse. I do forgot I'm pregnant most of the time. I have a doctor's appointment next week. I was told they were doing an ultrasound at that appointment so I'm hoping they may be able to tell us the sex of the baby (we knew with Carter at around 12 weeks). It's really bugging me right now not knowing!

Charlotte's Christmas

On Christmas morning, Charlotte would join us in the family room when we called her to open one of her presents. She's not good at opening them herself, but once open, she knows the toy is for her. After a toy was open, she'd run away with it. This is where she stashed them all and then proceeded to sleep for the rest of the morning ...


Carter and Charlotte are really good at knowing which toys belong to each of them. Carter will often come across one of Charlotte's toys and bring it to her. He'll put it in front of her face until she either takes it or runs away. Yesterday he brought her new plush ball to her while she was eating and then dropped it in her water bowl! Silly kid!

I HATE Teething

Carter has woken up between 2 and 3 am three of the last four nights. His upper left first molar is coming in right now.

The first night I got Carter back to sleep after about 40 minutes but I was up for 2 hours. The second night we let him settle himself because he never completely woke up and cried on and off for about 45 minutes. Last night was the worse. We've all been up since around 3:15 am. Brian and I both tried to get him to sleep, and we'd succeed in getting him to sleep on us, but Carter would wake up as soon as we put him in his crib. We eventually gave up. I think we're both going to bed at the same time as Carter tonight. We're worn out from having family here for a week and not getting a full night's sleep lately. Plus, who knows if Carter will do any better tonight!


Hopefully I will get the chance to post an update about this past week soon!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas, Everyone! We had a really good day today and hope everyone else did as well.


We all got lots of really great gifts. I got an awesome new lens for my camera that has a huge aperture from my mom. I'm still practicing with it but I really like some of the pictures I was able to take today. Brian and I got a Wii from his parents which has been one of our main sources of entertainment today. Carter got tons of stuff - a Power Wheel, noisy trucks, a basketball hoop, and lots more.





We just hung out around the house today, enjoying food and playing games (both the Wii and board games). I tried out a lot of new recipes for dinner and everything seemed to turn out great.


Carter has been a total ham for our families this week. Here are his latest dance moves (we thought they were hilarious) ...

Carter was worn out by the end of the day and totally ready for bed tonight ...

Early Gifts

Carter got to open one present from everyone today. He got lots of cool stuff including DVDs of trucks, a bowling set, and a puzzle, but the cutest gift was for his feet ...

Presents

From this angle, there looks to be a normal amount of presents under our tree ...


But keep going around the tree, and you'll find LOTS more ...


And they continue around the corner into the dining room ...


That's a lot of presents this year. I wonder who most of them are for :) Granted, this does include all the gifts from my mom and Brian's family.

Silly Boy

Carter has been really silly lately.

At the end of last week, Carter started putting on his fireman hat (this is the boy that refuses to wear a hat no matter how cold it is in the winter or how sunny it is in the summer). He doesn't always put it on the right way and it often covers up his face. Brian joked that Carter's going to be the kid that puts a helmet on backwards and runs into walls for fun. He essentially did that the other night. Sarah and Brent watched Carter for us Friday night so we could go out to dinner. When we got back to their house to pick him up, Carter was playing with a box. He put it on his head and proceeded to run right into a wall.


This is how Carter likes to hold his football now ...


Brian taught Carter last week to cover his face with his hands when he does something silly. It's stuck and he does it a lot. I haven't really gotten a picture of him doing it yet, but here's one with one hand still up on his face ...


Carter has suddenly started spinning. He sometimes will do three or four spins in a row. Here's a video of some single spins ...

1st Trimester Screening

I had the first trimester screening test done today. It involves drawing blood and doing an ultrasound to measure the nuchal translucency (fluid beneath the skin behind baby’s neck). The test is used to screen for specific chromosomal abnormalities. Brian and I feel like we'd like to know if something might be wrong so we can be more prepared when the baby is born. We had the same test done with Carter.

The ultrasound tech gave us a few pictures from the ultrasound. The baby was in the perfect position the entire time so it was easy for her to get accurate measurements. He or she kept his or her hands up at his or her face the entire time. You can tell that at least one hand has 5 fingers!





I'm still feeling pretty good. The nausea medicine has been helping a lot this time and I'm still able to eat most of the time. I am SO TIRED though. As soon as it starts getting dark around 5:30 pm, I'm ready for bed. I've been getting very little done in the evenings so I'm super far behind on everything. Hopefully I'll start getting a little energy back soon since I'm 11 1/2 weeks along now.

Brian was able to meet me at my appointment which was really good because Carter was tired and we had to wait forever so he was not sitting still anymore. Carter got his 2nd H1N1 flu shot this morning and then we ran a couple of errands before my appointment. It is a NASTY day here too. It's cold and pouring. I just checked and we've already gotten an inch of rain today. Thank goodness it's not a few degrees colder or we'd be buried in snow! We're supposed to miss the bulk of the snow and possibly get an inch or two tonight. Not far from here though is supposed to get 12-18 inches. I'd love to get a ton of snow sometime, but I really don't want to be cooped up in the house for days since it'd probably take awhile to clear roads enough that I'd feel safe taking Carter out. My mom was supposed to drive here tomorrow, but I think she's going to wait until Sunday now. Brian's parents are still planning on trying to drive to Cincinnati, OH tomorrow, but they may also have to delay their drive. Hopefully the storm isn't as bad as their predicting right now!