Construction Zone cont.

Well construction is still happening at our house. This process is taking much longer than we anticipated. I guess that happens when you have to rely on other people and their schedules. We will have a VERY busy July ahead of us. The plan is to work pretty much every day on the basement as we will have plenty to finish especially considering all the details. I am determined to see it finished by the end of July so we can move the toy room downstairs and get Sevea's room done. The baby will be here before we know it!


Here is the progress. It pretty much just gives you a better view of how the rooms look closed off now that the drywall is up. So nothing too interesting :)

The left opening will be the door into the laundry room, straight will be open into the kitchenette

Kitchenette

Right side toys for daycare, towards left living room area

Living room

TV wall and hallway

Bathroom

Back of house bedroom

Front of house bedroom

Check back beginning of August for hopefully fully finished spaces....if not Troy will be dead somewhere...haha!

Hi! I'm new here

The day has come! Grayson has officially joined our group at daycare. First I can say how great it was having Carissa and Andrew be the parents that dropped off the new child. Such an easy transition and a comfortable one. Secondly it was great seeing my nephew and knowing that I will get so much more quality time with him. My own children surely make daycare worth it but building an extra special bond with Grayson is the cherry on the top I guess you could say. For many parents having to go back to work is difficult since you can miss out on all the new developments your child goes through. I am happy that Carissa and Andrew will have a little closer view on those moments with me being able to fill them in so much.

Our day has been fun thus far :)

So much fun to look forward to!

We haven't met, my name is Grayson

Enjoying the new scenery

Watching Sevea play

Sevea sharing her toys to make Grayson feel welcome

Just looking cute, it is what I do best!

Another benefit of working at home

Enjoying a nice summer day with this lovely little girl and bomb pops courtesy of our Schwan's delivery team (grandma/pa Appeldorn)!

Week 32 Update

Hard to imagine I only have 8 weeks left (give or take). I just know those weeks will go by so quickly. It is sort of scary to think about how much life will change at that time. For me, right now the emotional side of having another child is something I am trying to prepare for more than caring for one. I think I can handle that. It is preparing myself to realize that Sevea will not be my one and only child anymore. She has made the experience as first time parents so enjoyable. I tend to forget that this wonderful child wasn't the best infant and still woke up at night and still needed lots of attention just like other babies. She isn't perfect after all. But the age she is at right now makes me forget all the normal infant stages they have to go through. So although we didn't have it bad by any means caring for her as an infant, I need to remind myself of those times. She has really made this job of parenting easier than either Troy or I could have imagined so I need to come back to reality that this child will be unique and special in its own way. Everyone says that your heart just grows with the addition of a new child even though you couldn't imagine how. But I still feel like recognizing Sevea for who she is and remembering that this child will be special as well no matter if they are as well mannered as Sevea. So for me it isn't the duties of having another child that I am preparing myself for, it is more the comparisons of one child to the other.

How I am feeling: Surprisingly there are still many times I forget I am pregnant. Which is something I surely can't complain about. However to sort of contradict that in a way, there are more times I notice I am pregnant as well. I just took a class for daycare this week and had to sit in a board room style chair. During the class the baby was making itself known so much that it was difficult to sit in the chair. Sure I was feeling kicks but it was more the area of those kicks. So many were down towards the pelvis that sitting upright was just not comfy. This was something I never experienced with Sevea. I also get good kicks that actually make me jump in discomfort. These are all nice discomforts though. I love being able to feel the baby so much more this time around. (Hence why we assume this one will be a stinker just since it is more active already..hehe)

My energy level is certainly dropping. I notice I get tired more as well. With Sevea in the first trimester I would fall asleep on the couch at 7:00 and wake up refreshed. Otherwise I never felt a huge change in my energy levels. With this baby I maybe had a week at most of tiredness in the first trimester and nothing like Sevea. So this change in energy is new to me. But I honestly think it could be because of my new lifestyle. Working outside the home doesn't allow for the "downtime" I have each day at after lunch nap time. Sitting on a couch reading a book or watching tv for me makes me notice my lack of energy way more than if I was taking a break at a job.

Otherwise I have been feeling good. Heartburn is an occasional occurrence now. But still happy to report that maybe once a week I take a tums (which aren't nearly as bad as I remember with Sevea....maybe because I am taking less of them....or maybe I grew up a little...haha). Otherwise I may get heartburn and it goes away as quickly as I notice it. I have some real drops in energy at times where it feels like I could get sick but know I won't. I normally remedy this by eating which helps. After talking with my doctor about my glucose test, it is clear as to why this happens. It normally happens right around supper time. There are times that my afternoon snack is not substantial enough to get me until dinner 3 or so hours later. My doctor said my 3 hour level is where I struggle so to avoid this I need to eat more protein with my afternoon snack. Makes total sense, this snack tends to be small at times and normally maybe a cracker or something the kids are having. Days I have protein like peanut butter or even some cheese this feeling doesn't happen. Another reason having a good doctor is so important, I never even knew the breakdown of my results with the test I had with Sevea.

Food: Enough of my boring babble...some interesting things when it comes to this pregnancy and food. I craved chips and cheese with Sevea. Troy often joked that I craved chips all the time so pregnancy was no different. No it was. I remember eating chips almost nightly (maybe that is where all the weight came from :) This time I haven't had any cravings that have lasted the full time and we don't have chips in the house at all times either! This time I have things that sound great and I pretty much OD on them. It was fruit and yogurt parfaits in the beginning. Then meat, cheese, and pickle sandwiches. Freshly cut fruit. Then it was fruity candy like jelly beans, skittles, or mike n ikes. Can't forget the craving for baked goods but especially chocolate cake (weird one because I much prefer white or marble normally). Now...chunky applesauce with something crunchy (rice cakes or animal crackers crumbled) and a dollop of cool whip. YUMMY!! An old co-worker of Troy's had given him homemade applesauce his grandma had made as a thank you gift. I had created this concoction then but never again since the applesauce was chunky. Well as I was getting applesauce the other day I noticed they sell chunky now. If you like apple crisp totally try this! The chunky applesauce is more grown up to me. Love it! You can heat it up before adding cool whip or just eat it cold. I love it either way but cold keeps the cool whip from melting which is important to me. Much healthier than having apple crisp too.

Baby bump: The bump is growing! I thought it would be fun to compare the growth from 25 weeks to 32 weeks. Mostly because I happened to wear the same shirt which can be nice for comparison sake :)

25 Weeks

32 Weeks

 Someone else wanted to be apart of the picture taking action as well.

 

Speaking of Sevea, she really seems to get the whole idea of the baby. She even said we were going to the hospital to get the baby. I think all the talking has paid off somewhat. She just keeps thinking it will be Grayson...or that is what she says leads us to believe. This comes from us talking about Grayson being in Carissa's belly and coming out and going to the hospital, etc. Who knows maybe she is telling us it will be our own little Grayson :)

Appointment: My last appointment was on Monday the 20th. Things look good. The baby has turned with the head being down. Yeah baby, keep it that way! The doctor said most babies will stop moving (changing positions) around 33-34 weeks so I am excited to get to that appointment and see what we are dealing with. I am now onto 2 week appointments so my next appointment is Friday July 8th. Until then :)

Water Baby

We certainly have a water baby. We took her to swimming lessons when she was just under a year and she did great. Last summer we never got signed up for any. We made sure that this year we got her signed up again. And boy does she love it! She is the most adventurous of the group. This is one area where she actually has no fear. Well she still has a little reservation which is nice because without a little I think we'd be in trouble.

Climbing out on her own

Under she goes

Yep I am fine

Ready again!

Smile for mommy

Splashing daddy as hard as I can

Out I go, even daddy is surprised :)

I love swimming lessons!

Dynamite Dad

Once we arrived home from Marshall Sevea was able to share her creations she made for Troy for Father's Day.

She colored him a card and we used her hand prints for a fun poem. It said: Daddy put all your money into my little hand. I'll hold it tight, with all my might. Until a new toy comes into sight.

He of course let her help!

Her stick of dynamite held yummy treats for dad!

 We didn't get to enjoy Father's Day like I would have hoped but Sevea enjoyed a little gardening time with her dad. One of his babies will help fix the lawn while the other baby keeps ruining it for us!!

She thought the kitchen utensil was an appropriate substitution for a gardening one

It is nice to have one day to try to remind the one's we love we are thankful for all they do. But one day isn't enough for a dad like Troy. I try to tell him daily how much Sevea and I are thankful for all he does and for who he is. We are very lucky and try to remind him often. Thank you for all you do Troy. There aren't presents grand enough or words capable enough of expressing how much we love you!

Birthday Celebration Fun

On Saturday we headed to Russell to celebrate my niece Briella's 5th birthday. I need to take a moment to say, she really can't be 5. I think we skipped a few years, just so hard to believe she is already going to be in Kindergarten and it seems just like yesterday we were celebrating her 1st birthday in Alexandria. However it has been fun watching her grow and look forward to many more birthday celebrations for her.

We celebrated with great weather, great food, great company, and a great deal of fun for the kids! It was so fun watching the kids enjoy the whole afternoon outdoors. Brock and Angie surely had enough to entertain them, from riding toys, a sandbox, a swing set to a slip n slide and fun pools. The kids went non-stop all afternoon and even got the adults involved with a little water fight later in the afternoon. (Best part...seeing Grandpa Gary throw Makenzie into the pool after he was forced into the water fight action!!)

The action carried over until well into the night and Sevea got to join in the fun for the first time. Normally we are the parents that try to stick to her bedtime or close to it. But she was having such a good time and wasn't crabby plus I think the time just got away from all of us having a good time. It was a perfect night to let her stay up. Brock got out some glow sticks and the kids enjoyed running around at night but the parents enjoyed being able to see them!

They had glow wands, glow bracelets, and glow necklaces

Off into the darkness

It was cute seeing them all lit up

Sevea even learned a little bit more about hide n seek. Although hide n seek in the dark with glow sticks isn't the best way :) She hid under the picnic table with the other kids instead of in plain sight!!!

The smore's were brought out and then the crabbiness set in. It was surprisingly 11:30 at night. Wowsers! Boy did she play! All of this on a 1/2 hour nap on the car ride too. Sevea has a tendency to wake up earlier at other people's homes. I think she assumes more fun will be going on in the morning so we were nervous about the wake up time. Troy and I woke up this little girl at 9:40! We both don't remember the last time that we both slept in that late. Granted we went to bed at 1:00 ish but it still felt great considering the alternative.

It was a GREAT visit and fun for the whole family. Thanks Buchert's!!!

I can see you

Sevea's attempt at playing hide and seek :)

Daycare Update

I've had several questions regarding the daycare especially with the arrival of the baby coming soon. So I thought why not answer them here for everyone to know :) This pregnancy is timed pretty well when I consider the daycare. I am only allowed to have 2 infants (0-12mo) and 1 toddler (12-24mo) at a time (or 1 infant and 2 toddlers). So the timing is great because my leave will end just as the infant I currently care for, Breanna, will turn 12 mo. in October. I will then have Grayson and our little one as the 2 infants and Breanna as the toddler in October. I have one other little girl who turns 3 in July and then Sevea who is 3 in September. I am allowed to have a total of 6 children under schoolage so once October rolls around I only have 1 spot available to fill. (Well I can have 4 schoolage children as well but I am not seeking that age group since it is hard to entertain that age when I don't have any other that age). It would be nice to find another child Sevea's age but things will definitely be busier in the fall anyway.

So the timing is working out great because I will not need to turn away any families that I currently care for. When I announced the pregnancy we talked a little about the daycare leave situation and they seemed pleased with what I had planned. The plan you ask? My wonderful sister Angie has agreed to help with the time I need off in August. Then two more wonderful people have agreed to help with time off in September. Carissa and Troy are graciously taking vacation time to help out. Between the three of them I will have 5 weeks covered unless I go early which Angie has agreed to help with (gotta love her!!) I will then take off 2 weeks of vacation time where my families will need to find alternative care. (Except for Grayson, I've agreed to watch him since Carissa is helping me)

So this is the plan for the daycare and my leave. All in all I am very pleased with how things are working out. I had off 7 weeks before returning back to work with Sevea so I am excited that I will receive the same with not causing too much trouble for my families. I will still be in the house when daycare is happening and plan to spend time with the daycare as well. It is actually a really exciting time for me because I will have adult interaction all day if I want which will be a welcome change. I am very excited that my sister Angie gets to spend some quality time with the new baby as well as Sevea. I think Sevea will not even notice the new baby in those first weeks because she loves Angie and her cousins so much. (We've actually learned to try not to say their names often because she will beg and beg and beg....did I say beg....to see them.) Let's just hope things go somewhat according to plan, but with babies that isn't always a guarantee!

Try, Try Again

You know the saying, "if at first you don't succeed, try, try again". This is definitely true when it comes to kids and food. I know I have mentioned of it before but I love to bring up examples as they come because I am even surprised myself at these moments. I am again very thankful for our doctor who said to just keep trying to give them different foods because one day they will like something and the next they might not. We have found this to be true from the beginning with baby food. So we just keep trying. It was even better advice when my food program lady told me there is no need to give a child a big serving of something they don't like. Just make sure it is offered on their plate even if it is only two pieces of broccoli or peaches, etc. This has been great to feel like we are wasting less food. This whole concept is important to me because of my own struggles with weight and food. This is definitely something I would love to spare Sevea of. Hopefully what I do now as a parent will be beneficial to her!

On to the examples...Sevea was a pretty good eater but has become more picky in her choices at times. She used to love fruit like cantaloupe and peaches. But for the past year hasn't been much of a fan of them. We keep offering them in hopes she will eat them. Recently we have found that she will eat a few pieces sometimes. Especially if we eat it with her. On to grapes...she has never been a fan of grapes. For smaller children this is a hard fruit to eat because of the skin. I think she fell into that group. But we kept offering them in hopes someday she would eat them. There were times she would put it into her mouth, chew it but never swallow it. Again I think because of the skin. BUT recently she has enjoyed them. Carissa and I were grocery shopping the other day and she ate them right out of the bag at the store (I know they should have been washed but I figured it wouldn't kill her and was enjoying the moment of her wanting to actually eat them). And eat them she did. She probably enjoyed 10 of them before we cut her off. Success!

And the most recent success....

Do you see that? BROCCOLI!!! I was so excited I had to get a picture!! Recently we have been instituting the try one technique. We will have her try one bite of the thing she didn't touch on her plate. For the most part we don't push it too much because we've read this can backfire with kids having an unhealthy view about food since most times you are trying it with fruits or veggies. (We recently did it with a cupcake though...she ate all the frosting and I applied this technique to the cake portion. Everyone at the baby shower joked how I was forcing her to eat chocolate cake...haha!) Anyway I asked her to try a bite of the broccoli and even showed her by dipping my own piece in her ranch. She followed suit and ate it, then picked up another piece! When I got back with the camera she had only 3 small pieces left and had started with maybe 8. She ended up eating the big one in her hand and left the two really small pieces. SUCCESS!!! And I realize that the next time I serve cold broccoli she may not eat it but that isn't really the point. It is the fact that offering the variety of food does pay off. A child will never eat broccoli if they aren't given it.

Now Troy and I are no where near perfect in this area. There is plenty of foods that we should expose Sevea to and we should be better about doing it. We also have it easier than some in this area because we love vegetables. We aren't afraid to try new things with veggies. So exposing Sevea to vegetables is pretty easy for us. Our attempt to expose her to more fruit took a little effort on our part. It was easy to just purchase cans of fruit. Which is perfectly fine but limited in what they offer. So although we both like fruit it wasn't something we ate a lot of. Our snacks or desserts were more processed foods and we didn't eat a ton of fruit with our meals. We've since tried to incorporate it more and find ourselves eating pineapple, cantaloupe, peaches, pears, grapes, apples, strawberries, oranges, bananas, etc. more. We replaced some snacks and desserts with these non-canned fruits and learned to love it. So it was not only a good thing for Sevea but for ourselves. (Side note: we had peaches and pineapple with a dollop of cool whip for dessert last night...loved it and the cool whip definitely makes it more dessert like.)

Moral of my post: Try, Try Again! Healthy habits are easier to form when they are young.

Cute moments

She loves her sunglasses! upside down even :)

Bugga Bugga is her new sleeping companion...she hasn't forgotten about the others though!

Sunsational Sunday

We had a GREAT day as a family on Sunday. It was one of those days that we did A LOT but never felt stressed or overwhelmed or tired. Just enjoyed the time and went with the flow. The day started out like any other. Some laying around trying to wake up....although Sevea's later wake up time has been nice :) Before I knew it Troy and Sevea were playing with play doh at the kitchen table. This surprised me since it was within a 1/2 hour of waking up and normally we need much more time to venture into something like that.

During play doh time my stomach started making it known food was not an option but a necessity. I suggested Perkin's for brunch since we had a baby shower to attend at 1:00 and knew lunch would have been difficult with the drive plus you eat at the shower and we would have been stuffed. We had a great meal at Perkin's. I totally recommend the create your own omelet with at least asparagus and hollandaise sauce in it!! My new favorite!! After breakfast it was time to get things in order for the shower and head across the cities. We gave ourselves plenty of time which resulted in over an hour to spare before the shower. We made a stop at Bed Bath and Beyond where we struck out on finding big girl bedding for Sevea's future room. With still a half hour to spare we found a park to play at. It was really funny watching Sevea as she did not like the sand that got in her sandals.

We gave up on the sandals since she wouldn't step more than one more step after sand got in them. So barefoot she went and enjoyed the slide with daddy!

After our little fun at the park, we made our way over to the baby shower. Troy's freshman year college roommate and friend/usher at our wedding, Aaron, is having his first baby with his wife Johntia. They are actually due 2 days after us. It was co-ed shower and the weather was gorgeous for a couple games, some bean bags, food, and of course presents for the mom and dad. Sevea was so well-behaved and even listened well when we told her she couldn't help open every gift they received.
By the time we arrived home it was 4:30 and I figured all my motivation to have Sevea run through the sprinklers would have passed. Even after realizing we didn't have a swimsuit for this season, I was still up for it. We made a quick run to Target and came home to watch Sevea absolutely love the time in the sprinklers. She had a blast. It was sooooo funny listening to her yell at the water. Most of which was just weird phrases. So fun! We look forward to letting her enjoy it many more times this summer.

She played in it full blast but loved it a little more with the water turned down a little

She might have been yelling at the sprinkler in this one :)

 

It was a great day for the Appeldorn's. Can't beat finishing the day off with some sloppy joe's and chili cheese fries at the Zimmer household. Life is good :)