Baby Bump

I'm getting quite the baby bump with this one.  So far, my weight has mainly been in my belly, which I'm hoping will make for a quicker weight loss after the birth.  It could also be why I have been having quite a few flare ups with my sciatica pain.  Anyhow, here is my bump at 29 weeks.  Just a little over two months to go.  Starting to feel very real now.... (Aaaaahhhhhh!!!!!)

PS - I'm back to thinking the baby is a boy.  Chad is kind of thinking this way also now.  I'm so bad with guessing, though.  Early on I thought boy, then for the later part of the 1st trimester and most of the 2nd trimester I thought girl, and now I'm back to boy.  Just glad we have names picked out either way :)

Preacher Baby

We are convinced I am carrying a preacher with this pregnancy.  It is the complete opposite of Meredith, who was our music baby.  Here is why we have come to this conclusion:  This baby does not make much, if any, movement during the worship songs at church on Sunday morning.  However, when Pastor Baker gets up to speak, watch out!  My belly starts moving in all kinds of directions.  We noticed this very early on in the pregnancy and it's quite hilarious.  On the other hand, Meredith was a mover and shaker when it came to the worship music, which can mirror a rock-style concert in our church, though I don't remember her moving much with the sermons.  What's so funny is that even now, Meredith will stop whatever she's doing at times and dance to music that's on TV, the radio, or that we are singing.  Who knows, maybe this is the next John the Baptist, or Joni the Baptist (if it's a girl) :)

Family Pictures

It's that time of year again....time for family pictures!  Actually, it's a time to get Meredith's pictures for Christmas and then get a few of Chad and I with her :)  We opted for an early Sunday morning photo shoot, hoping they wouldn't be too busy, but alas it was crowded as usual.  Guess it's just that time of the year.  We had to reschedule once because of a bruise Meredith had around her eye, due to a fall off the slide, so we didn't want to push the date back again.  Meredith did surprisingly well in the actual photo shoot, much to our amazement.  She is usually so squirmy for pictures we try to take.  However, trying to hold her still while we chose our favorite pictures was a different story.  Next time we'll have to take a sitter along with us!

All decked out for Christmas

What a big girl she is getting to be!

Our little bookworm :)

Hard to tame down all of the hair in the back :)

The Prentice Family

I love this picture, especially since we didn't get any professional pregnancy pictures while I was carrying Meredith.  It won't be long and we will be a family of four!

Pumpkin Patch

One of the highlights of our Fall was visiting our local pumpkin patch.  I was able to go several times with other moms and once with my parents.  Though I don't think I ended up getting my money's worth with the season pass I bought (do you sense any bitterness?), it was fun and will be even more fun next year when Meredith can participate in more of the activities.  Here are some pictures of our adventures:

Lauren and Meredith.  (Meredith had a nasty fall earlier in the week, so that's the reason for her bloody nose).  It was VERY cold this particular morning.  I loved the little wagons they had available, since the strollers didn't push so well in the gravel.

Mommy and Meredith in the corn bin.  I found corn EVERYWHERE when we got back home...in the van, washing machine, and her boots.

Pre-Ride...all smiles.

So far, so good...

This is one of those rides that will be better next year.  She kept falling down off the seat :(  I wish they would have allowed me to ride along with her.  She was pretty scared at this point.

Post ride...all tears :(

This was one of her favorite activities - going in the miniature houses (including a post office).  This is on my wish list for my Dad to build for our back yard.  Isn't it cute?

She loved pushing the shopping cart around.  She's used to being on the other end, as I push her around the store.

Washing her veggies.

The view from inside the miniature house.  Beautiful!

Riding the tire-made horse swing.

We even got to go on a hayride around the pumpkin patch!

She did not like this activity.  My Dad tried to jump on it with her, but she would have none of it!

Grandpa Perry, Meredith, and Grandma Perry

Call Me Megan Crocker

Well, I'm no Betty Crocker, but I felt like one today.  It was our turn to bring snacks for Chad's Wednesday night high school ministry Bible study.  We needed to come up with snacks to feed 35+ kids and group leaders.  Though I love to cook and have enjoyed it even more since we got married (it's never fun or easy to cook for just one person), I'm not big on baking.  It's not that I don't know how, it's just that I'm not a big dessert person.  Sure, I'll have sweets now and then (don't even get me started on my recent pregnancy-induced DQ Cookie Jar blizzard craving), but I could do without.  I'm the one at Thanksgiving that would rather have seconds of meat/potatoes, rather than having dessert. 

Anyhow, I came across a super simple recipe for Peanut Butter Kiss Cookies.  I can't believe I just admitted that....me and peanut butter?  Well, it was a sacrifice I made for Chad, because it is just about his favorite food ever and as for me, I absolutely hate the taste of it!  I guess opposites attract.  To balance it out, I also made a store bought package of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  Not that there will be any leftover treats after high school guys go through line, but I'm hopeful.

So, I cranked up the Christmas music on my iPod and began baking.  It kind of put me in the holiday spirit :)

Meredith just discovered the oven light.  She had just woken up from her nap (can you tell by her hair?) and was in a trance as she stared at the cookies baking.

Finally, I will leave you with this humorous e-mail I sent to Chad after my baking experience with the peanut butter cookies:

Do you know how much I love you?  Well, I'll tell you!

I have been hand rolling every PB cookie and have PB stuck under my fingernails.  Also, since you weren't around, I had to taste test one of the cookies.  I can't believe I did it.  I now have this awful taste in my mouth! :)

More New Words

We are so impressed with our little girl, and yes this is very much a brag post.  Last week, she had her 18 month appointment with her pediatrician and I was a little concerned, because the doctor mentioned most 18 month olds know about 10 words (I think she meant 10 words they could verbalize).  Well, Meredith probably knows 75-100 words, but at the appointment, only was up to about 6 words she could say.  Low and behold, just a few days after her appointment, she started talking like crazy and we could actually understand a lot of what she was saying!  When I picked her up from church nursery today, her teacher said that "she wants to talk so bad."  And, that's the truth; She will look you in the eye and make complete sentences with maybe one word you can understand, but just fills in the rest of the sentence with gibberish.

Here is a list of her new words.  Each day she seems to copy at least one word we say, so I guess we should be watching our tongues very carefully :)

• Cat (ca)
• Bubble (sounds just like the word)
• Bye (we are working on having her say it as she is waving.  I was so touched that just a few minutes ago as I was putting her down for bed, she looked over and said "bye" as I turned off the light.  Such a sweet girl!)
• Ow
• OK (Oooooo-K)
• Papa (usually just pa)
• Ball (ba)
• Tickle/Tackle (sounds like ta at the beginning and can be used to mean either of these words.  We tickle her all the time and she tickles others, while she tackles Chad in their nightly playtime.)
• Baby (apparently, she has said this twice now and I have missed it both times :(  She said it in front of our small group Sunday and said it to Chad at Toys R Us tonight, and I missed it both times.)

PS - On an unrelated note, Meredith has learned to climb pretty well now.  She uses her little foam Elmo chair for support and carries it over to the couch or ottoman and climbs right up.  Thankfully, she is learning to get down much more gracefully than before, though she still likes to jump up and down on the furniture which gives me a heart attack!  Unfortunately, she has shown signs of trying to climb on the railing of her crib, but she can't get a good enough grip...thank goodness :)

I am trying to let her walk more when we go out places, since my sciatica is flaring up in this pregnancy and lifting a solid 25 pound toddler is getting to be a bit much.  I'm hopeful she continues to be more independent when climbing the stairs to her room and eventually will be able to go down (we haven't even attempted to show her that yet).

H-A-LL-O-W-EE-N

It's that time of year...H-A-LL-O-W-EE-N.  I spelled it like that for a reason.  Anyone growing up in Flora public schools will remember a song we sang with Mrs. Burt.  "H", "A", Double L, "O", "W", Double E, "N", spells Halloween.  Too hard to convey the tune with written words, but I always think of that song when I write out the word Halloween. 

Last year, Meredith went as a Duck and I must say, it was much easier to take pictures.  Now that she is so mobile, it was very difficult.  We took 40+ pictures and I didn't really get a good one this year.  Oh well, it made for an interesting evening. 

2011 at 5 months old.

This year Meredith went as Little Red Riding Hood and we took her to downtown Normal to parade around with the other kids, show off her costume, and of course, pick up loads of candy for Chad and I to eat :)  Well, we took one look around, snapped a picture, and got out of there.  As you can see in the picture, there was a huge crowd and long lines, which doesn't make me a happy camper.  Plus, it was a bit too cold to have her out in a thin costume for very long.  

2012 at 17 months.

She figured out how the basket works.

She loves her Daddy!

Meredith being silly and swinging the cape around.  Time for bed!

Fire Station

This morning, Meredith and I visited a local fire station, to learn all about firemen, safety, and of course, to see firetrucks!  My friend Candice organized the meet-up, along with several other stay-at-home moms (oh, and one stay-at-home dad) and their kiddos.  It was really fun and will be even more fun when Meredith is a bit older and not too scared to sit in the firetruck.

Other stay-at-home parents and kids from our group.

The firefighter showed us how he looked with all of the gear on.  Needless to say, most of the kids were scared once he put the mask on.

Meredith looking very cautiously at the firefighter once he had his full gear on.

Adjacent to the fire station was "Safety Town", complete with fire station-type playground equipment.

 

Here is the park!

Here she is with friends, Josie and Lauren.  She had a blast!

Future Fire Chief!

Names, Names, Names....

We are happy to announce we have finalized (well, we think so at least) our girl name for our baby!  Well, we don't really have anything to announce, as we are keeping the name along with gender a secret.  We have had our boy name set since we were first pregnant with Meredith, so for about 2 years now.  However, we have struggled with our 2nd girl name, just as we did with Meredith.  I remember coming up with Meredith and trying to get Chad on board for several months.  He came up with her middle name of Grace, though, which was absolutely perfect!  This go around, Chad came up with a name and after looking through baby names lists for months, we came across a similar-type name that we both like.  Woohoo!

I'm all about easy-to-spell, feminine, yet-strong girl names.  That's probably why it's so hard - it's like finding a needle in a haystack with all the crazy spellings/names that are out there.  In other words, we want to be unique, without being too unique!  Plus, we have about a million cousins, so that makes it even more difficult.  We are ruling out names that have been used as our first cousins' names and their childrens' names.  Thank goodness we haven't ruled out any 3rd cousins' names or we would probably have to invent our own name.

There are still four months left to decide if we made the right choice.  For now, the name will be "baby", and unfortunately, possibly "it" from time to time.

Words

Lately, I have been catching up with Meredith's baby book.  It's about time, since the next one will be here before long.  Kind of a lengthy story, but I had originally typed milestones (e.g., crawling, first steps, first foods, etc.) with dates into a spreadsheet on my laptop, so then I could satisfy my OCD tendencies and write everything gracefully in her baby book with no mistakes.  Well, my laptop crashed and I lost it along with my coupon database.  I was so bummed!!  It was out of commission for a few months, but Chad's friend was able to recover it for us :)  Yay for computer geeks!  (Oh, and I don't think I'll be in trouble for calling them geeks, since his friend is on our church's IT ministry which is called "Jesus Geeks".)

Okay, so back to my original thought.  After filling in her baby book, I realized that she has not come as far as I thought a soon-to-be 18-month old would be in terms of her vocabulary.  She has really only learned the word "hi" over the past 4-5 months.  Before that it was just mom and dad.

I think she is probably behind because when we go into the doctor's office they ask us if we have hit certain milestones and at her 15-month appointment, she should have been able to say at least 5-6 words.  Plus, I think Chad and I push her too quickly sometimes to certain milestones and then we can't believe she's growing up so fast...go figure!  I find that she knows 90% of what we talk about or ask her, but she just doesn't verbalize it or use very many signs.  Well, today alone, she learned two words....yay!!!  I asked her where the apple was in the picture and she said "ap-pa" and pointed to it.  Good enough for me.  Then later, I told her to chill as we were trying to hold her down to get her coat on and she said "chi".  Very similar to how she says church.  So, now she can say the following words, with her pronunciation in parenthesis:

• Mom (ma-ma, mum, ma)
• Dad (da-da, da)
• Hi (hiiiiii) 
• Amen (men)
• Church (chch)
• Apple (ap-pa)
• Chill (chi)

Of course, I will probably be one of those parents that is the only one who can understand what my kid says, while everyone else just nods and smiles when she says her words.  Oh well, it is totally worth it!

Ultrasound

At the end of September, we got to see our little peanut on ultrasound again.  Such an amazing experience!  Our first ultrasound was back in July and the picture just looked like a little bean and it was very hard to make out anything.  This experience was just the opposite.  At nearly 19 weeks, we were able to see fingers, toes, the spine, and facial features.  I wish I had an ultrasound machine in my home and could use it 24/7. 

We went into this ultrasound not wanting to know what the gender is, so we can be surprised on delivery day.  Okay, let me rephrase that....I didn't want to know but Chad did.  But, like a good hubby, he was willing to hold out for me.  I did have my doubts in days prior, but from what I have heard from others, the surprise will be worth it.  I figure that if we have a girl, I will have nearly everything I need and if it's a boy, then I already have some gender-neutral onesies/sleepers that were given to us with Meredith and I've picked up a few boy clothes here and there at yard sales.  Everything will probably be planned right down to the date since I will have a repeat c-section, so I can't wait for the ultimate gender surprise! 

Of course, we both thought we saw boy AND girl parts throughout the scan, so who knows!  We turned our heads at the request of the ultrasound tech for a few minutes, so only she knows.  Overall, things appeared to be well, but I won't know for sure until the appointment with my doctor in mid-October.  The tech did say I was measuring closer to 20 weeks, which puts us at a due date of 2/15/13 instead of 2/24/13.  Probably just a big baby :)

Love how you can see all the features in this one, including baby's spine, foot/toes, hand/fingers, and what appears to be a bubble of some sort above the head.

Of course, here is the "alien" picture.  I remember these types of pictures with Meredith and it is really creepy with the hollow eyes.

The Great Outdoors

I think the closest you can come to the great outdoors in Bloomington/Normal is a trip to a scenic portion of the Constitution Trail.  Back in September on Labor Day, we celebrated a big birthday (I can't say how many, though) for my mother-in-law Phyllis.  We met up with them at Peoria for lunch and then went to the Great Outdoors (AKA: Bass Pro Shop).  I'm sure she appreciated going there for her birthday celebration :)  We had never been and thought Meredith would enjoy looking around.  She definitely did and not only saw their giant bear (picture below), but also huge catfish, a fish pond outside as well, and of course, deer/moose/etc. heads mounted on the walls.

The Prentice's with Big Bear

Grandma Prentice and Meredith

Grandpa Prentice showing Meredith how to cross her legs.

Exhausted once we got to the van for the drive back!

Doorknob

I had a first today with Meredith.  She reached for the front doorknob and jiggled it, as to try to open it.  My heart sank!  My little girl is growing up so fast...#tear.  I can't tell you how many times I wake up in the middle of the night and mutter something to Chad as I'm walking around our bedroom about how Meredith is about to fall down the stairs.  He tells me she's fine and I'm only dreaming, but I do have fears of her climbing out of her crib, opening her door, and wham...falling down the stairs.  Maybe I should just get a baby gate for the top of the stairs ;)  Anyhow, when this happened today, I thought that it won't be long before she will be able to go up and down the stairs on her own, she will be talking in complete sentences (or at least phrases), and she won't need my help as much...#gush of tears.

Thinking back, several months ago, I posted milestones Meredith hit.  I should probably update that list now:

• Her vocabulary now includes "hi", "mom" (also, "momma"), and "dadda (also, "da").  Everything else is just speculation on our part, but we think we have heard her say "keys", "nana" (for banana), and "more".  She isn't much for vocabulary in English, but has been talking up a storm (especially over the past week) in Meredith speak which sounds eerily familiar to Chinese.
• She can go up the stairs unassisted.  Well, she thinks she can at least.  We still follow two steps behind her, but let her climb the stairs for good practice.
• I cannot even tell you how smart she is with her word identification.  Speaking from a third party perspective, not a mom (yeah, right!).  She blows my mind.  For instance, over the past month, when you get her one of her picture books that has large pictures and a single identifying word under it and ask her where a particular object is, she will point correctly to it 90% of the time.  This is also a great tool to use to teach her words she hasn't learned yet that are in the books.  If she had her way (and I had my way as well), we could just cut out all toys and only "play" with books.  That's why we already have a relatively large library of books for her.  Also, while we are on this point of word identification, she is amazing when it comes to following requests.  Ask her to bring you her baby lion and she will do it.  Ask her to bring you her "Jesus Book" and she will bring you the Jesus Easter story book.  Ask her to bring you shoes, and no telling whose shoes she may bring you.  Chad got a kick out of how she identified the word "more" - He was listening to Mark Levin on the radio and he said the word more.  Chad looks over and Meredith is using more in sign language.
• Mommy's little helper - She is doing a great job of helping me help her get dressed in the mornings or when we need to put a coat on her before heading out.  She knows to put her arm out and help it through the slot and even tries to put her socks on.  Of course, she does a great job of taking her shoes off, just usually in the van as I'm driving.  Also, she helps bring me things (which is great since my belly is getting bigger by the minute), sort laundry and sweep the kitchen floor (well, kind of).
• Meredith has developed a great love for playing with her stuffed animals.  This is good, since she has already amassed tons of them.  We were in the basement yesterday looking through old stuff and I came across some like-new stuffed animals in my yard sale bin.  I pulled them out (a lion, lobster, and monkey) and added to the collection, and she was like a kid at Christmas.  She loves to take her animals on rides atop her caterpillar toy, chauffeuring them across the living room.  And, she loves to give them hugs, kisses, and talk to them.
• Her sense of balance has improved tremendously.  She's still not the best at walking along uneven surfaces, such as grass, gravel, or sidewalks, and tends to get clumsy and trip.  But, she is really close to being able to climb up on our couch and just recently has taken rides on her tricycle in the house, without needing assistance on or off the bike.
• She is so cuddly!  I'm kind of regretting teaching her to kiss every object she sees.  It was so cute and I couldn't stop myself, but now I'm wondering what she may do at the playground when she sees a boy! :)  She loves to back up her little bottom and plop right on us to read a story.  Having your child sit in your lap like that is one of the greatest feelings in the world.
• Going down the slide at the park is a much more enjoyable experience now.  She is now better with holding her head up and can go down the small slides without us holding onto her the entire way down.  She loves swings and now slides.
• This one is a bummer for me, because I love having a little free time...we are slowly moving to one nap a day.  She still takes a morning and afternoon nap several days of the week, but I know it's just a matter of time before the morning nap will go.  It's been going on this way since she hit 15 months.  I need to find another time to get ready in the morning, because now I usually rely on her morning nap to do that!
• Of course, can't forget the milestone we are not fond of...ATTITUDE.  She's got it bad.  If she doesn't want to do something, she will let you know it.  She's still amazing with nap/bed time and runs to the stairs to go up to her room when I ask her if she is ready for a nap.  So, no problems there so far.  However, almost anything else is a challenge with her demeanor.  I realized early that spanking, slapping her hand, or yelling gets me (and her) nowhere.  She doesn't even react when I spank her, even though I think I did it fairly hard.  So, my new approach is prayer, listening to the Holy Spirit's prompting, and a soft voice.  She loves to go through all of our cabinets, turn the dishwasher knob which starts a load that was already finished, and bang on the TV.  I'm trying to take Michelle Duggar's advice from a conference I attended in the Spring and simply get down to her level, make eye contact, and explain why that was bad behavior.  Is it working better than my former approach?  Not necessarily.  But, it's not doing any worse and my blood pressure stays under control this way.  For laughs, here is a picture of Meredith that can be summed up by one word, "Attitude":

I think I just told her "no" in this one.

Landscaping

Let me start by saying that landscaping is tough work.  Pregnancy does have its perks at moments like this, though.  I only did a little bit of shoveling and some picking up of branches.  But, boy was I tired and I know Chad was too.  After five years of having these unsightly bushes in our front yard, it was time for them to go.  They take up too much room, constantly have to be trimmed, and to say it plainly, are ugly.

We have such a little yard and rarely do any type of landscaping, that we didn't even own a shovel! Thank goodness for our Menards refrigerator rebate :)  I think we will be using the few hundred dollars for years.

We still are not 100% sure what we are going to put in place of the bushes, but we are thinking something that at least involves rocks so maintenance is easier and weeds aren't growing everywhere.  At least we got this done before the ground became frozen, which may happen in another month or so, depending upon Illinois' crazy weather.

I forgot to take a true before picture, since we had already removed one big bush at this point.

Workin' hard!

That root was tough! 

Much better! :)

Ponytail

Meredith's hair is finally long enough for a ponytail.  Well, sort of (her bangs aren't quite long enough to pull all the way back).  Her hair is so pretty, but also crazy at the same time.  It's very hard to tame it down and she still doesn't like to keep barrettes or bows in it for very long.  Can't wait until it's a little longer and I can braid it.