TEEEEE

Finley loves to brush her "teee." And not just at bedtime. Like all. the. time. If I let her she would be in the bathroom all day playing in the sink with her toothbrush and toothpaste (we let her pretend with water and an empty tube). She often finds a rouge toothbrush we thought had gone missing and starts walking around the house with it as if it were her lovey. She has never really latched on to one particular item but if you try to pry a toothbrush away from her be ready for a tantrum. She means serious business when it comes to her toothbrush.

Luckily at night when we are actually brushing her teeth it's just part of the routine for us to brush her teeth for her, otherwise we'd be battling WWIII style every night before bed. But if at any point in the day you need to use the facilities she will stand at the bathroom door yelling "teeee" totally convinced that the only thing you could be doing in there is having a toothbrushing party without her. We are such cruel parents.

DADDY'S GIRL & OTHER NEWS

It's true. Finley is a daddy's girl. I've known since she was about three months old but it's hard to hand over the title of favorite parent to SOMEONE ELSE. Brad's new residency schedule will be pretty intense, basically we won't see him for about a year. Then it'll be okay for two years. Then we won't see him for three more years. I don't know if it'll be harder on me or her.

Sorry, Finners. You might be his favorite one year old on the planet but it'll still be harder on me.

Brad Update: Brad is off gallivanting in Florida for spring break. I should probably clarify. He's speaking about the research he's worked on for the last few years. It's actually a pretty big conference and a pretty big deal. We are super proud of him. Too bad he had to make the sacrifice to go ALL THE WAY to Florida for four days and stay in a schamncy hotel right on the beach, right? It's not like I'm 29 weeks pregnant and living in a house half full of boxes. Whatever. I don't need the beach vacation. I'm not bitter.

Alabama Update: We found the "as perfect as it gets" house and started the paperwork to make an offer. Wah wah. Someone else made an offer on the house five days prior but the listing agent hadn't updated the site. So unless some miracle happens and the other deal falls apart it looks like we are back to square one on the house front. To say I was devastated was an understatement. Brad was probably thrilled to get a vacation from my moping. We are heading back for house hunt trip #2 next weekend. Wish us luck, we are trying hard to be hopeful.

Finley Update: Her vocab list has exploded. My favorite new words she says are: snuggle, balloon, stars, and Where's Daddy?. She just discovered that she loves peanuts and gets intensely possessive if you try to steal one. Dancing, coloring, and brushing her teeth are still her favorite activities. And my favorite new thing is when she says her own name. Every Wednesday at our library reading group they go around and have each child introduce themselves. Normally I say her name for her, but today when it was her turn she proudly announced herself as Inlah (close enough) and then clapped because she was so proud. It hadn't occurred to me until today that I had never heard her say her own name before. So now we are practicing pointing at me and saying Mommy and pointing and her and saying Finley. I tell you what, motherhood is alright sometimes.

Baby Dos Update: Still doing well. My doc was concerned about too much weight gain at my last appointment. Always welcome news for a pregnant woman! But everything appears to be just dandy. I guess it was her not so subtle way of telling me to lay off the Nutella. FINE. I'll cut it back to just 1 banana & Nutella sandwich a day (don't knock it until you try it).

Me Update: Have I whined enough in this post about all the crap I have to do? Priority #1 is packing up this house - and it's actually coming along. I call it my Blitzkrieg Packing Extravaganza. The fancy name takes my mind off the fact that in about eight weeks I'm supposed to move to a house we don't know about yet and then three weeks after that have a baby in a hospital I've never been to - no biggie.

THE HIPPO

We went to the St. Louis Zoo a few weeks ago and let me tell you - it was so much more fun to take a toddler than a baby. Previously she had no idea we were even at the Zoo - so it was really just me walking around with a 15 pound weight that cried for food. This time she pointed and smiled and repeated the names of the animals and was truly interested in her surroundings. Her favorite parts were when she could get up close and personal with the animals. She loved the hippo tank because it's essentially a huge aquarium with tons of fish swimming around. She was totally mesmerized and didn't even realize it contained hippos towards the back. At one point she turned to "talk" to one of the other kids standing around while a hippo casually walked towards her...

When she turned back to the tank SUPRISE! HIPPO FACE! She was a little taken aback and started to make some panic noises when she realize what was in front of her...

and ultimately decided to make a quick getaway.

 

By the time she stepped off the rocks the hippo had moved onto greener pastures. But it was the only time in our 20 minutes spent looking at the fish that any of the the hippos approached the glass. So it was a fun close encounter. I'm glad I just happened to be taking pictures (although let's get real, when am I not taking pictures?).

One of her other favorite spots was looking at the monkeys. Sidenote - I don't even try to tame that hair anymore. Yep I'm one of THOSE moms that lets her kid runaround with crazy hair. Hey as long as I keep it trimmed so it's not a mullet I think I'm doing okay.

 

But it was the end of a three hour expedition in which I spent either pushing Finley in a stroller up a hill or chasing her through the Butterfly House. I figured when I started to feel Braxton Hicks contractions it was probably time to head home.

Add the St. Louis Zoo to my list of things I'll miss the most when we leave. It's about a 50 minute drive but totally worth every free penny... I'd seriously be there every day if we lived half the distance away.

26 WEEKS - BABY DOS

I am all sorts of huge now. In fact here's a funny story. I was at Finley's library reading group and one of the other moms is also pregnant. The librarian asked when this tiny bellied woman, who certainly was no more than 16 weeks along, was due and she replied, "I'm down to the final six weeks!" She then asked when I was due and I was so flabbergasted by my enormous belly easily twice her size that it took forever for me to answer, "Um. I... still have a while. Mid June. So 14 weeks." Seriously, where do some woman put those babies? I definitely get a bit bigger everywhere. Which is fun. No one can judge a pregnant woman for getting chubby, right? It's such a magical time. Other than hugeness, here are some updates on how things with Baby Dos are progressing.

* Things are looking more and more like we might be birthing this baby in Alabama. More to come on that later since a lot of variables are still up in the air. Namely a house that we could actually move in to by May. We'll see.

* She kicks and moves all night long - sometime waking me up with her acrobatics. But I hardly feel her at all during the day. Oh joy another night owl! Not like we don't already have three of those living at our house.

*  Meat aversion is on high alert (other than chicken). I did not get this with Finley. Seriously, the smell of meat is rancid and unnatural. Typing that thought right now actually made me gag a little. Gross.

*She should weigh roughly 2 pounds, which my hips seem to be screaming against. During the day I'm fine but sleeping on my side makes my hips hurt so bad that when I wake up I walk like an old lady for a few hours. Feels great and looks super attractive.

* We are still undecided on a name, but we definitely have a top three that don't seem to be budging. Which is an improvement over Finley. We were literally still deciding between five or so names as we signed her birth certificate. Have I mentioned that Brad gets to decide the middle name with no input/veto/approval from me? We've decided to alternate every other child with choosing the middle name on our own - I told Brad that our first girl would have the middle name Anne so he had basically no say in Finley's middle naming. It's fun and Brad is being a little secretive about what he's thinking for Baby Dos (or it's possible that he hasn't thought about it at all).

* Other than my hips and terrible smells I'm feeling pretty good. Sometimes I forget I have this huge belly sticking out in front of me. Like when Finley wants me to pick her up or I'm giving Brad a hug or I'm trying to slide behind someone in church. I've been going on a lot of walks which I actually think helps to keep my energy up.

* People are much more handsy with my belly this time. What is up with that? It is SOOOO awkward when someone rubs your pregnant belly. I try to be gracious but it's a major don't in my book unless it's your best friend, husband, child, sister, mother... not a random store clerk at Wal-Mart.