So Much!

My heart melts every single time I watch this video.

These days, Ian alternates between being a sweet little angel who wants to give kisses and hugs and demon-child/imp/little monster.  He is all boy and throws himself to the ground and gets up hysterically laughing.  His daycare teacher informs us that he has a hard time sharing toys.  I certainly believe that since the other day, when I dropped Ian off in the morning, he walked right up to another kid and ripped a toy right out of this kid's hands.  He then moved on to shove another kid out of his way.  Sigh.  My little brute.  But his daycare teacher also told us how very impressed she was with him.  She said he is so so so smart and no other kids knows all the letters of the alphabet like he does.  And of course, that makes me one proud momma.  :-)

28 Weeks!

I'm 28 weeks pregnant today and this baby girl is kicking me like CRAZY.  One of her pokes/jabs/punches/elbows actually woke me up yesterday as I was attempting to nap.  And I'm still having wicked bad cramps down low, which I'm going to ask my doctor about next week.  I'm up 21 pounds now, which is actually quite similar to where I was when pregnant with Ian.  I looked back at my blog and when 28 weeks, 3 days pregnant with Ian, I was up 20.5 pounds.  So I'm glad that the weight gain evened out because I gained much more earlier on with this pregnancy than I did when pregnant the first time.

I can't believe that Ian is almost 2 years old.  He is speaking in full sentences now and I see progress every single day with him.  It's amazing to watch how quickly he develops and learns.  This morning, he said "Momma, get off couch."  And I said, "Where do you want to go?"  And in the past, he would just start to whine and pull my finger to get me up and drag me where he wanted to go.  But this morning, he paused, thought a little bit and said, "Go to little table" meaning that he wanted to go play with his Lego table.  It was great!

My dad is visiting for the week.  He's going to go skiing a couple of days and paint the baby's room a couple of days.  We're having some fresh snow right now and he's out shoveling the driveway (despite the fact that the snow is going to continue to come down).  He just wanted to play out there.  As for me, I'm going to take full advantage of my office being closed for President's Day but daycare being open.

Lego Spins - 23 months

I can't stop watching this video.  My son makes me laugh every single day.

Islets of Langerhans: A+

I rocked the 3 hour glucose tolerance test.  My fasting glucose was 81 and my 1 hour, 2 hour and 3 hour blood glucose levels weren't anywhere near the upper end of the normal range.  I knew that failing that 1 hour glucose screen was a fluke!  No gestational diabetes for me!  Hooray.

27 Weeks!

It's Valentine's Day today and I'm 27 weeks pregnant.  I'm celebrating by sitting here STARVING in the laboratory of my doctor's office while finishing up my 3-hour glucose test.  Why am I taking the 3 hour glucose test?  Because I FAILED the 1 hour glucose challenge.  I took the 1 hour challenge last week and scored a 146 (with the cutoff at 139).  I was actually pretty surprised to hear that I failed since I passed with flying colors (109) when pregnant with Ian.  But I guess each pregnancy is different and it probably didn't help that I ate a huge piece of peanut butter pie when out with a bunch of mommies the night before my 1 hour glucose challenge.  Duh!

So this morning, I got to the lab at 7:30 am, peed in a cup (to make sure there was no glucose in my urine), got poked once to measure my fasting blood sugar levels, drank the nasty orange drink, and got poked 1 hour later.  And I await 2 more needle sticks before I leave here.  4 needle sticks in roughly 3 hours.  My idea of a GREAT Valentine's Day!  After this, I'm heading into work (but not before eating the banana that is taunting me from my purse right now).  I would have liked to have worked from home today, but my sweet husband is sending flowers to my office and I want to be there to unwrap them and give them water.  I guess I can't complain about my husband sending me a gift.  :-)

At 27 weeks, I'm still up 19 pounds.  I haven't really gained much weight over the last couple of weeks, which is reassuring.  I've been trying to eat healthy, but it's been hard because my normal cravings for sweets have been heightened with this pregnancy.  Hopefully, I'll pass this 3-hour glucose test so that I can go back to eating my chocolate.  Otherwise, the next 13 weeks of pregnancy will be tough!

Baby girl is moving around quite a bit these days.  I've been watching my belly move while sitting in the lab.  It's pretty funny.  My only recent complaint is the wicked bad cramps I've been getting.  I often have what feels like super bad menstrual cramps and I don't remember feeling those when pregnant with Ian.  Last night, I had some that woke me up around midnight.  Right after the cramps subside, the baby starts moving like crazy.  So I don't know if she's doing something to cause the cramps or whether she's moving in reaction to the cramps.  Either way, the cramps make me nervous.  I don't know what they mean and given my prior episodes of bleeding, I'm still living in fear of going into early labor.  But step-by-step, day-by-day.  It is very reassuring to know that my baby would most likely survive if born now (albeit with a long road in the NICU).

A weekend of firsts

Last weekend, Ian did three different things for the first time.

1.  Ian tasted peanut butter for the first time.  He seemed to enjoy it (although he didn't like, and spit out, the peanut bits).  But we didn't see any allergic reaction.  So hooray!

2.  Ian stood on the scale at the doctor's office for the first time (instead of being stripped naked and weighed lying down on the infant scale).  He weighed just over 28 pounds with his clothes on.

3.  HE GOT HIS FIRST HAIRCUT!  Ian didn't really NEED to have a haircut, but his hair was getting quite long in the back and behind his ears.  We thought about taking him to this kids' haircutting place called SnipIts, but based on the online reviews, it seemed horribly overstimulating, expensive and could have required a very long wait.  So instead, we decided to take him to the local SuperCuts and we had a great experience there.  We waited about 30 minutes and during that time, Ian seemed very interested in what was going on.  So I explained to him that everyone was getting their haircut and I think it helped that everything was calm and quiet.  When it was his turn, he ran over to the chair and gladly hopped up.  The woman who cut his hair was very good with him - she showed him all of the tools she was using (including the clippers) before she put it on his head.  And he was a great little trooper!  No fuss, no crying.  And with a $5 off coupon, the entire cut plus tip cost us only $10.  We will definitely be going back there in the future and we will make an appointment next time with the same stylist (which I didn't realize you could do there).  Here are some pictures:

Before the haircut:

During the haircut, the stylist asked Ian to look down at his toes so that she could cut the back of his hair.  Instead, he lifted his foot up!  It was pretty funny.

Ian spent a lot of time looking in the mirror with wonder.

And here was the final result!  I think the stylist did a great job, especially given the squirmy toddler.