BIG Girl Room!

Here it is! I have to say that I am pretty proud of myself for Izzie's big girl room. For those of you who don't know, this room started out an ugly yellow, ceiling and all, with the wall to the right being bright red. So, I had to do some serious priming before I could paint. Let's just say that it was a lot of work for this preggo to do all by her little lonesome- many pregnant man hours went into this room. We got her bed from an unpainted furniture store, so I decided to paint it white. I love the drawers underneath- good extra storage. The bed safely rail is not supposed to be a attractive feature of the room, but a necessary one especially since Izzie still sometimes sleeps sideways on the bed, instead of from head to toe! Joe put up the wall lamp that we got at Lowe's. I was really excited about it since it is not one that she can hang on or a free standing lamp that she could knock over and break. My parents got her the little reading chair in the corner for Christmas from Pottery Barn Kids. And the two butterflies that are above it were painted by my Aunt Lily and were in my room as a child :)

Here's another shot of the bed with her name above it. She can't take the letters down which is why it is the only thing above her bed. It looks kind of empty, but I didn't want anything that she would be able to pull down. Also, it was my Mom's idea to paint the knobs on the drawers different colors to match the rug. You can see the rug in the last picture!



And here is Izzie modeling her reading chair under her tree. She loved the palm tree in her other room (which is now Baby Boy's nursery), so I wanted to give her another special tree. I got this one off of Etsy (gotta love it!) from a company called Decor Designs. I got to pick the colors, and it was super easy to put up- just a little time consuming with all the leaves. But I think it turned out pretty cute and it is definitely Izzie's favorite thing about the room.

Some of you may recognize the table and chairs too. Again, something that my Mom saved from my childhood and I am so thankful to her for doing that. She got the set a good twenty something years ago at Artisan's Alley. I just had to sand and repaint them and they were as good as new! The little house bookshelf we also got at the unpainted furniture store, and I painted that as well. And Isabella's room wouldn't be complete without the "Why God Made Little Girls" poem. It was a gift to me when I was born, and I remember my Mom bringing it to me when we found out that Isabella was a girl. The frame and matting are totally circa 1980, which gives it so much character!

And Izzie's closet. Nothing too special about it, but I do love that it is a walk in so it can serve as a mini toy room. Since she can't open doors yet, it is perfect because I can simply close it at nap/bed time and not worry about her getting into anything when I think she is safe sound and in her bed :)


So that's it! It is definitely her new favorite place to be. And I think she realizes that I worked very hard on it for her. She saw it every step of the way during its transformation and there was A LOT of discussion about the fact that it was all for her. (And she definitely recognized the fact that I was "coloring" the walls!)

27 Weeks

27 weeks kind of feels like no man's land. I'm starting to feel badly again (yuck) but my due date still seems so far away (double yuck!). I had an OB appointment on Monday, which included getting my Rhogam shot and taking my glucose test. Two super fun things.

The nurse pricked my finger for my glucose test and told me she would be right back with the results. I wasn't worried :) Silly me.

I failed by ONE point :( So, it is on to the three hour test for me. And I get to be there at 7:30 am! Seriously, one point? Too bad I couldn't do extra credit on the spot and save myself the three hours. HOPEFULLY, since I only failed by one point I will pass the first two hours of the next test and be done. We'll see!

One good thing that came out of the blood work though, is that since they tested it, they ran my iron count too, and turns out I was in desperate need of some iron supplements. Since my pregnancy with Izzie, I've know that I was anemic, but I've always just been borderline. Probably the past two weeks, I have felt so badly: exhausted, faint, and like I could literally pass out at times. Turns out that I am past borderline now, and my iron count was extremely low. So, I have been taking iron and am starting to feel better.

My belly is really growing now (see picture below!) which means so is Baby Boy. Just like Izzie, he is super active and can already make me yell out with his movements. This little guy can really hurt me already! But I do love knowing that he is growing big and strong. I am trying to drink a lot of water at night to help avoid getting charlie horses in my feet and legs like I got all the time with Izzie, and it does seem to be helping. I can sometimes feel them coming on, but I've learned how to position my feet to stop it! I am already starting to have a hard time breathing and can feel my ribs squashing my organs- always pleasant :) I'm already getting Braxton Hicks contractions-I got them early with Izzie, too. I had been having a hard time sleeping, not because I am at the point where I am so uncomfortable (because I am not there yet), but because I just couldn't fall asleep or stay asleep. So, I decided to buy myself one of those sleep masks because even the light on the cable box would cast shadows on the ceiling and keep me up! And let me just say that I am a Superfan of my new sleep mask. I use it every night and LOVE it! I highly recommend trying one if you haven't. I rave about it so much that Joe even tries to steal it, but I always win. Don't mess with Mama!

But like I said, although I have officially reached the no longer cute-looking, no longer fun part of pregnancy, the aches and pains are all worth knowing that Baby Boy is active and growing. And I know you are wondering, but no, he still has no name. There are several names that we both like, and Joe will commit, but for some reason, I just can commit to any of them. I really don't know why it is so hard! Maybe we can just wait for him to be born and let him choose his own name!

(Sorry it's a dark picture! I had to set timer and rig the camera up high enough so it wasn't chopping off my head! You get the general idea though.)

6th Anniversary

Joe and I celebrated 6 years of marriage yesterday! We had a great weekend together, getting things done around the house and Isabella's new room, and just spending time together. He has been working soooooooooo much the last couple of weeks (and weekends too) that it was just nice to BE together. We got to go out on a date, too! Mimi and Paw Paw watched Izzie while we went to dinner and a movie- Sherlock Holmes-I recommend it :)

So much has happened in our 6 years together, and we are so excited to see what this year will bring. We know one little guy who will make this next year special!

Big Girl Bed!

We finally made the big switch! Isabella officially has a big girl room AND a big girl bed! With a baby brother coming (who still has no name!) we wanted to give Isabella a big girl room all her own, and have her well used to sleeping in it for a couple of months before her brother's big arrival. That will be an adjustment in itself, so we didn't want to throw any other unexpected surprises on her. Some of you know that I have been working on her room for a few weeks now, so this picture is just a preview of "the big reveal" - if you will. It is almost complete; I just need to finish some artwork for the walls and hang some things up. But back to the big girl bed.

Isabella has always been a pretty good sleeper. I have been blessed by this, I know. So going into the switch I had pretty mixed emotions. Either she would do great, because she always really does. BUT, she is such a good sleeper that I hated to mess with a good thing and mess her up if she was going to respond poorly. I have hit the "back to being exhausted" phase of my pregnancy and I VERY MUCH value my sleep these days, but it pretty much seemed like now or never.

We picked up her mattress on Saturday morning, and she was very excited about it when it was all put together. She has been totally aware of the big girl room in the making, and getting the bed together was a big step in having it complete. I had wanted to start the new sleep process over the weekend, but then thought that it would help if she could see the bed for a few days while I verbally prepped her for the switch. In the end, I really do think this helped. So on Saturday and Sunday nights, instead of doing story time in the living room like we usually do, Joe read to her on her bed and then we switched to the crib for bedtime.

So Monday nap time was going to be the first attempt. I prepped her all day that she would be napping there, and I know that she understood what I was saying. So when nap time came around I took her to her new room, let her climb on the bed, turned on her music and shut the blinds, kissed her and told her night night. And this is what followed (and yes, I actually took notes!):

1:42 I put her down and she started crying before I even left the room.

1:47 She stopped crying and started rolling around on the bed.

1:54 She jumps off the bed, and walks over to the door and shouts, "Mama! Mama!" waits for a response and when she doesn't get one, she immediately climbs back onto the bed. She starts talking to her baby.

1:55 She jumps off the bed again and walks over to her table, which has her radio and accidentally turns the volume WAY up. This scares the you know what out of her and she bolts back to the bed. No crying, just laying down very still. (The radio has since been moved.)

2:00 At this point, I really hate to go in the room to turn down the music because she isn't moving and I know if I go in there, it probably won't result in something good. But the music is REALLY loud, so I debate whether or not to go in for the kill.

2: 04 Okay, it's really loud, I feel really guilty and even though she is not crying, it probably can't be good for her ears, so I go in. She doesn't hear me open the door because the music is so loud. I tiptoe over to the radio and don't look at her. As I turn the volume down, I do give her a peek because she hasn't said anything yet. She has her eyes closed, but when she noticed the volume being turned down, she opens them and sees me. She starts whining, but I just look at the door and tell her night night and leave the room. From the hall way I can hear a few more whines.

2:12 She has been quiet since I left the room, and I think she might be asleep.

2:25 Woohoo!! She is out!

3:15 She is awake.

So in the end, she slept for a little over an hour. This is not a good nap in typical standards, but for the first nap in the big girl bed, I think it's pretty darn good, and I am not gonna complain!

And on to night time! I had good expectations since her nap went so well. Joe read to her in bed and I could tell by her body language that she was starting to get anxious, because again, I had verbally prepped her.

8:45 Bed time got off to a late start so we kissed her and told her goodnight, and she was crying before we left the room. She gave me the biggest bear hug and would not let go of my neck :( I kind of had to rip her arms off of me, which was NOT a good feeling. But I knew she would be fine.

8:48 She was fine :) She stopped crying for a minute, sat up and tried to listen for us in the living room for a minute. Then came the shouts for help. She would whine and shout for help on and off.

9:01 She was finished crying and finally laid back down with her baby.

9:12 She is still awake, but quiet. She keeps repositioning her baby on either side of her.

9:30 By this time, I am sure she is fast asleep.

She slept all night :) I thought for sure that she would wake up at least once, but no. She didn't disappoint me in still being a good sleeper. When she woke up on Tuesday morning, she didn't get out of bed, but just laid there and waited for me to come in. When I finally did, she was so cute and let out a big "YEA!" I'm not sure if she was cheering because she knew she did well, or because she was just excited that things were still the same. Mommy still showed up :)

Tuesday went well too, even better. She willingly went to her new room for nap time and at bed time I only got a pouty bottom lip and a few whines while I was leaving the room. Nap time was about the same length as it was on Monday, and she slept through the night again. And again there was a big "YEA!" when I went to get her this morning.

So far today, her nap has been 2 hours and 15 minutes- it's what she is doing now :) So that is a big improvement, too. Or maybe she is just wiped out from playing at Dynamoze with Jack and Quinn :)

All in all, a super successful switch to the big girl bed. I'm glad it is finally done because I really was dreading it for a while. She seems so much more vulnerable in the big bed as compared to her crib. She just seemed so tucked away and safe in the crib, but it is just a feeling I will have to deal with as a mommy. I guess, sadly, that a big part of being a mommy is learning how to slowly let your baby grow up :(

I hate green beans

Okay, so if you watch ABC's "The Bachelor", you HAVE to read this blog: www.ihategreenbeans.com

It. Is. Hilarious.

Enough said! I wish I had heard of it many seasons ago.

2 Year Check Up

Isabella had her 2 year well check on Wednesday and it went very well! She was sooooo excited to get to stay dressed for her weigh in and get to stand up as well. She weighed in at 23 1/2 lbs, fully dressed (except her shoes) which puts her in the 15th percentile, and is 33 1/2 inches which puts her in the 25th percentile. Pretty much what I was expecting. She did get one shot in her thigh.

The appointment was good timing because she has been sick all week with a bit of a cough/congestion and a runny nose, so we were glad that we had a standing appointment. And it's a good thing because it turns out that she has a ear infection :( When the doctor told me, I wanted to scream, "NNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" but thought that might be inappropriate. Thankfully it is only in her left ear since she, by some miracle of miracles, still has the tube in her right ear. Hopefully the antibiotic will work and we can be done with this ear infection nonsense, and she won't have to be put through what she was last year. She is feeling much better already, but we will still be going in in 2 weeks to check out that ear, so keep your fingers crossed.

Here is a cute picture of Izzie and her buddy Jack that I've been wanting to post for a few days now. It's just too cute. Can you guess what movie they are watching?

Christmas 2009

Christmas Eve

Trying to get a cute shot of Izzie in front of the tree:

We stopped by Aunt Bev's before heading to Mimi and Paw Paw's:

I love this picture of my Mom and Izzie :)

Izzie and Mia were wearing the same dress, but with the colors switched! Jackie and I did not plan this!

The guys

My "generation" picture- 4 generations of sassy Italians :)

And I had to include this one because the three of us made Joe take so many, to ensure a good one, and Izzie was SO done by the last one!

On to Mimi and Paw Paw's house! She fell in love with the Madagascar toys that they got her. I think she lined them up 50 times that night :)

I love this one too!

Mimi made this bedding for Izzie's baby doll! I kept telling her how special it was- one day she'll get that.

A friendly game of Battleship.

Oh wait, Mimi forgot one! And yes, she slept with it that night.

Christmas Day

And here is what Santa brought. Notice Lulu in the baby doll pack 'n play.

Her very own Buzz Lightyear.

Checking out the doll house. She LOVES it!

And on to Grammy and Papi's house. It was sooooo chaotic with so many kids and soooo many presents that sadly, I did not do as well with pictures here :(

Izzie can't get enough of her "Inan"!

Grandma Gonzalez with Mia

Dueling babies

All the other pictures from my parents house are basically of kids opening gifts. Hopefully next year we can manage to get a picture of all of the kids together- oh and a family shot! I was so mad at myself for not doing that :( But like I said, MASS CHAOS!