22 weeks

Baby girl and I are doing great.  I had an appointment on Thursday (the 15th) and her heartbeat was at 124.  She has been super active!  Most times when I'm laying down she'll start punching and kicking all over.  It's so much fun.  I think that's my favorite part of pregnancy (although hopefully she won't stretch out for minutes at a time like her brother did!)  I've recently started to break out again. =(  But for now at least it's not as bad as it was when I was pregnant with Emmett!

I have to take the glucose test in 2 weeks.  I'm really dreading it.  I don't want to have to deal with gestational diabetes again, but I'm kind of preparing myself for the worst.  At least it won't be until after Thanksgiving, so I can indulge in ignorance!  ;)  Really though, I am trying to be careful with what kinds of food I'm eating (although why is it that when I'm pregnant I always crave chocolate a TON more than when I'm not?!?) so I can keep my weight gain under control.  I've gained 7 or 8 pounds so far, and my doctor is okay with that.

I've been having quite a bit of round ligament pain this time around (at least, that's what I think it is).  It's annoying, but at least it's not debilitating.

It's amazing how much you take modern medicine for granted until you can't take things like cold medicine anymore...hopefully this sickness clears up before we head down to Utah for Thanksgiving.

I get to have another ultrasound in 6 weeks, and I'm looking forward to it. =)

This picture was taken about 2 weeks ago, when I was 20 weeks along.

17 months

Wow, I can't believe Emmett's already almost a year and a half old!  How did that happen?  He is in such a fun stage; he's really wanting to interact with us and he has such a sweet personality.  I feel like he is learning something new every day; it's amazing how much he understands, even if he doesn't talk very much.

• He loves cuddling before bed.  He loves it so much, that he pretty much WILL NOT go to sleep unless we rock for at least a few minutes before putting him in his crib.  Not that we mind or anything...we'll take all the snuggles we can get!
• He has started to reach his arms around our necks to pull us close and hug us.  It absolutely melts our hearts.
• He knows some body parts and can point to them on command.  (hair, eyes, nose, mouth, ear, toes, belly button)
• He LOVES to watch Sesame Street.  He will usually sit there enthralled for the first 10 minutes or so and then will run off and play, come back and watch, etc.  And he knows when it's over.  He'll point at the TV and make a whining grunt (mmm, mmmm!) whenever he wants to watch it.  (Which is often.)  We're trying to limit how much time he spends in front of the TV though.
• He loves flap books, especially his Sesame Street one.  Now if only he didn't keep ripping the flaps off!
• He will point to pictures in books when we ask where _____ is.  He'll also point to pictures wanting to know what they are when we ask what he sees.
• He will point to my tummy when we ask where the baby is.
• He understands "hot".  I was pulling something out of the oven one night and he touched the door for a split second.  Luckily he didn't get burned too bad (I think it scared him more than anything), and he keeps his distance when we tell him something is hot.
• He enjoys helping pick out his clothes (I'll usually offer him the choice between two shirts and put whichever one he points at on him)
• He understands that going to the car means we're going outside and will run to the door.  He loves to go to the store.
• He usually wants to play with the dome light in the car before letting us buckle him in his car seat.  I'm thinking we might have to turn him forward facing soon so he can't reach it anymore...
• He figured out how to move the chairs so he can climb them to get to the table.
• He wants to sit at the table to eat really badly, but I'm not sure I want to move him out of his high chair yet, even though he has figured out how to get the tray off.
• He loves dipping his food (crackers/bread into applesauce/yogurt, chips into dip, etc)
• He will occasionally take his food (usually a cracker or something) and put it on the floor and then lay down and eat it up.  Maybe he's been watching the dog too much?
• He loves to carry things (especially his Monkey blanket) in his mouth.  Maybe that's from the dog too?

The Saturday before Halloween, my grandma had a family party.  Emmett did NOT want to wear the hat that went with his pumpkin costume.  But he sure liked the mini pumpkins my aunt brought for one of the games; he had to have one in his hand almost the entire time!  I was surprised that on Halloween he willingly let me put the hat on his head, however.  Maybe it was the fact that I told him we were going outside.... Jeremy was working swing shift, so my dad and I took Emmett trick-or-treating down the street.  I was intending to take him to the ward Trunk-Or-Treat, but I got the time wrong and didn't get there until it was over.  I was super bummed, but at least he didn't know any better and won't remember it.

 It's kind of hard to see, but he's holding a muffin in his hand that he just pulled out of the yogurt.

 Such a cute little pumpkin!

 Eating goldfish at the table

 Playing with daddy; this is one of his favorite things to do!

Random Bits

First there was the happy couple, two
They went to the temple and said, "I do"
Next came Emmett, number three
And happier we couldn't be
Now we have an announcement once more
We are happily expecting family member number four!

Baby Girl Cress, due late March, 2013

I am 20 weeks along now; things are going great.  I was SUPER tired between weeks 6-12 or so, but I'm back to having energy and feeling great.  I had an ultrasound 2 weeks ago and we got a CLEAR view that this little one will be a girl.  I'm super excited to be able to do all the fun girly stuff now.  =)  Just like with Emmett, we will probably wait to decide on an official name until after she is born.  My official due date is March 22nd, but we'll see when this little miss decides to make her entrance. 

This little one has been super wiggly the past few days; I think she moves more than Emmett did at this stage.  I'm definitely looking forward to meeting her.

In other news, we picked up a crib for cheap on Craigslist that I refinished (we found a stain that was really close to the original color, so I just stained over the finish and then put a couple coats of polyurethane on it.)

 Here's the beginning picture: notice the super scratched arms and top rail?

The finished product!  Even though it's not perfect, I'm proud of how it turned out.

Just this morning I found that Emmett has been chewing on the arms and top rail.  Needless to say, I was pretty irritated since I'd spent 4 long days to get it looking nice again.  Tomorrow I will be getting supplies to prevent any more damage happening to them.  *sigh*  Silly little man.  But I guess I can't really blame him all that much; when he's standing up, they ARE right at mouth height.

Well, that's about it for us right now; I'll do the usual Emmett-centered post next week and talk about Halloween and such.  Hope you all are doing well!