Jamming to the Kids Music

I used to swear that I would never let Tessa listen to cheesy kid's music, but that's only because I didn't know kid's music could be this good!

I freaking love this video. We watch probably once a day on noggin.com and Tessa dances, and says 'dack dack' (her version of quack).


And this is my other fave. These guys, Nothing but Stringz, are awesome and I think it's so cool they play music on kids shows.

Big Ouchies

My tooth hurts. Really hurts alot. It feels like my crown or maybe the tooth next to it, but all I know is I can't chew anything, not even soft things, on that side of my mouth. It started very suddenly too about two days ago.

My dentist is closed both today and Monday so I'm hoping I can wait until Tuesday but I know I shouldn't delay if it's an infection. Here's hoping I don't have to call the emergency number over the weekend. Last time I ignored major tooth pain I ended up in an emergency root canal.

So my question is to anyone who's had dental work while pregnant. I know I can do xrays now that I'm in the second trimester, but can they dope my up to do the dental work? I certainly hope so! I would love some good pain meds, but I don't know if I can get any at all. I may be all about natural childbirth but I am NOT all about natural dental work.

Update: I called the pager number and my dentist called in a safe antibiotic for me and said take lots of ibuprofen. Glad I called...at least this way I'm sure to not get a tooth infection. She said I couldn't have any of their normally perscribed pain meds but ibuprofen should help.

Edited again to Add: Yes I did figure out I'm only supposed to take small amounts of ibuprofen and not 'lots' as it can cause preterm labor in high doses. Good thing I figured that out before I doped up!

Trying to be All Artsy

My new attempt at being crafty....gluing buttons and beads and things to hair clips. You can see the big one broke already. I think that's cause I need to try stringing the small beads instead of gluing them directly to the barrette. (it was beautiful until I tried to open and close the barrette...oops)

Yes I did superglue my fingers together, so I need to work on that as well.

Gag Me With a Pill

It's a good thing I only have to take two pills a day, cause I have to say a little prayer everyday that I can swallow those without gagging myself and throwing up. Same thing goes for brushing my teeth.

I hurt my neck the other day and would love to take some tylenol for the pain, but can't seem to muster up the strength to swallow extra medicine. Oh well.

Happy Birthday Mamaw, Daddy and Mark

It's birthday week at our house. My mom, Jeremy and our nephew Mark all had birthdays this week.

Jeremy requested only an oatmeal cake for his birthday so that's what we had, along with dinner with Erin and Rafe on Saturday. After dinner we played about 3 hrs of Monopoly and Jeremy obliterated us...or maybe we let him win for his birthday. I've never played Monopoly the way Jeremy's family does and I gotta say it's alot more fun. They allow all kinds of shrewd deals and negotiating. I knew we were in trouble when Jeremy whipped out the calculator.

Of course the most important celebration of the week was Mark's 5th birthday...so hard to believe. His party was yesterday along with David's dedication. Tessa has been sick with either a summer cold or teething related snotfest..not sure which. Because of that we decided to skip the church part and went straight to the party afterward.

She was happy for a quite a while playing in the sweltering heat in Becky's parent's barn. But once she hit the end of her rope she turned into a drama mama. I think she freaked out poor dad-to-be Brian when we sorta screamed in his face.

She's feeling alot better today. Her bottom canine teeth have cut through so I think that may be what it was.

There's lots of tractors at the Ward house, even one Tessa's size. Just look out when Bob's driving

Tessa really liked basketball. We may have to get one of these next summer

Check out Mark's John Deere cake!

The boys have a cool new fort that everyone loved playing on.

Since we are over-run with tomatoes, Jeremy has decided to make Ragu today, but the smell is absolutely killing me. It basically smells like beef stew for about 8 hrs. I haven't been able to eat very much today for fear of barfing. I'm really surprised that these smell and food aversions aren't better by now, which leads Jeremy to believe it's a boy.

Starting My Own Collection

I'm kinda jealous of Tessa's awesome collection of hair accesories so have decided to start a grown up colleciton of my own. I discovered this cool website http://www.etsy.com/ and it's a good thing I haven't found it before now...lots of handmade jewelry and accesories on the cheap.

I got a few cool bobby pins like this:
So tell Santa, that's what I'm into at the moment

In other random news Tessa slept until 8:30 this morning and only woke up because I pried her out of bed so we wouldn't be late for our walk with Traci. She's not sick, just really tired from our trip and busy week, so I'm declaring today lazy day. Here's hoping she sleeps that late tomorrow morning...that would be awesome!!

16 wk check up

All is well in Peanut-land. I had my 16 week appointment this morning. It was one of those weigh, blood pressure, pee and leave sort of appointments. I also got to hear the heartbeat again.

All is going well. My blood pressure was only 109/62 and since it was so early in the morning I asked if that meant I was technically still asleep. They have my weight gain at only 6lbs which is alot less than my home scale says, so I'm going to go with their professional opinion on that :)

I scheduled the BIG ultrasound for a month from now. Isn't it hard to believe it's that time already? It will be exciting but we are still planning to not find out the gender so not quite as pins and needles as last time.

Summertime in NYC

Narrated by Tessa herself

This past weekend we went to New York City, where my Aunt Jessie lives. Daddy was there working so Mommy and I got on a plane to meet them. I was good for Mommy on the plane except when I screamed a little. She says taking her into the potty with me was the hardest part.

When we were there I got to play alot in Aunt Jessie's apartment, ride the subway and taxis, eat good food, see horsies with carriages and lots of doggies, meet some cousins, see some cool places and point at all the pigeons. It was pretty cool.

Aunt Jessie had a tubby! Once I got overexcited and fell in while Mommy was trying to potty, but I was okay. Aunt Jessie even had bubbles for me.

We were going to see this famous statue but the boats were all full. We saw it from a distance.

There were these weird birds called pigeons walking around everywhere. I saw some of them in this park and almost touched one before Mommy jerked me away.

Mommy's belly is getting fat, but you can't really see it here.

These are my cousins who came from New Jersey to see us and play in Central park. I did see them front side too. We spent all day in the park and then had pizza.

I was pretty tired, good thing Daddy was around for naptime.

Aunt Jessie and Daddy decided Mommy should try peking duck for the first time, it was my first time too! Later we had ice cream. Mommy tried to get me to eat pineapple flavor with her, but Aunt Jessie's chocolate was much yummier.

I can't wait to go back!

Ugh

I finally weighed myself this morning and I've gained 12 lbs so far during this pregnancy. Add that to the 7 lbs I gained when I weaned Tessa and I don't even want to think about it.

Bleck. No more McNugget splurges for a while.

Poo in the Potty

Yes this actually happened.

Only because it was a perfect situation her being nakey, standing right next to her potty chair and I was paying attention. I saw what was happening and threw her on the chair. Yay!!

How did Tessa react to her accomplishment? She pointed at it and cried. I read that some kids do this cause they think part of their body has just fallen off or something and they are distressed. So I did lots of cheering and hugging, maybe that will help.

I'm not saying we are officially potty training yet, just experimenting.

Zoo Day

Last Thursday we went to the zoo with Mom, Becky and the boys. I wasn't sure what Tessa would think of the zoo this summer (last summer she was just a little peanut when we went), but she was really into it. She kept pointing at the animals and said 'doggy' alot. She really liked the monkey and the aquarium.

I think Tessa would have been happy to stay in the aquarium all day

kissing cousins at the zoo

Tessa has become a carousel riding expert this summer

We are very excited to be going to NYC this next weekend to see Tessa's Aunt Jessie. Mostly I'm just excited to travel somewhere, it's been a while. Last time Tessa flew she was only 11 months so I better be alot more prepared with toys, books and snacks to keep her still. Wish me luck as I will be flying there alone with her since Jeremy's coming from Canada. Luckily it's a short flight!

Phase 2

As of this week we are now in the second trimester! Wow that snuck up sorta quick. I definitely feel like this pregnancy is going faster, although not knowing the sex will probably make it drag on as time goes by.

I'm feeling great except for a minor incident the other day where I tossed my cookies. Never with either pregnancy have I actually vomited. I gagged on a pill and ended up throwing up my breakfast, how lame is that? I'm calling it a fluke.

We are getting ready to order Tessa new carseat soon as she's outgrown her old one. It amazes me that we are looking at carseats that convert into booster seats, and also that we are shopping for a double stroller at the same time. Wow times are always changing.

since when?!

My local store had a sale on A&W products so I loaded up on some diet cream soda and diet root beer for a nice treat.

I've been chugging these cream sodas, probably two cans a day, for the past week. They are so refreshing and delicious on a hot summer day!

Tonight I sit down with my dinner and frosty cream soda and notice it says 'contains caffeine'. What?! It does? I thought it was caffeine free just like root beer!! Since when does cream soda have caffeine?

So I've been drinking these on top of my daily allowance of pregnancy caffeine, meaning I've been drinking about double what my doctor allows. Great.

More Dancing!

Now we're talking. This is the kind of dancing I've been trying to capture on film. She just happened to be nakey, hope that's not offensive. Don't worry there's nothing showing but a little baby toosh.

You will probably recognize that this is the Sesame Street theme song

Tessa's Favorite "Show"

Tessa loves this local plumbing commercial. She will drop everything to come run in the living room and dance to it. She was dancing more than this but of course I couldn't capture it on film...

Vicious Cycle

This is the vicious cycle we are in:

~ Tessa has a diaper rash so we use our remedies to get rid of it (baking soda baths, nakey time, butt paste and antifungal)
~ Diaper rash clears up and everyone is happy, yay!
~ Tessa eats fruit, any fruit, even the 'mild' fruits like pears or apples
~ Tessa has a big poopy diaper
~ The rash is immediately back as soon as she poops
~ We start over

Argh! She's such a healthy eater I hate to deter her from eating fruit all together. It seems the only safe thing in banana. Today's outbreak was brought on by blueberries. Plus she LOVES fruit and screams for it. She pretty much doesn't ever get juice nowadays, just water and whole milk.

I've switched up our diaper washing routine and I'm SURE they couldn't possibly get any cleaner. They are so clean I would eat off of one. So I know it's not the diapers and since it happens so immediately after her pooping, I'm pretty sure it's related to her diet.

Frustrating!! Help?

Art

Tessa has finally decided that crayons and watercolors aren't so bad after all. She especially likes the painting (probably because it's messier)

Look she's a genius, she even traced her hand :)

Why Tessa prefers doing tubby time with Daddy.....