Thanksgiving Video

Jeremy took our new (free!) video camera along on our trip, and here are some of the best highlights. As you can see Tessa did not like riding on Grampie's lawn tractor, much to our surprise.

Home and Ready to Nest

If you're wondering where we have been we just got home from our week long Thanksgiving trip to Colorado. We were there visiting Jeremy's parents, enjoying some good food and sharing Tessa's cuteness with everyone. We had a great time and are all tired tonight but glad to be home. Since the doc cuts off my air travel at 32 weeks I am done until who knows when, all ready for Christmas and nesting in the winter to come!

Once I collect all of our pics from CO, I'll put together a little slide show but for now here are the highlights...Tessa prefers broccoli, fruit salad and dinner rolls to anything else on the turkey day menu. Not only did she remember Grammie and Grampie's dog Annie, she woke up most mornings standing in her crib calling for her. Playing with dirt and rocks is even more fun in CO, especially the exploding cattails. And all grandparents can turn into blubbering fools when there's a baby bathing in their kitchen sink, which is awesome.

And I realize there's a story from our trip that many of you are interested to hear although I find it a little too embarrassing to share. Let's just say pregnant women can get easily dehydrated in the mountains, and yes an impacted bowel can feel very similar to contractions, and no one shouldn't be ashamed for visiting the Boulder hospital because of it. The end.

Yesterday we hit 'black Friday' but no we're not crazy...we did it online! Old Navy had 50% off alot of clothes and free shipping so we bought Tessa several pairs of new jeans and jammies as well as some stuff for us. We also found a website that had a good deal and free shipping on the double stroller we wanted...score!

We've put some research into what double stroller would be best for our needs (easy to travel with, durable for stroller aerobics, etc) and landed on the Maclaren twin techno. The seats can recline all the way so the new babe can lay down while Tessa sits up. This is the only 'gear' we've had to buy, although I'm also salivating over an Ergo carrier. But compared to all the junk we had to buy last time...this baby has so far been alot easier and cheaper!

Helping Mommy

Since Mommy is all big and fat with a new baby inside I try to help out all the time. This is how I help Mommy with laundry.

First I steal the hamper from the laundry room and fill it will all of my play food from my kitchen.

Then I climb into the hamper and pull it all out again and disperse it all over the floor. Then later Mommy makes me help her pick things up that she can't reach. I'm good at reaching things on the floor, that's why I try to put as much stuff on the floor as possible
Later I help Mommy stuff my clean diapers. If I'm not sure where to put the insert I just put it on my head. The same rule applies for playing with Mommy's clean undies and socks. If in doubt, put it on your head.

It's fun to be a good helper! ~ Tessa

Place Your Bets

Per Becky's request for a 'vegas style' baby pool like last time....it's time to place your bets on the sex, size and arrival date of Peanut! I wish they had a spot where you could guess what it's name will be also, that would be fun. I'll give you a hint...it's not Ben or Penny.

http://www.expectnet.com/games/PeanutBennington

So people are always asking me questions in order to guess the sex. I've tried to include the answers to the most common questions I get, but let me know if there's anything important I've left out that is important to your decision making.
cravings:
spicy bloody mary mix, mexican food, cheese and icy cold beverages
baby's heartrate:
at last appt was in the 140's
my skin:
is clear and not broken out (but could perhaps be do to my new skincare regime?)
sickness:
definitely more nausea this time and super strong gag reflex which has caused me to choke on my pills and throwup three times!
food aversions:
in the beginning, not now, to anything that was super strong like garlic and onions (it's a wonder Jer didn't kick me out)
shape:
I would call it wide across and high right now, and actually sorta pointy from a side view. I would provide a pic but don't have a recent enough one nor anyone to take one at the moment. I'll try to post one soon.

disclaimer: I won't mention any names but to those who figured out they could cheat the system and win the pool by entering in all the correct data after the birth and before I had a chance to close the game (cause I was busy)....that's just not nice :-)

That Time of Year

One of my favorite new Christmas traditions...I hope Office Max keeps this up every year! Yup we've elfed ourselves again!

http://getyourvideo.jibjab.com/a1v/sv3/4o9/238/a30/p3r/na1/3xo.mpg

Abstract Toddler Art

She gets the idea of Mr. Potato Head, just prefers to define her own rules on the body parts.



Bonus~ I got this potato head, hardly used, at a garage sale for $1!

Jeremy's Version...

...of Tessa's nightly prayer changes every time cause he can never remember the words. Last night's sounded something like...

Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
Twinkle twinkle little star
I love Jesus
Amen

Hey whatever works, right?

28 wk Checkup

This morning Tessa got to play at our friend Marcie's house while I went to my 28 wk OB appointment. I chose not to take her with me because I knew it would be a long appointment.

Today was the fun appointment when you get to drink the nasty sugar water and do a glucose tolerance test. I've done these before when I was tested for hypoglycemia and of course when I was pregnant with Tessa, but it's still not fun. The sugar gives me a major buzz and makes me kinda sick.

They are checking of course for gestational diabetes, which I'm not worried about given my history with low (instead of high) blood sugar. I had to wait an hour for the blood test which was nice cause to just chill with my Twilight book (actually I'm on the 4th one!)

The rest of the appointment was simple:
-- good baby heartrate in the 140's
-- good Mommy bp of 108/70
-- and Mommy is STILL gaining weight even though I've tried to be alot healthier this month. I've gained 30 lbs so far so I'm really really hoping to only gain about 10 more. Ugh. Right now I'm at the weight was at the end of my pregnancy with Tessa, with 12 wks left to go. Poop on that. I have weight watcher plans again for my future.

And now I start doing appointments every two weeks, rotating through all six doctors in the practice. Hard to believe we are to that point already!

Tessa's Purty Hat

Look what we bought from my friend Abbie who does custom made hairbows and girly accesories, Tessa's beautiful new hat for winter! Check out Abbie's store: www.missyprissybowboutique.com

She kept saying 'hat hat' and taking it off and on

Thinking Christmas

Well it's time to start shopping or thinking about it I guess. I swear November is flying by, probably because I lost a couple days in a drug induced state. I'm getting ready to order Tessa's present from Step 2 (which sells American made toys, did you know?).

We're hoping to start a tradition of getting her (and Peanut) one major present from Mommy and Daddy and a stocking filled by Santa. I also like how Andy and Becky give their boys new pjs to open on Christmas Eve and wear to bed.

This will be Tessa's present for this year, a two sided art easel that she can draw chalk on and do magnets. The magnet side also comes with dry erase markers but I'm thinking we will wait until she's a little older to whip those out. But you can also clip paper on it for crayon drawing. Cool eh?...and hopefully a long lasting unisex present for our house.

I've been wondering about how she will react to the tree this year, and my friend Traci gave me a great idea. We have a small table top size tree that can be Tessa's, decorated with soft ornaments . She can take them off and on and do whatever she wants, it's all hers. The big tree however is a no no and she won't be allowed to mess with the lights and ornaments without getting in trouble. We'll see how that goes.... a novel idea anyway!

In case anyone needs specs on Tessa's sizes for Christmas, she is wearing 18 months and probably will through the winter, 24 months for spring. (I dressed her in 24 month outfit yesterday and it practically fell off). She likes books or anything with animals, Elmo and things that fit together like puzzles.

Animal Sounds

Well it's not a perfect performance but still pretty cute. This was our fourth attempt at a video so she was getting tired of me asking her for animal noises. In the first videos she pooped her pants and threw a fit over dropping her spoon. You can sorta hear her snore when I ask her to 'pretend to snooze'...sometimes she will lay her head on her tray and snore, so cute!


And look what we got at Target for only $5...a leftover Halloween costume to play dress up with! It's a 3T and really big on her so should last a while. I also scored her a Christmas dress for $12.99 and a matching sweater.

We love Target. I'd say about 50% of her wardrobe is from Old Navy (bi-annual baby sales!), 40% from Target and 10% from assorted other sources/gifts. Without Target, I'd be naked half the time too.

Tessa's Big Girl Room

As you can see we haven't moved any of her toys or belongings into her new room yet, but it is complete! (minus a couple of babyproofing fixes)

Since we are traveling around Thanksgiving I think our plan will be to wait until after we get home and on a regular schedule to start doing naptime in there. Hopefully naptime will go well and we can move on to bedtime in December and January. The thought of leaving her alone in a room that she could possibly roam around in is still kinda strange to me, but being that she is such a good sleeper I'm hoping she will do well.

Any one have an great tips on transitioning to the bed?

By the way check out the awesome dresser and bed that Erin gave us free of charge because she is AWESOME....they look so perfect with the decor


Recovery from the tooth surgery is going well. I am off the 'hard stuff' and only have a little achy pain. Tomorrow I go to get the stitches out of my gums. The tylenol 3 messed up my stomach more than anything but I only tossed my cookies once. Thank goodness for cereal bars, mashed potatoes and those little squishably soft McD's hamburgers that practically slide down with no chewing.

Jeremy and Tessa had a fun Halloween. She visited our neighbors on the cul-de-sac and tried to hand out candy but mostly liked sorting it from one bucket to another. It was all fun until she figured out you could eat it, then we were in trouble. He has pics and video on his fancy new camera he promised to share with me later.