Denver and Kif's Cameo

Last weekend, over MEA, Dan and I took our first (and much needed) trip by ourselves since Anja was born. We spent 2 nights in Denver and stayed at my aunt and uncle's condo in the heart of downtown. We had a fantastic and relaxing time, but were also very excited to return home to see our little lady! Anja spent the weekend with Grandma and Grandpa and thoroughly enjoyed herself and wore herself out. All in all, every one had a great few days, but it was obvious we all missed each other, too. By the way, we are now accepting bids for a full weekend of babysitting for next MEA. Don't wait - the offer will be snatched up soon!

In other news, today was our Level II ultrasound. Everything went incredibly well. I think even the doctor there was amazed. She wasn't our normal doctor since we were referred to the hospital for this ultrasound due to my insulin dependency. Even according to her, Kif and I were both in much better condition than she could've hoped for! That being said, I am looking at having a bunch more tests coming up until Kif is born. The extra ultrasounds and non-stress tests I already knew about. I will also need to have a fetal echocardiogram done (precaution only, probably only once) and biophysical profiles (basically really quick ultrasounds that measure things like amniotic fluid) 2-3 times a week starting a bit later.

In the mean time, we can relax knowing that Kif is a healthy (and obviously cute!) little boy or girl. The tech did confirm that it is one of those two, so that's nice. : ) Kif is measuring right on to the date and has 10 fingers and 10 toes and the same nose that Anja has, apparently.

So, here are a few pics of Kif from today and a short video of the 3D/4D portion of the ultrasound! Way too cool!

Kif's Birthday Update

I had another routine pre-natal appointment today (18 weeks) and found out a few things that I wasn't expecting. First, let me say that things are still looking very good for Kif and that I have felt him/her moving for a few weeks now. (I think Kif's a night owl.) At our first appointment, we were told that Kif would be born 1 week early since it will be a repeat c-section. Turns out, since I've already been started on insulin for the gestational diabetes, I now have what is considered a high risk pregnancy. Awesome. In other words, they're going to keep a close eye on me including regular and frequent ultrasounds, non-stress tests (NSTs), and they'll eventually start me on growth hormones (for Kif, not me, for all you smarty pants folks out there...) to make sure that Kif's lungs and everything are mature when they do the c-section. The hormones are because, if my doctor was a bettin' kind a guy (which he is), they'll be moving up Kif's birthday by a week, possibly two. So now we're looking at the beginning of March instead of mid-March.

On the plus side, if we were to make it to 39 weeks (only one week early and the day from the original plan), Kif would very likely have been born on St Patrick's Day. But I suppose that's still better than the day after...

**Update: Kif decided to make Mommy and Daddy feel better about everything by allowing Daddy to finally feel some kicks tonight! : )

Barkaly shoes

At Target a few weeks ago, Anja and I were shopping for brown shoes for her. Instead of liking anything I showed her, she zoomed in on a pair of sparkly shoes. They were black and apparently the most beautiful thing she had ever laid eyes on. But they didn't have her size, of course. Her next favorite was the same thing in red. Guess what one size they didn't have in those, either. The one sparkly pair they did have in her size she wanted absolutely nothing to do with. Apparently silver is NOT the new black.

Fast forward until today...

I was sorting through a few boxes of clothes from my sister for Anja when I discovered the Holy Grail. It was the same pair of sparkly shoes that she had been eyeing at Target. And they were black. And...they were her size. She immediately stopped playing with her kitchen set and ran over, demanding that I put on her "barkaly shoes." (Sparkly sounds an awful lot like broccoli right now, fyi.)

So she pranced around the rest of the afternoon in that outfit. Cargo pants, white athletic socks, and a green Sesame Street t-shirt. And her black barkaly shoes.

This evening we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house for Grandma's birthday party. By we, I mean Anja and I. Dan apparently caught whatever Anja had earlier this week. Before leaving, I convinced Anja that she could wear her sparkly shoes if she let me put on this dress I've been dying to get her in. She obliged. Since Dan was holed up in a bedroom full of disease, I opted to take pictures of her cute little outfit to show him later rather than parade her through the germs. I got the type of boring shot that I expected, pleased that I got the full head-to-toe look.

What I didn't expect was to get a shot like this:

Boy, are we in for some tr-uh-ble!

Projectile

Monday afternoon we got that dreaded call. Whenever we see the name Lisa show up on caller ID, we worry. Most of the time, it's a non-issue. But this time, the worry was warranted. Anja woke up from her nap in a puddle of her own puke.

Mmmmm...

Needless to say, we were asked to go pick her up right away. Dan drew that straw since I was still at work. His car didn't make it home in the same condition that it left in. Neither did he. Or Anja. The carseat was later hosed down, the car taken to a detailer, and Dan and Anja's clothing went in the first of several loads of laundry while Anja went straight into the tub. So while Dan did laundry, I washed chunks out of her hair.

Mmmmm...

Then we camped out on the living room floor on a big splash mat...er...blanket. Here she learned that an old Cool Whip container can be used for things other than a dog dish (when we dog sat Grandma and Grandpa's dog, Maggie).

(Not the actual container...I'm not strange enough to take a picture of it. Geez.)

Later we discovered that, despite her appetite for it, Finish Pancakes was not a good idea, but the bib was.

Mmmmm...

Later we also discovered that, despite the fact that she was doing much better, the tiny amount of milk that she tried was also not a good idea, but putting an extra non-fitted mattress pad on her bed, covered by a sheet was.

Mmmmm...

Dan stayed home with her most of the day yesterday, and I took over around 2 for the rest of the night. Here's a portion of the email that he sent to his co-workers late the night before, explaining why he wouldn't have something done by that afternoon:

Around 2:00 I got a phone call from my daycare provider that Anja was projectile vomiting on other children. While momentarily proud of her accuracy and vigor, it did require me to go fetch her. Unfortunately, when there were no other children around her parents, my car, her car seat, her bed, some unfortunately placed Wii-motes, and a pumpkin served as excellent stand-ins. Needless to say, the release is a bit delayed.

What I was able to conjure up yet tonight was the dependency installation instructions, which can be found here [insert link] (these will be bile free).

Luckily, she is now puke-free for over 36 hours and is back at daycare. Dan will be in Duluth presenting at a conference the rest of the week and managed to get the rest of the puke smell out of his car before picking up some friends to ride up there. At least we hope he did. I didn't check and he has no sense of smell. Now I feel bad for his friends.

Sound sleeper

Anja is now in a big girl bed. She's very proud of that fact. And we don't use railings, but she's pretty good about sleeping close to the wall. Most of the time.

The other night, Dan and I were watching TV before heading to bed. Suddenly, there was a loud thud. The monitor was on and we didn't hear anything, so we went to see if the cat had done something stupid upstairs. Turns out, the cat was sitting behind us in the living room. So we went up to check on Anja.

What we discovered was a very sound sleeper, who had landed face down, spread eagle on the floor next to her bed. She only woke up when we picked her up to put her back in her bed.

I suppose it's a good thing that she's such a heavy sleeper since she'll be right next to the nursery.

And for the record, today Anja wants a baby brother. Yesterday it was a sister. I guess either way she'll be happy.

Or mad.

Sassiness is genetic

Did you know that? It might be a double recessive, but with Dan and I for parents, I fear our off spring never stood a chance.

Need proof?

Anja likes to put Daddy in time out. She'll grab him by the leg or arm (whatever she can reach), drag him to a spot along the wall, make him sit and tell him "No talkin', Daddy. Time out! Naughty!"

The other day, Anja and I were out having lunch with Nana. Anja was sitting next to me in the booth and kept pushing her milk towards me, obviously wanting me to hold it. Since she wasn't using "her words", I pretended that I was going to drink out of it. She gave me "the look", silently grabbed the sippy cup from me and shoved it across the table to my mom. "Nana hold Anja milk?" Obviously I am not to be trusted.

Brother or Sister?

Life has continued to fly by since I stopped writing the Focus Anja blog. We did Anja's 2 yr photos with my talented sister, Jill. I had another doctor appointment where we heard the heartbeat on the Doppler for the first time (already heard/saw it on an ultrasound twice) and learned that I have gestational diabetes again, but Kif is doing great.

Speaking of Kif, today Anja and I were outside, playing with the neighbors.

Me: "Would you like to have a baby sister, or a baby brother?"

Anja: "Hmmmm...(pause)...Nope."

Could be a rough spring.