As of late...

Wow, the last several weeks have been crazy. We have an official potty trained two year old in our house and if I am being perfectly honest, I never thought diapers were all that bad. It's probably because I am seven months pregnant and tired of all the up and down potty trips (she has penchant for taking what would be one big potty trip and dividing it into seven) but I am proud and she is proud and her daddy is most certainly proud.

Our life seems to be most easily described in pictures, so here's what you have been up to, pumpkin:

The week we started potty training you woke up every night at least 2 or 3 times to tell us you had to go potty. One such morning at 3 am you realized you were hungry and had to go to the bathroom so we had a bagel and banana snack. It kind of worked out because I am always starving in the middle of the night. 

After several stressful weeks at the store (which, unfortunately, is not getting any less stressful) I took a Friday off that I was supposed to work and hung out with you and Nana all day. We had so much fun running around town shopping and buying you girls matching dresses for church (sqqquuuueeeeallllll)! That morning before we left we had a blast trying on several of your new outfits we bought  for spring. I believe my exact words after this picture were, "I need girls in my life. This is too much fun."

A few of my favorite things you are saying these days:

"Oh sweetie, I'm sorry. You okay, honey?" as you rub my back.
"Well hello there!"
"Mama, thank you so, so, so, so much. You're welcome, honey!"
When you wake up in the morning and your eyes have been tearing up from allergies you say, "Oh mama, my eyes are just terrible. I need a tissue."

You had so much fun riding in the fire truck when we went shopping at the mall. You kept saying, "I'm so high! This is just awesome!"

We bought you a Disney princess bed and matching toy chest to put in the guest bedroom. The plan is to move the baby into your nursery and move you to the guest bedroom for a short time until you girls can share a room. Then I think we may go nuts with a princess themed room complete with full wall mural. I can hardly stand it I'm so excited!

This is your favorite chair that you sit in while you watch Toy Story. You usually sit with one fist under your chin and your legs crossed just like this.
Mimi bought you Toy Story and we have watched it at least once a day for three weeks. You love to say, "To infinity and beyond! There's a snake in my boots! Way to go, Idaho! and Buzz Lightyear to the rescue!" You also asked me for a Buzz Lightyear backpack. You sit for the entire 79 minutes of the movie and watch every second of it. It cracks me up.

You still have the cheesiest smile ever when I ask you to smile but I love it.

We spend nearly every day laughing so hard and saying, "She is so cute!" at least five times a day. You have the funniest personality and love to make us laugh. We are so blessed to have you, sweet pumpkin!

Potty Boot Camp

 Last weekend we decided to embark on our greatest adventure since becoming parents: potty training. My friend Jennifer told me about the 3 day potty training boot camp and it sounded right up our alley. The basic gist is to quarantine yourself and child for 3 days and focus solely on the potty. We have done some potty training when we thought Grace was ready several months ago but looking back, the trouble was with being consistent.

To say that Saturday was stressful would be a grave understatement. Grace refused to use the potty and would scream and cry anytime we asked her if she needed to use it. She was excited about "big girl panties" and her reward of m&m's but not much else. She spent the day running into the bathroom and acting like she needed to go, then standing up promptly, declaring, "I'm done!" and asking for a "bean" (m&m). She also had at least seven accidents- it was so frustrating to watch her look right at us and then go on the floor. I believe I had two meltdowns and was ready to take her to PetsMart to see if they could handle her.

Sunday started out very stressful with her refusing to go to the bathroom. After hearing her yell, "my belly hurts," and watching her cross her legs for two hours, we decided we were going to tweak the system and make her sit until she went. (This is a big no-no according to the system, but I believe Dan's exact words were, "That book is fairies and unicorns and unless someone else is going to come in here and clean up all her accidents, we are going to sit here until she goes." That sentence pretty much sums up why I love my husband).
She screamed for 10 minutes and we basically held her down until she finally went. We repeated the process once more and from then on out, the child has been a potty-going machine. Something clicked that morning and she has only had one accident in six days. She is excited about picking out her panties every morning and has finally stopped asking for rewards. We have had a lot of success with number two since Monday night and she even used the bathroom at United one morning during a shopping trip.

We are still using pull-ups at night (another no-no according to the book) but she has been waking up dry so I think we may start trying to go all night soon. She has been waking up at least twice a night to go potty which has been hard on us, but I am grateful we can finally say we have a child that is potty trained.

If you want me to forward you the e-book, leave your email on the comment and I will send it to you. I may rename it "fairies and unicorns potty training manual" but I digress...

Mexico Trip

Ready for some serious catching up?
We took an awesome family vacation in OCTOBER to Cancun. (I told you it was serious catch up!) We spent the week at an all inclusive resort and because we were there two weeks after hurricane season (it only rained one morning we were there) the resort was at 15% capacity and we had the entire place to ourselves! To say it was amazing and relaxing would be an understatement. Grace had such a blast playing in the sand, catching "gworms" with Papa, chasing the seagulls, entertaining the staff, swimming, and eating ice cream.
I will let the pictures and captions tell the rest of the story!

I found out three weeks before the trip that I was pregnant. All the food was a bit lost on me. I alternated between nausea and cramping most of the week but enjoyed it as much as any seven week pregnant woman would!

She loved making sand castles with Papa

She was not particularly fond of the ocean but as long as someone was holding her she was okay. She would shout, "big wabes!" over and over.

We seriously had the pool entirely to ourselves until the last day. It was almost eerie how empty it was!

The pool had these designs in the tiles that Grace would call "wheels." She asked all day long if she could go "pway wif da wheels!"

We ate at several different restaurants, all five star quality. We had to make very early dinner reservations to make sure the princess was in a happy mood and not too close to bedtime. The staff treated her like a princess and their first question was always what they could do to make her more comfortable and happy. It was amazing.

We may or may not have put our child's crib in the bathroom every night. It was so bright in our room and we didn't particularly want to go to bed by 9 each night so she spent the weeknights close to the bathtub!

This was our view from the room

One morning we forgot to change her into a swim diaper before she got in the pool and this was the end result.

One of those moments after one of those weeks

What a week this has been. Sickness has infiltrated the Sinclair household and I am the last one still standing (knocking on wood as I type). Here is a quick recap:
1. Dan had an upper respiratory infection at the end of last week and came down with the stomach bug on Monday.
2. Grace decided croup would be a fun way to start the wee hours of Tuesday morning.
3. Dan stayed incredibly sick on Tuesday but somehow managed to watch Grace enough while I went to work for a few hours.
4. Wednesday morning I walked into Grace's room only to smell the dreaded sour smell of an upset stomach that has made it's way out.
5. Grace had thrown up all over herself and her crib which would not have been so terrible except that the pipes had frozen and we only had scalding hot water in our bathtub. I believe Dan manually filled the washing machine with 50 gallons of water that day to clean Grace's crib bedding.
6. She seemed to be fine yesterday, despite her ongoing cough, until the poor thing threw up again last night.

While all this would be terrible enough on a normal week, when you stack it up the week of Valentine's Day on a lingerie store owner (who does a month's worth of business in about five days) you can see where my lack of sleep and stress has made the week seem a bit overwhelming. Not to mention, I had to have the Dr. call in a prescription for antibiotics because I woke up this morning with the beginning of a very sore throat. Again, normally all this is manageable but on top of the crazy weekend ahead at the store, I leave for Vegas on Monday morning for market. Deeeeeeep breaths.

Well tonight God smiled on us and laughter flooded our home during a week when there has been little to laugh about.
Tonight we were putting Grace to bed and started saying our prayers with her. We asked her if she wanted to say them and she said, "Thank you for Elmo, thank you for puppy, thank you for daddy, and mommy, and Grace." At this point, Dan and I started tearing up because she usually just bows her little head, mumbles something inaudibly, and then gives an emphatic "Amen!" It was just so sweet to hear her actually  be thankful for something, albeit stuffed animals. The best part came next when she said, "You guys say prayers." (She has started calling Dan and I "you guys." "Good night, you guys. Love you guys. C'mere you guys.") We bowed our heads only to hear Grace pass gas like a grown man after a late night barbecue run at a truck stop. So then we started laughing so hard we couldn't breathe and were still crying from her sweetness only moments before. Dan somehow made it through a very sweet prayer with tears streaming and a huge grin. It was one of those amazing moments as a family where you think God couldn't possibly bless you anymore than He already has.
As I'm typing this Dan just said, "I really needed that after this week." I could not agree more. Here is to a better tomorrow. But even if it's not any better, there is no one I want to go through it with more than my amazing little family. God is so good.

Baby Girl Dos

I know this is old news, but I realized I never made an official post about the fact that we are expecting a second baby girl at the end of May. So here is your quick catch up on what's been going on:
On Friday, September 17th I was standing in front of the refrigerator and felt an incredibly intense wave of nausea. I thought I was coming down with a stomach bug and wouldn't let myself believe that we could possibly be expecting. The next morning I took a test and saw two definite pink lines. My knees hit the floor and I alternated between crying and thanking the Lord, trying not to wake up Dan. I was so overwhelmed with gratefulness, fear, excitement, and worry. We became pregnant only 3 months after the D&C and as happy as I was, I was also consumed by fear and doubt that this pregnancy would sustain.
I had a birthday party to go to that morning and did not say a word to anyone until I told Dan later that day. (Actually, Kristen was the first one to find out. I called her that morning freaking out that the test might be wrong). We told Tom and Beth when they came over later that week for his birthday and my mom when she came to visit that weekend.
It's incredible how different my emotions have been with this pregnancy. I have spent more than half of it cautiously optimistic but never fully letting the sheer joy of becoming a mom for the second time really hit me. I know it is a simple defense mechanism, but all the secrecy and waiting to talk about it, worry and fear have put a damper on what should be an amazing time. I have had to make a conscious decision to let my defenses down and get excited about this new baby on more than one occasion. I suppose the simplest way to say it is I will believe that all is okay when I hold her in my arms and see her for the first time.
Physically, this pregnancy has been different from Grace's. I think the main reason is that I was able to take it easy with Grace and other than a lot of cramping during the first 12 weeks, I didn't experience any trouble. This baby has come along during the 3 most stressful months of my life and rest and relaxation wasn't exactly something I could partake in like I was able to with Grace. I have had quite a bit of cramping, the intense tired spells (I know I had these with Grace, but I was able to actually take a nap!), serious nausea, and even some spotting. Now that I am not on my feet so much, working less hours, and not under so much stress I feel a TON better and am enjoying the "magical second trimester." 
So I am 22 1/2 weeks and growing great. The baby weighed one pound at our last appointment and all looks wonderful. She is growing right on track and I am feeling perfect. She is quite the mover (maybe I've just forgotten, but I truly don't think Grace moved with such force and ferocity as this child. It's almost as though she feels the need to remind me every hour, "I'm HERE! Don't forget about me!") We are still working on names, even though we have one that is a front runner, and in the next few weeks are going to transition Grace into a new room and toddler bed. Sigh. Here are my obligatory baby bump pictures and latest sonogram pictures:

Baby Girl at 21 weeks

Baby bump at almost 10 weeks. You can see why it was difficult to keep things a secret! My babies just like to make themselves known very early!

Baby bump at 15 weeks. A week before we found out that we were having another girl.

 

Here's my bump with Grace at 16 weeks. Not too different!

22 weeks. I hope I'm about to level off because continuing to grow at this rate is a bit worrisome! My belly is measuring two weeks ahead of schedule. I always measured ahead with Grace, though, and toward the end of my pregnancy with her I looked like a normal 36 week pregnant woman!

Halloween, a little late

Grace was Raggedy Ann this year for Halloween. I wasn't sure when I ordered the costume that she would wear the hat and wig but she kept it on the whole night.
We visited the Wrights at the Wolfforth Trunk or Treat and then met up with Nana and Papa at Bacon Heights for our church's Fall Festival. Grace had a lot more fun this year walking around and got very into people giving her candy. She would hold her finger up when someone would drop candy in her pumpkin and say, "Just ooonnnnneeee more. Please." We had a blast watching her have so much fun.

The video is a little long, but then end is well worth the wait.