Today

Here is what I did today:
1. Nurse Josie 10 times.
2. Change about 40,000 diapers with accompanying blowouts and wardrobe changes.
3. Feed Holly breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks.
4. Play with Holly.
5. Read Holly her favorite books a countless number of times.
6. Discipline Holly. Yikes.
7. Do dishes. Twice.
8. Wash about 4 loads of laundry.
9. Clean the living room.
10. Make dinner.
11. Get Holly bathed, PJ'd, read scriptures, pray, get her in bed.

Here is what you would've seen if you had come to my house today:
1. Me and the kids still in our PJs.
2. Breakfast still on Holly's face at 2:00 in the afternoon.
3. Holly running around with a fork she found on the kitchen table.
4. Holly throwing a fit because I asked her to clean up a mess she made.
5. Dirty dishes in the sink. They multiply like crazy!
6. Complete, utter chaos.

So...even if it looks like we're a mess, it doesn't mean I haven't done anything! I have come to the conclusion that about 90% of work that a mom does she has nothing to show for; if it gets done, you don't notice it. Only if it is not done do people notice. Days like this are so frustrating!

DIY Christmas

I finally put our Christmas tree up today. We were waiting because Holly is sure to destroy it; then we were waiting for Andrew to summon the courage to forge a path through our attic to find the Christmas decorations. Finally, I put my foot down and decided that it was happening today, for Pete's sake. I mean, it's December 20th! Geez.

I found these cute green lights and the light-up star toward the top of one of the boxes. I got them both on clearance last year I think, because I feel like I should never pay full price for Christmas decorations. (Well, really I feel like I should never pay full price for anything...but that's another story for another day.) Anyway, I don't think we'll be making it into the pages of House Beautiful anytime soon, but it's cute and it's just right for us this year. What with an 18-month-old and all that.

Now I'm starting to feel the Christmas spirit! I'm ready to go finish wrapping all of the presents. I can't wait to see them all under the tree on Christmas Eve.

Daily Occurrence

Every day around 2:00 in the afternoon, Holly gets up from whatever she's doing and goes to the front door. "Da-da?" she asks. "Da-da?" Andrew usually gets home somewhere around this time (give or take an hour or two), so I always tell her that Daddy's coming home soon.

Fast-forward to when Andrew comes home. Holly hears his keys in the front door and runs to watch as he comes in, a huge grin on her face. She tells him "hi," waves, and ignores him for the rest of the day.

Sick

We've had both roseola and a stomach bug at our house this week. We have had at least one person in our family sick every day since Sunday, so I literally have lost an entire week of my life being sick and caring for my sick children.

Since we have stuck around the house this week, I have had lots of time to contemplate how much it sucks being a mom sometimes. Fevers, rashes, up to my elbows in puke and poop--you know. Waking up in the night with miserable little girls and dragging them into my bed to try and get a few hours of sleep. Mom is on call all the time, no break. (This includes my mom, who was the lucky one holding my hair back while I was throwing up. Thank you. You're the best! You will have a hard time getting me to move on with my life.)

At the same time, I have thought about how wonderful it is to be a mom. I can't even describe the kind of love I feel for my two girls. There is no one else who I would rather care for and hug and kiss and comfort. Holly is the only one who I want to cuddle up on the couch with and watch The Little Mermaid 100 times. In a row. And although Holly and Josie have been sick this week and that's the reason they have been so cuddly, I'm grateful for those moments I have had with them, just hanging out and hugging them and smelling their sweet baby smell. My kids are the greatest. I love being their mom. Even the worst moments we have together are worth it, because we're together.

Pictures of Josie

A week or two ago, I decided to get some pictures taken of Josie.

 Isn't she just the cutest thing you've ever seen in your life?

 I adore her.

 And I'm able to just enjoy her so much more because I've done it all before. I'm so much less stressed and much more relaxed than last time around.

 She's a very good baby. Almost as sweet as she looks in these pictures.

Me with both of my precious girls. Amazingly, both of them cooperated wonderfully with the photo shoot and it couldn't have gone any better. Holly continues to be an awesome big sister. I feel so lucky to be a mom to these two sweet little girls!

Just One of the Many Reasons...

I'm in love with my little girl.

Halloween

This year, we celebrated Halloween on Saturday by going to our ward Halloween party. I made Holly a fairy costume before Josie was born, so I was eager for her to wear it. She loved wearing the tutu, and I thought she was too cute! She had a great time running around and eating candy and cookies. I was exhausted, but glad we went so Holly could have fun.

My mom came to the party for awhile, which was awesome because she helped me take Holly around to the different booths. A few of the Young Women did a balloon animal booth, which was really cool! Holly got a flower and was pretty excited about it for about 30 seconds.

Andrew's sisters Julie and Sherry were in town visiting with their families, so Andrew's parents made it a family affair and came to the Halloween party too. 12 of their 13 grandchildren were there, which was pretty fun! Josie got to spend some quality time with her Grandpa King while we ran around with Holly, which was really nice.

Next year, I'm looking forward to having two kids who will be old enough to trick-or-treat! And will be young enough to go along with a theme costume for the two of them...

Life As We Know It

Here's what has been going on lately at the King house: lots of lounging and napping! Andrew has had the past two weeks off of work, so the four of us have been hanging out. I have loved every minute of it and am so sad for him to go back to work tomorrow! We are loving our sweet Josie and Holly is doing so great with her little sister. After the first three days or so, Josie has been a wonderful baby who doesn't fuss very much. She is a great sleeper and not-so-great eater. She's so cuddly and we're adjusting pretty well to having her around.

Holly is gaining more interest in Josie. At first, she ignored Josie completely; now she approaches her sometimes and tries to share pretty much everything with her. If Josie is crying, Holly finds a pacifier to give her or rocks her in the swing. Holly covers her with extra blankets and likes to help change her diapers and clean her umbilical cord.

Here Holly is arranging Josie in her swing. Josie coughed once or twice and sneezed a few times, and whenever she made noise Holly would look at me and crack up. A few minutes after I took this picture, Holly arranged her favorite blankie over Josie and put the tray to the swing down. She is already a good big sister! It warms my heart to see the two of them like this. I have high hopes that they will be the best of friends.

The Story

So, for those of you who want to know how it all went down, here it is. For those of you who don't, kindly ignore this post. I will get on to more exciting, less disturbing details soon enough.

I was scheduled to be induced on October 21, about a week before my due date. Andrew and I went to the hospital that morning at about 5:00 so we could be ready for the induction to start around 6:30. They started pitocin at that time, and we had a great time watching TV and checking our e-mail until around 9:30 or so, when things started getting really painful. I was able to get an epidural around 10:15, which was wonderful and made me a much happier person.

When my doctor broke my water earlier that morning, I was dilated to 4 cm. When my nurse checked me at 12:50 p.m., I was only 6 cm dilated and very frustrated! I was starving and wanted lunch very badly, so my goal was to have Josie by then. Things progressed very quickly after that, and by 1:50 I was fully dilated and ready to go. My nurse, who wasn't expecting me to progress that quickly, got the room ready and called my doctor. Josie was born at 2:15! The umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck twice, which was scary, but everything turned out great.

We were sent home the next day, and I am feeling so much better this time around than I did last time. I am able to enjoy little Josie so much more because I feel much more relaxed about things! She is such a little sweetie.

New Baby Girl

She has a name!

Josie Emma

7lbs 7oz

20 3/4in

Born at 2:15 10-21-10

I've Been Thinking...

You know it's time to have your baby when your maternity bathing suit, ahem, doesn't exactly do the job covering your belly anymore. Just a thought.

And yes, it was great weather for the beach yesterday! We had a blast.

Correction

Holly has not given up all naps; just her afternoon one. As in, she still takes a pretty long morning nap. However, it's still a nightmare in the evenings because she is awake for far too many hours before bedtime!

So we are working on pushing her morning nap back slowly. Very slowly. She gets cranky if I keep her up too long in the morning, so it's a balancing act. We'll get there!

Naptime

Holly has all but given up her afternoon nap. That makes for a sad mommy and a sad baby, come bedtime! I still put her in her crib in the afternoons for some much-needed quiet time for both of us while we are working out this transition. Yesterday, I went to get her from her "rest time" during which she just fussed in her crib. Here is what I found.



Apparently, she had tried to take her shirt off. In her haste, she accidentally got it stuck...and couldn't figure out how to fix it! I'm going to have to be more careful once she actually learns how to take her clothes off. We're heading into unpleasant territory.

The Stroller

Holly has a stroller handed down to her from a cousin of hers. Yay for having lots of older cousins! Anyway, it's a little kid stroller meant for putting dolls and stuffed animals in. Lately, Holly has been playing with it a lot. She loves putting her dolls, stuffed animals, blankie, and books in it and pushing it around.


But her favorite thing to do is sit in it. She will grab her blankie and climb in and sit there for a long time. She has recently learned how to roll herself around the room by moving her feet along the front wheel of the stroller. I get a kick out of watching her wheel around the living room! Silly girl. She's very inventive and will figure out a way to get what she wants.

Yogurt Facial

My sweet daughter loves to eat, but loves playing with her food almost as much. The other day, she was eating some yogurt and started smearing it all over her face. At times I have to laugh and remind myself that she is one (16 months old!) and that we should just embrace this behavior, because it is normal and is not worth freaking out over a little yogurt smeared all over the place. And that soon, she will be all grown up and not give herself a yogurt facial anymore.

This was one of those times.

Update

I was looking into past blog entries and remembered that this acts as an online journal of sorts. I have recorded all sorts of things on here about our daily life and about Holly that I have completely forgotten over the past several months. I'm going to try and do better about posting stats and daily occurrences. Not that you, my lovely readers, really care; but so I can go back and see and remember what life was like.

Holly had her 15 month well baby check-up about 3 weeks ago. She weighed in at 23 lb. 5 oz. which puts her in the 50th percentile for weight. She was 32 inches tall, which puts her in the 90th percentile for height. The past few visits, her weight has been in the 30th percentile and height around the 70th percentile. So our girl went through a growth spurt!

She's also growing hair and teeth like crazy. Her hair is getting thicker daily and is curly in the back, which I'm in love with. The biggest change (to me) is the teeth, though. All of a sudden, they started coming in left and right. She's like a little pirahna! Teeth make babies look so different. I stare in amazement at her teeth daily. I don't know what my problem is; they have to come in sometime!

Holly is a good sleeper. She sleeps around 12 hours a night, give or take. Makes my life wonderful! I get lots done in the evening after she goes to bed (around 7:00) and, if I can get it together, still go to bed early myself. She's transitioning from two naps to one, which can get ugly around dinnertime. But overall she's a pleasant, sweet girl. We are so lucky to have her!

Tonight

Tonight after dinner, we had some down time so we three Kings decided to do what we do best: veg out and watch some TV! (We're really exciting people.) After Andrew and I watched the news, we turned on Sesame Street for Holly, or "Elmo," as she calls it. Pronounced elbow. Very cute. She's really into the "b" sound right now. Anyway, she and Andrew got very cozy on the couch and I couldn't resist taking a few pictures.


Holly smiles for the camera, but also squints in anticipation of the flash. So pictures of her are pretty funny right now. What makes this picture special is that she almost never gets this close to Andrew! When he comes in the door from work, she acts interested in him for about 30 seconds. Then she hides between my legs whenever he tries to interact with her. Crazy kid! To quote Andrew, "she acts as if he's a piece of furniture."

So it was nice to see my little munchkin daughter cuddled up with her daddy for a few minutes.

Family Pictures

My dear friend Tiffany so kindly agreed to take some family photos of us. I felt an urgency to get some of just the three of us before the baby comes, so we took them last weekend. Holly was interested in everything else but the camera, so she was not easy to work with. All of the pictures Tiffany gave us were fantastic. I am super impressed and excited about them! Here are a few for you to enjoy.


A very flattering picture of the three of us.


My sweet, beautiful baby. (Am I allowed to say that? Does that sound braggy? Sorry.) This was one of the few smiles caught on camera.


35 weeks and so over being pregnant.

Thank you so much, Tiffany! The pictures are beautiful and you made us all look great. I love, love, love them.

What Is She Thinking?

The other day I walked into the living room to find this:


That is a shopping cart full of play food. I guess Holly thought she needed to have a bird's eye view of everything? No idea. But very funny.

Oh! Yesterday, my dear friend Kathryn and her little guy Aaron stopped by for a visit. Aaron is almost exactly a year older than Holly. The two squirts had a great time playing together. When it was time for them to get going, Kathryn told Aaron to say goodbye to Holly. So he walked over to her, puckered up, and leaned in for a smooch! Holly was quite a willing participant. So Holly had her first kiss at the age of 15 months. We're going to have to keep an eye on her from now on!

Goodbye, Friends

For about the past year, I have enjoyed serving in the Young Women presidency in our ward. A few weeks ago, the presidency got released and I was very sad about it. I miss my girls so much! Anyway, we (the "old" presidency) decided we needed to get together for a celebratory/pity party a week or so ago. It was one last chance to get together like old times and eat good food and chat it up. Lori brought a cookie cake. After much deliberation, she decided what it needed to say:


Truer words have never been written! Especially in frosting. By the way, the cookie cake was delicious. Makes me want a giant cookie right now...

Anyway, these girls have nothing to worry about yet. I was assigned another calling before I could get over being released from Young Women. Guess what it is? Primary chorister. I'm getting used to the idea and after two weeks in the trenches, I can honestly say that I think I'm going to enjoy it. Ask me two weeks ago, and I would not have been so sure. It's a lot of work and it's tiring, but fun. Those Primary kids sure can sing! They have won me over completely.

Little Puppy?

Today Holly and I paid a visit to my mom (aka Mimi) so I could get some work done on the quilt I'm making for the new baby. I need lots of supervision from my mom, plus her sewing machine is about a million times better than mine. Anyway, Holly came out of my parents' room looking a little bit like this:



I couldn't get her to pose for a really good picture, but she looked like a little puppy with that ball in her mouth! Of course, when we laughed at her, it only egged her on. What a little ham.

Dress-Up

Awhile back, Holly inherited some dress-up items from one of her cousins. She had only really shown interest in the accessories (fairy wand, etc.) until yesterday. She decided to dress-up and was determined to put the princess clothes on. So I helped her put on some clothes she took out of the box. She kept taking clothes out of the box, so I decided to keep her happy and I just kept putting them on. Hey, it's all about keeping her happy right before dinnertime!

This is two complete princess outfits. I especially love the pacifier. Part grown-up big girl, part baby. I love this sweet little thing!

When Mommy's Busy...

...a little girl has no choice but to find some way to amuse herself!

I was in the kitchen making dinner and Holly was quiet and content playing by herself. This should have been my first clue that something was not right. When she reappeared, she had a black pen in one hand and this little number all over her leg. Thankfully, she had only drawn on a blank yellow poster and on herself. My furniture and walls are still safe...for now.

Breakfast

Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day. Pancakes, waffles, muffins, French toast, omelets, bagels with cream cheese--what's not to love? My girl also quite enjoys her breakfast. One thing I love about being home with her is, I can make French toast on a Wednesday morning if I want to! Life is good.

We also both enjoy cereal when I don't feel like breaking out the frying pan. One of Holly's favorites is Frosted Mini Wheats. She has loved these since she has eaten solid food in any form. We just soak some in milk and let her at them. Last time we had some cereal, here is what she did:



Milk in the hair. Awesome. I had just given her a bath before bed the night before, so I made do with some baby wipes. Needless to say, her hair was a sticky mess all day long. But she had a good time. That's all that matters, right?

Entertainment

A few weeks ago, I went out to lunch with some friends from college who I hadn't seen in awhile. Holly naturally started to get antsy and fussy after a little bit, so I tried a little experiment and gave her the lemon slice from my water. What ensued was hilarious.




Some of the pictures are blurry, but you get the idea. Holly hated how sour the lemon was, but she couldn't NOT eat it! A few days later, Andrew and I were out to dinner with Holly and I showed him her little trick. All three of us couldn't stop laughing. So...this is our twisted form of entertainment at restaurants now. Holly expects a slice of lemon now, and none of us can get enough of it!

Sharing

Our little Holly loves to share her toys and books and snacks with everyone. She takes turns feeding herself and me when she's eating, and she's been known to try to force raisins into our little friend Ian's mouth (not a good idea for a 3-month-old). Anyway, she loves to share anything with anyone.


A few weeks ago, she was eating some string cheese and cut-up apples for a snack on the couch. Holly decided she needed to share with Elmo so he wouldn't be left out. Of course, I had to take a picture of Elmo "eating" his snack. What a sweet girl! We are hoping that this sharing thing lasts, although I'm sure it won't.

Pedicures

As part of my birthday gift, my mom and I went out and got pedicures, her treat, a couple of weeks ago. We went to a nice salon here in town, and it was...wonderful. My dad was kind enough to come over and watch Holly for me, so I got a baby-free, spa-filled morning! Mom and I had a great time catching up a bit and talking about reality TV. Doesn't get any better than that! A girl's morning out was just what I needed because I have got the pregnancy blues.

Let me make myself perfectly clear: I do not mean to complain about my situation! I know that we are very lucky to have been able to get pregnant two times with little to no effort on our part. We have a wonderful daughter and are so excited to have another one joining our family in a short time.

However, let me tell you: This pregnancy has been much harder than my first. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I'm playing with and reading to and chasing around a 1-year-old all day. But the fact of the matter is, I am so tired and so hormonal and have uncontrollable, vicious cravings for anything made primarily of refined carbs. You know: brownies, cake, pie, cookies, waffles, pancakes, muffins, doughnuts, you name it. Oh, man. It's bad. Real bad.

On the other hand, I wouldn't trade my life for anyone else's. I mean, who wouldn't want to spend time with this little girl?



Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go make a milkshake run like I need to breathe.

Pizza!

We three Kings love some good pizza. (I'm sorry, I couldn't resist--we won't be three for much longer!) Anyway, Andrew is on a mission to find a really good pizza place here in town, so we are always casing out new and different pizza joints. Last Saturday, we went to a new pizza place for lunch and ordered a huge pizza so there would be plenty leftover for lunch the next day. There was a TV behind me, so these two were glued to it for two thirds of the time we spent at the restaurant. The pizza was pretty good, and they had Pepsi products which puts them up a few notches in my book. Ah, Pepsi.

Anyway, while we were waiting for our pizza we discovered this:


Now, I apologize for the atrocious photo. You must understand that I'm seven months pregnant and extremely lazy, and couldn't be bothered to stand up and take a more decent one. The box above the door (aka "The Big One") was probably about three feet square. I guess no one has risen to The Big One Challenge yet, but I am looking forward to the day that someone conquers that enormous pizza with all the fixin's.

I love (or love to hate) the show Man vs. Food on the Travel Channel. It horrifies me, yet I am mesmerized every time I watch. The host travels to different cities and takes on food challenges of every shape and size, from enormous portions to really, really hot foods. It really is disgusting to watch, yet I can't NOT watch it. Anyway, can you say "Man vs. Pizza?"

Getting Ready

When I get ready in the morning, Holly likes to harass me--I mean, keep me company--in the bathroom. The other day she discovered that this little spot under the sink is the perfect place to hang out and play. She was having a great time splashing in some water until I realized that it came from that red bucket, and that it was brown and who knows how old. Gross.

One Going on Thirteen

A couple of weeks ago, Holly and I were on our way out the door to run some errands. I put her shoes on and told her to grab her little lamb for company in the car. She grabbed the lamb and then on her way to the door, Holly grabbed this purse, slung it over her shoulder, and looked at me like, Come on Mom! Let's go! She walked all the way to the car with the purse over her shoulder, but wouldn't keep it on for the picture. Go figure.

When Mommy and Daddy Go Out...

A few days ago, Andrew took me out for a belated birthday dinner while we left Holly with my parents for an evening of fun. We grown-ups had a great time. We tried a new pizza place, Grimaldi's, at the newly remodeled mall. Then we relaxed and window-shopped until we couldn't justify being away any longer. It was so much fun to get out and relax without the baby!

Holly also had a grand time with her Mimi and Poppie. They let her do all sorts of things that we don't, so she was dying to get away from me when I dropped her off. My mom sent us this picture of Holly enjoying her new favorite treat! Andrew wanted to know how many strands of beads she got in exchange for posing for this picture.

Trip to San Antonio

Last weekend (my birthday weekend), Holly and I joined my parents on a trip to San Antonio to visit with my uncle who was down from Ohio for the week. Poor Andrew was on call and ended up working all weekend, so he had to stay home. We had a great, if very tiring, time. Here are a few highlights from the weekend.


When we went out to lunch on Friday, I forgot Holly's bib in the car (which was very far away, since we were on the Riverwalk). So I used a cloth napkin to make a bandana-bib for her. My little cowgirl!



We went to Rivercenter Mall, which has a fairly sizeable Disney Store. Holly went straight for this stuffed Minnie Mouse, which was bigger than she was. She wrestled it to the ground, then dragged it around the store with her, bumping into people and tripping over Minnie the whole way. It was hilarious! But socially unacceptable. (Something very difficult to teach a one-year-old.)


Saturday afternoon we went to HemisFair Park and took the elevator up to the top of the needle thingy. I forget the actual name for it. Anyway, we found this mechanical horse on our way out and decided to let Holly ride it. Don't let this picture fool you; she loved it! I just looked better in this one.

We had a great time visiting with family, but were thoroughly worn out and ready to come home. Thanks for the great time, guys!

Holly-isms

Holly is such a good little helper around the house. She will go get diapers and wipes, pick up toys off the floor (sometimes), and she likes to "help" with folding the laundry.


By her definition, helping Mama fold laundry consists of grabbing things out of the laundry basket and wrapping them around herself. If they are still warm from the dryer, all the better. I don't mind, though--I figure this will give way to actually helping with the laundry soon enough.

A few weeks ago, Andrew decided to give Holly a bath in our new kitchen sink. This previously had not worked out so well, but now she loves it! It's just the right size. Andrew leaves the water on really low and she splashes around and slurps water out of the faucet. Good times!


She has also started getting in touch with her "baby" side. The swing has been rediscovered, and last week I took the bouncy seat out for a friend's baby. Holly has made a habit of sitting in it herself like it's a recliner.


That little girl is under there somewhere! She grabs her sippy cup, a stuffed animal, and just hangs out in there. It will be a nasty surprise when the baby comes in a few months and takes her recliner away from her.

Okay, now for some sappy stuff: We love this baby too much! She gets sweeter every day, and we love her more and more every day. I think it's amazing how that happens. I love her so much more now than I did even a few months ago, and I'm sure that love will grow and grow. It's incredible! (Now I've got that sappy nonsense out of my system. Phew!)

Still to come: pictures of our new, renovated kitchen! It's a mess right now, but cleaning it is on my to-do list today. Then, pictures! Sorry it's taken so long, but you know how it goes--life got in the way.