Kailey's two, and ready or not, Christmas and Eli are almost here

It has been nearly three weeks since I've posted, yikes. Since then, Kailey turned two, and moved up to a "big girl bed" on the same day. She got a tricycle, an art easel, a Winnie the Pooh seat, and a few other gifts. She was really excited about all of her gifts. She calls her tricycle the "cycle," pronounced like the tool that cuts wheat, and the same word as popsicle for her (can be tricky for me, when she says, "I want cycle/sicle," I'm not sure if she wants a popsicle or to ride her tricycle) She went in for her check-up and shots last week. We really love our pediatrician, Dr. Flechas, we never wait long, never too quick to prescribe meds, and great personality. Kailey is in the 90th percentile for height and 25th percentile for weight (25 lbs and 35 in.). She had to have the flu vaccine (nasal spray, thank goodness) and a shot. I was so shocked because she didn't even flinch when they sprayed the solution in both sides of her nose, and didn't cry at all when they gave her the shot. The nurse was and I were both shocked and impressed.

The other day I was thinking about some things that I love about Kailey at this age:
When she wakes up from a nap, and is ready for me to let her out of her room, she yells, "mom....mom!" it just sounds really funny because she usually calls me mama or mommy, and she says it so loudly and abruptly.
I can have simple conversations with her.
She is starting to understand emotion and sympathy more, so if I seem bothered by something, she will ask me what's wrong, and after I tell her, she says, "awww".
She remembers people's names and gets excited to see people that she remembers.
She pronounces the letter J like she is from South America, she pronounces Jamie as yamie (she sometimes calls Jamie "my yamie," which is funny to me, and Joe is yo.
When she does something wrong, she says, "sorry" and this is pronounced, soffree.
She calls herself Kaikey (pronounced cake-e), a combination of Kailey and K-K, I guess.
She loves to help me feed Rickey, the dog, and will even tell me throughout the day, "mommy, puppy unggee (hungry)," in hopes that we can go feed her again.
She is very energetic and free spirited. I don't always love this side of her :)

We have been doing lots of Christmas shopping. I developed a theory on why I do last minute shopping. For so many years, I was in school or working and didn't have much time to shop, so it usually got put off until Christmas break, so now I just do the same thing, wait until a week or so before Christmas to do my shopping. I came up with this theory when Jeni, a friend in our ward, was saying last week that she had some shopping left to do, and was waiting for time off from work. I have decided that next year, I'm going to set a goal to get my shopping done early. Wait, who am I kidding, the main reason that I don't get my shopping done is that I am a procrastinator. It is something that I try to work on it. In college I would do anything to avoid doing homework until the last minute. My favorite thing to do instead of homework was scrub the bath tub, because I felt like I was really getting something done, and it relived stress because it is a physical, mindless job.

Kailey, after a long day of shopping (this was taken at 6 p.m., needless to say, this little nap ruined her 8 o'clock bed time)

This is just a funny picture that I took the other day. She loves to run from me, after I dry her off, but before I get clothes on her, and this time she didn't get very far when something on tv caught her attention)

Like I mentioned before, we moved Kailey to a big bed, and this is her sleeping in it for the first time. I was pretty nervous about how she would do, but she has done great so far. The first week, we had no problems at all, this week she got out of bed and cried a few times after we put her down for the night, because she had late naps that messed her up, but she is back on track now.

Jamie, Jeni K. (I know quite a few Jeni's, hence the initial), Lisa, Allison, Kailey, and I drove to Houston on the 8th for some Ikea shopping. I planned the trip to pick up Kailey's bed and dresser, and when Joel mentioned it Friday night at the ward Christmas party, Jeni and Lisa decided to join us. It was fun to have their company; I'm glad that they came. I hope that they were glad that they came. 8 hours in the car with a two year old and a one year old can be kind of tough sometimes, and we had some difficulty with the cargo. Kailey's bed frame was in a huge box, as expected, but not only was it huge, it was wide, wider than the van, which made it very tricky to secure to the luggage rack on top of the van. We had to pull off of the interstate twice to try to resecure it after it started sliding off. We finally took the frame out of the box and tied half of it to the rack and shoved the other half inside of the van. We had so much stuff packed inside the van, I don't know how we made it home with everything. Poor Lisa and Jeni had to climb back to their seats and had very limited space. It was a long day, but worth it, I love Ikea!
Where else can you get an iron bed frame and dresser for $150 each?

I can hardly believe that we have less than a month and a half before the new baby gets here! I've gotten a few things done that need to be done like working on potty training with Kailey and getting her out of the crib, but I still have lots to do!

Burninating the taco shells and a couple of funny pictures

Tonight Joel and I had tacos (contrary to the menu on the right; the pork wasn't thawed so it had to swap places with the tacos). In preparation of the tacos, I put the shells in the oven as usual. I was feeling a little impatient because my back was hurting, so I decided to crank the oven up a little bit to broil and see if I couldn't get the shells browned up real quick. After I turned them up, I got a little distracted by other things, like Kailey throwing my freshly folded clothes off of the chair. When I made it back to the stove, I noticed some smoke coming from the back right burner. At first I thought that I had turned that burner on by mistake and something landed on it, but the burner was off. I knew that the oven vents through that burner, so I checked the oven. There they were, six little taco shells with 3-5 inch flames. When I tell you these shells were on fire, they were seriously on fire; big blue, purple, red, and yellow flames. I was going to grab the fire extinguisher, but I remembered that we never got one of those when we bought the house. I grabbed the flour and started throwing it on them. After a few seconds I had it under control. The whole time Kailey was laughing and saying oooohhhh. Evidently she thought that the fire was fun and pretty; I certainly did not feel the same. I had to open up doors and windows to get all of the smoke out of the house; it actually felt really good, because it finally cooled down a little outside. Here is a picture of the taco shells and flour sitting on the old dead dryer in our garage (our dryer died last week).

This beautiful picture goes with the title of the blog "burninating the taco shells"

If you are unfamiliar with Trogdor, and would like to learn about him, click here.

Yesterday my post had a section about video games. I completely forgot to include a story from last night involving games. Joel and I went over to Jamie and Joe's for dinner, and afterwards we played some 4 player wii tennis. Well, unbeknownst to me, I get a little over zealous with interactive wii controls. As we were playing tennis, i noticed, or it was pointed out, that I was really getting into the game. I tried to scale it back a little, but as the game got more intense, I didn't notice or try any more. I was sitting in about the middle of the couch and Joe's guitar was propped up at the end of the couch. At one particularly crucial moment, I lunged from my spot on the couch toward the end of the couch hitting Joe's guitar with my remote. I was a little embarrassed, but around the aforementioned company it was more funny than embarrassing. From now on, I am going to be extra careful when I'm playing wii, especially if it is not with close family.


These are a couple of pictures that were on the camera when I got the taco picture off.

Here's what happens when Kailey is left unattended with applesauce.

Allison got a little tired at lunch last Thursday and decided to take a little break (that's what Jamie and used to call it when we would lay on the floor and take a 5-10 min. naps when we were up late at night/early morning working on school assignments that we had put off; we were not very good students, but managed to come out with decent g.p.a's in the end).

A game addiction and whispering

I haven't posted anything in a couple of days, because I rented a game, Beautiful Katamari, for Joel's Xbox. I'm not the gaming type. Joel is into Halo3 right now, but I don't even attempt it. This game is so much fun. It's kind of an odd game, but I like it a lot.




I have a Kailey story, too. We don't give Rickey any table food at all, and we don't let Kailey give it to her either. This just about kills Kailey, she wants so badly to share her food with Rickey. When we are eating, she will look at me with sad eyes and says "puppy ungee (hungry)." Also, I have been trying to teach Kailey to whisper. She can be loud sometimes at church, the library, etc., so we have been working on whispering and using an inside voice. She just doesn't seem to be getting it. Until this week she had never even tried to whisper. I thought that she just didn't understand what I was trying to get her to do. Well, turns out she did, and just chose not to. I was at the computer the other day, and Kailey was in the room with me eating a snack. Rickey of course was right at her feet hoping that Kailey would drop a crumb. After a few minutes I heard Kailey whispering Rickey's name, I turn to look and she had dropped small peices of food, was whispering Rickey's name, and bending and pointing to the food. I just laughed to myself and pretended like I didn't see. I figured it wouldn't hurt if Rickey eats a few crumbs. Then after she had given her a few crumbs I reminded her that we don't feed the puppy our food.


This picture is about a year old, but it was the only one that I could find effectively displays how Rickey spends about a fourth of her day. She follows Kailey around with her nose to the ground sniffing for food. (She's not sniffiing for food here, but that's what she looks like a good part of the day)

Clare had a baby! Good riddance pull-ups, and I got tagged

Clare (best friend since kindergarten) had a baby girl today! Jamie and I talked to her this morning after Jazzercise, and all was going well. Jezebel Eleanor weighs 6 lb. 14 oz. and has lots of black hair. I am anxiously awaiting pictures.

I have been working on potty training with Kailey for about three or four weeks now. We got really messed up with Amilyn's wedding and Thanksgiving, because those were times when I couldn't help her as much as she needed, so she pretty much went back to the diaper for a little while. Well, I decided that this week we were going to get serious. I concluded that the pull-ups were setting us back, because when she has one of those on, she thinks it's just like a diaper and she can just go in it, and forget the potty. I felt like I was jumping off into the deep end. We have now made it through 24 hrs., no pull-ups or diapers, and we didn't have any accidents (I hesitate to brag, because who knows what tomorrow will bring). I'm not gonna' lie, I was scared to leave the house today with no pull-up. I loaded down Kailey's bag with extra clothes, her sesame street folding travel potty seat, and treats for going in the potty. I had a couple of errands to run today after Jazzercise, so I was pretty nervous. I was suprised at how well things went. I just hope that things continue to go this well.

I was tagged for the Seven Things Meme by Ann.

The rules are:
1. Share seven random facts about yourself, in your blog.

2. Include these rules.

3. Link back to the person who tagged you.

4. Tag seven more people and list their names & blogs.

Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them that they have been tagged.

My seven random facts:

1. I love the beach.

2. I'm kind of picky about food, and don't like trying new things: I typically only eat canadian bacon pizza; I ALWAYS eat my hamburgers with only cheese, pickles, and lettuce; I get the same sandwich, fixed the same way everytime at Subway; I always get the same smoothie at smoothie king; I don't drink milk...

3. I do not like snakes, they scare me soooo bad. Once when I was pregnant with Kailey, a baby one got into our apartment, and I almost went into cardiac arrest. I left the apartment with the snake in there to roam and hide wherever he pleased. Luckily, when Joel got in from work, he found him and removed him using an oven mitt.

4. I wish that I was more creative when it comes to picking out gifts. I always draw a blank when I try to pick something out.

5. I am nursery leader in my ward, and it is not nearly as tough as I thought that it would be. Having Jeni in there with me has made it a lot better, too.

6. Watermelon is my very favorite food! I always eat a humongous peice, and I have a certain order in which I eat the sections of the watermelon slice (weird, I know, Jamie does it, too).

7. I like to fly. When I was young, I always thought that flying in a plane would be scary, but I like it. I wouldn't say that I love it, because I don't ever want to do any flips in the air or anything like that, I just appreciate that it gets me where I want to go a lot faster than driving, and the take off is kind of fun.

I think that I'm kind of long winded. Most other people that did this "tagged" thing had one line per item, mine kind of turned into more. When I post things they always end up longer than I thought that they would be. I hope that I'm not boring people with my posts that go on and on.

I don't think that there is anyone left that I know that hasn't been tagged, so I'm not going to tag anyone. Is something bad going to happen, like 7 years bad luck? I hope not.

Lady Stetson A.K.A. Rickey and a crazy dream

Today, I brought Rickey in to be groomed. If you haven't seen her lately, her nails were atrociously long. I brought her to the vet that's right down the road from us, for the first time. Evidently they bathed her in Lady Stetson, and when they brought her out, I almost vomitted. Then I had to ride all of the way home with her. I don't know why in the world I didn't roll the windows down, but Kailey and I suffered through. You could literally smell her 5 ft. away. Thank goodness it has died down a little, you can only smell her about a foot away now. I guess Lady Stetson is better than stink, but I don't think I could handle it again. Can you imagine how the girl smells that bathes the dogs, by the time she gets home? Yikes!

Lady Steston AKA Rickey AKA Dorey (that's her real name nickname)

Some how I managed to go to Wal-Mart twice today. I must be a glutton for punishment, riding home with Lady Stetson, with the windows up, and going to Wal-Mart twice the day before Thanksgiving. The two trips to Wal-Mart actually were not that bad. The first time that we were there, we dropped off Kailey's antibiotic prescription (she was starting to develop bronchitis), they said that it would take an hour and half to two hours to get it filled, that really means 3-4 hours. I think we have the slowest pharmacy in the world. Jamie has gotten into it with some of the employees because of the lies about the wait time. So, I resigned to the fact that I was going to have to come back to the mad house later in the evening, and set out to pick up a couple of things that I had forgotten to get earlier in the week. Some how I managed to get in a short self check-out line and made it out quick. Later, when we went back, there was suprisingly no line at the pharmacy, and we got out of there quickly and easily. We even took a little time to walk by the christmas yard inflatables on the way out, b/c Kailey loves them. There was a Mickey Mouse one that she was especially excited about, and when we went by the Nativity one, she bent down and hugged the Baby Jesus.

Now for the crazy dream. If you haven't noticed on the baby countdown over there, we've only got 2 1/2 months left. I guess that that has kind of been on my mind lately, because this morning I had a dream, that it was time to have the baby. I was also talking to Jeni in the nursery on Sunday, about braxton hicks contractions, and real contractions. So in the dream, Joel and I went to the hospital, and the contractions were really mild. I told the nurse that I didn't need the epidural yet, and then all of a sudden, the contractions got really bad. I called the nurse over, and asked for the epidural, but she said that it was too late, that they baby was ready to come out, and there wouldn't be time to set up the epidural. I was so angry, upset, and afraid. Then the dream ended. Between you and me, I'm a real weiney when it comes to pain. I surely did appreciate the epidural when I had Kailey, and fully intend to have one again with this baby. I know that there are women who choose to not have the epidural, but I'm all for it. When I had Kailey, it was a nice, calm, relaxed experience. I'll admit, I am a little curious about how I would handle it, and what it would be like with no epidural, but that curiousity does not supercede my hatrid and fear of pain, so I will be having the epidural, if I can help it.

Pregnancy cravings

Today I was craving lemonade, and a couple of days ago I was craving cheesecake. This evening we went to Aaron and Lisa Saxon's house to watch the LSU game, and have dinner, and lo and behold lemonade and cheesecake! Thanks Lisa, they were great.

I passed!

As I mentioned in the previous post, I had the three hour glucose screening, to test for gestational diabetes (I failed the 1 hr. test). The nurse called this afternoon to let me know that I passed. I was so relieved! Also, the test went so much better this time, than it did when I took it during my last pregnancy. Last time, I thought I was going to throw-up and pass out right there in the waiting room. I felt so sick that I had to call Jamie to come get me, and drive me home. This time, I hardly felt bad at all, and the girl that drew my blood was very good.

I was kind of afraid of the gestational diabetes; Jamie had g.d. during her pregnancy with Allison. Even though she claims that it wasn't that bad, it couldn't have been that great either. I hate diets, and there are definitely some dietary restrictions that go along with g.d.

The only diet that I ever tried, ended after only about twelve hours. Joel and I tried the South Beach diet, before I got pregnant with Kailey. It was a nightmare for me. We started it one morning and were doing fine until about 9 o'clock at night. We were both starving, so we gave in and went to sonic. I have very little self control when it comes to things like that. It may have been good for me to have g.d. because I would've had guidelines to follow and would have been held accountable by the specialist.