I vow to help you love life, to always hold you with tenderness and to have the patience that love demands, to speak when words are needed and to share the silence when they are not and to live within the warmth of your heart and always call it home.

Monday, June 26, 2017

Norah June: 2 Years Old










I can't believe our little 7lb baby is TWO years old!  Time is moving right along and it's the greatest gift watching her grow from a completely dependent little baby to such a strong, independent little girl.  Her birthday party went great!  We invited close friends and family, had donuts instead of cake and rented a bounce house that was a HUGE hit!  The best part was it was all over before nap time.  We also chose to reveal our big secret at her party...Big Sister Status in December!!!  We love surprising our families with great news.








A little bit about how she's developing and coming along!  Norah is about 29lbs and 33 inches tall!  She's just perfect for height and weight and really starting to slim out and become more tall.  She got tubes placed in her ears at about 18 months and since then we've only have one ear infection and her hearing has increased 60%!  Since her hearing has improved exponentially, her speech just took off as well.  Her speech is definitely the one thing that has developed the most within the last year and it's just our favorite thing to watch.


Tubes Times


Norah has hundreds of words, and literally says new words daily.  She copies everything we say (so no more cuss words)!  She has three word phrases now and just communicates her needs so well.  She verbalizes that she wants her diapers changed, food and water, when she wants to go outside, "Help Me" when she needs help, just so much!  We don't sign hardly at all anymore because her speech has become so advanced so quickly, but that's how the process goes so we're really glad we did the sign language until her language could develop.  Our favorite phrases she says currently are:
"Baby bug!", "Oh my goodness!", "I wuv you", "Lawnmower loud!", "Bad Bubba, no!"  She also says "fock" instead of sock or rock, it's hilarious!  We love when she says bicycle too because she says "dicycle-cycle!"






As far as eating goes, she's good for one big meal a day which is usually breakfast then usually eats a moderate amount of lunch and usually nothing for dinner.  She loves crackers, bananas, cherries, grapes, blueberries, strawberries, cheese and diced ham.  Girl still loves her peas too!  She even likes pizza but won't touch pasta.  She'll eat peanut butter by the spoonful too.  We have her sit at a miniature table and chair for meals.  She drinks at mealtime out of a small cup with no lid, and we have her put her plate in the sink after meals too.  Mostly we do this because daycare does this with her, and we like the idea.  So why not!  Good habits start early ;)

She's still napping once a day at home for 2-3 hours, but at daycare she doesn't nap.  She's still sleeping through the night for about 11-12 hours and is still quite a ways from crawling out of her crib thankfully.  Yay for short genes!  Our plan is to keep that girl in her crib until she can crawl out, even if she's 4 year old!

She recently moved into the 2Y room at daycare, and they change diapers in the bathroom standing up in front of the toilet to start to get them in that habit for future potty training.  Norah was pretty resistant too it at first but within the last few weeks she's asked to sit on the toilet and actually pees!  We were so shocked when her teacher called us to let us know of Norah's quick progress.  We ran out that day and bought a toddler potty and she's been using it at home too.  She's definitely not consistent, but we're not pressuring her to use it if she doesn't want to.  We didn't even plan to start potty training until 2.5, but Norah may have other plans!



She can count to three!  She knows all her body parts, animals with their sounds and now we're trying to work on letters.  This is our first toddler, so everything new item she learns just astounds us.  She loves her books, and we read about 4-5 before bed every night.  She's going to be a big sister in about 5 months, but she doesn't quite understand yet.  It's cute to watch her obsess over her "babies".  She really is obsessed.  We can't wait to see her big sis skills in action soon!

Her favorites things to do these days are play with her babies, our daily walks in the evening with Zeus and bugs!  She really loves pointing out bugs.  "Baby bug!"  She enjoys coloring and painting and will draw portraits of us and Zeus, it's pretty funny!  She finally likes riding her balance bike, but it took a few weeks to warm up to it.  She LOVES the splash pad, swimming and anything to do with water.  Really she's the happiest when she's outside.


School Picture!







Birth, 1st Birthday and 2nd Birthday!

Dear Norah June, it's the best gift ever to watch you grow, learn and love us each day.  Dada and I love you so much!  Two years of the best time of our lives <3


Sunday, June 4, 2017

Goodbye 1st Trimester!

What a busy 13 week's it's been!  The busiest this year for sure.  We've hosted 2 graduations, 2 birthday celebrations, 1 gender reveal and 13 weeks of baking our tiny human!



So far I'm feeling pretty normal except the fatigue.  The fatigue was NEVER this severe with Norah's pregnancy.  Each baby/pregnancy is different!  I still am lucking out with no nausea or vomiting.  How do I get so lucky?  The first trimester I struggled with eating healthy though.  All my usual healthy go-to's just made my stomach turn.  Finally I can get back to my protein shakes and usually foods.  Speaking of foods, I've been craving big chef salads and fruit like crazy!!  So funny because strong cravings didn't start with my last pregnancy until the 3rd trimester.

I'm still CrossFitting 3-5 times a week (when my school schedule allows) and running a few times a week.  In fact, at 9 weeks I placed in my first CF competition!  And just yesterday I had fun making up Murph with a weighted vest!  Don't worry, I'm slowing down for sure and no more maxing out but that doesn't mean couch potato time for me.  My last pregnancy I was still WODing the day before I went into labor at 38 + 0 weeks, so I know it's doable as long as I'm cautious, listen to my body and recover smartly.


Murph!

11 Weeks

At my first doctor's appt 3 weeks ago I asked about a specialized blood test that reveals the gender, and luckily our insurance covers it!  It's called Harmony and mainly is a more precise screening tool for genetic abnormalities, but as a bonus can detect gender as well.  I got the call about 8 business days later and immediately gave the sealed envelope to my girlfriend to make a balloon box with!  We met our families for dinner at a yummy Italian joint in my hometown and all found out together!








It's a GIRL!!!!!  The dinner was SO much fun!  The anticipation was so great!  We also already had a girl name picked out....and we announced that too at dinner.




Scarlett Kay McVay!  My husband came up with Scarlett (he came up with Norah too!)  He's a good female name selector.  Then we really love the idea of making middle names family names.  We have two great families to pick from and it means so much to keep a namesake alive through generations.  We picked "Kay" for two reasons.  First, Kit's paternal grandmother's first name is Kay.  Secondly my Great Aunt who passed away a few years ago (was so close to my Mom), her first name was Kay as well, so we loved it paired with Scarlett.

Now that we have a clean genetic bill of health, a sex AND name this baby is finally becoming real to us in this crazy chaotic life of ours.  She won't have a huge nursery to come home to, but she'll have 3 pairs of anxious, loving arms to live in until then.  One trimester down, 2 go to!

Scarlett Kay, we can't wait to hold you!