A Video

This was taken on our Valentine's Day morning (last Saturday). As you can see, Serena is quite the walker now! She gets better every day too and is walking so much! It is just incredible to me to be able to watch her and be a witness to such a huge development in her life. Calli was her usual self; she received some glitter glue pens for her present and had to start using them right away!

Tired. Just tired.

You think you are tired with the second pregnancy. Well, let me start over; you think you are tired with the first pregnancy. All that sleeping in, napping whenever you want or need, taking hot relaxing baths and vegging on the couch can really get to you! Okay, so pregnancy in itself just makes you tired even if you aren't doing anything. But you have to admit, a first time pregnancy seems pretty easy in retrospect.

So then you decide that it really wasnt that bad and hey, let's do it again! So you get to cooking Baby #2 and realize that it is not quite so easy. As I said, you think you are tired. Toward the end of it, I knew I was tired! And maybe it depends on the age gaps you have with your kids. If you wait a long time and have a child who is in school all day, I would think it would be a bit easier than chasing after a toddler all day, which is what I did. I had this rambunctious two-year-old who had started to give up her daily naps and sometimes it was hard to get through the day. At the end of my pregnancy I was so tired I had no idea how in the world I was going to manage two children! I thought I would drop from being so tired all the time. But this amazing thing happened; when Serena was born I suddenly had all this energy! I didn't really realize or think about the fact that I was pregnant and that alone was eating all my energy. I just thought I was going to feel like that forever! But I was wrong. Once she came out it was a brand new world for me! Even getting up several times a night with her was much less tiring than being pregnant with her was, how crazy is that!? Like I said, I thought I was tired.

But I am here to tell you that it is really the THIRD pregnancy that does you in. Oh. My. Gosh! Am I ever tired. Now this may have something to do with the fact that that two-year-old has turned into a sassy, spunky three-year-old who wears me out. She is now more emotionally exhausting than physically. She still likes to run and be crazy, but she is three (nearly four!) and doesn't get into things she shouldn't be getting into and doesn't need such a constant watchful eye. She'll sit still to watch a show (or ten if I let her!!) and I'll have a few minutes of peace. But now she is older and able to back talk and give me attitude and drive me crazy! So she takes care of my emotional well-being, while my ten-month-old makes sure I am physically exhausted from chasing after her new walking legs each day. The nice thing about said ten-month-old is that she actually naps during the day. There is a brief two to three hour break that I get from her and I wish I could convince Calli to follow suit. But no.

I am *almost* in the third trimester and by the time you hit the third pregnancy, the myth about the second trimester being the best and the time when you get all your energy back is complete crap. I have been worn down for about two months now I would say and May cannot come soon enough. Of course I know it will be tiring caring for three children under the age of four, but as I remember last time, I will get my energy back when I have this baby in my arms instead of in my belly.

Oops! New Blog!

I have been neglecting this blog! So here is my update.

Calli is on the downhill slide to four years old. How did that happen? I would say her favorite thing to do right now is art. So that is why I signed her up for an art class. It is every Monday from 12:30-2 and I can just drop her off and come get her when the class is over. The last two weeks I have spent running errands during that time. It is SO much easier to do the grocery shopping with just one child in tow. And Calli loves her time in the class. Every week they do a new project. Yesterday they traced what were supposed to be slices of bread onto their paper and drew on all different toppings for them. I am sure when her class ends in a few months we will have accumulated all kinds of art projects and I don't know what we will do with them all! I hate throwing away anything that my kids do. I save way too many of Calli's drawings she makes at home, but I can't bear to part with them.

I recently had a funny moment with Calli, a definite "MOM Moment", when she asked me "Mommy, how did the baby get in your tummy?" I didn't quite know how to respond and am sure my answer wasn't sufficient, but she did stop asking. I don't know what I will say the next time she asks. She is only three, she is not supposed to be saying these things already!! When I was pregnant with Serena she was very interested in how the baby was going to come OUT. Now she wants to know how it got IN. Kids!

Serena is growing every day and learning new things. She is taking steps all the time now and getting braver and braver. She is becoming unafraid to let go and walk on her own. She'll walk from couch to couch, toy to toy, person to person. Her record is about seven or eight steps now. It is so amazing to watch. I really really love this milestone. It is just so adorable to see her let go of the safety net she is holding onto and venture out on her own. She takes a few shakey steps, stops to balance herself and takes a few more before either reaching her destination or falling on her bottom. Just a few weeks and she will be running alongside Calli!

One of the really cute things she has been doing lately is opening her mouth really wide when she is happy. It's so cute! It's like her face is too small to contain all the happiness and joy inside, but she is trying to express it anyhow. She has given up her old wave (to herself) already and started the big sweeping side to side wave. She dances to music, responds to her name (sometimes) and loves on the kitties, her favorite animal. This is my favorite baby age, the time they just start walking and their little personalities really start to shine through.

Our baby boy (who is yet to be named) is doing great as well. I had a doctor's appointment on Friday and his heartbeat is strong. My due date was also changed from May 12th to May 25th. I am so relieved about this because I have known from the beginning that my due date was off and now I feel vindicated.

I have been doing okay myself. I have been having sinus problems for the last month and haven't been sleeping well. Last night I finally took some benadryl and was able to sleep much better. I just hate taking medicine while I'm pregnant, no matter if the doctor tells me it's "safe". If you will notice, nothing is really 100% safe that they know of because it's all under Catergory B, not Catergory A. I just really hate that I've had to take so much. But I am miserable! I hope I don't have to suffer this the rest of the pregnancy.

Well here are some much needed pics!

The kids and me on my birthday

Calli in her pretty, new dress
This is Serena walking. It is very hard to capture a photo of a person walking!!

My two princesses! We were getting ready to go out to a Princess Breakfast at Chick-Fil-A

This is Serena's super happy face

My ballerinas

She decided to pop a squat on the diaper box

Playing outside

My beautiful model in my shoes

Five months pregnant. Calli wanted to show off her belly too :)

This picture is so sweet!

And one more of course because I didn't want Serena to be left out. I love her facial expression!