Belly shots and baby names

I was going to have B take a belly shot, and Liv really wanted me to hold her so I thought she could be in there too :) 

Its gotten kind of hard to put her to bed at night because a large part of her going to bed is rocking and cuddles in the rocking chair. My belly gets in her way. I miss being able to hold her so close to me and rock her. When I'm standing I can just lift her over my belly, but when we're sitting in the rocking chair she fidgets around for awhile trying to get comfy and ends up laying her night night blankie over my stomach and her head on my stomach. Its really kind of adorable, but at the same time, I miss actually getting to cuddle with her up close.

I'm so excited to see her as a big sister! I have loved all the time we've had to be just a family of three, and for Liv to get so much time with Mommy and Daddy, but now as I see her personality come out more and more I know she was meant to be a big sister and she will be a wonderful one.

She loves her already!

As soon as we found out this baby was a girl we naturally started thinking of names.

We had a small handful of names that we had thought of naming Olivia that we still loved and wanted to use. With Olivia we decided fairly early on. This time we've had a harder time deciding which name to use. We narrowed it down to 2 names that we both just loved and couldn't decide because any time we picked one, I got sad that the other one wasn't going to be used, haha. 

So we said we'll just let those 2 names roll around in our heads until we feel which is right. As months passed we threw in a few more names to the list, and then {in time} crossed off most of those names, we have finally come to the decision of what this baby will be named. If you already guessed that it is the same name that we liked from the very beginning then you are a genius and absolutely right! Her name will be Scarlett Emma. I guess we should just go with our gut next time because even after months of mulling it over in our minds that was the name that we both felt would be right for this baby.

Part of why I think we just kept coming back to this one is because of Olivia. Every time we came up with a new name we would test run it with Liv and make her say "baby ____" just to see how cute it sounded coming from her mouth. After giving her so many different names to call baby, I started just asking her "what's the baby's name?" because I was curious to see which out of the lot she would remember, if any. She would always (and still does) get the sweetest smile and say "baby Sca-ret". It melts my heart and I love that she seemed to already have a preference as to what her sister's name should be.

 I kind of have this feeling we are destined to be a family of girls (I totally had this conversation of why we would be a family of all girls after I found out Olivia was a girl, haha and so far its coming true!), so I think we might still get a chance to use our other names :)

Liv and the Liz

B made this video quite awhile ago. I've really been slacking on my blogging lately. At times I want to stop altogether, but then I feel guilty because I don't scrapbook or really anything else. This is all my children will have to look at of our lives together. Well, this and a billion pics and vids.

Anyway, I think I've mentioned before that Lu doesn't like buggies anymore. Now she loves lizards.
B was making this at the time when we started having computer troubles so he published it to youtube before we started switching out computers, then when we finally got our computer we had lost the editable version. SO, he wasn't totally done with editing but I don't think anyone really cares. The last 43 seconds are really cute if you don't want to watch the whole thing. She calls the lizard an iguana (niether of us know where she learned that) and my favorite favorite part is the very end where she says "cool daddy"!

If it doesn't work when you click the screen, I think you can click here to see it.

Spring break staycation

If you don't know, B is taking a full semester of classes right now plus EMT class. He has classes M-S. Yep the S stands for Saturday. Can you say lame! He was really looking forward to Spring Break to have some relaxing days, but I was called by the temp agency because they always have several ofices needing help during spring break. We toyed with the idea of going on a real vacation (possibly to Oregon to visit B's family) and then ultimately decided that I should just pick up all the extra days I could since he would be here to take care of Liv. Wait, how did we get from vacation to me working everyday?! Can you say lame again? Okay not totally lame, I am actually really quite alright with working because I enjoy my job, but I was really sad to not be around when B was actually home! Plus I was hoping that if we didn't get to go on a trip I could finally get some of the nesting/cleaning/preparing done that I've been itching to do for baby Scarlett! So those were the only reasons I was a little sad about spring break meaning absolutely nothing to me.

As we talked we decided that B really did need some kind of vacation since he literally goes to school all week long, and with the nudging from my parents we opted for a staycation! My parents kept Liv, and we stayed at a hotel in Dallas across from the Galleria Mall in. The hotel had a modern vibe and was really cool and different than any place we've stayed before.

We ate lunch at Taco Diner, which I had never heard of and it was so delicious. 

Then shopped til we dropped and then we went and checked in at the hotel and dropped into the bed and napped for an hour. We're real party animals. Then immediately upon waking I ordered room service to satisfy my sweet tooth. Who knew that room service charges a delivery fee? Oops. It almost doubled the price of the dessert I ordered.

Then we walked across the street to the Galleria. Shopped more - you have to take advantage of no child and being able to actually browse and try on things, although wearing a dress and having to pull it over my head a million times wasn't the smartest. I think it was a plus that I'm pregnant, that way I didn't feel the need to try on and buy every cute thing I saw. I only bought a few loose blouses that would fit me as my stomach continues to grow.Then we went out to find a place to dine. We decided on Macaroni Grill because I had no idea what most of the other places were. It was pretty yummy, but the waiter messed up our orders so we both got free desserts! We took the desserts back to the hotel and ate while we watched a movie. The next morning we slept in, took showers, and then ate breakfast at the Original Pancake House. Yuumm!

It was a relaxing weekend of eating out, not being rushed, and doing whatever we wanted!

When Liv almost lost her blankie

We clock a lot of hours outside every week. I feel like we never even had a winter. I can count on one hand the number of days I was too cold to go outside (and I was really just using that as a reason to not have to change out of my pajamas all day). I like being outside, and since it is now already in the 80's and the June Bugs have already started showing up (4 months before June) I'm thinking it was a good thing we went outside so much. Soon it will be too hot to be outside unless we're swimming.

I really never allow Liv to bring her night night blankie outside for two reasons:
1) it gets dirty enough just being inside, it doesn't need to be dragged through the mud or get Lizard germs on it
2) because I don't want her to loose it.
When I say I don't let her bring it outside, I mean out of the house what so ever. Its just how its always been so she really doesn't put up a fuss.

However, on this day for reasons unknown I did let her take it out.

She was pretending to be asleep in the hammock

Caught a priceless sneeze on camera. Should I frame this one and put it in her room?

Ahhh, feeling so good now!

Wait, is anyone still watching me?

Grampy drove up while we were still outside and Liv ran to greet him.

And then she and I went to the park to play and get all her wiggles out before bedtime.

And when it was bedtime, her blankie was NO WHERE to be found.

I looked all over the backyard and it was no where.

I thought she could do it.

I thought "she'll have to just use another blankie tonight".

I thought she'd cry a little and then be over it.

I thought she'd be too tired to care.

I was wrong.

She has another very important blankie called "tuck-y". It has birds on it and usually goes on top of her and tucks her in tight every night, while she holds onto her night night and cuddles with it like a teddy bear. This night I thought maybe she could just cuddle with the tuck-y instead... No way! "How dare you think that this could replace night night, Mom" was what I'm sure should would have said if she had that kind of a vocabulary. She cried the saddest deep cries when I said in a happy voice "tonight we're going to cuddle with birdies" and smiled an over animated smile. She was so sad and was desperately saying "butterflies, butterflies" through her tears because her night night has butterflies and flowers on it.

I felt so terrible. She didn't understand that I could not for the life of me find it. I felt like she thought I was punishing her.

I decided to go back outside with her and a flashlight and look all of the yard.

In the sandbox? No

In the shed? No

On the hammock? No

In the car?? No

Under the car??? No

Anywhere on the grass??? NO

I tried to help her understand that we, neither me or her, could find her night night. 

It's gone, I said.

I want to give it to so much if only I could.

We tried to go to bed again.

She really did try, and she sat on my lap and rocked in the rocking chair, but she did not want to cuddle without her night night so she just sat there looking at me and we sang songs while we rocked. She got so drowsy she laid her head on my stomach, and the simple touch of her cheek on my clothes instead of her night night reminded her that she didn't have her night night, and the heavy sobbing began again. Just the saddest thing ever. Together we went outside one more time. It HAS to be out here, was what I was thinking! She didn't have it when we went to the park and we never went inside after Grampy got home.

I looked all those places again, but this time I thought to not only look in the front, back, and trunk of the car we drove to the park in, but also under the her seat. There I saw it!! A tiny little piece of it. All the way on the other side underneath the opposite seat her carseat was in. It must have slid across the leather seats and shoved itself down between the passenger side door and the seat. I walked around to the passenger side door and opened it thinking she would jump for joy when she saw it. She just said "night night" and grabbed it and hugged it, and then wanted me to hold her. I think she was exhausted from the whole ordeal, poor little thing! She went right to bed.

Here's to hoping she doesn't really loose it for good until she is old enough to understand that I'm not punishing her by not giving it to her.

Family date night

B and I ventured out to Firewheel mall awhile ago. 

After looking in some of the stores, we decided to go out to eat at Pei Wei

and then get dessert next door at Yogurtland.

Mmmm. Loved every bite and every second with my favorite people!

Liv's first time using chopsticks

Lovin that yogurt

random thoughts

I haven't been great at getting weekly photos of my progression. Usually its just when all of the sudden I

 think about it and drag B outside to take one (unless its too dark and we have to take it inside). 

So there is no rhyme or reason to the different amount of weeks between each photo.

I definitely feel like I got big faster this time around, but I expected that.

Also, I feel like I'm almost done! And I feel like I want to press a pause button because I'm no where near ready.

I know I still have 11 weeks left and to some that sounds like forever, but its not long enough!

We have a lot going on between now and then and I know its going to fly right by.

Help!

I think working and staying so busy has totally made this pregnancy zoom on by. There are still times I

 forget how far along I am. Last week was the first week at work that patients started openly asking if I 

was pregnant and when I was due before I had the chance to mention it in conversation. And I realized

 that I won't be there to clean my 3 month recall patients' teeth at their next appt. One patient was at the 

front desk scheduling her next appt and was trying to make sure it was a day I would be there, and even 

went so far as to schedule it a little early so she'd get in before my due date. That made me feel good :)

I'm also already getting sad to not be pregnant anymore. I think I'm unique in that way. 

I always hear people say that they hate being pregnant but I love it. 

Is it uncomfortable at times, yes. Is it hard for me to tie my shoes, yes. Do I have to pee every 2 seconds,

 yes, but I love having the baby safe in my stomach and getting to feel her move around and I know I'll miss it. 

I like having complete strangers be kind to me just because I'm pregnant. 

When people see me with Olivia and then see my stomach, they seem to get so excited for me and ask if

 this one is a boy or girl and how I'm feeling etc. Or in the grocery store when its so annoying because

 people just park their carts in the middle of the aisle and don't bother to move when they see you are

 coming and obviously need to get by (clearly this is a pet peeve of mine since I'm always so considerate 

and move my cart to the side!) but when I'm pregnant people actually say sorry and smile and move their

 blasted carts out of my way. Or when Olivia throws things out of the cart people run over to pick it up for

 me so I don't have to bend over. I guess I just like when people are nice.

And I feel like this pregnancy has been really great since I have never thrown up and I've been able to

 continue working without any problems or extra aches or pains and I'm grateful for that.

For the last 2 or 3 weeks the little one has been

 moving like crazy! I mean crazy! She moves all day while I'm cleaning teeth, and in the evening, and in the middle of the night.
When do you sleep little girl? I love love love it, and I love feeling her little hands and feet move across my stomach. 

I'm getting so excited to see Olivia and new baby girl together. I'm also kind of overwhelmed/stressed 

since I don't feel ready (as mentioned above). Mostly I feel so grateful and excited to meet this new little girl.

Spring is in full bloom

While B's Mom was in town we decided to stop at the Arboretum (its become our fave place to hang out). 

It was supposed to rain and it was chilly that morning, but we wanted to go anyway since we didn't know

 if we'd get another chance to go all together while she was here. 

It ended up not raining and being sunny and 75.

Plus the flowers were gorgeous! 

They were getting ready for Dallas Blooms and I'm wondering if the flowers bloomed early due to the

 warm weather we've been having. Anyway, we were practically the only people there which was kind of neat. 

I'm guessing no one wanted to come out in the supposed rain. Suckas!

Yeah....this happened again :) 

We ended a perfect afternoon with lunch at the cafe, while birds

 chirped and flew/hopped around us in hopes we would feed them all 

our bread. And Livy did :)