Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Birthdays

It's been a busy month around here.  Grace celebrated her second Christmas and was definitely more into it than last year.  She wasn't as excited about opening presents as I thought she would be - every time she would rip a piece of paper off she had to go throw it away right away before she would try to take any more paper off (guess she got some of that anal-retentiveness from me :) )  but there were definitely certain presents that got her excited.  Her current favorites are the Dirt Devil cleaning supplies (broom, dustpan, duster) and the doctor kit for her baby dolls.  She likes to take the lotion bottle from the doctor kit and put "lotion" on everyone's hands and cheeks!  She has also started getting diapers from her room and trying to put them on her dolls, although her technique needs a little work - she usually lays the diaper on the floor, sets the baby on top of it and calls it good! 

Ringing the bell ornament

Going night-night on the pillow!

Grace was able to see her cousin Eliana (who celebrated her 2nd birthday on the 24th with uncle Jeff) and they had a lot of fun playing together.  It was probably the first time they've been together that they actually interacted really well with each other and played with toys together.  At one point they were both in the kitchen while all the adults were in the living room and we could hear them giggling together and it was so cute!  Of course that meant we had to go in there right away to see what they were getting into!!

BFF's!

With the Weidmayer cousins - Sarah, Megan and Michael

 Right before Christmas we think Grace came down with norovirus, or something similar, which was not fun.  She had taken a nap and when I went in to get her there was poop all over the crib mattress and her clothes, and her - it was disgusting.  I put her right in the bathtub (thankfully Jeff got home from work about 5 minutes after I discovered it) and put all her bedding in the wash and scrubbed down the crib - it was not fun for a nauseous pregnant woman!!  About an hour or so later Grace was playing in the living room and I was making dinner in the kitchen and I went to peek at her and as I was walking to the living room this really strong sulphur-like smell hit me and I made Jeff come up from working in the basement to help me figure out what it was (I was worried that a toilet was leaking gas or something) and he jokingly asked, "Are you sure it's not your daughter?" and well, it was!!!  This diaper had just started leaking and it's a good thing we caught it when we did because it was pure liquid.  SO GROSS!!  We didn't have anymore diaper issues after that, thank goodness, but it probably took her a good week or so to start wanting to eat much food again.  The unfortunate part was that she ended up giving it to me, so I spent the week after Christmas feeling like crap and laying on the couch hoping it wouldn't affect the pregnancy.  I'm so glad that Jeff had that week off because I don't know how I would have taken care of Grace by myself. 

Modeling daddy's coat

Other than that Grace has been doing pretty good.  She's getting her upper "canine" teeth, which always seems to give her a runny nose and has made her crabbier than usual.  The "no" phase has seemed to lessen a bit which has made my life much better and she is learning more words almost everyday.  I was trying to teach her to say microwave and I was breaking it down into micro and wave and when I said wave, she started actually waving :)  It's funny how literal everything is to a toddler and as an adult you don't really realize it. 

Check out the mohawk!

As for me and baby #2, we're officially in the second trimester now, which is supposed to be the best one, so I'm hoping to start getting more energy and motivation soon.  The nausea has gone away but I'm still exhausted all the time, but that is mainly due to having to get up 4-5 times every night to pee.  I don't remember it being this bad with Grace, especially this early.  It's so annoying because it seems like by the time I fall asleep, I'm getting up to go again over and over.  I really hope this gets better soon otherwise I'm going to be pretty useless for the next 6 months or so. 

I did have a little "scare" a few weeks ago - I had gone in for the sequential screen ultrasound (where they look at the baby to see if they see any signs of certain birth defects) and while the tech was doing the ultrasound she asked if I had a fibroid because she thought something she saw looked like one.  As far as I know I don't have any (or ever have) but once she said that I was freaking out about it, and she also said I have a "retrograded uterus" (which means it's tilted back some instead of straight up and down) and when I looked it up on the Internet multiple sites talked about how this can cause potential miscarriages, so it was not a good day for me!!  I called my OB the next day and talked to the nurse, but she said they didn't have the results yet and would call me back when they did.  She finally called me yesterday (a WEEK LATER) and told me everything looked good, but I was so ticked that I have been having to stress about this for an entire week.  I really miss the old nurse that my OB had - if I ever had any concerns she would call me back within a day and was super-understanding about why I was so nervous about everything.  I think I am going to have to mention this to my doctor when I see her next week - I went to her because she specialized in people with fertility issues, and if her nurse can't be more understanding of how people feel who have had fertility issues maybe she needs to go to a different practice.  It sucks because I absolutely love my doctor, but you have to go through the nurse to ask the doctor questions or get info. 

On 1/11 Toby celebrated his 9th birthday.  He enjoyed his annual birthday dinner of spaghetti noodles.  If you notice in the second picture, he ate them so fast that I couldn't even get the picture taken before they were gone!!  Grace thought it was hilarious that we sang to him and he got to eat "noo-noo" (noodles).  It's so hard to believe that Toby is already 9 - I can't even imagine my life without him in it.  So far he is aging really well and doesn't have any major issues and I keep praying that it continues this way and we get to have him around for a lot longer.  He is so special to our family and I love to see him and Grace together, and I want this next baby to get to know him too.

Begging for the treat!

And it's already gone!

So, that's about it around here.  Sorry this post is so late - my motivation levels just aren't where I'd like them to be these days!!