A girl is on her way…

A week and a half ago, we had our official gender-reveal ultrasound. This was a source of much debate in our house as we tried to decide whether to find out the sex at all. We did not know that Miles was a boy until he was born, and we never regretted not knowing, but for some reason I just wanted to know this time. And since the baby is currently kicking my bladder, I felt I had a say in the matter. Chris didn’t want to find out, but he was willing to go along  with whatever I decided (what a good man).

I think the real reason he didn’t want to find out was that he was worried that it would be a girl. For some reason Chris has it in his mind that a girl will be much harder to raise than a boy. And more expensive. I’ve been trying to convince him that that little girls do sometimes have more drama, attitude, and emotion than boys, but that doesn’t mean that she will be a terror just because she is a girl. He’s worried that she won’t want to wrestle or go hiking with him, but I think she will love anything that we raise her to love. And yes, she will probably be more expensive, but I don't know if there is anything I can do to change that.

I’m of course really excited to have a girl because I think all moms want a girl, but Chris is still coming around to the idea.  Oddly he’s the one that suggested that we buy new bedding for the nursery when she’s born, and I’m the one that planned on re-using what we already have (especially because it’s gender neutral). But if he insists on buying something new, I guess I can’t argue that.

Now our debates can focus on picking a name. As it turns out, it was really good that Miles ended up being a boy because we agreed on lots of boy names and no girl names. I found the original list that we took to the hospital last time and realized that this is going to be a long process. It’s possible this baby girl won’t have a name until she’s five.

21 weeks

I meant to post when I hit the half-way mark last week, but every time I wanted to take a picture, Chris was gone, and I couldn’t get the timer to work on the camera. Oh well. Yesterday was a much better day to take pictures because I got my hair did and wore new clothes that came in the mail.

However, Chris did not consult me when deleting pictures and using auto-correct on the colors, so I can’t guarantee that these are the best pictures of me in the world, but oh well.

And this is what happens when you try to get a picture with Miles when an airplane is flying over. Not sure why my eyes are closed, but I found the whole thing quite amusing.

Speak

Miles has been in speech therapy since January; a lovely speech therapist named Melissa comes to play (and work) with him for one hour each week. He mostly enjoys the time he spends with her, and I am always amazed at how easily she can get him to make new sounds and try new words. Mostly I think speech therapy at this age is to help the parents learn techniques to help their children, but either way, she is doing a tremendous job.

On the first week, Miles was saying “gye-gye” in place of “bye-bye” whenever someone walked out of the room. By the time she left after that first hour, she had him saying the “b” in the proper place. I think that’s pretty cool.

Sometimes he doesn’t want to participate in whatever activity Melissa is trying to do with him, but she is always able to adapt what she wants him to do to the activity he is more interested in (i.e. playing with cars). Sometimes we have to have a snack in the middle of the session, but what we sometimes discover during snack time can be very useful. For example, two weeks ago she noticed that he was only eating his fruit snacks on the left side of his mouth. We kept testing it, but he kept pushing everything over to the left side of his mouth, meaning the left side of his tongue is weaker than the right side. So I’ve been trying to force things onto the right side of his mouth (without getting bit) whenever I can.

Before she started coming, Miles was only saying “gye-gye,” “hi,” and “Daddy” with regularity. Now, just a few months later, here is a list of words (and sounds that he thinks are words) that he now uses with regularity:

Melmo (Elmo)

Mama (!!!!!)

Car

Truck (kind of)

More

Up

Help

He-ca (helicopter)

Ah-pppl (airplane)

Dow (down)

Hot

Bubbles

Algar (alligator)

Iger (tiger or lion or anything that could be a tiger in his mind)

Eyes

Juish (juice)

Fshhhh

Choo-choo

He also can make a variety of animal sounds, including moo, quack-quack, neigh, woof, baa, maa, grunting like a pig, and sometimes a meow.

I think that’s all of them, and it may not be as many words as other kids his age, but it’s progress. I have not doubt that he will eventually get to where he needs to be, especially if I am vigilant about practicing with him as much as possible.

Feed the birds (and yourself)

This was actually last week (or the week before, I don’t keep track anymore), but I’m just now getting around to updating this here blog. Miles is not at all afraid of the geese, even when they hiss at him, and he really enjoys sharing his bread. I mean watching someone else share his bread. He just prefers to eat it. Even off the ground.

Our dirt

So let’s talk about building a new house, shall we?

Before Christmas, Chris and I signed a contract to build a house with a local builder, hoping it could be finished before this baby is born. And he out of this rental without having to extend our lease. We were told they would try their best to break ground the first week of February.

Fast forward to last week, the first week of March, to the actual ground breaking.

Oh well.

We have already had several design meetings where we leave with lots of maybes. The problem? Although this builder uses very nice materials as their standard, it is not quite our style. So…we’ve ended up having to upgrade lots of things to a more modern style, not a Colorado traditional style. The other problem this presents is that it takes them a while to price things out because they aren’t used to the different materials.

Oh well.

But here’s where the house will go. It’s beautiful and private, but still in a suburban neighborhood within walking distance to the elementary school.

I’m just hoping that this baby can actually come home to our home and not a rental house. It’s just making nesting extremely difficult.

Seen and heard

Even though I just read an article from a mother apologizing to other mothers that she judged before having her own kids in which she expresses her frustration with judgments being passed on others’ parenting styles, I am going to do some serious judging. But I think it is completely warranted.

We took a very cranky (screaming for his binky for about an hour straight) Miles to the play area at the yucky mall (you know, the one with the Cici’s Pizza close by…cravings) yesterday. While we were there, I was sitting next to a relatively young couple with a 4-year-old boy running around. In the course of about 5 minutes, I saw their son hit or kick a little girl about twenty times before his mother called her son (read: screamed his name) over.

She then proceeded to grab her son by the collar, get in his face (nose to nose) and say, “If I see you lay your hands on another child, you will be in so much trouble. Do you understand me?” Of course this stern warning was interrupted when he tried to run away from her, making her grab his collar even tighter and threaten him for not listening. I know this doesn’t sound so bad, but please imagine the most angry voice you can right in your face.

About five minutes after that, the mom turned to the dad to say that she was going to the restroom and then to pick up an application at Hooters (yes, that kind of mall). *Note: when I told Chris this story in the car, he said, “Her? Good luck.”*

About five minutes after that (and about fifteen more hits and kicks from their son), the dad saw him kick the same little girl and called his son (read: screamed his name) over. He then proceeded to grab his son by the collar and pull him nose-to-nose.

Then he said,” What did we tell you about hitting other kids?

Then he full on slapped his son in the face and asked, “Do you like to be hit?” His son answered, “no.” Then the dad slapped him again and said, “If you hit another kid, I’m gonna knock you out. Do you understand me?”

Wow.

Teaching your son to avoid violence by using violence and intimidation.

They must be using a different parenting style than me.