February updates

Not much to report from the Smith household, but thought I'd post some small updates from us.

Our baby boy is growing well and is a very active little guy! We are still working on names...nothing is really standing out to us yet, but we hope to come across something soon! I've had a few more aches and pains w/this pregnancy, which supposedly is normal, so I'm really looking forward to some prenatal massage that my OB wrote a prescription for. :)

Kate is just as busy, curious, & rambunctious as ever. She has so many words right now--although most of them sound so alike it's hard to always know what she's trying to say! She'd been doing a great job with her signs, and last week I was trying to get her to say "please" with her mouth, instead of (or in combination with) signing. I said, "say please, puh, puh, please." And now for please, she says "puh, puh," and doesn't sign it anymore. I feel like Todd and I know this secret language that she speaks and have to interpret for everyone else. :) This week she also went poop & potty on the toilet, after telling me she had to poop! Pretty exciting, although she hasn't had any repeats of it yet. We're not too keen on potty training before this babe is born, but if she's really asking for it, we'll go for it. We'll see how it goes!

We have new gutters on the house (hurray!) and Todd is continuing to make great progress on residing it. It's been a little bit on the back burner as he's had some fun opportunities for other projects, but I know it will eventually get done. We're also having some folks help us with our backyard, starting next week (!!!) so that we have a fun place to play this summer while Todd and I learn to manage a newborn and a toddler. I'm so excited for that project to start!

I have a new knitting project to start on soon. I figured I better start knitting something for babe #2, and whipped out a cute little hat a couple weeks ago. Now I have a basic sweater to do for him. Maybe it will be a good project to work on while watching the upcoming Olympics. :)

I've been also meaning to say thank you to everyone for leaving such lovely comments on our site. I've wanted to send out some personal emails to say thank you and to chat more, but the time just escapes me. But I want you all to know that I appreciate you checking in on us and wishing us well. I hope that your new year has gotten off to a good start and that you are having time for the things you enjoy.

Much love,
Julie

It's a ....

Boy! Bring on the trucks, fire engines, baseballs, and dogs! :) Our ultrasound went great today--everything was measuring appropriately and our baby boy looked perfect.

We're so excited to know that we're having a little boy. Now we can start narrowing our names down and I can clean out all our girl clothes. I'll have to add that to my list in Operation GO (Get Organized). :)

I'll try to get an u/s pic posted soon!

love,
Julie

Pics to enjoy

Life is busy in the Smith household...running after a toddler while pregnant is a great workout! Quiet time is precious these days, so without further ado, enjoy some recent pictures.



Mmm...chocolate!


A favorite thing to do...watching daddy work outside!


This would've been our holiday card picture if we had our act together. You can enjoy it here!


16 weeks pregnant






Check out Kate's stocking. I finished knitting it Dec 24th at 10:45pm!


Mmmm..spaghetti!


Hangin' with Uncle Bill & Grandpa at Thanksgiving

Full of Thanks

This fall is flying by, and it's hard for me to believe it's already Thanksgiving! Our little family of 3 has a lot to be thankful for this year. Kate is moving and shaking everywhere! She's a busy girl, running all over the house, and her language skills are just taking off. She's doing a great job with her signs (we do some baby sign language with her) and she's saying a new word practically every day now. Today's new word was "poo." :) Gotta love that.
I'm enjoying my work at the hospital, and feel like I (finally!) have a reasonable work/life balance. I actually picked up my knitting needles this past week and started a little neck warmer for myself. It may take me 3 months to get it done, but at least I'm knitting!
Todd's been slowly chipping away at the house. He's re-siding it and enclosing our porch by himself. It's tough to find time to work on it now with the weather so miserable out, but it's getting done..and looks fantastic! I'm so impressed with his handiwork. He's also had some time to work on his artwork and currently has some pieces showing at a shop in Kirkland for their artwalk.

But there's one other thing that our little family is most, incredibly thankful for this Thanksgiving...and it is that we are expecting another baby! I am 11 weeks pregnant, due June 13th, 2010. As many of you know, Todd and I had a challenging time getting pregnant with Kate, and are overjoyed that we were able to have a spontaneous pregnancy for baby #2. Kate and her younger sibling will be about 21 months apart. Life will definately be busy, but I think it will be fun to have kids close in age like that. 2 under 2. Yikes! :)

I hope this holiday season finds you well.

Enjoy some recent pics.
Much love,
Julie

Happy First Birthday!

Happy Birthday, our sweet Kate Scarlett!

It is so hard to believe that our little baby is now one year old! She is such a delightful little girl.

She brings us so much joy, love and happiness, and we are excited to see what this next year holds for us.

Love,
Julie

First Fever

Poor baby. She woke up yesterday in the middle of the night crying, and super hot. Her temp was 102.3, and all day stayed between 100-102. We gave her some tylenol and offered lots of water and nursing, especially since she didn't want to eat much. She doesn't have any other symptoms like cold, or GI stuff...just was a bit more fussy and clingy than normal.
Today she woke up crying at 3am and her temp was 104.3. Poor thing was so hot! Still no other symptoms, so I brought her in to the doctor this morning. They made sure her ears were fine, and checked her urine for infection--which came back normal. So he said to keep doing what we were doing--fluids, rest, tylenol as needed for comfort. If she's still got a fever on Thursday, or she gets much worse, then we'll bring her back in.

My poor Kate. We're missing our last new-parents group today, which she loves, but that's just the way it goes. Hopefully she'll start feeling better soon. She has her first day of "preschool" (really just a new co-op playgroup) on Wednesday, but has to be fever free for 24 hours to be able to go. And--her FIRST birthday is also on Wednesday! So we'll see how she does. Obviously, the most important thing is for her to be feeling better!

I'll keep you posted on how she's doing! This is the first time she's really been sick, so Todd and I are feeling a bit anxious, but I think she's going to be just fine.

Love,
Julie

11 months

How is it possible that our little baby is almost 1 years old?! She's becoming more toddler-esque and less baby every day.

She enjoys eating lots of foods now. Macaroni and cheese seems to be her favorite. :) Lots of cheese and yogurt. Egg on toast, tuna sandwich (although I think more ended up on the floor than in her tummy!), and avocado are other foods she's trying. And cheerios. Lots of cheerios. :) She's also had a few sips of a fizzy fruit drink, and a couple bites of cookie and loves those treats! It will be fun to see her with a big piece of cake at her birthday.

She's still close to walking. Spending time standing by herself, and she's taken a couple steps by herself. I thought she'd be walking by her birthday, but we'll see. She's pretty fast crawling and loves it when we chase her around the house.

She's starting signing a little bit too. She does "all done" and every now and then I get the "milk" sign. I think she tried signing "more" this week, but I'm not positive that's what I saw. She loves to point and gets her point across with that most of the time. She points to EVERYTHING and says "s-da" which we think is "what's that?" So cute!

I can't believe that she's almost 1!

Here are some new pictures of her looking super cute (as always!).

Leave us a message when you check out these cute pics!

Lots of love,
Todd, Julie and Kate