Two Pink Lines

Okay so nowadays its more like a digital thermometer that says "pregnant" or "not pregnant" but I did still use the good old fashioned two pink lines kind too. I don't know why when a girl finds out she's pregnant she insists on taking 3 tests, all different brands. But ANYWAYS, that's what I did....and sure enough Baby Vanderhoff #2 is on his or her merry little way! We couldn't be more excited to have another bundle of joy added to our family! Leah is going to be the best big sister! Now it's time to really get cracking on that bedroom addition...

So Tim was out to lunch with an old friend when I decided to take the first test. Just had an inkling like I did when I was pregnant with Leah. Sure enough there was a very faded pink line (hard to see in this picture, but it is there!!) So I took a digital test...pregnant! (I took one when I woke up today too, just to be sure!!)

When he got home, I told Leah "take daddy and show him his present in the kitchen..." (I had put a hamburger bun in the oven just to be silly) "In the kitchen?" he said. "Yes, show daddy what's in the oven!" ..."Babe, why is there a hamburger bun in the.... a BUN in the... oven?!" It took him a minute to get it but he was super excited! He has been wanting another baby since the day Leah popped out.

SO anywho... there you have it. I haven't been to the doctor yet but we are guessing I'm about 4 weeks and due the first week of June! xoxo, Sarah

gymnastics

So today I took Leah to our first Mom & Tots Gymnastics class. I've been looking for some sort of Mommy & Me class to put her in for awhile, because she doesn't get much interaction with other kids, and sometimes I wonder if she thinks she's a dog. ANYWAY so I found this awesome gymnastics class for kids ages 1-3 and we went today to check it out!

She LOVED it. Absolutely. It was so funny to see her interaction with the other kids. It was a "free play" day which basically meant free-for-all with the equipment, games, trampoline, and squishy mat. Her favorite was the squishy mat. That's what I called it anyway... the huge square mat that takes up half the place but it bounces when you step on it. She was running back and forth chasing other kids and throwing balls around and even spinning around with the hula hoop (she spun her whole self around, not just the hoop.. it was too cute!) Definately will take some pictures next week. I'm so excited!

But here's a cute pic to tide you over...

Leah's Milestones

I've been meaning to write this down in a journal for awhile now but I haven't gotten around to it. So while I'm thinking of it, I'm going to make a list of Leah's milestones so I have something to refer to for future kiddos.

6 months - sitting up on her own, bottom 2 teeth came in, started baby food

9 months - stopped breastfeeding, switched to formula

10 months - starting crawling (in hotel in Minnesota for Geoff & Jess' wedding)

11 months - top 2 front teeth, walking with push-walker

12 months - started "people food," still getting bottle at naptime, bedtime, and morning

13 months - started walking independently, switched bottle to 2% milk only at bedtime

14 months - 2 more bottom teeth, only taking a bottle occassionally

15 months - MOLARS (yikes!), put away bottles for good, learning sign language to say "more" and "all done"

17 months - running, saying specific words, climbing

here is one of my favorite pictures of Leah learning to walk with the push-walker... look at that booty sticking out! hahaha

Everyone's been asking me what Leah says these days.. so here's a list straight from her mouth:

• Not counting the usual "mommy," "daddy," "bye bye," "baby"
• "binky" - this is clear as day, and she wants her binky NOW when she says it
• "banky" - this is also very clear that she wants her blanky and if you don't get the message, she will take you by the hand and lead you to her bed where her blanky is and point in her crib and say "banky!"
• "ni-ni" - night night
• "soos" - we keep her shoes in a basket on a table in the entryway, she points to them and says "soos" when she wants to go for a walk, which she calls "caulk"
• "joos" - juice. not to be confused with shoes, they sound very similar, and anything in a sippy cup is called "joos"no matter if it's water or milk
• "mon(long pause)keee" - tim's nickname for leah has always been monkey and now its so funny when she says it because she takes a dramatic pause in between syllables, which she also does for the word outside
• "ow(long dramatic pause)siiiiii" - outside. she usually goes to the back door, trying to turn the key and says "ow siii" and she wants to go now no matter if its still 108 degrees out, and if i tell her its too hot she bangs on the door and says "NO!"
• which brings us to my least favorite of her words.. "NO!" and she says it just like that. very demanding and its usually followed by some sort of hitting motion in the air. sometimes she hits the dogs or my leg, for which she gets a time out
• "no no no no" - this is cute and not like the other NO because she always does 4 in a row and she's talking to the dogs, and it's accompanied by a pointing finger motion at them. she tells them this when they are playing or barking too loud.
• "Jes" - Yes. she also likes this word
• "Bubba" - this is what we call the dog, her best friend, who she chases around with her stroller or car or anything else she can push
• "dog dog" - general term for dogs, she also says "woo woo" as in woof woof
• "mow" - meow. we see a lot of stray cats in the neighborhood on our nightly walks, she just points them out and says "mow"
• "bew but" - belly button. she lifts her shirt up, grabs her belly button and says "bew but," she went a little higher one day and i told her that was called boobies and yes she now says "boobies" every now and then. not something i encourage, even though it was my fault
• "nose" - proceeds to stick her finger as far up her nose (or yours for that matter)
• "eye" - and pokes herself in the eye (or you)
• "luhluh" - i love you. we taught her to wave her fingers like an "L" shape and say i love you, which sounds like "luhluh" but it's the most precious thing ever
• "mow" - more. my mom taught her the sign language for more, so she says "mow" and taps her pointer finger in her other palm. sometimes is very demanding.
• "peas" - please
• "tan to" - thank you, she also does the sign for this

This is all I can think of right now, but she's learning new words every day!

Roseola... not so rosy!

So on Friday, Leah woke up from her nap with a 102 fever. Her fever continued to go up and down throughout the night but was pretty manageable with Tylenol. I was hoping it was just a 24 hour thing and she woke up the next day still a little warm but only with a 99 fever and she was playing fine. Since she was acting better, I decided to take her to Tim's cousin's little boy's birthday party at ChuckECheese and see how she managed. Well I knew something was wrong because she didn't want to play, and she fell asleep pretty quickly in my arms so I thought I should get her home.

When I got home, her fever had spiked up to 103 and when Tim got home from work (he was teaching at the college that day), we decided to take her to PrimeCare once her fever hit 104.2 and I started freaking out.

PrimeCare was pretty useless.. they told me it was probably a UTI and to manage it with Tylenol or take her to the Emergency Room if it got worse or she started having seizures. "That'll be $20 copay for our useless information." Thanks. UGH!

Poor baby couldn't eat or sleep. All she wanted to do was lay on the couch or lay on my chest with her sippy full of juice (the only thing i could get her to eat/drink!!)

On Sunday, the fever was still pretty high..102 or so, but the Tylenol was making her throw up. She threw up 3 times on Sunday. It was pretty miserable and there's nothing that makes you feel more useless than having a sick baby that you can't fix. We sat on the couch all day on Sunday (when we weren't in and out of the bathtub) with her blanky. I sat there and stared at my kitchen table collecting dust and the dishes piling up on the sink and thought to myself "there's nothing more important than sitting here holding my baby girl until she feels better."

She went to bed with a 99 fever (I felt a little better about this) and woke up on Monday feeling much better and no fever. We took her to the pediatrician anyway and she said it was probably just a virus or something. As we were leaving, she goes... "oh, there's one more thing it could be.... there's a virus called Roseola where the only symptom is fever and sometimes seizures and it ends with a bright red rash all over and that's when you know it's over, so if she gets a rash, that's what it is!"

And sure enoough... Monday night we were at Walmart and as I put her in the cart, I noticed these bright red bumps appearing all over the side of Leah's face and it was all over her back and neck and chest. We thought, PHEW, that's what it was! It would sure be nice if the rash would appear FIRST so you wouldn't be freaking out the whole time but oh well. She's all better now and we survived our first "real" sickness.

A Blog is Born

Hey guys. I created this blog to share news from out here in the Wild Wild West. We miss all of our family out there in Maryland so this is an easy way you guys can keep track of us! Our little girl is growing so fast, and we don't want you to miss a moment! Can you believe she'll be 18 months soon? Happy reading....