While I’m sitting here having cookies and milk, I’ll go ahead and tell you that the doctor appointment went well today. Despite my thickening waist, I haven’t gained any weight, and my blood pressure was perfect. Because it’s still too early to hear the heartbeat using a doppler, we actually got to see Tater Two again. And man was he active! We saw flailing arms and hiccups. Looks like Mallory will have a dance partner…in a couple of years. So everything looks good.
As a follow up to the last post, Mallory did have an ear infection. Absolutely crazy. She lost her tube in her right ear on 2/28 (I know that because I found it). Less than a month later, she already had an ear infection. The left ear still has its tube. We go to the ENT on Friday. We’ll see what he says.
Unfortunately, the worst result of the ear infection was a toddler who no longer wanted to sleep in her bed. And it happened so quickly. One night of putting her in the bed with us just to get some rest and she was ruined. Last Tuesday night, I spent about 45 minutes just trying to get her to go to sleep. I let her cry for a while (stubbornness…she gets that from her dad). Then, I went back in and comforted her without picking her up. I ended up just sitting and rocking in the chair until she fell asleep in her bed. After a week of tapering down our effort, she is finally back to going to bed like the Mallory we know and love…but we still can’t close her door. It causes much screaming. That should be interesting tomorrow night during small group.
On the positive side, just sitting and rocking in the quiet of her room, I felt Tater Two move. That was cool. At this point, it’s still hard to distinguish between him and tummy rumblings, but that one was definitely baby.
I had my first craving this week. Much to Kylie’s chagrin, it was not for King Cake (we still have over 6 months so there’s plenty of time for that). It was mustard. Don’t judge. You don’t get to pick your cravings. So I went to the grocery store to get hot dogs and chili fixings…I left with $150 worth of stuff. At one point, I was on the phone with Johnathan and I mentioned fish sticks, cocktail sauce and popcorn shrimp. He said, “Are you hungry?!” I said, “Well, I wouldn’t have thought so but…maybe.” We did have hot dogs and Frito pies for dinner so I got my mustard fix.
Kylie finally went to the doctor for her ankle. The verdict? She sprained it pretty good. More ice. More ibuprofen. More rest. No Lacrosse…for at least another week. As I said before, she is going out of town during Spring Break, so that should mean even more rest. That will be good.
Saturday was an interesting day to say the least. Johnathan went to help some friends tile their kitchen. Mallory and I cleaned house. She was all over the place. At one point, she literally dove on Cole. The unfortunate thing was that he was lying next to the bed. When she landed on him, the right side of her face smacked (rather loudly) on the wooden bed rail that is hidden by a dust ruffle. She has a nice shiner. I promise to get the picture up as soon as possible.
With the title of this blog, I promised a few firsts. I’ll leave you with this one. Mallory is starting to show a lot of interest in using the potty. She tries to open the door while you’re in there, and she has even asked to sit on the toilet a couple of times. Well, when you’re home alone with a toddler, locking yourself in a bathroom to take care of business is just not possible. What do I get to put in Mallory’s book as her first real sentence? “Mommy make poopy.” Fantastic. :)

I’ll go ahead an admit up front that I did not plan to post tonight. I logged on to look at my first trimester posts from Mallory because I could swear that I feel worse this time. Wrong. But I figured that while I was here I would give an update.
I knew that Johnathan put up the ultrasound picture. What I didn’t know was that he didn’t follow the instructions to actually post about the doctor appointment. Men. So here’s the skinny. We measured right on track (6 weeks and 5 days). It was really cool to see the heartbeat. My old doctor didn’t have an ultrasound machine so we didn’t get a heartbeat confirmation until the 10th or 11th week for Mallory. I can also say what a relief it was to see that little flashing light and to know that he/she was in the right place. I did have a cyst, which she said was normal, but we’ll keep an eye on it. That may translate to more ultrasounds. Cool! We go back on the 30th. I promise that I will personally let you know how it goes…since apparently my husband won’t. :)
Now, back to why I’m on the site tonight. Just like with Mallory, no puking. I just really feel like it. I am taking B6, as recommended by my doctor and multiple websites, but I don’t know that it’s helping. Admittedly, I’m scared to stop taking it for fear that it actually is helping, and I just don’t know how bad I could feel. What is different from Mallory is that I have found no aversions yet. Still loving my coffee (only one cup a day, don’t wig out on me). And although the thought of chicken is kind of gross, I haven’t had any trouble eating it yet. I read that I had trouble with proteins (totally forgot that I did protein shakes the first time around), but no such problem this time. I am exhausted, of course. There has been one incident of me making myself stay up until 8:30. It’s 8:45 right now. Once I’m done here, I’m done for the night.
My belly is getting bigger. I’m at that awkward stage where I’m not ready for maternity pants (yes, I have tried them), but my normal pants are really uncomfortable by the end of the day. I look forward the maternity clothes…mostly because I want people to know that I’m pregnant not just “packing on a few extra pounds”.
Kylie is doing well. She is getting a serious case of senior-itis. Let me just say that it’s a good thing she doesn’t need this math to graduate. :) She did score high enough on the ACT to get the scholarship and has been notified of a state grant that she was approved for. It seems like things are falling into place. She decided not to play tennis this year for some reason, but she picked up lacross in its place. We went to watch her play on Saturday, but she had already rolled her ankle and was sidelined with an ice pack by the time we got there. Nice big knot on the outside of her ankle. She’s getting around on it fine (sometimes better than others). And she is going to go see her family for Spring Break. Hopefully, that will be a good, fun trip for her.
Mallory is a mess. She’s getting so grown up…and is very opinionated. She’s very shy though. Once she has been around someone for a few minutes, she’s fine. But that initial greeting is difficult because she wants to be held and bury her face in your neck. Not really sure what to do about that. Between day care, church nursery and small group meetings at our house, she gets plenty of socialization. Maybe she’ll just grown out of it. Johnathan put her to bed tonight. She has a fever so we’ll be calling the doctor in the morning. I found one of her tubes recently, so I know she has lost at least one. I wouldn’t doubt if we are dealing with an ear infection. At least it’s March and the cold season is about over.
Johnathan worked really hard in the yard this weekend. We got an awesome deal on trees a couple of weeks ago so we bought 12 (seriously good deal). They were delivered on Friday. After all of our running around on Saturday, he mowed, Kylie and I weeded the flower beds, Kylie spread the mulch and Johnathan planted 3 trees. Since I’m sure you guys can do simple math, that left 9 trees to plant after church today. But he got it done. The only casualty was the skin on his forehead…sunburn.

I thought I’d take a moment to share Baby Brandon’s first portrait. Hope you enjoy…

Just when you think they’re not paying attention…
Tonight, Mallory was in the bathtub. I brushed her teeth, which normally consists of me brushing her teeth with one toothbrush and her following that up with another toothbrush. Well, everything was going per usual. I had finished cleaning her teeth, but she was still “brushing” her teeth. Then, she took the toothbrush out of her mouth, leaned forward and hacked (that is the best way I can explain it). I thought at first that she had gagged herself. Then, she looked up at me, brushed again, and hacked again. This time it hit me. She was “spitting”! lol I laughed so hard. She has watched us brush our teeth in the morning. Mommy and Daddy spit. She kept repeating the process. And every time she did, she looked up at me for approval and giggled. I cheered, clapped and laughed.
No update on the pregnancy. I’m just tired. Really tired…and grumpy if you ask Johnathan. No morning sickness yet. We go to the doctor for the first time on the 2nd. Of course, we’ll know a lot more then.
Here’s one for ya. As I am sitting here writing this, Kylie has asked if she can go to an event that starts at midnight…and goes until about 4 am. (sigh) Folks, I can’t make this stuff up.

First, I would like to apologize for not blogging more often. If you remember correctly, this blog was my husband’s big idea. When was the last time HE blogged? Exactly my point. Second, I would like to add this disclaimer that my blogging has absolutely nothing to do with my mom’s friend, Linda Smith, giving me smack about it. As evidenced by my history, I will blog all on my own”¦eventually. (Don’t start with me, I’m a busy person. Keep in mind that it takes a lot longer to write this stuff than it does to read it”¦yeah, it’s a painful process to be this amusing.)

When Johnathan and I were planning to get married, we talked about the number of kids we wanted. He said, “12”. I said, “Find someone else to marry.” Eventually, using negotiation skills that would put Congress to shame, we landed on 2. Really, we arrived at that number based on the desire to maintain a man-to-man defense. Of course, we did not anticipate having Kylie, but she doesn’t really fit that equation. She pretty much takes care of herself. Actually, she helps.
We also wanted our two children fairly close together, maybe about 2 years. So when Mallory turned 1, we decided to start “trying”. Mallory only took about 5 months so I figured it would take about the same amount of time. (If you’re calculating, and you know that Mallory’s birthday is in May, that was about 10 months ago.) Apparently, God didn’t get my two-years-apart requirement, or He did and just ignored it. It’s like He has His own agenda or something. If you know me at all, you know that I was consumed for months”¦especially when I realized that it wasn’t going to happen just like that. At some point, a friend of mine pointed out that Kylie is graduating in May and going to college in August. Being very pregnant or having a newborn at those points in time would be difficult. Yeah, but I had a plan. Johnathan and I went round and round, and we finally decided to just take it easy. I kept charting to be armed with the knowledge, but I stopped the predictor kits and stuff like that. However, a lax attitude didn’t help us reach our goal.

My doctor that delivered Mallory is no longer delivering babies. She advised me to pick a new one since we were trying to get pregnant. Most women will understand this; I put that off for a couple of months. I just hate picking a new doctor”¦more specifically THAT doctor. After much investigation, indecisiveness, obsessing (it is me after all) and canceling at least one appointment, I went to see my new doctor at the end of January. Because I am over 35 (nearly geriatric in fertility-world), and we have been trying for over 6 months, it was time to help the process. She said, “If it doesn’t happen this month, we will try Clomid.” Yep, the “C” word. I know what you’re thinking, because I did too. That word conjures up all kinds of fears. “Am I going to have 6 babies…7 babies…8 babies”¦a whole stinking litter???!!! God! Please, I beg you! I think Johnathan was really kidding when he said 12!” My doctor assured me that the low dosage we would try would only bring 5% chance of multiples, and only 5% of that 5% (bringing the total to .25%) would have more than two babies at once. Whew. I was able to refrain from depositing my breakfast on her shoes.
I called Johnathan as I left her office. After a long pause at the mention of the “C”-word, I told him, “Twins wouldn’t kill us”¦triplets might.” To which he retorted, “Six and your doctor is contributing to the fund.” So we resolved to give it our best effort this month. I think he called it “the old college try”. (I tried to conjure up a witty quip here, but nothing that came to mind seemed even remotely appropriate so I’ll just leave it alone.) I will also spare you the gory details.

Now, if you know anything about charting while you’re TTC ( that’s Trying To Conceive for those of you who have never spent hours on end surfing and reading all of the websites for the brave many who attempt this journey), you know than in the middle of the month, there should be a temperature rise. If not, you don’t have a chance of getting pregnant because there was no egg released. Then, at the end of the month, more often than not, there is a temperature dip, and you get additional proof that you indeed are not pregnant. This month, I got the temperature rise. I also got a positive on the ovulation predictor kit. And, thanks to the “old college try”, things seemed to be timed perfectly. But even with all of that, there is really only about a 20% chance that a pregnancy will occur. For late bloomers like me, the chances are even lower. The point between the temperature rise and the end of the month is called the “two-week wait”. There are websites where women form support groups for this time period. You’ve done all you can. Now, all you can do is wait. It’s agonizing. It’s even worse than the wait I’m putting you through to get to the end of this story. ;)

I expected the temperature dip Tuesday morning. The night before, I had talked to Johnathan about testing on Tuesday. He asked me if there was a chance of a negative. Yes, there was. It was quite possible that, even if I was pregnant, I wasn’t producing enough hCG (pregnancy hormone) to register on a test. But we decided to give it a shot, provided I had evidence that it was possible. My typical routine is ““ hit the snooze, stick the thermometer in my mouth, prop my hand on it in some way to keep it from falling out of my mouth and go back to sleep until it beeps. Of course, that three minutes felt longer than the two-week wait”¦my temperature was still up. I jumped out of bed and went into the bathroom. I don’t think I have ever been so anxious to pee in a cup. I went with a digital test, partly because there is no ambiguity (“pregnant” versus “not pregnant”) and partly because that is all I had in my drawer. Then, that three minutes took forever. It said, “Pregnant” ;) Right about that time, the snooze period was over and the alarm started screaming like a banshee. Johnathan rolled over, cracked an eye open and asked what I was doing. I said, “Why don’t you see for yourself?” And I showed him the test and he just smiled. I had to wait until later when he was actually out of bed to get the “man dance”, but I could tell that he was excited.

As I am sure this one will be quite different from the last one for many reasons, we will try our best to keep you all informed.

Quick update on the girls. Kylie just took the ACT for the third time. All she needs is one more point to get the Hope Scholarship so cross your fingers. Oh, and she wrecked another car. I don’t know if it’s an indication of how bad a driver she is or how cheap our cars are because this one was totaled too. It really wasn’t a bad wreck. And it wasn’t her fault at all. A guy cut in front of her. But the airbags deployed and the front end was smashed pretty good. However, this was actually a blessing in disguise. Her car has been broken down since before Thanksgiving. There was never really a big push to get it fixed because we had an extra car that she could drive. The idea was to get hers fixed and sell the one she was driving temporarily. The insurance company gave us more for the car than we would have listed it for, so Johnathan got to upgrade the size of the new TV he was purchasing at the time (I’ll let him tell you about that). For the time being, she is driving Johnathan’s car, and he is driving a friend’s car until he and this friend can find the time to work on Kylie’s car.

What can I say about Mallory? There’s so much, I really don’t know where to start. She is the cutest thing ever. Prissy beyond belief. She has tons of words. She hands me broken crayons (aka “cowors”) and says “bwoke”. She loves shoes. ;) And books. Something that has been really fun, for me at least, is her starting to put words together. I was so excited when she said, “Hi, Daddy” for the first time. She says, “Bye Cole” every morning after giving him his “cheet” (treat). The other day, I told her Kylie was leaving and she said, “Bye, Kai” even though she couldn’t see Kylie, who was already in her car and pulling out of the garage. But just like any other child her age, she has picked up the all time favorite toddler word. A while back, she was “reading” to me as I changed her diaper. When I was done, I tickled her ribs with my nose. She laughed hysterically, went back to her book, then looked at me, pointed her finger and said, “no”. Ah, yes. Attitude.

We’re baaacckkkk!! Do not give us a hard time. We’re not even sure there’s anyone checking this anymore.

It’s been so long now, that I can’t remember everything that has happened since I last blogged. Mallory is trying to talk more and more. She’s still along way from creating her first acceptance speech, but she is making progress. At least now, she tries to imitate you. She loves to say “dog”, even though it’s hard to distinguish from “da” (a.k.a. “dada”). But that’s okay. I am “mama” but only when she really, really wants something, and it’s hard to tell the difference between “mama” and “mine”. Yeah, she learned that one at daycare. Now, everything belongs to her. If you don’t believe it, just ask her.

She won’t say “more” or “eat”, but she will use the signs for those together to let us know she wants more food. This comes from an understanding that “more” doesn’t just apply to food anymore. But the cutest thing so far has to be “ah bah””¦which means “all done”. She loves to say that.

At one point, Kylie decided that she didn’t want to be called “kaka””¦mostly because Johnathan laughed at her being “poop”. Instead, we started calling her “lala”. Unfortunately, much to Kylie’s dismay, Mallory has learned her “k” sound before her “l” sound”¦so she is “kaka” anyway. ;) Ah, this too shall pass. I think Kylie is okay with it, as long as she calls her something. Also, she is trying to distinguish between “mama” and “mimi” and is doing well so far.

Kylie is starting to apply to colleges. She is taking an ACT prep class to help her get a couple more points when she takes it again. That will give her a state scholarship. I think she is applying to 5 schools. It’s exciting and scary at the same time ““ exciting for her, and scary for me. I’m just glad to see her get serious about it.

Last night, we went to her last band competition. They have one more this month, but she can’t go because it’s the same day as the ACT test”¦and her parental units have deemed that more important since she has to do all of her paperwork before the middle of November. I think she has mixed feelings. She seems to be all excited when band starts each year, but then she burns out about halfway through the season. They have a couple more football games, so she’s not completely done. But no more Saturday marathons. Maybe she’ll use that extra time to study math”¦yeah, right.

Sorry, folks. That’s all I have for today (gotta go make dinner). I have uploaded new pictures and videos for your viewing pleasure. There are some in Kylie’s folder as well as Mallory’s (14, 15 and 16 months). Wait till you see the “big girl” slide. Who says mommy’s not tackling her fears?

Let us know you’re still visiting. It’s easier to get motivated if we know someone cares. sniff, sniff

My mom came for a visit last week. She and Mallory had some great bonding time. Because Johnathan works near the airport, he retains the dubious honor of picking mom up at the airport. In the spirit of “dividing and conquering”, I asked them to pick Mallory up from daycare, while I ran a couple of errands. So mom got to see toddlers in their natural environment. Gotta tell ya – that is a fun sight. Then, I worked from home one day. Mom got to chase Mallory around while I attended conference calls. It was all she could do to keep little hands from banging on the office doors.

On Saturday, Kylie’s band had a mini-camp at the school. They take a break from 12:00 to 1:30. Parents come and set up tables of food so the kids walk around just taking whatever they want. It’s like one big tailgating event where everyone shares. It’s great. Mom was glad to be here for that. And Mallory had a blast. We have video of her running all over the place and playing with LaLa (a.k.a. “Kylie”). Those two had so much fun playing with the wagon and walking on the track.

Mallory is starting to pick up words now, slowly but surely. Good thing, because we go to the doctor tomorrow morning. She can say “hi”, “duck” and “dog”. I think she is trying to say “shoes” but it sounds nothing like “shoes”. (By the way, she is totally my daughter; she loves her shoes. Daddy is already starting a shoe fund for the teenage years.) She says some goobly gook sometimes and looks at you like, “Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?” The word she uses most though is “up”. There’s no “p” sound at the end, but you absolutely know what she means because she stands at your feet, reaches her little arms up, opens her mouth wide and says, “U..U..U..U..U”¦” until you pick her up. Also, she is really starting to come along with her sign language. She can do “eat”, “more”, “milk””¦and “I want”, which is really just reaching out and squeezing her hands at everything”¦and saying “that”. ;) But the most fun one is something that mom taught her this weekend ““ “uh oh”. Now, when she drops something she says, “uh oh”. Last night, she dropped her fork. Of course, as usual, we just said, “You dropped it, you don’t get it back.” But then she said, “Uh oh.” Fun stuff. Johnathan relented and handed her the fork. But then she gave him the funniest look; my kingdom for a video camera that captures all. She cut her eyes at him as if to say “eat stuff”. I think she already knows that she has her daddy wrapped.

She can now show you her nose, ears, eyes and mouth. She can brush her hair and do her “frog face” for you. She can blow you kisses, give you kisses (with lots of slobber) and wave bye. Last night, she found her belly button while she was in the tub. I started teaching her “toes” and pointing out the difference between “nose”and “toes”. That one might take a little longer”¦but she kept pointing her toes at me to play with them. Who could resist that? We did “Little Piggies”. She would squeal with delight until we got to the little piggy that had roast beef”. . .maybe she’ll be a vegetarian.

There are so many things I am learning. I knew that Mallory would be a little person and have her own personality”¦but I was totally not expecting it at 14 months. She has the most impish little grin when she is about to do something that she knows you don’t want her to do. She tests me when I tell her not to do something”¦but she can already tell when I’m really serious. Johnathan got on to her last night for doing something”¦all it really took was a couple of words and a stern look. She cried. Hopefully, that means that punishment will be less necessary when she gets older. (Yes, I’ll hold on to that hope, thank you very much.) When he picked her up at daycare yesterday, her actions said, “Hey, dad. I’m really happy to see you, but I have these Goldfish crackers over here that I would like to finish before we leave. Thanks.” I don’t think it hurt his feelings too badly that she was having trouble prioritizing him over food”¦see, I told you she’s my daughter. ;)

A couple kind of funny stories to tell, but I’ll keep them short. Yesterday I was trying to get out of the house fairly quickly. I put Mallory’s juice cups in her bag and sat it by the back door for Angie. As I’m walking out the door, I see Mallory head over to the bag. I paused, because I wanted to make sure she didn’t get into something she shouldn’t be getting into, but laughed when she picked up the straps and put them over her shoulder, and the proceeded to carry/drag the bag behind her toward the front door. Just an example of the little stuff that she picks up on and then tries to immitate.

Then, this morning I get a call from Angie while I’m driving in. I’ve been having to get to work earlier lately (and sometimes stay later) so we haven’t been car pooling. She dropped Mallory off and while she was talking to Ms. Rita (Mallory’s teacher) she noticed that Mallory was walking around with a basketball. A few minutes later, she heard a big bonk, and turned around to see that Mallory had apparently fallen and bumped her head on the doorway that separates the “sleeping quarters” from the play area. At this point, any normal person would have expected screams to errupt, but Angie just asked Mallory if she was ok, and after a few grumbles (maybe it’s ok that she doesn’t have too many words right now), she got up and continued playing. I haven’t seen her yet, but Angie said she’ll probably have a place right in the middle of her forehead. I think we have reached the point where pictues will no longer be clear of blemishes.

BTW… her pictures came back. Just let us know when you are stopping by to see them. :)

The company that I work for, Willis, puts together a team to participate in the Heart Associations annual Heart Walk in Nashville. We are consistently second place (though currently third this year) in the team fundraising, which is great considering that the #1 team is from Vanderbilt and get’s a lot of big corporate donations.

Last year, Angie, Mom and I walked with Mallory and had a great time. I hope Kylie is able to come this year, but it’s September 27th, which is during Marching Band season. Our team lead at Willis has a daughter with DiGeorge Syndrome which has caused her even just in the last year to have a heart valve replaced. She was a trooper. If you are interested, you can see more about what she (and the family) went through on their blog at http://courtneyheart.blogspot.com/.

I’d like to ask you to consider sponsoring our walk this year. Donations of $25 or more can be given through the website below. If you would like to give less or mail a check, please feel free to send it to me and made payable to the American Heart Association. Anything you might give would be sincerely appreciated and will go directly to the AHA.

Here’s the link: Click here for my page

Here is a link to our team page:
Click here for the team page