my child...

...is a stasher.

I know. It's hard to swallow. But the first step to fixing something is acknowledging there is a problem. It began with cell phones and remotes in the couch cushions, hot dogs in his pockets, and sippy cups in the bathtub. It escalated rather quickly to social security cards and non-farm objects in the silo of his barn.

But most recently, the worst has happened; 

 he stashed our digital camera in the dirty clothes basket. 

I dumped the load of dirty clothes straight from the basket to the washer, as I always do, and began the load. I went about my business for the next 45 minutes and returned to the washer to make the transport. Upon transporting, I noticed a hard "clink" when I pulled out a sweatshirt. I looked in and I saw it. Just, sitting there. All I could say was a choice 4-letter word. And call Sean:

"Sean, I found the camera."

"Good! I knew it would turn up--and you thought he threw it in the garbage."

(did I forget to mention Oliver threw my wallet in the trash a month ago, never to be found again?)

"Well, you're right about that. He threw it in the dirty clothes."

"Good thing you found it before you put them in."

"Uh...yeah. I found it as I was switching loads."

"[insert choice 4-letter word]. We'll talk about it when I get home."

You want to know the worst part? There were 2 smudges on the back screen I tried everything to get off, all to no avail. The smudges are finally gone.

Go Bruins!

...I suck at updating this thing lately.

Main reason: SO MUCH has been going on that I have found myself to be pretty much useless in matters other then taking care of myself (not really--I did finally wash my hair, though) and taking care of Oliver (with lots of help from Sean). I need to blog about Mexico, pregnancy, Easter, finishing school, Oliver, and lots of other schtuff. But I wanted to do a quick update to announce where we're going to law school.

....drum roll please....

UCLA, UCLA, UCLA!

There it is--UCLA! We are so excited. Sean got a great scholarship offer there and we decided it was the best decision for our family. We were holding out to hear back from Stanford--which we finally did--and it was a wait list (which is still pretty awesome). We move at the end of July--and yes, I'll have a brand-new baby (not even a month old) when we move. 

That's going to be really awesome.

curious as to where I've been?

here's a teeny taste:

(running around like he's on crack)

the whole gang

28 weeks

  (my SMIL made me look at the ocean. apparently I don't know how to look normal):

Akumal, Mexico!

*Please take note of my feet and ankles--totally awesome.

50!

I reached 50 posts much quicker with this blog than our original one.

I must love this one more.
And I sure wish I had something more interesting to say, but alas...

...I do not.

So, we spent March 16-21st in Virginia and D.C. (did you know that?). Sean got into (and got scholarships) to both University of Virginia and Georgetown, so we figured we would use our free Southwest flights and the $400 travel subsidy UVA was offering and make a little trip out of it. As soon as we get all the pictures from Lisa (who met us there), I will post pictures and info from that trip. Bottom-line: Virginia is beautiful.

Per usual, I can't find our camera cord. I'm guessing it's somewhere close to my wallet that is also missing.

Oliver thinks it's his business to hide things.

Perhaps I should try and find it before we leave for Mexico on Friday...

Anyway, Oliver had his 15-month appointment last week and here are his stats:

Height: 35"-100th+ percentile!

Weight: 28 pounds--88th percentile.

Head: 19"-80th percentile. 

His head has FINALLY tapered off on growing. In fact, it hasn't grown at all since his 12-month appointment, and only 1/4" from his 9-month. Was his head really that huge back then?

He absolutely looks like he's thinning out. He's sorta ripped, actually. 18-month pants are about 2 inches too short, so we have him in 24-month and 2T clothes. My little (huge) precious.

I'm sorry I don't have pictures. 

I hate blog updates without pictures.

Did I mention I'm 27 weeks today? 

I know. Don't ask me how we're already to that point.

TIME, PLEASE SLOW DOWN.

:-)

25 weeks

We never get it right on the first try (probably because I was tucking everything in):

Much better:

kiddo #2 update & new stroller!

Little lady: Well, I am almost 25 weeks. What?! I know--it's going by really fast. It's funny: with your first, you want the pregnancy to go by quick and you want them to come as early as is safe and blahblahblah. With the second (or at least that's how it is for me), I'm slightly terrified I only have 15 weeks left. I want her to stay in as long as she wants (within reason--don't you get any ideas, lady).

How am I feeling? I started to feel much better around week 18. I haven't taken any phenergan since then (hallelujah)! My skin is much better than it was with Oliver at this same time (I know, I totally complained about it being awful 10 weeks or so ago...), which is a nice bonus. I have gained about 10 pounds to date. I remember my largest weight gain with Oliver was between weeks 24-28 (freaking 7 pounds). I'm not entirely optimistic this pregnancy will be much different.

How am I measuring? My uterus is consistently measuring 3 weeks ahead and has been since week 16. She's measuring about a week ahead. It makes me laugh a little when people (who now recognize I am pregnant) will ask when I'm due and are shocked because I'm so small. I think people forget that I'm 6'2. I finally have the "roundness" of a pregnant belly instead of the dumpiness. I'll post a picture in a few days.

I think that's about it! We are so excited to have a girl. We have a list of about 10 names but as soon as we narrow it down to 3 or 4, I'll post them for all y'alls input. I always hate it when people say, "We know the name but we're keeping it secret until we have the baby!" Nooo! I am ADD way too bad to do that. Most are worried someone will steal their name. Copying (or imitation or whatever) is the most sincere form of flattery! However, I have lots of friends who fall into the "we aren't announcing the name" category, and I still love them. :-)

OH! We made our first (huge) baby purchase--behold:

The Britax B-Ready (picture it in black).

After pouring through reviews AND going and trying out my top 3 with Oliver (Phil&Teds, City Jogger, and Kolcraft Contours), this won in a landslide (and it's not just because I'm a huge fan of Britax. So there).

Here's why:

1) It's immediately compatible with our infant car seat, but for now we just put Oliver in the main seat.

2.) The main seat holds up to 55 pounds and the second seat, 35.

(Phil&Teds--main seat 44 pounds, second seat 33)

(Baby Jogger--both seats were 45 pounds--but good luck trying to get your 3 or 4 year old to be the one sitting underneath (with practically ZERO legroom, mind you)

3.) MUCH more leg room for the baby underneath (trust me on this one) and very adequate space for the diaper bag, too--plus, there is a zipper access under the main seat to make it even easier to access.

4.) Both seats come standard with very adequate sun shades, whereas (unless you purchased the upgraded models of the P&T, you had to pay additional for the visors).

5.) The handle bar. I know that sounds weird, but when you and your husband are huge like us, we absolutely needed a stroller that we wouldn't have to hunch over to push.

6.) BOTH seats have 3 recline positions!

7.) It compactly folds with BOTH seats still attached.

7.) Lastly (I'm tired of writing): it navigates akin to a hot knife through butter. I mean, so smooth.

Now, no stroller is perfect, so here are a few things I don't like so much:

1.) When it's folded, there isn't really a convenient place to grab it and pick it up.

2.) Well, I guess there is just one thing I don't like.

Anyway, we have been saving for this since we found out we were pregnant and I was patiently waiting for there to be a promotion on some of the doubles we were looking at. So, March 1st rolls around and Britax is doing a "Ride Free" event, where if you purchase the B-Ready you can pick either an infant car seat, bassinet, or second seat FREE! Hello, savings of $150-$230! Plus, I found it for an additional 20% off. 

Booya.

To P&T's credit, they are offering a similar promotion 

(like I said before--see previous post--imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.

*Click here to see the beast in action*

kiddo #1 update

I realized I haven't documented recent happenings with the babes, so here ya go:

Oliver: He'll be 15-months on the 14th! He is growing like crazy and rapidly developing quite the attitude (I'll explain more in a bit). He still only says 'mama' and 'dada' or just 'dad' and 'ddd' (for Dora) but occasionally he'll say 'bababa' which can be any of the following: blanky, binky, bottle, ball--most likely ball. Speaking of balls, he is obsessed with them. If he sees on on the t.v. or in a picture, he'll point and say 'bababa' and go look for one of his own--and don't worry, we keep his fascination fully stocked by supplying roughly 15 different types of balls around the house. We think it's so precious when he does that. In addition, he loves playing basketball on his mini-hoop in his room AND on the big hoop out back (*see pictures below). 

We have been wondering when he was going to start saying more words since he's said those since he was 8 months. We started to get a tad concerned that maybe his lack of a large vocabulary could be related to slow comprehension (I know, crazy first-time mom, right?). Then randomly we noticed that when we talked about something he would go get it including his binky, blanky, sippy cup, diaper, phone, and book! We have been very happy with how that is going.

Currently, he is battling a nasty, non-contagious, (according to our doc) viral cough on top of pushing 4 molars through. I didn't think to look or feel--because the faucet-nose, fever, and gnawing on his fingers wasn't a dead giveaway?? (mom of the year, again)--until after we left the doctor. The top 2 had broken through and the bottom two were right on the surface. Poor baby.

*Last thing: this attitude thing. Clearly, he's spicy like his mom. We are trying new methods when he reaches out and bats at us (I'll be honest: Sean and him "play fight" a lot and they laugh when they do, so he hits and thinks it's funny). He does it to be funny AND when he's angry. Oh, brother. I'll keep you posted on how our "methods" work out.

*Oliver and the big hoop!

(please ignore his exceptionally goofy hair)

And a little video of us laughing at him:

do you suppose...

...our camera flash may be a too little bright?

Evidence:

california trip!

A couple of weeks ago we set off on a southern California adventure.

L.A. more specifically.

Why, you ask?

It has been a long while since I mentioned anything about law schools and where we'll end up in a few, short months. 

Here are the top contenders (mind you, we still have yet to hear from Stanford or NYU):

UCLA

University of Virginia

University of Michigan

Sean got into those 3 (obviously) plus Duke, Georgetown, UW. He even got scholarship offers to the majority of them! 

I'm so proud :-)

Anyway, back to California. UCLA offered us a travel reimbursement if we wanted to come out for Sean to take a visit at the school, meet some current law students, and possibly meet with dean of admissions. 

Um, escaping the nasty cold of Utah? Yes, please.

But the absolute BEST part of this trip was our totally awesome and wonderful family met us down there!

(Well, a small group of them).

Matt, Shantele, and the twinkies. I just love them all so much.

They rented a villa on the beach.

We went to Hollywood.

We followed the grilled cheese truck--it was delectable.

A day at Disneyland (my favorite place ever).

We visited well into the night, every night.

We're so lucky.

Here are some pictures!

little lady

We had our main ultrasound Tuesday (@ 23 weeks) and got some awesome shots of little lady!

She's measuring almost a week ahead (not a big deal).

She's still breech (transverse, in fact), and has been since 14 weeks...

...so, her head is a little (ok, a lot) oblong.

Her legs are measuring the biggest! You say "well, obviously," to which I reply: I have a husband who has short-ish legs and Oliver's legs in ultrasounds were always the shortest measurement. 

So, yipee!

Also, the best/weirdest/creepiest part of the whole thing was her face was staring straight at the doppler. 

I mean, really creepy-like.

Here she is (picture overload)!

the patented McDonalds "m" (thanks, ultrasound tech guy)

 see?!

 she's got such an attitude already.

 underside of her nose and lips!!

 open mouth with her HUGE hand in the bottom-right corner

 face!

 and...there's her buttcheeks. haha! her butt is at the top and those are her feet crossed at the bottom

 always staring with her eyes wide-open

And...a surprise 3-D! The tech said he normally wouldn't do that at 23 weeks, but because she was just staring at the doppler, he thought he would try. He was really happy with how un-alien-like she looks: