What's in a Name?

Yep, you read it right! We've decided on a name for our new little baby girl. I actually thought this wouldn't happen until MUCH later in the pregnancy. Patrick refused to even consider names before we knew the sex. I, of course, wanted to talk about boy and girl name possibilities before when actually knew what we were having. But Patrick and his ever practical self ix-nayed any name discussions prior to week 20. Party pooper, right?

Well, then week 20 came, we found out it was a girl, and we still didn't really talk about it. A few weeks ago, I started forcing name conversations when he couldn't escape- like driving in the car, eating dinner at a restaurant, etc. He didn't like anything I suggested- but, of course, didn't have any real suggestions of his own! So, I had thrown a few names out there as my top 3 or so- he poo-pooed all of them for one reason or another!

Then, a few days later, he text me: "I like ____ _____. Gave it some thought today." It happened to be one of my top TWO!! So, we took a day or two to really consider it and it felt right. We finally settled on a pretty little girl name.

So, what is it?? Well....are any of you familiar with a little vampire lover named Bella? :) Yep, we're totally going there. Her name will be Bella. No, not after Twilight (although, come on! Greatest books ever)!! And, when I said this name initially, Patrick said, "like after the vampire?" (If you remember, though, her name is actually Isabella Swan, she just goes by Bella). ;) So, anyway, we love it. It's short, feminine, goes well with "Ava" and is easy to pronounce and spell. All things I wanted in a name. Now, I wasn't particularly looking for a name that everyone else also has- apparently Isabella is the #2 most popular girl name this year. But, you know, you gotta pick something you like- and I like Bella. So, there. :) For a middle name, we decided on Michele, after my mom. Yes, only one L. Pronounced like regular "Michelle." :)

Besides- Bella means "Beautiful, Devoted to God, and Intelligent" (depending on what origin you look at)! Doesn't get much better than that!

So, there ya have it: Bella Michele :)

Purtty, ain't it?



.

So.....we're having a.....

HEALTHY BABY! :)

So, we went in today for our 20 week ultrasound (although, I'm only 19 weeks!) to check and make sure everything was looking good. The baby looks great and is measuring right on time as far as my due date goes! Everything looks great. The only thing that isn't totally perfect right now is that I have a previa....AGAIN! I had one with Ava too...but it corrected on it's own. We'll just have to wait this one out and see if it corrects on it's own as well. Hopefully, this wont cause me any issues! Keep your fingers crossed!!

So, that's the boring stuff....I know you're all wondering if it's a boy or a girl....so, here you go!! You can ask Ava...

Sprinkles

I had to go into work for a few hours this morning, so, Michee (my mom) took Ava for a little while. They ended up going to Bagel Boys and Michee asked her which one she wanted. She pointed to the everything bagel...."I want the one with the sprinkles!" :)

I mean, COME ON!!!!

Trumpets

I took Ava to the potty today and she pushed her pee out so hard that she also pushed out a rather respectable toot! Then, the best conversation ever....


Ava: That was a funny sounding toot.

Me: Yeah, that was a little funny sounding.

[[Pause]]

Ava: (said with excitement...) It sounded like a trumpet!!



I mean, really?! Does it get better than this?!? And how the heck does she know what a trumpet sounds like?!? Hahahaha!!

I Felt the Baby!

Just a real quick update- I felt the baby move for the first time today! :) At first I wasn't sure, so I sat really still- and sure enough, a few teeny tiny little kicks. I've felt them several times this evening too!

I almost forgot how cool those first couple of movements are...the ones I get to have all to myself. Totally freaking awesome. :)

Updates Galore! Ava 32 months

So, life has been busy and Ava has had a lot of updates since the last time I posted! Just FYI- the picture above was an outfit Ava wore to church- that SHE PICKED OUT! She didn't pick the bow, but when I saw what she was wearing, I figured, why not?! Crazy cute, huh?!? :)

Ava's really doing great! Her mind is still developing at an alarming rate, and every day she is talking better and better. Even just her sentence structure and grammar gets better everyday. A young brain is truly amazing!

She has started something rather annoying lately- whining!!! UGH! I can only take so much unnecessary whining before I go crazy. But, she sure does test my limits! We were having dinner at Michee and Pop's few weeks ago, and Ava was whining and my dad (Pop) started to imitate her and and make a totally obnoxious whining sound. Ava didn't miss a beat. She stopped her whining, looked right at me with a very serious face, and in typical tattle-tail fashion said, "Mommy- Pop is whining."

The other day, we were in the car and she was whining for God-only-know-what reason and I said, "Hey wait a minute, I think I hear a little baby. Do you hear baby sounds? I didn't think there was a baby in here..." She waited a minute and said, "I think the baby in your belly was crying."

...Already blaming the un-born child! Smart little thang. :)

Patrick bought her this fish puzzle, and she loves it. We've done it several times together and she's getting really good at doing most of it by herself now! She's always so proud when we're done and always wants to keep it together until Daddy gets home so he can see it. Sweet. :)

So, Ava is officially in a Big Girl bed now! She picked out the comforter set (from Target!) and we got one of my old beds and box spring and put it on the floor. (I was afraid with anything higher, and with her accident prone history, she'd roll off)! But, she's been doing great and hasn't really looked back!
Here's her sweet smile- remember that dark tooth I told you about? This was at it's darkest. Since then, it's actually started to lighten back up. Still keeping my fingers crossed!!
In other news- we're potty training! In fact, I think we're just about trained. One day she just looked at me and said, "Can I wear fancy pants?" ("Fancy pants" are code words for real underwear)! So, pretty much after that day, she was good to go. I guess it really is true what they say about waiting until they're totally ready. She switched from fancy pants to pull-ups for the first few days, but we've been going strong with fancy pants ever since! I thought pooping in the potty would be an issue- but she just sat down one day at Bobbi's house, got one of her books out and read until it came out! I was so proud! And just the other day, I was on the phone while she was playing. She walked away and the next thing I hear is the toilet flush...then Ava comes waddling out with her pants and fancy pants around her ankles....

Ava: Mommy, I peed!
Me: What?? By yourself?
Ava: Yeah!
Me: Good job, A! Did you wipe?
Ava: Yes
Me: Are you sure you wiped?
Ava: Yeah (Even if this is true, she can't possibly have done a through job. Oh well)!
Me: Do you think you might need some help pulling your pants up?
Ava: Yeah

And there it is. A potty trained two year old! I thought it would be a pain, but let me tell you- I do NOT miss changing stinky diapers!!

Here she is sitting on her "little potty" that we don't really use too much anymore (note the Dora backpack she's wearing!)...but this must have been one of the times when she was waiting for it to come out....she doesn't even stop talking on the potty!!
Still talking.....
My child is type A, OCD. Surprise! Where did she get that from?? Anyway, I've mentioned before that everything has to be in a line. Well, she called me the other day to "come over here" and when I went over...this is what I saw. She laid all her dollhouse people in a row and she laid at the end of the row, too. Then she wanted me to count them....starting with her first. (She was very specific about this)! Maybe she's a little crazy, but isn't she cute!!?
She wanted to shave like Daddy the other day...so, this is what I walked into the bathroom to see!! It got a little messier than this, as you can imagine!
We had the last of the Georgia snow. (Thank GOODness)!! Ava loved it and always enjoyed playing in the flakes!
Patrick had a little break (the weekend) after the end of his second term, so we took a family trip to the GA Aquarium and had a blast. Here she is checking out that huge fish!
The weather finally warmed up and we've taken the boat out a few times. Now, she always asks to go out! I can only go out with her if there's someone else there too...can't man that boat and take care of a 2 year old! But, man! She really loves that boat!

So, I decided to take the little potty with us on the boat...just in case. It's still a little cold to jump in the lake- plus, I'm not sure Ava would be down with jumping in just to pee?? But, here, she announced, "I have to poop." So she got all situated, asked for a book, sat there for about 8 or 9 minutes with no luck. I guess it passed. :) Little summer babe. :)
These pictures were taken on Easter weekend. We had an Easter egg hunt with all the kids...not sure how I got all of them to look and smile at the same time, but what a cute picture!!
Let the hunting begin!
So much fun!!
Checking out her goodies after all the eggs were found!Pure, pouty sweetness. Love her!

To see more pictures from Easter weekend, click here!!

To see more pictures of all that other stuff, click here!!

Baby Belly Update!

So, tomorrow I'll be 17 weeks! Sounds like a respectable number, right?? Well, during my first trimester, I felt like I was pregnant FOREVER, but I would be at week 8 or 9. NOT very encouraging when all I wanted was to be in my second trimester so I could start to feel better. But things seem to be moving a bit faster now- not that I want it go so fast- this baby is due in September...which means the end of summer....and I can't even THINK about the start of cold weather right now!!

Well, here I am, finishing my 17th week, and I still feel about the same. I'm still pretty tired and I still have to take my magic pill (Zofran) everyday for nausea. Although it's annoying to have to take that stupid pill everyday, I feel lucky that I have true relief when I take it. I clearly remember the beginning of this pregnancy (feeling REALLY sick already at week 5- before the discovery of the magic pill), and I'm glad that I don't really ever feel like that anymore. I've had friends that weren't so lucky, and none of those magic pills ever worked for them. So, I'll take it!

My stuffy nose is out in full force- probably doesn't help that all the trees decided to drop their pollen all over my ...well...everything!! Benadryl helps a lot, and I've recelty had to resort to Breath Right Strips. This isn't a picture of me, but I just threw it in here so you can imagine how incredibly sexy these things are. Patrick is a lucky man! ;) All joking aside- I love them; they are amazing. And I will have a very close relationship with them until the end of this pregnancy, I'm sure!! So, I've been a bit of a slacker taking weekly pictures- I'll try to get better. But here are a few. This one is from week 12. Not much of a difference from week 10...maybe even a bit smaller? Explain that!
These pictures were taken at week 15.5. The bump is definitely getting higher. Although most of that is fat and intestines being pushed up, cause the actual baby is still really small and the top of my uterus (sorry if that grosses some of y'all out!) is still below my belly button! Who knows!

I had a doctor visit yesterday and things seem to be looking good. We listened to the baby's heart rate. I still haven't felt any movement, but my doc says I should be able to feel him/her any day now! Yay!

I'm scheduled for my 20-ish week ultrasound in 2 weeks!!! You know what that means!?!! Hopefully, we'll be able to determine the sex! I don't really have any hunches or a preference, although Ava won't even consider the fact that it might be a boy. She's dead set on a girl! I'm good with a healthy baby- I won't be too picky beyond that!

So, as soon as I find out, I'll post! Overall, I can't complain too much!! I hope everyone is doing well!!! I've got some cute pics from Easter weekend that I'll try to post soon, too!!

January, February, Moach....

Patrick had Ava in the car a few weeks ago, and out of the blue, she started saying the months of the year....he asked if I taught her those. I told him no, and that we'd been working on the days of the week...maybe Bobbi or Michee?? We asked them, and they both said no too...so, by the process of elimination, we assumed she learned this at school. We were pretty impressed! Enjoy!!





A belly/pregnancy update will be coming soon! Promise!

First Trip to the Dentist!

So, I took Ava in to my office for her first official trip to the dentist. I couldn't believe how cooperative she was! I thought for sure there would be NO WAY she'd lay in that chair and let me look at her teeth! But she did! And she was perfect!! These pictures were taken by Patrick's phone, so that's why they're not very big!



When we brush teeth at home, we talk about brushing the "sugar bugs" OFF and then brushing the sparkles ON! So, when we were at the office, I told her I just needed to count all those sparkles....and she just let me! I told her she had 20 sparkles (20 teeth!) and she was so excited!
Well, I also had to take an xray of her top front teeth. About a month ago, Ava had her worst fall yet (one of her 546 falls to date)! And a few weeks ago, Patrick asked me if I'd noticed her gray front tooth. WHAT?!?!? A GRAY TOOTH?!?!? And sure enough! I took a look, and there it was....her upper front left tooth was DARK!! Check it out in these pictures:

You can see it a little better here...so sad! :(
So far, the xray looks ok, but I'm not that hopeful that it will stay asymptomatic forever. But, we can hope!! Best case scenario- nothing ever happens and it comes out many years from now when it's supposed to. Worst case- it becomes infected, I try to save it, it's not savable and has to be extracted. :( Did you hear that?!?! Extracted!!! Oh no. :(

Keep your fingers crossed and I'll keep you posted.

More updates to come!!

Baby Layla Grace

Layla Grace was a 28 month old sweet, perfect, and very sick little baby. She was diagnosed with stage 4 neuroblastoma about a year ago. I just recently started following her story- and it was completely heart wrenching. For the past 2 1/2 weeks, I've been checking Twitter 10-15 times a day for updates. And, finally, after 2 weeks of hospice care and pain that could not be completely controlled (due to an allergy to Morpine and all its family members), Layla Grace is finally healed and pain free. She's in Heaven with God. I have been brought to tears countless times as I try to comprehend what Layla and her family have been going through...and I just don't know how you live through something like that. But her family has an incredible faith that has helped to guide them through the worst possible thing a mother and father could have to live through.

It has made me think a lot about how lucky I am to have Ava...and that she's healthy and happy and pain free! I want to hug her a little more, cuddle her a little longer, and try to enjoy every second I have with her.

About 2 weeks ago, I woke Ava up and had her on her changing table getting dressed. I looked at her, smiled, and said, "Ava, I love you so much. I'm so glad you're here with me."

And she looked back at me with a smile and a giggle as if to say "silly mommy!" and said.... "I'm not going anywhere!"

Dear God, if I am the luckiest mom alive, that will be true.

Layla- May you rest in peace, you sweet sweet baby.







You can follow the latest news via Twitter at: http://twitter.com/laylagrace

You can read her entire story at her blog (although, it's very busy right now): http://www.laylagrace.org/

Snow Day Fun!

Ava got to play with Aunt Sarah in the snow!! Don't eat the yellow snow!! :)

Fat Mama

Ava wanted to talk to me about something...here's a little video...it's super short!






Sooooo...yes, it's true!! :) I'm pregnant!! Although we're unsure of exactly how far along I am, I have a due date of September 22nd which makes me about 11 or 12 weeks along by now!!! This pregnancy hasn't been anything like Ava's. Everything is different...including my constant nausea morning, afternoon, and night. There's other stuff that isn't so fun either, but I'll spare you those details. ;) With Ava, I had relief from being sick as long as I ate breakfast before I got out of bed. And that only lasted a few weeks. This time around, it started from the very beginning...around week 5!! Which is very soon after I found out. Since then, my doctor has prescribed me some anti-nausea medicine which I call my "magic pill." It rocks. It gives me a chance to work and feel as close to normal as possible. I would NOT be doing good without my magic pill!!

Well...with Ava, I wasn't in maternity clothes until about 6 months along. And I didn't really show until about 5 1/2 months....so NOT the case with baby #2!! I'm already showing, already have a belly, already using the ole' rubber band trick so I can unbutton my pants. Had to get the maternity stuff out of storage. Of course, I don't have any maternity clothes that are winter...so, I'll have to improvise a bit until it gets a little (a LOT!) warmer! I looked back at the blog to see when I started with my weekly belly pics with Ava- and it wasn't until week 16! And I had NOTHING!!! Granted, I did gain a few pounds in the 2 or 3 months just prior to getting pregnant, but damn! I didn't think it would be this different!! So, I took one of me about 2 weeks ago to start the documentation of "the growth"...

So, here's me at about 10 weeks (2 1/2 months) now:

And this is me at 24 weeks (6 months) with Ava:
Dude. I'm gonna be HUGE!!! It's not lookin' good! ;)

So, that's the good news from the Kindregan clan. :) Please keep us in your prayers for a safe and uneventful pregnancy and a healthy baby! I'll try to update as much as I can! Hope everyone is having a great day!

Heaven

Last night I was putting Ava to bed, and we said our prayers together. After prayers, Ava asked, "What does Jesus talk about?" So I said that he talks about being nice and kind and friendly and generous. I went on to say that he also talks about God and how He's God's son, and He came here to Earth so we can go to Heaven.

Ava: "When do we go to Heaven?"

Me: "When we're done being on Earth, we go to Heaven so we can be with God. But that wont be for a long time."

(pause)

Ava: With a big smile, "Then we'll come right back to the lakehouse!" :)



Kids are amazing....and perfectly pure. What a blessing they are. I am incredibly lucky.

Under the Sea

Patrick ordered Ava a "big girl" puzzle from an awesome company, Melissa and Doug. She's got tons of puzzles from them and some other hand-made, high quality toys that she'll enjoy for years! Anyway, Patrick got her this one! It took us all day to complete- but we finally did it. It took her a while to understand the "match up the straight line" concept (for the edge pieces), but toward the end she was getting pretty good! She'd sometimes get frustrated if the pieces didn't go together easily...had a lot of reminders to be gentle. But she was SO PROUD when it was done! Here she is showing it off!! Thanks Daddy!

Sorry about the poor quality photo- it's from my phone! It's no iPhone!! :)

Mary Poppins and her Valentine's Day Umbrella!

Courtesy of Aunt Sarah! :)