Liliana Update

Liliana went for her 3 year doctor appointment this month (a little late I know). Aside from having to go get her staples out of her head, she hasn't been since her 2 year old appointment! Our healthy girl is 35 lbs. (75th percentile), and 39" tall (75th percentile). 

Whenever she is asked where she wants to eat she always chooses Wahoo's (Mexican), Gen Kai (sushi) or Izza Pizza (our local Italian joint). Here she is at Izza Pizza.

She would wear makeup (shadow, blush and lip gloss) every day if I let her. It is only allowed for special occasions but she loves getting dolled up and will sit at my vanity working quietly for long periods of time.

 She loves all animals. If there is a pet in sight, she chats with the owner and asks if it is okay if she pets or holds it. She often asks us when she can get a pet, but she knows that the answer is, "after Baby Brother is 4."

Lila and Aubrey (one of the children I nanny for) playing "dance class"...one of their favorite games. 

7 Months Pregnant

I can't even believe this is my first post about my pregnancy. I feel extremely guilty about that and hope this isn't the beginning of the "2nd baby" pitfall that I have heard so much about where the 2nd baby isn't photographed or documented as much as the older sibling. I will try to do better.
In the beginning of my pregnancy I didn't write a lot because I was trying to practice what I preach to Liliana..."if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." I didn't feel good until I was 5 months pregnant. I was very nauseous and around the 8-12 week mark, I was vomiting so frequently that I had sores in my mouth. It became more bearable at 12 weeks. but I still got sick on occasion and didn't feel normal until the 5 month mark. The nights were the hardest (which is good because during the day I was able to be a good mom/nanny). As soon as Adam would walk in the door in the evening I would hit my bed and curl up in the fetal position. Even sleeping was hard because I felt so yucky.
I think it was my punishment for always bragging about how much I LOVED being pregnant with Liliana and how I couldn't wait to experience it again. I was nauseous with her, but nothing like this. But, the truth is, like all things related to pregnancy, birth and motherhood...the good parts are so good that the challenging parts manage to fade into the background. Even though I have only felt human for the past couple months, I am already saying how much I like being pregnant again and I am trying to remember and treasure every little kick and movement in my womb because I know this will be my last time being pregnant.
The kicks and movements from Baby Boy are definitely the highlight. He is much more active than Liliana was and I have been feeling him move since about 16 weeks. I had forgotten just how amazing it feels to have a living baby moving around inside of you. Liliana loves feeling his kicks also. The first time she felt it she was blown away. Her eyes got so big and that's all she talked about to people all week.
She has come around in the past month and is excited again about having a sibling (HUGE sigh of relief).  She talks to my belly throughout the day, rubs me, kisses "Baby Brudder" and asks me frequently how I am feeling. She is very involved in the pregnancy. She monitors my very little beer/wine intake by yelling, "Mom, you are PREGNANT! You can't drink beer!" And if I am drinking non-alcoholic beers (which are actually quite good) she yells, "you already had one beer! You are only allowed to have one! Are those real or pretend?" She has been to every doctor/midwife appointment and she loves to help with the doppler or ultrasound machine. She asks a lot of questions about what her brother can and can't do and eat when he is born. She also asks a lot of questions about how he will come into the world.
For a while I was pretty vague about the actual mechanics of birth. She watched a couple photo montages of birth with me, but none of them showed the baby actually coming out. She had some anxiety about it and was nervous that the baby would hurt me and was very preoccupied with who would help me push him out. (She knows her birth story and has seen my cesarean scar so I imagine that is why she is worried.) One morning she came to me naked and was squeezing the heck out of her tummy with her face in a grimace and asked me, "will you push him out like this?" I decided to tell her that babies actually come out of the mommy's vagina. I was worried about how she would take that news, but I was pleasantly surprised to see a look of relief spread across her face. "Oh! They come out of the 'gina?!?" It suddenly seemed so simple to her! She asked for a few more details so I told her that it was a passage that just mommy's have to deter her from searching all over for this magic baby spot. :)
She has also given "Baby Brudder" a name and it is sticking as a nickname among Adam and I and friends and family as well. The other day Adam's Dad, Doc, asked what we were thinking of naming the Baby. When Adam told him that we were torn between Maverick and Jagger, he laughed and asked, "with names like that, why don't you just name him Snake Eyes?" Liliana got a hold of this information and said, "oooohh...Snake Eyes! I like it! It's rock n' roll! That one's on the list!" She hasn't given it up and now we are all referring to this poor, sweet Baby Boy as "Snake Eyes."
I have been following my midwife's diet advice and been taking a lot more supplements this time around than I did with Liliana...a prenatal, DHA, Nettles, Dandelion Root, probiotics, calcium/magnesium, and a daily vegan protein powder, iron, D3, and lots of Raspberry tea leaf. I haven't had any crazy cravings...mostly just fish like with Liliana. I crave smoked salmon and sushi and oysters and one day I sent Adam out to buy me boquerones (Spanish style sardines) and manchego cheese and membrillo (quince paste).
I am exercising by walking all over town (about 6 miles on Tues/Thurs) pushing a triple stroller filled with 3 kids aged 2 and up (about 120 lbs total). I also do Stroller Strides once or twice a week. Despite the activity, I feel like I am getting BIG. I got big with Liliana, so I guess that's just what I do when I am pregnant. My belly is much bigger than other pregnant people that I meet with a similar due date.
For the time being, I am sleeping well and feeling pretty darn good. I have been seeing a chiropractor and getting massages and I intend to start seeing an accupuncturist to help keep this baby head down.
The pregnancy is flying by and I can never remember how far along I am. I know that I am 7ish months right now, but I always have to check the "Baby Ticker" on my blog to remind myself when I reach the next month mark. So different from when I was pregnant with Liliana and I could literally say, "23 weeks and 4 days".
Hopefully I will remember to post again before I hit the 9 month mark. :) Here are the only belly pictures I have taken this time...

6 months

7 months 

A Tough Topic

Liliana has heard the words "die" and "kill" in songs, and at the park. She has asked me a few times over the past few months what the words mean and I had managed to evade the question for a while. I didn't want to talk about such a morbid topic with her and wasn't really quite sure how I was going to explain it. Lately, the question had been coming up more frequently for some reason. When she asked Adam the other day at Easter brunch why he didn't have any grandparents, I tried to skirt the issue by saying they weren't around anymore and tried to distract her by asking about her grandparents. She wasn't falling for it and pushed the issue so I dove right in without having planned what I was going to say at all. I am still not sure the explanation was a good one, but she seems satisfied with the answer and is impressing me with her wisdom.
I told her that Adam had wonderful grandparents when he was younger, but that they got old and died. "What does 'die' mean," she asked. I explained that it meant that people could no longer be here with us on Earth the same way they were when they were living and gave her examples of what I meant. She asked me where they go and I told her that there are a lot of ideas about where people "go" when they die. I told her about the theories of heaven, angels, reincarnation, and eternal rest. As it turns out, she REALLY liked the reincarnation idea and has been talking about it ever since.
It is hard to hear your 3 year old say things like, "when I die I want to be a dolphin! Will you be a dolphin too Mommy?" It makes me tear up. And, I really almost lost it the other day when she asked, "will I die before you or will we always be together?" I managed to hold it together and answer her as best as I could because she is not at all scared or sad when she asks and of course, I don't want her to be. She is really just curious and trying to figure it out. I keep explaining to her that there are so many questions, like hers about death, that nobody really knows the answer to and that it is all about what makes sense to you and what you believe. She told me, "I believe we will always be together and we will be dolphins in the ocean together! And maybe Daddy could be a shark." :) I love her so much. That idea sounds good to me.

Celebrating "Mudder Erff"

Between the "Earthy" Waldorf school that Liliana attends and our values at home, Liliana hears a lot about protecting the environment. I know there is so much more that we as a family could do to help the environment, but we try to do what we can. She knows all about recycling and "waste free lunches" (not using plastic bags, bottles, packaging, etc. in our lunches). She is always on "litter patrol" and she cares about plants and knows how good they are for our air. So, she was very excited to celebrate our "mudder erff" (as she says) on Earth Day.
On Saturday, my friend Sarah and I hosted a booth at San Clemente's Earth Day Festival by the pier. As a side job I place foreign exchange students for CCI and there is an environmental component to the placements.  We were focusing on that in hopes of getting some host families for the upcoming school year. Liliana came with Adam, her Grammy, her Uncle Athon and her cousin Cooper. The kids had a lot of fun at the other booths doing art projects, touching sea creatures, hearing about the environment and listening to music. Liliana made the local newspaper again! I think this is her 5th time being in the paper.

On Sunday we went to the Farmer's Market in Irvine (which is SO much better than San Clemente's to do our weekly shopping). While we were there we met up with Sarah and Stella and we took the shuttle over to the Great Park. The girls rode the carousel, played at the park, listened and danced to music, and and visited their garden.

After nap we (as in Liliana and Adam) did some planting in the yard.

San Fancisco sprinkle at Marcella's

Marcella and Erika threw me a beautiful sprinkle at Marcella's house in San Francisco. Cella thought of everything...she had a DVD playing  that she made with photographs of Liliana from birth to now. I forgot how tiny she was and it made me very excited to hold my tiny baby boy in a few months.  The food was amazing and Erika made some very tasty dishes. Cella even thought of Liliana and had her favorites...blue cheese stuffed olives and pink lemonade. Baby Boy was spoiled with adorable clothes and heartwarming books. I feel very lucky to have such amazing women in our life.

I could have stayed forever, but we had to leave the party because Liliana was having a meltdown due to an overdue nap and the fact that she had to poop and refuses to go in public places or houses where there are a lot of people. But, it was still a perfect day and I am very grateful. That night, back at my parent's house, Liliana and grandma made us delicious chocolate chip cookies from Marcella's adorable mason jar cookie mix favors.

Liliana came in a dress, but Grandma gave her a shirt with Paris on it and a headband with feathers, so she rocked those and panties for the duration of the party. 

Easter weekend

Easter weekend was a lot of fun. On Friday morning we went to Stroller Strides and had an egg hunt after class and played with all of our friends.

Then the Tollacks came up for the day and to spend the night with us. The Easter Bunny visited the girls early and they had to find their baskets by completing a scavenger hunt with clues. Then they had a special Easter lunch with all of their food in plastic eggs (thanks Pinterest). They played dress up, "babies", jumped like crazy in the bounce house, had pizza dinner, decorated their special Easter cupcakes that Katie made, and watched "Hop" and ate popcorn on the couch before bed. It was such a fun-filled, special day.

The next morning we had a quick breakfast and headed to Pines Park for their annual egg "hunt" (it is more like an egg grab). Liliana saw a lot of friends there and had fun gathering goodies, seeing the Easter bunny, and petting the animals in the petting zoo.
*Grandma sewed Liliana her Easter dress this year. Isn't it adorable? She also sewed the red one that she is pictured in above at the Stroller Strides hunt. 

I got a few calls leading up to this event because they are still using Liliana's picture that was taken for the newspaper when she was 1 as the advertisement. It is funny how many people still recognize this as her. I think she looks so little!! (She is the baby in the pink dress touching the Easter Bunny.)

On Sunday she woke up and had an egg hunt in our backyard. She was really excited about her Easter basket--especially the piggy bank that she has been asking for. Most of her eggs were filled with coins so she was very busy with her money that morning. After egg hunting and playing we went to Cannon's for Easter brunch. It was a beautiful day. We sat outside and the view of the harbor was gorgeous. After brunch we went back to the house for our favorite...a family nap in our bed.

When we woke up we headed over to the Cota's for a wonderful Easter/birthday meal for Steve cooked by Mrs. Cota. We all stuffed ourselves. I really overdid it with the to-die-for homemade carrot cake. They even set up an egg hunt for Liliana in their backyard--her 4th of the weekend.