15 WEEKS

 

How far along: 15 weeks
Due: Thanksgiving 2015

Gender: Don't know, won't know.   

Weight gain: about 7 lbs

Maternity clothes: I'm living in maternity leggings.  I want to wear them forever.  

Belly button in or out: In

Sleep: Pretty good

Movement: No major kicking, just the occasional flutter.  

Cravings: Whole milk & pickles (typical, huh?)
Food aversion: Not really grossed out by anything anymore.  

Feeling: Pretty good.  Still getting a couple of annoying headaches every so often.
Fun fact: Baby Polk is the size of an apple.  Baby is able to move all his/her joints and limbs!

Violet Update: Well it took a few days of trial and error, but I finally figured out Violet's nap cannot be longer than one hour or things go from pudding to poop real quick.

POLK, PARTY OF FOUR!

We are SUPER excited to announce that Violet is going to be a big sister!

How far along: 14 weeks
Due: Thanksgiving 2015

Gender: Don't know, won't know.   

Weight gain: about 5 lbs

Maternity clothes: Yes, I started breaking out those bad boys around 6 weeks.  

Belly button in or out: In

Sleep: Pretty good

Movement: I've felt some flutters these past couple of weeks.

Cravings: Whole milk (!!!!!....like I drink a half a gallon a day.), sardines on saltine crackers, and spring salad with sun dried tomatoes, feta, croutons, and Greek vinaigrette.  I'm hoping all the super foods I've been eating this week will cancel out all the Oreos I inhaled ate a few weeks ago.
Food aversion: I am not feeling cilantro.  Stay away.

Feeling: I feel pretty tired by the end of the day.  Besides the occasional headache (thanks hormones), I've been free of all the other icky pregnant side effects these past few weeks.
Fun fact: Baby Polk is the size of a lemon.  Baby is now squinting, peeing, and maybe even sucking his/her thumb!

Violet Update: We told Violet I was pregnant several weeks ago.  Obviously she doesn't grasp how much this is going to rock her world yet, but she sometimes pokes my belly and said, "baby."  We've been trying to figure out a better sleep schedule for her because it's obvious she still needs a nap, but if it's too long, she takes forever to go to bed.  Hopefully we'll have all this hashed out very soon because me.need.sleep.

18 MONTHS OLD!

It's been a while.  Things have been pretty hectic around here, so I missed Violet's seventeen month update...and she's actually eighteen and a half months old, but better late than never, right?  (Right.)

I don't even know where to start.  Violet is like a nonstop monkey.  She can climb onto the table in like 5 seconds.  Today I walked in her room and found she'd climbed into her crib.  She's like the Chuck Norris of toddlers.

Our little ball of energy is also talking.  She's learning new words at warp speed.  About a week ago she learned how to say Neil's name and after that it was nothing but "Neil" all day, every day.   The first thing in the morning, I wake up to her saying, "Neeeiiilll."  We go for a walk, she calls his name. We walk in the door, "Hiiiiii, Neil!!!!!"  In her highchair, in the bathtub---she probably says his name about 78,000 times a day.  I tried to teach her the word "oatmeal" and now she calls "Neil"  "Meil" and giggles.  I'm not sure if she knows she's saying it wrong, or if Neil just makes her laugh.  She is also an expert at identifying apples and gucks [ducks].  And these past couple days, she occasionally yells out, "Bobby!"  We don't know any Bobbies.

She hops up and down all around the house.  The girl prances everywhere.  It's like she's totally excited to be alive all day long, except nap time, and that's when all is right in the world---my world at least.  I'm literally so tired I can't even think of what else to say about her even though I know there are a million more things.

SPRING IS HERE!

I'm so excited that spring is here.  (Well, almost.)  It definitely feels and looks like spring.  All the flowers are blooming and it's just gorgeous.  I used to really love cold weather.  In fact, most of my wardrobe is cardigans.  I have a practically non-existant warm weather wardrobe despite living in a state with mostly face-melting hot months.  But, I hate going out in the cold with Violet.  I always worry she's not warm enough.    

We've had some warm weather lately though.  (We've even been wearing shorts!)  And thank goodness because Violet recently had a growth spurt and all her winter clothing was suddenly too small.  I may or may not have looked kind of like a negligent parent because I didn't want to buy bigger clothes for just one more week of winter weather.

Jon just got back from another weeklong business trip to Houston.  Luckily, it went by pretty quickly.  And when he came back he brought me back a half a dozen cupcakes from Crave Cupcakes.  Holy goodness.  I immediately inhaled one and a half...and another one around 3 a.m. when Violet was up teething.  And I don't feel guilty.  

Violet and I are just so excited Jon's back.  

I finally finished Pride and Prejudice!  A lot of modern-day love stories are filled with characters that are kind of selfish and sometimes mean.  What I love about this story is the main characters are genuinely good people.  They love their siblings and their families.  Most of the book is a series of events where characters are trying to protect and care for their family.  If you enjoy Downton Abbey (which you should!), then you'll like this book.
So now I'm super behind on March's book (The Food Babe Way) and I'll probably be behind all year now!  

16 MONTHS OLD!

Violet is 16 months old!  How did this happen???  

Violet's personality has really bloomed this past month.  She is silly and funny.  She loves to dance, read, give kisses, and when she gives you a hug, she runs at you with the force of an NFL linebacker. I literally have to brace myself for impact.  If you're caught off guard, she will mow. you. down.  

I thought it would be fun to tell you 16 things about my 16 month old.

1. Violet's favorite books are: Love You Forever, The Foot Book, and The Beginner's Bible for Toddlers.
2. She likes to sit in boxes.  If I were trying to set a trap for this child, all I need to do it put a box on the ground and she'll climb in. 
3. She tries to be such a little helper.  She likes to fold laundry---especially the already folded laundry that's been put away.  She also likes to put things away.  I find random items in my sock drawer all the time.  In fact, if I can't find my toothbrush, that's where I look first.
4. Violet loves when it's time to brush her teeth.  She goes into the drawer and gets her toothbrush herself.  And when she's done, she puts it away, too!  
5. Her newest animal noise is a snake.  She says "ssssssssssssssssss."  
6. Before she learned what a snake says, she learned what a cow says and her "moo" was the most depressing "moo" you ever heard.  It was so cute, I saved a picture of a cow on my iPhone's lock screen because she'd say it every time she saw it.  It never got old.
7. Violet goes through these intense food phases where she cannot get enough of a certain item.  A couple months ago it is was peas.  Last month is was blueberries.  And this month it's broccoli.  One night for dinner she ate like an entire head of broccoli!  (Don't worry, she ate other foods, too.)
8. Her language is exploding.  She's constantly doing her best to imitate words we say.  Some of her words sound like she has a British accent.  Is it bad I'm not trying to correct it?
9. Speaking of language, I am finally "mama"!!!!!!  She's long since said the word, but to her everyone was "dada".  Last week I walked up to her while she was at her bookshelf, and she looked up at me and said, "Hi, Mama!"  My heart melted.
10. She can say and identify where your nose, eyes, and bellybutton are.  I'm nervously waiting for the day she pokes someone's eye out.  I mean, it's bound to happen.
11. Violet loves to go outside soo much.  She will try to escape anytime the door opens.  It doesn't matter if it's freezing or raining, or both.  
12. This kid loves to dance.  There doesn't even have to be music on.  There's music in her heart...and I'm pretty sure it's funk.  
13. Perhaps the most annoying fact about my child is that she's figured out how to take her diapers off.  It's been fun.  (And by fun, I mean not fun.)
14. My daughter is a night owl.  No matter how often I manage to get her bedtime in the 8 o'clock range, she manages to push it back every time.  Luckily daylight's savings time is coming up, which I'm hoping will help.
15. Anytime Violet "reads" a book or magazine with pictures of food, she says, "mmmmmm, mmmmmm, nom, nom, mmmmmmmm."
16. And lastly, she's finally learned how to climb onto the sofa on her own.  As soon as she figure it out, she promptly got down and practiced climbing up again.  This kid...

I'm ashamed to say I didn't meet my February goal of reading Pride and Prejudice.  I have really been enjoying the book, though!  It's even better than the movie, which is my all-time favorite.  Part of why I haven't finished is because I got March's book at the beginning of last month, The Food Baby Way by Vani Hari, and couldn't help but read some.

FLYING SOLO

A couple of weeks ago Jon had to go to Houston for a business trip for a whole week.  It was a long, hard week.  I'm not kidding.  Usually, our days going something like this: Violet wakes up.  We run some errands.  We come home and she takes a nap and I get dinner going.  Violet wakes up and we play, read, and dance.  Then Jon comes home and I'm free!!!! plays with Violet while I finish getting dinner ready.  With Jon away, it was like a super intense 12 hour Wall Street work day times five.  The week was relatively uneventful, smooth sailing even, until Wednesday when one of her dang teeth decided to start coming in.  Then life got much harder.  Violet started developing a runny nose (allergies maybe?), skipping naps, and waking up every couple of hours during the night.

Thankfully, right as I was reaching my breaking point, Jon came back home!  [Insert deep sigh of relief.]

Here's some photos of our not-so-adventerous adventures.

OUR LONG OVERDUE FIRST DATE

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated Jon's 31st birthday and went on our first date since having Violet.  She's 15 months old.  Yikes.  

I know some mom's have no qualms about going out after only a couple of weeks, but I just couldn't.  Maybe it was maternal instinct, maybe it was separation anxiety, maybe it was hormones, but I just didn't want to leave her for very long.  Truthfully, I really couldn't leave V for more than a couple of hours anyway since I didn't pump.  Now that she's eating solids though (except for sleep-related nursing), it's much easier to get away without worrying about her needing me.

So on Jon's birthday, his parents came over to watch Violet while we went out on the town.  We had dinner at John Besh's La Provence, our go-to restaurant for date nights before Violet was born.  And it was nothing short of a religious experience.  For my main dish, I ordered jumbo gulf shrimp & creamy risotto and Jon got their slow cooked Mississippi rabbit.  God, it was good.  I wish our iPhone pictures did the food justice.  Actually, I wish they were scratch and sniff.

It was definitely really nice having a couple of hours to ourselves.  It was mostly nice because I didn't have to hold a baby while eating/rush through a meal in 5 minutes/eat once hot, now cold food.  

And when we got home, it was clear Violet didn't even realize we had been gone.