A Snowy Halloween

We got a pretty impressive snowstorm on Wednesday this week, about 2 feet! Laina had a new snowsuit thanks to her Great Grandma, so she got to go outside and play during a lull in the storm.


By Saturday, the storm was long gone, and the sun came out and started melting things quick, but in the meantime it was the perfect weather to enjoy the snow without all the coldness... Laina helped me build a huge snowman.




and since I hogged all the fun building the giant snowman, she built a Laina-sized snowman with Jenna.


Then we went for a ride in the pull-sled over to the park, where Laina had her first snowball fight.

By the time we came back to the house, our snowman's head had already melted off. Since it was halloween, and there was a headless snowman in front of us, we did the obvious

After Laina's nap, we got her in her Poodle costume and taught her how to hit up the neighbors for candy. Last minute we thought up matching costumes for Jenna and I; Jenna was the over-the-top poodle owner, and I was Cesar Millan (The Dog Whisperer) helping her out with her misbehaving poodle.



consider this poodle trained.

Butterflies

I've been wanting to post about this for a while now. When we first told Laina about the new baby, we told her that mommy had a baby growing in her belly. At some point later, she decided to tell us that she had a butterfly in her belly. Not too long after that, I was feeling really sick and she was wanting to play with me. I had to lay down on the couch and I told her that the baby in mommy's belly was making me feel sick and I had to lay down. She proceeded to get up on the couch with me, lay herself down with me, and said "mommy, the butterfly in my belly is making me sick, too." So sweet. How does she come up with these things?

Belly by Belly or the first belly shot of pregnancy #2

Now that the word is officially out, I figured it's time to compare bellies. The picture on the left was posted to this blog on Nov 11, 2006. It's handy that the new baby is due about a week after Laina's birthday, so it's easy to compare. The pic on the right is me today. I thought I was looking and feeling a LOT bigger this time around, but when looking at the pic, it's not really that different. (Side note, if I would have not pinned my bangs back, you could have seen my new haircut. I decided this morning not to go as short as I was thinking previously, but seeing the old pic makes me wish I had! I just really like short hair on me).



Some other things about this pregnancy. I thought it's been a lot different than the first time. I was feeling really sick and nauseous but that is going away now. I was reading an old post from back in Sept or Oct 2006 when I talked about how I was feeling, and it seems I was sicker than I remember, and I specifically even mentioned how looking at a computer monitor made me sick. That SO happened this time around, too.

I also of course have the constant feeling of tiredness and exhaustion. Although that may be getting better, too, as I move out of the first trimester.

I guess that's it for now. I'll try to post some belly pics occasionally along the way. I won't guarantee that it will be as often as it was with Laina's pregnancy, but I'll give it a shot :)

OK, I lied, that wasn't it. I had to come back and edit this to add that I'm having serious bacon cravings. That is weird for me because I normally never eat bacon.

Little Baker Girl

Here are some pics from a couple weeks ago when Laina helped me bake and decorate Halloween cookies. Her apron was mine when I was little and was made by my grandma. It looks so sweet on my little baker :)

Art, Anyone?

Laina loves coloring. She has loved coloring and drawing for a long time now. So, I decided to sign her up for a toddler art class at our rec center this month. So far she's had two classes. The most recent one she created this spider collage where she used chalks to pattern the background, molded putty into a spider, put on the legs and eyes (and she insisted it have a mouth), glued strings down for a web, and glued on Mr Spider. The only part I helped her with was cutting the string and the glue. Pretty good, eh?



The one below is from her first day at art class. They made collages by first swirling paint around the background. Then cutting out a "tree" and "branches" and gluing them on. And lastly sponging on "leaves". It was supposed to be fairly whimsical and impressionistic, but I think Laina's turned out a bit more like modern art, maybe with a Japanese flair? She learned to use scissors for the first time in that class and that was the only part I helped her with. I'm so proud of my little budding artist!


This one below she created at Little Monkey Bizness, which is an indoor kids play area. They have a painting room and this is what she made. I think this one is my favorite and I might even mount it and hang it in her new big girl room that Jay is painting today :)


And here she is really getting into her coloring at home. She loves to partially climb up onto the coffee table and color intensely.

...But I'd Still Rather Have a Race Car

!!!

Laina's "How To" Videos

Laina has gotten into making "How To" instructional videos. The first installment is "How to cover your eyes with your feet".




And a special bonus episode: Cheater Chopsticks for Toddlers