Our big secret ...

I am 15 weeks pregnant! We are expecting baby #3 in early May. We are beyond thrilled and more than ready to have another little one join our family. We will find out baby's gender right before Christmas, Dec 18th. I already scheduled the appt. in case they got overbooked. Can you tell I am excited? Shea has been telling practically everyone we meet, strangers and all, so I thought it was time we let our news out.

Bella has got no idea what is coming but Connor is the sweetest little boy and asks to see my belly and look through my belly button "I can see baby... he's growing!" He loves telling me this. I also have an app on my phone that we look at each week that tells us info and shows a picture of what baby looks like at this stage. It is so fun having another little person get excited about "new baby". Right after we told him, (the day we found out), he asked me "1 baby or 2?" I said "1", (even though we hadn't officially found out yet), then Connor went on to ask "Maybe 3?" He is so funny. We used to pray for a new baby to join our family in our prayers and Connor would always substitute "new" with random numbers so we would get "Bless us with 5 babies" or "14 babies". It was hilarious considering he could think of some really high numbers :) We also got to babysit for my friend and her baby was only 3 months or so, Connor was convinced that this was his new brother so he was SO excited! As we babysat he was so gentle, so soft and quiet bringing him toys and listening to every word I said. Bella was crazy. She loves babies and went insane wanting to poke his eyes out and hold him and feed him and just pull his hair, anything she could do to touch him. She was also a little jealous, when she couldn't feed baby or be held by Mommy she fell apart. No surprise to be honest. When I sub for nursery it's usually Mommy war. But we have some time till baby arrives. And Bella will be 2 1/2 then and Connor will be almost 4. We have lots of plans to get these two ready for a new baby (mostly Bella), but we know that things will fall into place with time.

Right now I am looking forward to getting over the morning sickness stage and finding out if baby is a boy or girl! It is an exciting time for us!

9 weeks

15 weeks and my barely bump

Preschool Boy

Back at the beginning of October this little boy started preschool, Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8:20 - 10:40.

He loves playing with other children, he loves running around and being active, he loves new activities, and he loves discovering!

Which makes for his LOVE for preschool.

He wakes up asking to go every morning.

He does struggle with the sitting still during the lessons part or even most of the activities and we are working on breathing deep instead of hitting. But other then common 3 yr old dilemmas he is doing great. We are also working on "nice words", considering everyone is telling him "use your words" and then he usually shouts "Get Away!" or something else nasty. So it is a work in progress. But if we give him "nice words" to say then he will repeat them ... usually ;)

He also has a little girl that he fights with consistently and she apparently picks on him and only him relentlessly, he left preschool last week with scratches all down his face from her (they even bled a little). He was proud and said "A little girl hit me with her fingers but I didn't hit her!" After congratulating him he spoke up and said "But I TRIED!"

For awhile after Bella's birthday he kept asking "Is Bella coming too?" "Is Bella big enough?", this is probably because we made such a big deal about Bella being a big girl since she is 2 now! He misses his little sister when he is at school and always asks for her (and Daddy... but that's obvious considering the most common word out of our children's mouths is always Daddy, I hear it a thousand times a day). One day Daddy watched Bella so I could pick him up and he was so worried about her, I told him "She is sleeping at home", to which he replied "Sleeping, does she have nightmares?" "Is she scared?" "I want to kiss her". This was all right after the other in about 2 seconds so when he followed up with "I want gum." I gave in because I was smitten with his sweetness about his sister.

He has a favorite teacher that he buddys with a lot. Yesterday he came out telling her how much he loves his Mommy. It was so sweet.

A girl we know ...

Update:
Height- 32.3 inches (15%)
Weight- 23.3 lbs (11%)

Well other then turning two this month, Bella is finally getting big enough to get into new clothes. So out with the 12 months that she's been rocking since last year. And on to 18 months finally, and even some 24 months mixed in because were just plain anxious. She still is at home in a size 3 diaper. She is running and playing regularly with her brother, her balance has improved greatly in the last 6 months and she sure seems surer on her feet than before. She is so brave it scares us sometimes. Especially since she can be a drama queen when it comes to tumbles, trips and falls. Her thumb is still her favorite hero and she is showing no signs of giving up her beloved addiction. But doctor says no worries, yet...

Loving lately...
Babies and Dolls
Strollers
Pretties in her hair, everything from bows to headbands
SHOES! She steals mine constantly to wear around the house and hide in random kitchen cabinets.
Books, she will sometimes sit still for stories but mostly she likes looking at them all by herself.
Small spaces. She likes finding drawers and cupboards to hide in, along with corners, under tables and inside bottom shelves.
She loves playing with other children and animals she gets her excited shreik on. And runs around crazy, running to Mommy's arms regularly with giggles and big smiles.
Phones, she likes talking away and holding it up to her face for a silent conversation.
Super Why and Tinkerbell are her favorite things to watch on TV she gets excited if we even mention the name.

Talkings

Bella was our quiet princess for a long while not wanting to let on she spoke a word, until about the end of June where she started in on some parrot talk, she'd repeat random words we said constantly. It was out of the blue and has continued going strong since!
Other than her parrot talk she is saying several words and phrases on her own daily, here are a few of our common talkings from Bella:
"Can't reach"
"Want more?"
"Pease" -Please
"Dance!"
"Look"
"Tickles"
"Tinkebell"
"Wyatt" -Super Why character
"No"
"Pretty?" -She loves to ask this after I do her hair, because Daddy does a good job making a big deal after her hair gets done (SIDENOTE: Props to Daddy who has learned to successfully take out her little tiny ponytails without her noticing, he is very proud!)
"Done"
"Dog" -Every animal is called dog or doggie by Bella.
"Hungry" "Thirsty" "Drink?"
"Get away" -Not my favorite current one
"SCARY!"
"Hide!"
"Daddy gone?" -This is always accompanied by tears
"Eese Stick" -Cheese Stick, her favorite snack

Bella is teaching us new things everyday and were enjoying watching her grow and learn as she begins this tough life of a two year old :)