"Mommy made me a birthday!"

(Ava to her dad after seeing her birthday decorations)

I can't believe Ava is two today. It has gone by so quickly! She has been a real whirlwind and a joy. I can't imagine life without her.


She is still super busy and active. Her latest thing has been to color on everything-- walls, carpet, cabinets, tables, you name it. She always admits to it and acts very contrite ("that was naughty" she'll say in this cute downcast voice), then does it again right away. She brought me a book to read one afternoon, and lo and behold, on each page was at least one little scribble, usually over the princesses eyes. With each page turn she would say "Ava did it. That was naughty." So cute but I think its getting time to lock away the coloring things!

She is way into princesses right now. I was so relieved when Isa survived her early childhood without getting too into princeses and barbies, yet each of my girls has gotten successively girly. I thought I'd have a hard time with it, but when its a certain child's personality, I can't help but find it cute. (thank heavens!) She wants to dress in princess dresses each day, and some days goes from one to another in quick succession. One day she looked down in obvious pride at her pink sequined self and said "I'm bu-ful. (beautiful)" If you ask her if she's beautiful when not wearing a princess dress she will always say no (with a 'duh, Mom' kind of look on her face).

She keeps us laughing when she spots princesses everywhere, even in unlikely places. Here are two recent ones:

Whenever we see this Stainmaster Carpet ad in Costco, she says "look, Mom, a princess!"

She gets so excited when I use this soap. She calls it princess soap.

Two of her favorite things are gum and band-aids.  She is happy as a hippo if she has both at once.  She got band-aids from her compassionate aunt for her birthday and in less than an hour had used the whole box (mostly on her tummy).

She has been loving attention from her dad lately and said to me the other day "be better. Daddy come home." I asked her if it would be better if Daddy came home and she said "yes."

She can be quite the handful at times-- probably more demanding than any of my kids. She is also my first to really hit or grab toys from siblings. She loves to scream at the top of her lungs when she feels she has been unjustly dealt with. She is my first to really throw tantrums. And yet I think she's so cute I just want to eat her up. Is there something wrong with me? I guess I can finally understand those parents who look on lovingly while their little terror goes about terrorizing others. Not that I ever want to be that way, but I finally get it.

She can be quite sweet too, I guess I need to give her some credit.  She is the first one to give hugs/kisses if someone gets hurt or is sad.

Between wanting to eat her right up and strangle her, all in the same moment, we're sure glad our little two year-old came into our lives.

We're having a....baby!

I wanted to wait a bit longer to tell everyone this time, since I had an early miscarriage (only 5 weeks-ish, but had taken a positive test) this summer.  I know this is nothing compared to how long others have gone, but I was nonetheless sad and feeling guilty since I had run my half marathon while pregnant and hoped I hadn't been the cause.

So I wanted to make sure everything was okay before I told anyone.  Our family figured it out pretty early, but its been a fun surprise for others.

So far, its been a great pregnancy.  I felt pretty sick at first, but the nausea has eased to tolerable levels and my legs have been less painful (not less unsightly--whew!) than last time.  I have felt so much more relaxed since I'm not as busy as last time, not moving house right before a birth, and not in as much pain!  Its really been a huge blessing.  I thought I'd have to ask for a bit of help this time, but we've been able to function much better than expected.  I'm sad this is my last baby, but also feel so pleased to be having him or her!  This is a little sweet bonus that I wasn't sure we'd be able to have.  There is also lot less pressure knowing I don't ever have to go through this again!  I think I've genuinely been able to enjoy this pregnancy (not at first...when I was sickest I wasn't enjoying anything).  I always look at my kids with appreciation during each pregnancy, as I see how much can go wrong.  I feel really, really blessed.  I would love to have kids forever, but I am definitely at the point where I don't feel I can give all of them what they need if I kept going.  So...I'm super happy and excited about this baby, while finally feeling closure that its okay for us to be done having kids.   Whew!  Sorry for the whirlwind of words.

Today I had my 20 week ultrasound and as far as I could tell, everything looked good.  I don't have an appointment with my doctor until next week to get a more official okay.

I (clenched jaw) decided I didn't want to find out the sex of the baby, but to let it be a surprise.  Miguel, on the other hand, definitely did want to find out.   But, I'm behind in this argument 3 and 1/2 to 1/2, (we found out with all but Isa, and even then Miguel knew but I didn't) and this is our last baby, so I was preparing myself for a knock-out fight (okay, not really).

Well, today I showed up for my ultrasound, and...no Miguel.  He's never missed one of these before, but he had forgotten about the appointment.  I had the devilish thought NOT to call him, since I knew I would automatically get my way, but decided to do the right thing and remind him.  He was 30 minutes away, and the sonographer thought the appointment wouldn't last much longer than that, so we decided it would be best if he stayed at work.  He asked to speak to her on the phone and she kept listening to him and laughing, so I'm sure he was bribing or threatening her or both. 

I was a bit sad to do it alone...but chances are his powers of persuasion (when of course I want to know what the baby is-- so easy to give in!) used on both me and the sonographer would have had the desired effect.  So.....we're having a baby!