if only my eyes were a video camera...

I'm sure all moms, once in awhile, see their child do something that will forever be implanted in their "mommy memory". Well, it happened today. Ginger and I have had a few days to ourselves, as Paul is on a weekend vacation up to Northern California to visit his friend Jeff. Today, I decided to take Ginger out to breakfast, and then to the park for some mommy and me time. We had the entire park to ourselves for about 20 minutes, and as usual I overdid it chasing her, going down slides, swinging, etc. I still forget sometimes that I'm 6 months pregnant, if that's possible! My sore back and feet are killing me!

Anyhow, a Dad brought his little girl to the park and she looked to be about Ginger's age, maybe older on first glance. The park we go to is big, but they made it over towards the structure we were playing on, and here's where the memory begins. Ginger RUNS over to this little girl, who is a complete stranger, and throws her arms around her, giving her a big hug. She says "com'on", and waves for her to come join us. Where did that come from?!?! Ginger is a friendly little girl, but that was too much. So the little girl comes running over with Ginger, her Dad not too far behind. We say hi, both of us clearly touched by Ginger's action. the girls played together for a minute, and Ginger said "hi!", squeezed her hand, and smiled while saying "sit" (we were under a big structure that had a little built in picnic table where Ginger and I had been playing). The girl comes and sits, and the Dad asks how old Ginger is, I said 19 months, and asked how old his daughter was, he said 21 months. He was trying to get his girl to talk to Ginger, who was just chatting away with her, but the little girl didn't have the speech skills, from what I could tell. She was adorable, just a bit more shy. And there's my Ginger, just jibber-jabbering away, trying to get her to interact verbally. Seriously proud mommy moment, especially because I could tell, for once, that Ginger has my "gift" (if that's what I'd call it) for communication. We've seen her display more of Paul's skills (art, especially) so this was such an important memory for me! The Dad tells us, "her name is Adrianna" an Ginger says "hi Anna, me gin-ger" and pats her chest indicating "gin-ger" was her name. My jaw, as well as the other Dad's, was literally on the floor!

It could have been from the big breakfast with maple syrup that sugared Ginger up into this gabby little 19 month old, but I will never, ever forget how much pride I felt for her this morning.

STILL asleep....

So, yeah, we've determined that Ginger is unique in many ways, but this one tops it off. At 9:30am on this beautiful Saturday morning, our little girl is still in bed, presumably asleep. What 20 month old sleeps in like this? I've been tempted over the last hour to go in there and get her up like I usually have to do, but at this point I almost want to see how long it will go. Paul and I usually can't sleep past around 8:30 or so anymore, so we've been up and going, just waiting for our daughter to make her appearance. This continues to make me laugh, but still gives me pause even though the doctor has said everything is fine, she just likes her bed, and her sleep. The only idea I can muster is that she may wake in the early morning and play with her baby doll that she sleeps with, or something. Because otherwise she is going to be one challenging teenager to get to wake up for school!

What a difference a year makes...

I didn't realize it when snapping a quick photo of Ginger at Costco today, but the pic on the left was taken on the exact same day last year, 8/15. What a difference a year makes!

Proud mommy moment...

On the way home from daycare this afternoon, as always I asked Ginger about her day ("How was your day"? "Good", "What did you do?" "ou-sid" (played outside) "What else?" "color"..) I think we have this same conversation every day, so it kind of is our special thing...well today, as usual, I asked her if she wanted to sing a song, which she replied (as typical) "♪la♪la♪la♪la♪la♪". Again, we go through this every day, nothing special or "new" news to report.

However, just for fun, I thought it would be fun to say letters to Ginger, and see if she would repeat them. I had no inclination that she would even pay attention, as this was not part of our typical conversation. So i assumed this might take awhile to integrate.

Well, SO not true! I say "A", she repeats it...clearly. Then "B", again, clear as night, repeats it. We go through "C", "D", "E", and then she stumbles on "F". But this was not just the sound. It was crystal clear letter formations coming out of her mouth.

Of course, my jaw was dropped to the floor. I know everyone thinks their child is intelligent, but at this moment I though she was pure genius. I was so proud that she was this far, not having had worked on it with her. I will be sure to ask Maureen tomorrow if she's started to introduce letters, but for now, I'm just reveling in the moment. :)

20 weeks

So, unlike my first go around with pregnancy, I am not posting this pic at 20 weeks and thinking "look how fabulous I look!" Well, to be fair, I didn't fully experience those thoughts round 1 either (though I had been working out prepregnancy last time and that made such a difference! Note to self!). Turns out your own percieved body image doesn't change much pre, post, or during pregnancy...BUT, here is my demonstration of putting vanity in the closet in order to take a snapshot of the 1/2 way point. Our baby girl is worth it!

Going to...."school"...

Lately, we've been using the term school to reference Ginger going to her daycare, as Ms. Maureen is spending an hour or two daily on teaching pre-pre-school lessons. Ginger is learning her colors, of which her favorites to say are "yellow" and "blue". She would say yellow all day long if I didn't try to change the subject. It is absolutely adorable, I must say!

This morning was not a typical waking of Ginger (she never wakes on her own, I have to get her up at 7:15-7:30, otherwise she'd sleep until 8:15-8:30am. Around 6:55am, I hear her SCREAM bloody murder through the monitor, scream like I haven't heard her scream in a LONG time! I rush in to get her and she had her blanket stuck over her head and I think it scared her. She frightens me by enjoying sleeping with her blanket over her head, almost every day I go in to wake her up and her head is covered with her blanket. Well, today she got to join Mommy and Daddy in bed for a little snuggle time, which is pretty rare given she is usually the last one out of bed in the mornings!

After snuggles, she and I sat and ate some breakfast while Dad got ready, then we switched places and he took Ginger off to school. While waiting for Dad to finish getting ready, Ginger decided she wanted to play with her kitchen for a bit. I took a few quick snaps- and looking at these amazes me at how big she is. She's a full blown toddler girl- no baby left in her!

It's a......GIRL!

On Thursday Paul and I FINALLY were able to have our 2nd ultrasound completed and found out that we are being blessed with another sweet baby girl. I say finally because in hindsite, we should have just made an appointment at our 4D ultrasound place to find out earlier, like we had with Ginger. I think because you pay there, the staff is just more warm, friendly, and gives you a moment of excitement, and generally seems like they care. In the situation this time, not so much. We had an overworked 6 foot tall amazon woman who seemed more interested in getting the shots she needed to get this "over with" than providing an experience. So, if we do this again, we'll definitely go to our 4D place first.

That said, she did take all of her neccessary pics and scans first, and then asked (flatly) "so you want to know what it is?" and we screamed YES! She said, it's a girl! I started laughing, saying "No way" and Paul was just silent with a little smile on his face. We both really did think it was a boy this time around, although in the back of my mind I actually DID know it was a girl. But I didn't trust my intution because with Ginger I really did think it was a boy.

We went out for ice cream after to celebrate, and of course started visualizing our life to be. We shared positive thoughts of a close sister bond, reusing all of Gingers (HUGE bins) of clothes, watching a 2nd girl and their unique differences, etc. We also talked about what scared us a little, having the expense of a 2nd wedding, the fright of a 2nd PMSing teenager, and the crazy squabbels that I'm SURE Ginger and her little sis will have. But I think overall we are more pleased than anything that we know, we can plan, visualize, and dream over the next 20 more weeks until baby arrives.

We picked up Ginger afterwards and told her the good news that she is getting a sister. She seemed happy enough, but yesterday I went out and bought her her first baby doll (girl) that takes a bottle, laughs, and cries, and she has NOT let it go. She is even napping right now with it in her crib. When I told her it was nap time, she squeezed it tight and looked at me with these eyes of "can I Pleeeease sleep with her?" and I couldn't resist. She laid right down in her crib and squeezed baby doll tightly and kissed her on the cheek as I exited the room.

Ginger is going to make a great big sister, we just know it. We are SO blessed and thankful for where we are in our lives right now. It is so exciting!

Beach trip- party of "4"

18 month Doctor's appointment

Our Ginger is a well baby, that's for sure! This morning was her 18 month check up, and I decided to bring Paul along because I was so nervous about having her get shots being so aware of what was to come. I completely overreacted, of course. She was fine!

First, Ginger weighed in at 23.8 lbs, and was measured to be 33 1/2 inches tall (no longer called "long"- that was always so weird to me!) We get to see her growth chart on the computer which shows that she is in the 95% for height, and right at 50% for weight. Dr. Shah couldn't be happier- he said kids no longer are measured in a "good" category if they are too high on the weight chart, so the goal these days is 50%. And this girl can chow some food, so she has a healthy little metabolism and digestive system.

Dr. Shah always brings in a new book for Ginger, this time it was "Clifford goes to Bed". He reads the book to Ginger, which talks about mommy taking clifford into his bedroom, then getting his teddy bear, then getting a blanket, then getting a kiss goodnight. On each page, before he would say what Clifford would get, he asked Ginger the question- what is he getting? Proud mom alert- she got each one right- teddy bear, blanket, kiss.

As we were waiting for the nurse to return with the shot, I explained to Paul that that was a test, that Dr. Shah was watching for Ginger's ability to listen and pay attention, her verbal skills, etc. He was dumbfounded- totally thought Dr. Shah was just a hell of a doctor, giving Ginger a new book and actually reading it to her. We both laughed about that...

Then nurse comes back in, and 1-2-3 Ginger gets her shot, cries a few tears, and then is back to her old self again. Thank goodness she only got 1 shot today, Hepatitis A. Afterwards, we all go out to a family breakfast at our favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurant called Kountry Folks. Ginger LOVES eggs, sausage, hash browns, french toast, she is JUST like her mommy in loving breakfast foods. Here is a few pics we snapped- clearly this girl was NOT phased by her shot, right???

4th of July at Big Bear Lake

Being pregnant makes summer holidays a little difficult, in my mind. There is no glass of wine, rarely can you make it past 11pm at the latest, sleeping is good, but not great, and of course, being pregnant with a toddler means the show never stops. So, with that in mind, I decided it was time for our family to head up to the mountains, to experience something new for our first family vacation. Big Bear is only 90 minutes away from us, and we could rent an entire cabin for the same price as getting a hotel room by the beach. Woody was invited as well, but we've found that Woody is more like a cat on vacations, than a dog. He just wanted to sleep, upstairs in the bedroom, and didn't even notice the squirrels, bunnies, etc. outdoors in the backyard. Lazy, lazy dog.

We arrived on Friday and set up shop. The cabin was even better than the pictures, as the owner had purchased a new sectional couch and new bed linens which were mountainy and fabulous. That evening we went to venture out for our first meal, and decided to stop at Village Pizza, which was a good choice.






The next morning, we woke up bright and early, and had mama's big breakfast of eggs, sausage, english muffins, and mini doughnuts (hey, it's vacation!) We packed a bag and headed out to Big Bear Marina, to pick up our pontoon boat we rented for several hours until lunchtime. I grew up on a lake, always water skiing, vacationing on a houseboat, and boating in general, so it was clear that Ginger has my love of being on the water! She ADORED being on the boat, never complained or whined once, despite a life jacket that was a little big and made it hard to sit down! Her favorite spot was definitely at the front of the boat, where she could feel the water splash on her face and the wind through her hair. It was an unforgettable experience. Dad did a great job driving, and both Paul and I marveled at all of the amazing homes on the lakefront.





That afternoon we played outside at the cabin, and then headed out for dinner to a Mexican restuarant called El Jacajitos. I name it because it was delish! I even ordered a virgin margarita that tasted pretty good, for being virgin.






We all slept in on Sunday morning (yes, Ginger sleeps these days from 8pm to as late as 8:30am, if I let her! She is an awesome sleeper, takes a 2-3 hour nap every day from 12:30-3:00 or so!) and then after getting ready for the day, we headed over to the Big Bear zoo to check out the alpine animals. It was just amazing to watch Ginger act so independently, she wanted to walk on her own, point at the animals, chat with mom and dad (and others) and generally she acts about 5 or 6 years old most days. It's pretty unreal.







We stopped by a few antique shops, then headed home for lunch and a nap. We decided to just enjoy the cabin for the afternoon, and then headed over the village in Big Bear to walk through some of the shops. We ate dinner at a great little place called the Peppercorn grill, and even got some gelato for dessert across the street at the candy store. We planned on calling it an evening, and went back to the cabin for bathtime for Ginger, and put her in her jammies. Then, we looked at the clock, and it was a little after 8pm. Ginger was in a great mood, and we decided in the spur of the moment to pack up, drive down to the lake, and see if we could possibly find a place to park and pop open the back of my SUV to watch the fireworks for a few minutes. Well, we were in luck! Though the entire area around the lake was PACKED, we found an open parking space quickly, found a plce to sit quickly, and had time to spare before the show started! Thank goodness for green grapes- gave Ginger just the sugar high she needed to make it to the 9pm show (that is a huge stretch for her!) We had the most wonderful moment as a family, watching the fireworks together. This is what the trip was for- to make memories, to enjoy each other, and to remember this special moment when we were just a one child family.







All in all, this was a trip we will never forget. Thank you Ginger Lauren, for being such a special little girl. We are so blessed and thankful for your beautiful spirit each day. I love being your mommy, and Dad loves being your daddy, you completely and utterly melt our hearts each and every day (let's see if that still rings true when you're a vivacious teenager!!)