Names from a three year old....

I forgot to tell you about this!  After we found out our news I called my sister right away to tell her.  After hearing all of the excitement, Sophie wanted to get on the phone and talk to me. This was our conversation....

Sophie: Hi Auntie Amie

Me: Hi Sophie!

Sophie: So you are having a baby boy?!  What are you naming him?

Me: Yes!  Isn't that exciting?!  I am not sure what we want to name him.  Can you help us think of baby boy names?

Sophie: Yeah!  You can call him Sprinkles!

(back ground noise: hysterical laughter from Anna and Bonnie.  They were both dying....)

Me: Wow!  Sprinkles?!  That is a cool name.  Thanks Sophie!  

Sophie: welcome!  Well I have to go now.  I love you Auntie Amie! 

I will have to make sure to ask Sophie next time we have to name a pet rabbit or puppy dog ;)  I love that girl.  Too cute!

Snips, Snails and Puppy Dog Tales......

That's what little boys are made of!  Yep, that's right!  We are having another boy!!!  Jackson is going to have a baby brother!  How cool is that?!  

Our appointment today went just amazing.  Our Ultrasound Tech was wonderful and talked us through the whole thing, telling us what all the different parts of baby were.  And goodness was he active!  He was wiggling and moving all over the place.  And if we wouldn't have wanted to know if he was a boy or a girl we would have found out anyways- this little guy was so proud to show his stuff!  Scott and I noticed it right away in the first minute or so!!

The tech said that baby boy is perfectly healthy and active. His heart-rate was 158, and has all his fingers and toes :)  Oh and our due date was moved up slightly. It shows that I am now due November 13th (instead of the 16th) so we will meet him somewhere in there!

This was such a special morning- I could have watched the little guy forever. *sigh*

Swagger Wagon

I just saw this yesterday and had to share it with all of you- it is absolutely hilarious! Enjoy:)

Your Pregnancy: Week 18

Big news- we go tomorrow morning for the BIG ULTRASOUND!!!! Please pray for full cooperation- spread those legs baby! No modesty allowed :)

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Your Pregnancy: Week 18
Average size: 5.6 in, 6.7 oz
As your growing uterus starts shifting your center of gravity (belly forward, bottom out), hormones are causing your ligaments to relax and joints to loosen. The result? Back pain and soreness. On the bright side, if you want to know baby's gender, this would be your first week for a sneak peek.

Baby's now the size of a sweet potato!
Baby's become amazingly mobile (compared to you, at least), passing the hours yawning, hiccupping, rolling, twisting, kicking, punching, sucking, and swallowing. And baby is finally big enough that you'll be able to feel her movements.

Now that baby can hear what's going on outside the womb, it's time to get out the tunes. Her faves? Classical, lullabies, new age...and anything else that resembles your own thumping heart (about 60 beats per minute).

One Proud Mommy!

Disclaimer: There is a lot of Potty Talk in the following post so be fair warned.  Do not read if you are the least bit upset by the use of the words pee-pee and poo-poo....

This is a knight in shining armor any girl would love!

I have been dreading potty training.  Dreading it with all that is in me.  I thought it was an impossible feat- something that I could never actually get Jackson to do.  As ridicules as it sounds, I was so afraid Jackson would be in diapers forever.  But I listened to all other mom's that have already done it, and the one big piece of advice I decided to run with was this "Don't Rush Them".  Turns out they were right!  The first time we started thinking about potty training was March of last year.  He went in the potty for the first time March 6th, 2009 and then promptly wanted nothing do with it.  Every now and then we would talk about it.  He liked reading books about it, and see his friends do it.  But him doing it- no way.  So I relaxed, didn't push it.  Left the potty in the bathroom for him to see every day and just waited.  It is now June 2010- 16 months later and he is finally ready!  It's amazing how patience and truly watching the cues of readiness pays off.

Yesterday Jackson spent the day with and had a sleep over party at Auntie Bon Bon's house so that Scott and I could go on a fun date night.  I knew he would have an awesome time- but a part of me was so worried that being away from home only 3 days into potty training would give us a huge setback.  But Bonnie assured me that things were going to be fine (and of course I trusted her!  She successfully potty trained Anna.  She is a veteran. lol)  The brave woman she is took the two 3 year olds (both in clad in underpants) plus Anna as her little helper, to the zoo.  Bless her soul she said she saw more bathrooms then animals, Jackson and Sophie had to check out every single one!  But with only one mutual accident at lunchtime they did great.

Jackson, the "Super Spy"

The rest of the time at the Stenger house, Jackson was sure to go in the potty each time.  Only one accident while playing outside (too busy to take a break I am sure!) otherwise he was super careful to use the potty.  I am even more proud to admit he did a poo-poo this morning (on his own even, not even needing to tell Bonnie about it first) and then another one when I came to pick him up in the afternoon.  He was very proud to show me that he did "a really, reallllly long one!"  I am sure he will loooooove this story when he is older... haha.  The first two days he refused to go poopie in the potty, we had to put a diaper on until he was finished and then put his underpants back on after.  I know this is very common, so I took it in stride.  Never did I expect him to do it on his own this quickly.  But then again Jackson has done everything on his own, in his own time.  Weaned himself off of nursing, stopped the bottle, stopped the pacifier, moved into a big boy bed.... this kid does what he needs to do when the time is right for him.  And no sooner.  And you know what, the more we realize this the easier the big stuff has become. The dreaded potty training has really turned into not that big of a deal.  I am sure we will have plenty of ups and downs along the way, but so far I am one proud Mommy.

Captain Underpants

OK, so here it is-  Real Deal potty training has begun!  I have finally decided that it is just time to start up again.  Only this time we are really doing it!  No more messing around, no more doing it half way.  We've tried Pull-Ups, and for Jackson they just don't work.  They are the same as diapers as far as he is concerned, and uses them as such.  So we needed to pull out the real guns.  Big Boy Underpants time!  We have decided that there are going to be no more diapers except at bedtime- and here is where my job comes in for I know that consistency is key.  As hard and difficult as this is I need to stick with it and not give in.  It will only hurt him, not help him in the long run.

Yesterday was day one, and I think it was a pretty good day overall.  We had three in the potty and three accidents outside of the potty.  It is definitely a start.  The one thing that I was most nervous about was could I possibly be doing this a tad too soon.  Age-wise he is right around where he should be, he has all of the other signs like waking up from naps dry, very few wet diapers over the course of a day, not liking being in a dirty diaper, telling me when he is going to go potty.... but we encountered a new thing when we started potty training.  And that was as soon as he told me he had to go potty, he had a hard time controlling himself until he got to a potty to actually go.  The moment he told me he had to pee, he already had an accident.  We just couldn't get there fast enough.  But we are working through it, and I am determined that he can do this.  He just needs to learn some new tools he didn't have to know before.

The best news is he looooves his big boy underpants.  The first hour, he tried on every single pair he had to see which ones he liked best.  And he is thrilled that we are going to the store to be able to pick out the coolest ones he can find.  We have six pairs, and that clearly isn't going to be enough!!  I was a little nervous he wouldn't want to do it again and it would be a bit of a fight, but he woke up today excited and ready to put them on again.  We had one accident this morning.  But we kept trying and he was a great sport, constantly sitting on the potty and giving it a "go".  But unfortunately no go.  For some reason today he was ready and willing to sit on the potty but he had a fear of actually peeing in it.

Then this afternoon he had the beginning of another accident but was able to stop himself in the middle.  We sat on the potty for a reeeeaaaallllyyyyy long time, but he refused to go.  I decided to just take a little break and get some lunch going.  I didn't want to stress him out too much.  Well all of a sudden he jumped up, stated he had to go potty and ran to the bathroom.  "Stay there Mommy!" he yelled from the bathroom.  Two minutes later he comes running back into the kitchen screaming "I did it, I did it!!  Mommy I went pee-pee in the potty come look!"  And sure enough, this time it was for real, empty the bladder pee-pee!  Yay!!  He was soooooo excited, I got a huge hug and he was full smiles.  It was awesome.  He right away wanted to dump the potty into the big toilet and give it a flush.  We washed hands and then he just had to call Anna to tell her the exciting news.  And she was so awesome!  She was so excited for him, and by the end of the call he was walking on air.

Isn't this the cutest dupa you have ever seen?!  

This is exactly what we both needed to know that he indeed was ready to do this.  I know this is only the beginning- but it is a great start and I am so proud of my Little Man.

First Gender Dream and Big Ultrasound Scheduled!!

So for the last two weeks or so I have been suffering with what I thought was just bad allergies, just to find out on Tuesday that was indeed a sinus infection- ugh!  I have been so congested and miserable.  Definitely not fun.  Thank goodness I was able to get some antibiotics from my doctor and today I am starting to finally feel like a real person again.  On Saturday night I went to bed feeling really bad. I popped two Benedryl and off to snoozeland I went.  And on came the wild dreams!

I had a dream that I was so sick I needed to go to the ER so I could have a chest x-ray.  While I was laying on the x-ray table, the technician told me, well since you are here do you want to see if we can tell the sex of your baby?  I of course said sure, and immediately the x-ray table became an ultrasound room.  She put the goop on my belly and started looking around.  All of a sudden she shrieks and says "Congratulations Mommy, you are having a little boy!".  And then i woke up.  It was such a vivid dream.... almost seemed real, aside from the magical changing of rooms and stuff. hahaha.

Well the great news is that we won't have long to wait!  I made the BIG APPOINTMENT to determine the sex of our little avocado.  We go in at 9:45 on Monday, June 14th! Only 10 days away!!!!  Yayyayayayay!   So what are all of your guesses?!!

Jackson is very excited about becoming a big brother.  Every day it changes as to which he would rather have, a baby sister or a baby brother.  Last night at the library he picked out a Berenstein Bears book,The New Baby and we have already read it 4 times today.  He loves how Mama Bear's tummy is big like mine.  And also how Small Bear loves becoming Brother Bear.  He said that Sister Bear was cute when she was a baby.

Jackson loves to tell us what he is going to teach the baby how to do when it is born.  At first it starts out serious and sweet.  Like "I am going to teach the baby not to spit out food." or "I am going to teach the baby how to line up cars and play with swords."  And then he starts to get silly...."Mommy, I am going to teach the baby not to eat hairdryers!"  And then he laughs and laughs.  Always the comedian. So far no real jealousy yet.  Wait and see Little Man, your life is going to change unlike you could ever believe!!!