Trying not to use the word terrible

Grace and I made yummy valentines

Grace's treat was a date with daddy at the pool

So Grace has basically been a piece of cake from day one. With the exceptions of some very minor rough patches being her mom has been what I would consider fairly smooth. Being a mother is never easy, but being Grace's mom has been the closest too I think you can get. Now Grace if you read this someday, know that even during this somewhat turbulent little phase we may be going through that you are still precious, lovely and a true joy to mother and to be around, I love you and you are beautiful inside and out! -- that being said, I need a drink and I can't have one!!!

I have never liked the term terrible two's. It brings to mind paint on walls, watches in the toilet, and the roles of parent and toddler reversed to the point that mom is sitting in the corner crying by the time dad gets home from work. Well our walls are still white and I don't wear a watch, but the last one has nearly come true, when last week I had to go in the bathroom shut the door and just cry so that I wouldn't totally loose it. I am sure what we are going through could be minimal compared to what others have had to go through, my family doesn't know whether or not to believe that we are even going through a "rough" patch because Grace is in general still quite the gem when we are out or with relatives. However, lately we have had days where the whining doesn't seem to stop, where she says the same word (something she wants like milk) over and over and over and over until she gets it or (finally I've learned) I simply walk away and wait till she's done (which still lasts up to ten minutes!!!) She's hitting, kicking and screaming and sometimes she completely has no idea what she wants and just cries until she gets it! (confused? me too). I remember in my childhood adolescence class that we learned that both in the toddler and teen years alike the frontal cortex of a child grows which causes them to make poor decisions and to be quite emotional. And our frontal cortex is surely growing, and every day, sometimes every hour I have to remember that 1. this is a phase and 2. she is not out to ruin me. It has also caused me to refine my parenting skills, things like when I say I'm going to enforce a certain consequence I actually need to do it, and that she really is a smart girl, I don't have to repeat my instructions a hundred times, she hears me so if she doesn't follow them she's in time out - or whatever. I am learning A LOT. To be consistent, to be loving, and to forget and forgive, after the time out or the "sorry mommy" to be positive and loving and to change the subject!

She is still kind and sweet, I think I am just really struggling with the fact that we are like always disciplining her and I feel like there are less good and loving moments, it doesn't feel good at the end of the day! But I've concluded that we just need to be consistent in both the rules and our love, and the three of us will make it out alive!

(I apologize if this sounded so dramatic but it was my blog therapy for the day, and I feel a little better! )

p.s I posted some pics of our valentines day!

Baby P footage!!!!!!!!!!!

This is our new li ttle baby! We won't know the sex until tonight so keep posted for more pics and video of the big reveal! I just couldn't wait till tomorrow to post the pictures and video from our ultrasound today!!

Both baby and Mommy are healthy and doing good! One, I can't believe that we got such amazing footage and pics and two, I want to hold our little baby so bad now! I am one proud Daddy right now! This definately brings Psalms 139 to life a lot more

To those who are going to be at the sex party tonight, we can't wait to share the big reveal with you! (Sex party sounds dirty, but it is not)

To our family and friends who can't be there with us, we hope this helps you all share in our excitement! We love and miss you all!

Look at the little button nose.....in the words of Gracie "So cute!"

A perfect day!

Sealions which Grace was terrified of

The perfect end to a perfect day!

It seemslike last weekend everyone we knew went to the beach, and Josh and I were kind of bummed we missed our chance since last weekend was so beautiful and this one started off so rainy. Yesterday morning we woke up to a clear blue sky with plenty of sunshine so we bundled up, packed up and headed to the coast! The beach was cold but absolutely beautiful. And it is amazing what some fresh air and wide open space to run can do for a two year old. After arriving in Newport I had to take some time to recover from the car ride over but it didn't take long and we were all able to enjoy a greasy but yummy meal from moes. Then we went to the beach where Grace absolutely had a blast running around, looking at the ocean, climbing on rocks, and crunching with her boots every sea shell I showed her. After a long walk and somewhat freezing our faces we decided we had to get ice cream (smart) because that's what you do at the beach. (Well other places you can swim, here we eat....although we did see an older woman swimming in her bathing suit! Crazy!) Well our normal ice cream stop was closed (something about cold weather and no one wanting ice cream) and our second and only other ice cream shop only took cash which we had none of. However we did find an art gallery/coffee shop that sold ice cream bars made with Euphoria chocolate. Oh my gosh! I fell asleep last night dreaming of these ice cream bars, they were amazing! The lady pulls out a plain vanilla ice cream bars and opens a vat of chocolate dips it in right there and hands it to you!!! I was in heaven! Anyways we ate on their little sundeck where you could look out at the bay but stay warm, it was perfect!

Go Beavs!

We went to my Cousins fifth grade basketball game yesterday and we ran in to James Rodgers. My cousin wanted his autograph and asked me to take a pic of him so after we waited for all the little kids to get their whatevers signed Josh and Grace jumped in too and we got this pic! Go Beavs!

We've made the switch!

We've made the switch! (not from cable to digital) but from baby bed to big girl bed. We are planning to potty train soon (for hopefully the last time:) and I thought I should take away anything that could interfere with that, including sleeping in a play pen. As I took her bed down this morning and hid it away I found myself really sad! I've been told twice now that soon I will have another baby and will go through all of this again, but it's still sad. She's still my baby but is becoming a little girl! Anyways, I secretly got rid of her baby bed and put it out of site and made up her big girl bed after breakfast. It's just a mattress on the floor now, but soon it will be a real bed. We showed her her big girl surprise and then took her swimming at the indoor pool in town. (1. To celebrate because there are few things she loves more than swimming, and 2. to get her totally wiped out so that when nap time came around she wouldn't care where she was sleeping....she doesn't do to well with change....like someone I know;) It actually went pretty well! I was kind of nervous for a while, I kept telling her we were going swimming to celebrate her sleeping in her big girl bed and she would say "no!". But I think she just thought I was telling her she had to go to bed right then. We'll just have to see, she napped fine, and we just put her down for the night. She seemed to like it, but we'll see how long it takes her to figure out that she can now get up whenever she wants to. I was trying to wait until I made it to trimester number 2 and would get some energy back but the poor girl was touching each end of the bed when sleeping straight!

Anyways, its just the first of many of the big girl transitions to come. I am both excited for her and proud of her, but I'm still going to be a tiny bit sad every time she sheds some of her babyness!

Tagged

I was tagged, by two different people for two different things, and I didn't get what Leah's meant, sorry! So here are seven things about me. I don't know if I can tag seven new people though, we'll see!

1. My current craving is cheetos and a oreo blizzard (healthy right?) been craving it for days
2. I am currently trying to decide between having a repeat c-section and a trial normal delivery, leaning towards normal delivery...thoughts anyone?
3. We're having a sex party to reveal the gender of our baby next month, you're all invited!!
4. I love snow more than an elementary school kid and get giddy when there's hope for the stuff!
5.Love in the pyramid (I was in a sorority)
6. I love frosted mini wheats but they stress me out to eat, I have a system.
7. Eating or making pretty food makes me really excited

Thats all folks! Who's left to tag; Abby, Jen, Becca, Molly

Beaver Basketball

Grace is currently our little sports lover. I hate that I didn't get pictures of her first football game, but the girl actually sat (and played happily) through an entire football game this last fall! (I was bored before she was!!) And lately she had been asking to go to a basketball game. Well last Saturday the Beaver women had a game in Corvallis and we had been cleaning our garage all day (loads of fun) so we decided to go. It was so much fun! Grace loved it! It was perfect to take her to a girls game too because it was cheap (in case she couldn't stay for the whole thing) and it wasn't totally packed out so she had room to move around and play in the bleachers some when she got a little bored. I tried to take some good pics, but these are what I have!