Monday

This week I will post what our daily life looks like.  My friend Samantha did this on her blog and I thought it was a cute idea (thanks Sam!).  So here is a snapshot of what Monday was like.....

After our morning walk and quick stop to Fresh and Easy, it was Elianna's TV time.  

....and she was enjoying her favorite "friends."  Elmo.....

and Ernie.

While she was enjoying some TV fun.  I got started on dinner.  It was orange chicken via crock pot.

Someone is hungry and came to supervise.

Even though I cut up some orange slices for her lunch she wanted to dive into the uncut 1/2.

The orange mixture for the chicken.

Before the chicken is cooked.

Dinner is ready!

After dinner and Elianna's bath, we headed over to Central Park for a live Reggae Band.

Mark got to catch up on current events.

Elianna did some writing.

 Overall, our threesome group had a good time and enjoyed some tunes!

Cheese! (I call this Mark's "homie" look)

Let's do some yoga...or maybe not.

As part of our gross motor time, I will at times, incorporate some yoga.  Nothing too complicated, it's really for me to stretch out this "baby-making" body of mine and if Elianna happens to enjoy it...perfect!  She will usually do a few poses/stretches with me and then have her giggles.  Today there was no yoga for her.  She preferred to play with "Rocko" aka - rocks.

The name Rocko came about from Sesame Street.  One of the characters, Zoey, has a pet rock, Rocko.  Elianna has not taken in a pet rock, but every rock's is named Rocko.

The only "mat" time that Elianna had was placing the rocks on it.  

7 Months!

I'm happy to say, we are 7 months along.  This pregnancy has been a bit harder, but at the same time, a bit easier.  Harder, because I've now have a toddler to care for and easier, because I've been through this before and know what to expect.  Everything seems to be going well, except for the plantation of the placenta.  It seems to have planted itself on the lower part of my uterus, which makes it dangerous for a vaginal delivery.  The risk of hemorrhaging during and after birth is high.  We were planning on a C-section anyway, but the just kinda sealed the deal.  Luckily, it is not too low on the placenta, because that would have meant, bed rest!!!!  

The major difference with this pregnancy is this little guy has some strong kicks/punches.  Elianna was also very active during my pregnancy with her, but this little guy will stop me in my tracks or wake me up at night.  I'm experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions.  They come about once every other day or so.

Here are some pictures of my growing bump.

3.5 months

6 months

Today, at 7 months (28 weeks)

This last picture I took right now.  I wanted to have something current to post so I took a quick shot on Photo Booth.  I'm not looking my greatest right now, so the cut off face was not an accident :) 

It's done!

I finally finished Elianna's quilt!  I'm so proud of myself; I'm proud that I did not give up and finished what I started.  It took my about a year to finish it, but it's done.  I believe it took me that long because I've never actually taking on a project like this before, it's a lot of planning.  Also, time management, knowing when it's best to work on it with a little one around and finally, being pregnant.  There were a few months that I did not and could not do any extra curricular activities.  I finally told myself, that Elianna's blanket would be done before "Mark Jr's" arrival and ta-da...it's done.

It's not perfect by any means.  I learned as I went with this project, but I'm happy to say Elianna loves it.  Her exact words or word when it was presented to her, "Nice."

Here's the front.  I picked different patterns and sizes.  I did not want a perfect shaped pattern.  The different fabrics remind me of Elianna and her personality. 

  

This is the back.  Yesterday we went to the fabric store and Mark was the one who saw this pattern first and I fell in love with it. 

Mark seems to enjoy Elianna's blanket as well.

Going Cloth!

It has been decided!  We are transiting to cloth diapers.  After much research, budget management and a strong push from yours truly....gDiapers here we come!  We've been potty training for a bit over 3 weeks now and Elianna is doing great.  She is only using a diaper to sleep in and when we go out; boy have I've seen the difference in $$.  I had been toying with the idea of cloth diapers since I was pregnant with Elianna, but we decided not to, the reason being, that the first time parenting experience might have been overwhelming, to have added cloth diapers might not have the best idea for us and we really did not have anyone close to guide us with that.

What "pushed" me over to the "cloth side" was seeing the savings as Elianna uses less and less diapers; not to mention how much better it is on our environment.  At first I was going to start "Mark Jr." on them, then I thought, why not with Elianna?  We really do not need to spend money on a diaper for a 2 hour nap. That's where we will start with her.  The night time diaper might stay disposable, but she has begun to pee less at night.  We may also use a night time disposable diaper for "Mark Jr."  

Yesterday, I received my delivery of my first Indian prefolds, they are the larger size for Elianna.  I ran them through the washer twice to soften them up and here they are drying.

The Indian prefolds come in an off white color, due to the lack of bleaching.  Per my research, these are the most absorbent cloth diapers, but since we will be using them with the gDiapers, there should not be much to worry about in regards to leakage.

I'm very resourceful, I use every inch of the house to line-dry.  

Mark is calling this my experiment, but believe me, it's no experiment!  I'm waiting for my Snappies to arrive in the mail.  Snappies? you ask.  They are the alternative to pins and are very popular.  I was practicing putting on cloth diapers on Elianna's stuff animals and I did not care for the pins, so I opted for the Snappi.  I will post a picture as soon as they come in a few days!

Elmo!

Elianna gets about 2 hours of TV time during the day.  She has never been much of a TV watcher nor is she now.  I purposely had the TV off during the day when she was an infant so she would not get use to it.  The one show that she really has been into is Elmo's World.  She was about eight months old when she first saw it.  There is something about that little red monster that grabs her attention.  She would never watch that segment all the way through, see doesn't even watch Sesame Street all the way.  She enjoys the intro song of the show, Abby's Flying Fairy School intro and some musical parts within Sesame Street.  Within the last month, The Cat in the Hat, Knows a lot About That! has become one of her favorites, again,  she pays attention to certain parts of the show.

Last month her Tio Jay and Tia Delia gave her an Elmo doll.  She is sooo into him.  She sleeps with him, shares her food with him, makes me give him some food, they watch TV together and takes him on walks.  She is so busy with him, he has to take a bath/wash at least once or twice a week.

First day she received Elmo.

Bringing him to breakfast.

....and not letting go.

Hygiene!

So many changes for Miss Elianna.  In May, the pacifier was completely taken away.  Since she was about 7 months, it was only use for her naps and night time sleep.  She had about 3 or 4 days to adapt to the change, but nothing major.  RIP pacifier!

At the beginning of this month we started using a toddler toothbrush.  We got her an Elmo toothbrush, that she will usually allow me to brush her teeth with no problem and that she attempts to brush her own teeth.

So many changes for Miss Elianna.  In May, the pacifier was completely taken away.  Since she was about 7 months, it was only use for her naps and night time sleep.  She had about 3 or 4 days to adapt to the change, but nothing major.  RIP pacifier!

At the beginning of this month we started using a toddler toothbrush.  We got her an Elmo toothbrush, that she will usually allow for me to brush her teeth with no problem and that she attempts to brush her own teeth.

.....and the big one:  POTTY TRAINING!  That technically started as when she turned a year old.  That's when she began following me into the bathroom, whether I wanted her to or not.  Since I didn't have much of a choice, I started laying down the foundation for potty training.  Each time I needed to use the bathroom, I would make a big deal by announcing it to her and rushing to the bathroom.  By 14 months she would tell me that she had poop in her diaper and usually she was right.  At 15 months, we got her the potty.  I put the box out for her notice and once she took interest in it I pulled it out and explained how she would be using it.  The potty was put in the bathroom for a week or two, later I asked to sit her down, she said yes and to my surprise she peed in it.  I thought about going ahead with the official potty training, but I waited to make sure her language skills were a bit more refined and her bladder control was a bit more stable.  Meanwhile, after every diaper change (or most) I would sit her on her potty.  By the end of May she was going in the potty at least once a day (#1 or #2), but then she came down with Roseola and I did not sit her on the potty for about 4 days and that kinda changed things.

Last Monday was the first day of training.  It did not go very well.  A few things happened.  I approached it like a teacher.  I believe I have potty trained most of my students, expect those in Kindergarten.  I was either the main "trainer" or supported what the parents were doing at home.  Since last week was my brother's wedding, we were busy running around for last minute details, I decided that I would hold off on the training for this week.  We would be at home more time and it allowed for me to rework my approach with her.  I realized what I did with my students was not going to work with Elianna.  For one, I'm mommy, not Mrs. Lopez and we are at home, not in school; that in itself really changes things.  I ditched the pull-ups and went Commando.  This allowed for me to see when she started to go, instead of noticing wet underwear.  Also, in whatever room we are in, the potty is with us.  

Since Monday things have improved, there are less tears, less pee-pee clean ups, she is telling me that she needs to go and today she went to the potty on her own.  She needed some prompting to stay, but she knew what to do.  She is, of course, wearing a diaper when she goes to bed or if we need to go out, but that's okay with me.  This major change needs to run it's course.