Happy Halloween!

On Friday Mia had a party at Diane's. The kiddos just wore their halloween outfits (no costumes since the girls are younger). She loved wearing her tights (called them "cuute!) and her 'skurt'. Then on Halloween the weather finally turned nice and we had a beautiful day to celebrate Mia's 2nd Halloween. As soon as she woke up she insisted on wearing 'cow' so she went up to her room and put cow on over her pj's....she wore her cow outfit the ENTIRE day. Dad and her carved our pumpkin (our other pumpkins were eaten by the squirrels!!) and mom and Mia made yummy cupcakes. She kept ooing and ahhing when dad and her were carving the pumpkin, she liked playing with the guts too, hehe. She had a blast frosting the cupcakes too (she never ever ever gets sweets so this was a super duper treat for her).

After Mia's nap, Grandma and Papo came to join us trick or treating. We took a nice walk around the neighborhood and Mia even managed a few 'tricktrets' to a few people! Mostly she said "tank you" and "bye" when they gave her the candy. She really started getting into going up to houses and getting candy, she wasn't afraid at all! When we went to our friend Karen's house she had a special gift bag waiting for her. As we were leaving Karen's house Mia, the cow, met head on with a Panda Bear. It was cute, they stared at each other for about a minute.

We had a great time walking around then enjoyed a nice dinner at our local mexican restaurant. Mia was ready for bed tonight and was sleeping by 830! (normally she is up singing and talking until about 9 or 930 even though we put her to bed at 8). What a great kick off to the holidays! Now since Mia won't be eating any candy... I wonder who will be eating all of it? Did I mention I am now 13 weeks pregnant (found out my neighbor is due May 8th! a day before me!)...anyhow I have a bowl full of candy to get to...hehe

4am

What do you do when at 4am you hear "where mama?" "where dady?"...."mama" "daddy"...then a bunch of songs and babble? Ignore it right? Then you fall back asleep and wake at 5am and you continue to hear the same little voice coming from her bedroom. A happy voice but a voice nonetheless. This is what I do, in my head I say "please please please go back to sleep". Then about 530am I get up to make sure the "mama? mama? mama?" isn't something serious. I go in and nope, she is happy standing up, excited that I came in. Desperate for a few more minutes of sleep, I bring her into our bed (big time parent NO NO). Ok so it's dark, she'll go back to sleep with us I am hoping. Nope, she excitedly starts to tap on daddy and say "daddy!! daddy"...then again tap me and say "mama". Then I'm still trying to get a few more minutes of sleep, I hear her singing "a, b, c....g, i....". She is not going to sleep. So in utter desperation I turn on the TV hoping some PBS program is on this early...it is and she is silent...I get a few more minutes of sleep. She nevers goes back to sleep. We start our day way earlier than I wanted but at least she isn't sick or in teething pain. We get moma a grande starbucks (pregnancy NO NO but um I'm desperate) and we head to Diane's. Big huge meltdown when I leave because she is, you guessed it, tired! But when I pick her up at 3pm she receives a good report from Diane, saying "she was great, no signs up being up at 4am". Happy about that.

Today, I didn't hear the the songs or babble or "dady?" "mama?" until a lovely 6am. ahhh sleep is so good!

11 weeks

Yesterday I hit the 11 week mark - feeling slightly better, able to make dinner a little easier and still feeling tired. Our baby is about 3/10 of an ounce (teeny tiny) and is about 1 1/2 inches long! Just about out of the 1st trimester - I can't wait! Here I am at about 10 weeks - I think this time I am going to be HUGE. I know I will 'stretch' faster but at this point in my pregnancy with Mia I was losing weight - so far I have been gaining weight because this little baby wants me to eat all the time...hopefully I'll lose it as quickly as the first time, which I am not worried about since I will be nursing.

Mia is entering the "MINE" phase. A few times this weekend, she would grab things out of my hand and say MINE. I can't help but laugh because it's so cute to see her exert her independence. Dad doesn't like this but I assured him it's just a phase. She had two huge meltdowns when we had to leave the library this weekend because it was closing. She is a fiesty little girl - can't help but love that about her.

She really watches very limited TV in our house, just PBS shows, but somehow has fallen in love with Calliou. She reads his books at Diane's and watched it once with me and now that is all she wants to watch. She will scream "CALLIOU, CALLIOU". So we rented a DVD at the library and it's cute, it's about Calliou being in his first wedding. We were telling her she is going to be a flower girl in Aunt Christie's wedding and she kept saying "ohhhh" like she really understood. And we said "do you want to wear a pretty dress?" and she says YES!!! and claps her hands, so we are getting her ready for her first wedding - it's going to be so much fun. We are so thankful that Aunt Christie changed the date so we can all be there (with baby #2 safely inside for now).

Pics from this weekend at the park playing with Dad and enjoying the leaves. We had a great breakfast on Sunday morning, thanks Grandma and Papo for coming out and the great Halloween books.

HOW FUN - I started to blog when I was first pregnant with Mia. So click below to compare my belly with her and what I felt like:

http://babycaporale.blogspot.com/2007_07_01_archive.html

10 weeks and girls weekend

Friday was our first prenatal check up and it went great. I love my new doctor, she was great, took her time and I just felt super comfortable with her (I loved my OB before but I really love this one). Everything looked great, my bp was fine, they took a ton of blood (ouch) of course but otherwise it was a smooth appointment. I go back in 4 weeks.

Friday after the appointment, we said bye to dad downtown and headed up to our summer house for a weekend with just Grandma and great Aunt Pam. It was a great, relaxing weekend. Since I have been so tired, I didn't mind hanging out and visiting with the girls and laying low. We had a very late dinner then got to the house at about 9pm - I had changed Mia into her pj's at the restaurant so she went right to bed. Saturday we drove to the Apple Fest then did some shopping and had a great lunch in Dowagiac. We then came home and made a fire and just played, visited and enjoyed just relaxing - ahhh. Sunday we slept in a bit and headed back to the city after a yummy breakfast. I actually was able to really eat this weekend and enjoy my meals. I slowly am starting to feel better, as long as I keep my stomach from getting empty. We had a great time with Grandma and Aunt Pam.

Mia is doing great, talking up a storm, echoing everything we say. We were talking about Einstein bagels and all weekend kept saying "einstein, einstein". She insists she is "two", whenever you ask her how old she is (she used to say one) she now says "two" like duh don't you know that. Getting smarter and bigger everyday!

Mia is going to be a big sister!

We are so excited that our little peanut #2 is on his or her way! Yesterday Dad and Mom went down to Mom's new doctor for the first ultrasound. The baby looked great, we saw the heartbeat and the baby was moving all around. I am 9 weeks, 4 days pregnant! Our due date is May 9, 2010, the day after Dad's birthday. We keep telling Mia that she is going to be a big sister and she will point to my belly when we ask her 'where is the baby?', but I am not sure how much she really understands. We are so excited to be giving her a sibling, she is going to be a great big sister! She is so loving and kind and loves to share...hope it stays that way.

This pregnancy is a little different than with Mia. I am not as sick, but certainly feeling symptoms. I usually have a bout of dry heeves in the morning then unless I am constantly snacking, will start to feel very very nauseous. I am very tired. I am anxious to get to the end of the first trimester so I can't wait until I truly start to feel better. I have a very limited appetite. I can't eat Italian anything, pizza, sauce, yuck. and I LOVE Italian. Each day I crave something different. Most days I don't want to eat anything but force myself to eat dry cereal, oatmeal, pb sandwiches, anything bland. I just have to eat and not think of how it tastes or smells or feels. Pellegrino with lemon is the only thing I can really stomach. It's rough but I know so worth it in the long run.

I decided this time round to have our baby at Northwestern Memorial Hospital downtown. I love the new women's practice I found (thanks to some friends recommendations too). And it's really nice because Corey can meet me for all my appointments since he is downtown. Now that I am 'older' I don't want to risk delivering at the local community hospital. Plus, the new Prentice Women's Hospital is beautiful, rooms with a lakefront view - oh la la.

I am lucky I have a student teacher until December. She is teaching 100% now so it allows me to sit at my desk and rest, or just veg out since I don't have to teach. By the time I take teaching over again, I will hopefully be feeling more like myself.

fall is here!

We are excited that October is here and with it some great fall weather has hit. This weekend we decorated our house for fall, Mia loved taking out all our decorations from the cedar closet and of course checking all the stuff out. It's fun that she is older and actually notices the holiday decorations! She likes the pumpkin lights especially.

We took our annual pumpkin farm trip on Sunday. This year we checked out the Children's Farm and think we found our place to re-visit each year. It was not commercialized at all, small but very nice. We took a hayride out to the fields and picked our own pumpkin - Mia loved it and wanted to pick up all the pumpkins. Then we visited the Children's Farm and was able to pet pigs, ducks, chicks, goats, sheep, rabbits, calves and we saw some beautiful chestnut quarter horses ( a few bays and paints in the mix). It was a lot of fun.

Mia is into setting up picnics for her buddies Hank and Roar. She will lay out a blanket, take all of her fake food from her kitchen (plus all the pots, pans, cups, plates...) and sets up a picnic. It's super cute. We love to watch her imagination play begin to form.

I just noticed that all four of Mia's eye (canine) teeth are breaking through. It's funny how she has basically cut 4 teeth at a time. That will bring her total of teeth up to 16! Only a few more baby teeth to go.

photos were taken on the farm; one is of Mia doing push ups with Dad; Mia having a picnic with Hank and Roar