16 weeks 2 days

June 24- This is my month four belly. I went to the doctor today and according to the charts on the wall, I thought I looked closer to six months. We listened to your heart beat and you sound stronger than ever. In fact we got to hear a couple swishes, signaling that you were on the move. I still don't feel you moving yet, but I can't wait for the zips that you feel initially or for that very first kick.

We also went and had an ultrasound to make sure you were developing good. Everything looked great. It was amazing to see little arms and legs kicking. I get weekly emails that tell about fetal growth, and this weeks email said you were the size of a Kit Kat bar and weighed a whopping 4-5 ounces. So it is pretty amazing that I am able to see arms and legs when you are so small. The ultrasound tech asked if I would like to know your sex and of course I said "no". She told me to look away from the screen when she was looking between your legs and I did but Ariel set up in her chair and paid close attention. After, Ariel seems to think you are a girl as well. I guess only time will tell.

No ultrasound pictures from today because the printer was broken on the machine she was using.

13weeks 3days

June 8 I had an ultrasound done. It was called a fetal fibronectin (not sure of name or spelling). It was a test for Down Syndrome and Spina Bifida and other birth defects. The window for testing was really strict and I missed the first appointment. So by this appointment you were much too long, but I was unofficially assured by the ultrasound tech that you looked just fine. You are 87cm long (from crown to rump) and your heart rate is 162. We are still sticking with the plan of not finding out whether you are a boy or girl until you are born. However the entire time I was watching the ultrasound, I kept thinking that you are a girl. Of course I thought Ariel was a boy up until the day she was born. I even had to take purchases back because I thought I was being neutral. When in fact, I was buying slightly more masculine baby clothes, but in neutral colors. Cailin I thought was a boy. All the way up until the ultrasound, when I found out she was a girl :). So so far, I am O for 2.

The doctor says that so far everything looks good. We can't wait to meet you!

And here you are waving an arm around.

My Little 2 year old

You love being outside. It doesn't matter if it is 100 degrees or 40 degrees. You are always ready to go. You say so many words it hard to keep up, but you are definitely stringing 2 and 3 words together and well on your way to talking in complete sentences. You are well mannered saying "Bless you" when someone sneezes; "Thank you" when given what you ask for; and "Move" when someone is in your way, although when prompted you will say "Excuse me." Your favorite phrases by far are "Airplane gone" and "No way" when you don't want to do something.

Your favorite foods are still bananas and yogurt, but you have added one thanks to Ariel and that is chocolate chip waffles. You love peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, avoiding the crust of the bread like the plague. You give it back to me and announce, "I don't want it."Ariel gives you 2 sometimes 3 waffles most mornings. You call every meat "Chicken." And if it has a sauce, you are guaranteed to double, triple, and quadriple dunk with every single bite. Or you just sometimes will eat the sauce. If it is ketchup then it is guaranteed to be gone before your french fries or chicken nuggets are eaten up, as you will just use your finger and eat all the ketchup.

You sometimes call your Dad "Jerry" and Mom "Keshia", especially when we are calling each other. You are tickled pink when you do it.

You love to take baths and showers and want to everytime someone goes in the bathroom. When any of us stand at the sink, you next phrase is always "brush teeth." You love to brush your teeth. I wonder will that always be?

You put on your shoes about a one thousand times a day. You still continue to put them on the right foot. You know to put them on when walking through the house, but take them off when in your room or jumping on the bed. You jump on your bed while singing "Jump, Jump, Jump!"
So far you are not that interested in using the potty. It is sitting in the hall and I put you on it frquently, but I don't push as this will just frustrate both of us. I always tell Ariel she was the experiment child to tell us what to do later. I definitely learned with Ariel that I should wait until she is ready before pushing it, because once she got it there was never any accidents. But up until that point it was pure frustration and a battle of wills. So I guess you will use the potty when you use the potty.

You sing your ABC's to the letter G. And count 1-2-3. YOU also sing "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"; "Mary had a little Lamb" and "I love you" by Barney. Not that we here all the words but we definitely can make out the melody.

Something funny that you do to Ariel, is when you here her sing you say, "Hush Arrow" hush Ariel. Although she doesn't think it is funny.

You are such a touchy feely toddler. When you are next to me (or anyone), you rub my leg and when I hold you, you rub my face or stick your hand under the arm of my shirt and rub my arms. You still sleep touching somebody and wake sometimes if they move, especially if it is close to morning. Although we are now able to place you in bed for your noon nap and you go to sleep just fine. Although Daddy tends to let you stay awake on the weekends while Momma is working until you pass out or are falling apart because you missed your noon nap and it is now 3pm.

You say "I love you" and it's the sweetest thing. Although recently when you are upset you grab on to my leg and are crying and repeating "I love you" over and over. This is a little concerning as I'm hoping you don't know what it means because I don't want to believe you think I don't love you when you are being naughty. I love you my little Cailin!

My Future Entomologist

She is such a bug person. She even picks them up! She absolutely tortures ants. She tries to pin them down while they are running around frantic trying to avoid her finger. Then she will squash them with her finger. I try to tell her that we don't kill bugs outside and that the outside is their home.

I have no idea what she is doing here, but this is the picture that I captured when she was done exploring.

My Precocious Little One (of course I may be biased)

Don't you just love this age and the innocence of it.

"What are you doing Cailin?"

"Everything I can think of Mom besides being still and letting you take my picture!"

The Wonders of Little Feet

We live in flight path, so daily airplanes fly over our house. At least 10 times a day, Cailin tells me "Airplane gone." As in the airplane has just flown over head. Although she sometimes tells me this when no airplane is seen or heard. Then I say, "Did you see the airplane?" She shrugs her shoulders and raises her hands and repeats, "Airplane gone."

She is such an inquisitive toddler. Everything is fare game to be played with and figure out. I put her on this rock to take her picture and she stood up and looked for airplanes and then she bent down to examine it. In the process, she discovered that in the crevices of the rock were collections of water from the earlier rain shower. So now her attention was again occupied.
Hats off to child photographers! That they photograph this age group all the time is simply amazing.

But I finally was able to get her to sit still and look at me. And you know what? I think this was the best picture of the day.

"YOU!"

Cailin will hold up that finger and then....

she points it at you and yells "YOU!" very accusingly. I have no idea what this means or why she does this. But it's funny, anyway!

Happy 2nd Birthday Cailin!

We celebrated Cailin's birthday on Monday, May 24. We barbecued over my Mom's house and then had cake and ice cream. She loves to watch Sesame Street and Dora the Explorer, but her favorite cartoon is SpongeBob Squarepants. When it comes on in the morning, she tries to sing the song. Always managing to come in and sing along when they yell "SpongeBob Squarepants!"

We sat her in front of the cake and she could hardly keep her hands off.

She was digging in the icing and licking her fingers.

We could hardly keep her out. Look! She is using both hands here.

I bought her this nice and sweet Two-year-old candle to go on top of her cake. Well I went off and left the candle at home. So we decided to improvise and use the candle that Ariel had on her First Birthday Cake, that my Mother had saved all this time. The problem was it had a big number one on it. To solve that problem we used construction paper and Jerry drew and cut out a number two. From the looks of it, we were fooling nobody!

We stood her up in the chair and she cut the cake like a big girl.

And then she licked the knife! I was shaking in my pants but everyone was right there waiting to jump in. We would have gotten her to the hospital, quick fast and in a hurry had she sliced of her tongue. Just kidding it was a little sharper than a butter knife.
side note: Jerry just came past as I was posting this picture and said, "She is licking the knife!" As in how could we let her lick the knife!
Ariel says, "It was her birthday!"