Extra Ultrasound

My doctor is awesome :) I went in for my second appointment--routine, nothing special except getting to hear the heartbeat again--and I got another ultrasound just 'cause. Although he found the heartbeat pretty quickly and I heard it, I think he was worried that I had felt a little jipped because the static was a lot louder...so he wheeled in a little ultrasound machine and showed me the heartbeat. We also got to see the baby's spine and his/her face from the side, which already has such distinct features! You can see his/her little nose and mouth :)
According to the doctor, he's 8 cm long now, very healthy and apparently very active. He/she was moving quite a bit during the ultrasound :P

First Ultrasound for Baby #2

Can you see him/her at the bottom-left? The doctor got this shot at a good angle because it's from the front, so you can see the baby's whole body--especially the head and little arms! As we were looking at the screen, the baby moved and flailed its little nubbins :P
Our first ultrasound with Aislin was taken at 7 weeks because my family doc thought something was questionable with my urine sample and wanted to see things through an ultrasound, so that very first one had her looking like a piece of candy corn. This one, on the other hand, surprised Tim and me both because we actually saw a baby!
According to the doctor, everything is just peachy--blood tests, urine tests, blood pressure, etc. I've gained 3 pounds but I'll go ahead and blame that on the cold weather keeping us indoors and the fatty foods I've been craving. I've had more burgers in the last two weeks than in the last two years, meatloaf each of those two weeks, and Chinese food ;) I've got nothing against restaurant Chinese food; we've just been making most of our trips to Safeway for it! Fried rice is so easy to scarf down...but so hard to digest :(

Expecting a 2nd Sweet Baby

We found out earlier in the month after taking three First Response tests and one EPT test :P We just wanted to be sure ;) Actually, the day after I took the First Response tests, Tim said he had a dream that a bunch of home pregnancy boxes needed to be recalled because they created false positives, and the box I bought was one of them...so, naturally, I had him buy another box of a different brand!

For this pregnancy I've decided to go with a women's clinic instead of a medical center. I had heard a lot of good things about the one here in Mt. Vernon and wanted to try a smaller, more personal setting. My first appointment with an ob/gyn is on Nov. 4th, which is when I'll get my first ultrasound and get to hear the baby's heartbeat :)

So far, this pregnancy is noticeably different than the first. My morning sickness is worse, for one thing... I haven't puked yet but I come pretty close more often than not, and I gag violently. Poor Tim :( Poor Aislin! Well, I guess they'd have it worse if I was actually barfing in the bathroom or at their feet. I have no interest in doing any kind of exercise, in spite of having gone walking almost every day since we've moved here and also when I was pregnant with Aislin. Back then, I even walked in the wind and rain (with a massive umbrella over my head and my winter jacket on). Now I just want to eat everything I see on commercials and hibernate for the winter. Speaking of eating...I've been craving food in general but only at night! I won't eat more than a slice of toast for breakfast or have more than a cup of milk later on, and lunch has been a queasy time for me, but come dinner...I can't seem to stick with my usual portions and end up eating way too much. In fact, last night we had pork chops for dinner and, for dessert, we had...pizza. Yeah. We ordered pizza for dessert. That was a horrible idea because my blood sugar can't handle too many carbs (hence the need to stick to certain portions).
For all these reasons, I think I'm having a boy :P

The baby's expected due date is June 17, 2010 :)

A Procession of Elephants

Barnum and Bailey's was in Kent a couple of weeks ago to perform at the Showare Center...which is right down the street from my parents' house! When we found out that animals would be passing the house between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m., my brother, my mom, Aislin and I kept a close eye on the street for those whole two hours; but when noon came around and people were standing by the sidewalk or sitting in lawn chairs at the edge of their driveways and still no animals, my brother and I got impatient and decided to jog down the street in the direction they'd be coming from. We decided that, if we saw any animals coming, we'd book it back to the house to get my mom and Aislin ready. As we were crossing the street at the first intersection, we saw cop lights down the street and then big brown figures. We just stared and squinted, trying to figure out what we were seeing. And then an ear flapped and we heard a trumpet-like sound in the distance. We were like little kids seeing elephants for the first time...because, well, it was our first time seeing them on the street...near our house... So awesome.

Life in Mt. Vernon

(House on the right)

Yep, the Sweets have moved again! We left Kent for Quincy about this time last year when Tim got a job at the Microsoft Datacenter; and then last month, we moved here to Mt. Vernon for Tim's new job in Anacortes. He'd been working for Siemens for over two years now but he was offered a better job with a company called Integra (the software company, not the telecom company).
On Aislin's b-day we went driving around Mt. Vernon looking for a house to rent, and after a handful of heck-no's and one maybe, we found this one. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths, and a deck that overlooks mountains and trees.
Since we gave away most of our furniture before we left Quincy we decided to stop by Mor Furniture on our way to Mt. Vernon. We stayed the night at my parents' house in Kent, drove to Mor and picked out a nice sectional and then went back to my parents' house to get the moving truck. From the Mor loading area, we drove straight up to Mt. Vernon where the missionaries and members of our new ward were ready to help us move in.
The next day, we finally got a dining table! WHOO!
The walls are still pretty bare (in every room) but we're working our way up to buying wall frames for the rest of our pictures!
I love that door...

The master bedroom (with the dresser mirror still sitting in front of the window...*sigh*):
Aislin's bedroom isn't used as much as her last one... It just has her furniture in there because her bigger toys are in the spare bedroom and the smaller ones are in the living room.
She never played with that thing as an infant, but now she DIVES through the arcs like she's trying to hit all the dangly things at once...with her face.

We've adjusted to life in Mt. Vernon pretty well, and we're glad to see Aislin feel so at home in our new home! We've been exploring parks together, the trail to the local grocery store, the library, etc...and wherever we go, she's more than happy to wave and make new friends.
Here's Aislin with a little girl who lives in our cul-de-sac. When she saw us move in, she came over that evening and said, "Can I play with your baby?" We cracked up because our first visitor was for our daughter :P

This was taken at a park a few blocks from our house. It was quite a walk! She was standing at the top of a toddler jungle gym and watching the older kids play.


This was taken at another park. As soon as I took her out of her stroller and set her down, she immediately walked away from me and towards everyone else! She kept walking up to other people but she seemed to know that they were way too old to play with, so she'd turn around and entertain herself.

We've been meeting more people from church so I just recently met some moms who have kids about her age. In fact, Aislin met a little boy at church today who's almost exactly a month older than her (off by a day)! So maybe they'll be at playgroup and she won't just have to watch the older kids play!

In other news, we didn't take pictures of Tim at the airport but he just got back from his first business trip :) He went to Wisconsin for four days while Aislin and I stayed with my family. He said people in Wisconsin say "baa-cood" instead of "barcode," and that flying first class (which only happened on the way back because there were no seats left in coach) wasn't that great because everyone was drinking. Otherwise it was a good experience :)

Oh, and one last thing: it rained today!

Aislin's 1st Birthday

Aislin turned a year old on August 3rd :) Since it was a Monday, we celebrated her birthday (in Kent) with my family on Saturday the 1st. The next day, more family came over for BBQ (and so much more)! These pictures, however, are from Aislin's cake-day only...and the above pic shows what happened after we broke up a piece of cake for her and showed her that it was meant to be eaten--not poked :P

Aislin in her birthday dress (with the pink pants I was too lazy to take off)!

We promptly put her back in her okay-to-mess-up clothes ;)

There she goes...poking at her cake!

She wasn't sure about it, so she took a pinch of icing to taste.

Her first cake experience became a lot more enjoyable after a little help from her dad :)

First Day Walking!!

Her first real step came one after the other earlier today--the first one making me stop what I was doing, and the next three leaving me with an open mouth. I sat on the couch and immediately called my family :P

So she's been practicing for the rest of the day, taking a few steps forward here and there before falling. I had to get a video, of course, but this was the best I could get because she was tired and ready for bed.

Riverdancing

Walkin' the Walk

Tim's been biking to and from work for the past few weeks. At the end of his first week, just when the suddenness of such physical activity hit his muscles, I caught the result on camera :D

Quack, Quack

A friend got us this inflatable duck tub for the baby shower, but we had to wait until Aislin was at least 6-months-old to use it. Since it had been sitting in the bathroom drawer all these months, I had forgotten about it until just recently. I figured I'd better blow it up now before she gets too big for it!

My First Mother's Day

I guess we celebrated a day early ;)
On Saturday we went to a bookstore to find books for Aislin but everything there was kind of expensive. We decided on two baby books but I couldn't let go of this cookbook I saw when I first walked in. Adding it to Aislin's books would've made it all too expensive, and since I felt guilty about wanting to spend so much money, I asked Tim if I could get it for my birthday. He said my birthday was still too far away...so why not get it for Mother's Day? Me: *Big grin* Whee!
Later that day, we got a message on our answering machine from someone who was trying to deliver something to our door, but he didn't know which one was ours...so Tim called back and asked what was going on. Turns out the delivery guy had the wrong address (SE instead of SW), and that he was from a floral arrangement company. I kept asking Tim if he was sending me flowers and he kept denying it, saying, "Do I look like the kind of guy to send flowers?" I knew the answer to that before he asked it, but I didn't know who else it would be from. When I finally got the flowers and opened the card, I saw they were from my aunt and uncle :) No one has ever sent me flowers before and I thought it was the sweetest thing :D

Cousins

Cute, huh? Siris, Aislin and Lola

She saw Lola and tried to crawl towards her. This is about as far as she got since these pictures were taken last weekend--before she got the guts to just start crawling.

After a Long Winter

It's been a few months since we've seen my family, and it's been even longer since they visited us here in Quincy! Result: Pictures of each of them holding the baby :P We were all happy to see each other but I think Aislin was especially excited to have family over!

Aislin loves her lola :)

Aislin loves her lolo, too!

Posing with her Tito AJ

Mom and Me :)

Tim had fun providing the entertainment--video games and movie trailers! Note the wireless mouse on his pant leg ;)

Aislin's First Day Crawling!

When I went to get Aislin out of her crib she didn't seem as eager as usual to be picked up, so I let her sit and play for a little while...which is when I realized she was actually eyeing her binkie and trying to move closer to it. She pushed herself forward, got her knees down and slowly coordinated her arms and legs to move together. She crawled across her crib mattress until she reached her binkie!
Just to make sure it wasn't a fluke, I put her on the floor and set her binkie a few feet in front of her. I did this at least twice, and each time she slowly crawled towards it!
This video was taken in the living room where Tim could watch her, too.

Happy Easter!

A friend from church, who's also been babysitting Aislin, saw this dress at the store one day and couldn't resist; and then her daughters spotted these white open-toed shoes and wanted to get those for her, too! So Aislin was well-prepared for church this Sunday :)

The funny thing is that when I was done dressing her, she got really excited and started patting her dress. I put her in front of the mirror so she could see the entire outfit--dress, pink stockings and white shoes--and she made a big smile, kicked her legs out and waved her arms. When I told this to our friend at church, she said, Isn't it funny when they know they look pretty? Even baby girls can feel like princesses!

Da-da

Every word is "da-da" now... She uses it in casual conversation, when making a statement, when yelling and also whispering. Da-da-da-da-da...

Temple Wedding

I've finally gathered pictures from the temple and organized them in a nice scrapbook-slideshow :) To maximize, click "Scrapblog" on the bottom right-hand corner of the image below or visit this link: http://www.scrapblog.com/viewer/viewer.aspx?sbid=1533057. A new window will pop up and, just above the slideshow, will offer you the option to "View Full Screen." Enjoy!

The Ol' Burp-Cloth-to-the-Head Game

Happy Birthday, Tim!

Look who's 24! The smell of something baking woke him up this morning, so he went downstairs to investigate; however, I hadn't put the frosting and candles on his birthday cupcakes because I had to feed Aislin. So as he was walking down the hallway, I yelled, "Don't come in here! Go back upstairs!!!"
Once everything was ready, I sang happy birthday from the hallway so he'd know to come back down.
Basically, he had cupcakes for breakfast :P

LOL

She has teeth! The better to shred paper with, I suppose. Since we can't eat around her without evoking one of her long drawn-out whines, we've been feeding her grains of rice here and there and little pieces of bread. I pictured myself feeding her baby food only, at least for now, and doing things by the book...but then my ears started hurting from her incessant whines, so I decided to accept the rules as mere suggestions ;)

She laughs a lot more now, too! She's consistently ticklish around her tummy and saying, "Da!" seems to crack her up, too. Please ignore the weird laughter in the background... I swear, I was only laughing that way to make her laugh!

Aislin, the Human Paper Shredder

Aislin has developed a fascination for paper. Even in her fussiest moments, a piece of paper can appease her like nothing else. We try not to let her get too carried away with dining on paper, but we couldn't save our Netflix envelope. Since it was so damaged that we figured the U.S. Postal Service would never accept it, we're hoping Netflix will accept two DVDs in one envelope :P

Almost a Pro

I can finally sit her on the floor and place toys in front of her, and she'll sit contently for a good period of time. She doesn't even need a pillow behind her anymore. Sometimes she'll take an occasional face-dive but luckily we have plush carpets ;)

Hello, Walter!

We considered Achmed after AJ reminded us of another favorite Dunham puppet, but we thought our new car looked more like a Walter.
The night before we bought it, we put our old car on Craigslist where someone here in Quincy (who practically lives down the street) bought it for $800. So the next day we borrowed a friend's car and went to Moses Lake to look at the Durango (also found on Craigslist), which was being offered for $4000; but after driving it and realizing we'd have to buy new tires and get some front-end work done, Tim looked the owner sternly in the face and asked how low he'd be willing to sell the car. So we bought it for $3200 and then took it to Les Schwab and spent another $1100 on tires and repairs.

We're now equipped to handle any future white winters!

Goodbye, Peanut

Poor Peanut!

Yes, we named our car after one of Jeff Dunham's puppets...

We knew its time was almost up, so we started car-shopping a few weeks ago with the intent of buying a new one as soon as we got our tax refund (which should be sometime this week, before the 31st). We just didn't know its end would fall on last night! We even skipped a trip to Costco in Wenatchee in hopes of saving up its juice for a day of car shopping, but clearly, not even that had helped.

Spacious, decent-looking and smelled like a car should, it did its job well for the price we paid for it (approx $1800).

So, what now? Tim will have to carpool with someone else to and from work for the rest of the week, just like he did last night after trying to start the car and coming to the conclusion that it wasn't going to start for us ever again. We'll probably call the bishop to ask if anyone has a car they'd be willing to let us borrow on Friday so we could drive to the bank, withdraw cash for a new car and come home with another vehicle.

Perhaps we can call the next one...Walter. Jalapeno on a Stick?