35 Weeks Down; 35 Days to Go!

I am 35 weeks pregnant today. That means 35 days until my due date!

We went to a checkup today and the baby is doing great. She's head down, her heartbeat is strong and she's wiggling all over the place. I'm only measuring 30 weeks, so they think my fluid level is low, but it seems like everything is fine overall.

I realized I haven't taken any pictures since my 19-week checkup so I had Mikey help me snap one. Not a fabulous angle but you get the idea:

And there you have it! Just 5 weeks to go until we meet baby girl #2. Woohoo!

Merry Christmas, 2010!

Merry Christmas, family and friends! I'm about to post a lot of photos. Mike and I are in none of them, but why would we be? We lack the required blog-worthy cuteness.

This is how our Christmas morning started out:

Behold the presents! Apparently there was a lot to be excited about. This is Sky's signature "excited" face:

Blocks are fun, but so are boats made from block containers. In fact, blocks and their containers are about 20 minutes worth of fun causing a certain child to forget all about the rest of the unwrapped gifts under the tree!

We started unwrapping gifts at around 7:30am on Christmas morning. We didn't finish until 10:30am. Every gift was played with for at least 10 minutes; books were read, movie covers were perused. Sky raced cars on her new little car track from Grammy and Papa G. Once we got some batteries in the track, dancing also happened. Did you know she has a victory dance?

Oh, and music was played on Sky's new drum from Uncle Nick! She is a natural. "Like Pocoyo!" she says.

Skipping past a lot of toy-playing...okay. Eventually there was just one gift left. A dollhouse from Grandma and Grandpa Comfoltey! Apparently Hero needed to be brought in to see it/forced to look at it.

After which Hero hid in the wrapping paper for 10 minutes.

Then it was nap time for Olivia and the babies. (Please note: that large baby is on top of a tiny wooden crib.)

 Turns out, a lot of toys can play in a dollhouse. Not just dolls! Notice anything special in the following picture?

Here's a closeup:

 Who knew you could have so much fun with the fish from Let's Go Fishin?

It was a great Christmas here at the Comfoltey house. Each toy was shown to and shared with "baby witter" (aka: baby sister), which basically means I spent a lot of time with toys on my stomach. The baby got a few gifts, which Sky got to open and explain to her. Next year is going to be so much fun with two little girls! 

But man, this year was definitely great. Merry Christmas!

Coming Soon!

Well, Mike is off buying lumber at Lowe's and Home Depot. We are finally getting around to building Sky's new bed! This is a semi-large undertaking, but with a week off work we should have no problem pounding it out and getting Sky's new room set up!

Oh man. You are going to love it.

Hiccups

This little baby constantly has the hiccups. It's so funny. A month ago I was telling Mike she never gets the hiccups like Sky did, so I guess she is proving me wrong!

I guess she can't get rid of her hiccups in any of the traditional ways. You know, like hanging upside down and drinking a bunch of water while holding your breath.

Wait a minute. That's basically what she's doing all the time. So why does she have the hiccups?! Mom: we are going to have to rethink this hiccup solution...

Maybe it's because no one is plugging her ears?

"Happy Christmas!"

Did you know Sky is European? She is. She has been telling me "Happy Christmas" all week. I really can't figure out where she learned it, because we usually say "Merry Christmas." Maybe Mike is secretly teaching it to her. He's always wanted to be British...

Or maybe she just says it because she's so happy it's almost Christmas! And she was very happy to wear her pretty Christmas dress on Sunday:

Happy Christmas, everyone!

12/31/69

That is the date that showed on about 60 new email messages on my iPod. 12/31/69.

I was WAY ahead of the email game, obviously.

So ahead of it I wasn't even born! How freaking awesome is that?!

I thought it was funny when one new message showed up with that date. It said it was from "No Sender" with "No Title" and "No Email Message." It also had no option to delete the message. I showed Mike and he thought it was funny, too!

Then this morning I woke up and opened my email on my iPod to find 50+ more just like it. And I couldn't delete them. I went to the Apple store (which is really weird, by the way--it was my first time there) and they told me to just update my inbox. That didn't work, so I just decided to delete my email account and re-add it which ultimately did the trick.

I wonder what that 12/31/69 business was all about, though?

Busted

I just got in trouble for walking into the family room with a piece of fudge.

Sky saw me and yelled, "No! Not carpet; tile!"

I love that I've already beat that kind of understanding into her 2-year-old self. What a gal!

Eureka!

If I were lame, I'd have named this post U-reek-a! But I'm cool and resisted that urge.

For a while now I have been trying to figure out why the laundry room smells weird. I thought it was our washer, so I've scrubbed the crap out of that sucker about 50 times! I regularly run bleach-only cycles, thinking maybe it has some mildew buildup. I clean it with antibacterial wipes and get every last little smudge off the rubber seal and clean the tank until it's gleaming. I know the smell is associated with the washer, but all I get out of my cleaning efforts is a sore arm and a head full of cuss words.

But I've figured it out. It's not the washer! It is, however, the drain pipe in the wall behind the washer. So what am I supposed to do about that?? I'm fully prepared to dump bleach down a funnel but I'm wondering if there is a better way that will take care of the mildew (or whatever it is) long-term.

So what you got, homies? Any suggestions?

Warm and Cozy

We are definitely getting ready for a new baby in this house. Once we get Sky into her new big girl room I think we'll have everything we need for the baby. As long as she comes out a girl. And as long as we pick a name before she's born...

Our most recent preparations involve the purchase of a new infant car seat. Sky has tested it out--multiple times--and assures us that "baby witter (sister) will be warm and cozy, like me!"

Turns out, it makes a great TV-watching seat.

Oh, Sky's very into this whole warm-and-cozy thing right now. This morning she wrapped herself up in a blanket with "my hood on" (the blanket over her head) and told me, "Look at me, Mommy! I'm warm and cozy, like baby witter!"

Then she said, "Happy Holi, Mommy!"

Yes. Our daughter is Hindu. Have I not mentioned that before now? Happy Holi, everyone!

I like it, your hair-do!

Sky (noticing for the first time today that my hair was in a ponytail): "Mommy! I like it, your hair-do."
Me (wondering where she learned "hair-do"): "Thanks, Sky! It's in a pony tail."
Sky (leaning over to Mike to look at his hair): "Oh, Daddy. Your hair-do. It's gone!"

12 Days Giveaway Kickoff!

On the first day of Christmas...

Today is the first day of our 12 Days Giveaway on The Sassy Pepper! Enter to win some cute holiday hairclips for your kidlet, a niece, friend, etc. 

Spread the word: we're giving something away every day for the next 12 days! Woohoo!!!

Cousins!

I wish we lived closer to Leisa, because Skylar loves her cousins.

These kids had so much fun playing while we were in California for Thanksgiving. Kadie is great with Sky and now Sky is asking to play with Kadie every day. I love that! She has been asking to go to Kadie's house, too. I showed her a picture of a doll house on Monday night and asked if she liked it. She said, "Oh, I like it! I play at Kadie's house. That's Kadie's doll house! I play with it? Right now."

(I didn't bother to mention it's actually Sky's doll house, which she will be getting for Christmas from her Grandma and Grandpa Comfoltey. Woohoo! She is going to love it.)

I tend to get caught up in what's happening when we visit our families and I forget to take pictures, but here are the few I managed to snap on Thanksgiving!

Kadie and Sky drawing with chalk at Grammy's:

Laney being cute and eating some ice cream:

Crew, wishing he had some ice cream to eat...and tasting the table just in case Laney left some for him:

Crew, Sky and Laney. No idea where they got the chocolate, but they loved it!

Next time we play with cousins, there will be two little Comfoltey girls! Can't wait!

When Boys Ignore You

What do you do when boys ignore you?

Skylar dances. I think this is a great solution, so long as it stops before she's 12.

Did you know this dancing idea is a great way to get attention from your dad and uncles while they play Halo? Check it out, and please notice the tell-tale posture of boys who have clearly been playing for too long and should probably pay attention to the dancing kid in front of them:

[Tutu] Much Fun!

Ever since I made Sky a tutu for Halloween, she has been prancing around in her "Olivia dress" almost every day. Along with a little crown I made for her with my new toy. :)

Mike is completely impressed by the durability of the cardstock crown, by the way. I made it almost 3 weeks ago and it's still going strong with daily use. And he thought it'd only last a couple of days, pshh!

Back to the tutu. She wears it at home every morning and usually after her nap, if the "Oh, I know Mommy! Idea!" to wear it pops into her head. She's gone shopping in it once. Then she found a tutu-style skirt in a bag of clothes Leisa sent us and has decided that is much easier to wear in her car seat. Then Grammy showed up with yet another tutu, and it's practically Christmas around here!

Don't mistake her for a girly girl, though. This is one tough tutu chick.

First Snowfalls of the Season

Snow has made it's way back to Reno. We woke up to this on Saturday:

As is Reno's style, it warmed up enough for most of the snow in our yard to melt away by mid-afternoon the same day. Then we woke up to about twice that amount on Sunday (which I realize still isn't very much snow.) Then that melted away. It's back today, though--off and on.

All day Skylar has been reporting the snowfall to me. "Mommy, it's back! The snow is falling!" and then 15 minutes later, "It's gone now. No more snow right now, Mommy. It ran away." Another 10 minutes later: "Snow! Hey, you're back!"

Kids definitely bring out the fun of winter!

A Simple Solution

I have discovered the easiest way to mop underneath my table. Behold:

Don't worry, she had a great time. She started crying hysterically when I took the mop away so I could finish the rest of the kitchen. Who knew mopping could be so much fun?

"My Name is Kylie."

Sky just ran into the kitchen with a blue flower wand and said, "Here Mommy, I found your flower!"

Me: "Oh, my flower!"
Sky: "I found it! It was hiding."
Me: "That silly flower is always hiding. Thanks for finding it, Sky!"
Sky: "My name is Kylie. You're welcome, Mommy."
Me: "Your name is Kylie?"
Sky: "Yep."
Me: "I thought your name was Sky?"
Sky: "No, I'm Sky. And my name is Kylie. And your name is Kylie, too, Mommy!"
Me: "You're right. My name is Kylie."
Sky: "And I'm Kylie."
Me: "Well, thanks for the flower, Kylie!"
Sky: "You're welcome, Mommy!"

"Wow..."

Last night we ate dinner and, as a special treat, had little bundt cakes for dessert! Skylar was so excited about the "tiny cakes." She barely made it through her dinner. I think she asked, "I eat my tiny cakes now?" about 60 times in 40 minutes.

Eventually, she finished her dinner and I put her tiny cakes in a plastic bowl and gave her a fork to eat them with. She said, "Thank you, Mommy!" and silently gobbled down her cake. You know she loves something when she stops talking so she can focus on eating it.

Suddenly she said, "Wow. Here comes my big bite!"

Then she shoved a HUGE bite in her mouth. I think it was about 1/3 of the total amount of cake I had given her to eat. It was hilarious! She said it in this very matter-of-fact, monotone voice; like there was no other way to finish the cake than to eat that last bite intact. Almost like she had saved that big bite as a special mission she had to complete before dinner could end.

It might be one of those you-had-to-be-there situations, but I want to remember it forever because I am still laughing about it. I love her!

Top and Bottom...In-Between

My daughter is currently in her room singing a hand washing song to her babies. She's supposed to be taking a nap. If I could peek inside her room, I would probably see her pretending to wash her babies' hands or her PupPup's paws.

Learning to climb out of your crib is probably a very exciting thing, but I thought it was one of those things that would eventually blow over and become normal! Nope. Looks like she'll never sleep again...

Good thing she's so cute.

"I dip it, I eat it."

I don't know why it was so funny, but I want to post about this so that when I print off my blog book and pretend it's a journal I can always remember this.

Sky isn't a very good eater most of the time. She messes around and loses focus and just doesn't eat much most days. I swear she spends several hours each day sitting in her chair not eating her meals. This is inherited from her father, who also manages to take 20 minutes to eat a slice of pizza if there is any distraction at all. Sometimes they forget about their food altogether and this ends up in a lot of wasted soggy or crusty inedible garbage that I would have happily eaten before said soggification/crustification.

(At the same time, she inherited from me the ability to be a completely different person when hunger strikes. Do not cross her when she's hungry. I repeat: do not cross me. I mean her.)

But on rare occasions, Sky scarfs her food down like it's nobody's business! Probably because she's so hungry from all that not-eating she's done during the previous week. Tonight was one of those nights. I made tortellini and breadsticks. Before I was even done with my own breadsticks, Sky was asking for more tortellini.

Sky: "Mommy? I can have some more now?"
Me: "Whoa! You ate it all? It's all gone?"
Sky: "Yep."
Me: "Seriously? That was really fast, Sky!"

I looked at her plate and sure enough, she had eaten it all. I had given her a good amount of food to start with.

Sky: "I dip it, I eat it."

Then she mimed the action of forking the tortellini, dipping it in the sauce and eating it. Because clearly Mommy wasn't catching on to what was happening here and needed an action-based explanation of how these things come to be.

"I can have some more, please? It's yummy in my tummy! Thank you, Mommy!"

I think she ate almost as many tortellini's as Mike and I ate. I don't know what it is, but I always feel really great when she eats a lot. Like I've finally made something she enjoys and now her tummy is happy and full. Now I understand why grandmas always try to make their grandchildren eat more and more!

Happy Halloween from the Dancing Kitty!

This year Sky was a little dancing kitty for Halloween. Why? Because she loves kitties and she loves to dance. It was the best of both worlds. Plus, it was adorable.

I made her little tutu while she was napping on Friday. My friend Amy is throwing a ballerina birthday party for her daughter and showed me her tutus a couple of weeks ago and I knew Sky would love one. She also loves her kitty hoodie, so I borrowed a tail from my friend Jen and it all came together into a dancing kitty costume.

When she woke up from her nap, I said, "Sky, I made you something! Look!" and showed her the tutu. She got all excited, but she wasn't sure if she should let me put it on her. After a minute she said I could try it on her. As soon as I tied it on, she said, "Oh, it's my Olivia!"

(Olivia is a cartoon Sky loves about a little girly girl pig--a few of the episodes are about her taking a ballet class. I love that she put that together and called the tutu her "Olivia.")

Just look at this happy little kitty! I had the hardest time getting a decent picture of her because all she wanted to do was run and dance, and she kept standing in little patches of sun. But here's one!

And here is how most of the pictures turned out:

 The tail was a huge distraction for a while. She wanted it in the front of her skirt so she could watch it. Once I convinced her that it needed to stay on the back of her skirt, she left it alone. But for a while there...

And here she is doing the pose she does if you tell her to be sweet; sometimes she leans too far and falls over:

Friday night we went to our ward Trunk-or-Treat party. Aside from being scared of two little girls who were dressed as skeletons, Sky had a blast. She was shy and would only whisper "trick-or-treat," but she went to every car and got some candy for her pumpkin bucket.

She even stole a balloon that was tied to a baby pumpkin ("Oh! A baby pumpkin! It's so cute!") from one of the tables. The balloon is STILL floating. I thought it would be dead Saturday morning, but it's now Sunday night and the sucker is still going strong.

Here she is with her favorite little friend Mia! They love each other. Sky is always asking about Mia and wanting to play with Mia, so she was really excited to hang out with her at Trunk-or-Treat!

Hope you all had a great Halloween weekend! We sure did. We had nine (9) trick-or-treaters this year. I was very generous handing treats out to all nine of them, but we still have plenty of leftover candy and mini card decks. Go Fish anyone?

Mommy, look! I'm nakey!

I have't posted anything for a while. Partially because I have just been busy; partially because I have been spending my un-busy time playing with my new Cricut.

Sky is being such a goof today, so I'm going to post some of the things she has said. Starting with:

(early this morning) "Hi, it's me! Here! It's my babies, and my two blankies and my books and, oh, you wear my necklace Mommy! I be right back. I get my pup pup, okay?" (hardly heard that last part because she was already running down the hall to her room)

"Look, Mommy, I did it! I turn on the TV all by myself! I did it!"

"Mommy, what's Sky doing? I'm playing Mommy's Hi-Pod! Catching the candies!" Whenever she says, "what's Sky's doing?" she immediately tells me what she's doing--no pause at all. She really likes to tell me what she's doing. All day long.

I went to dry my hair while she was eating breakfast. As soon as the hair drier stopped she said: "Mommy, look! I'm nakey!" I came out to check on her, and she was in just her diaper. I asked why she was nakey, and she said, "I don't  know! I get dressed now."

Counting in her high chair as Mike was leaving for work, after he said something with the word six in it: "Six, seven, eight, nine, ten...TWENTY! YAY!"

"Hey look! I'm dancing!" She is a great dancer.

"Mmm, I eat my peanut butter all gone in my tummy. It's yummy in my tummy!"

Right now she is chewing her peanut butter and honey sandwhich and laughing at me for no apparent reason. I asked her, "What do you want to do today?" Her answer: "Nothing" with a big smile on her face.

I love this girl.

Just because it's been a while

Geeze. Someone sucks at blogging around here. I can't believe Mike hasn't been picking up my slack! If I were Mitchell from Modern Family I'd point my finger and yell, "SHAME!" but I'm a pregnant woman, and not a gay man.

Anyway, it's been a while since I've posted anything so I thought maybe a few pictures were due. These don't have any common theme other than cuteness and recentness (which isn't even a word). Oh wait! These first two are both dress-up pictures:

A bumblebee is much more fun in rainbow. At least Sky sure thinks so.

Do you recognize this witch costume? Because Sky wore it when she was a month old and somehow she can still squeeze into it!

Next Up: Muffin Decorating with Sky!

Let me just say this--it is a fight to get Sky to wear a clip in her hair for more than 2 minutes. Who'd have thought she wanted to wear 20 at once? Pretty dang fancy.

I'm posting this one because I love her little pirate face. She always looks like she's saying, "Yar, matey! Off the plank with ye!"

Done. At least now we're up to date with pictures, right?

Happy Birthday 2 Sky!

Skylar turned 2 yesterday! Amazing. People aren't kidding when they say time flies!

Since we were in California after our cruise last weekend, we decided to have a little family birthday party for Sky. Here's how it went.

Here she is with all of her presents. It's too bad she wasn't excited at all.

And the cake. "Sky Cake!" Oh man, she was talking about this cake all morning and couldn't wait to dig in! We decided to let her blow out the candles before she even got to her presents because...well, basically she didn't care about the presents until she got cake.

Blowing out the candles. Two of them! Can't believe she already has two candles on her cake.

Then we gave her some cake, but she went for the ice cream instead. And she taught us a new way to eat it.

Finally the presents! 

Here she is trying to load all of her presents into the new purse Morgan and Cade gave her. It was already full of bracelets, so she slapped those on her wrist and shoved a bunch of other toys inside.

She also got an awesome art kid from Grammy and Papa G!

Some books from NickJosh.

 And a new baby from Grandma & Grandpa Comfoltey! I thought it would replace her old one, but she has decided they are twins.

Here's how she felt after opening all of her presents:

We LOVE this goofy girl and can't believe she's already two years old. We are so thankful to have her brightening up our lives every day. We love how she tends to prance instead of walk and how talkative she is. She has the sweetest little voice and loves to sing pretty much anything--I like to make up songs just to see if she copies them, which she does (and it confuses the heck out of Mikey). 

And just for good measure, here is a picture of her on her actual 2nd birthday :)

Love you, Sky Baby! Happy Birthday!!!

Cruisin' the Baja!

Mike and I just celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary with a CRUISE! Did you know it is the only vacation we've taken together since our honeymoon? We needed it.

That's right, we left Sky with Grammy (our first time leaving her overnight anywhere) and hopped on the "mommy-daddy big boat" for a 4-night Baja Mexico cruise. Or as Mike will always remember it: The Eating Extravaganza of 2010! or something like that.

The All-You-Can-Eat Mexican Treat!

Yeah, I'm not coming up with anything better than that right now.

Anyway, we did remember to take pictures. Unfortunately, our camera had bad heartburn from all that food Mike was eating and a bunch of our pictures are corrupted, though I wonder if the corruption just rubbed off from being in such close proximity to Mexico?

Mike will try to work his technical magic, but here's a taste!

Here we are in Ensenada in front of our ship, the Carnival Paradise. 

And another shot, taken by a guy who said "nice camera!" In hindsight, I should have left that shirt on the ship...

I thought it would be wrong to walk past this very Baja wall and not take a picture of us being normal in front of it.

Ah, the sunsets...

And just one of many treks down the endless hallway to our stateroom. 

*Please note: this was our last day on the cruise. Yes, I'm glowing. Did you really think I'd come back with a tan? 

And no, that's not just a food baby.

This is how my hair felt about being blown around on the decks.

Mikey's hair felt fine.

The all-you-can-eat-whenever-you-can-eat style food service was Mike's favorite part. He gained a very impressive 4lbs. VERY impressive, seeing as he has previously only managed to gain a total of 5lbs in the 9 years I've known him. I feel like he was making this attack-bite face throughout most of the trip:

So there you have it, friends! Our final 2 days of vacation. Hopefully we'll be able to salvage our pictures from the first two days as well. 

But for now, bon voyage!