Our 14-month-old daughter is a much better walker now; she no longer falls as often as she used to fall. If we put on Huggies overnight diapers, she is much, much more likely to sleep through the night or only wake up once. We tried the Pampers overnight diapers, and they were a waste of money! She woke up everytime she got a wet diaper. She prefers to feed herself by hand rather than spoon feeding, but we still can do some spoon feeding of vegetables or yogurt if she has Cheerios, toast, or some kind of finger food for her to eat in front of her. These are the words she can say: Mama, dada, banana, nigh-nigh, all-done, Oma. She tries to imitate "more" and other words, too. She takes 2 naps per day (one in AM and one around 1 or 2pm). She wakes up consistenly at 7am. She commonly goes to bed from 7-9pm.

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Our 13-month old baby is such a smily, happy baby girl! She has a new play house with a slide, from her Oma. She loves sitting at the top of the slide and having her Papa roll a ball up, she catches it, laughs, and then rolls the ball back down to her Papa! It's very cute! She loves opening and closing the door to her house and going in and out of it. She says the following words (mostly misarticulated): all done, banana, mama, dada, nighty-night, and Oma. She started saying "bu-bu" a lot today, so maybe she will start saying more words with "b" in them?? She comprehends (through word and gesture), "Bring Mama ______" or "Give Oma the ______," "Where's the phone?" "I'm gonna get you!" (and then we run after her and she laughs and we pick her up and give her a tickle). She sometimes takes something she is not supposed to have, and then turns away from us with a smile and giggles and tries to run away. As we chase her, she really laughs. Aren't babies great?? I hope she is always this sweet and happy! For the past week, she has amazingly been going to bed between 7 and 8pm, like most babies! I hope this means no more 10pm or midnight bedtimes for her! That's been rough for the past year. She's on to 1-2 naps per day, a shorter one in the morning (about 30 min) and a longer one in the afternoon around noon or 1 or 2pm (about 1-2 hours). If she's had 1-2 BM during the day and ate enough close to bedtime, she is more likely to sleep for 6-8 hours at a time. Now that I'm not nursing her, I give her 2 bottles (7 oz) of milk at night to help her fall asleep and not get thirsty at night. It's great! When I was nursing her, she used to wake up every 1-3 hours with a wet diaper. This is SOOO much better. With the new baby, I'll have to really try to not have to nurse him/her to sleep---but that might be hard without a bottle! I'll see how it goes!

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Week 16 of pregnancy: My husband and I are still deciding on an OB for our second child. Happily, the 2 whom we have found both really encourage me to have a Trial of Labor. However, one OB says to set an induction date about a week before my due date. I like this idea so that the baby will be less likely to be 9 or 10 pounds like my first child. What I don't like is that if I went into pre-term labor, the OB at that particular hospital may not deliver the baby. At that hospital, there are 2 doctors with questionable medical training, including one from the Caribbean (cheaper schools, low admittance/GPA standards). So, I don't know. The other OB does not want to do induction, but that concerns me because if I have another 9 or 10 pound baby, then there's not too much point in a Trial of Labor if the baby will get stuck again. However, at that 2nd hospital, at least all of the other OBs who could be on-call were trained in the U.S. It's so hard to choose!

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Our 12-month old is walking around BY HERSELF a lot now. She loves to carry baskets and purses. She says, mama, dad, nigh-nigh (for when she wants to nap or go to bed), and has tried to imitate us when we say "I love you" and "thank you." At church, she goes up to little kids and waves at them. She seems to understand "come;" "thank you;" "bye-bye;" and "phone." She gestures to things that she wants and vocalizes until we get what she wants or distract her with something else (she does not point yet). She is now weaned; I was losing too much weight (and I am in my second trimester now) and our girl started to get too many teeth. She falls asleep while we rock her and sing; she needs her pacifier, and a little bit of water or milk from a bottle. During the daytime, she usually drinks from a sippy cup that has a straw in it. She sometimes eats for 45-minutes straight! I am surprised at her appetite, but I guess that she needs more food now that she is weaned and is walking everywhere. At the hardware store yesterday, she pushed our cart around a lot of the store (I held to the handle at the top to steer). She just loves to walk!

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"New Baby," as we affectionately call the new baby who is now 13-weeks old, is doing fine as far as we can tell. We had an ultrasound at 10-weeks, and saw him/her moving around. We clearly saw the heartbeat. My mom was there with my husband, daughter, and me; I am glad she got to see a live ultrasound. I had some nausea in the last few weeks, but it comes and goes. It is nothing like the agony I had with my first pregnancy where I felt like I was dying and couldn't do anything because the nausea was so bad. Thanks, God, for an easier pregnancy now! I am thinking that this baby is a girl, but we'll see at the 20ish week ultrasound. Still searching for an OB whom I am comfortable with for a "Trial of Labor." I have two new appointments with OBs this week, so hopefully we can find someone soon. Otherwise, we'll have to go out of state.

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Our baby girl is now 11-months. At 11-months and a few days, she took her first step! She was free standing, moved one foot forward, placed it down solidly, then decided to sit down! She loves to laugh, especially when I accidentally drop something by mistake. She has a good sense of humor. She waves hi and bye, if prompted. She is really good at standing up without holding on to anything, but she also likes to walk in circles around furniture or us. She loves to crawl around. We were at a hotel for a talk about marriage and family life and sometimes she wanted to move around. In particular, she really liked crawling down a very, very long corridor outside of the room; she must have gone about 150-200m! Our baby girl likes to eat Gerber stars, generic Cheerios (Toasted O's), meat, and any food we put in front of her. I still need to nurse her and rock her to sleep. She has two bottom teeth and is just starting to get one upper tooth. She has been in pain a bit lately, so we think more teeth are coming and give her Tylenol to help alleviate the pain. She helps unload the silverware in the dishwasher by giving us each utensil one by one, with a big smile. The other day, with much cheering from her papa and me, she put laundry in the laundry basket that was on the floor. She is a good little helper! She consistenly says, "mama" "dada" "nanana" (to mean she is tired and wants to sleep/nap/go night-night). She likes to just babble things as if she is telling us a story, what is bothering her, or just telling us about what she likes. When we try to take her picture rocking one of her teddy bears (because it's just soo cute!), she immediately drops the bear when she sees the camera and crawls over to take the camera from us!

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BIG NEWS: We are expecting another baby! The expected due date is October 24, 2009! Yea.

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Our girl is now 10 months old today! It seems like she has always been a part of my life, but it's only been 10 months plus 9 months "in my tummy." She has learned to wave "hi" and "bye" to people. She loves to do this during mass, and when her Papa kisses her goodnight and leaves her room while I rock her to sleep. She passed her bladder test again; no UTIs. Currently, she has a bad cold--she has a runny nose, a wet cough, a low fever (less than 102 degrees), and I think a sore throat. We have tried running the humidifier, elevating the head of her mattress (she does not like that too much), nasal aspirator, and Infant Tylenol. It is hard for her to sleep as she sometimes wakes up coughing. Hopefully she will feel better soon! She likes to play the "Thank you game." She picks up an object, and then gives it to one of us, lets go, and we say "thank you" in an excited voice. Her eyes light up and smiles. Then we repeat this over and over again! She has been saying "mamama" and "dadada" (sometimes when her Papa comes into the room). Sometimes she says "bababa." It is really fun when she randomly chooses to repeat words that we say.

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