Nauseous

Uhhhh.... what did I say at 6 weeks? That I WANTED to throw up or something along those lines?! Well, I haven't thrown up yet, but I see that coming in my near future! I am getting SOOOO nauseous at EVERYTHING!!! It's especially worse at night and right away in the morning. I've been sooooo close to throwing up and I just keep willing myself not to because I hate it so much. The smell of almost everything sets me off. Especially ketchup, spaghetti sauce, and Venily diapers! I gag so much when I have to change Venily, it's horrible! I need that little girl potty trained ASAP!! She hasn't pooped on her potty yet though. There was a week when she was sick and we were out of the house so much that she didn't even pee in it, but she is starting to go back on it again. She tells us when she has to go all of the time, but sometimes we're a little too late. She woke me up at 6:00am yesterday morning saying "pot, POT!!" (potty) and running towards the door. I was so tired but I got up with her and took her in there and she went!!! She's done that a couple mornings now, so that's FANTASTIC!! I can't wait until Spring so I can just have her run around in nothing but a shirt and put some SERIOUS thought into this whole potty-training thing!!

I called my doctor on Friday to set up my first prenatal appointment and blood test, but I am still waiting for them to call me back. Hopefully I can schedule my appointment on Monday, I'm really looking forward to having some expert confirmation, lol! I still have both of my pregnancy tests in a drawer in my bathroom and I check on them everyday to make sure I'm still pregnant! I know I'm crazy!!!

Do you know what I've been thinking about lately that didn't cross my mind while I was wanting another baby so badly? We don't have closet space for another baby! Lol, isn't that the weirdest thing to be concerned about? I just finally got all of Venily's clothes to fit nicely into her large closet and dresser and now I'm wondering what's going to happen when I need to fit another entire wardrobe in there as well. I swear, of all the things to be worried about... haha!

Well, I'm going to go clean my toilet while Venily is napping since I have a feeling I'm going to be up close to it soon and if it is even the remotest bit dirty it will make me throw up even more!!!

My Baby Is A Genius!!

....or at least I think so, lol! Venily had her 15m checkup today and the doctor was very impressed with all the words she can say and all of her adorable animal noises! She especially liked her "bunny" which she also showed her last week and my doctor (who has a son a couple weeks older than Venily) has been trying to teach it to her son ever since b/c it is just so darn cute!!!! :) This was the first time that I've brought Venily to get her shots taken w/out Jason I think (or at least since she has been so aware of what is going on). It was TERRIBLE! I just hugged her and had my face next to her, trying so hard not to cry and I kept telling her everything was going to be okay. My poor little hunny!! It didn't help that her nurse is the SLOWEST at giving shots that the world has ever seen! She takes like seriously 2 minutes in between each shot! Just give her all 3 at once and get it over with!!! It doesn't help to draw out the experience! But as soon as she was done the nurse came back in and gave her 2 stickers so she was pretty happy about that and played with them the whole car ride home until she fell asleep! She has to go back at 18m for her last bit of shots until she goes to kindergarten. Her stats haven't changed much since 12m. Height was 31.5inches, weight was 21lbs, 6oz, and her head circumference was 46.5 cm.

[side note: Venily kept saying "pancake" today at breakfast so clearly and she even put extra emphasis on the "k" at the end, it was sooooo cute! That girl ate an entire strawberry waffle, 2 pancakes, an egg(minus the middle), applesauce and part of my english muffin and was still going until we finally cut her off, lol, and that is typical of her. HOW HAS SHE NOT GAINED LIKE 20 LBS?! I'll tell you.... b/c she runs around NON STOP and never slows down! haha]

6 weeks and nervous

From an hour after I read that pregnancy test, I've been worried. So many things can go wrong. So, while I should be happy that my nausea is not nearly as bad as it was with Venily and only comes now and then and I haven't thrown up yet (though almost), I am not and it makes me nervous. I wish I had wrote more about the first couple of weeks in Venily's pregnancy. All I remember is being SOOOO sick and not even being able to lift my head up while laying on the couch. I was LITERALLY never more than 3 feet away from a garbage can. I remember eating dinner with a garbage can at my feet because I knew I wouldn't be able to take a bite without first throwing up! But I don't remember EXACTLY when that started... I tried not to dwell on anything negative because I was just SO grateful to be pregnant... so now I think maybe it's a boy? I don't know, that's why I'm waiting to make a baby game... haha, I need a few more weeks to figure this baby out! Though for the record I am still VERY, VERY hopeful that it's a girl b/c we are already all set up for another girl! I had an ultrasound dream the other night and it said I was having a girl!!! :) Right now my nausea comes and goes and it is worse at night to the point that I can hardly ever eat dinner or even be in the same room as Jason cooking b/c the smell of it makes me gag. I've also been having a lot of cramps which always sends me into a panic, but I remember having that with Venily too. One night it got so bad I hardly slept and when I did I dreamt that I was getting ready to go to the hospital to make sure that everything was okay. They stopped in the morning though, so I didn't end up going to the hospital. I REALLY can't wait until I get to hear and/or see my baby for the first time and put some of these fears to rest!!! Some other symptoms I'm having include: headaches every night and I am SUPER emotional!

Jason and I have been researching more and more baby names with NO luck!! He is the absolute most difficult person to deal with when it comes to names. I am still so in love with the names I have that no other names seem even close to good enough. For a girl I want "Haven Emory Young" and for a boy I want "Emmett James Young". WHAT FANTASTIC NAMES and it's pretty hard to compete with such a beautiful name as "Venily Autumn Young"!!! Jason has expressed some interest in a few names. "Kia" (rhymes with "eye" and is Hawaiin for "the sea") for a boy and "Raina" for a girl. I like these names alright but I don't know. If anyone has any suggests, please let me know!!! Jason really wants something "earthy" (aka a hippie name, lol). So any moutain or river name or something like that is what he is looking for but whenever we look at lists of nature names he doesn't like any!

Venily is so funny. If even a sliver of my skin around my waist is showing she gets so excited and runs up to me and touches it and starts yelling "BABY, BABY, BABY"!! She is BABY CRAZY just like her Mommy!!! She has her 15 month appt and shots today (it's been pushed back for 3 weeks now) so I will write her current stats on here when we get back from there. She was just at the doctor's last week with a fever so we'll see!

5 Weeks Pregnant w/ Baby #2

I'm 5 weeks today!!! 1/8 of the way there, lol! Here I am at 5 weeks and 120 lbs.



I can't wait to get all big and have people know I'm pregnant just by looking at me!

I'm feeling a little better... the sickness comes and goes right now, I'm sure by next week it will only come in stages of bad and worse! Jason is driving me nuts just like he did with Venily! Obsessed with what I'm eating and what I'm doing!! He has actually even banned me from LIP GLOSS while pregnant! Thanks a lot Bill Nye!! haha. And he is being NO fun. I wanted to keep the sex and name of the baby a secret but Jason said absolutely not! So I will tell you my names. I have a girl and boy name that I am absolutely in love with and have had for months and months now, but Jason doesn't like either (though he USED to like the girl's name). For a girl I want Haven. And for a boy- Emmett James. They're not even too crazy for me. Jason said he won't take Haven off the list, but he's not pulling for it, whatever that means! And he thinks Emmett is too dorky and "normal". HE IS SOOO DIFFICULT!!

I took another pregnancy test today just to be sure! As dark as could be- and I didn't even do it right away in the morning!!! I love $Dollar Store tests- they make me feel like I'm conducting some kind of experiment. :)

Venily is so cute!!!!!! She already "knows" that there is a baby in my tummy! She lifts up my shirt and points and says "baby" and will give the baby kisses and hugs. She obviously doesn't understand the full extent of what is going on, but hopefully the transition will go well. Here's a pic of her about to kiss her baby!!

About time!

Okay, I haven't been on here in forever with moving and unpacking and all and totally forgot what my password was and how to do anything on here and I'm going to have to relearn it all again! HAHA! Okay well, I started a different website before we started TTC and I will put up some of my posts here. I have 21 posts, but I'm going to condense them, plus some were pretty personal, so I will edit a little:

January 18, 2009

Well, Venily and I told Jason that we were adding one more to our family this morning! He was feeling all better today so I gave Venily a bath and then put her "I'm a Big Sister" shirt on her. She walked out of the bathroom and Jason was looking at her and was like "what does her shirt say?.... I'm... a... Big....Sister?.......... WAIT, are you pregnant?". HAHA! He was shocked, but excited!! Neither of us can believe how fast it went this time around! Then Jason asked me if he could tell people and I let that up to him and he wanted to! So... we're going to try to tell as many people in person as we can and then tell everybody else! We decided not to wait, which is fine because I'm so nauseous already people are going to start putting it together soon anyway! :)

It's still early for me to be certain, but I already have a VERY strong feeling that we are having another girl!!!!!! We'll see how similar this pregnancy is to Venily's!

January 18, 2009

I'M PREGNANT!!! I'M PREGNANT!!! I'M PREGNANT!!!

I'm still in shock!!!!! It's 3:15am. I couldn't sleep and was lying in bed going back and forth on whether or not I should take a test today!! Finally, I just said "what the heck?" and took one right then!! It took 2 seconds and both pink lines show up!! AHHHHHH!!!!!! I'm sooooo excited!! Jason is sleeping on the couch and I talked to him a little, but I haven't told him yet!! :)
He's been up all night too throwing up, poor thing! I don't want to tell him when he's sick, so I might even have to wait a whole day or two!! It's going to drive me crazy! I can't believe that Venily is going to be a big sister and that I have another little miracle growing inside of me! I am so HAPPY, I hope and pray everything goes well with my new little baby!!!!! :)

Let me tell you, now that things are in perspective, I can not believe how fast and strong this morning sickness has come on, because I feel HORRIBLE already, but it's all apart of this wonderful journey!! :) I don't think I'm going to be able to get back to sleep tonight, I'm way too wound up now!!!! Wow, we decided to start trying like 2 weeks ago.... I can't believe how fast things went this time around!!!!!!!!



Based on my calculations, Baby#2 is due Wednesday, September 23rd!! And I am 4 weeks and 4 days pregnant today!
Only 248 days to go, lol!

January 17, 2009

Today is CD 32 and still nothing!!! I thought I had started last night.... I've had horrible cramps ALL day today and have been super nauseous. I don't know what is going on though. This is the 3rd weekend in a row that I have felt really sick. And Jason got sick today too and has been throwing up....so I am confused! I could be late just because I've been so sick. I will take a test tomorrow if I haven't started!! But if I am, I am going to have to wait until Jason is better to tell him- he thinks I started today too b/c I thought I had!

I am nervous that I'm not and don't want to get my hopes up. I'm also worried that if I am that something is wrong and that's why I've had such bad cramps and have felt so sick the past couple of weeks! Man, feeling so sick has got me remembering what morning sickness was like and I am SOOOOO not looking forward to that part, but as I can recall, everything is worth it in the end!

Please, please, please BFP tomorrow!!!!!!!!!!!

January 16, 2009

Today is CD 31!! My fingers are completely crossed that this is it b/c I'm already sick of all the waiting, but I feel like I'm probably going to start soon- I so hope not! Uhhh..... just thinking about waiting a whole nother month makes me want to scream and then thinking maybe another month, and another, and another.... no thanks! I am debating taking a test tomorrow if I haven't started yet, but I am thinking maybe I should give it a few more days.... hmm, I don't know!

I will be so ecstatic if I am pregnant, I REALLY HOPE SO!!!

January 12, 2009

Today is Jason's birthday! Yesterday he said that he hopes we get pregnant this month!!! He wants the baby born in September so that we can do outside things for his/her birthday parties, haha! Today is cycle day 27 for me.... the earliest I should test is probably CD 32....but I should probably wait until even longer than that.... we'll see how long I can wait (or if it is even necessary!). It would be a nice birthday present for Jason if we are pregnant!!!


Here is the length of my last 6 cycles:

Dec- 28D

Nov- 26D

Oct- 36D

Sept-29D

Aug- 31D

Jul- 31D

January 9, 2009

Okay, so next week I should know if I am pregnant or not (depending on how long this cycle is.... lately it ranges between 26 and 36 days)!! I told myself not to get my hopes up, especially this month, but unfortunately I already have! I even bought some Xmas clothes for next year on clearance which will only work if we get pregnant w/in the next 4 months! HAHA! I even bought a tiny little dress, which of course will only work if we get pregnant in the next 4 months AND it's a girl! :)

I'm so excited! You should hear Venily. She goes around all day saying "baby...baby...baby". She loves to feed and hold her babies and loves to see babies in the store. And if I'm watching any baby shows on t.v., that's all I hear about! :) She LOVES babies and will make such a good big sister!





December 30, 2008

Well, last night we officially started trying for baby #2!! We have been in our new house for about a week and a half now. I think it might be too late for this cycle, but we will see what happens! My cycles have been a little goofy lately so who knows! I still would really love to get pregnant next month so the kids will be 2 years apart. *fingers crossed*





October 6, 2008

We talked about it last night!! Venily will be one in a week, but I have been wondering about it a lot lately. I said "So, I know we said we were going to wait until our daughter was 1 to talk about this, but when were you thinking you wanted to start trying for another baby?". And my husband actually said, "well, I figured once we moved into our new house and everything, we'd start trying." AHHHH!!!!! I'm so excited!!!! I love my daughter so much and really want her to have a sibling close to her age! (And we will be moving into our house within a month!!!!!!)

We talked about how nice it would be to have another October girl.... we already have a million girl clothes in those seasons. I am soooo excited to see what the next couple of months brings. I still want to wait until I am 12 weeks to tell everybody and I'm the worst at keeping secrets! I've been having a lot of dreams lately about being pregnant and giving birth to babies! And a lot of twin dreams, lol, I actually secretly think twins would be a lot of fun!

Stay tuned for "trying for a baby" updates! Hopefully they will come soon! I can't believe I could be pregnant or already have another baby this time next year. WOW! :)

August 16, 2008

Well, we are getting closer to Venily's first birthday! She is 10 months now. I haven't brought up the baby #2 topic again with my husband, b/c he just tells me we have to wait until she's a year and our house is finished! I know I made the mistake of telling everyone we were trying w/ our daughter and since it took us so long, it was really hard! Everyone kept asking me if I was pregnant yet and what was taking us so long! :)

Sunday, January 18, 2009 6:23 PM

Venily is... Current mood: ecstatic Category: Life GOING TO BE A BIG SISTER!!!!!! I'm SOOOOOO ECSTATIC!!!!! We just started trying a few weeks ago and had no idea we'd get pregnant on the first try!! It took us 6 months to get pregnant with Venily!! I'm due around September 23rd, so our children will be about 2 years apart. Venily will be 2 on October 13th! We're so happy! Venily absolutely LOVES babies!! I am already feeling very sick with morning sickness, so it looks like I'm not going to luck out on that end this time either! :) I'm really hoping for another girl, but of course we'd be really happy with a boy too- as long as he doesn't mind sharing Venily's pink room with her, lol! OH MY GOSH, I'M SO HAPPY!!!!!!!

Friday, January 16, 2009 1:04 PM

Wow! Current mood: happy Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes Venily has been going on her potty every day!! She's doing great and she loves it!! It's funny, she'll sit on there, then get up and look in her potty and say "no" and shake her head if she hasn't gone yet and then sit back down, lol. And when she does go, she's so proud of herself and gets part of a cookie so she gets super excited!! I can't wait until she's at the big girl underwear stage! For some reason Venily has increased her appetite TREMENDOUSLY the last couple of weeks- she must be going through a growth spurt! You would not believe how much this little girl can eat!! She often eats more than I do!! When we go to buffets, the restaurants are losing out, lol, because she eats free! Sometimes I actually almost get sick thinking about how much she has just ate and I am always scared when I ask her "Are you all done?" because I know that most likely she's going to say "no." Venily has her 15 month check up and shots next week!

Saturday, January 03, 2009 3:32 AM

You’ll never believe it.... :) Current mood:SO PROUD!!! Category: Goals, Plans, Hopes Venily Autumn Young peed in her big girl potty!!!!!!! And it was the first time she ever sat on it w/ no diaper on!!! I was in the bathroom getting ready and Jason was watching Venily. He knocked on the door and said "we want to show you something". I went out and saw her potty chair w/ pee in it!!!!! She was sitting on her potty with her clothes on and Jason asked her if she wanted to go potty in it. She said yes so he took off her pants and diaper and she sat back on. She sat on there for 2 minutes talking and pointing at things and then made the "I want up" hand signal. Jason picked her up and looked in there and she had went!!!! I AM SO PROUD OF HER!!!! I can't even believe it. I hadn't planned on actually having her try for a while now, but maybe this is going to be even easier than I had thought!! She is one smart little cookie, I love her so much!!!!

Friday, January 02, 2009 3:47 AM

New Year Update! Current mood: vibrant Category: Life I feel weird not having written anything on my babyhomepage site for over a month! So I am updating here now! I am still working on getting my new website in order and will let you know when I do. We moved into our new house a couple of days before Xmas!! Just in time and I ABSOLUTELY love it!!! Actually that's an understatement!! It is perfect and I can't even describe how much healthier I feel here! My in-laws are great, but living with them for 8 months in a house that is not mine was really starting to get to me at the end. There was so much there that Venily could get into and so much I couldn't do that I wanted to. I felt so trapped, especially when the weather got cold and it got harder and harder to get out of the house and Jason was working on the house 24/7 so I was alone a lot. BUT NOW..... I feel so much lighter, free to do whatever I want now and free to let Venily be who she is, a crazy little girl who needs to explore everything!! I just love it!!! I'm developing some major OCD cleaning and organizing and making it perfect for us, but I don't care! We still have a lot of boxes to go through though! 70% of everything we own is still in boxes in the basement and at my in-laws', but if we haven't used it in 8 months, how important could it really be? I would just love to throw it all away, haha, but I know I could never do that! Venily is great as always!!! She is so amazing! She is 14 months and knows a couple hundred words now and is putting more 2 word combos together like "all done", "love you", "more please", "hi dada", stuff like that. She is definitely verbal!!! People are always surprised at her age because she talks so much, haha, doesn't get that from her Mommy! She is also VERY social which she also does not get from her Mommy! :) She is in a big girl bed since moving into the new house and does good in it. She hasn't fallen out ever and it's nice that she can get out on her own and play in her room when she wakes up from naps. We leave our doors open at night too so at like 5:00 in the morning I usually open my eyes and see Venily's little body come running into our room. I like when she is all excited and says "MAMA!" and comes running up to me and kisses me. Sometimes I don't even wake up when she climbs into bed with us, haha and am surprised to see her there in the morning! She is doing surprisingly well having NEVER slept in her own room though EVER before moving into this house. She is also really responsive now and responds to EVERYTHING. Definitely a little person with a mind of her own. I ask her questions all the time and she loves to tell me yes or no. She also likes to pick things out. Like what she wants to eat or what she wants to wear. It's so funny to watch her think about her choice. She puts her hand on her chin, taps her lip with her finger and says "hmmmmm" like she's thinking, it's HILARIOUS!! She is a great eater (eats almost anything) and is tall and thin like her parents!! We took her to the doctor a couple of weeks ago to get her lactose issues figured out and it appears that she does in fact have a sensitivity to lactose. We don't know if this is something that will go away eventually or if it is something she will always have (hopefully not, since we are already vegetarians, I don't want her to have to watch what she eats even more). She is on Lactaid which is whole milk w/ the lactose taken out and she is doing really well with that!! I'm so happy! We just have to watch what she eats and make sure she doesn't get too much lactose so we avoid cheese and dairy. But she can tolerate it as an ingredient in some foods as long as it's not like the main ingredient. She is also starting to get into pretend play, which is so fun!! She loves to play with her Little People and play with them in her house.... making them take baths, kiss each other, making the dog and cat eat out of the pet food bowl, it's so fricken cute, I love it! Kids are SOOOO fun at this age!!! :) I bought her a potty training seat the other day and hope to start potty training her in the Spring when she'll be wearing less clothes and able to run around outside more. She already brings us diapers when she wants to be changed and sometimes before she poops. The other day, before I got her potty chair she said "per, per" (diaper) and then looked like she was starting to poop so I asked her if she had to poop. She said yes and I asked her if she wanted to poop on the toilet. She looked excited and ran into the bathroom. But when I put her on the big toliet she got scared, haha, also it was really cold so I thought a little potty would be better for her. I hope she catches on quickly. I don't mind changing diapers at all, but I definitely don't want to have 2 kids in diapers- so that is our goal!! Venily has been a little fussy lately because she is getting her molars in! Wow was I surprised when I saw a little tooth way back in there the first time. I had figured they would keep popping up next to each other until her whole mouth was full. She now has 2 molars in on top (one on each side, as of today) and one on the bottom is almost through. She chews on her hands and everything she can because they bother her so much. I've been giving her Tylenol and that helps, but I really can't wait for them to hurry up and pop through. The one side was so bruised and swollen that Jason and I got freaked out and actually called the doctor! It looks so much better today though, now that the tooth has popped through! That's got to hurt, my poor little honey! The holidays all went very well this year! Venily really got into opening up presents and seeing her family and was always the star of the show at all of our Xmas parties- dancing, running around, telling people all of her animal noises, haha, and doing anything she could to make people laugh! I don't think I ever sat still a minute though, lol! That is one thing she does NOT do.... sit still!! She is LITERALLY always moving!! But I don't mind, she makes things way more interesting! :) It has really been hitting me lately how much she has grown and changed in such a short time because I now have something to compare to from last year. Last year at our Xmas parties I was passing around a little 2 month old from person to person as she slept soundly in everyone's arms and having to go into the other room every once in a while to feed her! It's so crazy that that was ONLY a year ago!!!! I am so excited to see what 2009 brings us!!! I hope everyone else is doing well and had a nice time during the holidays! Feel free to stop by our new house!!!

Saturday, November 29, 2008 7:36 PM

We’ve been working on these all year... Current mood: silly Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities Send your own ElfYourself eCards Send your own ElfYourself eCards Send your own ElfYourself eCards Venily thinks these are HILARIOUS, lol!

November 12, 2008 (Venily is 1 year, 4 weeks, 2 days old)

I don't plan on being on this site as often as I used to. I have started another site, but it's not finished yet. I am keeping this one around until I can make Venily's stories into a book! This will take quite some time, lol. So, I will still update her stories and frontpage every so often, but no more pics. I put all my pics on my myspace site though, if you are interested:
mypace.com/jasonjennifer

Venily will be 13 months old tomorrow! She probably says about 75 words now, she can say almost anything!!! It's so funny when she says words you wouldn't expect her to be able to say. The other day she said "backpack". HAHA, more than once! She also says "eyebrow" (she loves to show me where my eyebrows are) and added neck and butt to the body parts she can show (though she thinks her butt is in the front, lol). I have been trying to get her to say "love you" too for awhile. She says something kind of similar and smiles and nods her head when she says it like she's proud of herself, lol!!!

I didn't get her 12 month pics done. I left it to the last minute again, and we had so much going on, it just didn't happen. Oh well, I can still get her "1 year" pics within the next week or two and I will still consider that alright!

I will weigh and measure her again tomorrow, I'll keep that up every month until she's 2 so I can keep filling in her little chart, lol.

Oh my gosh, Venily is SOOOOO FUNNY!!!! She does the silliest, cutest things all day long! Yesterday she brought a book up to the cat and kept saying "book, book" b/c she wanted the cat to read it to her! I was laughing so hard! Then she was trying to put shoes on the cat, that cat has been so patient with her, lol! She also tries to "help" me all the time and I always find it so funny. She'll take the clean laundry, piece by piece and hand it to me to put away (that actually is helpful!), loves to sweep, and helps me unload the dishwasher too, hahahaha, she'll take things out and then put them through the cat door, which leads into the basement (not so helpful!! haha).

Venily and I have been bringing boxes over to our house and unpacking them, it's a lot of work (for me)!! I have to go through my boxes here, put the stuff I know I can find a place to put in our house into new boxes or bags, but not too heavy that I can't bring them up the stairs with one hand, lol. Then I have to load them into the van, bring them to our house, put them all in the garage and then (while holding Venily with one hand) use my other to bring all the boxes up the stairs and then unpack them while keeping Venily entertained at the same time! AHHHH! I have a lot of stuff unpacked and put away in our kitchen and bathroom though, so I feel better about it! I am hopefully painting Venily's room tomorrow and then can start getting her room in order!!!!!

Tuesday, November 11, 2008 12:19 AM

Needing to address some things... Current mood: content Category: Life I was told not to write this. I don't care. I was up until 1:30 this morning thinking and obsessing about it, knowing that if I just wrote it all out, I'd feel better, so that's what I'm doing. Please feel free to stop reading at any time. Myspace, BHP, facebook, I don't care. I should be free to express MY opinions and beliefs here and I'm going to continue to do so. Don't agree? Fine. There are many ways to address that problem. 1.) Delete me! 2.) Don't read it! Nobody is forcing you to! 3.) OR (and I prefer this)- write or talk to me about it! I'm open to many different views. I enjoy adult conversations about controversial topics with educated people. I don't care if your opinions differ from my own, honestly. I can talk about things, even argue my point of view and beliefs (maybe even disagreeing with you wholeheartedly), and at the end of the conversation, agree to disagree and still be friends with someone. I think it's unreal that someone could be ANGRY at me for my own personal beliefs, that someone could say MEAN and HURTFUL things about someone else behind their back all because that person let's say... supports a different political view... The recent campaign for presidency was intense. Emotions were high on all sides. I spent a lot of my own personal time and energy focused on it. It was an endeavor I was passionate and excited about. I am more delighted in the outcome than you could even imagine. However, I know what it's like to be on the other end of that. All too well. The last 2 election cycles have NOT gone in my favor and I was devastated. However, I have never and would never ridicule someone I considered a friend for their beliefs and I respect their need for time in healing hurt pride. Yes, I'm going to celebrate something that I see as a victory for America and the world, but I understand why you might not be celebrating the same way that I am (yet;) ). One of the most attractive qualities I find in the new president-elect is his understanding in that. His ability to be above all of the petty, negative personal attacks throughout the entire campaign (including the primaries) and to never stoop to that level. It's something so rare in politics and even rare in everyday life. It's a quality I've seen admired greatly by all sides of the political spectrum, not just by democrats. I AM a democrat, completely and entirely. I was not raised knowing what the word meant or actually knowing anything about politics whatsoever, but through A LOT of research in the things that are important to me and recognizing what my core beliefs are, I know this is true. That's not to say that I have extreme leftist views on everything, there are many things I tend to be moderate on and even some things (such as abortion) where I even lean a little more to the right. I always listen to all sides though before making up my mind. I do NOT appreciate people making assumptions on my beliefs either just because I identify myself as a democrat. You have a question about one of my beliefs? ASK ME! I will try to explain it the best I can! Don't gossip with other people saying "oh, she thinks this" or "she thinks that". As a matter of fact, don't bring my name up in any conversation with other people period if you don't have anything nice to say! Especially people who don't even know me! Just because you know a couple things about me, doesn't mean you have me all figured out! SOME people aren't that transparent! There is so much anger... and over what? I can't help but to always think of people who have REAL problems when I'm confronted time and time again with people who get angry about every little thing. Think about it and put your problems in perspective. What have I done that makes you angry at me? Really think about it!! Got it? Okay, now TELL ME! Seriously, right now. I know who reads this so if you have a problem with me and are reading this, I will expect a response from you. Send me a message, pick up the phone, drive to my house, I don't care, just tell me, because I would ABSOLUTELY want to hear it. Even if it's not about politics. I can handle it. My hunch is that you can't come up with anything (but if I'm wrong, by all means, please tell me) because you're not really angry at ME or anyone else who voted for a particular candidate, but perhaps you're angry in general because things are beyond your control. My suggestion? Focus your anger on something constructive. Find another way to deal with it than taking it out on your family and friends! For example, if you are truly angry about the current state of the election, join a group of people who support your point of view and get involved! Even if nothing changes for you in the next election cycle, at least you could feel like you did everything in your power to make it happen. And if it doesn't mean that much to you, THAN WHY ARE YOU SO ANGRY ABOUT IT!? I guess that's what frustrates me the most. People who don't really care, yet they still get angry when things don't go their way. That and the inability to separate politics or any personal opinions with the people they represent, and instead be able to look at a person as a whole. There are people who identify themselves as republicans who I am friends with and there are people who are democrats who I am NOT friends with. That does not define who I like or dislike. If you are friends with me BEFORE you know my political views and then, finding out that I'm a democrat, no longer want to be friends with me, even though NOTHING else has changed, I find that really sad. I wish you luck in finding good friends who are exactly like you in each and every way! I know not everyone out there is like this. This isn't for everyone. But, if any of this is true for you, please think about it! This isn't for a particular person out there either, but rather for an entire group of people. And I will be waiting for your messages...

New Blog!

Well, I decided to make a new blog since BHP is getting old. I don't want to have to pay for it any more and I want something that isn't entirely about Venily, something I could write about my life as well! I plan on taking all of the stories on my BHP site (Venily's pregnancy through her first year) and making them into a book. It's going to be a long process and I'm not really sure why I'm taking it on when I already have so much going on! HAHA!

November 1, 2008 (Venily is 1 year, 2 weeks, 5 days old)

We FINALLY got our septic put in today!! YAY!!! Venily and I spent a couple of hours at our house yesterday, cleaning things up, washing windows and countertops, vacuuming and sweeping the floors. I'm starting to bring boxes over and want to start unpacking some stuff! We're soooo excited!!!! We're also starting to Venily proof it! I put lots of outlet covers in and Jason put stuff on all of the kitchen and bathroom cabinets that Venily can reach, though she's almost figured them out already, lol! Venily was so cute yesterday. If I was sweeping, she wanted to sweep too! If I was washing windows, she had to have a rag to wash windows! It was too funny!

Venily knows almost all of her body parts now- and shows them to me all the time (she's actually on my lap, doing it right now while I'm trying to get her to sleep!)! She knows where her eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hair, tongue, belly button, hands, and feet are!

Venily has another cold! Her nose is very runny and she is coughing a lot! She is too cute to be sick, it's not fair!!!

I can't believe it's November already! I've been reading Venily Christmas books and singing her Christmas songs already, lol! I'm really not looking forward to the cold though!

October 29, 2008 (Venily is 1 year, 2 weeks, 2 days old)

We have been busy! Venily has been having fun doing fall and Halloween things this last week. We went trick-or-treating on Sunday. She was so tired and just completely relaxed the whole time, lol. I did let her eat some teddy grahams, she thought that was pretty cool, lol! Too bad it was cold and windy. She was all bundled up, so you could hardly even see her costume, lol. We might go again Friday, hopefully it's nicer out! On Saturday Jason and I went to a wedding without her! It was the first time we've been out together without her in a long, long time! We were sad and missed her, but she had a lot of fun with her Grandma, her Aunt, Uncle, and cousin Chase!

We have been fighting some sicknesses here. Venily got a virus a couple of weeks ago and had that ear infection, so she was put on antibiotics, which made her diarrhea worse. The antibiotics killed off all of her good bacteria in her digestive system, so we are working on getting that better. I took her to the walk-in again on Monday for a diaper rash caused by the diarrhea that keeps coming back. They told me she has a temporary sensitivity to lactose because I guess antibiotics kills off the bacteria that break down lactose too and the diarrhea is stopping them from being able to build back up to normal levels!! If it's not one thing, it's another! My gosh! Soooooo..... right now she can't have any fruit or dairy still! And I've stopped drinking milk just in case! I had to stop trying to wean her too which sucks because we were doing really good and now we're back to square one!

Venily has unfortunately learned how to throw a pretty good tantrum when she's tired! HAHA! You should see it! She makes her whole body go limp and screams and screams! I need to start putting her to bed earlier, before she gets too tired!

Her vocabulary is contining to grow and grow!!! She amazes me soooo much!!! She's got to be on 50+ words now, but I've lost count! Some new words she says now are "rock, rock", "knock, knock", "boy", "diaper", "chair", "button", "duck".... I'm always shocked when she'll say a word I haven't heard her say before and she knows exactly what it means! She is getting really good at fetching things for me too, lol, isn't that the real reason for having kids?! HAHA! I say "go get mama a ....(book, duck, baby, dinosaur, etc., etc.)" and she'll run and go get it for me!! She will be such a good helper by the time we have another baby! :)

Other than that, things are going pretty good. Our house is coming along slowly but surely. Everything that we have left we need to rely on other people so it is taking some time. We'll be in there soon though!

October 21, 2008 (Venily is 1 year, 1 week, 1 day old)

Venily HATES baths!! Hates them, hates them, hates them!!!! It has been getting steadily worse so she bought some cool new bath toys with some of her birthday money, but NO LUCK!!! She was hesitant to get in today, but once she saw her new toys, she was happily playing with them.... until... I poured a little water on her body (NOT her head) and she screamed the whole rest of the time and was standing, clenching onto me, begging me to get her out of there. It is so sad! She just absolutely hates when I pour water over her head and now if she even sees the cup, she starts to freak. I only give her baths like twice a week, lol, but now I don't know what to do!

P.S. I started updating her site. Look at her charts!! HAHA!! 64% for weight (which is pretty good) and she is even MORE off the chart now for height, she is a TALL girl!! Every time I tell someone that she is 1, they say she looks 18m or 2 because of how tall she is! :)

We're looking forward to a fun weekend this weekend, hopefully the weather is nice!


I love this because it's EXACTLY how I feel! :)

October 20, 2008 (Venily is 1 year, 1 week old)

Venily officially has 6 teeth now!! She popped those 2 top teeth through a couple of days ago. So that makes 4 on top, 2 on the bottom! My little llama needs some more bottoms now!

She is getting really good at saying "all done". I think it's her first two word combo that she says (well, at least two different words).

I am sick, so I haven't gotten much done on this site. I still need to put up pics, write her 1 yr likes and dislikes and fix up the front page.

October 15, 2008 (Venily is 1 year, 2 days old)

We had a lot of fun on Venily's birthday! We played outside, went to the zoo, went out to eat for dinner, and went to the puppy store!! She loved it- and it was such a nice day out again! I have pictures from her party and her birthday up on myspace. I don't think I'll have enough room to put them all up on here. (I am contemplating getting a new website soon, I'll keep you updated on that). Venily is still a little sick though. And even this morning, she is still sticking her finger in her ear that had the ear infection. She has her 1 year well-check and shots today so I will have the doctor take a look at her ear as well. She will have been on antibiotics a week tomorrow so I hope it is better soon! I am DREADING having her get shots. It will be especially sad this time, because she will know what is going on much more.

I have a list of all Venily's favorite things and such as she turned one year old that I still need to type up and put up on here. I also wrote her a letter. It was very hard to write, let me tell you! :)

I still haven't got Venily's 11 month pics online yet! Hopefully soon. I also need to schedule her 1 year pics very soon and we are going to be getting family pics done as well! I can't wait to not get pictures every month! I think I'll get her 18 month pics, and then every year after that!

October 15, 2008 (con't)

Venily's check-up went really well. The doctor was very impressed with all of the things she can do! Her ear still has pus in it, but it's not red anymore so her ear infection is getting better, though it's still bothering her. Venily's height was 31.5 inches long, her weight was 21 pounds, 12 ounces, and her head circumference was 46.5cm. Her doctor said she looks awesome and that we are doing everything right!!!

She did have to have 3 shots! :( She screamed of course, but as soon as she was done and her Daddy picked her up, she was waving at the nurse again and saying hi to her, lol (with tears all down her face). Then she didn't cry at all after that, I'm hoping it doesn't bother her at all tonight. She got the first half of her flu shot and has to go back in a month to get the other half! Then she has more shots at 15 months.

I am starting to try to break her from nursing, I'd like to be done by the time she's 13 months. It is not going to be easy, but we were able to get her to take a sippy cup of warm whole milk instead of me last night, even though she kept insisting on me. She gave up and drank the milk though, so that gives me hope. We're going to substitute one feeding a day w/ whole milk every 4 days or so and see if that works for us!

This past week she has gone back to taking 2 naps a day!! YES!!! BUT.... she rarely takes them in her crib. Most of the time I have to either hold her or she sleeps on our bed. In either case, I can't get much done. I think it has a lot to do with her ear hurting her so I'm hoping she will go back to taking her naps in her crib when she is all better.

A letter to my daughter:

Dear Venily, my sweet, darling, baby girl,

You are a year old now and I can't believe how fast this year has gone.

I was elated when I found out I was pregnant with you. It's hard to explain, but I needed you. I felt so empty. I wanted a baby girl more than anything in the world and I finally had you. Your Daddy was everything to me, but I still felt like there was something more I was missing out on. Your pregnancy had its ups and downs but I was always so happy. There was life inside of me and I would protect it with my own. But I was scared.... scared something would go wrong, scared to hold the one thing I wanted more than anything and have it taken away from me. My whole world was inside of me and it seemed so fragile.

You were born on a Saturday afternoon, just as I asked you to be! I wasn't even sure I was in labor with you but your Dad raced us to the hospital and I asked the people at the front desk what I should do. "Umm... I think I might be in labor. What should I do?" haha. I had to stop every couple of minutes as I was having contractions, but I still couldn't believe it was really happening. Less than 2 hours later you were here! You were SOOOO perfect. It went so fast. It was almost painless. I couldn't even comprehend it at first. Where were the hours of screaming and eating ice chips and yelling at my husband that I hated him? Where was the gooey, smashed up face, bald-headed, screaming baby? As I held the most perfect little girl in all the world I couldn't understand how I could be so lucky. You were perfect. Just perfect. And you were mine. I couldn't sleep at all the first night. I just stared at you and held you all night long.

We've learned so much this last year. Your Dad learned what a onesie was and how to hold you so that you'd fall right to sleep. I learned how to nurse and change a diaper at the same time! That has come in very handy. And YOU learned how to smile, sit, talk, walk, and get every person who lays eyes on you to fall instantly in love with you. I'm so proud of every little thing you do. Your Dad and I used to fight about who got to push you in the stroller when we'd go grocery shopping and who had to push the grocery cart because we each wanted the "credit" for you. HAHA! You are so cute. You have to wave and say "hi" to every person you see. Everyone adores you!

You know when you have those moments where you stop and say that you want to remember it forever, so you try to take a picture of it with your mind? Remember each and every detail and exactly how it made you feel? You memorize the sights, the smells, the sounds, the overwhelming emotion? Well, there were so many times I wanted to freeze moments in your first year!! I never want to forget!! You did the cutest thing with your lips. They were so precious. We called it being "sghettoey" and only your father and I could truly understand and appreciate what that word meant! :) You'd giggle and laugh at the silliest things. There were entire days when we'd just stick out our tongues at each other and laugh. I remember times when you were so sleepy and I'd hold you in my arms, rocking you, singing some silly made up song about how much I loved you and you'd give me the sweetest kiss after every line I sang and you'd have the cutest little smirk on your face as your eyes were getting more and more tired. I have never felt so loved and my heart would physically hurt knowing how much I loved you back. There were trips to the museum, park, lake, zoo, hiking, and everywhere else we'd go. I wanted you to see everything. You loved new experiences and meeting new people.

The smell of lavender hand sanitizer brings me right back to our duplex, holding my newborn baby who slept ALL of the time as long as we were holding her. You were so content to do anything as long as it was with us. Your Daddy and I would literally be shocked each and every morning at how big you'd grown over night. We would never say that you couldn't do something because the next chance you'd get, you'd prove us wrong. People said that it would go fast, to enjoy it while we could, but we never dreamed it would go THIS fast. That in an instant, you'd go from a tiny, helpless baby to our little girl!

You have grown into the most adorable, gorgeous, smart little girl with the sweetest personality ever! Every month you'd grow, I'd remember thinking "this is my favorite month, please stop growing" and of course, you never listened! But, each month I'd say the same thing again and it would continue to get better and better. You have little conversations with me now. You always want to show me things that you think are cool. You get frustrated when you don't get your way. You pretend you are doing something else when we catch you do something naughty. You dance and sing and try to jump. You love to imitate us. You love to share. You say 35-40 words and your Daddy and I are convinced you're a genius! :) You love your family so much.

You are playing right now on the floor around me and you keep coming up to me to give me a kiss and you keep bringing me books to read you. I just read "Mr. Brown Can Moo Can You" for the 5th time today. You love it.

Thank you for letting me be your Mommy for this last year, it has been the best year of my life. I have taken my job very seriously and have always tried to do my best. I wanted you to have the best possible start and I think I've done a pretty good job! I want you to know that you are loved sooo much. I look forward to watching you grow and change more in this next year. I love you Venily! Happy Birthday love!!!!! XOXOXO

OCTOBER 13, 2008 (VENILY IS 1 YEAR OLD!!!!)

Happy 1st BIRTHDAY sweet baby girl!!! I love you so much!!!!

Man, I was doing so good with not crying but now I'm ready to lose it again, lol!

Venily's birthday party yesterday was awesome!!! Thank you so much to everyone who came, we couldn't have asked for a nicer day! Venily had so much fun seeing everyone. And I have NEVER seen her eat ANYTHING the way she devoured her cake and ice cream, lol! HAHA, that was too funny! We are so happy so many people helped us celebrate her big day! I will have more to write later... it is hard to write while she is napping on me, lol!

I can't believe my baby girl is a year old already!!!!