G2 Ultrasound and Father's Day

It has been a busy week.  The Giedd's are getting ready for G2 and have been working hard at clearing out the office...our house still looks like a disaster!  It is hard to find new places for things, re-organizing other places of a smaller house without a finished basement, and decide what things to sell/donate/get rid of.  It is a slow process but we are getting closer.  We moved our small desk into our bedroom (which I am not a fan of but will work for now...as long as I keep it looking nice).

School is officially out BUT summer school (grad classes) has officially started and wow was that a lot of work for week one....only six more weeks to go!!!  Below are a couple pictures of my classroom....its starting to come together.  I haven't been in there for a week now, but need to at some point!

View from my desk area!

Carpet squares.

View from door/hallway to back of room!

View from door/hallway to my desk/library/front of room.

It was father's day today and it was a great day!  Noell and I were up early making our father's day gifts (last minute, I know, I know...I did much better last year) and making breakfast for dada in bed!  Noell and I headed to church, while daddy stayed home and relaxed with some "me" time.  Then we headed to my parents for some lunch, followed by a lOOOONG nap taken by all three of us (well 3 1/2).  After nap time, we headed to Whitehall to visit Grandma Mary and took a little walk to visit Grandpa Quinn's grave site.  Our last stop of the day was to visit Papa Roger and Grandma Carol.  We ended the day by giving Noell a much needed bath!  Below are some pictures for this wonderful day!  I am so thankful for the wonderful fathers/grandfathers in my life!

Noell's hard work and Father's Day Masterpieces!

Speaking of our little Noell!  I have a couple updates!

New Words:  open (actually sounds like open...used to sound like apple), applesauce (tries hard...Noell's version), and a bunch of other words that we don't know yet!

Songs she likes to sing:  Rock-A-Bye-Baby!  She loves to listen and sing this song...so sweet!

Potty Training:  We haven't officially started, but are trying to get her excited to start soon!  This may sound weird, so skip this part if you aren't interested...I guess more for me to remember as this blog is pretty much her baby book!  

• likes to stand next to the toilet and wave and say bye-bye to everything that is flushed down the toilet.  She even tries to take toilet paper off the roll just to be able to flush it down.  We are trying to have her learn/understand that she needs to go potty in the toilet in order to get toilet paper and to flush. 
• The past couple of nights she has started to poop in the tub, so I grab her quick and she poops in the potty (cries while this is happening) but of course she is excited to watch it flush down the drain...too funny!  Then we definitely get practice in washing our hands ;)
• I'm thinking soon we will officially start...when I am physically ready as I believe this process will cause me to be more tired than I already am!

New Body Movements:  Spinning and rolling.  Yes, she could roll a long time ago and of course it was super exciting when she figured that out, but once babies start to crawl, walk, climb, run....they stop rolling!  So, she just figured out that it is fun to do and will yell, "ROLL, ROLL, ROLL" as she rolls around the floor!  She also figured out spinning this week, and will just stand and spin....stop and catch balance, and do it again.  Sometimes she will take off and try and run afterwards and that is just funny as she crashes to the floor!

Phoenix Park, Eau Claire!  Too cold to play in the water, but that wouldn't stop our little fish!!!

Noell loves her baby dolls!!!  And snuggling her momma!

Enjoying the beautiful land that God created on a walk down our coulee!!

G2 Ultrasound Pictures!!!

This past Thursday we finally got to see our littlest baby!  Everything is looking good so far...baby is growing how it should and is healthy!  We also found out that our peanut is very flexible!  Normally for the "profile" picture, you just see the head/chest...we our G2 had his/her feet way above its head with its knees touching the nose...I couldn't stop giggling in the ultrasound room...just loved it!  For many of you wondering...we did NOT find out the sex of the baby.  We had the tech turn the screen off while she check the lower area, so she is the only person that knows!!!  And, no, we didn't get anything put into an envelope either as that would be a temptation that I wouldn't want lying around!  But now thinking about it, it would be nice to have it for scrapbook pictures later on...or to see if the tech thought it was a different gender than it really is, etc!

Anywho.... the baby's heartrate was 147.  PERFECT!

Face!  Looks like a skeleton right now!

Profile picture of our very flexible child!  Knees are up by the nose.

Both feet together.

One foot.

Growing Baby:  At our ultrasound, the tech said the baby weighs approximately 14 ounces.  It is also about 10 1/2 inches long (about the size of a carrot).  All the measurements at the ultrasound were right on track varying from 20 weeks to 21 weeks!

Movement:  I am feeling tons of movement.  It keeps getting stronger and stronger!!!  Mike has felt baby move a number of times as well :)

Noell and Baby:  Lately, I have been asking Noell where is the baby and she will usually point to herself or go find one of her babies.  I have been pointing to my belly and saying baby.  Today, I asked her where the baby was and she patted herself and said, "baby", and then patted my belly and said, "baby".  Then she leaned down to give my belly a hug and said, "Awe!"  Super sweet!

Names:  Baby is still nameless if it is a boy or girl.  We are having a hard time deciding a name this time around.  I know it will be clear as day at some point, but until then we are still tossing in and out names.  The middle names are done...those were easy!!!

Next Appointment:  July 10.

JOY!!

Joy pretty much sums up how I feel about everything right now...my husband (most days...haha), Noell, G2, Katie, end of school year, moving into brand new school, and summer (most of it)!

I am going to start with Little Miss Noell.  I really don't know where to start, actually.  She has stolen my heart completely...I don't know how she can take more and more of it each day, but she manages to do it!  I love everything about this girl...her smiles, her giggles, her hugs and kisses, her energy, her love, her determination, her curiosity, her cuteness, and I could go on and on!  Here are just a couple stories over the past couple weeks that I will share:

• Tonight while getting ready for bed we were hanging out in momma and dada's room.  She snuggled up next to me and I started singing and she just snuggled, rubbing my hand, my arm, my belly, and just kept listening to me sing.  I was singing "this little light of mine" and started to tear up because she is just so perfect, the moment was just so perfect, and I can only hope that she allows her light and God's light to shine throughout her whole life!

• A night last week we were playing on our bed again and Mike was going to take Noell to put her to bed.  She said no and wanted to come back to me...so I took her.  She snuggled right up.  The minute Mike walked out the door, she turned to me and said, "Hi!"  It was so funny...Mike started laughing as he was still watching from the hallway...I guess she thinks that Mommy will let her get away with things...and little did she know, that I was then bringing her to bed!!!

• I have some lacing cards that use shoes laces.  Noell would put the lace through the hole and then I would pull it through.  She would then pull it back out while saying, "pull, pull."  Once the string would come out she would look at it with a confused look and say, "Huh??"  So funny!!!

• Last weekend we were getting ready to eat breakfast.  We usually give Noell her food first or at least some fruit to keep her happy until the main part of breakfast is ready.  Once we are all sitting down we will pray.  Well, Mike and I sat down and started eating our breakfast and Noell stuck out her hand like she wanted something.  So, I started handing her a couple things and each time she said, "No."  Then I gave her my hand.  She took it and reached her hand out to Mike.  She was letting us know that she was ready to pray....seriously melt my heart!  I must be doing something right!!!

• Noell has really started to do things like Momma and Dada.  She has to "clean" my ears and her ears after her bath, she takes her fingernail clipper out of the drawer and will pretend to clip her toenails and my toenails, brush her hair, her tooth brushing has been going great (she now stands on the stool in the bathroom), helps wipe with a wet-wipe when I change her diaper, and will sit on her Mickey Mouse toilet (doesn't go potty in the toilet yet...just on the floor next to it...haha)!

Clipping her toenails!

Clipping momma's toenails!

Cleaning her ears after she cleaned daddy's!

New Words / Phrases:  Pull, roll, throw, I Pee, 

Attempts to Say (getting better each time): Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Pluto, Daisy

Interesting things about her words:  She likes to add the long e sound to the end of words.  Flowy- (flower), haty (hat), shoey (shoe), and of course I can't think of the others right now!

Newest Animal Sounds:  "OOO" for monkey, "roar" for lion and tiger, "Grr" very girly like for a bear

Things she loves right now:  her new pillow that we put in her crib to help her transition into her toddler bed this summer, her crayons and notebook, her little piano again, being outside doing anything, dancing, her new mickey mouse books!

Below are Noell's 18 month photos taken by the wonderful Kaylyn Halama KM/H Photography during her apple orchard sessions!

Okay, now on to G2!!!  Week 19 and....20!  Halfway done cookin'!!!

Growing Baby:  The size of a banana...10 1/2 ounces and about 6 1/2 inches long!  The baby is working on swallowing and making meconium, which is that sticky, black substance that becomes the first poop!  Looking forward to seeing that again...lol ;)

Memorable Moments: More and more movements!  I was a little worried about all of the packing and moving I was going to be doing to get ready for the big move into the new school...b/c I didn't feel Noell move for almost a week after we moved out of our apartment when I was pregnant with her.  This little one doesn't mind apparently because the moment I sit or take a little break, he/she is letting me know that they are doing just fine!  MIKE got to feel the baby.  The other night the baby was moving more than it had been and so he asked if I thought he could feel it...I didn't think so but we tried anyway.  The baby stopped moving right away when he put his hand on my stomach (little stinker).  Once it started moving again I didn't say anything and he asked if that was the baby, and it was!  So, very little but he felt him/her :)

I started working on cleaning out the office/toy room/extra closet space for me.  Wow, we have more "stuff" than I thought.  I have done a lot of re-organizing into different areas of the house (Noell's closet, hallway closet, living room), thrown a lot away, and selling/donating many things!  I have to get ready by the end of the summer because once the middle of August is here, and it will come way too soon this year, I will have no time to prepare then!

Cravings:  Not really anything!  Chocolate...but I always crave chocolate :)

Missing Anything:  Sleeping on my stomach!  Only five more months to go!

Changes:  Feeling B I G

Looking Forward To:  Our ultrasound on Thursday....so excited to finally see G2!!!!

Well, we have been busy at school.  We have been packing to get ready for the big move into the new building.  The students helped move today and they ROCKED!  It was so fun to see all of the kids, Kindergarten through high school help out.  They were tired but they kept moving along, carrying little things and sometimes heavy/big things..taking multiple trips back and forth!  So proud of the students and the staff who have all just been amazing!  Friday was our last student day, then we have two teacher work days, and then summer!!  Although my summer will be busy with classes that start tomorrow-Monday (blah), some trainings, and volleyball...and somewhere in there I am going to work on my PDP, relaxing, changing the office into a nursery, transitioning Noell into a toddler bed and possibly potty training, taking Noell to her FIRST GYMNASTICS class in EC (her and I will go together), and of course the MOST important is spending time with my loves enjoying the beautiful weather :)