Voter Fraud?

I'm sensing some voter fraud around here... I mean, i thought kids were only allowed to vote in presidential elections? And only then if the democrat is behind in the race! ("oh no she didnt!"... yes, i totally did :-)).

This is her "too bright" pose. We see this a LOT in the car. Here, she wasnt digging the flash.

"Shee??" (See)

In other news:

I dont remember when i last updated about baby Ford #2, so i'll do so now.
I had my gestational diabetes test done at my 24 week appointment and all was good. No diabetes. YAY! I may have actually cried if i found out i had to deny myself chocolate! I mean, it IS a major food group of pregnancy :-)
Little Mack is still moving an awful lot. I complain about it sometimes because from time to time it hurts a little (his knee is looking for a great escape through my ribs) but really, for the most part, its really cool. I mean, its kind of freaky when you really think about it that we, as women, grow other human beings inside of us. Incredible, Gods plan is. (as yoda might say).

I'm not sure if i've posted about my feelings of this pregnancy vs my pregnancy w/ Rhyan, but i'd like it to be in print at some point so here it goes.

With Rhyan i enjoyed my pregnancy more than i do this one. Dont let me fool you, i didnt love it (i was sick for a while and then had some pretty bad pains that i dont want to reveal to all the world) but overall, i enjoyed it. Let me rephrase... i probably enjoyed the attention :-) (if we're being honest). In your first pregnancy, you get doted on more. By your family, by your husband, by yourself! But then with the second, everyone assumes its like an old hat to you; familiar and somehow easier. But i'd beg to differ. With Rhyan, we had more money so i got pedicures more often and treated myself to things like a massage or whatever. With this pregnancy, we're saving all we have to buy a van and for me to take an unpaid maternity leave of 10 weeks. So theres lots of dead skin on my feet and my back hurts :-)
Would i have it any other way? NO! (um, unless i could just magically have more money... but i'm saying, would i change my family.. no). Jeff and I would sacrifice anything for our kids! But I do think that those "perks" make the 1st pregnancy more enjoyable.

Having said that, I'm really looking more forward to meeting little Mack than I did Rhyan. I obviously am in LOVE with Rhyan, so please let me explain. I was nervous about having Rhyan. I knew I wanted to be preggo. I wasnt so sure i wanted the kid that followed... because its in my control freak nature to want to be prepared and knowledgeable and good at anything before I even try it. Before we had Rhyan, I signed us up for lots of birthing and parenting classes. I read babywise. I talked to mom friends for advice. But the fact was, nothing was going to prepare me for being a Mommy. I am a visual learner and seeing as how I'm an only child, I've never really seen parenting other than that which I had from my parents (which was awesome, but i dont exactly remember the infant/toddler years!). So to say I was nervous was an understatement.

Am I all wise now? Absolutely not. But if there is anything that I've learned its that parenting is an on the job training gig. There was no way that we could have prepared ourselves for EVERY possible issue that we may have had with Rhyan, and even if we would have tried, who is prepared for SILENT reflux that even doctors took 6 months to diagnose or Torticollis which brings its own issues? Point is, we've learned as we've gone and I know enough now to know that is exactly what we'll do with little Mack. So, i stress less and look forward more to meeting him. I dont really worry about how Rhyan will react to her new brother because other than the fact that i feel certain that she'll adjust fine, I know that we'll do whatever we need to help her adjust. I am still pro-intentional parenting and very against accidental parenting (meaning we do try to think about our decisions and how they'll impact long term and not just today) but we'll never be perfect and we're always going to make mistakes, no matter how hard we try to parent well.

So, I have lots to do to get ready for little Mack to join our lives, but i am soooo looking forward to meeting him. And to enjoying him. :-)

Allright, well an unwatched episode of the young and the restless, house and a new biggest loser are calling my name... along with some cuddle time on the couch w/ my husband (aka: falling asleep in T-30 minutes). Night!

Living Water

Ok, friends! I never solicit for anything, but I've GOT to support my husband in this and hope you will, as well!!!

Our church has decided to support a ministry called "Living Water". They dig wells in countries where fresh water is almost unheard of so that people who are living with very little can enjoy something as simple as a fresh glass of water without having to first boil it. Have you ever even thought about how blessed we are to be able to open the tap and get ourselves a glass of water?! Our church is sponsoring the digging of a well in Liberia.

The cost for digging a well is approx $12,000. That is a HUGE number, but then, God is pretty HUGE and I'm pretty sure he can make this happen. But as we all know, the Lord delights in using His children to further his Kingdom and to love on those in need! One way we are attempting to raise money for this cause is by running a half marathon this coming Sunday. We have several guys who have paid their own $85 registration fee and who have worked really hard to train for the 13.1 miles that will be run on Sunday, all in hopes that YOU will sponsor them! Jeff is one such person :-)

So, how can you help? This is kind of like what we grew up knowing as a "walk-a-thon" except this is a run-a-thon. We are asking that anyone who would like to sponsor him in one of two ways.
1. Make a commitment for each mile he completes (just fyi, he will complete 13 miles so if you choose to go this route, you might want to keep that in mind!). Example: If you sponsor Jeff $2 per mile, you would send a check for $26.
2. Make a flat donation in any amount you'd like.

This is a TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION!

All checks should be made out to "Oak Hill Baptist Church" and in the memo line you should note in the "for" line: "living water".

You will get a contribution receipt from our church.

SO! WHO's IN?!?!?!?!? Please contact me via email at forddygirl@yahoo.com if you would like to contribute to this great cause and I will get you our address so that we can collect all checks here and then give them to the church. I guarantee you that Jeff has trained hard and is looking to make a good time (hoping for under 2 hours, but Atlanta is hilly, so we'll see!).

Thanks in advance!!!!

Chocolate Explosion

After dinner, if rhyan has eaten well, she gets a yummy dessert... usually, chocolate pudding. She loves it :-) So, tonight, she had eaten very well and so her daddy opened up a pudding for her. As you can see from the pic below, she was enjoying it quite nicely! Until............

Until she had a sneezing attack! And with the 1st sneeze, BAM, a big blob landed on her Daddy's sock. His reaction? "oh, gross!". Hers? "uh-oh!", followed by a hearty laugh! hahah!

We assumed the one sneeze would be all there was.. but we were wrong. After another bite, AH-CHOO! And another splat on the floor!

She thought the whole thing was quite hilarious. And honestly, so did we :-)

New Phrase

Rhyan started saying a new phrase tonight and it's my new favorite :-)

"My do it"

She says this while she pats her chest with her hand and shakes her head "yes".

Gosh, i love that little girl. She just makes my heart happy.

ps. i know every kid says cute stuff. but i dont take joy in every other cute kids new phrases like i do my own. so sometimes, i just have to share because she just makes my heart overflow with gratitude that the Lord would ever allow us to parent... especially such a sweet, sweet girl!

Sunday at the Park

Rhyan: 22 months old!

Rhyan turned 22 months old on Feb 28th! WOW! I really cannot believe that in less than 2 months now, she'll be two YEARS old. Where has the time gone?!

I am absolutely in love with this age. Rhyan's personality has really come out recently and she is very playful! The "language explosion" month was this past month for her, for sure. I'm sure that from here on out she will be adding words like crazy, but this month marked a difference in language development in her for sure. I simply cannot remember all of the words/phrases she says now! But there are alot :-)

She is super bossy to spud. She continues to call him "puh" with an occasional "d" on the end. He comes running to her anytime she calls, though, so i guess he's figured out that "puh" is his new name. She loves to love on him for a brief moment and then promptly instructs him to get "DOW!" (down). She loves bossing him around. And he doesnt seem to mind. Amazing.

With Rhyan's increase in vocab, she has this past month also started to experience nightmares. According to a patient of mine who is a pediatrician, this is very common at this age. She said that as their language skills expand, they become more creative and imaginative therefore leading to more creative, and sometimes scary, dreams. She cries out in her sleep sometimes as many as four times a night. This started right at a month ago, i think. It scared us to death to start with... wondering what was happening... was it that jeff was gone a good bit b/c of baseball? was it that she was eating something that was hurting her stomach at night? But my patient assured me that this is just normal and there is really nothing to be done. We do try to make sure that her last 15 minutes before bed are very calm now and very consistent so as to calm her mind (hopefully) as much as possible. We also pray and ask the Lord to protect her little mind. Overall, they have improved UNLESS we get her to bed later than normal. A late bedtime seems to trigger the nightmares, which i also understand to be normal. The great thing about Rhyan though is that she doesnt require any attention to get herself back to sleep. She works through it on her own in less than a minute, on average, and is right back in snoozeville :-)

We bought a potty this month, just to have. She goes to it quite often and says "i poo poo" and sits on it. But she doesnt actually want to poo poo on the potty. She just wants to imitate at this point. Believe me, i know. We experimented. :-) So, for now, it's there for her to know that it's available. I won on the babywise blog contest the "pottytraining 1-2-3" book and dvd by the Ezzo's (who wrote babywise) and am looking forward to reading that. But she's definitely not ready yet, and i see no need to push it. Changing one kids diaper or two kids diaper just doesnt seem that big a deal to me. Yes, i'd love to not have to buy two sizes/boxes of diapers and spend all of that money, but i'd rather have my sanity. So i'll wait till she's really ready. Because i'm just lazy like that!

Whinyness is the bane of my existence... and apparently what Rhyan lives to do recently! :-( I thought maybe it was b/c she wasnt doing independent play time so if you remember, we started back with that in Jan. She's gotten a LOT better with that this past month for the most part. She still has some crazy fake cries from time to time, but overall, its a vast improvement. Then, i thought maybe it was her teeth, but drugging her with motrin doesnt seem to help (no, i'm not above trying to medicate my kid to see if pain is the issue!). So as late as yesterday, Tracy just tried stopping her every time she whined and saying "no whining, use your words" and making her ask for what she wanted. So far (for 2 days) it seems to be helping!. Not that we havent tried that in the past, but i think in the past we've done a combo of ignoring it and addressing it... so now we'll try consistently addressing it and see if that works.

The fabulous spring-like weather has really been great for us! Rhyan LOVES the "outside" and would live out there if i'd let her, i think! We've had a blast just walking around the yard, playing with toys, chalk and going to the playground.

Rhyan is quite playful at mealtimes recently. She loves to "hide" her fork under her arm, behind her head, under her leg, etc... and wait for us to make a big deal about "Where is your fork, Rhyan???". Then she'll bring it out and say "dere-id-is!" (there it is).

She's obsessed with putting her shoes on and off and taking her socks off 1000x's a day to check her toes to see if there is any "yuck" in them. It's cute. If not sometimes annoying :-)

To anyone who coughs or sneezes or clears their throat, she promptly tells them "bosh you".
She says "tan-too" (thank you) for almost anything you give her, including food.
Her favorite thing to ask for is "ont nak" (i want snack).
And her favorite word/person of the month is TRACY! Lorddy, she loves her some "taa-cee".
She is very sad that the "boat" that was for sale on our road sold and is no longer there for her to point out to me every time we leave the neighborhood.
She still loves to read and points to literally probably a hundred things in the books and says what they are or what noise they make.
Most larger animals to her (goats, horses, cows, sheep) are all cows in person. She knows the difference in books, but hasnt seen most of the animals in person, so she doesnt know what they should really look like. Looks like a trip to the yellow river game ranch could help with that! :-)

Life is fantastic. She knows there is a "ba-bee" in my belly and pats it and loves on it often. But i'm pretty sure she doesnt really have a clue as to what is coming to live with us in 3 months! She also knows his name is Mack, although for her it's "matt" or "nak". We cant seem to get the "m" and "k" together :-)

I'm sure there are tons of things i'm missing... but really, she's great.

Stream of Consciousness

I'm sitting here tonight enjoying the quiet of my home.

Jeff is coaching. Rhyan is asleep. Mack is kicking my guts out :-) Spud is being lazy spud.

A friend on facebook just blessed me with tickets to a pre-sale of a consignment that i LOVE, and so i'm really excited about that! And so humbled that not only did she offer me the ticket, but is also dropping it off at my work. I mean, how nice is that?! Talk about someone going out of their way to be kind to another!

I hit Rhyan in the head with the car door tonight when i went to close the door. Ok, i didnt slam her head in the door or anything, but the edge of the door hit her head. It was red and got a bump. I HATE having accidents like that. I know that accidents happen, but i dont think there is anything much worse than knowing you caused your childs cry :-(

My next thought: i hope no one calls dfacs on me b/c i posted that on the internet.

We got a crib this weekend and we already had a mattress, so i'm super excited to start decorating Mack's room. I still dont know if i love resigning to the idea of calling him Mack. I dont want for him to never be called Mckinnon. It's just too long to type! lol.

You can see the crib if you click here. Click on the pic to enlarge it. Jeff picked it out. I didnt love it at first, but he really loved it, which kind of made me love it :-)

Well, Jeff just got home from the game and i miss him and would rather talk with him in person than to type not knowing if anyone reads this. HA! NIGHT!