My little Monkey

I decided it was time to do an update on my little monkey... aka Aubrey. She is growing up so fast that I don't know what to do.

The first big change is that she is now in a "big girl" toddler bed. Definitely not my choice at all! I had grand plans of keeping her in her crib for at least another year. But, have I mentioned she is a monkey? Baby gate, pack n play, crib.... she climbs over it all in about 2 seconds flat.

The transition to a bed actually went a lot easier than I thought. She still goes to bed quickly and sleeps all night. The saddest part is that she used to love her crib. She would sing songs and play in there forever. Now, the second she wakes up she whimpers and runs to the door. I know it could be a lot worse, but I miss that extra "me" time when she just played in her crib!

We have just emerged (I hope) from a rough phase. Along with the transition to a bed, she cut all four canine teeth, fell and cut her eye, fell again and gave the other eye a black eye, and got a cold all in one week. That caused her behavior to be.... well... not fun. Super clingy, super whiny, lots of tantrums and other undesirable toddler behavior.

Here she is showing off her "owie."

But, she seems to be back to my sweet little girl, so I will enjoy this time before another rough phase comes! And, don't they always come?

• She talks up a storm, and more and more of it is actually in English. I stopped counting how many words she knows.... over 100? She hasn't really started combining sentences yet, but I'm excited for that.
• She can name and point to all her main body parts and a few random ones. It cracks me up because she uses the names for anything related to them. For example, her sunglasses are her "eyes," gloves are "hands" etc.
• She loves to make animal noises. Can count to 10.... kind of. She counts 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, 10. I have to fill in 1, 5, and 7. Starting to learn ABC's. 
• She loves to play with other kids and is still pretty aggressive in doling out hugs and kisses. Her favorite little buddy Tyler is moving soon, so that will be a sad day. 
• She "helps" me. Especially with cooking. Nothing can distract her when I am in the kitchen. She drags in a chair saying "help, help." Except... she often makes a big mess. Getting dinner on the table just keeps getting harder. 
• She is definitely on the high end of the energy scale. She never stops and she completely exhausts me. But, she is so much fun and has a smile that just lights up the room. 

This picture is pretty typical. Aubrey running full steam ahead, leaving Steven or I to catch up.

We love her so much and she is my little bundle of energy. Every day is an adventure and I wouldn't trade it for anything! 

17 Weeks

Well, here I am at 17 weeks pregnant:

After taking this picture, Steven said that I didn't look pregnant in it, so I stuck it out a bit in the next one to get a real "belly" shot:

Morning sickness for me seems to stick around for a while. The days are getting better, but I still feel all sick every night.

I've started to feel the baby move, which I'm super excited about. This is when I started to feel Aubrey move, but since I have an anterior placenta this time, the doctor warned me it might be a while. That is one of the few parts about pregnancy that I love.

We had another ultrasound that also was pretty sure that we are having another little GIRL!! If in any future ultrasounds it looks otherwise, I"ll update, but for now it is looking like Aubrey is going to be a big sister to a little sister. I'm thrilled. I think they will be good friends, I'm good at the whole girl thing, and all those clothes I bought that Steven rolled his eyes at will get some more use!

I was supposed to start progesterone shots this last week to help prevent another premature birth, but that did not happen. I'm definitely not normally the type to be political, but the American health care system is just terrible! A lot of time I wish I was still in Canada.

Basically, a drug company, Makena, took a shot that has been around for 50 years to help with premature birth, got approval to patent it from the FDA, and turned that shot from $20 a shot to $1500! So... approximately $30,000 for treatment. Here is a link if anybody is interested in reading about it (http://abcnews.go.com/Health/WomensHealth/price-preventing-premature-births-skyrockets-drug/story?id=13104588&page=3#.UDGrfZ6-x5Q).

So, I have already spent hours on the phone dealing with my insurance company, and the doctors to try and get this drug covered since it is one of the best shots I have at going full-term. The crazy thing is that the insurance we have through LinkedIn is about as good as you can get, so I can't even imagine the trouble that other women in my situation must be going through.

You can start treatment between 16 and 20 weeks, so we would appreciate any prayers that things get sorted out quickly before it is too late. I'm trying to just trust that everything will work out, but this situation definitely is hard.

Well... enough of my rant. I'm so excited for this little girl to join our family. Being a mother is worth all the pain and heartache it takes to get them here!

Utah- Peterson's

After we spent a few days with Steven's family, my parents picked us up and it was time to spend a week with my family! Except Trent : ( He better have rocked all his summer semester finals to miss spending a week with us!

The first day together we had a Klein family dinner and I got to visit with so many aunts/uncles/cousins that I haven't seen in a long time. The Klein's are my family on my mom's side. Aubrey got a real nice scrape on her head because she was trying to entertain everybody and fell down a stair. That girl is such a ham.

Our little dare devil also had a lot of fun riding on quads (I know... super dangerous. We went slow). She would walk to the garage and ask, "ride? ride?" multiple times a day.

We had a lot of fun at Seven Peaks. Being pregnant, the extent of my fun was the lazy river and chasing Aubrey, but it all LOOKED like a ton of fun. And honestly, Steven and my mom did most of the chasing, so I guess I was just lazy.

Since Aubrey normally is such a daredevil, I was sad that this is what she thought of the Alpine Slide. I guess we shouldn't have pretended she was 2 so she could ride? Maybe next time. 

Little Zach was so sweet and tolerated Aubrey's many hugs and kisses well. 

And... we even managed to get a somewhat normal shot of our little family. Maybe we will have more luck getting a good picture when we are a family of four. I'm finally starting to get a little bump, so I will take some pictures of that soon. 

Thanks for the great time family! I have said it before, but I am truly blessed to have such a wonderful family that all loves spending time together. 

Live Hangout- Footes

We have spent the past couple of weeks in Utah with our families. Yes, BOTH families and it was great. We spent the first part of the trip with the Foote's at the "Live Hangout." On Google +, Steven's family often does video hangout's and so the trip was dubbed the "Live Hangout." Also, family reunion sounds boring :)

Thanks Tyler (TemplesByTyler.com) for all the pictures! If you notice the quality is amazing that is because I am definitely not the one behind the camera.

Aubrey had a great time playing with her cousins. It was fun to see them all together. The Foote family is growing like crazy, with two new babies and two others on the way.

Aubrey and David are definitely at the difficult toddler phase... sometimes we had to be creative to keep them contained.

We went on a hike, visited Temple Square and the Church History Museum, ate a ton of food, visited parks, watched the Olympics, and had a great time hanging out all together.

We even managed to snap a shot with the whole family together after Jeremy and Kedra blessed their new baby, William:

Utah is beautiful. I loved being around the mountains and gorgeous scenery again.

Although, I did get really excited when the pilot on our flight today announced that we were arriving to a balmy 76 degress in San Jose. I forgot how stinking hot Utah is in the summer. I have become such a baby when the weather is outside of my 70-85 degree comfort zone.