Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens...

These are a few of Kadence's favorite things:

Favorite Book: The Foot Book, by Dr. Seuss
Favorite Song: Boom Boom Pow by the Black Eyed Peas (seriously)
Favorite kiddie song: If you're happy and you know it. She says "Happy..yo-ee-yo"
Favorite Color: Pink. Well, I think it is..everytime we ask her what color something is, the response is always "PINK"
Favorite Toy: That's a toss up betweeen Bahbee (barbie), baby dolls, and tickle me elmo. She also loves her cozy coupe that she can "drive"...she actually now cries to drive OUR cars, lol.
Favorite Show: Dora. Hands down, it's the best thing EVER to her. Close runners up, Spongebob (bum-bon), and Phineas and Ferb.
Favorite activity: Playing outside- goodness, coming inside every evening is torture to her!
Favorite Friends: Jack (gaga) and Mattie (manny)
Favorite Bath Toy: The cup in which she fills with running water and drinks..again and again.
Favorite Veggie: Broccoli- she actually like most all veggies, which we are so grateful for
Favorite Food: Cheese
Favorite Dessert: Ice cream (ikeen)

And, that's all I can think of for now. I hope to remember to compile lists like this once a year or so, in order to keep track of all these changes. :)

Eh, it was nothing

Maybe false labor, I don't know. Things seemed to pick up and we were toying with the idea that the baby would be making an appearance shortly, but then everything tapered off. Now, I'm sitting at work waiting to start our "End of Year" party, so at least I'm distracted. :)

I'm just thankful it stopped if I wasn't making progress. There's no way I could have walked around the next couple weeks with that pressure on my pelvis and the pain in my lower back. Nope. I would've gotten an epidural to get me through, haha.

Something is going on...

Is it labor? I'm truly not sure. With K, my first sign of labor was my water breaking, and I never really had contractions before the pitocin. So, I don't know what normal labor feels like. I've been unable to sleep since 5:30am, and I've had some contractions, nothing I even tried to time. What is getting me right now is this back pain- it's horrible. I was just on all fours and that seemed to help some. I want to wake Luis up to rub me, but if this is labor, I want him to be able to sleep before things get going. Who knows though- this could be just normal part of the end of pregnancy. I feel so much pressure on my bladder, my stomach has visibly dropped. Ugh, I wish I knew if this was going to amount to anything today or even tomorrow. I honestly have no idea how I'm going to make it through work today. Here's hoping that something starts or all this stops!! I'll update later.

Toddlereeze

I've always thought it adorable when toddlers make up words or use their limited reasoning skills to define things. For example, my neice used to call brocolli "trees", and a girl I used to babysit would call Ketchup "red mustard". Never until I had my own child though, did I realize the extent of Toddlereeze. Kadence is a very good communicator. She says tons of words spot on and in context- really, too many to list. I will say that she can use "yea" and "okay" interchangably, as well as Hi, Hello, and Hola. There are a few words that just shock me. I realize now that she makes up her own words or pronounces things incorrectly because she has not yet learned to say the Sssss or Fffff sound. In my head, that would mean instead of cereal, she should say "tereal" or something like that. Nope, she says "Goo-la". She knows what it is, she recognizes it, but to her, it is goo-la. Same goes for shower. I'd guess "bower" or something. Her word: Lapole. It's funny too, the way she says it sounds like a Spanish word or something, but I asked Luis, it's not. She does just leave off the "s" for a few things..like "please" is "pea". It's truly amazing to watch someone learn to speak, and learn to have little conversations even. I'm so blessed to be her mommy- even if she is forcing me to learn a new language! :)

Dear Kadence,

With your baby brother or sister's arrival coming up soon, I wanted to take a moment to write you. I am so concerned with how you will respond to another person living in our house. I know no matter what, you will love your brother or sister. I know you will be a fantastic role model and source of guidance for him/her growing up. I trust that you guys will be close friends and be able to lean on each other and have fun together. It's the immediate reaction that has me worried. I don't want you to feel put out. I don't want you to feel resentment toward me, Daddy, or the baby. I am praying and planning as best I can, but truth be told, I don't know how things will change. Our goal is to do our best to give you as much attention as we can, and spend one on one time with you when possible. Right now, you sleep in our bed part of the night, and we wouldn't have it any other way. However, you normally sleep between us, but for safety reasons, we have to put the baby between us when he/she is born. Daddy has moved you over to his side between him and the wall, so you can adjust to that before the baby comes. You were fine with it, then I missed you so you spend a few more nights between us. Last night, we put you only by daddy. In the middle of the night, you started crying for me, and you waved to me. It was so touching, yet heartbreaking at the same time. The funny part is you normally want Daddy in the middle of the night if you wake up. Why did you want me all of a sudden, I wonder. Could you have some sense that things are changing? I have no idea.

K, you are the sweetest little girl. You wave and blow kisses to most everyone, you share your toys (most of the time), you are always happy. You even get upset when I go to the doctor and she examines my belly...you don't mind too much when the doctors check you out, but when it's me, you get concerned. It's so sweet! Also, you rock and swing your babies, you pat their backs, you are just so gentle and loving. I hope and pray that carries over quickly to your sibling.

We love you so much. We are happy to be expanding your role in life. Currently, you are a daughter. Soon, you'll be a sister as well. I hope you love being a sister!! Thank you for being our first born child.

Love Always,
Mommy

A year and a half!

Already? One year and six months have gone by? Tomorrow Kadence will be closer to 2 than she is to 1? This can't be true! I didn't realize how much I was in denial about this until tonight at walmart. I was looking for socks for her, and they only had ugly colored 18-36 month ones, so I thought I could get her the 12-18 month ones, you know, since she's just now 18 months...yea, they looked way too small. It just hit me, she's really not a "baby" anymore. Every day she can communicate more and more with us. She's starting to really protest when she has to do something she doesn't want to or can't do something she does want to do. It's crazy how fast time has gone by. And can I say, I love her more and more with each day that goes by. I mean, I thought I loved her as much as anyone could love anything when she was first born, but really, my love for her just grows and grows. I'm sitting here with happy tears as I read over the title of this post...in my head, I replaced "a year and a half" with 18 years, because I know that's coming. It will be like the blink of an eye, she'll be a beautiful, wise, compassionate, God fearing woman, and if I still know how to use a computer (because, you know, old people don't, hehe), I'll be writing about how I remember when she would "wing" her baby dolls outside in the swing. Eeek...gotta stop the tears, we have family pictures tomorrow!!!