Hahaha, now I know how my dad feels

It's been over a week now, but this stuck with me so I thought I'd share. I made breakfast that included toast. Guin requested some butter so I obliged. Then she still wasn't eating. I offered to add preserves and she said yes and added peanut butter too. I didn't want to waste food, so I just added almond butter and raspberry preserves and made the toast into a sandwich. Holy Cow, what a reaction! I covered her butter; put the bread together having the nut spread touch the fruit spread... After finally tasting the separated sandwich, her response was - Mmmm, not too bad. 

I couldn't help but crack up laughing. It so reminded me of myself the first time I had liver and onions prepared by my dad. I had such a reaction and protest, but after tasting it I told my dad I thought it tasted like liverwurst spread. My dad calmly explained that liver was an ingredient to the spread I liked so much and that's why they taste similar. I peacefully ate the rest of my dinner with enjoyment. 

Week 24

Wow-wow-wow, yesterday was the beginning of my 24th week!

I went in for a routine belly check last Thursday. After waiting a while (over an hour) for my doctor I was seen. She was very nice and acknowledged my wait. She had just delivered a healthy baby boy and both mother and child are resting. Yeah, so nice! Anyway, I was checked out in full without any sense of being rushed. My blood pressure and urine tests all checked out normal and looks like I’ve gained 12-13 pounds which is on target as well. After talking about my progress and recent symptoms and signs, the dr did one more test. We’re glad she did! Though I feel fine, I ended up having another infection. Oh brother, so it’s another round of antibiotics. This being my second (though different types) it is one more then I had when pregnant with G. I need to pump up my good bacteria with pro-biotics after pregnancy to decrease my sensitivity. All in all the doctor was pleased with my and the baby’s progress and growth!

Nutrition Check: In addition to taking my prenatal vitamins, I need to continue to focus on eating enough protein (about 75g). As well as ensuring proper calcium levels (1000-1200mg). Calcium has not been a problem. I've been drinking milk, enjoying cheese, and eating my very important greens.

Just one more note: It’s been a few weeks now with no arm braces. My carpel tunnel and weakness has decreased leaving me feeling a bit better wrist wise. While driving (when I experience the main problem) I still have mild thumb soreness in my left hand, but manageable without arm supports.

Learning

Rick and I both took Spanish in high school and have been lucky to visit both Spain and Mexico during our travels. But we would not kid ourselves and call ourselves bilingual! Learning Spanish (and getting as close as I can to becoming fluent) is on my bucket list. Also, I would love to learn at least a touch of Polish. I think living where I do it seems to be growing more beneficial to be well versed in multiple languages, especially Spanish. I carry this thinking over when it comes to teaching Guin. From the start when we purchased books and flashcards I was always sure to get some Spanish ones too. Grandmama practices G’s numbers in both English and Spanish, though not sure how much is sticking quite yet. Then out of the blue yesterday, G said “Buenas noches” to G-mama! “Good morning” replied G-mama. Then G corrected, no-no that’s night. My mom was so tickled with the interaction that she quickly told me and I shared with Rick. Yeah… it’s starting to stick! Ha-ha, I guess the marathon of Dora the Explorer this past weekend didn’t hurt either.  J When Rick picked up G, she told G-mama “Adios” as they left. (She fell asleep on the way home.)

I wanted to hear for myself so this morning I asked G what does Dora say. G promptly answered “Hola”. Yeah, I am so excited to hear that little squeaky voice saying new words.

Side note: She also learned two new English words over the weekend:

1) Huge which she repeated in context after hearing daddy describe one of her leafs.

2) Nasty, this was repeated 3-4 times in a row with a giggle after each. She picked this up from Darci as she described candied fennel that G was eating. It was funny to hear that unfold.

From what I’ve read it’s a good time to continue with language and vocabulary studies. She knows the Alphabet (with letter recognition), Numbers up to 12 (with number recognition up to 9), shapes (Circle, Triangle, Square, Heart, Moon/Crescent, Star, and working on rectangle), colors (red, pink, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple/violet, black, white, brown), patterns (polka dots and stripes).  In addition to expanding her English I think we should bust out her Spanish flashcards again and continue to play games and have fun practicing what she already knows but with the Spanish words as well. Her excitement and memory around learning has been really surprising and we hope it continues!

She is not writing yet, but her drawing skills are developing. She draws circles and snowmen as well as squares and toast.  Oh and lots of smiley faces and rainbows!

I try to talk and play games while we are in the car during our hours of commuting each week. Making this time more productive (beyond getting us from point A to B) relieves my stress a bit. Yeah, multi tasking – Yeah, learning J We’ve made a game of learning her parents and grandparents (yep, all 6) titles, first name, and city of residence. We expanded the location game to include her aunts, uncles, cousins, and good friend Liam. Recently Guin initiated the game while Grammy was riding with us. Grammy was so surprised that Guin not only knew her name but also her city!

Oh, our little brainiac with a memory sponge, how I hope to not slow you down! Well, really I would love to keep up with you! XO Love you baby, my big girl!