It's a...

On Monday, December 12 I had my big anatomy ultrasound. Adam and Caroline came with me so they could find out the big news as well. Everything looked perfect with the baby. All the organs looked great, the heartbeat was nice and strong, and everything measured right on time. Boy or girl, we really didn't care. We just wanted a healthy little baby to add to our family. We kept the news a secret until that weekend. Adam was in a wedding so his parents came into town to keep Caroline. On Sunday we gathered his family for lunch to share the news. I had planned on doing a fun reveal for my family as well but since we are all currently living in 3 different states, that didn't work out. I shared the news with all on them on Christmas Eve.

We had some beautiful cupcakes from Dreamcakes.

The Israel family waiting to find out the news!


One big bite...


Not sure if you can tell, but it's a GIRL!!! (and yes, I am wearing the cheesy "It's a girl" sticker on my dress)


That's right, Baby Israel #2 is a girl!! This pregnancy has been so different so I orgininally thought it was going to be a boy. So did a lot of others since the baby pool was overwhelmingly leaning toward boy. Toward the end I was convinced it was another girl so I wasn't too shocked when that was confirmed. We are so excited that she looks healthy and that this pregnancy is going well. We are blessed beyond words. I am just tickled for Caroline to have a little sister. Baby girl does have a name, but that will come in another post...stay tuned!!

Christmas Cookies

I tried to do some fun Christmas activities with Caroline this year since she is big enough to enjoy certain things. One night when Adam had to work late we decorated gingerbread people. Easy enough, right? Wrong! We made the biggest mess! At least we had a fun time and the cookies were pretty yummy...

Getting ready for Christmas!

I"m behind on blogging so I'm going to play catch up for a few posts...

We have had so much fun this Christmas season. I was sick the day after Thanksgiving so we had to wait another day or two to put up our tree but the wait was worth it. We had a great time putting up decorations. Here are some of our decorations this year.

Silly Girl

Caroline is so stinkin funny these days and I wanted to record some of the precious things she does!

Last Saturday the three of us went shopping. I wanted to get a good idea of things that Adam wants/needs. He was trying to show me some shirts and ties. Caroline kept climbing in the window display and waving to people outside the store. Everytime I would pull her out she would throw a tantrum. Adam finally had enough and picked her up. He was just about to get onto her for acting up when she put her little hands on his face and said "hey baby!" to him. We just died laughing!

Up until last week if you asked Caroline, "Where is the baby?" she would find my stomach. Lately if you ask her, she will either say "Me!" or point to herself.

She has started taking an interest in picking up food directly with her mouth. I held out some goldfish so she could pick them up out of hand but that wasn't her plan. She leans over and eats them like a dog. She has also started doing this on her highchair. She was laughing at herself the other day and I said, "You think you're so funny don't you?" She said "Yes!"

I can have little "conversations" with her from time to time and occassionally they make sense. Here are a couple of examples:

Me: Caroline, let's get a new diaper.
Caroline: No.
Me: You need a new diaper.
Caroline: No.
Me: I know you don't want one but am I going to put a new one on?
Caroline: Yes.

Caroline: Where's Day-e? (Daisy)
Me: She's in her bed.
Caroline: Oh.
Me: Do you want to go see her?
Caroline: Yes.
Me: Are you going to be sweet to her?
Caroline: No.
Sure enough Caroline woke Daisy up by pulling her tail... At least the girl isn't a liar!

She knows a few animal noises. We've been working on them a lot lately. She would pick up a cow puppet and say "mmm" and then a duck puppet and say "quack." She would also pick up her baby doll and growl. Not sure why she thinks babies growl...

She is at such a wonderful age and I love all the cute and silly things she does!

One Last Guess

We will find out the gender of Baby Israel this week! I am so excited to finally know who has been living in my tummy these past several months. Once we find out, we have to hit the ground running and start preparing for the arrival. So much fun, but oh so much to do!!! I've gone back and forth as to whether I think the baby is a boy or girl. At first I was for sure it was a boy since I felt so different. The US tech guessed boy and that also made me think it had to be a boy. Then I was certain it was a girl because it seems that almost everyone I know having their second child is having the same sex as their first. Then I was back to boy again. I know there is no real way to tell other than an ultrasound, but it sure has been fun trying to figure it out! My final guess is that I am having another girl. Since I only have a girl, I can only imagine the doctor saying "It's a girl." It's hard for me to think that they'll say anything different. I don't have a real strong gut feeling and my symptoms have been a mix of boy and girl Old Wives Tales so I don't have anything else to go on. Adam thinks it a boy because I've been acting so different with this pregnancy. I was so sensitive with Caroline and cried often. I've certainly been emotional with this one...but I'm not crying - I'm usually yelling or mad. My cravings/aversions are so different too. It will be interesting to see who is right.

If you want to take a final guess in the baby pool, you have until Monday night before we close it. The winner will get a Starbucks giftcard. Even if you get the sex wrong, you could still win since birth date/time/weight/etc. is part of it. The link is on the left side of the blog.

Can't wait to find out!!!!

Waiting and Waiting...for a disappointment!

I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of our Christmas cards. I was so happy with Tiny Prints last year so I decided to order from them again this year. They printed my order fast and shipped it out much sooner than originally expected. I'm in love with their service BTW. The cards finally got here today - and the picture is a little blurry!! It's so disappointing. The picture that I have isn't blurry so I can only think that when the size increased it made it blur. I picked a picture of Caroline that I just love. She has some hair in front of her eye - but that's typical of Caroline. Besides, her face is just adorable so the hair didn't bother me at all. BUT, combine the hair in front of her eye with the blurriness and it just doesn't look how I wanted it to :( Since it's already the 9th, we're going to send them out (plus we had to order a bunch so there's no way that I am going to replace all of them). Oh well...we'll have better cards next year. Atleast I hope we do! Bummer!

Advent Calendar

Caroline isn't quite old enough to understand what Christmas is, but she is old enough to notice all the wonderful things that go along with Christmas. She is fascinated by all the lights, ornaments, wrapped gifts, glitter, etc. She's also a big fan of dancing to Christmas music. When Mimi and Papa came into town a couple weeks ago, they brought Caroline an Advent calendar that has a yummy little chocolate to eat each night. Caroline was intrigued by it but still had no idea what it was. A few nights later and she knows exactly what comes from that little thing! She will point to it after she eats dinner. It's the cutest thing!

18 weeks and...

Still throwing up! I guess I spoke too soon in my last blog post about the nausea being just about gone. Isn't it supposed to be gone by now?? I didn't ever throw up with Caroline, but I did feel queasy until about this time so I guess I just have to wait it out :( Adam always laughs at me because I claim that the vitamins make me throw up and I should just stop taking them. He claims that I throw up because I'm pregnant, considering I took vitamins everyday prior to being pregnant as well.

Other than that I can't really complain. I know this is a lovely topic, but I didn't blog about a lot of things with Caroline and I have no idea about some things and I want to make sure I have every detail down so I can look back one day. Who knows...maybe there will be a Baby #3 in the future and I'll want to know!

Pregnancy Update

I am now 18 weeks pregnant! One week away from finding out the gender of the baby and two weeks away from the halfway point (although I highly doubt I'll make it to 40 weeks). This pregnancy has gone by so fast. Here are belly pics from 16 weeks:




So far I am feeling great - better than I ever did with Caroline. Sometimes I forget that I am pregnant! I've entered the "nesting" phase, which is good considering all we have to do. I'm just about done with Christmas shopping for Caroline and the baby, I'm working on everyone else, I have a lot of the presents wrapped that I do have here, all the decorations are up, Christmas cards will go out this week - and that's just Christmas related stuff. I've picked out fabric for window panels for the kitchen, I've picked out a paint color for a book shelf in the kitchen, I have paint samples for Caroline's big girl room, I've separated a lot of baby toys from big girl toys and put those in the correct rooms, I've gone through all the blankets, onesies, burp clothes, etc. and made a list of what we will need for the new baby, I've started organizing the attic, and I have a list a mile long of things to start in the next month. We are going to busy, busy around here!

I went to the OB two weeks ago and everything looked great with the baby! Heart beat was good and strong. They didn't tell me what the heart rate was though. My sciatic nerve pain has been so much better and I am so thankful. I will go back next week for the anatomy scan and we'll get to see Baby Israel and how much he/she has grown! I have felt several flutters in my belly during the past week which is so exciting. I didn't feel Caroline this early, but once I felt her move she never stopped moving.

There's not much else to write about because I honestly feel so good. Headaches and nausea are pretty much gone, I'm not having any major food cravings or aversions, and my energy level is good. Things are as good as they can be I guess! I have had several dreams about finding out the gender so I'm getting anxious to actually find out! You all will have to wait a little longer because we're going to have a gender reveal party with our family and some friends. :)

Eighteen Months Old!!

Eighteen Months Old - November 23, 2011


Caroline turned 1 1/2 the day before Thanksgiving - and I couldn't be more thankful for my beautiful, smart, healthy eighteen month old little girl! This has been such a fun month filled with lots of new words and skills. First - here are the stats from her check up! She weighed 23 lb. 6 oz. (25th percentile), had a head circumference of 18 inches (50th percentile) and was 32 inches tall (75th percentile). Dr. Wilson did say that she thought Caroline was taller and there was probably an error in measuring and that the nurse would remeasure after C got her shots. I was so ready to get Caroline home that we ran out before she could be remeasured! Adam and I are going to measure her at home to make up for that. She was such a good girl at the doctor's office. Dr. Wilson said that she was developing - both physically and mentally - just perfectly and she had no notes for me. She got one shot and only cried for just a second. I was so proud!

In the past couple of weeks Caroline has become more and more vocal. She tries to copy a lot of the words we say at we can actually make out several of them (some examples are: door, silly, shut, off). She has been frequently using some new words like more, tickle, see, and look. She will string a couple of words together to make a basic sentence ("no Daisy" and "di it!" for "I did it!"). She understands so much of what we say and we are trying hard to remember that! She loves to help us. She helps Adam put his shoe trees in and then put the shoes in the closet after work each day, she loves to give Daisy her treats, she will help put clothes in the dryer and my favorite - she will put her toys back in the basket when she's done. She always gets so excited and cheers for herself and says "di it!"

Not a day goes by that she doesn't make us laugh. She gives the best hugs and kisses and we just eat them up. I really feel like we hit the jackpot with Caroline and it's hard to imagine that our next child will be as wonderful, although I know we'll think the same of him/her too! Speaking of babies - I don't think Caroline has any idea of what is coming but she will pat my tummy and give it a kiss, sometimes when we don't say anything prompting her to. I think it's just a habit now but it's still precious. She's still wearing a size 4 diaper and mostly 18-24 mo. sized clothes. She naps once a day. Her sleeping is real hit or miss lately - which I hear is normal around this age. Most nights she'll go to bed and sleep soundly until morning. She'll go down around 8:30 and wake up about 8:00 in the morning. We have had several horrible nights lately where she is still up and crying at 10:00!! Even worse - she'll wake up about 1:00 am! I have found that if I let her nap for a long time (3 or more hours) she's more likely to stay up late. I've been trying to wake her up after 2 hours and that has helped a lot. Hopefully she'll be on a more consistant routine before her brother or sister arrives. It won't be much fun to be up during the night with a newborn AND a toddler!

While I think Caroline is just perfect - she is human and thus not without her flaws. She has been throwing tantrums when she doesn't get her way but thankfully they don't last long. She also started wagging her finger at us and saying "no no" when we tell her no. As cute as it is and as hard as it is not to laugh, we are trying very hard to discourage this behavior. Thankfully she is usually pretty easygoing and happy!

I cannot belive that our baby girl is 1 1/2!! This age is so much fun and we are having the time of our lives!

Happy 18 months precious girl! Daddy and I love you so much. You are so sweet and smart and not to mention adorable little girl in the whole world. I am beyond proud and excited to have you as my daughter. You are so loved!!




Some pics from Caroline's 18 month appointment.

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday. A whole day dedicated to eating and relaxing - what could be better? I've spent the 2 out of the past 3 Thanksgivings pregnant and I must say that a whole day of eating is perfect :) And after you eat, you get to start putting up Christmas decorations!! This year we had a fantastic Thanksgiving. We traveled to Haleyville to spend time with Adam's family. My sister tagged along with us and we were so excited to get to spend some time with a bit of my family too! We didn't see the rest of my family and Adam's brother didn't make it to Haleyville this year so we did miss seeing several family members.

Caroline got to watch her first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade this year! Although she's a little too young to sit and watch, she did get into some of the musical numbers and stop to dance. It was precious. She spent the rest of the time the parade was on running around the house. We had the most delicious meal and I know that I ate enough for about 3 adults. Caroline didn't eat everything, but she loved the sweet potatoes, ham, and Mama Lou's rolls. After wearing herself out and then stuffing her face this is what happened:




Looks like a perfect Thanksgiving to me! I didn't get a lot of other pictures since I spent the day relaxing and enjoying family time.

Sadly, I got sick Thursday night/Friday. At first I thought it was normal pregnancy sickness but when it didn't get any better I began to think I may have picked up a bug. That messed up our plans to spend Friday decorating the house. On the bright side - we decorated after the Iron Bowl on Saturday. We were so excited about the great win and had a great time getting our house Christmas-y so it worked out beautifully. Pictures to come soon! I'll also be posting C's 18 month pictures and 16 week belly shots and 17 week info soon. Stay tuned!

Thanksgiving Snack

Today at school, the parents were invited to come and have a Thanksgiving snack with the kids. I am so thankful to be able to go to all these fun things!

Each class made a Thanksgiving craft. Caroline's class made little Mayflowers.


Each class walked in together. C was the line leader for her class.


Once she realized that the snack had M&M's in it - she was ready to eat!


Being the awesome sharer that she is, she decided to feed her friend Cohen the items that were not M&M's. I love his face here - he's so confused why she's feeding him!


We were so excited that our friends Sarah and Sydney were sitting across from us!


The placemat that Caroline "made." It says that she is thankful for Mommy and Daddy, Daisy, Baby Israel, books and Mickey Mouse...sounds about right to me!


I can't wait for Thanksgiving next week. Since she was only 6 months old last year, this will be the first time where she can actually eat some of the Thanksgiving meal. I know she's going to love it!

Friends

Caroline and her sweet friend at Wee Flip yesterday. Caroline is modeling her new "cheese" face.

No Doubt

When Caroline was an infant, almost everybody said that she looked like Adam. One lady said to us, "Well we know who the father is, but who is the mother?" Very funny lady... Her baby pictures really do look just like Adam's baby pictures. As she gets older, we get more comments that she is a mix of us or that she looks just like me. Some things I can see - she gets her hair color from me and her nose from Adam. Other than that, I have no idea who she looks like - she just looks like Caroline!

Personality wise, there is no doubt who this child belongs to. We would often joke that Caroline is just like Adam over small things. Every night I get Adam a big cup of ice and I put a piece of ice in C's mesh food holder. They sit together and eat their ice. She likes to stay up late and sleep late in the mornings - certainly not something she gets from her early to bed, early to rise mommy. But now I can confirm that she is fact just like Adam. Ever since I have known Adam, people have joked that he was going to be president one day. When I would visit his hometown, people would ask if I was ready to be politicians wife. His elementary school teachers told me that even as a young child they knew he would go into politics. Last Sunday I took Caroline to the nursery at church. When I went to pick her up, one of the nursery workers said, "She's quite the little politician." I had to hold back laughter to find out what she meant. Apparently, she made the rounds to all the workers, volunteers, and children - waving and blowing kisses to everyone. As parents would come in she would wave and blow kisses - even trying to SHAKE HANDS with some of them!!! They were joking that she was campaiging for cutest kid in the nursery (she clearly would have won)! Like I said, there is no doubt who this child belongs to...

More new posts below!

Lately

Here are some pictures of what Miss Caroline has been up to lately.

Caroline has been a great help with the laundry. She especially loves when you get to wear hangers as hats!




She's been dancing with daddy.




Finding a new favorite seat in the house. (In preparation for Project Big Girl Room, we moved a chair out of the guest room and into the living room and she's loving the ottoman)



She's been a very good eater lately - notice not 1, but 2 yogurts! :)




It sure is fun with a toddler around!

Another new post below.

Pigtails!!!

How cute is this little girl in pigtails??


Love it.

Project Big Girl Room

I feel like it's going to be very busy around the Israel house for the next several months... We've got to get Caroline's big girl room done and her moved into that so we can start on the nursery! My due date is less than 6 months away. Caroline decided to come almost 3 weeks early. I'm trying to be conservative in my planning so I've got about 5 months to get things done around here. Throw in Thanksgiving and Christmas (and all that shopping) and that cuts down on my time (and money!) to devote to getting bedrooms done. Yikes.

I figured that we should start Project Big Girl Room. To me, this is going to be the harder of the two bedrooms to do. Baby girl rooms are easier. Pick some pink paint, toile or damask fabric, add a chandelier and voila! You have a beautiful nursery. Or you could go the ready made room route - Pottery Barn Kids, Serena and Lily, etc. Not that either of those options aren't fantastic (that's what we did for Caroline and are still so in love with her room) - it's just that they are for babies. You design a room before you ever meet your child. Their personality and preferences aren't taken into consideration because they aren't here to be considered. Toddler rooms are much harder. I want a room that reflects her personality, a room that is hers and not just what I think is pretty. Her room has be sweet and girly (like her) but fun and functional (since it will be a place for her to play and store her things) and the big one...versatile (since it's also the room that out of town guests will stay in). I know I've got to get moving or it will never be done in time!

I have found bedding that I really, really like. I haven't ordered it yet because I'm not sure that I love it. I wanted to do something white and then have the color in the curtains, pillows, and a painted piece of furniture. I looked high and low and finally found some white ruched bedding for a very good price. It's vintage looking and very girly. Before I bought it, I thought I would look a few more places. I found some beautiful bedding at Restoration Hardware and Serena and Lily that I really, really like as well. They are certainly more expensive! Now I'm stuck! Which option do I choose - white bedding with color and pattern in other elements of the room or patterned bedding with white/solid color accents elsewhere in the room?

I found a chandelier that I love. That will also add some girly-ness to the room. I was thinking about going with grey walls. They are "in" for nurserys/kids rooms these days and you can put lots of other colors with it. I could do grey and pink, grey and yellow, etc. Grey is a more versatile color so guests wouldn't feel like they are sleeping in a doll house.

Decisions, decisions... If anyone has any suggestions or ideas, feel free to pass them along. I think we're going to bite the bullet and pick out paint this week and possibly paint the room next weekend!! Hopefully it will turn out well and I won't change my mind 8 thousand times!

Almost 18 months

No matter what I do to try and stop it, Caroline keeps growing up! Each new stage that she enters brings some challenges but also some wonderful things. At almost 18 months old, she is constantly testing the limits, but also constantly making us laugh. I wanted to record some of the things that she does so that we can look back and laugh again one day.

Caroline and Daisy are such good friends and it makes me smile. Caroline loves when we "chase" her around the house and always wants Daisy to do it too. Daisy happens to be one of the laziest dogs I know. We've seen her hunting dog instinct kick in over cats or deer...but over Caroline squealing and running - not so much. Caroline finally decided that she would carry food around trying to get Daisy to follow her. It works for all of 10 seconds until Daisy catches Caroline, grabs the food, and then goes back to nap. Poor Caroline gets so frustrated.

She is such a wonderful sharer, but lately has decided that some things shouldn't be shared. When we are out and she finds something that she likes, she'll put it in the diaper bag. I guess she wants to play with it later but to the rest of the world it looks a lot like stealing. We've come home with some silverware from restaurants on several occassions. She tried to take Raughley's ice cream toy last week. I never know what I will find in my bag!

She loves to take showers. If she hears Adam turn the shower on in the morning, she'll bang on the door to go in. At night I'll start the bath and she'll go over to the shower and try to open the door. When I try to put her in the bath she'll start telling me "no" and pointing to the shower.

She fist pumps when she gets something she wants.

She has a strange obsession with elevators. She gets so excited when we go in and she'll want to get down and dance. When the doors open she wants to run out and then go right back in and dance.

We went to visit a couple of friends last night who just had a precious baby boy. I was curious as to how Caroline would do since she'll have a little sibling of her own soon. She was fantastic! She wanted to hold him. She gave him kisses. She didn't get jealous when Adam and I held him. Hopefully that will be the case come spring time... I just cannot believe how big she seemed. She is becoming such a big girl!

I cannot believe that my baby girl is almost a year and half and going to be a big sister! I wish time would slow down just a little bit!

Loving the Fall Weather!

We are just loving the fall weather! Caroline would rather be outside playing than doing anything else so that's where we are most afternoons. We've had a wonderful time visitng all the fun parks and playgrounds in the city. Yesterday we took advantage of the great weather AND having daddy home so we went for a wagon ride around the neighborhood.




Caroline doesn't go anywhere without shoes. She insisted on putting them on, even to sit in the wagon!

Another new post below!