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.