many girls

We found out last week that I'm pregnant with another girl. We are excited that she looks healthy on the ultrasound. I'm imagining a dark haired, dark eye'ed beauty. I'm very happy that I'm not throwing up and not needing the nausea medication like I did before. Today Mark told me that I'm looking pregnant. I still feel like I just look fat. Lovely. Now that I feel better, I'm eating well. Probably too well. Somedays I just feel really hungry. The weight is coming back on without any problems.

Makayla is doing very well. She has made so much progress in the last month, that it is fun to watch her. She is still strong willed about when and what she will do. We try to encourage her to do different "exercises" or practice skills, but she won't do them unless she's in the mood. This makes her physical therapy appointments a bit challenging. Anyway . . about the progress. For about a month now she has been pulling herself up to stand. She loves to pull up on anything and now can reach things that she didn't realize she could get into before. She is getting much better at cruising around the furniture. Last week she surprised us when she just stood up by herself in the middle of the room. She has done it a few times since then, but does like to say "no" when I try to encourage her to stand up. With a little help or a walking toy she will walk around the house. She is still probably about 6 months behind on these gross motor skills, but we are very pleased with the progress.

Her vocabulary is increasing. She even says "meow" and "ruff-ruff" for our pets. It's very cute, if I might say so.

Something must be said about Mark. He got very ambitious last week and cut down a tree trunk in our yard. The rest of the tree he took out months ago, but this trunk required a little more work. He used a combination of a chain saw, ax, and a wedge/sledge hammer to cut the trunk down close to the ground. Although it was a lot of work and took many hours over several days, he says it was fun. Poor guy, though, didn't wear protective gloves or shoes and ended up with some big blisters on his hands and a cut on his foot. When he tried to go to work yesterday with his hands all bandaged up, they sent him home to heal. Bummer. Saved money by doing the tree work himself, and then ended up not being able to earn money at his job.

the true and natural hCG diet

We're excited to announce that I'm pregnant. We're expecting the new baby Feb 21. The baby looks good. I've had a couple of ultrasounds and everything is measuring well, etc. We're of course, hoping for a boy, but Mark has convinced himself that we'll have all girls. I'm 13 weeks along, and I've been sick for 7 weeks and counting. Who knows how long the nausea will last. I have a whole slew of medications to help, and I still feel sick. Yuck. sorry I haven't been very social lately or done much emailing. I'm jealous of the women who breeze through pregnancy without much illness, and I admire the women who keep having babies although they do get sick!

I've lost about 10 pounds. I call it the true and natural hCG diet. Some people use the hCG drug to lose weight, but for me, it begins with pregnancy, then the natural hCG hormone surge causes nausea, vomiting, and thus weight loss. We're excited about another baby, but hoping that the sickness (and irritability, grumpiness, etc) passes soon.

Makayla is doing well. She has physical therapy every 2 weeks. She hates it. She cries, either because she is encouraged to do things she doesn't want to do, or because it's hard work. She is making slow progress, though. Although she prefers to scoot and to get up on her knees, she's been bearing weight for a couple of weeks now, which is a great accomplishment for her. The little stinker has to be in the right mood or have some motivation to stand up, but then she will. Her neurologist is concerned that she hasn't made more progress, so Makayla is scheduled for an MRI of her brain and spine as well as some muscle testing called EMG on Sept 17. She will be under anesthesia for this. I'm a little nervous. I used work on the other side of this picture, and now I'm the parent.


Makayla gets around, though, still scooting on her behind. She's smart, though, she's learned that it's easier to scoot on something smooth like a book. One day, she was playing in the kitchen cupboards and found a fry pan to be useful. Check out the video :)