Gender Debate

I think it's no secret which sex I'm hoping for in this baby. Not that I have any control over it, but I would love another girl. If the baby is a boy, i will be just as happy, but for Gemma's sake (and for mine, as i can save a lot of money on clothes and toys if it's another girl), a girl sure would be nice. One of the reasons for having them so close together was in the hopes that they would also be good friends growing up (of course i expect fighting, however, and sibling rivalry, but that's no matter what age and what gender, right?) and i think the chances of that increase if they were both girls.

Jesse is hoping for a boy, but again, he would be thrilled with another girl like Gemma. It must be a guy thing. 

mind you, i am super curious to know what kind of a little boy we make. what he would look like... who he would take after more... etc... and of course, the most important thing is that this baby is happy and healthy and that's REALLY all that matters...

so we can't wait til we can find out, which is the last week of Feb/first week in March. But already I've gotten flack for wanting to find out. I don't know why some people don't think it's as much of a surprise if you find out beforehand. or that it takes the fun out of it. Um. Trust me. It's still a surprise and it's still fun. Maybe even FUNNER because you have months beforehand of shopping for all things blue/pink, not having to resort to just green and yellows. And what is it any of your business anyway? Oh, you didn't find out when you were pregnant? Good for you! I would never criticize your decision to wait, so why are you criticizing mine? 

and the worst part is, THIS IS MY SECOND BABY. We found out with Gemma, so you would think this wouldn't come as such a shock... 

oy vay. Either way, I can't wait to know what it is!

Pediatrician

Gemma had her followup appointment with the pediatrician today for her head movement thing that she used to do. She hasn't done it for ages and I only noticed it the other day for the first time in months. Anyways, obviously that is good and then she just wanted to go over Gemma's development and growth, which we did. 

She weighed in at 10.23 kg (22.5 pounds) and 29.5 inches. As always, she screamed her heart out getting weighed and measured; she hates that part for some reason.

Developmentally, she is doing great, which is always nice to hear a professional say. Dr. Klym said that babies Gemma's age should be able to say between 2 and 4 words - well, Gemma can say a lot more than that! I was/am a little worried about Gemma's speech at times because of our bilingual household, but so far she seems to be doing well. In some cases, she understands both english and korean for the same object or command.

So she is good. But because she is still doing the head thing once in a blue moon, we're going back again in 1 year, which is crazy to think about - I will have a 2-year-old and a 6-month old! Yipes!

Where's Baby?

Can I brag just once more? I swear my daughter is the smartest little thing.

She now knows to point to my belly if I ask her where baby is. It just amazes me because if I ask her where her bellybutton is or where my bellybutton is or where daddy's bellybutton is, she goes to each person and lifts their shirt to reveal the bellybutton. With the question of "where's baby", she knows it's me specifically. I was so surprised because I was thinking she would get belly and baby confused and she might point to her own belly if someone was to ask, but even if I am across the room, she walks over to point at my belly if someone asks where the baby is. The cutest thing is when you ask her to give the baby a "bbobbo" (a kiss) and she kisses my belly.

if she only knew what's coming... LOL.

what could it be?

I'm already dying of curiosity about whether this baby is a boy or girl. I haven't had my korean gender dream yet and my symptoms are really confusing the expert symptom-reader, my mom. In many ways, this pregnancy is a lot like Gemma's and I have some similar food aversions - the biggest one being onions. There is also chicken, but it's not as severe as with Gemma. I actually think the worst aversion with Gemma was radishes (and we koreans eat a ton of radishes), which I don't have this time. However, i can't stand the smell/taste of mustard. With Gemma I ate tons and tons of fruit. With this one, I have no desire to eat fruit. They don't turn me off, but i never feel like eating them. Instead, i want vegetables. For everyday for an entire week, I ate Opa! Souvlaki's greek salad for at least one meal (minus the onions). Chicken is definitely the worst meat, but I am not loving beef and pork either. So as you can see, there are some similarities, but not all.

On top of that, I am much more tired with this baby, but that just could be the fact that I have Gemma here.

and I already look at least 5 months pregnant and haven't been able to wear my regular jeans for a few weeks now.

In March, we are going to find out because i can't handle this kind of suspense for longer than i have to! I am super curious to know what our boy will look like and I've come to accept that this baby could be a boy and I will have to deal with it... LOL. I was very anti-boy at first, but i guess i have no choice in the matter, do I, if that's what is in here? Really, either way, i can't wait to meet him/her in July. I just pray pray pray that he/she doesn't come on Jul 19 (2 days before EDC), which is cousin Ruby's birthday (and her first birthday, at that)....

Having Two

Today, I got my first taste of what it's like to have two kids running around. Well, actually, this would be more like having twins, but still... two. 

My mom and I are watching Gemma's BFF, Maeve, today for a whole day. Tomorrow too. We always joke that they are best friends, but really at this age they couldn't care less about each other. LOL. In fact, they spent the morning "fighting" over toys. Maeve is really calm and mellow, so that helps a lot, since Gemma gets very emotional and dramatic over losing toys to Maeve. 

A funny thing: Maeve has a stuffy/runny nose, so I brought out our battery-powered aspirator to help her breathe a bit better. Gemma hates that thing and as soon as she saw me bring it out, she dropped to the floor in an all-out protest. Even when I held Maeve and was using it on her, Gemma wouldn't stop crying. Maeve was just like "whatever" and she let me get the snot out, but it was so funny to see Gemma go nuts beside her. 

My mom was at work for a couple hours this morning and so I was flying solo with the two kiddos for a bit. It's nice to have her home now though. Maeve is asleep and Gemma is having lunch. I can't even put into words how lucky i am or how much i love having my mom here with me. 

We'll see how the rest of the day plays out, but one thing is for sure: This would be a lot harder by myself. Thanks, mom.

Baby

I just got back from my first ultrasound. I never had one with Gemma around this time of my pregnancy, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I wasn't sure what the baby would look like exactly. Anyways, after drinking a liter of water and being in major discomfort and feeling about to pee my pants over every bump we drove over, I got to my appointment. Luckily the wait once I got there wasn't too horrible. I had a nice sonographer this time and she let me see the screen the entire time she was scanning.

There is only one baby! yay! The heartbeat was on the higher side, I think, at around 170. It had long arms, long legs, and it moved about a lot. I was really surprised though when she told me that by my measurements, I'm sitting at 11 wks 5 days, which is an entire week up from my own calculations. According to my last LMP, my due date would be July 21, but I was so certain that I was later than that and had calculated my own due date of July 30. So now with 7 days' discrepancy (9 days for LMP and my own date), my due date officially moves up to July 21.

I don't know why but I was filled with worry this morning before my appointment. When I talked to Jesse after, he told me he felt the same way and he was so relieved to hear everything was great.

On top of it all, Gemma got to see her baby sibling for the first time. I'm on cloud 9.

A Sucker for Softies

Gemma just loves, loves anything soft. She loves soft plush toys, she loves soft clothes, she loves soft blankets, etc. She loves to rub her face in it and roll around in it and she looks ever so happy while she does it.

Headbutting and Biting

With her newfound independence with walking, Gemma sure doesn't like to be held back from doing whatever she wants to do. She is getting faster and faster and is nearly running at times, even though she still falls down a lot. So if she is having a ball and running around and someone picks her up against her will, she will try to bite them in the arm or headbutt them. Actually, she doesn't do that to me, but she will to anyone else. She already knows that mommy doesn't stand for that, but that she can get away with it with certain people. And it's true. When I tell Jesse to firmly tell her "no", he just tells me "but it's so cute".... oh boy. she's obviously only slightly has him wrapped around her little chubby finger.

She also snarls like a cat. If she suspects someone is about to do something to her that she doesn't want (pick her up, come get her, change her, whatever), she snarls like a cat ready to scratch you or a dog who is protecting it's bone. It's quite ridiculous actually and sometimes I want to just laugh, but know that's not exactly what i should be doing. Although I wish someone would tell Jesse that...

Apparently Jesse was a biter as a kid and so maybe that's why he tolerates it... like he sympathizes or something. LOL... anyways, she needs to stop and if anyone has any advice other than firmly saying no, let me know!

..and Happy New Year!

We are finally home from spending the last 3 days in Edmonton. While I feel now that the hustle and bustle of family are important, I am so glad to be back home. Gemma did well for her naps and nighttime sleeps, just the only thing was that she would wake up a couple hours early and then scream for 10-20 minutes, then go back to sleep with us on the bed. Then she would sleep another 2 hours and then wake up ever so pleasantly. 

She is really becoming an explorer and likes to walk everywhere on her own and not be carried (when we're out and about). I also think she learned a few things from her 5-1/2 weeks older cousin, Ella. Ella seems like a much older kid by the way she acts (she is running, sliding down stairs like crazy, dancing, and just very wild and rambunctious and HILARIOUS). Gemma still looks like she just discovered walking and has her arms up for balance. But I wonder if it's because Ella has an older sister? I don't know.

anyways, we had a wonderful time and now welcome the New Year. Can't wait to see what 2011 has in store for us!

Christmas 2010

Merry Belated Christmas! It's hard to believe it has come and gone already. I know it's only the 27th today, but we spent the morning taking down our Christmas decorations and tidying up. 

We had a wonderful, quiet, and lazy Christmas. It was our first year EVER (and maybe the only year ever) where we just celebrated the season just by ourselves. Well, my brother came down, but that barely counts. Besides, he's already gone up to Edmonton and we won't see him again for a week or so.

We opened presents on Christmas eve and Gemma was thrilled to see so many new toys! I got a giftcard to help me buy some boots (don't want to slip!) and some kitchen things, which i love getting. 

I would say the highlight (or the lowlight, rather) of this Christmas was the turkey dinner. We were originally not going to have turkey, but i decided just a few days before that i wanted it, so we bought the smallest turkey in the history of turkeys - a 7 pounder. It was a utility grade, but i felt around it to make sure it had all its legs and wings, etc. I was actually more worried that it might be missing the innards or the neck (crucial for the best gravy). To my horror, when I opened it up the day before to brine it, we saw that half of its SKIN was missing! Every other part was there, but half of it's SKIN was missing! I got into a pessimistic mode right away. This pretty much guaranteed a dry turkey. Good thing we weren't expecting company. 

Well, the turkey turned out okay. I think the brine must have saved it. However, it took forever to cook it, which was so surprising. Usually I make a turkey double this size, at about 15 lbs. I think it took just as long to cook this one! They say a stuffed turkey needs to cook about 16 minutes per pound, but when I took it out 2 hours later, it was still raw at the legs! I was totally not expecting that and the table was set and everything was ready, but we had to wait another hour for the stupid turkey to finish cooking. On top of that, i burned myself four times and now have wonderful tiger stripes along my forearm. And it gets better - when we finally all sat down to eat, i spilled the punch all over my homemade buns, ruining half of them!

But the mashed potatoes were the best I've had, the gravy (a new recipe) was delicious, and my usual go-to stuffing recipe didn't let me down. Gemma really enjoyed the dinner and ate everything as long as the stuffing was a part of it. The salad didn't get too wilty even though it was sitting in its dressing for an hour. Jesse actually commented that he liked this turkey better than any other turkey i've ever made as this one was drier and my turkeys are usually "too moist" for his taste. what a weirdo. 

All in all, it was a Christmas I'll never forget. And while we enjoyed the quiet and comfort of being just our family,  i have to admit that i miss the hustle, the bustle, and my crazy, but fun family. I can't wait to see everyone this weekend. 

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas with your loved ones.