MDO - week 1, day 1

Today was the official start of Mother's Day Out. Carter's first day of school and I lost the camera. Sorry no cute pictures of him wearing his backpack and holding his lunch box.

So Carter's first day wasn't great, but not terrible. We arrived to school on time. There were 2 kids sitting and playing nicely on the floor. I'm sorry to report Carter wasn't very welcoming to the idea of joining them. Both teachers pretty much had to pry him off me when it was time for me to go. I immediately turned to leave the building and could hear him crying all the way down the hall. The teachers told me he only cried for 60 seconds. Thank goodness! They also joked that Carter was gracious enough to give them a whopper of a poopie diaper on their first day. Poor ladies! And when it came to lunch he was way more interested in Olivia's food then his own. That wouldn't have been a big deal but Olivia was far to eager to share. I guess next week they are going to put an extra seat between Olivia and Carter to give those two some space. Carter was pretty good with the planned activities but was rather resistant to try new things. They had to bribe him to sit in his lunch seat with a stuffed animal Barney and Carter wouldn't get in the class buggy until he saw all the other kids happily sitting in the seats and enjoying the ride. Of course he spotted the buggy later that day was pretty much insisting to take a ride. He really like painting and was proud to show us his artwork when we picked him up. Carter cried when he saw Kyle and I enter then classroom. I think it was more for show then anything. He didn't necessarily want to go home. He much preferred to stay there and have Mom and Dad play at school with him. He was actually sad when it was time to leave. It will be interesting to see how independent he'll become ofter the next year.

Time for a vote

We have approximately one month before we'll know if baby #2 is a boy or girl. The poll is open so let the voting begin. Last time I was sure it was a girl, but clearly I was wrong. Right now I have no feeling one way or another. I've had no dreams about the baby's gender. The baby's heart rate has been around the 150-160 mark so no clear indicator there. And I don't think you can tell if I'm carrying the baby high or low. If you want to take a stab at the gender of Baby Meek II, please place your vote in the poll to the right of your screen.

I will be 16 weeks pregnant on Wednesday and I'm glad to say the morning sickness is officially behind me. I'm not taking medication for it anymore and my appetite is (how should I say it) NOT lacking. My energy hasn't come back yet, but with a toddler in the house, I'm not sure it ever will. The medication for the spondylitis has kicked in too so I am relatively pain free right now. I've started to see a physical therapist to hopefully prevent any further flair-ups during my pregnancy and I'll see a new rheumatologist this week. I'm looking forward to a healthy and uneventful second trimester.

Carter is doing great and as cute as always. He officially starts his mother's day out program tomorrow where he will go to "school" one day a week. His class meets Tuesdays 9am-2:20pm. During that time he will play with the other kids, do activities and crafts, eat lunch and take a nap. We are really looking forward to the start of the school year. We think Carter will really enjoy it and let's be honest, Mom and Dad will enjoy some kid free time during the day too. Stay tuned for first day of school pictures and mini-report on how well he did.

I think it's fun

I think it's fun when I get to wear my pjs outside to play.

I think it's fun to jump in my crib. I can do this for hours as long as I have an audience. If you leave the room I will instantly start crying.

I think it's fun when my mom throws a blanket on my head when I'm jumping. It makes me laugh so hard!

I think it's fun to run under the table and between the chairs especially when my parents are trying to get my attention. They don't fit as easily as I do and it's funny to watch them bend down here and try to get me.

talkie, talkie

Just this week Carter is starting to pick up more and more words. We're heard new words like mailbox, football, Carter and Bo (our cat's name). In addition to saying words he is getting into more animal sounds. He knows what roosters and cows say, but I couldn't capture them on tape. Check out the clip below to see what other sounds he knows....

Goodbye State Fair

Yep it's near the end of August and the Indiana State Fair is over. We took Carter last Sunday on what I imagine was one of the hottest days of the fair. The fair was a good time and Carter really seemed to enjoy it. He loved the tractors and trucks. He really liked it when the shuttles (pulled by tractors, of course) drove by. He liked seeing the John Deers in "action".
Carter pet a cow and a lamb. He thought the horses and sheep were pretty cool too. He is much more brave with farm animals then his mom! Uncle Todd, a seasoned fair goer, showed Carter all the ins and outs of the fair.
The trip to the fair proved to be too much for me. As I mentioned in a previous post I went off all of my medication for my spondylitis when I found out we were pregnant. Over the last couple of weeks I could tell the inflammation had been slowly coming back. I met with the rheumatologist a couple of days before our outing and decided to get on a low dose of medication to ward off any problems. Well long story short, walking 4 hours in 90+ degree heat (pregnant) during the beginning of a "flair-up" wasn't the best idea. For the past week I've either been in bed, on the couch or using crutches to get from the bed to the couch. Kyle has waited on me hand and foot. Bless his heart. He has been super dad this week. He has changed every diaper, fixed every meal, given every bath, did every bedtime routine and got up with Carter anytime he woke up at night without complaining. Kyle is still doing all of this 8 days later. Of course even a super dad needs a break every now and then. Nonna and Papa Big have really done a lot for us this week. Carter had an overnight at their house where Nonna washed all his laundry. They came over and played with Carter whenever Kyle was out. Carter also had his first (and second) ride on the state fair train. From what we can tell, he LOVED it. Photo: Carter with his buddy, James Kelker, on the train.
Photo: Carter pointing to the fair trainPhoto: Carter telling Nonna that trains say Toot-Toot.

Thank you to everyone who help this week.

zoo highlights

So what are some of Carter's favorite things to do at the zoo?

He likes to look at the fish...

and ride in the wagon with his cousin Aidan...

and pet the goats (or I mean hug goats and try to take them home)...

and play at the splash park of course!

feeling better?

I thought since I had my 12 week appointment today (2 days early of 12 weeks to be exact) that I would fill you in on how I'm doing. So far I'm still feeling bad. The last 6 weeks have been a lot of nausea, gagging and dry heaving. The doctor put me on a medication a couple of weeks ago because I wasn't eating or drinking much at all. Since then my food intake has been better, but apparently not good enough. Since I'm still continuing to lose weight (down 14 lbs so far) the doctor put me on a different anti-nausea medication, Zofran. I started taking it tonight and hopefully I'll be feeling great tomorrow. Only time will tell, right?

In the appointment today I got to see the baby in a "surprise" ultrasound. The dr. couldn't find the baby's heartbeat during my check up (a little scary) so they decided to do a quick ultrasound....just in case. The heart beat was strong and the little baby was bouncing up and down waving it's arms and kicking it's feet. So much more activity today then just 4 weeks ago. Of course I asked the doctor if she was willing to take a guess on the sex, but no such luck. We'll have to wait until October to find out. Oh yes if I forgot to mention it, we will be finding out the sex of baby #2. Not knowing the gender the first time around was fun, but we want to be a little more prepared this time. And yes, we will be sharing the sex of the baby once it's determined. So stay posted.

As for Carter, he is a typical active 16 month boy. He wants to play with and climb on everything. He's picking up some new words, but he's still not a big talker. We know he says momma, dad and apple. We've heard hotdog, back pack and all done but he doesn't say them on a regular basis. We think he says ba (bath), da (the state fair train that runs by our house every hour), ta (truck). The rest of his sounds are impossible to translate.

Sorry no pictures on this post. I'll be sure to add some next time.