Friday funnies: That's my JOE!

JOE's been saying some rather interesting things in the last few weeks and some of it has me scratching my head. The others make me go "hmmm".

A couple of weekends ago, I took out JOE's braids so I could wash her hair. That's often an ordeal so the earlier I can get them out in the day, the better.
After her braid was taken out, JOE crawled into our freshly made bed and says "I sleeping." Only, she wasn't sleeping. She'd just pulled the covers over herself and was smiling. She looked so cute, I had to snap a picture of her.
For the record, we do co-sleep. However, she does think this is her bed. We've tried explaining that her crib is her bed but she has refused to accept it. Oh the joys of co-sleeping.

Last weekend was very busy for us. We had a lot to do and after spending all morning on Sunday cooking/preparing for the week, I was tired and had to take the load off my feet. Well, JOE crawled up on me and said "momma, peas rub my back." So I did. Apparently, shortly after that, we both fell asleep. Below is the picture I woke up to on Facebook. Taken by J. :-).

 I often give JOE a bath. I feel like it is some extra bonding time for both of us. Since being pregnant though, J's had to do it sometimes to help if I am too tired. Oftentimes, after I give her a bath, if he is home, he'll come get her from me and get her dressed while I clean up the tub and put things away.
Well, on Tuesday, I gave JOE a bath. J was downstairs doing some work. Well, after her bath, JOE boldly yells "father, come get your child!" It was so funny, I didn't even know what to say to her. Incase you are wondering, it is something I would say but to hear her repeat it? It just made me laugh out loud.

As I have said in the past, JOE is now into getting her nails done. My sister in law turned me on to this nail polish that's safer for kids because it doesn't smell too strong. I like it and so does JOE. Well, the polish came with a card you can color, take a picture and share on Social media to win something.
I helped JOE color the picture below and snapped a picture. While going through the pictures on my phone, she looks at it and say "momma look, ugly oinky!" Apparently, she did not appreciate my art work! I mean, for real? I painted within the lines afterall!!! SMH. "Out of the mouth of babes."

Last week during daddy/daughter time (they spend time playing in the evenings), JOE turned to her dad and says "dadda, give me $100." J said to her, "I don't have $100." JOE then says "OK. I take your watch" and proceeds to try to take off his watch. I honestly wish I knew where she is getting this stuff from.

As you can see though, she keeps us entertained. In a couple of days, we'll welcome the month of March. February has truly been a blessed month and I am excited for what March brings.

Have an awesome weekend and remember to be kind to strangers!

Photo dump Wednesday: JOE's earnings

J & I are all about responsible spending and as a result, we often sit together about once every other month to review our finances. We feel this has helped ensure that we are living/spending within our means.
Granted, there are days I wish I could just pull out my card and purchase a Louis Vuitton bag or Louboutin shoes. But that's just not in the cards right now. 

Instead, we plan our finances to ensure that we are comfortable. Part of planning our finances also means teaching JOE. I know she's only 2 but still, I am a firm believer in repetitive teaching for kids. She might not get it the first time or even the tenth time but eventually, it'll click.

A couple of weeks ago, JOE discovered her piggy bank. It has always been in her room but she just took note of it recently. J & I figured it was time to start teaching her about its use.

We gave her 5 cents and she really enjoyed hearing the sound as the coins dropped into her piggy. She immediately asked for more. We took advantage of the opportunity and decided to teach her something. We told her she would earn 5-cents if she cleaned her area. Of course my baby looks at me and says "but but, I don't know how!" Don't be fooled, she knows where her toys go!

A few days later, she asked for "money or buttons for piggy." I reminded her that she would need to clean her play area to get money. This time, it clicked! She immediately collected all of her toys from around the room and lined them up in front of her bed. She felt so proud of herself that I had to take a picture of it.
I love that she is learning to be responsible. Its not much but it is something.

Another thing we have noticed about JOE is that her brain is like a sponge! She is soaking up sooooo much! Due to some building issues at J's job, he's been teleworking for the last week. Last week, after his telework day, he worked out. While he was home doing his stretches, I walked in the house and saw my little girl trying to stretch with her "dadda". I couldn't help but snap a few pictures. How cute are they?

And then there is this picture. JOE got this chair from her uncle M for her birthday last year. We often keep it in her play area but she carried it to the family room and promptly decided to prop up her feet. I thought it was cute so I asked her if I could take some pictures. Normally, she'll say "OK, momma." This time, she said no! Check out the look on her face! It was enough to get me to stop taking the pictures. That's my girl! Personality and all :-).

 Hope you're having an awesome week. Friday is almost here. YAY!!!

Pregnancy Update @ 33+ weeks

I am FINALLY able to do this. I set a reminder on my calendar to ensure I got to do it this week :-). I wish I had kept better updates to date because I just did an email search and found the update I did for JOE around this same time and it made me smile. Of course, hind sight is always 20/20. Plus this time, I just had so much going on, that I don't even know how/when I would have found the time to do the updates. 

Anyways, here's an update on baby #2. 

How Far Along? 33+ weeks. 4-weeks to "full term" and 7-weeks to "full 40-week pregnancy". Less than 50-days to her due date! 

Size of Baby? About 18-inches long (almost at her full length!). For comparison, baby is now about the size of a medium pineapple and weighs about 4.5 pounds! I was up 2.8-lbs as of last week Tuesday. Doc was pretty impressed and anticipates my gaining 1-lb/week until baby arrives. My goal is to stay under 10-lbs for this pregnancy. Fingers crossed.

Maternity Clothes? Fully in them now but I am still able to alternate maternity clothes and pre-pregnancy clothes. So far, I can still fit into some pre-pregnancy items.

Stretch Marks? So far, nothing new has cropped up. I checked with the aide of a mirror a couple of days ago. YAY!!! But Lord, I have a case of hormonal skin discoloration! I had it with my last pregnancy and it did go away. It is just strange noticing it all over again.

Sleep? I sleep in 1 - 2 hour spurts. I wake up to pee 4-times and sometimes 5-times each night. It is frustrating because I feel like I am not getting a good restful sleep. Not sure of how to combat this. I know I had pregnancy induced insomnia last time but I can't remember if it went away.

Food Cravings? ICE ICE baby! I mean a cup full of ice with some water. I need extreme temperatures with this pregnancy. I want my food very hot and my water very cold. I am now one of those ladies you see who walks around with a cup full of ice.

What I Miss: I had to take off my rings at 32-weeks. I miss them :-(. But I do have another ring I wear in the meantime.
Also, not all of my shoes fit before I got pregnant with #2. I am hoping since I am not gaining as much with this pregnancy, I'll be back in my pre-pregnancy shoes sooner rather than later. Same goes for my clothes.
The biggest things I miss is spending more time with JOE without feeling so tired or winded. Being able to get on the ground and play with her without wondering how I'll manage to get up with my aching hips. Carrying my baby girl whenever she asks. She is so curious and always wants to see what's going on around her but I am often so tired that I can't carry her all the time. 

What I'm Looking Forward To:  Packing my hospital bag this weekend. Looking for and pinning ideas on Pinterest for our "Sip and See". We decided since we're having a repeat gender, we will do a sip and see for after baby arrives. I am also hoping to get a 3D sonogram done soon. I looked at the picture we got from when JOE was 33-weeks in-utero and I am amazed of how much that sonogram looks like her now.

Symptoms? Sleepless nights, very recent swollen feet (it only lasted a couple of days), tiredness (was diagnosed with anemia so I am on medication for this), a little more forgetful (we drove to a friend's house last weekend thinking their son's birthday party was on Sunday. Well, turns out it is this upcoming Saturday. Ummm), more clumsy (I hate this one because I am always very careful), hip pains!!! (specifically on my right hip). I also have a very weird neck creak. I can't explain it and haven't even bothered mentioning it to my OB cause I don't know how to explain it.

Movement? YES! LOTS AND LOTS of movements. They are slower BUT the kicks are more painful now because they have more strength to them. And I think baby girl has discovered my bladder. She likes to either head butt it or kick it for fun!  

Belly Button In or Out? Still very much in. It never came out last time with JOE's pregnancy so I don't think it will this time.

Labor Signs? Braxton Hicks!!! They have moved from the "feeling uncomfortable" stage to the more "intense" stage. Not painful but enough that sometimes, I have to stop what I am doing and take a deep breathe. But I get through it better than I did when I had JOE. I guess now I'm a pro :-).

Best Moment of the Week? Seeing how much JOE already loves her "baby sister". Baby sister gets LOTS of kisses everyday. I have no doubt they'll be best of friends. 

Weekly Wisdom: Don't really have any right now. I am pretty much just trying to take each day at a time and am soaking in the one on one time I have JOE until we welcome her sister. She is just so awesome that right now, I can't imagine loving another as much as I love her but I have heard the heart does grow to accommodate another. I guess time will tell :-D. 

Pictures? Yup. Here's one from Monday.

Funday Friday: My week in pictures

Its been a pretty full week. But I have NO complaints. I am LOVING my new job. It is busy but the people are so nice that I don't even notice. I am already thinking of ways to get right back to work after having the baby. That's how much I love it. It feels like a breathe of fresh air. The comparison is like night and day between my last job and this one!

Last year, I wrote down a list of what I would love in my next job. I happened to go through that list a few days ago and could not believe how much that list matched to where I am right now. It really is a testimony of God's goodness.

Anyways, I know this blog has taken a hit in the last few months because of one thing or another and I keep promising to do better but you know, life happens :-). I do have a ton of draft blogs I start. Just never get a chance to organize everything. So with that said, I am doing a hodge podge of some highlights of the last week in this post in hopes that it'll catch you up on a few things. Enjoy!



J, JOE and I watch family feud in the evenings. If you know how the game is played, in the last round, they take 2 contestants from the winning team and ask them a series of questions in 20 and 25 seconds. Their responses are rated based on the audience surveyed. Anyways, the first contestant here scored 181 points. They have to reach 200 points to win the $20k. The second contestant came out and scored 2 points, then 4 points then 0 in the next 2 questions. So of course at this point, I started screaming for J to come down and watch this because I just knew they would lose the game. BUT lo and behold, she scored 46 points in the last question and they went on to win. SCORE!!! Just goes to show you can't count anyone out until the game is really over.

If I haven't mentioned it before, JOE is obsessed with her nails!!! Now she requests the colors she wants for her nails. Last Saturday was Valentine's day and she requested pink for her fingers and red for her toes. She is just like me in that regard because I often use lighter colors on my fingers and darker on my toes. She loves looking down and saying "look at my toes, they are beautiful!"

I couldn't help but take this picture. After fighting sleep all day, she proceeds to take a nice long 2+ hour nap. I love watching her sleep. Too cute!

 

This picture was taken last Monday. See how serious she is watching the iPAD and eating her oranges. She could not be bothered with smiling for the camera.

And my dinner on Valentine's day. JOE got to spend the evening with her now former nanny while J and I took the opportunity to go out for dinner. My appetite still hasn't come back fully so I couldn't eat. Basically, I took this picture and had them package the food.

My handsome date for Valentine's day. He did great!. Love me some him.

I got this Strawberry lemonade and pretended it was a mixed drink :-D.

I was trying out something new on JOE's hair last Saturday. It looked cute for like 1-day. Her hair never really holds any styles for long. I know I should do it half way through the week but she doesn't let me. BUT, there is help in sight because JOE let her new caretaker do her hair yesterday! Woohoo!!!

 Another view of her hair.

My parents got her this outfit for Valentine's day. I told her to smile for the picture and this is what I got. She was upset with me for interrupting her time on the iPAD. Ummm...really?

Our little family of 3...soon to be a family of 4. I love this early morning selfie. I guess we can hash tag this one #wewokeuplikethis.

 Classic case of why I should NOT send J to get me plantains from the grocery store. He typically knows what to get cause I have showed him before but this time, he picked some plantain that were so green, they didn't ripen even after 3-weeks. I wanted to throw them out but hubby said it would be a waste of food.
I quickly remembered that my dad likes fried plantain chips (for my Nigerian readers...that's kpekere). So I decided to make some.
I put J to work by asking him to use the slicer for the plantains.

 

Then in the wok they went. I didn't feel like bringing out the deep fryer.

 

Finished product. These things BARELY lasted the day let alone the week. J and JOE devoured them! I didn't think JOE would like them but she had bowl after bowl of them. Even got her step stool (a.k.a rescue Randa) to climb on so she could reach the counter and get more. 

My yummy hubby made me breakfast for Valentine's day. How thoughtful was that? Sausages and egg whites cause someone (me) forgot to put eggs on the grocery list :-). I am all about being healthy but I prefer my full egg to just egg whites.
 

Our loot from Valentine's day. J got JOE this pink princess teddy as well as the balloon. She LOVED it. She immediately went upstairs to get her Doc bag so as to give them both a checkup.

My gift for hubby for Valentine's day.

Hubby's gifts to me including a lovely dinner.

Our gifts to JOE for Valentine's day. Hubby was to helpful with this because I just didn't get a chance to go to the store so he took care of everything.

JOE and her pink bear.

Our weekly selfie.

This picture is titled "make room for baby!" Last Friday, JOE's room was exploding with clothes! J and I went through her closet and drawer to sort out all her clothes and sort the new ones for baby. I have an awesome friend who always sends us the cutest fashionable clothes! She has single handedly blessed us with so many clothes that we often don't have to run out and get stuff for JOE when she outgrows her current clothes cause we already have the next size waiting for her.

And I know I promised a post on baby #2. I kept meaning to write it  up but kept getting distracted. In anycase, here's a picture instead. Afterall, a picture is worth a thousand words right? Check out the bump difference between 31-weeks and 32 weeks taken last Saturday! Baby has certainly grown!!!

So far, I am up 2.8 lbs for this pregnancy. I was up 1-lb but in 2-weeks, I gained another 1.8lbs. I talked to my OB about it and she said it is normal to gain a pound a week at this point in my pregnancy. If that's the case, I'll be about 10.8-lbs by the time baby girl makes her debut. Hoping to be under 10-lbs. 

And if you're wondering how I keep my weight down, trust me, it is NOT intentional. I typically have no appetite after a few bites of food so basically, baby is occupying A HUGE portion of my insides. I gained 16-lbs with JOE's pregnancy so I am not a big gainer while pregnant. It is AFTER baby I have to worry about. Last time, I lost all the weight plus some right after JOE arrived. Then quickly gained 18-lbs in the 12-months of breastfeeding her. My stomach felt like a bottomless pit! And I was still holding on to those 18-lbs when I got pregnant with #2. Praying its not the same this time around.

Hope you had a lovely week. Be safe! And remember to be kind to strangers!

A week of changes and new beginnings

It has certainly been a busy but good week.


This week marked my first week at my new job. The job is definitely going to keep me very busy but the people and work is meaningful and I am excited about it. I always say the people make the job and working with smart people who are also friendly and willing to help is just icing on the cake. Praying that continues.


This week is also the last week for JOE's current nanny. She's been with us since JOE was 6-weeks old! We will very much miss her. She truly has been a blessing to our family and she came and helped us out when we didn't even know what we needed. We pray that God prospers the works of her hands and blesses her even as she has blessed us.


This week also marked my 32nd-week of pregnancy with #2. I promise to send a full update next week on how things are going. I really need to get on things because time is FLYING by! Oh and check out my cankles in the picture below. I thought I would escape that with this pregnancy since I am not pregnant in the summer. I guess not :-/.


In all of it though, I am thankful to God for his blessings and provisions on my life. I haven't been as tired and perhaps that's because of the prescription from my doctor as well as being able to get more sleep due to my shorter commute. YAY!

So here are some pictures from the last week.

My weekly selfie of JOE and I. Gosh, I love this girl! She really is the coolest toddler I know!



Here is one of JOE and her dad. He's playing his video game while she is watching the iPAD. We had just taken down her hair in preparation for her weekly hair routine (washing, condition and braid).

 

Good Lord, what happened to my ankles? Where did they go??? The new building I work in is a lot bigger than the building from my old job and walking anywhere for meetings is quite a distance. The good thing is that I am getting my walk in. The bad thing is that the walks are LONG and my ankles are crying :-). Good thing tomorrow is Valentine's day. Perhaps I'll be able to get a foot massage out of it ;-).

 

 

And how cute is this? JOE asked her dad to "draw a heart for momma". J drew this for her and she came over with her boogie board to give this to me. She melts my heart everytime. She really is the best.

 

 

Hope you had a good week. I am hoping to be able to do more than one post per week going forward. Fingers crossed!

Have a Happy Valentine's day and remember to be kind to strangers.  

Welcoming the month of February

Goodbye January and welcome February! January ended a few days ago and honestly, after the month we've had, I am glad to say goodbye and am very much looking forward to a month of new beginnings.

While still recovering from the flu and going through a transition process at work (ending one job and starting a new one), we received a letter of resignation from JOE's current caregiver last Saturday. How appropriate that it occurred on the last day of the month of January? If you recall from last year, she resigned but changed her mind at the last minute and decided to stay. That was certainly a welcomed blessing and we got a good year from it.
Like last time, this notice came out of nowhere and we weren't even prepared for it. BUT this time, so much is different.

While last time we were both very concerned, this time, my awesome hubby sprung into action. Within minutes of reading the email, he was on the iPAD looking for a replacement. He didn't even want me to stress out and honestly, I can't tell you how much that calmed my concerns/fears. Just that simple act let me know that we're in this together and everything will be OK.

By Monday, we had 3-good phone interviews and after the interviews, we had good feelings about 2 of the candidates. They will each be meeting and spending some time with JOE this week.

My awesome sisters have been recipients of a lot of emails from me asking for prayers. It has seriously been one of those years. And let me tell you, there is NOTHING like sisters or the power of a praying woman! They all sent me encouraging words and sent up prayers. I have so much to be thankful for because within hours, I could see God's hands in the things that were occurring around me.

Our next door neighbor agreed to watch JOE should I go into labor in the middle of the night. The nanny was supposed to be our emergency person so this was certainly a blessing to us. In addition, she offered to watch JOE during the day if we are unable to find immediate day time care for JOE. Talk about a big blessing to us! I just was speechless at her generosity. Just goes to show that God is ALWAYS in the details.

During the week, I recalled a song I used to sing ALL THE TIME when I was a kid. Amazing how our brains tend to bring back to comforting things from our past. The song goes like this. It was definitely a reflection of how I felt:

In your time, in your time,

You make all things beautiful

In your time

Lord, my life to you I bring

May each song I have to sing

Be to you a lovely thing

In your time

On to some brighter things, I ordered some kid's nail polish for JOE this week. Let's just say she is now OBSESSED with having them on. We've already had to redo her nails twice and the nail polish arrived on Wednesday evening. Hoping this won't be a daily occurrence.

JOE wanted them on ASAP. Yes, it wasn't the best manicure but its hard when she's giggling and say "that tickles!" And yes, she requested the 2 different colors.

I have been so bad with documenting this pregnancy. Last time, I did a weekly thing. This time, I can barely keep up. In anycase, here's the most recent picture taken a few days ago. So far for this pregnancy, I am up 1-lb. I was up 4-lbs but the flu took away 3 of those lbs. Oh well...not complaining. Baby is progressing just fine per my OB :-).

Have a fabulously blessed weekend! And remember to be kind to strangers!