a more upbeat post

A scattered brain = a scattered post.... you've been warned.

• It's Friday!! I don't love fridays as much as I used to (football season doesn't start for another month) but fridays do mean that I get Cameron home for 2 days. I have ulterior motives for being excited that he's home, it means that I get a little bit of a break from the monkey. I love spending time with my husband, don't get me wrong, but it's a welcome break. He's actually going to be home by lunch today, they shut everything down and gave everyone the rest of the weekend off after the wreck.
• Wednesday we hit 19 weeks, which is the half way point for me! I doubt I'll go much farther than 38 weeks, so we're half way done. It seems like I've been pregnant forever already, but hopefully the last half will go much faster than the first. I'm feeling her move a lot, and actually felt her with my hand a couple nights ago. Cameron tried to feel, but she was done. He didn't mind, feeling the babies move really freaks him out. He could watch D'Laney move towards the end of her pregnancy, but he didn't like feeling it. I've had a little more energy the last few days (the fact that Cam has been rained out and home so that I could nap is probably why!) but my appetite is way down. Some days I can't eat much at all, and other days, I can't get enough, though those days are few and far between. I worry a little bit about the baby not getting all the good stuff she needs, but she's growing fine, so I'm not going to worry too much. When I was pregnant with D'Laney, I didn't worry about anything at all, never once did I think anything was wrong or that I wasn't doing something right, but I'm paranoid all the time with this one. I guess because everything has been so different this time around. It's probably because we've got so much other stressful things going on besides the pregnancy that we weren't worried about last time. I'll just feel a lot better when she's here, for a lot of reasons.
• I'm a weak mother. I gave in. D'Laney now has her paci back, but only when she's going to sleep. That's really the only time she's ever had it. I just could not go any further without getting any sleep. My health was suffering, I couldn't take it anymore. And she has slept like a champ for 3 nights in a row now (and so have I, probably why I'm feeling so much better) and taken around a 3 hour nap everyday. I really thought it would just take a couple days and she'd be fine, but it had been over 2 weeks and she was still screaming for hours and not sleeping at all! We tried everything from letting her scream, rocking her for hours, giving her a new lamb that was just for sleepytime, letting her sleep on the floor, everything! We did draw the line at letting her sleep with us, that's a rule that I'm proud to say we have stuck to for 2 years now, we're not going to break it now. I know that at some point she'll be ready to let it go, maybe when the baby gets here and she sees that only babies take a paci, and she's a big girl, so she doesn't need one. Hopefully it's before then, but I'm okay with it if it's not.
• We're going to dive back into potty training now, and this time I'm going to be much more diligent. My pediatrician recommended a book to help, but it involves a doll that wets on a potty, and I don't like that, so I'm just going to keep doing like I did before, just more aggressively.
• I just about have the girls' bedroom figured out. I went to several fabric stores and found a couple patterns that I really like. I've made a list of all the things that I want in their room and how I'd like it arranged. I'm pretty excited about it, I think it'll turn out really cute. I've been thinking about the rest of the rooms in that house and how I'll decorate them. I've really been trying to keep my mind busy!
• Still no lookers for the house. I did see a car pull up yesterday in front of the sign so maybe they were writing the agents number down and they'll call. I'm beginning to stress a little about it.
• Still no name yet, either. I'm beginning to stress a lot about that. I feel terrible that this little girl doesn't have a name! Cameron doesn't feel a rush since she won't be here for a few more months, but I feel such an urgency. I think it's because I don't feel much of an attachment to this baby yet. I can feel her move and I know she's coming, but most of my thoughts are still on D'Laney. And I know that'll change, I'm not worried about "how am I going to love another one as much," it's just that right now, this baby is still sort of abstract to me, and I think that having a name for her will help. I feel guilty that I'm not as obsessive about her arrival as I was for D'Laney's, but, like I said, we have so much more going on right now. And we do have a pretty good ways to go. But I'm going to sit Cameron down this weekend, tell him why it's so important to me to find a name for her, and not let him out of the house until it's settled (and he agrees to my name! J/K, sort of.) It's supposed to keep raining all weekend, so what else is he going to do?
• Thank the Lord for all the rain! It has rained at least a little every day this week since tuesday, and is supposed to continue through the weekend.
• Cameron thinks the cloth diapering idea is crazy. I knew he would, but he doesn't know much about how far it has come in the last few years. He thinks that we'll get all this stuff, and after a couple weeks, I'll get sick of it and go back to disposables. And he might be right, so if I decide to do it at all, I might just buy a few diapers and try it for a week or two, and then decide. My friend Lauri said that she's going to do cloth when her little boy gets here in a couple months, so I might call her after he gets here and see if she likes it and how the process really works. I can read about it until my eyes fall out, I'm way more mechanical and have to actually see the process in action.
• My computer is giving me fits! It randomly closes all the windows I have pulled up without warning. Ugh!
• My cell phone has had a completely blank screen for a week now. I can still call in and out, but I can't see who's calling or call anyone that I don't know the # for, and I have no way of knowing if I've missed any calls. And forget about texting. I went to the Verizon Wireless store (who bought out Alltel, which I didn't know about) and they said that my phone was too old to really do anything about that, and since I'm eligible for an upgrade, I might as well get a new phone. I could get one of the cheapy phones for free, but I'm thinking about getting a blackberry or another "smart" phone. Any suggestions?
• Generic brand Cheerios taste nothing like the real thing. (today's a day where I can't get enough to eat) I'll have to add that to the list of things that I won't scrimp on.

I warned you that this post would be scattered.

Finally, for today's Flashback Friday, here's a family pic from long long ago. This was in '91 or '92, I can't remember, Dad's team had just won district. We have another picture just like this from my senior year where I'm cheering, Dad's coaching, and Lucas is playing, and we had just won bi-district, but I'm sure it's still in a box somewhere at my parents new house. I thought that I had it and was going to do a then and now, well not really now, but more recent. Oh well, here it is. D'Laney looks so much like my brother in this pic.

Rough day

This morning has been rough for Cameron. First, he hit a lady's dog while she was out walking this morning. He said she was nice about it, but he could tell that she was pretty upset. Then he's heading to work, and he gets a call that some of his co-workers had been in an accident. Those involved were John, who he's worked with for years, John's girlfriend Sherry, and Sherry's son-in-law Travis, who is also John's cousin. Catch all that? Apparently, some one ran a stop sign and T-boned John's truck. It was a pretty bad accident. Travis didn't make it, and Sherry was conscious but not coherent. John was pretty banged up, but not as bad as the other two. Both people in the other vehicle died as well. Travis and Sherry's daughter have a new baby that might be 3 months old, if that. Cameron is taking it very hard. He had to go on to work today, they've been rained out for a couple days and are way behind, and now very shorthanded. Cameron had to drive by the wreck on his way to work, so he stopped to talk to his boss, who was there. He said he knew the outcome, but it really hit him when he realized that John and Sherry were the only one's they had taken away. Travis and the other two were still at the scene. Cameron didn't see them, but knowing they were there was a little too much for him, he had to leave. Please keep this family in your prayers, especially that sweet baby and her momma, and Cameron's whole company. They're a pretty tight-knit group.

I have a more upbeat post for today, but I'm going to go cuddle with my baby for a while and thank God for all my blessings.

I must be crazy

Well, I know I am, but never for this reason:

I am seriously thinking about cloth diapering!

Crazy, right? I never never ever thought I would even consider this. I'll elaborate on what got me on this crazy train of thought.
If and when our house ever sales (and it really really needs to, seriously, guys, we really need your prayers on this) we will almost definitely be moving back to Iraan and out onto a ranch. While we were down there this weekend, we went out to the house to take a look at it, as I had never been inside. It's about half the size of our house now, but almost exactly the size of our house at Miles, with a much better layout. I was very pleasantly surprised. It is however, in the middle of nowhere. While I love this fact, it is going to take some getting used to. I've always lived in itty bitty towns, or not even in a town, but I've never lived more than 30 minutes from a bigger place (aka: a walmart!) and so I'm going to have to learn how to really plan shopping trips and buy in bulk (and organize and store said bulk!) I'm already practicing menu planning and buying groceries accordingly, but if you run out of something... toilet paper, soap, diapers... there's no running to the store to get it. There is a grocery store and a dollar store in Iraan, but because they're the only thing around, they're ridiculously high, if they even have what you need. We're seeing it now, but we'll really see it then: we're going to have to learn to live on not much money. In actuality, we'll probably be netting the same income, but we have got to rebuild our nest egg, the last year of a down economy has really taken it's toll on us.
So all this got me thinking about ways we'll be able to save money, and there are so many things we're already putting into effect. The biggest expense will obviously be the girls, although having another girl instead of a boy will save us so much right off the bat. Breastfeeding will, too, Lord willing it's as easy as it was last time. So the only real expense for the new baby will be diapers. And that's what brought me to cloth. I know that it's probably more expensive to get started on cloth, but from what I'm reading so far, you make up for it in just 2 or 3 months. Here's what I'm thinking so far:

• the cost will be less. That's my #1 reason.
• I'm not a huge "green" person, I do what I can when I can, but I'm usually not too concerned about it. Using cloth is better for the environment, though.
• We'll be out at the ranch, so we'll be burning our trash. Diapers don't burn. So we'd have to bag them up and take them to a dumpster in town, which will be a huge hassle.
• We'd be on well water, so I'm not concerned about the extra water usage with all the extra washing.
• I'll be staying home and the only frequent traveling I would be doing would be to church, so I'm not as worried about having to deal with a lot of dirty diapers in public.
• However, cloth has come a long way and is so popular right now, and there are so many accessories to make it easy and stinky-free. Even things to make out of town trips fairly hassle-free.

So that's what I'm thinking. What do y'all think? Do you know anyone who has used cloth? Pros vs. cons? I've got some time to figure it all out, but you know me, I like to have things planned and figured out WAY in advance. I'm also thinking about putting the girls in the same room. That little house has three bedrooms, but if the girls share a bedroom, we can use the third room as a play room to put all the toys D'Laney doesn't play with and as storage, which we'll definitely need.

In other news, potty training has been put on hold because of our paci crisis we're in the middle of. Apparently, the trauma of not having her trusty paci has caused D'Laney to develop some sort of separation anxiety, but only when it's time to go to sleep. She will not nap during the day, it's an hours long, screaming fight. And at night, she was doing pretty well, but has had 2 or 3 nights over the last two weeks that were just horrible, last night being the latest. She will be so sleepy she can't walk straight, but won't lay down. Unless, of course, I'm right beside her. She even took her pillow out of her bed and put it on the floor so I could actually lay down beside her last night. Once she's what I think is dead asleep, I'll put her back in her bed, go to leave, and she'll wake up and scream and cry like I cut her arm off and was taking it with me. So I thought, I'll just let her sleep on the floor. We both lay back down, she goes back to sleep, and I get up to leave, and here we go again, blood curdling screams. I got maybe 4 hours of sleep last night, and of course she hasn't napped yet today so that I could catch up a little. The only reason I don't just let her scream for hours is because Cameron has to get up and leave at 5, and when she's up screaming, we're all up, and he needs his sleep. She has also learned to climb over the gate in her door. Cameron had the idea to put it a few inches higher, not to where she could crawl underneath, but so that she couldn't climb it. I thought it was a great idea, until she came crying into our room at 3 this morning. Did I mention that? 3 am has been her consistent wake up hour. I do not understand this, she has never been any sort of attached to me. I have been so tempted to give in and give her back her paci, but I DO NOT want to lose at this. I'm way more stubborn than she is!

D'Laney's birthday invite

I'm using smilebox for the first time. I tried making her invitations on scrapblog like I always do, but you have to pay for most of the stuff on there now, and that just makes me angry. We're just doing a family party this year, and we're doing it at our house and those who can make it, great, those who can't, we totally understand. It's hard to get a party in angelo and one in iraan together, so I've just decided to do it this way. I'm emailing these invites just for the fun of it, word of mouth is probably how we'll let everyone know the details. I just wanted to test this smilebox thing on here.

Make a Smilebox invite

the name game

We're still getting used to the fact that we'll have two little girls running around here soon. The name search is not going very well, though. At least we have a little bit of time. When I asked for "B" suggestions, I forgot to elaborate why.
On the Cauley side of my family, almost everyone's initials are LLC, starting with my granddad and working it's way down. Seriously, we've got Leo Lawrence, Levi Lawrence, Larry Lynn (my dad), Lori Lavonne, Lois Lynnette, Laci L'Rae, Leddy Lavonne, Lucas Leo, Laura Leigh, and Landon, but his middle name is Garrett. See? Lots and lots of L's, and I love it, but since my parents decided to skip me (still not sure why) I decided when I was in, like high school, that I'd do something similar, have the first and middle initial be the same, but not necessarily L's. Unless, of course, my husband's family had their own naming tradition, which I think would take precedence over mine. Cameron's family doesn't, however, so we were able to do my take on the family tradition. I also like naming your kids after family members. When we first met, Cameron was telling me about his grandparents that had passed away, and said that his paternal grandmother's maiden name was Rustin. I loved that name, even if it wasn't a family name. Cameron's dad's name is Ridgely, which I think is so cool and unique, so we'd known each other a few weeks when we had our first son named... Rustin Ridgely Holifield, both names coming from Cameron's dad but with my family's naming tradition. Cute, isn't it? Oh well! When we found out that our firstborn was a girl, we decided to take our two middle names, D'Lynn and Dale, change mine up a little, and that's how we got D'Laney Dale. Now that we're having another girl, we're stuck. Cameron's mother's name is Barbara Belle. I had a great-grandmother named Mary Belle. So I'd love to use Belle as the middle name, and it also sort of rhymes with Dale. And of course I want a "B" name to go with it. Cameron doesn't see the need to keep up the double initial thing, but it's important to me, so I'm going to keep fighting for it.
Here's what I've come up with so far:
Brylee Belle Holifield... My sister went to school with a boy named Briley, and I've always loved the name. I'd also like whatever name we chose to end in a "Y" sound because that's how mine, my sister's, and my daughter's all end... Amy, Cadye, D'Laney, and so on... I got this spelling from my mother's middle name, Lee, which is also the middle name of about half of Cameron's family.
Baylee Belle... another name I've always liked, though not as much, and spelled with Lee
Brynna Belle... this is actually probably my favorite choice, but it doesn't have the Lee in it. It does have part of the rest of my middle name, Lynn. So D'Laney would have half, and Brynna would have half. Our first thought, to get the Lynn in her name, was Brooklynn, but I think we've moved on from that.
Bralynn Belle...there is a wide receiver in the NFL named Braylon Edwards, pronounced just like Waylon (as in Jennings, huge plus:) and I like that name for a boy, but we have no need for a "B" boy's name. So I just changed the spelling a little bit and got the Lynn in there. With this name, however, I'm afraid people would put the emphasis on the second syllable, which I don't like.
That's all I have so far. Cameron doesn't like any of them, but he doesn't have any suggestions of his own. He did pick up the baby name book last night and started looking through it, but D'Laney stole it before he got past Bethany, which I don't really care for. But I didn't like D'Laney at first either, and now there's not another single name that would fit that child. Not having a name for this little girl consumes most of my thoughts during the day. It drives me crazy that I can't call her by name. What little thoughts I have left after D'Laney and the name are on the nursery, which I'm so excited about. I'm going to make both girls rooms match, and and trying to figure out how to get both rooms done for as little money as possible. Not only because we don't have as much to spend this time around, but also because it's like a game to me, and I'm so super competitive.

Trips to the doctor

These trips to Angelo are getting old. I love being in Angelo and seeing family, but I'm beginning to hate the drives. Well, I should say that D'Laney is beginning to hate the drives. Two hours strapped down in a seat is hard for a little one who has a hard time sitting still by herself for more than 5 minutes at a time. I forgot her little portable DVD player this trip, and it was a long, screaming fit filled drive home last night. She got a shot yesterday, so she might not have been feeling all that well, so what better night to take away her pacifier? What were we thinking?! Actually, it was the best situation, because we had forgotten to take any to Angelo over the weekend, so she had already gone 3 days without one. She screamed for a little while last night, but some rocking put her to sleep. I just laid her down for a nap, though, and you'd of thought I had done it in a room full of rabid dogs, she's screaming her head off! "Momma, paci? Momma!! Paci!!"
I had my own worst mother ever moment last week when I realized that I hadn't gotten D'Laney her 18 month immunization. That month, her well baby was a couple weeks before the required 6 month span between Hep A shots was up, so I was going to have to wait to get her shot. And then completely forgot about it. It was just one little shot, but it totally slipped my mind. I found her shot record last week and realized the mistake, so I called her doc's office and scheduled her a check up for monday so she could get that one little shot. I also wanted to talk to him about her eating habits. As in, the habit of not eating, ever. I know a lot of toddlers are like that, just too busy to eat, so I shouldn't be worried about it, but since she's always been way small for her age, I just wanted to make sure she was gaining like she should. Well, I had absolutely nothing to worry about. She weighed 23.4 lbs, which moves her up to the 15-20%, and is 34" tall, which moves her up to the 40%! At 12 months, she was in the 5% for both, and at 18 months, she was barely in the 10%, so she has really grown! Apparently she's getting plenty to eat. I knew better than to worry. Her shot went really well, too. I held her face away (and my own) and when the nurse stuck her, all she said was "Ouch!" And it wasn't even a very painful ouch, more dramatic than anything, and she didn't' shed a single tear (and I didn't either, it only took 2 years!) We also let the office know about the new baby and got registered. I got a little worried for a second because Dr. Patyrak told me that his daughter is due with his first grandchild in December as well, and he would understandably be there for the birth and would have to miss mine, but he expects his grandbaby between christmas and new years, and we'll deliver long before that, so I'm not worried, he'll be there.
My appointment went really well, too. I've only gained 2 lbs, but that's normal, I think. Everything was so messed up with D'Laney that I'm not sure what normal weight gain should be, but she didn't say anything about it, so I'm assuming it's fine. The baby is big and healthy and only measuring a couple days bigger than the gestational age, so my due date will remain the 23rd of Dec. When we have the 4D sono at 7 months, they'll be able to tell if the baby is really big and if we'll deliver more than a week early. As of right now, we're looking at around the 14th-16th for D-day. That will give me a couple weeks to recover before christmas. I don't think Christmas will be that bad, though. The toughest part will just be the driving, and if we can time the feedings right, those shouldn't be too bad. Cameron had to work yesterday and my mom had some sort of virus with fever all last week and has been keeping her distance, so my sister took off a morning of work and went with me to help wrangle D'Laney. She's starting radiology school in January, so she really enjoyed the sonogram. I think D'Laney did too, she kept saying "I see!" but we were constantly asking, "Do you see the baby? Do you see your......SISTER?!"
It's a girl! I would like to say that I was totally shocked, but I wasn't. I knew, I just didn't want to admit it. I won't say that I wasn't disappointed, but I wasn't as much as I expected to be. The little girl we already have is so sweet and funny and precious, why mess with a good thing?
So now we get to figure out a name and I can start planning a nursery. I'm excited that I can make the baby's room and D'Laney's room match. That'll be fun and easy. The name game, though, is not going to be as easy, I'm afraid. Although, when I told Cameron my official suggestion last night, he just sighed and said "No apostrophes anywhere, right?" Maybe he's coming around. He certainly didn't have to come around to the idea of having another girl. He is so excited, though he won't admit it. He's excited that she's healthy and growing, but he still maintains that he doesn't care what the gender is. I can see right through him, though. Last night his dad called for something, and when they hung up, I asked him why he didn't tell him about the girl, and he said that he had already called him. I asked who all he had called, and he said, oh, just Mom and Dad and Jason and Amy (his brother and sister.) Well, and Seth and Shane, David, Pete.... He listed off like 10 or 15 people! And when D'Laney was going to bed last night she was giving him a big hug, and he said, I love my girls, all three of them! He can say what he wants, that daddy is excited about another little girl! And I am, too. I might always long for a little boy (still don't want to think about whether or not I'm going to push for a third child) but it'll be fun to have two little girls running around, and they'll be just over two years apart, so hopefully they'll be very close.
PS: D'Laney screamed for 30 minutes solid, so I just got her out and let her lay down on the couch to watch Wella (Cinderella) I'm so weak! But no paci!

So frustrating!

Potty training is still not going well. All week I have let D'Laney run around buck naked and made her sit on her potty pretty much all day long. Nothing!! I'm pumping juice into that kid like crazy, and still nothing. She's not going in the floor or anything, she's just not going. She'll hold it in until she has a diaper on and then go immediately. The only time I've put diapers on her is if we're leaving the house or she's going to sleep. I had no idea an almost 2 year old's bladder could hold so much! I did a little experiment yesterday and put a pair of big girl panties on her and sure enough, she wet them within minutes. I guess it's something about the security of having something on. I'm wondering if she's really ready for this. She'll tell us after she has gone potty or sometimes while she's actually going, but never before. I think that's kind of key, isn't it? She doesn't recognize the feeling of having to go yet, and doesn't see the correlation of sitting on the potty and actually using it. I think once she does actually use the potty, it's only going to take one or two times and she'll get it and we'll be done. It's just that I'm not a very patient person right now, and this takes a lot of patience. Oh well, December was the deadline I set, right? Surely she'll be done by then.

She did look so grown up in the 47.5 seconds she had those big girl panties on! It's a good thing I have another baby coming, because I'm not handling D'Laney not being a baby anymore very well. I'll completely lose it when my last one gets to this stage!

And I wanted to post this little video. It's kind of dark and I was moving the camera around a lot, so it's not very good. But Cameron made PB&Js for he and D'Laney, then sat at her little table with her to eat them. She just had to sit on the floor like Daddy, though. You think your kids don't watch every single move you make? D'Laney got some PB on her hand, and when Cameron told her to lick it off, she wiped it on her shorts, like she sees Daddy do with everything. Such a monkey-see monkey-do!

Cameron is such a good Daddy. How'd I get so lucky?

PS: 4 more days!!!

Update

Well, potty training didn't go so hot. D'Laney would sit there for a long time as long as I was sitting beside her, reading books, singing, and talking to me. I didn't want her to sit there for hours so the plan was to sit in 15 minute increments. 4 different times we'd sit there, nothing would happen, the 15 minutes would be up so I'd put a pull up on her and she'd wet it within seconds! I mean, literally seconds. We haven't spent much time at home today so I didn't stick to a schedule, she's sat a couple of times with no results. I'm not sure I like what we tried, so I'm going to read up on different techniques and see if there's a better way. I'm not really in a huge hurry, it's just yesterday was a complete waste of a day and I can't stand that. I haven't tried the completely naked all day technique yet, I think I'll try it tomorrow. I'm not sure if she knows to tell me that she's about to go, but I guess that's part of learning. I'll probably be wishing our whole house was linoleum by this time tomorrow! I also think I should move her potty into the bathroom. I had it in the living room because I felt bad, if I was going to make her sit still for most of the day, she should at least be able to watch her favorite movies. Well, she didn't even pay attention to the TV and was just interested in her books, and she can read those in the actual bathroom. So we'll see how the next few days go. Wish us luck!

This is how we started the day, everything nice and neat with her potty and wipes and a organized tub full of books. I didn't get the picture of how we ended the day, but it was nothing like this!

We got these flash cards a while back. They have animals and things around the house on them, and are cut up into two puzzle pieces. They're really neat, but D'Laney is a little young to use them how they were intended. I had the box of them hidden under her books (why I didn't put them up in her closet, I'm not sure.) and when I got all of her books into the living room, they were exposed. She opened the box and scattered them all across her play room. Twice. This was right after I had picked them all up the first time, including finding all the matching pieces, and put the box on the table, which I thought was out of her reach. Wrong, and her smug little, What? face was pretty cute. As I took the picture she was walking off very non-chalant and left them for me to pick up again. Needless to say, they are now on a very high shelf in her closet.

No-plans weekend!

We haven't had a weekend with nothing to do in months, it seems. I'm trying to fight through some pretty bad nausea (not really from the baby, more from allergies) and get the house really clean so that there's no housework to do and we can just relax for a couple days. We're actually going to get to go to church here in Midland this sunday for the first time in I don't know how long. We've either been at my parents or Cam's for the last several weekends, those people probably think we've fallen off the face of the earth. I think we're going to really concentrate on potty training the next couple days, so it might end up being a stressful weekend, but at least we'll be home!

I haven't done a flashback friday in ages. This picture is from the 4th of July last year at the Cauley reunion. It's amazing to me how much D'Laney has changed.

I'm lazy.

I've never denied it. This word more than any other has been used to describe me since I was a little girl. My laziness even made it into our valedictorian's graduation speech, and I was actually a little flattered. I've had the time to blog lately, and there's plenty to blog about, but by the time I get my housework done and D'Laney occupied long enough for a few minutes to sit down, I just want to sit on the couch and watch DVRed episodes of Bones and Army Wives. I have taken absolutely no pictures of my child in I don't know how long. At camp, I didn't get either camera out of the bag I packed them in. Thank goodness other people took some pictures of her that I don't mind stealing. Right now D'Laney is asleep and all the dishes are done (that seems to be my neverending chore, how I hate not having a dishwasher!) so I'm going to attempt to blog. I guess I'll just go chronologically starting with camp.

• Camp was hot. That's about all I can say about it. When I was pregnant with D'Laney, I only went for the weekends and didn't stay all week, but this time I thought, well, I'm not getting sick anymore and I'm not near as far along as I was last time, I can handle it! I've never done very well in the heat, even when I was in really good shape running CC in late summer, but we were going to be staying in an air conditioned camper and I decided to only go to one bible class and two services a day. I could handle that. Well, I handled it pretty well until about Thursday, and then I started feeling really really bad. I wasn't getting nauseous and sick again, thank goodness, I just felt like you do when you get too hot, only when I cooled off, I still felt that way. However, it was a great camp. D'Laney loved her bible class. I think there were 14 little ones in her class, all under the age of 2! All but a couple were kids of people that grew up going to that camp and will continue to do so until they die, so we can expect all these little ones to be coming year after year. That's encouraging, because the numbers are going down little by little every year, but here's a lot of campers in training! Our preacher this year was Michael Light from Bangs, and he is so good if you can keep up with him. That man talks 90 to nothing and spouts scripture so fast you have to be on your toes if you want to keep notes, which I didn't even attempt. We had something like 20 baptisms and several restorations. Our niece Loren was baptized, and asked her dad, Cameron's brother Jason, to do it. We are so proud of her. Last year our nephew Ryder was baptized about 3 hours after we left for the week so we missed it. I'm so glad we were able to be there for this one. A stomach bug tore through camp the last night and half the camp caught it, but thankfully we didn't. By then we were pretty much hiding out in the camper most of the time avoiding any heat at all.


• We got home from camp on sunday and got right back in the car tuesday to head to angelo for a OB appt. Everything looks really good, I actually lost 6 lbs, but I expected that. Camp was so hot that I couldn't really eat much, but I did a lot of walking, which is good. I didn't say anything about the heat to Doc, I didn't want to get scolded for going, I just told her that since I was feeling better I was able to do some walking, which is the truth. She wanted to see me again in three weeks instead of four. The heartbeat was very strong this time, probably because the kid's already the size of a 3 month old! Cameron had to work so my mom met me at the doc's office and watched D'Laney for me, then took her home with her! I was able to get all my laundry from camp done and catch up on the hours and hours of sleep that I lost.


• Cameron and I went on a date while we were childless. We saw Public Enemies, and we both loved it. The '30s and '40s are my favorite era and I love movies set in that time. Plus, Johnny Depp, Christian Bale, brief appearances by Billy Crudup and Channing Tatum, um, yeah, I liked the movie!


• Cameron got off around lunch on thursday and was off friday, so we headed to angelo for the holiday weekend. Cameron's family was also in angelo for the weekend, staying at his uncle's lake house at Ivie. We stayed with my parents, but Cameron went fishing with his dad friday morning, then both his fam and mine all met at Zentner's Daughter for supper friday night. After supper we took all the kids to the river stage for the Pop's concert. In my 25 years in angelo I had never been. I knew there'd be a lot of people there, but my goodness! I bet there were more than the 10,000 expected. The symphony was really good, I was a little surprised, and the fireworks were great. D'Laney was pretty ambivalent about them, they didn't scare her, but they didn't excite her either. She actually fell asleep with about 5 minutes left. Saturday we hung out at my parents then went out to the lake house for hamburgers and of course some 42. Sunday was the annual Cauley 4th of July Reunion. My grandmother was keeping count and she counted close to 70 of us now. Not everyone was there, but most of us. It's been 8 years since Grandmother Cauley died, I sure wish she could be there to see all of us.


• So far this week has been pretty lazy. My air conditioner has been acting up for a few weeks now and I finally took it in. One little switch had to be replaced, total for parts and labor was less than $100! I was beyond excited, the absolute last thing we needed right now was to spend several hundred dollars, if not more, to get it fixed, but I wasn't about to finish out the summer with out an air conditioner in my car.


• We haven't had any hits on the house. We've had a couple of people look at it, and both really liked it, but aren't interested right now, I guess. I'm having a hard time being patient. I have to keep reminding myself that it's only been on the market a month, and the last time we sold a house, the results were not typical (on the market less than 2 weeks, got more than we asked!) It's frustrating because we can't do anything until it sells, including making a final decision on exactly what it is we're going to do. I'm not worried, just impatient.


• D'Laney. Oh, D'Laney. That kid is so funny. And she knows it, she's such a ham. Her vocabulary has expanded by like 10000%. She's stringing a few sentences together, we still only understand a couple words of them, but she's starting to uses phrases she hears a lot, like "let go!" and "did you see that ___?" At the mechanic's shop yesterday she and I were waiting for Cameron to pick us up and the owner gave her a little sucker. She would take a lick, hold it out for me to take a lick, then cock her head to the side and say "good?" I'd of course say it was and then we'd start all over. She likes to dress herself and put her own shoes on, and prefers to wear dresses. She loves being outside and has learned the fun of driving. Because we're on private dirt roads so often, she gets to drive a lot, and she actually steers and makes turns and everything. We've slowly begun potty training, but no results yet. She has sat on her little potty several times, but hasn't actually used it yet. This morning she sat there for like 10 minutes talking to me and reading a book, got up, walked into my room and proceeded to pee on my floor. I know she's still pretty young for it, but she's the one who's been pushing it. I'm letting her really dictate how we go about it until I decide how I want to do things. I think once she uses her little potty a couple of times, it'll just take a matter of days, but if it takes longer that's fine. Just so long as she's good and trained by december!


• December seems so far away, doesn't it? Today I hit 16 weeks, I think, so I'm almost halfway there! Our next appt. is July 20th, and we'll nail down a due date then. We'll also find out what we're having!!!! I really really hoped she'd do a sono at our last visit, but she didn't. I'll be a couple days shy of 18 weeks then and she said the baby will be plenty big enough (as she looked at my huge belly and smiled) and if cooperating, we'll get a good shot. D'Laney did a little toe touch for us, so hopefully, this one will too. I've been feeling really good aside from the exhaustion, which I don't expect to go away for several years. I haven't been nauseous in several weeks, and my appetite is back in full force. I'm still having alot of ligament pain, but it goes away pretty quickly. I'm in pretty much a bad mood all the time. Not angry or yelling, just irratated and bored, really. It's a very strange feeling. I'm not used to not being happy all the time. That's not the right word, I'm very happy right now, probably more so than at any time in my life, just not chipper, I guess. Maybe it's because I'm so tired all the time. I hope it's hormones and it'll pass as soon as the baby is born. My belly gets bigger every day, and I know some of you want a belly shot, so by the time I finish this post, I'll decide if I want to take one and put it on here. But it sure won't be a bare belly, one 9 lb baby and another that's looking to be bigger make things ugly under this tshirt. I'm carrying much different than I did the first time. I'm still pretty much out in front, but with D'Laney, I stayed fairly thin and just had a basketball for a belly. This time I'm getting thicker around my entire midsection. I haven't gotten any bigger in my butt and thighs, but all the way around from my sides to my back have gotten pretty thick. I'm hoping it means that the weight will be a little more evenly distributed and I won't have as much back pain from having to adjust my posture. Of course my chest continues to grow. I told Cameron that if breast size is any indication of milk production (which I know it's not) this is going to be a very fat baby! My face is a little heavier too, that's the worst part. I'm feeling a whole lot of movement, usually in the evenings. It's still mostly flutters, but I have felt one or two sweeping feet or fists. I was telling Cameron last night that this kid moves WAY more than D'Laney did, and he shot me a weird look. He said that I obviously had forgotten how much she moved because it was quite literally non-stop. We'd sit on the couch and watch my belly lump and jump for hours, and on more than one occasion Cameron would grunt and scoot way from me in our little bed because she wouldn't quit kicking him in the back. And she sure hasn't slowed down since, so I'm soooo excited this one's a mover and shaker as well (does sarcasm translate very well when you read it?!) D'Laney is still pretty oblivious to the baby, she can't understand why she can't crawl all over me and sit on my tummy like she used to. She will pat my tummy and say baby, but I know she doesn't get it. But that might not be such a bad thing, maybe she's young enough to adapt when the baby arrives and forget what it was like before. I'm sure her daddy and I will sure remember, but maybe she won't. We've been discussing names and are completely stumped on a girls name. Our first son has been named pretty much since we started dating, but if this baby is a girl I'm afraid she'll never have a name. I would like her name to start with a "B", any suggestions? Any that I like Cameron hates, but he hasn't made any suggestions of his own.

I guess that's it. I almost wrote a novel, didn't I? See that's what happens, I go so long without blogging, then don't know where to stop. If I'd just do this more often, I'd write less. I'm going to steal a few pictures from camp and post them later, and I guess I'll go take a belly picture and post it right now. I hate pictures of myself, really really really hate pictures of myself. However, I do love the way I look pregnant. It's when I feel most at home in my own skin, when I look the most like myself. I'm just wearing a tshirt today, so it's not the most flattering, but you'll get the idea of how enormously huge I am for having so far to go.

See? Huge! Don't forget to leave your "B" girl suggestions! We need help!