One Month To Go!

Today marks one month until my due date!  This pregnancy has gone by so fast - I can't believe November is drawing to a close!  (The fact that the weather here has been lovely - high 60s and sunny - and that Thanksgiving isn't celebrated here, means it really doesn't feel like November!)

Since Ceci was 10 days late I'm trying not to get my hopes up that I'll go into labor on or before my due date, but a small part of me is hopeful I will because I'm starting to get pretty uncomfortable. The fatigue and back/hip pain wear on me a bit, though I have my good days and bad days.  Chasing after Ceci certainly doesn't help either - thank goodness for Nursery!

Here I am this morning, looking and feeling very pregnant:

Just for a fun comparison, here I am at the same time with Ceci:

Speaking of Ceci, she's growing like a weed!  (She'll be 19 months in two days!) 

A rare time she kept a hair style in for more than a minute (I think it lasted 5, lol)

Her speech continues to come along rapidly - not only new words anymore, but putting together little sentences and actually adding some signs she's learned at Nursery. She now says please, thank you, bless you (if someone sneezes), refers to people by name ("here you go, mumma", "OK, dadda?"), is very clear about what she wants ("mamma, bath upstairs", "vacuum all gone!", etc etc). It's been absolutely amazing to watch.  

Ceci is also a big girl when it comes to sleeping (knock on wood!).  We've finally moved away from helping her to sleep.  Now, we just give her her pacis (one for her mouth and one for her hand), cover her with her blankie, say good night and go lay on the bed on the other side of the room. At nap time she falls asleep within 5 minutes, at bed time closer to 20-25.  Sometimes she won't notice if we leave before she's asleep, other times she gets upset so we stay. Such a HUGE improvement from the hour+ long battles we were having a few months ago. Turns out she was just ready - she started asking to go into her bed while we rocking her so we made a decision that once she was in her bed she'd stay there and we just patted her until she fell asleep (though occasionally this took quite a while as she'd stand up, run around her crib, throw her pacis out, etc).  Once that settled down a bit we slowly transitioned to not touching her at all and then moving ourselves further and further away from her bed.  She did so well with the transition - barely fussed, though she did act out a bit with refusing to lay down and throwing pacis out of her crib, etc.  Partly I think because of the change but also partly because of the 18 month sleep regression and getting the last of her teeth (she has 16 now!) - she was simply too distracted to sleep!  

It's going so well that we're happy not to rock the boat - staying in the room, lying peacefully in the dark for a little bit seems a small price to pay!  She sleeps all night, and the occasional middle of the night wake-up (usually less than once per week) is easily handled by making sure she has her pacis, covering her with her blankie and sometimes staying in the room for a few minutes. She sleeps peacfully from about 8pm-7:30am. Bliss. Just in time to start all over again with #2 lol!

So peaceful at naptime - every now and then she'll ask for a friend to come nap with her, this time it was Elmo

She's getting ready to be a big sister, at least sort of.  She says hi to "baby sister" in mumma's tummy and gives my belly kisses and hugs. We've been reading several books about new babies and becoming a big sister.  And she's still very loving to her baby dolls and our baby friends at play group (she loves cuddling on them and only occasionally tells me "baby off" when I'm holding one, haha).  But I'm not sure if any of it is really making complete sense to her.  I've started telling her that baby sister is going to come out and play with us soon but that doesn't phase her in the least. So I'm not sure the comprehension is there yet.  Hopefully, at least subconsciously, she's taking it all in so it's won't be a total shock when her little sister arrives!

Holding baby

Using the bump as a pilow

My hours at work dropped down a couple weeks ago from 4 days a week to 2, so we dropped Ceci down at Nursery from 4 mornings to 3 (3 is the minimum required at her school, plus it seemed prudent to give myself one morning a week to get some alone time and rest).  She's still loving nursery!  She walks right in like a big girl and gets right to playing. It's adorable to see her little friends gets excited to see her when she arrives.  And my heart swells when she runs to hug a favorite teacher or excitedly shows me something she's been playing with when I go to pick her up.  She also gets to do so much fun messy play there - painting, gluing, glitter, gloop, sand - and of course she loves it.  I know it's been a good day when she comes home in a different outfit, haha.

Ceci is still very into singing.  She can do the whole alphabet song by herself and is constantly singing along to any theme songs that come on TV and asking us to sing songs with her.  Her favorites right now are "The Wheels on the Bus", "Mr Sun", "You are my Sunshine", "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes", "Wind the Bobbin Up" and "Open Shut Them" (the last two she learned at nursery and after singing bits of them so often I did some googling so I could find out the words and sing with her! She asks for the song she wants by name and if we sing something she's not interested in at the moment she'll tell us so ("No. No Sunshine" while shaking her head vehemently, lol).

She also still loves dancing.  Whenever music comes on or there's dancing on a show she's watching she's up and spinning in circles, bouncing her knees and giggling.  Running and trying to jump (she's actually getting pretty close) are also favorites.

Then there's the climbing. Oh my.  My little monkey LOVES to climb. I'm looking forward to our move to London so I can hopefully get her in a gymnastics class!  

 

"Helping" is another of Ceci's favorite past times, especially with cooking and cleaning. I pulled a chair into the kitchen one afternoon and asked Ceci is she's like to help me cook - I had no idea what a hit it would be!  Anytime I'm in the kitchen now she'll go point the chair or try to pull it out and say "cook?" or "Ceci help".  She loves baking - helping me measure, dump ingredients into the bowl and stir.  She's also pretty good at helping to get dinner ready - putting chopped veggies in the pan, etc.    

Making meatball with daddy

Helping get the carrots ready for dinner turned into Ceci munching them!

Helping make Sunday Dinner by eating the stuffing mix right through the plastic! It's hard to see in the picture but it's all over her face and shirt!

Ceci really loves stuffing, lol

Vacuuming

"Cooking" with her play dough

 Ceci is also currently fascinated with pouring.  It started with pretending to pour us all cups of tea with her tea set, then once climbing to the top of the couch became standard practice she'd pretend pour us drinks using the bottles from the counter.

Then it progressed to an obsession in the tub every night - she'll stand at the side carefully pouring water from one cup to another over and over again.  Since the weather's been so nice I decided to capitalize on this and brought her water table back out with some cups and jugs.  She was enthralled!  She happily played on her own for over 30 minutes, which was a much needed break for this tired, pregnant mumma. 

Ceci also really likes to draw, especially with markers or on her magnadoodle.  She's getting pretty good at spelling her name, too, while pretending to write it (she knows there's Cs, Es and Is involved but sometimes get the order confused, lol. But she always finishes with a squealed "Ceci!").

Up on tip toes helping herself to her drawing stuff

Ceci is incredibly active, flitting from one thing to the next every few minutes.  As such, she has lots of activities she enjoys include blowing bubbles, stickers, building towers with blocks (and of course knocking them down), stomping in puddles, balloons and balls, and playing on her slide and trampoline.  She's also obsessed with going for walks and playing at the park and the beach.

Our little Ceci is a total nut and though she can certainly be willful and frustrating at times, she's also sweet, kind, terribly clever, determined, incredibly helpful and hilarious.  She definitely keeps us laughing!

We love you Ceci!