A little update

So much has happened as usual since the last update.  We found out that we are expecting a baby boy in March 2013!  Additionally, Peyton is well on her way to being our little 3 year old girl.  She already adores her brother (who is still in mommy's tummy), talks to him daily, kisses my tummy, talks about him to other people, etc. 

First, a little update on the NEW peanut Kirkpatrick.  His name will be John Kemper Kirkpatrick and he will be going by the name of Kemper for every day use.  We have decided to do a repeat C-section after much consideration, which will happen on March 22nd (just over 6 weeks away!).  He will be delivered by the partner of the doctor who delivered Peyton and at the same hospital-Providence in Everett.  We are in the process of decorating his nursery, which will be in the theme of vintage super hero's such as Superman, Batman, Transformers, etc.  You think daddy had much of an influence on this one?!!!  The crib bedding is being made as we speak by a seller on Etsy, and I can't wait to see it!  Hopefully it will be here in the next couple of weeks and I will be posting pictures.  I am making his name letters to be hung on the wall, which I will also post pictures of when they are complete.  My pregnancy so far has been great.  Very similar to the one I had with Peyton, though there were a couple of differences, which I think may be due to the different sex.  With Peyton, I went through a few weeks of heavy nausea and food aversion.  Luckily, I did not get this hardly at all with Kemper's pregnancy.  Secondly, my sense of smell has been very sensitive.  I can smell everything, even if at a distance.  Never had that with Peyton.  Some similarities have been the acid reflux, which I am treating with Omeprazole every day and it seems to help.  Other than feeling a bit uncomfortable and physically worn down at the end of the day now that I am nearing the end of the pregnancy, I can't complain much as both Kemper and I have been healthy thus far.  We are thrilled to meet him in just a few short weeks!! 

Onto our little angel bug Peyton who is 2 1/2 years old now.  She is just absolutely the light of our days, every day.  Her personality is HUGE, and she continues to surprise us every day with how smart she is.  She has a memory like nothing I have ever seen, and John is genuinely convinced that she has a photographic memory (haha!). She is thriving in her new preschool (which I've mentioned below), and is pretty dang cute talking about her new baby brother.  We even made an art project "countdown to Kemper" in which she can tear a ring of construction paper off every day until his birthday.  The other day while lying in bed together, she had her face pressed against my belly to "snuggle" with Kemper and she got to feel him move around.  She thought it was hilarious and was giggling over and over as he moved around.  That was a pretty special moment.  Here are some more specific things that Peyton is up to these days.

Clothing:
Peyton is currently wearing 3T-4T clothes.

Eating:
She is still a great eater and some of here favorite foods right now include the following:

• oatmeal
• blueberries
• raisins
• tofu (STILL!)
• humus (this one is new!)
• pirate's booty
• yogurt
• cream cheese roll-ups (lunch meat filled with cream cheese and rolled up)
• pizza
• Squeezy Fruit Packets

Sleeping:
Thankfully, Peyton has remained a wonderful sleeper.  She still has a bedtime every night between 7:30-8:00pm.  Additionally, she naps once a day for about 2 hours.  After this long, I can count on one hand how many times she has gone without a nap and when that has happened, its not pretty come about 6:00 at night when she goes into a meltdown phase from being so tired.  We are so thankful for sticking to her sleeping schedule and making it a priority in our lives so that she gets the rest she needs (and mommy and daddy get a nice little break as well!).  

She moved into her toddler bed in September 2012, just a couple months before she turned 2 1/2.  I was pretty nervous about this transition, but as with many things it went really well.  She has slept great in it since night 1 and refuses to get out of it until we come and get her (which we love).  In the past few months, she has taken to sleeping with SEVERAL of her stuffed animals each night, which her favorites being the pink bunny my mom got her on her first Easter (which she has named Varver), and a while monkey that was given to me for her at my baby shower by Donna (Molly's friend), which she has named Feebles.  She still sleeps with her white noise which plays on the Ipod every nap and every night.  I thought I would have been able to let go of the monitor by now, but no can do.  We still use the sound monitor and still have video hooked up to our bedroom TV which we can check anytime we want.

Doctor and Dentist visits:
While Peyton's two year doctor visit was pretty awful (as in she didn't want the doctor to touch her at all for anything), she seems to have turned a corner now in that regard.  Over the summer she (and daddy) both contracted Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease.  Luckily it didn't last more than a few days and didn't seem to phase her very much.  In the fall of 2012, she contracted Croup and was put on antibiotics for that.  Then on Thanksgiving day, while in Spokane, she woke up with pink eye in both eyes.  We spend three hours in urgent care that day, which of course was less than fun.  She had to have medicine put in her eyes a few times a day, and daddy was king of getting her to do this (go John!).  Dr. Melissa Walsh remains to be her pediatrician. 

The dentist has been very much like the doctor in that once she hit 2 1/2 years old, she seems to have gotten over her fear and is much more tolerable with each one.  Dr. Benjamin Sun is still her dentist and we are still very happy with his care and his office.  She had her teeth cleaned in November 2012 with no cavities!  Dr. Sun let us know that she has a pretty good overbit and will need braces to correct that eventually.  She also has what looks like a couple of small chips out of her front two teeth, which Dr. Sun is due to her overbite.  The dentist gave us a great tip to brush her teeth while she is laying down with her head in our lap, which is so helpful!  It makes it easier to get to those back molars. 

Daycare/Preschool:
In an effort to get Peyton into daily care that involved learning and a daily schedule, we ended care with Debbie Nelson at the end of October 2012.  Though sad to leave the wonderful care environment that Debbie provided, we knew it was best for Peyton to start in a learning environment.  We chose to put her in a daycare/preschool center really close to our house called Grow With Us.  I had done plenty of research on them, and even taken Peyton there to hang out a few times for an hour before we started full time.  Well, long story short she lasted there all of three weeks.  We pulled her our just prior to Thanksgiving for a number of reasons.  First and foremost, she was not napping at all.  The kind of environment set up for the kids there had them sleeping on mats right next to each other, while some didn't even sleep and would be making noise.  This didn't bode too well for Peyton.  Additionally, she was coming home pretty hungry on a daily basis, and her clothes were often filthy from being outside or art projects, etc.  The topper was that she cried pretty hard when John would drop her off in the morning, something that she had never ever done at Debbie's. 

Luckily, the neighbors directly behind our house had just opened up a brand new preschool in their daycare (talk about convenient location!).  Roxanne, the preschool teacher had tought preschool for over 10 years in Seattle and wanted to open her own place and therefore transformed her entire basement to a preschool.  Appleseed preschool has been a MUCH better transition for Peyton and she loves going each day.  There are two other boys in the preschool right now named Henry and James, both around Peyton's age.  Peyton is getting exposed to lots of learning, art projects, music, reading, group time, outdoor play, and a small intimate environment which she does well with.  We have been so happy with the change and hope we can continue to keep  here there and eventually send Kemper there as well.  Also, Roxanne is even teaching them some Spanish!

Learning:
Peyton has been doing really great learning her numbers and letters, especially now that she is at Roxanne's preschool.  She can count to 20, still of course knows how to sing the ABC's and can now identify each uppercase letter.  She also can write letters P and H.  We are continuing to work with her on reading and writing skills by reading books, and coloring, etc.  She seems to really enjoy it. 

Peyton took a gymnastics class through Cascade Elite Gymnastics in the Fall and had a really great time with it.  It was more of a "get familiar with the gym" type of class than actually learning any gymnastics, but never the less it was good for her to be exposed that to that environment.  We hope to get her in swimming lessons as well as ballet lessons in the next few months. 

Phrases:
Here are some of our favorite Peyton phrases that she has been using lately:

• "Mommy, he said no way (in the tattle telling tone of voice)."
• "No was that (instead of what was that)?"
• "Ah!  Almost forgot vitamin!"
• "Can you rub my back very tickly?"
• "Mommy, can you rub my back with your ribbon?"
• "Can you snuggle me?"

Peyton's (current) favorite things:

• Her dream light
• Playing outside (no matter what the weather is)
• Reading books
• Snuggling in mommy and daddy's bed
• Bubble baths
• playdough
• writing/coloring/drawing
• movies (especially the Lion King, Sandlot, Charlotte's Web, and Strawberry Shortcake).  Nana even took her to her first movie in a theatre a couple of months ago!

More updates to come in a few weeks when Kemper joins our family!