She sank her teeth into him!

Ella had her first real "time out" today. She got in trouble at child care, when she decided to bite little Luke. (another child at Laura's house.)

Luke is only about a month younger than Ella, so they have very similar interest in toys. Unfortunately, they don't have siblings at home. So neither of them likes to share.

Today, Ella wanted to play the toy piano. So did Luke. When his hand hit the keyboard, Ella picked it up and bit him. He screamed, but not really. He was probably asking "what are you doing?!" Laura screamed, "ELLA NO!" Then Ella cried. (At least she takes Laura seriously when she scolds her.)

Laura says she told her "we're not going to bite with our 'toofies.' That's not nice." Ella cried some more, then she sat in the "time out" corner for about 30 seconds before Laura let her go back and play.

She definitely took Laura seriously. Now if we can just get her attention when she misbehaves at home!?

The Naughty Step

How do you convince a 1 year old that what they're doing is wrong, dangerous and not allowed? She climbs onto the ottoman stands up and just smiles at us....

We tell her no, we put her down, she climbs right back up and smiles again. She even wants to clap for herself, like this is a game or some great accomplishment.

Now we're trying a sort of "time out," "Super Nanny" style. When Ella climbs up, we tell her no. When she does it again, mommy or daddy takes her to the bottom step on the stairs. That's the "naughty step." She has to sit there for 1 minute. We tell her she cannot climb on the ottoman because it is dangerous and she could fall and get hurt. After 1 minute we divert her to playing with something else.

Does it work? Of course not!!! Works on the show, when the Super Nanny does it. Real life is not so easy. She comes right back to her climbing and keeps on smiling.

It's hard not to laugh at her when you have no idea how to convince her you're serious! We may suck at the discipline part of parenting so far.

Surprise, Reprieve and now I owe them!

I promised I'd write an update today so Troy doesn't feel like the Grinch who stole my Christmas.

It was just after 4pm yesterday, when two smiling faces peeked in my office door. My two favorite people, Ella and Troy of course, made it for the holiday open house after all!! Troy expected me to cry... but I'd cried so much from the thought of having to attend the party alone, that I was just so relieved and excited to have them there!!

Laura had dressed Ella in her Santa shirt and put a sweet, pink bow in her hair. No one even cared that Troy and I were there after seeing our cute girl. She's always a hit and why shouldn't she be? We selfishly think she was the sweetest girl at the party. She was well-behaved. She ate, drank, played and we all had a great time.

I'm so lucky to have my little family!!!

Christmas Party Blues

It's pregnancy. I know that makes my hormones go into overdrive.. and I'm just crazy emotional. But my day has turned into a complete blubber-fest!!!

We're having a holiday open house at work. (in place of our annual Christmas party to include the families) Every one is bringing their spouses and children, even some grandparents and grandchildren are coming. Offices are decorated with lights and trees, they've been out all morning carting in the Christmas goodies and games.

I'll have to celebrate this gathering solo.

Troy had hoped to get away from work an hour early, pick up Ella and come over for the party. But that's not gonna happen. Sometimes, his job is very unorganized and things get changed at the last minute. I swear, it's like TV news, maybe worse since he doesn't make nearly as much money. Anyway... some person's poor planning means Troy has an emergency and he's stuck at the office.

I could drive out to pick up Ella. But it's 30 minutes to get there... probably 45 minutes to an hour to get back in traffic... and then we have another 30-45 minute drive back in the same direction to go home. That just doesn't make sense.

I did print out some Christmas photos of Ella to hang on my office door. (so at least people can see how cute she is) Now they're stopping by all day and asking "do we get to see her?!"
They'll just have to think I'm the unwed, pregnant lady this year.
BAH HUMBUG!!!!

I'm calling it "he"

I just can't help it. After my regular monthly OB visit last Friday, I've started calling baby Robinson #2 "him" or "he." The doctor heard the heart rate (around 140-142) and he guesses it's a boy. (Nothing scientific of course, just an old wives tale and he admits he has a 50/50 chance of getting it right.) For some reason I just can't get boy out of my head.

This little guy is swimming around like crazy. The doctor had to chase him to hear the heart beat. I can feel him kicking at night and Friday, for the first time, Troy could feel him too.

They're scheduling our appointment for the level 2 ultrasound in the next few weeks... so we should know for certain by early January 2007.

I've already started thinking about a boy's room and trying to pick out some cute stuff. (although Troy insists this is another girl and I have to give him some credit, he was correct the first time around when the doctor was wrong.)

There are plusses and minuses on both sides of course:

If it's a girl:
- we already have clothing coming out our ears!
- we get to re-use a lot of stuff ( pink and yellow and floral)
- no guns, killing bugs, jumping off things, additional penises, etc...

If it's a boy:
- Ella will still get to be our baby girl
- Kristi is ready to send boy hand-me-downs
- we get to buy some new stuff in boy colors
- Troy finally gets some testosterone in the house!

Of course, all that really matters is that this baby seems to be healthy so far! He or she is very active and growing right on schedule. Guess we'll just have to wait and see what we're getting... but it won't be long now.

You're in the army now- almost

My friend Jerry... you never cease to amaze me! Climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, traveling to all 50 states in a week. Is there no end the to abuse you will subject yourself to?!

Now you've gone and signed up for the army. I'd say I'm surprised, but in some ways, I'm really not. You've always been the kind of person who did things that might seem crazy, but really took a lot of guts.

Leaving TV for a year to go home and tend to your family farm... thought you were nuts, but in the end, you came out better for it. Leaving sports for a job as a news reporter and anchor... thought you had to be a glutton for punishment, but look where that got you! Number one anchor at the number on station in town.

You're like famly to me, which is kind of sick and twisted since I was hoping you'd father my children if I didn't get hitched by the time I was 35. In fact, you were my stunt date the night I hooked up with my future husband. (You should thank Troy. He came along just in time. I was 34.)

I've always known you were something special, just because of how my Nana felt about you. Faye was perhaps your oldest and greatest fan. In her eyes, Jerry Jacob could do no wrong. She loved you like a grandson and felt like she had family in town, just because she could watch you on the news every night. You touched my heart by showing up at the hospital to visit her. Then, when you showed up at her funeral, it was a great comfort to me.

I'm so proud of your latest adventure! I know Nana will be watching over you. I love you my friend. Be safe!

(hope you all enjoy this picture.. this was Jerry, Jenn & Kimmie, in the not so flattering early 90's!)

2nd trimester funk

My clothes don't fit, at least, not the way they should. But who wants to start wearing maternity clothes when you're only in the 15th week! Regular pantyhose are too tight, maternity hose have a giant extra belly that I don't need yet. I'm already clumsy so heels are not the greatest idea.. but on the plus side... I am still wearing my boots!

And I'm freezing! How did that happen? During my last pregnancy, I was hot all the time. My face was flushed, I sweat profusely. I assumed being pregnant in the winter months would be a welcome break. WRONG. This time around I can't get enough clothes on to stay warm. I'm using a heating pad at night to warm the bed, and Troy is dying! He sits around in shorts and a t-shirt complaining that we can't turn up the heat anymore because the bill will be too high!

I thought the second trimester was supposed to be that happy time when you enjoy pregnancy? I am much less nauseaus than I was a few weeks ago. I'm starting to get some energy back, but I still want to go to bed by around 9:00. We dont' know if we're having a boy or a girl so we can't do much prep on the room, I'm starting to look pregnant, but not really enough that people notice. (In other words, I just look fat!) Overall, no one seems very excited about the pregnancy.

Ella doesn't know what it means when I tell her our new baby is growing inside mommy. She just HATES it when I touch another baby and she doesn't like to share with anyone. (Sibling life should be fun.)

Troy is sick of having a sick wife who sleeps all the time and can't get warm.

I'm sick of wearing the same 2 pair of pants alternating every day with different bumpy sweaters and shirts that gape over my growing body. I'm tired of not sleeping well and not feeling well and looking fat instead of pregnant.

It's still early... maybe we'll get excited when we find out if this is a boy or a girl. All we want is a healthy baby... but it's exciting to know and start planning everything. Hopefully, that will help liven things up at our house.

Trouble lurking under the tree

I've seen the warnings and read all the parenting magazines. They say "don't put up your big Christmas tree with a toddler in the house. Put up a table top tree that can be out of reach." Right, whatever. We're sticking with our holiday plan and trying to keep little miss sticky fingers away from all the decorations.

I started by putting ornaments that I deemed sort of "child safe" near the bottom of the tree. Nothing glass, nothing with small beads, nothing we love that's irreplaceable, etc... But leave it to Ella to wander around and find anything that's even close to fragile.

She pulls at things. She wants to take them off the tree and play with them. Her favorites are a little doggie that Troy has had for years, and a computer (also Troy's) which plays "Favorite Things." This one is real trouble, because she knows it makes music and she wants to play it. But she can't, at least not without help, so when I see her up to her shoulder inside the tree, I have to send Daddy for help to play the music.

Only 23 days until Christmas. We hope our tree will last that long! Now do we dare to put presents underneath?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

First we had 1/2 inch of ice on Wednesday night. Then we got 10-12 inches of snow Thursday. Today, Friday, Olathe, KS is a winter wonderland. This was a reminder for me of how great it is not to work in the TV news business anymore!!!

If it snows or sleets, my office often sends us home early. If school is canceled, my office opens on a delayed schedule. When the roads and sidewalks are this bad, this pregnant lady stays home and works from the computer upstairs... still in her pj's.

I've worked from home Thursday and Friday of this week. Thursday, Troy went ahead and took Ella to childcare. He just didn't want to worry about his pregnant wife getting stuck somewhere or slipping on a sidewalk. Today, Friday, after all the snow, Ella stayed at home as well. She was amazingly cooperative and well behaved. She played and watched her movies. I was able to work from the home computer and make my phone calls during her two naps... we had a great snow day together.

She keeps looking out the window and saying "no" which I think means snow. She's probably waiting for daddy to come home and let her play in the cold white stuff.