Show and Tell with the Takalas

Monday, June 24, 2013

Ashlynn Update

It's hard to believe that in just a little over six weeks, Ashlynn will be here! This pregnancy is still going great! For the most part, things with Ashlynn have been pretty similar to things with Emily. The biggest difference I have noticed is that Ashlynn tends to move much more than Emily did. According to my doctor, that is due to the fact that with Emily my placenta was on the front, whereas this time it is on the back. Because of that, Ashlynn is right up against the outside of my tummy which makes it easier to feel her. I am thankful for that, because lack of movement was something I remember constantly worrying about with Emily. Another minor difference is that so far I have had no blood pressure issues (which I had already begun to have at this point with Emily) and no real swelling to speak of. I believe both of these are due mostly to me having been much more active this pregnancy. I've been doing Jazzercise three days most weeks, whereas with Emily I really wasn't doing anything. I have gained a little bit more weight at this point with Ashlynn than I had with Emily, but it's pretty minimal. I am so thankful for another healthy pregnancy. We are almost to 32 weeks and have the birth scheduled for August 9 at 7:30 am unless she decides to come sooner! We love you little Ashlynn Kate and we can't wait to meet you!

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Show Us Your Singles Link Up!

I've been reading Kelly's Korner for years and after seeing the awesome stories of singles finding each other through Show Us Your Singles. I finally decided to take the plunge this time and write about one of my very favorite singles, my cousin Krystal!

Krystal is almost 27 years old, from the Dallas/Fort Worth area. She grew up in Euless and now lives in Bedford. First and foremost, Krystal is a follower of Jesus whose faith is the most important thing in her life. She comes from a very loving and stable family with parents that have been married for over 30 years. She has one older brother and a sister-in-law, with one nephew and another soon to be born.

Krystal graduated from college at a Christian university in Abilene and now works as an oncology nurse in the Fort Worth area. She is an absolutely beautiful girl and lives a very active life, running and doing Cross-Fit. She loves cooking, traveling, her job, her friends, and spending time out and about in the DFW area.

I know there is plenty I am leaving out, but I wanted to make this short and sweet. Krystal truly is one of the sweetest, most genuine people I know and that's not just because she's my cousin! Also, she didn't ask me to do this. It was all on my own! If you are a interested in meeting Krystal, please leave a comment here with your email address and I will see that Krystal gets it! Christian men, only, please!

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

20 and 21 months

It's hard to believe two more months have passed with our sweet little Emily. I know I am biased, but she is nothing short of amazing. She's this huge personality in a tiny little package. Emily is sweet, silly, loving, strong-willed, independent, smart, social, and happy happy happy. Of course she has her really stinkerish moments, but what almost two year-old doesn't? Her favorite thing to do that drives us crazy is run on the couch. We're still trying to figure out a discipline that works for that one. Can't exactly remove the couch or the child from the room. She is still tall and thin, but we're starting to see a little more chub on her. During her 20th month, she went through a week or so where she wasn't too interested in eating, but she's eating really well again these days. She loves to eat Honey Nut Cheerios with milk and a banana for breakfast. On Fridays, Daddy makes pancakes (or "cakes" as Emmy calls them) and she loves those as well. She also loves macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese sandwiches, pizza, and chicken nuggets from Chick-fil-a. She loves fruits and swings back and forth on which veggies she likes. Typically she likes broccoli, carrots, corn, and green beans, but some days she will refuse what was her favorite the day before. She has also begun LOVING Mexican rice.

The biggest development these past couple of months has been her verbal skills. I can't believe she is talking as much as she is! Just a couple days ago, she said her longest sentence to date- "I go under my mommy's legs." Typically she said lots of three and four word sentences, so we were very impressed with six words! This month she has started saying I love you ("Luh loo Mommy.") All of her Ws come out as Ys. She loves to drink "yater" and milk, but not juice. She says "Nanks" and "Yelcome" for "Thank you" and "You're Welcome." She repeats most of what we say and it's always surprising to see what she is going to come up with next. We never know what she is going to say. She knows so much more than we realize. She can count from one to eight, skipping four. I don't know where she learned it, because I didn't teach her! She is also learning her colors and consistently gets pink, blue, and red correct. Green and yellow are right about half of the time. She loves to sing and can tackle almost all of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." She also likes to sing "Jesus Loves Emmy" and has recently begun trying to sing parts of the ABCs. I continue to be impressed with what she picks up without us having intentionally taught her. She loves the Bible. They each have their own in Sunday School and when it is time to put them away, she never wants to let go. At home, any small book is deemed a Bible and she likes to sit and flip through the pages.

Emily is a great sleeper, but had an off week during month 20. Fortunately, we are back to normal. At this point in time, we only use the paci during naps and at night. Hopefully this will be diminishing soon. Recently she has started asking for covers when she sleeps. She also likes to carry the covers around in the house, but isn't attached to a particular blanket. She will take anything. We had our last day of MDO on Thursday, but she will be starting the summer program on June 4th. She will go two days a week instead of just one so we can keep her in the groove of school and not upset her by giving her the summer off, then sending her away two days a week after Ashlynn arrives.

Emily is FEARLESS! I am ready for her to learn a little bit of healthy fear. :) She feels safe wherever she is for the most part and has been known to take off running if I don't have her hand. Every once in awhile she pretends to be shy around new people...or even certain familiar people...but it is all an act. This little girl is NOT shy. She is very opinionated and likes to say "no" quite a bit. In short, she is our precious perfect darling angel baby. I am really going to treasure these next couple of months with just the two of us at home.

Emily, you are my love, my angel, and my little best friend! I love spending my days with you and watching you grow. I can't wait to see what God is going to do in your life! Love you more than life!

A little early morning coloring

Modeling her new outfit

Easter morning

Hunting eggs at church

Dropping them in the basket

Doing a great job!

The Easter bunny's loot


Finding eggs at Mimi and Papa's

Beautiful easter egg hunter

Giant egg!

The best family picture we could get

Playing with Mimi and Papa's foster bunny

Posing with Grandma and Grandpa Brazil

Hanging out at Mimi and Papa's house

Hanging out in the wagon

Having fun in Uncle Ken and Aunt Gretchen's pool

"Read the Bible"

Yumilicious!

Corn on the cob

I'm a bunny!

Finally loving the bumble bee rocker after a year and a half

Singing the Kindermusik Bluebird song

Friday, April 5, 2013

Favorite Children's Books

I'm linking up with Kelly today at Kelly's Korner for Show Us Your Life. Since I am a children's school librarian...or was up until a few months ago, I've got all kinds of opinions about children's books. I'm going to share a few of my favorites with you today.

Olivia

by Ian Falconer

Hands down, my most favorite book of all time is Olivia by Ian Falconer. It is about a precocious little pig who, I am quite certain, was based off of me as a child rather than the author's niece Olivia. Olivia is imaginative, helpful, bossy, creative, and even a little bit sweet. I highly recommend this book. It has several companion books that go with, so if your child falls in love with Olivia, you have many more books to share with them.

Chester's Way
by Kevin Henkes

Chester's Way is one of Kevin Henkes best mouse books in my opinion, although they are all quite spectacular. Chester and Wilson are BFFs who do EVERYTHING the same. They are absolutely inseparable and to the adult reader seem to be old soul soulmates. Their friendship is perfectly precious and the two are quite content...until Lilly (of Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse) comes along. In addition to Chester's Way, I also highly recommend Julius, the Baby of the World; Chrysanthemum; and Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse amongst others.

Officer Buckle and Gloria
by Peggy Rathmann

Officer Buckle is a policeman that goes out to schools and gives safety tips to the kids. Officer Buckle, bless his heart, is actually quite boring and the kids never seem to pay much attention until Gloria, the department's new police dog, begins to accompany him on his visits. While the story never talks much about what Gloria does on those visits, the pictures show us without even needing words. This story is just plain fun!

The Hallo-Wiener
by Dav Pilkey

Aptly named Oscar has a hard time fitting in with the other dogs at school. Oscar is a sweet and svelte dachshund and his classmates are just a bunch of mutts. Regardless of that fact, they feel the need to poke fun at Oscar any chance they get for his "unusual shape and size." Things just get worse when Oscar's mother makes him a hot dog costume for Halloween. Kind dog that Oscar is, he saves the day when they find themselves in trouble on Halloween night.

The Rhyme Bible Storybook
by Linda Sattgast

This is an absolutely wonderful children's Bible, set as a book of rhyming stories rather than the traditional book, chapter, and verse Bible. We found this to be an awesome Bible to read to our young daughter at bedtime. Not only are the stories told succinctly and interestingly to children, but the pictures are beautiful as well.

I have so many more books that I would love to recommend, but simply don't have the time! Here are a few more titles/authors listed below. All of these books are for pre-school/early elementary children.

Old Bear/Kevin Henkes

The Very Hungry Caterpillar/Eric Carle

Brown Bear, Brown Bear/Bill Martin Jr.

Mr. Brown Can Moo/Dr. Seuss

Goodnight, Goodnight Construction Site/Sherri Duskey Rinker

I Want My Hat Back/Jon Klassen (Funny! Probably more for elementary aged kids.)

Knuffle Bunny/Mo Willems

Scaredy Squirrel/Melanie Watt

Click, Clack, Moo: Cows that Type/Doreen Cronin

A Bad Case of Stripes/David Shannon

Skippyjon Jones/Judy Schachner

George and Martha/James Marshall

The Complete Adventures of Big Dog and Little Dog/Dav Pilkey
Llama Llama Red Pajama/Anna Dewdney

If you are the parent of a young child, consider checking out the list of Texas 2x2 books. These are the best books selected each year by Texas librarians for children ages two through second grade.

Boy or Girl?

In my blog hiatus, I have missed blogging about most of the pregnancy thus far! It is so different being a second time mommy because you're so busy with the first baby that you don't have time to document what's going on with the second one. Fortunately, this pregnancy has been almost an exact replica of my pregnancy with Emily, so if I want to remember what was going on with this one, I just need to look at the documentation from the first one.

Everything has been going great! As I said in my last post, I was absolutely exhausted all the way up to 16 weeks, which is certainly longer than I felt exhausted with Emily. This is a whole different kind of tired. How do you rest when you're chasing a toddler around all day? I'll tell you how. You don't.

Typially our doctor can tell the baby's gender at 16 weeks, so we were expecting to find out about this little one over a month ago. Unfortunately, baby wasn't cooperating and the doctor guessed boy from that she could see. We went back a week later to confirm, and this time the doctor was pretty sure it was a girl, but still not 100% sure. We were a little frustrated because we were planning a gender reveal party while Lucas' parents were in town, but we decided it was better to wait until we knew for sure before we told people.

At our 20 week appointment, we met with the sonographer who specializes in 20 week ultrasounds. This is the big ultrasound where they take extensive shots to measure everything and make sure everything is growing and developing right. And fortunately, our little one looked perfect. We are so thankful to God for the health of our growing little one. Not only that, but we were also able to finally find out our little one's gender. See the pics below from our little party to find out!

Emily getting ready for the party!

Our little family of three...for a few more months!

What do you think? Boy or girl?

Almost everyone voted boy!

It's a GIRL! Ashlynn Kate is on her way and Emily is getting a little sister!

Thursday, April 4, 2013

18th and 19th months

What can I say? I guess I'm a bad mom to have completely missed her 18 month update and to be a couple weeks late on the 19 month update. Either a bad mom or a ridiculously busy and pregnant mom. I'm going to go with the latter. I hardly got any pictures of the 18th month and only a few of 19. I felt like a zombie for the first 16 weeks of the pregnancy and have only emerged back to the land of the living the past month or so. Fortunately I wasn't sick, just very VERY exhausted. These days, I'm just tired. So, here we go on an attempt to chronicle the past couple of months.

Basically, Emily is no longer a baby. At 18 months, she could say quite a few words and make lots of animal noises. At 19 months, I feel like she's basically a talker. About every third word is clear and understandable and she communicates really well. She loves animals and making their noises and talks to us constantly. Every day she learns more words. I can't even begin to write down all the words she knows. I know every parent thinks their child is smart, and we are no different. She's basically a genius. Emily finally enjoys going to school and also loves Kindermusik. Her favorite foods are pizza, pasta, yogurt, carrots, blueberries, bananas, strawberries, fruit snacks, and anything not good for her. She doesn't like meat and has gone back and forth between loving and hating green beans. She knows most of her body parts and can say the names and point to them both on herself and on others. She loves to watch Backyardigans, Bubble Guppies, and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood. Emily still has a bit of separation anxiety when I leave her at church and sometimes at Jazzercise childcare, but it's pretty random. She loves her great-grandparents and has shortened the names "Grandma" and "Grandpa" to "Ma" and "Pa." Pretty cute. She loves to color and has so many toys that she just kind of runs back and forth between them. She doesn't seem to have a clear favorite, although she loves her baby dolls. Emily is OBSESSED with beds. She is constantly wanting to get on any bed she sees. I think it makes her feel like a big girl. We are slowly weaning her off the pacifier and now she only uses it to sleep- we no longer take it with us when we go places where we have to leave her, with the exception of school (for naptime.) Ever since she learned to run, she rarely walks, and her main goal in life is to get to and up the stairs without us seeing her. Her fits are less frequent now that she can communicate better, but she still has her moments. Recently, if she isn't getting her way (mostly when we are trying to steer her in the opposite direction she wants to go,) she just throws herself on the floor...especially in public. She likes to read, but still doesn't LOVE it. She has particular books she really likes and wants those same ones read over and over again. She is sleeping great (as usual) and hasn't really woken up at night for the past couple months. Blowing bubbles and playing outside is her own personal Heaven. She loves to drink milk and water, but isn't interested in juice. She loves to look at picture albums and point out who the people are that she sees. She can't say "love" so instead of saying "I love mommy," she just says "I...mommy!" "I...daddy!" Puppies and kitties (meows) are her favorite animals and she has recently begun to really love our dogs. We think she's about to cut her two year molars, but they haven't broken through yet. She is off the charts big. At 18 months, she was 35 inches (way off the percentile charts) and 27 pounds, around 80th percentile. Her head was around 90th percentile, which basically makes her very proportionate, but TALL.

Emily is the love of our lives and we can't imagine life without this amazing little girl.