Back Again:)

Hello All!

Well as you can tell by my lack of posts, I've been just a little busy this summer:)
Growing a baby and keeping up with a 2 year old, plus work, lots of family time and several trips have kept me hopping!

Things are going well these days as I have gotten through the worst of my pregnancy sickness. (I was vomitting all day for the first 18 weeks:( But praise God that so far, everything looks great with baby!! I had an early ultrasound at 6 weeks and 9 weeks to check on baby as I had 2 early miscarriages in between Emma and baby #2.....both scans looked normal. Then 2 weeks ago I had my anatomy scan at 19.5 weeks and we got a good glimpse at baby's gender:) It looked to be pretty obvious to us and the tech who confirmed that what we were looking at most definitely looked to be a boy:) Mommy was not surprised as this is what I had been feeling the whole time:) We are so excited to get to experience both and feel that God is truly blessing us with this second miracle!!
The only causes for concern in my heart right now are the fact that we were not able to get a very good look at baby's spine, so my doctor ordered another scan in a week to try and get a better look just to make sure everything looks ok. The other slight concern being that I have a very low-lying placenta this time which can cause bleeding and could end in bedrest or a c-section. But the important thing is that it poses no real risk to baby! It is also something that often times will correct itself as the pregnancy progresses so just something to keep praying about:)

Now a little on Miss Em!
2 1/2 years old and crazy as ever:) She has more personality than any other little gal I know! She is halarious, opinionated, sweet, helpful, detailed, stubborn, and has a widely growing imagination. She is so fun to just sit and watch and listen to! All in all, she's a great little girl. She has given us several challenges as parents all ready with her routine protests about nap and bedtimes, and with our attempts at potty training. But I try to remember that she loves people and being active, so settling down to spend any amount of time in solidarity is not going to be something that she enjoys. And as far as going potty goes....she remembers probably 40% of the time, goes 90% of the time that we remember to take her, and is still only 2..:) I am also pledging to do a better job at consisitantly taking her and trying big girl undies more now that I don't spend a large portion of my day being sick:P
In other news, she is learning her shapes and colors, loves her magnetic dolls, littlest pet shop pets, and Alvin and the chipmunks. She still is a music fanatic and has developed an interest in cheerleading after going to her first football game with mommy and daddy.
She's exhausting and wonderful and we wouldn't trade her for anything in the world. She's such a blessing and we can't wait to introduce her to her baby brother sometime around the end of January/first of February:)!!!

Hope you all are loving fall as much as we are!

Much love from the Van Dykes

June Update

Hello Everyone!
Sorry it has been awhile, but life's been crazy busy! We had 2 trips to Carroll in May, a weekend at the lake for Memorial Day, a whirlwind trip to Missouri beginning of June, and are getting ready to leave for vacation to Colorado next week! I had also been working out at James Greenhouse for the months of April and May on top of my clients in the shop. RJ has been umping little league games, playing slow-pitch softball, and having his regular city council meetings also. Yikes!
It's hard to know where to begin with an update on little Miss! She is growing like crazy and maturing by the day! She talks in full sentences and a few new favorites are:
Where'd that come from?
What's that noise?
I'm silly like _______
No, not exactly...
It's a bright sunny day!
Oh, my dear!

A few current favorite activities:
"Reading" she will sit and thumb through her books telling her own version :)
Playing doctor/check up with my cheap doctor kit find:)
Playing "girls" -her wooden magnetic dolls
Talking to our families on the phone
Legos

Favorite foods:
chili
cucumbers
pineapple
wheat thins
baked beans

She continues to be a great sleeper, averaging 10-11 hours at night, (last night was a full 12 hours!) And she takes an afternoon nap usually about an hour and a half.
No more highchairs or booster seats for this girl! She sits like the big kids:)
Still working on the potty training gig. She does really well at using the potty when we are diligent at taking her to go, but rarely keeps a pull-up dry between potty breaks;P (I could probably really buckle down, get strict and get it done, but with all our trips, I haven't been pushing it, knowing that to stop every 1/2 hour to try and go would result in some horribly long drives:)

We hope everyone's summers are off to a great start!

I will leave you with some pics of our awesome little girl!!:)

Sleep update

I know that most of you reading this do not care, but for journaling sake, I must post again.
It has only been about a week since Emma's new sleep routine started and the changes are AMAZING! She has clocked in 3 nights in a row now of not waking up once!!
I can't believe what a difference I have noticed in myself just getting that extra couple hours of good sleep in my own bed:) I am a more patient mommy and Emma is a happier little girl!
And not only has her nighttime sleeping improved but her naps are longer and much less of a struggle, plus she is waking up HAPPY! In the past she often woke up from naptime VERY cranky... I wasn't sure the changes would stick at Nana's house because Emma knows how much her Nana loves to take naps with her, but on the first try she went to sleep right away and slept for 2 1/2 hours!!:) Mommy was proud and Nana was impressed;D
Another plus is that RJ and I again have our time together to chat, play cards, or catch up on a few of our favorite shows before turning in at night. (When battling Emma to go to sleep, we lost a lot of this precious time and I often fell asleep waiting for her to nod off:)
I do NOT have any regrets about the times spent snuggling with our little girl, but we knew it was time. I miss the extra snuggles.. but I am loving our newfound sleep routine!!!

End of April news

Well, it's official: we are the parents of a 2 year old!
She had a wonderful and simple party with lots of people who love her and apparently love to spoil her...
Being a parent is getting harder and more wonderful every day! I'm enjoying her more and more and getting challenged each day as well. She's got a little bit of a of two-year-old 'tude, shall we say, and we're working on finding the balance between correcting and ignoring;)
We have also began correcting her poor sleeping habits that started just before we made the switch to a toddler bed. We had to lay with her for her to fall asleep and as of late she had really started dragging out her bedtime routine which was getting quite exhausting. She would wake up often in the night wanting me to lay with her or come into our room to climb into bed with us. We felt it was time to let her find her own way to get to sleep.
I got some great tips from our family doctor at her 2 year well child check-up and Wednesday night we put it in play.: We read books with her before bed as we did before but we do it now out in the family room and not in her bedroom. When we take her to her room, it is to lay her down, give hugs/kisses, say a prayer/song, and with the reassurance that we love her and will be in to get her in the morning...the door is closed and the baby gate goes up.
This was not nearly as easy to do as it was to type! The first night broke my heart as she cried for mommy to come hold her, "please Mommy, please!" It was honestly one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. Luckily for Mommy and Daddy it only lasted for 20 minutes and she was asleep! We had tried letting her cry a few times before and it had drug on much longer..:( She still woke up during the night once or twice...
Night #2 and 3 she cried for about 10-15 minutes and woke up only once before morning. Upon which Mommy went in, gave her a hug and told I would be in to get her when it was morning.
Saturday night we were out of town and without her own room, she cuddled with Mommy and Daddy:) (I was a little worried about the interrupting of her new routine...) But back home Sunday night and she went to sleep after about 5 minutes and woke up just for a minute or 2 at 4:30.
Today she went down for her nap with just a couple sad whines and slept for nearly 2 hours! That is awesome for her! (She usually fights naps pretty bad and doesn't sleep for more than an hour most days:)
Tonight I am proud to say that after Mommy telling her she would come get her in the morning she cried out once, reassured herself, "Mommy come get you in mornin," and was out.
So to any parents struggling with tough sleepers, be encouraged! I didn't think I could do it, but I'm so glad I did and am so proud of my little girl! She is growing up too fast!!!

A different kind of entry...

To my Emma:

I don't have all the answers
I don't know the perfect way.
I don't always know just what to do
or know just what to say.

But I know I love you more
than you will ever know.
And will do all that I can
to help you as you grow.

So many different methods
and so much advice on how to.
But none of them are made
specifically for or about you.

I hope to give you just as much grace
and forgiveness as I hope to receive.
As I help you grow and learn and change
and teach you to believe.

My heart soars just watching you
and tears come to my eyes
when I think of Papa looking out for you
from way up in the skies.

You are my pride and joy
and I love you more each day.
"I love you too mommy,"
is my favorite phrase you say.

You will always have my heart
and my baby you'll always be.
No one will ever love you like I do
I'm so thankful God gave you to me.

23 months old!

Over a week ago, our baby girl turned 23 months old. I don't get too sentimental about all the little month birthdays, but this one hurts a little. In less than a month she will be 2....not a baby at all. I am not an extremely emotional person, and yet several times in the past week I've found tears in my eyes thinking about her birthday. I was ready for one...I'm not ready for two... If this is how fast the birthdays go by from now on, I may turn in to a basket case!
She talks constantly, and any of you who have been around her at all, know I am not exaggerating. She talks about everything, to everyone, all the time:) She tells every worker at every store thank you, and says hi to each and everyone we pass on our walks. She's hilarious; and will often tell you, "I funny!"
She coaxes smiles out of random strangers, she rarely walks...she dances, but we say she's like the Iowa weather....her mood can turn on a dime! I don't know if it's her age, gender, or personality, but she can go from giggles to fits and back again like nothing!
She's an outdoors girl like her mama and the very first thing she asks in the morning when she gets up and after her nap is always, "I pay outsiiiide?"
Her current favorite song is BINGO, and can be heard singing, "Clap, clap G-O, clap, clap G-O" about 13 times a day:) She was introduced to chocolate milk recently and it's her favorite special treat....even trumping m&m's;P
We had several days of potty time success where she started telling us she had to go and sat on her potty chair to go, and we got super excited:) But the excitement seems to have waned and she stopped telling us when she had to go:P Little stinker! But I told myself long ago that I would not push it or even bring it up before 2. So I'm not going to get upset about it yet. I was planning on waiting till summer anyway and we can wear lots of skirts for easy "access" and maybe even just go pantless for a couple days and go cold turkey. We shall see! All in time!
Today we are going to see the Easter bunny and we had to have a countdown to keep her from going crazy asking every hour, "I see Easter bunny?" She caught a glimpse of him last time we were at the mall, but said she was scared. We of course took that to mean she didn't want to sit with him and headed home. We've had many meltdowns since.... so back we go!
We are meeting RJ's parents there too and they are taking Emma home while RJ and I meet up with my family to see Tim Hawkins! I can't wait! It should shape up to be a fantastic weekend!

Well Happy (almost) Easter everyone!

22 month update: I remembered pictures this time!

I'm so excited that spring is almost here! And regardless of the nice winter that we have been blessed with, I'm SOOOO ready for nicer weather. We have a mama and a little girl who really need some outdoor time again. Cabin fever has struck and the grumpies visit far too often:P
However, I seriously cannot believe that in (gulp) less than two months, I will have a 2 year old. I remember this time last year being almost giddy with excitement over her upcoming birthday. The 1st birthday party was so exciting and I was loving her getting more mobile and independent. I have loved year #2 almost more, and so this year is much different. I would like her to stay at this age for a few more years... Almost every day during some point I look at her and think, she's a big girl now:( Even if it does mean getting her own snacks without supervision:P
Emma is a very sensitive little thing, she is super busy all the time, and talks as much as she plays! She does very well with her please and thank-you's (especially in public..I think she's a good actress too:) and she loves to entertain. She is a hard-core colorer, and does pretty good with markers too. We tried finger paints last week and she didn't like getting her fingers so "dirty" and we spent most of the time wiping them off:) And if she's not coloring or singing, she is probably playing mommy to her zoo of stuffed animals; tucking them into bed and rocking them♥
She's still obsessed with animals and can count to 10 easily....she has picked out a few of her colors correctly lately too, but not consistantly. We're still working on the ABC's.
She goes to bed between 8:30 and 9:00 and usually gets up between 6 and 7. Most nights she wakes up a time or two just long enough for mommy to come to her room and give her some cuddles.
She has had several sleep-overs in the past couple of months (Nana's, Grammy's, Auntie's, and Lacie's) and I have mixed feelings over how much easier she lets me leave... She has so much fun and it gives mommy and daddy some nice time to ourselves, but of course we're always anxious to get her back:)

Things that Miss Em currently loves:
Barney
Caillou
Dora
Fruit snacks
Cucumbers
Mac N cheese
Pizza
flashlights
trying on shoes
and getting her haircut:)!!!!!