12 days...

...until my due date. The last couple weeks have gone by pretty quickly. The baby has definitely dropped down in my belly. Sometimes it feels like there's a bowling ball pressing on my bladder, but other times it doesn't feel much different. It must depend on the baby's position. This Friday my doctor is going to do an ultrasound to check the level of my amniotic fluid and to try to measure the baby. At each visit they measure the size of my belly and the last couple times it's measured less than it normally would. She thinks that this is probably because the baby has been moving down, which causes the belly to seem smaller when they measure. She justs wants to do it as a precaution.

I've been feeling fine other than not sleeping very well, but that's pretty typical at this point in pregnancy. I've been going to be early to try to make up for it. Luckily since daylight savings Lila has been getting up later as well, so I get more sleep in the morning. It's a tradeoff though as now she's not going to be until later, but I think this is will be the best schedule for us when the baby comes. Roman is taking three separate, small trips this week to get loose ends tied up, so I'm hoping the baby doesn't decide it wants out yet. He won't be very far from home though, so if I were to go into labor he'd probably be able to make it back in time.

Lila continues to be a chatter box. She's definitely almost two--wanting to do things her way, wanting what she wants when she wants it, etc. Overall though, I'd say she'd pretty well-behaved. The time-out still continues to deter her (most of the time). I think she's going through, or has gone through, a growth spurt. She's taller and a little leaner than she was a couple months ago. And she's telling us she's "hungy, hungy" all the time. I'm not sure she really is, as sometimes she'll tell us after she's eaten a bunch of food. I'm guessing she's just learned the word gets her more food, and usually fun food, like crackers or apple sauce.

The baby's room is still not totally complete, but we're done with most of it. There are a couple things I'd like to do, but if they don't get done before he/she arrives it won't be the end of the world. My mom is going to come over this weekend and help us so we can get some of the little projects done around here. We need an extra set of hands to entertain Lila if we are to get anything done really.

I forgot something in the previous post about my dad. I wanted to say thank you to everyone who came to the funeral, called, sent cards, and for all nice sentiments we've received since he passed away. It really helps to know people care, and to hear stories and nice things about my dad. Thanks again to all of you!

Well, that's all for now. Recent pictures below. Unless I get ambitious, the next post will probably be after the baby arrives.


She put my sports bra and workout shorts on over her dress.



Grana Nana was leaving with Noli and Lila was trying to go with.

We rearranged the family room upstairs to make it more of a playroom. That's her blue and white tent you see on the left side of the photo.

The table and one chair I stained for Lila. The other chair is on the list to finish this weekend.

My cleaning lady

At my dad's house. My Uncle Pat got Lila these sunglasses the day we arrived in MN. She was obsessed with them, and still asks for her "sungasses" everytime we go for a walk. Most of the time they are on upside down, just like in the photo.

My Dad

I'm sure most of you reading this know that my dad passed away suddenly two weeks ago. I wanted to post some pictures of him.

I'll do a separate post with an update about Lila and our family.

Valentine's Day 1978, I was 5 months old.

August 1981, almost 4 years old

Papa and Lila (6 months)

June 2008 (Lila 14 months)

38 days and counting...

If the title doesn't say enough, I'll elaborate. I have 38 days left until the baby is due. I've been going to the doctor every two weeks for a while now, but after my appt. next week I will have to start going every week. My doctor's office is an hour from our house, so I'm not really looking forward to making the trip every week, at least it's only for the last four weeks. I feel like my belly is HUGE!! And yes, below you will find a picture of it. Thus far I've managed to avoid any stretch marks, but I'm not to the end yet, so we'll see. I feel as though it's stretched to it's max capacity, esp. after I eat. My stomach is so squished that after I eat my sides hurt, like maybe my stomach is pressing on my uterus, which is then expanding our sideways since it has no where else to go. Needless to say, I've been trying to eat small meals.

As for things around the house, we are still working on the baby's room. It seems we have so many projects in the works right now it's hard to prioritize. Roman has been working on the lawn and I have been trying to get a table and chairs stained for Lila--don't worry, there are no fumes I shouldn't be inhaling. I got ambitious the other day and made a "bow board" so we could easily keep track of all the bows and clips for her hair. This weekend it will be back to the baby's room and hopefully we'll get that mostly complete.

Lila is doing really great! She is funny as ever and changing weekly. I can't believe how much she's changed really, just in the last couple months. She is so much her own person now, and has started throwing real fits when she gets upset. Yesterday she threw herself on the ground and screamed and cried for at least five minutes because I put the leftover peas in the fridge and wouldn't give them to her. She learns new words and phrases everyday as well. On our way to school on Monday she was in her carseat saying "Mommy Daddy come gets me". She was at Grana Nana's house on Sunday and my mom told her that Mommy and Daddy we coming to get her, so I guess she was just making sure we were going to pick her up from school too.

Here are the latest pictures, and a video at the bottom.

Lila lost her hair clip at school, so the teacher used a binder to keep her hair out of her eyes. Roman thought she looked goofy, but I thought it was cute!

Valentine's Day gifts from Grana Nana and Kent

She kept asking for her "sungasses" when I'd take her for a walk, so I dug them out. She wanted to wear them around the house.

The bow board I made

You can't have my book!

Week 35

Lila has suddenly started counting up to 20. She skips some numbers, but none-the-less, she's counting. I'm not sure if she's learning it at school or from Sesame Street. The video is a bit bouncy because she kept moving.

Baby names

Roman and I are having a hard time coming up with baby names. Particularly boy names. He likes traditional names (think Christian, Alexander) and I like names that aren't as traditional (think Tate, Levi). So...I thought it would be fun to see if any of you had suggestions for names. Just click below where it says "comments" in small print and leave your ideas. If you get this update via email click on "Anguiano Family" at the top of the email and it will take you to the blog and you can post a comment there. I can't wait to hear what you all have to say!

Work in progress

There are quite a few different sets of pictures in this update so I'm going to try to do this update in sections.

First, our weekend project...

We spent the weekend working on the Lila's and the baby's rooms. Saturday Lila's new bed and dresser were delivered and Grana Nana and Kent came over to help us move everything around. We took the stuff out of Lila's room and put it in the baby's room, and moved her new furniture in. We also put up the crib from Nana's house in Lila's room, so it's a bit of a hodge-podge right now. She still really likes sleeping in a crib and doesn't show any signs of wanting out, so we're going to let her sleep in one as long as she likes. Easier for us anyway. Roman had put up a ceiling fan in Lila's room several months ago and put one up in the baby's room on Sunday. We haven't really decorated the rooms so we still have some other things to do and buy to make them complete. Once the rooms are done I'll post more photos.



The baby's room "before"--yes, it's pretty small!



Baby's room with furniture









Lila's room with her new furniture





Obviously we don't have a mattress for her bed yet. It has a trundle underneath that can be used as storage if no mattress is in it, which is what we will use it as for now. I don't think she's going to be having any sleep overs for a while.




Her new dresser

The next couple photos are from our recent trip to the zoo. We went with our friends Wally and Soha, and their two girls. Lila loved all the animals! She was especially interested in all the different types of monkeys and the tigers.

Mommy and Lila on the merry-go-round.

Wall with his daughter, Ariyan, and Lila.

Lila and Daddy by the monkey cage.

We went out to breakfast the other weekend for Grandma Frances's birthday. Lila was snuggling up to Grandma.

Gabi, Lila, and Sofia

Kent, Lila, and Nana

Roman took this great photo of Grana Nana and Lila a couple weeks ago.

Sultan Lila. She put one of Roman's shirts on her head and paraded around the living room.

Things with our family are moving right along, as always. This is week 31 of pregnancy for me, so we've got 9 weeks to go! My doctor's appointments are every two weeks now and uneventful. This weekend we are planning to finish cleaning out the baby's room and next Saturday we'll get Lila's new furniture and move her furniture into the baby's room.

We've also decided to use a doula for this labor and delivery. A doula basically helps mom cope with the labor, to avoid a lot of the interventions that normally occur in hospital births. We found one we really like named Jami. She is a nurse at a local school and has been working as a doula both on her own, and helping at a birthing center, for five years. She recommended a birthing class at the birthing center and we will start that next week. Roman has to do some travelling, but I'm hoping he will be able to attend as many of the classes as possible. We never took a birthing class when pregnant with Lila as I thought it would scare me more than help me. This class is designed to teach techniques to manage the labor pain, so I'm excited about going.

Lila is ever changing! Every week it seems she's getting a little more particular about her world. Things that normally she wouldn't have an issue with have now become small (or big) battles. She doesn't want us to brush her teeth or change her diaper. She wants to get in the carseat by herself, and says "self, self" and then is upset about being restrained while we're driving. She wants to assert her independence and have her way more and more. I guess that's what it's like as they approach two years old. Luckily she still listens pretty well--the time out still holds it's power. She likes to run off and explore when we're out and about though, so I have been searching for a double stroller as I'll surely need it once the baby comes. I'm hoping to find one used as they can be quite expensive!

Lila's vocabulary is still expanding rapidly. The other day after we got home from the park she was telling me "san booey, san booey" over and over. I couldn't figure out when she was saying until she tried to reach down the back of her pants. She had sand in her diaper and was telling me "sand, bootie". I was laughing so hard and she was just staring at me wondering what the heck I was laughing at. Then this morning when I sneezed she said "Bess you mommy". Too cute for words!

Roman and I have been playing around quite a bit with the new camera, so we have quite a few photos.

Lila loves Minnie Mouse and it always asking "Meeny Muss?"

She always has little dinner parties with Minnie and Elmo. She puts them at the table and feeds thems food from her kitchen.

Still obsessed with putting on our shoes.

More Videos

Last post I mentioned the video upload wasn't working. Once again, I've managed to get a couple uploaded separately from that post. For most of you who get this via email it's going to be much faster to go to the blog site to see the videos than to download them. Just click on the title of this post above, "Move Videos", and it'll take you there.

Lila has been talking so much in the last couple weeks, it's amazing. It's like someone flipped a switch and all these things that were in her brain all this time are coming out verbally. In all that talking she's discovered the word "mine". We have no idea how as we don't say "mine". If she has something of ours we tell her "that's mommy's" or "that's daddy's" so we can only guess she picked it up from one of the kids at school.

It seems everyday she's saying new words and phrases and asking us to do things for her. It's such a fun, exciting time for us! Both of the videos are of her talking. The first one is her telling me what/who she wants to watch on TV. The second is her singing a song. At the end of Sesame Street there's a segment just for Elmo called Elmo's World. He has a little intro song he sings and one day she just started singing it. You can hear me sing a bit of it in the video to understand what she's singing.