It's a GIRL!

Now that I'm well into my 2nd trimester, I am feeling much better and my appetite is increasing. I have gained a whole 5 pounds now. I know, not much, but I'm sure I will catch up in no time. I had my 20 week checkup on December 22nd, and found out we are expecting another beautiful baby girl! We are so excited. The baby looks healthy and is measuring well.

We decided to keep the baby's gender a secret until Christmas morning, which was lots of fun. MOST of my friends and family thought for sure I was going to have a boy. As soon as people hear that I didn't feel well this pregnancy, but I was fine with Keira, they were like, "Oh it's definitely a boy." I don't believe in such old wive's tales. Every pregnancy is different and the baby's gender has nothing to do with it. So I wasn't surprised to find out we're having another girl, but lots of other people were. I bought a pink onesie and stenciled a bib to say, "It's a GIRL!" and put them on one of Keira's teddy bears. I brought it to church with me Christmas morning to show my family.

I'm amazed how much earlier I have been able to feel the baby's kicks. I know that when I was pregnant with Keira, I didn't feel solid kicks until after 20 weeks. This time, I have been able to SEE my belly moving and every day around 8 PM, she's in there performing a dance routine of some kind. Art has been able to feel several kicks. I don't believe that it's just that I'm more aware of the kicks. I'm pretty sure if my belly was visibly poking out during kicks that I would have been able to tell there was something going on in there. Keira was an EXTREMELY active baby. My theory is that you either a) grow more nerves in your uterus after the first pregnancy or b) your uterus is thinner from being stretched out from the first pregnancy. There has to be a physiological reason why you have more feeling in subsequent pregnancies.

So now begins the task of choosing a name. The number of hours in labor is minimal compared to the number of hours spent agonizing over a name. I'm undecided as to which process is more painful. Art and I don't easily agree on names, which is why we didn't even bother to start thinking about names until we knew what direction to go. I'm in the process of forming the "long list" then I will hand it over to Art to cross out and add to. This will probably be going on until after the baby is born, with the nurse coming in every hour to ask if we have a name yet. Technically you don't have to have a name picked out when you leave the hospital, but I fear what might happen if we did that. We'd have a 3 year old daughter running around answering to "Baby." Oh wait, we already do. :)

First Trimester Recap

I am already in my second trimester! Time flies when you're laying on the couch sleeping and/or suffering from a constant stomach ache. Still no baby bump to show for it, but I'm working on it.

I had my 12 week checkup on Halloween morning and everything looks fine. I haven't gained any weight at all, which means I have technically lost a pound or two. By this time with Keira, I had already gained about 6 pounds, but I felt much better when I was pregnant with her than I do now. Plus, when I got pregnant with Keira I only weighed 105 pounds. This time I started out at a little healthier weight, 112. Being that I have a 7 pound head start, I'm not concerned about the fact that I haven't gained any weight yet.

The doctor did a quick ultrasound to take a peek at the baby and I definitely have another wiggly baby in there just like big sister. It's arms and legs were waving like crazy. Here is the ultrasound picture, which shows a very good profile, but only managed to capture one foot.

I haven't had a very good appetite due to the constant stomach ache, and I have to eat small meals at a time or else it gives me diarrhea. Sorry if that's TMI, but it's the truth. Turns out my morning sickness acts in reverse. Instead of living on refried beans and Mexican rice like I did with Keira, I have been eating an abundance of Ling Ling potstickers and pumpkin pie. Not at the same time though, that would be gross. If I do eat Mexican food, it has to be something crunchy like nachos, taquitos, or tacos. Thankfully, now that I am easing into my second trimester my stomach situation is improving.

I am already waking up once or twice a night to go pee. One night I had to get up FIVE TIMES! That worried me, but it hasn't happened since. The only other ailment I have been tolerating is a bad pain in the bones in my lower back area. The doctor says it's just from my ligaments and tendons loosening. I can even hear/feel something in my back pop when I walk sometimes. The pain was really bothering me for the past couple weeks, but it seems to be getting better. I just have to take it easy.

On a happier note, on Sunday Art and I were sitting at the kitchen table looking at newspaper ads and I felt a pretty good baby thump! I told Art right when it happened and he was in disbelief. I can't wait until he can feel them too.

My Big 3 Year Old

The New Addition

'Twas the night of September 4th and I was feeling antsy. My period was a couple days late and I demanded answers. I talked to Art before he left for work and pleaded with him to buy me a pregnancy test, not really expecting him to do so. Art believed from my past experiences that taking a test would make me immediately start my period. I decided that in the morning if he didn't show up with a test, that I would save my pee in a cup until I could go to the store and get one myself. Much to my surprise, he actually bought one so I hurriedly took it and quickly received the positive result I had been praying for for nearly 2 years.

I patiently waited for my 8 week appointment, and got to see the baby on an ultrasound October 3rd. We saw a heartbeat and the baby is nestled snugly in my uterus.

I didn't experience ANY morning sickness when I was pregnant with Keira, so I was caught by surprise when around 7 weeks I began to feel nauseous all day every day. I am just shy of 9 weeks and there has been no improvement. I have been SUPER exhausted. I take a nap every day and spend the rest of the day on the couch. My house is a disaster, my husband and daughter are neglected, and I can't remember the last time I cooked a meal. Thus is the nature of the first trimester. Just the beginning of many sacrifices to come during the incubation of our beloved baby, who is scheduled to appear in mid-May.

Road Trip

Last weekend Art, Keira, my mom, and I got to take a trip to northern California for my cousin Blake's wedding reception. We stayed at my mom's aunt's cabin in Oroville Friday night, then went to the reception in Yuba City on Saturday and stayed at Aunt Joy's cabin again that night. Then Sunday morning, Aunt Joy and Uncle Ken took us out on their boat which was awesome. Keira LOVED it. I have never seen her more relaxed. She even fell asleep on the way back in, which is miraculous if you understand the fact that she DOES NOT fall asleep anywhere but her own house or her car seat.

Cousin Blake and Shawni Westmoreland's Wedding Reception at Grandpa Bud Peter's House

Krysta, Art, and Keira with Great Uncle Ken and Aunt Joy Arnold

Mom and Aunt Joy on the Boat

Sunday evening we drove from the eastern side of the state to the western side and stayed at Art's grandparent's house in the bay area. I have previously explained in great detail how much we love his grandparents. We stayed there for 2 nights and came home Tuesday evening. This was our longest trip to date- 4 nights away from home. Up until now we haven't stayed anywhere longer than 2 nights.

Navarro Family - Grandpa George and Grandma Kathy Navarro, Art, Krysta, and Keira Martinez, Uncle Georgie and Becky Navarro, Susan (Suzy), Sophia, Elena, Nick, and Nick Martinez, Jr.., Cousin Lexi Mata (Becky's daughter), Aunt Colleen and Cousin Hailey Spofford, Aunt Annette and Todd Tognetti.

Martinez Siblings - Arthur, Sophia, and Nick

Keira and Daddy swimming in Grandma Kathy's pool.

It was so awesome to spend time with both my family and his in the same weekend. Family is important to us and we like to spend as much time as we can with them. As a result, I can tell that Keira is building relationships with her extended family that she would otherwise miss out on. She already wants to go back to Oroville for another boat ride with her Great Great Aunt and Uncle and go swimming with her Great Grandma Kathy and Papa George. I know she will have fond memories of the time she spends with them, because I do too.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

The top 3 reasons how I know my daughter has OCD:

1: She puts her movies in neat rows. She does the same thing with shoes.

2. When choosing a straw to drink from, first she picked all of the yellow ones (except the one she missed) then moved on to the blue ones, then she will use the red ones. If you grab the wrong color she gets mad and picks out the right one. Next time I buy straws I will try to find a pack that's all the same color.

3. Since she was a baby, she has had a soft blanket and as a comfort she puts one corner of the blanket on/in her nose and feels it and "sniffs" it. She always uses the same corner and she knows if it's the wrong one. She will feel each corner until she finds the correct one to hold.

I'm sure Art and I are to blame for her personality since I am the type of person who likes things very clean, uncluttered, correct, and organized. Art is the type of person who likes things just how he left them and doesn't want anyone to touch his stuff. Keira seems to be a pretty particular person too, and hopefully she will be able to harness that to her benefit in life.

Progress Report

I have been practicing my flute nigh unto every day since it arrived 3 weeks ago. Here is a sample of what I can do so far.

Happy Birthday for Kyle since today is his birthday.


Love is a Song - Bambi


Over the Rainbow - Wizard of Oz

The Bird Box

Today Keira was playing with an empty box that jewelry comes in, pretending that there were birds inside. So, I made her imagination come to life and printed out birds and a nest for her to play with.

The nest and mama bird are attached and the hungry baby birds are loose. She calls it her "Bird Box" and she thinks it's pretty cool.

A Dream Come True

When you're poor like me, it seems more often than not that you have to focus on what you need and make yourself forget about what you want. No income is ever "extra" so when money comes along, there is always some bill or need to eat it up. So, naturally, when I got the idea that I wanted a flute, I thought it to be a distant dream instead of something I might acquire anytime soon. Lucky for me, my Uncle Mark decided to make my dream come true and surprised me with a gorgeous Gemeinhardt 2sp - the number one top selling student flute. It arrived at my house one week and two days ago and I can hardly put it down.

My only prior experience with a flute was in about 7th grade or so at which time I played clarinet in the school band of about 8 kids. I think we had 4 clarinet players, 3 trumpet players, and one trombone. We were a pretty pathetic band and our teacher only taught us to play by finger numbers instead of notes so we really didn't learn properly. Well, one time we came across a song that had a short flute solo in it and the band teacher recalled having come across a couple flutes in the school shed so my friend Ashley and I volunteered to learn the flute solo and play our clarinets the rest of the song. The flutes we used looked like someone had been bludgeoned to death with them... twice. They were awful. So, I guess you could say my desire to own a flute wasn't entirely a wild hair, and may or may not have been fueled by a flute performance at church on Easter Sunday.

Despite not learning to read clarinet music, I had taken some piano lessons as a kid and have enough choir experience to be able to read music at a very slow pace. On the piano, I can't sight read and it is very difficult for me to play anything I haven't heard before. I struggle through the sheet music until I learn it then I memorize it so I don't have to look at it again. Thus, I can play a few songs on the piano complicated enough to trick people into thinking I can play the piano, but it is only a facade. I am most talented at playing my vocal cords.

When I first assembled my flute, I found I have a natural ability to blow a tone and a good ear to pick out a couple basic songs based on the notes that are straight forward enough to play without instruction. Then, I began the task of learning the names of the notes I was playing and the fingering for more notes. Flutes aren't as simple as one might thing. They aren't like a recorder where the more holes you cover, the lower the note is- not in all cases anyway. It seemed like a daunting task, at first, but I was surprised at how quickly I was able to memorize the fingerings and even learned to read and play the music to some easy arrangements. One thing I am really enjoying about playing the flute is that you only have to worry about one note at a time, which is great for someone like me who is not fantastic at reading music.

Playing the flute hasn't been everything I hoped it would be, it has been even more. Thanks again, Uncle Mark, for paving the path to another musical adventure.

Full Circle

Despite my best attempts to be 100% stay at home mom, I couldn't escape the fact that we remained unavoidably a couple hundred dollars short every month. I really didn't want to go back to work 20 hours a week- it just takes too much out of me to be able to be a good wife and mom at the same time- so I looked for a job that would be less than 20 hours a week. There weren't a lot of options in this category so I knew I couldn't be picky. I saw a couple of housekeeping jobs and applied for them, and sure enough I got a call from a husband and wife looking for someone to work at their house a couple days a week.

I have been working Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9-12 for about a month now and so far I really enjoy my new job. It's definitely a huge change from my heavily secretarial background. I haven't worn an apron since my very first job working as a server at Grand Occasions Catering and Banquets. Now I feel like I have come full circle back to my beginnings except now I don't have to wear a white shirt and black tie.

Since my job is cleaning, it doesn't really feel like work. It feels like every day life. Like an extension of my daily activities. In fact, it's actually easier than cleaning my own house, because there are no children to clean up after which means I don't have to pick up a million items off the floor that come from all over the house, and I don't have to worry about Keira destroying everything I have just accomplished. I think that these 6 hours a week will do exactly what I hoped- help make ends meet without taking up the better part of my time and energy.

A Random Kind of Girl

After watching a movie, Keira comes up with the most random quotes to say. I think Keira has seen Tangled a few too many times, because she walks around saying things like, "This is the story of how I died," and, "I have a PERSON in my CLOSET!" It's a little disconcerting. Then after she watched Beauty and the Beast today and has been saying things like "Don't talk about my father that way!" "Take me instead!" and "Show me the beast!"

Keira has started pretending to play the guitar on random objects like her big shovel and the broom. She pronounces guitar "cantar" which is funny because it means "sing" in Spanish. So she has been singing, "Cantar cantar all day long!" I really don't know where she came up with that line.

Lastly, who is Peter? In my house there are 3. Peter Joey (Keira's name for a peanut butter jelly sandwich), regular Peter (heater), and good ol' Com Peter (the computer). Who knew the name Peter could cover 3 random objects?

On a whim, we had a picnic at Millerton Lake last week. I knew it was close and wanted to check it out for quite some time. I'm glad we did. It only took about 25 minutes to get there and we had the whole place to ourselves since it was a weekday. The picnic area was grassy, shady, and beautiful. We saw a bunch of lizards, a bunny, fought off some squirrels, saved 2 tiny frogs from the bathroom, took a picture of a wild turkey in front of the lake, got our feet wet, then came home. Here are some pictures of our picnic adventure.

Cake

March 28th marked my 25th birthday and this year we decided to spend it at Art's grandparents' house in the bay area. Visiting his grandparents is truly a vacation- they spoil us, cook for us, and absolutely adore their great-grandbaby (even though she wears them out). We took a drive to the Concord mall and bought some much needed summer apparel for Keira and had my birthday lunch at Johnny Rockets since we no longer have one in Fresno. Grandma Kathy and Grandpa George have made me feel like family since the first time I met them. We visit them as often as we can and on our drives home all I think about is how grateful I am that they make us feel so welcome and so loved. Keira has no idea how lucky she is to have such awesome great-grandparents, but it is obvious that she loves them.

Since I knew I was going to be out of town for my actual birthday, I had a small celebration at my house a couple days before with my family and Robyn, who is pretty much family. We had pizza and watched "The Other Guys." My mom has exemplary cake making skills and she made me her new specialty- an angel food strawberry ice cream cake with whipped frosting and strawberry topping. It's like heaven baked into a delicious confection. I wish I had even a fraction of my mom's cooking skills. My last cake making attempt resulted in one of my most embarrassing moments which I will divulge now...

It was about 3 years ago and our ward was asking people to sign up to bring cakes to some event. When I saw the sign up sheet, hardly anyone had signed up so I added my name to the list out of sympathy. I remembered having a lemon cake mix in the pantry that needed cooking so I whipped it up in my heart-shaped silicon pan, but when I attempted to remove it from the pan, about half the cake stuck to the pan and it came out (for lack of a better description) FUGLY. So I smothered it with frosting and called a neighboring member to ask if she had any sprinkles (for, at that moment in time, I thought that sprinkles might detract from the hideousness of the cake). She met me at the church with the sprinkles and I put them on the cake, but it just made it look even more like a five year old made it.

I almost took it back home because it was so unsightly, but I thought, "Oh it's no big deal. It will just get stuck on some big table with lots of other food and cakes and no one will even know I made it." So I went into the cultural hall to put it on the table only to discover that these cakes were intended to be on display with pedestals and name tags prepared for each one. To make it worse, the other cakes were glorious like something my mother could make. Some people even cheated and bought fancy store bought ones. Then there sat my ugly sprinkled lump of a lemon cake with my name all over it. I wanted to dig myself a grave and crawl in it. I do believe I am so emotionally scarred by that experience that I will never attempt cake making again.

The "Docker Man" Mystery

We recently introduced Keira to the Toy Story movies, and it's not a surprise that she loves them. Then we realized that whenever she was watching it or saw a picture of something from Toy Story she would say "Docker Man!" We had no idea what she meant by that and every time I would watch the movie with her I would quiz her on who or what is Docker Man, never getting a definitive answer. I listened to the movie carefully for anything that could even sound like Docker Man.... I spend days upon days contemplating what it could possibly be... I asked family members what they thought it could be... and still the mystery remained unsolved. UNTIL TODAY...

This morning we watched Toy Story again and I realized that Docker Man is STAR COMMAND! She said it when she saw Buzz then shortly after he started talking to Star Command and I put the two together. Then later I told her to say "Star Command" and it definitely comes out "Docker Man." Of all the things she could pick out of that movie... silly girl. I'm sure this won't be her last pronunciation mystery, but I'm sure glad it's solved.

God is Right

My life is sneaky and likes to pull the rug out from under my feet without warning. Such an instance occurred when after only 3 weeks at my new job, I was called into the managers office and laid off, because I can't go full-time in the future- never mind the fact that I disclosed this fact clearly in my first and second interviews. For quite some time now, the answer to my prayers concerning my employment has been that I need to stay home entirely. Yet I continued to accept jobs knowing that I wasn't supposed to, then abruptly got pushed back home. After this last push, I decided to quit fighting it. Not unlike my teenage days, defying my mothers wisdom only to later discover she was right, I tested Heavenly Father's wisdom and I am now accepting the simple truth that God is right.

As angry as I am for getting laid off... again... still no fault of my own, I realize how much better things are at home when I can dedicate all of my energy to my family instead of splitting it with a job. I know most people can handle working part-time and keeping up on motherly duties, but I am a very low energy person. Even working 4 hours a day takes so much out of me that by the time I get home all I can think about is taking a nap and simple chores like keeping the house clean and getting meals on the table become overwhelming arduous tasks. In retrospect, I don't think I could have made it through the past few months if I had been working and this is why...

I have been home since sometime January, at which time Keira learned to climb out of her crib. Little did I know how much this discovery would affect our lives. She used to be an awesome sleeper. I could put her in her crib for a nap every day at 1 and she would take a solid 2 hour nap. Then bedtime has always been at 10 and I could lay her down and she would go to sleep without protest and sleep until about 8:30. The moment she learned she could escape her crib, she was out of there every 30 seconds. As much as I didn't want to, I knew I had to get her a toddler bed so she wouldn't get hurt climbing out of her crib. I found a perfect bed on craigslist for 20 bucks and painted it black then assembled it in her room. Ever since, there is nothing I can do to keep her in bed. No amount of Super Nanny tactics, threats, rewards, spankings, or routine can make her go to sleep and stay in bed. Not only that, but she has forsaken her 2 hour afternoon nap that used to ensure my sanity throughout the day. But when she goes to sleep earlier around 8, she wakes up 2 hours later and wants to be up til like 1 am. This has been going on for THREE MONTHS now. I'm seriously losing it. The day she learned she could get out of bed any time she wanted opened up an opportunity in her mind that a girl with her level of hyperactivity and determination cannot ignore.

I have since determined that motherhood is just a sugar-coated term for a WAR that you cannot win. Keira is hands down the most strong-willed human being I have ever come in contact with. As sweet natured as she can be, you can't make her do anything she doesn't want to. I have to declare war with her every time I brush her teeth and every time I put her to bed. And as I stated before, no punishment works on her. Spankings don't phase her and she doesn't understand the concept of rewards for good behavior or if you take something away from her for bad behavior. It makes no difference to her. If it's not her idea, it's just not going to happen without a huge fight. It seems bedtime is going to be quite an obstacle at least until she is old enough to work some persuasion on. I just can't figure out how a girl so obstinate can be so sweet and polite at the same time.

In February I took our pediatrician's advice to get Keira re-potty trained after a 5 month relapse. He said she should be able to hold her pee for an appropriate amount of time (2-3 hours) instead of the 20 minutes she was holding it last time we potty trained her in August. We used the all-panties-day-and-night method that he suggested and It has been going better than we expected. She rarely has a full-on accident, always poops in the potty, but it seems she gets a spot of pee on every pair of underwear I put on her and she still has to pee every hour or so. She's also waking up once or twice a night to pee. I'm not sure if she's waking up to pee or peeing because she's been waking up. On a side note, I devised an ingenious method to pee-proof Keira's car seat... puppy training pads. They are thin, absorbent, waterproof, and cheap. One accident in her car seat was enough for me. I'm never going through that mess again!

In an attempt to maintain my sanity whilst at home constantly exposed to such tumultuous circumstances as a two year old can bring, I have spent a significant amount of time crafting starting with painting Keira's big girl bed. I've crocheted something like 8 scarves, a baby afghan, 10 ponytail holders, and 7 sets of hair clips. When I sufficiently tortured my ulnar nerve, I decided to do some scrapbooking then completed my wedding photo album and a belated brag book for Keira's baby pictures. Most recently, I drew a new picture of Keira like the one I did of her at 5 months old. Aren't I productive when I'm not working?

The last noteworthy event was that my siblings and I finally got together with my mom for a family picture. My mom has been after one for a long time and miraculously we found a Saturday that all of us could make it. We gathered at Woodward park and snapped a few pictures with a tripod and Kyle's camera. They came out pretty good, but I didn't realize that Arthur was wearing his sunglasses until it was too late. I don't know how he managed to pull that off. I'm still trying to forgive him for that. Otherwise, I think the pictures are as good as you can get for a group that size, especially with the addition of a terrible two year old and two dogs.

The Truth About 2010

Our Christmas this year was the perfect finish to 2010. We expected presents to be sparse this year, but somehow we had an abundance of presents under the tree and we felt very blessed. Uncle Mark got to spend Christmas with us again this year. We spent Christmas Eve at my grandpa's house and Christmas Day at my house. We had an awesome dinner of my mom's homemade lasagna.

Uncle Mark Peters, Mom (Dee Eslick), Kyle, Vivian, Brent, Lauren, Me, Keira, Art

Art, Keira, Me, Dad (Ken Eslick), Sheila, Christine, Vivian, Brent, Grandpa Don Eslick and his sister Aunt Ina, Kyle, Nick, and Lauren

2010 was a year fraught with peril and filled with blessings. I spent half of the year unemployed which was definitely challenging on our family. Thankfully Art is making a better wage this year so we weren't so didn't struggle so desperately as we did last year. Art is still working nights at Winco- going on 6 years.

Art celebrated his 27th birthday on New Year's Eve, Keira turned 2 in October, and I remain 24 until March. When Lauren turns 20 this week, all of my siblings will be in our 20s for the next 3 years until Brent turns 30.

I just started another part-time job working 9-1 for Fresno Management Company, a property management company near Riverpark. It's still too soon to form an opinion about it, but I'm hoping that it is the right job for me and that I can stay there for a long time. I'd like more than anything to be able to stay home with Keira, but we're not quite there yet. We still need for me to be making a little money to make ends meet.

We have been trying to get pregnant since DECEMBER 2009. Yes, it's now January 2011 and we have had no such luck. It took 10 months to get pregnant with Keira, but I was hoping it would be faster this time since I wasn't on birth control since she was born. For some reason unknown to me, it's taking even longer this time. We are trying to be patient and remember that these things happen on the Lord's time, but it's hard. My doctor doesn't seem concerned. He is of the attitude that "I have been pregnant before- I will get pregnant again." I wish I felt so confident. I have had a problem with a complex ovarian cyst over the past year, but that shouldn't be preventing pregnancy and there are no other issues that the doctor can find.

Trying to get pregnant and being unemployed definitely put a strain on our relationship in the past year. It has been a challenge to stay focused and not let our trials come between us, but we are pushing forward and will be celebrating our 5 year wedding anniversary this year. We have been together for nearly 6 years. We are making our best efforts to be sealed in the temple and we are getting very close. Art has come such a long way since he joined the church over 3 years ago. Besides getting along, our final challenge has been for both of us to pay our tithing. That's a hard thing to do knowing that if we pay it, we won't be able to pay our bills, but we have taken a leap of faith and we have been blessed so far.

We spent the whole year healthy and enjoyed an abundance of time with our family. Nearly every Saturday spent at my mom's house enjoying her home-cooked meals and sharing movies and games with my siblings. It's hard NOT to visit my mom when every day Keira's waking words are, "Grandma's house?" We welcomed my younger brother, Kyle, home from his mission in November and Keira loves him just like her other uncle and aunts.

Well, that's the truth about the past year- the good and the bad. I did you a favor and omitted the ugly. Although I have made no formal resolutions, I am simply hoping last year's obstacles will become this year's strengths. Happy New Year to all of my family and friends. May this year be everything we hope it to be.