Oopsie

Well, it seems like I have done it again-- ignored my little blog for quite some time and left the rest of you completely in the dark. I know how painful that is. After all, our lives are SO VERY interesting and you wait anxiously to know just what's going on in the day-to-day world of the Hughletts! Ok, probably not, but to satisfy any curiosity that might exist, I shall provide a little update. It will be, I am sorry to say, a photo-less update. I know, I know-- who wants that?! Unfortunately, my home computer is down and I am left using Mike's laptop that does not have the same programs as mine does for sharing pictures. I could do it the other way, but I'm too lazy today. Maybe tomorrow.

Ok, so, where to begin? Life has generally been quite great in our little world lately. Pregancy-wise, I'm happily feeling quite great which I am so very grateful for! I am a bit tired, but it doesn't get me down too much. At nearly 20 weeks, we still don't know what sort of critter we're having yet. I will have my one and only ultrasound on May 4 and I promise to let you all know. I think we're all thinking girl, but we could easily be very surprised to find out otherwise. Lacey continues to be excited and curious about the baby. She talks to her (we'll say "her" so as to avoid "it"!), sings to her, hugs her, kisses her... it's all very sweet! She frequently asks to go see Ms. Christy (our midwife) so she can check the baby and hear the heart beat. We're happy to have found a wonderful midwife who we have complete confidence in and with whom we have a great relationship. We all adore her, which will help when D-day comes (that's delivery day, of course! :).

Our home has seen some improvements lately. I guess that either nesting has started early or I am just so happy to feel better as I've been doing random projects-- ie. turning the office into a play room and creating Hughlett Play Land in our back yard! It's sort of fantastic, if I do say so. We got a good tax return so after we paid some debt and handled other business, we decided to have some fun too. For Easter, we got an adorable wooden sand box that Lacey LOVES to play in! Next, I purchased some patio furniture and a few accessories and just this week, the Little Tikes 8-in-1 climber arrived and was assembled by Mike and his dad. (Side note-- I assembled the sand box and the patio furniture all by myself. That's right. I'm amazing. You don't have to say it. Haha!) I love how it all came together! It's so fun to have that right in our back yard where Lacey and friends can play while we sit and enjoy the nice spring weather on the patio. Plus, it will help tremendously after the baby comes and I'm just not up for going to the park or the zoo every day! So you're all invited to come by and play with us in our back yard... just call first. :)

Lacey is cracking us up every day and growing up so fast! She says some of this funniest and cutest things. My recent favorite thing is when she referrs to her "bugga bugga bite" that she got while playing outside. It's just adorable when she says it. She shows her sassy side when, after not getting our attention as quickly as she'd like, she says "Hey! I'm talking!" What's funnier is that I never say that-- she came up with that all on her own. Ugh! I'm in trouble. She's so bright, talkative, inquisitive, and just plain funny and we absolutely adore her! She's also sooo stubborn! We decided to attempt potty trianing this week and she has given me a run for my money! Day 1 and 2 were going relatively well and she was catching on quickly. Then, all of a sudden, she was done. She would not sit on the potty for anything! The real problem was that she also wouldn't go anywhere else-- not on the floor, not in a diaper, not in a warm bath. Nothing. She was holding it in for hours... like 7 hours! She was miserable and mad and pitiful. For two nights, she barely slept because she needed to go but wouldn't go in the diaper she was wearing or on the potty... so we were up A LOT until she finally lost control. Today, I'm done. Clearly, she doesn't want to do it. She is fully capable of being completely potty trained, but for some reason, she doesn't want to. I think she's put a lot of pressure on herself because I know that we haven't pressured her about it. I wonder if she's going to be one of those children who always does that-- puts pressure on herself to be perfect and gets really upset when she's not. I hope not, but I don't think I'll be surprised. She certainly has a lot of personality to her already. One thing I've learned for sure is that there is no forcing her to do anything... so I'm not going to. I only wanted to try it and I'm ok that it didn't work. I am confident that when she is ready, she'll just do it completely. That's how she is! I am more and more certain that she is intuitively aware that things will change when the baby comes and I don't want to give her any reason to feel threatened or sad about it. I'm ok with her being my baby for as long as possible and I am certainly not going to force something on her for my own convenience. Turns out that losing sleep is far less convenient than changing diapers anyway! :) Ahhh parenting. So much to learn!

And now, she is happily waking from the first real nap she's had in days. Haha... I can hear her quoting an episode of Little Bill. Funny! Now, it's time to have a fun afternoon with friends in Hughlett Play Land! Pictures to come soon, I promise!