Playtime, cars and closets

It was a busy and productive Tuesday at the Schneiderheimer's house!
First up, the cute stuff: Ellie and I played outside and enjoyed the cool evening when Brian had to go back to work for his monthly Science Cafe event. Ellie stole my sandals and played with some of the bubbles she got for her birthday. Happy girl!

Earlier in the afternoon she accompanied mom and dad while we completed the sale of my former car, the Mercury Sable we recently replaced with a minivan. I am so excited to have that car sold and the money applied toward our minivan loan! We got a pretty good sale price for it and unloaded it on a Purdue international grad student — who seems very excited about his first car.

After Ellie went to bed I spent a couple hours sorting clothes in my closet. I pulled out a bunch of pants, skirts and shirts that are too tight these days. And I started pulling out maternity wear... but I also found a bin of clothes I packaged up in the past year as I dropped a bunch of weight. I'm glad I held on to some of this stuff because it'll serve me well in the next few months. I'm sure I'll get to the point later in the fall where it's maternity-or-nothing... but it's nice to still fit in to some real pants, and to feel like I have more than 2 options when I go to pull an outfit out for work. I've only gained 5 pounds so far — right on track for the end of the first trimester — but it's all in the waist and chest, which seriously alters how my clothes fit (or not). I caught myself feeling a bit nervous and sad as I put away my newer, smaller clothes. But I've promised to remain upbeat about my growing body and my plans to regain my shape post-pregnancy... and I intend to do so. When pregnant with Ellie I had nothing to go on except the widespread warnings about how hard it is to lose baby-weight and how many women don't. Knowing that I was able to pull it off (and then some!) after Ellie was born gives me more confidence that I'll do the same the second time around. So, I'll say good-bye to my "skinny" clothes for now and count on pulling them back out next year.

Week 14: Lemon

While I'm happy to officially be in my second trimester now, this week has brought with it some twinges and an increased discomfort that's reminding me not to overdo it. Brian and I tend to pack a million things into every day, week, month... and I've forgotten that the pace needs to slow a bit during pregnancy.
More literally, on the pace topic, I'm seriously slowing down in my running. With the recent heat I've only been able to get out a for a few runs each week, since my early work schedule only gives me running openings during the afternoon or evening hours during the week. I've been taking advantage of the weekends, trying to get my miles in early in the morning, but I've had trouble getting more than 10 miles in total some weeks. Now that I'm 9 weeks out from our next half marathon — the Indianapolis Marathon/Half on Oct. 15 — and the weather seems like it might cooperate a little, I'll be ramping up my mileage... but still taking it slow. I found during my first pregnancy that running was very helpful in working out the kinks and general discomfort, but also that the increased weight and shift in balance requires some adjustment. But I'm still hoping to get a "pregnant PR" in this half — which would only mean running faster than the 2:26 half I did while 5-and-a-half months pregnant with Ellie.

Well, enough from me. Here's the Week 14 update from the experts:
Welcome to the second trimester! This week's big developments: Your baby can now squint, frown, grimace, pee, and possibly suck his thumb. Thanks to brain impulses, his facial muscles are getting a workout as his tiny features form one expression after another. His kidneys are producing urine, which he releases into the amniotic fluid around him -- a process he'll keep up until birth. He can grasp, too, and if you're having an ultrasound now, you may even catch him sucking his thumb. In other news: Your baby's stretching out. From head to bottom, he measures 3 1/2 inches -- about the size of a lemon -- and he weighs 1 1/2 ounces.

Recovering...

Definitely had a fun weekend, but Ellie and Muzzy sum up how we all felt after all of the festivities :)

Note: We normally don't keep a comforter on the kitchen floor, but this one was waiting to go in the laundry. Came in handy for a very tired Ellie after we got back from the pool and she was waiting for dinner.

Sweet corn fest

Well, we did it. We pulled off our first (of hopefully many) Schneiderheimer's Sweet Corn Fest. As you can see below, it's a real event because we had a banner made. We combined the party with a birthday celebration for Ellie and were lucky enough to get about 40 visitors, including St. Louis family and friends. Here are just a few of the pics from the weekend.
(*Pretty sure Brian is already sweating butter in this one above! Or it's from working the grill... It was HOT, but thankfully rain-free for the party!)

Two candles!

Ellie spent about half of the party playing in the drink bucket, eating ice and getting soaked (hence the outfit change at one point in the party...)

Here's a few pictures from Sunday morning when we had a quieter breakfast with the grandparents, great-grandparents and our friends visiting from out of town.
Jacob, Melissa and Kris (one of Brian's oldest friends) taking a cheesy pic with us!
And here's Ellie halfway through opening her mountain of presents. She's a very lucky little girl. Thanks to everyone!

Birthday report

We celebrated Ellie's birthday with a trip to the park and an unlimited rides bracelet for the two-year-old in the crowd. She did the boats just once, but took a couple spins each on the horses and the helicopters.
With a little inadvertent help from mom and dad, Ellie went very high on the helicopter ride! We made sure her bar was pushed in tight... but that's apparently the position that makes the car go up once the ride gets moving. Ellie loved it while we watched nervously from below!

And here we all are being cheesy before our choo-choo ride around the park. We rounded out the evening with a stop at the Frozen Custard by our house. Ellie requested chocolate ice cream. She finished her small and then helped mom and dad finish our large serving of mint chip. Happy girl!

I took her to the doctor today for a 2-year checkup. The doc said she seems to be developing great and told us to keep up the good work. She weighed 27.4 pounds (with a diaper full of poop that she managed while we were in the waiting room... sigh). And she is 35 1/2 inches tall. She's around 50th percentile on weight while she's stayed on the 90th percentile for height. I wonder if she's going to be taller than her mom?! Because she's such a skinny the doctor said to wait on switching her to skim milk. I was looking forward to having only one kind of milk to buy at the store... but it looks like we'll be buying 2%, too.

Week 13: Shrimp

I guess BabyCenter.com doesn't only use fruit and veggie comparisons for the baby growth. Baby #2 is the size of a medium shrimp this week, or so they say. All I know is my belly keeps getting bigger. And shrimp is thankfully one of the many things I can fathom eating again these days. Very few foods are off-limits anymore. A welcome change! And I'm in the last week of my first trimester, so my comfort level should only continue to improve in the coming months... before the weight, hormones and everything else totally wallops me again in the third trimester. Here's the news for this week:

Fingerprints have formed on your baby's tiny fingertips, her veins and organs are clearly visible through her still-thin skin, and her body is starting to catch up with her head — which makes up just a third of her body size now. If you're having a girl, she now has more than 2 million eggs in her ovaries. Your baby is almost 3 inches long (the size of a medium shrimp) and weighs nearly an ounce.

Two years old!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ELLIE!!

It's hard to believe our little baby turns two years old today. If it's possible, I think we love her more than we did on the day she was born. The days and months are flying by, but I'm happy that we're packing a TON of fun and learning and growing into every moment.

I'm sure I'll have more to add later, but for now I'll revisit a couple favorite shots from the past two years... in no particular order!