22 Weeks

This past week, Miss Baby Struik has really gotten stronger.  From my post two weeks ago where I was only feeling kicks in the evening, to this week, has been a huge change.  Jon felt Miss Baby Struik kick on Wednesday, March 18, so now I'm just waiting for Matthew and Kayla to be able to feel her.  I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning, which is nice.  

Kayla keeps asking me what we're going to name our baby.  It's so cute.  I always respond by asking her what her suggestion is...to which I get told "Heart Butterfly Flower Struik".  Matthew says, "Train".  What loser children :)  My family is super-curious as to whether or not we are going to continue our 'alphabetical order' trend (Jon, Kayla, Laura, Matthew, Nathan - not originally planned for Matthew and Kayla...but Nathan was intentional), or go with something different for this one.  Names are pretty important to me...both Matthew and Nathan's names were perfect in all aspects (spelling/meaning/short-forming).  Kayla's, well, I think we just liked 'Kayla' :).  I guess everyone will just have to wait and see what we do this time around! 

Matthew and Kayla are FOUR!

**WARNING:  This is a super-duper long post!!

You would think that since I haven't blogged about Matthew and Kayla's personalities for a whole year, that I would have a ton to say.  That's not the case.  I just re-read their "three year" entry and so much of it still applies.  

Matthew and Kayla are still best friends.  They spend 99.9% of their time playing together.  It's so fantastic for them, and for us!  They seldom fight (once a month, maybe?).

For their birthday, they had a party with their Struik and Vander Ende cousins on Tuesday, March 17th.  Jon was on spring break, so he spent the morning at their party and then went to work.  He took all of their actual birthday, March 18th off.

A portion of Matthew's gift was that we took him to the 'Thomas' train at Art Knapp's nursery.  It was cute.  I was expecting the train to run on tracks, so I was a little disappointed, but Matthew enjoyed himself and that's what matters.

When we were about to leave to go to the train, Matthew said, "It's too bad that Grandma can't come with us."  I told him that if he wanted Grandma to come, he could ask her when we dropped Nathan off at her house (she was going to watch Nathan while we took just Matthew and Kayla).  Matthew was excited that she (and Nathan) came along, and loved the skewer of candies she bought them from the store (and the Diesel steam engine we bought him!).

A portion of Kayla's birthday present was getting her ears pierced!  I didn't go into detail over what would happen, I just said it would feel like a pinch.  She did fantastic!  Not a tear was shed!  She loves her earrings, and is very proud to show people.

We had my family over for dinner the night of their birthday, and then once all of my siblings left, my Dad and Jon bunked Matthew and Kayla's beds and switched their room with Nathan's.  They were so excited!  My Dad had designed the beds when he built them so that they could be bunked eventually.  I figured they were mature enough now to do it, and I wanted to give them the fun of being bunked together before they possibly get split up into separate rooms (Matthew and Nathan eventually, and Kayla and Miss Baby Struik eventually).  Kayla is on the top because she is a more solid sleeper (although Matthew seldom is up during the night) and because if/when she shares a room with Miss Baby Struik, she won't be in a bunk bed...Matthew will then move to the top and Nathan will get the bottom.  Anyways, they LOVE their new room and new beds.

Matthew

Matthew is a great kid.  He loves to have fun, and is typically the first to warm up to a stranger.  His giggle is still amazing.  

He is obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine right now.  It consumes him.  He eats, sleeps, and plays Thomas, literally.  He sleeps with a Thomas fleece blanket and a stuffed Thomas, he drinks from a Thomas cup, and he has Thomas bath toys, a Thomas bouncer, and a whole lot of Thomas trains and tracks.  I'll often hear him say, "Oh the indignity!" or "Cinders and ashes!" while he's playing with his trains, since that's what Gordon and Thomas say.  It's hilarious!

Matthew has become a much better eater this past year.  Yes, he still has his days where we have to strongly encourage him to take another bite, but more often than not he eats just fine.  He feels so proud of himself after he's eaten really well because he knows that food makes him grow bigger.  

Matthew is still skinny, but not as skinny as he used to be.  He's now 40" tall and weighs 34.4 lbs (upper end of the 15-50%-ile).  He still drinks homo milk whenever he is at home, just to help give him extra fat.  He easily wears all of his 4T clothes and is starting to move into 5T shirts.  He wears size 9 shoes.  He isn't at all discouraged that he is smaller than Kayla, because he knows that one day he will be bigger than her.

Matthew has mastered pumping on the swing, and has just learned how to start on his bike himself.  Although he has been able to ride his bike by himself since August, it has taken a while for us to teach him how to start by himself just because we haven't found the time to practice.

Although we haven't practiced very much, Matthew can pretty well write his own name.  He can recognize and name all of the letters in the alphabet, and can probably write about 10 of them?  He can also recognize all numbers from 1 to 10, and then knows all of the multiples of 10 (ex. 20, 30).  Why the multiples of ten,  you may ask?  Well, that's because speed signs are usually in multiples of ten, and Matthew likes to be a back-seat driver.  "Mom, you're allowed to go fifty.  How fast are you going?  You better slow down or you are going to get a speeding ticket."  He is also quite interested in knowing which direction we are driving in (ie. north, south, east, or west) and which direction we will be turning (left or right).  He loves it when we have to drive down a steep hill; he makes sounds as if we were on a roller coaster.  He also loves to drive under patches of fog.  When it's snowy (so almost never!), he reminds me to drive carefully because it's slippery out.  Such a back-seat driver!  

Kayla

Kayla is great.  She is very smart and mature, but can also be extremely goofy.

Kayla loves princesses.  Correction: she loves everything girly.  So long as it's pink or purple and frilly or sparkly, she loves it.  Some days she'll go around collecting the pink objects and then will display them on the couch and will ask me to take a picture of her with it.  The objects will be anything from princesses to dolls to pink trains to pink books.  It's pretty cute.  She doesn't like to just wear one necklace at a time, it's usually at least two.

Often after dinner she will get quite hyper and will be goofy.  She'll joke around and giggle and try to wrestle anyone she is close to.  It's hilarious.  It's also super annoying when you are trying to be productive and she is just grabbing at your legs trying to stop you, or trying to provoke you so that you'll tickle her or throw her in the air.

She knows all of her letters and is really learning what sound each letter makes.  "Mom, does bear start with B?"  She's learning which numbers are greater in quantity than others, and is beginning to understand addition and subtraction (verbally).  "Kayla, would you rather have five candies or ten candies?  How many candies would you have if I gave you two, and then gave you four more?"

Kayla is 41 5/8" tall and weighs 39.2 lb (upper end of the 50-85th %-ile).  She easily wears her size 5T clothes, and wears size 10 shoes.  

Speaking of clothes, Kayla LOVES clothes.  She loves to pick out her clothes, when I allow her to, and always takes into consideration which colours and items match.  She's very quick to tell me if she likes what I'm wearing, "Mom, you look beautiful."  She loves to try on clothes to see if they fit, and is so excited when we get a bag full of hand-me-down clothes from her cousin Annika to try on.  She's really cute to watch shopping, because she is very vocal on what she likes and doesn't.

Kayla loves to clean.  If I'm wiping anything with a cloth, she bugs me until I allow her to help me.  

Kayla is a great eater.  We seldom have to say anything to her, she just eats her food quickly and neatly.  She doesn't ask for seconds very often, unless it's sausage or corn (from a can) or raw veggies.  She LOVES raw veggies.  She also loves salad, but since we never have salad she only gets to have it at my parents'.  Kayla also LOVES cream puffs.  LOVES them.  She can pound them back so fast it's unbelievable.  

When Kayla has a meltdown, which she seldom does, it takes her a long time to stop crying.  She just can't stop sniffling and can't catch her breath.  It drives Jon nuts.  I just send her to a different room until she's composed herself so I don't have to listen to it.

Kayla can bike completely independently, although it always takes her a few minutes of each biking session to gain her confidence with starting, since we don't bike often enough. 

She loves to jump on the trampoline and can do a knee-drop, but can't do a bum-drop.  She'll jump and jump and jump, and when she's finally mustered up the courage to attempt a bum-drop she'll just stop jumping and fall onto her bum.  It's absolutely hilarious.  She's starting to get the concept of pumping, but isn't quite there yet.      

Kayla loves knowing if what she is eating is healthy or not.  "Mom, is this healthy for me?"  

**
Something new I started this year, and hope to continue for future birthdays, is to interview them with some basic questions.  It will be neat to see how their answers change, as they grow wiser.  I did video-tape it, but I've also included their answers here:

Matthew:
1. What's your name?  Matthew
2. How old are you?  Four
3. What is your favourite color?  Blue and green and orange and red 
4. What is your favourite toy?  Comfy Thomas (stuffed Thomas)
5. What is your favourite fruit?  Ap...Oranges
6. What is your favourite tv show or movie?  Miss Spider / Ariel (Little Mermaid) 
7. What is your favourite game?  Thomas games
8. What is your favourite animal?  Pig
9. What is your favourite song?  Jesus Loves Me
10. What is your favourite book?  Cinderella
11. Who is your best friend?  I don't know, Mom.  When I'm are bigger, Mom.
12. Who are you going to marry?  A train.
13. How many kids are you going to have when you are married?  Ten
14. What is your favourite thing to eat for breakfast?  Coloured sprinkles (on bread).
15. What is your favourite cereal?  Lucky Charms
16. What is your favourite thing to eat for lunch?  Broccoli
17. What is your favourite thing to eat for dinner?  The thing we just had (Pasta with pesto)
18. What is your favourite thing to do outside?  Go on the slide.
19. What is your favourite drink?  Iced Tea
20. What is your favourite snack?  Little Bit of Everything (a snack cup filled with Cheerios, raisins, marshmallows, and chocolate chips)
21. When is your bedtime?  3 o'clock
22. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  Comfy Thomas
23. What is your favourite holiday?  Wednesday
24. What do you want to be when you grow up?  I want to help put Nathan into bed.
25. Name one thing you do really well?  Jumping so high.
26. What makes you feel sad?  Only when that (the fan) hits me.
27. What makes you feel happy?  Only when that fan doesn't hit me.
28. If you could choose a different name, what would you choose?  Gordon
29. Where do you want to go on vacation?  Camping
30. What is your favourite thing to do?  Help clean up.
31. What is your favourite thing to do with Mom?  A hard puzzle.
32. What is your favourite thing to do with Dad?  Hanging up pictures.
33. What's your favourite thing to do with your siblings?  Play with the train track.

Kayla:
1. What's your name?  Kayla
2. How old are you?  4
3. What is your favourite color?  Purple and Pink 
4. What is your favourite toy?  Princesses
5. What is your favourite fruit?  Strawberries
6. What is your favourite tv show or movie?  Miss Spider / 'Punzel (Rapunzel) 
7. What is your favourite game?  The Alphabet (matching game)
8. What is your favourite animal?  Dog
9. What is your favourite song?  Princesses
10. What is your favourite book?  Princess Book
11. Who is your best friend?  Remy and Carly
12. Who are you going to marry?  I don't know.
13. How many kids are you going to have when you are married?  Five
14. What is your favourite thing to eat for breakfast?  Salad
15. What is your favourite cereal?  Cinnamon Cheerios (Apple-Cinnamon Cheerios) 
16. What is your favourite thing to eat for lunch?  Salad with some strawberries
17. What is your favourite thing to eat for dinner?  Strawberries and oranges and salad
18. What is your favourite thing to do outside?  Go down slides and play on the playground and jump on the trampoline.
19. What is your favourite drink?  Hot Chocolate and Chocolate Milk
20. What is your favourite snack?  Little Bit of Everything 
21. When is your bedtime?  I don't know
22. What do you like to take to bed with you at night?  My white and pink cat
23. What is your favourite holiday?  Wednesday
24. What do you want to be when you grow up?  Play some toys and then go to Grandma's for a little bit, and then help Grandma at Grandma's house, and play on the playground for a little bit and jump on the trampoline for a little bit.
25. Name one thing you do really well?  Picking carrots and strawberries (from the garden).
26. What makes you feel sad?  Hitting me.
27. What makes you feel happy?  Being friends with me.
28. If you could choose a different name, what would you choose?  I don't know.
29. Where do you want to go on vacation?  Disneyland and I like to go to 'Ticton (Penticton)
30. What is your favourite thing to do?  Help Mom make supper.
31. What is your favourite thing to do with Mom?  Play toys 
32. What is your favourite thing to do with Dad?  Play toys.
33. What's your favourite thing to do with your siblings?  Take turns having a piggy back ride on Dad's back.

17 Months Old!

At 17 months old, Nathan weighs 28.2 lb and wears size 18-24 month clothes (typically), size 6 shoes, and size 3 diapers (barely!).  He also:

- Learned how to climb onto our kitchen chairs.

- Always wants to colour, and strongly prefers markers.  He knows exactly where they are kept, and so when he feels like colouring he grabs a piece of paper and the pencil box with the markers, puts them on the kitchen table, and then climbs up to start colouring.  He did colour on the kitchen floor with markers one time...but hasn't done it again since.  I don't necessarily like that he helps himself, but he probably doesn't get as much 'arts and crafts' time as Matthew and Kayla did just because I'm busier with more kids and a larger house.

- Knows how to climb onto my parents' trampoline.  This is quite the feat!  There is a footrest for him to climb onto first, but after that he has to almost jump to get his upper body on, and then he swings his legs up.  It's quite impressive!

- Loves wearing shoes in the house.  He is forever hanging out in the foyer or by the shoe closet, picking out his crocs or boots.  He's even come walking into the kitchen wearing Jon's and my shoes!

- Loves to feed himself.  Also refuses to wear a bib.  I should have pushed the bib thing on him ages ago...I definitely would have to spend less time doing laundry!

- Is super ticklish on his collar bones/by his neck.

- Loves watching his bottle getting warmed up in the microwave.  He holds the nipple while I count down (once it is at 15 seconds).  When the microwave beeps, he says, "Da" (done).

- Says "Daddy" over and over, all the time.

- Does quite well when he is forced to miss his nap time or have it later due to visits/errands/activities I have planned.  He has learned to "go with the flow."

- Is doing better at sleeping through the night.  I think a lot of his middle-of-the-night wakings were due to teething.  He now has 12 teeth.  His 4 molars all came in around the same time, which was also during the span of time that he wasn't sleeping as well during the night.

It's a....

GIRL!

I had my 'detail' ultrasound yesterday morning.  I called Surrey Prenatal Clinic at four this afternoon and the results were in, so I had them faxed to me.  I still didn't even know at that point if I wanted to find out what the gender of Baby Struik is...but eventually decided to just do it, for Kayla's sake.  At least if it said it was a boy then we would have the next five months to prepare her for another brother, rather than her finding out and have to adjust once her 'brother' arrived.  Kayla was pretty excited that it was a girl.  "I was right, Mom!"  Matthew was pretty cool with it.  "I was wrong, Mom."  He wasn't at all disappointed, which was good.  Nathan threw a huge tantrum.  Kidding.  :)  I wouldn't have put it past him though, with his attitude as of late :)  They each got a pink balloon and we went over to my parents' to show them their balloons.  So excited for 'Miss' Baby Struik, as she will affectionately be called from this point forward.  She'll be such a perfect addition to the family.  And would you believe me if I told you that we've already got her name chosen!?!?!?  And Jon and I actually both agree on this one equally?!?!?!  Yahoo!

Here's the data from the ultrasound report (below).  We were at Valley Imaging in Langley this time (first time ever in Langley for an ultrasound), so we didn't quite receive as many details as we have in the past (and had to pay $12 for the 4 pictures we received!), but I still appreciate having some details, at least.  Looks like this baby is going to be smaller than Nathan!  Please?  :)

DATA
Heart Rate                      Not provided
Lie/Position                   Not provided
Placenta                         Posterior
Est. Fetal Weight           Not provided

MEASUREMENTS
Head Circ.                      168.0 mm   19w1d
BPD                                44.0 mm     18w6d
Abdominal Circ.             143.0 mm   19w1d
Femur                              30.0mm     19w2d

GESTATIONAL AGE
By Last Menstrual Period              20w2d
By Last Ultrasound                        19w4d
By Current Ultrasound                   19w1d

COMMENTS
"There is a single alive intrauterine pregnancy noted with normal fetal detail and amniotic fluid.  The OB measurements correspond to estimated gestation.  The placenta is posterior.  The cervix is normal and measures 3.1cm.  An echogenic focus in the left ventricle equal to bone noted.  This as an isolated finding is of no clinical significance."

20 Weeks

Almost halfway!  I only say almost for two reasons: 1) my first ultrasound dated me five days behind my dates, and 2) because I'm expecting I'll be overdue.  Still crazy that I'm almost halfway.

I'm trying to figure out what my favourite point in pregnancy is.  I think I'm getting close...but not quite there.  Maybe in another six weeks?  I love having a pregnant belly (getting there!) and I love feeling and seeing the baby kick (slowly getting there!), but I don't like feeling uncomfortable at all.

This time around I've only stood on the weigh scale three times, I think.  With Matthew and Kayla it was almost considered 'good' to be gaining a lot of weight so I weighed myself weekly.  With Nathan I also weighed myself almost weekly, just because I was curious.  This time...well, I'd rather not necessarily know how much I'm gaining.  I gained 50 pounds with Matthew and Kayla and 47.5 pounds with Nathan.  That's a lot of weight!  My goal for my pregnancy with Nathan was to gain no more than one pound per week of pregnancy (overall), but clearly I didn't achieve that.  I was already at a pound per week by 15 weeks (with Nathan).  This time, I've only gained 13 pounds so far.  Not bad for being 20 weeks!  Maybe I won't gain quite as much this time :)  Maybe I'll have a smaller baby this time!?!?!  Please?

I seem to remember feeling harder/more frequent kicks already at this point with the others, but it could be that I'm just not remembering correctly.  I am only 20 weeks after all.  I typically feel the most movement in the evening, when I'm sitting on the couch.  When I'm out and about all day long I don't really feel any movements.  I actually saw my stomach move slightly for the first time last night.  Made my evening!

I re-organized my closet the other evening, pushing all of my pre-pregnancy clothes to the back.  I can't really wear any of them anymore, at least not out in public.  I try to change into super comfortable (aka not attractive at all) clothing when I get home each afternoon so that I don't get tired of wearing the same maternity clothes all the time.  Poor Jon will only see me in comfortable clothes for the next five to six (?) months.

 I have my ultrasound on Thursday.  I'm quite excited to see the results, in terms of how Baby Struik is growing.  I like knowing where my babies are above or below average at this point.  I also have to decide whether or not I want to know Baby Struik's gender.  I'm running out of time to decide!

Centennial Beach

How have I never been/heard of Centennial Beach before?  So awesome there.  

Our friends, Nicole and Colin, invited us to spend the afternoon at the beach with them.  So much fun!  They have an incredible playground for the kids to play at, and so we started out there.  

After the kids had played for a while we had a hot dog lunch.  While the guys were putting the lunch stuff back in the cars, we took the kids to the 'duck pond' to feed the ducks.  

Then we headed to the beach portion of the park.  Beautiful sand.  I told Jon we would never go to Hawaii again because of this sand!  

We spent some time playing in the sand (and letting Nathan get used to the feeling of it!  He was too scared to even take a step in bare feet!  It was so cute), and then we headed to the tide pools for some exploring.  Matthew LOVED walking through the water, collecting as many shells as he could.  Kayla preferred to build castles out of mud, and Nathan preferred to just walk around. 

 

We ended the afternoon back in the sandy area so the kids could build sand castles, and then headed home.  All three kids were asleep within minutes of us hitting the road.  We will definitely be back there again.  Thanks for a great day, Nicole and Colin!!