Guilty

It's been awhile since my last post. I am now 25.5 weeks along. I have had one fetal assessment and happily discovered we are having another girl (a boy would have been great too). Everything is progressing well with the cervical stitch and I have started a medication to inhibit labour. I have another fetal assessment tomorrow. I hope we get better pictures this time to share with everyone. (I didn't think people would be too interested in my daughter's brain!)

Ben has finished both of his exams and I already have him hard at work transforming our office into Aryana's new room. Last night he packed up our books, moved the computer, bookshelves, desk and emptied the closet. It always amazes me how much you can pack into a little room. Now our dining room is our office and the basement and our master bedroom closet our storing stuff. It will be really nice when our basement is finished.

Ben has been very busy studying these past few months AND working extra for his dad to help make up for my loss of income AND helping care for Aryana AND helping me maintain the house AND working overtime for Regent AND he still finds time to play with my hair to help me relax. He is currently shovelling the driveway and he has drawings to take off from waiting for him on our kitchen table.

I have been told to try to be the laziest person in the world by my obstetrician to help prevent an extremely early birth of our second daughter. I am really struggling with this. No matter what I do I feel guilty. I know I need to take it easy to protect my baby but how do I do that with a very active almost-2-year-old? If I play with Aryana (like take her to the park) I feel guilty because I could hurt the baby with the extra lifting, climbing and pushing it entails. If I don't do a lot of stuff with Aryana I feel I am neglecting her. I also feel guilty that Ben has to pick up all of my "slack". He already works more than 40 hours a week at Regent and then he has to come home and take care of me and Aryana and all the "extra" stuff I ask him to do (like preparing Aryana's room and we DESPERATELY need to clean our carpets). Ben would NEVER complain, I think you all know how hard Ben works, but I still feel bad. I know it's only temporary but I really like to get things done on my own, when I want (I'm not a very patient person), and I don't like to depend on everyone else. Only 9 more weeks to go.

Aryana is so full of like as my mom would say. My Nana has nicknamed her "Bam Bam". I couldn't think of a more appropriate name for her! She is SOOO strong and gets into everything. She wanted to help Ben unload the groceries the other day the first thing she went for was the 9 pound box of mandarin oranges! And she actually lifted it!

Aryana is speaking a lot. Her favourite thing to do is announce every person that enters the room. It's really sweet actually. It sure makes everyone feel special to have their name announced with glee by Aryana. She can say, "Uncle Chris lives in Minneapolis" but she still calls my mom "Beyah Beyah" instead of Grandma. It's pretty funny.

I don't know if this story will seem funny in print but it was hilarious. My brother, Chris, was in town a couple months ago. He was trying to play with Aryana by hiding under a blanket. This just seemed to spook Aryana instead of being fun. Yesterday my mom asked Aryana if she wanted a blanket because it was cool in the basement and offered Aryana the same blanket Chris hid under. Aryana forcefully said, "No! No! Uncle Chris!" and pushed the blanket away. We could not believe she still remembered being scared of Chris under the blanket.

Kittens are her favourite animal. She absolutely ADORES two stuffed kittens I bought for her. She is an animal lover in general. I have to kiss all the pictures of animals in her books, she gives them kisses too. We took her to Ben's boss's house in October and she loved the horses, dogs, chickens, chicks, and rabbits. She had no fear of the giant horses smelling her and sticking their noses in her hair! But she was NOT happy when we put her on a horse to ride! Aryana is so much fun and certainly keeps me on my toes!
Aryana eats all the time. She will do ANYTHING for a marshmallow. It's pretty cute to see how excited she gets but not when it leads to a melt down. I tried to use the marshmallows as a reward for potty training but that backfired. Potty training is on hold for now, she flatly refuses to sit on the potty. She has always hated getting her diaper changed so I'm trying to use that as motivation to try the potty more. We'll see.