The Kicker

In reference to the post title... I felt the baby kick for the first time last night! With Carrie I didn't feel it until 15 1/2 weeks and this time around I felt it at only 13 1/2 weeks. Apparently that can happen though because I started out significantly skinnier this time. I almost feel like starting to take belly pics, but I can't make myself do it yet. I feel like if I "give in" and admit that I'm starting to show, I'll start to grow even faster!
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Anyways, the little flutter baby kick feeling happened while we were on our way home from a Temple date night. Yesterday was our ward temple night so we got my mom to babysit for free, went to cheap mexican food for dinner and after a couple of TUMS, enjoyed going to the temple together. We ran into one of my friends from high school and her husband while we were there and were able to go out for ice cream with them afterward. All in all, a fun, happy date night.
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Of course, a Carrie update, because really, what's a post without mentioning her?... Some new things she's started saying lately are:
"Peesss" for please (while she's signing it),
"Wa-wa" for water,
"Luh Oo" for "Love You", and
"Bess Oo" for bless you, when anyone sneezes.
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This last one is especially cute to us because we didn't teach it to her. She just picked it up on her own. She is consistently signing "more", "please", "food/snack" and is working on learning to sign and say "help".
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She's an awesome cleaner-upper, which of course makes me very happy! She likes to help clean up her toys before naps/bed, and her current favorite activity is pulling a few DVDs at a time out of the shelf and putting them back. I think it's actually really good for her hand-eye coordination and dexterity, trying to fit the last couple in when there's not much room left, so for now, I'm trying to ignore the "mess" of DVDs on the floor.
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She thinks she's such a big girl in fact, she's decided that baby locks on the kitchen cupboards are not meant for her anymore... That's right, my 18 month old can open the baby locks... Really?!... I haven't had a major disaster yet, but I'm just waiting for it.
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Every day I see less baby and more little girl. I think she'll be a great big sister and helper by the time the new baby comes. She's already started to include hugs and kisses for the baby (my tummy) after family prayer each night.
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I gave her a haircut/trim a couple of days ago and the new style is adorable! Pixie bangs and a flipped-out bob. She sits to let me use a curling iron and loves to put bows and clips in it. I know this isn't the best picture, but it was all I could get.
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Today Justin decided to try to save more money on his car by fixing some stuff himself again. His car has been overheating lately so he changed the thermostat and flushed the radiator. It would have been done really quickly except for the fact that he apparently has super-strength and while tightening the radiator drain cap by hand, overdid it. We couldn't get it back off to drain the flush. Even though I knew it would probably be pointless, I offered to give it a try.
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After several minutes of no success on my part, our mechanic neighbor happened to be walking by our house to the mailbox. He stopped and took a look. He said it was so tight, he was afraid if he tried loosening it, it would break and we'd be stuck having to buy a whole new radiator... NO thanks... He pointed out an alternate option which then took me and Justin combined, about an hour to actually accomplish. But it got done!!! And we got MESSY!
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This last picture has two purposes, first, Carrie wore that fuzzy green hat around the house forever! It was cute, but weird. Secondly, she's discovered dum-dum suckers and loves them! It took her of few minutes of "training" with me to learn how to eat them, but she thinks they're awesome! And the best part is she really doesn't get sticky, she keeps it in her mouth!
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