No, THIS is exhaustion.

Just got back from camp yesterday. Slept 14 hours and woke up still tired. Fell asleep during sunday school today (sorry Tawnya). Everything went well...I think... It's sort of a blur. Good news is I'm alive. I'm going to take a nap. Goodnight.

The REAL reason for my exhaustion

Don't get me wrong, girls camp has been incredibly exhausting, but it really gets compounded when you're 12 weeks pregnant! It looks like the cats out of the bag here in Iowa City, so I thought I'd officially make the announcement to all you faithful readers that I am in fact pregnant, and we are very excited!

Joseph, Jake and I all went in for the first ultrasound yesterday. It's always a surreal experience to hear the heartbeat and then see that little tiny fetus inside you. Jake was terrified when we first walked in, but that was normal. He's pretty wary of doctors in general. The technician said things looked good, but we won't know for sure until blood work comes back.

Other than the fact that I am tired all the time, I am feeling wonderful! During the first trimester with Jake I threw up at least once a day, usually more, but this time I haven't thrown up at all. In fact, I vividly remember thinking that I would never get pregnant again after Jake because it was so miserable. Whoops... But really, this time it's a breeze. It really is a gift from above, because I don't know how in the world I could plan Girls Camp if I was as sick as I was with Jake.

The official due date is Dec. 28, so we could have a Christmas baby on our hands! Although, I'm not keeping my fingers crossed since Jake was 5 days late. Hopefully it will come sometime over that break, though, so I can have a husband for at least a few days to help out.

So, there you have it! I'm going to be the mother of two. I've already had a few anxiety attacks over that prospect, but I'm getting used to the idea.

(Note: Don't expect pregnancy pictures from me. I do not care to relive how huge I get during this whole process...Also, along that same note, please, if I ever ask how I look, lie and tell me I look great, haha!)

Exhaustion

I'm sorry for the lack of pictures lately. I'm just gonna be straight up honest: I'm too exhausted to take any. Life has been insane recently. Part of it has to do with this new toddler bed nonsense. Joseph and I had been getting 5 am wake up calls from Jake...which led us to put his crib back up, much to Jake's dismay. However, most of the exhaustion has to do with the planning and getting all the details together for Girls Camp (which I am in charge of again this year).

I literally have spent hundreds of hours this past month alone working on different things, trying to get them together. You'd think that after doing this once already and having more of a staff to help you would make things a little less hectic, but there's always so much to do, most of which I couldn't forsee. Writing firesides, devotionals, getting crafts ready, making gifts, writing and responding to ten million emails every day, phone calls, picking up and dropping off orders, meetings, organizing service projects, the list just goes on and on and on. But with all this hard work, I'm really starting to get excited. This year I've really felt guided and I know that the theme this year, "Daughter of a King," is really what the girls need to experience.

Jake has been surprisingly patient with all my planning. Maybe it has to do with the fact that because I've been a little preoccupied, I've let him watch Polar Express more times in the past week than I care to admit. Well, either way, girls camp starts in a week, so it will be over soon and I can go back to being a real person again. Until then, wish me luck!

Toddler bed shinanigans

Joseph and I recently discussed the idea of Jake moving into a toddler bed now that he's two. We figured the transition would be easier if we just converted the crib that he already has into a bed by taking off the rail. When we woke up yesterday, we decided that it would be the day to test our theory! We let Jake help us change his crib into a "big boy bed" and he was so excited!

We decided to do a trial run of the "new" bed during nap time. It was less than successful. Jake had no problems wanting to be in his bed, but as soon as we left the room we could hear him get out and start to play with the toys in his bedroom! After about an hour of trying to get him to stay in his crib, Joseph decided to just put the rail back up. Apparently Jake was too excited to fall asleep and his toys were just a little too tempting...

Not to be deterred, last night we tried again. And he did it! He fell asleep, no problems at all. Joseph and I were just beaming with the idea of our baby sleeping in a toddler bed. We were such proud parents! We kept exchanging little smiles throughout the evening that seemed to say, "We did it right!"

And then, before we finally went to bed, we walked into Jake's room to check on him. I started laughing out loud. There was Jake, laying on the floor!! And not only was he on the floor, but his bed was covered with books and balls. No wonder he was on the floor, there was no room for him on his bed with all the junk he had gotten while Joseph and I were under the impression that he was sound asleep. We're not sure if he fell off his bed or if, really, he had chosen to sleep there instead because his bed was too covered. Either way, we're starting to rethink this toddler bed thing!

Sweet dreams

Jake woke up last night around 9:00 whining. When Joseph went in there to see what was going on (since this is a fairly rare occurance) he found Jake sitting up in his crib mumbling, "Baseball?"

Joseph gave him his baseball.

"Bat?"

Joseph gave him his bat.

"Basketball?"

Joseph gave him his basketball.

"Football?"

Joseph gave him his football.

It wasn't until he had all his balls with him in his crib that finally rolled over and fell back asleep. You can't see it in the picture, but his hat is also in the crib with him, he must have rolled on top of it. He's 100% boy!!

No more no's!!

Oh boy...Jake has hit the "no" stage with a vengeance! Everything, no matter what I say, is automatically responded to with an emphatic no. Even if it's something that he actually really wants. For example, yesterday we had a little conversation that went like this:

"Jake, would you like a popsicle?"
"No! (slight pause) Opicle? Yes!"
"Jake, you said no, you don't want a popsicle."
"OPICLE!! OPICLE!!"
"Ok, what do you say?"
"Pwease!"
And this, of course, is where I hand him the popsicle that he told me he didn't want.

Oh my gosh!! I think I'm going to scream! You always hear about this infamous stage, but I had no idea how frustrating it really is. I've heard that giving kids more choices can ease the intensity of this stage, but I feel like I give Jake choices all the time. And, usually, he answers no to all of those wonderful choices. And so, I am posing this question to all you experienced mothers (or fathers) in the blogosphere: What in the WORLD do I do??? How long does this last? HELP!!

He must have gotten that from me...

We had an interesting Sunday yesterday. The size of our ward at church has been cut in half due to all the people graduating or moving for the summer, so they decided to combine the two nurseries. A seemingly innocent enough idea...well, they hadn't anticipated (and neither had we for that matter) the DISASTER that would come from one Jake Dougherty.

You see, they decided to combine the two nurseries into the other nursury room, so Jake was a little thrown off. He was pretty hesitant at first, but we figured he would be ok. After all, he had all of his friends in there, as well as his usual nursery leaders, it was just a different room. So Joseph and I turned to leave, and as soon as we did, Jake started bawling. Instantly. It was like the first day of nursery all over again. I couldn't believe it! We figured he would be ok eventually, and once he saw we were gone and how much fun everyone else was having, we thought he would forget all about us and just join in. Oh boy, were we wrong.

Well, Jake's sobs started off some other kids' sobs. Soon there were three or four toddlers just screaming, which of course made all of the other kids just crazy too. It was a madhouse in there! They tried to include Jake, but he was having none of it. Eventually, he was crying so hard that he threw up!! In nursery!! Apparently it was at that moment that they decided maybe it wasn't such a good idea to combine, and they separated the younger kids from the older ones. Jake went back into his old nursery room and his tears stopped instantly.

At first, I couldn't believe it when they told me that he cried so hard that he threw up. What kind of kid does that?? But then I recalled my very earliest memory. Yes, folks, my very first memory is, in fact, of me crying so hard that I threw up. Why was I crying so hard? Because my dad wouldn't give me dessert. I must have been three years old, and I vividly remember thinking, "If he would just give me some dessert I wouldn't cry like this!" Apparently, Jake has that very same streak of stubbornness in him. I can just imagine him thinking, "If they just took me to the other room I wouldn't cry like this!"

As I was growing up, my parents were known to say, "I hope you have a kid just like you someday!" This was, of course, in reference to my incredibly stubborn attitude. Well, mom and dad, it looks like I do...but I sure do love him.