2 Years Old

My whole life I've heard "grown ups" say how fast the years go by & how quickly kids grow up.  They couldn't be more right! 

Shaylin turned 2 last Monday & every new sentence she says or new skill she learns just amazes me because I'm so certain she's still just a little baby.  But she's not.  She's a big girl now.

Her speaking ability is great.  We've made an effort to not talk "baby talk" to her & can see the pay off.  When she's learned to say a word but it's not said correctly we don't just start saying it her way, despite how cute it can be sometimes.  We just continue to say it the correct way & she eventually gets it.  She can easily put together 4-word sentences.  There may be 5-word sentences but my pregnant brain can't think of any at the moment.  Here are some of my favorite things she says:

"What happened?"
"Did you hear that?"
"What's that noise?"
"Good morning."
"Momma, play?"

She's got the questions down as you can see.  She's also very polite.  She will say "thanks" or "thank you" for just about anything you give her or do for her without us having to tell her to say it.  She says "sorry" for the slightest bump into you.  And if you sneeze she'll say "bless you".

She can jump off the ground & loves to climb on everything.  Unfortunately this means that she figured out how to climb out of her crib.  It hasn't happened a whole lot & she's never gotten hurt so however she's doing it she's doing it safely.  This week she's going to be moving into a new bedroom & a twin bed so the issue of staying in bed is just going to get worse.  But it's time, especially with her sister due in just 2 months!

Shaylin continues to be a great eater.  The things that she's picky about or doesn't like are so few that they're not worth a fight.  Her newest favorite food is pickles.  Yet she doesn't like rice.  Crazy kid!  Breakfast is always easy.  She loves pancakes, eggs, toast, & french toast.  Most of her lunches are pb&j's, grilled cheese, or quesadillas.  She always has a fruit with lunch which is either a banana or peaches.  She's starting to like grapes but I'm hesitant to buy them until I know she'll really eat them.  For dinner I try to always feed her whatever I've made for me & Jeremy.  The exceptions have been soup nights, just because she's not quite skilled enough with the spoon for me to want to deal with that mess.  But if it's some sort of pasta dish she will gobble that right up.  She's pretty good with most veggies.  She prefers her potatoes mashed than any other form.  She loves corn & carrots (as long as they're not crunchy) & green beans (except in green bean casserole) & will usually eat broccoli. 

She seems to understand that there is a baby in my belly & we're not just calling my growing belly by Jillian.  She asks to tell her good morning or good night just about everyday.  Sometimes she wants to "see" Jillian which means lifting my shirt so she can talk to her.  And she'll lay her head on my belly to hug her & give kisses.  It makes me so excited to see how affectionate she already she to her baby sister.  I know I'm just going to be an emotional mess when the 2 girls get to meet for the first time.

Baby #2 or #8

This has been on my mind for a while now.  Back when I was pregnant with Shaylin I posted a blog here about how I struggled with how to answer people that asked if she was my first.  Usually I would say that she was my first healthy pregnancy but she was my 7th pregnancy.

This time around has actually been confusing to me.  I tend to refer to Jillian as "Baby #2".  But then I feel guilty calling her that because really Baby #2 came & went in October 2007.  One time while discussing pregnancies with my sisters-in-law, I actually referred to my pregnancy with Shaylin as my "first pregnancy" & immediately I felt horrible.  I felt like I was ignoring the 6 babies before her.

At the same time I don't want to refer to Jillian as my 8th baby because it can seem confusing to people that don't know us.  Or it can just seem like a downer to remind people of our losses.  But it's hard because I can't ignore them. 

So what's the solution?  I have no idea.  I will at least continue to live my life knowing that I have 8, not just 2, babies.

A Few of my Low-Budget Meals

I've been trying to cut back on our grocery bill.  Some weeks are easier than others.  Lately I've done pretty good.  The cooler weather has helped because it justifies making soup (trust me, you really don't want soup in the summer in Texas!) & soup stretches for a lot of meals.  I thought I'd share some of the recipes I've done in case anyone else wants to find ways to stretch our meals, too.

I'm gonna be lazy & post links for most of them.  I've got a toddler & growing another baby so give me a break!

Monterey Ranch Chicken - Ok, this isn't a soup but it was a good find from Pinterest.  What I liked was it called for just 5 ingredients (great for the budget) & they were things I typically already have on hand, other than the chicken.  I used chicken tenderloins & we ate it for dinner & had enough left for lunch the next day.

Blackeye Pea Soup - This is probably Jeremy favorite meal that I make.  Of course, I can't claim to be the creator of it.  I made it last week & added extra sausage.  I think it made it extra filling.  We had it for dinner & both at the leftovers twice.  Shaylin had only a small amount, just some carrots & some beans.  She's not real skilled with the spoon yet to handle soup.

Taco Soup - I haven't made this for us yet this season but I did for a couple in our church.  They said they were going to freeze half of it since it was such a huge amount.  I do plan to make it in the coming weeks so I can save a portion to freeze as a meal after the baby comes.

Broccoli Cheese Soup - I made this last week.  It gave us 3 meals for me & Jeremy (Shaylin finally decided to try it yesterday & ended up loving it).  Being a meatless meal helps make it cheaper.  We ate it with french bread, which helped fill us.  On a note about the recipe itself, I would cut back on the broccoli next time.  It was just a little too heavy on the broccoli.

Bowtie Lasagna - I'll end with another non-soup recipe.  This one is great for so many reasons.  It's cheap (I think I figured it costing about $5 the last time I made it; probably would be more if you don't have some ingredients already), it makes a lot, & it takes very little time to make.  Major winner!

The Beginning of Freezer Meals

One of my goals at some point with this pregnancy was to make freezer meals.  They would most likely be used sometime after Jillian is born.  Going from a family of 3 to a family of 4 may not always go smoothly so I want to be prepared & having some dinners already made that I only have to pop in the oven.

I came across this recipe for breakfast burritos on pinterest (side note:  Can I just say how much I am loving pinterest?!  I'm collecting so many recipes & make-yourself cleaning solutions & ways to decorate my house.)  We love breakfast burritos.  And apparently Jillian is telling me that I'm actually craving breakfast foods with eggs, cheese, & meat.  Also, I rarely get to make Jeremy a real breakfast before he goes to work.  I'm just to exhausted & stay in bed when he leaves.  This seemed perfect because he can just take one out of the freezer & microwave it at work.

I've already tried one burrito & I'm about to eat a 2nd (see, I told you I was craving breakfast food!).  The recipe itself isn't something brand new.  But I like that there are so many variations to do, like adding peppers & onions (if you like them; I don't) or going vegetarian (but why would you?!). 

I sort of halved this recipe.  I already had bacon & sausage on hand but not a whole pound each.  So I just cooked what I had.  And since I didn't have as much meat I didn't scramble a whole dozen eggs.  I did 7.  I didn't weigh the potatoes but I used 5 of them. 

I will likely make this again & try for the full amount.  With what I had I made 6 burritos with bacon & 5 with sausage.  Definitely will need more eggs.  And bacon.  Always need more bacon.  But still, this is a keeper.

A House Full of Girls

Yep, that's what my husband gets to live with!  And I'm including our 2 female dogs.

It's another girl for us!  We went in really kinda expecting to be told it was a girl so it wasn't a big shock.  And this little girl was much more cooperative than her big sister so the reveal was much less dramatic. 

Her name can finally be revealed, too.  Her name is Jillian Grace.  And, no, we're not trying to stick with S & J names.  We simply pick names that we like.  The name Jillian originally came on the radar for us back when we used to watch The Biggest Loser.  One of the trainers was named Jillian.  We don't necessarily love her but we loved her name.  And we've wanted to use Grace for a middle name but never felt that it fit with Shaylin's name. 

I'll confess that for a brief time I started second-guessing this name.  I just wasn't sure I loved it.  But then I heard a TV character with the name & I started to like it again.  And now that we've revealed it & gotten such positive feedback about it I'm even happier that we stuck with it. 

Boy or Girl?

Today's the day!  It was supposed to be on Wednesday but they're doing some work in the sono room that afternoon so they called to reschedule & OF COURSE I asked to have it moved up!  It's not till 4:30 so this day is gonna drag.

So I wanna know the general consensus - boy or girl?  I have a feeling the votes are pretty evenly split.  My feelings are still that it's another girl.  This pregnancy, although different, is still fairly similar to my last one with Shaylin.  Also, this baby's heartrate has been almost exactly what Shaylin's had been.  And I know the whole heartrate thing isn't really scientific but it proved right with Shaylin so I'm sticking with it.

So please vote!  I'll set up a poll on the side.  You can choose to vote there, in the comments on the blog, or on Facebook when I post the link on my wall.

Fall Baking

Once the first day of fall came I was ready to bake!  Granted, in Texas you wouldn't believe it was fall yet.  It usually takes till after Halloween for fall to really kick in here.

So far I've done muffins.  The first were these pecan pie muffins.  I've been eyeing them for a long time after discovering them on the Pioneer Woman's website.  They were wonderful!  They weren't as muffin-like as I expected but there were great just the same. 

The other muffins were made yesterday & they were these pumpkin cream cheese muffins.  The only downside for me was my only muffin pan holds 6 muffins so it took a really long time to finish all of them.  But the end result was worth it because they were really good!  The cream cheese mixture made a cheesecake-like texture & the pumpkin flavor wasn't over-powering.

I haven't decided what my next baking project will be but I think it should at least be something other than muffins!