Can't Get Anything Past Us...Usually

Bella's most recent line is, "Oh gosh!" We weren't really sure where she picked it up (stop looking at me), until I sat on the couch with Bella and watched The Little Mermaid. Apparently Ariel says, "Oh my gosh" three or four times, and it just happens to be one of Bella's new favorite movies. Combined with the fact that Ursula has to be the most disturbing Disney villain EVER, and we've decided to take a break on Ariel...maybe not forever, but for now. Parenting has a funny way of making me a lot more prudish. I prefer to think of it as discerning.

Seriously...she haunts my dreams. Maybe that's just because I can quote all of her lines.

Oh, it's time for a Potty Update: I think I started too early. I just don't think Bella is ready, and I'm completely okay with that, so I'm taking a break until she seems to show more interest in whether or not she's sitting in her own poop. I've heard a lot of people say they started around 30 months, which for us would be about October, so we'll try again then.

Counting And Waiting

I'm warning you ahead of time that this post may be way too much information; bear with me...

I went to my OBGYN a week ago today to get what Steve and I affectionately refer to as the "baby pill". It's actually a pill that helps to jump start ovulation if you're trying to get pregnant. My cycles have always been very irregular which makes it difficult for me to know when I'm ovulating and when the best time is to try and get pregnant. With Bella, my OBGYN had to give me a pill to start my cycle in the first place because it had been 6 months since my last one.

This time around, I've been off birth control since last Fall and my cycles have been more or less every month. When I went to the OBGYN last week, we didn't even discuss the pill to start my cycle because I had skipped May, but had one in June. The directions for the ovulation pill say that I don't even start taking them until Day 5 of my cycle, which brings us to now...

I'm about a week late on my cycle based on last month, so that means I'm about to skip the month of July altogether. I have this bottle of pills that I'm just staring at, waiting to actually be able to take some action instead of just waiting and hoping. It's not exactly stressful, just frustrating. I absolutely know that it will happen, but Steve and I want a baby so badly, and it's hard to keep buying pregnancy tests, wondering if a random symptom is really a baby and then being disappointed.

I'm not walking around covered in stress and turmoil or anything, I just had to get out what was in my head. When we finally make this baby, we'll forget all of the effort it took to get here, but at this moment, it's hard to wait.

What's In A Name?

Bella is the first grandchild on my side of the family, and we've been trying out a few names to see if my mom and dad would like to be called something different than "Grandpa" and "Grandma". I kind of think it would be fun to have Steve's mom and dad be Grandma and Grandpa, and my parents be something else. Bella calls my dad "Papa", so that seems like a fun option for him, but we're still not sure about my mom...we all like Mimi, so we're trying to actually remember to call my mom that. Who knows, after all this, they might end up being Grandpa and Grandma Meyer after all. (That's okay with us, too!)

Here's what "Papa" and "Mimi" have been up to this week!

Watching Papa fix the back door

Swinging and dancing with Mimi

Bella loves playing in the pool with her Papa!

Water fights and splashing!

Pool time with Rex and Papa

Dad really likes mocha frappuccinos from Starbucks (Who doesn't?) and last night, he shared his recipe to make them at home. They were delicious and tasted just like the real thing!

Dad's homemade mocha, chocolate drinks

Enjoying the yummy drinks!

The Power Of The Cross

Last week, our friend, Will (Liam's dad), asked me if I would take part in a study for his Anthropology class. He had to observe someone of a different religion and write a paper about what motivated them, drew them to it, etc. Steve and I have been praying for Will and Erin since I started watching Liam and we've invited them to our church many times, but they are both strong Catholics and attend mass every Sunday. When I found out that the study included Will coming with us on a Sunday morning to observe the service, I was thrilled with how God works!

We met on Friday, and Will had a list of questions to ask me about my own personal faith, as well as the workings of our church and the individual service. It was a very interesting experience to explain your faith in aspects that I frequently take for granted like prayer; and to use phrases like "legalism" and "on fire for God" that Will asked me to go back and explain. I was praying the entire time that God would give me the right words to say and that I would do more than simply answer a question, but would really weave the gospel throughout.

We had a guest speaker on Sunday, but his message was incredible! Our choir sang, The Power Of The Cross that one of our own members wrote a few years ago and is now sung by Natalie Grant. It's such a powerful song and it was a blessing to have those words ring out when Will was sitting with us! Pray that this is just the beginning of God working in Will and Erin.

Here are the words to my favorite verse:

The Power Of The Cross (verse 3)...

Once a prodigal, now home

Once lost, now found.

Once an enemy, now a friend

Once poor, now crowned.

Here's the video!

Salsa, Lil' Jon, and IMAX

Steve and I had a (very rare) date night on Friday, and it was so much fun! The Fernbank Museum has an event during the summer called Martinis and IMAX. We didn't drink martinis, but we did get to see an incredible IMAX film! The event is held in the museum's main atrium and there is live music. The music style changes each weekend, so Steve checked ahead and found out they were featuring salsa music. We looked up salsa lessons for beginners on YouTube and practiced the night before so we would at least know a few steps!

The Fernbank Museum; it's a very pretty museum and we're looking forward to bringing Bella back sometime.

The IMAX movie that we saw...lots of huge waves and really impressive surfer moves!

This is a very dark shot taken on Steve's iPhone, but you can see the models of dinosaurs set up with people all around it. This is where the live dancing and music took place. We were a little intimidated by the couples who actually knew how to salsa, but we had a blast! We repeated our two or three steps and ended up laughing most of the time. Towards the end of the evening, the salsa music suddenly stopped and hip hop music came on...we were going to leave, but Steve agreed to stay on the floor for a few more songs! I married a daring guy!

Celebrated our 6th anniversary in a photo booth! So the 3rd picture...we ordered some food and had been given the number as our table marker so a waiter could find us. We decided to have some fun with it since it was "#1". An absolutely perfect date night!

To Infinity and And Beyond!

Bella has been hooked on Toy Story 2 lately and Steve's mom said she would send some of Steve's old toys for Bella to enjoy...

[Side Note: The first Toy Story was made in 1995, which means Steve would have been about 14 years old. Does anyone else wonder why he had Toy Story toys at that age? I found out that his Woody doll was actually a gift from an ex-girlfriend, and I'm assuming the rest were picked out for assorted grandchildren. I haven't asked his mom about it yet, but it made me chuckle. I had to fight the brief impulse to throw Woody on the firepit...I'm kidding!]

Back to Bella...I knew she would be excited about these toys and they did not disappoint! Here was her reaction when I lifted Buzz and Woody out of the box: "OOOHHHHH! BUFF!!! BUDDY!!!! OH!!! COOL!!!!!" I'm not exaggerating any of that; it was unbelievably loud. "Buff" is Buzz and "Buddy" is Woody, and there were other little toys in the box of Woody's horse, the racecar, and the aliens.

There was a quick rumble in the living room when Bella decided she wanted to play with Buzz and Woody at the same time, and Rex was feeling left out. After some shrieking, we settled on a good compromise, and they had a great time enjoying the toys for the rest of the afternoon. Bella has already picked them up first thing this morning.

"Hat! Hat!" Bella wanted to take Woody's hat on and off about a hundred times.

"There's a snake in my boot!" Bells thinks the pull-string is the coolest thing ever!

Maybe An Architect?

We had fun playing with blocks this morning, and Bella built her own (and first, I think) tower! Mel and I passed the time trying to get blocks to stick to our eyes and mouths.

She was very focused. You do NOT want to mess with her when she's like this.

S-U-C-C-E-S-S!!!

Mel got the blocks to "stick" in her eyes! I think she has abnormally large eye sockets!

I gave up trying to get it to stick to my eyes and just went for my mouth instead.

Copying Mama

This video shows her concentration. After the tower falls over at the very end, she says, "plane!" and then makes the blocks fly around.