Trying to Play Catch-up

WARNING : THIS POST IS PHOTO/VIDEO FREE. I HOPE TO HAVE A PHOTO/VIDEO ONLY BLOG POST SOON! happy reading :-)

Goodbye 1^st Trimester!! What a wonderful phrase to say!!! In case you’ve wondered where I’ve been with all my cute AK updates and Damato family business - I’ve been SLEEPING! I certainly do not remember being as tired when I was pregnant with little AK - but then again we tend to forget the hard parts of pregnancy and childbirth after they are over.

The “morning” sickness hasn’t really been bad at all - there is the occasional day that I just don’t feel my best - but overall I have felt great - except for the pure exhaustion! Somewhere around week 10.5 I began to get my “energy” back - or should I say I felt less tired than before.

Poor Matt and AK had to eat at lot of take-out in the past several weeks, and walk on dirty floors, and dig around in the laundry room for their clothes - I just couldn’t muster up enough energy to do anything but sleep! These last weeks have made me so grateful to have a child that naps 3-4 hours in the afternoon! I’m not sure what I would have done if she wasn’t a good napping baby!

In the last 12 weeks my baby bump has certainly become just that - a nice bigger than I expected BUMP!

I had always heard you show faster the 2^nd  time around, but I guess I didn’t think it would be instant! I tried to wear the largest size of regular pants I had the other day - I did wear them, but when I got home from work I quickly changed and committed to never try that again! I’ve pretty much been in my maternity clothes for about a month now! Its going to a itchy belly summer with the heat and maternity pants stretched over my bump this soon! Oh well -its par for the course - and I do admire my own little bump (at least in the beginning stages anyway). It a great badge of honor to carry around - it proudly proclaims that the Lord has blessed me!

I’m sure you are wanting a picture, and by the time I actually post this blog I may have one - but for now I have no photo of the growing bump - sorry to disappoint!

There are probably so many funny and cute AK stories that I need to tell you since its been so long since my last post. She has had a developmental growth spurt in the last month or two - she is quickly growing out of “baby” mode and into toddler/child mode. It’s so hard to comprehend when you look at her because she is still so petite and pretty much bald. She does have beautiful strawberry tinted blond hair rapidly growing on her precious head - but in comparison to other girls her age she is still lacking. I love her precious “baby” hair though - keeps her looking younger than she is.

AK’s vocabulary has increased exponentially in the last weeks. These are just a few of the words she uses regularly: Nut-nut (the dog), Lucy (the other dog), Princess (the neighbor’s dog), Dog (can you tell she loves dogs?), Hi, Bye-bye, Daddy, Mama, Yum Yum, Night-Night, Tickle -Tickle, Thank You, Please, Milk (her version anyway), More, No, No-No, Ball, Baby, Hot, Oww, Bubble, Jesus, Bath, and Diaper.

She can imitate the sound to the following animals : Dog (but of course), Cow, Tiger (she gives a mean growl LOL).

She can point to her head, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, teeth, belly button, toes, and wiggle her fingers.

She can “sing” Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (sometimes with hand motions), she loves to dance and keep rhythm to music.

She has amazing facial expressions and a great sense of pure humor!

We moved AK from the crib to the toddler bed which is essentially the crib without one side of rails. After a rough couple of nights that landed her in our bed for the duration of her sleep - we decided it was time for her to have a bigger bed! She is now in a full size bed! Granted its just the box spring and mattress on the floor so it is not too high off the ground - but still! I can’t believe my tiny girl is sleeping in such a big bed! We originally planned to move her to a twin bed, but my mom worries got the best of me and I decided the full size bed gave her less opportunity to roll off onto the floor because it had so much more surface space!!

She has done amazingly well with the transition! Its worked out fabulously since AK is not into being rocked to sleep anymore. She just wants you to lay near her while she falls asleep on her own, another reason why the bigger bed is better for us! We can all pile in her bed as a family for bed time! Its been such a sweet time for the 3 of us. The best part is, she has yet to escape her bed (it does have a small guard rail on it to prevent roll offs). She does not attempt to get up in the middle of the night and explore her dark room. Maybe we’ve just not gotten to that stage, or hopefully that’s just how it will be - either way - right now it’s great!



There are so many thoughts and stories running through my head - I don’t know where to begin or when to stop! Its been amazing to notice AK’s own fascination with babies! She doesn’t even grasp or understand what we are saying when we tell her there is a baby in mommy’s tummy - but she sure does know what a baby is, and that babies ride in baby carriers and strollers! She can spot a baby carrier in the grocery store and aisle away! She loves to sit and stare at the babies. This is strange to me because she is not even the slightest bit interested in any of her own baby dolls - just real life babies!

AK moved up in her age group at school to a new class room. The first day of “summer” school they did art. I had to walk down the preschool hall for my job, and I noticed coloring sheets outside her classroom door. Each sheet had a child’s name on it, so naturally I looked for my child’s sheet. All the sheets were brightly scribbled on - except one - AK’s!! I got so tickled at this! Very typical of my child - she wants to eat the crayon not draw with it! She would much rather turn on music and sing and dance than write or draw!

Ever since summer started I went to a 4 day a week work schedule, which has turned out to be such a blessing. Between this new pregnancy, and a desire to spend more time with AK - having Fridays off has been a dream come true! We haven’t ventured out too much since I’ve been so tired, but we did visit the zoo once. We try run a few fun errands before afternoon nap time -but mostly we just enjoy snuggling and giggling!

Matt got a great reward at work this week! He was given a brand new company truck! This is an answer to prayer in so many ways. First of all its so rewarding to see him honored for his hard work and dedication at his job. Secondly and most excitingly it gives us an opportunity to eliminate a car payment - helping us get to our goal of debt free driving that much faster! We are going to sell his car, which has been such a great car for us - but thankfully for Matt he is now in a brand new truck! I am so proud for him and so proud of him! He works so hard to provide for us and make sure we have almost anything we want. This is why for Father’s Day I me and AK splurged and bought him a road bike! Now to the average person this means nothing at all - you probably don’t even realize that there are different types of bikes out there or that they could cost much at all! Think beyond the bike rack at walmart or even your local sports store - think LANCE ARMSTRONG - racing bike!

We surprised him by purchasing the bike early - he had been saving up overtime money and selling things on eBay, as well as doing handy man jobs on the side to earn this money. I splurged and spent the rest of the money he needed to make his cycling dreams come true! So I guess really Matt got 2 brand new rides in 1 week! We’ll just call it even since he splurged and let me get the mini-van I really wanted.

As June comes to a close and turns into July I’m excited to see what the rest of our fun summer holds. We are headed to Chicago in August, while AK goes to visit her BeBe for a week. This should be a lot of fun for us, with the new baby on the way I’m sure travel, especially long distance travel will come to a halt for about a year, just as it did before with AK.
Sorry if this post seemed to bounce all over the place - I shouldn't let a month go by in between writing my blogs! I hope to get some time this weekend to upload some pictures and videos for your viewing pleasure!
Until next time - Be Blessed and Be a Blessing!