Being 2 and Loving It!

A little Emmy Update:

• Not only is Miss Em loving being 2 1/2, but we are as well. She is hilarious, sweet, caring and very smart (spoken like a true mother, I know!) She will now come up to Andy and I at completely random times, give us big hugs and say I love you! It just melts our hearts. She loves when the two of us match, even if it's just our pants and says, "Mommy, we match, we're best friends!"

• I am so very proud to say that she has been in underwear now for a little over 2 weeks. We have been potty training off and on for quite some time now, but just recently we made a trip to Target, picked out some really cute underwear and I guess she was finally ready. She insisted on wearing her underwear around the time we were traveling for the holidays, which made it a bit challenging, but I didn't want to stop her. She has been doing GREAT and has only had a few accidents and I believe none in the past week. She is really learning control, doesn't have a fear of public places (even though I cringe every time we go in and she goes to touch something) and is doing amazingly well. Never thought I could be so proud of pee & poop!

• We have been taking a Mommy & Me Preschool class since September, with her teacher, Mrs. Smith and she loves it. It's through the Jewish Community Center in Southbury and where she will be taking preschool next year 3 days a week. In class the kids are learning to be able to recognize their name, so now she points out the letter "E" whenever she sees one. While in Florida she saw a huge sign that said "BOSE" while at the outlet mall. She immediately yelled out, with a huge smile on her face, "Look, that's my name!" As if it was written in lights in the sky. So cute!

• She is learning to ask questions and can now hold a real conversation with you. We have gotten passed the point where we would just talk to her and ask her things, to now she will ask them back. She loves to sit at the dinner table and ask us about our day. She will even ask follow up questions depending on what you said you did that day. She'll ask if you had fun, if it was hard, if you are tired, etc. Where does she learn this stuff?!?!

• Emmy has really been into getting herself dressed lately and I am all for it, well for the most part! I mean I have to put my foot down sometimes, but I also don't want to stifle her creative expression (if you can call it that). We rearranged all of her dresser drawers yesterday so she could have an easier time picking out shirts, pants, etc. This morning was a great example, as I spent a few minutes on the phone with a friend, she told me she was going to pick out her clothes. When I told her she had dance, she immediately knew there would be a skirt as part of the outfit and it went from there! Picture below explains it all...

• She is really starting to come out of her shell as well. She of course can still be shy at times, but is starting to talk to people in public, loves to order her own dinner at restaurants and will even shake hands and say "nice to meet you!" That's my favorite because people are always so surprised to see the polite manners - makes me so proud! She even told the pilot on the plane as we were leaving to "Take Care!"

• Emmy refuses to let me do her hair unless I pretend I am Leah. her hairdresser. She LOVES Leah and asks to get her haircut at least once a week, if only I were made of money. I realized the only way I can do it is if I set her little chair down in front of my full length mirror and pretend I am the hairstylists, but I need to do it just as Leah does. I guess next time we go I'll have to take notes.

Ultrasound picture!

Finally got a chance to upload the ultrasound picture from our Anatomy Scan. When we had our ultrasound with Em, she was sucking her thumb. This baby skipped right over the thumb and went for all 4 fingers instead - hilarious! The baby also had the hiccups during the ultrasound and I actually felt them for the first time the other night, it was crazy. I thought I was going insane and couldn't believe I was feeling them this early on, but after some reading found out that people pregnant with their second can feel hiccups this early on in pregnancy. It was very exciting.

I find myself still in denial that we are expecting baby number 2. People ask me all the time if we have thought of names, nursery decor, etc. and my answer is always no. I know logically that we are having a baby, but life has been so busy that I don't really have time to process of think of anything other than whats going on in the moment. Maybe this is one of the reason I don't want to find out the sex, so I can leave all that planning until the last minute; which for people who know me, is totally against the way I normally lead my planned out life. I guess everyone likes some spontaneity in their life :).

When I do have a quiet moment in the late evening or in the early morning when I baby is especially active I love to just sit and wait for the kicks and punches, it NEVER gets old. I am still just as fascinating that I have a person growing inside of me as I was last pregnancy. The whole thing is truly a miracle and I am so lucky to experience it all!

Anatomy Scan!

We went on December 28th before we jetted off to Florida for our 20 week Anatomy Scan. I'm actually only 20 weeks now but that's just what they call it. Anyway, I was so excited to see the little peanut again, but to also have more reassurance that everything is developing as it should be. I'm happy to report that is all is GREAT! I mean of course, as the doctor, told us, nothing is 100%, but he was very happy with what he saw - beautiful baby as they told us! The baby was measuring to be due on May 26th, so I'm sticking with my "end of May" due date, since I have heard everything from May 24th - May 28th.

I have started feeling the baby more and more and Andy actually felt the baby kick for the first time last week while we were away. I tried to get Em to also feel it but her attention span to the subject is lacking and she didn't have the patience to sit there. I guess we'll have to wait until the kicks and punches are more apparent. She did put her hand on my belly for 2 seconds, say Hi baby, give him/her a tickle and then run off. At least she is grasping the concept a little bit more. She actually asks me about every few days if the baby in my tummy is gone yet and I keep explaining when the baby is gone from my belly that he/she will live with us, this usually results in a blank stare! She also keeps referring to the baby as her sister, which I hope doesn't result in disappointment if it happens to be a boy, but we'll deal with that when and if the time comes.

My belly at 19.5 weeks!

Photo Shoot!

I realized a few weeks ago that I really have been really bad with taking pictures, I think I'll need to make that one of my new year's resolutions to take them more often. We even tried the whole 5 days we were in PA for the holidays to take pictures, and we didn't manage to do it until dinner at the Chinese restaurant on Christmas night.

Practicing our sad faces...also making her laugh to actually smile for the pictures!

Sweet Kisses for Mommy

Family Photo!

With Daddy & Sadie

"Good Night Baby"

About a month or so ago after a trip to Home Goods, Em decided she needed what she called "Good Night Baby" for Hannukah. She insisted that someone would buy it for her and when anyone asked her what she wanted for the holidays, without hesitation, it was always "Good Night Baby". It was just a few short weeks ago that she actually decided that Santa was the one who was going to bring it to her. I'm really not sure where exactly she learned all about Santa, but she picked it up somewhere and even knew exactly what his role was.

I wasn't too concerned, I mean, how hard could it be to find a doll that goes to sleep and has a pacifier and bottle??? Well apparently it's harder than I ever imagined!

I took Em back to Home Goods because that's where the "Good Night Baby" requests started, but they had nothing, so off we went to the Target baby aisle and again, she looked and looked and said it was not there. A little panicked, I told her Santa would do the best he could and whatever he brought her, was what he thought was best. I had searched the Internet and found what I thought was the BEST Good Night Baby EVER! I mean you would have thought I won the lottery when I saw this baby that they only sold at Walmart. Off Andy went to the store he hates worse than any place in the world, and said he even had to almost fight another couple for it, but he successfully got the baby and we were all set! I personally felt a great sense of relief.

Fast forward a few weeks to Christmas morning. We left the gift from Santa right at the end of her bed and waited with excitement as she opened it. Well, let's just say, Santa got it wrong :( Not only did she say this wasn't "Good Night Baby" the baby didn't even work, it was supposed to cry, go to sleep, even snore, guess that's the last time I shop at Walmart, damn them!

If you want to check out the reaction live, here you go!

Thankfully Nana and PP had purchased there own Hannukah gifts so that did take some of the pressure off of me. But even after opening all of her gifts, she was STILL looking for "Good Night Baby". We are off to Florida this week and I assured her we would try to find something there. Please Florida don't let us down!!!

Welcome to Our Blog!

Since many have been asking what exactly Em is saying (sorry I forget she isn't that easy to understand unless you are around her everyday), here is your translation:

"Welcome to our new blog, I'm going to be a big sister now!"

Today is the Day!

So we just found out we are pregnant with baby number 2 and a whole slew of emotions are going through my head. Obviously the most prominent is the one that wants to scream from the top of my lungs and tell everyone I know that, I'M PREGNANT. The practical, rationale and more sane side of me is deciding to wait until we at least go to the doctor which is in 4 LONG, LONG weeks. I am thankful that over the next few weeks we have a lot going on so at least I'll be busy.

It's such a crazy feeling to know that I am pregnant again, it's almost as if all those feelings and thoughts the first time come rushing back. Then there are times when I feel like I'm still in college, so how could I possibly be pregnant for not the first, but second time - WHAT?!?!

So I have to laugh at myself because if you remember the first time I got pregnant I took a pregnancy test that had the plus sign lines and those things can really get you and play tricks with your mind. I was pretty sure there were two lines to make a cross, but if you stare at it long enough you start to go crazy and since one is so much darker than the other it can drive you nuts. Well i guess i didn't learn the first time because I bought the exact same tests again, only causing Andy to have to run out to CVS to get the clearer to read (Pregnant/Not Pregnant) kind. He made fun of me saying I must have been cheap and in fact i did, they were on sale and I even made sure I got my discount, not that it mattered of course, but I still did it, hoping I guess this time would be different - oh well! I'm thankful to Andy for running out to ease my craziness and confirm that I am in fact PREGNANT!

So once I found out I was pregnant the second thought in my mind was what do I do about the blog. I loved blogging when I was pregnant with Em and having all of those memories to look back on, but knowing that I now have an active 2 year old I knew maintaining two blogs was a little ambitious, so here is it, the BIRTH of The Sachs Family Blog. Your one stop read for all that's exciting in our little world. We hope you will check it out and visit often. We appreciate your constant love and support and look forward to all the fun and exciting adventures that lie ahead.

With Love,

Jess, Andy & Emmy