Lately

Everything around me is changing.

My little one, my body, my location, my decisions. Those are just a couple on my list. 

For just one second I took my eyes off my baby,
and looked back to find a little lady had replaced her.

She is so fun. The funnest kind of fun I've ever known.
She booty shake dances to the hymns during General Conference.
She turns the shower head on herself while she's bathing.
Tickles any bare skin she can find on someone.
Kisses the dogs any chance she can get.
Says hi to strangers.
"Signs" for "more" whenever she sees a baby (she just wants to love on them constantly).
Learns way too much, way too quickly (she's brilliant) 

 But the change into toddler-hood has been a rocky one.

From day one I thought I had the perfect plan for parenting. I knew just how I wanted to 

teach, love, discipline, motivate etc. There was nothing that could get in my way...

Except, reality. 

Granted....her "difficult" is ridiculously easy.

I was just completely taken off guard  having my 14 month old throwing a tantrum.

It has taken me a couple months to wrap my head around trying to understand why she is doing this.

Of course it's because she's not a baby anymore. She knows just what she wants, but can't just tell me exactly what that is. 

I'd be bugged too. 

So as soon as I learn patience with learning how best to communicate with her during this stage,
she will be talking and communicating fine
 and I will have something new I need to learn. 

I have lots to learn.

At this point in my parenthood I have realized that
I have no doubt that my life has lead up to
marriage, and being a mom.
I have not learned much at all until I got married. 
Then I have my little girl teaching me things that make me so much of a better me.
To stop and really ponder it fully, brings me to tears.
I am eternally grateful.

Then my body and its changes...
Man.
This pregnancy has really been different.
Sorer.
Bigger.
Grumpier.
But honestly, has been easier in a lot of ways too.
Not working helps.
My legs don't swell up to the size of watermelons from being on my feet all day.
This has meant not nearly as many charley horses waking me up at night. Heaven!
Reagan has also been a great distraction. Time flies as she grows up, so it seems pregnancy has sped along this time.

However about 3 weeks ago I found out I have gestational diabetes.
They are having me test my blood 4 times a day.
I count my carbs. 200 a day (adds up QUITE quickly). I do have "free foods" that are without, or have very little carbs: celery, broccoli, peanut butter, nuts, chicken, cheese, eggs...
I have 6 small meals a day...
I take insulin at night to help keep my blood sugar from getting too high during the night.

The hardest part is that, it is already plenty hard cutting out sugar and crappy carbs...
They aren't just saying...hey cut out the crap and stick to fruits and veggies and protein and stuff...
They've asked me to cut out that addicting stuff and I still have to really limit yummy, decently healthy things like fruits and MILK...TORTURE!!!!

enough whinning..

 There's no doubt it has been fantastic for me in many ways.
The obvious reasons of course...
But it has taught me how empowering it is to have self-control.
I feel pretty great.
More energy.
Great for my little man.
And it's just plain good to have to do "hard" things (I do understand that there are much harder things, much MUCH harder)

My locations and decisions changing are summed up by saying...
We're moving to Rexburg for Isaac to go to school at BYU I.
He is transferring from ISU.
For a couple reasons, but a big, oh so helpful, reason is that BYU Idaho's
student insurance has great coverage for diabetics...so this means
that he can switch from full time to part time (because before he had to be full time to have the benefit of having insurance through work).  So this will help so he can get this whole schooling thing done sooner.

We really looked into buying a town home or a house.
After several weeks of looking, nothing was quite what we needed, and we weren't willing to settle
on such a big commitment.
SO.... renting it is. And we are pretty sure this is the place.
It should treat us well for a couple years.





P.s. Baby girl's first sentence