I had to post once more in October

Why?  Because otherwise I would only have posted 4 times this month.  You know when the last time I only wrote 4 posts in a month was?  February of last year.  AKA the month I started blogging.  So I thought it would have been pretty pathetic if I couldn't manage to beat that.  

Anyway, NaBloPoMo starts tomorrow so look forward to lots more posting in the near future.  How is already November, by the way?  

Happy Halloween!

Cause I'm weird like that

Most of my pregnancy symptoms are normal.  (Also, mild.  Another post on that later.)  BUT, there are a couple things that are just downright weird.  I had these symptoms with Kalena but thought maybe I was just crazy and it was all in my head.  Turns out not so much, because they are both back.

The first is: when I'm pregnant I develop a mild allergy to onion.  Yep, when I'm pregnant (and only when I'm pregnant) eating raw onions causes my lips and tongue to get all tingly and a little numb.  It's nothing that keeps me from eating onion, but it is a little strange.

The second is: my hands fall asleep ALL THE TIME.  This one at least makes sense; I'm sure it's related to increased blood volume during pregnancy, but still, it's a little much.  For instance, working on a stitchery causes one and sometimes BOTH my hands to fall asleep.  Even though one of them is moving!  Spending more than 10 minutes or so online (if I'm scrolling a lot) makes my scrolling fingers fall asleep.  If I sleep with one hand under my pillow it will be SO asleep when I wake up that I can't even move my fingers.  

I wonder if I'll have these with every pregnancy.  Anybody else have any crazy pregnancy things?

You guys have to help me

This napping business?  Is KILLING me.  Kalena has officially moved to one nap a day.  And you know when that nap happens?  9 am.  OR EARLIER.  If it's a good day she'll sleep for 2 hours.  Most days she'll sleep for an hour to an hour and a half.  On bad days we get a whole 25 minutes.  But no matter how long or what time, this is the ONLY nap.  Which means even on the best of days she's awake from 11 am until 7 pm.  And people?  That is TOO LONG.  She starts getting tired again around 1 pm, but that doesn't mean she'll go back to sleep.  

I have tried: putting her down when she very first gets tired

letting her stay up longer to try to wear her out

letting her cry (checking on her every 10 or 15 minutes) for up to an hour

None of this works.  And before you tell me to try to move the morning nap later, I've tried.  Turns out keeping her up longer in the morning just makes the nap shorter.  It's like her internal clock won't let a nap go past 11:15, no matter what time it started.  It doesn't seem to matter what we're doing either.  Spending a busy morning running errands is no more likely to produce an afternoon nap than hanging out at the house.  (Also, if you let her cry without checking on her she just gets more and more worked up, so that wouldn't work either.)

I wouldn't even care so much except that she is so obviously tired in the afternoons.  And by tired I mean whiney.  If she napped in the morning and got up at 11 and spent the rest of the day being smiley happy Kalena?  That would be GREAT.  Instead she gets up at 11, is in meltdown mode by 2 pm and I get to spend the rest of the day doing one of two things: 1) sitting on the couch watching her play, or 2) sitting on the floor watching her play.  Those are the only things that don't result in more whining, crying, or tantrums.  Makes for really productive afternoons, I'll tell you what.

So what's the deal?  Is there some secret to getting a child to nap that I just don't know?  Help me!  

To answer your question,

Yes, yes I did fall off the face of the earth.  Well, either that or we've had some serious napping issues around here combined with a sick baby and now a sick me.  Fun times all around.  

Don't worry though, I've got lots to catch up on and lots of pictures to post.  AND, (because apparently I need more motivation than just saying to myself, "I need to blog") I will be once again signing up for NaBloPoMo and posting every day in November.  I managed to make it through the month last year and I have MORE than enough updating to do this time around so it should be easy right?  Right.  (I'm going to keep telling myself that.)  Anything in particular you want to hear about during the blogging frenzy of November?  

P.S.  Do I even have any readers left or did everyone abandon me when I spent pretty much the entire month of October saying NOTHING?

Blessing pictures

Better late than never right?  Here are a couple pictures from Amelia's blessing.

The happy family.

Look-a-likes.  Although, I'm not sure Jonathan would look as cute in that little white dress as Amelia does.