Has this world gone Dora Mad???

I am talking about Dora the Explorer. The cartoon has been popular for quite some time now, and I am sure many toddlers and older kids love it, but why is everything revolved around Dora now? I went to Zellers and 90% of their clothes are Dora themed. I went to Wal-Mart and 90% of their toys are Dora themed. It seems that everything from girl's underwear to vanity sets to pajamas to jewelry is revolved around Dora. Do little girls this age not like anything else???

And I have to admit, but Dora toys and clothes are extremely cute. And there is a huge selection of them, but it's just way too much. It's almost like you have no choice but to buy a Dora outfit or a Dora toy because there is nothing else left! And the remaining 10% of items are either Diego (whom Matthew calls Dora's boyfriend) or Disney (Pluto, Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Nemo, etc.). Matthew is convinced that Diego was created so that little boys are not excluded from this Dora madness and their parents have something to buy them too.

Natasha watches Dora cartoons on Treehouse every now and then, but she's not too interested in it yet. She loves when the songs come along, but otherwise it's a bit too much talking for her. She still prefers cartoons that are more musical. It's just really frustrating because Natasha is starting to outgrow the Infant section of most department stores and is moving into the Toddler section where clothes start from sizes 2T. And I really don't want her to have an exclusive Dora wardrobe. Hopefully this madness will pass.

I've been feeling the little bean kick for over a week now. It was a lot easier to detect the kicks this time around, because last time I simply did not know what to look for. I could only feel Natasha kick around 22-23 weeks and yet I've been feeling this little one since week 19. Moreover, a couple of days ago Matthew also felt the baby kick more than once, which is again, way earlier than he could feel it last time. The kicking always starts around 8-9pm which is normal - they always kick in the evenings, but on several occasions, I've felt her move in the afternoons too. It seems that drinking caffeine or eating chocolate triggers those kicks the most - sorry, baby! Technically, it's really important to feel the baby kick every single day. That is a major sign that the baby is doing OK in there, and my OB made it clear to me.

Fetal Development, 21 Weeks.

I don't know where the time has gone, but I've passed the mid-point of this pregnancy. It seems to be going by way faster then the previous one, and I have a feeling it has something to do with an active toddler running around and keeping you busy all day. Yesterday was my 20-week checkup and I got to hear the loud heart-beat of our little baby. I am not sure how quickly it beat, but at our Ultrasound last week it was 146 bpm. My appointments are pretty uneventful because I get to wait for over an hour just to see my OB for a 5-minute appointment. But I suppose hearing the heart-beat and being given the 'all OK' from him is worth the wait. In another 7 weeks I will be entering the third and final trimester and I believe then my appointments will change from monthly to bi-weekly, and eventually to weekly. I have another Ultrasound awaiting for me in the 3rd trimester so it will be exciting to see the baby once again!

Natasha started walking by herself a little over two weeks ago and she's definitely improved much since then. Her only problem is that once she starts walking, she doesn't know how to stop and so she'll continue walking until she reaches a certain point. It's quite funny to watch her... She'd walk from Point A to Point B without any problems, given that she can see Point B and register it as her destination. But so far she hasn't summed up the courage to walk in an open space because she wouldn't be able to stop. I'm sure she'll master it very soon. And she doesn't waste any time either - every single day she practices walking in our living room all on her own, by walking from the front door to the couch and back. She's really proud of her new skill.

Here's a short video of her taken on November 10, but she's got way more confident since then.

Here is our second baby daughter:

Our Anatomy Ultrasound went great yesterday. We were called in really quickly and the entire session lasted close to 45 minutes. The Ultrasound was very detailed as they located and documented each organ, counted the number of fingers and toes, and determined the location of the placenta. My report said 'normal' all the way through, which will hopefully remain normal through the second half of this pregnancy.

The Ultrasound technician asked us if we wanted to find out the baby's gender or to keep it a surprise. And of course we said we wanted to know, no surprises for us! So after a careful check she confidently said it's a little girl. We were pretty excited because our babies will be 18 months apart and so it would be great for Natasha to grow up with a sister close in age, but we would have been okay with a boy too. This also simplifies things because we already have so many girlie clothes and toys, Natasha's nursery is painted pink, so having another girl makes things a lot easier for us.

Now we enter the joys of preparing for her arrival and agreeing on some names. Matthew thinks he has a voice in naming this child, but like I told him many times before, until he figures out how to be pregnant, labour, and go through the pains of birthing, he has no say in this matter. End of story. (I am kidding, of course, it will be a mutual decision, and so far nothing is set in stone).

Our "big" Ultrasound is scheduled for this upcoming Tuesday, November 13 @ 9:45am. If you're wondering why it's called "big" then you've probably never visited pregnancy & mommy forums. That's where we refer to the Anatomical Ultrasound as "big" because that is the first time that gender can be determined. Anyway, hopefully the baby will cooperate and let us see what it is.

On our way to the Ultrasound clinic we're going to stop at Tim Hortons and eat two chocolate donuts. Well, I don't know about Matthew, but I am definitely going to. Anything to make the bean hyper and give us a sneak-peak. As you can tell, we really want to know, not only because we're curious, but also because we can start preparing for No.2 without having to buy everything gender-neutral.

Matthew thinks it's another little girl. I think it's a boy. I thought it was a boy last time too.  So you can see how good my intuition is. Be sure to send us some open-leg vibes!

It's been a hectic few days for our poor baby. After conquering her aggressive molars, which were then followed by a bark-like cough lasting close to 3 days, Natasha developed a severe diaper rash. Can you tell she had a miserable few weeks? I don't even know what caused the diaper rash because she's only had one since the day she was born and the cause of that was a switch to different diapers. This time the cause is a mystery but I'm suspecting it might be due to some tangerines she ate a couple days ago - the child devoured the tangerines in seconds so of course I couldn't resist, but I am not convinced that was the cause. She also has a small red rash around her mouth which brings us back to tangerines. Well no more tangerines for her, but I am sure she'll have them again at some point.

On an entirely different note, Natasha has started taking completely unassisted steps. She can walk all on her own without falling and she couldn't be more proud of herself. She started doing it yesterday at my parents' place and demonstrated her new skill for me when I came to pick her up. She was incredibly happy and just kept wanting to walk more and more. Today, however, she's being more stubborn but I think it's because we have hard-wood floors where my parents have carpets and she's afraid to slip and fall. Chicken. So Matthew took her to the hallway outside our apartment where the floors have carpeting and she balanced herself much better over there. I am sure she'll be running very soon!

Here's a recent picture of her enjoying the fall

October 31st was a pretty disappointing day for us. Natasha got sick and was miserable the entire day. It all started with a small cough which quickly developed into a bark-like cough that was the worst when she was crying. She sounded like a little doggy. I felt really sorry for her because she just spent the prior week suffering from teething pains (3 molars came out), and so when that pain seemed to subside, she became sick and had to suffer even more. Poor baby. Gladly, she seemed to be doing better yesterday and this morning, although still coughing, she was a lot more cheerful. Hopefully she's on the road to full recovery.

So unfortunately, I was not able to snap any good Halloween pictures of her in her costume. I had an adorable black kitten costume all prepared for her; I even had makeup ready to paint some whiskers and colour her nose. And I did attempt to dress her up but she was simply so miserable, she cried through the entire dressing and so I had no choice but to take it off and just let her be.

This was taken back on August 30, 2007 when I first purchased the costume:

And this was taken on October 31, 2007. You can see 
how miserable she was, and so this is the only picture I have.