When are you due?

I haven't really felt very pregnant in terms of my size compared to how big I got right off the bat with Little Guy...I've felt pregnant in other ways, but not size...well this last weekend I felt like I was finally really starting to show and today a stranger asked when I was due about 10 seconds into our conversation...so I guess I am officially showing :) with only 23 1/2 weeks left to go, we're almost half way to meeting our little dude or dudette! I am not sure how I'll handle waiting it out, but I have a feeling July will be here before I know it and/or am ready for it!

Quinoa

I know I am about 30 years behind on this, but I made quinoa for our family for the first time tonight, and guess what?!? I didn't hate it!!! I was convinced that something made of brown rice and grain packed with protein and nutrients could only taste like one thing- cardboard. I have kashi cereal to thank for putting that thought in my head... Anyways, it was so far from gross and the southwestern blend complimented the homemade shredded chicken enchiladas so well, I am certain quinoa has just become a staple in our home...I don't think it can replace my addiction to white rice, but it's certainly got a permanent spot in our dinner rotation!

Bye Bye Mama

Bye bye mama...little guy strung together his first sentence!!! I know it isn't very elaborate, but it stopped me in my tracks. He was riding around his cow wheely bug and before heading into the hall, he turned, waved, and said "Bye bye Mama"! Will these seemingly so small triumphs and accomplishments ever get old? I forever hope not!!!!

Natural livin'

So Little Guy came down with a cold on Sunday and with Disneyland just 9 nines away, I couldn't risk him not getting better or sharing it with daddy or me! I decided to bite the bullet and hit up the vitamin shoppe. The owner walked me through some home remedies and while I was shocked I didn't have to buy 17 different supplements/herbs/vitamins, I am hoping the echinacea, elderberry syrup and daily vitamins I picked up will be enough to get Little Guy feeling better and Daddy and I away from the germs. Here's to a natural cocktail every two hours to fight this bug...I am determined no one will be sick when we meet Mickey!!!!

Five Little Monkeys

Little Guy is quite the avid reader, something that makes my heart happy every time I see him curl up with a book!  He loves to get cozy in his bean bag chair and "recite" some of his favorite books.  One that we're really into right now is Five Little Monkeys.  It's the most precious thing to see him mutter his way through the book and then act out the bumping his head and wagging his finger when the monkeys fall or mama calls the doctor.  I love when I see him repeat things we've been working on, I am still in awe that I am the one who teaches him things on a daily basis...something I should be used to since that's what I did before I became a mother.  There's just something different, empowering and yet incredibly frightening, about teaching when it's your own child and you can see how the smallest things make such an incredible difference on every level every day....

Family Shower

We hosted Auntie Katie's second baby shower today and it was a HUGE success.  I am pretty sure they won't have to buy diapers EVER and every single last thing they registered for is now residing in their home!  It took two cars and a small army of people to get all the loot home...this baby is one lucky little boy (my prediction!) and we all can't wait until March.  Daddy took Papa and Scott fishing and Little Guy was a trooper with all the ladies.  I am pretty pooped from party planning and looking forward to a little R&R before we get ready to visit the snow before we leave next week for DISNEYLAND!!  Let's just hope with our fingers crossed that the runny nose he woke up this morning is long gone before we head out to meet Mickey Mouse!

Birthday Adventures

Today we spent the day celebrating Daddy.  We hit up the zoo, Fairytale Town, the Home and Garden Show and a lunch date at Mikuni's.  We scored at the Home and Garden show- we have been looking for a specific screen door ever since we saw it at last year's show and guess what??? it was the first vendor we saw when we got there.  After that stroke of luck, we searched for the soft pretzels and shaved ice stand then headed out.  Little Guy spent most the show sleeping on Daddy in the Ergo...he wanted nothing to do with his mommy (it broke my heart a bit!), but he was in seventh heaven with his Daddy and Daddy was feeling the birthday love!  After the show we hit up lunch and Little Guy must have known it was a special day.  He was on his BEST restaurant behavior and he even managed to sit in the booster seat for all of lunch!!!  A box of four crayons and one set of chopsticks, and he was in for the long haul.  We finished up our birthday adventure with some chocolate dipped cones and an early bedtime...ah, remember the days that birthday celebrations didn't start until 10 o'clock...AT NIGHT?!?  Even though it wasn't all night rager, it was a wonderful celebration.  Crazy to think we've celebrated Gabe's 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, and now 34th birthday together!!!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy Birthday to the man who makes our family complete.  We love you more than you'll ever know and we couldn't ask for a funnier, more caring, hard-working, and loving, Daddy, Husband, and Friend. 

Happy 34th Birthday!

 

Birthday Dinner

We had our family birthday dinner tonight with Daddy's family and my family and we tried out a new restaurant in our home town.  Daddy loves local restaurants and this was no exception!  He was his usual charming self, making friends with the wait staff and even finagling an order off of the standard menu.  There was a slight faux pas when the waitress guessed his age...let's just say Daddy suggested she aim low next time she guesses someone age...Anyways, it was an amazing evening and we were happy to continue celebrating Daddy's 43rd 34th birthday week!  We love you!

ChuckECheese

Well, Daddy finally got what he wanted, we went to ChuckECheese!  He's been talking about it all week and since his birthday week is almost over, we headed out for an hour of arcade fun.  Little Guy was most entertained by the three pony merry-go-round...I think we spent four of our five dollars worth of tokens going round-n-round.  He wasn't feeling particularly brave, so he wanted to hold my hand through every single ride...going round-n-round...I was close to needing a Dramine before the giant rocking horse caught his eye.  Daddy was very pleased with our adventure, I am sure he'll be looking to go back soon.

Birthday Bowling

Since we are celebrating Daddy's birthday week, he has been selecting the dinner and afternoon activities all week. He really wanted to go to Chuck-e-Cheese (don't ask me why!) but we ran out of time, so we hit up our local bowling ally.  Little Guy is game for ANYTHING that involves balls, so he was in awe when we walked in and he saw he not only got to play with balls, but push them down a lane and knock things over!  For a first time bowler, he did great...he almost beat Daddy, but thank goodness Daddy got it together just in time.  I can't beat my husband in very many things, in fact I can really only think of one sport I can beat him in, and that's bowling...unless you count safe driving as a sport, then I can beat him in two things....Anyways, Mommy was victorious, but we were having more fun watching Little Guy's face light up every time the balls came out of the ball return or it was his turn to bowl.  He was so proud to carry his 6 pound ball all by himself!  What a fun way to spend our Wednesday night!

 

Weekend Recap

We spent our weekend recovering from baby showers and illnesses and it was so nice to spend an extra long time in our pjs each morning.  We also got to enjoy a 49er victory, sending them to the Superbowl, so we can't wait to watch them hopefully take home their 6th Superbowl title in two weeks!  We're looking forward to Daddy's birthday coming up on Saturday and we can't wait to celebrate each night of his birthday week.  Here's a sweet shot of Little Guy, who is already 17 months old, YIKES!!!

The Baby Shower

Today was the big day, Auntie Katie's baby shower!  I'll be blogging it all over at Teaspoons and Twine, but in the meantime, I can recap it by saying everything turned out just how I had imagined and I think Katie loved being surrounded by her close friends as she gets ready to become a mommy.  I didn't get even one photo with the mommy to be (how does that always seem to happen?!?), but I am hoping next weekend to get a few!  Little Guy was a rock star, napping before the guests got there and ready to party and open gifts when he woke up.  We can't wait to meet Baby Mirch...Daddy thinks she'll be a little girl, I am still thinking little boy.  Daddy says since Auntie Katie is SO MUCH SMALLER at 31 weeks than I was with Little Guy, she must be having a girl...we shall see!

Elmo's World

We finally got to see our friends after what seemed like forever between the holidays and cold season, and Little Guy was pretty excited to show them all his Elmo slippers.  He is OBSESSED with Elmo right now- the first thing he does when he wakes up is bring me the remote asking for Elmo on Netflix.  He only watches about five minutes of it before he finds something else to do, but he LOVES Elmo and can't get enough of him.  Elmo's in his bath, his bed, the car, his clothes, his lunch bag...you name it, Little Guy loves it!

Little Guy's BFF Noah was even wearing the same shirt today...we tried for a twinsie photo, but they weren't having it!

Poppin' Some Popcorn

We borrowed Auntie Heather's air popper and I am pretty sure I'll have to go invest in one now that I've seen how excited Little Guy gets to pop popcorn!  We popped our popcorn to make our caramel corn for Auntie Katie's shower.  I forget how delicious air popped popcorn is, and I can't wait to taste how delicious our caramel corn will be!

I wish I had video of him clapping and laughing, it was too precious!

Rough Day

Well, our Sunday started out with a fun Black Bear breakfast with the Schroeders and a colorful first birthday party for our friends Evan and Ryan.  Little Guy didn't get a nap, so he was pretty much in full meltdown mode all afternoon, but we managed until bedtime and went down right at 6.  I decided to also go down, not feeling too well, but I was pretty sure it was just over-tiredness.  I'll spare you the details, but it wasn't over-tiredness and at 5AM the next morning, Daddy was bringing me into the ER for fluid re-hydration and an ultrasound of the baby.  It was the first time Little Guy woke up to someone other than his mommy (sniff, sniff), but he was just fine (sniff, sniff) and got to enjoy a fun day playing and hitting up his new gymnastics class.  As for me, I laid in the ER, took my 4.5 bags of fluid and anti-nausea meds, before being discharged home eight hours later.  The baby is just fine, and while I feel EXHAUSTED, the dehydration doesn't seem to have caused any real harm.  With a baby shower just five days away, I need to be up and moving FAST!!

What I've always wanted

I always thought I wanted to live as close to Walnut Creek as possible...the shopping, the food, the entertainment...well today Little Guy and I headed into the Bay Area bright and early for some errands.  It all started out great, including an expected mother parking spot right next to the elevator, no lines in Nordstrom, Container Store, or Barnes and Noble, and a relatively happy baby in his stroller.  Then we had to move the car, and our great day spiraled out of control...the traffic, the pedestrians, and the lack of ANY parking after 10 AM made me realize I am not cut out for Walnut Creek living.  I also realized I am not really cut out for maternity clothes shopping.  If I had it in me, I would open a maternity store that did not require 20 questions answered to buy or return anything...an hour later and three jumps off the Lego table, Little Guy and I headed back to Pleasant Hill for lunch with GG and Papa...Little Guy even got to take a nap in his toddler bed, how is he getting so big so fast??

Running Mommy Ragged....

Holy smokes! I am not sure what got into Little Guy today, or if I was just a little more tired than usual, but he was ready to go...all.day.long! We were lucky to both get in a nap, although it was shorter than usual, before getting right back to our playing! Ironically, he was especially energetic while we were registering for gymnastic class....I love this ball of energy more than anything and playing with him makes my heart happy, but today would have been a nice day to wrap up with a glass of red wine...ice cream and recorded tv with my hubby will also do the trick!

Revenge

I tried to avoid it...I lasted two seasons and then I decided to watch just one episode, which turned into two, and then into three, and now I am 20 episodes in and VERY VERY behind on everything else!  Thanks to our new blu ray player courtesy of the Santopadres, we are streaming Netflix right into our bedroom, allowing me to spend countless hours catching up on all the Grayson drama....Laundry and cleaning will just have to wait until tomorrow's nap time!

Car Trouble

Today Little Guy and I met GG and Grandpa to look at wood for our new kitchen table.  Grandpa is building us one as a Christmas gift and I just know it will be AMAZING!!  Our trip was a success and we left with FIVE pieces of redwood to cut, mill, sand, and assemble.  I can't wait to see the finished product, it will be the first part of our remodeled kitchen!  We headed home and along with the rain, our gas light came on as we approached Vallejo...after searching for gas, we fueled up and headed back out only to get a flat tire while driving in the fast lane...in the rain...with the baby...Daddy came to our rescue and AAA followed close behind...We're planning a trip to Costco Tire Center first thing in the morning.

Weaning

I think it may be time...in an effort to fight massive exhaustion and serious discomfort, I have not nursed Little Guy since Tuesday night.  No nursing on Wednesday, no nursing on Thursday...I am sad that that period has passed, but I feel comfortable with the choice and I know if I would have tried weaning any earlier, I would not have been as okay with my decision.  I was always indifferent to breastfeeding before I became a mother, so it still makes me chuckle when I think about how much I ended up LOVING nursing.  After 16 and half months of nursing first thing in the morning, Little Guy now wakes up to his special "chocolate milk" and is content and giggly to be laying in my arms with his sippy cup.  I love watching him grow and explore everyday and I know this is just part of him becoming a "big boy".  So for the next 27 weeks, I'll enjoy life as a non-nursing mom, and then we'll be back at it with baby #2!

A shot from our Spring Family Photos- March 2012

The Littlest One

Today we had our 13 week check up for the littlest baby cooking up right now.  Everything sounds great and the doctor is happy with how things are moving along.  I mentioned that I was feeling EXHAUSTED...not just needing a little sleep exhausted, exhausted to the point of simply changing from one pair of pajamas to another and then laying back in bed, which makes it difficult to also be caring for an energetic toddler...well, the doctor's not worried, she reminded me that nursing and growing a baby are the two most exhausting things your body can do, and I am doing both....so something has to give, and with a tear in my eye, I know our nursing time is coming to an end.

Happy New Year!

We celebrated the new year with great friends, delicious food, and a toddler friendly 9 PM toast! We were even treated to a little babysitting so the mommies and daddies could enjoy dinner with fewer interruptions :) It was a wonderful way to end 2012 and we can't wait to see what 2013 has in store with new babies, weddings, and a dream vacation planned!