Random thoughts on a random Monday...

Hoping....
I had a heavy dose of Hope handed to me yesterday at church. More often I am afraid of raising children today with so much hate, violence, profanity and sex on TV and online, and therefore EVERYWHERE. Or so I thought. A team of church youth and adults spoke yesterday in front of the congregation about their experiences on a recent mission trip to Oklahoma. Hearing those kids, mostly boys in middle school to college, talk about God working through them brought tears to my eyes. I hope Grayson talks like that one day and better yet feels that one day. And it's up to us to make that happen. It's really the only way we stand a chance to raise kids that are resilient against all the bad in the world.

Dreaming....
I think I need to find a creative outlet because my mind has been working overtime with thoughts of change. Mainly with our home. And we are still 2 years, 5 years, 10 years out from making any kind of change (the amount of time changes based on which one of us you talk to, on what day and in what kind of mood we're in!) I love dreaming about adding on to this house. Beau and I have always wanted a 1-story ranch style house on a large lot. I'm on Ebby all the time looking for houses like that in the metroplex (since they are non-existent in Frisco) And then we stop and think - we have a 1-story on a big lot. IN Frisco! With one of the best elementary schools in the district. We could add on to this house beautifully (Beau, me and my former-home-builder Dad see it so easily) for a lot less than we could buy anything else and make it all our own style at the same time. I love looking at airy white kitchens on Pinterest and in magazines but you won't find that style in Frisco very often. BUT if we add on and remodel the kitchen in this house, we can have that. Beau is on the same page but it puts us in this house for YEARS. And the side of me that is addicted to change is terrified of this. On the other hand, we have crazy dreams of selling this house in 2 years, throwing our stuff in storage and renting a home somewhere. Anywhere! Beau can live anywhere that has an airport nearby. Naples? Destin? Austin? We would have to do that now before Grayson goes to school and we're rooted somewhere for the next 20 years. I need to remember to be patient and that everything will play out the way it's supposed to. There's a country song called, "You're going to miss this" that comes to mind when I get antsy. I need to remember to slow down and cherish this time. Because whatever happens, this is the most simple, easy, calm time of our lives! :)

Pretending...

I'm guilty of playing the "submissive 50's housewife" card when approached by sales people. Nothing makes a sales person turn their back on you faster than a woman who can't make buying decisions. Actually, I used to do this when I was single too but using my Dad as the scapegoat. It's just too easy.

Joking....

There is a reason you don't see more 2 or 3 year olds on sitcoms or in movies. The constant whining and tantruming would grow old with viewers.

Updating...

Good news! Beau and his former-co-worker won that Ireland business! To keep things straight, this was for his now-former company. The client had one condition: that Beau is their consultant on the project. Umm, oops. Long story short, Beau convinced his new company to contract him back to his old company so he'll be back in Ireland in two weeks. If I wasn't pregnant, Gray and I would just go live with him for a month. But because I am expecting, he's only going for 6 days and has made it clear that the rest of the work will be done remotely (for the most part). It's so tough not having control sometimes!

One more update: Beau is taking the month of February off work to be with Grayson, me and the new baby! How's that for paternity leave? Hmmm, that would be a stellar time to do an add on to this house....kidding! ;)

12 Week Sono

You only thought I couldn't possibly write anymore about this week of pregnancy! Ha! Just a quick update on the post below. I had my appointment this morning and everything went so pleasantly well that I'm on cloud nine. The chord was perfectly placed between the legs hiding any possible details about gender but so goes life. Kind of a relief since I have friends who had the gender guessed wrong at their 12 week appt :/ I don't want that kind of change in news in my life! :) We DID see a strong heartbeat, a profile, 4 limbs and a good result in the Downs nuchal test. I couldn't ask for more. 

Here are some pictures....1)yes, I had digital files with Grayson; 2) I'm too lazy to scan these hard copies with this one. Deal.

Profile

Call me crazy but that leg seems long.

Arms!

By far the cutest shot - the bottoms of the feet! Lovies.

We go back in 4 weeks to do the early gender prediction test - some 3D sono or something. I totally took the bait.

I thought about doing a Terrible 2's update but I'm tired and at the end of my rope. So much so that my mom took Grayson for the night and ALL DAY tomorrow! I know we're not supposed to worship false idols but she's my savior. I have big plans to do crazy things like shower and blow dry my hair, put on make-up and grocery shop in peace. Get a pedicure and watch movies with curse words, explosions and heavy petting. Maybe walk into places where strollers don't fit (Heya, Williams Sonoma & Bed, Bath and Beyond! You cluttered little rascals.) or with a lot of breakables at knee level. 

Who am I kidding, I'll be proud if I get showered and make-uped! 

Do not be fooled. He's plotting to take this house down.
I love this Terrible 2 Year Old to pieces!

12 Weeks & A Lot of Pregnancy Talk

At 12 weeks, Baby #2 is the size of a lime!

I have looked back on on this blog countless times to compare pregnancies or to look up whether I had a certain symptom last time and I always come up empty handed! I thought I was doing such a good job of capturing every little moment of my first pregnancy but I was terrible! So, with the hopes of capturing more of this one, I thought I'd include a post written before anyone knew, a pregnancy questionnaire and then end with a milestone questionnaire like so many of my friends have done. I WISH I did those during my first! 

But let's start with some doom and gloom... ;)

A post written on a random Tuesday night in June (6wks, 2dys)

We had plans to go to the lake with friends for Memorial Day weekend so I wanted to confirm whether I was pregnant before we left. After all, my wine was purchased, packed and ready to go! So sure enough, after almost a week of negative tests, the faintest, saddest positive line appeared that the little thing could muster. I knew from my past experiences that that's all it takes. I was shocked after seeing so many negatives. But I'll tell you, I wasn't overjoyed or crying like before. A failed pregnancy does that to you. It robs you of the joyful tears and that unexplainable feeling in your heart that you're going to have a baby. I'm not bitter; just cautious. The weekend and following 2 weeks went by with zero symptoms and I tried as much as possible not to get excited and even more so, not think about the increased chances I faced of another ectopic pregnancy. 

This past Thursday, that all changed when I started having bad symptoms very similar to the last time and by Friday morning, I had cried, grieved and called the nurse to schedule my blood work to get the whole ectopic process going (of getting my levels back down to 0). She scheduled the lab for 10:30 that morning but I was surprised when she called back asking me to come in because Dr. Jacoby wanted to do a sonogram ASAP. I said, "but you guys don't do sonos on Fridays?" She said just get here, we're calling in a tech. Beau and I rushed over (another reason I love having that man home on Fridays!) as I repeated to him: They aren't going to be able to see anything. I'm 5 1/2 weeks - they can't see anything that early! This is a waste of time. I'm scared. I hate this. [Repeat]

And then we saw it. Everything we needed to see to prove that a) it isn't ectopic and b) everything is measuring accurately indicating that it's a viable pregnancy and c) I now just face the same risks of miscarriage as a regular pregnancy. I can deal with that and I love that they proved me wrong every which way I couldn't have had any better news going into the weekend. I'm relaxed, confident and starting to have symptoms - fatigue, constantly hungry, low blood sugar/faint, more fatigue, nausea. I have another sonogram this week and we are just praying that we see the little flicker of the heartbeat. One worry down, 10 million more to go! ;)

Pregnancy Questionnaire
About the parents:
Mom's Name: Stacey
Age: 32
Dad's Name: Beau
Age: 30
Is this the first child?: No, we have Grayson and 2 furballs just thrilled that we're adding to this zoo!

Finding out:
What day did you find out you were pregnant?: Friday, May 25th
How did you feel when you found out?: Ecstatic, scared and in disbelief since the 5 tests earlier that week were all negative! I also had a girls' night at my house the night before so it would have been nice to know before that night o' fun.
Who was with you?: Beau
How did the daddy react?: Excited!
Telling the grandparents: I think we first told everyone over text. Terrible, I know! But later spoke to everyone in person. Things with baby #2 are just different :)

About the pregnancy:
When is your due date?: February 3, 2013 - C-section can be scheduled as early as 1/28 but I really want a 2/1/13 date. It's a Friday and it would work best with Beau's work schedule. Yes, you can think it's ridiculous to think that way but it's true and real and he and his clients have to plan. :)
How far along are you right now?: 12 weeks
Have you had an ultra sound?: 3 and we have another one this Wednesday to hopefully find out the gender!
Have you heard the heartbeat?: Yes, Several times
What do you want. Boy or Girl?: I've always wanted all boys, Beau would prefer another boy but I feel like it's a girl!
Do you know what you are having now?: No

About the birth:
Who is going to be with you?: Beau
Are you going to video tape it?: Whuuu? No.
Natural or medicated?: Definitely medicated for a c-section
Do you think you will cry when you first hold your baby?: Who knows. I didn't with Grayson but I'm more emotional with this one and will know what to expect more. With Grayson, I was in shock!
Do you know what you will say to the baby when you first hold it?: Hi, Baby? I don't know!
Are you scared about the labor?: No, as long as it doesn't happen in New Orleans! ;)

Names:
Do you have a name picked out?: We have one for a girl (no middle name yet) and several for a boy. There are so many more boy names that we like than girl names!
Is your baby going to be named after anyone?: Right now, no.
Did the daddy help pick the name?: Of course he'll be involved! 


Other random questions:
Have you felt the baby move?: No, it's too early.
What was your first symptom?: So tired! 
Other symptoms?: So much more nausea, a lot of fatigue, never feeling rested, intense headaches
Will you have godparents?: Yes!
Who will be the godparents?: We thought we'd load up Nick and Annie with the pressures of godparenting ALL of our children, cool right? Kidding, we'll spare them this time! 
What is the baby's room theme?: I don't really care for themes but who knows what we'll end up with. Technically, we did the room gender-neutral for Grayson so that it would transition to other babies. So technically, I should be happy with that and leave it alone....So of course, that probably won't happen :D

This is the one I'll do regularly for blog updates:

How far along? 12 weeks

Total weight gain/loss: Last appt I actually lost a pound due to all my nausea, which is normal. We'll find out more at the appt Wed - I'm confident I gained!
Maternity clothes? Washing/drying/hanging them up now! I'm in a total transition of 50/50 regular clothes/maternity clothes.
Stretch marks? No. Hopefully I'll continue to be stretch mark-free. Eek!

Sleep: It's all over the place but not b/c of pregnancy. Between random bouts with insomnia and Grayson getting up lately, I'm a mess.

Best moment this week: "feeling" pregnant again and showing more. Oh! And Beau got me the Paige maternity jeans I have always wanted while we were in Tampa! 
Movement: Nothing yet

Cravings: Sweets - same as last time. Sour patch kids, ice cream, cookies, etc.
Symptoms: They are gone! I have my energy back and feel great!
What I miss: Wine and champagne. I miss the taste. Never had that with Grayson.

What I am looking forward to: Finding out the gender! 

Weekly Wisdom: I'm not worried about all the stuff I shouldn't be doing or eating. If I want a cup of coffee or a bite of ahi tuna, I have it. It doesn't cross my mind and it's so much more relaxing this way. Not to mention, it's making this pregnancy fly by!

Milestones: We went public about a week and a half ago and it feels wonderful to be out of the pregnancy closet! Keeping that secret is no fun.

Grayson loves his lime! :)

A Post-Vacation Post

A BIG thank you!
We came home to a clean house on Tuesday and not because we cleaned it before we left. My Mom was kind enough to clean the house AND my car while we were gone! This is in addition to watching the dogs and carrying our FedEx shipments and mail in. We gave her a massage at Stonebriar Spa but it just doesn't seem like enough! She just does so much for us! My car hasn't looked that good since it belonged to her ;)

Grayson's schedule....
is wrecked! The trip really screwed up all things routine and I actually didn't realize how seamless our schedule was. Kinda makes me proud that I had things moving so smoothly - ha! ;) We came home to him waking up in the 5 o'clock hour then being incredibly cranky all day, cutting out naps completely, and falling asleep the minute we got in the car to go anywhere. Poor thing was a mess! But that only lasted a couple of days b/c it looks like we're back on track - although he still woke up at 5:45 this morning (sigh).

This was on the way to My Gym, which we had to skip b/c I couldn't wake him up. 

At Village Burger Bar last night for Michelle's surprise party. He looks like the one who was surprised! :)

Things to look forward to...
I spent the better part of yesterday reaching out to and getting back to friends to get some activities on the calendar. I feel refreshed, happy to be back home and ready to play and get things done! A huge difference from before we left, feeling sick, tired and sick & tired of summer days in this house. We have one or two play dates/activities/doc appts/etc each day for the next couple of weeks. I'm happy to get moving again since I was so nauseous for the first 2+ months of this pregnancy! Looking forward to seeing all of our friends that we missed so much while we were away!

My baby tans a little too easily...
You can judge me for putting this precious bum on my blog but I still get the biggest kick watching it run around my house. ;) And look how tanned he is now?! He was really only outside in the mornings & we put sunscreen on him twice each morning but nothing can stop that skin! I'm really going to have to keep him out of the sun when he's past naps and wants to be outside all day. Have I mentioned how I'm scarred for life b/c my mom used to make me sit out of the sun in the summers while Amanda and Andrea were still able to swim?! Okay, so it was just 10 minutes at a time b/c I sort of looked Puerto Rican by July but still. I'm going to have to do the same for my child - eek. Sorry bud.

He's on his tippy toes and playing with a screwdriver :)

2012 Florida Summer Vacation

This update is ridiculously long but of course, want to capture it for my family so that we can look back on it when Grayson is older. You may want to stop here! :)

We spent a week in Florida for Grayson's first trip to the beach and our first major family vacation - just the 3 of us. We had a lot of fun, a lot of moving around, a little bit of down time and a lot of great memories! Overall, Beau made this trip pretty fabulous for us. Grayson and I had the opportunity to leech off of Beau's travel perks and it really made the trip as smooth as it could have possibly been. 

To begin, last Tuesday my very kind mother drove us and like 17 bags to DFW (why do kids need so much?!). We were checked in and within minutes got to hang in the Admiral's Club for our flight. Who knew we had a membership? I sure didn't! ;) 

The flight was a breeze, we got to eat a fantastic lunch on the plane thanks to Beau's upgrade to first class and Grayson and Curious George hung out quietly for the remainder of the flight until he fell asleep. We walked through the Tampa airport passing a PASSED OUT 2 year old between the two of us. We couldn't wake him up, he actually didn't even look alive and people were staring! The only thing worse than traveling with, what I don't know, 19 bags is carrying all of them and a body. Moving on...

Lunch really helped break up the long flight!

Loving his Curious George. I love when he giggles at it when he's in his own world. :)

We were able to save a lot of money by eating the complimentary breakfast in the Sheraton Club each morning. This was a huge bonus! There's nothing more irritating to me than paying like twelve bucks a person for eggs and toast.

We spent 3 days at the hotel in Clearwater Beach and learned quickly that we flew to FL to swim in a pool. :) We spent about 1 hour collectively at the beach the whole week we were there! Grayson didn't complain - he was just over the shoveling of sand into a pail after 20 minutes. Nothing Beau and I were crying over! Even growing up by the beach couldn't make me fall in love with salty sea air in my hair and sand in my teeth. But I LOVE the crashing waves! Grayson will love it all some day, no doubt!

A lot of time was spent at this pool doing just this!

Clearwater Aquarium where Winter lives (the dolphin with the prosthetic tail)

Looking at Winter

Touching sting rays :) 

Our beautiful boy in front of a crazy storm blowing in

While we were there, we had dinner one night with a good friend of my sister's (and mine by default!) and her husband, Stephanie and Kris. Originally from Texas (I was there the night they met at Adair's - holler!), they live outside of Tampa and introduced us to an awesome seafood restaurant about 10 minutes south of our hotel. Nothing special inside but to die for seafood! It was really good to see them and I can't wait to see them at my sister's wedding in December! (no pictures of them b/c we're lame - credit for taking the camera in the restaurant though?)

Our big sleeping decision for G turned out to work just fine. We took a blow up mattress for Grayson since we were sleeping in 3 different locations. I brought sheets too (thanks Nikki for letting me do laundry!) Thanks to the two hotels being suites, we had couches to sandwich the mattress between. This was a huge relief since this kid is all over the place still :) This also created a separate sleeping space for Grayson so that we could still move around a bit. 

Sleeping sideways

Oops - our fault. This was at the Smedbergs house and Grayson ended up in that night stand more than once ;)

On Friday, we packed up and drove 3 hours south to Naples where Nikki and Brad live. We stayed with them for 4 days, swimming in their pool, going to the beach, having drinks and apps at Tommy Bahama's with some of their friends and even visiting the Naples Zoo the last day we were there! We miss them terribly and while I would love to have them back in Dallas, there is nowhere else they should be than exactly where they are! Their house is truly a paradise and the gutting/remodeling they did last year is perfection. 

Look at that little face!

Relaxing

We fell in love with Downtown Naples! Tons of little restaurants and shops but still so quaint. Lovies.

Baby Weston fell alseep during wine and apps at Tommy Bahama's. His only nap really all weekend! 

Grayson loved the lizards hanging out in the plants

These pictures don't do this property and their view justice. Paradise!

Bonding time 

This double swing was in a really cute gazebo. Grayson liked sitting across from his Dad and swinging :) 

He loved the thrills of back flips in the pool too!

Brad and Weston (Nikki was very successful at dodging the camera)

Naples Zoo!

Photo opp in front of the lion

Loved these guys! They are so beautiful in person!

After the zoo Monday, we drove back to Tampa where we would fly out the following morning. We spent the afternoon hanging at a really great mall they have, Beau got me some awesome maternity jeans that I've always wanted (thanks, love!) and we got The Cheesecake Factory to go. Yes, even though we live a mile from one. But it was delicious, especially the 2 slices of cheesecake Beau surprised me with! We fake slept until Grayson fell asleep that evening in the living room of the hotel and then we dove in! It was a perfect last day of winding down on vacation!

What a fantastic trip! A huge thanks to the Smedbergs for being great hosts. We miss them and our trip already!