Christmas Recap, Random Style...

It's hard to believe the holidays are almost over! There is waaaay more excitement that happened over Christmas that's not documented below, but these are a few highlights:

--B got some great presents and she loved opening everything - both tearing the wrapping paper and pulling out tissue paper from bags. Santa said she was nice this year, so brought her a wooden kitchen, a new doll cradle, and a doll house. She also got a new purse, lap top to help practice her ABC's, stocking, microphone to practice singing, building blocks, etc.


--We ate some seriously good food. My Dad has a Big Green Egg, which deserves its own post. These things are absolutely amazing, and the grub that he produces is out of this world tasty. In addition, we indulged in the 3 essential sides to every Christmas (and Thanksgiving!) meal: potato casserole, green bean casserole, and deviled eggs.
--B got to spend some time with her Uncle Bubbie who was in town from Cali. He's growing a mad ZZ Top goatee!


--B almost burned down the church on Christmas Eve. K decided to give her her own candle at the end of the service while we sang Silent Night. After the last verse, he momentarily took his hand away from hers and she took the opportunity to toss her LIT candle onto the pew in front of us. My entire family gasped, the entire row in front of us turned around to look at what such drama might be occurring, K yelled "get it!!," and I watched in slow motion as the plastic champagne-glass-type holder spun around in a circle with the glowing flame rotating in the middle. Thankfully I was able to grab and extinguish the flame before any permanent damage was done. Oh my!!!
--Sophie, the great dane, is now 4 months old and weighs 55 pounds. She eats 4 cups of food TWICE a day and still has a lot of puppy in her. She's adorable, even in her "hurricane" state.


--B got to hang out with a few of her cousins which was awesome.


Are we really all this old now? We used to play kick ball in my grandma's front yard and made many a trip to the VFW together to play Bingo. The most spectacular event was when we were old enough to upgrade from the boarded cards to the Bingo dabber. Those were the days...


--K grew a beard beginning during "No Shave November." I love it. Sadly, it's since been shaved off. B also got a really stylish panda hat to keep her warm this winter.


--B went to the dentist for the first time. Although it might look like the visit is going well based on the picture below, I can assure you she cried the whole time. Despite her chipped front teeth (she lost a battle with the tile on our bathroom floor back in her crawling days), everything looks good for a 19 month old.


--We made our first trip to the Dallas Zoo and it was great! B loved seeing the animals, especially feeding the giraffes and riding the bronze elephant.



--Despite the fact that I think New Years is tooooooootally overrated, I hope everyone has a wonderful time ringing in 2012!!

Playtime - old school...

One of the great things about heading home to my parents' house for the holidays is the fact that everything is the same as it was the day I left for college. In fact, my high school homecoming mums are still hanging on my bedroom wall. For whatever reason, this oddly comforts me and I love the reminders of days past. Since having B, even MORE reminders of days past have arisen in the form of old school Fisher Price toys that my bro and I used to play with.

Little People School Bus

Then:


Now:

Record Player (now CD Player)

Then:

Now:

Other great and wonderful toys that have been up in the garage all these years?

The Cozy Coupe:


And the Little Tykes slide:


There are Barbies, My Little Ponies, GI Joes, Ninja Turtles - the works - that have yet to be brought back out. When I told my Mom I couldn't believe she kept all these, her response was, "I can't either - I must've been out of my mind!!" I LOVE her for being out of her mind and holding onto these toy treasures, and so does B!

B has an announcement to make...

Yep - she's gonna be a big sis...which means - I am pregnant!! This announcement has been a long time coming, and we've had to wait a little longer than we originally thought to spread the news. When I went in for my supposed 8-week initial sonogram, my doctor told me I was only 6 weeks and 3 days pregnant. Her theory is that I ovulated late, although when I went back a week and a half later supposedly I was 8 weeks and 5 days pregnant. Regardless of the timing, I was just excited to make it to 12 weeks and hear the heartbeat so we could share the news.

Only we went for our 12 week appointment and my doctor couldn't find the heartbeat...

It was the most scary feeling as I lay there on the table while she went back and forth across my stomach with the Doppler. The only sound it was picking up was MY heartbeat. Kevin grabbed my hand and a million thoughts started racing through my head. There are days that I still haven't really even processed the fact that we're having another child, so the thought of losing this potential child was a seriously foreign concept to grasp within a time span of 2-3 minutes. My doctor seemed a little worried, but casually said, "we'll just go look." So we got up, changed rooms, and I lay back down on the table for a sonogram.

THANKFULLY - baby was in there jumping around like a little bean. As it turns out, my placenta is on top, and the baby's back is towards my back, which means that because of the positioning and the thick placenta there was no way for the Doppler to pick up the heartbeat. As it stands, my due date is 6/1/2012, but because B was a C-section I'll have a scheduled C-section at 39 weeks...

Or so my doctor thinks.

I'm weird about wanting to keep baby inside as long as possible. With B, after my failed induction I carried her almost 41 weeks before I finally gave in and scheduled a C-section. I figured if she was happy in there, I might as well leave her in there since I felt great up until delivery [with the exception of PUPPS - horrible pregnancy rash - which I'm PRAYING I don't get again]. Plus - B's birthday is 5/24, and it is VERY important to me that our children are far enough apart to be able to celebrate their birthdays independently. The reality of it is that I'll likely be planning 2 parties in the same week [yikes!!], but I refuse to combine celebrations as I want to show each child that they are individually cherished in their own way.

So I asked my doctor if I could carry till 6/1 and she said no. :-/ Apparently 2nd babies tend to be bigger, and with B being 9 lbs. 4 ounces then I could have a baby Goliath growing in my stomach. She tentatively checked the 2012 calendar and decided that 5/28 would be a good day; however, she wasn't certain if that was Memorial Day or not. IT IS!! "If it is," she said, "then we would probably have to do it 5/30 or 5/31 based on my call schedule." Thankfully she is very understanding of my desire to have the 2 babies as far apart as possible, so she's pretty much ruled out the prior week.

Did we plan it? Kind of, but not really. Can you really plan when you're going to have a baby? Mostly we are just joyful and excited about our new addition. While it will be a challenge to have 2 so close in age, let's be honest - we're not getting any younger. The older I get the more I value my sleep, which means I'm ready to get the sleepless nights behind me sooner rather than later! AND - I haven't really been motivated to lose the baby weight from B knowing that I'd be gaining 30 pounds with baby #2, so now's the perfect time to just keep eating Taco Bueno, Chick-fil-A, and Whataburger.

It was hard to keep the secret initially as my belly bulge started early. With a stretched out uterus from B and an extremely short torso, baby has no where to grow but out. This pregnancy is definitely different. I've had no morning sickness, but been more nauseous, and have also been surprisingly less tired. With B I went to bed at 8:30 almost every night during the first trimester. This time, I've made it up till the start of TMZ at 10:30 almost every night. :-)

Please pray for a healthy pregnancy and a healthy baby. It still feels surreal, but we are so thankful for God's precious blessing of another child!

Santa? Not so much...

In an effort to avoid the mall madness this weekend, we opted to take our sweet daughter to Home Depot for a visit to see Santa. No princess dress, no tights, no black patent leather shoes, but instead jeans and her new Converse one stars. [Yes, one day this girl will know how to throw a baseball and like the outdoors.] Needless to say, she didn't really bond with the giant jolly fellow, and pretty much reached her arms out to us and started crying the instant we put her in his lap. When I asked her what Santa says, followed by, "Ho Ho Ho, Merry Christmas!!," her response was "Da-dee." Maybe next year?