Dear baby #2

Dear baby #2,

Your mommy doesn't like surprises, so of course we found out a few weeks ago that you are indeed a healthy little BOY growing every day in my belly!  Your older brother likes to talk to you sometimes and feel my belly.  He knows that baby brother is growing in there and he's very anxious for you to come play with him.  My only request?  Please don't be as wild as your older brother.  It would be great if the two of you balanced each other out....especially for Mommy and Daddy's sanity! 

Pregnancy with you is flying by.  There are weeks I cannot remember how far along I am, and days where I forgot I'm pregnant at all, until you give me a nice swift kick on my bladder, or your older brother tries to sit on my lap and gets frustrated that my growing belly with you in it, takes up so much room. 

Between week 18 and now (week 22 & 3 days), I feel like you've doubled in size!  You're about 1 lb. and we were able to see you on an ultrasound last week which was really cool!  You like to lay in odd positions (ultrasound #1 you were face down, curled up in a "childs pose" yoga position; this last ultrasound, you were laying on your side on the side of my belly).  Daddy & I took a tour of the hospital we plan to deliver you at (I say "plan" because the hospital is a little bit of a drive.  Hopefully we don't deliver you in Daddy's car on the way there!). 

Just like your brother, you do not like it when I eat too much calcium.  Not sure why, it helps you grow!  Thanks to your older brother, my back is already in bad shape, so carrying you around during the day is really wearing on my back already.  18 weeks to go! 

I promise we will get started on your bedroom soon.  Right now it's Evan's play room, so we need to find the right time to break the news to him that it's going to become your room (hopefully we can move the play room so the two of you can play together in it someday!). 

Daddy & I have decided to keep your name a secret until you are born.  We'll see how long I can hold out on that one! 

Well, time for bed now sweet pea.  Hope you're cozy in there while I get some much needed rest!

Love,
Mommy

 

Belly pic - a little over a week old, but I'm lucky to remember to snap these when I do!  It's fun to compare them to when I was pregnant with Evan.

Happy Spring!

Spring is here in MI!  Sort of.  It comes and goes but when it's here, we take advantage of it! 

We had great weather for Easter and Evan enjoyed quite a few Easter egg hunts outside at school, church and grandparents. 



Painting Easter eggs.  Evan tried one of the hard boiled eggs he made...."YUCK" were the words he used as he spit it out of his mouth!

 

"Found my Easter basket!  Yep, I'm cool."

 

Spring display at school which taught the kids about their height.  Evan is the 5th one in on the orange flower.

 

 

 

Easter egg time at school!  Evan was not a fan of the bunny ears.

 

Confused by what to do....

 

My bunny :)

 

Spring means the snow is melting, which means PUDDLES!  Evan loved walks around the neighborhood in his boots so he could jump in the puddles.  Such a boy! 

 

We're learning that it doesn't always have to be sunny to play outside (a hard thing to learn after leaving CO.....).  The park can be fun even in the gloomy weather!

 

 Cruisin' around the neighborhood on his bike.  He doesn't use the pedals yet, just uses his feet to push the bike (very fast) around the block.  Yes, I'm buying him a helmet, he's quite the cruiser!

 

Spring also means it's ice cream season!  Evan sometimes has pregnancy sympathy cravings so of course I said YES when HE wanted ice cream for lunch the other day, hehe.

 

I realized this was Evan's first soft serve cone with me.  The look on his face when I handed him this big cone was priceless - "You mean this is all for ME?!"  He dove in with his mouth and a spoon!

 

I have to end this blog post with a 'not-fun' update, only so it's documented someday when Evan & baby #2 look back at the blog books I'm printing for them (yes, one for every year of their life!). 

 

Evan & baby #2 - you'll wonder why Daddy's pointer finger looks funny as you get older.  Well, Easter 2013 is the year your Daddy really hurt himself and we spent Easter in the emergency room.  Daddy was being so nice building Mommy a shelf she found on Pinterest (an addictive website with too much awesome ideas).  Being the stubborn, confident man your father is, he decided to get a little fancy with the electric saw (despite Grandpa's warning not to!) and sliced his finger down the middle from tip to just above his knuckle.  Thank goodness for a good hand surgeon and lots of stitches, your Daddy's finger was sewn back together, but he lost his finger nail and a little bit of bone.  Daddy's finger is still in a split so it looks like he is always pointing the "#1" sign (which Evan, you take literally sometimes). 

 

My warning to you boys from all of this?  LISTEN TO YOUR FATHER!  Luckily Daddy still has 5 fingers!  Sorry, no pics to go along with this update....I like to keep my blog readers happy, not grossed out!

I'm an Aunt!

Madelyn Rose Hergott was born on April 5, 2013 at 5:15 p.m., weighing a whopping 9 lbs., 6 oz.  My baby niece!  I'm so excited to be an Aunt and to be able to spoil such a sweet baby girl!

Also exciting that Evan now has his first cousin!  When I told him that Madelyn arrived, he said "I be nice to Madelyn?"  Oh boy....

Anyway, it was great to be in MI to see Madelyn in the hospital and I look forward to watching her grow up.  Congrats to my little sister & brother-in-law!

The baby bump is back!

That's right!  Baby #2 is due August 23!  Poor baby #2....I'm already a few blog posts behind announcing this.  Oops!  Baby is upset with me and currently kicking/punching me from inside. 

Evan sort of knows that he's about to have competition.  He will say "baby in mommy's belly."  When we ask him if it's a baby brother or sister, his answer varies.  He's also going though a big "I only want mommy" phase, so lately he says "there is NOT a baby in mommy's belly."  Oh boy....

Of course we will find out if it's a boy or girl and will let everyone know! 

Pregnancy the 2nd time around has been a little different.  Mainly different because I'm so much businer that I often forget I'm pregnant until the baby kicks or the end of the day.  My body definetely knows baby #2 is on the way and didn't waste any time getting back pregnancy ready. 

We're excited for the addition to our family late this summer and will continue to share updates as pregnancy progresses!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today Evan's school celebrates St. Patrick's Day.  As I tried to explain this to Evan, he said "NO, it's NOT Patrick's Day.  It's MY birthday."  That's Evan for ya! 

The terrible 2's have hit our house, bad.  And everytime I tell people that, all I get for a response is "Oh, just wait until he hits 3!"  Great.  I'll wait!  I guess karma is real, because I just know I was a total brat to my parents and threw tantrums as a kid.  No one parents love becoming grandparents.  It's pay back time, right?  (I say with love, of course!) 

Some of the recent statements heard in our house:
- Evan: "I don't want to say thank you!"
- Evan: "I don't want to say please!"
- Evan: "No Mom, don't turn on the light!  I do it" (as he switches off and on the light switch I had already turned on)
- Me: "Evan, get your head out of the toilet."
- Evan: "Wipe my butt MOM!"  And as I begin to, he throws a tantrum and says "No, I DO IT!"
- Me: "Evan, do you want milk on your cereal?"  Evan: "NO".  A few seconds later...."Mom, put milk on my cereal!" Me: "How do you ask me nicely?"  Evan: "I don't want to ask nicely!"
- Me: "Evan, do not drive your cars on the wall."  Evan: "I drive my cars on the wall!"
- Evan: "Clean up my mess!"
- Evan: "I wipe my nose on the couch/rug/carpet"  (Yes, snot everywhere). 

My favorite?  "I wipe my nose on Mommy."  Yep.....

Don't get me wrong, some of the stuff he says is truly funny, but trying to discipline him while laughing really doesn't work I've learned.  Like the other day when he clearly dropped the "F" bomb at the dinner table, I burst into laughing tears, trying to hide my face with a napkin.  Evan understands and repeats EVERYTHING now.  This morning he found my eye contact case, opened it, and said "I fix my eyes" as he looked in the mirror and tried to touch his eye.  He watches everything we do and wants to do it himself. 

Now that Evan is home with me two days a week, I notice he mimicks a lot of what I do.  I took him to a place called Tiny Town this week with a friend, and his favorite activities there were:
- Playing with the toy hair dryer
- Grocery shopping
- Pushing a baby stroller
- Cleaning the toy house

I do have to add that he also LOVED driving the toy police car.

 

 

 

Some more pics from the past few weeks:

Evan's new smile.  I keep telling him to open his eyes, but when he opens his eyes, the smile goes away.  I guess I get one or the other!



 

 Seriously, could he be any more handsome?!  Yes, his shirt says "Detroit Irish".  Lately wishing it said "Denver Irish" but.....

BFFs

 

Including the pics I snapped in the course of 5 seconds.  Notice Lucy does not seem amused, while Evan is very entertained (he thought it was hilarious that I put Lucy on the bench).

The Potty Diaries

Potty training has been a success!  No more diapers!  Evan has had no accidents during the day for 5 days now, and only a few at night.  #2 has been a little more difficult but we'll keep working at it.  Now when we leave the house we tote a tiny potty seat with us, because the public toilets are so big that Evan falls in (or gets all nasty gross trying to hold himself up).  So until he's a little bigger, the potty seat tags along with us.  It's easier than cleaning up Evan!  :)

While Evan & I tackled potty training (it was a total team effort, let me tell you.....this momma is tired!), Erik was in Brazil for work meetings.  We sure are glad he's home!  While he was gone, Evan would say "Momma, I'm gonnna go to airport. Gonna go to Ba-Zil and see Dadda."  What a sweetheart!  Evan and I kept busy though and actually left the bathroom for a few hours.  I joined a mom's club a few weeks ago to meet some friends / people with kids in our area and Evan and I have kept busy with the activities they plan. 

Last week we visited the Ann Arbor Hands on Museum and a trampoline park (it's like the new roller skating rink for the year 2013).  It's nice to finally start to feel like we have a few friends here and that we have places to go / activities for Evan on the days that he's home with me.  Leaving the house is a MUST with an over-active toddler. 

At the museum, I learned the hard wasy that Evan has NO FEAR of being alone and is faster than the speed of lighting.  I will no longer judge parents who use leashes on their children (and you better not judge me when you see Evan wearing one next time!  haha).  The other moms with me said "oh, wow, you have your hands full."  Tell me about it.....anyway, big adventures like that will now include Daddy, a leash, neon colored clothing, bells on shoes, and a tracking device on him (I'm sure there's an iPhone app for that, right?!). 

 

Potty training in today's world requires a lot of entertainment

 

Smiling with his popsicle, celebrating a successful potty training day (PS: to my mom friends, I found mini kid popsicles that are the perfect size AND take a long time to melt!)

 

Bouncin' with his new buddy, Kellan.  Check out the air Evan got!

 

Nap time was AWESOME after this adventure!

 

Loving the water at the AA Children's Museum

 

"Kellan, don't sit on the silly chair.  It's better if you climb on the table to play with the toys."

It's Potty Time!

Evan has shown signs of using the potty for months now.  We tried potty training back in November with the 3 day, stay at home method and it didn't work.  So back to diapers we went.  Yesterday I decided that now is officially the time.  He knows when he goes, tells me to change his diaper, and even BRINGS me a clean diaper to put him in! 

It's been 36 hours and so far so good.  Sort of.  It's not going to be 3 days that he'll master the potty in, but it's a start.  We're going cold-turkey too.  No Pull-Ups.  Underwear only!  Today he went almost 10 hours without going potty.  10 hours!  After several beverages and a nap!  This doesn't surprise me though.  Evan is a very stubborn little man and knowing him, he thought "Ha!  I'll show you and I just won't go on the potty at all!"  Well, nature caught-up to him and he made it all the way TO the potty before going.  Yah Evan!  He still asks for his diaper and whines/cries to me to put it on him, but I know it's just because he has to go #2.  Yep, still waiting for that one to happen!

Anway, 1.5 days down.  Several to go I'm sure.  But we're in it for the long-haul!  Laundry, carpet cleaner, Skittles, bed pads & all!