So we got some pretty exciting news about 5 days after my last post- Carter is going to be a big brother!! About a week or two after finding out that there was another sweet baby in my belly though, I started getting really sick... And to be honest, I so deserved it! I prayed throughout my whole first trimester with Carter that I would feel just a little nauseous, and my prayers were answered with this pregnancy! Ha! I had the all-day "morning" sickness, throwing up, exhaustion, and just plain gross feeling from about week 5.5 through week 14... and then the day after my nausea began to subside, I came down with the flu (thanks to my generous little toddler! :)). Needless to say, I have been a bit out of it these past few months, and even though I still randomly get sick (??), I am just SO relieved to be out of that first trimester fog, that I feel absolutely amazing!!!I don't mind the quick bouts with sickness either- as long as they come and go over the course of a few minutes, I have no complaints.
I was not the best mommy to my sweet boy this winter... he watched a bit too much TV and we exhausted every possible creative outlet we could find in our home, all while his mom counted the seconds until his dad came home to help take over. Luckily, Christmas and a visit from his GG and GP, overlapped with his mom's worst weeks, so there were lots of fun things to distract us!
And now, we are making up for lost time... going to the zoo, the library, heading outside anytime the sun is shining to search for airplanes and acorns, and just enjoying life!
Carter is now 20 months old, and his dad and I are blown away by how quickly he is changing and growing up! We sit downstairs after he's asleep looking at videos taken during the day, and discussing how we might be the luckiest parents in the world to have ended up with this happy, fun-loving, absolutely adorable little boy! He talks ALL the time, and while not everyone may be able to understand him, we do, and we are loving all the conversations he has with us! He'll say any word he we ask him, or at least try to.... a few favorites are biscuit (bis-ick), helicopter (hai-ken), waffles (wazzle-beep...because the waffle maker beeps when it's finished cooking), any object with multiple colors (yellow-geen-n-purple-geen). He has started trying to form sentences too... "go go racecars," "night night mama, Carter night night," "Meno (Nemo) play??" "Silly dada," and my favorite, "come on, mama, come on!" (when I'm taking too long leaving the house...haha).
We struggled with a particularly rough stage of separation anxiety, but with some great advice from our wonderful pediatrician and after realizing that we were the ones making it worse, he is now ok allowing his super patient babysitter to come over and watch him when his mom and dad go out to dinner! He still isn't crazy about me leaving or being more than two steps away from me in new places... but he handles it pretty well and just grips a bit tighter on my hand, and says "Maaamaaa?" as if to question if this is actually a safe person to say hi to or a safe place to go play. (Santa was not his friend though, no matter what I said or did..so we're just going to avoid the Easter Bunny all together this year :)). I know it won't last forever, and it does make this overly sentimental mama feel pretty loved at times... and as with everything Carter does, I know he will transition out of it on his own time.
He has started having mini tantrums, which so far are best handled by ignoring them... and it's kind of funny because he doesn't fully commit to them yet, and he'll forget mid-way through and start talking about birds or airplanes or cookies...and then be smiling and happy. But my happy, easy going baby is definitely becoming a strong, independent little man, and a couple of times, I have been that mom carrying a screaming child out of a store/restaurant/friend's house, who has to manhandle her child's flailing body into the car seat. Ha... all part of mommyhood, I guess! It's amazing how he can completely wear me out, and then walk up to me, put his arms around my neck and say "mama ok?" and smoosh his face against my cheek for his version of a kiss, and absolutely melt my heart.
So as always, we continue to fall more and more in love with this guy, and it's hard to imagine loving another little one as much as I love Carter... but I am already falling in love with this wiggly little girl in my tummy, and I can't wait to meet her toward the end of July! (I started this post a while ago, and we just found out baby #2 is a GIRL, and we are so excited.... still totally shocked, but ready to bring some pink into our sports and truck filled home!). Life is good in our little world, and we are feeling very blessed!
I found out REALLY early with this little one, and had a bit of trouble believing it was actually happening... haha... and there were more after these! Taylor finally had to intervene and ask me to stop taking tests and to just admit I was actually pregnant (yay!).
Most of how our winter mornings were spent... on the couch with a super sick Mom
Thanksgiving! We asked Carter (for my Mom and Dad) what was in Mommy's belly, and he squealed "BABY!"...so the secret was out :)
Funny faces with mom... one of the many ways to entertain a toddler without leaving the house :) He's our little mimic these days!
This pretty much sums up his feelings about his first hair cut. It did not go well... hoping for better luck next time!
Poor Santa
It took him about 2 minutes to realize that chocolate came out of his advent calendar each day- and he would run to it every morning and start jumping and pointing to it on the counter.
Christmas was so so much fun this year! We had a quiet day with an afternoon visit to his great grandma's house, and otherwise just hung out as a family of three and spread the gifts out over the whole day :)
We gave Nemo a real football of his very own- and it only lasted about 4 days. But he loved it for the short time it lasted.
Golf clubs from his godmother Becca!
Aunt Anne and Uncle Bobby came for a quick New Year's visit!
I'm sure the librarians loved having him visit. We did put them all away (in the correct order) though :)
Loving his GG and GP
His favorite zoo attraction- the meerkats.
Cookies with his Gigi
Checking out Grandpa's office
The flu hit our house.... 10 days for Carter, followed by 10 days for Mom. Dad was somehow spared...
Sharing his Cheerios with a ladybug
Daredevil
Watching cars at Grandma and Grandpa's house with his buddy Maria
Making questionable choices...
Learning to eat an orange with Dad
We love having a Sweet CeCe's under our pediatrician's office, especially after unexpected shots!
Enjoying a warm winter day with Evelyn
Little man
Re-organizing our tupperware drawer while Mom cooks
Popsicles are the perfect cure for a fat lip- which this boy is a pro at getting these days!
"Go go racecar!"
Fun at the Green Hills library (for some reason the story time there terrifies him, but the playtime afterwards is great)
Second hair cut still led to lots of tears, but he bounced back much quicker... maybe the third time will be the charm!
Inspecting a tree that fell in our backyard after a storm
Nemo is clearly his favorite of the dogs :)
We went to Philips toy mart to see the Easter bunnies but ended watching and playing with trains for almost an hour. I had to carry him out of the store while he screamed "moooore choo choos" over and over. Another winning mom moment :)
Helping mom feed the dogs!
First picture of our little girl!
