When POOP excites you :)

You know you are a mom when...poop really makes you happy. Well, actually that isn't really true, but this morning it was!

AJ has been peeing in the toilet for about a year. Poop, however, has been a different story. He goes SO much and couldn't really 'get' that feeling I think, so he would just end up going in his big boy underware. Eventually we got sick of cleaning up the mess, so we stopped potty training and just let him lead the way.

Then this weekend we went to Philadelphia. My niece (well, she isn't really my niece, but I am adopting her) Leah turned two in September and is completely potty trained! I kept telling AJ that Leah had BIG GIRL underware on and didn't have to have her diaper changed. This must have sparked something in AJ, because since we got back on Sunday, he has been VERY interested in wearing BIG BOY underware and peeing. Still, though, pooping was an issue....that is...

UNTIL THIS MORNING!

AJ woke up, asked to be put in his underware and then wanted to go to the potty. He sat down (he sometimes stands to pee, but we let him decide) while I brushed my teeth. He is to the point where he can completely dress himself, so he doesn't need my help pulling down or up with his clothes. ***TMI WARNING****

Anyway, I heard a "plop" and stopped what I was doing. I look over at AJ and he is in DEEP CONCENTRATION. Then 10 seconds later, he looks at me and says, "MOMMY, I POOPIED IN THE POTTY!!!". I about flipped! I was SO EXCITED! He FINALLY WENT!

We are going to continue to push the potty training and who knows, maybe AJ is a typical boy and won't be ready. Regardless, I feel like we are finally going in the right direction!

GOOD JOB MY LITTLE MONKEY BOY! MOMMY AND DADDY ARE SO PROUD OF YOU!

22 weeks

22 weeks and I'm getting bigger! It is so interesting to see the change in just two weeks.

Here is me, at 20 weeks, just two short weeks ago:

And me this morning (excuse the silly face and my glasses, it was first thing in the morning!)

I am feeling really, really good these days. I feel healthy now (after weeks of being sick), have great energy (well as much as you can have being pregnant), and am (knock on wood) sleeping OK.

I'm still able to wear my own clothes. Well, mostly. There are shirts that I feel are too short and I have to wear the Be-Band for most of my pants, but I have only started wearing 1 maternity shirt and that is because it doesn't even look like one. I know this is going to be short lived. If I have another growth in the next two weeks, I will need to start wearing more maternity shirts!

My uterus is measuring about two weeks before it did with AJ. At my last appointment, it was already at my belly button. Now I can feel it is above my belly button.

Baby boy is MOVING (actually, he is right now as I type). He is more active then I remember AJ being (but the things you forget when you are pregnant the second time!). When I'm active, there isn't much coming from him, but when I'm resting--it's like he is doing flips in my belly. In the middle of the night is when he gets really crazy. I love it though, even if it wakes me, because I feel like I'm bonding with him. It's such an amazing feeling to feel your little baby moving inside of you. I missed that after AJ came into the world and I know I will miss it after Baby Boy does too (but having them to hold makes up for it!).

The other night Baby Boy woke me up and I could feel him on the OUTSIDE for one of the first times ever. I immediatly woke John up, who made a noise and put his hand not even on my belly. I moved it to the right place but he was snorning again before the baby moved. Needless to say, he doesn't remember any of this and was upset that he didn't wake up for it. We still have lots of time to feel the baby though--and to see him inside of me like an alien will be really cool too!

Nothing else to really report, we just keep on keeping on. I'm looking forward to these next 4 months!

Swim Class

Saturday mornings we take AJ to a swim class! It's a great way to start your day and I really enjoy it as well. AJ loves the class. His favorite part is "Humpty Dumpty" where we sing the song while the kids are sitting on the wall, then when it comes to "Had a Great Fall", they jump into the water. AJ still doesn't like it when we stand up, but he will eventually!

My boy and I before the class started. Notice how we are inside, but AJ still likes to wear is UV guard, the kid is funny:

The class is intended to get kids comfortable in the water. We join them and hold them and they introduce them to kicking and using your arms. It's fun! AJ likes to dump water on my head and his teacher's head as well.

Here is a picture of us about to begin the class:

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20 weeks

We are half way there! This is the part of the pregnancy where I am feeling great and gaining weight :). So far I have gained 13 pounds. I don't have any cravings right now and have been eating relatively healthy. Other then being on the last leg of being sick for two weeks, I'm great.

We had a small scare that ended up fine. After our ultrasound, we got a call from our midwife that the amniotic fluid was low. She said she would be more worried if the baby wasn't absolutely perfect, but he is so she wasn't really worried. We had to go back in for another ultrasound to see baby boy and we measured just fine! We will just continue to monitor how I'm measuring. I tried to stay very calm and tried not to google anything before the ultrasound and I think it worked because in the end we were fine :).

I'm feeling him move a lot now. He loves to hang out on my bladder so even when I don't have to go, I have to go. He loves to be awake in the middle of the night because when I wake to go to the potty, he is moving around a lot! I hope this doesn't mean he will be up all night after he comes.

I still haven't 'popped'. My belly is certainly bigger then it was, but I don't look pregnant and it depends on what I'm wearing if I 'look' pregnant. I am still able to wear most of my pre-pregnancy clothes, even some pants. I like to be comfortable though and wear the belly bandit usually.

Here is my 20 week picture from this morning. Excuse the silly looking face, I just got out of the shower and was still sleepy.

AJ is getting excited. He tells me he is going to teach baby boy to throw a football, walk, run, and jump. He thinks he knows the name of the baby, but we haven't 100% decided on a name, so we will see. I'm not sure if we will announce it or not either.

I'm slowly cleaning out our guest room. We only have a three bedroom house, so we lose our guest room. It didn't get used too often anyway, so we will keep the futon in that room and move AJ in there after it's cleared out. AJ is getting a new bed and dresser and we are keeping all of his furniture for the baby. We will also decorate it the same. AJ said he is ok with this as long as he gets to bring his Redskins pillow and Redskins flag. He is so funny.

It is actually nice that we have all of AJ's clothes, his bedroom decor, toys, etc....so the expense will be far less this time. We have some things to get (stroller, carseat, etc.) and I have some nursing things to get, but for the most part, we are pretty set. Makes having to pay for two kids in daycare easier to swallow.

So that is it--we are doing great and just keep on keepin on!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! We spent it together as a family and it was fabulous. I love having two boys (three soon!) to spoil me :). At work John had two dozen roses (and my favorite vase to date!) delivered (they smell so good). The note said it was from John, AJ, and Baby Boy. After work, we spent the evening as a family. Usually we have a low-key day where John takes over dinner. Last year it took him hours to prepare and it was amazing (see last year's blog here). This year, he was planning on doing the same thing but has been in a bit of pain with his back and neck and had a doctor's appointment at 5:30 for it, so he decided to take us to Sweetwater. He called ahead so we only had a short wait (the wait was 90 min-2 hours!). While we were waiting, AJ was really snugly with me. We were about to take a picture (say, CHEESE!) and AJ turned and planted a giant kiss on my cheek and said "I love you Mommy". John caught it all on his I Phone. I loved it, as you can tell from the picture :).

Then AJ and I posed again for a smiling picture. He is such a happy kid.

Dinner was amazing as usual (we love Sweetwater). AJ was a hungry boy, he ate all of his food, plus two aussie rolls and butter, plus he split dessert with me! As we were leaving, we were talking to the waitress about how we were having another boy (she didn't believe I was pregnant) and she was insisting we have a third to try for a girl. John was saying we would have a third boy instead and then made the comment, "see her shirt now, it would be completely tie-dyed if we had three!". I looked down at my shirt and sure enough, I had chocolate stains from when AJ was sharing dessert with me. I should note that he was completely clean, he just managed to wipe his hands (without me knowing!) on my shirt instead :). I love having boys.

Baby Hall 2.0 is....

A BOY! We without a doubt saw everything, despite his insistance of being stubborn and crossing his legs for a good portion.

John kept asking me if I was ok. I was trying not to cry. I wasn't crying sad tears...I was crying happy tears. I have such a beautiful little boy and I look forward to all of the boy moments and dancing with him at his wedding. Now I get to do it twice! I get to dance with BOTH of my boys at their weddings. PLUS they will probably be each others Best Men. I can't wait to see them play, fight, and argue. And, I will be spoiled by TWO boys AND my husband. I am the luckiest girl in the world.

I have so much more to write, but I am exhausted. Tomorrow I will show you pictures of the ultraso and share with you the reaction from AJ. We also had both sets of parents over for dinner to break the news. ntil tomorrow....

Pregnancy Insomnia

It's 4am. I have already paid bills, checked out all of my favorite blogs and caught up on postings, read cnn.com for the latest on Egypt, ate a bowl of cheerios and a banana, and laid in bed twiddling my thumbs. This has been my entire week. Yes, I have pregnancy induced insomnia.

I don't know how to get rid of it (advice please!). All I know is that I am tired. Really tired. If you didn't know me and had contact with me last night, you would have thought I was drugged. I was slurring my words, not completing sentences, dropping things, and staring into outer space. That was at 6:30. i made it to AJ's bedtime and don't remember falling asleep. That was after being awake since 3am, working out at 6, running around like a crazy person to get out of the house, working, driving to get AJ, making dinner, eating with the family, cleaning up, making a cake, and playing with our boy. Then I crashed. And now I am awake.

In about 5.5 months I will be BEGGING for sleep, so I find it funny that I have a hard time sleeping now, when I need it the most!

quote of the day

Taken from my favorite show, Modern Family (as I lay here on my phone listening to my child NOT going to sleep)::

"Your parents faked it, You fake it, And you hope you don't raise a serial killer"

Isn't that the truth? Parenthood is just a series of unknown curveballs...all you can do is your best and hope it was good enough! at the end of the day, the stress is more then worth the reward :).

The weather and being a Big Boy!

It's amazing how every day I think it can't get more fun to be a mommy and then AJ surprises me and it's more fun then yesterday! He is a ball of laughter and keeps us on our toes everyday. A few months ago we were at Babies R Us and they had mini shovels for kids. Did AJ want toys? No...AJ wanted the shovel. He said he could help Daddy shovel the sidewalks. We didn't fight him. I'm a firm believer (as a former obsessive clean kid myself) that if they ask for stuff that will help around the house, you get it for them :). We haven't had as much snow this time around, but we have had just enough that AJ could really shovel. This picture was actually from a few weeks ago, but we did manage to use it again last week during the bigger storm we got. John was late getting home (couldn't leave early like everyone else and got stuck in the storm and in traffic!), so AJ and I bundled up and decided to go play outside. That actually meant to AJ to shovel. I didn't complain. I helped too. Yes, my pregnant butt shoveled. I though, oh John is going to be so happy to come home and the shovelling is half way done for him. Well, by the time he got home it looked as if we didn't' touch it. Anyway, here is AJ:

And here are both of us:

It doesn't stop there. If my camera was working (yes, no lens yet), then I would have tons of great photos to show you of AJ being Mr. Independent, but I'll show you just one more. This is AJ after not only DRESSING himself (shirt, pants, socks, and shoes!), but attempting to tie his shoes too. The zippers he has down pat on the side, but the tying, not so much. But, it's important to let them try and so we did (even though we were running late for work already)

In the end I needed to help him finish tying the shoes, but our boy is showing some great initiative!

18 weeks

Well--we are almost half way through! I am officially 18 weeks now and feeling really good. Actually, I have had a terrible head cold since Friday and since I can't take anything, I have been suffering through it, but other then that..it's really smooth sailing!

I am feeling good throughout workouts and my appetite has decreased. I'm not sure how much I have gained so far, but I'm guessing it's about 12 or so pounds.

AJ is super cute with this baby. He is going to be a fantastic big brother. Well, at least we think--who knows when there is actually a real, live crying thing in his house playing with his toys! Here are all of the recent cute things he does/say:

1. Hugs and kisses my belly daily and says he wants to snuggle with 'his baby'
2. Talks at school about how mommy has a baby in her belly and takes HIS baby to work with her
3. Says he wants to sing some songs to the baby
4. Tickles the baby (or my belly) and says the baby is laughing
5. Tells the baby he can't wait to see her/him (he uses something different everytime)

There is one thing we are slightly concerned about. Lately AJ has been asked to be 'fed'--in other words, he takes his cup and asks John or I to feed it to him like a bottle, as if he is a baby. This is usually when we are snuggling and not at any other time. AJ really is independent and this is new behavior that I think he is picking up from his Big Brother books. Makes me kind of feel like he may be jealous of the baby attention that this newborn is getting. Otherwise though, he is excited when we talk about the baby.

In other baby news, I have really been feeling the baby kick! And a lot of people have been asking when we find out the sex and the answer is....

FRIDAY! Hopefully. We are finding out almost two weeks sooner then we did with AJ, so I'm kind of nervous they won't be able to tell us.

I'll be sure to post on here as soon as I am able to. How we are finding out is quite interesting, so be on the look out for the story if all goes as planned.

Here is a picture of me from last week--excuse the we hair, it was shortly after a shower. I was 17 weeks 2 days in the photo. It's odd, I feel bigger, but I just compared it to the 14 week photo and I'm exactly the same. I actually look smaller probably due to the bloating going down. Yes, I'm not really showing yet. I do think that since this photo was taken I'm a little bigger, but not much. I also am still wearing mostly all of my clothes with no problem. I started wearing the belly band for a few of my clothes, but it's mostly to be more comfortable then anything else.



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