So many updates!

Giving some updates of AJ! Mr. Man is very independent these days. It's amazing. We thought he was starting to drop naps because he was just up in his room quietly playing during nap time...but NOPE. The below picture is precious. It was taken about 4:30 on a Sunday--a Sunday that was also a very nice day and after a park adventure. I love a sleeping AJ (well I love an everything AJ, but a sleeping AJ after he exhausted me is a perfect AJ :)).

AJ has actual conversations that can last 20 minutes or more. He LOVES to talk. He talks to Grandma often. She is one of the only people in the universe that would never get bored talking to a two year old AJ. They have so many important things to talk about (like spongebob underware). While driving one day, AJ was playing with my old -- and I mean old because I dont' remember ever having a 'flip' phone -- cell phones and 'called' Grandma and had a conversation with Grandma-- a very serious conversation:

My birthday was a few weeks back and my boys really spoiled me. I just wanted to spend the day with them. The day was BEAUTIFUL so after AJ's swim class we ventured out to DC for a day of tourist activities. We walked a TON and went to a few museums and Georgetown before walking to Washington Harbor for dinner. Here is a picture of AJ and I. See his sweater vest? Yes, I dress him like that and I love it. He looks so darling! Oh, I'm so excited to dress another little baby boy up like it :). Too bad AJ doesn't enjoy it as much as I do. If it were up to him, he would wear a 'tank top' and basketball shorts all the time. He is much like his Daddy. Good thing I'm the boss.

We took AJ to his first MMA fight. The dulles sportsplex has these fights on Saturday evenings sometimes. John had two tickets and his friend bailed out on him so he asked if we could go, knowing we might need to leave if it becomes overwhelming for AJ. Well, let me tell you...AJ loves ALL SPORTS. He cheers for everything. He was cracking people in the place up with 'GET HIM' and 'GOOOOOOOOO' at the top of his lungs. He did so well. He was a perfect little angel and enjoyed himself. Notice the picture that both John and AJ have 'fists' up.

And that brings me to our second little terror. Pregnancy is great. I am now 26 weeks and feeling amazing still. We leave for vacation next week and I'm so excited about it. Oh, and I got my iPad2 in, so hopefully we can update on the trip with pictures and such!

PA visit

A few weeks ago (I didn't take any pictures so didn't post anything!), AJ and I trekked up to Philly for a very quick one night visit.

We drove up to Delaware and spent a few hours with my stepmom, brothers Martin and Joseph, and sister Matalie first. Joanne and kids moved from Missouri around Valentine's day and seem to be settled and happy. I'm very glad.

We then went to PA to see my girl LEAH! I love Leah so much, and so does AJ! They have fun playing together! Here they are hanging out drinking juice!

On Sunday, my cousin's daughter Marlena had her baptism. After the ceremony, my cousin Matt scooped AJ up and immediately tried to get him to say GO EAGLES. AJ wasn't having it, he would argue GO REDSKINS right back, or say "I don't like the Eagles, I like the REDSKINS!"

AJ hanging out with some of his cousins. He looks like such a big boy!

And finally, a picture of me and him. I think he was attacking me in this picture and we were laughing.

Great weekend away!

A new baby in the family!

On Tuesday, my cousin Jacquel gave birth to a beautiful and healthy baby boy. Maddox was 8 pounds and 21 inches long. Mom and baby are doing well.

I have A LOT of cousins. My older cousins--George, Joey, and Matt, had all 6 of their kids around the same time--give or take. Then years went by without any new great grandkids. Now the next batch of great grandkids have been coming at a steady pace. AJ was the first, followed by my girl Leah, my nephew Roman, Ava, Marlena, and now Maddox. In July we will welcome baby boy Hall. I wonder who is next!?

Friday night Fire

Sometimes in life crazy things happen that really put things in perspective.

Last night we had friends coming over for dinner. John trains in Ju Jitsu with Steve and his wife Kristin soon joined the other side of our gym that I attend, personal training. They are a wonderful couple and I know when they start a family sometime soon, they will be fantastic parents because they LOVE AJ.

Anyway, Steve got stuck at work and said he could be at our house around 8pm and Kristin would be meeting him there. This turned out to be a really good thing. Around 7pm, John and I were prepping dinner while also playing with AJ (ok, he was mostly playing, I was mostly cooking). I had a great menu planned with our favorite grilled asparagus, garlic-olive oil-tomato cous cous, and steaks on the grill. The asparagus takes about 50 minutes to an hour on low on the grill. I asked John to start the grill around 7 so I could get the asparagus on there by the timed it warmed up, around 7:15. Little did we know that the both of us turn the grill on very differently. John turns it on and keeps it on high before turning it down to low. I turn it on and immediatly turn it to low.

At 7:15 or so, I threw the asparagus (tightly wrapped in foil) on the top shelf of the grill and closed the grill top. I walked inside the house and checked on AJ and John and went back to prepping. At this point I had pretty much everything set--including the dinner table. I did one last check and turned around and BRIGHT ORANGE caught my eye WITH the shades to the kitchen closed overlooking the deck.

I ran over to the french doors leading out to the deck and screamed for John. The grill was in flames and was only 2 feet or so from our house. In addition, we have a wooden deck like most people.

John told me to grab AJ and call 911 while he ran to get the fire extinguisher. I got on the phone and gave all of the relevant information. I admit I was a little bit freaking out. John came down to us and told me that the fire extinguisher didn't work--it was just too old and we never got it checked in the 5 years since we got it.

Meanwhile, AJ--who has been potty training perfectly--was in nothing but underware and a pair of shorts. 911 told us to get out of the house immediately and to get our neighbors on either side out as well. I told him we have a child and I need to get clothes and John ran up the two level of stairs to get him something warm to wear.

I grabbed our dog Tyson and my half naked child and ran out with John just a minute or so behind us. I ran to one neighbor to get them out of the house and asked them for their fire extinguisher. They jumped on it and when John got outside he ran back in to try to extinguish the fire, but their extinguisher didn't work either! Our other neighbors (who our deck backs up to) were not home.

Within a minute or so (talk about FAST!) three large fire trucks with about 15 or so firemen rolled up all loud and proud. A fire chief SUV also came as well as a police car. The trucks stretched across our entire street just about. A few of the men ran in the front door while a few others got the fire hose out and went through the back. Meanwhile the cop (who was really nice) came to talk to us to get our information. We couldn't see anything but within about 5 minutes or so they all came out to tell us that the fire was out and everything was off (including our stove that was cooking the cous cous!). The firemen were all really great and took us to the firesite to examine the damage.

Turns out that one of the burners was stuck on 'light' and NOT on high. They said if it was on high, worst case would have been my asparagus would have burned. John said at this point it was 85% his fault and 15% my fault. I won't argue with that (even if I feel very responsible for not checking the burners).

We got so lucky. We had next to no damage. Our grill is of course gone and we have a couple of burn spots on our deck floor as well as some 'wilted' siding, but we really did get SO lucky. The rain the day prior was our saving grace as well.

What is left of our sad grill:

The firemen let AJ go explore their truck and he had a really fun time with the excitement. Later he told our friends that "mommy was scared, but I was BRAVE".

Everything was wrapped up by 7:40 and John and I were left in complete embarrassment. One of his co-workers lives across the street from us and she came over to check on us. We also can't face the rest of the neighborhood today just yet.

We went back out to the deck, which was COVERED in white powder from the firemen. Our neighbors--who are very snobby and keep everything in perfect order (they do not have kids clearly)--were not home, but their deck was also covered. John went down and fed the hose up to me. He turned it on and then cleaned both decks clear of powder.

I thought our meal would be ruined but luckily our steaks were good to go! John had the genius idea to grill out on his tailgate grill--in the front of the house of course :). By the time our guests arrived, they wouldn't have even known what we just went through if it wasn't for us telling them and explaining why John was grilling in our front. I also had some green beans to work with in the fridge as well. Turns out our meal was perfect and we had a great night.

It's hard to tell (no flash on my cell), but you can kind of see John in our front yard grilling. That would be some sort of hand sign that I do not understand, but thought it was funny anyway.

We certainly learned some lessons last night. I also learned that when it came down to it, the only thing I worried about was getting my family to a safe place. I didn't care about anything else--not even photos or my favorite pair of jeans or anything. Now I know I can honestly answer the question "if you had a fire and had to get out of the house quickly, what would you take with you?". The answer would be only my family. Material things do not matter at all.

So we are off to get two new fire extinguishers this weekend--one for us and one for our nice neighbors. We also will make sure to get it checked every year to make sure it is still working. DAVID (my fire fighter brother): can you please check it for us every year?

I also bost this because I hope that EVERYONE reading this will take precaution in case of a fire. We were lucky, yes, but we could have easily not been and we were not prepared for a fire. Please, please please learn from us!

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:

Thanks for reading!