If you build it, they will come

Poor third child, I'm already so behind on updates! No belly pics prior to 20 weeks...oh well. I am finally feeling great! Love this part of pregnancy. So, I pretty much look full term, hence the title. That's just the way I roll...space gets big and then baby grows to fill it. Makes for lots of those fun comments like, "are you sure you're only blah weeks". Yeah...pretty damn sure.

20 weeks

22 weeks

Ok, so it's still pregnancy, so not everything is perfect...I take daily prevacid for the acid reflux, flonase for the nasal congestion, and a fiber filled diet. :)

My next appointment is my first glucose test, so wish me luck. I've never passed the 1 hour before, so I'm not holding my breath. I HATE the 3 hour test though. Ugh.

Baby #3

So, as you all probably know from facebook or real life, I'm totally and completely pregnant with #3. It's very hard to catch up on many months of not talking about it, so I've continued to put it off. This sweetie was a bit of a surprise to us, so it definitely took a little bit to get used to the idea. My mommy brain instantly went in to overdrive about logistics...we don't have a another bedroom, paying for another child in daycare, the physical and mental demands, the fact that I'm 37 (well, 38 now).


How we found out:
I was at work on June 15th and suddenly looked at a calendar and realized I was on day 28 of no monthly visitor. TMI, but I'm every 24 days like clockwork, so that was a pretty big red flag. I went home at lunch to take a pregnancy test and boom...

Daniel was in a meeting, so I couldn't reach him to tell him, but I was freaking out, so I texted Corinne. Unfortunately, she was at a funeral, so I had to wait on her to call me back to. My phone has since been wiped, but I wish I could share that text conversation. I went back to work, somehow, and had to wait until Daniel and I got home that evening to tell him. Thankfully, his first response was excitement. Of course in a bit, he got hit with the, pardon my French, "Oh shit, 3 kids".  All it took was that first OB appointment hearing that sweet heartbeat and seeing our little baby to help us realize the blessing we've been given.

How we told the kids:
We waited until after my first appointment to tell my kids on my birthday. We bought Evie a "big sister" book and bought Sullivan a book and taped the ultrasound picture to it. I would share the "big reveal" video, but it was a complete bust. Evie can't read and Sullivan didn't get it. They were excited once we finally explained what was going on, but definitely no million youtube hits video evidence. Evie for weeks before we told her and maybe even before we found out we were pregnant, kept looking at family photos and saying, "mommy, daddy, Sullivan, Evie, sister". Even creepier than that, when I ask her what we should name the baby, she said, "Gabby". When I asked why this weekend, she said, "Because I see her on the ceiling and I talk to her and she said her name is Gabby". Ummm, don't want to piss Gabby off, but I don't think I'll be naming this one Gabby.


Gender Reveal:
Due to my advanced maternal age, which the medical community now calls "elderly", we decided to do the genetic testing via a blood test. You get the option to learn the gender through this test, so we went for it. We are too old and tired and boring to do a big gender reveal party or neat gimmick, so we got a phone call on a Friday afternoon with the results. It's a girl! Sullivan's response when we told him, "I'm moving out". Evie was thrilled, of course. It never occurred to her that it would be anything other than a sister. Kids are creepy.

How I've been feeling:
HORRIBLE. Constant "morning sickness" until about 15-16 weeks. Don't know if it really went away or the terrible cold I got masked it. Follow that a week later with a stomach virus. Follow that with some lingering problem that keeps me sick most nights. My doctor had me come in for Iv fluids and new meds last week. I'm on zofran and diclegis and sucralfate currently to try and help. I'm very ready for the part of pregnancy where you feel good and want to eat all the time. The thought of most food makes me ill still. I had actually lost 2 pounds at my last appointment. Boo. "Gabby" needs to get it together! Ok, done complaining for now. :)

Latest DIY Projects

"We've" been inspired lately to complete several lingering projects around the house. I assume others of you are familiar with the royal "we". I put it to good use, so I should really re-title this post to "Latest MAPAHYHDI (Mention A Project And Have Your Husband Do It) Projects". I actually didn't ask Daniel to complete these, I started the first and he just finished it up for me. The second, I had planned to help this weekend, but he just started knocking it out after I went to bed. I've got a good one, for sure.

Project 1: grout paint
Stained grout grosses me out and is a big pet peeve of mine. It makes me, unfairly, hate tile. I started painting the grout in the laundry room probably 2 years ago, but just picked it back up recently when Daniel took the kids out of town for a night. I don't have a big before picture, but you can see the difference here. This job is tedious and uncomfortable, but it makes such a difference for almost no money! We bought an extra sealer to go on top that will hopefully keep our grout looking nice for a LONG time.

Project 2: paint the dining room/living room

We painted our kitchen, laundry, hallway Mindful Grey over a year ago, but never got around to updated the color in the dining room and living room. They were all shades of pink/sand and were covered with scratches, hand prints, etc. We went with Repose Grey (the next lightest) for the dining room and living room. Daniel knocked out the dining room in two nights, and it looks so much better.  I hope we can work on the living room this weekend. I'll be happy to have washable paint in all the rooms of our house. 

I did ask Daniel if he gets tired of me constantly coming up with projects, but he said no! Stay tuned for my next ideas!

First Days of School....Yay?

When you look at facebook this time of year, the feed is covered with adorable pictures of smiling kids excited to start their first day of school. In my reality, my kids dread the first day of school. And if I'm being honest, most days of school. No matter how much we talk about the positives, yada, yada, yada....they ain't buyin' it!

Evie just moved up at her daycare this morning. There were two possible teacher choices: J or C. Sullivan had both and used to call "J" his best friend. That was one of his happiest years. I'm pretty sure no kid has ever called "C" their best friend. So of course, we didn't get J. Queue me taking Evie in for her first morning and as I'm sitting her in her new seat trying to show her the new places with her name, her teacher just starts spouting things to me: Where is her nap mat?, she needs more wipes, I need a picture of her for the wall, their own cups aren't allowed in "my house". I felt taken off guard and poor Evie looked terrified. Evie's last teacher was sweet and kind and loving and the shock was pretty extreme for both of us. Please send some positive thoughts for my sweet girl.

Sullivan starts school on Friday. I've met his teacher, so I'm not worried about her personality, just the normal first day jitters and transition.

First days of school are hard. Maybe I should post a picture of all of us at the end of the first day.

Heart hurting momma.

*Lunchtime update
I texted Evie's previous teacher to ask if she could give me an update, and she said it seemed that Evie was doing well. She seemed happy, ate her lunch, was napping on her mat...definitely made me feel better. Mommas can worry, can't we?

Summer, summer, summertime!

Remember when summer meant days at the pool, sleepovers, riding bikes all over the neighborhood? As a working mother with kids in "big school", summer and the logistics of childcare can be less than fun. A college girl has kept Sullivan and one of my nieces, but scheduling hiccups and the logistics of getting kids where they need to be has been a pain. Our other option appears to be scheduling a different camp each week or fighting for a spot in the OPC summer camp. I am a strong believer in having some down time during the summer and not scheduling the kids to death, but there aren't a lot of great, or convenient, options for households with two working parents.  Future business venture?

Regardless of the headaches, we've managed to have a little  fun this summer. We took our requisite beach trip with family, and it was really nice. I wouldn't pick to stay in this particular beach house again, but we had plenty of room and the location provided ocean views and easy beach access.  Queue beach photo montage:

School officially starts back in a week and a half, and as much as I dread the earlier mornings, I'm looking forward to a set schedule! 

Coming to a close

The 2015-2016 school year is coming to a close, and I'm amazed at how fast it has gone. We had end of the year programs for both kids this week. Evie's program was Friday night and her part was about 30 seconds long. After sitting for an hour with another hour to go, so we skipped the rest because we were all worn out and cranky by then. Do other people's kids not melt down near bedtime after a full day at school? Sullivan's program was during lunch earlier in the week and went well. He's not much of a stage performer, but it was sweet to see how much they've grown over the year.

LLES end of the year program

ABC end of the year program. Perfectly captures their typical attitudes when I ask for a picture.

I made my first LLES field trip the previous Friday to the Memphis Zoo. The weather couldn't have been better and we had a great time. I brought Evie along as well.

Taking a picture with me is apparently very painful.

We traveled to my Mom's the same afternoon to spend Mother's Day weekend with her and Freddie. We got to go to the new grammy museum for the first time, and it was so much fun! If you are a Beatles fan, that exhibit leaves in June, so get there soon! They have so many interactive exhibits that kids and adults both enjoy. I could have spent all day in there, but my kids got hungry and were ready to go after about 2 hours. I highly recommend it though!

Dance Floor

Fred Daddy and Bebe with my ever reluctant photo takers.

On Sunday after church we stopped by the cemetery where my father is buried to place a special stone Daniel had made. The small stone in the picture came from the Nantahala River and Daniel carved "Dr. Barry" in to it. It was something that Daniel just wanted to do, but means a lot to me that he was so considerate. My dad's headstone also came from a quarry in the Smokies, since that is an area that he really loved. 

My last two photos today are rather random. The first is a photo of two birds that love to build nests each  year above our front door. Daniel is determined not to let them and goes out to prevent them from making any progress. I feel bad for them and would cave, but he's holding strong. The pile of poop at the front door is a bit annoying.  I'm fairly certain they are planning their revenge though...

The last photo is of me and Sullivan and Evie. We read Pete the Cat books all the time and the kids decided they wanted everyone in the family to get some Pete the Cat shoes. 3 down, 1 to go.

I can't understand Whinese

Holy cow. My kids were completely unable to communicate this morning.

Evie cried about everything: wants to get her yogurt-cries because she can't find strawberry, wants me to get her yogurt instead- cries even though i found strawberry, i'm taking a shower and won't let her in- cries,  i put on shoes- cries, i help her wash the soap off her hands- cries, i tell her she can wear a doc mcstuffins pull-up- cries, i tell her she can wear a dora pull-up instead- cries because it's not doc mcstuffins, and on and on and on.

Sullivan wouldn't answer a single question I asked him except with a dirty look. I raise my voice for him to answer me- he cries, Daniel gets on to him for something else- cries, get in the car and I say no tv- they both cry.

And then...as I'm driving through the neighborhood, I spill my coffee all over my white skirt and the floorboard of the car. Like a light switch, my kids suddenly are able to communicate. No crying, no whining. Happy, normal conversation all the way to school and through drop off. WTH? Did the demons get ejected with my coffee?  Do I  need to recreate this scenario every morning? I'm still baffled.


Parenting tip: when your kids are driving you nuts, watch cute "bideos" of them.

Spring has sprung

This is going to be a typical catch up blog. Lots of photos.

Some recent happenings:

We finally sold my car from high school. Still looks pretty dang good for being 20 years old! I was a little sentimental about letting it go, but it went to a co-worker's son and will get to do something besides sit in my driveway. So long, Rodeo!

We've been spending lots of time outdoors while the weather is still beautiful and cool. Our garden has brussels sprouts that are almost ready and strawberries ripening each day. We've got tomato plants started and lots of seeds beginning to sprout. I've determined I need to add another raised bed to our garden since Daniel has claimed an entire bed just for strawberries.

We've got lots of baby pears and peaches on our trees, but I only got a photo of our two varieties of pears.

We grow our own luck around here as well as we have discovered several patches of clover that consistently produce numerous four leaf clovers.  It's a bit like taking candy from a baby, so I avoid those areas when scouting for lucky clovers.

Kids are doing well. Sullivan has good days/weeks at school and bad days/weeks, so we just take it one day at a time. Listening and following directions are not his strong suit. He loves to love on our cat Sophie and to "play" with the lizards in our garden. When he's engaged, he can be such a great helper. He's recently mastered tying his shoes. This summer we hope to check off confident swimming and riding a bike without training wheels.

With his BFF Jackson

The Sharks!

Evie has started exerting her independence more and more. Her favorite words are "let me do it!". She's still a sweet snuggler though, and I just love it when she leans her head against me while we read books at night. She speaks in full sentences and really likes to sing these days. The princess craze has fully hit. She wants to wear a princess nightgown each night, has a princess night light, and has a set of "bath tub" princesses that she carries just about everywhere. She can be rough and tumble, but she's a bit of a girly girl as well. In the photo below, she is twirling her dress. :)

Daniel and I celebrated 10 years of marriage on April 22. We had hoped to take a trip to celebrate, but with our company selling and the kids in school, we decided to postpone a trip to a more convenient time. Instead, we had drinks and dinner with some of our best friends and came home to have some "wedding" cake and watch a movie. Daniel surprised me with an anniversary band to add to my wedding ring set, although we weren't supposed to be doing gifts...All in all, it was a good day. Hard to believe it's been 10 years.