Valentine's Love

This past week we "celebrated" Valentine's Day.  I realized about half way through the day that I have become a Valentine's scrooge - it was really unintentional but it has happened.  For those who don't know him well, Mark is not the most romatic guy.  However, he is a stable, dependable, all around good guy all the time.  Of course, I would choose good guy all the time over sometime who has crazy extremes and works on being romantic occassionally.  Since I know he is not romantic I have absolutely no expectations that he will do anything for me for Valentine's day.  I used to do things for him but then it just got so it wasn't much fun anymore.  I was never bothered that he didn't reciprocate the love but more that the effort wasn't appreciated.  He just doesn't care about that stuff.  All of that to say, our Valentine's celebration was just a little dinner together on Saturday night.  (Thanks to Mom and Vern for coming up and watching the girls for FREE!)

However, I felt like the worst Mom ever when I took Caroline to daycare on Monday.  All of the kids were decked out in their Valentine's gear.  Parents had brought treats for the whole class and even brought gifts for the teachers.  Where have I been hiding?!  Then I get home and look at facebook...where all the dads had given their little girls flowers and moms had given them little presents.  I have got to step it up next year.  Thankfully, Caroline doesn't know the difference now but next year will be different!  Just because Mark and I aren't romantic doesn't mean I can't celebrate all of the other loves in my life!  :-)

Valentine's night was actually good though.  Instead of cooking a nice dinner like I thought I was going to do, we packed a picnic and headed to the park.  We had a good time together as a family. 

Catch Up

I haven't blogged in forever so I thought I would play a little catch up.  January went by so quickly! 

Around the first of January we got a phone call that Mark's grandfather was not doing well.  We kept up with how he was doing by phone for the next week or so and then he left us to see Jesus.  He was a wonderful grandfather, the kind that every kid dreams of having!!  We flew out to Missouri  (Mark's traveling has it's perks - we flew for free and even got to fly first class on the way back home) and were able to celebrate his life and the joy that he brought to ours.  

The trip also served as a good, although very short visit, to catch up with Mark's parents.  Caroline soaked up all of the love and attention.  She is normally such a shy girl around new people and groups but she warmed up quickly.  When we got home, it was as if she remembered all of the attention that she received.  She was very friendly and smiled at new people for several days! 

OK, she's not smiling in either picture but I promise she had a great time!

We got home from Missouri and a few days later PaulPaul came to visit.  In my mind I had great plans for our time together but it didn't quite turn out that way.  Friday night, the whole family went to dinner and Caroline was just not herself.  She was a little crabby and she is normally an angel in restaurants (I'm sure this will change at some point).  The next morning we went to the aquarium together and we could all tell that she wasn't feeling well.  We left a bit early and took her to the doctor where she was diagnosed with her first case of pink eye.  Sadness.  We spent the rest of the day at home resting.  Sunday morning Lindsay called and said that she wasn't scared of Caroline being contagious since we had already spent so much time together so Sunday and Monday we hung out together around the house.  

I'm always so glad to see Dad!  The visit just seemed a little more chaotic than our normal life.  Mark, Caroline and I are really a pretty peaceful little family but I guess the sickness threw everything off a little.  Come back soon Dad - I promise we're not always so crazy!! 

A couple of little updates on Caroline...

I love the picture above.  She is eating a chip with gaucamole on it!  She has just learned to dip things and she has been trying all sorts of sauces.  It cracks me up.  However, her eating habits have gone down hill!  I'm trying not to be worried about it because I keep hearing it's just a stage.  She used to eat everything and now we are dow to fruit, bread, cheese and yogurt.  I've been determined to just feed her what we are having for dinner and not to cater to her wants.  Tonight was the first time that I caved though.  :-/  In my head it's a battle to get her to eat her veggies and more but I'm not willing to let her know that yet.  We'll see. 

In some other good news, I think we are trying to potty train (not too seriously though).  We used to set her on the potty occassionally before her bath and she would just giggle.  A little more than a week ago I put her on it and she pooped!  I was a little startled by the whole thing but we've started doing it before diaper changes and she goes in the potty almost everytime we put her on it!!  We're not taking it too seriously because she doesn't tell us when she has to go yet and probably won't for a long time. However, she very clearly tries to go everytime we put her on it.  It's a little crazy and scary!

Finally, a bit of sad news.  I can hardly believe it but we are going to have to give Sophie to a new home.  She has been the sweetest, best companion ever.  All of my time in college and then living by myself in Texas, it was such a joy to have her!  However, as Caroline has become more mobile and we have friends come over frequently with young children, Sophie has not adjusted very well.  She has been growling and showing her teeth.  I never thought that I would be able to get rid of Sophie.  Sophie was my child before I had a child.  We were trying to explain it to some friends who don't have kids and it's just hard.  Of course, I love Sophie but she is a dog and I have a little human to protect and love.  I no longer feel safe leaving them alone together and I can't possibly have my eye on them both at all times so it's time for Sophie to find a new, loving home.  She will be leaving this coming weekend for sure and as the time draws near, I am feeling more and more sad about it.  I know it is the right thing though.

I think that is about all that is going on here.  I hope the next update is a little more cheery than the last two!!

Let's Get Physical

OK, not really.  Blog titles are so annoying.  I should boycott them.

Before I got pregnant this time I talked with Mark about how much it requires of me physically.  There are two parts to this.  Before getting pregnant, being pregnant and the first year of a babies life are all very physically demanding for a mama.  There are foods, drinks, medicines, etc that you can no longer enjoy.  There is the "morning sickness" that comes anytime day or night. Of course, there is the growing belly.  There is the tiredness that comes from carrying a baby while pregnant and afterwards and the general sleeplessness.  Then the breastfeeding afterwards...oh my that's another whole blog. 

The other aspect that really affects me is the lack of physical activity that I can do while pregnant.  I know there are those super women who exercise like feigns while pregnant (I desperately want to be that person) but it just doesn't happen.  There is no more training more triathlons, no more running, no more biking...it just doesn't happen.  I can't sign up for races.  It's really a sacrifice for me not to train with a goal in mind, to compete and have something to look forward to.

Mark and I talked about all of this several times but of course a baby is much more important than all of this!  One quick silly story...our friends Dustin and Adrienne had a hand writing expert at Dustin's birthday party.  The handwriting expert said that I was a very physical person and that I like to push myself and have goals for myself physically.  I left telling Mark, see, I told you.  :-)

All of this said, I could have never imagined how draining this pregnancy would be for me.  I have not felt like myself physically for a couple of months now.  People keep asking if I am better and I kind of nod that everything is fine.  I don't mean to lie. I'm not really fine.  What do I say?  I don't feel like myself.  I am not sleeping well, despite taking sleeping pills nightly.  I am nauseous and have heart burn most everyday.  I feel like I'm living with the flu everyday.  I now have a cold on top of it.  I'm just drained.  I'm 16 weeks tomorrow so the first trimester has come and gone.  Now all I keep thinking is that I have to feel this way until July.  Eeks.  I have no doubt that all of this will be worth it once the little babe arrives but in the mean time I am just worn out.

Owl

We got Caroline some owl pajamas for Christmas and have been working on getting her to say "owl" and "whoo."  She can say it a little clearer than this video but she is still pretty cute. 

Our sweet girl has been taking time with her words.  Last time we went to the doctor they asked if she could say at least 15 words and I'm not even sure she was saying one at that point!  She's working on it though.  She's got hi, mama, dada, bye, down, and dog pretty good.  We're working on some more!

Snow

The obligatory snow post!  Georgia doesn't get snow often and especially this much!  I'm not sure of the official measurement but I think we had about 5/6 inches.  Crazy! 

Caroline and I woke up early and waved to daddy as he headed out in the snow!

Our sweet neighbors walking down the street, arm in arm!

I love these little overalls but I never put her in the them because they have a fleece lining and it's rarely cold enough for them!

Caroline is a funny little girl. I'm still learning about her personality. She is very cautious about new things but most of the time she will warm up the situation.  This is her second snow this year and she was more comfortable this time. She was fascinated by the crunch of the snow under her feet at first.

Poor girl had to wear socks as gloves.

The socks seemed to work pretty well because she wanted to hold snow balls.

She just walked and carried snow balls in her hands for much of the time outside.  She treated them like little babies.  She was so cautious with them! 

Sometimes I can't help but giggle at her little age.  It's funny when she finds herself in a quandary and can't get out of it.  She was definitely stuck in this position until I came to rescue her!

We had a good time playing in the snow today and are thankful for that Mark is home safely with us tonight.  I hope that the snow/ice will not stay around for too long! 

She was RIGHT - I was WRONG!

What a day!  Overnight, about 4-5" of snow fell all over Atlanta.  Big deal for the Big Peach.  I was supposed to take off at 7:30 this morning but realized that Delta cancelled that flight and rebooked me for Tuesday morning.  Maybe they knew something I didn't.  It gave me an option of booking a later flight this morning leaving Atlanta at 10:55am and connecting through Detroit.  I booked it!  Nicole told me time and again that I shouldn't go and that it would be a very dangerous drive and that the flight wouldn't go and that I wasn't being silly.  She was right.

The roads were one big sheet of smashed snow.  Not exactly icy, but not anything like I thought they'd be.  When I got to the airport and trudged my way inside, things looked like 3am on a Monday night and not 9am on a Monday morning.  TSA was only open on two lanes and it was plenty.  People weren't going anywhere.  To make a long story shorter, my flight was delayed while we waited for three more flight attendants.  Then we boarded and waited for permission to leave the gate.  That took an hour.  Then we taxied out and waited for a spot to open at the deicing pag (our plane was in Atlanta overnight and had a good three inches of snow ALL over it).  We waited for about an hour and a half.  Then we started deicing.

It took a team of five or six trucks a good hour or so to get close to the wing where I was.  They had to blast off the snow.  Then they all quit and pulled over to get more de-ice fluid, or so we thought.  Then the captain came on to say that because the flight had been out of the gate for about three hours, and hadn't taken off, it had to return to the gate or face steep penalties.  So the flight, that was now about five hours late, was cancelled.  Great.  Nicole was right.

I made the long, treacherous drive home soaked in humility and accented with snow.  I've cancelled my trip to Baltimore.  I won't be able to get out tomorrow either.  And I'll listen better next time, I promise.

Old news....

but still oh so exciting...we are having another baby!  Of course, everyone who reads this blog already new of the good news.  Mark and I told family and friends weeks ago but I just have yet to make it "official" on the blog.  We've been busy with the holidays and then things slowed down a lot and I have just been too lazy to write anything.

The good news is that after Christmas we went to the doctor for a check up.  I was 10 weeks along at that point.  The doctor tried to listen for the heart beat but couldn't hear it quite yet with the little machine they normally use so he sent us for a sonogram!  We were thrilled to say the least!  I thought the little babe was still a bean but nope there was a little head, arms and legs.  Mark said, "You must not have been reading your pregnancy books!"  Sad but true.  The heart beat was also 175.  I have told a few folks but at the beginning of the pregnancy I felt a little more worried this time than I was with Caroline.  When I was pregnant with Caroline there was just lots of excitement and "baby" was all I could think.  Now that I know and understand the depth of love that I have for Caroline, the feelings are much different.  I understand what a miracle a baby really is and all of the things that could go wrong or right.  Thankfully, the feelings of worry have disappeared.  The good news is that we seem to be pregnant with a healthy little baby.

The bad news is that I have been feeling very yucky, almost all the time but especially at night.  I was not sick at all with Caroline.  Well, only twice after eating a banana and the night time was a little bit harder with her too.  However, my body is just having a hard time with this little one.  I have been sick and gagging and nauseous and tired and weak and just about all of it.  One silly example for those that know me well...today was chilly but sunny outside.  We had the opportunity to walk up the street and get our veggie basket from our neighbor.  I turned down a walk outside because I was not feeling well.  That NEVER happens!  I LOVE to be outside anytime the sun is out!  I really do hate to complain because I hear this is normal but since I didn't experience it with Caroline I was just caught off guard. 

Mark has been a saint through it all.  I know people talk about their husbands being great all the time and I'm not saying Mark is better.  I'm just saying, that I'm not just saying it to say it.  He really has been amazing.  He has done and is still doing almost everything for me at home.  I try to cook occassionally because it makes me feel like I'm doing my wifely/motherly duty but other than that Mark has been doing it all.  He cleans, washes dishes, does laundry, bathes Caroline, puts her to bed, everything!  He then cares for me by getting me food, medicine, rubbing my back, getting me drinks, etc.  He does all the hard work and then lets me "help out."  For example, in the mornings he gets Caroline up, changes her diaper and brings her to me with a book so that I can sit in bed with her and read while I'm still waking up.   It's really ridiculous and wonderful at the same time.  I really don't know how I would do all of this by myself.  He's just great.

All of this to say, we are very excited about adding another little one to our family!  Through all of the yuck it's been wonderful to see Mark being such a sweet dad and husband.  Caroline is still a little dream girl, although she has been working on our patience a little.  :-)  I'm sure the next will be a blessing too!

One more thought...Mark has suggested that we not find out the sex.  I'm not against the idea, in the past I just never thought I would be able to do it.  Any thoughts?

Here's to the end of the first trimester...only a week or so left!