So Much Going On

I feel like the days, weeks and months are just flying by lately. I feel like I was just planning and setting up for Christmas dinner and that come and gone. I must say this year was special, and it is amazing the difference that a single year makes. Last year Jack was about 7 and a half months old and showed very little interest in the whole gift thing. Hey to him, it was just a bunch of people in the house. This year was fantastic! We took out the Elf on a Shelf, not that he really understood the point but we at least told him it was Santas helper and that he was watching to make sure he was a good listener. He definitely gets "Santa" now! We didn't actually take him to see Santa this year, though we intended to when we took him to Storybook Land, the line was crazy long and he would have been miserable, instead we went on all the rides! We did see pictures of Santa and we got to see him go by on the firetruck, which I must say Jack really got a kick out of! He is still asking for "ho ho" when he hears sirens, too cute! Christmas morning, just the three of us, Jack couldn't wait to tear into everything. This year he was definitely more interested in what was beyond the paper... he wanted to open up all the puzzles and toys, he tested out his super adorable chair (even said ahhh when he sat down). It was so great to the excitment on his face. If you were to ask him who got him a toy or book, etc... the response is now always "Ho Ho". We even had a special visit from Santa on Christmas Day, my dad (always dressed up for us too). Jack jumped at first but then just stared I think in amazment. Steve and I soaked it all up and still couldn't believe that next christmas there would be two little boys!

Jack is doing amazing! He just turned 20 months old (AH 4 months until the 2nd birthday party!). He amazes us everyday... he so quickly leanrs new words. He speaks so clearly, well at least we think so, but hey we are with him all the time. He is now using three word "sentences" all the time and pretty sure there has been one or tow times that there has been 4 words! He is so incredibly smart, the things he can do amazes me.... show him something once and I swear he is a pro! You should see him work an iPad... bizarre how good he is... I think he should definitely appear in an Apple commercial! Anyone know how to contact Steve Jobs, haha! Jack has learned to jumpwith both feet off the ground, he now enjoys swinging on the bars at the gym like a little monkey. He is climbing all over everything! He is getting to be a bit stubborn and very opinionated, like us I guess! He now says please and thank you too... its adorable!

Me, I'm now coming up on 29 weeks pregnant. Yea this pregnancy seems to be flying by, I think because I am always so busy with Jack that I don't really have time to keep track of everything going on. Baby Ryan is doing great! I started my twice weekly appointments this week... everything is good but its all just to make sure that my graves disease doesn't get passed along... better safe then sorry... though I am terribly dreading all the driving I will be doing and all the time I will be spending sitting in the doctors office. Its especially going to be tricky to arrange for someone to watch Jack but we'll figure it out!

Our next HUGE project is tackling the basement, well I will be doing more supervising then actual work :-) We live in a three bedroom so with the arrival of Ryan in just a few months, we are losing the guest room/ office. We decided that since the house feels likes its shrinking but we can't move that we better go ahead and finish the basement... we're making an office, playroom and storage area. How great will it be to have the majority of toys down there, especially since we will have newborn baby stuff plus a two years old stuff all over! Really looking forward to the finished product !

So thats basically whats been going on here.... busy busy as usual!

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Christmas Card 2010

Charming Holly Wreath Christmas

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AVON CALLING

Ok so this post is really for me but figured I'd try to get the word out there. I've been selling Avon for a little over a year now and its been great!! Avon is going on to celebrate its 125th anniversary!!!! Its a fantastic business and is so because of all of its representatives.

Being that I'm a stay at home mom with a very active little boy, this gives me the opportunity to bring in extra income every two weeks and doesn't take up too much of my time. It is basically your business... you put as much or as little into as you'd like to. There are countless women that have made a huge success out of their sales.

Right now if you sign up to become an Avon Independent Sales Rep through me the sign up fee will be waived. This would be especially perfect for any stay at home mom, teacher or just about anyone that has a lot of women friends that love great beauty products! Parents if you have kids in school or involved in sports or other activities, theres your in with a lot of potential costumers! Teachers you work with plenty of other women again all potential costumers..... Its as easy as handing out an awesome catalogue, maybe some samples.... letting the products and prices sell themselves.... you simply submit an order every two weeks, or once a month if you choose... the products get delivered directly to you... you give them to your costumers and collect your money. Of course if you want to just give it a try and decide later on that its not for you, you simply stop no questions asked.

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Seperation Anxiety?

Here we are yet again. I cannot believe that after 18 months sleeping is still an issue that we are trying to figure out. Jack was doing great for several months. After going on vacation he was completely thrown off and it took about a week to get him back on track. We thought we were good after that and yet here we are at a complete loss yet again.

For the past couple weeks getting Jack to sleep has been a horror. We used to be able to put him in his crib, he'd wimper for a minute or two and then be out cold for the night. Now he screams for what seems to be an eternity and is waking up in the middle of the night again screaming "MAMA" for what seems like forever. Even if we go into his room and try to rub his back he still fights. Several nights weve given in and just brought him into bed with us. We go back and forth... are we screwing up by bringing him in bed with us getting him used to that and creating some evil cycle and that is the reason he is waking during the night... is it a seperation anxiety thing which I've read peaks at 18 months... we are lost lost lost. I thought we had finally gotten past the craziness and here we are again... this time knowing that baby number two will be arriving in April... so not only will we have Jack who is sleeping very light, waking and screaming but we will have a newborn getting up every 2 hours... we are kind of dreading very sleepless nights. Our goal is obvious... get Jack back to sleeping wonderfully and praying that a new baby in the house doesn't throw him off. Problem is we have no idea what to do anymore.

So besides that Jack is great. He is so smart he amazes me though the word "no" doesn't seem to sink in with him... I'm thinking this is a normal thing for his age and he is testing me and Steve to see how much he can get away it... boy does the button pushing mak me nuts sometimes! He started making pee pee on the potty though the actual concept of potty training is not there yet but thats ok, no rush.

I'm feeling good. I go for my 20 week sonogram tomorrow to see how baby is growing and to see if their guess of another boy was correct. We've been keeping busy of course! We're trying to plan ahead a bit and thinking its time to finish the basement.... toys and things are taking over and soon baby baby stuff will be added to the chaos of our home. A pretty big project to take on but sooo soooo needed! Other then that taking one day at a time and trying to enjoy all the little things.

Finally Back At It....

Yes, yes I know I have been a huge slacker. Its not only on my blog though, I've barely touched the computer since getting pregnant again. I am very happy to report though that the nausea and vomitting has finally come to an end! YAY!!! The extreme exhaustion has also faded and I no longer require at least one nap a day to function properly. Oh yes, the joys of the first trimester. I am actually feeling pretty good now. I still have days where I feel like patience is non existence and sleeping all day sounds lovely but definitely sooooo much better now! This one has definitely been tougher then Jack, maybe that means this one will be mellow? One can hope haha. Oh and as of right now they are thinking it looks like we will be having another boy. I willbe very out number, even the cat is a boy.

So a lot has happened since the last time I wrote. Jack has become a little chatter box, no surprise really, maybe he takes after me a bit... my nickname in 6th grade given to me by my teacher was gabby and i'm pretty sure that when I was in 2nd or 3rd grade that a letter went home to my mom about my talking a bit too much during class... oops :-) Anyhow his word list is growing all the time and he has even been putting 2 or 3 words together, my little genius! We also discovered that Jack loves the beach, yea go figure we waiting until after labor day to give it a try but at least we know for next summer. Its funny, the age and having no fear... he would have just jumped right into the water if we let him go. More recently he has developed a new LOVE, choo choos!! He is absolutely crazy about them. We got him a really cute Thomas set while we were on vacation (more on that to come) and then his Papa introduced him to the train set that has been around since we were kids. He now very much associated Papa with choo choos and yes I don't think a day has gone by since getting home from vacation that Jack has not uttered the words... Nana, Papa Choo choo... its pretty hysterical... now if only we could get him to wear the little hat to go with it.

So we just recently got back from our first family vacation. I think I mentioned it before.. we did a 9 night cruise that stopped in Portland and Bar Harbor Maine, Halifax, St Johns and Boston. I must say, vacationing with a little one in tow is definitely not the same as it just being the two of us, not that I actually expected it to be but it was an experience. I am definitely glad we decided to go for it. We are lucky because generally Jack is super easy going with a few meltdowns here and there. He really did do great. I guess it was a matter of just keeping him on somewhat of a schedule. He always got a nap in, otherwise forget it, my sweet little guy turns into a bit of a monster child. We always made sure to find a park or somewhere he could run around, stretch the legs and get the energy out. Amazingly he sat nearly perfectly everynight for dinner in the seated dining room. It was pretty funny because I would guess approx. 90% of the people on the cruise where 65+ and they all got a kick out of Jack. Pretty sure he somehow managed to become the mayor of the boat. Speaking of the boat, Steve was nervous about keeping Jack busy on the sea days... it worked out great... they had a fisher price room where we could bring him to play and color or hear a bedtime story. He also got a HUGE kick out of the arcade, so did Steve and I actually... he likes to sit at the racing games so he can pretend to drive and says beep beep while doing it. So while it was a lot more work and the nights ended very early (not that I really minded going to sleep early) it was so worth it and we did have a great time away together.

So Halloween is just around the corner and Jack got to pick his own costume and he decided to go with a COW! He actually looks very adorable in it! It is however quite a struggle to get him to wear it, we'll see I guess. Our community is doing a childrens Halloween party the day before so we're going to give that a try then on the actual day, I will be at the Giant Packer game with my dad and I think Steve is going to try to take Jack out for a little bit for some trick or treating... yup collecting candy for me and Steve to consume :-)

I'll try not to be such a slacker from now on and keep on updating.

Better Days....

Its been a while, huh? I generally do my blogging while Jack is napping but lately Jacks nap time= mommy nap time. I am just pooped!! I'm nearing 10 weeks now so I am hoping that in about 2 weeks I will be having better days! While some of the intense all day nausea is gone, the vomiting has gotten worse. I guess I was lucky, with Jack I only threw up twice the entire pregnancy... this time I am up to 8 so far. Yes I realize thats not horrible either, that some people do it everyday but either way, I still feel like crap! I had my first appointment almost 2 weeks ago and everything was good. At that point I'd actually lost 2 pounds, which is no surprise really since I have no appetite and getting anything down is a major chore.

This past Monday was a really really difficult day, one I'd rather not have had. I had some spotting in the morning which of course freaked me out and immediately made me think the worst. After a very long day and plenty of crying we had a sonogram appointment that night to check on the baby.... Thankfully I was wrong and the baby is fine! What a huge relief it was to see that little heart beating away, and yea I burst into a hysterical cry as soon as I saw the fluttering! Hoping to never have to go through that again, it was a draining day and we are just glad that everything turned out fine.

Other than all that, I have been a total lazy butt! I have zero energy which makes me no fun for Jack i'm sure. I have no desire to go do anything and I am definitely a little less patient with people... ah hormones. Please cross your fingers that by time our vacation comes around, that all this has passed so I can enjoy it!

Jack is doing good!! Hes such a little wild guy full of energy! This is of course that much more exhausting for me at the moment but hey he is only almost 16 months. He is picking up words a lot more easily lately. We've added pretty, spoon, uh oh, baby and whoa. He is getting so big too fast!! The gym we were bringing him to has closed so we signed up at another one... not nearly as awesome but for now it'll do and he still had fun.

Well little man is waking up from his nap.... tootles :-)

And baby makes four...

Yes I've been slacking lately, I admit, I've been napping every chance I get. So some very big and VERY surprising news.... On July 31st we found out that we are expecting baby #2 which will bring our little family of 3 up to 4!

Have to say this didn't work out the way Jack did. With Jack we came home from a vacation, the timing worked and we gave it a try, the next month we found out it worked and we were expecting our first peanut. I think I may have mentioned this before and yes I'm sure you're all laughing... we had thought we were going to wait until Jack was about 2-2.5 to start trying this way we had plenty of time with just him, he would be old enough to entertain himself for a while, and possibly even out of diapers. So things didn't quite go as planned, but don't get me wrong we are super excited!! This baby was definitely an oops baby, not planned and totally unexpected. I think Steve and I mostly laughed the day we found out. I think the entire family was pretty shocked as well since we told everyone we wanted to wait a while. Of course everyone is thrilled!

So I do have to admit that I am a bit nervous. Jack is a super active, energetic, wild little boy and the thought of watching after him and taking care of a newborn is a little overwhelming. Yes, I had the same nerves with Jack and everything works itself out just like I am sure it will this time around too. I am definitely concerned about the whole pumping thing. I think this was the biggest challenge with Jack, finding enough time to pump as much as I needed and the timing of it as well. This is definitely going to be a bigger challenge this time around. I know that eventually the routine of it all will set in and all will be fine.

So the way I figured it I'm about 6 weeks now, my first doctors appointment is on the 24th, so they will confirm, but according to a calculator I am due April 4th. So yea Jack will be almost 23 months and definitely will not be out of diapers by then. It will be interesting for sure! The great thing is that this new baby (which according to a chinese prediction chart is going to be a boy) and Jack will be so close in age which will be great as they grow up together.

How I'm feeling.... the nausea started a couple days ago and I'm pretty sure that just like with Jack it will be here for awhile, at least until the end of the first trimester. I'm definitely tired and trying to nap whenever Jack does. Other then that I'm doing good. Will keep you updated!

I read this book with Jack and it was definitely helpful!