The Nursery and Timmy's Big Boy Room!

Tim painted the nursery a few weeks ago and Timmy's room shortly after. We took our time getting some much needed accessories, and even though a few things still need to be hung up (okay, well I have to finish making them first...) in each room, I couldn't resist photographing and sharing the rooms any longer! I knew I wanted cutesy, baby jungle animals for the nursery theme this time around, and Tim leaned heavily towards monkey's. When we settled on this adorable bedding, the rest of the room came together easily! I am making a cross stitch for this baby like I did for Timmy (don't worry, it will probably get it's own post when it's complete!) I hope to have it finished up in the next week, and can't wait to get it framed and hung up over the changing table! I'm also repurposing a shelf that was in Timmy's nursery, and hope to have it finished soon too. Most of all, I can't wait to meet our little monkey next month! Timmy immediately loved the nursery, I mentioned before how he helped Tim with the sanding and other things. He still walks in and says, "Wow!" So I was really anxious to get his room done shortly after the nursery, I wanted him to feel like his room was special and new too! We were all in his room when Tim started peeling off the Winnie the Pooh wall paper border, and Timmy actually tried to stop him, "No Dad, that's mine!" But we explained to him that we were going to put up new things in his room and he was okay with it, and he loves the end result! Timmy's Big Boy Room is Disney Themed. His current favorites are Toy Story and Cars and he loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse too, so we incorporated all of them and a few others. When Tim and I couldn't decide which themed wall paper border we wanted, we showed Timmy the pictures and let him pick! :) This is actually how we settled between our top two choices for the baby's name as well! Haha! Anyways, Winnie the Pooh remains in the artwork between the windows and in the crossstich I made while I was pregnant with him. The large Pinochio painting was purchased for Timmy on our cruise last year, we were missing him so much and it reminded us of him, so we splurged! If it weren't for our Peter Max painting, Timmy would have the only real art in the house! I think Tim's gone a little crazy with the fathead stickers already, but he's angling towards adding one more! My hope for this room is that it can keep growing with Timmy, that we can change out pieces and parts with new favorites, I figure chances are good that something Disney puts out will continue to entertain him for years to come!

Sixth Anniversary

Last weekend Tim and I celebrated our Sixth Anniversary. For our Anniversary Gifts we typically go with the traditional or modern gifts for that year. This year, however, I had my heart set ona fancy new scrapbooking tool, and Tim spoiled me by getting it for me. I made sure to stick to the 6th year gifts, and got him a Wrought Iron 'J' for the traditional gift and chocolate covered strawberries to serve as the candy for the modern gift.

Tim always goes out of his way to plan something special for us, and this year was no exception, even though the planning was a bit more last minute then usual! With baby's arrival only 7 weeks away we wanted to keep our costs down, so we decided to finally use a $200 gift card that I received a year and a half ago, from my bosses for my birthday, to a French Restaurant called L'Auberge Chez Francois that I've been hearing about for years. Our reservations weren't until 8:45 so we had the whole day to play with Timmy first.

We were out the door by 10 am and on our way to DC, via Timmy's first Metro ride. When Tim told him that he was going to get to ride a train, he started saying, "Hurray! We're going to see Thomas, and Percy, and Hiro!" so I quickly told him that we were going to see Thomas's friend, Mr. Metro. :) He was very excited the whole way there and we walked right onto a train at the station and I put him on his own seat. He sat happily looking out the window for a few minutes, but then something made him nervous and he started tearing up and said, "I don't want to go on the train, I want to go home!" The doors shut at just that moment and we were off, and he was fine. :)

Our first stop in DC was at a Crepe place for an early lunch. Timmy wasn't interested in either of our brunch crepes, but we all loved the Nutella and Banana one we shared for dessert! Our food for the day was French themed and kept reminding me of our Second Anniversary, which we spent in Paris and was when we decided we were ready to start our family, so it made me very happy.

From there we were back on the Metro for a few stops to the National Mall and the Air and Space Museum. Walking to the museum, we passed the carousel and Timmy asked to ride it. He is usually hesitant about even kiddie rides, even the kind at Chuck E Cheese. But, he had ridden the carousel at a local mall with his Grammy, and he asked several times as we were walking up so I went on it with him. He was very happy to sit on the horse and even had me get on the horse next to him, but as soon as the ride started he wanted off! It did go surprisingly fast... I managed to climb off my horse and just put my arm around him and he was okay. He liked smiling and waving to Dad every time we came around the turn, but then he would get nervous again until it was time to wave again! He's too funny.

When you first walk into the museum you are greeted by a huge room with several enormous rockets displayed all around. Timmy's reaction of awe was fitting. The best part of the whole museum is right at the front door too, it's a piece of the moon that you can touch, and we got Timmy on video saying "I'm touching the moon, Dad!" We spent a few hours wandering around the museum, and stopped for a children's story time and coloring activity, and bought Timmy a small plane at the shop on our way out. Timmy was very excited for a popcorn snack by the carousel on the way back, and for another ride on the Metro.

We dropped Timmy off at Grammy's house and treated ourselves to seeing a movie, in the theater, that wasn't rated G! We saw The Adjustment Bureau which was very good! Afterwards we still had over an hour before we needed to leave for the restaurant, so I introduced Tim to Cold Stone Ice Cream and we stopped by my parents house.

Dinner deserves it's own post, but I will just write about it here. ;) The food was incredible and the courses seemed never-ending. First they brought out garlic bread and bread with some kind of cheese spread while we looked at the menu. After ordering, they brought out a little quiche for each of us while our appetizers were prepared. Next, I had an outstanding Lobster Bisque and Tim had Duck Foie Gras and Brioche. Then there was the salad course, my cesar had a quail egg and crisscrossed sardines on top! Next was a little Sorbet to cleanse our palates! For our main courses we each had seafood that was just prepared perfectly. You'd think we were about done at that point, but they brought us a dessert "on the house" for our Anniversary, before bringing us our desserts!!! The extra dessert was ice cream with meringue (I think that's what it was anyways, it was like crunchy cotton candy and air!) on the sides. Neither of us had ever had anything like it. For our real desserts I had a Chocolate souffle and Tim had Creme Brulee. With our bill they brought us four gourmet cookies. I had to lay the car seat down on the way home to be able to breathe!

I enjoyed having our Anniversary so close to baby's due date, I am feeling very content these days, and it was nice to have a special day to celebrate with our family as it is, before we greet our newest member!

Talented

I will let the talent that is so obvious in this video speak for itself. ;)

Pregnancy

I never wrote about my pregnancy with Timmy, and haven't yet written much about this one either. I might be setting a bad precedent for this poor baby by comparing him to his big brother already, but I wanted to mention a few things now, before both pregnancies blur together in my memory! I have been very fortunate with both of these pregnancies, I only have common complaints, no major problems or severe symptoms to worry about.

Of course the complaint that all women start with is 'morning' sickness. When I was pregnant with Timmy my friend asked me what morning sickness feels like and I think I came up with the perfect comparison: morning sickness feels like being hungover for 6(+) straight weeks! With Timmy I only actually threw up a handful of times, typically in the morning, but I felt like hell all of the time for about 6 weeks. The more active I was, the worse the queasiness was, oyster crackers became my lifesavers. I threw up a couple times at work, but apparently no one noticed. Tim and I have kept to the "don't tell anyone until you're 3 months pregnant" rule pretty well, and that made morning sickness worse for me, because I couldn't really talk about it without explaining why I was sick for so long! This time around I didn't actually throw up a single time, but the constant nausea lasted for closer to 10 weeks!!! It was really rough!

My next major symptom would have to be exhaustion! With Timmy, during my first and third trimesters I went to bed between 7:30 and 9:00 every single night I think! I could not get enough sleep. I went to visit my Grandma in Ohio during my first trimester and while I was at her house I slept for at least 12 hours a night! This time around I do not have that luxury. My first trimester I napped with Timmy on Saturday and Sunday every weekend, and I went to bed when he did, but that's between 9 and 10! Now that I'm in my third trimester I am probably averaging half a Timmy nap per weekend. ;)

Strange Pregnancy Cravings? Not really. With Timmy I drank a whooooole lot of slurpee's and I had a whole lot of ice cream. (To be fair, we were opening an ice cream store at the time, so I might not be able to blame that part on the pregnancy!) I've come up with a slightly better solution this pregnancy, I'm drinking almost-frozen Gatorade instead. Mid-morning at work I put one in the freezer, and mid afternoon it's perfect! I figure I'm cutting out some of the sugar this way at least! With both of these pregnancies I have had EXTREME aversions though! My entire first pregnancy I had a garlic aversion. I couldn't even stand the smell of it, and I am a garlic lover. You'd be surprised the number of meals that contain garlic in them too! When I did accidentally eat something that turned out to have garlic in it, it would taste awful, and I would taste it for the rest of the day, even with constant gum chewing, mint eating, and teeth brushing. I remember one Saturday evening in particular that Tim was preparing chili for the next day's Redskin game. After I went to bed he added a bunch of spices, including garlic, to the slow cooker. When I woke up to pee in the middle of the night, and opened our bedroom door, the smell of garlic coming up the stairs almost knocked me out. I felt like I was literally swimming in garlic, it was unreal. I almost left the house in the middle of the night for my parents', but I managed to fall back to sleep after opening our window and putting the fan in it! This pregnancy my garlic aversion wasn't as bad, but I had the same reaction to onions this time around. Garlic still smelled good to me though, and even tasted okay, but the taste would stay with me all day like before. Luckily it only lasted a little ways into the second trimester this time!

Peeing. Baby Boy Jones #2 must be using my bladder for his pillow. As soon as I hit my second trimester I had a strange phenomena start happening: every time I stand up, I have to go pee. It does not matter if I just sat down for a moment, when I stand back up, I have to go pee. This is surprisingly more annoying then one might think. Literally EVERY time I stand up! That means every time I get out of the car, every time I stand up at work to get something off the printer, every time I get off the couch to do something with Timmy, the first thing I have to do is go pee! I'm pretty sure it's eating hours out of my day! With Timmy I started needing to pee frequently towards the very end of my pregnancy when he was taking up all the room in my body. I'm scared to see what happens in the next few weeks when this baby is full size!

Also at the very end of my pregnancy with Timmy, my hands and feet started retaining water. If I tried to vacuum the whole house in one morning, my feet would swell considerably and I would have to sit with my feet up for the rest of the day so they would return down to their 'normal' size! I have not had that start this time around, so we'll see.

A week before Timmy was born I had my regular doctor visit and my blood pressure had suddenly spiked after being perfectly consistent throughout my pregnancy. The doctor told me I was officially on bed rest and to go straight home from my appointment. I have to say that was a lovely week of relaxing and sleeping on the couch. But I do hope that I can work right up to the day before Baby Boy #2 is born so I can have my full leave time at home with both of my boys after he comes! With the scheduled C-Section this time around, he'll be born a full week before his due date, so hopefully that will negate the week of high blood pressure I had before.

Now... I do need to say that I certainly do not hate being pregnant. I realize this is a lengthy post about my complaints, but the joys are much easier to remember, and I really had to think about the details from my first pregnancy to write this.

My absolute favorite part of being pregnant is feeling the baby move around! Timmy was never overly active. Tim only felt him move a handful of times too, because most of his movements were during the work day. When he did move though it was so strong I was always sure it was a kick. Baby Boy #2's first movements were ridiculously strong! I was regularly surprised that they were not painful for me because of the force! Those only lasted a little while though, I kept telling Tim that the baby was "rolling around like crazy" and once he convinced me that the baby was not rolling, I decided that he must just be stretching. I'll feel little butterfly movements going across my belly several times a day. I think Tim has only felt this baby move a few times, but we have watched my belly moving around a few evenings. :) When I have doctor appointments and they put the microphone to my belly to hear his heart beat, he always kicks back exactly where the microphone is touching. One woman told me that she frequently has the baby push back, but that she has never experienced that force or the perfect aim like with this baby!

The other favorite part of pregnancy is seeing the sonograms. It certainly makes the baby more 'real' and I can start to imagine what the baby will be like and picturing my life once they come out! Every time I see a sonogram I tear up with excitement!

Timmy

Baby Boy #2

Timmy has spent a little time playing with my belly. We've encouraged him to talk to the baby and give my belly kisses, but he's not interested. I had my mom bring him to my last doctor's appointment, and he heard the heartbeat and watched the doctor feel my belly, and that made him a lot more interested. When he told Tim about the visit he said "That baby is soooo noisy!" and he started rubbing my belly more, we tell him he's massaging the baby. I did make the mistake of looking in the mirror one evening and telling Timmy, "Look how big mommy's belly is!" and now he keeps telling me, "Mom your belly is SO big!" This apparently is not really true though. Even now, 7.5 weeks before I'm having the baby, I have to tell people that I'm pregnant (even my General Practitioner!) and then they don't believe how far along I am. The doctor has said that everything is measuring just fine, so I guess my body type just hides it well, and this baby is leaning into me more then out!

I didn't expect this to be such a novel but I'm glad to have it all written down so I'll always remember! If you've read all the way through, I'll reward you with a Belly Picture from the very end of my pregnancy with Timmy and one from now, this is actually the first I've taken since I'm just not showing that much!

12 Days Before Timmy's Birth

7.5 Weeks Before Baby #2

(Okay, this is pretty clearly pregnant...)

Here's a less obvious shirt, from the front, the next day!

Valentine's Day

For Valentine's Day this year Tim, Timmy, and I all went to dinner at a brand new seafood restaurant in our neighborhood before going home to open about 20 cards and our gifts to each other. Timmy has been making a lot of art at school and I've been struggling with what I should do with it after it's season is over and I take it off the fridge. I settled on getting him a little artist's portfolio, and I gave it to him for his Valentine. He was more excited about it then I could have hoped. I had him open it next to Dad, who hadn't seen it yet either, and they flipped through every page and Timmy told us about the media, whether it was paint or markers, etc, and what some of the subject matter was. When they got to the last picture he said, "I read the book again?" The next day he showed it off to Baba and Grandpa repeatedly too. These are some of my favorite pictures we've gotten of him in a while too!

Then, for dessert we had a little semi-homemade treat I made from a parenting magazine recipe I saw, they were a big hit!

32 Months!

I noticed that sometime over the fall my blog lost it's monthly entry +special events format, and I realize that will probalby be a permanent change once I have two little boys to write about, but I'm going to try to get back to it while I can! On his 'birthday' this month we stopped by Grammy's house and she gave him a bunch of Thomas DVDs, so as soon as we got home he asked, "I watch a moooie please?" So we set him up with the laptop, and he found a very comfortable way to watch!

Timmy keeps looking and acting older and older seemingly every day now! We got him a much needed haircut last weekend and it made him look so much older too! Timmy has bounced back and forth in recent evenings asking for us to play with him on the floor and playing beautifully by himself. I love listening to him when he plays by himself! He typically plays with his Disney cars, which are about matchbox car size, but all characters from the movie. They talk to each other by name and are just as polite as Timmy, using 'please' and 'thank you' all the time, and even an occasional 'you're welcome'! He's starting to evolve from just smashing into each other to setting up races or having Sherrif chase everyone, telling them to slow down. I also notice him using places from tv shows we've watched. Recently, every car he had was in a race to climb a mound of blankets he named "Mistletoe Mountain" which is the name of the mountain on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. The last time I saw him playing with his Thomas and Friends trains in my mom's basement, he was almost reinacting a scene we had recently watched on that show. Percy had a very, very long train, and stopped at the bottom of their Mistletoe Mountain and said "beep, beep, Toby, can you help me please?" and then Toby pulled up behind Percy and helped him push the load up the mountain.

Timmy just helped Tim with the painting of the new nursery. Every time Tim went in there and shut the door, Timmy was right behind him knocking on the door asking, "You need help, Dad?" He put a sanding block to good use and used his toy hammer when it was time to nail in the trim, and he did a lot of the clean-up help. When he saw the final product his response was "Wow..." and that continued for a few days whenever we went in to change his diaper. "Wow... Dad do that, and Timmy do that too!" It was so cute to see him wanting to help and I like seeing him be pleased with his work as well!

Recently

Recently Timmy has learned a lot of new words. But there is a difference in these new words. We are not sitting and teaching him these words to help him name things so we know what he wants anymore: "Mom, Dad, Ball, Milk, Chocolate Milk." He is learning these words from outside sources, so they catch me completely by surprise. It's incredible.

On Monday I had lunch with Mom and Timmy right after preschool. Timmy was tired and hungry and generally whiny. He was going back and forth between cuddling up under my arm and throwing his crayons on the floor. One throw, he hit his hand on the table and because he was so tired it made him burst into tears. He told me, "Mooom, I'm soooooo saaaaaaaaaad!" I had heard this phrase from him before, when turning off his good night show to tuck him in, or some other obviously upseting situation... but just moments later the waiter put Timmy's Macaroni and Cheese infront of him. Timmy smiled and lit up and said, "Mom, I'm happy again!" and started eating! He's been telling us that different activities (Playing with Playdoh, going to Chuck E Cheese, going to Baba's, even taking a shower) are "so much fun!" for months, but this was the first time I heard him describe himself as happy. It made me very happy to see how easily his little world shifts back to happy after being sooooo saaaaaad too. :)

Another new word that I'm not in love with is "nothing" he is adorable when he says it, he shrugs his shoulders up and wrinkles his nose and smiles and says "uhm, nufing" but it gets him out of trying to explain again when I don't understand him telling me something the first time, and he's already telling me he's doing "nufing" at school!

Another cute new word is "Alwiiiiiiight." He says it in a cute but begrudging tone even when it's in response to doing something that he actually wants to do. "Timmy, let's play cars!" "Alwiiiiiiiiiiiight...." Tim particularly likes how he says sorry, and sometimes asks him to say "Sowwee Da" before doing something, just to hear him say it! Timmy is so silly with the word sorry. He will say it for almost no reason at all, unless he's actually done something that needs an apology! For instance I asked him if he knew where the remote was and he told me, "No, sowwwwwee Mom." Sometimes he'll even add, "It was an accident" to these uneeded appologies. "It was an accident" is also used to describe things that happen that he clearly did on purpose, but knew he shouldn't have. And getting him to say sowwee for something like that usually takes a little timeout!

We recently discovered that Timmy has a bunch of his favorite books memorized too. Tim was reading him Personal Penguin while tucking him in one night, and paused to cough, and Timmy finished the rest of the words from that page! When we tested it, we realized he knew every word in the book! Same for several other Boyton books and a few Curiuos George stories too. I have also found exactly one children's cd that doesn't drive me insane so far, so when Tmmy requests to hear "his songs" we listen to the same thing over and over again. During our commute home yesterday he asked for his music, but instead I turned the radio off and asked him to sing with me and what song we should sing. He literally asked me for song after song from the same order as the CD!

Speaking of our commute, Timmy now has a complete understanding of rush hour. Driving home last night he told me, "We go home, the lights are green and red, and we go fast and go slow and go fast and go slow" I couldn't believe it. I am glad that he has started to grasp this though, because for a few weeks he would beg me when we were in stand-still traffic, "Go fast Mom, please, please, please, please" repeatedly.