17 Months

Our sweet boy is almost 17 months old, in one short month from today he will be a year and a half old and a BIG BROTHER!  He is growing into such a sweet little boy and we are enjoying every last second of being a family of three before we grow into a family four.  What Braxton is up to:

• He is talking more and more and we love every new word that he learns.  His words include mama ( usually only if he is crying), daddy, eat, juice, ball, thank you, night night, ice (which is a whole other story), apple, uh-oh, shoe, sweep, bubble, hi, yay, woah, go-go (this has two meanings- it is his way of saying he wants to go outside or his way of saying he wants to go somewhere in the car--it depends on where we are) and cookie.  I am sure there are a few more that I am forgetting.  
• He has 16 teeth and wears a size five diaper.  
• He is in mainly 24 month clothes and some 2T clothes.  
• This past weekend he has started telling us when he is ready to eat.  He walks up to me and says "eat" and when I ask if he is hungry he goes straight to his chair.  
• The past three days he has also told me when he has a dirty diaper.  I know he is very young and I do not expect him to be ready to potty train for a very long while but this is a new development so I want to document it.  Sweet boy walks up to me and says "shewy" so I ask him if he is "shewy" and for three days in a row he has been.    
• His appetite has decreased, which they say is normal for this age, but every once in a while he will have a couple of days in a row where he eats like a horse.  (He still prefers fruits and vegetables over meat). 
• He probably weighs 27 lbs now--not sure on this one.  Last time we were at the doctor he weighed 26lb 12 oz.  
• He is pretty particular/habitual about some things.  When I get him up in the morning he sits up and says a few things in his own language, then he looks/listens for the dog (he might bark at the dog a couple of times, haha), then he hands me his blanket and says "night night" (that's what he calls his blanket), and will stand up for me to get him out.  When we are getting ready to leave in the mornings he hands me his cup, his snack bowl, and his "night night" then climbs down off the couch and will head to the laundry room.  Once we get in there he will close the door into the kitchen and go to the door into the garage and say go-go.  We then walk out into the garage and he goes and stands by the door of the car and says go-go.  Once I open the door to the car, I put his snack bowl, cup, and "night night" beside the car seat and get him in.  He then leans over and picks each one of these items up one by one and puts them in his lap.  
• He can pout with the best of them and I have to admit it is so very cute.  He ducks his head down, purses his lips out, and looks up with sad eyes.  He usually then walks over to one of us to give us a hug. Along with the pouting goes fake crying, if you would even call it that, haha.  He is pretty good at fake whining or crying but we do not let it fool us!    
• He has successfully slept in his "toddler bed" for a week now.  We converted it into a toddler bed but still have a bed rail on it for post c-section purposes but he has done SO well.  Not a single escape attempt!  
• He still likes bath time but also loves to take a showers.  
• He is ALL boy!  He loves to be outside and would probably be out there at all times if we would let him.  We are usually outside 1-2 hours every evening.  He loves to swing, ride in his police car, run, do anything that daddy is doing, water the grass (or play in the water), climb in the chairs, draw with side walk chalk, occasionally he will just sit in the chair and rest for a minute, and go on stroller rides.  
• He has turned into my little love bug.  He is all about his momma and loving on me.  I know that he does not understand that we are about to have another baby but I think that he senses something because he has been wanting a lot of cuddles and love lately.  Hubby jokes that he does not like him as much as me so I have to explain to him that their outside activities/fun is their "cuddle" time.
• His tantrums have reduced tremendously!!!!  I am not saying that we are completely out of the woods, haha, but now the only time he might get upset is when we have to come inside or stop doing something that we were--like getting out of the bath or riding the four wheeler and it is usually very short lived.  

We LOVE LOVE LOVE watching him grow, learn, and develop but it sure is bittersweet for this momma.  We were truly blessed when the Lord chose us to be his parents and can't wait to see him transition into a big brother.  

Talkin'

For a while I was really worried about Braxton's speech. When he was nine months old I talked to the doctor because I really did not feel like he was "talking" (making sounds like he should have been) and she told me some things to do, such as, pronounce the words slower making sure to stress every syllable and sound. So, we did that. At his fifteen month appointment I still had the concern because I felt like he was not saying as many "words" as he should have, but the doctor assured me he was right on track, saying between 5-10 words. Between then and now, I have kept in mind that she said he "should" be saying between 10-15 words by eighteen months and by golly he already does! It's hard not to compare your child's abilities to others around their age and shame on me for doing that (lesson learned)! His speech has blossomed recently And every time he says a new word it is like he has taken his first step over again! His words include: mama ( only if he is crying), daddy, eat, juice, ball, thank you, night night, ice (which is a whole other story), apple, uh-oh, shoe, sweep, bubble, yay, woah, and cookie. I really think there are a few more but I am having a little block at the moment.

We are so proud of him and love to watch every little new thing that he does as he continues to develop into a "little man."

I wasn't ready....

But it had to be done. Actually, I don't think any of us were ready and his daddy has great fear that he is going to go over the side, but for post c-section purposes... It had to be done. Brax is and will always be my little baby but tonight we took the front off of his crib and replaced it with a hinged bed rail. One of my greatest worries is caring for Brax post c-section and after hubby goes back to work and the bed was one of my biggest worries. I will not be able to lift Brax out of bed so I had to devise a plan to get him out and this was the only thing I could think of! Luckily, we just put him down and guess what??????? He went right to sleep! No hassles, no escapes. Yes, it's still five weeks away but I wanted to make sure that we got this transition taken care of before the baby comes. Bittersweet indeed.

34 weeks

34 weeks and so much to do! I'll update more later!

Monday Morning

Just some random Monday morning pictures. I have dinner in the crock pot for tonight, which will be accompanied by sweet butternut squash and maybe cream cheese corn. There is a stack of resumes to be mailed just sitting in the counter-- I really need to get by the bank and get some stamps. I made some sweet tea this morning to help satisfy my undying craving for it. AND then there is chocolate cake that hubby slipped in the basket at the grocery store yesterday. Oh did I ever open that up to get a piece this morning then close the kid and walk away empty handed!

Sunday Morning Sweetness

Just Playing With A New App

A Post In Numbers

• 6 weeks from today we will be a family of 4 (if not sooner).
• That's only 42 days away.
• I am 33 weeks 2 days pregnant. 
• 27 days (or less) of work left.
• This also means that Braxton will be 18 months old in 42 days, yes if I deliver on my scheduled day they will be 18 months apart to the day!

A Lil Pick Me Up

So you know the days when your whole body hurts, actually just from your waste down (knees, hips, entire legs) and you have been up since 3am??!?!?!  Oh wait maybe that is just the life of a pregnant lady, haha, kidding!  Anyways, this is all true for me this morning, but these kids (as crazy as they drive me everyday) sure know what to say to lift my spirits.  Here is the conversation:
"Mrs. Carney, I sure don't know where you get such beautiful dresses, where do you find those?"
ME: "Walmart" (I have no shame :)
"Well they sure make you look gorgeous"
I sure got a good snicker out of this. 

I have my doctor's appt today so I will update on how that goes.  I am sure it is just a normal "short" visit, heart beat, weight, protein test, etc. 

33 weeks

33 weeks- only 6 weeks and two days until delivery day!  Oh me, oh my am I ready!  I am still feeling great- even walked the Susan G Komen Race for the Cure 5K on Saturday!  It was a blast-I will have to upload some pictures from that later.  I am back to the tired stage or just physically exhausted.  I try really hard not to give into the exhaustion and just keep moving and most of the time it works!  I have had a couple of nights where I wake up and can not fall back to sleep, most of the time I am hot and just uncomfortable... I think the baby is just trying to prepare me.  I have had a few moments of complete worry lately, worry about silly stuff that I know will all be ok, but it still crosses my mind.  I worry about my anxiety/panic, mainly on the night before and the morning of my scheduled c-section.  This is all part of anxiety and irrational fears/thoughts and I acknowledge that but it still crosses my mind.  Coming from someone who suffers from anxiety, ME, it would be best if I just went into labor one day and did not have the anticipation of waiting for the scheduled day/time, etc... hopefully, wishfully, it will!  I worry about Braxton, how is he going to react? how will things be once we get home? how in the world will I handle being a mom of two after hubby goes back to work?  I know this is silly but I worry about Braxton staying on schedule when we are in the hospital so that he is still on schedule once we get home and we are not having to battle this once we get home.  See these are such silly things but all things that I worry about.  I know it will all fall into place and we will have an excellent support system but ya know... a girls going to worry no matter what!  Other than this, nothing new is going on.  Still enjoying wearing my dresses or my new yoga pants, these things seem to be most comfortable!  I go to the doctor tomorrow and I assume I will have one more two week visit then I will go to weekly visits, which means the end is really really close!!!!!

Easter (yes, I realize this is weeks late!)

Ok, I finally got around to uploading some of the pictures from Easter.  These do not include our big family shindig but I will get those uploaded tonight (for your mom!).  These are just a couple from Easter morning with our little family.  I love getting to fill Brax's basket and he had a blast looking through it all.  We "hid" eggs in the back yard and took him out to find them and he did WONDERFUL!  Well, wonderful until he gets 4 or 5 in his basket then he would dump them over his head.  Anyways, here are some cute pictures!

I found one!

And another one

Oh, carrying this table around is more fun then finding eggs!

Looking through his basket, yes he had marshmellows in his basket-they are one of his favorite snacks

A Bubble Guppies coloring book!!!!! 

A Bunch Of Randomness

• I still have not uploaded our Easter pictures-oops.  I WILL find the time soon!!!
• I have walked the last two nights and my aches and pains have subsided.  Funny how that works.  Last night I think I doubled my calorie burn by taking Brax in the double stroller.  He did so well!
• Date night tomorrow!
• If I didn't think it was a bit early, I would think that Brax was about to cut his two year molars.  Goodness, his drool is out of control!  At his last appointment the doctor said that they had shifted into place, so we will see.  This poor boy has been non-stop teething since THREE months old. 
• 31 more days of work before I start maternity leave/summer vacation. 
• 48 more days until delivery--------unless he/she decides to come early.
• Sending out resumes/cover letters to begin my job search closer to home.  This has been a really hard decision but I need to do this for my family and soon to be "babies." 
• I never knew a $10 dress could bring so many compliments. HAHA.  So since I have slowly grown out of the two pairs of maternity jeans I had (small maternity clothes=one very uncomfortable momma) I resorted to dresses/NO MORE JEANS!  haha.  Ok actually I only bought two new dresses and today is the first time I wore one and one of my students said "Mrs. Carney, I just LOVE when you look so pretty."  Ya, I could have taken it the wrong way, haha, but I am taking that as a compliment today! 
• Enough randomness! 

Is he...

Is he not the cutest?!?!?!? I think so!

Stinkin' Tired and SO much more!

I think the 3rd trimester exhaustion has hit me, hit me like a ton of bricks, or it could be this cold I am trying to kick... either way this momma is tired!  I am pushing through though- 7 weeks and two days until we meet our little one, that is unless he/she decides to come before then.  For some reason I keep having these thoughts that I am not going to make it, but maybe that is just my wishful thinking as I feel every part of my body ache, haha.  I feel like I need the complete 7 weeks to get ready for this little one but I could do without the two exra days, haha.  We are so excited and I can barely stand to think about the moment we meet our little one without crying.  I have to get back into my walking-it's been a week-AHHH- but I have just not felt up to it.  Today I am starting back and plan to walk every night this week, PLUSSSS we have the Susan G. Komen race on Saturday.  Maybe I should leave out the word race because this 8 months pregnant momma is not racing, I will walk and I will walk proudly!

An update on Brax's fits!!!!!  And, yes I did just include 5 exclamation marks because they are getting better.  I know that we are not out of the woods yet and I am sure he will still have fits but the "all the time" tantrums are slowing down.  Even with his little fits every now and then, he is such a sweet, loving, little boy.  On Easter when we had everyone over he kept running up to my legs/lap and just wanted to hug/cuddle.  He definitely has our heart. 

An update on his talking!!!!! Yes, I just included 5 more exclamation marks.  He is learning new words/sounds almost every day.  He now says a-pa (apple), ice (yes, he shares my addiction to eating ice), and eat (which ususally just comes out as the letter "e").  I am so proud of him and we make sure to praise him when he uses or copies words.  When he wants to go outside he stands at the door and says "go-go."  Man he melts my heart. 

This post has been a bunch of mumble jumble and I need to update about Easter but I do not have the pictures on this computer so I will do that soon. 

A Picture Post: A Morning At The Park

Please excuse the two sleeping pictures out of order- still not an expert at blogger on my phone! He had so much fun he was asleep by the time we got home! Side note- one year olds would rather eat the bread rather than feed the ducks haha

Bowling Ball, Basketball, It's all the Same

I didn't feel the need to cradle my stomach in this weeks picture, haha.  No need to "try" to show how big it really is, although now that I look at it my hands are in an awkward place, oops.  I am now 31 weeks and 3-4 days depending on how you count it and 8 weeks from yesterday, unless he/she decides to come early (not counting on it), we will be welcoming this sweet miracle into our family.  Oh how I can not wait!  I think every mother wonders from the time they get pregnant what the baby will look like, act like, etc but this is the "crunch" time for me and this is when I really start wondering what he/she will look like, act like, be like, etc.  I can not wait hold this precious little one!  I still feel great for the most part.  I have been walking my little (big) booty off and really enjoy it.  My sister walks with me a lot and we have a path at my moms house that we walked the other night that was 2.5miles and the path that we walk when we walk by my house is 2.3 miles.  I notice my legs hurting/aching now.  Not during the walks but afterwards or in the mornings but I will not give up walking!  It has really really helped with me mentally/emotionally, hehe.  I made our final shopping list the other day and already got to mark something off of it!!!!!!  Really we do not need that much stuff.  Of course we still need a crib, which hubby seems to not think is a big deal since the baby will sleep in our room at first, but this momma would rather go ahead and get it, I want to get new nipples for the bottles (not sure why I need new ones our other ones are perfectly fine but just something this momma "needs" for her baby), I bought a couple more crib sheets the other day since both babies will still be in cribs, we need a going home outfit, and the rest is just cleaning and getting Brax's baby stuff down from the attic (pack-n-play, bouncer, etc).  It's so close, but yet when I think about it, 8 weeks seems so far away.  I did count how many work days I have left and it's in the 30s!!!! That's all! WOO HOO!!!!  haha... ok enough rambling.  I will update soon with cute pictures of Brax playing in the storms aftermath (water/mud).  

My real life Grocery store adventure

So I told myself that I HAD to go to the grocery store yesterday and not wait until Monday like I did the week before.  There are so many reasons I did this 1) to make sure we had stuff for breakfast and lunch today-taking our breakfast and lunch is one way we stay on budget 2) if I wait until Monday I am more likely not to cook dinner because I will be tired/flustered/so ready to be home by the time I actually walk in the door.  So, I made myself go although there were many reasons I could have used to not go, haha... like the car seat was in my mom's car so I had to take the truck-NOTE: pregnant/(pregnant and being short) and driving a truck is not comfy for me--NOTE #2 loading a one year old who throws fits every time you put them in a car seat in a truck is not easy for a pregnant lady either NOTE #4- it was a little warm for my expanding body and I was in JEANS, jeans that are getting a little snug, just being honest, which makes it even worse. I promise I am not griping and I have retired those jeans as of yesterday, these were honestly all of the reasons that I had come up with on why I should not go to the store,ha!  (NOTE #4- I have not taken Braxton to the store in forever- this is usually my time alone but I had gone to lunch and to hang out with the girls so I thought daddy deserved some alone time too.)  Anywho, I moved the cars and got the truck cooling down, got Braxton in without a fight and headed to the store.

Now if you know me and my shopping habits you would agree that I am pretty OCD about it.  I HAVE to have a list, literally if I do not have a list it makes me crazy--like nervous breakdown crazy.  I went with a list yesterday just like I do every Sunday but the difference was I had a toddler sitting in the cart wanting my pen.  I contemplated putting my list away or just not marking the stuff off as I got it but I promise you, my sick OCD mind just could not bare that thought so I kept hiding it or I would get a couple of things in my mind that were near by and put the list in my back pocket until I placed those items in the cart.  (I am serious, I think that I have a serious list/grocery shopping problem!).  To go along with my list problem, I HAVE to make a menu each week and this is what I make my list from. Ok, so our shopping trip is going good, Brax is screaming/yelling YAY over and over and being really good then I get to the meat section and I could not find any boneless chicken, if I can't find the chicken then I can't make the recipe, which was supposed to be two meals this week, which means my whole menu is messed up and we are left without two days of dinner that I had planned.  AHHHH (I might have been sweating at this point), HA, I found some boneless tenders that will work perfectly, crisis averted, whew.  Now I was on the hunt for a pork loin for our root beer slow cooker pork loin.  They had small ones that were already marinated which wouldn't work so I found the ones that were not marinated and these babies were HUGE.... I mean would have fed everyone on Easter huge.  I stood there trying to justify buying such a large one, trying to think of any solution as Braxton leans out of the cart pulling the sale sign out of the little holder over and over and me trying not to make a big deal out of it and my mind is going crazy, OCD crazy, haha.  What can I think of really fast to replace this recipe becuase I literally could not buy a pork loin that big, I just didn't have it in me.  I know I am a mess, a crazy mess, and all I could think about how will I make it around the store trying to come up with something else to make and I HAD to go put the potatoes back that were going to be a side dish with our pork loin that we obviously were not going to have.  Thank goodness hubby had mentioned beef nachos before I left so I literally ran in circles picking up the stuff for those, but I made it and we were good to go. 

Now, on to the check out line.  A sweet worker helped me unload the cart onto the belt and I was able to get the cart far enough away from the belt because of course Brax wanted to pull everything off of it and was successful at chewing a tab off of my Morning Star burgers, haha.  Anyways, the guy is checking me out and NOBODY was there to bug the groceries.  Side note- I am the one person that does not complain at unusually long waits at doctor's offices or restaurants and if anyone makes an error when checking me out I am very patient and always give the place/person the benefit of the doubt, but there was NOBODY around to bag the groceries.  Brax was sitting on his knees in the cart by now and all I can think about is that things were about to bust loose at any moment and he was going to be DONE with this whole shopping experience so I started bagging my groceries while trying to keep one hang on him so that he did not topple out of the cart, mommy's are so talented, haha.  I was a bit aggravated and I have to be honest my benefit of the doubt did was not holding up very well at this point but hey we lived and all of my groceries made it out of the store.  haha.  We got to the car and Braxton was very intrigued with the milk and he did not want to let go of it so I had a choice, the choice to fight or the choice to let him carry the milk in his lap.... haha... he won.