A Very Merry Christmas Indeed

We just returned home on Wednesday afternoon after a wonderful week at home with the families. I will write about the whole week in more detail soon. I just wanted to pop in quick and show off my new toy! My mom and dad were too generous this year and with their help (along with lots of unused credit card reward points) I was able to upgrade my used Nikon D40 for a brand new Canon Rebel T3i...oh.my.god. You guys, this camera makes me giddy...and I only had stress dreams about the price tag for two nights! I just can't wait to see what this baby can do.

Merry Christmas to me!

Christmas Card 2011

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Because I love indulging my kid!

In the past few weeks Lily has professed her undying love for holiday lights. She is completely obsessed actually. Wait, is there a word that means more than obsessed? Engrossed? Infatuated? Hmmm.

Every night before bed she begs to be taken outside in her jammies to bask in their warm glow one last time. The first words out of her mouth in the morning are "Christmas. tree. lights?!?!?!?" (all said while nodding her head up and down, vigorously). Subsequently the first thing I do in the morning is no longer let out the dog; it is plug in the tree. 

In an attempt to indulge her obsession I googled "Christmas light displays, MA". After sifting through the results for a few minutes I came across the website for Edaville USA. Edaville is a small amusement park located about an hour south of where we live. The drive time made me apprehensive..what if we got all the way there and she hated it? After asking around and reading reviews, Dingle and I decided it was worth the trip. They have a train that takes you around the whole park for the sole purpose of looking at Christmas lights...I mean, come on! 

Lily loved every minute. It is an outside park and I was worried that she would be cold, but she couldn't have cared less. She loved the lights and the displays. She loved the train ride (and the fried dough Daddy treated us to). She loved the ridiculously fast merry-go-round (mommy and daddy not so much...seriously it was a little scary). She LOVED the flying elephant ride. I think we have a new holiday tradition!

(The auto focus on the camera is acting up, plus it was dark and I was wearing gloves. I realize some of the pictures are out of focus) 

Half Baked (20 weeks)!

20w (maternity cords, maternity top) 

The headaches are a distant memory and these days I am feeling great. I wouldn't say that I have had a second trimester burst of energy, but I also have a toddler...so there you go. For the last week or so baby boy has been hosting his very own dance party every evening between 8 and 11pm. On Tuesday (12/12) Dingle felt his first real kick.

My belly is starting to "get in the way" a little bit and several times in the last two days I have given baby boy a "love tap" with the refrigerator door, oops. Lily is becoming increasingly aware of the belly too. Today out of the blue she started patting my belly and saying "pats for baby"...and then my heart burst and I died from the cuteness. Seriously.

Best First Ever.

" I lub you mommy"

I love you too Coo Coo girl. 

Boy OH BOY was I wrong!

Introducing our baby...BOY! 

Our anatomy scan went perfectly on Wednesday. The baby was asleep for the first few minutes of the scan which gave the tech some great photo opps! Once she woke him up it was a whole other story. Not surprisingly our little guy is a mover and a shaker (I have been feeling him since about 17w) and did not want to cooperate. As will be the case for years to come, her little brother's antics put Lily's patience to the test. Daddy did a great job stuffing her face with cereal bars and keeping her relatively happy for FORTY-FIVE minutes. Somebody get that guy a Klondike!

Once we had confirmation that baby looked good I sheepishly asked if we could find out the gender. I just about fell off the table when the tech said BOY!!! 

TRUTH: I cried happy tears. We are so blessed to be Lily's parents and I just can't even imagine being blessed enough to have one of each.

TRUTH: I am a little sad for Lily that this baby is not another girl, but she will be an amazing big sister regardless. 

TRUTH: The idea of having a boy scares the stuffing out of me!! 

Lily's Christmas List!

Lily is VERY excited for Christmas this year. Okay, she has only a vague idea of what is going on but she is excited. We have been telling her all about Santa and she does an excellent Ho Ho Ho. She LOVES Christmas lights and I can't wait to see what she does when we bring in the tree. 

Several people have asked me what they can get Lily this year for under the tree. If you would like to buy Lily clothes she is currently wearing 18m but would appreciate some 24m clothes for later on this winter. The one thing she does not need is 18m fleece jammies, she has 2 pairs for every day of the week! Her shoe size is 5. 

If what you had in mind is more likely to bring giggles and a smile to her face on Christmas morning, here are a few things I think she would pick out for herself. All of these toys can be bought on amazon.com (click here to see her "wishlist") and I am sure other places like target and toysrus. As of this weekend all of the toys below are on sale on amazon.

Little People Lil' Movers Airplane

Leapfrog shapes and sharing picnic basket

Little People Ice Cream Truck

Leapfrog Fridge Phonics Magnet Set

Little People Wheelies - All About Working Set

Leapfrog Fridge Farm Animal Set

Redbox Ice Cream Play Set 

Color Wonder - Book and Markers

A birdie told me that Santa is bringing her a play kitchen with food and pots and pans! The above are of course just a few things I saw that I think will get a lot of play time. With our luck she will spend most of the day playing with the boxes the toys come in!

(I have NO clue what is up with the formatting of this post, on my end it looks fine. Super annoying) 

Thanksgiving Picture Fail!

I honestly don't know what happened. I took 7 pictures this past week at home. SEVEN. And they're not even that good, ugh! I will do better at Christmas, I promise.

I think it all started on Tuesday when we tried to take a bump picture and Lily wanted NO part of it. Not only did she not want to be in the picture but she wouldn't let me put her down to take the picture either.
 

17w: low rise jeans and (technically) non-maternity shirt

Such a grouch! 

For Thanksgiving dinner Lily ate 30 crackers and exactly 8 peas...

As is tradition we were lucky enough to be treated to two Thanksgiving dinners. (I personally do not like the food but it makes me happy to see other people (Dingle) SO excited to eat!) As an extra bonus we managed to get over to see Jen and family on Friday! My brother and sister were missed but I am so freaking excited for Christmas I may not sleep between now and then. All in all we had a nice trip home and feel so lucky to have so much family that loves us and wants to keep us around :)

Thankful for sure!

This past weekend marked a pretty disgusting first for our little family. For the first time our house was invaded by a stomach bug. By no small miracle I seemed to have dodged this one. I honestly don't know what we would have done if we were all that sick for three days. I will spare you the details (this time) and just say that I was so relieved to be greeted by a happy baby and a happy husband this morning. Not having to do a load of laundry before breakfast is always a good sign.

Now that everyone seems to be on the road to recovery our annual trip to Maine for Thanksgiving is officially on. As I look around my disaster of a house (which I really should be cleaning now) I am trying to remain positive and thankful for all that we have. 

Thanksgiving 2010

What a difference a year makes! 

This has been a both a wonderful and excruciatingly painful year. We have had SO so many wonderful milestones since last Thanksgiving. I am so thankful to have a wonderful husband who works so hard to provide for us so that I can stay home with Lily. I am thankful for a toddler who is happy and healthy and spends her days showering me with kisses and hugs. I am thankful to have another miracle baby on the way and pray that he/she is healthy. As I type this Dingle and I are sitting on the couch with a little muffin in between us. Life is good and we have so much to be thankful for...the messy house can wait. 

Safe travels wherever this week may take you and Happy Thanksgiving! 

At the grocery store...

I went out on Tuesday to run a few errands and Dingle stayed home with Lily. My last stop was the grocery store to pick up a few (dozen) things I had forgotten when I shopped the previous Friday. Pregnancy brain is real people.

(Short aside. Friday was Verteran's Day, which I totally knew before leaving the house but did not stop to think about what that would mean to my errands. I will NEVER go to the grocery store on a school holiday ever again! If I wanted to be at the store with 1.5 million over stressed mothers and their indescribably bratty children, I would shop exclusively at Market Basket on Saturday afternoons.)

Anyway back to my story. So there I am in the checkout line, kid free, and reviling in the fact that I had the whole store to myself with the exception of a few lovely ladies in their 70s. As you can see from my bump watch photos, I have definitely started to show, which makes what happened next that much funnier (or maybe more tragic). The 70 year old lady in front of me, who told me her name was May (cue delightful exchange about month names), was more interested in making chit chat than having her groceries checked out so I had plenty of time to arrange all of my items on the belt before it was my turn. I had the following items:

Hot dogs, bacon, a single tomato, two bananas, lettuce, a deli pickle, rice, 1/2 gallon of whole milk, bread, graham crackers, a frozen pizza, and three bags of M&Ms (buy one get two free!).

Out of the blue the woman behind me in line said loudly, "Those are the groceries of a single gal if I have even seen them!"

Cue startled looks from May and cashier...

I turned so she could see my belly and in sort of a pathetic laugh said, "No, these are the groceries of a very much not single gal with a toddler at home and one on the way who can't remember to buy a dozen of the things she needs on her first trip out to the store."

She put her hand on my arm and said, "Happens to me all the time!" Everyone laughed and we all went on our way. When I got home and laid out what I had bought all I could think was, she had a point...what was I buying?!?!

What's that, I can't hear you over the pounding in my head.

It is no secret that I love being pregnant. I am one of those annoying women who actually glow (I know, eye roll). I love maternity fashion and nothing makes me happier than showing off my bump. Although my pregnancy with Lil was not without its stress, for the most part I really had few symptoms. In fact, in more ways than one, I was super human!

When I was pregnant with Lily I was working full time as a 7th grade science teacher. Teaching, no matter what grade, is dirty work. It is a fact, and I am a scientist so you have to believe me, that everything within a 1 mile radius of any school is covered in a thin film of streptococcus, influenza, and a dash of bacterial conjunctivitis. I was warned repeatedly that pregnancy suppresses a woman's immune system and that I would have to be extra diligent to avoid getting the plague. Anyone want to guess how many times I was sick that year? ZERO. Not so much as a sniffle.

Not only is working at a school mentally and physically demanding but damn, it is loud. Not just regular loud, LOUD loud. Mind numbingly LOUD. Headaches were par for the course and I knew very few staff members who didn't keep some kind of emergency headache remedy in their desk drawer. Anyone care to guess how many headaches I had the school year I was pregnant? NONE. Not a single headache. (My first year teaching I had a headache for 22 consecutive days and was put on three different migraine meds)

All of this brings me to the title of this post, I have a headache. I know I mentioned it the other day, but yowza my head hurts. Every single one of my migraine triggers (being over-tired, bright lights, strong smells, loud noises, dehydration, and riding in the car) seems to equal instantaneous pain, of the eye melting variety. Unfortunately, many of my triggers go hand in hand with having a toddler. Last week I drove Lily in the rain (cue bright headlights and riding in the car) to tot gym, which is literally 5 minutes down the road. Inside the gym, more blinding lights, a gaggle of screaming kiddos, floors that had recently been cleaned, and it was all I could do to drive us home an hour later. This weekend I spend most of Saturday either in bed or on my mom's couch. Last night I went to bed at 9:30 and I am pretty sure there was involuntary crying (something that happens when I get migraines that I really can't explain). Today Dingle was trying to be helpful by cleaning a stain on the living room carpet and I ended up spending 3 hours in bed...just from the smell of the cleaner.

I want nothing more than to enjoy this pregnancy but I am really struggling. I can't take my migraine meds, or ibuprofen. Two Tylenol and a kick of caffeine take the edge off, but they certainly do not get rid of the pain. At this point I am almost at a loss for what to do. Every day I just can't believe I still have a headache...and that they seem to be getting worse is just beyond me.

They can't go on much longer, right...

Because videos of cute kids make people happy!

"Happy Ween!"

Happy Halloween!! 

Thank you for a perfect night, I love you duck baby.