Thanksgiving Week

We started this week with Thanksgiving at Mommom and Pop's house since they were not making the trip with us to South Carolina. Mommom went all out and made the traditional Thanksgiving feast for us all to enjoy. It was delicious but we were sad that we would not be spending the holiday with them and my sister.



This was the first year in over 20 that we have spent outside of our own city. So Tuesday night we packed up the cars and when Dad closed the bar we were off. It was an ok drive Olivia slept almost the whole way only waking when we made 2 stops. Each time we got back in the car she wanted to watch Barney and she did watch each 1 hour movie then it was back to sleep. We hit rain in SC and it rained the whole way to Myrtle Beach. I was happy with it knowing that it was bringing cold weather. Yea, a chilly holiday!!!

We got settled in and headed to my aunt and uncle's to see everyone. We ran some errands, tied up dinner with the caterer for Thursday, and snuck in a little shopping. All in all a very productive and tiring day. After the long ride it was an early night for us.

Thursday we headed back to Aunt Bev's and received an early morning surprise, Aunt Kathy came down!!! Yea, this was the first time that she has met Olivia in person and the 2 got along great. We are very grateful that she came since she had to leave my uncle and cousins home (we missed them all very much). We talked, watched the Macy's Parade, and nibbled on appetizers. Of course Olivia wanted to spend lots of time out back and she did so by taking someone different each time. We ate an early amazing dinner and spent the rest of the time perusing the adds for Black Friday.

Dad and Ben headed home Friday morning so they could open the bar back up. While we headed to breakfast and snuck in some more shopping before we headed back to make our special sugar cake cookies.

It was such a wonderful visit and I am so grateful to our family that we missed at home. We can't wait to go back to visit once little Ben arrives.

We concluded our weekend with a visit to the park on Park Ave. to visit with Catherine (one of my oldest friends who just had her first son 3 months ago). It was a beautiful morning to chat by the fountain and Olivia loved running through the grass and throwing leaves in the fountain. Then we had dinner with Dave, Darla, Vicky, and DJ to make up for Thanksgiving. We had a great time catching up and watching Denver beat the Chargers (sorry Vicky). This past week has been amazing and we are now looking forward to enjoying all of the holiday festivities that are to come.

23 Weeks {Baby #2}

After a wonderful Holiday week (post to come) I started the week with my 23 week check-up. I was concerned that after all my efforts to not gain weight the past 5 weeks, Thanksgiving would ruin. So needless to say I was not excited about the scale.

It was a very routine visit, my favorite nurse set me all up with the paperwork to have the glucose test done next week (oh yea!) and checked my blood pressure. All is well there and then it was scale time, off came as many articles of clothing as I could and still walk into the hall.

YES...I only gained 1 pound!!!! Dr. Peppy said he was very happy with me, kudos to me! After a little pat on the back I got to listen to Little Ben's heart beat a very strong 145 BPM's. What a great way to start out the work week after vacation.



We haven't taken a pic yet this week so here is a little pic of me almost 23 weeks
and a preview of our Christmas card.

 We go back in 4 weeks which is the week before Christmas December 22 and this will be my last 4 week's between after that it's every 2 weeks until 34-35 weeks.

18 Month's

I can't believe that my little Princess is a year and a half old already. Didn't we just celebrate her 1st birthday? Where does the time go?

Olivia headed to the doctor this morning for her 18 month well visit and her vaccination. Always the fun part of our visit. Although it is much harder now because ever since they did her ear piercing she hates going, at least when they call her back. She doesn't mind the waiting room with the toys. It's become quite the fight to get her unclothed, weighed, and measured. She will crawl up whoever is holding her at the time just to get away. Dr. P gave her her very first lollipop for doing so well. He said she is doing great and looks great.

Weight: 18 lbs. 14 ozs. 1%

Height: 29 3/4 inches 7%

(she has grown 2 1/4 inches since her 15 month check up...WOW)

Her vocabulary has continued to grow and it's unbelievable how many words this kid can say. We have been teaching her the difference between the night and day sky and what belongs in each. Now when we leave at night she says 'Moon' and wants to find it. One night while we were leaving Mommom's we heard an owl, and she now has learned what they do. She will 'hoot' if asked. We talk while we are in the car in the morning about the clouds, sun, birds, and trees. I love our talks on the way to Mommom's or running errands.

She has had a love for Barney for quite some time now, but it has gone from love to obsession. We had Nana's car and made the mistake of letting her watch Barney while we were running around one night. Now every time we get in any car she points to the ceiling and says Barney (through out our trip) and we constantly remind her that we don't have Barney in our car. But it is awesome to watch her while she sings along to the songs they sing especially the last one.

Tonight we are heading to Myrtle Beach for Thanksgiving and

I am sure that we will hear her call for Barney on several occasions.

She has always been a Daddy's girl but in the past couple of month's it has become much more apparent. She calls for him all the time and creates much more of a scene if he leaves. It's adorable and we have gotten very creative at distracting her to calm her down. Daddy is defiantly wrapped around her little finger. 



21 Weeks

There is not much going on around here this week. Good news is that so far I have not gained any wait since my last appointment. According to my scale anyway. When I was there last, Dr. P said that I was gaining weight to quickly and needed to make some changes. He thought I would lose weight by the next appointment, we will see what happens. A lot of people think he is harsh since I am eating for 2. But like him I don't want to be a whale giving birth and dealing with all the complications that come with that. So the more healthy route is the way to go. Notice Jamie I said more healthy and not deprivation mode. :)

Little Ben who will go by Benjamin when he gets here (as to be able to learn his name) has gotten much stronger in the last week. I enjoy the time when I can just sit and watch my belly jump when he kicks. Ben saw it for the first time the other day. Not liking his pointy little elbow jabs though they kinda hurt. I am just soaking this in for the next 19 weeks.

Ben and I went Sunday and registered at Babies R Us, again. It was much easier this time then it was with Olivia. We don't need as much stuff and I had already made a list of what we did need. Although it was a lot of fun getting to look at all the little boy things this time. When I checked it at home I noticed a few things that I was unaware of scanning, namely lots of football associated items. Ben got a little happy with the gun.

Hopefully after this next week we will have also scheduled our tour of the hospital, we didn't do it last time and I figured since I have some questions that we would sign up. We are also planning on taking a few classes to refresh us especially on breastfeeding, since it didn't go as planned with Olivia.

When we return from our trip to Myrtle Beach next weekend, I return to the doctor for my 23 week check up. I assume I will get the paper work to have the glucose test at that time. Yea, oh I can not wait to drink that sugar stuff and get blood drawn! Can you sense my sarcasm?

Pearly Whites

Teeth Teeth and more Teeth!

Since late July Olivia has had 5 teeth, 3 on top and 2 on the bottom. We have gone through times where we swore that she was breaking new teeth. Only to discover nothing. Well, Friday night Ben was working at the bar and I stayed at Mommom's for dinner and so she could help give Olivia a bath before I had to pick up Mom from the airport. While we were drying Olivia off and she was screaming I noticed a little pointy thing on the bottom left side of her gums. I thought she was storing dinner for later since we had pasta, but I realized that it was indeed a molar. What? How can that be when she still doesn't have all of her front teeth?

Teeth have their own mind when coming in apparently and don't think they need to follow the order they tell you in the books. Ok minor freak out about missing teeth averted.

Moving on to Saturday night while at dinner at our friends house, while she was having her diaper changed Daddy found yet another molar. This one was on the top right. Let me clarify these teeth are not just peeking through her gums but fully surfaced. This explains why she was up several times a night crying last week, and her longer then normal naps. ( 2 - 2 1/2 hours)! Plus Daddy was able to see that she has 3 more teeth ready to pop through at any time. Those being the front ones.

Thankfully Olivia likes to take care of her teeth and has been brushing them daily for over 6 month's now. Each morning when she sees me getting my tooth brush ready she says, "deet, deet" and we get her tooth brush ready as well. She doesn't need much help either she does a great job, and at the end Daddy just makes sure that she didn't miss any spots.

Happy Halloween 2011

Happy Halloween

We took Olivia to friends of ours house Kelsey and Chas to hang out and eat. Olivia had a great time playing with all the little kids that were there and all dressed up. It was adorable but not the easiest picture to take. By the end of the night she had even made a new little friend, Nemo (Henley).



Half Way There

Monday hit the 20 week mark, which means we are over half way there today. I am getting so excited about welcoming the new little boy into our family. I just wonder how this is going to change our dynamic? What is he going to bring to our life besides an abundant amount of love and joy. I think I may have another daredevil on the way.

This past 2 weeks have been amazing, I have begun to feel the little guy moving and kicking in there. In the past week Ben has been able to feel him too. It's amazing how different he is then Olivia was at this stage. He doesn't move quite as much as she did, she was as much of an acrobat then as she is now.

I have to say that I have been feeling much better then I was in the beginning, much of the nausea has subsided and most of the fatigue has gone with it. But when your pregnant and have an 18 month old your always tired.

Ben and I have made two big accomplishment we have decided on bedding for the little man. Not that it was hard I had it picked out before we knew that Olivia was a girl. The other is that we have picked out furniture and just need to work on getting that ordered as well. Not bad for 20 weeks to go.

Little Bud has some new outfits in his closet and blankets in his basket thanks to Gigi, Papa, Mommom, and Poppy. Of course Mommy and Daddy couldn't help but pick out a few little itmes as well. I also pulled out some of the gender neutral items that I had for Olivia, not as much as I remember but thanks to the formula some items were ruined.So boy's clothes are not as cute as girls but I have been doing my research to find places that have them. He will be adorable no matter what.

Here is a little flashback for you: remember that shopping trip
Aunt Julie and I had just after we found out it was a girl the first time.



F

Sweet November

We have spent our first November weekend just taking in the beautiful weather. I took a PTO day on Friday because one of my oldest BFF's was in town for a short visit. So we took the kids to Sea World and it was so fun. Emma is only 6 month's old but that is good since she could not get jealous of Olivia who just wanted to go to Anna and 'Mom'. We can't wait till you visit again or better yet move back home.

After our fun day at Sea World we dropped off Olivia with Grandpa for her first sleepover with just him. We knew they would have a blast and that he would spoil her rotten. She said she wanted to do it again, because she had so much fun. She stayed with him all day Saturday so that we could run the Coccagna/Morse Family Garage Sale. Which went so much better then I expected, and we still have some stuff left over, enough to have another one the beginning of December.



Sunday we had breakfast with my family at Mimi's and Olivia who had her own little meltdown. But she made it through with only one walk with Papa. We hit the grocery store after that and then it was nap time for Mommy who just didn't feel well at all. We enjoyed our quiet Sunday night at home even though we missed out on visiting with Anna again. Boo.

Thankful

It's November, I know I can't believe another year has almost passed us by. But we still have the last two months to enjoy, the celebration of a year to soak up every minute. It's odd that it takes Holiday's like Thanksgiving and Christmas to make you want to slow down and do all of these holiday things. Yet, it does and we will.

Since it is November, a month to be grateful for what we have and who we have, it has begun to make me think. At this point in my life I have so much to be thankful for. I have a wonderful husband, a beautiful little girl, a son to welcome in to this world, a silly loveable dog, the most amazing family that anyone could ask for, and fantastic friends.

We may not have all the material wealth but when it comes to what matters we have it all. I am soaking in each moment that passes and making the most of each day.