Just the Two of Us

Well tomorrow is finally the day and it can't come soon enough. The hubby, Braedan and I will welcome our little girl into the family and a part of me still can't believe the day is actually here. We've done all this preparation and even anticipated an early arrival but as one of my cousins put it, she is just showing up fashionably late. I know I've had the past nine months to prepare for her to join us, and when I say I can't believe the day is here, part of my perplexity is just due to the fact that I can't believe the hubby and I have this wonderful, blessed and growing family. For so long, eight years to be exact, it was just the two us and even as we entered our 30s and welcomed Braedan I still saw us as the young 20 somethings who may or may not seem like they knew what they were doing, and for myself at least, still wondering if we were prepared enough to be parents and bring a little person into the world. I mean many of you know the hubby and his sense of humor. Even though we're approaching our mid-30s he still says things like "When are you gonna drop it like it's hot," his version of "When do you think you'll have the baby," or referring to my ongoing struggle with the discomfort of this pregnancy as, "I don't remember you breakin' down like this the last time." But that's what has made this ride into parenthood so fun, because of him. I'm so glad we have each other to share in this adventure.

I mean just look at the guy's grin, he never smiles that big for a picture unless he's
up to something but that's what makes him fun.

And just as he and I were just the two of us for so long, I grew accustomed and savored every moment of Braedan and I being "just the two us." For the last three years, it's been just Braedan and me, and we both have had so much fun. My sweet boy has taken me on one of the best rides, that of a mother and son relationship and with his sister now arriving I wait with wonder and awe as I prepare for the mother, daughter relationship. Today we went on a small date for frozen yogurt and as we sat there it made me smile thinking of how he will now move into a new kind of "two of us," which is that of big brother and little sister.

We head out early in the morning so that I can be induced, and I wanted to thank all of our friends and family, near and far, for your prayers and well wishes. You have all made the preparation for her arrival that much more exciting and we can't wait for all of you to finally meet her.

Crossing Over to the Crafty Side

Well it's happened, I have officially become crafty. I know my title says it all, and before you let the excitement overwhelm you, don't imagine Martha Stewart-esque type work. The things I've made are baby steps compared to what others might do, but for me this is a huge deal. About a year ago, an inkling of this newfound, creative energy began to slowly creep in as I watched a friend paint a stool for her daughter to use as an aid for hand washing at the sink. I saw her work and suddenly remembered I'm qualified and fully able to do that; as any fellow sorority girl knows you gain the skill of craft painting during your college career what with all the letters, paddles, frames and stools you must paint. It's too bad that I could never list that as as skill on my resume, because I spent so much time doing it during college I think I should have gotten some sort of credit out of it.

So as I mentioned this made me feel fully qualified. to paint a little stool for Braedan, and I went with a sports theme only because all I needed to do was paint a few sports balls. And not to sound too full of myself, but it actually came out ok. Then again, how hard is it to paint a few circles, hence why I went with sports. Around that same time was Braedan's 2nd birthday, and I went ahead and made his birthday invites. It was very simple just because I don't have any graphic programs loaded on my computer AND I don't own a cricut. If you have no idea what that is don't worry, I didn't either. I just learned what it is a year ago, and I have to admit not having one made me feel a wee bit inadequate as a mom. Forget the perpetual "concerns list" that may run through your mind throughout the day regarding your child: 1.) Did he eat enough at breakfast? 2.) What did he touch at the library? 3.) Was anyone coughing or with a runny nose? 4.) What am I going to feed him at dinner tonight? No, when I learned about the cricut I thought, "Eek, I never made him cute onesies using a cricut to celebrate his monthly milestones. I didn't make any cute decorations for his 1st birthday."  But alas, I am making up for lost craft time, and I have Pintrest and the impending arrival of my baby girl to thank for crossing over to the crafty side of motherhood.

It took me a while to get into the whole board and pinning action of Pintrest, but now that I've gotten the hang of it I cannot stop. From what I hear from others, that part of it is perfectly normal along with actually keeping up and doing all of the projects/ideas you have pinned. (Another area I was feeling inadequate.) Needless to say my dabbling in the stool project turned into a full-fledged painting marathon of the decorative pieces for our baby girl's room. And when I say marathon, I'm not exaggerating because it seems like it's taking me forever to finish. I learned other wild side effects of Pintrest are the number of simultaneous projects you have going on and your frequent visits to Michael's or Hobby Lobby to gather supplies for these numerous projects. I make a stop at one of these places at least every other week, or I try to limit it to every other week. It's funny how times have changed, because before kids while living in Chicago I developed a shopping addiction, specifically to clothes and boots, due to the fact that I worked downtown and was within walking distance of it's shopping mecca. I couldn't help dropping into a store during my lunch hour and if I purchased something here or there, I would unsuccessfully try to hide it from the hubby to keep him from knowing that I had yet again gone shopping. But there was no fooling him. I swear it was like he had a mental library of my clothes because every time I wore something new, he knew it and asked the inevitable question, "Is that new?"

This time around though I don't feel too guilty about my craft purchases because of all the coupons I literally have on hand due to my IPhone apps. That thing is a godsend, I don't know what we ever did before. But as I mentioned earlier, this crossover is a huge deal for me and if I can do it, you can too. All you need is a little PINspiration.

My first craft project, as I mentioned very simple.

As many of you know, we're keeping the name a surprise so had to cover up the first canvas.

And don't ask me where this idea came from because Pintrest didn't help here. It just came to me one day. All we need now is for her to get here to fill in the other picture frame.

Only Time Will Tell

We are getting down to the wire, only a couple of more weeks to go and it's both exciting and strange to know that very soon we will no longer be three. Braedan was a week early, but I have heard time and time again that everything you experienced with the first will be the exact opposite for the next one. So much for feeling like I might be a little ahead of the game this time around in knowing what to expect. But if this is to be true then maybe she might feel like coming on her due date which would put her right on time, and if that's the case then that is the first indicator that she will take after me. When I'm on my time, which is rare, it's a feat but I think, hey I made it at the scheduled time. According to the hubby if you're on time you're late, so we shall see. The doctor did say if there is no change by 39 weeks then we can induce. Keep up us in your thoughts and we will keep you posted. Love the three of us...for now.

Too Fast, Too Soon

Since about the last three months of my pregnancy Braedan has shown signs here and there that he is growing way too fast, too soon and it's all taken place in little things he says and does. For example, he sneezed the other day and I wasn't fast enough in telling him, "Bless you," so before he gave me a chance to say it he blurted out, "You forgot to tell me bless you." On a different day he outsmarted the hubby during one of their trips to the mailbox. Braedan loves to ride his bike there and on that particular day, the hubby didn't want to go through the process of opening the garage and getting his bike out so he tried to talk Braedan into just walking there. Braedan took the time to listen to his request but at the end of it he pointed out to daddy that, "But I be faster on my bike." The hubby couldn't argue with that so there he was forced to take out his bike.

Another sign occurred on the first day he began school with the same Mother's Day Out Program he participated in last year. The morning of I wanted to take a picture of him at the house, and he refused to oblige to my repeated requests. Like any preschooler, he has learned to become a lot more independent and let us know what he likes or doesn't like so there I was settling to take my picture while he sat in the car, but thankfully poopy pants was in a happy mood after school and let me get a full length picture of him then.


Before...
 

and after

But the best, and most significant, sign of his growth was never more obvious to me than this past weekend. Last Friday he and I took a trip to Build-a-Bear to pick out a special bear to give to baby sister when she gets here. I thought this to be a perfect gift for her from him, because Braedan has a special bear of his own who he must sleep with every night. On our way to the mall, I was a little worried that once we started the build-a-bear process, he would see the fun and appeal of it all and might begin asking for a bear of his own, but from the moment it started the thought never even crossed his mind. It was so sweet to watch him and he explained to the employee that this bear was for his baby sister. He enjoyed choosing the bear and prepping her for baby sister.

Here he is giving the heart some love before they place it in bear.
 

A little bath time

 

Dressing her

 

Here he is all set to show sister her new bear. I cannot wait for him to meet her, and that definitely cannot come soon enough.







Don't Blink or You'll Miss It

A couple of weeks ago while in the shower, which happens to be the one place where I get some alone time and do my best thinking for the day, you know the typical mom stuff: What will we have for dinner tonight? I need to add grapes to the grocery list? What am I going to wear today. Well during that particular morning while running through my scattered thoughts list, I realized that September was almost over. On top of that it felt as though I had blinked and pretty much missed August. If it wasn't for looking back and reflecting on the numerous good times we had that month, I would just continue on thinking that August was just another blurred moment until the baby arrives.

But August started out with another episode of "Parents Gone Wild" as we both celebrated and mourned the move of our dear friends and neighbors, the Jensens. Like us, the Jensens have moved around a bit with the ultimate goal of getting back to San Antonio, and during the summer they finally received their wish much to our and other friends dismay. I think other mutual friends of the Jensens can agree with me when I say they have been our go to source for a good time. So it was only appropriate that they continue their streak, and leave us with the ultimate of good-byes by coordinating a fun-filled weekend which included drinks, dancing and a dinner party.

 

It's been a full month since they moved and LWOJ, or Life Without the Jensens, has been an adjustment, but we are surviving. Even Braedan understood the impact of their move and has significantly cut down his questions on whether his good buddies Ethan and Carter would be at certain play dates. When I tell him that they unfortunately won't be there and remind him they now live in San Antonio, he immediately tells me, "I go to San Antonio to visit them," and I make sure to let him know they will be reunited again. I love that I can tell him they are the first friends he ever made here in Corpus.

 

 

During that following week I celebrated my birthday, and it was a typical, quiet day, which has become the norm now that we have a family. And living up to my pregnant lady role, my dinner request for that evening was a nice, big bacon cheeseburger grilled by the hubby. He fulfilled my other pregnant lady cravings by bringing home cupcakes, and the icing on the cake to it all (no pun intended) was having Braedan sing "Happy Birthday" to me. During his serenade he made sure to put himself as close as possible to the cupcake.

The weekend after that I decided to make a trip to San Antonio making it the last time I would drive up there until the baby comes. I kept going back and forth on the timing of this trip causing a frenzy of planning for my sister because unbeknownst to me, she was secretly working on a surprise baby shower. Even with my typical, and not to mention annoying, habit of indecisiveness she still managed to pull it off. She got my whole family to be there and even a few of my closest girlfriends from college. I do not know what I did in my previous life to have been blessed with such a thoughtful, giving and helpful sister. She truly is the best, because like I said she pulled it all together within a matter of days since I kept changing my mind. She managed to get everyone there on short notice, make party favors, coordinate with family to help with decorations and other favors, bake my cake, and on top of that, pretty much watched Braedan the entire shower because as usual he did not want to be more than two feet away from her.

 When the baker she was trying to order from couldn't fulfill the request, she said no problem I'll just bake the cake.

 Our family

 My sweet girlfriends who always make time to visit despite their busy schedules.

 And Braedan enjoying his favorite part of the shower.

By the length of this post, August looks pretty busy, but I still haven't finished. So as they say, to be continued...

Part II

As promised, we continue on with Part II of August and the remainder of our San Antonio trip. While we were in town, we made another visit to Sea World and took advantage of other attractions we haven't seen too much of during our previous stops. We fed the dolphins (which I didn't get a picture of because I had my hands full with lifting him up to the pool to actually see and feed them), caught a show with Elmo and the Sesame Street gang, splashed around in Elmo's Bay of Play and saw a special night time performance of Shamu.


     

Having fun at the water table.

Patiently waiting to see the Sesame Street gang.

Braedan's second cousin Ariel who loves all the characters  and who
actually started crying when we left Cookie Monster.

After all the Sea World fun, we visited with my grandmother and Braedan always does his best to get her movin' and a shakin'. Needless to say this gives her a good laugh, and it's sweet to watch him try and give her a pep in her step. Here he is showering her with his hugs.

And when the end of August finally rolled around, I received another chance to celebrate our baby girl, this time with friends here in Corpus. My friends Allison and Emily quickly put together a shower all before Allison was set to make her big move to San Antonio. They did such a great job with it all, and it was a fun excuse to have a child-free dinner with the gals where we could gab, laugh and, the best part, finish a meal with no interruptions AND before it got cold.

Here I am with the shower hosts. Emily, on the right, was my co-teacher last year.



Since I know my friend Emily doesn't toot her own horn when it comes to her crafting ability, I will do it for her. She made the cute table toppers below and is always coming up with something fun and creative.



As I've frequently mentioned before, there's nothing I enjoy doing more than having a good meal,
especially when I get to do it with friends, and I only wish I could have had a glass of wine to go with it. 

 



So there is August in a not so small nutshell. I told you I needed two posts just to keep you from saying, "When will it end?" In fact, looking back on it now, I wish it didn't have to end so quickly. 

Meanwhile, Back in June...

I know I'm jumping around on the timeline of events here, and please excuse the disarray of it all. (If you only knew what goes in my head, you'd wonder how I even get things done sometimes. I have learned this is a side effect of becoming a mom, among other things, which I should blog about later but again there goes the off subject tangent and disorderly nature of my thoughts.) Anyhow, I'm jumping back to June to share the fun activities we enjoyed at the beginning of summer.

If you visit or live in San Antonio and are under the age of 12, I think summer just wouldn't be a summer if you didn't make a stop at Sea World to visit Shamu. So during that second week of June that's just we did. We got there as soon as the park opened, caught all the shows and even had some time to hang around Elmo's Bay of Play. You would think with all that running around to see every sea animal, coupled with the summer heat, Braedan would have been exhausted and fallen asleep at some point toward the end of our visit. But that wasn't the case. He kept going strong, and during what should have been his nap time, he made the executive decision to have ice cream instead having seen other kids walking around with giant waffle cones. Braedan rarely gets sugary treats so who was I to deny him that one little indulgence. Besides, his baby sister wanted some too.

Braedan's tia, or "Titi" as he affectionately calls her, tagged along for the fun and we had the best time.


 

Having fun on the merry go round.



 

Mmm Ice Cream!

 Part of the reason for our visit to San Antonio was to join my sister in celebrating her birthday and to help my cousin, Joe Anthony, celebrate his high school graduation. These two events gave Braedan the opportunity to take part in a couple of activities he really enjoys--celebrating a birthday because it involves cake of course and getting the chance to shake his little tail feather at my cousin's graduation party. Here he is with Titi helping her try out her new sunglasses, because whenever she's around he is pretty much her shadow.

 

A few of my cousins with the happy graduate.

And here is the party animal having some fun on the dance floor. 

 

The Great Escape

July served up more family fun and an escape from the hot South Texas summer as we took a trip to visit Braedan's Maimo and Daideo in New Mexico. While we were there, Braedan's Aunt Amy (or Mamy as he used to call her) and Cousin Ian were also there to spend some time with us. During the whole week of our visit, Braedan had a great time and spent a lot of it outdoors taking in the cooler mountain air. Here are a few highlights of our trip.

Braedan loves to spend time outdoors. If he had it his way we would be outside for most of the day, so you can imagine how hard it's been these last few weeks to say no to him when he asks to ride his bike at one o'clock in the afternoon during the hottest months of summer. But while in New Mexico he could go out at anytime of day and his favorite thing to do was help Daideo with yard work, and more specifically, drive his riding lawn mower.



Braedan's Maimo also joined in on the driving action and helped.

The cousins had fun at a nearby playground.

 



 

And earlier I mentioned our escape from the summer heat. Well apparently it was a little too much too soon for some of us. The slight chill in the air during our evening walks left some of us running to grab light jackets. Seeing us now makes it hard to believe that we once endured harsh, cold winters. Please excuse our shameful display of weakness, and take note that the hubby is wearing the heaviest jacket of us all. But what can I say...we are and always have been Texans at heart.

Who Came to Party?

I know there are many more birthdays to come for Braedan, but this year was so enjoyable to watch because he understood a lot more of what was going on around him. For you and me, a birthday might involve reflecting on another year and feeling grateful to have experienced and enjoyed all that you have during that time. For Braedan, when he gets wind of a birthday he asks the two most important questions a three year old might ask about one, "He having a birthday party? With cake?" It doesn't matter if the person will indeed have a party, when he hears the word birthday it is synonymous with a party and cake. In fact he said the sweetest thing to me the other day when I mentioned my birthday is coming up. He looked at me and said, well stated it as more of a question as he usually does with a lot of his sentences, "I go to your birthday party?" I couldn't help but laugh and didn't have the heart tell him I wasn't having a party so all I managed to say was, "Of course, it wouldn't be a party without you."

This year Braedan sort of got two birthday parties for the price of one. We invited a few of his friends to a pool party, but unfortunately thunder activity delayed and eventually canceled the pool fun. Fifteen minutes in to the start of the party thunder rumbled nearby prompting lifeguards to force us out of the pool, and as intermittent rumbling continued on we decided to call it an afternoon and have everyone over to our house for hamburgers and hot dogs. Braedan of course didn't understand why we were called out of the pool. He kept asking about going back in, but all of his questioning was forgotten once he learned his friends would be coming over, because again to a three year old, friends coming over naturally means they are coming over to play.

I was disappointed that he and his friends didn't really get to enjoy the pool, but in the end all that really mattered was that he was happy. And you know my fun loving boy, he made the most of it.

Of course since he is a beach boy now, his birthday wouldn't be complete without spending some time in the sand and water. On the day of his actual birthday we spent some time at the beach with family. Here he is getting some help with a sand castle from my sister's boyfriend, Hayden.

Happy Birthday, Big Boy!

Unbelievable

It's hard to believe this same little guy...

A few days old

 

7 Months



is now this big guy.

 

Opening some birthday mail from maimo and daideo and cousins Alexander and Xavier.

 

Today is the big 3 for Braedan and there's been plenty of non-stop fun all weekend long. He had a small party with friends and family yesterday and today we're headed to our favorite spot...the beach, of course. We will post more about our weekend later this week.   

Zooming Right Along

Having spent my tween and teen years during the early to mid-90s I hold a special place in my heart for catchy hip hop and dance music, specifically the Will Smith and Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch variety. Fun fact about the hubby, he does too. Apparently Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch is the first CD he ever bought. This background information will help explain the following reference: I think Will Smith and DJ Jazzy Jeff had it wrong in their song "Summertime" when they said, "Put your car on cruise and lay back because it's summertime." Since our unofficial start to summer we have not been in a cruising mode but in more of a fast forward with one activity after the next popping up as we continued on through the month of May.

A few weeks after our semi-camping excursion we headed to Dallas for a mini vacation and while there we introduced Braedan to two, well technically three, big things. The first big introduction was to his two new cousins--yes, I said two--Alexander and Xavier. We visited Aunt Bridget and Uncle Bryan to spend some quality time with these cutie pies while they were still in their newborn phase because as we've heard and seen through little updates, they are already growing like weeds. These little guys made quite the impression on Braedan. So much so that while on our bike ride/walk last night, Braedan out of the blue asked, "Mommy, you have two babies?" I quickly corrected him and reminded him that only one baby is in my tummy, his sister. He followed up by saying or more like posing it as a question "Bridget has two babies?" I don't know what prompted him to think about that during this particular time, but as you can see how could these sweet boys not leave a good impression. 

Alexander is on the left and Xavier is on the right.

Alexander let Braedan get some practice in holding a baby.

He also let his uncle brush up on his skills too.

Here is the new mommy (on the right) with the two best examples
 she has to show her the mommy way, her mom and sister.

Keeping up with all things baby, Braedan's  daideo wanted to compare babies-- my bambino belly and his very own food belly.

Continuing with the fun and silly, the third thing we introduced Braedan to was the glory and grandeur of an indoor water park. During our visit we stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine and in Braedan's eyes it definitely lived up to its "Great" name. He spent a lot of time at the water park and the first words out of his mouth every morning were, "We going to water park?" Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures from all of his time spent in the water. The two times I went with him I was afraid to take the camera down for fear of it getting wet or stolen, and we all know my pregnant self wasn't going to take it down to snap a few shots to then have to trek all the way back to our room to leave it there. I did manage to get a shot of him when we first arrived while he waited patiently for daddy to check us in. I actually can't believe he sat still for it, because right when you walk in you'll find a giant window beckoning you to see and come in to the water park. I'm surprised Braedan didn't want to bolt for it right then and there, but I think the cute bear next to him had something to do with him keeping his cool about it all. You can tell how intrigued he is by the way he's peering over to get a glimpse.

And though we've been zooming instead of cruising right into the start of summer, one thing I know for sure...Braedan is certainly enjoying the ride.