My boy

 

He had that little grin on his face, the one that says "I am up to something." I played along with his game. "Hmmm what could this little boy be up to?" Sometimes it is something sweet he has done but sometimes it is an "accident"...often a broken dish or accidental marking on the wall. As I approached the kitchen his eyes focued in on his work. And right there on my refrigerator was a statement. A giggle filled the room. And I guess I now know what he really thinks of me :). Boys! Only they find that kind of thing funny.

Her details....

 

Did you know that it was possible to love a light fixture? Well, I do! Just adds the perfect touch to baby girl's room.

 

I worked in the nursery this afternoon on her walls and even put some clothes in drawers. I have bought her 6 pairs of shoes so far. I could not put these in the closet...they needed to be more visible than that. I bought these shoes two years ago- just as we were deciding to expand our family. I was hoping for a girl. After the second miscarriage, I almost gave these away. I held on to them instead with great hopes for one day. I am so glad that I did. Today, I gently placed them on her shelf...waiting for two tiny, little feet.

Progress

We worked and worked and worked this weekend on the baby's room. To compare it today to what it looked like on Thursday, is a complete transformation. All the furniture was moved out, walls received 3 coats of pink, wainscot was placed all along the bottom part of the wall, new (child-safe) electrical outlets were put in, chandelier was hung (yes we got one!), crib was assembled, bookshelf, wall shelf and dresser received new coats of white paint, crib bedding was put on crib and changing table was set-up. I also hung up the curtains I sewed to match the bedding and I am so happy with how they pull the room together. I am hoping the newly painted furniture will be completely dry and we can move those back into the room this evening. I don't want to start hanging things on the walls until I have all the furniture in its place. So far I am really happy with how everything looks! It is so exciting to see that pink glow coming from the room. I also made a baby music play list and loaded onto my old pink ipod and set-up one of my old ipod docks in her room. So exciting to listen to the baby music as I work in her room....so much anticipation!

I have been working and working on ideas for the wall that her crib is against. Every idea I have requires mad painting skills, alot of time and perfection. Being realistic, those things would not happen so I googled my idea this afternoon and I think I found the perfect wall art that will be customized and not require me to paint...I should receive it in a week or so- hope it will work out the way it does in my head :)

I know we (hopefully) have until October but it is important to me to get this room finished by the time I go back to work. I know that i am going to be wiped out from working and not have the time or energy to put into the room. Plus, I just love going in there!

I am so proud of MSW and all of his work. His talents never cease to amaze me and the lengths he goes to please me have no limits. He worked so very hard to get everything done and I appreciate him so very much!

I'll post pictures of the room once everything is done. But for now....I leave you with a tease of what it looks like.

Parks' Party

 

 

 

 

We had a great time at Parks' 4th birthday party on Sunday. Doodle got to pet all the little animals (big ones too), go on a hay ride, ride the pony and break the pinata. It was such a fun party. My fave pic is of Madison holding him by the hand...she grabbed him and said, "c'mon, I want to show you something." And just like a gentleman-in-training, he obliged without any questions. I think the little smirk on his face says it all!

Big Brother: To Protect & Serve

Conversation on the way home from having lunch with daddy....

doodle: "Will the baby be here for my next birthday party?"

me: "yes, she will."

doodle: "oh man, I don't want everyone touching her. They can touch her little feet but nobody is going near her face."

me: "I'm sure people will be gentle with her."

doodle: "She is probably not going to like the crowd if they get rowdy I am going to have to take her upstairs and get her calmed down."

me: "She is so lucky to have a big brother like you."

doodle: "I know...this is going to be hard work being a brother."

And there you have it....we have the protection plan all worked out for doodle's 6th birthday party! He is so precious! I hope he likes her this much when she is actually here :)

We have pink...well some.

 

 

First coat of pink is going up! I cannot wait to see everything finished. We still have alot of work ahead of us but at least we are moving in the right direction. Doodle is being such a great helper and having a ball helping out. As I went in to "inspect" their work, I had this sinking feeling...what if it is not a girl!?! To which MSW replied, "don't even think that!" I'm thinking I need to schedule a 3D or call Alyson for confirmation now!

The Kinder School Supply Shop

I was working towards it. I knew that it was going to be a hard step for me...school shopping for kindergarten! I was killing some time in HEB while waiting on a prescription as we came across the school supply isle. No time like the present! Sad times for this mama...kinder is a big step. Of course doodle loved picking out everything. I can't believe in one short month he will be going to real school! How did that happen? On an exciting note, we got him into the after school program at his school...the one I thought there was no way that we would get him into. I might need some mental help on his first day of school!

Friends & Sales...a winning combo

Don't you just love it when you have a friend who just "gets" things the same way as you. For me, that's Natalie. We usually operate on the same wave lengths and enjoy and go crazy about the same things. Of course, I knew that she was going to be as excited as I was about the Chic Mama/Nursery Couture sale without even having to ask. Of course it would be the two of us in the parking lot even before the doors opened too. Dorks?....um....maybe but I tell you these two dorks walked away 3 hours later having had some great girl time and with the cutest little girl outfits. I think between the two of us we bought the entire Tea line. Nat (& Donna too)- thanks for a great morning...shopping, lunch at Silo and hey....even having to jump start your car- every mile is a memory with us!

A sad anniversary....

To post or not to post? To write about this means to open up vulnerabilities, to not post...well, that does not feel right either. So, I write unsure if I will actually hit publish or keep as a draft. Today marks the one year anniversary of one of our saddest days. It was a year ago today that we miscarried. It is not a date that I made a conscious decision to remember; it just happens to be the day before my sister's birthday. I would probably remember anyways....

I've shared every detail of the experience with my 3 dearest friends...that should not be rehashed here and now. Statistically, it is a very common thing to happen but until it happens to you; I think it is impossible to understand. Knowing that it happens to so many others does not make it any easier either in my opinion. It is such a strange grief to experience. One that I do not think you can fairly compare to a death of a child, but a loss nonetheless.

It is...
a loss of a hope.
a failure.
painful...emotionally and physically.
a confusing time.
a time when you can still have morning sickness even though there is no longer a heartbeat.


It is also....
a chance to realize what gifts we are given in this life.
an opportunity to appreciate more.
a realization that children are the most precious of gifts.
an opportunity to love deeper.

What I learned from this experience is plentiful, though I wish the lessons could have come from another method. But today, one year later, what a different place I find myself in as compared to just one short year ago. Though I never will forget (and wonder about the 'what if's') I have moved on. I sit today with with a beautiful baby girl kicking away inside my tummy. Asked if I thought that was possible one year ago, my answer would have been bitter.

Someday I hope to put my own experience and counseling skills together to help others. For in this time of hurt & pain, few know what to say.

So today rather than go back to that sad place I will:

* go eat cheese enchiladas @ my favorite Mexican restaurant with the two best looking boys around.
* Feel blessed that I did not go to sleep until 2am due to heartburn, backaches and general uncomfortableness b/c I am so much more grateful to be in this condition than the condition I was in a year ago today.
* I will continue to do everything over-the-top for this pregnancy & baby.
* I'll meet Nat in the morning and walk into a store I vowed not to return, to hit a maternity/nursery sale.
* I will look forward to our baby shower & maternity pictures. I am so excited to celebrate this baby!

**It's raining as I type this, it has not rained in forever and just a few minutes ago when I began this post the sun was shinning. We need the rain so badly and I needed that sign.*** I'm going to hit publish!

An evening with friends

I am a firm believer that friends & family, the people in our lives', are what makes our lives' rich and beautiful! We are extremely lucky to be surrounded by some wonderful friends. We have remained close with most of our college friends and fortunate enough to have many of them living in the same city. The Vega's are in town from Arkansas for a visit and Nat set-up a great evening for us to catch up and meet some new "members." The kiddos had a great time in the water and running around the house playing chase. The big kids (aka-adults) had fun catching up and munching on pizza. What a beautiful thing to watch our group grow and enjoy each other!

@ 25 Weeks

Technically not until Friday, but close enough to claim the 25 week mark. And what a milestone it is....the start of the thrid trimester, the last 3 months of this beautiful journey. In some ways time has moved so quickly while in other ways it has dragged on. I am anxious (in the true sense of the word) of what the next 3 months will hold. It was at this point that my pregnancy with doodle changed. My blood pressure began to elevate requiring testing, he began to grow unbelievably big which lead to preterm labor (occapanied with a 5 night hospital stay, turbutaline and bed rest) to an early, painful delivery of a beautiful baby boy. Will the road be different this time? I have to admit that I am very nervous for Labor & Delivery but maybe not as much as MSW is for me.

At 25 weeks I have little to complain about....aside from the expected heartburn, aches and pains; I feel really good. BP last week was still really good, weight was at an OK place and I am not that hugely uncomfortable yet. I still love me some milk at bed time and could eat cheese enchiladas every night for dinner. I love buying pink and planning for a girl. I hold to the philosophy that she cannot have too much of anything pink & girlie! I often wonder what she will look like...eye color, hair color...will she resemble her brother? Will she be a good sleeper? Oh please be a good sleeper.

I wake up in the middle of the night to her little kicks and movements. It is the middle of the night that my concerns creep in. Will she be healthy, will we all adjust to this new little life? I would be remiss not to mention these things too but each morning I wake in exhilaration over this blessing.

Doodle has yet to feel her kick yet. He is just not patient enough to hold his hand still and wait to feel her. She responds to her daddy just about everytime he talks to her. It is really, really sweet.

I pee no less than 250 times a day which makes sense since I am drinking about 5 gallons of water a day. The heat is dreadful and I am concerned about my ability to cope with it through August. Why does it hit you so much harder when you are pregnant? I love to swim. To feel weightless in the water gives my cranky back a much needed break and gives me an opportunity to get in a little exercise. I will admit that I am worried about taking off the weight this time around. It all seems to be setteling in my hips this time. I am realistic that I will probably not be back at 110 6 weeks after birth like I was with doodle but I will work to eventually get back there.

Anticiapation and excitement seem like understatements when we think about our baby girl. So much love is waiting to meet her. So much love already exisits. My sweet Camy E. you are loved beyond measure.











**All photo credits go to my doodlebug**

Pinkalicious!

I was trying to explain to my mom over the phone what all I collected/made for Miss C. I figured it was just as easy to blog the goodies and also provide an inventory for me. The photos are horrible- done with my P&S and did not worry about any photo-shopping either- I will do some really good pics once I have the room set-up.



Bedding...Stripes are the outside of the crib bumper and the hot pink monogrammed piece is the inside of bumper. Crib sheet is polka dots (not photographed.) Lamp- 99 cent special at Goodwill that I spiced up with some paint and ribbon. Long piece in front are her curtain panels- hot pink covers about 3/4 and then the circle dot pattern at bottom. Painted initials I did yesterday to coordinate with bedding- I will hang with brown ribbon above crib. I plan to paint the "crib wall" in the circle dot pattern. Thing hanging on the wall which is a terrible representation is her crib mobile. It is obviously not connected to the music box/movement part but once all together is cute. Little pillow (with name) will probably go on the nursery rocker to pull into matching the bedding. Any other ideas? I still have left over fabric that at $30/yard I need to use up! Can't wait to see it all together and actually on the crib!

Cupcakes are my muse for her room. Don't want to do too much throughout the room but just a little here and there- I think the whole brown/pink theme reminds me of a sweet cupcake. Felt cupcakes found at PBK will go on a little white shelf hanging next to my attempt at a canvas painting of a cupcake. The big C thing is a memory frame that will eventually hold pics of her (see the little clips at the bottom?) Hanging on the wall is the tassel I made yesterday. You can't tell but it has a blinged C and a little cupcake hanging at the bottom.

Other accessories...Using the same diaper bag (Jon Hart) just jazzed it up with some handle covers with her name. Pink monogrammed ball cap, flower headbands with bling and then a onesie with ribbon and name (matching headband). I have made 4 of the onesies/headbands in all different colors.


I have so many more ideas and projects in mind. I cannot wait for the room to be painted so that I can start putting things into their place. As you can tell the room is still doodle's blue. We did buy the paint on Sunday (Hopeful- a light bubble gum pink) and we decided that it would be easier to put white wainscoting along the bottom of the wall rather than messing with attempting to cover up the blue (which is what I was totally hoping he would conclude!) I am having so much fun! I have MSW half-way convinced to hang a chandelier in the room too- I still need to work on that a little more **wink**!

Poor, poor pitiful me

It started a week ago today. After a great OB check-up (baby girl is doing perfect), doodle and I had lunch at Alamo Cafe and then went for a little shopping. It hit like a ton of bricks. Doubled over in pain and making a mad dash for the restroom, I barely made it home. For the next few days I alternated between stomach cramps and a bad case of "must get to the toilet and fast" episodes. No fever, baby kicking like crazy, I chalked it up to bad food. By the weekend it was much of the same pattern with little relief in between- so I began to think I just had a touch of something. It would get a little better and then come back with a vengeance. I have spent the majority of the last few days laying down wondering why I have no energy and don't feel right. After being up the whole night for the third night in a row, I finally called the doctor (I know stupid that I waited so long but I always have this "it will be better tomorrow attitude." I spoke with my OB's nurse who really sounded unconcerned as far as my pregnancy was concerned but was concerned that I have had symptoms for so long and demanded that I see my general practitioner. I called immediately and could not get an appointment until this morning with Dr. Hallmark (love her!) Things began to drastically improve yesterday afternoon and I actually slept last night...like the whole night. MSW woke up this morning and was amazed that I had slept that is how "normal" it has become for me to spend half the night sitting up on the couch or in the bathroom. So, a crazy morning of MSW adjusting his schedule so he could be there with me (he is the greatest I tell you) and realizing 10 minutes before my appointment that the Dr. has moved locations, I made it there. I went over my symptoms and she checked everything....and I mean everything. The conclusion is that I have a gastrointestinal viral infection. Fun, right? On top of that as caused by being sick with it for a week, I am dehydrated, anemic and have a bladder infection. So maybe that explains my discomfort, low-energy and fatigue for the past week. Because I feel remarkably better today, she did not make me go to the hospital for an IV as she threatened and I promised her that I would call immediately if my symptoms returned. And honestly other than a little mild cramping, I have felt amazing today! It always amazes me how once you come through an illness and feel good how awesome it feels to be alive. I feel 100% improved over 24 hours ago. Since I can hold fluids I have no worries that I will rehydrate myself now and clear up everything else. I lost 4 pounds in last few days...mostly fluid I am sure so I need to get that back up. Per Dr.'s orders I am staying out of this 105 heat and drinking as much water as possible and I am on the BRAT diet but I may cheat because I am really hungry for some real food and I feel like my stomach can handle it as this point. I realize now how hard it is to figure out what is going on with pregnancy masking so many symptoms. Fatigue...sure that could be pregnancy, headaches?...hormones....stomach issues- don't all pregnant women have them?, etc.... So moral of the story is that should I feel yuck again (and I am knocking on some really solid wood that this will not happen) that I will call the Dr. right away rather than waiting for it to pass or assuming it is the normal course of pregnancy symptoms. Except of course for those nights when I experience heartburn, gas and hunger pangs simultaneously because seriously, that could only be pregnancy..but really pregnancy is a beautiful thing!

Big Brother's Room

As much planning and creating I am doing for Miss C, there was no way that I was going to leave doodle out. So, it was very important to us that we give him a new room too. This will be a place that is more big brother appropriate than his old room...a place he can go to escape a crying baby :) and a place that hopefully reminds him of how much we love him. He played a role in each stage of the planning. He had the choice to redo his current room or move into my old studio (he chose the studio), the color scheme, decorations and furniture. We picked out his bunk beds a month ago but when we went to set-up delivery after the painting was done, he switched on us and went with a full size bed instead. We were secretly more pleased with this decision as it is more practical and the whole bottom is drawers and storage! We put the finishing touches on this afternoon and so it is officially done now! I am so excited for him to have his new room and I think he is really proud of it too!



Bed-view

I let him put up glow-in-the dark star wallies which he is very excited about! Daddy's pictures of his minor league days grace the walls and his old ball caps adorn the curtain rod. You can barely catch the view of his new drawers in the left hand bottom, TV goes here and I think we will be moving the Wii into his room.

We sat up our old computer for him and set-up a desk area.

We decided to leave my storage shelves in there which work nicely for all his stuff and almost give a "locker room" feel to the room. Notice the picture to the right...MSW painted that when he was a sophomore at TLU in his Painting I class. I think he is going to get a kick out of it this evening when he sees that I a.) have held on to it this long and b.) hung it up in the room.

Happy 4th

After our return from SPI, we have been lying low. It could be the fact that I am preggers in 100+ temps or that we are still recovering from the beach. However, we could not let the 4th come and go without some celebrating of our amazing country. It worked perfectly that Arden is a July 4th baby and had her backyard fun party on the 4th. What is more American than watermelon, bbq and a water slide fun for a bunch of 5 year olds? Doodle had a blast at the party and we parted ways from the party and headed to the Shops @ La Cantera. The Neiman Marcus parking lot provides front row seats for the amazing fireworks show that Fiesta Texas does each year. We took the truck and spread a blanket in the back and watched the fireworks! We had so much fun and enjoyed the beautiful display! Little Miss Camy (as she has become affectionately known) was not too sure about it all. She bounced around in my tummy the entire time....poor baby must have thought that I stepped into a battlefield.

Doodle and Avalon enjoying some watermelon.

Doodle and Arden enjoying the water slide!

Getting ready for the fireworks!

Amazing fireworks!

South Padre Island 2009

Beach Football

How I spent my beach time

Images of the Beach Boy