Letter to Womb

Dear Baby,

You are growing so big and strong within my tummy and I love feeling your hiccups, punches and kicks.  I just wish I felt them more during the day than all night.  A mommy's got to sleep, ya hear?  Right now you are 24 weeks along and about the size of a grapefruit.

I'm pretty sure we've decided on a name, but as you will soon find out, things are always subject to change.  I think Luke likes the name because he can say it.  He thinks it's funny when I ask him where you are, but he points to my belly and gives you a kiss.  I hope that you two are best buddies!

We had our echocardiogram done last week and the cardiologist and her team were amazing.  They really were great about putting us at ease, and they were sweet even when you decided you were done and rolled over to make them really work for their images.  After an hour of ultrasound scanning, it was determined that you were definitely ornry, but perfect in every way.  They could not find any sign of a hole, no sign of a defect anywhere.  It was an answer to our prayers!

We love you already, little one.
Mom and Dad

two year old moments

I find that as Luke gets deeper and deeper into being two, his emotions come out more and more.  And those emotions, whether happy, sad, mad, etc...come out in full force.  It's not a little giggle, it's running around laughing at the top of his lungs.  If he's mad, it's stomping his feet, wailing his hands at you and screaming 'no!' at the top of his lungs. 

I love my mister, but some of these two year old moments are testing not only him, but me as well.

Off to start another week - hopefully with a minimum of two year old moments...

In with the new

Remember when I bought this bedding on clearance at Target?

Well, turns out the more I look at it, the more I hate it.  So yesterday I started a new search for baby bedding and apparantly Target recently added some new collections.  I.fell.in.love.  And I knew I had to return that bed set and buy this new one.  I showed Chris and basically told him that I was ordering it, whether he approved or not.  Lucky for him, he approved :)  So here is the NEW baby bedding!  I ordered it this morning!!

It's just perfect and I can't wait to bring my new little guy home to his awesome room!

Letter to Toddler

Dear Big Boy Luke,

You are becoming quite the little personality!  You're a whopping 26 months old now!  I love hearing you respond 'ohhhh-kaaaay' when you respond to what your daddy or I say.  The way you draw it out is just so cute!  We don't know if you're really aware of what you're responding to, but at least you're acknowledging that we are actually talking to you.

You've started doing this little shuffle through your toys and it's so funny!  You dump all your toys out, make a big pile and then shuffle your feet through them while wiggling your little toosh back and forth.  It cracks us up and I wish I could catch it on video!  And when you're done doing your little shuffle, sometimes we can talk you into cleaning the toys up, but sometimes we can't.  But what's fun if you can't make a mess, right?

You've inherited this little car from your cousins and you love it.  You open the door, get out, check the gas cap, get back in, get back out, get your trucks, put your trucks in the car, get back in, shut the door and start on your way.  You especially love for us to walk around the cul de sac with you.  And if we aren't pushing you around in it, you either start in the garage and walk it to the edge where the garage meets the driveway, pick your little feet up and let the slant down give you a little thrill ride.  Otherwise you're pushing it all around the yard.  You did have your first accident, you killed the pot we've had since we lived in Texas.  Oh well!

It's getting harder to take you to work.  We only have a pack and play for you and you're fast outgrowing that, plus you're so used to your big boy bed, that you don't really sleep well there.  You love opening and closing all the cabinents and taking all the labels out of the file cabinents.  Also, you just can't get enough of turning the knobs on the audiometer or pushing all the buttons on the copier.  You're favorite part of going to work with mommy is getting to go down the hall to play on all the cars.  We don't put quarters in them yet because when they start talking on their own, it freaks you out a bit, so we just let you climb around on them.  You also love playing games on the computer or iPad and that keeps you entertained for the most part. 

And we have found that if you can reach it, it's yours.  There's nothing that mommy or daddy has that you can't have if you can reach it.  I recently found this out when I left the room for a few seconds and came back and you were happily gulping down my sweet tea.  It's a good thing you're cute, little Luke, otherwise I just may have cried that my sweet tea was all gone :)

And you're more interested in getting dressed and wanting to help.  You still have mornings (although they are very few) where you're okay putting your shorts or pants on, but you refuse to change shirts.  On these mornings I just go ahead and send you to Mrs. Kristin's in your sleep shirt and pack your t-shirt for the day with you.  On this particular day, once you got to Mrs. Kristin's you decided you wanted to change.  And you decided you wanted to do it all on your own.  And it was going great until you got stuck.  And then you got pitiful, and well, who could pass up a classic picture taking opportunity, even if it did mean that you were going to have to be miserable for a few extra seconds?

You are just the most awesome little guy, and you're getting so big!  And independent!  Please just need your mom for a few more years!  Please!! 

We love you, we adore you, and we think you're perfect in every way.
Mom and Dad

twenty weeks + five days

We had our 20 week ultrasound today and found a little anomaly in our precious little boy.  Apparantly he has a little (tiny really) hole in his heart where his ventricles haven't closed off completely.  Not something a mommy wants to hear.  However, they were unable to find any other abnormalities to indicate a chromosomal disorder (Down's Syndrome) or any other sort of syndrome.  This little hole is an isolated event, so that gives us great comfort.  According to our physician, more than likely, the hole will heal on its own while baby is in utero.  On the off chance that it doesn't, the baby will be given medicine after delivery (basically IB Profen) to close it off.  It is something we'll monitor, and I'll go in for an echocardiogram on baby's heart in 4 weeks.  This does mean that we need baby to stay in utero as long as we can make it so he can be good and big and strong. 

Otherwise, baby is right on track to be a little awesome boy.  His brain and spine measured perfectly and he is currently weighing in at 13 ounces!  I'll keep you updated on whatever we find out in the coming weeks, and if you want to say a little prayer that all turns out fine and dandy, we sure would appreciate it. 

And by the way, this baby looks just like Luke...

baby bedding

This is the new baby's bedding.  Like I said, I found it on clearance at Target.  It didn't come with a bumper, but it doesn't come with it online either.  Actually, the bumper is an extra $50, and that's almost as much as I paid for the 10 piece set.  I'm trying to think of some fun ideas for baby's room, especially something neat on the wall.  I've been looking at wall decals online, so maybe we'll end up doing something like that.  Also, I've found some super cute art on Etsy.com, so I might have to order something through that as well.  Surely by the time this baby comes, it will all be put together!

potty training

So Luke is back in diapers.  After the morning of Day 1, Luke decided to cut his two year old molars and proceeded to have some bowel movements that underwear just couldn't take care of.  So when he's feeling better and his body decides to cooperate, we'll try again.  The good news is is that now when he potties, he tells me.  The bad news is is that he potties on the floor while he's telling me - but hey, progress is progress, right?