Easter Weekend

We spread our Easter Celebrations over three days this year and I took lots of camera phone pictures. You've been warned:)

Friday morning after the boys were up Jerad and I gave them their Easter Baskets. We knew they'd be getting goodies from all the grandparents so we wanted to space things out a bit. Marshall got a set of wooden dinosaurs and Miller got a set of wooden animals that I picked up for 75% off here. They are super nice quality, and instead of being around $10 per animal, I paid $2.50. I also put in a beanie baby for each boy that a coworker gave me, and some empty plastic Easter Eggs. They were stoked.

This is Marshall "roaring" with one of his dinosaurs:

 

Miller didn't quite know what was going on, but he hammed it up as well:

After that we went to our weekly playgroup. While the kids all played, we made tye dye shirts. I did a little newborn one for baby #3. It was my first time tye-dying so we'll see how it comes out.

Friends pushing Marshall in the hammock (they were all born within 2 weeks of eachother!):

After work, Jerad brought home a reach lift to cut down two trees in our back yard that are splitting and headed towards our and a neighbor's house. Marshall was OBSESSED and they played in it for about an hour before dinner, and another hour afterwards. He asked to sleep in it and promised he'd go "right to sleep and not cry." Sadly (for him) we didn't go for it:)

Late Friday night my sister and her husband came to our house to stay for the weekend and celebrate her birthday and Easter. They bought baby #3 one of the cutest and frilliest little newborn dresses I've ever seen:



Saturday morning I had a sisters day with Addy, Melinda, and Nicol, and Jerad dropped the boys off with my sister's inlaws (who are basically a third set of grandparents for the boys) and had a guys day with Lawrence and Steve.

While the guys golfed, we went out to breakfast, then coffee, then got pedicures.

Denise sent me a bunch of pictures of her and Dave having fun with the boys. They dyed eggs (brave!), played with baby chicks, and took a walk.

 

 

Meanwhile, my youngest sister sent me about 500 pictures of... cats. And her pretending to be a cat.

After pedicures, I met Jerad at his parents house where we had bbq pizzas and the kids hunted for Easter Eggs. This is Marshall's "game face:"

Saturday night after the kids were in bed, we went out for karaoke! This was kind of a big deal because I'm NEVER awake past 9pm these days, and we rarely get a babysitter and go out.

My littlest sister Addy and her boyfriend came to babysit and I promised her it'd be a piece of cake, the kids would just sleep the whole time, and it'd be the easiest $40 she ever made. Bwahahaha! I bet you can guess what happened. Right as we were leaving (about 9pm) Miller woke up and started crying. I tried to calm him down but he was just thrashing around, didn't want a bottle, didn't want to sleep, yet didn't want to get up either. I thought maybe it was just the noise of so many people being in the house, so we left and Addy texted as we were pulling out of the neighborhood saying he was already back asleep.

Then as soon as we got to karaoke, the text messages started again. For the next hour. He was awake. Wouldn't calm down. She thought he might have a fever. She thought he threw up (not sure how there could be any question about that one). She thought his pajamas were too hot. Maybe he was teething? Completely inconsolable. I finally offered to just come home (seriously, what are the odds, the ONE time recently I try to slip out at night?!?) but he finally went back to sleep.

Everyone except me ordered drinks, and despite the horrible singing, I think everyone had a good time:

Out of our group, Jerad and Steve were the only ones brave enough to sing. They even had a sweet little duet together:

By the time we closed the bar down at 1 and got home and to bed, it was 2am. 2 AM PEOPLE! I was awake for 20 hours, without even taking a nap. It's like I was a regular 20 something girl and not an 80 year old woman or pregnant with two kids two and under and working full time:)

Sunday morning Marshall woke up at 6:15, but layed in bed and played with Jerad's phone for a record 2 HOURS until we got up with Miller at 8. Miller woke up in a great mood, and didn't seem sick at all so I don't know what was wrong with him aside from the fact that he has a radar that goes off if I'm trying to get "me time."

Jerad and Larry got to work cutting down the trees:

Its hard to tell how high the trees are from the pictures, but the dog pen you see in the bottom left corner is 6 feet tall and setting on a 3 foot retaining wall to give you a little perspective.

The boys, especially Marshall, were facinated:

Pretty soon it was time to leave and go celebrate with my family. The boys had the cutest little outfits from Jerad's aunt Kanda and I couldn't wait to get a picture of them. This is what I ended up with on my first try:

Luckily, before the day was over I got a better one:

I'm seriously obsessed with their coordinating cuteness. They even happened to have shoes that matched each others shirts! I've really come to love boy's clothes over the past few years. Not that I'm not excited to get to shop in the little girl's section soon!

I also got a million pictures of Marshall pulling Miller around in his tractor:

For the most part, Miller is a really good sport about it... until he isn't:

 

  Miller took a turn too:

After that I forgot to take pictures of the Easter baskets and egg hunting and everything else that happened but I did get this one:

 

Despite them running on two days of no naps, we had a great day and they even had the energy to go visit Jerad's extended family for about an hour on our way home (which I also didn't get any pictures of).

I can't believe how fast they're growing up! Marshall "get's it" now, and Miller is old enough to hold his own basket and sort of hunt for eggs. As a reminder, here they are last Easter at 23months and 4 months:

 

Lots of whining and a Swagger Wagon

So, we bought a minivan. Or as I've taught Marshall to call it, a "Swagger Wagon." I'm not entirely excited about it, so I'll try to not come off sounding too ungrateful for the fact that I just got an almost brand new car.

LOOOONG story short, a $10 bolt broke in my car (2006 Sorento) that had been recalled the previous 5 years but was un-recalled in 2006. Jerad is all handy and mechanic-ish and immediately bought the part, took everything apart to fix it, and could NOT get the bolt out no matter what he tried. He works in construction and has worked on a lot of cars, so he's no novice to stubborn bolts but this thing was not budging. My mechanic brother in law looked at it and couldn't get it out. It went from being a $10 problem, to looking like he'd have to replace the entire drive shaft which was a $750-$1000 part. That sucked, but it is what it is and my car only had 63k miles on it so it was worth spending the money.

When Jerad first bought the car(it was his before it was mine) in 2007 with 20k miles, they gave him a 100k mile warranty but it was one of those deals where he bought it after hours, signed all the paperwork, then had to go back and resign everything again because they had to change the terms a little. It was his first car loan and he ended up having to join a credit union to get the financing through them. Somehow during that process the extended warranty didn't transfer over to the new loan and he/we/they never noticed. It wasn't that they couldn't make the deal work with the warranty, it was just a paperwork error that didn't get caught and we didn't discover until about a year ago at which point there was nothing we could do. So TECHNICALLY it should have still been under warranty which sucks, and otherwise the 60k mile warranty literally expired 3k miles before this happened which is almost more annoying.

To replace the driveshaft in my car is a huge pain in the ass. Apparently you have to pull out the motor, and transmission, and a bunch of other crap and its really too big of a job for him to try to do alone, after work, in our garage.

All sorts of family members chipped in and loaned me their cars for about a month while we decided what to do and prayed that it would magically fix itself. Spoiler Alert: It didn't.

Finally Jerad sucked up his pride,  we called a few mechanics, and ended up taking it to the dealership who were fairly confident they could get the bolt out and wouldn't spend more than $500 in labor trying. So we were hoping that happened, then Jerad could just put it back together. Another looooong story later it will be a minimum of $5,500 to get a new driveshaft and up to $7k if we rebuild the motor which is what they recommend and the internet forums seem to agree on. There was also an option to get a used motor from Texas for $4,300 plus shipping but it had 90k miles on it (our motor only had 63k) and would only have a 30 day warranty so we didn't really consider that option at all. We still owe a little on the car, so by the time we paid for a repair that big and paid off the car we'd have paid more than it was worth.

The Sorento would have been tight with three carseats, but at this point they aren't in sports and I'm not driving around their friends, so still totally doable. The plan was to pay it off, save up for a few years, then sell it and buy a nicer slightly used minivan with cash. Probably a Sienna or Oddessy.

After weighing all our options (fixing my Sorento and being upside-down, buying a sedan and just cramming the kids in and not being able to take the dogs too, buying another small SUV, buying a really cheap "temporary" car, and buying a new-er minivan), we ended up trading in my broken car for almost nothing, putting some money down and buying a slightly used Kia Sedona Swagger Wagon. Its a 2012 has 20k miles on it AND A 100,000 MILE WARRANTY:)

I'm not happy for so many reasons. If we had sold my car before it broke (we owed way less than it was worth) and combined what we put down on the Minivan with that we would have had a much smaller loan. If the stupid should-have-been-recalled bolt hadn't broken, I was perfectly happy with my car, it only had 60k miles on it, and it'd be paid off in a year. I feel like we basically threw away a perfectly good car and it makes me sad. This isn't the minivan I would have picked out at all, but it was a really good deal. On top of this within the next 4 weeks we need to pay the midwife for the birth, taxes, and Jerad's workman's comp and liability insurance premiums. So, all together around 20k which just.... hurts. A lot. We planned and saved for some of those things, but the taxes and car were a total surprise and I'm getting ready to go on Maternity leave and not be working for 3 months so we have to keep our savings account padded to cover that.

Plus Jerad's truck really needs a new injector pump so it'll stop spilling diesel everywhere and that's apparently about 2k. However his truck has 330,000,000 miles on it and besides one $100 part has never broken down so I don't feel bad about his needing some work and it isn't a pressing issue.

So, we have a car loan for another 5 years (unless we pay it off early which I always plan to do and never seems to happen). The good news is the payment is barely more than what the Sorento was and we really did get a screaming deal on what we got. And in the grand scheme of things a car loan isn't the worst debt to have and we got a great interest rate.

I was so upset and annoyed and completely ready to just walk away the whole time we were looking at cars that they pretty much gave us what we wanted. They brought out the invoice and we only paid $300 more than they did for the car. We also have 2 years of free oil changes so maybe I'll actually get it changed now! We went on a Friday night 1 hour before closing (the only time Jerad could) and almost brought the kids but my sister's inlaws saved the day and watched them for us. As it kept taking longer and longer I kept thinking how much worse it would be if we had two over-tired babies stuck there too:). Or maybe they would have payed US to leave? Who knows:)

So, all the whining aside, it IS a nice car and we're loving the extra space. Especially after having loaner and rental cars for the last month! It doesn't have a ton of fancy options (oh how I wanted leather with the kids!), but it has bluetooth which is nice so I can play music wirelessly from my phone and talk hands free, the back windows roll down, the seats fold down in all sorts of different ways, there are *13* cupholders! and there is a TON of space. I can easily fit 3 kids and the dogs and some camping gear. I pulled these pictures off the internet so you can get an idea. It's light blue, which isn't a color I'd have picked if I had a choice, but it's not obnoxious either:

And here is a better exterior picture of the same year, just a different color:


This is the interior color (fabric seats):

And there's lots 'o room:

When the back seats are up, there is a big deep cargo space with plenty of space for a double stroller, kid crap, and groceries. 

And when the seats are down it's really huge! This is the same interior we have:

When I'm inside, I really like it. It's really powerful, smooth to drive, and doesn't have that top-heavy/body-roll that minivans I've driven in the past do. It's easy to park and gets 30mpg on the highway which is a lot better than the Sorento did. So now that I think about it, in the end we probably aren't paying more a month.... we're just paying for more months:)

When I'm outside looking at it it's like "holy crap, I drive a freaking MINIVAN!" Luckily I spend more time driving than outside looking at it:)

Apparently there is some huge class action lawsuit against Kia for the whole bolt debacle, so maybe down the road we'll get a few hundred dollars back which will be sweet. Especially since I still have to pay the service department $500 for the work they did (attempting to get the bolt out) on my late Sorento.

Children's Museum

Success. It's so much fun taking them now that Miller is a little older and has fun playing too. We all hold hands and Marshall leads the way. They play together most of the time. They both love riding the elevator (and always look up for some reason) and Marshall is tall enough to push all the right buttons now instead of always sending us to the basement. I'm so glad we renewed our membership and that its only 5 minutes from home!

Sick Day

Our nanny texted me this morning saying she had the stomach flu and wouldn't be able to watch the kids. I 100% understand, but today was kind of a horrible day for me to miss work because I had a bazillion things to do and another coworker is off as well. My department only has three people in it so now my other coworker is stuck with everything... whoops! I felt guilty for about 30 seconds then started getting super excited about having the day off. Jerad had a 9:30 am meeting in San Luis so he could only watch the kids till right before 9. There were a few things I did have to get done so I went in at 6:30 and worked for two hours this morning. When I came home at 8:45 the kids were fed, breakfast was cleaned up and the washing machine and dishwasher were running. The house is relatively clean, the kids are in happy moods and entertaining themselves and since I don't work Friday's, now I get a 4 day weekend! Annnd today I should be able to get a lot of chores done that I usually am stuck doing on Friday so tomorrow will be a better day too.

Thursday is my least favorite day of the week and the one that always makes me want to quit my job and be a stay at home mom. The kids are usually fried by this point and still sleeping when I leave for work. I leave the house at 6:45, am at work for 10.5 hours (it's one of my two long days), and its almost 6pm by the time I get home. My mom comes over around 4 to relieve the nanny and by the time I get home the house is trashed, the kids are starving (we usually eat dinner around 5 or 5:30), and since Jerad usually ends up working late on Thursdays I have a little over an hour to get the boys fed, bathed, and in bed. It's the only time my mom gets to see them so I don't want to ask her to spend the time picking up or making dinner.

By the time I get home, I'm exhausted from working all day, barely get to see the boys before its their bed time, and the time we are together is not usually nice quality time. Then when they finally are in bed I have to clean up the dinner mess, toys, and start some laundry that is usually behind. The first time I sit down is usually 8:30pm which is just annoying and hard.

All that whining to say, I usually hate Thursdays and am looking forward to spending this one at home! I'm catching up on blogs and sipping tea while the kids are playing trains and we're going to leave for the Children's Museum when it opens at 11. I thought about taking them to the Monterey Bay Aquarium today but I knew Jerad would be bummed if we went without him and its a 2 hour drive each way so it would take up most of our day and cost a lot in gas.

I'm planning on a mostly lazy afternoon and have some fun Pinterest inspired activities for the kids later. Yeay for long weekends!

Nursery Dreaming

Well, now that I know I'm having a girl I reeeaally want to get started on the nursery. Obviously I'm not due for another 20 weeks and in all honesty it'll probably be at LEAST 4-6 months after that until little Miss Thing even takes a nap in the crib and a few months after that (if we're lucky) that she actually sleeps in there. So in reality there is no rush. BUT... I don't know, there's just something about a finished baby space that makes it seem like "this is really happening."

There's just something so fun about decorating kid's spaces! I had so much fun doing Marshall's nursery, then changing it up again and making it more child-centered at 7 months, then decorating his room at our new house. Then of course doing Miller's nursery as well. We also Montessoried (I'm declaring it a word) Miller's room around 8 months but it looks like I never blogged that one.

Anyways, I'm really looking forward to doing another baby space. Right now the kids both sleep fantastically at night. As long as they're in their own beds. In their own rooms. So we're not in any hurry to move them in together and possibly mess with a good thing. Our house has 4 bedrooms, but one is downstairs and besides that being too far away to put one of the boys, I like having it as a guest room. So it looks like baby girl gets to move into our closet. In a lot of ways it's perfect; its a small space but big enough for a crib, some shelves and a dresser to hold her things, it's obviously close to our room, and its far enough from the kid's rooms that she shouldn't wake them up at night. Also the way our closet is set up is not at all practical and we've been talking about taking everything out and building customized shelving and repainting since before we bought the house so this will be the push we need! Once the space starts seeming too small for her or it looks like we can put two kids together and everyone will still sleep, we'll move her out and be left with a nicely painted closet that's all ready for shelves and closet poles.

The plan is to move our clothes into Miller's closet which is now empty since I moved his clothes into the same dresser as Marshall's and put it in the living room. This should only inconvenience me since Jerad gets 99% of his clothes from his dresser and only wears the hanging stuff for special occasions. I'm fine with having to walk a few extra feet in the morning to get my clothes or maybe I'll even learn to be on top of things and pick out my outfits the night before and move them to our room!

It should be a pretty budget makeover. I'm hoping to do the whole room for $150. That's just a random number that I pulled out of thin air so we'll see. We still have Miller's crib and mattress, a glider (that I'm not sure will fit or if I even want it in there), and an extra dresser. I'd like to put bead-board on the ceiling, and a new light fixture. I'd love there to be some natural light so we're thinking of either putting in a solar tube (which would cost around $200 and is not included in the budget), or framing out a window in the back wall which would open onto our staircase.

Here's a few inspiration pics I'm loving:

I'd like the colors to be aqua, white, yellow, and of course pink. The crib is currently yellow and I'm thinking of leaving it that way, otherwise I'll paint it a nice bright pink.

I love the blue crib bedding set we have, but I don't think it'll look great with the aqua walls so I'm thinking of buying or making something pink instead. I'd LOVE something like this:

Here are a few pieces of wall art or hanging mobiles that have caught my eye. I'll probably try to DIY something similiar:

You can find all the sources on my "baby girl" pinterest board. Along with a whoooole lotts other cute girl things.

Even though I'm DYING to start on the nursery, I'm trying to hold firm about us finishing up other projects first, especially the built-in and our laundry room. Jerad made a lot of progress on the built-in over the weekend so maybe it won't be too far off after all!

It's a...

Girl!

I was worried I'd be disappointed because I really thought another boy would be a blast. But I'm stoked! So is Jerad. He already had been thinking girl so he wasn't too surprised.

Now we just need to agree on a name.

19 weeks

19 weeks pregnant.

21(ish) weeks till we meet this little guy/gal.

2 days till we find out if it is a guy/gal.

The List

One night after work last week Jerad noticed I was in an exceptionally good mood and asked "you made a list today didn't you?" Ha! After living together over 7 years he sure does know me...

Anyways, I made a "let's get this crap done before baby #3 gets here" list. Along with a cost rating system varying from $-$$$$ that is based on absolutely nothing except my own gut feelings which haven't been known to be very accurate.

My goal is to not start new projects (for the most part), until other projects actually, you know, GET FINISHED. I love my husband to death, but his #1 fault is he's a 95%-er. He loves the beginning and middle stages of a project, but craps out at the end. He started building us a new bed not long after we bought the house and it was supposed to be done by the time Miller was born. The headboard finally got finished a week or so after the birth, but the platform is still unfinished 2x4's. The paneling and built in in our family room was supposed to take 2-3 weekends and was started last April. The built-in still needs the top and lighting installed, shelves in the cupboards, and door handles. For my birthday IN AUGUST he was going to re-do our laundry room which has looked like a hot mess ever since.

I'm a big part of the problem because I look around and decide we should start on something else that's driving me crazy which gives him an out.

This is the year people, I can feel it.

We've been in our house almost 2 years now and there are so many little improvements that would be fast and cheap and make our lives easier. The kid's bathroom has one of those hot-water regulator things in the tub faucet but its set so that the water barely gets above luke warm and is too cold for them to bathe in there. He took it out of all our other faucets in... maybe 10 minutes? Their bathroom also has linoleum which is peeling up around the tub and should be replaced with tile so that they can splash without me having to worry about the floor rotting out. Lately we've been using their bathroom as a litterbox room for the cat. Classy.

We FINALLY installed a doorknob on Miller's room and the downstairs closet a few months ago after being doorknob-less (its a word if I say it is) all this time.

I really really want to give our bedroom a cheap facelift. We haven't done anything since we moved in there. I don't like the color, the furniture is all stuff I bought on cragslist and really needs to be painted... and we really need stuff hanging on the walls. Its just not a relaxing place, but could be lovely with a weekend's worth of painting.

The biggest priority is the backyard. I want it to be a place that the kids can safely play and have FUN in while I'm on maternity leave this summer. It's currently a big mess of rocks, bark chips, weeds, and dog poop. We do clean up the dog poop, but we have three big dogs and its hard with all the rocks and bark and the fact that we don't use the yard doesn't help. Sitting on the porch nursing the baby watching Marsh and Mills play, or swimming outside with them while the baby naps within ear shot seems soooo preferable to loading all three up and dragging them to the park daily which is what I did last time. I have lots of [not-so-fond] memories of nursing Miller at the park while literally running after Marshall to keep him out of the street at the same time.Or getting us there and unpacked and him deciding he was done after 10 minutes. Right now it's difficult to take him and Miller into public restrooms when he needs to go because I need to hold Miller so he doesn't climb under the stall and run away or try to lick the gross floors. I'm guessing this won't get much easier once I'm trying to juggle another baby but if we're at home he can just go in the house.

Like I said, we've been in our house almost 2 years now and for the most part haven't painted or put anything up on the walls. I think I only have one picture of Jerad and Marshall up, and it's just because I happened to have one in a frame and there was an existing nail sticking out of the wall. There's no photo evidence to suggest that Miller or I even exist. Its sort of daunting because the house is so big. Everything takes forever. The living room right when you walk into the house is two stories tall and I'm pretty sure we'll need to set up scaffolding to paint it... a little different than our last house where you could bust a room out during a nap time.

So, I'm hoping having an official list helps things get done since I get such a sick joy out of crossing things off. And helps me stay focused on what we should be doing, so at 1am when I'm scrubbing cat puke out of the carpet upstairs I don't demand that Jerad rip it all out and go buy hardwood the second Lowes opens in the morning. Seriously, that almost happened last week. And the week before when Marshall managed to sneak and spill yogurt. I seriously hate carpet. Anyways, besides possibly buying a new couch I think the backyard is the only thing that will really cost any money. But it will really improve our quality of life and SAVE money because I'll stay home instead of going out. AND improve our social life because I'll want to invite people over for bbq's.

At least that's what I keep telling Jerad.

Without further ado, the list:

Home Improvements:

Family Room: $-$$
-Finish built-in
-get new comfy sofa?

-artwork on walls

Laundry Room: $
-Finish walls/ceiling/counter
-Add shelves
-Paint

-artwork on walls

Backyard: $$$$
-re-grade so it slopes away from house and has spot for pool/playground

-build new retaining wall against back fence
-install concrete patio
-above ground pool (we bought on super sale last year and haven't used yet)
-deck around pool?
-sprinklers and grass area
-covered seating area
-spruce up dog area
-sand area for the kids with a covered area

-bbq area

-firepit area

-cut down huge silver dollar eucalyptus trees that are going to fall on our neighbor's house next time the wind blows.

-plant flowers in barrels or some dog/gopher safe containers.

Nursery: $
-move clothes out of master closet to make room for "nursery"
-panel and paint walls
-new light fixture
-crib (have)
-dresser (have)
-shelves
-glider? (have)
-wall art

Kids bathroom: $$
-tile floor
-refinish bathtub
-add paneling
-retexture walls
-paint vanity

-new light fixture

-artwork

Master Bedroom: $
-reframe windows

-reframe door
-paint
-finish bedframe
-paint dressers/shelves

-artwork on walls

Master bathroom: $-$$
-tile floors?
-new light fixtures?
-add toilet sprayer
-re-texture toilet closet
-paint

If time (please please please):
-re-frame windows/door in front living room
-paint living room
-paint staircase
-paint upstairs hallway

-artwork/pictures in hallway/stairway

 

Then I started a list of things to buy for the new baby. We really don't *need* anything, especially if it's a boy but there are a few things that would make our lives easier. Oh, and a thermometer... we currently don't have one because Marshall played "phone" with the nice forhead one we had (it talked when you pushed the buttons) until it finally broke.

To buy for H3:
-newborn and size 1 disposable diapers
-rock and play sleeper? (we don't really need this but I've heard good things and it'd be nice to have a portable place to put the baby down)
-toilet sprayer
-pack and play? (we have 2 but Miller will use one when we travel and the other one is a cheap POS that I want to throw away each time I try to open/close it so I'd love to replace it)
-humidifier
-white noise machine
-thermometer

-new Sophie

-pack of aiden and anais blankets
-if girl, clothes and headbands and a few pink dipes:)

Babies Don't Sleep

I read this blog post today and loved it so much.

17 weeks

taken at 17 weeks

So, getting big and fast over here!

In lots of ways I think this has been my easiest pregnancy yet. I definitely had more nausea and morning sickness in the first trimester, and even now I'm still pretty nauseous most mornings, but besides that I feel great! It's definitely the least stressful. When I was pregnant with Marshall there was just a lot of uncertainty. Jerad and I were planning our wedding, moving up our wedding, finding out we couldn't have a home birth, switching back to a homebirth at 30 weeks... and I didn't really know what to expect because it was my first pregnancy so there was the stress of the unknown "what will this do to our relationship?" "will we be good parents?" "can I actually have a homebirth?" "what will the baby be like?" etc etc.

With Miller I had a hard time physically. I was EXHAUSTED from back to back pregnancies, and dealing with everything on my own since Jerad was frequently out of town/state. All while chasing a one year old and still being new to the whole mom thing. We were also buying a house, moving, and there were the questions of "will I love another baby as much?" "will it be as special the second time around?" "logistically how do I deal with two kids?" "am I depriving Marshall by having another so soon?" "can I even manage two kids?" "how do I get us all out the door at 6:30 so I'll be on time for work?"

This time it just feels like the norm:) So far I've never *not* been pregnant by the youngest's 1 year birthday. Somehow being pregnant while taking care of two small kids has felt easier than it did when I just had the one. I'm tired, but not exhausted, and my body feels pretty good! Since Jerad is around to help out I can usually go to sleep by 9 and if one/both of the kids wakes up during the night he deals with it and lets me sleep.

I'm so excited for this baby to come. I feel like I have the whole toddler/baby mom thing down and I know that I can split my attention between multiple kids while still loving and enjoying them all. Marshall is getting more independent every day and is starting to really be a help to me. I've just resigned myself that I'll probably always be 10 minutes late to work so toting one more kid out the door in the morning doesn't seem that daunting.

Miller was a hard baby. He didn't sleep well for 8 months, then he had eczema and food allergies and REALLY didn't sleep well. None of the tricks that had soothed Marshall as a baby worked on Miller. Nothing really did, we just powered through somehow (please Lord let #3 like pacifiers, swaddling, and baths). He was a total mommy's boy for his first 6 months so I was the only one that could comfort him so even when Jerad WAS home there wasn't much he could do. But we made it and even managed to enjoy his infanthood. If I could survive that, I'm sure I can handle whatever curveballs this one throws as well.

At this point I'm 18 weeks along. Almost halfway done! For the past few weeks I've been feeling the baby move and it's still nice and subtle. I honestly don't like the feeling of the baby moving/kicking when it gets older. Its unnerving. I'm sleeping well at night and I'm not at the point where I'm completely huge and uncomfortable yet. Physically I can still pick up both the kids and chase them around the park or get on my hands and knees to clean the floor. We find out the gender in less than 2 weeks (Feb 28th) so I'm really looking forward to that. I'm hoping and will be so happy if it's another boy (and we have everything!) but if it's a girl.... good thing Jerad's so busy at work because I'm going to have some $hopping to do.

Marshall's Valentines

Marshall's preschool class has a little Valentine's celebration where the kids all hand out cards and treats to each other. I wanted to do something that wasn't candy and came across this idea on pinterest. So cute and perfect for little boys!

At this point in time Marshall doesn't know or care about Valentine's Day, and I thought if I had him help me make them he'd just want to keep all the bugs so I just did it myself. I had white cardstock so I used that to printed out the jars, then just taped on the bugs ($3 for a 12 pack at Target). I didn't have double stick tape so I just used regular tape folded over on itself. They were SUPER easy and look super cute yet still homemade!

Beach Day

Today I took the kids to the park and the beach. Apparently some people think I'm sort of Wonder Woman-ish or SuperMom because I do a lot of things with two small kids on my own. In reality, it's not always all roses so I thought I'd make this an honest post instead of just sharing pictures of my (beyond adorable) babies.

Big brother pushing little brother to the park

Last night Jerad mentioned that he was going to be working in Cayucos in the morning, and being the idiot that I am, I said (in front of Marshall) "Oh, maybe I'll ride with you and take the kids to the beach!" This morning as his alarm clock went off and both kids were miraculously still sleeping, I wanted nothing more than to stay in bed and have a lazy morning. But of course Marshall woke up and immediately started talking about the beach. Seriously?!? The weather said partly cloudy with an afternoon high of 64 so going early in the morning was definitely not appealing.

But I'm a good sport (and was dumb enough to open my mouth in the first place) so I scrambled some bacon and eggs and quickly started packing a bag. Marshall took maybe two bites and decided that he was too excited to eat so I threw some clothes on them and we were out the door around 8:30.

I dropped Jerad off and talked Marshall into going to a "really cool park! right by the beach! with dolphins! and pirate ships!" instead of the actual ocean since it was going to be so cold.

Sailing the pirate ship

I have a loaner car right now, and it doesn't have all my go-to child wrangling devices like the nice double stroller and baby carriers so I had to make due with an umbrella stroller. Marshall was excited to push Miller, and kept getting really mad at me for putting my hands on the handles. Which was unfortunate because he isn't really able to steer.

Eventually we got to the playground, and both kids darted different directions all excited to check things out. 2 minutes later Marshall announced that he needed to go potty. Of course. I put Miller back in the stroller and started power walking towards the bathrooms which of course aren't located right next to the park. By this time Marshall was crying saying he really needed to go so I picked him up and decided to cut across the grass to save some time. The umbrella stroller does not push the same as my fancy stroller and I was having a really hard time trying to do it one handed, through the grass, while carrying a toddler, and trying to hurry. Some lady made a comment as I was obviously struggling about me having my hands full in a snotty tone of voice. Lucky for her I was in a rush and didn't feel like taking the time to retort.

My pants were too long and ended up getting soaked by the time we got there.

And of course by that time Marshall had pooped in his pants.

I didn't have anything with me to clean him up (since the stupid little stroller didn't have a basket and he never has accidents when we're out anyways), so I had to do the best I could then head back to the car (which was about the same distance from the playground but in the opposite direction) where all the clean clothes and baby wipes were.

By this point Marshall was freaking out because he was upset about having an accident, and upset because he thought we were leaving. Eventually I got him cleaned up and changed into the only set of clean clothes I'd brought for him, and we went back to the playground about 30 minutes after we'd initially arrived.

My baby isn't a baby anymore, he's a toddler:(

It was just us at the park for awhile until another family with a boy the same age as Marshall showed up. The parents and little boy kept talking to Marshall and he'd just stand there staring at them without smiling or talking. Embarrassing. Usually he is a little toned down around other people, but this was seriously ridiculous especially because he just stayed there staring them down from 2 feet away acting like he had never heard the English language.

Now that Miller can walk, he likes to bolt away from me cackling like a little maniac so that I have to chase him. So I spent the next 45 min or so chasing Miller down, bringing him back, waiting to see if he would come back on his own (he won't), bringing him back, and trying to still engage Marshall and make sure he didn't copy the older boys who had shown up and were climbing and jumping off of things way to big for him to try.

At this point it was around 11 so I decided to feed the kids a snack since Jerad thought he would be done around noon and had another job in Paso to rush to. They quickly devoured the bananas and salami I had brought, as well as everything else I had in the diaper bag; mixed nuts, an apple, and a few of those organic veggie babyfood snack pouches. Probably because neither one really ate breakfast. So I loaded them up (after managing to change Miller's diaper in the front seat) and went to Foster's Freeze. We sat outside (well, Marshall and I sat and Miller climbed all over the table like a picnic ant), I got a lettuce wrapped burger, they each had a plain burger patty with cheese, and I got lunch to drop off for Jerad too since I'm such a good wife.

I brought him the food and he said things were talking longer than he planned and I should just go home without him if I wanted to leave now and he'd get a ride, or I could hang out for another hour or so. Since the kids were all fed, tired from the playground, and we had a 30 min drive home I decided I'd leave since it was almost their nap time anyways.

So excited to see the ocean

As I turned off the highway to head home Marshall asked where we were going, and when I told him he started begging so sweetly to go see the water, and talking about how he was going to swim and be happy so I decided to turn around. I had promised it in the first place, and Jerad thought he'd be done in an hour anyways.

I pulled off in just a random spot again cursing the fact that I didn't have a sling or Ergo to put Miller in. Miller had of course pooped so again I managed to change him on the front seat which is tricky because he doesn't really fit on it. In my SUV I can do it on the floor boards or in the cargo area because the car is higher. Since Marshall's shorts were dirty and I wanted to save the pants he was wearing to put on him when we were done, I gave him Miller's shorts and let Miller go in his diaper. He wears a 2T and Miller is size 12 month, but since Marshall isn't in a diaper anymore they work (they're just short).

Chasing Marshall to the waves

Both the kids were SO excited and rushed out to the water. We basically had the whole beach to ourselves! At first Marshall was content running from the waves, but before long he wanted to be way out there in the action.

This is the part that's most stressful about the beach to me.

Marshall is super adventurous and likes getting knocked around by the waves but I need to stay close in case he needs help or gets fully submerged and doesn't pop back up. Miller is more of a toe dipper and doesn't have the balance to withstand the waves yet so he likes playing right by the shore.... or running away in the opposite direction. I can't WAIT until the day when I can lay on my beach blanket with a book and casually watch them frolic together. In the meantime, if Jerad is with us we each shadow one kid, and if it's just me I put Miller in a carrier (all of which have a pocket for my phone and keys) and stand a few feet from Marshall where I'm not crowding him but can lend a hand if needed.

Loves the water getting his toes

So I stuffed my keys and phone in my bra, put Miller on my hip, and stood in the frigid water hoping and praying Marshall got bored pretty soon. He was purple and chattering and I kept asking "aren't you cold?" and he'd answer me "yes and I'm sooo happy!" Eventually, about 45 minutes later, he got knocked under pretty good and decided he was "fweezing" and wanted to go back to the car. I tried holding one of each of their hands and having them walk but Marshall was upset that he was cold and his feet were getting dirty, and Miller walks so slow so I picked them both up and carried them to the car which seriously felt like it was 80 miles away.

As soon we got to the car Marshall started freaking out about being soaking wet and muddy while simultaneously begging to go back. Since he was too cold to actually move, he waited patiently by the car while I put a dry diaper and clothes on Miller, then dry clothes on him as well. I asked if he needed to go potty, and he told me "no, I peed in the water." Gross.... but also sweet, I didn't have to find a bathroom and try to hold Miller while making sure Marshall didn't fall in the toilet. After everyone was buckled in I called Jerad who said he would probably be a few more hours so I should just go without him.

Once they dried off and warmed up both kids were in great moods and Marshall was talking about how much fun he had and when can we go back etc etc. About 15 minutes into our drive he announced that he had to go potty (of course) but the road we were driving on is a narrow winding road with no place to stop. I begged him to hold it, but by the time I was able to pull off he had pooped in his pants. Again. I think he's only had two accidents when we have been out of the house together EVER since potty training, and now he's had 2 POOP accidents in one day. Ugh. I didn't have any more clean pants, was parked in a terrible spot, and Miller was asleep so I made the judgement call to just drive home (we were about 10-15 minutes away) and deal with it there.

When I pulled in the driveway both kids were sleeping and not too thrilled about being forced into the shower. I thought about letting Miller go to bed sandy but I had just changed all the sheets yesterday and didn't want to have to do it again so soon if I could help it.

Finally everyone was nestled all snug in their beds and I had a chance to sit down and relax for the first time since the alarm went off in the morning.

So, that was an honest look at about a 5 hour window of our day.

I don't mean to make it sound like my life sucks or the kids are difficult or anything. They had a ton of fun, just look at their smiley little mugs! But it is mentally draining. I just figure that they're little, and they're going to have tantrums and accidents, and do things that make me want to pull my hair out sometimes but they'd be doing them if we were cooped up in the house (and probably more often in that case) so we might as well get out and enjoy life. They have a better time if we're out and about, and I feel like I'm doing a better job.

When I look back on the week I don't want to feel like all I did was go to work and sit around the house. I want to feel like I was engaging the kids with things like parks, Children's Museums, the zoo, long nature walks, swimming, trying new restaurants, wandering around new cities when Jerad is working out of town... 6 hour adventures to Ikea (okay, that one was more for me but they survived). I don't remember things like "Miller kept running away and eating handfuls of sand" or "Marshall demanded I make the sand less 'bumpy' and said his feet would break off if he walked."

I remember that on Saturday I got up early and took the kids to a new fun park, out to eat, AND went to the beach all before naptime! And it's worth it every time.

I know everyone is biased when it comes to their own kids but seriously. The Cuteness kills me.

H3: The First Trimester

Right, so I'm pregnant. Again.

Friday November 9th I was cleaning out my bathroom cabinets and found some old pregnancy tests. So of course, I decided I better take one right away. Honestly, I have no idea why. I wasn't having any pregnancy symptoms, had only had one period since having Miller, and wasn't even late for another yet. Surprisingly, the stick slowly turned pink. So I promptly chugged a bunch of water, and peed on another one which was an even darker positive.

I then immediately texted my friend Beth (I think she's been the first to know about each of my pregnancies:) that "my eggo is preggo."

I was going to wait awhile to tell Jerad and was even kinda having fun being the only one (aside from Beth) that knew, but then he did something that ticked me off (said he was too tired to load the dishwasher or something like that) and I almost snapped at him how exhausted I am doing all the errands, working full time, handling the vast majority of household chores and cleaning, all while  taking care of a 2 year old, baby, and being pregnant etc etc... so I decided to tell him before I let it slip the "wrong way."

I started thinking up cute ideas and ways to surprise him with the news and then was realistic that since he might not be excited at first, I probably shouldn't spring it on him with some elaborate plan and it'd be better to let it sink in. I knew he would eventually be happy, but it was going to be a surprise and he still wasn't completely sold on the baby #3 plan.

So I did the mature thing and Monday morning around 6:00am as I finishing getting ready for work, I put all the positive pregnancy tests on the back of the toilet and sent him a text message screen shot of the due date calendar saying "your baby is due on or around July 21st" with a message that said "Sorry Charlie ;)"

 

Then I left and figured he'd see it when he got up for work in the morning:)

He ended up seeing it before I left and stumbled down stairs with his phone (he hadn't even noticed the positive tests) and said "is this some really weird way of telling me you're pregnant?" To which I sort of stammered "oh. Yes. Late for work, see ya tonight!" But then he was so cute and so sweet and so excited about it (or did a really convincing job of faking it). In fact, I think he was even more excited about this one than he was with either Marshall or Miller.

Baby #1 is scary because you just don't really know what to expect or how it will change your life, baby #2 you worry about the logistics of being pregnant while caring for another child, then taking care of two at once (and Marshall was only a year old when we found out I was pregnant with Miller), and if you can love and take care of and afford another at all... but #3 I guess he just figured we knew what we were doing and what to expect by now.

Since we found out so early, I was sort of in denial for awhile. I wasn't having any symptoms, and we had a bunch of holiday parties and activities to keep me distracted. With each pregnancy I've gotten progressively nauseous and this one I started having morning sickness around 7 weeks. No one at work knew I was pregnant yet and getting up from my desk to dash to the bathroom and throw up multiple times a day was not fun. For weeks 7-10 the only thing that I could stomach and keep down was things like bread and crackers. Which was unfortunate because we've been mostly gluten free for the past 9 months or so, so suddenly eating wheat all the time made me feel sluggish and like crap. Which sucked but was still preferable to feeling nauseous and throwing up all the time.

However, around 10 weeks the clouds parted and I started feeling better. Which was great because I was actually able to enjoy Christmas and taking the kids out of town to the snow for Jerad's brother's wedding!

The difference in having Jerad around has been amazing! In retrospect I didn't realize how hard it was having him out of town for the majority of Miller's pregnancy. For the majority of this first trimester I was able to sleep in and nap at least two times a week which was heavenly. Friday's when I'm home alone with the kids I made myself (not that it took much convincing) lay down and rest/sleep while they took their afternoon nap, and I tried to get in at least one weekend nap as well. On the weekends Jerad would get up with the kids and make them breakfast and I would get to sleep in till 8 or 9. After the kids would go to bed there were quite a few nights where instead of vacuuming and cleaning I'd just peace-out as well. Jerad started taking over some, then eventually all of Miller's night wakings.

In other words, I had a pretty restful first trimester! Which is good because guys, my body is tiiiired. By the time this baby is born I will have been pregnant, breastfeeding, or BOTH for 3 years and 11 months straight. While working full time outside the house. Its not easy. But it is worth it. I'm so excited to meet baby #3! We'll find out the gender in about a month, and so far we're both hoping it's another boy. When he/she is born Marshall will have just turned 3, and Miller will only be 1.5, so having three boys so close in age just seems extra fun. Not to mention we already have everything we'd need.

In just another month we'll know! I have a list of names for both genders, but we haven't agreed on anything yet. In the meantime I'm just calling it "H3."

That catches us up through the first trimester.

And just for fun:

8 weeks. We'll call this the "before" photo since it's the earliest one I took.

13 weeks

I think since my body has never really had time to recover from being pregnant, it just falls back into "preggo mode" really fast. Now at 15 weeks I'm already bigger than most of my friends at 20+ and getting "are you sure there's just one in there?" comments. Oh well, I can deal with being huge since so far the kids have all been so adorable:)

I need to do better...

... with this whole blogging thing. On the one hand I feel like its such an effort, my laptop is broken which makes getting photos on here hard, and no one cares anyways, waa waa waa etc. etc. etc. But *I* care and honestly I have such a crappy memory I need to write things down so that I can go back and remember later. So, I plan to spend this week catching up and be diligent about documenting the kids and this pregnancy over the next year!