Yolande

Gah, I'm late with this update, and I know you were all worried when 4/11 passed without a post about Porter-P. Alas, I am a slave to the concept of equal documentation between children and there will only be three more monthly posts after this one. Because at age two, I stop doing them and THEN WHAT?? What will drive me to blog at all after my baby doesn't need my rambling voice to recap his monthly happenings anymore? Wah.

So old and distinguished, probably can read his own blog posts already.  :)


Porter thinks he is a big kid lately. He refuses to sit in a booster seat and now sits in a regular chair at the dinner table, even though his little chin barely reaches the plate. No matter, since he sits still for approximately five minutes to eat then says 'down' and is over it. I can't decide if he is a good eater or not---I don't think he is all that adventurous as he knows what he likes and rarely deviates from it, no matter how many other options I'll put on his plate. His favorites are yogurt, pizza, bread crusts with mayonnaise on them (so random, such a third kid thing), PBJ, and chips. Porter loves 'dips' and will scream for them more than most other food types. Well, cookies and M&Ms are his ultimate favorites in life, and if I make my M&M cookies he will try to pick out the candies first and then will eat the rest of the crumbs. He knows what he wants, this is for certain.

So happy on the swings!


Loves selfies, duh.


He seems super long and lean like he's lost his baby belly, but I know that compared to 2-3 year old Porter this guy is still 'chubby'. But he's really thinned out and is running constantly, eating very little it seems, so no wonder he doesn't seem gigantic and fat anymore! He comfortably wears size 24 month clothes, 2T seems a little big, and 18 months are usually too short but he could squeeze into them if needed. And I'm pretty sure last summer he was wearing 12-18 month clothes so as I pull out his warmer weather clothes, some of them still fit from last year! This is absurd and usually doesn't happen with my kids until they are much older and wearing clothes for longer than one season.

Long and lean!


Toddler body proportions slay me.


Hi, big kid!


The biggest obsession for Porter is definitely trains, and specifically all of the Thomas trains. He will name them now, pointing to them in a book and on TV and in 'real life' with our toy trains that are scattered across every inch of our house. I believe his favorites are 'Diesel 10' which he calls 'Ten', Spencer which sounds like 'Pen-durrrr', and Gordon. 'Gord' is still the bees knees around here but this month brought the ability to name 20 or so trains. Also he will request to watch Thomas and will actually sit down and watch a full episode without getting distracted. He will play with the three train tracks we have set up in the basement for a solid 10-15 minutes before calling for help. I love watching his little mind at work when playing with trains and I hope it continues! For we have many-a-Thomas shirts for the 2T-3T size little boy.

At Easter church service, double fisting the trains of course.




Can handle his Kindle with the best of them, usually picks Thomas or Daniel and watches it without interaction! Julia, the mom to one child, would have NEVER approved of this milestone but Julia, the mom to three kids, is super excited about this.


Ports is still a good sleeper, going down around 7:30 and sleeping until at least 7:00. Sometimes he will go through a phase of waking up earlier around 6:00 but thankfully that hasn't lasted more than a week or so. Also he still naps for 2-3 hours in the afternoon and really despises being woken up to get his brother at school. Porter needs to sleep with one giant Snoopy blanket, about three Aiden and Anais blankets, his duckie, 3-4 trains, and a billion stuffed animals. And two books. Then he makes me carry down all of those blankets with us after he wakes up, because sometimes he'll make a pile of blankets in a random place and will just lay face-down on them.

Loves him some duckie, filthy, filthy duckie.


Snuggles before a bed, a newish part of the routine that I looooooooove.


He's a goofy dude who loves to get a laugh, especially when they come from the mouths of his siblings. He'll pretend to be a dog and say 'woof woof' and pant, then he'll crawl around and scratch at my legs. Hilarious to CC and Truman, of course. And speaking of animals, Porter is truly obsessed with all animals and definitely at a perfect age for the zoo. His mind is blown when we see any ducks or geese and seeing bears at the zoo was probably the highlight of his entire month. He wouldn't stop telling everyone about the 'bay-ah' and then he would go on a tirade about every other animal we saw, and what they were doing (high! birdie! head! wa-wa! monkey! ooh-ooh-aah-aah! mump (jump!) ) The list goes on but let it be known that we have an animal and a train lover on our hands. Also a talker---Porter is still crazy verbal and it's awesome to hear him communicate mostly understandable thoughts!



What else about my little dude? He still loves his mommy and gets a little picky about who is going to help him do things. He usually says 'no, mama!' if someone else tries to help get him down off a chair or change his diaper. The last one is super fun for me. I've been telling Nate he needs to remember what it's like to change a disgusting diaper but *funny* how Porter just won't allow it :/



He's really into saying 'bye' to everything. 'Bye, wa-wa! Bye, plane! Bye, duckie! Bye da-da!' It's my favorite, even when he says goodbye to his privates as I replace his diaper. Also, he wants to be naked all of the time and sprints away from me when I'm changing him, just to feel the breeze on his skin or possibly because he likes to have me chase him down.

I also chase him around Costco, pictured here.


My favorite Porter activity is when he rides his sister's hot pink tricycle. We finally got him a helmet so he can ride the tricycle and also ride in the Burley with Cecelia on family bike rides (key!). I foresee many afternoons playing in our backyard this summer and as long as P doesn't wander off to explore the woods (he does have a tendency to follow birds), it's going to be a great time with this growing babe.

I mean....


We had a good Easter with Porter this year, but egg dyeing was not the most pleasant.


And yet, it's such a treat to watch our little caboose grow into himself. We are all pretty smitten with Porter and the feeling can be mutual. He can also hold his own and will purposefully push Truman and Cecelia's buttons, so I hardly have to worry about our little 'baby' of the family. In fact, Nate and I think he is going to be the toughest and wildest one of the bunch! Hold me.


We love you so much, Porter-P. This month and every month, words fail me to describe how amazing you are!
xoxo
Mommy

I'm going to ignore the static silence over here in my corner of the inter webs and just go for it.

A few weeks ago, my family of five plus my in-laws (and my parents for a part of it) travelled to Oregon for our 'big family vacation'. Except that I made sure everyone knew it's not a vacation with kids, it's a TRIP. Amiright?

Nate's only brother, Jon, lives in Oregon and this trip was based around Jon's wedding to Brittany. My first sister-in-law is the bomb dot com and I'm so excited to welcome her to the family. Another Mrs. Goolia....too bad she lives halfway across the world from me. We continually try to convince each other to 'just move here already', either to WI or OR, to squash that distance but so far neither of us is budging. ;)

Well, Oregon certainly SEEMED to be a million miles away from home during our initial day of travel, might has well have been halfway around the world. Let me break it down for you, since I know detailed travel posts are oh-so-interesting.

We woke up on Thursday, July 14th at 5am. Packing for a ten day trip that includes a wedding (fancy clothes!) and also hiking, exploring, being in different climates was not a joke and probably deserves it's own post. Next time I pack for such an event I should live-blog it or something, so that I can remember the process and what to pack/what not to bother packing. But for now let's just say that we were fully packed and multiple paper lists flew around the house last minute. We woke the kids at 6 and hopped in the van, with Tony and Lois, after Nate loaded an absurd amount of luggage into our beloved Honda Odyssey. You guys, we had one single BOB stroller, a gigantic red suitcase that we checked, then six 'carry on' suitcases that were bordering on the size restrictions, and also six swollen backpacks for the actual plane ride. In addition to the seven people in our van! I have no idea how Master Nate managed to fit everything into the back of the van but he did, so we were off to Chicago at this bright hour of the day.

The List. Mad I didn't get a picture of our trunk all loaded!


Traffic wasn't horrible, so I believe we arrived to O'Hare (ugghghghghghhhh, sorry but this airport is not my favorite) around 7:30. After a few minor speed bumps with finding the correct long-term parking lot, we hopped on the shuttle and got to the airport in one piece.  Going up and down escalators with Truman and Cecelia each pulling their own new suitcases was a little terrifying. We did have to check the BOB because apparently it's 24 pounds and they only gate check a stroller less than 20 pounds. Porter screamed, 'Noooo! My BOB, MY BOB, MYYYYY BOBBBBBBBB,' all throughout security. But we emerged stronger than before....literally, because now we had to carry Porter through the airport or allow him to walk which takes approximately 1402831 times longer than just picking up the screaming babe.





We all decided to eat some breakfast since our flight didn't board until 10 am. McDonalds was the obvious choice, along with a supplemental Starbucks kick. I think I changed a poopy diaper after that and praised God for letting this happen before the flight (foreshadowing for the way home), and then we hung out by the gate for a bit. Porter spotted his BOB load under our plane and proceeded to lose his mind, yet again, the poor babe. The flight attendant said she won a bet about why Porter was screaming---she said kids cry over seeing their bags go under the plane all of the time, who would have thought?! Also, they announced that anyone who wanted to gate check their carry ons could do so and we immediately signed up for that stuff, because our bags already becoming a hassle.

We finally boarded and ended up sitting like this: me at a window, Porter in the middle seat, then Tony on the aisle side. Nate sat behind us with Truman and Cecelia flanking him, and then Lois was across the aisle from them. Tony and Lois flip flopped around between helping me with Porter and trying to catch a few zzzzs in their more quiet seat. I cannot say that I blame them and I am sort of pissy with Nate because he got the easy kids and therefore was able to watch real TV on his laptop, or some other sort of 'me time' entertainment.

Easy kids:




So we were all strapped in, ready to take off, and then we sat on the runway for almost an hour. Because: O'Hare, I guess. Porter was super interested in a new magnetic train book that Memaw sent him so this actually didn't suck as much as it sounds like. Finally we did take off and began our 4 hour and 15 minute journey in the sky. I considered this our second leg of a three leg expedition (first leg was driving to Chicago and getting through the airport, second was actually flying, third was getting the rental van and driving to our destination. One guess as to which was the most dreadful.)





During our flight, I had jam-packed Cecelia and Truman's backpacks with goodies. They each had their loveys, headphones, an electronic device with pre-loaded movies and shows, Mambas for chewing with pressure changes, granola bars, water bottles, new coloring books and crayons, educational activity books, books to read for real, Cecelia had a bunch of random stickers, and Truman had an Origami book to complete with Nate. Porter's goodies were in my bag, and included his loveys, headphones that he refused to wear, a Kindle with a few Thomas movies pre-loaded, the magnetic train book, Wikki-Stix that I enjoyed more than him, a huge pack of fruit snacks for ear popping, water, granola bars, pretzels, stickers, regular books to read, and a regular magician for ultimate entertainment. I wish! But really, age two might be the hardest age for flying----too old to sleep or nurse or cuddle, too young to stay focused on anything for too long (including screens) plus the insatiable desire to stay.moving.at.all.times. We had to buy Porter a plane ticked because this was three days after his second birthday, but in hindsight he would have needed that seat even six months ago----definitely not a lap baby anymore!



Oh, hey, wing shot!


The flight was pretty good. Porter bounced from various activities and was totally enthralled with his apple juice and cookies from the attendant. We tried to convince him to nap but failed, and I know I was listening to a movie that American Airlines was playing for us. I didn't really *watch* it but I tried to follow along to one with Walter White from Breaking Bad, and the movie industry back in the day. Seemed interesting! Anyone know the title?

We landed in Portland around 1pm-ish, I think. There's a two hour time change which completely killed us after our trip, back in Milwaukee, but this day it didn't seem too bad. Next was retrieving our luggage while Tony went to hunt down Thrifty rental cars. The luggage was fine and Porter was oh-so-happy to reunite with his BOB. Nate and Lois and I hauled around all gajillion pieces of luggage and tried to find Tony, without much luck. Apparently Thrifty was one of the companies that requires a shuttle off the airport property. After that borderline ride (everyone was getting pretty hungry and exhausted by now, who knew that meals consisting of granola bars and candy wouldn't cut it?), we found Tony and our rental van. It seemed much smaller than our Odyssey, I believe it was a Chrysler? But we rented two five point harness car seats and one booster for Truman, installed those, played Tetris with our luggage to make it fit in the trunk, and we were off to Eugene from there. We considered waiting for my mom and dad to get their car and follow us down, but they were about an hour behind us and we were worried about hitting traffic so we decided to meet them at the hotel.

Making our way through the airport, happy as clams to be on these moving walkways.


Gathering luggage.


Thus begins our problematic leg of the journey, because Portland traffic at 2pm is NOT A FREAKING JOKE, people. Truly. Maybe it was just the perfect storm for everything combusting in our face at this point, but we were in bumper-to-bumper traffic for seriously 2 hours. Porter fell asleep for 20 minutes (so did the other two kids!), then woke up in hysterics, probably just so tired and hungry and over it that he couldn't deal. Listening to my baby scream non-stop, inconsolable, running out of tears was the worst. After those two hours of hell, we found a small town and stopped at Panera for a real meal (I feel like the town was maybe 50 miles outside of Portland or something awful). This was a quiet time in our journey, none of us were really verbal and couldn't form a sentence anyway. But the kids did appreciate some protein and non-granola bar food as did the adults.

This is the last picture I took on this day, symbolizing the car ride that hated us (and we hated it).


We decided to stretch our legs a bit by walking around a strip mall for maybe 30 minutes. Then back in the van we went. We had no traffic but still a solid hour and a half awaiting us by road. Finally, FINALLY, by the grace of the good Lord we arrived to our hotel in Eugene, Oregon at 6pm Eastern time. Which calculates to be fourteen hours of travel from door-to-door, and is the reason that we crumpled into pathetic balls of despair when we arrived at the hotel. There was some confusion with our rooms, the king suite Nate and I wanted for the addition of a pull out couch for the kids wasn't available next to Tony and Lois's room. And I really felt like we needed to be as close as possible to them if we had any chance of going out after the kids went to bed, so we ended up getting two queens that connected to my in-laws' room. Porter's pack-n-play took about an hour to arrive and then it was seriously microscopic, made for a seven pound infant or something. HILARIOUS!

We told the kids we would swim at the hotel pool when we arrived but there was just no freaking way. Instead we sort of unpacked and fed them some leftovers from lunch, chatted with Nate's aunt and cousins for a bit, and then put the kids to bed at 9pm (which was 11pm central time, OMG). My parents also came down to our room right before bedtime, just arriving from Portland, and the kids were so stinking happy to see them that I relaxed a little on the 'must do bedtime now!' stance I had earlier. Somehow Nate talked me into walking with his cousin, aunt, mom and my parents to get food after that. We stumbled upon Pita Pit in the little downtown Eugene and it was good but we were so exhausted I barely tasted it.

We crashed into bed with me sharing a bed with Cecelia, Truman with Nate, and Porter in the microscopic pack-n-play that made him exclaim over and over again, 'I don't fit!'.

(Stay tuned for nine more days of our trip! I'm not sure I will divide each day up into posts but this one was too long to combine).

I've been wanting to write this post for a few weeks now, because when I was pregnant with Cecelia I constantly wondered what it would be like to have two children instead of 'just' one. In fact, I asked a few of my girlfriends who had recently made the jump from one to two if they thought it was easier the second time around. I mean, going from zero to one is LIFE-CHANGING. I cannot even remember what I did with my days before Truman came along (I think I worked, ran, blogged, slept and lounged a lot?). I figured my friends would say that zero to one was harder than one to two. But the verdict? Not so much. Two of my girlfriends were very honest when they said it was a lot harder than they had anticipated. Gulp.

Now I'm not here to say it's harder for everyone to make the jump to two kids, because there are just too many variables out there to consider. The temperament of both the newborn and the toddler will make a HUGE difference in your own personal experience. Then there is the husband wild card---is he one that's incredibly helpful, present for weeks after the birth of number two, and able to handle the demands of one-on-one defense? Or will you be mostly on your own during the day with only a few hours at night and on weekends with an extra set of hands? And what about your employment status? Will you be going back to work outside the home in 6, 8, 12 weeks or do you stay at home? See? All of these variables make it impossible to compare situations between moms. So take my experience with a grain of salt. You know I still want to share my opinion, though, right? ;)

I think the bottom line is this: it might be easy to assume that jumping to two kids will be easier than the jump to one because you've done it before. You should know what to expect. But honestly? That is sort of laughable to me now. Because every child is SO different, you haven't done it before with *this* child. And you haven't juggled that second child with a toddler before, either. And so the transition from 1-2 is very much like entering a completely different universe. A familiar universe at times, but still unique for the most part.

I've even heard people say the phrase: 'One is like none, and two is like ten' which I think is a little dramatic. But it's true that on my days with just Cecelia at home, I marvel at how much easier it is with just one baby. I know when I had little newborn Truman to care for it didn't SEEM easy and looking back, it wasn't easy. But it's funny how your perception of 'easy' changes with more kids over time. My favorite article written to moms with 'only' one child is this one, written by a mother with nine kids. I love that she respects the difficulty of raising your first child. Maybe if I have nine kids then looking back on having 'only' two will seem like a cake walk? :)

I can't proclaim that the jump to two kids was harder than I expected, since I honestly could not wrap my head around it while pregnant. I didn't really have an idea of what it would be like to juggle two kids, which is good in a way. Going in without expectations means this experience is what it is. Not harder or easier than 'expected.' But I definitely feel a huge difference between having one child and having two children to care for. And I think the differences are so interesting they must be explored.

The biggest difference this time around is that I not only have a newborn to care for but a toddler, too. I mean, duh, right? But I didn't really comprehend how different my maternity leave would feel this time around compared to the last. Truman can definitely be labeled as an 'easy' toddler, which is something I promise not to take for granted. He's laid back, well-behaved, and rarely throws tantrums. He can play independently for a decent amount of time and is usually pretty agreeable when I ask him to do something. Now he's not perfect by any means---but I would not call him a 'strong willed' child, like so many other mamas in the blog world have. And because of his temperament, I know that he is making this round two with Cecelia a little easier on me. But it's still not 'EASY' by any means.

As you read in my DITL post, balancing Truman's needs and his constant energy is tough at times, simply because there is a also newborn in the picture to consider. He has to have activities to do and we have to get out of the house or it gets hairy around here. And because I have to be on the go-go-go with a toddler, I don't have that focus on Cecelia 100% of the time like I did with Truman's maternity leave. Sometimes I expect Truman to be all grown up, because he just seems so mature compared to helpless Cece. But obviously he can't get food on his own, he isn't (totally) potty trained, he can't dress himself, and he just plain old needs mommy sometimes. The kid is two-and-a-half, not twelve, like I sometimes assume.

And because I have two kids, my valuable 'me' time just got squished out of the picture even more than before. It's important to find some mommy time for mental health, but it's certainly a challenge with two little kids demanding your attention. I know I need to be better about forcing 'me' time. In fact, I think deserve a big fat massage in the next few weeks. Now I just have to make the appointment...

Another big difference this time around is that I don't get the option to sleep in bed half of the day if we've had a rough night. I really do miss that part of having 'just one'---no toddler schedule to follow, no need to take the baby out in the car for daycare drop offs/pick ups, and no need to force her into activities outside if we don't feel like leaving the house. But mister Truman kind of runs the show around here, not Cecelia. And so we are on the move and don't get to sleep as much with a toddler in the picture along with a newborn.

I guess the thing I miss the most from my days of having only Truman is the routine--I'm talking about Truman as a toddler here, and not as a newborn. There was no routine back then, either:) I miss knowing what to expect with my one toddler. I miss being able to leave the house without packing half of our freaking belongings into a bulging bag. I miss not having to whip out my tat to feed a child in public, while simultaneously keeping my curious toddler from getting hurt on the playground. Feeling on top of things as a mom----that is a thing of the past for right now, but I know I'll get there again. Because a newborn doesn't adhere to your previously scheduled routine. True story. Go figure. :) I'm a control-freak and felt a lot more in control with just one. I remember at the end of my pregnancy with Cecelia how I sensed that it was the calm before the storm. Life was pretty amazing and we were confident parents, knowing what to expect from day to day. I freaked out a bit then wondering why on earth we wanted to change EVERYTHING. And it's true--nothing like a newborn to really humble you as a parent. But man, it's freaking awesome having two kids, even though it's hectic and unpredictable. I would not change it for the world.

And! Now that I have two kids, I think that it's actually a LOT easier for me this time to put things into perspective. The first time around I had no clue what to expect as my little baby changed before my very eyes daily. I didn't know how fast it really goes. I didn't understand that everything is a phase--even the hard stuff. I couldn't see past the present moment because I hadn't gotten to experience a growing child, moving into new and exciting phases all the time.

That article I linked to above has a beautiful quote about children being light as air, nudging past you as they float away like balloons (makes me cry to read that, but it's true). This time around I understand that these times with my children are fleeting. I know Cecelia will eventually sleep all night....in her room:) I know she will eventually drink milk from something other than my boob. She won't always hate her car seat. And I also know that she won't always want to be held. She won't always need me so much (and man, they really are helpless and pathetic as newborns, aren't they?). She might not be able to tell me exactly what she needs---something I find sort of maddening with newborns---but man, this itty-bitty stage still has a lot of positives to absorb. Of course, I cannot freaking wait to see her giggle, to see her sit, walk, talk, and interact with us like a real 'kid'. It's been nothing short of amazing to watch Truman grow into his own little person and I know it's going to be just as fun to see Cece emerge, too. That is another thing about the second child---you now KNOW how awesome kids can be as they age. And you also know there will be challenges. :)

The second-born definitely makes you appreciate each child for what they are. I love that Truman sleeps through the night and is somewhat predictable. I love that he can play by himself a bit and is constantly making us laugh with toddler-isms. And I love that Cecelia loves to cuddle me, nurse from me, and sleeps a ton (during the day). And that I can put her down in one spot and she actually stays there!

Since I'm a mom who works outside of the home part-time, this maternity leave is incredibly special to me---just like it was with Truman. But it's different this time, for a few reasons. First, since I'm going to return to work with a 20 hour per week schedule, and not my old 36 hours per week, I don't feel that sense of dread this time. I don't feel particularly sad about going back, or panicked like I'll never get to see my child again. With Truman I had a pit in my stomach, feeling like I should be mourning the loss of something. My child? My time with my child? I don't know but I was just so sad and scared to go back to work. It felt like the end of something....and I suppose it was the end of my maternity leave, but it wasn't the end of my time with Truman. Does that make sense? Now I know that life goes on and I still get to enjoy my children for a majority of each week. And even more so now that I don't work a whole lot:) I'm not as scared about my milk supply tanking, or fearful of the pump. I still loathe the pump but I totally know I can handle the three sessions each day this time.

Life is about finding a balance. Now I know I can work outside the home in a career I love AND I can be a good mom to my children. They can still be the lights of my life even if we aren't together 24/7. I didn't feel that way the first time around and I'm so grateful to be in a happier place this time as my maternity leave comes to a close.

Maternity leave is still a magical, dreamy period of weeks for me where time doesn't really exist. It's like you are in a bubble just drifting through the days without any sense of the world around you. That is probably because of the sleep deprivation, which would be the case for any new mom and not just working moms:) I am not saying that staying at home *in general* is magical and dreamy---just the first weeks with a new baby are like that. Because I do stay at home two days a week with my kids and it's not really 'dreamy' past the first three months. And obviously, there are really hard days during maternity leave and it's not always magical. It's just a wonderful time and I will definitely miss it. But I don't dread going back to work, either. I'll just look back on this time with a hazy, foggy perspective of what it was really like to be a new mom again. And I'll smile about these twelve weeks at home while I'll probably forget about the hard days and nights.

(and what good is a post without a baby pic?)

A long and slender week, apparently...but I suppose we are to focus on the length, only. Week of the banana.

And that weight guess is right on because our boy weighed 13 ounces at his big US! And speaking of weight and the lucky number 13....guess who's packed on 13 of the big lbs? (And yes, I got my hair chopped off tonight. Could not take it anymore. Does it make my face look fat?)



Yeah, totally freaked out at my 20 week appointment last Tuesday. Where are those 13 pounds, I ask, because I'm still in normal clothes and people are still badgering me about not really being pregnant. I asked the doctor if that was an obscene amount of weight to gain thus far. And do you know what that saintly woman told me? "Oh no, that is actually low. I would have liked to see you at 20 pounds at this point being halfway through already." To which my eyes bulged in reply--we've never discussed weight gain before, so this was news to me. I asked, "Do you mean you want me to gain 40 pounds total?" and she informed me that yes--I am to shoot for the stars with this pregnancy. Something about me being on the borderline of 'underweight' for my BMI before pregnancy and so she wants me above the standard 20-35 pound mark. Score for me, I guess? I cannot fathom stepping on the scale and seeing a number FORTY FREAKING POUNDS heavier than my norm. Sorry for yelling, but holy cow. I guess it's doctor's orders so I won't complain too much. But please, Lord, let me lose the weight fairly easily. I'm so tempted to sign up for a half marathon next fall just to taunt myself with jumping headfirst into training again, but alas...I will not to that to myself just yet.

Besides the majorly awesome milestone of seeing our little man on the US screen last week and falling totally, madly in love with him, mister man has also turned up the kicking a notch. To the point where my new favorite pass time is laying down, pulling up my shirt, and watching the show he puts on for me. Nate is still working out the timing on these performances by our guy because he still gets a bit shy with daddy watching. But the kicks are insanely powerful right now and I wonder if this is the happy medium for movement during my pregnancy: when he has enough room to go nuts and kick like crazy, before he gets too cramped and has to deliver dull nudges instead. I suppose we shall find out.

The big question everyone wants to know now that the cat is out of the bag with his gender is: "So have you thought of names?" The short answer is yes, we have. The long answer? We (and by 'we' I mostly mean 'me) have been compiling very large lists of both boy and girl names that we (ahem, I) liked since even before I got pregnant. I went through the lists with Nate a few months ago and jotted down his reactions to some of my choices and got hilarious responses. From 'Okay, but dorky' to 'Not going to happen in a million years ' to a flat out 'NO'--he certainly had his opinions. So I let it drop, figuring it was way too early to decide something this monumental anyway. But on Friday morning, as we drove up to Madison and back to pick up our amazingly awesome dresser/ changer from Craigslist, we really narrowed down the name options. The night before we both made our own separate boy name lists of seven options each. Then on Friday we went through the lists and consolidated a Top Four, if you will. We each like all four of the names and although Nate informed me that he could make a final decision immediately, I want to wait it out just a little longer. You know, let the big four marinate a little bit, ponder it, and probably second and third guess all of them. THEN I might be ready to commit.

But it looks like we might be keeping this big decision a secret. Nate would prefer it this way and I guess that makes sense since we did find out the sex and everything. Either way we know the middle name will be Nate's middle name, Anthony, which is also Nate's dad's first name and Nate's late Grandpa's first name. Something about four generations of men with the same name is just way too cool in my opinion. My middle name is the same way, so someday we already have our girl's middle name settled (Lorene) !

So that's that. We now have a pimped out dresser changer that needs to be re-painted white and needs new knobs AND if that weren't exciting enough, we might have found our rocker, too! You'll never guess where we found it. No, not on Craigslist, despite my devoted stalking every day. No, not some other online store, or even a store at all. We found it in my in-laws attic. You see, they LOVE to store furniture up there like it's no one's business. When we needed a dining room table, we scoured stores for months before we decided we didn't like any of them. And then my in-laws informed us that they had three spare full dining room sets for us to choose from. Isn't that insane? You need a little step stool or a side table? Head on up to the attic of my in-laws and go crazy....they have it all. And we knew they had at least 3 rockers up there but we didn't think they'd like us to paint any of them white, since most are sentimental antiques. And I will not budge on the 'all white furniture' idea. But Nate's dad let us know about one of the 'somewhat modern' rockers that could be painted and whaddya know? It seriously looks just like the rocker from Ikea I've been stalking! All it needs is a little sanding, priming, and painting white. Then add two fatty upholstered cushions and voila...our nursery furniture is almost complete!

I am purposely not showing you pictures of the dresser/changer and the rocker to drive you mad. Not really, but I want to do a big reveal on both pieces once I get them both finished. My parents are making the trek up north to see us this weekend and I have a list of about 10 projects my mom and I will try to tackle while she's here. So patience, my friends. I'm dying to see them finished, too:)

Baby boy is moving right along on his developmental time line this week and get this: he is growing taste buds! Just imagine him, gulping down some yummy amniotic fluid and practicing his digestive process. Isn't he squeezable? But the weirdest thing is that some studies say that after he is born, baby might be more interested in tastes he's already experienced through my amniotic fluid. Guess this boy is going to love sweets then, huh? I totally need to lay off the sugar but it was Halloween and I just love them, okay? Okay.

I think that's it for week 21. I also had an eventful and fun weekend down in St. Louis throwing Hannah a baby shower. Pictures to come!

That's what we used to say when people got engaged, but OBVIOUSLY an engagement isn't a negative happening. At all.

So tonight I got the call from my good friend, Kristen [a.k.a. "E-bug"]. She and her now fiance were celebrating their one year dating anniversary at the Boat House. They exchanged gifts and voila--E now has some major bling on her hand! She was SO excited that her words were running together but I heard something about the stone being round and the metal being white gold, and her family hiding in the corner taking pictures the whole time. She is going to be a planner extraordinaire, which will make me quite proud. I'm hoping she'll ask for my advice but I doubt she'll need it.

Here is E performing her duties as a wedding reader, at my wedding. She is so talented at this task that she has now read at three weddings. Yes, three. So she has plenty of experience being in the wedding spotlight.

Here are Kristen and Will, the happy couple.Awww, aren't they squeezable?


Now for those of you that don't know, we have a group of girls labeled "the fab five" [totally overdone, I know]. Well here we are showing our very serious faces:
So three of the five are officially married, and now a fourth is engaged. That leaves ONE [ahem, Lindsey] out of our five. And now that Kristen is engaged, Lindsey is next in line. Can't wait for that call as well:)

Here's to Kristen and Will: high fives all around!Kristen is one of my loyal blog readers who cannot comment due to work restrictions but I hope she sees this soon. Congrats, E-bug! Wish I could be there to celebrate with you!