I blinked

5 years old.   My little man somehow turned 5 on April 15th.
Parenthood is a strange thing.   They grow up so fast and time just seems to FLY by - but then it's hard to remember a time when he wasn't in our lives.   What the hell did we do with our time before we had a child? I have NO idea....even though we had a whole 6 years of marriage first.
What is it they say?  The days are long - but the years are short?   SO TRUE.
Hubs and I stood hand in hand in his doorway last night and just stared at our sleeping bedheaded boy in disbelief that we now have a 5 year old.   I of course had to cut it short because in my fragile hormonal state I was about to be a blubbering MESS.   Pregnancy makes me cry...over everything.   You know that Budweiser commercial with the horse and his trainer that they played during the Superbowl?  Yeah, forget it....I had to leave the room.  The father and son cancer survivors have to bail off the Amazing Race?   Me = teary mess.

5 is going to be a milestone for our little guy.  He is going to become a big brother in a few months...graduating preschool and then will be starting Kindergarten.  To say I have anxiety about this would be an understatement.   Adam does not seem to handle change well and those are two very big changes within a few short weeks of each other.
I digressed...see?   Anxiety!   Lets move on...

Hub's birthday was on Easter Sunday this year, so we decided to drive up to San Francisco and see his family.  Our dog was scheduled for surgery the following week and would have a 2 month recovery following (this is a whole other post!) so we kind of figured it might be our last opportunity to get up there what with the pregnancy and all.  
The day before, I took Adam to an Easter Egg hunt at church since we weren't sure if the weather would allow us to do one up north.

Turns out all the eggs were empty and they gathered all these kids around to talk about finding the tomb empty...only to discover Jesus had risen!   I get that they were trying to make a point and all - but dude, hunting for empty eggs, wee bit of a letdown for kids this age.   Luckily, once the kids turned in their eggs, they got a bag of candy in it's place and this boy was happy to have chocolate to eat.

Later that night, we dyed real Easter Eggs since we like have a mix of both plastic and hard boiled...

Nothing like dying eggs in your tightey whiteys!

The next day we drove up to SF...got a late start and questioned ourselves as to why we decided to leave on Easter morning....and then had a minor car puking incident which is never fun.  But eventually we got there and had a nice dinner with all the family.   It was rainy and overcast, so we did an indoor egghunt with all the kids and it was fun and chaotic and I didn't get ANY pictures.
On Monday we took Adam to the Aquarium at the Wharf which we'd never been to and was actually VERY cool.  Long tunnels with fish all around you.  I had to stop myself from thinking about what would happen in an earthquake down there (umm, claustraphobic much?)...but still, really neat.

 We had Rocky the Raccoon and school mascot with us, so he had an adventurous day as well.

 

 We finished off our Pier 39 trip with a swing by the fun hat store where Adam picked out this little number...and surprised us by wearing it all over.   Pretty hilarious.

 We went back to the house and had dinner with family again and Nana and his cousins made star wars cupcakes for Adam for an early birthday celebration....

Before heading home on Tuesday, we stopped by my friend Amanda's to meet her to 12 day old baby boy

He is so cute!  It was a funny realization for hubs and I to discover we forgot how to transfer a newborn from one person to the other...you gotta hold their head and they just seem so fragile and neither one of us was in the right position.  Awkward.  I'm sure it'll all come back to us, but man it feels sometimes like we are going to have to relearn everything.
Speaking of babies...I finally took a belly picture.   I am 25 weeks here:

Feeling pretty huge.  I've gained 7 pounds total and everything is going well but can I just say that it's HARDER this time?  I'm more tired and more things hurt...could be that it's because I'm 5 years older...or that I already have a kid to take care of...or that I'm on the go more what with preschool and swimming lessons and staffing for Awanas and working 2 jobs.  This kid kicks me like crazy...and hard too.   Sometimes I feel like such a wuss this time around - and other times I think about all the things that can go wrong during pregnancy and I'm super grateful that I'm not dealing with nausea or suffering major side effects that would prevent me from having a normal day.    I'll be 27 weeks tomorrow.  13 weeks to go!  I'm not at all prepared...haaaa.

So last Sunday we did a small birthday gig here at home.  We've learned that our kid doesn't handle large crowds well - even with people he knows, so we decided not to torture him with a big party.  We decorated the house, and invited all the family over and one neighbor friend.

Luckily our friends Ashlee and Jason were in town with their 3 boys.   Their oldest and Adam are only 5 months apart and they moved away and we MISS them, so we were thrilled to have a day to play with them all :)

 Adam wanted a rainbow cake, so I tried my hand at that...

 Except I dropped the green as I was pulling it out of the oven and it broken in pieces, so our cake was sadly without the green :(
(adam said "mom!  you have to be CAREFUL!"  heh)

He also wanted giant cheese pizza, so Hubs and Jason went to pick that up....

 For perspective sake...the small box is a large pizza....the big box is a giant pizza that barely fits through a doorway...haha.  Hilarious and always a big hit!

 He seemed to like the cake...

 Although in perfect stinker fashion - he did make a comment about the missing green....sigh.

 Tasted good though!   Cool Whip Frosting rules...

My parents got a giant hamster ball thing for him - so all the kids had a blast rolling around in that thing...so funny to watch!
All in all, a great birthday with both families.   My big 5 year old boy....I don't often feel like other people get to see his true personality because he's so shy around others - but he truly is a funny little guy with a sweet and kind heart.  He constantly gives me lots of hugs and kisses and "love you's".   He has such an imagination and it's fun to just sit and watch him entertain himself.   He is so excited about this baby and constantly asks "when is my baby coming out?".   Hubs and I so often mimic the heart exploding to each other because of something he does or says that just hits us right there in that spot that all parents have.   You know, that one spot...that can't believe this is your child and can't believe how much you could so completely love and adore another human being.   Man, do I love this kid!

Quick Update...

I realize I'm a bad person for posting our big news back in December and then letting crickets chirp for over a month...sorry about that.   I also realize some of you may be wondering if something bad happened and that's why I haven't posted.    Well, good news - I'm still pregnant.   16 weeks and counting!
That first trimester was a bitch.   I feel like I just caught every illness possible.   Course when your immune system is slammed and you live with a preschooler it's kind of like having a walking, talking petri dish in your house, so I shouldn't have been surprised.  Throw the typical 1st trimester exhaustion in and I was a disaster.  I didn't feel human.   I don't even think I cooked dinner for 2 months.   I might have heated up a tray or two of chicken dinosaurs and thrown a few bowls of cereal in my husbands direction and just went to bed...ha!
They survived :)
Enter week 13 and I felt like a new woman...started walking the dog daily and doing yardwork.  I even pruned the crap out of a giant tree on the huge hill behind our house...ended up taking an ax to that bad boy.   I felt human again!  (and sore the next day)  I've been cooking dinner (okay not EVERY day, but we often just graze on leftovers and fend for ourselves every other day or two) and having people over.  Socializing...woohooo!  Our house has been looking pretty decent.  I must say - there is a reason they call it the "golden trimester".   I feel pretty darn great.  The only part of me that notices I'm even pregnant is this belly that doesn't fit in any of my clothes anymore.   Hello maternity pants that are too-big-but-I-have-no-choice-but-to-wear-them-anyway.   I feel like an old woman with my pants pulled up to just under my boobs.   I may or may not have even tucked one pair of pants under my bra to help them stay up....HEH
(speaking of which, what is up with our lack of good maternity clothes options here?   I swear I went everywhere and the few stores that do carry maternity have like ONE rack and sorry but I'm not paying $40 for a pair of pants I can only wear for 5 months.   We have a motherhood maternity but it's freaking expensive....Old Navy is my friend!   But ours doesn't have a maternity section, so I order online and hope for the best.)
I've also got the minor back pain at the end of the day - but my doctor says it's because I'm so short.  5'2, and the baby stuff has nowhere to go but OUT.   Also hence the reason I feel like I look about 6 months pregnant instead of 4, ha!  (I guess I really should take a belly pic - note to self!)  Boy this second time around has been interesting in that regard.  I'm even starting to feel this mcnugget move already, which I didn't feel until around 20 weeks with adam.  It's like the first time my body was like "hmmm, what's going on here?"  and took a while to come around - but the second time it went "oh yeah, we got this!" and decided to kick into gear alot faster.

To ease the back pain I busted out my yoga ball and did some stretches that the midwife at my ob's office told me about.  When I pulled it out, Adam was like "what's that for?"  so I explained to him how I used to sit on it when I was pregnant with him, and then once he was born, we discovered it was a sure thing for getting him to sleep.  I guess the bouncing from inside the belly was pretty close to the bouncing outside of the belly.  I'm not lying when I tell you we even traveled with that thing!
So Adam listened to me talk about how I used to sit on it and hold him when he was tiny and he looked at me and was kinda quiet for a few moments and then he softly said "can we do it again?"  and he crawled up in my lap and wrapped his legs around my waist and put his head on my chest and we sat there and bounced on the yoga ball like old times.   Oh man you guys, he sat there with me for like 5 whole minutes, just quiet and softly bouncing with me.  I had so many silent tears just running down my face.   What a realization that I used to hold my tiny baby boy like that and then I blinked and now he is almost 5 and going to be a big brother.  SIGH.  too fast...it's overwhelmingly too fast.

These damn hormones. 

Blessings

I realize it may be a bit "early" for me to post this...but what the hell.  If something bad happens it's not like I won't blog about it at some point anyway.  So here it is:

 

This is what I'm thankful for this Christmas!



We are pregnant....again.   I am 9 and a half weeks along.  We lost the last one at 10 weeks....but I really sort of knew something was wrong that time.  Mothers intuition I guess.  This time feels very different.  My doctor even said he feels confident we are in this for the long haul.  We saw a heartbeat and we saw it move which was wierd.
I'm due July 22nd....course I have no faith in that date since I was pregnant with Adam for 17 months...okay exaggeration - but dude, 9 days past a twice pushed back due-date...not acceptable.  I thought I was gonna give birth to a kindergartner wearing overalls and a backpack.

Anyway, all is going along pretty well.   I got the stomach flu for a couple of days which freaked me out and I thought it was morning sickness, so I sucked it up and went to work anyway even though I felt like I had been hit by a truck.  I kept thinking "it's a girl...I was never sick with adam...it's a freaking girl" - but then after two days it was gone and I felt fine.  And then I slowly discovered that almost all our neighbors had the 2 day stomach flu - so wooohooo for the flu!   Never thought I'd be thankful for THAT, but 2 days versus 3 months?  yes please!  (or 9 months for some people - which ...omg I would die).
I also got Bronchitis - which hasn't been very fun since I can't take anything...except for a z-pack which did NOTHING....and robitussin which makes me gag because it's so thick and snot like...GAG.

Otherwise I'm good.  Boobs hurt like hell.  Already can't fit in my jeans comfortably.  Eating cold fruit like a mad woman (2 pounds of fresh sliced mango in two days....and I'm so not kidding).   Tired?  check.   Pretty much exactly the way I felt with Adam...which is good...except I feel more tired this time which as hubs pointed out....I'm not able to nap like I did when I was pregnant with him because I already have a kid to take care of.   He reminded me that he used to come home from work and I'd be passed out on the couch at 5:30pm....OH YEAH....that was awesome.  Also - I'm 5 years older this time...actually almost 6 years older I guess when you count the entire pregnancy.  Yikes. No wonder I'm freaking tired...

We told all our family on Thanksgiving because I knew that if I passed up a glass of wine or champagne my mom and sister in law would be onto me in a hot second.  They are all super excited.  Nervous for us of course...but we are too.  It's kind of hard not to be nervous once you've seen a heartbeat and then a silent screen 2 weeks later...but we're all trying to focus on the positive and have faith that this one will stick.  And if it doesn't then we will deal with it.  Prayers and positive thoughts!!
I'm typing all of this while sitting next to a sleeping boy who has a fever and just puked his guts out...poor kid.  He's been fighting something for almost a week now...seriously hoping he gets better by Christmas!

On that front, I did almost all my shopping online this year because I'm too tired to actually SHOP...but I haven't wrapped one single thing.  I suck.

Cheers everyone :)

Long time coming...or cutting I should say!

As most of you who have been reading my blog for a while know, I've been cutting Adam's hair myself using a comb/scissors because for one thing he is a spaz about random people touching him and for another, I'm clueless about how to use clippers, so other then a buzz cut, I've never attempted an actual haircut using those.  
We have to cut his hair ALOT....he has freaky fast growing and THICK hair (my sister in law says he's like one of those playdough doll heads where you push the button down and the hair comes flowing out).   We've been trying to convince him for the longest time to let us take him to get it professionally cut, and it's never worked out.  Until TODAY!!
After going to home depot to get Christmas lights, we went to Red Robin for lunch and afterwards cruised through our shabby little local mall for a bit.  We went upstairs where they have this place that cuts kid's hair - they have movies and toys and cool cars or airplanes for the kids to sit in.  We walked in and explained that he could sit in a car and watch a movie at the same time but he wasn't having it.   So we left...
We rounded the corner and came upon all those little quarter rides, like cars and a carousel or a train and he was all "daddy!   I really want to ride those!!   PLEASE??"   and hubs leaned down and said "I'll tell you what, you can ride whatever one you want....if you'll get a haircut"
And he looked at us and slumped over and said "okay FINE..." and that was that. 
A little bit of bribery and we marched into that place plopped him in a car and this sweet little hispanic lady started clipping away saying "awwww papi....such a good little nino".   She bent his head this way and that way and she was in charge of that kid's head.  He didn't make a PEEP and did everything she said.  I couldn't believe it.

 Look at that MOP of hair - seriously....

 A ride and a lollopop....that's all it took!


He looks so different...my boy is growing up on me :)   4 1/2 already....and such a good kid.  I love age 4 - my favorite age so far! 

Halloween

This year Adam was actually excited about dressing up and going trick or treating.  A far cry from all other years!
He wanted to be Luke Skywalker - and no, I was not about to sew it myself - I pulled up Amazon and showed him the couple of different costumes on there.  He kept saying "no....no....not that one..."
and then he saw the x-wing fighter pilot suit and he was sold.  "That one!  That's the one I want!"
$25.99...shopping done.
When it came to the treat bag, I thought about making an x-wing fighter jet, but when I brought it up to adam, he said he wanted R2D2 since "he helps fly the jet"
Well of course.
So I got out my brand-new-2-years-old sewing machine and decided it was high time I figured out how to use it.  That machine kicks some serious ass.
I started out all detailed - but as the days went by I finished it kind of half ass.  He still liked it and I guess that's what matters!  Although I didn't have time to put his name on there like all the others, oh well. 

He doesn't look very happy here - but I can assure you, he was thrilled.  I can't believe I didn't take more pictures...I suck.

Some friends stopped by our house as well as all my family....and all the kiddos went trick or treating

Our neighborhood does Halloween right - almost every house on our cul-de-sac decorates their house.  We had a pumpkin carving block party (I still haven't taken pictures of our pumpkins) and one neighbor even makes individual treat bags for each and every kid that comes trick or treating.  They actually ran out of candy this year and she made over 200 bags.  The neighbor on one side of us wore a hockey mask and every now and then he would start up a chain saw and run around his yard cackling like a mad man.   I cracked up every time because in real life he is very mellow and soft spoken.  Halloween brings out the nut in people :)

All in all, a very fun evening - I love halloween!

Continued as promised

...finishing up that last post...

House projects - we are slowly finishing up our bathroom remodel (pics on that later)
and we FINALLY took all the interior doors - 7 total - and painted them.  Man, were they awful.  The previous owner kids had stickers and glue and all kinds of crap plastered all over, so we've been putting off painting them because we knew it was going to be quite a project to sand and paint all those doors.   But since we passed our escrow date (1 year already!) we figured it was high time we just did it already....Adam got in on the action and helped spray off the sanding dust with daddio...

They look SO MUCH BETTER - it took 3 days to finish them all...they needed alot of coats of paint and alot of sanding - but man was it worth it!

side note - we are selling the bug if anyone knows anyone who might be interested!

*****
Hub's sister and her family came for a visit, so while hubs was at work on Saturday we went to Morro Bay and let the kids run around - we also went to the "aquarium" and fed the seals.  I say "aquarium" because what a sad-ass little aquarium that is.  But the kids liked it so that's what matters...

 He so loves his girls....and he's got 3 more on my side...the little prince of the family indeed

 

*****
Hubs had to go to a local surgery center for a procedure which I won't into detail about other then he is fine, no worries.  He couldn't eat anything the entire day before except clear liquids - so I decided to fast too in solidarity.  Except that I caved at about 10:30pm that night after he went to sleep and inhaled a bowl of spaghettio's.  I confessed to him the next morning, and caught nothing but a ration of crap about it all day...in typical hubs fashion.
They called me back to the recovery room and he was sleeping so soundly - I tapped him on the shoulder and whispered "how ya feelin?" and he loudly proclaimed "I feel GOOOOOOOOOD!!!!  They gave me some GOOOOD SHIT!!!!"   to which I cracked up as did all the nurses.  It was 9:30 in the morning and all he could think about was going to In and Out and getting a burger.  He was loopy as all hell and slept most of the day - and since the drug they gave him is an "amnesia drug" he pretty much forgot everything he said and did before crashing.  Good times...I should have waited and confessed my spaghettio crime then!

*****

Sad news - my former co-worker (and boss's son) passed away from colon cancer.  He was only 48 years old and left behind a wife and 6 year old daughter.  I still can't believe he is gone....we worked together every day for many years...and it's just unreal to think about.   Hardest thing has been seeing my boss have to go through this loss.  He keeps saying "you're not supposed to out-live your kids".  So right...
If you are the praying sort - please say some for this man's family...they are having a tough time:(

*****

We passed our "due date".   October 20th.  Kind of strange to think about having a brand new baby right now, so I guess everything has it's time right?   I've really only had one breakdown about the whole thing in the last 6 months since and it was when I was putting on my "mother's" necklace.   My mother in law bought me a necklace with adam's birthstone on it and said she would add to it as needed.  I put it on one day and my brain just went there and thought "I wonder what the birthstone for October is" and then I promptly fell apart and hubs walked in and was baffled about what had happened (don't you find that when you really cry about stuff, it's at completely random times like everything is fine and then you are mindlessly doing the dishes and you just LOSE it?). 
Anyway, all told I am fine and moved on and all that.  I think it took hubs a bit longer because he didn't physically go through it.  Must be a strange thing for a man to process - like "hey, we're having a baby....only, now we're not ...sorry babe!".  Totally different experience.  Hopefully we will have another baby before I find any more gray hairs.
We decided to commemorate the day by going to the Santa Barbara Zoo and just have a fun day as a family and make our peace with that date.

peeking at penguins who were just standing there not moving....

I didn't take alot of animal pictures because they were all kind of a dud this time...just laying around.  The lion sat up and it was like "oooooh!  It moved!"  click

 and the anteater walked by...

yeah that was pretty much all as far as animal excitement. 

Then it was time for Duncan the Dinosaur which we thought adam would totally love - so we planted ourselves on the grass...took a family pic...

and waited...

 and waited some more...

 And then some people came on stage and talked....alot

 I mean...ALOT....and all we wanted to see was this "dinosaur"...their stall tactics were annoying

But then they FINALLY brought him out...and he was way cool

After that, we played in the kids area where they have this astroturf hill and all the kids slide down it on cardboard...

and by kids, I mean adults too...

 

 

We wrapped up the day by having dinner at AJ Spurs in Buellton - yum!

 

And now I'm trying to finish (okay I'm laughing at myself for typing that word because in all honesty I haven't even started it yet) AJ's treat bag for halloween - and probably should decorate the house a bit before our neighborhood gets bombarded by kids on halloween.

Today marks the 1st anniversary of the day we moved into this house.  Can't believe it!