Growing

There seems to be a lot of growing around here lately.  

• I have been growing out of my regular clothes and am fitting more comfortably in maternity clothes.  
• Jake is growing and developing as he should, and based on today's ultrasound, he weighs 11 oz. and is measuring exactly on time.  I've started feeling him move more lately but still not as much as I did with Cooper at this point.  I thought it was because this might be my calm, easygoing child, but during today's ultrasound they said it was more likely due to where the placenta is.  I'm still thinking/hoping it might be because he is laid back.  With me as his mom, how could he not be laid back?! ;)  
• Cooper has outgrown the terrible twos (for now at least) and has returned as his sweet, loving, precious, happy little self.  There are a million things (and more) that I love and adore about this boy, but one of my most favorite things about him is how thoughtful he is.  He always looks out for everyone and shares incredibly well.  He takes such an interest in my growing belly and kisses it every night before bed.  He talks about Baby Jake all the time.  His favorite thing to say is, "Baby Jake, come out!"  I told him Mommy is working very hard to keep Baby Jake from coming out!  I know he is going to be an incredible big brother.  Another thing I love about him is how brave he is.  The child is fearless!  This does make me a little fearful because he's always a little too willing to try something new and exciting.  He has a heart for adventure for sure.  He is my sweetheart though, and I am so happy to have my good little boy back!  
• Cooper's speech has grown immensely lately as well.  I was seriously beginning to wonder if the child was ever going to talk clearly, and both my parents have assured me again and again that I did not talk until I was three.  Well, my boy is following in his mama's footsteps!  Within a week, his speech exploded!  As has his curiosity.  All day long he asks, "S'at, Mommy?" (What's that?) My favorite thing he's said so far was one day when we were at Home Depot.  As we approached the sliding glass doors, he said, "Dey care me (they scare me)."  I told him they didn't scare him, and he said, "Dey care me def (they scare me to death).  He was in no way actually afraid of the doors, but the conversation was so funny!  Also, one morning Karl was leaving for work, and as he left, I said, "I love you, Baby."  Cooper chimed in, "I yuv you, Baby Daddy."  Oh my.  The laughter is flowing around here these days!
• And lastly, Karl is growing us a delicious looking garden!

Karl (with a lot of help from his little buddy) built a spot for our garden off of our deck, and it looks great.  We've had a smaller potted garden for a few summers now, but this will give us some extra room so we can plant more and let Cooper be more involved, which he will love.  We have tomatoes (Karl starts them from seeds, and they're still growing a little more in their pots before we transplant them), red bell pepper, green bell pepper, okra, strawberries, and watermelon.  Cooper and his daddy are very proud of their garden, and we are all looking forward to enjoying the fruits of Karl's labor!

The other day I was on the phone with my grandmother, and she told me that when her kids were little and they lived in Miami, she would hose them off in the yard in the summer and let that count as their bath some nights.  She asked if I ever turned the hose on Cooper.  I told her we did last summer, and he loved it.  Just a few hours later, we went outside to water our new garden and got to talking with a neighbor.  Cooper is no dummy when it comes to turning on our hose, and in the blink of an eye, he had that hose out, on and spraying all over!  He was soaked and squealing.  It was the sight and sound of summer!  

Karl eventually got the hose from him and would spray the water in the air so Coop could run under it.  Talk about a happy kid!  We did eventually make it around to watering our plants.  Cooper insisted on helping, as usual, and listened intently as Karl told him what each plant was.

I love my farmer boys!

The following morning, Cooper and I were outside playing in the yard, and I decided to get out our little sprinkler toy for him.  He was laughing, running, and squealing, and I thought to myself: This is the joy of summer!  He kept running over to me saying, "Dis fun, Mommy, dis fun!!!"  It doesn't take much to entertain my boy!  

So here's to the start of a great summer filled with lots of growing, playing, and enjoying all the good crops in our life!

Graduations

It has been a week of graduating in this house!  Yesterday was Little Man's last day of his first year of Mother's Day Out!  I was so anxious before he started in August, and now that seems like so long ago!  We took Last Day of School pictures before we dropped him off to go along with our first day pictures.  My little boy sure has done some growing up this year!

This was back in August...

This was yesterday...

He is all boy and wanted to play with the plants and mulch and do anything other than pose nicely for the camera!  

In baby news, Baby Boy and I graduated from our high risk specialist this week!  Since my cervical lengths have been good since the surgery and everything is going wonderfully, they said I didn't need to see them anymore!  As great as they are, I am happy to only be seeing one doctor now and not having to try to coordinate appointments every two weeks.  I will still see my regular ob-gyn every two weeks for ultrasounds and regular appointments.  We are progressing right along...normally!  She did say that she was going to do my glucose test in four weeks to test for diabetes since I had it with Cooper.  I didn't test until I was 28 weeks along then, and I thought I wouldn't have to worry about it until I was 24 weeks this time.  I'll only be 21 weeks though!  She said if I pass (which I think I will), then she will test me again a little later just to be sure.  Fingers crossed for passing both times!!!

Mama and Baby at 17 weeks

We think we have also graduated from looking at baby names for this little one.  We've actually had a name for a couple of weeks, but we wanted to play with it and test it out before deciding for sure that our boy has his name.  We're 95% sure we're going to name him Matthew Jacob and call him Jake.  Jake was Karl's top boy name since we found out I was pregnant.  I was happy with it too but was having trouble coming up with his full name.  After our 15 week appointment when it was confirmed beyond the shadow of a doubt that we were having a boy, we were waiting in between appointments playing the "name game."  Karl suggested Matthew Jacob, and I was sold.  Matthew is my dad's name, and we knew our second son would either have my dad's first name or my maiden name as part of his name.  Now both of my sons have a grandfather's name as part of their name.  I laughed because we're doing something that drove me nuts when I was teaching...we're using an abbreviated part of our child's middle name as his "first" name!  Hopefully he'll forgive us one day for that, but at least he'll have a very handsome name!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is one of my favorite days of the year because it's a day to celebrate the blessing and privilege it is to be a mom, and after struggling through infertility before each of my pregnancies, I view motherhood as nothing less than an absolute gift!  I love being a mom with every single bit of my heart.  It is and will always be the joy of my life.   

Karl has always done a really great job of making me feel appreciated...not just on Mother's Day, but every day.  However, on Mother's Day, he seems to know just what to do to make me feel very special.  We all know that I am passionate about food, so of course our day centered around our meals!  He also knows how crazy it drives me right now to not be able to do as much as I can when I'm not pregnant.  I always keep flowers planted in our yard because I feel like it makes our house look like a home.  However, it's hard for me to plant flowers the way I like to right now.  So my sweet husband did it for me.  We went to Home Depot Saturday and picked out flowers, and then he planted them all around the yard yesterday for me. They look so beautiful, and it really meant the world to me that he did that for me.  He's a good man!  

He also planned our menu for the day.  We kicked off our day by making beignets as a family.  Karl and I love beignets, and I love when Karl and Cooper help me cook.  Our beignets turned out puffier and more delicious than they ever have before, and I have to attribute that to the four extra hands that helped prepare them!  Karl and I about ate ourselves sick off those things, but each bite was worth it!  

For lunch, Karl suggested that we go to Irondale Cafe, better known as the Whistle Stop Cafe to anyone who's seen the movie Fried Green Tomatoes.  

I had never been there but always wanted to go.  I remember watching that movie several times in the theater and countless times after it was released.  It was always a favorite of mine (how could anything Southern and in some way revolving around food not be?!).  Although we got there early, there was still quite a wait, so Cooper and I went to see the railroad tracks in front of the restaurant while Karl held our spot in line.  Cooper was so excited about seeing the railroad tracks!  Karl and I joked about how many times Cooper said choo-choo while we were there.  30,000 maybe?! :)  

The kid was super excited!  Once inside, I was flat out giddy with excitement about the food!  It was so tough to make decisions when everything looked so good!  I ended up getting fried green tomatoes, fried okra, black eyed peas, sweet potato souffle, and cornbread.  I think the man who put the fried green tomatoes on my plate read my mind as I stood there, and he loaded my plate with a lot of them!  Once we were seated, I told Karl I had to take a picture of our table because that in itself was a moment worth capturing should I ever forget!  

Cooper went to town on his fried okra and not only ate all of his, but he ate mine and most of Karl's too!  After eating his green beans and one bite of chicken, he was ready for the cookies and cream pie I got to share with him.  We all ate well and left stuffed.  Little Man was still so intent on seeing a train, and although we would hear a whistle now and then, we were beginning to think we were out of luck on that.  

We walked back to our car, got Cooper buckled in, and were getting in ourselves when all the sudden a train finally came!  We rushed and got Coop out of his car seat as fast as we could and ran back to the tracks to see it.  After all the chatter about choo-choos, the kid should have been exhilarated to see one.  Oh no.  He immediately tried to run back to our car because the car that was parked beside us had a flat tire and he'd seen their tools they were using to fix it.  We were able to get one family picture snapped before our wild man went crazy over getting to those tools!  

I sat in the backseat next to Cooper on the way home, and as I played with him and held his hand, I kept getting a little teary eyed about how special the day was.  I can blame it on the hormones, but we all know that would be fibbing.  There is nothing I get more sentimental or reflective about than motherhood.  There is nothing I've ever wanted to do better, but I feel like I screw up so often.  I constantly think about how I could've/should've done something better.  The little boy in these pictures and the one inside my womb are my heart.  I know there is no such thing as the "perfect" mom, and I am so thankful for that!  Even though I make a lot of mistakes and I'm learning as I go, I love it all.  Being a mom is a very special thing, and when my boys are big and grown, I hope they know they were the most special things in the whole world to their mama. 

Easter

Easter 2013

How have I let so much time pass without posting on Easter?! Oops!
With Easter falling kind of early this year and it being so cold still, it just didn't feel like Easter time, and I let it sneak up on me! I did squeeze a couple crafts in during the week of Easter, but Cooper wasn't feeling great that week due to another ear infection and some kind of kiddy virus-thing. Our favorite craft was this little bunny face he made. I cut out the ears and bow tie, but he glued everything down and did really good. When I tried taking his picture with it, he got silly, of course!

                         

The day before Easter, Cooper was feeling a little better, so we got busy!  By 9:30 a.m., we had dyed our eggs and made our bunny shaped sugar cookies!  This year for the egg dye, we did the Kool-Aid/water mixture.  It was so much better than the traditional colored tablet dye!  The colors were so much more vibrant than with the tablets, and the smell was a million times more pleasant!  However, something about the smell of vinegar does make me think of Easter eggs!  Last year Coop wasn't interested in dying eggs after he put the first egg in.  This year he was all about it!  He did such a great job carefully putting the eggs in the cups and taking them out.  He was very gentle, and his excitement was contagious!

This picture is representation of my ADD.  I couldn't just have us dye eggs...I had to start the cookie dough and get everything out and ready at the same time and in the same area!  I think my need to start dozens of projects at once is Karl's least favorite thing about me!

Easter morning we discovered that Cooper's enthusiasm and excitement wasn't the only thing that was contagious that week...so was whatever little cold/virus/crud he had.  Karl complained the night before that he wasn't feeling very well and felt kind of flu-ish.  The next morning he felt absolutely terrible.  He didn't have a fever, but he was achy, had a headache, was congested, and just felt awful.  I knew he felt really bad when he opted to stay in bed instead of getting up when Cooper did to see his reaction to his Easter basket.  That showed me right off the bat that he was really hurting and that it was going to low-key Easter!  Nevertheless, Coop was super excited about the Easter Bunny coming to his house and dove right in his basket full of goodies!

By about 3:30, after several hours of rest and lots of ibuprofen, Karl felt well enough to leave the bed.  His parents came over about the same time, and we had our Easter egg hunt...inside...because it was raining...like it has been more than enough this year.  It wasn't the same doing it inside, but Cooper loved it.  We had practiced a bunch that week with empty eggs.  He was some kind of excited when he realized these eggs had candy in them!

He celebrated finding each egg!

One of my favorite things about this little boy is his natural desire to share.  He has always been the best sharer!  When he opened an egg and saw the jellybean, he immediately gave the first one to Karl.  That is just typical of this child!

When he finally ate one himself (which he had been doing all week), he had to spit it for a second to inspect it.  I guess it wasn't what he was expecting???  He did end up eating it.

And a lot more!  Sugar rush!!

Although this Easter didn't have all the bells and whistles that it typically does, it was still special and still a day for celebrating our wonderful Savior.  I think I thought about what Easter is really about a lot more this year than normal since we did have to stay home and not be too busy.  I had a lot more time for reflection than I typically do on a holiday.  I found myself getting choked up a lot that day as I thought about what Jesus went through.  And why.  He went through indescribable pain, agony, and torture so that my sinner's heart could know what redemption and forgiveness are.  What an amazing love.