New bed!

We have been trying very hard to get our house ready for a family of four, which has been pretty difficult when some or all of us are always sick, or it is snowing. After several things were canceled because of the weather, we are finally feeling back on track. We managed to get new windows downstairs and in the basement, and just got new blinds to go with them--all the sales people came to us. We ordered a washer and dryer in an online chat window from Sears, because we could not manage to get to Sears. And my parents got Josh a new bed for his big boy room. We got a great deal on a new dresser from a floor model sale. We also finally managed to donate all of the extra furniture (bed, dresser, bookshelf, etc) so that we could start to set up Josh's room. Almost all of this was done in the last few weeks!

My sister and brother-in-law and some cousins came over this weekend to help us take care of some things that I can't really do right now. The guys were busy installing a bathroom cabinet, putting up a bunch of pictures, and getting some childproofing done.

We are still a long way away from having Josh's room set up, but I did make his bed. He LOVED playing in his new big boy bed. He also asked to go see his "Josh" sign which I made him :-)

Seeing his new bed nicely made for the first time :-)

Playing!

Happy Kiddo :-)

Talkative Little Guy

I'm sure it comes as a shock to everyone but Josh is pretty chatty.  We finally were able to capture a few of the cute things he says. If you ask him if it is bed time he always says, "No it's wake up time". If you ask him if he is a goof, he will say, "No I'm cutie pie". Now he will say that he is a "goof and a cutie pie" :-)

Since this video he can now properly count to 13

Trip to Atlanta

We were supposed to go to Atlanta for Presidents day weekend two weeks ago, but after checking into our light Josh came down with the stomach flu. We were happy to find out that Southwest lets you change your tickets up to 10 minutes before the flight departs, so we decided to move our trip back 2 weeks. Once Julian and I both got sick, we were very happy we did. When Josh came down with a fever two days before we were supposed to leave last week, we were very worried. Fortunately he recovered quickly and the fever was just a one day thing, so we were able to go on our trip.

We had been telling Josh we were going on an airplane to visit Aunt Jenna and Dustin, and that we would be going to the Aquarium to see fishies. He remembered the fish, and that there would be two cats where we were going. He also remembered that he was going to get to wear his backpack, like Daddy.

Josh did very well on the flight out, he started to get fussy at the end of the flight...but so did I, so I can't really blame him. By the time we landed it was his usual nap time, so he was a bit cranky and tired for the trek to get our rental car. He fell asleep pretty quickly once we finally got on the road.

Josh was very excited to see a cat in the window when we arrived at Jenna's. We decided to go for a walk to a nearby playground before dinner. Unfortunately, it was in the mid 30s, so the playground was closed for maintenance. I guess not a lot of people in Atlanta like to play when it is nice and warm like that :-)  Fortunately we snuck onto the playground to use the slide a few times, and then let Josh run around in the fields. We cooked dinner together and waited for "Duspin" to come home.

The next day we headed out bright and early for the Aquarium. It was awesome! I'm honestly not sure who was more excited, me or Josh. I don't think Josh appreciated how cool it is to see whale sharks or a swimming giant octopus in an aquarium! The Atlanta aquarium really puts the Baltimore aquarium to shame. The exhibits were all great and had excellent visibility for toddlers. They had a good mix of fish and marine animals including otters, penguins, beluga whales, dolphins and seals. We watched the Whale Shark feeding, which was pretty cool. The tank for the whale sharks was HUGE and also had manta rays, big ugly grey fish, and lots of other interesting sharks and fish. If we go back I wouldn't go to the dolphin show again, it was a bit more of a theatrical show than a nerdy marine biology learning experience like I would have preferred :-)

We had dinner on Saturday at a very nice restaurant near Jenna's house with Julian's aunt. It was a really nice time. Josh was mostly well behaved, besides eating butter out of the dish with a knife :-P  We were able to walk to dinner (about 10 minutes) which was nice, Josh was willing to be pushed in the stroller on the way there but insisted on walking home. He did a good job with an uphill walk home.

The next day we met up with a good friend of mine from grad school and her family for breakfast. They have a little boy about 8 months younger than Josh. I had met him when he was only a few weeks old, so it was fun to see how much he had grown!  And it was really nice catching up with my friend.

While we were at breakfast, we got a text message from Southwest that our flights were canceled due to weather. We knew it was supposed to snow in the DC area, but didn't realize just how bad it was. We were able to quickly rebook a flight for the next morning. Thankfully we already had a place to stay :-)  We ended up having a really nice extra day in Atlanta and got to go for a walk, and Jenna made us a delicious dinner.

The trip back was pretty smooth until the shuttle to our parked car (too far past nap time...). We gave Josh the window seat on the plane and that really helped distract him and give him something to do, particularly while the plane was taxiing. On the way home in the car Josh was very upset not to be going home to Aunt Jenna's.

We were so sick for all of Jan/early Feb we hadn't really taken any time to plan our trip to Atlanta. Having 2 extra weeks gave us time to get together with some extra friends and family, which was really nice. Traveling with a toddler is a lot of work, but I'm very glad that we were able to take one more trip as a family of 3.

Some pictures from our trip are below :-)

Playing with the window

Baby wearing at 32 weeks!

First time forward facing, too tired to enjoy it

"Fishies!!!!!"

Checking out the otters

"Pengies!"

Whale shark feeding! And snack time for Josh

Family photo, or ad for pop chips? You decide

What??

Matching cardigans from Aunt Jenna :-)

Family selfie

We think this will be the last time for Josh in this crib, he is getting big!

Hug goodbye

Family photo

Playing some tunes

Upgraded to the window seat!

Pregnancy

We didn't start this blog until Josh was born, so I've never "blogged" about being pregnant. A few people have asked for bump pictures, so I thought I might as well post here. I'm now 31 weeks (32 tomorrow!) and in my 3rd trimester, but I thought I would comment on my whole pregnancy.

First trimester.... I was more sick this time around, and certainly more tired. However, I had a lot less fear and anxiety over the pregnancy because I had been through it before. I am seeing a group of Midwives this time around, and couldn't get an appointment until almost 11 weeks. I also started my new job at about 9 weeks, so we tried to keep the pregnancy a little more on the DL because I wanted to wait as long as possible to tell my job. It was certainly harder to be pregnant and caring for an active toddler. I took a lot of naps during Josh's nap time to be able to have the energy to care for him. I ended up not gaining any weight the first trimester, which was good for hiding my pregnancy at work :-)  I've always heard you start showing faster your second pregnancy--so I had been concerned that I wouldn't be able to hide it very long.

Second trimester.... Overall I enjoyed my second trimester much more than I did with my pregnancy with Josh. The weight gain my first time was much more mentally difficult for me, but this time I knew what to expect. Once the nausea from the first trimester ended, I mostly was feeling pretty good. I waited until about 16 weeks to tell my boss, and when I did she took it better than I expected. I'm still not sure if I will be going back to this job after this baby is born, but I will have been there for 7 months by the time this baby is due (I signed a 6 month commitment there). Towards the end of the second trimester, it started getting hard to carry Josh around. He went through a phase where when he saw a baby being carried, he wanted to be carried, which made this a bit more difficult. Fortunately he has gotten more independent, so usually I only need to carry him when he is really upset or refuses to do something. I also still need to lift him in and out of the car, into bed, or onto the changing table. 

Third trimester.... This is where this pregnancy has really been much harder than my last. It has been getting more and more difficult to play with Josh and lift him as I'm getting bigger. Unfortunately my 3rd trimester also coincides with cold and flu season. I've caught everything that Josh has come home with, which sadly has been a lot. It is MUCH harder to be sick while pregnant. I was not prepared for just how much it takes out of you to grow a person and fight illness. On top of the illnesses, I was carrying something down to the basement and slipped on our steps. I pretty badly injured my tailbone, and have been even more physically limited. I had to take tylenol around the clock for a week after the fall just to manage the pain. I'm finally starting to recover, but I know that I won't be 100% for a while yet. We just set up a changing table downstairs so that I won't have to bring him upstairs when watching him. In a few weeks he will be moving downstairs into a big boy bed which will help too. It has been getting harder to reach into his crib since I now have a giant belly in the way. I've been very lucky the past few weeks that Julian has been able to work from home on days that I'm home with Josh (if he is sick or daycare is closed for snow), because he can lift and carry Josh when needed.

The cool thing about the second pregnancy, is I know how fun it is to meet your baby. I'm very excited to get to know this little guy, and see if he has Julian's hair or not :-)  We spent a lot of time focusing on the birth my last pregnancy, and have not done that this time. I will be delivering at Shady Grove Hospital this time, so it will be a much shorter drive. We are thinking to hire a doula this time around, in part so that there is someone to be with me if Julian needs to do anything with Josh. I'm getting a bit late in the game though, so I will have to find one fast if we want one. 

We have been talking with Josh about his baby brother, and trying to get him prepared for it. If you ask him about his brother now he will tell you, "No pushing baby brother", which we think he learned at daycare. If anyone has any book suggestions for him (or us!) on how to make the transition that would be great! Any other tips would be appreciated too :)

30 weeks!

Updates and some pictures

Our whole house has been battling with multiple rounds of a stomach bug, and bad respiratory virus.  Now this week we have literally piled onto that with some snow :-P  This was our first healthy weekend in more than a month, but we got about 5-6 inches of snow.  We also had a snow day last week for a few inches. At least we got in some quality time playing in the snow :-)

We have managed to get a little bit done towards making room in our house for the new baby. Somehow I'm now 31 weeks pregnant, giving us only 9 weeks to finish everything up! We installed some shelves in the office, and have been clearing everything out of our guest room (that will become Josh's room). We got new windows installed in our downstairs and basement, which was perfect timing before the "really cold" week we just had (multiple days in the 0-20F range). We still need to get new blinds and a carpet for Josh's room. We already got a dresser for Josh's new room, and just ordered a big boy bed for him. We decided not to repaint his room (currently purple), because eventually we might want both boys to share a room upstairs. So I've been getting my crafting on to "boy" up the room a bit. Thanks to the friends and family that have helped us move furniture or babysit so that we could make some progress in his room. Once Josh's new room is set up we will transition him downstairs, and we will be able to update his old room for the new baby. Hopefully I will post pictures once the room is a bit more ready.

Here are some cute pictures of Josh from the last few weeks :-)  We have a few videos we will try and post at some point as well.

Mommy made cookies!

Ready to play!

"Snow!"

Working on busting out of our house

<3

Getting some work done with Daddy

(L)2/2014 (R)2/2015
Look how much he has grown!

First Starbucks! (Hot Apple Cider)

Trouble

Despite being sick all week, Josh has bested two of our baby proofing efforts. We are going to have to get much smarter to keep up with him...

Two year stats

Josh had his 2 year visit to the pediatrician a week after his birthday. He is 29lbs and 36 inches tall putting him in the 60th percentile for weight and 90th (!!) for height. A few people recently have been commenting on Josh being tall, so I wonder if he just had a growth spurt. He is doing very well otherwise, and was a good boy for his shots. At one point the doctor said to him (in a very kid friendly tone), "can I take a look at you?" Josh looked him straight in the eye and said, "No!" and then ran over to me. He did end up letting the doctor examine him, but Julian and I both thought it was very cute.

We can't quite believe it, but Josh will not have another checkup until he is 3! I'm sure he will go to the doctor for one reason or another, but it scary that we won't have someone checking up on him for a whole year.

Coloring with Daddy