Alone again

Chris has been back on the road to Quantico this past week and has one more left to go. He had a 2 week training to attend, so life has been a bit out of sorts for us. He left last Sunday and we have had a crazy week without him. Of course he had to miss our ultrasound appt, which was hard on both of us, but we got some great recording of it to show him when he gets home!

Then Claire and I took off to Roanoke on Thursday for a long weekend. I had a reunion already planned, so instead of Claire having a weekend with Daddy, she came along to stay with Grandma and Poppa. (I think she had more fun than I did, ha!) They played, built forts, went to the pet store, library, fed the ducks, made cupcakes and celebrated Auntie J's birthday.

I did have a little fun myself....several meals out without anyone sitting in my lap or sharing my plate, a morning at the spa with mani/pedi's and massages, a little time for shopping and some wonderful girl time with old friends!

Now back home for another busy week and looking forward to daddy's return & maybe even some sunshine over the weekend....

23 months

Today Claire turns 23 months old and in one more month- she's officially 2! What a fun time to celebrate and enjoy the memories and joys that have come our way over the past 2 years! She is absolutely amazing, smart, beautiful and the best thing that has ever come our way!

Today also marks another very special milestone.....we will be welcoming another precious baby girl into our hearts in July! My appointment went great, the baby looks perfect and all is well with huge smiles on our faces!

We can't wait to see these 2 sisters in action right from the start and know that Claire will be the best big sister we could ever ask for this sweet girl!

She (meaning baby, I have to be careful saying that now!) was really active during the ultrasound, gave us great pictures of organs, bones and of course finally her girl parts :) She weighed 9 ounces and is growing right on track! I could have watched her all day, but enjoyed every second seeing her in there all cozy! I already can't wait to meet her, hold her and bring her home into our family!

My heart is completely full of love for Claire, but I can already feel myself loving this baby and know that my heart will hold so much love for her too! I can't wait to see how daddy will juggle these 2 girls and know that both of them will have him smitten with daddy love! Oh boy, is in for it!

Mommy's little helper

or something like that! I was pulling out maternity clothes and sorting them to wash and she had a different plan! She saw the bucket and immediately starting bringing her toys to put in there to play! She has definitely come across her creative and imaginative streak!
All smiles

Having so much fun

Added luggage

Helping daddy pack for his 2 week training trip to Quantico (Don't worry, she's not naked! We were changing out of her pj's and after running from her room, this is where we found her)!!

19 week bump

Well here are a few tummy pictures; there have definitely not been that many and I have for sure popped out! I can't believe we're half way there and we will soon know what's in there!!
Giving some love pats- that's one of my favorite thing these days, listening and watching her talk to her baby sister or brother!

Funny Words

I didn't even know what to call this post but just wanted to share some of the latest cuteness going on in our house! Claire has been talking nonstop for a while now, but lately it just seems so much more funny, meaningful, and just like she's one of the family making conversation.

A few examples:

I asked her this morning if she wanted to go have lunch with Daddy and she replied, "I might...."
So we called him and she said, "hey daddy, have lunch, I might" and then promptly added, "miss you, come home soon!"

She has recently learned the song, Jesus Loves Me and the other day, she told me she wanted to sing her Daddy song. I had no clue what she was talking about so we just went on with what we were doing and then a few hours later I heard her singing, "Daddy loves me I know, the bible tells so, they are weak he is strong..." It was the most precious thing I had heard, I guess she thought if Jesus loves her and works in that song, then so can daddy! And yes, there are words missing, but that is her version and it's just as cute!

She has picked up some sort of twang and has several words that are down right hilarious to hear her say. A few are milk, Elmo, out, & bible.

She loves pretending to have parties, lunches, picnics etc and has to have all of her "peeps" as she calls them (anything small she can tote around and move from place to place, like nativity characters, people and animals to her farm, mermaids, fairies, and so on). She has to get them all just so and in their special places and don't even think about touching, turning or moving them without specific direction from her!

After dinner and before bath time she loves going upstairs to play chase. She will take all of her clothes off, puts them in the hamper, takes her diaper off, puts it in the trash and then runs to one end of the hall and starts counting. You better be in place and ready to run when she says "run!" She will count all the way to about 14, but gets so excited that most of the time we skip 5, 6, 9 & 10.

She can sing her entire ABC's but her favorite part is the end where you say, now I know my ABC's next time won't you sing with me, so she tries to break that verse in any little chance she can while doing them!

She is totally into her colors and does really well with them, but definitely has her favorites. Right now its all about purple and orange and she thinks we're painting her room orange instead of pink! Heaven help us when she can pick her own decor!

She is obsessed with being naked, loves taking her clothes off and will point out anything in a book, on TV, or in a movie that is in the tub and naked! If she sees any skin showing she starts screaming..."be naked!" Yes, her Daddy says this better be a phase and go away quickly!

She has been staying in the church nursery on Sunday and Monday mornings and is doing really well at it. But the entire way there she is reassuring herself in the backseat, "momma come back for you, yeah, daddy never leave you." She repeats what we have told her and even the nursery workers say she tells them about 100 times while she's in there!

The other morning I came out of the bathroom and she was on my bed watching cartoons and she said, "hey momma, love your green sweater." I didn't know if I was more shocked over her getting the color correct or that she gave me a compliment!

She is into picking out her own clothes and sometimes can get quite creative! We had a play date the other morning with some friends whose dad works with Chris and he called him later that night and said, thanks for having my son over to play, but I'm not sure about Claire wearing a dress that was too short with her panties showing! (she wanted to wear them over her diaper) Chris laughed and said, at least while they were playing they were pretending to go to church!

She is totally over being restrained while eating, so she sits in on of our regular kitchen chairs just like us and eats every meal. The funny part is that she has labeled our chairs; mommas, daddys and poppas (ever since he was here 2 weeks ago, that is forever his chair in her mind I guess) and for each meal she has to decide who's chair she wants to sit in. Then we have to make sure that we choose the right one too or we'll be playing musical chairs for the first 10 mins of dinner!

Well this turned out much longer than I wanted, but when I get on a role, I cant seem to stop! Things are never dull around here and if you've had a bad day or are in a bad mood, about 5 minutes in our house can do wonders!

Just cute

So excited about my new furniture!
Opening my Valentines

So sweet

Having my breakfast

Playing with my food & kitchen

Coloring

Having a party with my elephant

My little Valentine

Baby its cold outside

Burrr!! We didn't have any snow over the weekend but it might as well have been because it was freezing outside! Grandma and Poppa were here to have a little fun (and to escape from the never ending snow coming down in VA) and we spent most of the weekend inside all warm and snug.

Of course we had to take out always necessary girls trip to Target and Chris & I got a night out on Friday but other than that it was a cozy few days!

Claire and Grandma got some good play time while Daddy and Poppa worked on her new room. They primed and painted all of her new big girl furniture and I spent time picking out bedding and paint colors.

Daddy still has a few weekends of work ahead of him to get it all done, but it's all coming together and Claire is excited about her big girl bed!

Kindermusik Fun

Daddy's Girl

Painting nails with my fairy wings on

Baby Update

I don't know how I did this every week when I was pregnant with Claire, but I'm lucky to even get some sort of an update on here with this baby!! I need to do better and hopefully can start making it a priority! And I promise to post some belly pictures....we haven't even taken any yet, so I will work on that! Funny how different things are the second go around!

I had a regular checkup appt today and everything went good. I've gained 8 pounds so far, my BP is still good & low, and that sweet little heart beat was busy and loud at 150 bpm. It even gave a few kicks into the Doppler when we were listening as if to say, "hey mom, I'm here!"

We get to go back in 3 weeks to have our big anatomy ultrasound. They will check the baby over head to toe, check the heart, brain, all the major organs, measure all the limbs, do head and body circumference and just make sure all looks healthy and normal. And of course the best part, if it cooperates, we'll get to know if there is a boy or girl in there!

We get more excited after each appt and cant wait to start calling it he or she! We are really anxious to start getting the new nursery all set up, pull out those adorable newborn clothes (or start buying blue ones) and of course all the fun accessories....swing, bottles, blankets, burp clothes etc!

I have to say the best part about today's appt was sitting with Claire at breakfast; I told her that Daddy was coming home early because Mommy had to go to the doctor. (That word immediately makes her uneasy, no matter who it is going). So when she gave me her "not so sure" look and asked, "mama sick?" I smiled and said no love, mama is fine, I get to go hear the baby's heart beat today and make sure everything is ok!

So that was that and we went on about our morning....fast forward to lunch and nap time. We're sitting at the table again and she looks at me and says, "listen to heart beat baby today, make sure everything is OK." I said, yes, you are exactly right, that's what I get to do.

Then as I was rocking her she lifts up my shirt (which is the only way she'll talk to the baby, she thinks I have to be "naked" to see it, ha!) and says "come out baby, need to rock you!"

It was so precious and made me smile the rest of the day. Of course I told her, it cant come out yet, not for 5 more months, it's still growing! So she told her Daddy later that night, "5 more daddy, still growing!" We just laughed and said yes, you're right!

It's so amazing to watch this process through her eyes. Even the things that we explain in the simplest terms that we have no clue if she really takes in or not, she seems to know exactly what we're saying! She is so cute with the entire thing and we cant wait to see how adding this new little person to our family makes us feel even more whole!

Stay posted....pics to follow and big news coming on the 23rd!!