Last Night I Dreamt I Went to Manderley Again...

Wait, that's something else entirely. I actually dreamt about blueberry waffles. I also dreamt about visiting a doctor whose office doubled as a general store. I also dreamt that we found out the baby is a girl. Yes, the crazy pregnancy dreams are still going full force.

Also going in full force is the baby's heartbeat which I got to hear today at my doctors appointment. Nothing is quite as lovely as that swooshing sound. A few nights ago, while watching an episode of The Big Bang Theory with Sean, I even felt the first little tiny flutters (clearly this baby appreciates nerd culture. If you don't watch that show, you should).

In three weeks we will find out the sex of the baby. It's funny because for the most part I really didn't care one way or the other. We've assumed it's a boy, so I've just been operating under that idea. However, now that the actual date of reveal is so close I'm feeling like HOW CAN I WAIT THREE WEEKS? The problem is that for the briefest of moments I allowed myself to ponder what it might be like to have a girl and now I'm totally frazzled and desperate to know one way or the other. We'll be happy either way and blah blah blah, but can you just imagine little pink dresses and bows?

As for my other, already confirmed boy child, he's been so wonderful lately. He's still having a blast at school and seems to be learning a lot. He can tell you the number of stars on our flag, the meaning of the word "symmetry" and is learning to use scissors. Yes, back in the day parents used to just let children learn to cut with scissors by supervising them but now we have to have school lessons around it. I'm not even joking, apparently so many kids were starting kindergarten with no idea how to use scissors that it's become an issue. Parents these days are wee bit overprotective perhaps?

He's also picking up some new phrases. Anytime I try to get him to do something he doesn't want to do he tells me I'm giving him a heart attack. He also loves to ask how everyone is doing. Each morning he asks "Daddy, how as work? Was work fun? Did you do a good job? Mommy, how was sleeping?". Adorable, but it does make me feel like a slacker. However, the one phrase that has us both blushing and laughing is "I'm sexy and I know it". He heard it in a song and it has stuck. He loves to tell us he's sexy and he knows it. The way I see it, he was bound to learn the word eventually. Sean and I don't swear in front of him but I have no problem telling Sean I think he's sexy and he has no problem returning the sentiment. Oh well. He knows the word is not okay for school and we figure that there are far worse things he could be saying.

I have to laugh when I think about it however. It was a line in a song and he immediately picked it up and there was no saving the situation. Maybe I'm a terrible mother for saying it but I laugh hysterically when he sings it. Oh, there's also a dance he's added to it. When my brother and I were kids we always listened to The Rolling Stones, Pink Floyd and Queen when we were in the car with my dad and it must've been kind of hilarious to hear us singing along to Fat Bottom Girls. I would never have dreamed of singing it at school but you can bet we belted it out in the car. I'm hoping Aiden develops similar good judgement.

Bo is also sexy, he definitely knows it.

Snow Business

It's mid January already! I cannot believe it. We've spent the past couple of weeks recovering from the holidays and getting back into the daily grind. It hasn't felt much like the heart of winter since there hasn't been any snow, and I've been sharing this sentiment with anyone who would listen, until of course it snowed.

Aiden and I took full advantage of the white stuff and spent the morning making a snowman and throwing snowballs. For the rest of the day I was exhausted beyond belief. Running in snow is hard.

I am this excited for snow!

FINALLY!

So is shoveling it. Apparently it's not considered helpful to quote the statistic on the number of people who have heart attacks while shoveling as your husband is about to go out and shovel. Also, I found this fantastic fur and leather hat (no, that's not his hair, it's the fur) tucked up in the hall closet. He actually agreed to wear it while outside and he said it was the warmest hat he's worn. Also, I love it because it really brings out the Mongolian and Russian in him. He's so adorable in it, but he didn't really want a picture, thus the closed eyes.
I know you're probably wondering where you too can find an authentic fur and leather hat such as this but alas, this one is truly vintage.

Also, every day that passed after Christmas had me cursing the gigantic pile of toys collecting behind the couch and spilling out of the existing storage bins, so I finally went out and picked up new ones. Aiden helped me sort and toss, and now it's slightly more manageable.

The before:

The After:

So, that's our January so far. Snow and storage bins and a hat. We northeasterners really have to stretch the limits of "entertainment" when it gets into the winter months.

New Beginnings

So, since I didn't record anything about my pregnancy with Aiden, I want to make an effort this time. Sean and I really didn't tell anyone until Christmas, and even before then we didn't talk much about it to each other out of nervousness. Finally telling people has felt very strange, almost uncomfortable, because it really makes it real. It definitely hasn't really sunk in yet and still seems very tentative, at least to me, so I'm waiting for that moment when it kind of becomes real.

It's funny but things feel so different this time around. When I was pregnant with Aiden it never occurred to me that anything might go wrong. I had some worries but they were more about labor and less about something happening to the baby. Also, I was getting up at 4:30am to work a full day before sitting in class for three hours, so you know, I didn't exactly have time to think of everything that might go wrong. This time however, I'm constantly coming back to the same worries about miscarrying. We've had to deal with some related issues in the past few months, so in some ways they're legitimate worries, but even after my doctor assured me ten times over that everything is going swimmingly, I still worry. What can I say, I'm a World Champion Black Belt Worrier.

One thing not helping the worry are my constant nightmares! They involve crazy, unrealistic scenarios and yet I wake up in a panic and feel off-kilter for quite a while. The upside is that apparently the more nightmares you have during pregnancy, the less likely your are to suffer from postpartum depression. Who knows how accurate that is but here's hoping there's some benefit to them!

There are even more little details that I'm finding different from the first. With Aiden I was starving all the time and I couldn't get enough steak and milk. I'm not a big red-meat eater and I don't drink milk, so that was strange. Now it's fruit. I'm craving mangoes, watermelon, cherries, oranges and anything else in the produce section. Still not crazy about milk or meat. However, in general I'm not very hungry (which I'm sure will change in the next few weeks).

Another difference is my belly! With Aiden I didn't start showing until I was about five months, and even then it was more of a "Is she pregnant or is that just cheeseburgers?" kind of bump. Right away this time my clothes were uncomfortable and by 12 weeks there was a bump. I suppose after the first your body just doesn't hold it all in quite the same. Nevertheless, it's nice to actually look pregnant rather than just bloated. I've just had to go shopping for some actual maternity clothes as I opened my box of maternity clothes from last time and discovered I had two tank tops, a pair of jeans and a pair of Capri pants. Whoops. Suddenly I remembered that I borrowed almost everything. Luckily with the after Christmas sales I'm pretty much stocked up and for very little money which was nice!

So now for the ultra unflattering bathroom lighting shot:

14 Weeks

Christmas and Gifts

I haven't posted anything since Aiden's birthday because we've been really busy this month, but I did remember to take some pictures of our own little Christmas morning. It was hard this year because Sean had to work Christmas Eve although he did manage to get Christmas night off. So he came to church with us and then had to run off to work. Aiden woke up on Christmas morning and was shockingly patient. We went downstairs to see if Santa had come, and he had indeed, but we ate breakfast while we waited for Sean to get home from work before we opened any presents.

After presents Sean went to bed and I took Aiden over for Christmas at my mom's house, which was lots of fun as usual. After that I picked up Sean and we headed to my dad's family's Christmas get together. Poor Sean is always overwhelmed at this get together as he was an only child for most of his life and has three cousins who he doesn't get to see much. I, on the other hand, have six aunts and uncles (plus their spouses), there are thirteen of us kids and two great grand children. We are also very noisy and by the time we arrive everyone is usually full of the Christmas "spirit". I'm constantly having to prompt Sean with names and names of spouses and which person does what, and he usually has to explain what he does for a living about five times.
Anyway, we had a lot of fun and Aiden enjoyed hanging out with my cousin Alexandra who is only two months older than him.

Our big exciting gift this Christmas wasn't actually a present, but the fact that we're having another baby. It has been such a long road getting here that I can't believe how different things are from our experience with Aiden. Aiden was a surprise when we were totally unprepared for baby. This time we planned and waited and when we were finally ready...nothing. It's been over a year of trying combined with some health issues on my part and now we're actually pregnant. For a while I was really trying not to get my hopes up or even think about it too much so now that we're starting the second trimester and hopefully in a safe place it seems so odd to finally tell everyone. It still seems surreal and I'm nervous to really wrap my head around it, but hopefully it starts to seem more like reality. It has definitely been the best thing we could've hoped for. Today is also our second anniversary, so here's to two babies and two wonderful years together!

Aiden Is 4!

My baby turns 4 today! This was a special year because he got to have an honest to goodness birthday party with all of his school friends at a local children's museum. This museum is seriously cool. It's two floors of all kinds of hands-on play areas such as a "pond" with lots of stuffed animals, a "bandstand" with sensors that play music when you cover them, and a vet area with real animal x-rays and a trolley right in the middle. That is a tiny sample of what's in this place, and when all the kids got there it was a free-for-all of fun and playing. After an hour and a half of play time the kids all got together and had pizza, ate cupcakes and did some crafts. All of the kids in Aiden's class are so adorable, and one girl even sang him "Happy Birthday" in Swedish! It really is so nice to seem them interact and to get to chat with all the other parents. Aiden had a ton of fun too, which was the whole point after all.









Today he brought some treats to school to celebrate and the teachers had made him a paper crown to wear all day. It was adorable!

Since he's turning another year older I sat down and "interviewed" him so that he could look back and remember what his "favorites" were at this age. I thought it would be impossible to get him to sit still and pay attention but he was very interested in answering all my questions. He's ready for the spotlight apparently.

Aiden at Age 4

His Favorite Book: "Green Eggs and Ham"

His Favorite Song: "The Polar Express theme song and The Dog Song" (that's The Dog Days Are Over by Florence + the Machine, mommy and daddy's favorite singer)

His Favorite Food: "I love shrimp! And pizza, grapes, bananas, donuts..." (this list went on and on. He's not too picky I guess!)

His Favorite Drink: "Chocolate milk and real milk"

His Favorite Toy: "My firetrucks... Oh yeah, my trains!"

His Best Friend: "Rainbow" (awwwwwwwwww)

His Favorite Place: "I really like Disney World, but I also really like Starbucks"

His Favorite Color: "Color...hmmm....purple?"

His Favorite Game: "Playing with my blocks!"

His Favorite Dessert: "CAKE!"

What He Wants to Be When He Grows Up: "An alligator"

All the Rest of November!

So! Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We had dinner at our house this year and everything went off mostly without a hitch. This amazed me as we got back from a week in Disney World last Saturday and I was certain I'd be going crazy this week, but not so much. All went well.

I keep telling people I'm going to post the Disney photos and then I get really busy doing something like taking a nap or making a snack. And then there was that whole Thanksgiving thing. But now, as promised, the photos!



We got there on a Saturday, after getting up at the unholy hour of 4AM to catch our plane. The plane ride and our connecting flight were totally fine, Aiden was an angel, we got there in three hours total. The only hitch was the vicious air sickness that overcame me on our descent. That, and the lack of airsickness bags. Yeah. We got off the plane and Aiden and Sean were all "YAY DISNEY WORLD!" while I looked and felt like hot garbage, and prayed someone would please put me out of my misery. We spent the rest of the day relaxing at our hotel, the boys went out for a swim, and we all went to bed very early.



The next day we went to Hollywood Studios, which has more along the lines of shows and tours than rides. One ride we did go on was the Toy Story ride which was AWESOME. We saw the classic Indiana Jones show and did a couple of the backstage tours. Perhaps the coolest part of the park was the Star Wars ride. We didn't go on the ride because it was too scary for Aiden but we ate dinner next to it and got to watch the little show they put on right outside. They pull all of the kids out of the audience (the young padawans, if you will) and dress them in Jedi robes and give them light sabers so that they can complete light saber training with a Jedi. They learn all these moves, and then when they think the show is over, out comes DARTH VADER!!!! And each child gets to try out their moves against Darth Vader until they finally defeat him, whereupon they receive their official Jedi certificate. HOW COOL IS THAT? I don't even like Star Wars but these kids were having so much fun, and were so excited to face Darth Vader I can only imagine they returned to school after vacation and were catapulted to immediate popularity by showing their friends photographic evidence of their Jedi prowess.







The next day we went to Magic Kingdom which is by far the best park of them all. We even set aside two days for this park because there is just so much to do. All I can say is that we went on every ride that Aiden could get on, which is about 99% of them. Aiden did all the classic rides including Dumbo and the teacups. Between him and Sean I thought our teacup would spiral off into the upper atmosphere they had it spinning so fast. Aiden's favorite ride was the speedway cars. They are little go carts that ride a rail so you can steer but you can't go too far off course. First he rode with Sean and spent the whole day begging to go again. I took him on it the second time and, because I'm a fun mom, I let him drive. He was having SO MUCH FUN. I had to push the gas because he couldn't reach, but he steered with everything he had (although he could barely see over the steering wheel so it was quite a bumpy ride). They even gave him an honorary Mickey Driver's License. It was constant fun and rides and Mickey Mouse shaped ice cream. Aiden had so. much. fun. We loved that this park is totally geared towards the kids. They have Fast Pass so that you can return and skip the line incase it's a really long wait, but even waiting in line was fun because so many rides have toys and games and interactive parts along the waiting area.


We did Epcot on Tuesday, which was another day of nonstop action. In the morning we did all the science and technology rides on the one side of the park and then in the afternoon we went and did the World Showcase. They also have a whole undersea area that they've updated with a Finding Nemo ride and an interactive show where you can talk to Crush, the sea turtle from the movie. We were trying to be budget conscious when it came to food, but at Epcot we stopped in France and had ourselves a ridiculously rich, multi-course meal. It was SO GOOD. Towards the end of the meal a man came over pushing a little food cart and stopped in front of us. He lifted the lid off the platter on the cart and underneath was Remi, the little rat from Ratatouille. He chatted with Aiden and decided that although he really liked Aiden he couldn't come home with us because we have a dog and he's very afraid of dogs. The whole interaction was such a surprise I didn't even get a picture. That's Disney for you though. You never know what fun thing might happen.










Wednesday we left Disney and went to Universal Islands of Adventure. I had never been before so I was curious. The park is basically different areas dedicated to different themes. The first area we saw was the Dr. Seuss area, with rides and attractions all based on the books and drawings. It was perfect for Aiden and he went on every ride twice. Or three times. The second area we came for was....THE WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER!!! It was fantastic, everything we hoped, although it could've been a lot bigger. We saw the Hogwart Express, enjoyed a couple mugs of butterbeer, had a very delicious lunch at the three broomsticks and visited the Hogs Head. Sean and I loved just wandering around, visiting Honeydukes and Zonko's, so neat. Other than those two areas however, we were not impressed. Aiden was too small to get on any other rides and they just weren't particularly interesting. Pales in comparison to the Disney Parks.



Thursday we headed to Animal Kingdom which Aiden loved. We went on Kilimanjaro Safari, where they take to out to see all the animals native to the Savannah, such as Hippos, Elephants, Giraffes, Lions, Monkeys Rhinos and everything else you can think of. Aiden kept rattling off the names of all the animals he'd seen to anyone who'd listen.

Friday we did one last day at Magic Kingdom, it was both my birthday and MICKEY MOUSE'S BIRTHDAY!!! How cool is that??? Also, how strange is it that Aiden was born on the same day as Walt Disney? We are obviously a Disney family. It's in the stars.

Our flight back the next day was uneventful, no airsickness! And basically it took us about four days to recover from all of the fun and sun. Seriously, it was exhausting and just completely magical. Everything we hoped for as Aiden's first time at Disney.

The Holiday Season Has Begun.

On Sunday Laura, Tierney, me and all three of our moms went down to New York to see "How to Succeed In Business Without Really Trying" as a day long birthday extravaganza and it was FANTASTIC. Daniel Radcliffe and John Larroquette headlined and it was incredibly funny. The whole trip was so wonderful, from spending time with my friends and our moms to eating at Carmine's and watching the show, everything was fun. When I was thinking about the whole trip I couldn't put my finger on what exactly made it so special, above and beyond the obvious, when I realized that what really sealed the deal and made it such a relaxing break was the fact that I was not in charge. I didn't have to plan a thing!
I am so thankful that these wonderful women arranged for show tickets, train times, reservations and a carpool to the train station. My friend Tierney even had warm bagels waiting for everyone right as we left that morning. The most strenuous decision I had to make was what to order for dessert (and trust me it was one I really pondered over). What a nice break to just be able to show up for the fun and not be in charge of arrangements. My friends are the best.


Now that the fun of that trip is over we are heading straight into Holiday Mania. Today Aiden and I sat down to write out the invitations for his birthday party which we have to hand out this week since next week we'll be in... DISNEY WORLD! Yay! Then four days after our return we're having Thanksgiving at our house and a week after that will be his actual party. And then it's a slippery slope straight into Christmas and New Year and we'll reemerge in 2012 with our heads still spinning from the madness. Full steam ahead.