two thumbs up for big boy drawers

Potty training didn't go anywhere close to how we had planned.  We should have known better than to literally plan out the week that we were going to tackle this.  Funny thing is, it was so.much.better than we could have expected, and I consider that nothing less than a blessing from God.  

One day out of the blue a few weeks "early" Lucas said "Mommy, I don't wear diapers anymore."

Excuse me?  Then what do you suggest that we do, Mr. Independent?

"I wear my big boy drawers!!!"

Insert fear. excitement. pride. fear. dread. amazement. fear. etc.

We bought big boy drawers a while back and started talking up the whole pee peeing on the potty stuff.  We tried him in underwear a few times here and there but my busy body didn't seem ready for this yet.  So it took him straight up refusing diapers (like literally would not let me put them on) out of the blue one day for us to be thrown into a potty training vortex. There was no turning back.

With a lot of hype and a lot of pee pee dances (even with the grandparents over FaceTime)

 and a LOT of m&m's...

WE DID IT!

With the help of our friends, we had our fun along the way too.

And yes, Poppy taught him how to pee pee on a tree.  Boys.

cue bon jovi!

ooooooh we're halfway there!
ooooooh living on a prayer!
take my hand, we'll make it i swear!

We made it to 20 weeks!  It's hard to believe we are halfway through with this pregnancy.  This time has gone by much quicker than when I was pregnant with Lucas.  The thing is, when you're pregnant with your first, it's all you have to think about!  You take naps and clean your house and day dream about the little baby growing inside.  With second babies and beyond, you are wishing for naps but are too busy chasing the little maniac toddler all over the place and it's all you can do to keep from stepping on the little dump trucks and train pieces scattered all over the living room floor as you think, "man...I should clean my house."  Day dreaming happens but looks different, as you try to remember how many weeks you are and sometimes try to squeeze in small places that you can't fit into because you momentarily forgot you were pregnant.  Or is it just me?  When we scheduled our ultrasound, I thought I made it for 18 weeks.  Well it was at 19 weeks because I completely miscounted.  That would have never happened in my first pregnancy!  I could rattle off my gestational weeks without thinking.  Now, it's....ummm....yeah, we're 20 weeks!  I think...

For the most part I'm feeling pretty good.  Aside from a few random nausea spells in the mornings and sporadic leg cramps at night, we are trucking right along!  Lucas is fascinated with the baby in my belly and loves to give her hugs and kisses and say things like "you growing baby?  you want some milk?  you want some fooooood?"  

He is so sweet and gentle and wants to feel her move.  Brandon felt her move the weekend of the 4th, right at 19 and a half weeks.  We were in Asheville at the time, so my mom got to feel her too!  By the time my dad tried, she had quieted down.  He says he is just the baby whisperer and put her to sleep.  We'll see about that.   

 

We have talked to Lucas a lot lately about the responsibilities of being a big brother.  When we are having a particularly difficult toddler moment (aka a "fofo" - full on freak out) we remind him that his baby sister is listening to everything he is saying and that he needs to teach her early how to be a good listener.  And the crazy thing is, sometimes it works!  He is practicing giving gentle hugs to his Mickey and reads stories to his cars.  My heart melts each and every time.  

Our first girly gift, a pack of headbands, was given to us by Betsy and Josh, and we just had to try one on Lucas.  Wouldn't he make a pretty little girl?  Excuse his goofy squinty eyed grin he is doing in all of the pictures.  It's the new face he makes when he is told to smile.  And excuse my manic looking face in the picture below, it's just my face.  I'm still in awe we are having a girl. 

So, 20 weeks down and 20ish more to go!  I say "ish" loosely, because Lucas was a week late.  I'm convinced I will still be pregnant on Thanksgiving which gives me an excuse to eat my weight in turkey.  Let's do this!

it's independence day

We loaded the car again and headed to the mountains for the 4th of July.  The timing worked out great since we left Raleigh right after our ultrasound appointment for the big gender reveal.  We spent the rest of the weekend hiking and relaxing and exploring.

We went to Lucas's favorite hiking spot to play in the creek.  Lexi loved it just as much as Lucas did!

Lucas thought he was hot stuff carrying his own backpack! 

We went to Splashville downtown and Lucas ran and ran and ran in the fountains.

Lucas and Nana spent lots of time tending to her garden, picking veggies and watering the plants.

And of course, lots of time was spent playing and practicing how to be a good big brother with my old baby dolls and stuffed animals.

We went to Antler Village on Biltmore Estate on the 4th and listened to a band play.  We didn't see any fireworks since Lucas goes to bed so early, but that's okay.  We had a great time in the mountains and are always sad to leave.  Until next time, mountains!

sugar and spice and everything nice

That's what little girls are made of!

We had our big ultrasound at 19 weeks. As excited as I was to know if baby Hudson was a little boy or a little girl, of course I was a nervous wreck leading up to the appointment.  Blame it on the pediatric nurse in me who sees the worst of the worst.  But our little girl gave us a full on show right as the ultrasound began, letting us immediately know that pink is in our near future!  The ultrasound showed she was perfect and growing, although we didn't get one single typical ultrasound picture of her face profile.  She was snuggled up next to my placenta the entire time and would not turn her head towards us to get her picture made!  What a diva.

I was genuinely surprised that we saw a little girl on the screen.  On the way there, Brandon and I both said that we had strong feelings that it was going to be another boy.  I felt like I was carrying the same way I carried Lucas, and the other differences in this pregnancy I attributed to chasing a toddler around.  So all signs pointed to boy.  Honestly, we would have been thrilled either way.  But now that we know it's a girl, we are over the moon!

After the ultrasound, we packed up and headed to Asheville for a long weekend.  The timing was almost perfect.  We planned to tell both of our parents in person the gender of the baby when we got into town.  We were only able to tell my parents in person, however, because Brandon's parents had to unexpectedly go to Florida a little early because Brandon's sister had her baby!  So we ended up telling them on FaceTime.

To tell my parents, we decided to wrap the appropriate colored silly string can in white paper and have them squirt Lucas to see if it was pink or blue.  Take a look:

So funny!  There is a decent change my mom may kill me for sharing this video but I had to! One of my favorite parts of the video is after I give them instructions to spray Lucas, my dad immediately starts counting and my mom says "spray him?!"  Typical Nana and Poppy personalities, my dad says go for it and my mom thinks logically about what is about to happen since I forgot to tell them it was just silly string.  My dad actually told us a few days before that he was 89% sure it was another boy.  Random, I know.  Well dad, you were 89% wrong!  I love how he yells "we were wrong! we were wrong!" in the video.  It never gets old watching that!  Brandon's parents were equally as ecstatic, as were the rest of our family and friends.

Now as we start thinking of girl names and girl rooms and all things that come along with raising a girl, we are overwhelmed with thanksgiving.  So to all of you mamas of girls out there, any tips are appreciated!  Lucas knows he is going to have a baby sister and it's so cute to hear him talking about it.  He's going to be the best big brother.

Baby girl, keep growing.  We love you already!