Seven Quick Takes

Linking up with Jen for another 7 Quick Takes!

1.
Alright sickness, seriously, it’s time to leave. I want to breathe again!

2.

Nate bought a bike last week so now our bike obsessed child is even more obsessed. I think it’s about time to get him his own. We were looking in Target the other day and of course this is what he picked out… Probably not ready for that yet bud!

3.
We saw the midwife on Wednesday and got to hear the baby’s heartbeat. Everything is still looking good. She seemed oddly impressed by the size of my uterus so I’m a little worried we’re going to find two of them floating in there next month. I should have asked her to try and find another heartbeat with the Doppler but I was scared and ignorance is bliss!

4.
Damian had a full developmental evaluation done today to “help” us keep our Medicaid. Good news is the kid did REALLY well. She kept telling me how smart he was. Bad news is… we will probably be losing Medicaid. I guess it’s good we don’t need it, but it’s really nice having something cover all those medical bills for us!

5.

I have been missing Charleston like crazy recently. This always happens the second it gets warm though and, for the most part, continues until winter hits when I “hate” everything. So I guess this isn’t really a new development. However, we’re going to spend almost most a week at our family beach house very soon, and I.CANNOT.WAIT!!!! All I want to do is sit chase Damian on the beach, eat seafood (that’s a picture of shrimp and grits above,) and soak up some sun and salty air! I have the best memories from childhood on the beach, so I want Damian to have those too.

6.

Damian and I went to Barnes and Noble for the first time this week. (Don’t judge, normally I take him to the library or our local children’s book store. I promise I haven’t been depriving him of books and stories.) Anyway, the children’s section at ours is amazing! Who knew!? And the toy section they have is great. They are all educational and creative. It was such a breath of fresh air in comparison to Target which is normally where we ‘look at toys.’ Toys, by the way, live at stores and are just for children to look at and dream about. We can’t buy toys like we can buy books. Or at least this is what I’m telling Damian for as long as he will believe me.

7.

The last thing I thought I’d share is a little bit of what my phone looks like after I find that Damian has stolen it. Since my quick takes are usually just me reviewing my iPhone photos from the week, I wanted you to see what I have to scroll through. I probably have at least 100 pictures of the top of his head and curls. And I can’t delete them because I’m a mom, and these things make me melt…

Ascension Thursday

As you may have seen in my last post, Damian and I have a bit of a cold. I decided it was best not to send him to preschool today considering his nose is still pretty runny. Although Nate did point out that the best part of school is sharing germs…

Since little man didn’t get to have a fun, activity filled day at school, I figured I should step up my game and do some themed arts and crafts with him. Luckily for us, today is Ascension Thursday so I decided to use the arts and crafts moment to also teach a little catechesis. I’m not sure my explanation was 100% correct, theologically speaking, as I think the phrase “Jesus can fly” may have slipped out, but you gotta do what ya can to keep a 2 year old intrigued when there’s glue sitting within reach. And you know, Jesus is God, I’m sure he can fly.

I started with the coloring page from here (great resource for a bunch of other religious coloring pages too.) After Damian felt it was sufficiently colored, I cut out our scene. He then got to help glue the apostles on, Jesus in the sky, etc. on to blue construction paper. His favorite part was making the cloud! I’m going to have to find more to do with cotton balls. Who knew the excitement they could produce!?

 

Apparently a holy cloud got left behind for the Apostles… Maybe Damian was creating a foreshadowing of Pentecost. He is a theologian in training after all…

Now that I’ve got some of my energy back and Damian is more into creating things, I need to think up more projects like this we can do together. Damian gets very interested in the things going on at Mass (sometimes.) It would be good for me to help bring more of that home to tie things together. It’s amazing how much he picks up and retains. Even when I think Damian isn’t listening to me, days later he will do something that shows he was. I’m also becoming more aware of his learning style. He’s still very into motor skills and while he likes stories, he’d rather ‘do something’ to learn instead of just watch or listen to me explain something. Unfortunately, that is not my first instinct with him and I want to get better about finding different ways to teach things to him. However, I think that topic is a whole different post all on it’s own.

Hope you all had a Happy Ascension Thursday, and if you’re like most Catholic dioceses out there, are looking forward to celebrating it on Sunday!

16 weeks

Dearest baby,

I can’t say this has been the most eventful past two weeks for us. Not much has been going on in our little world. I feel mostly back to normal which is nice (minus this cold your brother has given me!) You’re growing a ton right now; you should be measuring in around 4.5 inches. We see the midwife tomorrow and I can’t wait to hear your heartbeat again. I’m also anxiously awaiting the first kick or jab from you! I didn’t feel anything until about 21 weeks with Damian, but I’ve heard you feel it faster with the second one. That is really my favorite part of pregnancy! It’s something between just us. I guess right now everything is just between us, I’m just not as aware of it. Anyway, if you want to give me a little nudge to let me know you’re having fun in there, that’d be great.

I’m feeling the nesting urges start up. I’m excited to make you things and my knitting needles are getting antsy. I can’t wait to find out your gender. Only one more month and then you’re no longer an “it” but a he or she! Guesses seem pretty tied right now between boy or girl. Daddy and I don’t agree of course, so we will have to see who one is right. (I was right about Damian…. not that I’m keeping score or anything…) I’ve had a couple of friends guess twins. I don’t think there are two of you in there… but just to cover my bases later–if there are more than one of you, I mean all of you when I say ‘baby.’

Hopefully you’ve been enjoying the work outs we’ve had recently. I’m jogging more, and it feels good to get out and run. Although, part of me does wonder if I’m giving you shaken baby syndrome before you even enter the world. Maybe you’re just learning to be a very proficient swimmer in rocky seas!?

Daddy and I keep seeing little babies around, and it’s finally starting to hit us that we’re going to have another one around here pretty soon. These past 16 weeks have gone by in a flash, and so I know the next few months will too. October will be here in no time! I keep trying to block out the sleepless nights and remember the cute little fingers and toes. I forget how little newborns are! I’m most excited about seeing your personality and how it differs from Damian. My brother and I are as different as night and day, so I have a feeling that you and Damian might be too. We’ll see if I can keep up!

Alright little one, that’s all for now. Be good in there! Know we love you so much!!

Love always!

Mama

Boys and Bugs

I mentioned that Damian loves bugs now.

And then he kissed it…

Time to buy a bug box I guess.

Seven Quick Takes

1.
It’s been so nice feeling like I can finally be honest with you guys. I have so many posts to write now– like how running has actually been going, how we’re going handle 2 kiddos, and all the other baby things on my mind. Get ready

2.
I should do a whole post on this but Damian is becoming obsessed with bugs. I finally braved picking up a little critter on our walk so he could hold one. The kid almost peed himself with excitement!

3.

Speaking of pee, the kid needs to start potty training. It’s my ultimate dream that he will be out of diapers before the pumpkin baby arrives. I think he’s ready considering I get about 5-6 “I pee peed” updates a day. However, my attempts to get him to go on the potty have been failures thus far. I’m going to wait until June/July to let him want to do it on his own, but if not by then, potty training boot camp it is!

4.
Can anyone else believe how fast Damian is growing up?! Potty training… What?!?! And the other night Nate and I were discussing buying him a twin sized bed. A real bed?!?! Lets just take a moment to thank God there is another baby on the way.

5.

-source-
I had an intense moment of catholic nerdness this week when I realized the liturgical day for Blessed John Paul II is also my due date. Cue excessive excitement. JP2 is perhaps the closest thing I have to a hero/ role model. The insane love and admiration I have for this man probably stems from quite a number of things such as he was the first pope I ever really knew, his contribution of the Theology of the Body to the Church, and his public witness of suffering with dignity and purpose. I love this man and have been asking for his prayers for this baby since day 1, so knowing there’s a special link makes my heart happy and hopeful.

6.

I’m really struggling with limiting Damian’s “screen time.” When I was getting hit hard with morning sickness and exhaustion, the TV was my saving grace. We watched a movie a day, and usually that movie was Cars or Cars 2. He also got into a horrible habit of playing games on my phone. I’m fine with all of this in moderation, but the phone has become a real problem for him. He can’t see me using it without screaming “Mine!!” And although I don’t mind that he plays with it some, I recently discovered that he has been saving his coloring creations to my photo album. I now have a ton of these beautiful trucks with awesome paint jobs to look at… I guess I should just be glad he hasn’t bought anything yet.

7.

With the onset of pregnancy hunger the cravings have begun. Like last time, citrus is always a crowd pleaser. However Wednesday night I was dying for a pizza. In an attempt to stay true to our budget and just make the healthy dinner I had planned, I searched the house for something to take away my aching desire for the pizza. Apparently the combination of cranberry bagel with a side of Spanish olives did the trick. Weirdest combination so far… #noshame

14 weeks

If you missed yesterday’s post, I’ll go ahead and fill you in… I’m pregnant! I’ve finally made it to the 2nd trimester and I’m so glad I can finally share this journey with y’all! I really want this baby’s pregnancy to be as well documented as Damian’s was, but then I literally had to look back through all of my old Damian posts to remember what I had actually done. Besides a lot of craziness, it doesn’t look I was too consistent doing updates (a shocker I know…) But in good news, that means I didn’t set the bar too high for this little Baby 2.

Anyway…. It was kind of fun looking back through all my old pregnancy posts. I will say there moments of shaking my head and muttering “ohhh sweet woman, you have no clue what you’re about to encounter.” I was worried with our second child all the magic and excitement would be dulled, but thankfully I was so very wrong! I’m thinking this go around, I’d like to do a letter style update. I’ve been writing Baby 2 letters in my journal since we found out so I’ll just start using the blog for them. So let’s begin shall we…

Dearest baby,

We’ve made it to the second trimester!! Woohoo! This means I should be allowed to have some of that energy back, right? I have been WORN out! I don’t remember being nearly this tired with Damian, but then again I sat at a desk all day while pregnant last time. Chasing your brother around has probably caused the extra sleepiness and near daily naps. Thankfully, you didn’t give me much more trouble than your brother as far as morning sickness went–just some weeks of nausea and lack of appetite. Now I believe we’ve reached the hungry, eat-all-the-time stage. Midwife has told me that I’m “training for a marathon, not to hibernate all winter.” She’s a bit of a buzz-kill when it comes to my ice cream and donut fantasies, but at least we’ll both be healthier for it. And thankfully your mama is a marathon runner so this should be a piece of cake!? Speaking of marathons, how about you let me keep running so I can be in shape to run the Disney marathon in January… Just a thought for you to chew on while you bake. I promise to sneak you some donuts?? Deal?? Damian says to tell you donuts are awesome and you should definitely take me up on this offer! However, his advice is probably a bit biased because 1. he knows if I get a donut so does he and 2. he wants to go to Disney World in January. Welcome to the life of a second child…

While we’re on the subject of Damian, let me tell you a bit about your older brother. He’s a mess, but in a good way. I know he’s going to love you a ton. We’ve already talked about how if you are a boy he’s going to teach you all about beep beeps (cars) and choo choos (trains) along with bugs, balls, and sticks. If you are a girl he says he will still teach you about trains and cars but agrees that the occasional game of dress up could be fun too. He prays for you every day, and I show him pictures of what you look like while you grow. You’re going to rock his world (in more ways than one) and I look forward to the days when y’all can finally play and talk together. I do not look forward to the days you gang up on me, but that’s inevitable I guess…

As far as Daddy and I go, we can’t wait to meet you (and by ‘can’t wait’ we mean we want a full term, healthy baby, so no funny business…) Anyway, I knew the second I was pregnant with you. I was in the middle of giving Damian a bath when suddenly I thought “I’m pregnant!” and got goosebumps all over. Sure enough 8 days later (the soonest possible day to test and my birthday!) we had the faintest positive pregnancy test I had ever seen. Had I not known already, I probably wouldn’t have believed it. You were definitely a wonderful birthday present. The first few weeks went by so slowly. We are going with a midwife this time, so we didn’t get to see you via ultrasound at our first appointment like we did with Damian. I’ve actually yet to see you, but at 12 weeks I got to hear your thumping heartbeat race away in my belly. You finally seemed real and like you were mine. After having your brother, I wondered how a heart could expand enough to have more children when you love your first one so much. Don’t worry little dear, I’m learning already that there was a spot for you all along. The longer you are with me, the more I feel your presence within me. In moments of quiet and prayer, I’m overwhelmed by the sense of your soul. I think God has given me a great gift in you! As you’re learning, your mama is often very sappy while also witty and oh so sarcastically charming. Your father, on the other hand, is the base and rock of this family. I pray you get his good looks and laid back demeanor. He will play with you and make you laugh until you are blue in the face, but he’s also a source of true security and patience. He’s the doer of the family, while I’m very much the thinker. We make a great pair, and I’m pretty sure you’re going to love us. If not, well… there’s not really any other choice, so might as well learn to love what ya got

I think this shall be all for my first blog letter to you. There will be many more to come, and I’ll keep telling you all that’s been going on in the world around and all the fun that’s waiting for you. In the meantime, you keep growing!

Love you little dear!

Mama

A “little” announcement!

“watch out little one, watch out…”

SURPRISE!!

We are excited to announce that Little One #2 is expected to arrive October 22nd!
We couldn’t be more thrilled for this little addition to the family, so please join us in surrounding this sweet baby in prayers and love!

7 Quick Takes

1.

Well once again I’m glued to my TV today watching the manhunt for the Boston Marathon bomber suspect. I didn’t think it could get much sadder, but then I see how young these guys are and my heart breaks more. To be so young and so filled with anger/hate/confusion…. I’m just going to keep praying for healing and safety. Stay strong Boston, we are all with you!

2.

I got Damian’s candid “school pictures” back yesterday and couldn’t stop laughing. They’re pretty bad and show just how much he ‘lovesssss’ school!

3.

I’ve been running a lot more recently. It’s probably thanks to a combination of the nice weather, the family feeling healthy again, and everything with Boston. It’s been great to get back out there, and I need to find a 5k to sign up for ASAP.

4.

My BFF just got engaged and I’m throwing her a wedding shower in the next few months, so I’ve been party planning like crazy. It’s a sickness really. There are so many cute things on Pinterest that I’m almost glad I didn’t have it when I got married. Can’t.Stop! I’ve also started noticing things for Damian’s 3rd birthday… Really. I have a problem.

5.

I’m currently purging Damian’s toys. He has so many toys that he doesn’t really play with and they’re just taking up space. Of course as I’m cleaning out his toy boxes, he’s noticing every toy he owns and suddenly has to play with them. I probably should have waited until nap/bed time.

6.

Damian wants nothing more than to go on walks outside. If I could let him stay outside all day, rain or shine, he would. Today it’s pouring outside and I’m trying to get him in the car to run to the post office, and he takes off for the sidewalk saying “Walk walk!” Ummm no child… it is raining. Your mama isn’t that cool.

7.

I have a prayer request. A friend of mine that is a fellow SLOS mama just found out she’s pregnant with another baby. She lost her son to SLOS last summer and has one daughter with the syndrome as well. Please pray for her that her baby is healthy. She’s such a strong, faithful mama and I’d love for her to get some good news with this baby!

Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Prayers and Running

I had a much different post planned for today. But after the events at the Boston Marathon yesterday, it didn’t seem appropriate. I know I speak for everyone in the running community when I say the profound sense of sadness and shock are still very real. Even for non-runners, the event was horrific. But for those of us who run, yesterday was the dismantling of something we hold very dear. These runners are our heros, whom many of us aspire to be. Boston is a tradition and a moment of greatness. And yet someone was cowardly enough to try and destroy that… However, what tears me up most is the fact that many of those injured were spectators. Likely friends and family of those running. They are the ones who have made the sacrifice while their loved ones spend countless hours training–they’ve dealt with being a single parent, picking up extra chores, feeding their runner constantly, helping through injuries, and probably listening to the running stories nonstop. And then they stood to watch their runner finished, only to encounter this… They damaged our support system, our team. The people who support us runners are the unsung heros and so it saddens me most to know that they are the ones suffering from this.

I spent yesterday afternoon in front of the tv watching the dozens of people be wheeled away from the explosion site. I saw countless people running to help. And I watched the replay of the explosion over and over and over. Finally at some point I had had enough. I strapped Damian in the jogger, and we went for a run. I know it was a nice day, but there were many more runners out than I’ve seen in a long time. I’d like to think it was our way of showing Boston “we stand with you.” Because you see, that’s something us runners get blamed for… when we have something we can’t face, we go for a run. When times are tough, we go for a run. But on a day like yesterday, when something hits us so hard in a place so special to many of us, I can’t help but imagine that all we runners do is get out there and run. I know many places today are holding silent runs for Boston. I encourage you to get out there and do one, and if you can’t, just run. Run for Boston.

As time goes on and the story becomes more clear, I’m sure there will be more ways for us to help. I know many are showing their support today by wearing a race shirt or blue/yellow for the BAA. If you are in the Boston area you can donate blood by going to redcrossblood.org I hope to do more than just wear my race shirt today, but for now all I can do is offer my prayers for those who were injured, for the families of those who have died, and for the one who did this horrible act. God Bless you Boston! We stand with you!

Talking and such…

As promised, here is the post talking about Damian talking.

This April marks a year of attending Speech Therapy sessions. The usual session is about 30 minutes long, once a week and looks like a one-on-one focused play session. Damian usually doesn’t talk much during them and that frustrates me because that’s not how he is at home. But I guess I was the same way at school… very shy and quiet.

At home, I can’t get Damian to hush. He’s got a decent vocabulary of words–anything he uses or sees on a daily basis, animals, people, favorite items, yes, no, mine, and please. He’s starting to use words together unprompted such as “mama walk” “up please” and before he got sick he strung together his longest ‘sentence’ or phrase yet saying “oh mama byebye, going walk walk.”

My favorite talking moment of the day is our nightly prayers. I ask him to tell God what he’s thankful for, and it’s always interesting. The other night he was thankful for his stuffed cow, milk, and himself… Typical toddler.

I know he’s still not talking ‘like he should’ but considering all he has to struggle against, he’s far exceeding expectations! According to our last evaluation, he’s about 6 months behind for verbal expression but his receptive language skills are right on par. This is great news from a cognitive standpoint. Of course mama thinks he’s brilliant so I don’t need no stinkin’ test to tell me that! But seriously, most kids with SLOS are not talking at all by 2 and a half, so Damian continues to amaze us. We know we have been so blessed. Because Damian’s SLOS is so mild, I often say I’m not going to let it factor in to our decisions and treatment of him. We want to push him and not let a diagnosis determine everything. But it is a fact of life and there’s not a day that goes by that I don’t look at him and think that there is a miracle in my midst.