Exciting Things Happening

We are SO excited . . . where to begin with the reasons . . .

Well 1st and foremost, our precious little boy (who ain't so lil' these days) turns 2 years years old tomorrow! Wow, we can hardly believe it! The time has flown by SO fast and we really have enjoyed each and every moment more than we could have EVER imagined. He really is turning into a nice boy. Last night at his swim lessons I was sharing some of his goldfish crackers with a little girl in his class and I looked over and he was handing her his . . how sweet! He's also SUCH a smart guy these days . . . he knows all his letters and even their sounds (thank you Leap Frog videos!) and he can somewhat count all way up to 15 (at times - particularly when being pushed on a swing in the park). And most the time he knows his shapes and colors. The other day we were discussing the color blue and I said you know blue water, blue sky and he very innocently told me Blues Clues (all you moms out there will understand this one)!! So, yes, that's another thing I'd have to say when thinking of RJ at his ripe age of 2 . . . the child loves TV and completely understands the difference between TV and DVDs (says this word regularly) and also understands the inter workings of a DVR and how to pause, select from the lists of shows we record for him, etc. We can pretty much bribe him to do anything or eat anything just by offering TV. And if he's not liking the current programming he'll say "something else, something else!" We've probably given in a lil' too much to TV, but sometimes ya just gotta and we try to minimize it as much as possible and keep it more as an evening activity. What can I say . . .like Father like Son! :) Yesterday I was going through some word flash cards with him and I showed him a Yo- Yo and thought to myself there's no way he'll know this one. And out it came the word Yo-Yo. I was amazed. I told Rob about it at dinner and said where could he have learned that word and Rob said some TV program somewhere . . .I said yep I guess that TV has its pluses sometimes! :) Friday is RJ's 2 year doctor check-up, so we'll update you at that point. My guess is that he's close to 30 lbs. We'll see.

The other exciting news is that my mom and step dad started making their way across this grand country of ours this morning to visit us! Yippee!! We anxiously look forward to their safe arrival sometime Thursday evening. RJ will have a birthday BBQ on Saturday with his Maw maw and Papaw and other friends and family. It should be a great time full of fun!

Because of my mom's visit, I called the OBGYN to see if there was anyway we could get our "determine the sex" ultrasound moved up so she could attend and be a part of it. Yippee! They let us move it to Friday morning March 5th (a week from Friday). We can't wait! I will be about 19 and half weeks at that time. Now remember, we had an intense ultrasound in Phoenix at 12 weeks and they told us 60% boy, 40% girl. Which we both kind of came to the conclusion that a boy would be pretty easy, we'd certainly have most of what we needed! However, I had been thinking a little about it lately and read that the genitals are really all the same at 12 weeks. I thought to myself how funny it would be if we were all set on it being a boy and it turned out to be a girl (this was after my friend Paige took a 1st trimester pee test to determine the sex and it concluded boy when in reality her sex ultra sound determined a girl). So, I turned to my reliable friend at work who does the needle test in which she was 100% accurate with during my 1st pregnancy and has been accurate with the sex determination of many other pregnancies within our office and in her own family. Well guess what . .. call it mother's intuition, but her test concluded a girl! Crazy stuff I know . . . so needless to say we are very excited that we only have another week and half to wait and more importantly that my mom will be here to be a part of it! All else has been well with this pregnancy so far. The sickies have subsided (after our family's bout with the stomach flu) and have turned to daily headaches (none of which I had with my previous pregnancy - ugh), but I've been managing this easily with regular Tylenol doses with no problems. So all and all the 2nd trimester is proving to be very nice holding up to its reputation! I've been told I'm starting to show at this point and will post pictures next week with the sex ultrasound info.

Finally, Rob and I will be taking our 2nd "Baby moon" cruise starting March 22nd! The hardest part will be leaving RJ for 11 days! He totally has a blast staying with Mrs. Celeste and her family and most likely will not miss us a bit. He loves playing with her 17 year old twin boys and her husband John. However, we will be missing him LOTS! The thing was when we went to book the cruise, the 7 day was about the same price as the 11 day . . . so we said what the heck! It's not like we will be having much of a vacation any time soon with baby #2 on deck ready to nurse for a year like its older brother! :) That's one thing about nursing . . .you can't leave the baby! So anyway, we very much look forward to cruising the Mexican Riviera and the 11 day cruise will allow us to check out all the ports we would have ever wanted to visit along the Pacific Coast of Mexico! We'll be able to say been there, done that! :) I look forward to it because I've really only visited the Northern Pacific coast of Mexico which I was not at all impressed with (my only real exposure to Mexico as I am much more versed in the Caribbean/Central America since that was closer to me to get to when I lived in Kentucky), but Rob says the Southern parts are much better, prettier, etc. The cruise lines all have a policy on pregnant women and I believe we are actually going the very last week that they would allow me on the ship. . . kinda funny! So bon voyage!! It should be a nice time of fun and relaxation!