1st haircut, beach trip, and 2nd birthday!

This is what happens when I get behind on blogging.  We have an eventful month and suddenly I'm way behind on my updates.  So, I'll get us mostly caught up this time and save the other giant update (starting preschool!) for the next post.

1st haircut

Much as I loved Daniel's long shaggy hair, it was time for a trim.  The back was starting to get kind of mullet-y and as cute as the longer hair was in the front and on the sides, the mullet thing was not as becoming.  So, after asking around for suggestions, we took him to Cool Cuts for Kids, a salon that's tailored to kids.  For the littlest customers like Daniel, the salon chairs are built into race cars. 

He liked driving the car while the stylist trimmed away.  The car also faced a little TV which was cued up with an Elmo video.  I was quite the proud mommy that he recognized Elmo not from TV, but from his books. 

He was pretty patient all through the cut and looked quite handsome afterwards.

Beach trip

When I was growing up, a trip to Padre Island was a part of nearly every summer.  Kevin and I decided that would be a fun tradition to keep for our family too.  Daniel enjoyed the trip last year so we knew he'd have fun this year too, especially now that he's big enough to walk and run in the water. 

Before our flight, Daniel enjoyed playing in the kids' play area of DFW airport.  What a genius idea to let the kiddos burn off some energy before their flight!

Last year we went with the Rangels and my parents.  This year the Rangels weren't able to make it but my parents, Kevin's mom, and Kevin's brother Scott and his wife Katherine all came, then my brother David and his girlfriend Alana joined for the final two days.  So, it wound up being an extended family trip, which was fun.  Daniel loved spending time with his grandparents, uncles, and aunt!

Last year he wasn't walking yet so he couldn't really go very far out into the ocean itself before the water was hitting him in the face, so he mainly stuck to the sand and the tidepools.  This year, he was boldly running out into the surf, or at least the first 20 feet or so of it.  He was laughing out loud and saying "whee" as the waves would hit him, until he got out too deep and the waves were hitting him in the face.  He's still not a big fan of water in the eyes, but as long as he stayed in that shallow zone, he was happy.  He'd run into the water, back out, then back in again, over and over.  We definitely have a little beach boy!

Daniel turns 2!

I'm not sure how it is that it's been 24 months since our little boy was born, but somehow I've got a 2 year old now.  We decided to keep the birthday celebration low-key.  We went swimming with a few friends that morning, then did a family dinner at the house that night. 

Before all of that, though, we gave Daniel his birthday present.  He's all about cars these days so we decided his gift from Mommy and Daddy would be a little car he can drive.  We test-drove a few at Toys 'R Us earlier in the week and once he met the Cozy Coupe, it was love at first sight.  We put a Cozy Coupe box in our car, but Daniel didn't understand that.  All he understood was the part where he had to leave the "floor model" he'd been enjoying for the last 30 minutes and oh, what an epic meltdown that entailed!

So, imagine his delight a few mornings later when I brought him downstairs on his birthday and he saw the car sitting in the middle of the living room with a bow wrapped on the side.  His face lit up and he ran toward it.  Until it was time to leave for the swim playdate he was happily climbing in and out of the car.  I'll always remember that morning-that might be the happiest I've ever seen him.  It was the perfect gift.

We managed to pry him away from the car to head for the pool to meet up with his playmates Alejandro, William (who, as of this month, is now also his classmate at school), Natalie, and Justin.  The kids had a blast swimming, jumping into the pool, and exploring the playscape.

Finally, it was cupcake time, and time to get our birthday boy home for a nap before the evening festivities.

That night my parents, Kevin's mom, Uncle Scott and Aunt Katherine, and the Rangels joined us for dinner.  We feasted on dove breast (from Kevin, my dad, and Scott's successful hunting trip last fall), chicken, squash casserole, homemade applesauce, salad, fruit salad, roasted kale, homemade potato chips, roasted okra, homemade guac and chips, homemade bread, and cupcakes.  Yeah, it was a LOT of food, but all delicious! 

The company was wonderful too.  Having just seen all his extended family a few weeks before at the beach, Daniel was really excited to see them all again (and talked about everyone for days afterward!).  And of course, he was thrilled to see his buddy Alejandro not once but twice that day.  At first I thought we'd have some trouble on our hands when they both seemed interested in the Cozy Coupe, but then, on their own, they found a way to share it.  Daniel got in the car and Alejandro happily pushed the car around the house!

After that big day, Daniel got to stay up extra-late to enjoy his company.  He slept hard that night though! 

We thoroughly enjoyed our 2nd year with Daniel, and I can't wait to see what his 3rd year has in store for us. I hope he loves being our son, we sure do love being his parents!

23 months…and 10 weeks!

10 weeks?!

Daniel has some pretty exciting news to share since our last update:

 

Yes, he’s going to be a big brother!  Daniel’s sibling is due in early February, and we’re all eagerly awaiting his/her arrival.  I’m 10 weeks along and so far, everything seems good.  We had our first sonogram and prenatal appointment a few weeks ago and got to see little Honey Badger (our nickname for this baby.  Why?  I joked about the baby being like a honey badger, Daniel picked up on it and started saying it, and that was that).  S/he was looking good and had a strong 144 bpm heartbeat.

So far I’m doing…okay.  I have been kind of permanently queasy the last several weeks.  It hasn’t been terrible, mostly just annoying.  My impression is that it’s worse than it was with Daniel but I may not be remembering accurately.  I have been tired, though perhaps not quite as much as with Daniel, and not sleeping too well.  Fortunately, I have not felt the constant need to use the bathroom like I did before.  Unfortunately, I have had several multi-day migraines, which I did not have with Daniel.

So, do the stronger pregnancy symptoms this go-round mean that we’re having a girl this time?  Maybe so, maybe no….but we won’t be finding out till the little one arrives.  It was fun to find out with Daniel and I think it made everything more real, 1) now that we have a toddler running around, the whole “there’s a little person in there” aspect is quite real to us, and 2) it will be fun to go to the hospital on that eventful day with a big surprise ahead of us.

Other than not finding out the sex ahead of time, we are pretty much planning to handle this pregnancy and birth like we did Daniel’s.  I’m going to the same practice I did while pregnant with Daniel (and for subsequent checkups) and will have half of my visits with Cecily, the same midwife who delivered Daniel.  The other half will be with Allison, the new midwife they recently brought on.  We had our first appointment with Allison, and while we don’t yet have the familiarity with her that we do with Cecily, we liked her and I’m sure as the pregnancy progresses we’ll have ample chance to get to know her. 

We plan to deliver at Baylor Dallas again, and I again plan to labor, and hopefully deliver, in a birth tub., epidural-free.  I never doubted I'd succeed at a natural birth last time, but this time I go in with the huge confidence booster of knowing I can do it, because I already have.  And 2nd labors tend to be faster, apparently-good news after the 37 hour endurance event of Daniel's birth. 

I also feel like all my running and racing this past year will pay off, not just in better overall fitness but as more encouraging moments for the positive memory bank.  If I hit a challenging moment in labor, I'll think back to mile 8 of the Austin Half-Marathon, when my IT band seized up and I was reduced to a limping walk.  I was in pain, but I persevered and finished strong.  When the end is in sight, I'll remember hitting the 11 mile marker of the White Rock half and realizing that I was about 20 minutes from becoming a half-marathoner.  I've read that in times of stress people don't rise to the occasion, they sink to the level of their training, and I like to think I'm going into this endurance event well trained for it.

Speaking of endurance events, Honey Badger already has a sprint triathlon and half marathon under his/her belt.  I was already signed up for the events and only 5 and 6 weeks along, so I did them.  I felt great but made a point to hold back a little to avoid overexerting myself.

Playtri Sprint Triathlon

The sign I wore on my back for the Wounded Warrior Half Marathon

I hope that we skip the NICU stay this time and the baby gets to room in with us.  It hit me what we missed out on with Daniel being in the NICU when I went to visit a friend at the hospital after her son was born.  We went into her recovery room and I thought, hmm, no pump in here.  Then I realized she didn’t need to pump at the hospital, because her baby got to stay in her room and nurse around the clock.  I’m glad the NICU facility was there for us, and we took home a healthy boy, but if we’re fortunate to be able to skip that and keep our baby in the room, I surely won’t take for granted how lucky I am to be able to love on my baby around the clock instead of being limited to the NICU visiting schedule.

23 months

While we’re eagerly awaiting the Honey Badger’s arrival, we’re also enjoying every day with Daniel.  We tried to teach him to answer “how old are you?” by saying “almost 2,” but instead he says “2 old!”  I understand his logic: when we ask how big he is he answers “so big” so instead of just saying he’s “2” he says he’s “2 old.” 

His fascination with reaching high spots continues unabated and at least 5 times a day we’re guaranteed to hear one or all of the variations on “Danny reach it: lights/fan/giraffe/ceiling/clurtans (curtains)”  I hope the kiddo inherits Daddy’s height or he’s set for a life of disappointment!

He’s very fond of giving hugs and kisses and every night when I put him down to bed, I tell him I love him and he answers back “I low do too Mommy.”  Sometimes he says “I low Danny too!”  Well, who wouldn’t? ;)

He is also demonstrating impressive memorization.  When we read his books he can fill in a lot of the blanks if we leave words out.  Which would be impressive anyway but I think is especially so given that he can do it without the book in front of him if I’m reciting the book to him (Mommy’s good at memorization too ;)).  Goodnight Moon and Horns to Toes are favorites to recite and to read. 

He’s also enjoying his new “brother book” we bought to help prepare him for his new sibling. 

He seems enthusiastic about the baby concept for now, but obviously doesn’t really understand.  What could be more abstract to a toddler than the idea that a whole little person is growing in Mommy’s belly and is going to come out and live with us forever?  I’m sure it’ll be quite an adjustment for him to get used to sharing Mommy and Daddy, but I think he’ll also enjoy being our little helper.  We’re going to get him a doll closer to time to give him practice holding a baby, singing to it, and “helping” with diapers.

It’s hard to believe our little guy will be 2 in just a week and a half. So far, the so-called “terrible twos” have been quite mild.  This stage is definitely my favorite so far-he’s so interactive and it’s fun to watch his personality emerge.  I can’t wait to see what his 3^rd year has in store for us.