paci update

Today's weather is a repeat of yesterday only a bit warmer so we got out in the yard and did some pruning and also swept and cleaned our back porch really well for the spring months. This is the time of year when we will use the porch the most so it needs to be clean!!

Jack did great last night without the paci, he did not even ask for it or cry at all and slept through the night like a good boy. He also took a good nap today and he found a paci in his room and brought it to us and REMINDED US that he did not have a paci anymore!! So, I think he has successfully made the turn towards paci-freedom!! The only bad thing that we have discovered is that he has horribly chapped lips. We could not figure it out at first, but it seems that once he falls asleep, while asleep he sucks his lips IN and sucks on THEM so they are a bit chapped. At least he is not sucking his thumb or fingers in absence of the paci, I can't take that away and hopefully the lip thing will stop soon too:) Poor guy!!

I will try to post some pictures from earlier at the beach later.

A great Saturday!!

We have been enjoying a great Saturday in our little home community today! I feel like I say this every year, but I LOVE season in our community and this time of year in general in Florida! It is HEAVEN, warm sun, bright blue skies, gorgeous views of the water everywhere you look and our little town is alive with all of the northern visitors out and about frequenting the markets, shops and restaurants. We even ran into some of Mimi and Papas friends, Hopie and Deke!! Small world!! Today reminded me of an early spring day in Ohio, we woke to temps in the mid 50's, temps topped out in the high 60's so not exactly bathing suit weather, but the sun was warm and bright and everyone just seemed excited to be outside walking about!

This morning we woke around 7:15 after a rough night with Jackson trying to wean from the pacifier. He was up very late last night ( so we were too) but finally fell asleep just after 10 without it and then woke again and wailed from 3-3:45am until he feel asleep again in my arms and I returned him to his own little room. He asked for the paci and cried some again this morning but it is easier to distract him from the paci during the day than at night. He napped well without it though and is going strong now, about 36 hours without it, we are bound and determined to succeed. No tricks, games, or bribes have worked on him so we just had to go cold turkey. I think it is as hard on me as it is on him, like Papa said, it is seriously like a drug intervention, poor little guy! So...after the crazy night, we were a little tired but our spirits were lifted when we saw the gorgeous day we had in store. We had omeletes for breakfast that Jon made (Jack and my favorite breakfast) and then we packed up and headed down to the local farmer's market. It was a great morning to do this and we picked up some fresh produce and locally grown citrus which is at its prime here now, and also some locally made honey and breads. On the way home we ran a few errands and then took Jackson to a playground we knew he would enjoy so he could run off some energy. He loved it and then we stopped at a fun little sandwhich stand near my office and ate lunch outside. We met a really cute elderly couple who sat with us at the picnic style tables for lunch and we laughted as we watched Jack interact with them (as if he had known them his whole life, guess we'll have to teach him about strangers soon) and they told us some funny stories too about their grand kids who are around Jack's age. After lunch and a look in a few shops, we headed home and enjoyed some more time in the backyard before it was finally time for a nap for Jack and I. We both slept well this afternoon after the crazy night we had and now we are having family movie night watching Alladin that Grandpa sent us!! He had a bunch of old video tapes and we said heck yeah, we would take them so thanks for packing them up and shipping them! Good thing we still had a vcr:)

Jon's birthday and recent pregnancy pictures!

Here are some pictures of Jon and Jackson on Jon's birthday and of me yesterday before work in my cute dress from my mom and my cool boots! I am definitely looking pregnant these days, but still feeling good and not feeling overwhelmingly big the way I am sure I will feel in the coming months later this spring. I am feeling A LOT of movement these days, and if I am quick enough, people can now feel Sarabeth move from the outside and even see her move if they are really watching!! It is both a great and comforting feeling and also just a downright almost alien-like feeling to feel someone else move inside of my stomach like that! I know this is not my first pregnancy but this is just such a different sensation, it really is amazing even the second time around!!

"The Funnies"

I have been meaning to blog about "The Funnies" for a while now! One of Jackson's favorite "shows" to watch as a family is America's Funniest Home Videos!! We started watching this on Sunday nights because it is usually on in our area around 7:30 on Sunday nights and a good way to wind down the weekend. He looks forward to this each week and now asks to watch "The Funnies" ALL the time. He is such a child of the DVR generation, and often watches taped shows that he does not realize that I cannot just put on any show he wants to watch "on demand". He also does not understand that when we are watching live tv, we have to actually watch the commercials!! He asks me to "watch more" when a commercial comes on....sorry I can't fast forward through it to get back to the funnies when they are on live tv!! Just a funny little thing I wanted to write about so I will remember "The Funnies" someday when he no longer wants to watch tv shows with us, and we are no longer the center of his world. SO glad that day is a long way off at this point!

Happy birthday to Jon!!

Today is Jon's 31st birthday! I think he has had a great birthday and birthday weekend as we just returned home from a legal conference at Disney. We've been at Disney's Boardwalk resort, one of the nicest hotels on their property, since Friday free of charge to us! We had a beautiful room and enjoyed many of the parks and some great meals too!! I did have to work a bit Friday as we attended the conference dinner and dessert reception and Saturday from 8-1 I had to attend some meetings and give a grant presentation for my local young lawyers division with two other attorneys from my circuit, but all in all it was a small price to pay for the benefits our whole family was able to reap over a great long birthday weekend for Jon. We even had a special viewing and character meet and greet with Mickey and Minnie arranged at the end of the conference dinner for all attendees!!

This trip Jackson was really really into the characters, more so than ever before. I think it was his favorite part!! He even got an autorgaph book and pen from one of the WDW stores and had the characters autograph his book after he met them!! This morning we were going to get up and just head home but Jack was so upset when we told him we were just getting up and going home, that Jon decided he wanted to spend half of the day in the park. It was really chilly this morning, lows last night were in the 30's but the sun was shining brightly and it proved to be a great call! The park was NOT crowded this morning (but it was jam packed when we left around lunch time) so we got to do and see a lot with little to no lines. One of the reasons I had given Jackson this morning that we had to go home was that it was "too cold" to go to a park. HIs response to me sweetly was "mommy, we have our jackets, we can just put them on and it not be cold anymore"!! Duh, what was I thinking??!!

HUGE accomplishment!!!

I just completed a huge item off my list of things to do at the beginning of this year, I uploaded and ordered the entire blog posts from 2008-2010 into two books!!! I have been wanting to do this for some time but never took the time or wanted to spend the money to do it! I am telling you all, it is EASY and it was under $200.00 for me to print the entire thing into two books. I do not have the finished product yet, but from the preview that I saw for each book, it looks like it will turn out great. I used www.blog2print.com and it was REALLY easy, the entire process took me less than an hour to accomplish the whole thing! I am sure I could have spent more time and monkeyed with the settings and layouts more but I chose the default easy upload option and space maximizer and put it into chronological order and it looks really nice. I could NEVER do a scrapbook this good and it is just such a nice thing to have as a memory for our family to look back on. I capture so much more in the blog than I have space for in a baby book and I'm just NOT a scrapper so I'm so happy to have the blog and soon the books for our family. I did mess around with the cover template a bit, I chose the Tree template rather than the generic "typeset" that the book defaults to, but everything else I just left alone as the company uploaded it. I will let you know how the finished product comes out!

Jackson finds Taffy!

This past weekend I started clearing out the guest room closet which was filled with some boxes from when we moved that I had not known where to put. I re-packed a lot of the stuff and organized it better to move to our storage unit. In the process of doing this, I came across a box of my stuff from high school and growing up. In there I found my favorite stuffed animal from childhood, Taffy who as you will see from the picture, was very loved for a very long time. I can remember my grandma re-stuffing the insides of Taffy and sewing up holes that would appear from time to time from too much love!! Well this morning Jack discovered the box and Taffy. I told him that she was a special bear and that if he wanted to play with her that was fine but he had to love her. He lovingly made a spot for her in his chair with his other animals but first we took a cute picture! I think Jackson's room is a much better spot for Taffy than yucky old storage!

Mckee Gardens and lunch with Dr. Seuss

This morning Jackson and I met up with Lola and her mom and we toured the Dr. Seuss sculpture garden exhibit at our local botanical gardens and then enjoyed a special character luncheon at the gardens with our favorite characters from Dr. Seuss!! First we enjoyed an hour long walk (run for Lola and Jackson, walk for Melissa and I as we are both 20 weeks pregnant keeping up with 2.5 year olds) to see the Seuss exhibit and sculptures strategically placed throughout the gardens. The weather is AMAZING today for something like this, mid 70's, sunny, no bugs, no humidity, perfection! We enjoyed seeing the Seuss characters in sculpture form throughout the gardens and also enjoyed seeing the life size pages from the Seuss books on display throughout the gardens. We even ran into a car from whoville that Lola and Jackson could drive! We capped our garden walk off with a really cute garden cafe box luncheon of filet sliders for the mommy's with some other treats, and pb&j sliders for the toddlers completely with organic chocolate milk, one fish two fish cookies, carrot sticks and apple sauce. While we dined the Seuss characters mingled around entertaining the kids. We saw several other families that we know, including our pediatrician! It was a great Saturday morning outing, and such a special thing for me to take Jackson one on one since we won't have many more outings like that once Sarabeth arrives. Tonight we're going to our friend Colton's house for dinner and play time! Hope everyone is having a great weekend,we are finally well enough to enjoy this great time of year in Florida!!

20 week belly pics

I finally got Jon to take some pictures to show our progress at 20 weeks! Nicco also re-appeared last night so we took some pictures with him too!!

20 week update AND I made the front page of the newspaper!!

I had my 20 week check up yesterday with the doctor, I think I was there for less than ten minutes! I walked right in and they took me back right away and then the doctor came right in after the urine, weight and BP check by the nurse. He did the measurements, and heard the heartbeat and told me we are on "cruise control" at this point until the delivery. My weight is great, total of only 7 pound weight gain so far and only 2 pounds gained between now and my last appointment 4 weeks ago (and with Christmas in there, that is amazing) and BP and urine were good, and Sarabeth is measuring right on track for her due date which falls on Memorial day this year (May 30th)!! So in the pregnancy world, all things are good, so good that the doctor said I could be a surrogate...I'm not going that far with this!!

In other news one of my bigger clients did not take my advice on an issue they discussed in a public setting last week and they made the front page of the newspaper as did I being quoted as to stating that the board had not taken any action to date, on the issue at hand (something spinning off from recent political elections) and had tabled the issue for me to do some research before they vote on the issue. So, at least the reporter got that part right but too bad they did not listen to me in the first place and NOT talk about the particular issue.

That's all for now, TGIF tomorrow!!

still getting better

So today started off with a glimmer of hope for the week. I made a resolution to just forget ALL about last week and the craziness with Jackson's sickness. I vowed this week would be better...unitl about 12:30 today when I was sitting at a board meeting luncheon and I looked down to see my cell phone vibrating and flashing "daycare" as the caller...oh no. These calls are never good feel good, just wanted to tell you that Jackson is doing great calls...oh no...they almost always mean Jon or I are leaving whatever we are doing to get over there asap for one thing or another. This time the school's director, Melissa, was calling to reluctantly tell me that Jackson had sat up during nap time and proceeded to vomit all over himself, and then threw up two more times immediately after that in the teacher's efforts to get him over to the tile part of the room and to the sink. He still has his cough so I was pretty sure this was due to his quick gag reflex from the phlegm (gross, I know) but vomitting with colds in our house is pretty common!! He just can't deal with it and this is what he does. So, due to the fact that he got so sick and was not sleeping and very upset, I went and picked him up. Sure enough, but the time we got home he was fine and begging for his favorite food, chicken nuggets! I'm sure he was starving since he had emptied his ENTIRE stomach at the school all over his classroom. Poor Miss Julie who had to deal with that but she was great as when I got there, he was wrapped in her lap, all cleaned up and in fresh clothes. He was so happy to see me that it made the hardship of leaving work yet again worth it. I think he is trying to retire me early!!I don't think I'm cut out to be a full time stay at home mom (actually I know I'm not) but the last 8 days are making me re-think that if it were even an option. Its not so I'm not going to dwell on it but juggling a full time job both in and out of the house is WAY harder than anything else I've ever done and then you combine that with little sleep and it just wraps it all up as the hardest thing I've ever had to deal with, but I would not trade it for the world. I was able to get my paralegal to forward calls and messages to me at home so I checked those and responded as best I could in between watching Toy Story and Finding Nemo and playing trains, here's to hoping tomorrow things finally get back to normal around here!!

In baby news, Sarabeth continues to move quite a bit these days. I can feel it all the time and I do not think it will be long before Jon and Jackson will be able to feel her kicks from the outside. I am excited for this day for both of them! I see the doctor this week for my 20 week appointment, should be pretty routine. At the last check at just under 17 weeks I had only gained 5 pounds. I'm afraid I've probably gained 5 more in these past 4 weeks with the holidays in there and I have noticed that she must be growing a lot right now as I am ALWAYS STARVING. I'm continuing to exercise and also trying to make healthy choices but my will power is not what is was before, that is for sure and the extreme hunger does not help. I'm trying to eat a lot of protein so that I do not feel like I want to eat the entire table at lunch time, oh the joys of pregnancy!!

In shopping news, I've been growing Sarabeth's dress collection lately. I had some points left at a consignment shop in town and I picked up some really cute BRAND NEW stuff just the other day. I even got a pair of never before worn Robeez and some other cute little shoes to match the dresses. My friends have been buying little things too so her pile is growing! I will lay it all out and take some pictures soon. I also found a bumbo seat in purple with a tray (something we never got with Jackson but later determined we should have gotten) on Craigslist and we picked it up from someone here in town this past weekend for half what they sell them for at the stores, not bad.

This weekend we made a trip to our storage and I located and washed and sorted the gender neutral newborn stuff. Not much of it really and it still looks very boyish. I'm sorry but yellow and green just do not do it for me for either a boy or a girl and in any event, it looks more boy than girl but for jammies and stuff, it will do!!! I also got my newborn bottle set and pump out of storage and got it all out. The pump appears to work fine and I was impressed at how organized I was in putting it all away! It looks brand new and all of the things I used with it were right there, packed in the bag, it is like I was thinking when I packed that up or something!! I even put the unused lansolin creams and shirt pads and my nursing cover up right with the pump, amazing!! Getting the stuff out of storage then led to me wanting to start to clear out the guest room.......that is a big project as the closet is full of stuff I need to sort and put in storage or get rid of. I started the project and made some major progress, I hope to get the closets cleared out by this coming weekend. We will leave the rooms set up as a guest room until March and then we'll probably paint in there and move the nursery furniture in. Lots to do....lots to do!!

getting better

Phew, that was a rough week. It would have been rough enough just getting through it being our first week back to work after the holiday and travels but throw a very sick 2 year old into that mix and it was down right awful. I was never so glad to see the weekend come!!

Today Jon had some work to do and ran a few errands while Jack and I just hung out at home taking it easy this morning. I cleaned the house and he vegged out watching Toy Story. His fever broke Thursday so he was able to go to school Friday but he is still very tired from the sickness of the week. I also cleaned and disinfected just about everything in his room and stripped his bed and even washed the quilt. No more bad germs in this house! Likely thanks to the flu shot I got, I did not catch what Jack had and we think Jon just got a much milder version. The doctor said he tested negative for the flu but I think he had the flu. He had the exact symptoms of others that have had the flu recently. We woke up to great weather today. It was a bit chilly this morning wich resulted in Jack wandering into our room early this morning to snuggle for a while before we all got up but it turned out to be a sunny warm day near 80, Jon and I even sat in the sun by the pool while Jack napped, we cannot remember the last time we did that as the weather here has NOT been that warm the past few months. It felt good to get some fresh air and to feel the sun on our skin and get a bit of color. In baby news, I am feeling Sarabeth move now all the time which is a comforting feeling. I will have to post some pictures soon, I have grown a lot and most everyone can tell that I am pregnant now as I am just starting the 20th week...the half way point already, I cannot believe it! We need to get our act together and get going with planning her nursery.

sick of sickness

We are sick of sickness at our house, it seems that the last 8 weeks have been very unhealthy as we've endured countless colds and viruses. THe new year is not looking much better, here is an account of Jackson's past 24 hours:

He started back with a cough on Sunday. Monday he went to school and seemed fine, although very tired to be back in his routine (as we all were). Monday night he came home and I noticed he was running a low temp so we gave him a bath, early bed time and some tylenol to help the fever. He proceeded to cough and vommitted in his bed from coughing. I cleaned that up and got him back to bed and propped him up with two pillows and we all went back to sleep. Then, at 2:30 in the morning he came into our room absolutely burning up. We gave him another dose of the meds to bring the fever down but he was so hot, I was afraid we were in for a early hour trip t the ER. I ended up sleeping next to him so I could feel that he was breathing and feel the temp of his body. I really do not think I slept a wink from 2:30-5:30 am. At about 5:30 I could feel the fever break as he was sweating and his skin was finally not so hot to the touch. I changed his pull up as I had been making him drink so much, he had wet it and put him back in his bed to sleep a few more hours before work. I got up and showered and went to work, Jon was able to work from home today and stayed with him. They went to the Doctor at 10am and by 10am, despite a dose of Tylenol at 7am, he had a temp reading of 104.7 at the doctors!! They tested him for strep, flu, and checked his ears for infection and it all came back negative. They then sent them to the hospital for a chest x-ray and for blood and urine work. Poor Jon had to deal with this (it has always been me in the past for the chest x-rays) but I've even never had to do the lab work. I had to be at work today for a closing, but it was killing me not being there with Jackson, thank goodness Jon could cover him for me and kept me informed the whole time.

They finally left the hospital after 1pm starving and headed to get some food. Jackson coughed and then vommitted again all over himself and Jon and that sent them home. Thankfully he is resting now. I think we are in for one heck of a week. I have NO idea where he caught this as he has not been in public since we got home, probably something from the air plane. We are either NOT flying anymore as the last few times we've ended up with practically the plague every time, or we are flying with sars masks, seriously. I am over the sickness. I will keep you posted on Jackson, poor little guy.

new year's resolutions

After giving this some thought, here are my new year's resolutions:

1. surviving/transition to becoming a mother of 2...a daunting and scary task I feel after hearing about this from others around me, unlike the last time, I do not fear the birth itself, but the days to come thereafter!!!

2. Workout as long as possible during pregnancy at least 3x/week to keep total weight gain under or at 25 pounds and workout soon after the birth of our baby girl when I am able to do so.

3. Save money and lessen credit card debt, ugh.

4. Don't sweat the small stuff and take a little bit of time each week for me time.

Those are four big goals but I think I can do each of them, I'm not sure which one will be the hardest but I will work on all of them!!

Tomorrow brings us back to reality in full force. We have both been off work for 12 days and Jackson has also been out of school this entire time! We've spent the past few days since we have returned home trying to get caught up on rest, restore our health after the colds we had up north, and trying to get back into a bit of a routine to lessen the blow that is sure to come tomorrow morning. We've gotten all too used to staying up past 11 and sleeping in past 8!! I guess that is what vacations are for though! Say a prayer for us tomorrow morning as we all struggle to get back into the swing of things. I hope things are not TOTALLY out of control at my office, ugh. Thank goodness I have a great paralegal I am working with that kept many things going in my absence.