Distraction

"I see Avery in there and I broke the track. Avery see monkeys, 'Hello!' Avery broke."

Here is the aforementioned destruction of the train table. Scott had the brilliant idea of numbering the pieces so that they can be put back together in a relatively easy manner. I'll let him test this when he gets home from work :)

Happy Birthday, Hannah!

Hannah checking out her new trike!

Three generations. Try as we might, we could not get Hannah to smile (Avery is watching me blog and just said, "Why is Hannah sad?"

Her awesome birthday cake, complete with trick candles (they would not light).

Hannah's daddy trying to light said trick candles. I love that Hannah is already trying to blow them out.

She had to blow out a lighter instead!

Even with a cupcake, this girl would not smile and this girl LOVES a good cake!

Avery says as he's looking at this picture, "There's Avery eating the cupcake. Zoe! Zoe! Zoe! Avery comes over to see Hannah. Press blue one and orange one. Avery in the party, mommy. Again, mommy!" (Hmm, I think that I might just let Avery write my captions from now on)

We celebrated Hannah's 2nd birthday a few weeks ago and had a spectacular time (wow, I'm so distracted right now because Avery has moved onto the train table and just completely demolished the entire thing. Every single piece is on the floor. I took a picture). Okay, back to Hannah's party...all of the kids had a great time and one can see the benefit of having a finished basement in a situation like this. Plus, some of the daddies found a place to watch the football game.

It is so much fun to see the kids experiencing events like this because they finally know that something special is going on. However, a word to the wise...keep the cake and cupcakes hidden until it is actually time to enjoy them because leaving them on the table while dinner is served is tantamount to torture. More than one child had a meltdown because of the situation. Who can resist cake a such a young age!

Hannah, we look forward to celebrating each and every birthday with you and watching your personality blossom as you grow. We love you!

Take Back

Yeah...I'm going to go ahead and take back what I said about feeling better :(

Bowling

Avery learning how to bowl.

So excited!

Watching the ball and ...STRIKE!

Taking a turn with Daddy

He was VERY careful about not getting his fingers smashed by the balls

For the second year, Scott's hotel party was held at a local bowling alley and Avery is finally big enough to enjoy the game. He loved bowling and played two games. The first one, he scored 110 - that's higher than I have ever scored! There was also an arcade that he spent a lot of time and several of Daddy's dollars in. Couple that with a chicken finger dipped in ranch and a cookie (it's a bowling alley and therefore no healthy food allowed) and you end up with a very happy toddler who was very reluctant to leave. He was however, the crankiest version of himself when we got home and for the rest of the evening as a repayment for all of the fun we let him have.

15 Weeks

I've only put on 4 pounds and it's mostly boobs and belly.

I think that I am finally feeling somewhat better. There are only a couple of puking incidents each week and there have been 2 days where I haven't completely shut down at 5:30pm! We're getting there.

I've been feeling her move since about 13.5 weeks and it feels completely different than Avery. He felt more like little bubbles and she feels more like waves or kneeding dough. Up until very recently, when she was moving around a lot it made my stomach very upset but now it's mostly a pleasant experience, reminding me that she's in there and doing well. I didn't even worry for a second when the midwife had trouble finding her heartbeat at this morning's appointment because I have learned how hard it is to hit a moving target, despite the space constraints.

Things are starting to solidify for Scott and I and we're wrapping our heads around having a daughter. Saying "she, her and daughter" are a little less weird. Scott has even agreed to start talking about names and before you ask, we're not telling and do not plan on mentioning it in front of Avery either! All he needs to know is that her name is Sister.

Avery Tidbits

When I was lying on the sofa talking to Kathryn Avery came up to me, lifted up my shirt and said,

"HELLO, BABY SISTER IN THERE!!! I LOVE YOU!! Bye-bye."

He also claims that he does not want to share his bedroom with her, just toys.

From the decibel level he used I gathered that he remembers the murky sound quality of being in the womb and wanted to make sure Bud could hear him.

****
As we were driving to The Wildlife Experience I asked Avery what animals we were going to see:

"Hmm...lions, hippopotamus, giraffe, Papa, bear..."
"Papa?"
"Yes, Papa. Furry tummy."

***
While driving home from Hannah's birthday party:

"Green means go. Red means stop. Hmm...mama, what yellow mean?"

***
"I'm hungry!!! Need Cheezits!"

***
After Scott brought in his big boy mattress and we put it on his floor, he was running around like a crazy person and when I had the nerve to leave the mattressy festivities he would yell,

"Mama! Big boy bed, come check it out! Check in out, big boy bed!"

It's a Girl!

Our baby girl!

Lady parts

Bud (yes, still Bud) aka The Flipper Flopper

Long, long legs. That black circle is her bladder.

Just after we told Avery he was getting a sister

For lots of reasons, mostly because I'm crazy and impatient I found a place that does gender checks starting at week 15. After weeks of convincing Scott he finally agreed. We dropped off Avery at Eli's house knowing he would have much more fun playing with his friend than sitting in a doctor's office wondering what that lady is doing to his mommy.

The beginning of the ultrasound was nothing short of amazing. The baby is fully formed and was dancing like crazy. It was like a baby rave and everyone was on fetus speed. For the first 10 minutes Scott and I just watched the baby, pointing out parts and just generally staring in amazement at what we had created. However, the baby had her (it's still weird using the correct pronouns) legs crossed and was frolicking with such intensity that it was nearly impossible to get the correct shot to determine the sex. I thought I kept seeing a smudge that I thought were balls, but after what seemed like 3 days, the ultrasound tech finally said, "It's looks like there's a baby girl in there." Cue the tears!

Wow. A girl. A daughter. A sister. A baby that finally might love her daddy best. We. Were. Ecstatic. All of a sudden I felt like everything I ever wanted had been given to me. Don't get us wrong, we would have loved another son with the same intensity that we love Avery but just knowing the sex changes how one thinks about her family. There will be dresses, dolls, pink, a Daddy's girl (hopefully), the chance to teach someone what it means to be a woman and someone to force my beloved dollhouse on. Although, I do think that Avery will also enjoy playing with it and he does have a healthy affinity for pink.

Avery opened up a whole world to us. A world we cherish living in and experiencing with him, and that door for our daughter has just started to open. We feel incredibly lucky to be having this baby and she is already worth every ounce of pain we went through this year.

I am already madly in love with this little person and look forward to welcoming her to her family, not too anxious, mind you because I'll need the next 5.5 months to mentally prepare for being the mother of two children.

So, Bud, you're a girl and even though it's not my favorite color, our house is going to look splendid with some pink in it.