Look out weekend 'cause here I come

Jumping music, slick DJs, fog machines, and laser rays...
So my weekend plans don't include any of the above. Does that make me less cool than Debbie Deb? If I wore a metal-studded bustier, would that give me more cred? Do they even make maternity bustiers? Never mind, please don't tell me.

I know I've not posted recently, but you haven't missed much. We've been slowly getting back into the routine of life after the holidays. And, we are definitely looking forward to the three-day weekend.

The awesomeness starts with a birthday party for my Granny. She will be staying with my parents for a few days and the party is tomorrow. I'm making a pound cake - my first from scratch. I'll let you know how it turns out. There will be strawberries and vanilla whipped cream on the side in case the cake is a flop.

Also on Saturday, my beloved book club is conducting the annual book selection event. This will be the first time in 9 years that I will not be able to make it. What we do is have each member nominate a few books (some just have 1, some have none, some go hog wild and nominate 7). Then we compile the list and everyone gets to vote on their top 10. The 10 books with the most votes are the books we read for the year. I am always impressed at the variety of books that are nominated and the diversity of our final selections. There is usually something for everyone during the year. Here's the list I submitted: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies; Reasons to Live (short stories); and This is Where I Leave You.

What have you been reading and loving? Let me know if you have any good books to recommend or if you have any personal reviews of the books I mentioned above.

I know I've blown your mind with the extreme hipness of weekend activities so far. But wait, there's more.

Our search for a comfy chair continues this weekend as well. I know it seems a tad geriatric, but I am contemplating a recliner. I know! But, they are sooo comfortable. Imagine snuggling with a newborn in a cozy chair, just steps away from the kitchen and parked in front of the TV at 3:00am. It sounds pretty dreamy to me - much more inviting than our couch or existing chair. I should have known that I was starting down a slippery slope when we bought Penelope, my awesome Honda Odyssey, two years ago.

Don't be hating on us for being so cutting edge. Create a good weekend for yourself. ...because weekends were made for fun.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year... five days late. Sorry about that. I usually try to blog on my lunch break at work but I haven't been at work. (That's fun to type.) But, as you can tell, my schedule has returned to normal for the most part.

While I was off from work last week, we did some fun family stuff. We went to the aquarium with my parents. That was an adventure. Rowan liked the first exhibit because of the scuba dude cleaning the glass. He also liked the display of stuffed Deepo fish and the floor lights. But, things started to fall apart when he saw the orange plastic chairs in the snack area. From that point on, all he wanted to do was mess with those chairs. We tried to distract him by looking at the exhibits and that worked for about a minute. He threw several tantrums complete with screaming, crying, stomping, squirming on the floor, and head shaking. No amount of cajoling or reasoning would straighten him out - even from the grandparents! So, we finally strapped him into his stroller and let him "vent" for a few minutes while we looked at some of the displays. He calmed down a bit after that. I think it was hard for my parents to watch him meltdown like that as they do not like to see him "suffering". I totally agree that it really is tough to not get your way all the time.

My mom and I took Rowan to the children's museum last Tuesday. It had some really neat things for young kids (it's geared toward the under 8 crowd) to see and do. I would definitely like to go back sometime when it is less crowded. By the time we left it was starting to look like a technicolor Thunderdome.

Jeremy and I also did some shopping for our home improvement project over the break. We're converting our dining room into a big boy room for Rowan. It could also be an office/study type room at some point, too. I'll keep you posted on our progress.

New Year's Eve, Jeremy and I went to Athens for lunch and to look at furniture. Lunch was great, but the shopping was a bust. Oh well... the search continues for a comfy, affordable, non-fabric covered, reclining and/or gliding chair.

I had my 24-week check-up last week. (The holidays pushed me off schedule by a couple of days.) Everything looks good - my weight gain and blood pressure are great; Baby 2's heart rate is spot on; and my belly (Uterus actually. Is that TMI?) measures right on target.

In other baby news... our good friends Abby and Jason welcomed their new daughter, Amelit, on January 3. She's a precious doll and I can't wait to meet her in person. Congratulations guys!

Happy 22-month Birthday, Rowan!

Yeah, this post is a little late. But, better late than never, right? So, without further ado, here's the update on our little man. As usual, he keeps us laughing and marveling at his cleverness all the time.

• Likes: Doing things for himself; Being the boss, especially to the cats, and sometimes to Mommy and Daddy; talking - we have quite the chatterbox on our hands; singing Jingle Bells; scratching others when he gets excited (the good and bad kind)
• Dislikes: Going to sleep at night and waking up in the morning. In the mornings, he'll grab his rag ("Guy"), squint his eyes shut and pull the covers up to "get cozy". Or, he'll claim that it's too cold and scrunch under the blanket.
• Vocab: I think he's on the verge of a language explosion. In the past couple of weeks, even having been sick, he's progressed from 2-word phrases to complete sentences. Some of his favorites are: "I'll get it." "Whatchu doing?" "Go away!" and "More please." I can tell that he sometimes struggles to think of the right words to say, but he definitely knows what he wants to communicate. He also has some new vocab words that are funny: itchy, jingle bells (kee-koo-buhs), timber (like a lumberjack yells), and pickle. There are tons of other new words, but they aren't as interesting.
• New Skills: He's getting a lot better at coloring. He can control his hand movements much better and he likes to use several different colors. He's also cutting back on eating the crayons. He also like to "read" books by himself. He points out various things on the pages and then says "All done" at the end. He's also getting really good at identifying letters and singing a more complete version of the A,B,C Song. And, he can count to 10 with some assistance.

We've been trying to get him used to the fact that a baby will be coming to live with us soon. I don't think the news has sunk in yet, as he keeps referring to himself as "Baby". It will be interesting to see how he copes with being the big brother.

Down with the sickness

Yep, the cooties have returned to our house. Maybe they never left. They just go into hiding for a week and then pop out and infect us all over again. That's my germ theory (conspiracy?). For those of you who want the gory details, here they are. Rowan just recovered from an RSV-induced bout of bronchiolitis. That was fun. I got to give him albuterol via inhaler. He took it like a champ, though. I think the novelty of the contraption made it fun. You want to know something weird? Our health insurance, which is pretty awesome, paid for the medication but not the spacer thingy. It only cost around $20, but still. That sort of seems like charging for the eye dropper dispenser that comes with liquid medicine for kids. Is it remotely realistic to think that a 22-month-old could use an inhaler without the spacer doodad? Really people.

Anyway, Rowan has kicked the bronchiolitis and now has his first ear infection. We went to the doctor yesterday and she said that some kids develop ear infections following bronchiolitis. What? That would have been good information to know beforehand. Then we could have been on the lookout for it. Aiyeee.

While all this was going on with Rowan, Jeremy, my mom, my dad, and myself all got sick with some version of the bronchiolitis crud. Hopefully we will all be healthy for Christmas.

Now that you know what I've been up to I hope you can forgive my negligence in posting. Now, if you excuse me, I'm going to try to get some work done. And, I need to blow my nose.

Baby 2 Update

I had my 20-week check up yesterday and am very happy to report that everything looks great. The baby is exactly 1lb. and all of her organs are developing as they should. Did you catch that? I wrote "her". You got it... We also found out that our sweet baby 2 is a GIRL!

It's been a long time since we have had a little girl in our family circle. Let the adventure begin!