Us

Baby Bo is coming tomorrow. As I sit here watching my big girl play with her rocks (her new favorite toy lately), I am overcome with so many different emotions. I can remember the day before Jens was induced (my babies don't like to come on their own, apparently) being completely hysterical (I blame it on the hormones) about it not just being "us" anymore. Don't get me wrong, I was so excited to be a mom and to finally meet our sweet baby, but it would never again just be Ben and me.


And now today, I can't help but be a tiny bit sad about it not ever being just "us" again. It'll never just be Ben, and Jens, and me - our little family of 3. But my joy and excitement exponentially outweighs my sadness. And most importantly, I am just so happy and blessed that our "us" keeps changing. "Us" will now include a precious baby boy, and we just cannot wait.

Thanks for making me a mom, Jenson Kaye. I'll always love you the longest.

  

little blue ball

Jens happens to be over this little phase, but it was so weird and hilarious that it needs to be remembered. One of Jenson's favorite pastimes is to play in my closet. One day she found an air freshener in the shape of a little blue ball that is used to freshen shoes. She did not put the ball down for 3 whole weeks. She took it to school. She took it to church. She bathed with it. She ate with it. She slept with it. It got a little confusing up in here when she would cry for her "BAAAAA!" Because her second favorite thing, her pacifier, is called "Ba Ba" (no idea where that came from.) 

And then, just like that, she forgot all about it. I found it the other day when we were moving furniture around for the Christmas tree. She saw it and didn't even bat an eye. She's so weird. 

 In the garage with her ball.

 Playing with her friends with her ball. 

 Taking a bath with her ball. 

 Eating breakfast with her ball. 

 Hanging out in the closet with her ball. 

Having a snack with her ball. 

I'm still pregnant, btw. This poor boy has no name, no nursery, no blog posts written about him, no belly pictures taken. But we love him a lot. And we're all pretty pumped for March 14th. 

We're having a baby!

I took a test in a McDonald's bathroom on the way to the river to spend the weekend with my family. I didn't look at the test, but just brought it out to Ben who was pumping gas and Jens who was screaming her head off, because she wanted out of her car seat. Ignoring Jenson, we looked at the test together. We were having a baby!

It didn't hit me just how crazy it really is, until I was on the phone with my OB trying to set up an appointment. The nurse said, how about July 19th? I replied with, "Oh, that day won't work. We're having my daughter's first birthday party!" And the nurse started laughing.

Ben and I are so excited. And I'm sure Jenson would be too, if she understood even a tiny bit of what was going on.

Like with Jens, this little bundle of joy has been making me sick. We've been getting by, counting down the weeks until the nausea should stop. We've only had one minor mishap - when Jens swallowed an Ibuprofen while my head was over the toilet. Just a little call to poison control, and all was good.

I've been eating lots of candy corn, and Taco Bell, and McDonad's sausage biscuits. I'm not sure if they're really cravings, or if I'm just using my pregnancy as an excuse to eat all of my favorite things. Pretty sure they're cravings. Yes, that must be it. 

I can't believe, that on or around March 14th, this will be us again. Except this time with a wonderful little 20 month old crawling all over the bed with us.

Happy Birthday, Jensie Girl!

12 months

She's 13 months old now, okay? Phew, I just had to get that off of my chest.

She is just the sweetest little thing. Ben and I are just almost absolutely positive we will never be able to love another peanut as much as we love her. 

1. She's now exclusively walking. 

2. She is obsessed, I mean OBSESSED with books. We've been going to the library to stock up, because Ben and I began to absolutely hate every single book we owned - after reading them 1,000 times. 

3. Her favorite foods are fruit of any kind and macaroni and cheese. We've been pretty blessed so far that she isn't too picky. She'll eat pretty much anything we put in front of her. She did spit out the bite of my tuna sandwich I gave her the other day though.

4. She unfortunately and fortunately loves tv. 

5. She says: hi, bye, Dada, Mama, please, thank you, Blue (my parents' dog), book, drink, KiKi, PaPa, Chief, Sass, Jensie, and will try to repeat a lot of things we say. 

6. She's a tad bit naughty. And is very sensitive when she gets in trouble. 

7. She's been asking for her "dada" when I get her up from her naps. I still love/hate it. 

8. My big girl drinks ice cold, whole milk from a sippy cup. I figured since I'm pregnant and she's now old enough to ask for it, it was time to let go of our special nursing times.
9. She loves playing outside, and running wild. She's not too keen on being held.
10. After many many months of inconsistent sleeping patterns, she now sleeps 10-12 hours a night and takes two 2-hour naps a day. Which is just so great for this 1st trimester symptomatic mama.

 She's funny. And beautiful. And sweet. And ugh, we're still just as obsessed with her as we were 13 months ago.

Being her mom has stretched me and challenged me and taught me to love in ways I never thought possible. It is so fun.

11.

I'm not even going to apologize for being over 2 weeks late with this, because I know you all expect nothing less. My baby. Oh my baby, my sweet little 11 month old baby. WAHHHHHHH - this is how I feel about her turning a year old. I'm going to get all of my complaining and woe-is-me-ness out on this post. Then I can be super okay when I post later this month about my big, bad 1-year-old. So later when I post about her being one, I won't complain about how she no longer lets me rock her, or how she's trying to walk, or how her 1-year-old attitude stinks sometimes, or how the past year went by waaaay tooooo fast. Okay, done.

11 months.

She says: mama, dada, bye, hi, boo

She eats: everything. seriously. her favorites are anything dipped in hummus (weird, I know), ham, cheese, peas, carrots, watermelon, peaches, etc, etc,

She loves: baths, her crib, her dad, books - obsessed with books, being outside, the pool - sometimes

She hates: napping at sonshine school, when Mom won't share her food, getting her diaper changed, the pool - sometimes

She takes a few steps at a time!
She still loves nursing and her paci - 2 things that make her still feel like my little baby

We're still pretty obsessed with her.

The best weekend

A few great things happened this weekend.

Ben was off, which automatically makes it a great 2 days. Saturday was spent cuddling with the babe, pool party with great friends, and a real date! Well, kinda. We went to an End of Year Party for Ben's work. But it involved dressing up and a babysitter, so it totally counted as a date.

Only 4 more short years for this big guy.

AND THEN, we stayed in a hotel! Yes, in Oklahoma City. But if you knew us before Jens, (and I'm sure there is no one reading this that didn't know us before Jens) you know that we love to sleep. Sleeping in. Something that hasn't been done for 11 whole months. Of course, we woke up before 8 but we forced ourselves to go back to sleep until 9:30. It was awesome. We also forced ourselves to stay away long enough to eat breakfast and do a little shopping, and then we rushed home to the girly. I bet you can guess who Jenson reached for when we got home. Yep, I'm chopped liver.

After we got home, we were hanging out in the backyard, when this happened. After months of trying to get her to stand up on her own, Jenson decides to start standing like it's her job. 

And lastly, Ben decided it would be funny to slick her hair back with baby lotion. Right before church.