Scared of Dirt

I think it is so funny that Andrew, my 2 year old BOY, is so afraid of being dirty.  I always think of boys as being dirty, making mud pies and not having a care in the world.  How did I get a child who freaks out when he gets food on his hands when he is eating?  We have to give him a napkin to wipe his hands and face as he eats - I don't know of any other kid who uses a napkin.  Whenever we come inside from playing and take his shoes off, he always has to check the bottom of his feet for dirt.  If they are dirty we have to wash them off immediately. 

Yesterday Andrew was playing on his new little fort he got for his birthday.  The sprinklers had just ran a few hours before and the ground was a little muddy.  At first I thought that maybe he had fallen off the fort or the slide because he just started crying.  When I got to him I saw that he had just crawled under the fort and had mud all over his hands and face which caused a freak out.  I couldn't help but laugh because it was just too ridiculous.  

I guess I don't really have anything to complain about, I just think it's hilarious.  I do not like messes myself, and am happy to have a child who is not a fan as well.  Andrew loves helping me do laundry, unload the dishwasher and always follows me around while I am vacuuming.  I hope his love of being clean sticks and he will be happy to do all these chores himself when he gets a little older!

Here is a picture of Andrew using his vacuum to clean up some cereal that he spilled on the floor (on purpose).

 

Second Born

My sister and I were born 18 months apart.  Being the baby of the family definitely had its advantages, but our parents tried to keep things as fair as possible when we were growing up.  The one thing I do remember being very jealous of my older sister over was the size of our baby books.  Her book is probably about 4 inches thick with all the pages completed and even has mementos from her childhood.  My book, on the other hand, still has the plastic wrapper on it and I am lucky that it has my name filled in.  I think it might have my birth weight and length and maybe a few pictures, but that is about it.  I remember asking my mom when I was little why my sister’s book was so much bigger than mine, and she basically told me it is because I was the second born and when I had all my “firsts” it just wasn’t that big of a deal anymore.   On top of that, my parents now had 2 babies to take of with both of them working, so I am sure that filling out my baby book wasn’t a top priority.  But I made a promise to myself that I would try to keep things even for both my kids, make sure they both have the same opportunities, and most important of all, complete both of their baby books! :-)

Well now I am 20 weeks pregnant with my second child and I feel like I am already slacking.  I have yet to buy a baby book or even take one pregnancy picture.  Maybe my mom was right (cringe) and things do get a lot harder with a second child, but I will try to stick to my promise and make sure Emily has a completed book of her very own.  I will start today by posting my 20 week belly picture.   

Andrew's 2nd Birthday

We celebrated Andrew's 2nd birthday last Saturday and it was so fun!  We had an Elmo themed party at the park in our neighborhood, which ended up working out great.  The weather was absolutely beautiful!  We had lots of friends and family join us for the party.  I had planned on the kids playing on the playground most of the time, hopefully taking a break to eat some lunch.  I had also reserved the tennis courts, thinking that maybe the kids would want to bounce some balls around, but it turned out that all they wanted to do was play on the courts.  It was great because they just ran around and rode the ride-on toys inside the courts (a nice confined area) the whole party.  It ended up working out perfectly. 

We had James Coney Island cater the party, which was great!  Of course the hot dogs were delicious, and the server set up everything in no time and was really friendly.  Best of all, I didn't have to worry about the food at all.  I highly recommend JCI for future parties.  I also had some vegan cupcakes made, since Andrew is allergic to eggs.  Having never tried vegan cupcakes or cake, I was a little nervous that they wouldn't taste as good as the "real" stuff.  But they were actually delicious!  They weren't 100% vegan since they did use real butter cream frosting, but I think that is was made them so good.  :-) 

All in all, it was a great party and I know that Andrew had a blast!  Here are some pictures from the big day!

The Birthday Boy loves Elmo!

Blake and Wyatt having fun on the tennis courts

Baby Ethan came to the party all the way from Austin

Andrew and Brooke sharing some Chex

Camille is such a cutie!

Andrew loved the cupcakes!

Nolan did too!

It's a Girl!

I have wanted to start a blog for awhile now, but for one reason or another I just kept putting it off. Well Andrew is going to turn 2 in a couple of days, and we just found out last week that we are expecting a baby girl. I figure that now is the perfect time to start blogging!

I am now 19 weeks pregnant and I am feeling great. The first couple of months of my pregnancy were not so fun. I pretty much just wanted to sit on the couch all day and not move. Andrew was not too happy with this situation, but thankfully we both got through it, and I am now feeling 100% better! Andrew knows that Mommy has a baby in her belly, but I am pretty sure he has no idea what that means. He started to crow like a rooster when we told him he was going to have a baby sister. He is in for a big surprise in September!

I have had a feeling from the moment I found out that I was pregnant that we were going to have a girl, and last week it was confirmed. I am so excited to start decorating a pink nursery and buying dresses and bows and everything girlie. The next major thing to decide is what we were going to name the baby. I have loved the name Emily for awhile, but Brent was not a fan. We decided to make individual lists of names we liked and then we would compare them to see what names we had in common. Natalie and Ava were on both of our lists, but after talking about it, I just knew that these were not the right names for our baby. After some discussion, Brent finally came around and agreed on the name Emily. Yea!! He wanted to choose the middle name, so we finally decided on Emily Kate Taylor and I think it's perfect!

Here are some pictures from the ultrasound last Friday.