Thursday, March 31, 2011

Two Pink Lines

L is going to be a big brother! Gosh, I feel like I've been keeping this secret forever, even though really I'll only be 10 weeks on Saturday! We found out when I was just over 4 week and were planning on trying to keep it a secret until 12 weeks. Well, anyone who knows me knows that I am probably the worlds worst secret keeper, and as of yesterday the cat is officially out of the bag. Hey, I think making it to almost 10 weeks is pretty good!

Anyway, I'm going to be updating and posting a lot of pictures throughout the pregnancy, something I wish I had done with L, but for now I want to share the post I wrote about 5 minutes after the test came back positive and that has been sitting in my drafts ever since. I really wanted to remember exactly how excited I was and how happy (especially as the morning sickness and tiredness set in!)

So here we go!



February 22nd, 2011
Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh. Two pink lines. It came back positive. It came back positive! I feel like jumping up and down and shrieking with happiness and shouting it from the highest mountain tops, but I can't. First off, I'm at work. Second off, I have yet to even tell me husband. Third, we agreed that when we do get pregnant this time we are going to try to wait until the end of the first trimester to tell people. Right. I will tell you right now, I highly doubt that will happen. When I found out I was pregnant last time, I had told just about everyone within the first hour. When we talked about trying again this time, we decided we should keep it quite so that it would be easier not to tell until later in the pregnancy. I think just about everyone within a hundred mile radius knows that we were trying to get pregnant, thanks to yours truly. Serious, I've told everyone from my hairdresser, our friends, the makeup lady at the MAC counter, the cashier at the grocery store.... you say a name, I've probably told them. I can't help it, I'm excited and I just find ways to drop it into conversation. Like "Yes, just take an inch of the bottom and I think I'm going to get bangs today. By the way, guess what? We're going to try to have another baby!" Needless to say, I've kind of been driving S crazy.
Anyway, have I mentioned the test came back positive? ?!?!?! We decided to go off birth control right at the end of December, and for some reason I had it in my head that we would have a positive pregnancy test by January 2nd. I fully realize that that is not actually even possible. It was a completely irrational thought, although, really, logical hadn't always been my strong suite. Anyway, through the month of January I drove myself crazy, taking pregnancy test after pregnancy test. My period actually ended up being about 10 days late, and I really think it is because I stressed myself out so much. Each negative test felt like a punch in the gut to me, and the day my period came I was in tears. I think I just thought because L happened so quickly and when we least expected it, we would automatically get pregnant again right away when the time came. After January S made me promise I wouldn't put myself (and him) through that again. I agreed and I promised I wouldn't even think about taking another test until my birthday (which is tomorrow, the 23rd) at the very, very earliest. And I kept that promise, refraining from buying tests, even though I tried to argue to myself it would be good to get one just so I had it handy when it came time to take it. I avoided the temptation all together. But for some reason this morning I just woke up with a feeling. I felt like it was time. So even though I had promised S I would wait at least one more day, I stopped at Fry's on my way in to work. It was only about 7 AM and the cashier gave me kind of a weird look that I was buying only a pregnancy test, and to be honest despite the fact that I am married and already have a child, part of me felt like a teenager and I wanted to hide the test under a magazine and avoid eye contact. And when I got to work I took the test and my cell phone (for a timer) to the bathroom and took it. And as I waited the full three minutes I prepared myself for it to be negative. I didn't want to give myself hope and then feel the let down that I had last month. I told myself it was probably to early to even get a positive result, even if I was pregnant. I told myself that we had only been trying for about a month and a half and it was totally OK if it hadn't happened yet. I promised myself a big glass of wine tonight when it was negative. And when I finally looked down it took me about a full 30 seconds to register what I was seeing. TWO. PINK. LINES. And then I did about 5 double takes. And then a did a mini victory dance. And then I realized I had been in the bathroom for about 7 minutes and my colleagues might be starting to wonder if I fell in or something. So I wrapped the test in a paper towel (I was so not ready to just throw it out yet)  and made my way back to my desk, trying to hide my huge smile.
I'm so happy. I'm so, so so happy. I can't believe we are going to be adding another baby to our family. We are going to be parents of two. I can't wait to get home and put L in his "I'm the big brother" t-shirt that I bought him last month, just for this occasion (and hid from S) and wait for S to get home and notice. Although, let's be honest, he is a man. And so while I'm imaging him walking in a immediately noticing L's new shirt and what it says and then swelling up with pride and happiness and spinning me around, most likely he won't even notice and I'll finally have to say something like "ahem, have you noticed L new shirt? Did you read it?"
And even though I'm writing this about 30 minutes after I saw those two pink lines, this post will be saved in the drafts and I'll publish it when we decide to tell the world. That could be in 8 weeks (by my calculations I'm about 4 weeks along right now, with a due date of about October 29th.) or tomorrow. We will see how long I last. But I wanted to write this now, while it fresh and my feelings and thoughts and emotions are present. Oh, and have I mentioned.... I AM SO HAPPY!!!!!!!!

Here's a picture I took that night, my "four week bump!"

First Haircut!

Well, I finally caved. L got his first haircut last week. The whole thing unfolded much like the great crib debacle, with me dragging me feet, not ready to give up this last piece of babyhood and S insisting that it was time. This has probably been going for almost two month, and I've managed to keep avoiding the subject and putting it off, but after poor L was called a girl about 20 times on our Reno vacation I finally gave into defeat. Of course, S was ready to run to Walgreen, buy a pair of clippers and go at poor L's head himself, but I said the only way I was going to be ready to do this was if we took him to a real haircutting place and I got to take pictures and possibly shed a few tears.

So, here we are: Snip and Snap for Kids. I don't know why this was so hard for me, but it just feels like L is growing up so fast and I would really appreciate it if time would slow down a little!



Although, looking back at these pictures, I do have to agree with S a little that his hair was starting to look a little unruly....


So it was into the red race care, with Thomas and Friends on the TV right in front of him and mommy hovering/taking pictures/holding back tears......




Here we go!



I was actually pretty impressed with how well he did.


And the final result? Ta-Da! My big handsome boy! Doesn't he look so much like a little boy now, a toddler, then a baby!



Proud Mommy! I'm not going to lie, this was pretty emotional for me, but he looks so grown up now and so handsome!

(this is not a very good picture of him, but he was pretty fed up with sitting still at this point!)

Monday, March 21, 2011

Vacation: Part 2


Vacation: Part 2, here we go!



Lake Tahoe

I am pretty much the worst wife in the world, and in all the times S and I have visited Reno throughout our relationship, I have never taken him to Lake Tahoe. In my defense, we always go in the winter and it's always freezing and snowy, but this time we made it a point to go so S could see the beauty of it.




This is actually where the lake feeds into the Truckee River, which flows right by my house!


The Truckee River


Our fist view of the lake. Seriously, have you ever see anything more breathtaking?




I'm wrapped in about 15 layers here, and it is still so cold!



Looking straight down into the water. Amazing how clear it is.




More Backyard Play Time

L became somewhat obsessed with my mom's gardening wagon. I think we may have to invest in a wagon at home for him.





The Truckee River

Remember those gorgeous pictures from earlier in this post when the Lake fed into the Truckee River, and I said it flowed right by my house. I meant that literally, so we bundled up and walked down to show L where I spent most of my childhood playing.




We use to have contests when I was a kid to see how far out we could get on this old damn. Safe? Probably not, but we survived!


Card Time!

Whenever I'm with my family we always pull out the card table and play Shang-Hai (SP?). I love card games, but we can't play with just two people at home, so I love when we get to do this! And, another plus, my Grandma came down to play with us too!


L helping Gramps with his hand!



L and his Great-Grandma. She hates having her pictures taken, so this was the best shot I could sneak in!

Happy Hour with and old Friend

S and I met up with one of my best friends from high school, Casady, and her husband and their beautiful 5 months old daughter Zoe for some beer and appetizers! We were so busy catching up on life and mommyhood and everything else, I completely forgot to bust out my camera, but I did get on shot of the two mommies and the babies!

And we're done! Vacation update is over, and now it's back on to life as normal and routines and work! 

Vacation: Part 1

Well, we've been back from Reno for about 5 days now, but I need some time to get readjusted, let the dust settle, and get all three of us back into our routine before I got around to posting about our trip. I love vacations, but I also love coming home and getting back to "normalcy".

This will probably take several postings, since I have a bunch of pictures I want to post, but here we go!

And We're Off! 


L couldn't decide if he loved the moving sidewalks, or was scared of them!

 

My boy did soooo well on the airplane! So much better then our last trip (although in his defense he did have an ear infection that time!) He spent most of the time starting out of the window, and with the exception of incessantly telling the gentleman next to me "hi" and trying to "help" him type on his computer, he was an angel!

My Parents New and Improved Backyard

My parents have gone all out on the landscaping in the last year or so. We have a huge backyard anyway, but now there are gardens and patios and a fire pit and boulders..... it's pretty nice and it was heaven for L to be able to run around in.

(On a side note? When I was a kid? Grass. That whole, huge, expansive space? That was all grass. And guess who had to mow it?)



I like to think that this pic of S is him contemplating landscaping our backyard in a similar fashion.... but I doubt it.


A Night Out with the Girls
(And the world BEST PIZZA!)

Meghan, Kati and Ashleigh. Love them, love them, love them!

 

JJ's Pizza. Best Pizza Ever. I would seriously move back to Reno just to have this on a weekly basis.

Best Friend, and she was the maid of honor in my wedding!
(PS? I'm over the bangs. They make my face look chubby.)

This was when an impromptu game of "who has the most random things in their purse" broke out in the middle of the bar. Meghan won with a tape measure, carnival token, 2 nail polishes and various other oddities.

Breakfast in Truckee
Truckee is probably one of the cutest little mountain towns you have ever been to. Chocked full of mom and pop stores and boutiques and yummy family owned restaurants. It makes you feel like you've stepped back in time, and we decided to stop for breakfast on our way up to the lake.


Gramps and L

 

The Squeeze In. This place had the yummiest hot chocolate, with a mountain of whip cream and sprinkles on it!



Me and my Daddy
(Better without bangs, yes?)


OK, this seems like a good place to end! Stay tuned for Vacation Part 2!