Pregnancy update--12.5 weeks

I'm nearing the end of the first trimester. Yay! I'll be 13 weeks on Saturday, which is right around the time I stopped having morning sickness when I was pregnant with Perrin. I am PRAYING the same is true for this pregnancy. The puking started earlier with this one and has been a little more intense, so I'm ready for some relief.

I've been taking zofran some just to get me through the day, but I've tried all the natural remedies too. Crackers (threw 'em up), ginger ale (threw it up), ginger snaps (threw 'em up), etc etc. Who would have thought the quickest way to get rid of those stubborn extra 5 pounds I was holding on to from my first pregnancy was to get pregnant again??

I know I'm being whiny and ungrateful. I'm really, really happy to be pregnant and to add to our family. But I am soooo tired. And sick. And I just want to be able to eat without gagging.

Okay, whining over. Happy thoughts: Perrin likes to poke my belly and say, "Hi, baby!" Then he'll blow bubbles on my stomach and say, "Wake up!" What a good big brother he is. :) I've asked him several times if he wants a baby to come live with us. He nods his head and says, "Yes!" My mom asked if the baby could wear his Toy Story flip flops. He got a really concerned look on his face and said, "No! My shoes!" So I guess he's okay with a baby coming to live with us as long as it doesn't steal his shoes.

Happy Easter!

I love Easter. Now that Perrin is 2, I can teach him a little about the meaning of Easter and why we celebrate Christ's resurrection. I love the colored eggs and chocolate and Easter eggs hunts too... but it was fun to spend some time with Perrin all week learning the Easter story through toddler-friendly activities (FamilyLife's Resurrection Eggs are awesome, by the way.)

This morning, I decided to continue building on what we've learned this week by making "resurrection rolls" for breakfast. I got the idea from Pinterest. Basically, you take a marshmallow that represents Christ's body, and you dip it in butter and cinnamon and sugar to represent the oil and spices that were used to anoint the body. Then you put the marshmallow into crescent roll dough (symbolizing the tomb) and close it tight. When you cook it, the marshmallow is supposed to melt and disappear so that you're left with an empty "tomb" when you bite into the crescent roll. Nifty idea, huh?

Well, it would have been if it had worked. The marshmallows we used weren't technically fresh... they had condensed a bit and were a little tough and chewy. That's probably why the metaphorical body of Christ, instead of disappearing, puffed up to about ten times its normal size and then slowly began oozing out of the "tomb." Not exactly useful for explaining the story of Easter.

Oh well. It tasted good anyway. And Perrin had fun dipping the marshmallows with me and babbling: "Jesus. Tomb. Empty. Candy!" I suppose that's a pretty good toddler summary of Easter.

Here we go again...

I've been pondering a question in my mind for the last few days: If you win the jackpot, do you keep playing the lottery? No, Trey and I haven't taken up gambling. I'm way too cheap for that. I'm thinking about it in relation to having kids. Perrin is so perfect (temper tantrums and affinity for mud puddles aside) that I really do feel like we won the jackpot with him. I love him to death; he's healthy, happy, funny, smart, cute, brave... everything I could have ever dreamed for in a child.

Here we are, pregnant again! Now that I know how awesome parenting can be, I'm really excited to add to our family and have another sweet baby to cuddle and love. But... is it possible that we could really be blessed with TWO perfect children? I don't want Baby #2 to ever feel like he/she has to live up to some impossible standard set by our wonderful first child. But come on... Perrin is pretty stinking awesome.

It also just occurred to me that Baby #2 might read this blog someday and wonder if we really do love him/her as much as we love Perrin. Well, dear Baby #2, let me just say that we already love you with our whole hearts and can't wait to meet you. We know you and Perrin will have very different strengths and personalities, and we are so excited to learn all about you! Yes, your older brother is amazing. But you are too. Also, you're making me throw up an awful lot right now but I love you anyway. You're totally worth it. Doesn't that make you feel good?

Happy anniversary to us!

Yesterday was our 6-year anniversary. In the first few years of our marriage, we made it a point to always travel somewhere fun for our anniversary--Eureka Springs, Branson, Hot Springs, etc. We have some awesome memories of sleeping in a tree house, relaxing in a mountain-side hot tub, horseback riding, and exploring together. Now that we have a child, anniversary celebrations have been toned down a bit. We didn't even leave the house yesterday evening--just cooked a nice dinner together (with Perrin scrambling into our laps as we tried to eat), and fell asleep soon after putting Perrin to bed. Fun, but not exactly on par with previous anniversaries. And not exactly loaded with romance. To top things off, both Perrin and I woke up puking yesterday morning. Nothing says "romance" like being sick AND cleaning up someone else's throw up!

We are in the diapers/bedtimes/messes/Elmo overload/playdough on everything phase of life right now. And I'm okay with it--in fact, I wouldn't have it any other way. But I do feel tinges of nostalgia for our carefree days of dating whenever and wherever we felt like it. I guess even as adults we still experience some "growing pains." I'm happy with where we are; I'm excited for the future. But change is always tough.

Between feeling sick yesterday and exhausted by the time dinner was over, I'm not even sure if I kissed my husband yesterday. On our anniversary!! Isn't that sad? I did send him on an "Anniversary Egg" hunt (similar to an Easter Egg hunt... one chocolate egg hidden for every year we've been married). But I'm telling you... my creative and romantic powers must have taken that anniversary trip without me because I feel about as romantic as a stick.

So, dear Trey, I apologize that your previously romantic wife is too tired to even give you a kiss on our anniversary (or too tired to remember, if in fact we did kiss...) I know this is just a stage and we'll have many wonderful anniversaries to celebrate in the years to come. In the meantime, we'll just have to settle for snuggling on the couch with the Veggie Tales theme song playing in the background as our toddler flushes his toy trains down the toilet. Maybe we can even sneak in a kiss before he pours his apple juice on his head.

Happy birthday, Perrin!

My little boy turned two years old yesterday. It's hard to believe I'm the mom of a two-year-old! It was fun celebrating with family over the weekend. We took Perrin to the Museum of Discovery on Saturday, and he had SO much fun.

Here he is digging for dinosaurs. It was tough pulling him away from this to see the rest of the museum. I think he would have played in this spot all day if I'd let him.

The museum had plenty of cute props to explore--a barn, a kitchen, a pirate ship, a lighthouse, etc.Perrin kept trying to go in and out the windows instead of using the doors.

 Here's my big boy climbing his first rock wall! (With a little help from Daddy).

Perrin climbed up inside this exhibit so that he could get a closer look at the balls floating on air. It worked out fine until he started throwing the balls out of the exhibit, and I had to go chase them through the museum.

When we got home, we had a party with balloons, food, presents, and Elmo cupcakes! I got this idea from Pinterest, and mine are totally not as cute as the ones I found online. They don't look much like Elmo, either. And I couldn't get the frosting perfectly red, so I had to serve pink Elmos. Not very manly... but Perrin didn't seem to mind.

Sneaky toddler

Earlier today, I was in my bedroom fixing my hair. Perrin was dumping my makeup out on the floor and stealing money from his daddy's change bucket (a pretty typical morning for us). Then he suddenly walked out of my room, shut the door hard behind him, and yelled at me, "Don't open!" My first thought was, "Great... my son, who isn't even two yet, is already trying to boss me around." When really, my first thought should have been, "Wait a second... he always wants me to play with him. What's he planning to do that he wants me to stay in my room for?" Well, I figured it out a couple minutes later. I heard the pitter patter of little feet as he ran into his room then came out again and went into the bathroom. A few seconds later, I heard water running in the sink. My cue to check up on him.

When I opened the bathroom door, he was in the process of washing his pajamas in the sink. Water was everywhere. And he definitely had a guilty look on his face.

He's tried a couple times since then to close me into a room. But when he uses that telltale phrase, "Don't open!" I can be sure he's about to do something mischievous. So, for now, I'm at least enjoying the couple minutes of advanced notice.

Two years down

I know I haven't blogged in a while... it's not that I haven't had anything to write about. It's just that this month has been so busy. In the last couple of weeks, we've gotten new windows, refinanced our home, started working out at the local rec center, and started leading a Thursday night Bible study. (Trey's actually the one leading the Bible study... but I help with preparation. And I make yummy snacks.) It seems like we've had something to do or somewhere to go every night lately.

For some reason, time seems to go by so much faster when you have a lot to do. I feel like my life is on fast-forward right now. Not to mention that Perrin will be two next month. TWO! I can't believe we have a two-year-old. His life must be stuck on fast-forward too. His vocabulary is really exploding, and he's starting to string together words into simple sentences (things like "Where poo-poo go?" when he flushes the potty, or "want this" when he sees, well, anything.) He's not a baby anymore. But that fact still seems to take me by surprise every day.

I miss having a tiny, snuggly, cooing baby. But I love having a noisy, adventurous, mud-covered little boy. The toddler stage can be a lot of fun. It can be difficult too--like when he stands up on his chair at the dinner table and Trey tells him to sit down, so he sits down on the table. Or when my mom hands him his toothbrush but forgets to put toothpaste on it, so he hurls it across the room and yells, "paste!" He's defiant, willful, stubborn, selfish, disobedient, and prone to the worst temper tantrums I have ever seen. He's also incredibly smart, independent, funny, determined, and affectionate. Not to mention super cute. :)

I can't slow down time, but I can try to let go of the things that make me want to pull my hair out and just appreciate this awesome stage he's in. Yes, toddlers can be difficult to handle. But they can be so much fun too. These years are going by fast, and I'll never get to enjoy this stage with Perrin again. So I'm making it a goal to press the pause button now and then. I'll leave the dishes undone, the computer turned off, and promise myself to exercise "later." Then I'll give Perrin my undivided attention and simply live in the moment with him. I think he's waking up from his nap now, so it's time to go practice what I preach!