The name game

We have FINALLY decided on a name for little miss...it's going to be...

Snow!!

HAAA wouldn't that be just downright AWFUL if we named her that...Snow Flurry! She would hate us for the rest of her life. Ok so all kidding aside our sweet little munchkin is going to be named....Caroline!!! She doesn't have a middle name yet but we are close on that too. I'm so thrilled & C is so cute when you ask him what his sister's name is...just the way he says it with a precious little smile on his face. Of course I'm not really sure how much he really comprehends that a little baby girl will be sharing his space, parents & everything else in just a few short months. He does love babies though & is completely drawn to them if we see them out anywhere. It'll be an adjustment but I'm sure he'll get used to it soon.

So back to the whole Caroline name thing. I remember telling J last football season that when we get prego again, if it's a girl I want to name her Caroline. At that point he shot it down, said it was too long, ppl won't know if it's Caroline or Carolyn (pronunciation wise), etc. But I just thought it was a good southern name, a good baby & adult name & most of all it sounds good with Carter...Carter & Caroline. And after much deliberation over what seemed like a gazillion other names, Caroline still stood out as the best fit.

I have a funny story about the whole issue with making sure it sounds good to say the siblings names together. I was in Once Upon a Time in Homewood a month or so ago & the very friendly sales lady was telling me about her daughter & how she already had a son named Sam & was having a girl & thinking about naming her Ella. She said once she realized if she was out somewhere & was calling for them...Sam & Ella, Sam & Ella, that it really wouldn't sound right. Salmonella, Salmonella.

On a complete other note, I am becoming very sleep deprived & it isn't b/c I am on the verge of 32 wks prego. That does have something to do with it but the biggest issue is Carter man is still waking up early & throughout the night. Last night was 2am & then up by 5:40am. The night before he was up at 12:15 & 2:30. This past w/e he was up on Sat morning @ 4:45am for the day...even after trying to get him to sleep in the bed with us, he was wide awake & not going back to sleep. He did finally fall asleep on the bed with me around 7:30 for an hr max. You would think he would have made up for it at nap, but no, he only took 1.5 hr nap. So this mama is exhausted & has had enough. J is going to install the top of the stairs gate that we bought forever & a day ago & hope that will keep him at least from coming downstairs in the middle of the night but hopefully in his bed sleeping!! We may have to resort to a nightlight on a timer set to turn on when it is time to wake up or one of those alarm clock things with the bunny that shows when it is ok to get up. He used to be such a good sleeper & sleep 10-12 hrs a night & I really wasn't expecting to be this tired until miss Caroline arrived. Here's to hoping the little non-sleeping monster will get back in his old routine & SLEEP!

Not much else has been going on. We did go to the zoo this w/e with the McFarland girls which was way fun since we went late on Sat & it was storming everywhere else but there so we basically had the whole to zoo to ourselves...it was wonderful. More updates & pics coming soon!

P.S. I forgot to mention that I finally got the sonogram video up on THIS post. Thanks to my computer genius bro who helped me convert it from whatever file it was to one that would work on YouTube. I did have to break it up into 5 separate videos (10 min long total) but in case you are interested/care to see little miss moving around then there it is for your viewing pleasure. :)

Tickled Pink!

Sara & I worked on baby girl's bedding stuff again last night & got a bumper finished so I just had to share...

This is the outside of the bumper...



The inside...



And to show you up close the detail & the piping...



So now I've got to finish off the other 3 bumpers, do the bed skirt, make a throw pillow for her chair & sew in the 'hardware' for her roman balloon shade. HERE is a recap of all of her fabric samples. In case I haven't mentioned she only has a 'port hole' window in her room...her room is attic space that was finished off by a previous owner of our house & it has fun slanted ceilings & is just a small cutesy space that I thought would be a perfect nursery. I really didn't want to move C from his room since all of his furniture grows with him as his bed converts from crib to toddler to full but I also didn't want to get rid of our extra bedroom. I'm not sure if I've mentioned or not how J is hopefully about to start remodeling our upstairs. He is basically putting in a hallway for the 3 rooms on the opposite side of the house from C's room. The extra bedroom upstairs has a large laundry room off of it as well as a walk-in closet that takes you to the "hidden" room which is going to be little miss' bedroom. So instead of walking through a bedroom to get to each of these rooms, J is going to knock out some walls, have the intake vent for the HVAC professionally moved to the ceiling & put in sheetrock, flooring, new doors/door casings, etc. to make a hallway leading to all 3 of the rooms. It is going to make the layout of the upstairs so much better. I will of course post before, during & after pics. This will be interesting since it will be J's first real remodel project...I have faith that he can do it w/o making it cost twice as much as it would have it we hired someone professionally to do it. :) Wish us luck!!

Everybody goes to Milo's...

Look what I figured out I can get on at work today...the BLOG!! :) I got here this morning & realized my whole computer had been updated, revamped, etc. Of course now everything that was personalized on it is gone as well as all my pictures...don't you think they could have warned someone ahead of time?!? Luckily I'm pretty sure any pics I had saved on here are saved at home too but still. We'll see how long this lasts but for now I will take full advantage of catching up since I really don't have a lot going on at work right now. I took my last flight to TX last week since I'm almost to the "no travelling" stage. I hit 30 wks yesterday...I can't believe it!! I'm already going every 2 wks to the dr now instead of 4. The in-laws came in town yesterday for the week & Sara & I started tackling little miss' bedding last night. Tonight is the last night we will have to work on it together so after that I'll be all on my own finishing up the bumpers, skirt, bubble shade & pillow for her room. I'm learning a lot & can't wait to see the finished product...hopefully I don't screw it up. :) There has been a lot going on these days especially this week, day & night. I'm starting a photography class tom. night that lasts 4 wks...I can't wait to really learn how to use my SLR camera to its full potential. Hopefully I'll have a little more "professional" looking pics on here in the future. J is in the process of training for a triathalon...I think I've mentioned how he has run a 5K & biked in a fundraiser race recently. The triathalon is in Guntersville on Aug. 13 so he recently joined the Hoover Rec to work on the swimming portion of that. C has been getting up about as early as J has (around 5:45am) every morning for the past week or so & coming downstairs on his own. His bowels have been all messed up from his top 2 molars coming in so I think that is what is causing the early morning wake-up calls. He'll lay in the bed & watch Blue's Clues for about 10 min but then he wants to get up & eat breakfast & play. His usual wake-up time is around 7:15am or so...mommy is really missing those days. Last night we had to change his sheets around 1:30am when his diaper didn't hold it all & by 3am he was back downstairs & ended up sleeping in our bed horizontally...he hasn't slept in our bed since he was an itty-bitty baby. He pretty much kicked J all night & had his head on my side & gave me about a foot of room to sleep which doesn't really work for a 30 wk prego. Let's just say I'm struggling a bit today. I guess that's enough about us for now. Here is the original post that I have had saved in draft on here for who knows how long...these pics are probably from Feb or maybe Mar. I still wanted them on here for the "scrapbook" effect of the blog.
I think these were from back when pics weren't cooperating with me on here..C's first time to eat Milo's & he loved it. I have a video of him dipping his fries in the sauce & licking it off (that'll be another day)...he does this with ketchup these days too.

Obsessed

Obsessed doesn't even begin to describe C's love for lining things up especially his beloved cars...these pics are from awhile back (still trying to catch up & I know I've mentioned the need for this post for quite some time) & the lining up of anything has become a daily ritual so no need for pics anymore. 

These are from back when he only had 10 or so cars...his collection is now ranging in the 40-50 range. The crazy thing is he knows the majority of them & has names for them...he will ask for specific cars & most of the time we know or can figure out which ones he is talking about.

My little Tom Cruise

These pics were taken a month or so ago one random Sat morning (notice the PJ's) in Target. C has been needing some new sunglasses for awhile now & these were just too cute...reminded me of Tom Cruise in Risky Business.

Chopped

I finally chopped it off...my hair that is!! I just couldn't take it anymore with this heat & I had 9 inches to donate...enough for Pantene's version of Locks of Love. This is probably my 4th or 5th time to donate it...it takes 6 pony-tails to make one wig for a cancer patient so I'm almost to one whole wig! :) I'm sure I'll do it again in the future. Here is my before pic...

And after...sooo much easier to manage!

And here is the lonely pony that I am drying out to send off soon...

A quick update on Luck...she is still missing. I did hear from a neighbor that they have a cat that went missing a few wks ago too which really makes me wonder. I'm still hopeful that she'll show up sometime...that someone has taken her in not knowing who she belongs to & she just needs to escape & come home!

M.I.A.

That's right, our sweet Lucky Loo is MISSING!! We realized on Friday that we hadn't seen her since Wed night...she comes & goes as she pleases & we've gotten pretty lax on making sure she is in at night since she can come in the dog door whenever. We've searched the neighborhood with the dogs & I obviously made some signs that didn't even last 24 hrs before they were taken down...we have an extremely strict homeowner's association here in Riverchase. She had on a collar but it didn't have tags b/c I was having to replace her collar every month or so since she would lose it when the tags would get caught on brush/branches while she was out...that was the only way I could keep a collar on her. She is microchipped which I've already called to notify them so I am really just praying that she has just gone on a bit of a hiatus & will show up sometime soon. My biggest fear is that there have been a lot of workers a few houses up the past few weeks & that her nosey self has jumped in the back of one of their trucks if they left their door open & that they didn't realize it until they got back to wherever they live or work & kicked her out. I just don't see her not making it home if she was hurt somehow but we did have coyotes in our neighborhood a few years ago so you just never know. I'm trying to stay as positive as possible but she is like a child to me so each day that goes by makes it that much harder & miss her that much more.

A few recent shots I have taken of her...she has gotten pretty attached to C's booster seat.

I love this one...the chair is pretty much pushed all the way up but she has managed to squeeze into it.

Praying for a quick & safe return of my precious Luck!

Little Miss

I haven't updated on the little munchkin in a while much less put up the 20 wk sonogram pics so here they are...

This is her profile with her right arm up on her forehead...oh the drama. :)

I originally thought the disk we got at the appt had these pics along with a few others but I was pleasantly surprised to figure out that it had the entire sonogram on video! Dr. T has switched practices since I had C so this was new to me & I thought it was pretty exciting. I will forewarn you that it is 10 min long & maybe a bit odd but I figured I would share for those that are interested in seeing all of her precious little body parts. The thermal paper runs out in the middle of it & she uses a lot of abbreviations like "bl" for bladder, "st" for stomach & "kids" for kidneys but it is still neat to watch her move around. Ok so I couldn't get the entire video to download in one clip (entirely too large) so it is broken out into 5 clips.

Little bit still doesn't have a name but I hope to have one finalized soon...she does have her bedding picked out though. :) A few w/e's ago we went to Mobile to visit my SIL & fam & Sara & I went around on Sat to a bunch of the awesome fabric stores they have down there. It is hard to really see the colors in the pic (they are light pink, a faint gray & a touch of chocolate brown) but this is what we picked out. The crib skirt will be the top owl fabric...I have a new fascination with owls & thought it ws super cute.  Her bumper will be the damask (3rd one from the left) on the outside & the pink minky (2nd from the left) on the inside. The striped on the far left will be the piping & ties for the bumper. We plan to make a balloon shade with the damask material for the port hole window she has in her room & a lamp shade with the funky round dot silk on the far right. The current rocker/recliner we have in C's room is what we will use in hers but it is a soft mint green color so I had to incorporate that in. I am going to make a throw pillow with the quilted solid pink material & monogram her initials on it with the same green color as the chair. I can't wait to get it all made & set up in her room. Sara, Jay & the girls will be in town for nearly a week right around Father's Day & since she is very experienced with making all of this stuff (she made C's stuff for his room as well as the nursery set for her girls) she is going to be helping show me how to make it...thank goodness! I def. know I'm going to need help with the bumper & the shade. She is so talented with the sewing machine so I know she can show me quite a few pointers.

I am 27 weeks now (this pregnancy is flying by) & feeling great!! I had my gestational diabetes test at my last appt (24 wks) & I assume I passed b/c I haven't heard back from them & usually "no news, is good news". Everything is going great & we are just trucking along. I've started feeling her getting the hiccups (C got them all the time) which always makes me laugh & she really loves to see how much room she still has in there all the time. :)

Potty training update...

I wish I had really positive news to tell you about our 3-day training process but unfortunately I don't. I hate to say we failed but I just had high hopes for a successful w/e & it started out that way but then went down hill as the w/e went on. The first day went well with the usual and expected accidents but he was already understanding & asking to go potty by right after lunch. By the 2nd day he was holding it until that same time (around 1pm) & would give tons of false alarms where he would say he had to go, we'd rush to the potty & then he'd go "nevermind, I don't need to go anymore" when he really did. That would eventually end up being an accident & then we'd try to finish it on the potty but he would freak out & want off as quickly as possible (we are using a step stool that J built for him & a potty seat on the big potty so he is comfortable). The only problem is he has a fear of releasing into the toilet (this is supposedly very common) but loves to flush it & watch everything go down, to put cheerios in it to "aim" at, & even to pull the toilet paper off the roll & drop it in. By the 3rd day he had completely gone backwards in progress & was just in pain from holding it for so long. Then when he went down for a nap & of course he would go in the bed & would wake up all upset for going. Monday was a very tough day & there were a lot of tears shed by both of us...a mother can't stand to see their child upset & in pain. :( I also worry about him getting a UTI or some other infection from not going potty. So all & all it wasn't a total waste b/c he gets it, we just have to get him used to using the potty. The other thing I realized is his two year molars are coming in (I actually felt the top 2 breaking thru tonight) which the doctor said we might not even notice but he has been waking up crying in the middle of the night for the past few weeks & drooling like crazy (so bad we had to change his sheets in the middle of the night the other night from drool). So I think this may be affecting the whole process too...we are giving him some tylenol for the pain but he just hasn't been himself anyway. So maybe it's just bad timing...who knows. We are going to keep at it though b/c you read everywhere that consistency is best so we will see how it goes over the next few months. School is supposed to try to help as well but he won't be in the actual potty training classroom until he moves rooms in Aug. Today was his first day back (J stayed at home with him yesterday...I was just hoping we would have a breakthrough but instead he held his potty until 5:30 pm!!) & we put him in pull-ups but let him take underwear b/c he likes to wear them but isn't afraid to poop in them which is better than holding that! Boys are stubborn especially ours so he'll get there when he's ready. More potty updates to come down the road. :)