A perfect Friday

Work has been challenging lately - that's an understatement.  So it was with great pleasure today that I worked with our LOA resource and calculated my maternity leave and sent a formal notice to my boss (just 10 days into her tenure). Return date - Jan 2, 2013 with leave potentially starting as early as June 15. Yes, I am very aware this will be no vacation, but I'll definitely be looking to travel during that time with the bambino once we're all good to go.

Bon Jovi forever

I was tempted to title this post, whoa oh half way there. Alas, I did so back in '08 with my first pregnancy (or at least something very similar). In my defense, hearing/seeing that I'm half way through something always triggers my brain to the chorus of Living on a Prayer. It's the jersey girl in me, apparently it's never going to die. Tim Riggins once said, Texas Forever, to that I say Bon Jovi forever. BTW, if you find yourself wondering who the hell is Tim Riggins, you should feel ashamed. Google, Netflix and then talk to me. I love #33, QB1 and Tammy Taylor, y'all. In fact don't be surprised if this little lady is called lyla or Tyra. Seriously if you haven't watched FNL you missed out on the best television ever created. Just thinking about the series finale makes me tear up, and it's not because of the hormones either.

I digressed. FNL will do that to me. All in all it's been going well. I had a terrible case of sciatica - crap please never let it happen again. It was painful as all get out and I didn't know if I could put pressure on my leg let alone do any sudden movement. It's gone thanks to some miracle work by a chiropractor and a massage. Cross your fingers it stays that way.


20 weeks



It's a ....

...girl! Anderson is going to have a little sister. We were excited either way, but it feels pretty balanced to say we will be having one of each. I haven't checked out the disk of picture we were given, but I don't think there are many clear shotss. Our kids aren't known to sit still and this proves true to her. It took a while to get all of her measurements because of it.

Heartbroken for a minute

This is the sad story of Anderson on the morning of Feb 15, 2012...

It was a normal morning, getting ready for school and work.  Anderson was playing with a toy and I asked him to come over so I could put his shoes on.  He refused and continued to play.  I told him I wasn't going to ask again and proceeded to do our 1,2,3 countdown.  Usually it works but today no luck, so off to a timeout Anderson went. 

He pouted and started to cry, which is somewhat normal when he's in a time out (it's rare he goes in one). So Bri and I thought he was just upset he wound up in one.  No no, he starts to mumble...I hear whaa waaa baby waaa.  I ask him what's wrong.  He then cries..."i don't want the baby out of your belly" and repeats it again. He looked sadder than I have ever seen him. Broke my heart in two.  I waited until timeout was done (I know I'm cruel), hugged him and told him that he is going to be the best brother ever.  He stopped crying.

Awe man.  We know he'll be fine, but that was a rough 2 minutes.

Bathroom Remodel

I'm pregnant, so keeping with tradition we figured we would do something major in our lives. Last time we moved a month before Anderson was born.  Not stressful at all. This time we've decided that we are going to remodel our perfectly functional, but not quite our style, main bathroom. We figure do it now, not when the new baby is here because we might push it off for some time.  The previous owners remodeled it within the last 10 years.  At first glance most people think, oh it's nice, maybe not your style but still nice.  Yes, they spent decent money on the fixtures but they did the design based only on how they use a bathroom.  Why have a shower, no need. Instead everyone must like soaking in a obscenely huge and deep tub with a hand shower for those times you want to rinse off. We learned quickly that we can fit Anderson and almost all of his 17 classmates for a pool party in our bathroom if we wanted to. Not terrible, since Anderson is still prefers the bath over a shower. No storage - just a pedastal sink and Ikea shelf and some small "boxes" that don't hold a thing. However, not convenient when all house guests prefer to shower in the bathroom in our bedroom.  It's not a master en-suite you see on HGVT, just a practical bathroom addition on a 1940's house - shower, sink, toilet.  I love house guests but prefer to keep our bedroom as our respite from it all.

We've hired the contractor and placed our order for our long lead items.  Now we wait approx 3-4 weeks and the demo will being.  The hope is in 30 business days or less we'll have a new bathroom that is kid and house guest friendly.  A new tub, new vanity with storage, and seperate shower area (due to the size of the room and window we are going back to the original layout from 1941, so we don't have to touch any exterior walls). Hopefully my sanity will still be here too!

Before remodel 2012

It's been a long time

It's funny how life just gets in the way sometimes.  I've had so much I've been meaning to blog about the past few months and then something just comes along.  It's been a jammed packed few months.  We went on a family trip to Disney World in Florida and had more fun than we could have imagined.  We thought Anderson would like, but really had no clue how much he would LOVE it.  Bri and I will never forget it, we're not huge Disney people but this was down right fun. 

Thanksgiving and Christmas came and went in a blink of an eye.  Anderson really picked up Christmas this year.  He absolutely loved Christmas lights on houses and looked for to it getting dark each night to "see my lights".  We had to take him out for a look around our cul-de-sac almost each night. 

Preschool is going really well! Anderson is learning so much and surprises us with little tidbits each day.  His Early Intervention is also going very well - his SLP doesn't think he'll qualify for an IEP with the school district, this means this program did everything we could possibly hope for.  However, we have requested an IEP evaluation, just in case.  It's free and if he does qualify is another great resource.  His EI team is amazing and the progress is phenomenal.  A year ago we got a few grunts, maybe the sound, da da and lots of frustrating crying and tantrums.  Basically a 12-15 month level tested at 23 months.  Now, Anderson is talking up a storm - 4, 6,8 word phrases and not just understandable by mom and dad, but people that don't know him.  Is there still work - yes, he misses a lot of middle portions of works or sentences but we've got time and a dedicated team until April!

All of this happened and we found out that Anderson will be a BIG BROTHER in July!  We are so excited to be a family of 4.  We told family on Christmas and then via our New Year's cards (sent late on purpose to announce the our friends and family). 

Right now, I'm just about 14 weeks and feeling good.  This pregnancy has been different and similar at the same time. The exhaustion is crazy - I don't know if it's the pregnancy or the fact there is no nap or break time with a toddler around.



Big Brother 2012





Baby Birkett 2 (BB2) - 12.5 weeks



 

Hilarious!

Have I mentioned Anderson keeps us in stitches?  Since he's parroting like crazy (yay!) we decided to teach him our first names on a whim today.  I was calling for Bri in the park and Anderson just started spouting "Bri, Bri"...so it began.  Well he took to it quickly and now I feel that if he were to get lost and someone asked what are your parents names he would say Brian and Dawn, with enough clarity someone could figure it out. 

Cut to bedtime.  Bath time ends, nekkid Anderson runs to his room, hops on his bed, looks around and says, "Dawn, where's my lovey?". Brian was in his room at the time so I thought he told him to say it. Turns out if was unprompted.  Bri and I were dying. It was so cute and funny at the same time.  Okay, a bit of a tear of relief too - the last month has been AMAZING in terms of speech. His SLP told us that since he started to finally parrot we're out of the woods, he should pick speech up quickly.  Bri and I have been chuckling all night.