HAPPY GOLDEN BIRTHDAY, BUMP.

Happy Monday, friends!  Hope it was a good weekend for you and yours.  

In our news, this here bump is 17 weeks on the 17^{th .}  Should we celebrate with some favorite cravings? I think so.  Any reason is a good reason for fruity pebbles, or sour patch kids, or…salt and vinegar chips.  This is about to get embarrassing. 

What else is noteworthy on this bump’s golden birthday? 

• Maternity clothes: yes, sometimes.  Also, just getting dressed in general…to display the bump or to just look chubby? Decisions, decisions.
• Cravings: Salty anything, sour patch watermelons, grilled cheese sandwiches, orange juice, bagels w/ cream cheese for ever and ever. Amen.
• Pregnancy brain: What brain?
• Body cha-cha-cha changes: the belly (der), acne and rosacea (I’m so lucky), inny belly button, leg hair has ceased to exist (silver lining, friends, silver lining)
• Feelings: There's just so many to choose from (thanks, hormones) but mostly feeling in love (times three) every day.    

ONE SMALL KICK FOR DAD

Somewhere between eating an entire can of olives and topping off a bowl of fruity pebbles, I felt a tiny poke.  “Hey, Andy, come here for a second.” I wondered if he would feel it this time.  We waited, Marin busy wrangling her tortellini.  THEN…to the sound of tortellini slurping, our second babe gave Daddy a kick. “I felt it!”  And just like that a regular Sunday went and sprouted a unicorn horn.  

Hey, little one, on this 16^th day of November 2014, dad felt our secret.  Just you wait.  He’s so good.

A BABY

Oh hey, blog. Long time no see. There’s nothing like some good news to make amends for a long absence-no? So here is our belly growing, hearts exploding, feeling little kicks news.

We are 16 weeks into our second baby journey. In so many ways it has felt familiar to the bod, lots of flu-like days and that weird emotional fog thing I got during the first trimester with Marin, oh and lest we forget the reign of the adult acne-sexyyyyy. All this and I still want to shout, "WHAT A BEAUTIFUL WILD MIRACLE!"  The heartbreaking love I already feel is familiar too.  I just put my first baby down for her nap and am feeling one flip inside my belly.  Wow.  

How can something feel so familiar but also completely, groundbreakingly new? Well, it does somehow. I mean, we planned for it, but I am still shocked. Oh man, God let us make a human, a little soul that will be here in April, just in time for big sister's birthday. We are thrilled and humbled all over again.

I HAVE SEEN THE WHITE

Well, hello there m for love(r). Double wink. Big squeeze.  Feeling the love on this Friday? Hope so because I sure am, and I appreciate you stopping by and sharing this life with me via this tiny blog when there is a big old internet available to ya.

Okay, so what have I been up to this week? Oh nothing, just diving into some decorating ideas I have for this home of ours.  Marin's room is the current project which I am pumped to show you someday soon.  But until then, I thought I'd share what I've been day dreaming of doing with the master. This week I did a guest post over at Notes from the Nelsens where I chatted about plans for making a house a home while TRYING to stay within a budget and within reason.  You know the happy place where MORE meets LESS?  Tough tension there, but we continue to remember what all those lessons on simplicity brought to our hearts.  Sigh.

With that being said, I'm thinking about WHITE. Simple and beautiful, white on cream on white.  Is there anything that a big, white fluffy comforter can't heal after all? Is there a greater color to symbolize there is a dreamer on board here, someone who is in denial about goldfish fingers and wine spills? Is there any better choice for a light lover and romantic? I think not. So, white it shall be.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Smooches, m

ROAD TRIP.

My glorious weekend is threatening to ruin a perfectly good Monday I tell you. So let's reminisce about it because that kind of laughter only comes around once a year. 

It wasn't even in the books. It was more of a game time decision between the Erins and me to drop by Tallahassee to give Lindsey a day-long hug. We missed that girl at the last reunion, and the hopes of all six of the original crew getting together this year just wasn't looking possible. So, sometime on Thursday, we made the final call to go.  Erin Hutch picked up Erin Huff in Chattanooga around 1 o'clock on Friday. Then they were on their way to Atlanta with a mojo burrito in tow for me.

Oh, and can I just pause to give a shout out to a girls' weekend away? Saying goodbye to Marin got me a little weepy, but next thing I knew I was greeting my old friend, the open road. Delicious, glorious FREEDOM with a capital F tastes gooood my friends (but only with a couple FaceTime sessions sprinkled on top of course).

Now, did I already tell you this trip was a SURPRISE for Lindsey? And since all surprises must be handled delicately, we came up with a plan. Once we got to Tallahassee we started taking pics of places Linds would recognize. We sent the pictures to her phone just before we knocked on her front door. From her porch we actually heard, "What is this? Wait, are they coming here?!" We stayed up late, laughing and catching up.

We spent Saturday on their family boat. The wind, the water, the friendships...my heart just about exploded. Saturday night we celebrated an early birthday for Linds with her husband Ben's family. THE nicest people, conversation, and meal. It was a complete pleasure to spend time with everyone. Oh and did I mention the meal?? We topped off the night at a bar because that's just what you do when freedom comes calling... or when Carlos the bartender starts muddling limes, dried apricots, and magic.

We stayed up chatting on the back deck until two in the morning like the good old days. On Sunday we packed up and said our goodbyes.

 I just love these girls and am beyond grateful for their friendship.

By 4:00pm on Sunday I was smooching my baby and my hubby. Helloooo, full heart.

(Oh and hats off to our boat driver this weekend;) You made it all happen, 007.)

 

SHE TOLD THE NURSE "DON'T"

Andy brought Marin into our bed Sunday morning with a “She feels really warm.” Ugh.  I never do well when she is sick, even when it’s just a cold kind of thing.  I always go THERE, you know? Just makes me feel helpless and sad.

By the time we were well into Sunday, she was running a fever in the 103s and seemed all around miserable.  We decided to keep an eye on it through the night and continue with Tylenol around the clock.  Monday morning didn’t bring any real progress and Tylenol stopped breaking her fever, so it was off to the doctor we went.  Turns out they have to poke and prod quite a bit on these little ones when they are trying to figure out what is wrong.  It’s horrible business, I tell you. 

It was so horrible, I let the emotions get the best of me when the doctor was chatting to me.  Thank goodness for the bills of hats and how they camouflage the chin quiver.  (Next on the to-do list, grow thicker skin)

So, Marin got REAL acquainted with a few of the nurses at the doctors’ office and after a few tears, she was back to squeezing Mom, Uncle Ry Ry, and her pet “dote.” 

Doc then told us we’d have to come back the next day for more shots.  Sigh.  

The two of us walked in the next day for more poking and prodding, a bit battered from a long night of fever breaking and crying.  Marin recognized the room from the day before and started crying before the nurse even entered.  When she finally made her grand entrance, needle prepping and all, Marin looked her square in the eye, about three inches from the nurse’s face, and with all the gusto she could muster yelled, “Dote, dote, dottttte!”  And even though the shot was inevitable, the nurse was a bit taken back by hearing a baby tell her “don’t”.  It even bought Marin a few more shot-free seconds. I secretly knew Marin was asking for her dog, but I kept it to myself and let the language barrier between these two break the tension in the room.  I giggled, the nurse giggled, Marin even cracked a smile through her tear stained cheeks.  Just before she continued to give the nurse a piece of her mind…”DOTE, dote, Dotttttte!”

The little one is on the mend today which makes her tiny tyrant moment with the nurse even funnier to me.  Cheers to a little one who is feeling better and who REALLY loves her dog or really dislikes nurses. It's up for speculation. 

“Dote!!!”