Veinte y cinco

Dear Skyler-

I can't remember if I had decided that after two we would stop counting your age in months. This might have been something your dad mentioned and I agreed to, then again these last few weeks of gestating your little brother have been thoroughly sapping my mental acuity. Either way, I think we will still continue with these monthly letters...for now.

You are one month past your second birthday and just about a month away from officially becoming a big brother. I know that first one has made an impression on you, since every time you see a cake or enjoy an especially event filled day you start to sing the happy birthday song. In fact you serenaded me several times yesterday for Mother's day, I can understand how these "holidays" might all fall under one title for you at this point. As for understanding about baby brother Mason, I am certain you have no real clue what is in store for you. Don't feel bad, I think we all aren't quite sure what we are about to get ourselves into. You understand that Mason has a room, and that these are Mason's clothes and Mason's toys. You have even identified Mason when going through your introductions; my mommy, my daddy, then Mason (points to my stomach). We will see how you do when introduced to the real thing.

It's funny, when you turned one it seemed that you instantly became a toddler. Or at least what I thought of as a toddler at the time, which meant demonstrating more purposeful actions and independent thought than you had previously practiced. Now that you are two, well, you are very two. You encompass all the wonderful highs and frustrating lows we have been warned a two year old is capable of. You are so very sweet, wanting to give hugs and multiple kisses. You even offer to 'fix' our necks for us, which means a five second neck rub. You are funny, you are already developing a sense of potty humor which I can only really blame myself for. You are smart. Your Gamma told you the other day that you couldn't leave in the car because she didn't have the car seat to take you in. Which was true, her car didn't have a seat installed. What she overlooked, but you did not, was that our spare car seat was sitting right next to the front door, and you. Helpfully you pointed this out. You are also stubborn and randomly psychotic, which I truly mean in the most loving way possible. But really, you are crazy sometimes. I know that much of this stems from your frustration with a world that you haven't quite figured out how to put into words. As developed as your verbal skills are you still don't possess all you need to fully communicate all your wishes and desires. This results in some pretty epic tantrums and a dizzying range of emotions from you at any given time. This too shall pass. Fortunately you are also cute.

We love you bug, even your bad bits. Happy 25th.

Round and round

So I am managing to post this from home because I am directly connected to my modem. Nice. Not nearly as fancy as wireless, and still not the desired outcome... but then I haven't broken down and bought a new router, so who's to blame really?

We celebrated and early Mother's Day today for my mom so that I can have tomorrow all to myself. The kiddo managed to deliver flowers to gramma with nary a petal smushed or plucked. Quite the feat really.


He also had his first ride on a carousel. Though the whole experience lasted all of ten minutes it really made the whole day. Which is saying quite a bit because the rest of our day was filled with some very two year old moments. *Sigh*. He really did love the 'horsies' though, he named his own Dan. Not sure why. He enjoyed telling it to "Gi-yup" and shouted a few yee-haws. Who knew that these things became fun again once you were a parent. Once again I am reminded how fun the little things are, of course even more so when experienced for the very first time.

Skyler also made me a lovely Mother's day present, with some assistance, at his daycare. His teacher said he was quite enthusiastic with the paintbrush during the creation process. Now just to see what grows.

Happy Mother's Day!

Showering the baby - 34 Weeks

Today marks the beginning of week 34. Seriously, six more weeks to go. A little over a month for me to get ready for this, number two. Physically I am reaching that point, at some times during the day more than others, where I am ready. Mentally - meh. Looking at my to-do-before-baby-arrives list, also a little meh. We will be needing to make the most of the next five weekends for sure.

Little Mason man had his first baby shower this week, courtesy of my place of work. I have been so fortunate to be on the receiving end of now three showers from this employer (wedding, and for Skyler), I am starting to feel a little guilty for it. Not guilty enough to say no to all of this of course:

Sorry for the poor picture quality, my phone can only do so much. Don't get too excited for me though, I shared a shower with another gal who is due just a few days before me, so only half that loot is mine. Seems that it's not just the blogosphere going through a baby boom, there's something in the water here at work.

Remember, I shared the shower. Only one of the above referenced 'babies' is mine. We took home quite a haul, including this stroller and lots of other things to help us fill in the gaps in Mason's nursery. Very exciting, and needed.

Internet or not

There are some great giveaways going on right now for 5 Minutes for Mom that you should pass up. Lots of great prizes and just a few more days to enter. Definitely go check it out!

Disconnect

Sorry for the lack of posting lately, and likely to come. My internet decided to abandon me last week and the weekend visit from comcast failed to restore it. Apparently my router is the issue and dear comcast only troubleshoots their own equipment, of which my router is not. Thanks for the visit anyways. So until I figure out how to fix my router and/or purchase a new one... I am sans internets for the majority of the time. *Sigh*

32 Weeks - Learning to slow down

Really I was 32 weeks last Friday, so now I am hovering between 32 and 33. It all blends together at this point really, it's going fast. Quite the opposite of my general place these days, which is slow. Or I am finding that it should be. I feel like I have been able to maintain a pretty good energy this pregnancy, I haven't really felt all that limited and aside from the major energy drain of the first few weeks I have been feeling fine. Now not so much. Along with my repeat test for the diabetes they also tested to see if I was anemic. The results came back showing that I am mildly anemic, adding another pill (for iron) to my daily regimen. This also explained why my desire for an afternoon nap had increased significantly in the last few weeks. I have been taking the supplement for about a week now and I think it has been helping, hard to tell really what might be anemia-related tiredness and what is just third trimester dragging.

This past weekend also taught me the need to do some of my own regulation in order to keep myself going safely through these last few weeks. I had a bridal shower to attend that was about two hours drive away. I went up for the weekend, was on my feet helping run it all for most of it, and came home a wreck at the end of it all. I have really been taking for granted that my body would just keep up with me. Chasing a toddler in my spare hours and working during the day led me to believe that I could just power through when needed. My body has officially disabused me of this belief. By late Sunday I just had to lay down and give in, I even had some really unpleasant braxton-hicks to remind me to stay put. I have been having those "practice" contractions for a while now, but these ones were actually a little painful. Time to slow down I guess.

Otherwise things continue to go well, no more travelling or long drives in my near future. Just a matter of sitting back and watching these next 7ish weeks fly by.

Little steps in baby prep

We have a long list of to-do's before Mason gets here. A loooong list. Fortunately we realized a few weeks back just how short a period of time we now have to accomplish all those things. Less than sixty days to paint/decorate/furnish his room, do some major outdoor renovation, transition Skyler to a toddler bed... to name a few. Since our epiphany we have managed to knock some big ones off the list. My lovely husband spent the weekend that Skye and I were in North Carolina painting his second son's room. He has also since ripped apart our back lawn with a rototiller and is making preparations for reseeding and setting up a fence. I'm pretty lucky like that. Back to the room though, since it was painted a few weeks back I have slowly been working towards filling it with the bits and pieces I have accumulated for Mason. We still need to fill it in with some more furniture, and no small amount of organization needs to occur... but, it looks like a room that could be inhabited by a small child now.

Paint by Daddy, decals by me (and Blik)

Pandas and bamboo, it couldn't all be ninjas

Mason's snuggy bed awaits

There are some ninjas though