Afterthought

I think it's quite funny that after my last post, Chaps has been a perfect angel and in the best mood all day. I guess that goes to show you that toddlers have good and bad days like the rest of us...

Thoughts

I'm pretty lucky... if I don't have a shoot or something to do on the weekends, Reed gets up with Chappell and lets me sleep in.

It's especially nice (and appreciated) now that I seem to have insomnia with this pregnancy.

Feeling just a little bit *ick* on Saturday afternoon, it seemed like a good idea to treat myself to a real*non-diet*Coke.

It was absolutely delicious, but as I tossed and turned all night long I regretted my decision... no more caffeine after 2 for me! I'm such an oldie...

So Sunday morning finally rolls around and I mozy on downstairs around 9:30 am.

Chappell's been up for a couple hours already and has destroyed and unsorted all of the toy bins that I carefully organized only a week or so before (which is fine, but just a little unsettling).

I park myself on the couch with a cup of coffee and slowly adjust to the chaos that is Sunday morning with a two year old.

A few minutes later, a very excited Chappellina comes bolting towards me, full speed-- she's going in for a hug. It all happened pretty fast, but I ended up with a busted lip and my coffee ended up all over the white couch.

Don't worry, Chappy didn't get burned - the coffee wasn't even hot at this point.

I walked into the kitchen to get some paper towels and I couldn't help myself... in pain with a bloody lip, the tears just started to fall.

I'm just -- TIRED.

I'm almost embarrassed to publish this post because I don't want anyone to get the wrong idea... I love my little rambunctious two year old (and my life in general) more than anything in the world. I love everything about her-- and I felt so bad as her big, big blue eyes and chubby cheeks watched for my reaction.

Even with the countless (COUNTLESS!!) tantrums she had this week-- she's still perfect and wonderful in my eyes.

I guess the point is... I can't remember the last time she stayed with her grandparents for a weekend, giving me and Reed a little break... which is probably my fault, because I don't like her to be away... even for a couple of days. I used to do it much more often when she was younger, but now that she's become such a little person, it's getting harder!

It's two things I think-- first of all, I miss her like crazy when she's gone. Secondly, I am a control freak when it comes to my daughter. I'm with her all of the time and I know that no one cares about her as much as I do. I get a little worried and anxious when she's in someone else's care. I guess I'm scared they won't pay as much attention as I would and something bad is going to happen to her? Terrible, I know. I'm a freak.

I'm just tired and pregnant and busy and it's freaking hot--- I think a few days off would do me some good...

---

So when Reed asked if I wanted to go with him to Birmingham next Thursday & Friday for a CLE (legal course), I thought this might be the perfect little get away! Chaps is going to stay with Reed's mom and dad while I spend my days sleeping in and shopping for baby dos... we also plan on a little Gian Marcos and Bottega while we're there.

Back to work for me!!

art & band aides

My posts are so sporadic and weird...

We spent a pretty relaxing weekend at home. I had shoots on Friday and Saturday and other than that, we did a lot of nothing!

We went out to dinner with friends on Friday night - it was fun!

It's so nice to get out and enjoy a meal where you aren't constantly thinking of creative ways to entertain a two year old... she's pretty over sorting bags of sugar and splenda... and the salt and pepper lost its appeal months ago...

Anywho, while we were out to dinner, a fabulous babysitter (recommended from the Hoot fam), took care of Chappell. She is super patient, and our child loves her - so it's pretty great. To make her even more awesome, she is an Abrakadoodle art teacher! So every time she comes over I try to get some art supplies or play dough together for the two of them to play with.

This time, Chappell drew a picture of me!??

Margaret (the babysitter) swears that she didn't help Chappell at all. It has a face, two eyes (with X's for pupils... scary???) a nose, mouth and hair (looks like a buzz cut).

I was quite impressed! Margaret said that she was shocked she could even draw a circle.

I need to take a picture of her masterpiece and post it.

Saturday, Reed took Chappell to the pool while I went to my shoot.

When I met Chaps and Reed at the pool, I noticed that Chappell had a pretty bad rash where a Tinkerbelle band aide had been...

Turns out, she's allergic to band aide glue?

Anyone else ever heard of this?

I told my mom about it (because she's probably the only other person on this planet who cares), and guess what? Mimi's allergic to band aide glue and tape as well.

So there ya have it.

But how do I explain to a two year old who loves band aides more than anything else in the world, that she can't wear them anymore?

My mom said she should be fine if she only wears them for short amounts of time...

UMMM, OK?? You try ripping band aides off of this kid.

Tell me how that goes.

Countdown to gender identification... T-minus 3 days... eeeeeeeek!!!!

Little Mermaid

Straight up

14 weeks, 4 days

For documentations sake... I felt the baby move for the first time today!

A week or so ago I thought I felt "flutters," but I wasn't really sure...

But today - I'm sure.

I had sort of forgotten that weird, internal-twisty feeling... I felt it for the first time about an hour ago when I was leaning way back in a chair... I was talking to Reed on the phone. I've been getting some work done on the computer for the past 30 minutes and I've felt it a couple more times.

There's no mistaking it when you've felt it before!

This is actually real!

So weird.

14 Weeks

I'm such a bad blogger...

So, I'm currently 14 weeks pregnant.

Chappell's at school right now... so I've been editing like a mad wo-man... I had my daily cup O joe and I actually have a little bit of energy right now.

Life in general has been kind of hard for me lately because my business has gotten pretty busy (which is great!) but Chappell has been on summer break.

She was out of school for an entire month, but is now back two days a week until fall.

She usually goes three mornings a week, but I'll take two days over nothing at all! I miss her when she's gone, but I just can't get much done when she's at home.

I refuse to be one of those moms who works on the computer while she's home and awake... so, my work time is limited to her nap time and after she goes to sleep at night.

Don't-cha worry-- I haven't missed a deadline yet, but I'm just wiped. I'm way too ummmmm, errrr, anal (??) to let things slack when it comes to my little bizzznass.

SO, wanna know what is slacking??

My housekeeping... my appearance...

BUT, my kid is happy and so are my clients! So I guess that's a good thing, right?

Pregnancy wise-- here's an update:

I was really sick from weeks 6 to 11. Since then I've been feeling much better.

I've had a couple bad days since then... but it really hasn't been that bad. With Chappell I was sick from weeks 7-8 to week 14. I guess I got off a little easier this time.

Everything looked great with the baby a couple of weeks ago at my 12 week appointment. We got another ultrasound and got to see the baby moving his/her arms and feet all over the place. It was so cool to see!

Yesterday, I called and asked if we could buy an extra ultrasound at my next appointment (16 weeks) to try and find out the sex. They agreed, so it looks like we will find out August 3rd.

Any guesses?

Not like anyone even reads this anymore... which leads me to another topic... I'm thinking of setting the blog to private.

Little Chappy update:

Chappell is so hilarious, and awesome-- in our opinion, anyways.

She is so smart... it's ridiculous. I mean, I'm not surprised... her dad is freakishly smart (like perfect ACT score smart)... and so is she.

I'M IN FOR IT.

Her vocabulary is out of this world.

She is complimented for her manners all the time... whenever we leave some one's house (or the grocery store, or a restaurant) she tells everyone, "thank you for having me!" -- it's really cute. She's very good about remembering "please" and "thank you."

She's still going to bed between 7:30 and 8, but she's been waking up around 6:30 for the past couple of months or so. Perfect timing, right? I miss those 8 am wake up yells... 6:30 is way too early for this girl.

Speaking of sleep, she's still sleeping in her crib. She has a crib tent, so she's not going anywhere... and seems perfectly content in the crib... I'm thinking I'll put her in a big girl bed in October or November. To give her a month or so to adjust before the new baby gets here.

Chappell asks me often, "Are you my best friend, mommy?? You are my best friend." MELT.

Although this age is absolutely the most fun thus far-- it can also be the most difficult.

At times I find myself pulling my hair out. When Chappell turned two, (and in the months that followed), I couldn't understand why people talked about the "terrible twos" so much. But the closer we got to two and a half, I started to realize why...

She's still a great little girl, and is wonderful most of the time... BUT, she's testing me more and more these days.

And I'm pretty sure her intelligence just makes it worse.

We have meltdowns more frequently these days. And that just stinks.

I hate coming down on her so much, but I know it's something I have to do... I rather fix it now than when she's 12.

Enough for now... peace out, folks.

Can I change the name of my blog??

I've been blogging and saving posts until we shared the news... I'll publish them tonight.

We are so excited!!

I'm a little over 8 weeks-- but we couldn't wait any longer to share the news.
We went to the doctor on Monday and saw the baby's little heartbeat-- it was 158-- flickering away!
I'll be back soon... hopefully I'll be around here more now that there's another one coming along... I want to try to document this pregnancy like I did for Chappell.

We'll see.

7 Weeks

Today I am 7 weeks pregnant with baby numero dos.

I'm pretty much counting down the days until my first appointment on June 6th... almost there!

I think as soon as I know that everything is OK, I won't be so concerned with time and how many weeks & days I am. It's just hard to keep something like this a secret when you are so excited... not to mention sick.

I don't remember exactly when my morning sickness started with Chappell-- I think somewhere around 7 or 8 weeks... but I've been sick for about a week already with this pregnancy.

That means I started feeling bad around 6 weeks.

At first it snuck up on me. It wasn't too bad, I just wasn't very hungry and had a "nervous stomach" on and off during the day.

But now-- yeesh! I'm exhausted and very nauseous. No fun.

But, they say it's a good sign to have morning sickness-- so I'll take it.

Chappellina's been quite the trooper and snuggles with me in bed for about an hour-- she'll watch cartoons, do puzzles on the iPad (which she's insanely good at)-- and just hang out with me until I can force myself to get out of bed. It's already so hot outside-- in the 90's... so I'm not sure how much outdoor playtime is in the immediate future.

We went to the beach for Memorial Day and spent a lot of time in the pool... the heat really seems too add to my discomfort... however, I am taking her to the splash pad in the morning... does that redeem my horrible-mom-ness from this week... ?

Chappell has the same response every time I tell her that there is a baby in my tummy:

"That's SILLY, mommy!!" -- and then she dies out laughing.

It is pretty silly.

The day it said "pregnant"

Today is May 15th, 2011.

This morning, I found out that I am pregnant with baby number two!

It's been an interesting road up until this point, and we couldn't be happier that we are finally expecting our second child.

We decided to start trying for our second baby back in October.

However, I got off of "the pill" last summer (I think in July 2010), so my body could adjust and be ready once we decided to give it a shot.

Some of you know, but one of my best friends got married in October and I didn't want to be pregnant in her wedding.

That being said, it was kind of an internal struggle for me, because I wanted to have another baby much earlier but our calendar was just so busy-- we thought it would be smarter to put it off a little longer.

Hmmmm... why is it that we always seem to think that we are in control... ?

Anyways-- the wedding came. And passed.

I got pregnant immediately.

I was very nervous, excited and anxious about the whole thing.

I had blood drawn a few days before my missed period-- (yeah, psycho, I know)-- and my suspicions were confirmed. Pregnant.

However, to make a long story short-- my HCG levels never got very high and I had a miscarriage about a week after I fount out I was pregnant. It was very sad.

My doctor told me that it was OK to try again, immediately.

So we did. Month after month.

Six looooong months later-- here we are.

That probably doesn't sound like a long time to most.

However, when you want something that bad and you get caught up in counting cycles, ovulation kits and all that mess- time slows down... the whole thing can feel pretty isolating.

And people don't know how their actions can affect others... people constantly asked me when were planning on getting pregnant. Seriously? Is that really your business??

We got pregnant so easily with Chappell that this was sort of a shock to us.

I had my blood drawn at one point, because I convinced myself that I must have something wrong with me... I thought hypothyroidism at one point... maybe that was why I wasn't getting pregnant. Turns out my thyroid is fine.

In the meantime, all of my friends were popping up pregnant. I could name at least ten.

One of my best friends became pregnant and learned she was having twins.

Of course I was happy for them! But couldn't I get pregnant with ONE?

I learned a lot-- and I have such empathy for those trying to have a baby. It is frightening, confusing and frustrating when you cannot conceive. Month after month... awful.

It's very funny though-- the month I actually gave up trying... it happened! I've heard it often works that way.

WELL-- today I found out that we are indeed expecting another baby!

I am ecstatic and can't wait to share the news but will be a little more hesitant because of what happened last time.

I already had a GYN appointment scheduled for June 7, so I plan to call in the morning and change it to OB.

I won't be posting this until after that appointment-- but just wanted to document this pregnancy as much as I did for Chaps.

We are SO excited!!