Phillip is ONE!

Phillip is ONE!

Monday, January 26, 2015

I can't even believe my baby is one! He is still often referred to as "Baby" around here but he is proving to us every day that he is leaving the babyhood and becoming a little toddler! Part of me says "noooo!" but the other part is so excited for each new stage and to see him learn & grow! On to a few things about our sweet Phillip at one year old!

-He is 18lb 11oz (5%) and 29" long (25%). He's so much smaller than Jack Jack who was 20lb at 6 months ha!

-He is generally a really happy baby and definitely a people-lover. He will smile at just about anybody he sees and is the biggest flirt.

-He is SO energetic. I swear he never runs out of energy! He is into everything and you have to keep a close eye on him at all times or else he will for sure get into trouble! He's a pro at unrolling the toilet paper rolls and pulling everything out of any cabinets or drawers that do not have baby locks.

-Master climber. I find this little one climbing on everything!

-Started walking about two weeks before his first birthday and now he is everywhere! Sometimes he tries to run after Jack but his little feet can't keep up so he is often face-planting haha

-He can't decide if he's a mama's boy or daddy's boy. He is back and forth not just on the daily but by the minute! He'll really want mama but then suddenly he is whining and desperately reaching for daddy or vice-versa. I guess it's good to know he really loves us both!

-Working on his 8th tooth and also getting his one-year molars. Those things are a beast.

-Almost sleeps through the night. He does wake up once or twice a night just because he can't find his binky. I stumble in and replace it and he's out like a light within seconds.

-Considering what months 3-9 were like, it's amazing that I'm telling you this but: he is the easiest baby to put down for bed (and usually naps, too). We just give him his pacifier and a stuffed animal, turn on his light/sound machine (which plays a lullaby all night), give him a kiss, and lay him in the crib. He rolls right over onto his tummy and goes right to sleep! I swear by The Sleep Lady's Good Night, Sleep Tight. Changed my life, I'm serious.

-Sleeps 6:30-6:30. I generally bring him into bed with me when he wakes up at 6:30am and feed him a Go-Go Squeeze and then he is back out for another hour or so.

-Finished nursing about two weeks before his first birthday (right around when he started walking!).

-Says "mama," "dada," and "no no no." If you ask him where Jack is he will find him and point to him. He can clap, wave (old news, old news but still including!), smack his lips and blow raspberries...all on command. Does that make it sound like he's a dog? Haha!

-We swear he says "what's that?" but I'm still in denial as he has been saying it since about 9 months old! He points at everything and clear as day it sounds like "what's that?" (always whispered ha!) but I still feel like he is so young to be saying something as advanced as that so who knows!

-He is so, so sensitive and just a stern voice can bring him to tears very fast! Both of my boys have been this way and we have to be very careful when we correct behaviors to be very soft-spoken and sensitive otherwise they will burst into tears! He also has the saddest sad face you have ever seen!

-He is so patient with Jack who plays "swords" with him (read: beats him with the sword ha) and rides him like a horsey while saying "giddy, up horsey! yee-haw!"

-He used to get called a girl every single time we went out but it has been at least two weeks since we've heard that so fingers crossed he has maybe passed his girl look-alike stage?! Haha!

-He thinks Jack is the funniest person on the planet. We love having two little boys so close in age!
-Bluest blue eyes.
-Still has a reddish tint to his blonde hair, although we don't get comments on it nearly as often as we used to.
-The majority of people say he looks like Jack & Daddy but ask anyone in the family and they will all tell you they don't think so! I don't know who I think he looks like!

Happy birthday, Baby! You have brought so much joy into our lives and home and we cannot even imagine life without you in it! Everyone around here absolutely adores you :) We sure love you!

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A little black & white for your Friday night.

A little black & white for your Friday night.

Friday, January 23, 2015

Basically all my pictures that didn't look very good in color (read: i stink at taking pictures in good lighting).

^so sick! so sad!^

"daddy, what did you get?"

hiiiii, jai! (more on this in tomorrow's post!)

^cousins make the best friends^

^a birthday at the movie theater!^

hiiii, kelli.

happy birthday to yours truly!

messy room + 14? week baby bump.

a little boy just waiting to facetime daddy.

we hate when daddy has to go out of town.

i took both babies to my 15 week prenatal appointment thinking i would be in & out in no time and they would be perfectly well-behaved. wrong. wrong.

the doctor wanted to do an ultrasound (i also had one at 9 weeks) instead of listening to the heartbeat by doppler since the baby is still so small. i've never had an OB opt for ultrasound before even trying the doppler this far along. buuut not complaining. an extra chance to see the baby? OKAY! however. this meant a very, very long wait for our turn to go into the ultrasound room which meant a very wiggly & exhausted baby. 

but you guys. my doctor is seriously the best. and she kept coming in to check on us and apologizing for the long wait. and then she came in and held Phillip and could tell he was getting so antsy and so she took the boys to her office and showed them around. she let them touch all her little knick-knacks sitting around and i had to bend over to pick my jaw up off the floor because seriously what doctors do stuff like that anymore?! i'm seriously just amazed by her every time i go in.

popcorn & movie dates have become a regular thing at our house since daddy is in busy season.

90% of the time we watch Planes unless I can somehow convince my 2-year-old date to switch it up every once in awhile.

these rain gutters now serve as bookshelves in our (newly designed! - coming to the blog soon!) playroom but for one night Jack was pretty sure they were new racetracks and tunnels. imagination at its finest.

 no explanation needed.

see you here tomorrow for a christmas day post! xoxo

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Christmas Eve!

Christmas Eve!

Wednesday, January 21, 2015

CHRISTMAS EVE. I know, it was weeks ago but better late than never! We started the day off by making sugar cookies at my parents' house in the late morning. We might have to make this a tradition. This year Jack was only interested in cutting & decorating for a grand total of three minutes but I'm thinking in future years he will love it!

^^ there are almost never true candid photos of me & the boys because T just isn't a picture-taker and so a special thanks to my dad for capturing this moment with Jack Jack!

Before heading to the annual Wallace family Christmas Eve party that night (which I have exactly zero pictures of), we let the boys open their Christmas Eve presents (always a book - or in this year's case, they both got a set of books!).  Jack was pretty excited to finally get to open one of the presents from under the tree!

We actually bought these Cars books back in October while we were at Disneyland because I knew they would be perfect for his Christmas Eve book present! He immediately wanted Daddy to read him all four of them.

I promise that little Phillip was with us on Christmas Eve all day. Somehow he just didn't make a presence in any of my pictures ha! I think he was napping during the sugar cookie making and I know I took pictures of him opening his books (If You Gave a Mouse a Cookie-type books set!) but either they didn't turn out and I deleted them or they are missing. Because they are not on the computer haha. But he was there! And he opened his book present! And he liked it...for about two seconds before something else was more interesting haha!

After our Christmas Eve party we came home and put the boys to bed and Santa Claus came not much later! We didn't do any milk/cookies or reindeer food this year because the boys were beat (who am I kidding - so were we!) and they wouldn't really understand anyway. Plus I think Santa got his fill of cookies & milk at all the other houses :) Next year, Santa!

I'm pretty sure I'm more giddy at Christmas now than I ever was as a child! It is SO FUN to wait to see your kids' reactions to their presents! I seriously could not wait for Christmas morning to come! Stay tuned for Christmas Day post coming soon!

PS Santa sure did make quite a ruckus while putting out Phillip's Little People toys (which all make sounds with no volume control!) but luckily no little children were awakened :)

xoxo

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Christmas & New Year's Recap

Christmas & New Year's Recap

It's heeeere. Our Christmas & New Year's recap! Less than one month late, let's CELEBRATE! But you can all forgive me now that you know about the baby and the first trimester exhaustion, right? Great. Onward...

^Christmas morning!^

We had to wake the boys up at 7:15 so they could see what Santa brought for them before we had to run out the door to be at my parents' by 8am. My littlest sister is serving a mission and was allowed to Skype us on Christmas Day. She's on the East coast and was Skyping at 11am her time so 8am california time ahhh! SO EARLY. But we definitely didn't want to miss even a minute so we hurried our Christmas morning festivities and dragged our tired booties out the door by 7:45am. Eek.

The boys loved their presents and my suspicion that they would both be more interested in Phillip's presents because they were toys (Jack had coloring supplies) was definitely correct ha.

After emptying their stockings (full of toothbrushes and sippy cups - so exciting!) Jack really wanted to read Phillip's If You Give a Mouse a Cookie books from Christmas Eve. Can you believe I have actually never read any of those books? I should now that we have them!

My sister has only been gone since early November but it was still so fun & exciting to get to Skype her!

And my very favorite facial expressions happened when the boys started updating her on 49ers football... (sidenote: sorry for the horrible yellow-ish lighting!)

After Skyping we did our annual Christmas breakfast with my family (no pictures) and then spent time opening presents with them (minimal pictures...I'm awful).

Easily, Jack's favorite present of the day was his Mr. Potato Head from Great-Grandma. We could barely get him to even open the rest of his presents haha!

 

I swear that 90% of our gifts were wrapped in Amazon boxes and every time Jack saw one he'd exclaim: "YES! A package!!!" Clearly, we have been receiving too many packages this time of year ha!

Loved having my little sister visit for the fact that she carried all my laundry inside my parents' house for me (our machine was leaking for awhile eek!).

PS I liked her visiting for other reasons too.

We celebrated my 26th in my favorite way...playing games with family, ringing in the new year with sparkling cider, and CREPES.

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Baby Three!

Baby Three!

If you follow along on insta, then you heard the news last week but just in case you don't...it's true! We are expecting our third little babe in early July!

My exact due date is July 2nd (maybe we'll get a 4th of July baby? although I'm sure by about June 25 I'll be just begging the baby to make his/her debut any day and please please do not be late!)

I'm already almost 17 weeks (second trimester!) and so I've missed a lot of pregnancy progress post opportunities but, let's be honest: you're probably not all that sad about it. So in place of all those 17 weeks of updates how about a quick first trimester recap (with some selfie bump shots thrown in there)?

+ I have been totally and completely exhausted this pregnancy! I mean, seriously. First trimester exhaustion is no joke. Tom thinks I've just forgotten but I am telling you that I was not nearly this exhausted with either of my previous two pregnancies! I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the fact that I'm chasing two little boys around all day every day but really. Exhausted doesn't even begin to really touch the surface. So that is where I have really been the last several weeks (I have no excuse for my absences before that ha). I've been spending all my "spare" time either napping or walking around like a zombie. By about 14 weeks the exhaustion weaned a little bit but still I'm not getting any second trimester bursts of energy like they talk about.

+ No nausea yet again! Man am I lucky or what!? This is the one pregnancy symptom that I think would be the very worst to me. I have a really irrational fear of vomiting and so the fact that I've not been sick for any of my three pregnancies is such a huge, huge blessing. I do have to admit that for about 6 days I felt somewhat nauseous for a few hours of the day but if I ate something I immediately felt 100% better. And I never felt sick enough where I thought I might throw up.

+ Boy or girl, boy or girl?! I am just dying to know! We find out in a little less than two weeks and time could not be passing any slower! With both Jack & Phillip I had a suspicion they were boys. But with this one!? I just don't even have a guess! I think if I was forced to guess I would say I'm leaning more toward thinking it's a boy but maybe that's just because I'm used to boys? I have been very back and forth on if I want it to be a boy or a girl. One day I really hope it's a girl and then the next day I walk into a store and see the little newborn boy clothes and think "just give me all the boys!"

+ I feel like a whale. I swear that my belly popped out WAY sooner than it did with Jack or Phillip. I know they say you show earlier with each pregnancy but actually I was able to hide my pregnancy with Phillip for way longer than I was able to with Jack! Pretty sure it has to do with the fact that I had some abs before I had Phillip and had no abs to speak of before Jack or this baby ha. I think the picture below is at 15 weeks.

+ I la-la-la-LOVE my doctor. If you are in the Sacramento area and ever looking for an OB please email me because I will refer you immediately. I loved my doctor in Utah (who delivered Jack), did not care for my first doctor with Phillip and switched at 28 weeks to a new doctor...loved him but it turned out that neither he nor nobody from his office even delivered me and that was not a great experience.

+ Other first trimester symptoms:

having to pee all. the. time. I actually suspected I might be pregnant a few days before my missed period because I was suddenly waking up early in the morning needing to pee which is so weird for me. With my last two pregnancies I would say needing to pee all the time didn't start until week 6-8 but this time it came on BAM before 4 weeks and was SO BAD the whole first trimester. Like waking up four times a night! That's third trimester business! I never had it that bad with Jack or Phillip.

round ligament pain. again, started 100x earlier than with Phillip (never had it with Jack).

pelvic/hip paint. for like 2-3 weeks I felt like my hip was dislocated. seriously. luckily, it went away and i'm keeping my fingers crossed it does not come back!

sciatic nerve pain. had this with phillip starting sometime in the third trimester and it lasted the duration of the pregnancy. at times it was so bad that i literally was crawling around the house because i could. not. walk. could not. this time my first episode hit at 15 weeks. 15 weeks! Luckily, it lasts for hours instead of days like it did with Phillip and episodes are rare.

And last but not least...read on if you care to hear the story of how we found out! The last two times I was pregnant I tried to tell T in "cute" ways. However, both were complete flops as he was more surprised than anything when I told him and it took him a minute to get past his shock and be excited ha. With Jack I had taken a pregnancy test the day before my missed period and it was negative. I took another one in the early morning hours after my missed period (unbeknownst to T) and it was positive! I ended up telling him that night after we were both home from work/school and he was so surprised because he thought we were out for the month haha! With Phillip, he knew I was a week late (I think?) but I didn't tell him I was testing. I had been waiting for moving day to arrive because I knew I had a test buried in a box somewhere and didn't want to buy a new one if I didn't have to (you guys, it was a dollar store test. I'm so cheap!). Anyway, I tested in the midst of crazy moving day (positive!) and stuck the test in our medicine cabinet with an index card that had the due date written on it. T was caught totally off guard (had no idea I was testing) and was so shocked. I promise he was excited about both but I wanted him to be excited right away instead of the initial shock reaction. SO. Back to this baby! I made sure to keep him updated on the status of my (not) period. He was out of town the week my period was due so I kept him updated via text. "Just so you know, my period is due tomorrow!" and then the next day: "no period yet! FYI!" and then that night "still no period. Just sayin'!" and then the next morning: "I'm not saying I'm definitely pregnant but my period is a day late now. Buying some tests." and that afternoon "still nothing! we should test tonight!" He got home that night and we had a halloween party to attend but afterward I ran straight to the bathroom and dug out a test and made sure T knew I was testing. After peeing on the stick I set it down for the 3 minutes and set a timer. When it went off I told T that I wanted him to look. I actually had seen it out of the corner of my eye (I was trying SO hard to keep my eyes averted but easier said than done ha) and totally thought it was negative as I only saw one line. I even told T, "I'm pretty sure it's negative but..." He picks it up and asks me "how do you read this thing?" hahahah! So I told him two lines is positive, one is negative. And then he asks me "What does one and a half lines mean?" HA! I said "that would be positive. is there really a second line?" and he showed me and...

...faint as it was (I was only one day late and I was testing at night instead of the recommended first morning urine) it was definitely POSITIVE. I would say that "announcing" the pregnancy to him this way was WAY better than my first two attempts. He was definitely excited and I was actually the one a little shocked! HA practice makes perfect I guess? I told him from now on he is going to be the one to check all my tests haha!


Oh, and to answer our most frequently asked question: When "new baby" (as we refer to him/her around here since we frequently call Phillip baby and Jack gets very confused haha!) arrives (assuming he/she arrives on time!), Jack will be three weeks shy of 3 and Phillip will be 17.5 months. And yes, they were all planned.

Until next time! xoxo

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