Big News! We're Expecting!

Expecting to move, that is.

When we bought our house I was CONVINCED that it would be our forever home. HA! If only I could bottle that optimism and naiveté. Now 5 years and 2 kids later, we have finally admitted that we've outgrown it. Well, we've known it for 2 years, but we can finally afford to do something about it.

Since houses can't just magically get bigger* we've been shaking things up left and right to get ourselves some new digs.
*Both being architects, we certainly considered adding onto our house rather than moving. Unfortunately our small lot, room layout and roofline are all working against us.

- We are under contract on a new house! Most people would consider it unwise to buy before selling, but we decided we would rather be in a rush to sell than scramble to buy. We really, REALLY didn't want to settle for a house we don't love just so we could find something before we have to move out.

- We convinced Steven's grandparents to let our kids live with them until we sell our house. This is our new routine:

• wake up, go straight to Grandma's house in our pj's
• get the kids dressed
• shower and dress ourselves (with clothes we brought from home)
• go to work
• come back to Grandma's house to cook and eat dinner
• clean up dishes
• play with the kids and then put the kids to bed
• go back to our house for TV and sleep.

True, it's not ideal but the thought of keeping a house show-ready with 2 kids in the house was giving me panic attacks. We have a house cleaner come once a month, and the house is disgusting 5 minutes after the kids come home. They get crumbs and toys everywhere.

- We spent an entire weekend decluttering our house in preparation for our listing photographs. In addition to shipping off the kids and boxing up their toys, we now have a large chunk of our stuff in a POD in the driveway. Want to know the secret to a magazine-worthy house? Get rid of half of your stuff and all your kids, and cook meals in someone else's house! So easy!

- Our house is on the market! The listing went live last Tuesday and we've already had 2 showings. We were hoping for lots of traffic over the holiday weekend, but no dice. Our realtor says holidays are funny, so we're still optimistic. If you know of someone looking to buy in the Raleigh area, let me know and I'll send you the listing.
UPDATE: We're now up to 5 showings!

- Disclaimer, for those of you concerned about our financial sanity: We negotiated a long due diligence period in our offer to buy and if we haven't gotten any offers on our current house we will walk away. This means we would have to find another house after we've sold the first one. It will suck because, true to form, I am already way too in love with something that isn't guaranteed. We just aren't willing to carry 2 mortgages or drastically reduce our down payment (no sale = no equity) just because we're impatient.

I'll definitely keep you posted, and please cross your fingers (and toes, and eyes) for us that we find a buyer and everything goes smoothly!

Luke's First Day of School

Look at me, 2 posts in a row that aren't Funny Friday! It's almost like I'm a real blogger!

2 weeks ago today was Luke's first day of preschool. He loves to learn and thrives around other kids so I wasn't worried about the transition for him at all. And, I'm not gonna lie, I like having him out of the house for a few hours each day. To mark the occasion I took the quintessential standing on the front porch, first day of school picture. He's quite the ham, isn't he?

For the most part he's doing really well. There have been a few less-than-stellar moments (he colored on a girl's dress and pushed a boy once) but he's only 3 and he's still learning to be around other kids. We love his teacher, we love the school, and it's just down the road from our house so that's a huge bonus. For internet security reasons I won't name the school on here, but if you live near me and are looking for a good preschool leave a comment and I'll email you some information!

Half-Way There!

As of yesterday I am 20 weeks and now in the second half of this pregnancy!

The first half seemed to fly by, and I'm a little terrified that my due date will be here before I know it. I have a lot to get done between now and then:
- work trip and music festival, back-to-back in April
- anniversary/baby-moon/finally passed all our AREs* trip to Savannah in May
- plan and execute Luke's 3rd birthday party
- whip the house into shape to make room for another kiddo
*ARE = Architectural Registration Exam. There are 7 total (yes 7) and we took the first one when I was 8 months pregnant with Luke, and took the last one when I was 8 weeks pregnant with Baby #2.

Maternity Clothes: All day, every day. Nothing but maternity pants from here on out. I'm big enough to wear most of my maternity tops/dresses now, but I have a few regular shirts that still fit. I'm trying to wear them now, while I still can, because I know at the end I will be down to a rotation of the same 6 shirts that are big enough for a 40+ week belly.
Small success: When I unboxed my stash of maternity clothes all of my pants (and some of the tops) were too big! I've lost weight since I was pregnant with Luke so I've gone down a size in maternity pants. I've bought a few pairs of pants for myself, but a friend of mine let me go through her stash, so now I have a decent wardrobe again. Thanks, Kelli!

Cravings/Aversions: I've been craving Gatorade (which I drink constantly) and sushi (which I can't have). What's up with that? I still can't stand the smell of seafood.

Symptoms: Heartburn and indigestion, mild but chronic back pain. I'm sleeping well, for the most part, but I've had some night sweats and insane pregnancy dreams. I can tell my pelvis has loosened and I've started to walk funny. When I sit or lay down, it always feels like something's in the wrong place. No Braxton Hicks contractions yet but I have "growing pains" multiple times a day. I can feel the baby kicking and it won't be much longer before others will get to feel it too!

OB Appointments: Yesterday was my 20 week check-up and anatomy ultrasound. We opted not to learn the gender, but other than that the baby looks normal. I learned that for second-time moms, pregnancy will be a little different than the first time because your body is looser, in every since of the word. This usually means more discomfort, earlier start of labor, shorter labor and slightly bigger baby. Nothing I can't handle. I was a bit concerned that the baby seemed to always have his/her hands and arms up around the face. Not a medical crisis, but Luke favored that position and came out elbow-first, causing quite a bit of tearing for me. According to the midwife an elbow-first birthing position is common, but if it happens again it will be less painful for me since everything is already stretched out. Not a fun visual, but it makes me feel better.

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feet!

Luke Turns 2!

Luke's birthday isn't for another 2 days, but we had his party yesterday. It was so much fun! I'll let the pictures tell the story...

 For the entertainment we put out our bouncy castle and hooked up the water hose to make it a water slide. The kids had a blast! We couldn't have asked for a better party!

some were better at it than others

Instead of regular party favors we gave each of the kids some pirate gear to wear at the party and then take home. I didn't know if the kids would keep the bandanas on, but several of the boys wore them the whole afternoon - and Luke requested to wear his again today so I suppose they were a big hit! Even better, all the pirate gear (and his invitations) came from the Dollar Spot at Target so they didn't break the bank either.

bandanas, swords, hook hands

the pirate captain modeling all the gear

We served barbecue and hush puppies from a local restaurant and I make pirate ship cupcakes for dessert. I opted for cupcakes over a more traditional birthday cake because last year it felt like it took me ages to cut and hand out cake slices, so I chose to keep it simple. Plus I fell in love with the idea of a little fleet of pirate ship cupcakes.

the most menacing cupcakes ever to sail the seven seas

frosting mustache

At the 11th hour we changed the venue from our house to Luke's great-grandmother's house because her yard was better suited for the party set-up. I made a sign for our front door just in case our guests forgot where to go. Normally I avoid the Blackadder font like the plague but I made an exception for the party. It is very pirate-y.

I love pirate speak

Luke still doesn't grasp the idea of birthdays or parties yet, but he knows darn well what presents are. Here he is having the best time with a new polo shirt from his Granddad.

His gift from us was a LeapPad. I wasn't sure he would have any idea what it was - he's never played with one before - but the look on his face tells me he knew exactly what it was. Now he can stop stealing Daddy's iPad!

I can't believe he's 2 already! For comparison, here he is on his last 2 birthdays.

Luke, age 0

Luke, age 1

Where did my baby go? He's certainly no baby now, but a full grown little boy! *sniffle*

May I Take a Moment to Brag About My Son?

Because he is, at 18 months, in the process of potty training. And it was HIS IDEA (more or less).

Steven's grandmother (who watches Luke when we have to work) has been putting Luke on the toilet when she thinks he needs to poop, and she's been doing that for about 6 months. Sometimes he would poop in the toilet, but it wasn't actual potty training. She was just training herself to monitor Luke's schedule and body cues. We had been doing the same thing at home, but not as often.

Last week, however, all that changed. Steven, Luke and I were eating dinner when Luke said, unprompted, "poo poo, potty." We weren't sure if Luke really knew what he was asking for, but we sat him on the toilet anyway. Lo and behold, that child pooped in the toilet! I couldn't have been prouder. Or so I thought.

pre-game snack

A few days ago I took Luke to a local children's museum. We hadn't been there more than an hour when Luke said "poo poo, potty again." I took him to the restroom and sat him on the toilet. The seat was too big so he couldn't get comfortable and therefore wasn't in the mood for a deuce. I put a diaper on him and told him it was OK to poop in his diaper if he needed to. Then we played out hearts out and met my mom for lunch.

By the time we got home at 2:00 Luke still had a poop-free diaper. I put him on the toilet and he went right away. Can you believe it? He held it for 3 hours because he didn't want to go in his diaper! I wasn't planning on potty training any time soon, but he seems ready and willing so we're officially in potty training mode. I'll let you know if we make progress (or have set backs)!

Several New Firsts for Luke

I was going to do lots of little posts for these milestones, but then I decided it would be easier to just do one long post, have one long "my little boy is growing up" cry and just get it over with.

Luke's First Beach Trip
Steven, Luke and I went to the beach with the whole fam damily the first week of August. Our entourage included my mom and step-dad, Steven's parents, 2 of Steven's grandparents and Steven's sister. Imagine us all crammed in a 4 bedroom, 3.5 bath house.

left to right: Nana (my mom), Luke, Nona (Steven's mom)

Luke has already logged lots of hours in a swimming pool this summer, but this was his first time with the ocean. As I expected, he LOVED IT! In fact, he was such a big fan that after we thought we were done playing Luke turned around and walked back toward the water, dragging me with him!

wading out with Nona

"swimming" with Papa

"swimming" with Nona and Papa

If you'll notice, Papa (my step-dad) was the only one smart enough to put on a bathing suit before heading out to the water. Luke wasn't content to stay ankle-deep so everyone ended up getting pretty wet.

While we were at the beach Luke had some other mini-milestones:
- Finally getting the hang of solo walking. He is now an official toddler. He can, and will, walk wherever he darn well pleases.
- Cutting back teeth. Before the beach trip he had 6 front teeth (4 top, 2 bottom) but he started cutting some bottom molars and they are almost all the way in now.
- He had a first experience with lots and lots of new foods. He was particularly a fan of ham, shrimp and meatballs. My carnivore husband couldn't be happier.
- Playing putt-putt. OK, he didn't really play. He watched Steven hit the ball, ran after it, picked it up and dropped it in the hole. Not exactly playing by the rules, but he got more out of it that I was expecting. Plus, it was SUPER CUTE.

Also along for the trip we had 5 laptops, 4 ipads, 3 kindles, 5 iphones, 2 droid phones, 4 digital cameras. And a baby cell phone. So there were chargers and cords running EVERYWHERE. So yeah, it was the perfect environment for some experimental toddling.

clockwise from top-left: Nana's kindle, Daddy's ipad, Luke's "cell phone," Mommy's kindle, Aunt Tina's ipad, Nona's iphone
camera picture, courtesy of Papa

While on this trip, Luke learned many important beach skills, such as how to move seashells from one bucket to another, how to get as much sand as possible in your swim diaper, how to splash in the surf and how to watch last week's Project Runway on the ipad. That last one is very important.


We also stopped by Fort Macon one evening for a quick family photo shoot, courtesy of our resident photographer Aunt Tina (Steven's sister).

Pictured: Luke's first minor felony. Ssh, don't tell.

But don't worry, Steven and I had some baby-free time, too. There were more than enough people to spoil watch Luke so we were free to forget we were parents lounge on the beach in peace in the afternoons. We also took a guided kayak tour to see some inter-coastal wildlife, rented jet-skis and had a movie date.

Luke's First Word
On Sunday after we got home Luke said his first word - cat! It was so exciting! Steven was reading Luke a vocabulary book - you know, no plot just 1 picture and 1 word per page - and Luke repeated "cat" after Steven read it. Then, our cat Yo-Yo walked into the nursery and Luke said "cat, cat!" I've had a feeling that his first word would be "cat" or "kitty" because he's always so much more animated when the cats are around. He's also starting to get the hang of bye-bye, Mama, Dada and gone.

Luke's First Swim Lesson
One of Luke's birthday presents was parent-child swim lessons. We've been to two lessons so far and he's doing well. He's not actually swimming, but the emphasis is on beign comfortable in water. I think we've more than got that covered (see above). The instructor encourages the parents to fully dunk the babies underwater every few minutes, so we play along. Luke always gives us a dirty look afterward, but he has yet to cry or scream so he's doing better than some of his classmates.

Whew, that's a lot of milestones! I feel like before I know it I'll be writing about Luke's first date or his first driving lesson!

Highly Experimental Modern Art

Or Luke's first "signature?"


You decide.

Luke's First Haircut

Tonight Luke got his first haircut. I had already been considering trimming up his hair, and when Steven asked for a haircut I figured I might as well buzz them both at once! And yes, Luke (and any future boys we might have) will be buzz cut boys - no fancy hairstyles until he is old enough to help maintain it.

first pass with the clippers

it tickles!

no big thing, just getting my hair cut like a big boy

all done!

Steven and I both did some clipping, so we both get to take credit for Luke's dapper good looks. He pretty much looks the same, but he seems so much more grown up to me now! At least I didn't cry!

Luke's Party Recap

Luke had his first birthday party yesterday and everything went swimmingly. And by swimmingly I mean Steven spilled 2 gallons of lemonade on the way to the car, I banged my knee on a picnic table and I dropped Luke's home made smash cake as I took it out of the cooler. Fortunately Steven was at the grocery store at that very moment - buying replacement lemonade - so he was able to get a store bought, ie not as awesome Smash Cake #2.

Luckily all that DRAMA happened before the guests arrived and the rest of the party went off without a hitch. Luke got lots of presents, but my Type A side was pleased that they were a good blend of books, toys, books and practical stuff. I was dreading we'd get 15 LOUD TOYS WITH BATTERIES and nothing else.

All the kids had fun playing on the playground...


... while some of the adults had fun doing.. whatever the hell it is we're doing here.

pictured: me, my mother-in-law S, our family friend E, my twin soul B
not pictured: my dignity

But enough embarrassment, let's talk party details. Since the party invitations were simple and pseudo retro with lots of red that became the theme of the party.


I grabbed these checkered tablecloth inspired plates and napkins from a dollar store. I though they helped carry the theme without being too on the nose. I also got some red and white balloons and crepe paper to give the picnic shelter some old-school flair. I didn't take any pictures of the shelter because I was too busy running into tables and dropping cakes.


Luckily I didn't drop the main cake because if I had you would have heard me crying from wherever it is you live. Isn't it cute in a 50's-housewife-made-it sort of way? I baked the layers and made the icing, but Brettany did all of the decorating. Didn't she do a terrific job with the cake?


Speaking of cake, let's all watch Luke eat his. He's not actually naked, I just stripped him down to his diaper to keep the onslaught of icing from staining his clothes. Also, he just learned to clap a few days ago so every time someone clapped at him he clapped too. Adoarble.

Yay cake!

Can I touch it?

cake: the aftermath
"Good call on the naked baby" - pretty much everybody

We really enjoyed hosting the party and Luke had fun playing with the other kids and chowing down on some "grown up" food: barbeque, beans and hush puppies.

And just for fun here's a video of Luke really, really enjoying some balloons.

Luke's First Freckle

Today was an important milestone - Luke's first freckle!* To celebrate Luke and I had an impromptu photo shoot to celebrate. Nothing fancy, just some natural lighting and a sheet of white foam board for a back drop.


Truth be told, it might not be an actual freckle. Both Steven and I have lots of tiny, non-raised, freckle-esque moles so it's no surprise that Luke has one too.


After I captured the freckle in all its adorable glory, we had some fun making silly faces.



Also, I finally got a nice shot of his hair. I cannot tell you how happy I am to have proof he's not bald.


*Before the melanoma nazis start in, we always put sunscreen and a sun hat on him. So there.

11 Months!

This post is short and sweet. Luke is 11 months old today and to celebrate, let's all look at some pictures I took last night!


If only I could bottle that cuteness and use some of it on myself. *sigh*

Sticks And Stones...

Sticks and stones may break your bones, but ceramic tile really effing hurts, too. Allow me to explain. A few days ago Luke took a tumble and bumped his forehead. Actually he face planted in the bathroom, and earned his first goose-egg. I tried to take a picture to document the occasion, but it never bruised enough to be visible. Darn thick skulls. When it happened, I was torn. On one hand, I don't want to be the sort of mom that over-reacts to every bump and scrape and turns her kids into wussy, nervous wrecks. One the other hand, I don't take head injuries lightly so I felt if there was a time to freak out, it might be now. In the end I called his pediatrician, told her what happened and she said he was probably fine. She told me some warning signs to watch out for, but if nothing worsened he would be OK. As I hoped, all was well and we moved on. I have to admit, I was kind of proud of my little guy. Yes, he cried, but he didn't freak out. He was back laughing and playing with his toys in no time. It was his first bump on the head which, to me, is just as important a milestone for a little boy as taking that first step or catching that first bug. Moms - what weird things do you consider milestones?

Houston We Have A Tooth*

*To be fair, I have to give Steven credit for that line. But I have a blog and he doesn't, so I get to use it. HA!

Last night we were watching American Idol doing something highly intellectual and Luke needed a diaper change. Since he is inexplicably happy on his changing table, he was smiling and giggling as I changed him and tickled him. (Seriously, baby giggles are like crack to me.) In the middle of a laugh I saw something shiny and white peeking out from under his tongue. I pulled his lip down for a closer look and, sure enough, there was a tiny little tooth! (I tried to take a picture of this but he is very wiggly and sticks his tongue out anytime something comes near his mouth, so you can imagine how well that went.)

He has been pre-teething for 3 months, i.e. drooling and chewing on everything, with no teeth in sight. Last week we could feel a tooth about to erupt and then last night it arrived! His mood or level of fussiness never changed despite having a tooth rip its way through his gums, so hooray for laid-back baby. Here's hoping he stays this happy for the rest of them.

In honor of this milestone, I leave you with this clip from Family Guy: