sprinkle

While a "shower" is only typically thrown for the first baby, it's become common to host a "sprinkle" to celebrate any additional children. Since we're having another boy and already have everything we need, even a sprinkle seemed a little excessive...so maybe we should call this a mist...or a dew (?) :)

Either way, my friend Keri was sweet to arrange a painting class with some of our close friends, which turned out to be so much fun! The instructor walked us through each step of the process and I thought everyone's painting turned out great! I'm already looking forward to signing up to do it again soon....

opening day

Tuesday was the opening day of baseball season at Kell High School. It's amazing what a difference a 2 year old can make on your attitude... because I'm actually LOOKING FORWARD to baseball this year!

Sure, the practice schedule is brutal and we miss Keith during the week, but watching this sweet boy run around the field and want to be just like his daddy definitely makes it all worth it.








Cheers to the sound of bats cracking, the smell of hotdogs on the grill, the warmth of the sun in the stands, and the sight of dirty, red clay footprints on my carpet from not one, but both of my baseball boys...

firetrucks

Tate is still very much into firetrucks, so we were excited when my friend Erin invited us to visit her firefighter husband, Jim, at his station in Norcross....

Driving the truck


Fireman Tate


Getting a little help from Fireman Cooper

A quick ride with the sirens! (just in the driveway)

Erin was the only one brave enough to try on the mask

Tate, Cooper and Maddox

Tate was too scared to pose with Fireman Jimmy in all his gear, so Brady and I did (32 weeks pregnant)

A "Code 3" (non-life threatening) call came in as we were leaving

Fireman Jim in action!

To the rescue....

fingers

Keith was inducted into a new club today. Unfortunately, it was the I-slammed-my-kid's-fingers-in-the-car-door club, and he wasn't too excited to earn his membership.

What started as a great morning, ended with four of Tate's fingers on his right hand being in the wrong place at the wrong time as we were organizing the car and getting loaded to take him to daycare. It makes me sick to my stomach and a little light-headed to think about it now, but I'm proud of myself for taking charge and acting calmly and rationally in the heat of the moment. (this is coming from a person who easily faints at the sight of blood and has even passed out at the vet's office - a good story for another time)

Keith realized immediately what had happened and was able to open the door back up quickly as poor Tate stood there with his eyes bulging wide as the shock of the incident turned to throbbing pain. I swooped him up and rushed inside to access the damage, which turned out to just be some deep purple indentations and swelling...no damage to the nails, no signs of broken bones and no blood. whew.

I gave him some Tylenol and then gave him a popsicle in an attempt to distract him while I tried to apply ice. The whole thing was over in about 15 minutes and he seemed completely normal when I dropped him off at school...he was even holding a pencil in that hand and drawing as I left.

So, the end result will likely be no scarring for Tate, but permanent scarring for me and Keith, as this was the first (and, hopefully, only) time where one of us has accidentally inflicted major physical pain upon him.

We ended the day with our 4,856th viewing of Toy Story, followed by an early 7pm bedtime. As you can see below, he's perfectly fine. Any maybe even milking it a little. :)

inspirational

I came across my Apples to Apples game this morning and was struck with the idea of randomly selecting a card and then writing a blog post around that particular word. (without cheating and selecting another card.)

The word I picked: inspirational.

Appropriately enough, it fits. Today I was inspired by pictures from our honeymoon that I haven't looked at in years and discovered as I was cleaning out files on my computer. Now, A) I really want to go to back to St. Lucia and have been daydreaming of the Ladera Resort, and B) I want to look like that girl in these pictures!

So, I'm posting these as my postpartum inspiration:

hiking

One of my new year's resolutions was to do a better job of posting regularly on this blog. It's February 19. How am I doing??

At 22 months, Tate is becoming quite the little man. His growing vocabulary and budding grasp of the world around him is equal parts amazing and entertaining. Every day he makes us laugh with things like..."Mommy, you're a big boy!!" or "No sing, Mommy, shhhhh" (during an attempted lullaby) or holding up his hand and telling us "I'll be right back" and thinking he's about to walk out the front door by himself.

He can count to 10, mostly say his ABC's and is starting to learn his colors. He recognizes red the easiest and will randomly guess bee-you, green, wipe and yewow for the others. He has zero patience for tv commercials or traffic lights ("MOVE!!") or anything that involves waiting, but on the positive side, says "please" and "thank you", "bless you" if someone sneezes and will automatically give you a hug and say "I sorry" if he knows he's done something wrong.

He is very sweet-natured, extremely outgoing and wants to be friends with everybody....usually waving and saying "hi" and "bye" (loudly) to anyone we see in public. He's the sheriff of his class in school, making sure all of the other kids follow the rules and stay in line. "Case, get down!" or "AJ, no! Say sorry, hug!" or "No Parkar, Cooper's milk!" When I get him in the afternoons, he chats away about his day from the backseat and laughs to himself as he recounts the day's activities...most of it is incoherent, but I love that he enjoys school and has such a happy time with his friends and teachers.

He's a great helper around the house, too. He's good about picking up his toys, will put trash in the trashcan without being asked, and likes to help with sweeping, vacuuming and dusting. I'm hoping his helpful attitude continues once the baby arrives in just 6 short weeks! Speaking of, I should mention that we've changed the baby's name since I last posted. Keith and I grew tired of explaining the spelling/ pronunciation of Bayer and decided over the holidays to go with our other top option, Brady. So the official, final, Ireallymeanit name is James Brady Golden. (if you look back at my "What's in a Name" post, you'll notice I broke one of my own rules of using a name on the top 100 list. But since it's #93, I think we can let it slide)

So, I think that pretty much summarizes what we've been up to.

Now to finally get to the title of this post, here are a few pictures from our hiking adventure with Aunt Lindsey last weekend at the Chattahoochee Nature Center. Such a fun day!

inquiring minds

I have a lot of stuff to post about....our fun Thanksgiving week on SSI, Tate's transition to a "big boy bed", Bayer's nursery progress, and even the final descent of the infamous Mickey balloon (1 mo, 2 days)...but I haven't felt like uploading pictures...or thinking/writing in complete sentences for that matter. So, I'll leave you with my latest pregnancy quiz instead...

How far along are you? 22 weeks

How big is the baby? I don't know. But if I had to guess, I would say BIG!!!!

Maternity clothes? I may omit this question going forward, you know the answer.

Weight - Loss or Gain? I've gained somewhere between 15-18 lbs. With 18 weeks to go, I'm predicting that I'll land around the 40 lb mark. Not terrible, but enough to receive predictable lectures from Dr. Soufi between now and April about watching my weight. "But the baby neeeeds Chick-fil-a!" J/K. I do eat the occasional fast food meal, but we've been much better about eating at home. We have a toddler, we have no choice.

Stretch marks? Can we also eliminate this question? Otherwise, I can continue to remind you that yes, yes I got stretch marks the first time. I will probably get them this time, too. I promise never to wear a bikini again.

Sleep? Mostly normal, but here I am blogging after 1am while Keith's been asleep for hours.

Any movement? Feeling him move a lot more lately, all day long. This is the best part of being pregnant.

Food Cravings? Nothing specific. I require protein in the mornings- mainly in the form of eggs. That's about the extent of my quirkiness.

Food Aversions? Anything minty, particularly the taste of gum. Blech. Chocolate is still pretty gross, too.

Gender? Another unnecessary question. Boy, Boy, Boy. I'm taking this one out next time, also.

Belly Button in or out? In.

What do you miss? Full, deep breaths. There is already not room for my lungs to expand to their desired capacity.

What are you looking forward to? Finishing both boys' new rooms. I bought Tate the Ryder (train) bedding from PBKids and just need to 1) swap our queen bed for Lindsey's full, 2) move the dresser/hutch into the nursery and buy him a new bookcase (found one at Ikea), and 3) paint.

In Bayer's room, I need to 1) paint, 2) organize his closet, 3) and get the dresser/hutch set up. I ordered this really cute (I hope) tree decal that will go on one of the walls and I'm painting his room light blue, so even though I'm reusing Tate's bedding, it will still feel sort of new.

What was the BEST part of this week? Getting our carpets cleaned! We have a few stains that, unfortunately, seem to be permanent, but otherwise, they look as new as 15-year-old carpets can be. And, the timing could not have been better....during the initial walk-through with the cleaning guy, I spilled my entire cup of coffee all over our dining room carpets!

What was the WORST part of this week? Let's see...was it walking into the hair salon today and being asked by my hairdresser if I was having twins? Or, stabbing myself with a knife during an art project yesterday? Or, maybe not having heat in my car this week?

I pick the first one. I really try, but I just don't have patience for people and their comments this time around. Whereas I might have smiled and laughed it off before, I politely responded, "you know I'm not having twins. Are you calling me fat??" To which he replied, "um, no. I, um, just couldn't, um, remember...." Thus, a very long and silent 2-hour cut and color with a lot of pretend BlackBerrying.

Weekly Wisdom? I have a lot of wisdom this week:

1) If you come upon a pregnant person , only say positive things about her appearance. If she is fat or has gained a lot of weight, she probably already knows this. And by all means, do not make any comments unless you are 100% sure she is pregnant in the first place. I was a bystander to this awkward situation earlier this week.

2) Pregnant people can say things (even adamantly) and then completely change their minds and that's ok.

3) 9 months is not too long to endure the trials of pregnancy. Today's minor annoyances, will be tomorrow's funny memories. "ha, ha. Remember when you called me fat that one time??"

4) Don't rake the yard while there are still leaves on the trees. Those will fall, too.

5) Never underestimate the power of a toddler's hug and kiss to melt your heart and brighten your day.

6) Money is temporary. Diamond earrings are forever. (Keith? Are you reading this?)

Milestones: More than half-way there!! And, Tate's move to a big boy bed is another significant milestone in the Golden household! 5 successful nights so far of no whining or getting up. (knock on wood that it continues!)