Cutie Cousins!

I'm back-tracking in today's blog post, but I figured that everyone is getting tired of posts just showing me holding Wesley and exhibiting my belly! So I'm finally posting photos from our trip to Nashville and Kentucky about 4 weeks ago. I never travel with Michael's big fancy digital camera, so I had to wait to develop my click 'n shoot photos and then scan them in. I guess I need to break down and get a smaller digital camera that I can travel with, but I have a sentimental attachment to my good 'ol click 'n shoot... it's been all over the world with me! Anyway, Wesley had a BLAST with is cousins. He is such a social butterfly (he may not look like my child, but he definitely acts like my child!), and he adored being with Caleb, Gabe, Abby, Lydia, and his Uncle Corey.





Wesley in the Nashville airport dancing on a little stage that was blasting country music.





Are these some good-looking gals or WHAT?! My sister, Erin, my mom (otherwise known as Grandma), and my Aunt Cynto (known to others as Cindy). Aunt Cynto flew into Nashville from Colorado with her two kids, and I flew into Nashville with Wesley, and we all got to spend some quality time with my sister's family before heading to Kentucky. We celebrated my aunt's birthday at this cute little tea house just outside Nashville.

... and, they threw me a surprise mini baby shower!



Wesley and I had lunch at the Woodford Inn in Versailles, Ky. with my friend Julie and her daughter, Maura. It was a little too fancy for our young tykes, but luckily we came early and had the dining room mostly to ourselves. I thought they both behaved especially well, even if they did fling food on the fancy rug!

(below) Bath time at Grandma's house! Okay, here's a pop quiz: Three kiddos were especially underwhelmed by the group bath, and one kiddo thought it was super-fun... can you guess who?! I wonder if Wesley will ever tire of all the excessive togetherness that siblings bring? Like his mommy, he definitely prefers company to solace! We can't wait for little sis to bring Wes some much-needed kid company!





Saying good-bye to my sweet cousin Lydia at the airport. (Wesley was not originally intended to be in the photo, but the moment he spotted a camera he ran to pose and say "cheese!") We had such a great time! Thanks so much to Mom, Dad, Aunt Cynto, Granny, and my sister Erin for making it possible!

Some of you have been asking for an update on baby Maya. She had surgery on Tuesday to remove 95% of her pancreas. Doctors said she struggled through surgery, and we were on pins and needles as we were told that the first 24 hours would be crucial. But she pulled through and now doctors are all saying that she's a fighter! Right now she's still hooked up to lots of wires and tubes, so Marci has not been able to hold her, but if Maya continues to improve, Marci should get to hold her soon. Please do continue to keep Maya in your prayers!

"Cheese!"

This is Wesley's expression in pretty much every photo we take these days, because this is what he looks like when he's saying, "Cheese!" I try to sneak up on him and take his picture doing cute things (helping Daddy wash the car, cuddling and reading a book, etc.), but the minute he spots me and my camera, he stops what he's doing, freezes his expression, and says, "Cheese!"





Mr. Dapper! It's hard to catch Wesley still, thus a lot of our photos are blurred (and things are occasionally in the process of being dropped or flung about, like the pencil in this picture!).





My growing belly! There's Wesley saying, "Cheese!" again. I have to tickle him or something to get a different expression. Michael has decided that Wesley thinks the baby in my belly is a gorilla... allow me to explain: We have a stuffed gorilla that sings, "I'm just a love machine, and I don't work for nobody but you" (it's one of those Valentine's Day novelty gifts, but Wesley has grown quite attached to it. He squeezes its hand to make it dance and sing, and then lets loose and busts his best moves!). Anyway, after singing its love machine ditty, the gorilla sings, "Hey Baby!" and then makes a gorilla noise. Wesley now calls the gorilla "baby." So now when we ask Wesley where the baby is, it's a toss up between my belly and the singing gorilla.

By the way... I spoke too soon last week about this baby never keeping me up with the hiccups. I noticed for the first time that she had the hiccups while I was eating dinner with a friend Friday night at Chili's. I was excited to feel that same strange familiar feeling I felt so often with Wesley! But then she got the hiccups again last night, and I thought, "Oh boy, here we go!" It's so hard to sleep when somebody inside you has the hiccups! One benefit of her having the hiccups is that it's easy for others to see and feel her move. It's always frustrating when she's kicking up a storm and then the moment a friend wants to feel she calms down... she really does respond to someone touching my belly, but her response is generally to become less active (Wesley was the same way... it must be soothing). When she has the hiccups, she makes me belly twitch at consistent intervals for about 30 minutes, so it's super-easy to figure out where she is and how she's positioned, even for someone just watching my belly. Unfortunately, few people are on hand to witness this late at night when this will most likely continue to occur.





Wesley and his super-cute Daddy!

I wanted to make a prayer request, since I know lots of my friends that check this blog are incredible prayer warriors! My cousin, Marci Grant, had a baby girl a week ago Friday. Marci and I are supposed to be due just two weeks apart, but Marci went into premature labor and delivered at 32 weeks. We have been corresponding throughout our pregnancies and have had fun anticipating our baby girls together, so she is especially close to my heart right now. Marci's baby, Maya, has been diagnosed with Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome, a congenital growth disorder that causes large body size and large organs (her large size resulted in her premature delivery). Right now her pancreas is not functioning properly and she appears to have tumors on her liver. The doctors think the tumors may be cancerous, which would require Maya to undergo chemo. Nobody knew that anything was wrong with Maya prior to her birth, so you can imagine how difficult it is to process all of this when you have been anticipating a healthy baby. Maya remains in NICU in Denver, Colo., and as you can imagine, Marci is devastated. Marci and Paul also have two little boys, so they are having to hold things together as best they can. Please keep little Maya and the whole Grant family in your prayers.

Happy Mother's Day!

Since I was wearing black in my last post, you really couldn't tell how big I'm getting... nothing like a big fruity floral dress to call attention to my girth! This baby girl kicks so much that I just can't imagine her staying in there for another 8 weeks... I wouldn't be a bit surprised if she makes an early entrance like her big brother! I remember Michael and I laying on the couch and watching my belly when I was pregnant with Wesley, and we would see all the jumps and kicks. When this baby kicks, it looks like my belly is rising up to morph into something! It's truly alien-ish! My belly button never popped out with Wesley, and I'm hoping it won't this time either. But it's definitely stretched to its limits right now, and it has nowhere to go from here but out! In most ways this baby is more active in my belly than Wesley was, but for almost my entire 3rd trimester with Wes, he got the hiccups every single night as I was trying to go to sleep. I've never felt this baby get the hiccups yet, so at least she's giving me that much of a break!





Wesley wants to wish both Grandma and Mimi a very Happy Mother's Day! He also wants to wish Grandma a Happy Birthday! Michael and I are both blessed with wonderful mothers, and their love and nurturing has never meant more to us than it does now as we are trying to pass that gift on to our children. Thank you, God, for the Patricias!

Wesley and I in "sissy's" room. He's adjusted pretty well to being booted from the nursery. We still have some work to do, but you can see that we've made some changes... new girly rug, new girly lamps, girly glass drawer pulls, pink picture frames, pink changing table baskets, pink bedding, etc. I'm still adjusting to seeing pink in the nursery!

Derby Day

We had friends over on Saturday to watch The Kentucky Derby. Derby Day is one of those days that I'm always homesick, so it was good to be surrounded by friends. (Last year we just celebrated the Derby by hitting our local KFC as soon as the race was over). Wesley has played in our backyard and on our back porch countless times, but had yet to discover the ample amounts of sandy dirt that lurk beneath the grass. With the help of a few friends, Wesley has a new hobby... and a new 1-day bath record (4 baths in one day). He had a ball!





Wesley playing with Karessa and Avery. You'll notice that Avery has a spiffy new haircut... she gave herself a mullet, but the hairdresser did a good job fixing it. Avery's reason for giving herself a haircut: she couldn't see her earrings.



Wesley sometime between bath #3 and bath #4. Honestly, the biggest challenge for me as a mom is dealing with all the muddy, icky-sticky, food-encrusted mess. In all other areas, me and motherhood are a perfect fit. I never found it difficult adjusting to having a newborn or dealing with the sleep deprivation or being on call twenty-four hours a day, 7-days a week... it was all part of the joyful package for me. But when Wesley got old enough to start slinging food in all directions on an hourly basis, I wanted to cry. I'm one of those people that just needs a somewhat sanitary environment to feel at peace. It's so hard to live in mess, and now that I have a big o'l belly, it's even harder to spend the hours on my knees required to clean up that mess, so I'm learning to just let it go. If I focus on how darn cute Wesley is while he's making all those messes, I can still channel my peace vibe!



Stephanie, Thea, me, and Susan. Stephanie just had a baby girl last November, and Susan is pregnant with twins! Thea already has her hands full with the mullet-stylist, so I think she's done. Thea's son, Lance, is in Susan's 2nd grade class. God has truly blessed me with good friends here in Florida... He has always provided amazing friendships, wherever I've gone in life. I don't know if you can tell (black is definitely my color these days!), but the belly is getting big. I'm really starting to feel my limitations. I've taken a nap the past 3 days during Wesley's nap, and naps are something I have never done, even when Wesley was tiny and I was up half the night. I'm just not one of those people that can take a 30-minute nap and feel refreshed... if I sleep during the day, I always wake up with a headache, and pretty much feel more miserable than I did before the nap. But the last few days, I just have not been able to keep my eyes open. My body has never required this much sleep! Please pray for me that I can find the energy to be a fun mommy to Wesley during these last weeks together, just the two of us.

Two-Timer

Wesley is already taking after his scientist daddy... here are photos of two of his most recent experiments. After discovering that he can indeed drink both milk and juice at the same time, Wesley has concluded that drinking them separately is more desirable. Likewise, after experimenting with the bi-binky method of pacifying, he has settled back into mono-binky pacifying. But he likes to keep his options open.

Sorry it has been so long since the last post... Wes and I took a trip to Nashville and Kentucky to visit family. Wesley had a BIG time playing with his cousins. He absolutely loves being around other children!! He will be a wonderful big brother! I'll post some photos from our trip soon.