Over half way!

I'm 23 weeks (tomorrow, but I'm saying 23 weeks :) so over half way there!
I'm feeling good.  Chasing Charlie keeps my mind busy and it's wonderful.  However at night the pregnancy waddle begins and my back bones feel as if they're going to snap at any moment.

There's a lot to do before Joey comes so I'm very happy with where we are at.  June will be here before we know it!

Handsome Boys

Valentine's Day

Valentine's day was absolutely wonderful. Finding out the gender of this new baby was the best present!  We went as a family and Charlie loved the ultrasound.  A dark room, large computer,  technician pushing lots of buttons, tv screen...what's not to love?  He was a perfect little angel on Tony's lap, taking everything in.

It was a busy day and even though Tony and I celebrated Valentine's day on Friday, we were going to celebrate it as a family on the real day!  Carry on a family tradition!  Charlie and I made cards for Tony that afternoon and started to get things ready.

I made a dinner special for Charlie and a dessert special for Tony.

Chicken parmesan

Brocolli 

rolls

strawberry cheesecake salad, recipe here

My two Valentine's

We stripped Charlie down and let him go to town!

From the picture above, I think dinner was a success!

 

After dinner was a much needed bath for Charlie.  We had a short little family night in Charlie's room and showed him his Valentine's day presents from grandparents (he had found them a few days earlier and unwrapped them...) We sang a primary song, had a prayer and read his new books together.

For our family night, Tony and I, we played the newlywed game and had a great time laughing at how off some of our answers were.  I learned that Tony's favorite book is Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and his favorite song is by Michael Buble.  I had no idea!  Tony guessed that my biggest pet peeve was having to use toothpaste & shampoo until the container was empty (I'm bad. I usually switch to the new bottle once there's a quarter left and Tony's left with the old kind). A light bulb turned on and I learned his biggest pet peeve.

It was fun learning new things about each other.

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Finally we know!

It's a...

BOY!!!

I can't express how over the top thrilled we are to be having two little boys so close in age!  They will be the best of friends with little scuffles of being the worst of enemies, but mostly the best of friends :)

I'm excited, anxious and a little nervous to see the mischief that these two will be creating together.

Tony is excited for father & son camp outs. I'm excited for soccer games, tee-ball, outdoor exploring, collections of rocks, sticks and dried up leaves, missions (they could be out at the same time...) and all that is ahead!

Heaven knows I have a tender spot in my heart for little boys.

Oh and my mother's intuition was completely wrong.  For the majority of this pregnancy I would have bet my life we were having a girl.  Good thing I don't bet :)

Valentine's Date

I love to search for fine dining restaurants in cities I want to visit: New York, Chicago, etc.  I download the menus and thoroughly read them. Call me crazy, but I love to read fancy menus.  A couple months ago I had read a food critics review about a local restaurant and after reading it's menu I mentioned to Tony that one day we should dress up and try it out. 
 
Last night we went on a Valentine's date with reservations and even a babysitter set up weeks in advance by Tony.  Guess where we went?  Yep, the place I had previously mentioned.  I was very excited to hear that we were actually going to one of these places I had spent time reading about! 
I felt like I was in high school again with every hair device plugged in and make up spread all over our bathroom counter. Getting dressed was the easy part as I'm pregnant and have two dresses that currently fit.  The black one or the red one?  I wore the red one in honor of valentine's day :)  I had been wearing the same pony tail for two days straight and was thrilled to getting dressed in anything other than yoga pants.

Dinner was fabulous.  The atmosphere was even better. With less than 20 tables, it was a very intimate setting including chandeliers & mirrors all in the white & beige color scheme.  Our glasses were quickly filled with orange slices then topped with ice & water.  We puzzled at the point of the orange considering it was under all the ice.  Was it for decoration?  Surely we aren't supposed to fish it out with our silverware to squeeze it into the water?  Despite the confusion we enjoyed our non orange flavored orange water, to our waiters disappointment, I'm sure.  We were the "cheap" table since we wouldn't be ordering anything off of the extensive wine menu.

 I had thoroughly studied the menu online before we left, of course, and was excited to see there was a special Valentine's Menu taking place over the weekend.  My only requirement was that I ordered something I wouldn't normally pick, meaning no artichokes, "greek" anything, tomato-basil combinations, etc. 
Here's what we did order:

lobster beignets with a white truffle & mustard dipping sauce.

Bread with olive oil

two large crab cakes over campanelle pasta topped with a roasted red pepper cream sauce

roasted chicken with capers, asparagus risotto & a grilled mushroom prosciutto salad 

Are you drooling yet?
We planned on trying a fun dessert but when it came time we were both so full we passed.  Of course if creme brulee had been featured that night I wouldn't have passed no matter how full I was.

On the way home we realized our whole date had gone without one mention of Charlie! Well, except when we first arrived and I said how humiliated I would have been if we had tried to bring Charlie and were turned away, but that doesn't count.  It was nice to talk & take our time as opposed to frantically reviewing the children's menu first thing, pulling out crackers & juice from the diaper bag and trying to pick up all the little things that fall under his highchair. 

Real life began the next morning as I had raisin bran for breakfast & spent the afternoon cleaning out the spare room.  

It was such a fun night!

Saying Hello

Missing my family today. 

Strike Two: Part 2

Even though our appointment was canceled we ended up having a great day.  Tony worked from home and was able to take lots of breaks to play with Charlie and I. 

The boys went out to play in the snow while I made lunch.  Someone was excited...

Good thing we have Tony because I don't think I would be venturing out into the cold if it weren't for him.  It is too cold out there!

I don't know how many times we have tried to buy a snow shovel, but last weekend Tony searched 3 different stores with no luck.  Either we look too early & they aren't in stock or they are completely sold out.  Our driveway had so much snow there was no way to back out so Tony used the garden shovel to clear the snow. However, we weren't the only ones without a snow shovel.  Our neighbor was using a garden shovel as well :)

When Charlie woke up from his nap he walked past the window and saw Tony shoveling.  It was finally too much for him and we had to join daddy to stop the tears.

I felt like I had run laps after Charlie was finally geared up!  I turned around to get my boots and found him like this...

I promise the camera was close so he wasn't stuck in this position for long.  I was laughing so hard I could barely stand!  Poor guy.

Look at all that snow!  Tony is going to be sore tomorrow...

See, it was a good day! 

Strike Two

This is the second time our gender ultrasound appointment has been canceled due to snow & ice. 

 My camera didn't get the big flakes that are still coming down.  Without plows on the road, the amount of snow in the yard is the amount in the street.

We are rescheduled for Monday.
We'll see if it actually happens!

Too Fast

Tonight Charlie woke up an hour after he had fallen asleep.  He was in one of those phases where he was half asleep, crying as if he was having a bad dream.
I wrapped him up in his quilt and we rocked together in the rocking chair.  I hummed "I am a child of God" while rubbing his hair back and kissing his forehead.

I used to lay on my back while his head was on my chest and feet reached down to maybe my belly button.  Tonight his neck was rested in my arm while his legs draped over my lap.  Ahh...my heart just ached!  When did he get so big?  

Feeling sentimental, I've been looking through pictures of Charlie's first few weeks...

 

Life goes by too quickly when you have a little person growing right in front of you.

Rockin' Hair

Charlie likes to cover his hands with food: pb&;j, ketchup, yogurt, etc.  He then reaches back, grabs fists full of hair and pulls it out to the sides.  

He ends up looking like this...

I don't think he realizes what he's doing because I notice him doing this same hair-pulling throughout the day. 

 Either way, he has some rockin' hair after breakfast, lunch & dinner.

Snow Day Pictures

Yesterday was a snow day!  I'm not used to living in an area that shuts down for snow (or even blizzards), but  Tony got to stay home from work so I'm not complaining!

We got quite a bit of snow and Tony wanted Charlie to experience it.  He loved it!

Just some pictures from the day...