Boo at the Zoo

Our Zoo puts on a special event for Halloween called Boo at the Zoo. You dress up the kiddos (and adults if you want) and trick or treat through Candy Land, ride the train through Jurasic Park, play lots of fun games for prizes, and a ton of other fun scary things. Elias had a love hate relationship for the event. He LOVED the trick or treat, but wasnt a fan of the blow up scary things. (Or getting his picture taken. ha) He and Addie dressed up as Thing 1 and Thing 2 from the Cat in the Hat, and they were a HUGE hit.

Met up with Walker, who was a Nugget Burger :)

Riding the Train through Jurasic Park with Dada

Elias LOVES the carousel, he unfortunately was not a fan of this one. They turned the lights off periodically and it went backwards instead of forwards. Needless to say, he clung to his Dada.

Thing 1 needed a bath after all the fun, so we could get rid of the blue. Ha :) Cant wait to go again next year!

School Picture Day

Today was school picture day. The outfit was thought about and planned, but then sickness found its way to our house and I was unable to go buy planned outfit so we did a last minute shop last night. Even last minute, I must say we have quite the cutie :)

He was still on partial quarantine from other kiddos so he didn't actually go to school today, so we just dropped by the school for a quick photo.

New Milestone...our little sicky

We hit a new milestone...but not a good one. This past week has been the first time our little munchkin has been sick. Sure he has had the occasional runny nose, and fever from teething, but nothing other than that. This week we go to experience our first sick visit to the pedi. Even Dr. M commented on how she has never see Elias on any other occasion other than well visits.

It started with a cough that we pinned on drainage from the 4 teefers he had coming in, but then the cough turned into a persitent nag that kept the baby boy (and Momma) up all night. Then came the fever and a little boy that wanted to lay around and sleep all day rather than play. We went to the pedi where he was diagnosed with a double ear infection and strep. (WOWZA! He wanted to go BIG with his first time.) She was concerned about pneumonia with how fast he was breathing but she said that was most likely from the 104 temp (yikes!) that he had. She prescribed him a wide range antibiotic and told us that it would mend all 3.

Remember the yummy bubble gum goodness that you got when you were sick as a kid? Its the same that Elias has. Who knew I would have the ONLY kid in the world to hate it, trying to get him to take it exhausts us both. But we all hope for our sanity and sleep that he is on the road to recovery :) And while I hate that he has been sick and pitiful, I will say that I have enjoyed all the snuggles :)

Guessing Game

A fellow WTE friend did this little guessing game, and I thought it was fun so we thought we would give it a try. Click on the link to guess what you think Baby Jewell 2.0 will be :) No prizes to be won, just bragging rights. Thats just as fun, right? :)

Click Here

16 weeks and an US

Elias is just sooooo excited to say that we have scheduled THE ultra sound that will tell us whether or not he is going to have a baby sister or a baby brother. Its scheduled in about 3 weeks and we are sooooo excited.

16 week appt today, strong little heart beat for the baby, and no weight gain for the Momma.

And in case you were wondering, at 16 weeks, 2.0 is the size of an avocado.

Watch what you say... tiny bones forming in baby's ears mean the little one can now pick up your voice. Eyebrows, lashes and hair are starting to fill in, and taste buds are forming. And, if you're interested, an ultrasound might be able to determine gender.

Adios 1st Trimester and Good Riddance: 14 weeks.

See you later 1st Trimester, dont let the door hit you in the a$$ on your way out. I am soooo not sad to see you go because you have been hard core mean for the past 8 weeks. I am pretty sure that if I had felt this way while preggo with Elias, then there would have not been a 2nd thought about having another baby. He would be an ONLY child. I am NOT a good sicko person, I am a HUGE baby and hate it as I am sure everyone else does too. Sorry to be a Debbie Downer but morning all day sickness has been my worst enemy for the past 8 long weeks and I am hoping this 2nd Trimester brings back non nauseous and more energy days. (soooo please hurry on up. please and thank you.)

14 weeks. Yay! This pregnancy is kind of sort of dragging but kind of sort of going fast at same time, I guess its hard to explain. At this point in pregnancy we hadn't even been to our first Dr's appt with E. The first appt with him was when we were 15wks 5 days preggo with him, so that seems to make the pregnancy draggggg. It seems crazy that we have known 2.0 is on his/her way for 2 months now, so that has made the pregnancy seem to fly by.

With Elias, I craved fruit and lots of it. (and in the end much to my brother and sister in laws happiness, I craved cupcakes and made them weekly. ha.) With 2.0 I crave cold things, ice cold things. Like popsicles and ice cold water. I am not a water with ice kind of girl, I like bottled water at room temperature. Well apparently 2.0 has other tastes, because my water now has to be with lots and lots of ice. I also could care less about anything chocolate, because I think it tastes weird. Chocolate? Tastes weird? WHAT?!? Yeah, I am not liking that little side effect. I crave sour candy, like sour patch kids and sour skittles, which is candy I barely rarely eat. I still love cupcakes but instead of my usual fav red velvet or sea salt mocha, I am in love with this strawberry cake with strawberry icing from a local place called Ashley Macs. Yummmmm. I also crave plain cheese pizza with thin crust. So very different from with Elias.

We went to our 12 week appt and had a clean bill of health with no weight gain. Yay! And we will have our 16 week appt on the 29th. We were on the fence (or butting heads) about whether or not we wanted to find out the gender of our little 2.0 but I am pretty sure we have both decided that we are eager to know if we are adding a baby boy to our little family or a baby girl. :)

And for a little entertainment...here is a little info on our little 2.0

Your adorable little fetus is busy with thumb sucking, toe wiggling, and (not so cute but equally amazing) making urine and breathing amniotic fluid as the liver, kidneys and spleen continue to develop. Lanugo (thin, downy hair) is growing all over the body for warmth.

brought to you by thebump.com

Intelligender

"A fun pre-birth experience of Moms who can't wait to know..." With an advertisement like that, how could you resist? Especially since you can use this test as early as 10 weeks. As soon as you get that little + on the pee on a stick (POS) some of your first thoughts always seem to be, is it a boy, or is it a girl? And it is definitely a question that is asked by many when they find out you are knocked up. One of my friends saw the Intelligender test in Target and texted me informing me of how badly I needed to take this test. B said no way to the $25 dollar price for a pee cup. L & A were VERY insistent, so much so that they showed up at my house and kidnapped me with an Intelligender in hand. We were on our way to lunch and YES I was going to pee in a cup: AT QDOBA. We had no shame. We ordered our lunch, sat our food down, and I went to the bathroom to pee in my cup. When I opened the package, at first I was a little intimidated because this is what you were met with....

A pee cup, another container filled with a bead like substance (in which L&A thought my pee was crystalized. ha) and a turkey baster/syringe.

After peeing in the cup, abstracting it from the cup with baster/syringe and inserting it in to container with bead like substance, I brought my lab experiment back to our table and sat it on the chair next to me. We carried on with eating and convo (only after L set the timer on her phone) and waited the 5 minutes to find out if I was having a boy or a girl. 5 minutes was up and we examined my pee. (True friends handle/examine your pee over chips and salsa.) First of all let me tell you what the instructions say.

1. Fill the collection cup with your first morning urine ONLY. It is very important to use first morning urine when collecting your sample. Failure to do will likely result in incorrect result. Once collected, set aside and get the test kit read for use. Remove sticky tab from the top of the lid, exposing a small hole in the middle. You are now ready to perform test. Epic fail. It was lunch time, I had already peed twice prior. It also said to not consume an excessive amount of liquid and I had downed a large sprite in order to make myself go.
2. Placing the tip of the baster/syringe into the collection cup, "pull" 20 ml's of urine up into the baster/syringe. Ummmm. Ewwwwww.
3. Place tip of baster/syringe into the hole on top of the test's lid and gently inject your urine. Double Ewwww.
4. Immediately replace the sticky tab over the hole.
5. Pick up the test kit and swirl rapidly for 10 seconds in a circular motion. Do not shake. Set aside where it will not be disturbed. How does one swirl really? I mean without shaking.
6. Read your gender result promptly at 5 minutes. If your urine has turned green to dark/smoky green, you have a boy result! If your urine has turned a deeper yellow or orange, you have a girl result! Please note, after 8 minutes your results may change and are no longer valid. I feel as if this was the only direction that was properly and promptly followed. Ha.

You must read the test at eye level without picking it up and disturbing it. Do not hold the kit up to a light source, such as a window, to read the test as it will distort the final result. Also a BIG FAT EPIC FAIL. First of all I carried it from the bathroom to our table. Second of all, I picked it up from the chair to examine it. And third and last of all, we were sitting outside in direct sunlight.

Needless to say, while it was fun to pee in a cup over lunch with good friends, we did the test wrong and were completely confused with results. I was bound and determined to get a correct and accurate result from this little lab experiment so I went that evening and bought another test to do first thing the next morning with my FIRST MORNING URINE.

The results....

While I would love to go out and buy everything pink, I am not holding my breath :) I know of 3 other friends who have done this little experiment and all came out with the results of BOY, and all 3 are having (or had) a GIRL. However, while doing all the research on the results of this little test, I did find that more often than most, BOY results were wrong more so than GIRL results. Reason being some kind of chemical that a woman has in her body.

It was a fun test, and even if its wrong I think I would still do it again if given the chance. We should find out in about 6 weeks if we are good little scientists :)

not pennys boat***

As a woman (and man) you spend all those years spending money on birth control and other contraceptives trying to PREVENT pregnancy for various reasons of not being "ready" to become a mom or a dad and when B and I got married I think we were on a 5 year plan of having children. Our rambunctious baby boy E, had other plans for us and made his debut into this world 2 months shy of our second wedding anniversary. Although we were married (and on the birth control pill I might add) we were not ready to have a child yet, so were definitely shocked when we got that + sign on the pee stick a little over 2 years ago. Even so, we couldn't imagine our lives without our little Baby E and wouldn't change ANYTHING. It seems that as soon as you have that first baby (sometimes even your 2nd or even 3rd) the golden question is, "When are you having another?" I know that with E, I wasn't even healed from the 22 stitches of craziness that his big head caused before what seemed like everyone was asking that question. I always knew that I wanted to have my children close in age but it wasn't a concrete set in stone decision and it most certainly wasn't a decision I could make after just birthing an 8lb 3oz watermelon sized head baby out of a hole the size of what I imagined to be the size of a grape.

Our sweet baby boy was cute and very loved but NOT an easy baby. He didn't sleep in his own crib/room nor did he sleep through the night until he was close to 8 months old and didn't get on a solid nap schedule til after his 1st birthday. My thoughts of having another went straight out the window due to exhaustion and frustration. THEN his first birthday came and went and it was bitter sweet and baby fever started to kick in especially with so many that we knew either having babies or being pregnant. In March we decided to "officially" start trying for Baby Jewell 2.0 but I knew that it wasn't going to happen right away because since having IUD out in Nov my monthly visitor had yet to show her face. I went to the OB/GYN and he gave me prescription to jumpstart things which it did, but no baby the first month and again no "aunt flo" the 2nd month. I was then sent to an infertility clinic where a series of tests, bloodwork (LOTS OF NEEDLES. EEEEK) and ultra sounds were done. With this intense and thorough testing it was found that I ovulate spontaneously and that E was conceived because the bc pill regulated my system. The plan was to jumpstart my system again with a shot of progesterone and then start the infertility drug called Clomid. The shot of Progesterone didn't jumpstart my system like they had hoped so I was brought in for MORE needles and MORE bloodwork the day before my birthday and was told they would call me the next day to tell me what next step would be to jumpstart things. On my birthday I spent the day at the pool with one of my best friends sans baby, just hanging out enjoying my day. While there the infertility clinic calls with my results. She tells me that the reason I havent gotten my period is because I am PREGNANT!!!!! Not the call I expected but definitely a call that I will never forget. BEST.BIRTHDAY.EVER. A week later we went in for an ultra sound to confirm Baby Jewell 2.0 and got to see our little dot on the screen :) (our nurse pointed out that baby 2.0 looked like a diamond ring....does bling bling mean a baby girl?:) :) :)
It has most certainly started out differently than my pregnancy with E. We didn't find out I was pregnant with him until I was 8 weeks and didn't have our first dr appt/ultra sound until he was nearly 16 weeks! With E, NO morning sickness, with 2.0, CONSTANT ALL DAY morning sickness and fatigue. So bad in fact I had to get a script for Zofran. I am sooo looking forward to our 2nd Trimester that shall begin in a week and a half. With E I didnt start showing until week 20 or later and I could wear almost all of my clothes until end of pregnancy....this time around, I am already growing out of my clothes and am starting to show some. YIKES!

So there you have it, our baby boy is going to be a BIG BROTHER and we are going to be the parents of TWO :) We are soooo super excited for our upcoming addition and maybe slightly a tad bit nervous to have a 2 year old and infant but I am sure it will be an amazing journey. I will say it was a bit crazy for us as to how uneasy it was to just get pregnant. Back to what I was saying at the beginning of the post...you spend all those years trying NOT to get pregnant you don't expect for it to be difficult to actually get pregnant on purpose.

E was a Christmas Baby, 2.0 will be a St. Patty's Day Baby. Due Date 3.18.11 give or take. Apparently our babies like holidays :)

***side note...if you dont watch LOST, then you def wont get the title nor the big brother picture. ha.

For bonus pics...here is one of the ideas we had for sharing the news.....

Too Cool for School

In February we decided to start scoping out "schools" for Elias. (Who knew there were waiting lists and you had to jump on the wagon wayyyy before school actually started?) We thought it would be good for him to have the structured environment and interaction with other kids. We wanted something that had a curriculum and wasn't a "day care", not that there is anything wrong with that but just not the fit for us. We wanted him to go somewhere to learn and have fun and not just be baby sat. We found the perfect one and registered him and he started a few weeks ago. He has only had two days of it due to our vacation but so far he has LOVED it. His bff W is in his class with him and his little gf A is in a class down the hall..

Cute little name tag on the table.

Look Who's in Toddler 3

Found the cars right away. (Meet and Greet night)

Little cubbies <3

Getting a lift (and kiss) from Dada

Cute backpack with his name on it :)

E and W in their backpacks looking at the fish pond at school.

A and E

Cutie <3

E and W checking out the place on the first day.

Coming back for one last hug :)

PoopaPOOLooza

We have been pooling it since early May and having oh so much fun. Going to the pool comes with precautions though- swim diapers and what can happen in those swim diapers. My biggest fear has been poop in the swim diapers and I went 2 whole months without one incident and then BAM it hit me like a ton of well.....POOP. IT WAS AWFUL and that is quite the understatement. My sister and nephew were in town and we were doing our morning routine of pool time, and I am super happy that someone was there with me for sure. Sometimes Elias likes to play at the top of the stairs of the pool while I am sitting in the pool on the stairs and this is what was happening when I spotted it...POOP. RUNNING. DOWN. HIS. LEG. OH MY GODDDDDDD. In one quick swift motion I scooped Elias up and wrapped him in a towel before anyone at the pool could notice what was going on, told my sister I had to run back to house, and bolted out of there like I had ants in my pants. We came back to the house and I tossed him in the shower and started hosing him off, all the while I was gagging and freaked out that I was not only going to have to clean up poop but my own vomit. Did I mention we had recently switched to reusable cloth swim diapers? Yeahhhhhhh. In all of my 18 1/2 months of being a Momma, it was by far the WORST poop incident experienced to date. Even worse than Poopcasa. Oh and did I also mention that I thought it would be a brilliant idea to go BACK to the pool but this time in a disposable swim diaper and it was PoopaPOOLooza AGAIN in the exact same way. FML.

18 months, 1 1/2, 1.5

Wow, I cant believe that my last post was 17 months, where does time go? If you looked in my edit post you would see at least 20 blogs that I have started but not finished, including Christmas. YIKES! Here it is close to his 19 month of life and I have yet to post his 18 month. (for the record I started this post 6.20.10) We are having so much fun who has time to sit down and blog? Our baby boy has turned into this handsome, witty, full of life little boy. With each milestone and stage of life we are having more and more fun. He keeps us entertained from the time he wakes up to til he crashes at night from exhaustion and we are loving every minute of it. He is a chatter box and it would take me all day to type all of the things he is saying and doing. I will mention that our favorite thing he says right now is "thank you." He is so polite and says it 99.9% of the time correctly. There are those few instances where he uses it when its not quite the right time, ie taking a toy from a friend, but hey, how can you get mad when he is so polite about it? Haha. Summer time bring water fun, and Elias is def a waterbug. I need to post some videos of our fearless boy who will jump into the pool unassisted. For now lets get onto the important stuff...Elias' 18 month well baby stats :)

.18 months old.
30.2 lbs
34 in tall

.flashback.
at birth
8 lbs 3 ozs
21 in long

6 weeks

12 lbs 6 ozs

23 in long

3 months
16 lbs 12.8 ozs
24 3/4 in long

4 months
20 lbs
26 1/2 in long

6 months

22.2 lbs

28 in long

9 months
25 lbs 1 oz
31 in long

1 year
26 lbs 12 ozs
32 in tall

.15 months old.
29.9 lbs
33 in tall

He was 90th percentile for both his weight and height and the pedi was happy with his growth and motor skills. We have one smart cookie on our hands and we are soooo proud :)

17 months

Wow have I hit a blogging slump. I do have things to blog about just not enough time I suppose to sit down and get my thoughts together...

A quick post about how our sweet baby boy is 17 months old! I can't believe that in a few short weeks he will be a YEAR AND A HALF!!! Seriously, where does time go? He is growing and learning so fast and we are still loving this age.

He is all boy and saying that he is obsessed with cars and trains would be an understatement. He loves to say car and choo-choo. He learns new words daily and is a little sponge with repeating what you say. My favorite word he says is pretty, even though sometimes I would have better luck at pulling my own teeth than getting him to say it. Haha. Speaking of teeth, what better way to celebrate his 17 months of life than his 1st dentist appointment? He did really well with it and only whined a little bit. They brushed his teeth and put vitamins on them as well as checked to see the health of his itty bitty teefers.

Happy to report he got a clean bill of health and will return in 6 months for another check up. He has 8 teeth right now that are fully through, but there are 2 or 3 more that have broken through the gums. Dr. Massey said that at his next visit in 6 months, he should have 8 more teeth fully through. YOWZA!