Baby #2

Well I guess that title pretty much sums up our news :) We're thrilled to be welcoming a second baby into the family, and maybe just a little bit scared. Mostly thrilled :) How much harder can 2 be than 1, right? Don't answer that sweet, wise friends who have more experience at this than we do. We'll find out in due time. Speaking of which, my official due date is January 4th. That's 2 days before Zoe was due (she came late, on the 12th). Do we know how to plan or what. So Zoe should be just about to turn 2 when we welcome #2 home! If its another girl, it will work out well since clothing sizes should match up, and I can reuse my maternity clothes since I'm pregnant thru the same seasons. Of course this time at 12 weeks I'm about as big as I was at 18 weeks with Zoe... the second one doesn't play around! Since I ended up with a C-section with Zoe, we're still deciding whether to schedule a C-section at 39 weeks or try for a VBAC. So baby could be here before New Years.

In general I'm feeling good, just super tired. I can finally get through the day without napping but then I'm pretty much done by 7pm. Geoff has been an amazing help in the evenings! Thankfully I have a lot less food aversions this time and am mostly craving veggies and fruit. I also have less of a sweet tooth than normal, so that's been a nice change. A chocolate bar lived in the cabinet for over a month... unheard of!

We're staying in our 2-bedroom house so the kids will have to share a room. We'll have baby with us at first but not for too long hopefully. All of you who have done the baby/toddler room-sharing transition before, we'd love your input! Parenthood is hard but Zoe has been such a blessing and a joy, and we're so excited to expand our family! Can't wait to meet you, little peanut :)

Some May, Some June and 17months

May was a whirlwind for us. If June didn't have special days in the beginning that I needed to take note of, I'm not sure I'd believe it was already June.
* Geoff and I spent our first night away from Zoe in May. We took advantage of a free night we had with Marriott and stayed in downtown D.C. We went out to dinner at Matchbox, where we split the spicy meatball pizza and finished with a tower of donuts with chocolate dipping sauce. Yum. We had planned to go see Gatsby afterwards but it was sold out, so we saw Iron Man 3 instead. Since it was an after 10pm showing, the action of Iron Man might have been a better choice anyways... we got back to our room after 1am which is quite late for these parents. We "slept in" til 8 which was glorious, enjoyed a free breakfast, walked around the city a bit and then were admittedly anxious to get back to our little girl. A big thanks to her aunt Kara for staying with her, which gave us peace of mind. We might even do it again :)

* The following week we went to Wisconsin to visit Geoff's family. We had a great time visiting with them -- since we only see them about 2x a year it's fun to see how much Zoe has changed between visits. She helped Opa make the coffee everyday, and Oma got to show her off to friends and old teachers of Geoffs. We went to a wedding for one of Geoff's friends from high school... All in all Zoe kept everyone pretty entertained!

* Memorial Day wknd we spent in PA with my family. We had a cookout, did some shopping, visited with extended family, played games, celebrated my dad's birthday early... it was great!

*So far June has been much more relaxed but still eventful. Geoff and I just celebrated 6 years of marriage on the 9th. Aunt Kara willingly babysat again so we could go out -- we enjoyed a nice brunch at one of our favorite restaurants and then played a round of mini-golf. Pretty sure I beat Geoff for the first time ever so it was extra exciting :) What a blessing it has been to walk with this man by my side for these 6 years.

* And now today, Zoe is 17 months old! This is such a fun age, we're really enjoying it. Watching her learn so much and try to imitate us and wanting to do things for herself like buckle her car seat strap... its just amazing what they learn to do in a year! She's getting in 4 bottom teeth which have been giving her some pain but she is being a trooper about it. She loves to "help" unload groceries, load the washer and dryer, throw things away, and carry items for us. She understands so much of what we say (probably more than we even realize) and tries earnestly to respond. She speaks with conviction though we usually don't know yet what she is saying. Last night to said "oh no" for the first time and its pretty much the cutest thing ever. She says "no" and "yeah" and "hi" and "bye". She knows her ears, nose, eyes, tummy, teeth, mouth, head, hair, hands, feet, fingers and toes.