Has it been two months already?

It's so hard for me to believe that my baby is already two months old. How did that happen...I know I didn't sleep through it! Then again, it is amazing to think of what we have done in two months. We have been to both my hometown (Chattanooga) and Matt's hometown (Bristol), we spent some time in Nashville, and made a trip to visit Mamaw Carter (yes- if you didn't know, that's where our precious boy got his name!). So at two months old Gracyn has been to Georgia, Alabama, and Virginia. She might grow up to be a big traveler some day!

Taking Gracyn to the doctor for her two month check-up today was not fun. I am sure most of you can relate. She was screaming from the moment the doctor walked in the door. Believe it or not, she did better with the shots then she did with his evaluation! After the nurse gave her the shots she left the room and i went ahead and gave her tylenol. I knew she was going to have at least some soreness so why not try to prevent the pain before it bothered her. That plan seemed to work well, until I decided to go to the store while she was sleeping. When she woke up she started crying. It was a whimper at first but it got louder and louder very quickly. I knew I wouldn't be able to get everything that needed. I had barely gotten started! I rushed to put the few things back and got to car as fast as I could. I headed home and as quickly as the crying started it stopped! Maybe I should just drive around let her rest a little. Eventually I had to go home to change her and feed her but when we headed back out to pick Carter up from school, she was calmed by the ride again. Tonight is my night to fly solo while Matt is in Bristol for school. It was not easy trying to keep her settled down, give Carter a bath, and all of those bedtime rituals. I just don't see how so many mothers do it on their own. I have such admiration for single mothers. I can be relieved by the fact that Matt will be here tomorrow night and if I get very little sleep tonight, I can probably with his help, catch up tomorrow. So for all of those parents who have greater challenges than mine- children who are sick, multiples, etc. Wow, may god bless you! For now, I am celebrating our healthy girl- 11 pounds 10.5 ounces (69%) and length 22.5 inches (53%. It is amazing how different she and Carter are. I don't think he has ever been above the 30% for anything! One thing that they have in common is the ability to be soothed by the vibrations of this bouncy chair.


Next on our list- going to our church. We have been to church when we were out of town, but I look forward to being at our home congregation. This season has been a little rough with sickness and I haven't wanted to take any chances. Hopefully, Gracyn and I will get a good night of sleep and our whole family will be there on Sunday!

HELP!

I love this picture but don't know how to flip it! It is not upside down on my computer but when I upload it, it turns upside down! Anyone technically savvy enough to tell me how I can fix it? I love that she has such a big smile and that she waskicking and moving her arms so much that they are blurry. Hope you can appreciate it, even though it is upside down!

Ten Things Tuesday

Ten things that I love to hear Carter say
1. Yellow = Lellow
2. Jelly Beans = Jelly Bins
3. remote = merote
4. banana = blana
5. yelling = lellin
6. football = fitball
7. froggie = froggery
8. Gracyn = Gracyn Amery (with the a sound instead of the short e, and he usually says her first and middle name)
9. Ms. Melinda = Ms. Alinda
10. Basketball = batchetball
Of course I always enjoy hearing "I love you mom" - what mommy doesn't love to hear that! I do wish he still called me Mama or Mommy, but I guess he just thinks he's too big for that!

Aunt Deanna's Visit and 1 month pictures

The night that Gracyn was born I called my sis (within minutes of her birth) to tell her she had a beautiful new niece. It was such a surprise. It seems as though everyone in my family has boys! The next morning I talked to her again and she told me that even though she was coming to keep Gracyn for a week in April, she couldn't wait that long to see her and hold her. Here we are- not quite a month late, I am finally posting pictures from my sister's visit on Feb. 20-22. This was a quick trip that took almost as much time to travel as she had to spend here! She had to fly from California!

Here is a picture of what our welcome sign looked like. I have always wanted to make one and this was the first time that I ever did.

We drove to Chattanooga that night so we could see dad before he left for Honduras. DeAnna also wanted to get out to see Mamaw while she was in town. That gave us an opportunity to introduce Gracyn to a lot of our family.

Dad loves to wrestle with his grandsons. I think he is going to have to learn some new moves for his little princess!


Gracyn loves her Aunt DeAnna!


Mamaw tells me that I have the loudest kids...wonder where they get that?

I love this picture. Mamaw looks so happy and proud. I wish that I lived closer so that we could visit more often.

My cousin's puppy- Carter loved playing with him! He also thought it was great that he had on Go Vols clothes!


Gracyn at One Month!

She likes to stick her tongue out!

I also took Carter's picture in this chair each month.


Hopefully I will be posting her two month pics soon! It has been hard to blog and keep up with my friends. I had such an easy time with Carter, except for the trouble gaining weight. Gracyn is a good eater, but she needs to be held a lot. She cries most of the time unless she is being held. It has made things very exhausting lately. I am praying that things will get better soon! Carter is still doing a great job as big brother. He loves his little sis and talks to her so sweetly. I am looking forward to doing more fun things with the two of them this summer.

What I miss about being pregnant

My friend Jenny has had several "Ten Things Tuesday" blog entries. I have thought about doing one for a while but haven't gotten around to it until now.

The things I miss about being pregnant:
1. the big round TIGHT belly that looked cute in most clothes
2. the anticipation of finding out if we were having a boy or girl
3. feeling every move
4. not really worrying about exercise even when the waist was quickly expanding
5. being the only one who knew when Gracyn had the hiccups
(which she continues to have about 4 times daily!)
6. not feeling too guilty when I pigged out on ice cream while watching The Biggest Loser.
7. having the excuse of not being able to reach your toes = pedicure!
8. being tired after working all week, going home to all the work a mother must also do at home, and being pregnant = manicure to go with pedicure!
9. the nesting phase- I sure did get a lot of things organized and cleaned up! Wish I were motivated like that more often!
10. Carrying with me, at all times, a constant reminder of the miracle that was growing inside of me. Thank you God for allowing me to have the honor of being Gracyn's mommy.

Life with two little ones..

I am trying to adjust to our new life. I can honestly say that it is wonderful and very easy at times. At other times I feel so confident and then I get blindsided by all the things that need to be taken care of right then! I know all of you moms out there understand. I am going to try o make blogging a part of my schedule again. I miss all of my friends that I keep up with online! I just feel blessed to know that I don't have to go back to work until April 13th. Only six weeks of work and I will be off for the summer! Here are some pictures that capture our current routines.



Enjoying yummy treats on Valentine's day- Carter would have eaten all 5 pieces in the box if I had let him!


We also spend a lot of time just looking at our little girl.


Gracyn's first bath, with lots of help from her big brother.


Of course Carter has been playing ball(baseball, basketball, and football). Here he is perfecting his catcher's stance.


Gracyn just sits back and takes it all in. So far she is very laid back!

Cheering on the Vols! Even when times are a little rough...

Last Saturday (10/3), we took Carter to his second UT game. Even though the team is not doing so hot (to say the least)we really had a great time. He wore his jersey and his helmet, of course! On our way from where we parked to the Vol walk, a man stopped us. "He looks so cute in that jersey! We have got to get a picture of him!" All right. "Do you have a camera? I can take one for you too." I'm thinking as I look for the camera, which has fallen to the innermost depths of the diaper bag, "Is this guy going to take off with our camera or what? He looks like a nice guy, he has his camera why would he need ours?" Just as I look up with the camera, I notice that there is a really tall (and good looking) man right beside me- It's Eric Ainge! "I had to get my picture taken with him. He looks so cute!" This is Eric talking about Carter who is wisely wearing the #10!

Carter giving Eric a high five. He is really tall but we were on the downside of the hill in this picture making him look even taller!



Jumping in the inflatables at Volunteer Village


Our happy little family!

He's still awake! It only took about 10 minutes in the car until he was snoring. He takes after his mom when it comes to hard core snoozing! We had so much fun talking him to the game. He was cheering along with everyone and even told a few people "That's not nice, your not posed to say that" when they were booing some not so good plays. He loved doing the wave- even though he was always a bit behind everyone else. I think everyone around us enjoyed seeing the game through his eyes. There were so many people who stopped and talked to us and told stories about bringing their own kids to UT games. I hope this is a fun tradition that we are able to continue with Carter and the new babyfor many years.

It's a....

healthy baby at 16 weeks. We didn't want to find out if we are having a boy or girl. We actually hoped for a suprise when Carter was born, but a little miscommunication with the doctor meant that we found out we were having a boy around 15 weeks with Carter.

Right now the plan is for Carter to get a big boy room (currently the guest room) and move the baby into his nursery. The nursery is decorated with pale lime green walls and white beadboard and other pastel colors. It is a pretty gender neutral room. Several family members have voiced their frustrations with ,but for now we are not swayed! If only we could think of a name!