Dear Weston

Dear Weston,

Any day now, your world is going to change.  Mama and Daddy are going to go to the hospital and have your brother or sister.  You aren't going to be the center of our world anymore.  You will be sharing that with the new baby.  However, our love for you will always be the same.  Our love will not be divided, only multiplied.  After all, YOU are the baby that made us a Mommy and Daddy. 

You will be a GREAT big brother.  I'm sure it won't be smooth at first, for any of us.  None of us have done this before; Daddy and I have never had two children and you've never had to share your attention.  I worry that since you have no idea what is about to happen, that you will act out and get upset more quickly.  I hope in a few years that you and the baby will be best friends and will grow up looking out for each other.  Daddy and I believe that, if God sees fit, every child should have a sibling.  This way, you have a buddy, a confidant, and someone to share inside jokes with. 

I can't wait for you to meet your sibling and watch your love grow for them.  I know you will be confused because for the last 10 months, the "baby" has just been my belly.  You have shown the baby love by kissing my belly and that was enough.  The baby hasn't made any noise, wanted any of my attention or wanted you to share any of your toys with it. That's going to change and I know you won't understand.  That's ok though.  I will do my best to explain everything to you as we go along.  I know you will be such a great helper for Mommy.  You can bring me diapers, help feed and soothe the baby and bring the baby toys.  You are such a smart boy, so I know you will teach the baby so much.

Yesterday, knowing that our one-on-one time is short, I let you come and watch a movie (Cars 2, your favorite right now) in my bed during naptime.  You were absolutely thrilled when I brought your blankie and pillow into my bed. About 5 minutes before the movie ended, you fell asleep.  I just laid there and watched you sleep and cherished the time we had together. You seemed to really enjoy having the opportunity to be in Mommy and Daddy's bed.  Babies don't get to take naps in Mommy and Daddy's bed, just big boys like you.  We'll definitely have to do that more often.  I hope you will want to continue having quiet time/naps in our room.

I hope you have fun at Mamma and Papa's house and enjoy playing with the puppy dogs.  Please don't be scared that Mommy is in the hospital.  You were born in a hospital too.  Hospitals are where it is most safe for your brother or sister to be born.  I will miss you so, so much while I am away.  After all, this will be the longest that I will have been away from you since you were born.  You can come visit whenever you would like and before you know it, Mommy, Daddy, brother or sister and you will all be back home starting our new life as a family of four.

Please don't ever forget that we love you very, very, very much and always will.

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

What Have I Done?!

I have a doctor's appointment this morning.  As much as I'd like the doctor to give me an induction date so that this long, painful, sickly pregnancy can come to an end, I don't want to know when the last day with just Weston will be.  I'd also like to go into labor on my own, since I had to be induced with Weston too.

Ten months ago, it seemed like a really good idea to give Weston a sibling.  However, now that I have a very short time left, I'm wondering how big this mistake is.

Now, I am NOT calling Baby #2 a mistake AT ALL.  The "mistake" I am talking about is all in my head, I'm sure. I'll bullet point and rationalize these thoughts, maybe it will help.

• Weston is not going to get all of the attention anymore.  How will he deal with that?
  Weston is two.  He won't remember the difference and after a few weeks with the new baby, he'll adjust just fine.
• Weston is only two and has no idea what is about to occur in his life.
  Weston IS only two, so he won't remember life before the baby arrives.
• Weston is and has been my and Doug's primary focus for almost 26 months now. How can I give him adequate time and attention, especially in the early weeks when I am so exhausted I can't even see straight?
  That's what teamwork is for.  Each parent focuses on one child.  One-on-one defense, I guess.
• What if Weston hates us for having another baby?
  Weston doesn't know what hate is and when he does find out what it is, the baby will be old news.
• I've been told parenting two children is a lot harder than parenting one.  It's not just double the work like one would think.
  If parenting subsequent children really was as difficult as people have said, there wouldn't be nearly as many siblings in this world as there are and there certainly wouldn't be families with more than 2 children.  If I go into parenting two children with no expectations of how our daily life will be, I will be neither happy, nor disappointed if something doesn't work out.
• Will Weston be scared seeing me in the hospital and unable to go home with him?
  When I was hospitalized for hyperemesis, he came to visit and didn't seem scared.  Of course, it was only one night and he's older now, but hopefully he'll still not care.

These are only a few of my concerns, but only time will tell how they all work out.  I'm also pretty sure that I'm not the first nor will I be the last mom/parent to have these concerns.  Everyone tells me to just breathe and enjoy having my children close together, because soon my fears will be dating, college and an empty nest.

Another Giveaway at ELF: A Family Blog

Weston's birthday was yesterday (a post will be forthcoming, pending pictures from relatives, as Doug and I FAILED as parents and took ZERO pictures yesterday). Therefore, I don't need any birthday invitations currently.  However, we are building a house and having a second baby, so we do need invitations for that.  

Since I had a baby shower little more than two years ago when Weston was gestating, I don't think it's necessary to have another one now.  We may have a "Sip N See", which is Southern thing for people to come see the baby and have a light lunch, which we would need invitations for.  We could also have a housewarming party to celebrate our new house and obviously invitations would be in order for that as well.

All of this to say, over at ELF Family Blog, Libby is teaming with Tiny Prints to give away 25 invitations.  This is an awesome giveaway that I'd be thrilled to win!

Go over to the blog and enter to win.  I did!

Father's Day

I realize Father's Day was more than a week ago, but I am just now having time to post.

We started Father's Day at church.  When we got home, my parents brought over home-cooked breakfast.  After breakfast, my dad and Doug opened presents.  Weston, the dogs and I got Doug splatter screens for cooking, a DVD he wanted and made him a candy card.  We got my dad a movie theater gift card.  He really enjoys seeing movies.

When we finished opening gifts, we all took a nap.  It's our thing.  Ha. 

When we got up, we headed to an early dinner.  We then came back to the house to play games and then went out for dessert.  It was a very restful and fun day.

Memorial Day Weekend

For Memorial Day weekend, Doug, Weston, I and my parents went to south Georgia.  There we met up with my in-laws and went to an amusement park/water park.

We thought we'd get into the hotel around midnight, but it was actually around 3am when we got there. :-(  It made for an early morning when we needed to get up a few hours later.  Surprisingly, Weston was in a great mood all day.  

On Saturday, we went on a few rides at the amusement park, but it was 100 degrees and between my pregnant self and Weston's little body, we couldn't stay in that heat too long.  We ended up spending the entire afternoon in the water park area.  Weston LOVED the lazy river and the kids water area.  He didn't want to get out of the water.  It's not all that surprising, since his mom and dad are huge water people too.  Saturday evening, there was a concert in the park, so we stayed for that. The Band Perry was performing and even though he had swam all day, only had a short 20 minute nap and about 3 hours of sleep the night before, Weston danced through the whole concert, cutting up and entertaining the people around us.

On Sunday, we went back to the park.  When you buy a ticket at the amusement park, you get in a consecutive day free, so we figured why not go back?!  It was a little cooler on Sunday because Tropical Storm Beryl was heading in our direction.  We went on the few more amusement rides and then headed over to the water park area again.  We spent the entire time in the lazy river.  The only reason we got out of the water is the sky seemed threatening and we were getting cold since there wasn't any sun.  After we got dried off and changed into our clothes, the sun came back out (and stayed out).  Isn't that the way it always is?  Doug's parents and brother left to head back to Florida since they had work on Monday.  The rest of us wandered around the park a little longer, but as soon as we put Weston in his stroller, he fell asleep.  Doug went on a roller coaster and then we headed towards the gift shop to get Weston a souvenir.  When we left the park, we went looking for dinner and spent about 2 hours hunting down a non-chain pizza place.  There weren't any open, so we ended up at Pizza Hut.  While we were in there, it got very windy and started pouring.  Beryl had arrived.

On Monday, we headed back to Alabama.  We went through Atlanta and met up with my uncle and aunt.  We ate at the Varsity, which is so fattening, but so yummy!  We ended up getting home in time to go to our Monday night trivia game, where our team took first place for the 3rd week in a row.  

We had a fabulous weekend and hope you did the same. :-)

Mo Isom

As I have previously mentioned, I am a HUGE fan of LSU.  I was going to go there for college, but ended up staying in Florida.  My aunt and uncle went to LSU and Fall 2013, my cousin is planning on going there as well. 

As you may or may not have heard, there is a girl trying out for the men's football team.  She wants to be the placekicker and has been working out with the team for several months now.  

This girl's name is Mo Isom and she was on the soccer team for 4 years, kicked a 90 yard goal, has been on the honor roll, was Homecoming Queen, her list of accomplishments goes on and on.  She is also an awesome Christian.  She had two horrible and traumatic events occur within 10 months of each other, which had her at polar ends of her Christian walk.  You'll have to go to to Mo Isom's website and read about all of her accomplishments, but also the trials she has been through.

I follow Mo on Twitter.  I saw on Saturday that she tweeted she was going to be speaking at a church in Nashville.  Since I live close enough to Nashville, I asked Doug if we could go see her speak.

Yesterday, we went to First Baptist Church Nashville to hear her speak.  She shared her testimony and challenged the high school seniors (who were being celebrated yesterday) to go out into the world and not be afraid of your Christianity.  She warned them that they will face temptation and adversity, but that God will not challenge you beyond what you can handle.

After the service, Mo was standing in the foyer greeting people.  I spoke to her for a minute and then I asked her to take a picture.  She readily agreed.  She is so nice and very down to earth.  If I could re-live my life, I would like to be like Mo Isom.

Mo is such an inspiration and excellent role model for young adults.  

Mother's Day

Yesterday was my second Mother's Day (although I was pregnant with Weston for Mother's Day 2010).

Doug and Weston did a really good job of loving on me yesterday, as they do every day. 

*A disclaimer: I think that Mother's Day is another holiday thought up by retailers to make more money.  I feel that children are a huge blessing and there doesn't need to be a day set aside for mothers (or fathers).

We started the morning at church and then met my parents for breakfast.  Afterwards, we went home and all three of us took a nice nap.  When we got up, we started getting ready to go to dinner.  We decided to go early so that we could beat the dinner rush.  We pulled up to the restaurant before 4:30 and we were told it would be an hour wait (which it was).  Guess we didn't beat the rush. 

While we were waiting to be seated, I opened presents from Doug, Weston, the dogs and my parents.  We also gave my mom presents as well.  Doug got me a book I've been wanting to read, Weston got me the Beauty and the Beast DVD because I want to collect all of the Disney movies, and the dogs got me a new iPhone cover.  My parents got me a fan to help combat the hot Alabama summer since, lucky me, I will be pregnant until the end of August (or that's the plan).

We got my mom a picture frame from Weston that says "I love you Mamma".  I saw a deal on the frame and since we can't find anything with Mamma on it, I decided to order it.  And then it occurred to me that I should have waited until Grandparents Day in September.  Oh well, she enjoyed it.  We also got her a chaise lounge for her back porch so she could sit outside and read.

Mother's Day 2012 was a very nice day and I felt celebrated, even though I don't deserve it.  I'm just doing what I've always dreamed of doing- being a Mom.