Summer 'Do

I took JD in today to get a summer haircut at our local kids' salon. I had to leave plenty of time for playing trains since that is his favorite part of getting a haircut at this salon.

We ended up waiting about an hour because one of the stylists had called in sick and there was only one working. No problem for us because JD got plenty of train time on their train table!

I requested a "buzz cut" since that is what we called it back in the day. I wanted JD to have a nice cool head for the summer since we have been so hot and sweaty here!

After we were done, he wasn't impressed with his new spiky hairdo and kept saying "no spiky, no spiky" and has been rubbing his head on everything trying to get it to go flat again.

But I think it is pretty cute!

2 Year Old/Father's Day Photo Shoot

JD and I decided that it might be fun to give daddy a new photo for Father's Day. I scheduled an appointment with a local studio here, but could only get a time on Friday. Talk about cutting it close!

So JD and I loaded up the car on Friday morning to drive across town to get his picture made. Since we hadn't done an official 2-year-old picture yet, I figured this might be a good time for that as well.

I haven't been to this photo studio with JD since he was about 9 months old, so I wasn't really sure how he was going to behave. He has been a little difficult to coax smiles for pictures these days, and he definitely isn't the greatest at sitting still!

I thought it went pretty well!! The camera lady decided to "tickle" me with a feather duster instead of JD and that seemed to do the trick. JD apparently loves to see his mommy in hysterics from a feather duster tickle.

Here is his "official" two year photo (doesn't he look like he is almost 10 or something???):

Looking so cute...

And I was worried about smiles...

We had a lot of trouble getting him to keep his feet up on the bench for this one.

And here is the gift that we put together for daddy!!

JD and I really had a great morning and finished it off with lunch at Red, Hot and Blue! Such fun!!

No Sauce in the Potty

The other day I wanted to post on my blog about a certain exciting event in our little family's life, so I left JD happily playing cars and watching Wiggles in the living room, while I spent 5-10 minutes updating the blog.

Mommy Mistake Sidenote Comment - NEVER leave your 2 year old unsupervised for any amount of time, no matter how trustworthy he seems to be.

So I returned to the living room and found my son playing with his cars and watching Wiggles. But I noticed that some McDonald's garbage from lunch was rifled through a bit. Hmm...I cleaned it up and didn't really think much else of it.

Then, as most pregnant women are likely to do a million times in a day, I went to the restroom, but much to my surprise, here is what I found:

Imagine my shock and terror as visions of my child bleeding or throwing up blood or other such horrible scenarios start to run through my head. So I ran out to inspect my child, who didn't so much as have an old scab on him. Hmm...interesting.

So I went back into the bathroom to inspect a little closer and found the culprit. My child had decided to put the leftover chicken nuggets cardboard box (with ketchup still loose inside the lid from previous dipping) into the toilet.

Then he must have decided that he might get into trouble for this and fished it back out of the toilet, flinging ketchup all over the toilet and walls. As I was playing Junior Mom Detective and compiling the evidence, my son strolls into the bathroom and says, "No sauce in the potty."

I guess it is a good thing that my son doesn't know about his Miranda rights because he pretty much just laid out the crime for me and admitted his guilt. So I said to him, "That's right. We do NOT put anything in the potty. No playing with the potty."

He got a scrubbing down and got to sit in time out to think about his crime. When his daddy got home, I told JD to tell his dad what he did. So JD repeats, "No sauce in the potty."

I am pretty worried that JD didn't learn the valuable lesson that I had hoped and that he only thinks that items with ketchup are the only things that don't go in the potty. I guess time will only tell!

JD's Going to Be a Big Brother!

That's right! We are expecting a new baby in our family in just a few short months! Right now, the baby is affectionately known as L.P. or Lil' Peanut. I think he or she is already pretty cute!

If you ask JD what he wants for Christmas this year, he will tell you - "BABY!" He's even started saying "Baby Boy." (Hmm...I wonder who taught him that??) You can't ask for a better Christmas present than that - a little brother or sister!

We are due on December 28th and will be thrilled with whichever God blesses us with - boy or girl. (For those curious - we will be finding out which blessing we will receive toward the end of July)

I've enjoyed experiencing a very different pregnancy than my first so far with a lot less exhaustion, but a little more nausea! I'm still very lucky though because my symptoms haven't been too bad at all.

I've also enjoyed working out more during this pregnancy and have been continuing my morning Baby Boot Camp class, even with my morning sickness! We have quite a few preggo moms in class these days (including our instructor), so I'm not alone in my misery!

Please send some prayers our way as Lil' Peanut continues to grow and develop!

Mommy Too

I have always said that we have been so fortunate with JD and his sleeping habits. He has always slept so well at night and even takes great naps pretty consistently.

When JD was under a year, we used to put him in the "sleeper" hold to get him nice and drowsy with his pacifier and then we would lay him in bed to fall asleep. He put himself back to sleep in the middle of the night by finding his pacifier. Life was great.

Then when he turned one, we decided to get rid of the pacifier "cold turkey." JD actually did just fine, but we had to start letting him figure out how to go to sleep without the pacifier (and stay asleep).

So we started laying him down after his bedtime milk with just a hug and an "I love you." As you can imagine, we started off the first couple of nights with lots of crying. I came in every 10 minutes and would pat him on the back for reassurance and then I would leave again. After about 1 hour and a half of crying each night (for about 3 nights), he figured it out and went to sleep. And stayed asleep!

As a mother, it is heartbreaking to hear those cries and think that you are the cause for the crying. But I always knew it was for the greater good and that he had to learn how to get himself to sleep! I would sit on the stair outside his door and just pray that he would figure it out fast! I would look at the watch every few seconds to see if it had been 10 minutes yet!

But even those cries don't compare to the new and improved two-year-old cries that we get every once in awhile now.

Last night, JD was beyond tired because his nap was cut short by about 2 hours (he usually takes a 3 to 3 1/2 hour nap in the afternoons). He was very much a "mommy's boy" all afternoon and said "no Daddy" (poor Daddy) and was very clingy and teary all afternoon until bedtime.

When Jon took JD up to bed (as he does every night), all we heard for about 10 minutes was "Mommy too, Mommy too, Mommy too!" in hysteric sobs.

Now if that doesn't break a mother's heart, what would??? It takes crying to a whole new level when you hear your name involved! I can't wait to see how it evolves over the next year!

Tales of a Single Mom

This week, I was on my own while my sweet husband was at a training course in College Station. JD and I missed Daddy a bunch, but stayed pretty busy for most of the week. In fact, I was so busy and scatterbrained that I never seemed to have a camera with me to capture these moments!

We went up to visit Grandma, Grandpa and Aunt Mercy on Tuesday and helped to sew a roman shade and cowgirl valance for Aunt Mercy's bedroom. We had a great time and were able to get the whole thing put together in 5 hours! Thank goodness JD took a good nap so we could concentrate on sewing! Afterward, we went to dinner with my mom at a yummy Thai food restaurant here in town and watched JD devour an entire plate of panko-crusted chicken.

On Wednesday, we hosted a baby shower playdate in honor of our Baby Boot Camp friend and instructor Tricia and her new baby boy on the way! The kids had so much fun playing on JD's new playset and I enjoyed visiting with all the moms!

On Wednesday afternoon, we took in some shopping at the Outlet Mall with my mom and then JD got to play at Grandma's house with his favorite bucket of cars while I went to a meeting a church. JD really didn't want to say goodbye when it was time to leave! He loves Grandma's house!

On Thursday, JD and I went to Dara's community pool to meet up with Emma and Ellie for some swim time! I borrowed some arm floaties for JD and he had so much fun! He kept jumping in the pool and swimming all around.

After the pool, we went up to the mall with Dara and the girls for some dinner and a ride on the carousel horse. JD remembered his last trip on the horse and started saying "Yee-haw!"

We had a fun-filled week, but we are so glad that Jon is back home today!! We missed him terribly and can't wait to spend the whole weekend together!