Big Sister Surprises

 

Well it wasn't Disney World like she requested. And it certainly wasn't Great Wolf Lodge like I'd planned on. But this three-year-old didn't seem to care where she was as long as she was on a trip with her mom and dad being treated like a princess. I had tossed out the idea of a "big sister trip" the week I found out we were expecting another wee one. I planned and planned in my head and settled on Great Wolf Lodge and Dallas for a long weekend trip to treat Hallie to loads of fun. In the end, although I nearly booked our trip three separate times, we ended up deciding to hold off on those plans. Which is probably a good thing. It turns out our girl gets homesick pretty quickly. We were quickly running out of weekends to make the trip to Dallas and Spring Break ended up being a bust with me helping out coworkers who were on vacation instead of taking time off myself like I'd planned on. I had a continuing education course in OKC coming up, we were desperately needing to buy a new car before mine racked up any more work miles on it and Riley had registered for a St Paddy's Day race. So it was settled....we would have our big sister weekend in OKC. I drove down on Thursday night ahead of them and did a quick test drive on a car we'd picked out online. Loved the car. Loved the quiet time at the hotel room that night. But I missed my babies. My course was probably one of my favorite I've ever attended and it finished early so what more could I ask for. Oh yes, shopping. I could ask for shopping. I wanted to surprise my princess with a gift when they showed up that evening and the Disney store at the outlet mall proved to be just the right place to shop for Hal gal. I found a pink sparkly princess tote filled with goodies I knew she would go crazy over. I finished my shopping and drove back to the hotel where this big sister was waiting for me in the lobby.....

Just as I'd imagined she went gaga over her new princess gear. Especially this tee that she hasn't let me remove from her body since.....

We knew the car buying process would most likely be a lengthy one so we drove straight to Edmond to get things started. Riley test drove the car, loved it and started what ended up being a two hour negotiation process with the salesman. Good thing Hal and I had the iPad and a playroom to keep us occupied. I don't deal with numbers. Or long waits. She didn't seem to mind though....

It was 9:00 that night when we loaded up and pulled out in our new car. Happy momma! Hal gave the approval!

We'd planned on having dinner somewhere yummy but settled for picking up Schlotzky's and eating in bad back at the hotel. On the drive back I noticed something was off with our girl...she was just acting funky. Then she finally spilled her guts...."I wanna go back home...I miss my home." Poor girl had her first case of home sickness. Buuuuuuuuuuut she was stoked to have her own little room with a couch and tv. Clearly she overcame the missing her home thing quickly once we returned to the room.....

That Saturday morning was a bit gloomy and plenty windy but we made our way to Lake Hefner to cheer daddy on in his St. Paddy's Day 8K training race. He has been so disciplined and determined during his half marathon training....so so so proud of him! He ran a fantastic race and Hal had loads of fun while we waited to watch him finish.....

She had some sweet good luck hugs for him before the race.....

 

Watching her run alongside the course screaming "go daddy go, go daddy go!" was probably one of the cutest things I've ever seen.....

He didn't place in his age division but came close and he was surprised by his time so there were big smiles all around....

The home sickness bit started to kick in again after the race was over but the promise of her next big surprise was enough to kick those sad feelings. While Riley went back to the hotel to shower and checkout, Hal and I went on a special mission to do something super big-sisterish....

We walked straight to Claire's and she hopped right up in the ear piercing chair with a willing smile on her face. She had already planned on purple earrings but once she looked at her choices she landed on some beautiful pink flowers. She had no qualms about what was about to happen. I, on the other hand, was getting a wee bit nervous as the girl had to stop marking Hal's ears to check out a line of customers. Hal just wobbled back and forth in the chair asking when it was going to be her turn. She was so tough even though I could tell the pain of the poke surprised her....then the second poke forced her to shoot the girl a devilish look. A few "owwwwww"s and one very sad face later Hallie had two pretty pink earrings and two suckers to ease the pain....

It took about two minutes for her to forget about what had just happened. She listened intently as the girl got down at her level to tell her how to care for her new piercing. More surprises followed as we made our way to the candy store and the Disney store. I think I heard her say "ooooo I need dat" and "ooooh mommy, I want dat" at least a hundred times as she perused the store with wide eyes. After much debate and a lot of backtracking through the princess costume section she settled on a Rapunzel dress complete with a long braided hairpiece. She reluctantly left the pile of heaven to check out....

                                      

I let her guide the way through the mall and naturally she requested that we got down to "where the food is." She spotted a photo booth that really peaked her interest so we hopped in and took some goofy pics. She waited.....and waited....and waited patiently for our prints to pop out.....

And then this happened......

I was half ticked off and half amused when she handed it to me and said "mommy, dis is not us." Hahaha!!!! Nope baby girl, dat was not us. We made one more stop to let her pick out a new dress and then met Riley down the street for some Mexican food. The weather just wasn't going to fit well with our plans for the zoo so we decided on the science museum which ended up being a great choice. After waiting in a rather long line Hal was chomping at the bit to get her hands on some of the action around her. First she did some exploring at the water table.....

Then hopped up on a tractor with farmer Riley....

Weeeeeeee, down the fire pole.....

Up next was some very focused face painting that made me giggle.....

Not sure what look she was going for but she certainly did not want or need help.....

She spent a solid two hours literally sprinting through the museum from exhibit to exhibit. Of course daddy was her main sidekick as the sprinting thing didn't really pair well with my giant belly. These two had a BLAST!!!!

I didn't manage to get a picture of her favorite part of the museum....the giant tree house. She is still asking me about it daily. "When can I go back to da big treehouse????" Sleepy eyes were getting droopy and the rain was coming down so we ran to the car and she snuggled in for the ride home and a nice little nap. Her Disney World dreams will have to wait a couple of years....but she didn't seem to mind. She has three more months until her big sister duties officially kick in but it's safe to say she's already ready!

Bedtime Memories

You're sitting on your little white plastic potty with your head bobbing to and fro and your eyes closed. It gets me everytime. I stop and take a second to giggle and then think to myself "I'm gonna miss this someday."

The most simple moments are my favorite. 

I love carrying to you bed. All 36 dead weight sleepy pounds of you. I especially love your head on my shoulders and your little hand patting my back. I like to think you're telling me "good job today mom." I love when you're so tired that you start mumbling phrases that never seem to end....just that all run together. Funny stuff. What's even funnier is how suddenly you turn into a wild spider monkey the minute I lay you down in bed. Wide-eyed and asking if you can jump on the bed. Sorry Charlie. I'd be silly to not mention the fact that I love lining up all 2,538 of your stuffed animals and making sure they are "comfy" and have plenty of blankets. I love the way you have me re-situate your blanket and without fail say "make sure it covers the tips of my toesies!" I love the way you collect your three books before hopping in bed but then always try to convince me that we have time to read five. It's always a challenge....but I like to think of it as a blessed challenge. A very sweet and somehow endearing challenge. One of these days I know you will love sleep, or so I've been told. I suppose I'll do my best to enjoy these years where you beg to stay up to spend more time with us. Speaking of begging, a LOT of that goes on at bedtime. Begging to have another drink of water. Begging to have a snack. Begging to stay up for "five mo minutes." You're lucky you're a cute little beggar. Sometimes there are monsters. Sometimes the dog stayed in your room and is breathing too heavily for your liking. Sometimes your elephant falls off the bed and needs rescued. Sometimes you suddenly remember something I promised you ten days ago and need to remind me about it. Sometimes you feel the need to wear three pairs of pajamas to bed and then realize it was the wrong decision. I'm almost convinced that your goal is to wear us down so that your dad and I will become so fatigued from the bedtime routine that we fall asleep and you can stay up and party.

Like I mentioned up above...the simple moments are my favorite...it's obvious that nothing about bedtime is simple....UNTIL...I creep back in to give you a kiss goodnight once you've fallen fast asleep. Your little hands are curled up tight around the edge of your favorite blanket. Your left arm is squeezing the life out of your pink stuffed elephant. Your sweet little lips are basically begging for another goodnight kiss. And your face is as peaceful as faces come. Ahhhh, simple.



 

24 Week Bumpdate

Well this pregnancy has picked up some steam, hasn't it? The belly continues to grow at an exponential rate, it's already time to take the lovely glucose tolerance test, the nursery is halfway complete and back pain has reared its ugly head. My mantra this week has been "four months left, four months left...." Four months left!?!?!?!? I'm not sure my belly has much more room to expand. 

Since my last update we have decided on a name for our sweet pea. Princess #2 will be known as our Bella Kaye, Bella Kay, Bella K or Bella Kae. Obviously we could use some help with the middle name spelling. Riley came up with her name and I was elated that it was something we both loved. The waterworks started flowing when he suggested "K" as a middle name for my momma. He may never know how much that means to me that he suggested it. Miss Bella has a name and a nursery too! After spending a large amount of time on Pinterest I found that I wasn't a fan of anything I saw in nursery trends. After much thought I had a vision....of mint and coral. Blankets, lamp shade, changing pad cover, coral paint for the dresser, rocking chair, a mint colored "B" for the wall and curtains will arrive on my doorstep soon thanks to a bunch of simple online shopping. Nanny will be making the crib bedding once the fabric arrives. 

Thank you online shopping....from the bottom of my heart. 

Sincerely, a girl out west.

Her nursery was born the day we started painting. Riley put up chair railing and I painted a pretty mint color underneath the chair rail and we left the beige that was on top. My hope is to have it complete before my seven month update to show the transformation from a junk/storage room to a room fit for a tiny princess. I've been working hard on an old dresser that was given to us by a friend's parents. Peeling veneer, sanding drawers, painting (safe paint, no worries!) and begging Riley to spray the top coat over the dresser. I'm dying to put the cute little knobs on and have a place to start putting those sweet wittle baby clothes in. Speaking of wittle baby clothes, Katie dropped off all of the clothes we've accumulated together over the past three years. I've been sorting through them little by little and have had a rush of memories flooding the room as I picked up each tiny outfit. "Oh those jeans...my favorite! Wow, that dress was my favorite! No wait, that jumper was my absolute favorite. Definitely." With each piece I find that just about everything I dressed Hallie in was my favorite. Playing dressup on a new tiny doll will be much more fun this time with an older sister to help me pick out cute items. 

 I'm told to "slow down" on a daily basis but that doesn't seem to be something I'm capable of. When I do find a bit of down time I can be found in the nursery working on some sort of task or picking up the ten thousand dress up high heels and hair accessories that are strewn about the house. The only thing that forces me to the couch is when my legs start talking to me. Well, more like my hips. And my back. I'm hesitant to say anything else about back pain because I'm trying to pretend it's not happening this time around. Last go round with Hallie required seeing a massage therapist AT LEAST twice a week between month six and eight to deal with the spasms and tension from the physical demands of my job. Way too much $$$$$$$$ spent at the spa. That's all I'll say about that. 

Baby shower season has officially begun and I've enjoyed two lovely showers for two out of my 2,456 pregnant friends. Exciting times!!! Some very, very sweet friends are hosting a diaper/frozen meal shower in a little over a month for Bella and I. AM. EXCITED. 

Random facts to end this month's bumpdate: Baby girl is healthy and active. She likes to party at night just like her big sis. She's been begging me to eat oranges and cherry limeaides. I can't say I blame her. Yummo. Pregnancy insomnia has been MUCH better this month. I'm suddenly blind as a bat. I think (I emphasize THINK) that Riley has come to terms with the whole pink thing happening again for a second time. Hallie includes Bella in story time before she goes to bed. She kisses my belly and it's quite possibly the best thing in the entire world. When asked by someone if she is having a baby sister or baby brother her response is this without fail..."God made my baby a girl." It takes me a awhile to pick up the pieces of my heart each time I hear her say it.