Seven years ago

Yesterday was mine and David's 7th wedding anniversary. That's so hard to believe! A lot has happened over the past seven years. Some highlights...
2004 - We survived a winter together without heat - so we made our own ;)
2005 - We bought a house
2006 - We vowed to get healthy and lost lots of weight
2007 - We found our church home - Ridge Church
2008 - We took a trip to Cancun
2009 - We had a beautiful baby boy
2010 - We both turned 30 and celebrated by going to NYC - one of our favorite trips we've taken together!
2011 - We had a beautiful baby girl

Xander loves his sister!

Where is Thumbkin?

Halloween

Halloween was actually lots of fun! I had bought costumes for both kids thinking we would go to “Trunk or Treat” at church with Grandma, but we ended up staying in Charlotte that day. I was kind of bummed, but just figured we’d do it next year. I did, however, leave the porch light on so we could give out candy to all the cute kids. The first few kids that came to the door really intrigued Xander. He seemed so interested that I asked him if he would like to take a walk and go trick or treating. He said yes, even though he had no idea what trick or treating was. We dressed up both kids and went to about 5 or 6 houses in our neighborhood. It was great! Xander walked up to each door and said “Trick or Treat” and “Happy Halloween.” I was very proud of him and excited that he got to have the Halloween experience. The weather was nice, chilly, but clear. Amelia Jayne was warm in her snuggly ladybug costume and Xander was the cutest Mater around! :)

The first 3 weeks and those awful 3 days

 Written on November 14

These past three weeks have been great! Amelia Jayne is an amazing baby. So far she's extremely easy-going and content. She cries when she's hungry and when she's sleepy, but that's about it! She's been sleeping great at night - I wake her up every three hours to eat and then she pretty much goes right back to sleep. Awesome! There's really only been one night that she's cried and we David stayed up with her. We realized it was gas, got some gas relief drops and she did fine after that.

I have been feeling so good. I cannot tell you how much better I feel this time around then I did when I had Xander. Going through 20 hours of labor and then having a c-section is no bueno. Scheduling this c-section and having an idea of what I was going to go through was much better for me. I have recovered quickly, haven't needed nearly as much help, and have already been out and about multiple times! It took three weeks before I had my first outing with Xander. We had our first outing with Amelia Jayne when she was about 5 days old. I'm not quite back to my old self and I still have some pains (mostly from muscles that I haven't used in awhile from being pregnant) but overall I'm doing very well.

Xander is having a lot of fun with his little sister. I didn't really know what to expect from him. I thought he might either get really jealous and act out or completely ignore her. He really hasn't done either. He has his moments when he wants more attention, but typically I (or whoever's around) takes that time to spend with him. He's already said the sweetest things. He stayed with his Mimi and Grandma for a couple of days last week and when we got to Grandma's house to pick him up he went over to AJ's carrier and said, "I missed you Melia Jayne!" - completely unprompted. He has to give her a kiss every night and tell her he loves her before he goes to bed. He's concerned about her when she cries and usually asks me, "What's wrong with Melia Jayne?" His answer is typically that mommy needs to feed her. :) He likes to look at her and point out her "little tiny toes" as he says.

David's doing well. He was able to take the week off after I came back from the hospital. I missed not having him with me each day at the hospital and he missed not having that time with me and Amelia Jayne, but I am so thankful that we chose to do it that way. Having him home with me, Xander and AJ for that whole week was really great. I know it was good for Xander to have special attention from his daddy.

That leads us to these last three days. They've been interesting to say the least. It started on Saturday. We were over at Grandma and Grandpa's house when I noticed Xander looked very flushed and he was warm. Since Grandpa is a doctor we had him look at him - turns out he had an ear infection and strep throat. I also had strep throat. We left that night and went by a 24-hour pharmacy to pick up the medication. When we got home Xander had fallen asleep so we had to wake him up to give him the meds. It was awful. We had to hold him down to give it to him and he immediately threw it all back up. This was the first experience Xander has had with throwing up. It was my first experience with having a child who threw up. Not fun. He and I ended up in the shower, which was not something Xander wanted to do at 10pm. Then we still had to figure out how to get the meds down him. We mixed it with different liquids, but the one medication just kept coming back up. Ick. He ended up going through 3 pairs of pajamas that night. After going to bed at midnight, though, he stayed asleep and woke up fine the next morning. We layed low that day, although it was supposed to be our first Sunday back at church. I was really bummed, but knew I didn't want to expose the kids in Xander's class to strep throat, so we just stayed home.

That leads us to Monday - my first day home alone with both children. All was going well. The morning went by without incident. Then after lunch I asked Xander if he wanted to go for a walk. He did, so we started getting ready to go outside. He ran through the kitchen and was coming into the living room when he tripped and fell into a cabinet. And split his head open. It was bad, but I couldn't tell if it needed stitches. It wasn't bleeding badly, but the wound looked kind of open. Anyway, I called David and we he ended up taking him to the hospital where his dad was working to have him check it out. Grandpa to the rescue again! He glued the wound back together and put some steri-strips on it to keep it from scarring as badly and to help it heal quickly. Xander was a trooper.

Some pics from the first few weeks.

Xander loving on AJ

He loves to hold her!

Xander's big boo boo

After Grandpa fixed him up

Daddy love

Catching up

I know I'm a little behind, but I wanted to post about all the different things we've done over the last few weeks, so expect some somewhat random posts on older subjects, like Halloween. :)

Introducing...

Amelia Jayne Little!

Born October 24, 2011 at 7:27am

Weight - 9 pounds 5 ounces

Length - 20.5 inches

One week old and already smiling for the camera!!

She's a beautiful, healthy, sweet little girl. I am so thankful for her!

Just 3 more days...

It's hard for me to imagine that I'll have my little girl in my arms at this time on Monday...just three days from now.

I'm so excited to see her little face, touch her velvety soft skin, take in her fresh baby scent, hold her close to me and love on her for eternity.

I can't wait to introduce her to her brother, who will be a totally awesome big brother - he's got a good role model since his daddy was a pretty awesome big brother, too.

I look forward to staring in awe at her right beside my loving husband, her daddy.

I'll pray for her and tell her all about her other Daddy, too - the God of the universe who created her, knit her together in my womb, and has a place for her in this world.

There are so many people who already love her and have been looking forward to this day. Her Mimi, Papa, Grandma, Grandpa, Granddaddy, Nana, Ee-oo, Nay-nay, Kaitlyn, Patrick, Aunt B, GG, and so many others. She already has 2 best friends, Anya and Keira, and a boyfriend, Caleb, all born in the past few weeks.

She is loved more than words can express. My heart is overflowing.

One of Xander's favorite places...

Chick-Fil-A!

Birthday sweetness

A birthday kiss for Mommy :)

Xander's gift to Mommy :)

Xander is such a good helper!

Confessions

I have to admit - I'm pretty miserable right now. I don't feel like I can do anything that doesn't cause pain. I think, "I'll just lay down for a minute" and either my hips, back, stomach, chest, etc. hurts! I think, "I'll just take a walk" and my hips, pelvis, legs or feet ache tremendously. I think, "I can cook dinner tonight" and by the time I'm finished with it, I'm useless for the rest of the night. I think, "I have all these things I want to do before Amelia Jayne is born" and I get a small fraction of those things accomplished.

I'm feeling pretty useless these days. Especially when I have a day like yesterday.

I lost it yesterday. Like, really lost it. I yelled at Xander. Like, really yelled. I've never done that before. He was exasperating me, repeating everything I said instead of answering my questions. He was tired which complicated matters, made him more emotional and needy. I didn't have much to give yesterday. So I yelled at him. He cried. I cried. It was awful. As a wise friend told me, "He'll forget about it," and I believe that and I'm thankful that God erases sin and gives comfort to the needy, but I don't know that I'll forget so easily. I felt (and still feel) terrible about the way I acted out in anger toward my two year old child who can't control his emotions and doesn't understand his own needs yet.

Sigh.

Life will get better. I know this. It's less than a week now when I will no longer be pregnant. I will hold my sweet little girl in my arms (instead of in my body) and be able to share her with others, too.

Right now I'm feeling emotional and drained. Oh and did I mention I have a cold? And so does Xander. Thanks for your prayers, friends. And thanks for letting me be honest about what I'm going through. Life isn't all bad by any means. There are still good and happy moments. But in 6 days, I hope to see many more of those. :)

Preschool

It just occurred to me that I haven't posted about Xander's preschool experience yet! He's been going for five weeks now. He goes once a week on Tuesdays. I'm so proud of him! Each day we've gone he's been so excited to be there. Here was the first day's experience:
We pulled into the parking lot, I got him out of his seat, I gave him his lunchbox, he grabbed my hand and said, "I hold Mommy's hand in the road," (::sigh:: Such a big boy!!) we walked to the door, went in and looked at the fish tank for a couple of minutes, walked down the hall to his room, found his name and left his bag and lunchbox there, and he walked right in! I had to remind him to give me a kiss.

He has been so eager and ready to get into his classroom and play! When I pick him up at 1pm he's usually playing with cars, tractors, blocks, or out on the playground. His teachers usually tell me he's pretty tired at the end of the day, but his behavior is still very good. I'm sure he does much more active things at school than he does with his 9-month pregnant mommy.

I'm so thankful that he loves it! After the first couple of times, I asked him to tell me what he does and the only things he would tell me were that he "plays ground" which I finally figured out meant he played on the playground :), he plays with cars and trucks, and he sings "The ABC song" during circle time. Now he's come home singing songs that I don't recognize, so I know he learned them in preschool. He sings the blessing, "God Our Father" and a song called "Icky Bicky Bumblebee." His teachers told me that he sings "Twinkle Twinkle" and "The ABC song" a lot, too. They've been making each letter of the alphabet each week. We're up to "D" now. Xander absolutely loves this and carries his letters around the house all the time. He loves the alphabet!

This week I asked him to tell me who his friends are at school - he said "Ms. Jean and Ms. Lindsey" who are, of course, his teachers! Haha! It's so funny to me how much he prefers the company of adults to other children.

I'll post some pics from his first day of school as soon as I get them off my camera which is not in my possession right now.

Interesting info...

This is a great post by my friend, Patrick, about the One Campaign.

I love the Tiny Prints website and I just found their DIY blog! Awesome!

I've known about Etsy for awhile, but never really looked at the site. It's way cool!

I saw a friend's facebook post about Mi Esperanza. Looks like a great ministry and an amazing way to help out women in poverty.

My birthday was yesterday. It was awesome. David and I celebrated on Wed night by going out to Fleming's (we had gift cards :)) and having the "Memorable Meal for Two" - it was delicious! I wish I could have done more, but I've been so tired lately that dinner was about all I could handle. We were supposed to baby-sit a little girl last night, but she was sick, so we got to spend the evening together, just the two of us! Again, I had grandiose ideas of going to a movie (we have more gift cards :)) but by the time I got home from work I was pretty exhausted. That's kind of my life these days...exhaustion. So we had a simple dinner and lounged together in the living room. That's kind of my way of celebrating anyway - I'm a really good lounger/relaxer :).

I'm 37 weeks pregnant today - officially considered full-term!

Beautiful weather...awesome weekend

Last weekend was beautiful! I love when the temps stay in the 60s for the high...ahhh...fall is in the air! We have spent a lot of time outdoors over the past few days.

David and Xander went uptown and rode the train on Saturday while I went to my friend, Crystal's, baby shower. Here are some pics from their adventures.

On the platform, waiting for the train.

Still waiting...

There it is!

Playing on the typewriter letters outside of ImaginOn.

Here comes the train!

There it is!

Cool.

Telling Scout all about the train. 

Time to go.

Just one last look...

Sunday we celebrated Patrick's 6th birthday. My sister hosted at her house with a chicken stew supper, lots of friends and family, and a fun game of tag (in which I did not participate).
My sister is such a great hostess! She had lovely decorations, beautiful flowers, the food was yummy and perfectly displayed. I'm so proud of her! We ended the evening with a bonfire while Patrick opened presents. It was a great day! I think Patrick really enjoyed his birthday. :)

Festival in the Park

Last weekend Charlotte had its annual Festival in the Park at Freedom Park. David and I decided to brave it with Xander this year - our first time going with him. It was quite fun! It rained most of the day, except while we were actually at the park - awesome! And Xander hadn't napped in a couple of days at that point, but he actually handled things very well.

We bought fair food and had a picnic, walked around to all the booths with artwork, crafts, and information, watched people dance on the stages and heard some live music performances. Overall it was a great time - I would do it again. Next year we'll have an 11-month old to add to the mix...we'll see how I feel about that when the time comes around again at this time next year. :)

Here are some pics of Xander playing on the playground and riding the train (with Scout, of course!).