Its A

Boy!!!!

The Giant and I are no longer in shock about this and ready to get planning for this little man to join our family. Oh my how things will change around here. 

Its taken me a day to wrap my head around the fact that a little boy is on his way, but now that I'm there, I'm more than excited. I don't know why I was in such shock. It was a 50/50. But somehow, when for almost three years all you've thought about are little girl things, its a major brain change to comprehend that boys exist and not only do they exist, they are yours. 

At the ultrasound appointment, I saw that he was a boy before even the ultrasound tech saw it. That's our boy :) I think the Giant is pretty proud about him. Cheyanne was with us at the appointment and continued to say "boy" over and over again when she looked at the screen. But, she doesn't comprehend that that little boy is in Mommy's belly and will be joining her soon. Honestly, I haven't pushed the news on her since we found out because I don't want to freak her out. I think we'll go with the stork theory for now. What do you think? How would you tell your toddler? Or would you?

22 months

I know this is a little late. Like, about a month late. Oops. We're already onto month 23, but I'm getting us back in order here with month updates back to back.

Cheyanne at 22 Months

Look at my little missy growing up so fast.

Finally I caught a sweet and pretty smile for a month shoot instead of her "cheese" smiles which usually come first. Its amazing what bribing her with M&Ms can get this girl to do. Hehehe. Mommy is so sneaky.

Things you're into:

• One word- Nemo. Nemo in the morning. Nemo in the evening. Nemo in the afternoon. I'm pretty sure if we left naming your little brother/sister up to you, the name would be Nemo. Or Dory, but probably Nemo.
• M&Ms. I can't write a post of things you are into without mentioning M&Ms. They are your crack and we use them to our advantage. I have no shame on some days.
• Everything outside. 
• You have discovered dolls. You still love your trains, trucks and boats, but baby dolls are so much fun. Watching you rock your babies is precious.
• Mommy, of course.

Biggest changes this month:

• You are in a big girl bed!!! YAY!!!! We cuddle at night for a few minutes then its "Night night." So far, only Mommy gets to put you down for bed time but I'm really hoping that you'll let Daddy share in that joy soon.
• We have a babysitter and you love her. Daddy's friend's girlfriend comes twice a week so Mommy and Daddy can go to the gym. Mommy likes to get my yoga on.

You are my sweet girl. We love you so much.

Boy? or Girl?

I haven't talked much about this pregnancy yet on here. I did the big reveal here then left you high and dry. Sorry about that y'all.

Its true what they say. Your first pregnancy is so exciting and new and overwhelming in everything you think about. The second time around, you're so busy trying to keep up with the first, the overwhelming excitement of the second sometimes ends up taking a back seat. Isn't that horrible? I almost feel bad admitting that. Don't judge.

I still have to remind myself that I'm pregnant with "no, I can't have that glass of wine" or "wait, is that cheese pasteurized?" Its a daily battle despite my growing little baby bean bump.

Tomorrow is the big day that most pregnant couples countdown to from the day they find that a wee one is growing. Tomorrow we have our twenty week appointment to reveal whether baby bean is going to be smothered in pink or blue! I can definitely say that this pregnancy is flying by much faster than I had expected.

So what are you thinking? Team blue or Team pink? The Giant and I have our suspicions but its all in the hands of the beholder.

Cast your votes now! Tell me what you think.

Boy or Girl?!!!

Our First Zoo Trip

Fair warning- zoo picture overload. For once, I wasn't the photographer at an outting.

A while back, we took a quick last minute trip to Virginia to visit my family. I didn't realize that its been more than two years since the Giant had been to my hometown. While visiting family, we decided to bear the 100 degree heat and swing by the Mill Mountain Zoo with Nana and Skipper. This was Cheyanne's first zoo trip. I'm pretty excited that I can write down in her baby book it was my little hometown zoo on top of our mountain.

We braved the crowds of two dozen people and explored the zoo. Roanoke's zoo may not be much to some, but to a little girl that loves animals of any kind and frankly had never experienced non-domesticated animals that up close, she loved it.

This is the Mill Mountain Zoo tiger. For real. 

Here, I was explaining to Cheyanne that the tiger was hot so "Don't touch. Hot." Of course she then had to touch it to prove to herself it was indeed hot. "Ouch."

Skipper and Chey checking out the prairie dogs.

Who's ever seen or for that matter heard of a red panda? Roanoke has one, of all things. To me, it looked more like a big fluffy raccoon. I wish I had a better picture to show you.

If you go to the Mill Mountain Zoo, there is one thing you must do while there. You must ride the train. Making two loops around the zoo lasting about 5-10 minutes, we saw lions and tigers and bears… oh my. Just kidding. We saw a coyote and vultures and a possible cougar-like animal. 

Despite the lack of her smiles in these pictures, she actually loved the choo-choo ride. 

We, of course, waved at Nana and Skipper as we rode by the station for round two.

Come on kid. Give me a smile.

I know she liked the choo-choo because she threw quite the tantrum when we had to get off at the station, saying "Choo choo!" over and over again as we walked away. At least we gave the conductor a good laugh.

Daddy and Chey standing over the choo choo tracks.

"Fine. If I can't ride the choo choo, then I'm taking my new toy train and I'm outta here."

Thanks Nana and Skipper for a our first zoo visit! 

Giving Daddy love.

Homemade playdough

We've had a few random afternoon rain days here recently. I've been searching for fun things to do that would entertain the kiddo that didn't involve a tv or us getting wet out in the rain. 

Homemade playdough. Why not?

I have been pinning toddler activities and storing up ideas for just these kind of days. Of course, I didn't have all the ingredients that I really needed to make traditional playdough, so we had to do some major googling to find a recipe that was doable. I found a very basic, not fantastic but not horrible recipe that ended up working out just fine for us. Cheyanne didn't mind one bit that it wasn't the most elastic-y playdough. She enjoyed helping more than anything. By helping, I mean playing with the food color bottles, which helped… :)

These colors Mom! (Ignore the crazy wild hair. Its untamable right now).

Note to self: find a better way to stir dough with food coloring. Bare hands are not the solution.

Then we just played and had a great time with our new dough. She was so gentle with it until I showed her how she could smash and twist it into shapes. We rolled and patted and shaped dough into all kinds of fun shapes.

Oh, and of course a fork had to be used to stab our dough too. That was about when things got out of control. There wasn't much time for pictures after this point as I was too busy catching flying dough balls.

Oh Chey Chey. What are we going to do with you? I can't wait until our next rainy pinterest day. We'll see what fun thing we come up with next.