Busy Bunny: Part 1

Our Easter weekend was busy and fun filled. Saturday we went to church and afterwards G got to participate in his very first egg hunt.

The company, the weather, our sweet boy in his bow tie, it was all perfection! The whole Coker family is so dear to me and I always love spending time at their family and friends who are like family events. They have one of those houses that feels like home to everyone. They have created this sense of belonging that is hard to find the right words for, it just exists around them. We were thrilled that this year we were going to be able to make their Annual Egg Hunt.

After visiting and eating way to much yummy food it was time to hunt. G caught on quickly to the idea of finding eggs and filling up his Easter basket. He even developed a little victory cheer of "Alright!" with a fist pump each time he found one. And that was all before he realized that there was candy and money in the eggs!



The kicker to the Coker Egg Hunt is that after the kiddos are done hunting the adults make their way onto the egg hunt stage. Only this time the stakes are much higher. Waiting in the lucky golden and silver eggs is some cold hard cash. It was hilarious seeing the adults race into the yard with much more excitement than even the kids had shown.



Look at these people! They are hungry for that golden egg!

G preferred hanging with Mr. Coker during the craziness. He was perfecting his magic "Where Did the Egg Go?" trick.



Isn't that the sweetest? He is going to be such a wonderful Grandpa, whenever that time comes! As a parent it is such a sweet feeling to see someone else genuinely enjoying your child. G is such a light to me, but when he provides that for someone else, gosh, melt my heart. This picture, their eyes, their smiles it just screams light to me!

What a blessing it is to have friends that are like family in our lives, to share traditions with, to love on us, to help us grow and what better to time to celebrate this than Easter.

Sunday's Events are coming up next!

Oh Yes We Did

A few things can make a girl a little loopy. And a more than a few of those things have been happening around here lately.
The main issues 1. Our AC has been out since Tuesday. 2. Labor signs all over the place yet no labor.
I am trying to stay sane people!

But might have fallen off my rocker tonight when we did this...



I found the golden egg. Now we are just waiting for it to hatch!

Credits
Painting by Dad and G

Did I Mention?

Seems crazy that I am just now mentioning here that we are adding a fig to our family. Yep, that's right, another baby and soon! Soon, like maybe, today?
Well, probably not today but most likely sometime within the next week.
This pregnancy has flown by, from keeping up with G, holidays, then enjoying the arrival of three other new babies in our close friends lives it seems crazy that D day is almost here. Since I am horrible about keeping up the week to week stuff here is a pregnancy summary.



Gender
We don't know and won't know until our little one makes his/her grand arrival. Based on a home gender test and the guesses of most friends it's another sweet baby boy. Either way we will be thrilled!

Movement
This babe seems to like the same places that his/her older brother did. Always sticking a back or bottom out on the right side of the bump. This little fig does hiccup quite a bit. I only felt G hiccup once or twice. This babe often hiccups twice a day.

Craving
This is hard. I crave food pregnant or not. It is hard to tell which are because of the pregnancy and which are just because I would like queso with every meal. I have notices a strong desire for Dr. Pepper in the last few weeks. I like Dr. Pepper but have never had a craving for one or rarely ever drank one in my life before. No worries I keep the caffeine to a minimum. Only a few sodas a week.
I have also noticed a desire for fried chicken, strips or the whole chicken. Yummy! Maybe one more trip to Babe's before the baby arrives?
I also seem to crave foods of my childhood when I am pregnant. Sugary cereal, pop tarts, oreos. Things that I allowed myself back then, or I guess my mom allowed, every once and a while at least. Foods that I allow myself to buy once a year now.

Aversions
This is hard too. I like most food and it has stayed pretty much the same. In the beginning I was definitely more nauseous than I was with G and the smell of most any food turned me off. Luckily, I was cured of that around week 14.

What I Miss
My body. Following after G has gotten harder and harder. It seems as soon as I sit on the ground to play he wants me to move to another room to play with something else. It's hard to resist his sweet request "c'mon mommy". He has learned that it takes mommy a minute to get back up. And as anyone who has been pregnant knows, it just gets uncomfortable at a point. The discomfort makes suggling hard. I miss snuggling with my boys!



Maternity Clothes
Oh My! This might just be the hardest part this time around. Nothing Fits. All the clothes I wore with G are just too small. I am carrying the baby lower which made all my pants seriously snug. By week 30 I was wearing them out and ripping them off to be replaced by seriously over sized yoga pants as soon as I got home. I am sure Matt will enjoy me dressing like a normal person soon!

Sleep
Hallelujah! I have been able to sleep during this pregnancy. Of course, there are sometimes four or five trips to the bathroom during the middle of the night but I think I can pee in my sleep at this point. TMI?

Symptoms
Other than having every possible sign of labor for the past few weeks this pregnancy seems to have been relatively symptom free. A little nausea in the beginning, some ligament/ groin pain in the end, and rounds and rounds of braxton hicks for the past two months.

Best Moments
The best moments of this pregnancy have been with G. He often talks to the baby, cuddles up with the bump, and has given many a kisses to this little one. I can't wait to see how he loves his little fig. I am prepared for jealousy and hard times but he is such a caring boy and I think he is going to love being a big brother!

All the pictures are by Raspberry Rain Images. Check them out! These gals are fabulous to work with and captured some sweet moments of this quickly growing family of three.

I heart Pinwheels

G has a deep love for pinwheels. I can't really blame him. They really are fun when the wind or a cute little toddler gets them going. Usually that cute little toddler adds a sweet sound effect of "Wheeee!" with the spin.

I imagine that is exactly what the pinwheel is thinking too. Or maybe "Get me off this ride. I'm gonna puke!". Either way "Whee!" is probably the better choice.

Well, thanks to Grandma Julie we have a garden of pinwheels to admire and love in our backyard. Recently, G and I took one of those little pinwheels on a hike up to the top of the Mound to see how the pinwheel would work up there. Maybe his first science experiment, if you will?



See the look of determination?



It needed a little help. But it turns out pinwheels are as much fun on the Mound as they are in the backyard! Our experiment was a success!



As a treat for all of that hard work and hiking we had Sonic drinks waiting for us at the bottom!

Anyone know how long I can get away with a water from Sonic as a treat?
I will take it for now, because something about the straw and then getting to munch on the fabulous Sonic ice makes this little boy a happy camper!

Quirks

I am absolutely loving so many things about our little man at this age, especially his silly quirks and the funny joking things he loves to do these days.
I want to capture all of them along with his sweet voice on video, but if I don't have someone else distracting him all he wants to do is look at the video.

Exhibit A.
Hiding things behind his back



He will usually do this 10 or 15 times in a row, but as soon as he figured out I was videoing it was over! Boo!

The only other quirk I have been able to capture is his new funny dancing along with a silly song.
Watch in the middle for his Itsy Bitsy (spider that is) request and try not to notice the scattered laundry and box that needs to go to the attic. My house is usually spotless. Ha! Just typing that made me laugh out loud.



One more thing... I think he shares this quirk with most toddlers, but he LOVES to dip. If food comes with dip, he is ALL in. I sent this picture to Matt at lunch today and said yes in fact, G is still in his PJ's at lunch and dipping his whole sandwich into his yogurt.



Matt's response was "I want to be him when I grow up". I loved that response for so many reasons. Now, I finally know what I want to be when I grow up too!

More Than Words

Let me start by saying I am well aware that I am writing this as a completely biased, over the moon in love with her toddler mom. Now that it's out of the way...

In the past 20 months, I have been blown away just watching my little man learn. From the first reflexes and turning to hear our voices until now it has me baffled at how that amazing brain works and puts things together so quickly. And sometimes so uniquely!

Most recently, it has been the words. Seriously, this kiddo learns a new one(usually more than one) every day. And then he puts them together and communicates with us. It's amazing! How huge is that, to be able to communicate your wants and needs. And to top it off he is constantly doing a bunch of other ridiculous and funny things with words!

I am not sure of why, but I know that I was not expecting him to communicate so well at this age. I should have known since I was a talker from early on that I would get one too, but I just wasn't expecting it. And then overnight he went from mama and dada to well over 100 words. (Yes, I counted and the list is in his baby book now)

The funny part is that as he builds his vocabulary he is also building his jabber. He makes more noises now and talks more gibberish than before too. It is like he is trying to build sentences, but only knows a few of the words so babble and some great expressions make up the rest.

A few of Mommy's favorites.

I love you - A given right? If you tell him I love you he will often respond with I love you or just say too! Melt my heart!

Buggy - We have called him Bug, bugs, bugger, and buggy from early on and he has recently picked up on it saying buggy, usually in a voice like he is calling out to himself from another room. Like he is saying "Where are you?"

Names - He has caught on to so many familiar names now, both family members and friends. Matt and I have been jokingly teaching him our real names, not mommy and daddy, and sometimes he even uses them! Funny now but I really hope it doesn't stick!

I do - He can say yes, but his usually response when asked a question and the answer is yes is either "I do" or "Peeees". No ranks right up there with mommy and daddy in words used with the highest frequency. The joy of toddlers!

I don't really have any pictures that actually relate to this topic, so here are a few of my random recent favorites.

Playing on the computers at the library


One of his newest quirks - requesting a hat or shoes first thing in the morning


Anyone have the 90's Hit - More Than Words, by Extreme running through your head during this post? Sorry!