scratching itches

So...remember when I told you that I thought that the G-man's buzz cut was the result of my own itch to do something with my hair?

Um...yeah.

It was.

My intent was to keep it long, but the curly ends needed to go.

Dead. Frizzy. Blah.

But....I ended up needing more to get cut off, and ended up with this 'do.

At first, I thought, "I look like Daria." And...I sort of do. But only if I am grimacing.

So I decided to take the glasses off and smile.

Much better.

Mr. T., who is one of the only men on earth who prefers short hair, came home and said, "I love it! Now, only if it was shorter!"

Grr. I miss my long hair.

Not to be outdone by momma, the G-man got a fresh buzz cut. It was getting fuzzy wuzzy was a bear-ish, after only a month! My plan was to grow out the top, but I'm not sure how this is going to work (any advice would be greatly appreciated). Anyhoodles, this time, he braved the chair by himself and didn't need cartoons to keep him distracted. Which, in our book, is a big win, because it cost us half of what those big kid-specialty chains charged us.

And here's a pic of him right after...loving his kiddie pool on the hottest day of the year!

Even though I miss his baby hair a lot, I've gotta admit that I think he's pretty darned cute anyway.

Speaking of scratching itches, only 6 more days until the big gender and name reveal. (Houston, we have a boy name!) Any guesses as to gender????

put a ring on it

Well, my friends, week 16 has come and gone in a flash. My avocado-sized baby will be some other fruit tomorrow. S/he seems to not want to kick me much anymore, so we pulled out the handy dandy home doppler we bought when G was in utero and listened to his/her heartbeat. Sometimes, I forget how wonderful that sound is.

It is really, really wonderful.

The G-man has decided that he would like to be two. As evidenced by the fact that he is quickly learning, and schooling us on, how terrible terrific being two is going to be.

Between my terrific toddler, and Happy, who unrelentlessy continues to make me nauseous every afternoon, I am wondering how much they will conspire in the future to try and be the death of me.

Oh. my. word.

That kind of just made me want to cry.

Because I'm going to have two kids. TWO KIDS!

Gosh. That is mind-blowing to me. *Thank you, Lord!!!!* doesn't even begin to cover it.

In other trivial news...in order to avoid the great debacle of 2010 known as, "My fingers got too fat and I couldn't take off my wedding rings," I decided to take them off way in advance. It appears that I retain lots of water early on in my pregnancy.

Anyhoodles...I told Mr. T. I wanted new rings to serve as replacements. Every time we'd pass by a jeweler, or Macy's, or some other store, I'd peruse the ring section. He'd sigh loudly. I'd get mad (loudly). We'd leave the store. With no rings. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

So, I was sick of wearing nothing on my naked ring finger, and I went out and bought these beauties. Without Mr. T. in tow.

Aren't they BEAUTIFUL????

When Mr. T. came home, I flashed them in front of his eyes and said, "Look what I bought!"

His next question, naturally, was, "Oh. How much were they?"

"Four hundred dollars, each. I bought them at the jewelery store."

After letting him look panicked for a minute second, I kindly informed him that I was JOKING. I got them at Targhey for $10 each. Steal of a deal.

Of course, this cute little prank backfired on me...because they are the replicas of rings that I actually want in real life. I may  have asked Mr. T. to buy me two.

When he saw my fake ones, he cheerfully said, "Hey, see? They look real! You fooled me!"

Sigh.

what have we done?

I'm 15 weeks today. Time is flying by!!! Happy is apparently the size of an apple. Cute. Happy likes to kick me more and more now. I seriously could live on these kicks. One of the best feelings in the world...a feeling I wish I could bottle up and save for rainy days. Or for when I'm sick and crippled on my couch from "morning" sickness.

We still don't have a boy name. Sometimes, I am ready to just pick a boy name, regardless of what Mr. T. thinks...but, that would require me to actually have a name that I love. Which I don't.

Actually, strike that...I do. But Mr. T. doesn't like it. For completely silly reasons. I'm praying I can the Lord will change his mind. Hee.

G-man is getting to be such a big boy. It's really fun to watch. Well, it's really fun when he's not being stubborn asserting himself, acting unreasonably frustrated about his inability to communicate with me, or being a complete booger doing the things toddlers do.

In all seriousness, he is such a big boy. And I love his personality. All of it. He's going to be a great big brother.

This past weekend, we took him to get his haircut. I had been thinking about just buzzing his hair for the summer because he sweats a lot, and I thought that it might be a cute look for him.

Um. I'll just let you judge for yourself.

And, here's what our little family thinks.

In retrospect, I think I was starting to get that itchy, maybe I should do something different with my hair feeling. And I took it out on my poor son.

Since that fateful day, I've been staring at pictures of him pre-buzz cut, and crying a little for his sweet, beautiful baby hair.

It's the hormones, people.

Okay, I'll admit it. It's not the hormones.

I just have issues.

and just like that...

The first trimester is officially over, and my lemon sized baby is 14 weeks old!

With the end of the first tri, the risk of miscarriage goes down significantly. And, I'm definitely down to afternoon/evening sickness only. I'm looking forward to regaining some energy so I can play with my boy, and so I can start cooking again.

I feel like I've been pregnant FOREVER and yet, I know that the next 26ish weeks will fly by. We'll celebrate Memorial Day, the 4th of July, Labor Day, Halloween, and then, poof! Happy will be here!

We still only have a girl name, and no boy name really calls out to me. Part of me wonders if this is mother's intuition at work, because when I was pregnant with G, we could not think of a name for a girl. The only name we had was a boy's name. In any event, the big reveal (I hope!) is scheduled for July 2. And, because I'm weird about stuff like that, I would like to have a boy name in hand when we find out.

In the meantime, I am loving my big 18 month old boy. He is a joy and a delight. He's still a momma's boy through and through, but I see him getting more and more independent. The boy is obsessed with all the typical boy things: sports, trucks, trains, cars, airplanes, construction vehicles...you name the stereotype, he's into it. He's also becoming more verbal. He sings the last word of each line to "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" and sometimes, when we're in the car, he'll try to sing along to the songs on the radio (it's gibberish, but I can't help but think he's a musical genius...hehehe). He also chimes in with his new buddy, Mickey Mouse, and says, "ALLLLLRIGHT!" and "Oh, Toodles!!!" Each day is full of new surprises. It's so fun, but time is going by way too fast, and I wish I could just slow it down a little bit.

Anyway, I'm just rambling now. As a reward for getting through all of that...I'll leave you all with a recent pic of a mommy/son date (while daddy was at a happy hour). :)

12 weeks: relief

If I had to use one word to describe this past week (yes, I'm late with my 12 week post...but not 13 weeks until tomorrow, so I think it counts!), I'd use the word, "relief."

I'm past that 12 week mark, where the chance of miscarriage significantly decreases. Although...I guess I won't have complete relief until I can hold my baby in my arms. I've seen too much to enjoy complete relief in pregnancy.

We got to see a wiggly little Happy at our 12 week appointment, where the ultrasound showed no evidence of Downs syndrome, and the bloodwork revealed that the chance Happy will have Downs is 1/7,700 and Trisomy 13 or 18 is 1/10,000 -- the equivalent of a baby born to a 20 year old woman (if only!). The genetic counselor also told us that, because Happy was made from my 33 year old eggs, they consider me (for genetic purposes) to be a 33 year old woman. If only! :)

To cap it off, I finally told my supervisor. He was, as expected, gracious and excited for me...but those kinds of conversations always have me completely stressed out. It's nice to not have to try to hide my ever growing belly and embrace the mountain...I mean, bump. He commented that I'm obviously a legislative attorney because I timed my maternity leave for the post-election lame duck session. Right...because I have so much control in getting pregnant! Ha! (But, I confess that the lame duck session being the perfect time to be out did cross my mind a few bazillion times.)

So...relieved. Relieved that Happy is doing well. Relieved that I don't have to hide anymore. Oh...and it appears that I'm finally getting some relief from all day sickness. Now it's just evening and middle of the night sickness. I'll take it!

gettin' figgy with it

Little Happy turned 11 weeks yesterday! Wheee! Apparently Happy is the size of a fig.

Figs.

Yum.

Anyhoodles...11 weeks and this little bebe is kicking momma's butt! I'm still battling morning sickness from morning til I lay my head down, with an hour or two of relief here and there sprinkled in. And, holy, am I tired! I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little bit freaked out about the pending exhaustion once Happy is actually out and about. Yikes. Fortunately, I married the best guy ever. He's the best dad ever, and he is doing the heavy lifting with everything now. I'm more in love with him than ever before.

I know it's super early, but I think I've felt Happy move here and there a few times this week. Perhaps it's just gas. But I'm gonna go with bebe.

Mr. T. and I decided on a girl name this week. That is amazing because I've had tons of names that I've liked in the past, but they're either taken by super sweet little girls in my life or I just don't like them anymore. Plus, as you might recall, Mr. T. has very stringent criteria. It must a) not be crazy or weird, and b) not be the name of anyone we know. Oh, and he must like it. So...imagine my surprise when I told him the name that I love with all my heart and he said he liked it immediately.

Mr. T. is known to have a short-term memory and forget that he said things like this, so...I'm not banking on him remembering. But I've documented it for the world to see.

Part of me thinks that it's a girl, so I've not searched boy names. But, I might do that sometime this week. ;)

As for G, he still makes my days and nights fun. We are still co-sleeping, and I may do a post on that another day, but even though it sometimes takes a while (last night was a marathon 60 minutes!) to get him to sleep, I've decided it's just about my favorite time of the day. He's relaxed, I'm relaxed, Mr. T.'s relaxed (sometimes to the point of snoring....), and we just lie there in the dark, singing songs, snuggling, "talking," praying, and letting the busy day and world just melt away. I love it with all my heart. And nope, I don't miss those cry-it-out days one tiny bit. ;) And yes, I'm constantly trying to figure out what we're going to do when Happy gets here. : /

So life in the Ro household is great. As always, I'm beyond thankful. I hope you all have a very wonderful weekend!

ten weeks

Sweet little Happy is ten weeks today! My trusty sources at Babycenter.com say that Happy is just over an inch long, weighs less than a quarter of an ounce, and is through the embryonic stage and into the fetal stage.

Amazing.

I'm just amazed at the miracle of life.

Especially when I look back at the first pics of G and think of the little man who loves to snuggle with me at bedtime.

Happy is just hanging out, growing at lightening pace.

And...so am I. HAHAHA! Oh my word, when they say that you show faster with your second, they aren't kidding! I'm doing my best to "creatively" dress myself so I don't look obviously pregnant, but I've had to pull out a maternity piece here and there. I predict that, in two weeks time, I'll have to pull out the whole wardrobe.

In the meantime, my morning sickness comes and goes throughout the day, fatigue sets in every few hours, and I feel like the worst mom in the world, because they both come to a head after my long commute home. Which means, it takes about all the strength I have left in me to text Mr. T. and ask him to bring some dinner home and then turn on the Fresh Beat Band or Mickey Mouse Club, throw some animal crackers and milk at G, and hope he is content until Mr. T. gets home.

But, oh, what a wonderful life it is. I have the most amazing husband who only slightly rolls his eyes whenever I say, "I'm growing a human, what's your excuse?", the most fun baby boy who is quickly learning to assert himself more and more with the word "nnnnnnnNOO!" and just as quickly learning how to disarm me with his charming smile, and this little itty bitty one inside who I just can't wait to see.

So grateful.