Showing posts with label at home. Show all posts
Showing posts with label at home. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

2020: Family Update!

Hello everyone, and happy New Year! I can't believe it's already February!

My poor blog has been quite neglected. I mostly blame Timothy dropping his morning nap. Two naps a day felt like quite a luxurious amount of time for me to accomplish things, but now that he's only taking an afternoon nap (that has been getting shorter and shorter lately) I try to spend that time doing cleaning/organizing tasks that are difficult to do when he's awake. He likes to help me with whatever I'm doing which is fantastic most of the time, but some tasks (like cleaning the bathroom for example) I don't feel comfortable letting him help, or his help would be too much of a hindrance (like folding clothes, he hasn't mastered folding yet and prefers to throw/scatter my neatly folded piles instead) to be worth trying.



The biggest news from 2019 is that we found out we'd have a new little ginger arriving in April! Timothy is very excited about his baby sister coming soon, and talks about "when baby all done growing in Mommy's tummy..." He's particularly excited to play cars with her and have her ride in the backseat of the car with him!



Timothy is quite a talker now. He remains very sweet and easy-going most of the time, but turning two has definitely brought out a new rebellious streak sometimes, so we are continuing to work on obedience even when he doesn't want to do what we say.  He has gotten a bit more picky about eating, but still eats pretty well most of the time! He is daytime potty trained, and often wakes up dry from naps/overnight even though we still use a diaper back-up while sleeping. He can even push down/pull up his own pants, although sometimes he doesn't like to do it himself.



He loves reading and singing, requests certain books and songs over and over and likes to march and dance to the Mickey Mouse theme song. He's still obsessed with anything car/truck, and has added to that an interest in other vehicles like trains, airplanes and rockets/space ships. Our neighborhood park is a lot of fun, he loves to walk there and play, "go down slides!" is his favorite part. We also enjoy story time at our library.



We switched to a toddler bed quite a while ago, and that went swimmingly, he still doesn't actually get out of bed until we come into the room to get him. He usually sleeps through the night from 7pm-8am. He also climbs into his carseat by himself now, which is great because I prefer to avoid lifting him (he weighs 28 pounds!) as much as possible.



Currently I'm 30 weeks pregnant with baby sister, and nesting is in full gear. We had to add a wall to our home so that our upstairs bonus/loft area could become a nursery. We contemplated some other solutions, but ultimately decided that Baby will need her own space for a bit, once she's ready to move out of our room, but before she'd be big enough to share a room with Timothy. I'm very excited to have the wall completed, and eager to get to painting and setting up the rest of the nursery!

Baby bump and Timothy on a walk! (He wanted to hold my hand, that's rare lately!)

I'm also trying to stock my freezer like I did before Timothy's arrival. I have a few meals already frozen, and I'm aiming for adding at least 2 per week until she gets here. I found some crockpot meals that I've been doubling, so I make one to eat now, and one to go in the freezer for after Baby arrives! We're really looking forward to meeting her, and I know Timothy is going to be one sweet, fantastic big brother!



Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Hello August! Part 2 (yearly updates on the same day?!?)

Exactly one year ago, I posted this update! My goodness, how things have changed! 

My last post was about getting engaged... and we did end up getting married by Christmas! December 17 was our wedding date, and the whirlwind wedding planning went pretty well, in the less-than-3-months we had to plan. The most stressful part for me ended up being a rather last-minute change of reception location, due to some management issues, and concerns about lighting/sound. And I almost walked down the aisle without my bouquet, but thankfully I remembered it after only a couple steps - as I nervously plucked at my dress with the hand that was not in my dad's arm, I realized I should have something else to occupy that hand! 

Here's just a few photos: 


Our rings on my bouquet

My lovely mother and me getting ready!

Me and my sister and maid-of-honor!

Pre-wedding photos! (We did a first-look)

The Stone Chapel in Wake Forest


Thrilled to have my dad perform the ceremony!

My mom and dear friend Mrs. Basden headed up the reception!

Centerpiece created by my mom!

I had fun baking the cheesecakes ahead of time and freezing!

First dance

Dip!!

Daddy and me father/daughter dance.
Matt planned our honeymoon secretly, and it was amazing! We stayed one night in a fancy hotel suite, and had a delicious dinner at the hotel restaurant, and then finished the drive to Biltmore the next day! I had never been to Biltmore before, and seeing it all decorated and festive for Christmas was thrilling. We stayed several nights at the lovely hotel on the estate, and enjoyed lots of fabulous food, topped off by a 3-course dinner our last evening. He also got us special tickets to see Biltmore by candlelight (which was so beautiful!), a roof-top tour (which was fascinating and had great views!) and a carriage ride (which was so much fun, and gave us an incredible view of the estate!) and it was all so memorable! He planned the perfect honeymoon. We had almost a whole week to ourselves, and then got home in time for Christmas with our families. (We have lots of photos, but it would be too hard to pick favorites, and there's plenty of photos in this post already!)

Our first few months of married life flew by, marriage has been so much more fun than I ever could have imagined! One hard decision though, was to quit teaching. I loved my students, but we really didn't need my income, and I was struggling to keep up with cooking, cleaning and general homemaking the way I desired. My new (much more flexible) additional job, is handling some basic customer support for my husband's business, Transcript Maker, paying the contractors when invoices come in, and mailing some marketing materials (we offer discounts for homeschool groups! ;) ), all things that I enjoy, and can do whenever I find some free time in my schedule. 

A few days before my last studio recital with my students, we were excited to find out that we were expecting our first baby! Due December 29, I'm now almost 19 weeks along (which means almost halfway there already!) and just starting to regularly feel tiny little kicks and punches. Our 18-week ultrasound revealed that I was correct in believing our baby to be a boy!

The adorable booties were crocheted by my great-grandmother! Mom gave them to me after the ultrasound. They just happened to already have blue ribbons!

So, with our baby boy on the way, and no students to teach, my goals are to stay on top of the usual house work, while working on our registry and getting the nursery ready, plus all the other things that come along with preparing for baby!

And so, with that in mind, I should probably get off my laptop and get to work!

 

2020: Family Update!

Hello everyone, and happy New Year! I can't believe it's already February! My poor blog has been quite neglected. I mostly blame T...