Just the three of us....

Just the three of us.....

Well Lukey, we are coming up on the last couple days of being a family of three.  The last days of you being our only child and our baby.  Soon you will become a big brother and the oldest child.  I can honestly say that I have had a mix of emotions about this and am probably going to have a harder time with the thought of you not being our baby anymore than you will.  While I keep referring to you as our baby, you most certainly are not a baby.  You are a full blown toddler with a mind of your own.  Right now you are 21 months old and into EVERYTHING!  You are all boy and I love that about you.  You are rough and tough but still have a sensitive side for the things you love.  You fall hard and get back up but also always carry Flopsy (your bunny) in one arm.  Speaking of Flopsy, you have quite the obsession with her!  She is by far your best friend and goes with you everywhere.  We cant leave the room without her let alone the house.  She goes to eat, the grocery store, the park, the pool, the zoo, and really anywhere you go.  At first, I used to try and make you leave her in the car when we went places but I quickly realized that it was not worth the fight so Flopsy just comes along.  She is probably disgustingly dirty but you love her anyway.  I can only hope you love your new sister as much as you love Flopsy! ha!  

This past week we brought out some of your sisters baby equipment to hopefully get all your curiosity out of the way so when we bring your sister home you will be ok with her using it.  I had nightmares (not really but kinda) of you pushing the baby swing so high that Ava flew out so we wanted you to spend a week or two working on swing rules before we actually put a baby in it. This by no chance means I will actually leave you alone with your sister swinging ha, but hopefully now you now that it is not a toy and that we need to be gentile with it.  We practiced using Flopsy as our test dummy and you did a pretty good job most of the time being gentile.  Like I said, you are all boy so you definitely had your moments of wanting to see it really fly! ha!  

Thinking about the coming days and leaving you to go to the hospital to have your sister has been really tough.  Honestly, it is the part that scares me most.  You are my little buddy and we do everything together.  You are always by my side and we have our routines so thinking of not being a part of that is killing me.  I have left you a few times before but always with your dad so this time just feels different.  Even though daddy will be visiting with you every day and coming home to put you to bed at night, I still just feel out of sorts.  Im sure you wont even notice i'm going with all the spoiling Nana and Papa will do to you but I just want you to remember how much I love you and that nothing will take your place!  

Lukey, you are my first baby and my little boy and quite frankly i'm kind of obsessed! I know that I have enough love for both you and your sister but I just want you to always know that too! You are the one that made me a mom and the one that changed my life forever!  You will always have a special place in my heart and I love you to the moon and back!  Hopefully these next couple weeks will be an easy transition for  you and you will love having a baby sister.  I promise to always make special time just for you and that we will continue to be the best of friends! I love you!!

                               xoxo, 

                                    Mommy

Luke at 18 Months! (2/9/2013)

One and a half!!

I can not believe that my sweet little boy is already 1 1/2 years old!  You are such a joy and I can not believe how much you grow and change every single day!  You are so busy and into everything!  I just know you are going to be athletic because you climb, run and jump off everything you can find.   It scares me to death to watch you do it but your daddy keeps telling me that you are a little boy and that is what boys do!  ha! You love being outside and get so upset whenever it is time to come inside.  I honestly think you would live outdoors if I let you!  You are so adventurous and independent and love to explore everywhere.  You are also my sweet snuggle bug and love to give hugs and kisses to me and your dad!  You have really turned into our little buddy and we love taking you everywhere with us!  

This month we went to the doctor for your 18 month well baby check up and to no surprise, you are growing like a weed!

Here are your stats:

Weight: 28lbs 10 1/2 oz (85%)

Length: 2'9"in (70%)

Head Circumference: 20in (>95%)

Language skills and talking

You currently still talk mostly in your own language but here are a few of the words you do say in English! ha

Momma, Mommy, Daddy, doggies, Dales,Gracie, oh-no (you say this ALL THE TIME), No, Ba (ball), you moo like a cow (you pronounce it boo), airplane, ruff ruff, you make a monkey sound (owe owe), you make an elephant sound,  balloon (boooooobooooo), beep beep,  

You and Daddy!

 

Checking yourself out in the mirror! One of your favorite pastimes!  

 You still LOVE to put all tags in your ear!  You now also love to put the tags in your eyes but we are working on breaking that habit!

My favorite partner in crime!!

Food and Eating Habits

One thing you are not so adventurous on is your food.  You are kind of picky and definitely have opinions on what you do and do not like.  Here is a little break down of your acceptable foods that you will eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Breakfast: yogurt, fruit (banana, peaches, melon, blue berries, strawberries, pineapple) cereal, banana bread, hash brown bites and sometimes a waffle, pancake or muffin.

Lunch & Dinner: fruit (apples, applesauce, pears, banana, peaches, melon, blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, etc), peanut butter sandwich, mac n cheese, cheese toast/grilled cheese, hot dog, chicken nuggets, chicken noodle soup, chicken and rice soup, Gerber's Pasta and stars, Annie's organic spaghettos, Ravioli, pizza, sweet potato hash brown bites, french fries, and sometimes a baby food pouch.

As you can see, we still currently struggle getting you to eat vegetables and are looking for ways to get you to eat them and hopefully enjoy them!  You will eat them when they are in your chicken noodle soup or something like that so I think we just need to get sneaky and add them into some of your meals by sneaking them in there!

You still get 1-2 baba's a day which we have said we need to break you of for months now.  We said we were going to get rid of baba's  since the day you turned a year old, then it was 13 months, then 14 months and so on.  The only consistent baba you get is at night time.  You just love it so much and secretly so do I.  You run right to the fridge and wait for me to pour it every night and then we snuggle on the couch while I rub and kiss your head the whole time.  I think I am realizing these are our last few months of "just us" and I am not quite ready to let go of my first baby.  I know we will have to get rid of the baba before your sister comes but for now, its our sweet time together and I love it!

Learning how to use spoon!

How big is Luke??

You are currently wearing all 18-24 month clothes as well as 2T.  All your Pajamas are 2T and I bet you will outgrow those by the end of summer.  

You are still in a size 5 Pampers Diaper and have been for quite some time.

Your shoe size is between a 6 and a 7 depending on the brand.

Your sleep sack is a Large (Aden and Anais) and I think we are going to be upgrading to the XL this week in the light weight version for the warmer nights we are having.

 Hanging out with your cousin Hank!
Above at the park and below reading books in your matching PJ's!

This month you got your first real haircut! You did great! 
The lollypop kept you entertained the whole time and you were a perfect angel!

Sleep

You are still a creature of habit and have to go to bed at 8pm every night to function properly.  You sleep until at least 8 am every morning but sometimes wake in the middle of the night due teething or a cold.  The past two nights, you have been waking around 5am and having a full blown conversation with you stuffed animals for about 30 minutes and then will fall back to sleep and sleep till almost 9am.  You are such a silly boy!  You still sleep in a sleep sack, use a sound machine and must have all three of your favorite stuffed animals (Flopsy, monkey and Spot) in your crib to fall asleep.  You also still require 4+ bubbies in your crib or you can almost guarantee a middle of the night breakdown when you cant find one!  Overall, you are a wonderful sleeper and I cant complain.  

You are down to one nap a day that starts at 1pm and can range anywhere from an hour and a half to three hours.  You will get into a pattern for like a week or so and then all of a sudden switch it up on us.  Hopefully you will get back to sleeping closer to 3 hour stretches because I truly feel it helps you sleep better at night when you are well rested.

 One of your Best Buddies Will and you playing at the park.

You and Hank taking a bath.

Sick Days

For the past two months, it seems you cant catch a break in the sick department.  You catch anything and everything that you come into contact with.  I am so over the winter months (sick season) and I am sure you are too!  It all started around Christmas when you got a high fever and double ear infection and lasted until mid March.  You kept a runny nose, couch and got 2 double ear infections.  Poor buddy! I felt so bad for you! I honestly tried to keep you quarantined from everything but for some reason it still didn't work! ha! You got sick anyways!

You also got all 4 of your canine teeth this past month which lead to several painful days/nights.  It probably took a month for them to all the way break through but a good week of serious pain and for them to stop making you wake at night.  I feel like you went to bed every night for two weeks due to those teeth! 

Before and After our 18 month shots at the doctor!

Mr. Independent

This past month, you have become even more independent than ever!  You love to explore and not have boundaries which has led to a few several major melt downs!  You have a strong opinion and don't like when anyone or anything stands in your way!  You have learned how to open doors and will try and do so whenever you want to go outside.  This has led us to constantly lock the doors and turn on the beep sound on the alarm.  You also learned how to climb on top of the coffee table as well as on to the counter by climbing up the bar stools first!   While your independence sometimes scares me to death, I also love it about you.  I am so glad that you aren't clingy and timid and are able to stand on your own two feet.  With your little sister coming in a few months, I am especially glad that you are independent and don't need me for every little thing.  You are really turning into a big boy!

 You LOVE pushing the kids cart at Butler and Bailey!  You are surprisingly really good at it too!

Playing outside!

Luke, you truly are the best little boy ever and I thank God every day for letting me be your mommy!  You are such a joy and I have loved every moment of the past 18 months and can not wait to see what God has in store for us in the future.  I have no doubt that you are going to be an amazing big brother and love your sister to death! Always remember that your daddy and I love you to pieces and are here for you always!! 

Xoxo,

Mommy

Baby girl has a name!

For some reason , I have complete anxiety when it comes to picking out a name for my children and making it official.  We went through the same process with Luke and like this time around, it took us forever to make a final decision on both a first and middle name.  Luke's name was a little easier because we knew we wanted to name him after my father but still we definitely had name anxiety!  Im not sure if its the fact that it is the name that will be written on every document and piece of paper you ever touch or if it is just the sound of it all together but something about making a decision that is so permanent just scares me to death! ha! That is why just now at 28 weeks into my pregnancy have we settled on a name that your father and I both love and think sounds like the name of our first little girl!  We knew from very early on in this pregnancy that we wanted a name that sounded good with your brothers name and that was girly.  We already had our boy and we didn't want any names that could be mistaken for another boy. When we found out we were having a girl, we went back into our notes from choosing Luke's name to see if any of the girl names we liked then were still names that we still liked this time around.  A few names we threw out immediately but one in particular kept our attention.  We knew after a few weeks that your first name would be Ava.  We liked that it was simple yet elegant and also sounded good with Luke.  We immediately started calling you by your name and referred to your room as Ava's room whenever we walked past it with Luke. Next we needed to find a middle name.  We narrowed it down to three names (Kate, Elizabeth and Caroline) but once again, one name in particular kept popping up in both of our heads.  While we loved all three and truly contemplated all three, we finally decided on the middle name that we felt just fit.........

Ava Kate

We loved the way it sounded when you said Ava alone as well as when you said it paired with the middle name. It was simple yet girly and absolutely perfect for us! The meanings behind the names were also very sweet and added to why we loved it :Ava means Life & Kate means Pure.  Your father has been calling you AK for months so when we finally made the decision that it was in fact your name, I think he breathed a sigh of relief knowing he could continue calling you by your nickname.  I hope you like it is much as we do sweet girl and maybe one day we will see it in lights in Hollywood or even with an DR. in front of it.  Whatever you chose to do, just know that your dad and I will always support you and be your biggest fans!  We love you so much already sweet girl!  Cant wait to meet you!!

xoxo,

       Mom  

A letter to my Valentine!

My sweet sweet baby boy,
    Wow, it is hard to believe that only a short 18 months ago we were meeting you for the very first time!  The love I have for you seems as though you have been in our lives forever!  I can not believe that in only 18 months you have captured my heart  and totally redefined my idea of true unfailing love.  You are honestly the most amazing gift that I could ever have received and I thank God every single day that he allows me to be your mom.  Each day is such an adventure and I love that I get to spend it with my little buddy by my side.  You have such a vibrant personality that makes your dad and I laugh constantly.  You are a man of mystery to many but to your dad and I, you are an open book.  You pick and chose who you open up to but once you do, you are the sweetest most fun little boy around.  I secretly love that you have to warm up to others and don’t give your love away to just anyone! Your love is precious and deserves to be a prize!  I hope you remember that always!  You are growing and learning new things daily. It is crazy how quick you pick up on things (especially physically) and surprise us with your new tricks every day.  I have no doubt that you will be a little athlete and excel at whatever you put your mind to.  You are our fearless little monkey and I love it!  You can hang in there with your older cousins and are tough as nails. If you are playing and fall down, you pop right back up and continue on with out a whimper.  You are mommy’s “big guy” as we like to call you! Honestly, the only time you cry is when you hear the word no! ha! You are soooo independent and hate to be told that you aren’t aloud to do something.  Your independence is wonderful but also scary at times too!  The other day, we were outside and you were exploring like usual and decided to take a little walk.  Being your independent self, I let you walk and walk because I wanted to see how far you would actually go by yourself before you looked back to make sure someone was with you.  Well to my surprise, you made 4 houses down and had no intentions of turning back or seeing if you had mom or dad by your side.  You were perfectly happy by your self and probably would have walked 10 more houses down had I not gone and grabbed you.  I always say that if you and the dogs get out of the house together, its bad news because you both would put your noses to the ground and not look up until the next county.  It would be like the movie Homeward Bound all over again!  Speaking of your dogs, man do you love them!  They bring so much joy to your life and you love getting to play with them any chance you get!  Your favorite thing to do with them lately is feed them!  You think it is so fun to throw your food off your high chair and watch them  devour it!  You also love when they lick all the crumbs off your hands!  You think its so funny and honestly its adorable to watch you interact with them.  I cant wait until this summer when you are playing in the back yard with them and truly get to enjoy them!  
This summer will be a special and exciting time for you!  It will be your second birthday and also the arrival of your little sister!  There will be lots of changes but I want you to know that one thing that will not change is the love we have for you bug!  You will always be our precious little boy and mommy’s first baby!  And while you may not technically be the baby of the house anymore, you will ALWAYS hold a special place in my heart being my first born.  I hope you know that we wanted to give you a sibling close in age so that you could always have a best friend and special bond.  I can not wait to see you as big brother and know you are going to make the best one ever!  You are going to take on the special role being her friend and protector and I know you are going to be her idol!  She will look up to you from the day she is born till the day she dies and I am so happy that you two will have each other!  You are such a special little boy and I am so blessed that you are mine!  I love you more than words could ever describe and I hope you always know that!  You are the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing I think about before I fall asleep!  Like the book that we read always says, “I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, as long as im living, my baby you’ll be!”

  

                     Happy Valentines day my sweet boy!!

A day at the Atlanta Aquarium with Papa

Atlanta Aquarium With Papa

Last Wednesday we had a fun filled day with Papa at the Atlanta Aquarium.  It was the perfect going in the morning mid-week because we practically had the whole place to ourselves.  From the moment you arrived, you were mesmerized by all the fun things to look at.  Your eyes were huge, and you were in awe of all your surroundings.

 We started off at the kids area where you can pet the stingrays.  At first you were not too sure of what to do but after a little help from Papa, you were ready to dive right in!

 You loved being to close to the animals and wanted to touch each one that passed by.  Lucky for you, you got a real up and close experience when you touched a stingray and it flew out of the water and soaked you!  You were startled and scared to death, but in normal Lukey fashion you got over it in about 2 seconds and were ready to have some more fun!  Well, after we changed your shirt and wiped you down from all the water.  Thank goodness we brought a change of clothes!

 Next we headed over to the Ocean Voyager which is an extremely big tank and houses everything from fish to sea turtles to sharks to whales.  This was by far your favorite part of the whole aquarium.  You stood in awe for a good 10 minutes looking at everything that passed by you.  It was so fun to watch your eyes light up when you saw something you liked!

 While you did LOVE the Ocean Voyager exhibit there were a few fish in there that you were not too sure about.  The grouper above being one of them.  Every time we tried to take a picture with you in front of it, you would not take your eyes off of it because I think you were worried it would get you! ha! I cant say I can blame you, after all I think it was at least 3x your size!

 The Penguins were another exhibit you loved!  They were so playful and kept wrestling with each other and swimming in the water right in front of you!  I think they reminded you of some of your stuffed animals because they were so cute and you kept banging on the glass like you wanted to play with them!

 Next were the Sea Otters, which were soo cute!  They were so playful and I wanted to take them home with us!  You loved them too! So much so that when Papa took you to the gift shop to pick out a stuffed animal, you chose a little sea otter!

 Here are the Beluga Whales which were a part of the cold water exhibit.

 And here are the tiny sea horses!

 By the last half of the Aquarium, you were exhausted!  All you wanted to do was sit in your stroller, suck on your bubby and love on your new stuffed animal while taking in the rest of the sights.  We decided you had had enough and it was time for lunch before we had to head home and put you down for a nap.

Papa picked the Varsity because he said you had to experience everything ATLANTA had to offer since we were down town.  I agreed but also knew this may lead to your first real tummy ache haha!  

 Just as I thought, you loved it! The hotdog and fries were a huge hit!  You scarfed them down and made your Papa so proud!  

 We had such a fabulous day with you and loved all of the memories we made.  I know it is a day that neither your Papa or I will soon forget.  You are becoming such a big boy now and I cant wait to have many more fun days with you just like this! We love you sweet boy!

Baby #2 is a.......

Baby #2 is a.......

On Friday, December 16th I had my 16 week doctors appointment.  It was the Friday before Christmas and I had high hopes that we would be able to find out the sex of the baby to surprise everyone and tell the family on Christmas.  When we went into the appointment, I had a bit of anxiety thinking that we might not find out since I was actually only 15 weeks and 6 days along and that is still somewhat early to determine the sex.  Lucky for us, our amazing doctor snuck us into the ultra sound room (since we did not have an u/s appointment that day) and let the ultra sound tech see what she could find.  From the moment she began the ultrasound and for the next 10 minutes, our baby was turning summersaults.  It was impossible to get him/her to sit still for a second, let alone get a good pic of its private parts to determine the sex.  Finally, our little one decided to cooperate and give us a partial glimpse of the area we needed to see.    Right away I thought it was a girl!  There was nothing there to make us think otherwise and unless we were just too early and not far enough along, it had to be a girl.  Looking up at the ultrasound tech, she too said that she thought from this angle that it looked like a girl.  Hearing the words GIRL come out of her mouth made our jaws drop.  I looked at John and we both were stunned that we actually possibly could be having a girl since it seemed almost impossible for anyone in the Taylor family to produce a girl ha!  After a few more minutes of trying to positively determine the sex, our ultra sound tech told us that she couldn't confirm it 100% but she was about 90% sure that this was in fact a little girl.  That was good enough for us!   We both were extremely excited and could not wait to tell the news to our families and close friends.  We knew we were not going to tell the general public until we got a 100% confirmation at the 20 week appointment, but this was too big of news to keep from our nearest and dearest.

On the way home, after I did a little happy dance in the office, we called my mom and dad and let them in on the big news.  They were both so excited and happy that we would now would have one sweet little boy and one precious baby girl!  We were planning on keeping our news a secret from the Taylor side of them family and doing a little gender reveal party on Christmas eve but the excitement got the best of us and we decided to call everyone right away.  So much for a cute little surprise party! ha! Go figure!  While it was fun and exciting telling everyone our big news, I could not help but remind myself and everyone else that there is still a small possibility that we could be in fact having a boy and it was just too early to determine in the Ultra sound.

On Wednesday January 9th, I got the opportunity to go in for a free ultra sound on the new Hope Resource bus so they could test out their new machine and of course I jumped at the chance.  I would take any opportunity possible to see if we could figure out the sex of our little one for sure!  When I got to the bus, I was a ball of nerves.  I had spent the past few weeks thinking that our baby was a girl, calling it a girl and what if they told me otherwise today.  Its not that I HAD to have a girl, it was just that I had already identified this baby as a girl and it would take some getting used to if we were to be wrong. Not more than 2 minutes into the ultrasound, the nurse in the room assured me that our predictions were right and that we were in fact having a little GIRL!!! I was so excited, i'm sure I was beaming! I just felt so thankful that God had given me such a sweet gift to experience being a mom to both a boy and a girl!  I am so in love with Luke that I would often worry that if I had another boy, would I compare the two and I did not want to do that at all.  Im sure that would not really be the case, but with having a boy and a girl, I know that both experience will be completely different and I am excited about that.  I will love them the same yet completely different.  One thing is for sure though, these two littles ones will be loved more than they will ever know!  I can't wait for Luke to be a wonderful big brother and watch him teach her things, love on her and one day protect her.  They will be so close in age, being that they are only 22 months apart, and I am so excited to watch them hopefully grow into close friends!  So to say that we are excited is quite the understatement!  We are elated to bring another precious little one into the world and cant wait to see what this next adventure of raising a little girl will be like!  Here are few pictures from the ultrasound!

Above is our sweet little girl and also a shot of her area confirming she was in fact a girl! ha!

Further Confirmation! 

Baby Number 2!!!

On September 27th I was at home hanging out with Luke feeling a little under the weather.  I thought I was fighting off a bug because I felt kinda nauseous and a little weak which was not too odd considering Luke had just been sick the previous week.  It wasn't until I got a bout of heartburn later that afternoon, that I realized that I may not be fighting off a bug after all but may in fact have a whole different kind of sickness.  While Luke was down for a nap, I decided to take a pregnancy test just to put my mind at ease.  When I took the test, the results came up almost immediately and it was FALSE.  I was kind of surprised because the last time I had bad heartburn was when I was pregnant with Luke so I thought that was a sure sign of pregnancy for me but I guess not.  I went into the kitchen to throw away the box to the pregnancy test when I realized I forgot the test itself.  I walked back into the bathroom to grab the test and what did I see.....TWO PINK LINES on the test that I had left sitting on the sink.  WHAT?!?!?  NO WAY!!!! I immediately started screaming NO WAY over and over as if there was someone in the room with me because I just couldn't believe my eyes.  I guess I had not let the test process long enough because after taking a second test to confirm the pregnancy, I was indeed PREGNANT! Holy cow! I realized that in that moment, I was about to have two children under the age of two!  Two children in diapers!  Two children in cribs! But most importantly, two children who will be the loves of my life and light up my life forever!  Once I got past the initial shock, I realized that John would be on his way home by now.  When Luke and I saw John pull into the driveway, we met him on the front porch with a little surprise.  Luke handed him the test and when John realized what it was, his face looked completely shocked! He was smiling and super happy but stunned!  It took him a few minutes to wrap his mind completely around the fact that it was really happening but once he did, he was super excited!
The next day, I called the doctor and set up an appointment to get blood work done to confirm the pregnancy.  Im really not sure why I felt the need to get blood work done because I never had before but decided to go ahead with it since I was going on a girls trip to Birmingham in a few days and didn't want to go not knowing.  On Tuesday, October 2nd I went to Ft. Sanders to get my blood drawn and have them check my hormone levels.  To my surprise, I was told my progesterone levels were rather low and they wanted to put me on a progesterone pill to raise my levels.  The reason for the low progesterone could be a number of things from being very new in the pregnancy to a possible miscarriage about to happen.  Hearing this, it automatically took me back to my first pregnancy and the fear that comes with it.  I had already miscarried once and really didn't want to go through that again if I didn't have to so I happily took the progesterone pill and made an appointment to come back in two days to check my levels again.  Their hope was that with the assistance of the pill my levels would rise from a 6.5 to over a 10.  Well with God on my side, he tripled my levels and I was at a 18.3 when I went back in two days later! Wahoo! The pill worked!
On October 29th, I went in for my first official new pregnancy appointment.  While I was very excited, I also had the nerves every mother has before their first ultrasound.  All my nerves were calmed though once I heard the sweet little heart beat of our baby.  With a heartbeat of 173 at 8 weeks and 2 days, our little one was doing great!  He/She has a strong heartbeat and looks just like a little gummy bear!  I promise to try and do much better at updating the blog with all the important miles stones in Lukes life as well as the pregnancy and arrival of the little one.  I want this to be something that my kids can look back on one day and see all the important times in their lives!  Until next time! xoxo!

 The confirmation of baby #2

8 weeks 2 days!