Memorial Day Weekend: PICS

ONE YEAR!

As of yesterday, Erik and I have been married a whole YEAR!  Looking back on this year, I know things haven't been perfect, and we've had a lot of ups and downs. We celebrated Lyla's first birthday, her first steps, her first words and a zillion after that. We lost a Mormor and a Grandma.  We found out what it was like to live, literally, from paycheck to paycheck. We've fought, and made up. We've gotten SO mad that we were both laughing hysterically at the end. We've found out about a new little bundle of joy arriving in the fall. We've supported and loved each other through everything.  People always say that the first year is the hardest, and I don't doubt it! We have learned so much about ourselves and each other in this year. I could list everything, but I'll just put a couple of the big things I feel I will take from our first year of marriage.

1. Don't place too much stock in other people's marriage advice. There's no 'cookie-cutter' way to make a marriage work. Every individual is different, every relationship is different, every marriage is different! So take advice into account, but really, it's up to you and your husband/wife/etc. to work out your own problems.
2. Example from number 1. People always told me, "Don't go to sleep angry." But honestly, at 1 in the morning, when we both have to get up in 4 or 5 hours, we've found it's better for us to calm down just enough to snuggle, go to sleep, and talk it out the next day when we can talk more like human beings and less like sleep deprived animals.
3. Unplug. No TV, computer, phone... just relax and talk together.
4. Have something fun you can do together regularly.. outside the house! We play volleyball whenever we get the chance. This is even more important for us as parents. It's hard to leave your little munchkin at home, but parents need alone time!
5. For us, it's important to remember, above all, that we're best friends. This is more than talking together , more than having fun together.. it's about being equal parts of a team.
6. Learn to laugh at yourself if you can't already. Or else you're in trouble!


We had an awesome weekend trip to Petoskey, MI for our anniversary. It was hard to leave Lyla but nice to take some time away for the two of us. We slept in, got up slowly, left without having to worry about packing snacks or where Lyla would be at naptime... We went to a movie, we stayed out late(-ish), read books... and had a nice relaxing trip! We were definitely ready to get back, but we had a really great time! Lyla stayed at the cottage with her Mormor, Grandpa and Uncle Tim! When we got there, Dan, Kristin, the girls and new baby Wyatt Daniel were all there, too! He is such a cute baby boy, and absolutely silent unless he's hungry! Lyla and Baby Dos are so lucky to have cousins their age. Wyatt and our little baby will only be about 4 months apart! They will be tearing up the beach together in no time!

In other news....... I think we have a first name picked out for the baby. It's a secret, I'm just taunting you all. =)

Our Little GIRL!

Our little baby is doing great, growing exactly on schedule and everything looks great! So blessed to have a healthy baby, and two beautiful little girls! Hopefully things can continue to go well from here!

We had a boy name picked out that we just happened to see and like. Now the daunting task of finding another girl name we can agree on. Our back-up name for Lyla (Brynn) has been ousted. Sigh.

Suggestions are welcome ;)

20 Weeks!

Hello Belly Button!!!

Erik went fishing this past weekend.  I was a bit nervous because I'm usually pooped by the time Erik gets home, and I usually get a bit of a break around 5 o'clock. But honestly, it must have to do with my attitude because I didn't feel like that at all while he was gone. Anticipating some relax time must make you want some even more! I've noticed that SO much of being a mom revolves around attitude and perspective. Anyway, we had an awesome girls' weekend. Friday we went to the pool and spent a lot of the day at the park. Saturday we went to the beach in the evening and waved at all the boats in the channel. We spent a LOT of time outside.. mostly because Maggie was sick and had to go out every hour or so anyway.

In other news, Erik got to feel baby kick on Sunday! I've been feeling him/her for a couple weeks now, but we have JUST started feeling kicks from the outside! It was a nice treat for him when he got home from fishing!

Lots to look forward this week! Tomorrow is our anatomy scan AKA gender ultrasound!! We're hoping for a healthy baby, whatever kind of parts he/she has :) Friday, Erik and I are going to a little beach town up north for a quiet anniversary weekend. We struggled a lot with the idea of not bringing Lyla with us, but in the end we decided that a little mommy/daddy time might do us some good. It's only a couple days, after all! Lyla will be having a blast with Erik's parents at the cottage, and she'll get to play with all FOUR of her cousins! Yep, Lyla has a new cousin!!!! Wyatt Daniel was born on May 19! Our first nephew! We can't wait to meet him this weekend! If you ask Lyla what her new cousin's name is, she will tell you it's "Quiet." At least she recognizes rhyming words hehe.

Next time I post, we will know if we've got a little son or daughter growing in there... If baby cooperates of course!

Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day, and I had the best day EVER!

I slept in FOUR WHOLE HOURS. When I woke up, Erik and Lyla were out and about somewhere.. so I got out of bed nice and slow, sat on the couch and ate breakfast, and then lounged until they got home... and they came bearing gifts!

They had made me a card and got me a book about a rescue mission during WWII (my husband knows me) and a reading light to attach to books at night! We spent most of the rest of the day outside and went out to eat! It was an awesome day of relaxing and doing nothing but being with family!

Lyla Speak

Some of my favorite Lyla sayings!

"OOOOH!!! Nice out!" Said on a sunny day.
"I gotcha.... cars" Said while being carried and snuggling. It means, Mommy's got Lyla.. because there are cars around.
"Mano" or "hands" = Let's hold hands.
"Love it/him/her...... much!" = I love ____. SOO MUCH!
"Hmmmm... huh.... hmmmm... huh" While thinking or helping Mommy look for something.
"OH MY DADDY!"
"Ummm...." I like to think she got this one from Daddy haha
"Hey pupper" To Maggie.
"Awwww" What she says while hugging.
"Is it?? Gone!" = Where is it? It's gone! Holds hands up like, I don't know!
"Amazing!" Usually in reference to cheese.
"By you" = I want you to sit by me.

Some of my least favorite Lyla sayings!

"Cry.... sad" = I'm crying because I'm sad. It's sad enough when she cries without narrating it! She sometimes says this when she is telling me that she DID cry or is GOING to cry also. It's not as bad when this is followed by "better!" (I feel better)
"Quiet!" = Mommy, be quiet!
"enough!" = When she thinks that someone is doing a 'no no', she says this like, "that's enough!" I mostly don't like this because she must get it from me, and I never noticed I said that before!

It's so amazing to see her learn and speak more and more. She remembers so much, and it's so fun when she can tell me a story! Well.. more or less.. usually using one word at a time. It would be like:

Lyla: Boy
Me: Did you see a boy?
Lyla: Chase
Me: You chased a boy?
Lyla: Yea... ouchie
Me: Then you got an ouchie?
Lyla: Yea. Fall down.
Me: You fell down?
Lyla: Yea. Ground.
Me: You fell down on the ground?
Lyla: Yea... better!
Me: Then you felt better?
Lyla: Yea

I spend all day interpreting Lyla's words... if you don't get it right after about five tries, she gets really upset! I love how she can say such sweet things and we can have such touching moments together, in just a couple words. On the flipside, she can now argue about how much TV she should watch... "One... Two!... Five!"

Meeting Mommies

In my life before motherhood, I think I was just plain blind to moms and babies. Maybe it's because babies scared me, but I think my brain just skipped over processing visual baby data. Now, the first thing I notice about a place is how many moms or babies there are. And there is a general sense of camaraderie between moms that I just find hilarious but awesome. Moms will chit chat other moms in the store, asking about their babies' age and what they're up to, while either silently (or not-so silently) comparing them to their similarly aged baby. The short conversation usually ends with, "Such a fun age, isn't it?" I just get a kick out of this mommy banter!!! Is this a small town thing?! I'm curious.

When I see a mom and baby at the park, I usually consider it a given that we will chat. These convos are slightly more "personal," sometimes including things like, "What do you do?" "Do you live around here?" "What's your name?" etc, etc.

Today I met three moms at the park in about an hour. One mom told me her life story. Another mom started talking up her 2 year old after noticing how many words Lyla could say (this would be a not-so-silent comparer that I mentioned earlier). And another commented on how our daughters were instant friends and mentioned that maybe Lyla could come over for a ride in her toy car thing sometime. But at the end of the day no information was exchanged. This has happened to me frequently, I guess I find it kind of awkward... Does she want me to offer my info or is she going to offer hers' to me? Making mom friends is often compared to dating, and I find the comparisons to be spot on...

Anyway though, I honestly love the social aspect of being a mom.  The reason why I'm thinking about this is because I was telling Erik about the moms I met today, and he said that no moms ever talk to him at the park. This makes me sad! In a time where dads are considered more and more 'active' in their childrens' upbringing, you'd think dads would be welcomed into the Parenting Park Club with open arms. Erik thinks it's because he is a young looking daddy and has an Asian baby, and no one knows what to make of it.  Hm...

Alright enough, useless banter!!!!!!!!!!!!! A lot of stir and fuss over attachment parenting and extended breast feeding recently in Mom Land. Eeek! Time could have used a more tactful cover picture.... but they wanted responses, and they got 'em! 

Dreams & Gender

A lot of people have asked me what gender I think Baby Dos is. And I have to say ... I think it's a boy!  I guess because this pregnancy is so different than the first time around, but I just have a feeling! Even before I thought about it, I've been calling the baby a "him" and a "he" without meaning to.

There are about a million "wives' tales" about a baby's gender. Like what your belly looks like, what baby's heartbeat is, what you're craving. There's a ring test, a baking soda test, a Chinese gender test, etc etc. People say the hairline in the back of your firstborns' head will tell you the gender of the next. Some people will do EVERY SINGLE ONE. Honestly, we don't really care that much whether it's a boy or a girl, but I think it's hilarious how much stock people place in these kinds of things.

One thing I have noticed is an abundance of baby dreams, all involving a son. I've had two dreams that I gave birth in a pizza place, Jet's Pizza, specifically. Hopefully that one's not prophetic.... And another dream where I gave birth to our son... somewhere... on October 15. Hopefully that doesn't happen either, who wants to go over their due date?! Blah. I recently dreamt that our son was born and we hadn't decided on a name for him. We decided to call him "Taz" for the time being and wait until something came to us. Then the dream jumped to his college graduation and we were thinking, "Hm, maybe we'd better name him now." I woke up before we ever decided on something. Anyway I just think it's interesting that I'm having all these boy dreams! But I won't put too much faith in those either since the only baby dream I had when I was pregnant with Lyla was one about a talking cat in my translucent belly.

By the way, Taz isn't on our name list. Especially since our name list is still nonexistent...

Anyway, Lyla is waking up and crying now and saying "Cry!" "Sad!" Me time is over!

Park Days!

BABY BUMP!

For friends near and far that I don't get to see nearly enough! Here's the bump at 18 weeks!

So I want to blog again because some days I sit around thinking, 'What is that really funny thing Lyla did last week?!' I feel like I'm going to forget EVERYTHING, and I never journal anymore, so hopefully I can write some special moments down on here when I'm browsing the internet (Facebook).

Some of mommy's favorite recent moments:
1.  Before bed, Lyla hugs me, Maggie and Daddy before bed. Last night, she said "Baby!" and gave my belly a big hug and kiss and said, "nigh, nigh!"
2.  Lyla has just started doing this hilarious thing where she turns 'invisible' when a stranger talks to her. She just puts her head down, doesn't say anything to ANYONE and doesn't move! I think she has realized that if she does this, the person will leave her alone. It's so cute.
3.  Erik and I were singing a song from one of Lyla's favorite shows in the car. We turned to see what Lyla was doing, and she was plugging her ears!! We both started cracking up, it was so hilarious. She has never plugged her ears before.... so it must have been pretty bad!
4.  Yesterday I wore my red jeans. Lyla and I were walking together when suddenly she said, "Pants!" and grabbed onto my pants. "Red!" I asked her if she liked them, and she said, "Yea... perfect!" Aw, how's that for a compliment? She says "perfect" all the time when she is doing stuff like building or coloring.. She'll put a piece on a say, "perfect!"
5.  Lately when I've asked Lyla if she needs help, she says "I got it!" Erik says she gets it from me.
6.  We went to the Aquatic Center the other day, and Lyla was really apprehensive at first but slowly warmed up! She was walking around taking these little tiny steps and waving her arms around going "swimming! swimming! swimming" She calls the pool a "poil" and can't wait to get this week again with Grandma & Grandpa!