Milestones

Little Miss Londyn Gracie Girl has been sleeping in her crib a lot lately and several nights has made it all the way through without waking! This is a huge deal for all of us as we have always co-slept. Lately she is going to sleep between 8:30-9:00 and sleeping until around 7:00 each morning! Her room is only a few feet from ours and we have an adjoining doorway so she's still very close, but being in her own bed is a big milestone for her! We've loved every minute of having her snuggled between us, but as August is quickly approaching I know we don't have much time before another little joins the party!

Along with sleeping better, we are preparing to hit another big milestone! We are ready to tackle potty training! 

Monday, LG asked to sit on the potty twice, and while she didn't go, I was excited that she was showing interest! I had planned to start training this month so that we have a few months to work at it before Liam is born, but I was nervous as to how she would respond! 

I grabbed a nine dollar cushioned potty seat at Wal*Mart since she doesn't seem to like the feel of the handmade super cute wooden potty chair my grandmother bought for her. I guess comfort is a priority for this girl!

Yesterday after breakfast, she was showing signs of going so I quickly sat her on the new seat with her It's Potty Time book that my mom found at TJMaxx several months ago. 

She loved that there is a ducky in her book and duckies on her new seat! 

How precious are those little feet crossed like that?! 

Can we stop for a second and talk about the bathroom?! Circa 1970's mustard yellow!! Floral linoleum on the walls, matching mustard tile and toilet! Well the toilet did match until the toilet seat cracked and we had to replace it! Let's just say that mustard yellow is no longer in production so standard white it is! It's the only room in our house that hasn't been updated and we actually don't use it very often since it's an extra bathroom just off the laundry room, but it's just more convenient to have her go in there so we are not making the trip up and down the stairs a million times a day! 

She was so proud of herself when she went in the potty! Mama was pretty proud, too!

I'm sure she will kill me for snapping (and sharing!) these pictures when she's grown, but I just couldn't help myself!

How did you ladies tackle potty training? Any tips or suggestions?!

20 weeks {halfway to meeting our baby boy!}

Here we are at 21 weeks, and I haven't posted an update since 17 weeks. I did type my 18 and 19 week posts, but they are still sitting in my draft folder unpublished! Anyways, last week marked a big milestone in this pregnancy! We are officially halfway to meeting our baby boy! Actually if he decides to follow in his sister's footsteps and come early, we are over halfway! 

Size of Baby:  Our little man is about the size of a banana. He's practicing his swallowing skills! We actually saw proof of this during our last ultrasound! 

Total Weight Gain/Loss:  +22 pounds

(0ne day shy of 21 weeks!)

Maternity Clothes: Wearing mostly maxi skirts, tanks and sweaters. This week's challenge will be finding an Easter dress!

Gender:  It's a BOY!! Our sweet Liam Daniel :)

Movement: FINALLY!!! After the Gender Reveal was over and all of our guests had left, I sat down in the recliner to rest when I finally distinctly felt Liam moving for the first time!! What a relief! He is still much less active than Londyn Grace was in the womb, but I'll take what I can get!

Sleep:  Sleeping pretty well. 

What I miss:  Nothing! Pregnancy is such a wonderful thing!

Cravings: Nothing specific, but eating a lot!

Symptoms:  Really feeling good! Praise the Lord!

Best moment this week:  Finding out that we are adding blue to our household in August, finally feeling our baby boy move, and starting on the nursery now that I know the gender! 

His Name & the Reveal Video

We've had a wonderful Sunday! After church this morning, we celebrated the news of our little boy with a yummy lunch at the new Italian place in town. It was the first time in 18 months that LG fell asleep somewhere other than in my arms being rocked or in her carseat! She was literally eating spaghetti one minute and zonked the next, fork in hand! She slept the afternoon away which is also unheard of for her, but meant Daddy and I got a nap, too, before heading back to church tonight!

It is slowly sinking in that we are having a son, so I wanted to share his name tonight! Choosing our boy's name was easy this time around because we both loved the name we were going to use for Londyn Grace had she been a boy. We stuck with it as a first, but debated a bit about the middle name before settling on the middle name we were going to use for her as well. 

So without further adieu, baby number two's name is 

Liam Daniel

Liam is a name we both loved, and Daniel is of course after his Daddy!

We are so looking forward to August and meeting our little man!

Here's the video from the big moment in case you're interested! 

Thank you so much for all your sweet comments and love on the reveal post from yesterday! Be sure to check it out if you haven't yet!

It's Time {Baby #2's Gender Reveal}

As soon as I saw those two pink lines back in December, I started thinking about the gender reveal party! Londyn Grace's reveal was such an amazing experience and the pictures and video we have from it are such treasures! I knew we would definitely do it again with this babe!

I scheduled my ultrasound for this past Monday, and we went as a family since it was Daniel's day off! Seeing our sweet baby again was so much fun. I took an envelope along that had a card tucked inside of it for the tech to check little miss or little mister off on so we wouldn't know the gender until Saturday with everyone else. She found and was certain of the gender pretty quickly making Daniel second guess his certainty of adding more pink to our household! With LG's ultrasound, it took the tech awhile to be certain.

I spent the rest of the week preparing for the party! The theme was "It's Time!"

I used clocks as decor and my sweet mama made the precious clock cake!

I chose navy blue and pink for the color scheme and added polka dots and chevron for interest. Of course, I had to add in our beloved Scrabble tiles and burlap as well!

I hung this wreath on our front door and guests had to cast their vote as they arrived!

For favors, my sweet little cousin helped me get a box of Hershey bars into theme! We then tied them with baker's twine and stamped a clock onto "burlap" scrapbook paper to finish the look.

The menu consisted of BBQ chicken sandwiches, mac and cheese, meatballs, potato salad, pasta salad, veggies and dip and pretzels and hummus.

We had several family members make the three to four hour drive from back home and then had lots of our church here as well! The house was packed, but the fellowship was sweet!

We even got a picture with both sides of our immediate family!

Londyn Grace had a wonderful day basking in the attention everyone was showering upon her!

After we ate, if was finally time to head to the backyard for the reveal.

I wanted to do something that would be fun for LG so we decided to do balloons and confetti in a big box! We bought a large box from Staples and took it to a party store in town. I also took the envelope and two bags of streamers cut into squares for the confetti. I told the sweet girl at the store to throw away whichever bag she didn't use and to fill the box with whichever color balloons the card inside the envelope indicated!

It ended up being a gorgeous, but windy day so getting the box secured in the tree was a bit tricky!

I was just happy that it wasn't raining since we had a pretty wet week here in Jersey!

Daniel and our dads were able to get it up there and ready for the reveal so it was go time!

Everyone was ready with their phones and iPads! :)

We had the bottom taped with masking tape so we could pull the string and the tape would pull off easily. The top of the box of secured with packing tape since it wouldn't need to be opened and it would need to be stronger in order to keep it in the tree.

As Daniel and I pulled our strings, the string came completely out apart from the tape, but we managed to get it open and confetti started flying!!!

The balloons ended up coming out last and then flying to the side instead of down on us as I had planned, but either way it was perfect!

We are having a baby BOY!!!

Having our family and friends gathered around for this moment and capturing the joy on film (or on a memory card, you get the point! ;) ) means so much to me!!

After we cleaned up the mess (a very BLUE and beautiful mess!), we headed back inside for cake and to open the envelope I had been dying to open!

The tech was kind enough to include proof of her discovery! 

I still can't believe we are having a tiny little mister!!

Stay tuned for a video from our reveal festivities and for the revealing of our son's name!!

(If you haven't already seen it on Instagram!)

Londyn Grace is a year and a half!

18 months! Another half of a year has passed already?! How can she be halfway to two?! Weren't we just planning her first birthday party and taking her one year portraits?!

If the first year went by fast so far the second has surpassed it and seems to be flying by with no signs of slowing down!

It is amazing how much of a baby she seemed like when looking back at pictures and her update from October. Fast forward just six short months ahead and we have a toddler on our hands!

Talking and doing so much on her own! At her first birthday party, she wasn't even walking yet!

I am so surprised and so thrilled with how verbal she is becoming! I had kind of braced myself for a bit of a delay with speech since the pediatrician thought she may take a little longer being an only child, but she proved him wrong!

This was the list of words from last month:

*Mama
*Dada
*Nonnyn (Londyn)
*Mimi       (my mom)
*Pop Pop (my dad)
*Grammy (Daniel's mom)
*Mom Mom (my grandmother)
*Johnny (Uncle Johnny) 
*Tammy (my cousin)
*Duke (a little boy at church)
*Chloe (the little girl I've started keeping during the week)
*Jesus
*Please
*No
*Yes
*Bye
*Hi
*Baby
*Hot
*Nose
*Eyes
*Belly
*Mouth
*Knee
*Birdie
*Dog
*Snow
*"I don't know"
*Uh-oh
*Tweet tweet
*Baa
*Neigh
*Cheese (when smiling for the camera)

Over the past four weeks she has added so many! Here are a few of the words/phrases she now says,

*Mommy (instead of mama)
*toothpaste (she loves to brush her teeth)
*boo-boo
*Bible (she calls the hymnals at church, Bibles!)

*"I need more." (Her first full sentence!)
*Peas (her favorite veggie)
* Pancakes
* Oatmeal  (her two go-to breakfast foods)
*Moo
*"Excuse me!" (after burping)
* Is-sis (her attempt at Lyssa (my little cousin))
* Auntie
* Megan (my sister)
* "Love you!"
*bas-ball (basketball)
*cookie
*purple
*shoes

Her little voice is so so sweet!

Goosey begins the second half of her second year at twenty two pounds and 31 and half inches tall. She is mainly wearing 12 month clothes with some 18 month dresses for length. She can actually still fit in her 9 month onesies!

She has done well with eating this month adding a few more foods to her list of likes. She still loves peas, any kind of soup, and any kind of pasta. She discovered shredded cheese and loves it which I was surprised by since she doesn't like cheese slices. She is not loving any kind of meat so that's been a challenge. She has a pancake and oatmeal obsession! Her constipation has gotten so much better since she has started drinking better!

I cannot believe that she is still nursing a year and half after those early days that I thought we would never make it through, but she is! Now it is only twice a day, at naptime and bedtime. She still dreamfeeds during the night which means she is still not sleeping through! She typically sleeps from 9:30 to between 2:00-4:00 in her crib and then comes to snuggle with us in our bed until we have to get up at 7:15 for Chloe to be dropped off. She naps well usually for about two hours after lunch.

She doesn't watch tv much at all, but loves to watch basketball! She is her father's daughter, that's for sure! She loves puzzles, balls, and her play food for her kitchen set that Pop Pop and Mimi built her for Christmas. She loves to sing and is almost constantly singing the little songs she makes up! She has such a cheerful spirit!

Along with so many other things I couldn't possibly list, here are a few of the things I want to remember from this past month!

March 6 - after you finished your snack, you picked up your plate and licked it!

March 7 - asked you to close the door and you had to shut the gate first!

You brought me the detangler and your brush and wanted me to do your hair

March 8 - we were thrifting and you saw a container of matchbox cars. There was a rug with a road and city on it which you've never seen before, but you grabbed a car and started driving it on the road!

I picked you up and said "I love you!" and you willingly gave me a kiss!

March 9 - you fist bumped one of the teens at church! So cute!

March 10 - asked for "toothpaste"  for your toothbrush

Said "thank you" to Daddy when he opened something for you

Ate pancake batter (yuck!)

March 12 - pointed out most of the pictures on the front cover of your 100 first words book!

March 17 - said "Purple!" when Mimi was doing colors with you

Discovered plastic Easter eggs at a thrift shop! You were in love!

were playing with uncle Johnny and Auntie in the bedroom and came out in the living room for a minute, said "Megan! Jo-Jo!" and went back into the room where they were!

March 18 said "Love You!"

Asked for Pop Pop on FaceTime as soon as you woke up!

March 20th - I was getting diapers ready for laundry and I asked you to bring me the wipes which were in the living room. You walked away and came back with the wipes!

March 21st - you were getting ready to turn on the tv and I asked you what you wanted to watch you said "basketball" which is what was on when the picture appeared! Then you said "Dada"

March 28 - had your first ice cream cone!

March 29 - you said "excuse me" after you burped (when I asked you what do you say?)

You have mastered "more" when you want another bite.

You clearly said "I need juice" when you came looking for your sippy cup

We went to the park for the first time this year and it was her first time as a walker! Let's just say it's now a whole different ball game! She was all over that playground! She loved the slide, but surprisingly wasn't a fan of the swing! Last year, she loved it!  I'm hoping she will learn to love it again!

She is very mobile! Walking, running, climbing! She loves the stairs and is trying hard to climb them like a big girl instead of crawling up them.

I feel like I'm probably forgetting so much because it literally seems like she is doing or learning something new every single day, but this gives you a pretty good picture of who she is at 18 months old!

She is our truly our joy!

Londyn Grace,

How can you be halfway to two?! What a wonderful 6 months it has been since your first birthday! You are becoming such a big girl and Daddy and Mama are loving every minute of it! We are so excited to see what the next six months bring for you, Lovey! Keep growing and being your sweet, happy, friendly self and lighting up every room you enter! We praise the Lord for the precious gift of you!!

Love, "Dada & Mommy" as you call us these days!