I can't wait.....

to stare into the eyes of my beautiful baby boy for the first time

to see him in the arms of his daddy

to see Ava walk into the hospital room and meet her baby brother

to walk through the doors of our house as a family of 4

to sing him lullabies off key

to hold him close and snuggle with him as long as I want

to smell that "baby smell" once again

to dress him up like his daddy

to go on family walks to the park

to watch Ava in her big sister role

to have lazy days in our pj's with no agenda but to love on my kids and husband

to take a gazillion pictures of him and his big sister

to kiss his little cheeks 100 times a day

to look over and see him sleeping peacefully beside our bed

My little Connor you are so loved already. I can't wait to be YOUR mommy. I said it when your sister was born and I can say it again now....my life will never be the same and it will be all for the best because you will be in it!!

xoxo,

Mommy

Kids' rooms preview

We have been busy getting both Ava and Connor's room ready. Before we could make progress on the nursery we needed to refinish the two twin beds we had in the attic for Ava's room so we could move the crib and dresser to the nursery. The beds were my mom's when she was little and then they were mine so I knew I wanted to put them in Ava's room someday. Well that day has come! We had to refinish and repaint them and it ended up being a long process. I am happy with how they turned out though. Ava's room is not big by any means but since we are losing a bedroom I wanted to put both beds in there so that we could sleep two in there when we have company (Ava will stay in our room). We managed to squeeze them in with a little extra room to walk around. ;)

This is the view when you walk in the door. This is the "guest" bed.

And this is Ava's bed which is usually full of stuffed animals and lots of blankets. Her side is looking a little sad but we aren't finished yet. I want to move a few things around and add some more color to the walls and her bed. We had to include the special painting of a guardian angel that her Aunt Alli painted her though!

And here are pictures of the nursery so far. It is still a work in progress as there is not much on the walls yet.

View from the door

My grandmother made the bedding for me and I couldn't be happier with it. She did a beautiful job!! I made the pillow in the chair and had it monogrammed with Connor's initials.

Since I picked out the fabric for the bedding and basically made decisions on the entire room Mikey wanted to have control over the wall decor. I think it is very sweet that he wants to be involved in decorating his son's room. He wanted something that reflects his interests and things he likes so he could pass down his love for those things to his son. One of the things that he is really interested in is literature and collecting old first edition books. He chose a few from his book shelf and I found frames for them so that he could create a collage above Connor's crib.

We still love our painted curtains!

The dresser/changing table. I have several sweet friends who have already lent me some boy clothes so every one of those drawers is already filled with stuff for Connor!

As you can see it is not complete but it should be soon! I will post more pictures of the completed room when it is finished.

6 weeks and counting till we meet our sweet boy!

Ava's "dance show"

My grandmother's friend, who apparently is my number one fan of the blog, gave Ava a singing dog dressed as Santa. (She also sent a Santa bib for Connor). They were meant to be played with next Christmas but Ava couldn't resist. She loves "Santa Dog" as she calls him and played him so many times that his batteries wore out within an hour. She loves to dance while he sings. Thanks Jucel for reading the blog and for sending Ava and Connor such sweet gifts!! I thought you in particular would appreciate these videos. :)







If you haven't noticed she is very into dressing up and wearing accessories! She requests to wear her Minnie Mouse dress everyday.

33 weeks

( I wish you could see the full extent of Ava's outfit. She is wearing her Minnie Mouse dress along with every necklace and bracelet she owns)

So I am 33 weeks and counting! Am I really going to have two kids in 7 weeks or less?! I have been trying to prepare myself for another baby but I still can't believe that Connor will be here so soon. I had a doctor appointment today and Connor and I are doing well. I had a few mild cramps/contractions on Sunday that lasted for just a little bit and then went away but the dr. says that that is perfectly normal and nothing to worry about as long as they go away quickly and don't last very long. Connor moves so much more in my belly than Ava did and lately anytime the dr. measures my belly she can see the ripple motions he makes when he moves. Today she said "you are going to have one active baby boy". Of course I could have told her that but for her to tell me made it really sink in. Yikes!! Better take advantage of my opportunities to nap while I still can!

I go back again in 2 weeks and then after that I will go every week.

Here is a cute video of Ava I got the other day. She is going to be a great big sister. :)

Potty Training

It's potty training time around our house

We started the week after Christmas while Ava was still out of school and we had some back to back days at home to work on it. I probably wouldn't have started potty training if it weren't for a baby on the way. Now that I have gone through the hard part I am so glad that we decided to do it now. There is no way I could have potty trained her and cared for a newborn at the same time.

I didn't read any books but talked to many of my friends who have already potty trained their kids. For two solid days we stayed at home and wore panties. There were lots of accidents in the beginning but she gradually got the hang of telling me before she had to go so we could race to the potty.

We talked a lot about going on the potty before hand. We went to Target and she picked out some Dora soap, princess wipes, candy, stickers, and I made a sticker chart all in preparation for the big day.

I gave her lots of incentives for going tee tee on the potty. When she went tee tee she got a skittle and a sticker on her sticker chart. I even picked out a few "surprises" from the dollar section at Target to give her after she had several stickers on her chart. Thanks Megan for the idea! She got a surprise after going 4 times then 8 times then 12 and so on. I have phased those out but they were also good motivation in the beginning.

Since we have carpet I layed out some plastic table cloths in the areas of the house she plays in the most. It helped a ton! I had my 409 and carpet cleaner on hand but most of the time her accidents were on the table cloth so I just sprayed and wiped it up. She was so excited to wear big girl panties, that she picked out, and go like a big girl on the potty. She had about 6 back to back accidents the first day before she finally started to recognize what the urge to go potty felt like and actually tell me before hand. I wanted to quit but I knew that this was going to be the hardest part and I needed to push through it. The good thing is is that despite peeing on herself she still wanted to keep going on the potty and was excited about it. Her good attitude kept me going. By the afternoon on the first day she finally got the hang of it and didnt have any accidents the rest of the day and was going successfully in the potty.
Something that I did that helped a ton the first few days was have her princess potty close by. Since she didnt know how to hold it very long this helped us to make it to the potty in the time. I wanted her to be successful and feel proud of herself for going on the potty despite which one it was. Every time she went we both clapped and cheered. She loved it! Especially after she got her skittle and sticker.
The first day she even poo pooed on the big potty!! It took several attempts though so early on we put on a tv show for her to sit and watch so she could relax and go. Unfortunately though she peed mindlessly on her potty and didnt even realize it so I quickly realized that sitting on the potty for more than 5 minutes watching tv while only trying to go tee tee was not helping her learn what the urge to go felt like.
Her and I played lots of dress up while we were at home. Too spare my embarressment I didnt take any pictures of my unshowered self adorned with necklaces, hats, scarves, and purses picked out by Ava but it was pretty funny. One of the great things about potty training was that she got my undivided attention for two solid days and she loved every minute of it. It was good to have time like that together before Connor arrives.
I was expecting less accidents the second day but unfortunately it was a lot like the first. Many accidents in the beginning and then it finally clicked again in the afternoon.

Where we are now is she wears panties whenever we are home and wears pull-ups while she is sleeping and when we are out of the house. She is doing awesome at holding it longer and telling us when she needs to go. We are asking her if she needs to go less and less, in fact the last two days I havent asked her at all, and several times recently she has gone and sat on the big potty or little one if we have it out and go all by herself without even telling us. It has been a slow process but we are so proud of her and how far she has come. Sometime soon we will tackle phase two of potty training...wearing panties while we are out. She went on the potty at the library and the YMCA for the first time yesterday so that is another huge step! I tend to not give her enough credit and she has humbly reminded me that she is a lot more capable than I think.

Christmas Part 3

Last weekend Papa and Gramielle came in town for a visit and for us to exchange gifts with them since we didn't see them over Christmas. Gramielle's son, Lance, also happened to be in Dallas for a wedding so we got a chance to see him too.

One of Ava's gifts was this adorable teepee!

We had been wanting to take Ava to the Gaylord Texan to see the Shrek Ice Sculpture exhibit so we thought it would be fun to go with Papa and Gramielle while they were here.

It was sooo cold inside, I think they said they kept it at 9-12 degrees, so they give you these giant blue parkas to wear. Not a good look for a large 7 month pregnant woman!

They had an ice slide that Ava went down.

She kept touching all the sculptures with her gloves. Oopsy!

Major mistake on my part, wearing ballet flats with no socks!! I was freezing at this point but I had to get a quick picture with my girl who didn't seem phased at all by the cold. She was having so much fun and has been asking to go back ever since.

We were so glad that Papa and Gramielle came up! It was a short visit but lots of fun!

Hugs goodbye

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

(in pictures)

Mommy and Ava baked cupcakes for Santa, Jesus' birthday, and our family

On Christmas Eve we went to Alli and Greg's house with the rest of the Vaughan family. Ava opened up her presents from Alli and one from Nana and Papa. She was excited to get real ballet shoes from her Aunt Alli.

Papa opened up his calendar from Ava. It was so good to have him here with us. (We missed you Nana)

Ava had fun playing with her new Barbie and Alli's nutcracker who quickly became friends. She told me to take a picture of them. Actually about 5 pictures of them and then "she wanted to see" them on my camera.

When we got home that evening we iced our cupcakes and put one out for Santa.

She opted to give Santa water instead of milk so we put his cupcake and water by the fireplace and said goodnight.

Ava slept in on Christmas morning till 8:30! Guess it was the short nap and late night partying. Macy was up early with us though and she quickly discovered that Santa had left her a little treat.

Santa's note to Ava and Macy's treat

This isn't a look of anger rather a look of confusion and shock as to why we were barging in her room to take a picture of her first thing in the morning.

She quickly woke up when she realized Santa had come and she was finally able to open her presents under the tree that she has been eyeing for the past month.

Mikey and I didn't really exchange gifts with each other since we have a lot of things we want to get for either the house or the nursery but I did make us our 2010 family yearbook on shutterfly (yes, I know I am a year behind) and a picture calendar for his desk.

Ava and Daddy with their gifts

After gifts we ate a nice breakfast and then one last time sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. I think she gets the meaning behind Christmas now! ;)

Later on that day the rest of the family came over for a White Elephant gift exchange and Chili and Tamales! I am disgusted with myself though because I only got two pictures of our time with them and no group shots like I wanted. Oh well.

I did manage to get Ava and my cousin Ryan playing dress up. He promised her he would play dress-up with her and she was ready the second he walked in the door.

Ava, my Aunt Konnie, and my dad (Papa) watching a video on the iphone.

Pretty pathetic I didn't get any more than this! We had a wonderful Christmas though and I love every minute that I get to spend with my family. Guess that is my excuse for not taking more pictures! I was too busy enjoying myself (and playing hostess to 15 people).
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas as well!