It's a BOY!

I had an ultrasound today since there wasn't time to do one last week at my regular checkup appointment. We were really hoping the baby would cooperate so we could find out the sex. And HE did - we're having another boy!



He looked great in the ultrasound - growing as he should and was active. We didn't catch the heart rate but the heart beat was strong.

We're so excited that Carter is going to have a little brother to play with. I am a little shocked because I was 100% sure we were having a girl since I've felt so different this pregnancy. But I really wanted Carter to have a brother. Plus, we're practical and thrifty and I'm glad we don't have to buy all new clothes and pink accessories and girl toys!

I'm so excited to finally know! Now we can start throwing around names and deciding if we're going to move Carter to a "big boy" room or do another nursery. Time to start planning and shopping!

New Years Resolution?

I'm not big on New Years Resolutions. I actually never make them. But I have decided that I'm going to try to do a better job at making dinners. Carter still isn't eating what we eat for dinner. That might have a little to do with the fact that I don't cook anything all that great very often. Carter gets very clingy around dinner time and wants attention and to be picked up a lot. He makes it really hard to cook. And we still eat out a lot. Plus, Brian doesn't get home from work most nights until 6:30 pm and Carter is usually getting really hungry and moody by 5:30 or 6 pm (I'm still not sure how to work that out and all eat the same meal). Carter does eat well though at dinner even if he has a relatively limited amount of food that he likes right now.

I would also love not to put on so much weight with this pregnancy. I was able to run a lot to help get the weight off when Carter was littler but it's going to be a lot harder to do that with two.

So my plan is to make a list of dinners for the week on Sunday night and then go grocery shopping Monday or Tuesday to get whatever I don't have already to make those meals. And I'm going to try to do as much prep work as I can for dinner during Carter's afternoon nap. We'll see how long this lasts. I'm not getting too ambitious and still plan on eating out a few times during the week, but hopefully this will help me stay on track a little more and get Carter eating what we eat.

Today's Fun

We got out Carter's tunnels and tents today and set them up in the family room. They take up a lot of room! There is another tent that goes with one of the tunnels that we didn't have room for.



Carter was really moody this afternoon and evening and this kept him happy for about half an hour. He liked just hanging out in the tents today.

When we were cleaning up, Carter found another way to play with the folded up tunnels ...

We got out for lunch today and stopped by Target on the way home. Carter loved playing with Mary Grace's magnetic doodler yesterday so we had to get him one of his own. He really likes scribbling on it and has already figured out how to erase the screen.

Bbbbrrrrrrr ...

It's still super cold here. It snowed most of yesterday afternoon and we got about an inch of very fluffy snow. It's so "dry" that it won't pack in a snowball at all - it just falls apart. It's been so cold for so long here that the snow stuck to the roads and made driving today a little difficult. All the schools in the area were closed today.

I couldn't stand to be at the house all day so Carter and I drove over to Sarah's house to play with her and Mary Grace for a little while. It was a little sketchy driving out of our neighborhood, but all the other roads were fine. Carter had lots of fun playing. Mary Grace's tunnel was set up that she got from Christmas and Carter really liked playing in it. We have 2 similar ones that Carter got for his birthday. Because he's gotten so many gifts lately, we haven't gotten them out yet. But since it looks like we'll be spending most (if not all) of the weekend at home, we'll probably get them out tomorrow.




Here are a few cute pictures of Carter and Mary Grace ...




Once I finally got Carter down for a nap this afternoon, I decided I should finish shoveling the driveway. Brian did the section next to the garage that doesn't get any sun, but there was still a lot more driveway that needed help. Fortunately or unfortunately Carter took a longer nap and I spent an hour and a half in 20F weather shoveling. It was really hard getting the snow up from where we'd already driven on it. I am already really sore. Tomorrow is going to be rough.

When Brian got home he commented that I must really want to get out this weekend. He's right. Being housebound all weekend would drive me nuts!

Mad Carter

I pretty much always post pictures of Carter when he is happy (or at least cute). Unfortunately, he really isn't that way all the time.

Introducing Mad Carter ...


This is what Carter looks like when he doesn't get what he wants. There's more and more of this lately.

14 Weeks, 2 Days Appointment

I had an appointment today with my OB. Actually it was with her new nurse practitioner.

They moved to a new office this past week which is just across the parking lot from their old location in the hospital. The building is brand new and still mostly empty with a lot of construction still going on inside. The waiting room is a lot bigger and has a partitioned off corner with lots of toys. Thank goodness because my appointment was at 9 am and I didn't get called back until 10 am. Carter didn't sleep on the way to the appointment like I'd hoped so he was in dire need of a nap. Brian wasn't able to make it to this appointment either so I was doing everything I could to keep Carter happy. It was obvious that he wasn't in the best mood once I got called back but he still did really well.

Luckily there wasn't too much waiting once I was called back - 5 minutes a few times while the nurse practitioner waited on a nurse or went to ask the ultrasound tech about her schedule. I liked the new NP. She was really friendly and easy to talk to. I don't really like that I don't see my doctor as often anymore (and that the wait is usually always an hour) but I really like everyone at the office and haven't really wanted to try to find someone new.

The first trimester screening I did a couple weeks ago came back normal. The results of my OB panel (bloodwork) was all normal - no anemia, etc. My blood pressure was 102/62. I've gained about 3 pounds so far. The baby's heartbeat was 160 bpm.

According to the NP, everything looks good. My doctor had mentioned doing another ultrasound at this appointment so I asked the NP about it and she basically said "why not". Unfortunately though the ultrasound tech said she was booked up and it may be a couple more hours before she got me in. So the NP had my schedule an appointment for next week for a "freebie" ultrasound that would be part of today's appointment (hopefully they submit that correctly to my insurance!). Brian's company switched insurance companies as of the first of the year so hopefully that won't screw up everything as well.

We finally left the office around 10:45 am and Carter fell asleep immediately in the car. He is no where near dropping that morning nap yet!

Sarah and Mary Grace came over for a playdate after lunch. Carter doesn't really play with Mary Grace yet but he does try to take things Mary Grace is still playing with but aren't in her hands. When she takes the toy back (as she should), Carter gets mad and flaps his arms up and down which results in him hitting Mary Grace in the head. I'm not sure if he's trying to hit her or not, but I'm trying to get him to stop. Though he seems to understand a lot of things we say, I'm not sure how much discipline is right for him yet and if he'll get it.

I noticed tonight that Carter is actually getting both of his top eye teeth in right now. Hopefully those bottom ones will come in soon and Carter can be done with teething for awhile!

Cold and a Cold

Like most of the country, it's been freezing here for several days and the cold is supposed to stick around for awhile. Today was the first day it wasn't miserable - I think we got into the upper 20s but there wasn't as much wind today and it was sunny most of the day. Yesterday it flurried most of the day but we never got more than a light dusting of snow on the ground. I've been a wuss and haven't been brave enough to face the cold and take down our outdoor Christmas decorations. I'm not the only one though - only about half of our neighborhood has undecorated. Maybe tomorrow during Carter's afternoon nap I'll get around to it.

I was thinking the other day that Carter's been healthy for awhile - no colds in over a month. I shouldn't of had that thought because Carter now has a cold. He started with a few sneezes and a runny nose yesterday and it's continued today. Luckily it's not bothering him too much. Carter's nose is a faucet though and I'm using hand sanitizer like crazy trying to not catch his cold.


Carter is still in the mist of teething. His last molar (the upper right one) has been coming in for about a week and I noticed his first eye tooth (the upper left one) starting to poke through today. It's really hard to get Carter to open his mouth to see those top teeth so I'm not sure on their progress. Carter's still not sleeping well at night because of all these teeth. I've been giving him ibuprofen before bed every night but he still wakes up crying a lot. We haven't had to go to him though the last few nights - he'll go back to sleep after 5 or 10 minutes - which has been nice. When we go to him, we're usually up with him for an hour or two. Everyone seems to get more sleep if Carter goes back to sleep on his own.

One of the presents we got Carter for Christmas was a Sit 'n Spin. Carter hasn't quite figured out the correct way to sit on it yet ...

Here's a cute picture from tonight of Carter playing with his trucks with Brian ...

Carter is a Sponge

Carter is learning so much right now. I keep saying that he understands everything that we're saying, but I keep forgetting specific examples. Here are a couple from the last few days ...

• Carter brought down a bib from the laundry room before lunch. He put it down somewhere downstairs and then was waiting by his chair for me to help him in to eat. I told him to go find his bib first and he right away went to it and brought it back to me.
• I was sitting across the room and Carter was walking to his toy basket. I asked him to get his truck out and he did. I told him to make it move and he hit the button that makes it move.

Carter is also learning more body parts. He now knows nose, belly button, ears, hair, and toes.

Even though Carter seems to understand what we are saying, he hasn't really picked up any new words. Though he is starting to mimic sounds a little more. We were saying "good girl" to Charlotte and Carter started making "g" sounds that sounded somewhat similar. Maybe we just aren't listening well enough to him or expect him to say things perfectly and don't give him enough credit. Carter has seemed to learn "up" instead of just grunting when he wants to be picked up. Though it doesn't sound much different.

NCSU vs Florida

Did anyone catch the end of the game today? Wow. What a lucky shot!

State was up by 2 with 2.5 seconds left in overtime. State missed a free throw, Florida rebounded the ball, and they made a crazy 75 foot prayer to win the game. I think I sat there with my mouth hanging open for 30 seconds after that shot. What a way to lose.

Sesame Street Live

Happy New Year! I turned the big 3-0 today. To celebrate, we took Carter to Sesame Street Live! We got free tickets from one of the local car dealerships and went with Sarah, Brent, and Mary Grace and Amy, Chad, and Caitlyn. We don't usually do much for our birthdays anyway so this was as good of a way as any to celebrate. We used to go hiking on my birthday every year since we never have to work but it was way too cold to take Carter into the woods today (way too cold for us as well!).


The show started at 2 pm which was right during all the kids normal naptimes. We got there pretty early so we were all a little nervous about how well the kids would do staying in one place for so long. They all did AMAZING. Carter started melting down a little the last few minutes but otherwise was great.

The stage ...


Chilling before the show ...


Our family ...


Caitlyn and Carter checking out the stage before the show got started ...


The show ...


For about the first 30 minutes, Carter sat on Brian's lap mesmerized by the show. Caitlyn was the same way. I was surprised they both liked it so much. Mary Grace also did great but I expected her to "get it" a little more than the littler ones (which I think she did).


Here's a short clip of the show ...

This particular show was called "Elmo's Green Thumb". It was pretty good. The kids were most interested during the fast songs. We thought the show was a little long for the target age group (two 40 minute segments with a 15 minute intermission), but we didn't pay for the tickets either so we may have been a little biased. After the first 30 minutes, Carter started getting more tired and antsy and wanted to switch laps more often. But we thought he did great for a very tired 13 month old!