SNOW-bruary

see what I did there?

was it a bit too blustery, or was she scared of the man in black?

sledding with our neighbor, Ana

We've had quite the snowy month!!

My big girl on her own

A big milestone I forgot to mention....

I brought Gwen to "play care" at my gym for the first time while I worked out last month.  Up until that point, she had only been left with immediate family, or two different family friends on two separate occasions.

This was probably a bigger step for me than it was for Gwen.  I'm not ashamed to admit that I dressed her in her highlighter yellow pants that morning so she wouldn't get lost in the shuffle!  Before we got there I told her that she would be meeting and playing with new friends, and that I was going to leave her, but that I would come back.  She got excited about the new friends part and kept repeating "mommy leave mmhmmm...come back". Yes, that's right Gwen, I will come back.

So I brought her to the play care, walked around with her, showing her the fun toys and speaking to the women who were working there.  Then I gave her a kiss, told her I would be back, and said goodbye.  She kissed me back and walked off.

SUCCESS!!

Of course I poked my head in a couple of times during my workout, and got a thumbs up from one of the ladies.  When I went to pick her up, she was sitting quietly on the floor looking at books and told me she had a fun time.  I brought her with me again last week, and she did great!  It's so nice to have this option now on days when there are no grandmas available :)

Halfway

This pregnancy is seriously going way quicker.  I'm at that awkward in-between stage; regular clothes aren't looking so hot, but maternity clothes are still too big.  Gotta love the trusty Lulu yoga pants!

I'm feeling like I have much more energy these days, and I don't really have any complaints.  That wasn't really the case with my first pregnancy.  It was one thing after another last time; tooth pain, ear pain, fainting, Dr appt after Dr appt....

I really believe that I'm feeling better because I'm not spending as much time obsessing over (and Google-ing) every tiny little symptom and expecting the worst!  I'm not going on those silly message boards like I did the first time, all they really did was put thoughts in my head and scare me.  Plus I'm chasing around a toddler now, so I don't have nearly as much time to think about everything that could go wrong.

So here we are at the halfway point, folks!

First Haircut

We had no idea how Gwen would react to her first haircut, usually she won't even let me brush her hair.  She has a little bit of a natural wave, plus a cowlick in the back so it can be pretty out of control at times.  I didn't want to cut bangs because there's no way they would lie flat, so all we needed to do was even out the back to avoid mullet status.  I searched for a kid-friendly place for as much distraction as possible during the cut. Gwen seems to do really well with reasoning, so on the way there, we explained to her that she would sit in a big chair and she would have to stay still while the lady cut her hair.
Once we got to Snip-its, there was a 45 minute wait, so we took advantage of the Starbucks located in the same shopping center.

Getting ready to head out the door

killing some time, and looking adorable while doing it

She actually stayed totally still, we were super proud!!

a shot of the back, all curled up again but much more even

so proud of her "First Haircut Certificate" that include a lock of her hair <3

It's a...

BOYYYYYY!!!!!

More importantly, the ultrasound looked just perfect and our little guy is looking great at a whopping 9oz. I think his HR was around 150-160bpm :)

Can we talk about how great I am at guessing?!!!  Yes, there's a 50/50 chance but both times I just had these gut feelings about the gender, which to me is just amazing.

Justin and I are extremely excited to have a little boy join our family.  Of course, all we wanted was another healthy and happy baby, but we both had our fingers [slightly] crossed for a boy.

I have to say that ever since we found out, I've been feeling like I need to buy more pink for Gwen.  I've always tried to stay away from the whole girly-pink-overload, but now, knowing that she'll probably be our only girl I'm feeling like I need dress her in tutus and tights every day - it's going to be a dressy spring!
We made a quick trip to Target to check out the baby boy clothing and I was a bit disappointed.  All of the baby girl stuff was so much cuter, but I'm thinking he'll just be living in onesies for the first few months and by the time fall and winter roll around he'll be a bit easier to dress, and we'll have more options.

I love knowing now that he's a boy, it just makes me feel so much more connected to him.  I'm starting to feel him kicking and rolling and I love being able to call him "HIM" instead of it :)  We've also been throwing around some names.  We have a few that we're leaning towards (sorry, not sharing them here), but I'm so fickle, I'm sure we'll wait until the very end like we did with Gwen.

I picked up some blue balloons to surprise Gwen with the morning we found out.  She's super excited for her baby brother :)

Personality

I love that we can now rationalize with her when she's upset.  We've found that if Gwen is throwing a tantrum, she responds best to calm reasoning.  It calms her down immediately when we speak softly to her, and she'll say things like "no cry, big girl".  Justin has become really good at this, and it's really sweet to hear how patient he can be with her.

She loves her "Famwee hugs" and it always melts my heart when she asks us for them out of the blue.

Cuddling has become an after-nap ritual, she also asks for tickles on her arms, legs, neck, and feet.  One of my favorite things is when I ask her for a kiss but I lean back so she can't reach me - she'll giggle, wrap her arms around my neck and kiss my nose.  These are the things that I need to write down because I know that they won't last forever but I never want to forget them.

B2 Update

I started feeling baby #2 kicking right around 16 weeks.  Last night (18 wks), Justin felt him/her kick for the first time!! It was really exciting - I almost forgot what this was like!

We can hardly contain ourselves over here; gender ultrasound is on Tuesday!!

Update 1/20:
Oh, I should've mentioned that I *think* this one is a boy.  Before I was pregnant with Gwen, I thought we were going to have a boy.  Then as soon as I found out I was pregnant, I just had this feeling and I knew she was a girl.  I couldn't even picture her being a boy, it really didn't even seem like a question for me.  This time around, I don't feel as strongly...but I can picture it being a boy.  Either way, we'll be thrilled.  I'll just be happy to stop calling it an "it". :)