Oh Boy!

As most of you have probably heard by now, I am going to have a little brother! We found out one week ago that the little peanut in Mommy's belly is a boy. I am so excited to have a little brother to be best buddies with, play with, teach, love, and push around (just kidding Mommy and Daddy!) I still catch myself calling the baby, "Lilly" thanks to Mommy who brainwashed me into thinking we were having a little girl. Daddy was quite proud when the ultrasound tech exclaimed that the baby was CLEARLY a boy. The picture below proves the point!
My baby brother is approximately 12 inches in length and weighs 14 ounces. Mommy feels the little guy especially at night. He is a mover and a shaker! During the ultrasound, he moved the entire time, but was very cooperative and photogenic.

Here is his profile, which Mommy says looks just like me (round head, little features, cool hair... I made that part up!) He is waving his hand out towards us. He already can wave, "Hello!" Quite advanced for a 21 week old.

This picture is a bit scary... he is looking right at us in the picture. During the ultrasound, he made swallowing movements and almost looked like he had hiccups too. I think he looks like a little alien here myself. I hope he is cuter in person :)

Our baby is a thumb sucker. This is new, since I never leared to suck my thumb in Mommy's belly and I have never to this day, sucked my thumb. Mommy thought that breaking me from my pacifier was tough. Wait until she has to teach the baby not to suck his thumb. They are going to wish I was an only child!

The ultrasound tech found out that Mommy was a scrapbooker and since my brother was such a good little guy during the scan, she gave us lots of photos to scrap and keep. This picture is also kind of funny/strange. He did a great big yawn in the middle of the ultrasound, so we captured it in time to print off.

The ultrasound shows Mommy's due date as June 23rd. The calendar due date was June 20th, early ultrasound said June 26th (which Momy disagreed with) but the 23rd is exactly the date that Mommy thought it would be. So, we are going to keep the 26th as the due date, with hopes that June 23rd is the actual arrival of my brother.

In the meantime, we are thinking of boy names, trying to decide what the nursery theme/decorations will be, and my parents already ordered my bedroom set this past weekend. I won't transition until mid-April, but the furniture was exactly right, so the order was placed. We are also going to decide on my bedroom theme... tractors, construction, or trains are what come to mind right now.

Backing up a week and a half ago... we went to the Sullivan's to have a dinner and playdate on Friday night. Mommy and Heather rarely get to do "fun stuff" since they mostly are dealing with job-share duties. We decided our families should get together more often! Finley has super fun toys at his house and we did a good job of sharing. His parents are nice enough to let him keep his John Deere in the basement, along with a ball pit and metal firetruck. I love new toys, so I was a busy boy while there.

Finley is showing me how to use his CAT. This dumptruck made sounds and I quickly became obsessed with it. It will most likely end up on my "list" of wants, although we don't have a nice playroom to store all of these fantastic toys.

It was my turn to ride the CAT. Finley was a good sport about letting me use his toys around the house. I seemed "fine" all night while we were there... played well, talked some, ate a lot of pizza, strawberries and a cookie. At 2:00 a.m., I woke up throwing up everywhere. All of the delicious foods I ate for dinner were all over the crib. Mommy and Daddy came to my rescue and let me stay in their bed the rest of the night. I threw up for four hours on and off and then it came out the other end the rest of the weekend. Mommy felt queasy, and feels she probably had a slight flu bug. Luckily, the flu didn't put her in the hospital this pregnancy, like it did when I was in her tummy. Daddy then got the flu on Sunday. Mommy was ready to go bananas. She disinfected the house, washed a million loads of laundry, and tried to stay healthy, which she did. We had to tell the Sullivans that we had the flu and fortunately, no one at their house got sick! Whew! Mommy did not take a lot of pictures for about a week. We were all resting and taking it easy since the recovery was a bit longer than expected.

This past weekend, we made a little jaunt to the cities to see family for Valentine's Day. Daddy and Mommy left me with Grandma and Grandpa (oh darn.... ) and they went shopping. They found my bedroom set and bought a few items they have been wanting for the house. I am not an easy boy to take shopping, so I am glad I was spoiled with cookies, hugs, and lots of attention at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Mommy and Daddy went to Buca's for dinner and finally went to see Blind Side at the movie theater (they loved it!) This was the extent of their Valentine's Day, but both said it was a perfect date! On Sunday, Lexi, Sam, Uncle Bruce, and Aunt Stefanie came over to have a Valentine's breakfast. Grandpa made some awesome blueberry heart-shaped pancakes and we had lots of other yummy breakfast items too. We attempted to get a photo of the cousins together... Mommy isn't sure why the lighting is so off and of course, I wouldn't smile for the picture.

I love to say, "SAM" when I see him and just before he was leaving, we had to blow a million kisses to each other. Sam is 5 years old and he likes to show me the ropes. I wish we lived a bit closer!

"Mmmmmuh!" Right back at you Sam! I get to see Sam again next weekend when we return to the cities to visit family and friends.

When we returned home, I gave my parents a special gift that I made with Jenny (daycare Mama). I had my hand stamped and I colored the middle section of the heart for 15 minutes! Mommy cannot believe this story because when I color at home, I mostly just bite the tips off of all my crayons. Mommy is quickly learning that I am better behaved at Jenny's than at home. Funny how kids figure this out so early!

I helped Daddy open his gifts... we gave him Reese's Peanut Butter Hearts (his fav.), Marley and Me DVD (reminds him of Liberty), a new book to read, and a photo collage for his office. He sent Mommy roses to work on Friday and he had her diamond band fixed for Valentine's Day.

It was my turn to open my Valentine's Day gifts... I am quite good at opening packages and have this whole thing figured out. My first gift was a pair of shoes. I LOVE shoes and I LOVE to wear shoes around the house. Mommy thought I needed a new pair of blue ones, so she wrapped up a pair, knowing I would think this was a completely normal Valentine's Day gift. She figures she has a few more months before shoes become a not-so-fun gift for boys.

Yup, they fit me alright. I am now wearing a size 5 shoe. My feet seem to be growing like weeds these past few months! Both my parents have smaller shoe sizes, so they told me to not plan on needing big honkers for my feet.

Next gift... new crayons! Mommy decided to give the jumbo crayons a try, hoping I wouldn't bite the ends off like the cute little round, animal crayons that we have bought in the past. Did it work....

Nope! I had to taste the green crayon first, and then, Mommy took my crayons away for another day. I had green crayon all over my face and green chunks in my mouth for a while.

One of my last gifts was a travel aqua doodle. This is a pad that I can draw on with a pen that you fill with water. Uncle Matt and Jill had a huge floor mat at their house for me on Thanksgiving, so Mommy thought this would be a perfect gift for the car and for home. I love to suck the water out of the pen, but I still do pretty good with drawing.

My last gift, no pictures yet, were cute little construction eating utensils. Heather told Mommy all about them, so Mommy and Daddy went to Creative KidStuff to buy them last weekend and ironically, so did Grandma! So, now I have TWO sets of construction eating utensils. They are a lot of fun. Of course, other family members sent me candy, books, a McDonald's giftcard, some dollars, and a Life is Good t-shirt. I really like Valentine's Day because it reminds me of how loved I truly am! Of course, it also reminds me of how much I love my parents, extended family, Liberty and my new baby brother, "Lilly."

This week, in Kindermusik, we had a fun "ramp" to throw cars and trucks down. Our music class is learning a few new signs each week, along with a song. So far, we have worked on clean-up, a greeting song (signs for "Hello" and happy), more, all done, bubbles, and ball. Each time I wanted to zoom the car down the ramp, I had to sign for "more" which I am quite good at.

After we zoomed cars down the ramp, we were given permission to zoom our bodies down it! Of course, I loved this part and wanted to leap right up on the ramp. After this activity, I couldn't keep my feet away from the folded down ramp, so Mommy eventually just leaned it against the wall (Mommy is a downer sometimes). My parents realized that I am tall enough to open the latch door at music class too, so the next few weeks will most likely pose a challenge as they are trying to confine me to the classroom.

Our music class is very different in the sense that we get to play a lot. We have learned "The Bear Went Over the Mountain" and "If You're Happy and You Know It" for songs. Otherwise, we do a lot of play and sign. Jillian brought a water tub and ducks to float in there. We were supposed to learn the sign for duck, although all toddlers in class were way more interested in splashing in the tub of water. In case you are curious... my bear sweater was perfect for our new song "Bear Went Over the Mountain" and it was made by my Great-Grandma for Christmas. I had lots of compliments on it... gotta love those crafty Great-Grandmothers (no one else will be able to carry on this tradition!)

Uncle Matt (Daddy's youngest brother) came home with his fiancee, Jill, for a quick weekend visit. Great-Grandpa John (Daddy's Grandpa) has been in the hospital for a week now with pneumonia, heart problems, and is currently on dialysis due to the amount of fluid in his body. He is not doing so good, so we are saying lots of prayers for him. I am the only grandchild, of three, that lives in WI (the other two are in GA), and I get to visit with Great-Grandpa often. He loves to give me high-fives and we have a special bond. I am hoping he can pull through this!

Anyhow, Matt and Jill came home to see Grandpa and to see family. We went to dinner on Saturday night at a local restaurant, where I enjoyed mac and cheese, fries, and a grasshopper (ice cream treat... see below).

Daddy played darts after dinner just for kicks (he is definitely not a professional dart player, by any means!) As an FYI, these were the plastic darts not the sharp dangerous ones. I liked how the scoreboard lit up and made lots of sounds. I even walked around this little area, touching all the gambling machines and arcade games and was lucky enough to find a skittle on the floor, which I nearly ate before Daddy fished it out (gross, I know!)

Before leaving for the night, we all shared ONE huge grasshopper (they split the enormous thing into two glasses for us). This is an ice cream treat with creme de menthe (alcohol) but Mommy was sure not to give me any of that part. I really didn't care too much about the treat anyhow since I was obsessed with the arcade area.

We headed back home that night to sleep in our beds and to have a quiet Sunday around home. Daddy took a few pictures of Mommy's ever-expanding belly. She is now 19+ weeks and is one week away from the BIG ultrasound! We can't wait! The baby is starting to move more, at least Mommy thinks so. She says she is starting to feel uncomfortably big already... yikes! She still has 20 weeks to go! I love to give the baby kisses and hugs, which is what the pictures below show. I call the baby, "baby" and also "Lilly" since Mommy has brainwashed me into thinking it is a sister. If it is a boy, I don't think Lilly is masculine enough.

Kisses to our baby

Giving the baby a hug before saying "Nigh, Nigh" and covering Mommy's tummy with her sweater, which she is happy about.

I have a talking toilet that we bought a month ago. It sings a little jingle about going potty and doing a "good job." I mostly just sit on it backwards and practice flushing the toilet. It has a little purple arm to put TP on, but Mommy says I am NOT ready for this... too much fun! I must spend a lot of time in the bathroom with Daddy, because in this picture, and often when I sit on my toilet, I make farting sounds with my mouth. I say the words, "potty" and "poop" and can even tell my parents when I have poop in my diaper now. Mommy is so very hopeful that I can be an early toilet trained toddler. We will keep working on it.

One of my favorite games these days is hide and seek. I just give my little smirk and start to run, hoping I will be chased. I have two very sneaky hiding spots in our house....

My favorite spot is a little corner in our dining room. I still can't believe that it takes my parents SO LONG to find me here. I just love this little spot.

My next spot is under a chair. This is another awesome spot, where I curl up and become invisible somehow. Again, my parents just can't seem to find me here either.

It is hard to believe that February is here! The long days of winter, will hopefully get shorter. I hear that it will be cloudy on Groundhog's Day, which would be good and bad news. We are back on the snowmobile for daily laps around the backyard and golf course, but I also look forward to the days of "John" and my own little riding lawn mower too. Mommy is looking forward to more walks in the neighborhood and warmer temp.'s for us to get outside to play. My next post will be an important one with special news about our baby and with other fun events happening this weekend!