Introducing Baby T

We're so excited to announce the birth of baby T!

Born on March 15.

7 lbs 5 oz.  20 1/4 inches long.

The birth was lovely.

He is awesome, and we are all doing well.

Waiting on Baby

We're three days away from my guess date.

I've been trying to get every possible thing I can think of done before baby arrives.

This month has been great so far.  The snow is starting to melt.  

I've had some amazing help getting things ready.  

I cut my hair... which was kind of a big deal for me.  

Feeling a little sad....

We're getting really excited for this baby to come.  The last couple of days I've finally felt 'ready'.  

But what I really wanted this blog post to document was C.

I've been getting emotional about a lot of things, but one of them has been C.  

What a kid.  He never ceases to amaze me, and I feel so grateful to be his mother.  I don't know how this transition from only child to older brother is going to go, but I wanted to document some of the fun/sweet things he's been doing lately.  

* We have a game where I say, "C, you're the best!"  He always responds, "No mom, you're the BEST!"  We then both say "We're BOTH the Best".  Nothing like a good round of that to boost your self-esteem. :)

*He LOVES playing games.  He loves hide and seek and has started to learn how to be quiet while he is hiding.  He also loves the game 'Huckle Buckle Beanstalk', an H family tradition.  You hide an item in the room and then help guide the seeker to the item.  He hasn't quite mastered the art of not pointing directly to it. :)

*He loves reading books.  Man I'm so happy this kid likes to read.  He's been memorizing the books too, and he loves to read them out loud to us. He's also been letting me read him chapter books, and we're currently reading "Charlotte's Web".  I love snuggling him and reading to him.  

*He is also getting to be quite the avid singer.  He always sings a long with me in the house, and it's funny to hear some of the songs he's picked up.  Some have included "Sweet Sweet Smile" (Carpenters), "Shake it Off" (Taylor Swift...he's really good at the 'boom boom' part), and "Let it Go".  

He loves singing by HIMSELF too, and his current repertoire is "Winnie the Pooh", "child of God", "Edelweiss" and any other silly song we can come up with. 

He is getting to be really polite (most of the time), and I love his little mannerisms.  

"Oh sorry, momma."

"Please, with a SMILE!"

"I won't anymore..."

"Oh, okay."

"This is really good mommy!  Thanks!"

He's starting to ask questions, and one of his favorites is asking who the people are on the cereal box.  

The other day at the store, there were St. Patrick's day decorations up.  He pointed at them and asked, "What are those mommy?"  I told him, and he said, "Wow.  They are so beautiful".

He loves pretending going to the store, and he LOVES our new grocery store of preference "market basket".

I said, "C do you want me or daddy to read you a book tonight?"

C: "I want daddy.  Mommy needs to work on dishwasher".

*those two boys gang up on me! :)

He wakes us up in the morning by knocking on our door in a very polite fashion. :)

He loves running laps in our house. 

He's also getting quite good at memorizing, and we've been having him work on articles of faith.  He's doing awesome!

I could go on and on, but I love having my little buddy around.  He has such a tender heart, and I am amazed at how he recognizes the needs of others around him.  This morning I was feeling a little sick, and he tucked me in, gave me a back rub and brought his baby to help me feel better.  He loves being all together and his daddy is still his favorite person in the world.  I wish I could hold onto time, but it is amazing to watch him grow up.  The next couple of weeks are going to have a different focus, and it kind of breaks my heart that my C time is going to diminish but I'm also so excited for him to be able to be a brother.  

pretty sure he gets the closed eyed photogenic skills from his momma :)

Well....the next post should be about a baby... so hooray for that!

February musings....

                                       February.  What a month here in Watertown, MA.

SNOW.

That would be the word of all words to sum it up.

It snowed.  A lot.

More on that later.

Other happenings:

A fun superbowl party with friends.  We let C stay up and he had a BLAST.  He LOVED eating the treats and playing with his friends.  

Tuesdays have become our library days.  We love our local library, and C has grown to love the story time there.  He loves picking out books (we've gotten some weird ones), playing with the toys there, and playing puzzles.  His favorite part is checking out, and he takes it very seriously.  He loves handing the librarian the card, and then she always gives him a stamp on his hand.  Lately, he's been asking for both hands.  It's pretty cute.

Mr. H and I helped with a fun primary activity.  We are enjoying our callings as primary teachers working with the eleven year olds.  

We also got to speak in church.  We talked about family history, and we had fun putting those talks together. Mr. H LOVES doing family history and has been plugging away at it very diligently.  We both found out that we have ancestors that helped found Watertown.  Cemetery scouting will be happening as soon as the snow melts.

We've also been diligent attenders at Tune Train through the Watertown family network. C has been learning so many new songs and we love it.

We had a nice Valentine's day.  Mr. H and I take turns planning V-day and our anniversary every year, and it was my turn for this fun day.  We made a fun fancy breakfast with C.  He loves 'fancy' breakfasts!  Then that night we all went to dinner.  It was of course snowing, and so we didn't go very far.  Dinner was good, and it was fun having C along.  Mr. H and I played games that night and then watched a movie of his choice: Castaway.  I had never seen it, and while I don't know if it would have ever been my pick for a Valentine's day movie, it was fun to see how much he enjoyed it.

Mr. H and I did a hospital tour of where I will be delivering at.  It was really fun---we're excited to have such a great hospital in our area!  

We had two Sundays where church was cancelled.  We got to have our own sacrament meeting which was different, but neat.  

Mr. H and I have been going on a few dates which have also been fun.  We went to a play, a murder mystery by Agatha Christie.  It was held at a local church, and it was a lot of fun!  We also went and played racquetball and our local YMCA.  That was hilarious....Mr. H had to play with his left hand to make it remotely far.  

My dr's appointments picked up this month, and I have to say C has been quite the trooper.  He is the best buddy every at those appointments.  My third trimester has surprisingly been my best, and I've felt really good and healthy. 

School was cancelled a lot too....which was fun for the most part, but got kind of stressful towards the end.  

And back to the snow.  I have never experienced SO MUCH SNOW! It just kept on coming.  A foot here, a couple of feet there it was crazy.  Boston made a record on snowfall this February, and I was afraid the snow drifts were going to cover my windows!  Luckily, our power always remained on, and so it mostly just kept us indoors.  Poor Mr. H had to do a lot of shoveling. 

Modeling my scarf...and sporting his new haircut!

A couple of V-day decorations