Eight Weeks Preggo

This picture is from eight weeks pregnant, and I am now 12 weeks, so I'm just a tad bit behind.  This baby has been kicking my tail, so I haven't felt like doing much of anything, which even includes uploading pictures (believe it or not).  If you look at my Facebook, I don't think I have posted pics (other than mobile uploads) since October.  We didn't even do Christmas pictures or cards this year :(  Hopefully, I will be feeling better in the upcoming weeks! *fingers crossed*

Can't you tell Aiden just LOVES doing this..hahaha

Baby #2 On Board!!

Mark and I have always said that we would start trying for Baby #2 once Aiden turned two years old.  I just didn't want Aiden to have to grow up too fast and not be the baby in the house by having kids too close together.  Some may find this statement funny because I never did "baby" Aiden!  Poor kid had his pacifier taken away at 5 months old, bottle taken away at 7 months old, and has always been dressed like a big kid.  I've definitely slowed down on taking things away and pushing him to grow up though.  He's 27 months old and he still sleeps in his crib with the sides on it and also has not progressed any with potty training!  So, Aiden turned two in August and three months later..surprise! We are pregnant! 

October 22nd was our six year wedding anniversary. (Yay for us!)  We enjoyed a day at the spa getting massages & pedicures.  I think I peed about 7 times at the spa.  I thought it was from having two glasses of champagne!  I also had an extremely sore chest for the next few days following that I blamed on the massage and pmsing.  (I know, a little TMI.)  So after being two days late for my period, on October 25th (also my Daddy's bday), I took a test after dinner and it was positive! I hid the test under the sink so I could decide on how I wanted to tell Mark.  Mark fell asleep on the couch while we were watching tv, so I was googling and googling cute ways to tell husbands that their wives are pregnant.  Then it came to me, anytime we talk about being pregnant with Aiden, Mark always talks about how he was asleep on the couch when I suddenly woke him up and shoved a pregnancy test in his face! LOL (yes, that is how it happened.)  So, I saw him sleeping so hard on the couch and decided to do the same thing.  I went and got the test and woke him up suddenly and shoved the test in his face.  This time his reaction was a little bit slower though.  I totally forgot, he and our neighbor Gene had a few beers with dinner, hence why he fell asleep on the couch! lol  However, the reaction was the same once he realized what was going on..haha. 

Once Mark knew, then it was time to figure out how we were going to tell my parents.  They were actually coming in that weekend to see us in Lafayette.  We waited all week and were so ready for them to get here, when they called and said they couldn't make it! Ohmygosh..we weren't sure how we were going to be able to wait ANOTHER week to tell them! It was hard enough to wait from Tuesday to Friday!  It was so hard because my mom and I talk at least three times a day (yes, we are really close), and I kept forgetting that she didn't know I was pregnant.  I kept calling wanting to tell her about my doctor appointment, choosing between the two hospitals, pregnancy yoga making me ill, etc. So I would call her and start to talk, and then have to say,  "aw man, I forgot what I was going to tell/ask you!"  haha..I did this quite often! 

Well, after what felt like months, the next weekend came and my parents were able to come to Lafayette!  I had a friend, Brittany, make these cute cupcakes with pacifiers on them and also went and bought Aiden a "Big Bro" shirt.  We kept the cupcakes in the box and put a dry erase board in the middle saying, "Coming soon to a cradle near you.. June 29th, 2012." (See Pictures.)  We figured, my mom being the nosey person she is (no offense, Mom), would be like, "hmmm..what's in this box?" and open it up!  We kept telling Aiden to say, "Pawpaw, shirt, brudder (brother)," and point to his shirt.  My parents finally arrived at 9pm, and Aiden greeted them at the door saying, "Pawpaw! SOCKS!"  LOL  yes, he sat down and showed his Pawpaw his socks..not his shirt.  Everyone sat in the living room catching up, and I mentioned the cupcakes I picked up for us to have dessert over the weekend.  I kept telling my mom to go try them, but she kept saying she was too full.  Mark even had Aiden show Pawpaw his shirt (and he got it right this time!)  My dad looked at the shirt and read it out loud saying "Big Bro..that's cool, Aiden."  He didn't get it.. nor did my mom hear him.  So, now I am thinking, now what do I do.  That's when I said, "Aiden, do you want a cupcake?"  Of course, my sweet-tooth kid says, "yes!" I told him to ask his Mia to get it for him.  She opened up the box, read the dry erase board and said, "I don't get it..." It only took about 5 seconds for it to hit her though! I wish I had a picture of her face! It was priceless!

(This is how we plan to keep track of me getting huge as well as Aiden growing up through the pregnancy!  Mark does the writing on the dry erase board, so we are all part of this maternity series.)

(We forgot Dad had that thing on his nose to help him breath better with his cold! lol..sorry Dad!)

Aiden, Elena & Will

When we first moved to Lafayette, Aiden and I were always out and about discovering our new home (Girard Park, Acadiana Zoo, downtown, etc).  It was always so awkward for me meeting new people.  I didn't have a hard time talking to them (imagine that..lol), but when it was time to leave, it was always so weird!  What to do? Do I ask them for their phone number, email, Facebook page?? I mean, my kid and their kid would have fun playing together, the mom and I had had great conversation, and I have no friends here so I wanted to stay in communication somehow!  I would go home and tell Mark, I felt like I was in a new town trying to find a date. 

Some days, I would observe the different groups of mommies.  The benches reminded me of high school drama shows where each bench was a different group of kids. One group would all be in sweats.  Not cute workout clothes, but their husbands sweats!  They were talking about organic this, homeschooling that and their non-vaccinated kids.  I knew I did not fit into that group!  Another group would be dressed straight from Banana Republic.  They were classy, skinny (not fit..just didn't eat skinny), moms, but the ones that were scared to get a little dirty with their kids! So I knew I wouldn't fit in with them either. 

Thankfully, one day at Girard, we met Krissy, her mom, and her son and niece. Luckily Krissy was really outgoing and we exchanged phone numbers without awkwardness! LOL She is also the one that invited us to Little Gym, where we have since found more friends! Since then, we have had dinner with husbands and sons, pool date, etc.

Here are some pictures from our most recent playdate. I brought some cookies, icing and sprinkles for the kids to decorate cupcakes also!

PB&J Time

Will's looked professional because the whole thing of sprinkles fell on it..lol

Notice how only the icing is gone on Aiden's..

Cupcakes!

I love sweets, so when I am craving sweets, I bake something with Aiden.  It's like somewhere in my mind, I justify that they are really for Aiden, not me.  I could not pass up my favorite icing when I saw it in the grocery store.  The betty crocker rainbow icing is impossible to find so I had to grab it! So, Aiden and I made cupcakes.  He did the majority of the baking by himself.  He put all the cupcake liners in the pan, dumped the cake mix in the bowl, cracked the eggs (yes, he did it better than me), and dumped the oil and water in for me.  Of course, we had to lick the bowl too!

I am definitely not one of those moms that won't allow their kids to have sweets.  Aiden has frozen yogurt about every other day, if not every day.  He actually woke up in the morning wanting ice cream for his breakfast one day.  I kept telling him no, so we went to his room, pulled out a John Deere alphabet book, turned to the letter "I", and pointed to the ice cream cone.  I guess he thought I couldn't understand his request! He has also started requesting "pumpkin candy corn" from eating candy corn with Mommy!  I figure the child runs enough all day long, he works it off!  Plus, that's the best part about being a kid! Eating junk and not worrying about putting on weight, right?!

He didn't care too much for the waiting part..

He went from this:

to this in about 20 seconds:

Light Reflection From a 2 Year Old's Perspective

Aiden and I were having our daily dance hour in the living room when I decided to bring out my camera. (You know..because I just don't have enough..lol)  Aiden became sooo excited about a light that was moving all around the living room.  (It was light reflecting off the camera.)  So, I went and got a little mirror to show him how the light reflects off the mirror.  He still didn't quite understand that it was light though, so it became pretty entertaining to watch him chase the light around the living room.  Reminded me of how cats will chase the light! LOL..that may sound a little mean, but he was laughing, and I was laughing so all was good in the Greer house! The best part was when I would put it on his belly because he would freak out trying to get the light off of him!  He may not have thoroughly understood the whole light reflection thing, but putting light on his belly, knees, toes, cheeks, etc. was a learning lesson of its own! At least that's why I told myself so I wouldn't feel guilty about finding humor in my kid chasing around a light like a cat!

Daddy came home and joined in on the fun!  <3 my blue eyed boys!

County Fair with Millie

So, a couple of weeks ago, Amanda had this idea to go to the County Fair in Poplarville to see the animals.  We get there..look for the animals so Aiden and Millie can pet them..and to our surprise only found bulls and HUGE horses! LOL  Definitely NOT animals the kiddos were wanting to pet.  So we figured we would buy some tickets to let them ride some rides.  Well, Millie is going through the "scared of everything" stage that most toddlers go through (Aiden just got out of it a couple of months ago).  The only way she would ride the carousel was on Mommy's lap..this was super comfy for Amanda (LOL..yes, I am being sarcastic.)

Aiden on the other hand would not let me hold on to him.  His new favorite saying is, "I got it."

So we were trying to use up the tickets and put Aiden on a truck ride.  He's obsessed with the rides in the mall that resemble these, so I figured he would love it.

When the employee pressed the button, this ride TOOK OFF!  I thought for sure when it came around, he was going to be freaked out and crying, but nope, he was having a blast "driving" it.

So our 20 minute fun day at the County Fair came to an end and we headed back to Amanda's house to put the kids down for a nap.  We thought they had been sleeping for about 45 minutes when we hear some bells ringing.  Amanda goes in the room to check on them to find Aiden had climbed out of the pack and play and had taken all of Millie's toys out! My sneaky son had been playing the entire time while sweet Millie was sleeping!

Another day to teach us that we parents can make all the plans in the world, but toddlers always have their own plans!

Elmo at the Acadiana Zoo

A couple of weeks ago we had a cool front come in,  The high was about 80 instead of 110 (almost jacket weather.. lol) so Aiden and I took advantage of it and went to the zoo.  It was Meet Elmo Day! I was kind of nervous what his reaction would be towards Elmo.  I think every parent knows what I am talking about.  Kids will LOVE Elmo or LOVE Mickey, but as soon as that huge cartoon is live in their face, they freak out. Surprisingly, Aiden went right up to him and gave him a HUGE hug.

Then he turned around and posed for the picture! LOL..I think Aiden can teach a class on posing for the camera by now.  The sun was right in his eyes, but he tried really hard to give me a good shot.

I asked him if he wanted me to take a picture of him in front of this sign and he said "Yes", and turned around giving me his fake smile. I was just trying not to laugh at the fact of him agreeing and wanting this picture! This was definitely one of those "he's getting too big" moments.



Of course, we had to go around and check out all the animals.  This was our first time back to the zoo since before summer came in full force.  All the animals were actually showing their faces since it was cool outside too. 

Aiden is still terrified of the petting zoo area, which I don't blame him.  Acadiana Zoo has the strangest petting zoo.  There is one miniature horse, one donkey, one pig, one cow, one goat, and one deer. However, there are a TON of roosters! In my opinion, and my experience on a friend's farm growing up, those are NOT animals that I want to pet.

The best part about this zoo is its size.  It's not too small, not too big and never too crowded! Which means- NO STROLLER!  Aiden just loves that part.  He leads the way, and I just follow teaching him about the animals.  The only bad result of this is that I only get pictures of one animal, and his name is Aiden! If I stop to take a picture of a monkey or something, I will find my kid in the field with the giraffe (yes, just ONE giraffe.)  It's also great exercise for me :)  Here's a pic of me chasing him. 

I did manage to have him be still for these next two shots, which I love.

I forgot to mention that when we were leaving, Elmo wasn't in his spot anymore so Aiden kept asking where he went.  My answer was Elmo went to the potty.  For a WEEK after this zoo visit, everytime Elmo's name was brought up, he would say, "Elmo, Potty!"

Boys will be BOYS!

So for the last year, my son has had this obsession with letting his drink just fall out of his mouth. My husband says that I should try it one day because it actually feels kind of cool to let water just run out of your mouth..hmm..I'm not even going to comment on that! LOL  I used to think he did it just for attention, so I stopped acknowledging it, but he still continued to do it.  However, after my husband made that comment, I really do think he just enjoys the way it feels! If it makes him happy to let his water run down his mouth, then I guess I am happy! We will just have to continue the "only water in the car" rule and just deal with getting to our destinations and having a soaking wet kid!  Luckily, we live in the South and don't have to deal with icicles developing off of his chin!

I actually googled "my son lets water fall out of his mouth" and there were posts of people asking how to deal with this!  Every response was a mom talking about their BOYS doing this.  Here is the link: http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110405100735AARhjfh  Moms, boys will be BOYS! Just embrace it and cherish these silly annoying little things before they pass too fast!

I am so happy to have caught this picture of him doing it Friday night! 

Daddy, Aiden and ChooChoo

These pictures were taken on August 15th. This day was a lazy, lazy day. Aiden woke up with a fever that went up and down all day. (At least that's what the thermometers said!) I have the hardest time figuring out which thermometers to believe that I end up using three each time I take his temperature! They will all give me different answers varying from 98.8-103..so this makes one nervous Mommy! Not wanting to chance his fever getting higher, we stayed in all day and played with all his new birthday toys. He LOVES when Daddy plays with his choo-choo with him! I think Daddy gets more into than him though! I can tell Daddy gets frustrated when he gets all the trains going in the same direction, on a good pace and Aiden reaches down and grabs one or knocks it over! LOL but hey..it is HIS choo-choo so he can do what he wants with it :). (Just don't tell Daddy that!)