Baby #2: First Trimester

I'm almost 16 weeks now, so this is a bit late but considering we just announced the pregnancy in the last couple of weeks I think that's okay. :) So, for those of you who know what my first (and part of second) trimester was like with Jackson and are curious if this was similar - the answer is YES. I'm one of those really lucky ladies that gets to experience pregnancy nausea and vomiting to its fullest! I didn't end up in urgent care this time, but I did have to have my mom come take care of Jackson for a week. I was more prepared with medication from the beginning; however, I still felt pretty awful. It was all I could do to get the sweet boy fed, clothed, and diapered on a daily basis. We spent several weeks inside the house with me mostly laying on the couch. Thank God for a newer medication that has made a world of a difference for me this time around. I still get sick periodically, but this medicine has made it much easier for me to function and get Jackson out of the house daily. Even though I am a few weeks past the first trimester now, I still don't feel the greatest and am still pretty tired. I'm hopeful it will end soon! I also try not to complain too much because I know that we are extremely blessed and that the little gift at the end is worth every second of this!

One thing that has been different so far with this pregnancy is my uncontrollable hunger. At least once a day I get so hungry that nothing will satisfy my hunger. I feel like I eat for hours sometimes - so much for controlling the weight gain... :) It's also a lot more tiring the second time around when you have a very young, energetic toddler to keep up with. I'm not sure my energy will every return at this point! haha My house is a disaster at all times and we never cook, but my boy is healthy and the new little one is healthy so far so the rest of that does not matter! 

I wrote this in my last post, but we are beyond thrilled to be welcoming another sweet baby into our family. We are interested to see how Jackson reacts - there may be some jealousy but he will be a good big brother (eventually). I go for my 16 week appointment this week and then in about two and a half weeks we have our ultrasound. We cannot wait to find out whether we will be adding another little man or a little lady to our family! 

Here are a few pics of my baby bump growth so far:

Thanks for checking in! Hugs to all! 

Thankful Hearts

Thanksgiving - I just love this time of year. I really enjoy the time spent with family and good food, and of course the reason for the holiday. Thanksgiving is always a reminder to be thankful for all that we have, but I do try to be thankful not just in November but all year long. This year we spent the holiday with Mike's side of the family. We spent Tuesday-Sunday in Chapel Hill with his parents, and Thanksgiving day was spent in Raleigh at his Aunt Rosanne's and Uncle Ron's house. His grandmother, cousins Joe and Jennifer, and Jennifer's husband Derek were all there. We went over mid morning and hung out until Thanksgiving lunch was ready. We enjoyed a delicious lunch of turkey, ham, dressing, green beans, deviled eggs, potato salad, and sweet potatoes. We waited a couple of hours for pie and then dug into some chocolate bourbon pecan pie - yum! The rest of the afternoon was spent being pretty lazy, laying around watching football and laughing at little Jackson. We got all the food out again for dinner before heading back to Chapel Hill.

We enjoyed the rest of the trip. Mike and I got to go to a movie one afternoon, which was my first movie in over 15 months! That means the last time I went to a movie was BEFORE Jackson was born. We also got to eat at a couple of our favorite restaurants while in town, visit with a few friends, and attend the last football game. It was a nice trip.

Our little turkey! I tried taking about 100 pictures of him to get a cute one in his Thanksgiving shirt - this is the best I could get. So hard with an energetic little toddler. Love that little turkey though! 

Cooper snuggled up on Joe - his post turkey nap.

Daddy had to have a little post turkey nap of his own....haha

This little boy was such a ham at dinner - he put on a show for the entire table. He loves the attention! 

Jennifer took these adorable pics for us. Joe was playing peek-a-boo behind a chair to get the little man to laugh. I just love how they turned out! 

Jackson crawled up in this chair numerous times on Thanksgiving. He would rock back and forth saying "gock, gock, gock" (rock, rock, rock). So cute. 

Thanks for the fabulous pictures Jenn! 

Family pic at dinner!

Now with the Modlins.

At the last football game, unfortunately it did not end well for the tar heels. Still a nice day to be outside! 

Even though we only have one day declared as "Thanksgiving," I try to remember to be thankful for all of God's many blessings each and every day. We are truly blessed with so many things: gods eternal love, forgiveness for our sins, our health, home, businesses, and our precious little boy...just to name a few of the many things we have to be thankful for. Well, this year Mike and I have another big reason to be grateful; We have been blessed with another sweet baby! I am 14 weeks pregnant and the baby is due to arrive June 3. We are ecstatic and cannot wait to be parents for the second time. We truly enjoy being parents and love our first little blessing more than words can say. I cannot even begin to imagine how full our hearts will be when the second little bundle of joy arrives!

The most recent "bump" picture. I feel like I'm showing a ton already - you always hear that you show earlier with the second and this has definitely been true for me! More of a pregnancy update to come soon! 

We hope that you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families and friends and wish you a Merry Christmas as the season quickly approaches. Love to all! 

Bananas!

Jackson started saying bananas last weekend. Before he said the full words he could say nanas though. I love hearing him say it - it is the cutest word ever! Sometimes he says bananas and other times it comes out "nananas." Watch the little video below and you can hear him say it each way:

The boy loves his bananas and we love our little monkey! 

Our Little Talker

Boy has Jackson really taken off verbally this month. He has several words and maybe even two-word phrases that you can make out clearly, and other times he just babbles nonstop about something...he just has so much to say! I love that he is able to say new words almost every day. You can really tell that he understands a lot too. I'm guessing he says about 25 words right now but the list is constantly growing! Here is a list of his current vocabulary:

Dada, mama, hi, buh-bye, bubbles, baby, ball, basketball, football, bananas, bite, milk, car, cat, kitty, dog (gog), duck, pig, turkey, cheese, poo-poo, Ky-ky (Kylie), Cor-Cor (Corey), Gigi (his great-grandma), Bampa (grandpa), something that resembles graham cracker, pumpkin, meow, moo, baa, and he can snort like a pig! He also points to one of us our pictures and says something that sounds like "that's mama" or "there's dada!"

It is so much fun to watch him learn and take in new words. He can follow some simple commands and tries to repeat so much right now. Of course, he still does not understand no, or chooses not to listen to us. We try not to overuse "no," but he loves to open the trash can and sometimes pull stuff out and he NEVER listens when we tell him to stop. He will look at us and shake his head no but keep on what he is doing. So frustrating! Other than that, he is a pretty good boy!

He remains a sweet, happy, caring, curious little guy. He's still climbing and getting into everything. He loves to be outside and to run around like a big boy. Jackson seems to be a little tender-hearted and gets upset when other kids get upset. He is also unsure of other kids touching him. We continue to go to Gymboree classes weekly and try to go as often as we can to play in their gym or get together with friends for play dates. He loves his mama dearly and still climbs on me several times a day to give hugs. We are practicing giving kisses - he will kiss his toys some, has kissed Max once, and every once and a while gives me one. :) Love it! He continues to sleep great at night and for most naps. Food has been a bit of a struggle this past month - some days he doesn't eat much at all and other days he eats well. He is much pickier about what he eats though. We miss our boy who ate anything and everything! Jackson greatly enjoyed the fall time with all of the pumpkins. I'm looking forward to the holidays and seeing his reaction to all of the decorations.

We love this boy more every day and cannot believe it has been 3 months since we celebrated his first birthday. His personality gets more fun every day and we truly just have the best time with him. Thanks for all of the joy that you bring to our lives little man!

Jackson and I went to our friend Merrick's 4th birthday party - it was held at Monkey Jo's, one of the bounce house places. All he cared about was climbing on this Bob the Builder ride and running around. He did not want to be on the bounce houses at all! 

A cold day at the park but still loved being outside! 

Playing with daddy at the park. 

Jackson loves to use his basketball goal as a chair and then pulls this toy up to him so he doesn't have to stand! haha

Judging from this picture, you'd think Max actually liked the boy. Nope, still hates him. 

Our cool little man in his shades! 

Found these two best buddies playing in the play room before bed a couple of nights ago. The dog loves his boy. :) 

Thanks for reading - love to all! 

Halloween

Our little man dressed up as a police officer for Halloween. I didn't think he would enjoy a big costume, and considering he wouldn't even wear his police hat, I'm glad we went with a simple costume. He got to dress up a couple of times. The first time we joined the Lake Norman Mommies play group at the tot lot in Davidson for a play date and snacks - all the kiddos wore their costumes. He ran around and played in the sandbox. It was pretty day to be outside!

The only shot I could get before he ripped his hat off. Isn't he cute though? The tot lot was great - it is a park designed for toddler aged children. It has a big sandbox and tons of ride on/push toys for the kids to move about in a safe environment. 

And here is the little officer digging in the sand. He had a fun time!

On Halloween we went over to our friends house, the Rigneys, and joined them and some other friends for tick or treating. Since Jackson had know idea what was happening, we just pushed him in the stroller and he watched the bigger kids run around. He still received a couple of pieces of candy and some gold fish. Mommy enjoyed the candy! :)

Our crew: Lauren and Elliott, me and Jackson, Tracy and Merrick, and Ashley with Luke and Emma. 

Jackson out trick or treating! He was happy just to hold his pumpkin. :) 

Fall fun

I'm a bit behind on this, but we took Jackson to his first pumpkin patch a few weeks ago. Grandma brought him his first pumpkin about a month ago, and ever since the boy has been obsessed with pumpkins! He loves to point out pumpkins on our walks and he notices pumpkin decor everywhere we go. So we took a family trip back to the farm that we picked apples to get some pumpkins. Our friends the Weeks joined us with their two kids, Christian and Peyton. It was a gorgeous fall day and we had a great time. We took a hayride out to the petting zoo area and looked at the animals for a while. Jackson loved this as much or more than last time! We then got back on the wagon to go pick our pumpkins. We got two which Jackson approved of. Then we let the kiddos run around for a bit before heading home. He loved seeing the pumpkins on our porch and even helped daddy carve one for Halloween. Since Jackson also loves cats, we decided on a kitty pumpkin. He was thrilled with the outcome! Here are a few pics from the farm and pumpkin carving:

Jackson was in pumpkin heaven with this giant pile of pumpkins!

Petting the animals - he has no fear.

A couple family pics :)

Precious boy and his pumpkin.

Daddy and Jackson working hard on the pumpkin.

The finished product! Meow! It's so cute how he knows that it is both a pumpkin and a cat. He will look out the door and "pukin! meow meow!"

We also took Jackson to the state fair for the first time a couple weekends ago. We were in chapel hill for a football game and made it to the fair in Raleigh on the last day. We walked around and ate while he took a nap in his stroller. When he awoke, we showed him the giant pumpkins and all of the animals. He loved both! We then got some ice cream and let him run a bit before heading back home.

Checking out the award winning giant pumpkins!

A little ride on daddy's shoulders to check out the cows, goats, and pigs! 

Up next, Halloween! 

Jackson Update!

Sorry it has been so long since I've posted. I have a lot of updating to do, but first lets start with another Jackson update! This boy continues to grow like a weed! He looks like such a big guy now that he walks all the time. He is also constantly babbling and seems to have a lot to say. He has several new words this month, but most of his words revolve around animals - their names and the sounds they make. He is such a lover of animals. We think it is so sweet! He continues to be all boy! He is curious and energetic and never stops unless it's to read a book. He throws a ball very well and is also a little monkey climbing and jumping on everything! Jackson is quite the personality. He loves to be silly and make us laugh we can tell this kid is going to be so funny as he grows up. We truly love watching him grow.

We've had a busy month. We made a last minute trip to Charleston to hang out with friends. Jackson got to go on a boat for the second time and got to play on the beach. He also made another trip back to the farm, but this time was to go to the pumpkin patch. He is so intrigued by pumpkins! We did spend a few weekends around home which was nice for a change. I will update more on the past few weekends soon. But here are a few more updates on the little man:

• Gross motor skills - this boy not only walks now, he runs! He moves so quickly. It didn't take long to transition from his slow, wobbly pace to now moving with much more confidence and speed. He also climbs on everything - the couch, toy box, shelves, chairs, coffee table - you name it! He loves the challenge of it and uses our furniture as a jungle gym!
• Fine motor skills - we've worked on coloring a little this month. He will make a few marks but then just chew on the crayon. My mom also worked with him on using a spoon. Again, he shows a little interest but usually just picks the food off of the spoon.
• Language skills - Jackson is saying more and understanding more every day. A few of his current favorite words include pukin (pumpkin), ducka-ducka-duck (ducky), moo, Beau (the name of one of our cats), and bampa (grandpa). We can't even mention the word grandpa around him or he goes nuts! 
• Teeth - all four molars cut through this month! I'm so glad too because they were moving so slowly and I felt bad for the little man. He is a trooper though.
• Eating - he continues to eat pretty well. His favorites are fruits, dairy, and bread products but he does eat vegetables and meats too. He is hit or miss with the meats but we continue to try them. He still loves his milk. He has gained over 2 lbs since his one year check up and I believe that it is from the milk.
• Sleeping - he is still napping twice a day and sleeping about the same at night. As of lately, he usually takes one really long nap and one shorter, or two naps that are about 1 hour and 15 minutes. He has also been sleeping in a little later lately. Fingers crossed this continues!

Jackson continues to love books. He can sit and flip through books forever. He also brings books to me to read to him all day. I love this! He points out animals in the books and makes their sounds. He is learning to use shape sorters properly, and can find objects when you tell him to. For example, I will ask him where the cow is on a puzzle, not only will he show me that cow but the cow on the shelf and the cow on Cooper's collar! Smart boy. I'm sure that I'm leaving something out here, but I'm going to wrap it up with a few pics. I hope you guys can enjoy this silly boy as much as we do!

We took a little family walk at the park and then played on the swings. Although it is hard to tell from the picture, he really does enjoy it. :)

My little laundry helper! He loves playing in the basket. Somehow it got flipped on top of him though and he couldn't get out! ha

Taking a walk with mommy and cooper on a beautiful fall day!

Just trying to put mommy's glasses on....is this how they go?

Strong boy pushed over his basketball goal! He's trouble....

About five minutes later he crawled through the cat door and up the stairs. His main goal = splashing in the water bowl. 

Our little bookworm! He LOVES books so much. He pulls all the books off his shelf daily and flips through them. 

These are a few pictures from his gymboree class. We've been going every Tuesday and he likes running around and climbing! He also likes the bubbles at the end of class. 

My little monkey! Love his expression in this one. 

A shot from the pumpkin patch. This kid was in pumpkin heaven!!

I promise to have more of an update later! Hugs to all! 

One Year Photos

Here are a few of the gorgeous shots from Jackson's one year photo shoot. Photos were taken by Nichole Marie Photography:

Mommy love! 

Daddy love! 

Our big 1 year old!

Reading some books in his room :)

Some of his very first steps! So glad the photographer was here to capture it. 

Cake smash! Love the third one where is is in a "cake coma!" 

Bath time after the cake! 

Nichole does such beautiful work! She also did Jackson's 6 month session which we were equally as pleased with. Cannot wait to work with her again in the future!