A New Toy...

So I have a new toy, and I may be slightly obsessed. My lovely mother in law bought me a sewing machine for my birthday! She knew how much I would enjoy it even before I did, so she convinced Garrett that I needed one. He finally agreed (theres a chance she bribed him;) to become more "encumbered" by a sewing machine, and I LOVE IT. Shortly before my birthday was when we found out we were having a girl...and how fun it is to sew nursery things for a girl:) Things like baby blankets:

Caleb had a couple of personalized blankets people bought him off Etsy for showers (not to even mention the drawer full of other blankets he got!) so I want Emma to have a couple of those too.

I also made a Maya wrap:

I'm thinking I'm going to be carring Emma alot more than I carried Caleb, out of necessity. I am just not talented enough to use a moby wrap -- it would take me an hour to just get it wrapped around me! And when I saw a friend use the Maya wrap and how easy it is, I really wanted one. The thing is, they run about $75-$85 -- seriously! Instead, there is an incredibly easy  tutorial on how to make one on pinterest! So fabric at $10 and two slingrings at $5 including shipping...its a no-brainer! So excited to use it! Oh, and there was so much fabric left over that I made a super easy nursing shawl, too. I love that it covers your sides too, not just the front like a typical nursing cover

                                                      
And I found a fun tutorial for a portable changing pad -- I"ve seen some people get these at showers and they are so cute and so convenient...and so, so easy!

Finally, I have been making Emma all kinds of bows and flowers for headbands. I'm betting money that she will take after her mother, father, and brother, and be bald for quite awhile...so girly headbands are really a necessity;) Plus, pinterest (again:) has so MANY fun tutorials and felt and fabric is so cheap!

We (aka Garrett) painted the nursery this weekend, and the crib is set up, too! My grandparents are refinishing a really neat old family dresser for Emma's room, so I am itching to get all the rest of the things set up in there! I know its early, but seriously, being pregnant in the spring really must bring on the nesting :) I will post pictures when we get it all set up! 



Oh Springtime!!

Well it is officially spring here in the Midwest and we (mainly Caleb) are loving it! He has been outside at least once every day, usually all morning, and then a walk after his afternoon nap. His first words when he wakes up are "bye-bye?" -- his word for outside:)

Really doesn't take much to keep this kid entertained outside -- just a broom thank you very much.  He drags the broom all around the neighborhood...wonder what our neighbors think...and is very thorough with his "sweeping".

Really he likes to just RUN. Maya loves to have a running partner, although she gets a little too excited and knocks Caleb down alot. He just says "uh oh" and moves on.

As evidenced by his bruised and scraped legs (pretty sure this is how his knees will look all summer), he does not mind falling down at all. However, for some reason he doesn't think he can get up on his own when outside? He falls on his face, doesn't cry, folds his hands in front of him and says "eh-mee" (help me) very calmly until we go pick him up.

So cute.

We introduced Caleb to the wonders of the neighborhood park this spring and he is totally addicted. The problem is, he is by FAR the youngest kid on the playground, which was really built for much older kids...and he has no idea. I'm pretty sure he thinks he is at LEAST 5 or 6 -- and he tells the other kids so.

He has to be friends with everyone, so he runs all over the playground (with Garrett or I running behind him grasping the back of his shirt...he is also sure that if he jumps OFF the playground platform several feet off the ground, nothing scary at all with happen) finding other kids to "talk" to. He runs up to them, insistantly babbling in jibberish with a giant smile on his face. The other kids usually smile hesitantly and run or back away...

Caleb does love to play with his friends -- his most frequent playmates being Kherington

and Nora

FYI there is a giant bin of toys on that deck and the two of them spent most of the morning painting...with water. This is why if I ever ever buy toys they are from a yard sale!

Caleb was sick for the very first time in his short little life a couple weeks ago:( We feel extremely blessed that he has been so very healthy, but for this paranoid PICU mom, it was a long week or so

(yes, I listened to his lungs enough that he now knows how to work a stethescope...this is the life of a child with a nurse-mommmy!)

...he got a little bit of croup and his cough kept him from sleeping well at night or from napping. Finally, he fell asleep while Grandma rocked him to one of our old kids music cassette tapes!

In other news, the reason we were in Upland while Caleb was sick was that my brother Andrew got engaged!

We are so excited for Caleb (and Emma:) to gain another Aunt -- Keren White! Unfortunately (for us), they will be moving to Connecticut after they are married on September 21st for at least a few years for Andrew to finish his Masters. However, we are praying that they will be moving back to the Indy (aka the Promised Land;) as SOON as he is done!

And now, just a few more pictures:)

Oh the emotional trauma of accidentally dumping your best friend out of the wagon!

Caleb can now (most of the time) eat with a fork! Its great because he hasn't yet figured out how to take food OFF the fork except to eat it...so if he's not eating enough veggies, I just spear some on his fork, and he HAS to eat them if he wants to stab anything else...I know this is short-lived, but I'll take it for now!

We have officially entered the stage of "pretend" -- his favorite "pretend" is to cook "soup", which he does nearly every night while I make real dinner. Caleb carefully picks out spices/herbs, puts them in my stockpot, and stirs and stirs. He always offers me at least one bite, then "tastes" it himself and says "mmm". Tonight, apparently, we are having nutmeg and cummin soup with red and pink sprinkles.  Should be good. ;)

Skittle Gender Reveal!!

Well, the day of our 20wk ultrasound FINALLY came!! Actually, technically I'm only 19 weeks but I bribed convinced my doctor to let us get the ultrasound a week early -- just COULD NOT wait to find out what we are having!!! I think we were even more excited this time then with Caleb, only because we were both just so sure he was a boy, it didn't seem like a surprise! We really wanted to do a fun gender reveal party, but since our family lives everywhere from Upland to Korea, that just wasn't possible. So, we decided to videotape the reveal part, and email it to all our family...not as good as them all being here, but better than nothing!

First we emailed all our family a couple weeks ago, told them what we were going to do, and asked everyone to guess what we were having. As of yesterday, the day of the U/S, here is the score:

Pretty close!
Then yesterday I baked plain vanilla cupcakes, set aside 2, and filled one with pink frosting and one with blue:

Once the tops were on, they looked exactly the same:

I marked the bottoms so I knew which was which!
Yesterday afternoon we had the big ultrasound! Garrett rushed through his court cases so he could be there -- I told him I absolutely would NOT go in if he wasn't there:) Most importantly (really) our little Skittle is perfectly healthy! Because of my job, I spend the first 20 weeks of my pregnancy so sure there is something wrong...and constantly reminding myself of God's sovereignty. Praise God everything was in the right place and looked very healthy AND active! It is SO fun to see our sweet little baby kicking around in there -- really makes the whole thing real!
Well we got home, picked out the right cupcake, and gave it to Caleb to "open"!...not being used to cupcakes, it took him awhile...we had to help him a little...

In case you didn't catch that, baby Skittle is a...









....

....













GIRL!!

We are SO excited!! NO idea how our busy, climbing, running, all-BOY toddler is going to handle a little sister, but I'm sure it will be good for him:) He spent the rest of the evening speeding around the house running and climbing in double-time after eating a whole cupcake and all that frosting...

Oh, and we do have a name...good thing she is a girl because we had NO boy name options!
Our little girl will be named Emmalyn Dianne after our two wonderful mothers -- Lyn and Dianne.
We are so, so thankful for God's provision and blessing!

By way of an update...

Ok, so an update:

Caleb is getting bigger, faster, and even more interactive and adorable every day. He learned to climb a couple months ago, and its now the favorite pastime.

While I used to be paranoid that he would fall, and I would always rush into the living room as soon as he started climbing the couch...he is so good at it now, and he has fallen enough times that we really dont worry about it...such is life with a boy!

 Garrett and I made bets about how old he would be when we make our first trip to get stitches.

Caleb is SO busy that he literally never sits still. He doesn't know the meaning of walking -- he RUNS everywhere! Once I found out that I was going to be taking him to frequent OB appointments, I decided he needed to learn to sit still for at least a short period of time. So we instituted "blanket time". Its a concept I read from a book awhile ago, and I decided to give it a shot. We lay out a blanket, put a few toys and books on it, set a timer (usually about 10-15 min), and he has to stay on the blanket until the timer goes off. He LOVES it.

Anytime we are anywhere and there is a blanket spread out (usually meant for an infant), Caleb walks right into the middle and grins up at me -- SO cute. I was surprised actually at how easy it was for him,
considering how much the kid likes to move!

We also took our first trip to both the Zoo and the Children's Museum! We are yearly members -- Christmas gifts from the Lowe grandparents!:)

Both trips were super fun, and we plan to go alot this year!

Caleb also had his first snow experience:

he LOVED it. He got stuck like this everytime he tried to bend down:

But even so, I think he would have stayed out there all day! He still refuses to wear any shoes except his boots around the house...which would be fine except I got them at clearance from Target because they
are NEXT years size. So he falls down alot, but they are very fun for stomping.

Lastly, we are now offically "encumbered".

I PROMISE, this purchase was 100% Garrett's idea. We learned from the church nursery that he spends most of the 3 hours there on the slide, so Garrett decided he should have one. I found this one on Craigslist for $20 and it is now Calebs favorite piece of furniture. The weekend we bought it he quite literally did nothing else. Most of his toys have taken at least one trip down the slide. Its like a rite of passage for all his stuffed animals. He also loves to build block towers, put them at the bottom of the slide, and giggles like mad as he slides down to knock them to pieces. He is such a boy:)

Well, thats our update for now -- I promise I will try to be more consistent...I'm just starting to feel a little  nauseous, and a little less tired!

Looong Overdue...

Ok SORRY it has been so very long!! I promise I have good reason! Life just gets crazier as the Bubs gets faster and more adept and climbing...and the laptop is his most favorite thing EVER to try and grab...which means that I can only blog or do anything on the computer when he is asleep...and lately all I want to do when he sleeps is sleep myself! There is a good reason for that though, as you know, we are expecting baby #2 in August!

We are super excited about "Skittle" as we have named him/her until we have a name...Caleb is too, he just doesnt know it yet:) SO, by way of a quick update, here are some LONG overdue pics of the
sweet Bubs' First Birthday party!

Here is our adorable birthday boy with Aunt Megan:

His onsie was my Christmas present from Garrett haha. It was rediculously expensive on Etsy, but I kept looking at it, so he finally said to just get it already!

We decided to go as simple as possible with the food, since after we counted we realized that at our "small family party" we were going to be serving 17 people! So we served all of Caleb's favs, which are simple;) Mom made some incredible baked Mac N Cheese, which Caleb ate a super-human amount of, and then we had mixed veggies, sandwich makings, and a fruit plate.

And the cake. was. incredible. My wonderful Grandma, who has made very cool shaped cakes for my brothers and I all our lives, came through with this awesome creation:

It matched his onsie -- how cute is that?! AND she was smart to use carrot cake. This was the first time EVER that Caleb had any kind of dessert, and he was all about the carrot cake, while I'm not sure what
he would have thought about chocolate...plus we did want him to nap at some point.

As far as other decorations, I just put out his baby book (GREAT motivation to make sure I got it finished!), a photo album, and I made a banner of all of the monthly pictures I'd taken with his little ties -- very simple.

Caleb made out like a bandit with gifts, too. He already had been sent a yearly Indianapolis Zoo pass (YAY!!) by Grandma and Grandpa Lowe, who couldnt be there:(


He also got a basketball hoop...not sure who enjoys this more though -- Caleb or Daddy...

A ride-on dump truck from Grandma and Grandpa Biehl

A super cool boat from his submarine-designing Uncle Andrew

And a hilarious Korean hat from Uncle Justin and Aunt Megan

It was such a great day...so wonderful to see all these people who
love our son in the same room -- we just felt so blessed!