Christmas 2016

Finally, a post about Christmas that is loooong overdue!

This year was our turn to go to Niceville, which means we got to share the holiday with Aunt Katie, Uncle Sahil, and Larkin, which is always a joy!  We took this time with family to start telling people about Cubbie since we hit the 12 week mark on the Wednesday before Christmas.  We just came out with it to Katie and Sahil (but they totally guessed based on my fatigue and hunger and loose top, whoops) but made a special calendar for Jeremy's parents with pictures of Willa for each month, and one with her wearing a "big sister" shirt in July.  They seemed very pleased indeed :-).  We waited to tell Willa and Larkin on Christmas morning when I gave Willa the shirt and actually read it to her ;-).  I have a video of her reaction below, although without the baby actually being there she seemed more enthused about all the books and toys she got instead!

I love that Willa is finally at the age where she understands the concept of Santa Claus and was very excited to see what he brought her.  She had all of the fun anticipation topped off by the mad, crazy avarice of ripping open a dozen new things.  We are so blessed to be able to wrap so many things, and I tried to balance letting her enjoy with making sure she was grateful and mindful of every gift.  Whether I was successful or not I don't know, but she sure did seem to be enjoying herself!

Christmas in Niceville also means we got to visit Animation in Motion, which Willa actually got to visit on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  On Christmas Day she was also brave enough to sit with Elsa and Anna, who said they were in town to let Olaf visit the beach!  So cute :).  There were lots of fun characters to spot, and Willa had tons of fun.

Here are some pictures from the day, plus some videos of stocking and present opening, and her learning about being a big sister.  Enjoy!

Decorating Grammy and Grandaddy's tree

Christmas morning!

Thanks for the book, Grammy, now read it to me please!

Llama llama's red pajamas!

Playing with the "bunny dollhouse" she asked Santa for

Jeremy playing with his favorite Christmas toy

Larkin writing in her locked diary

Katie got in on the NES fun!

Elsa and Anna

Family portrait

Loving her Santa balloon

Who was also a solid dance partner :)

Santa came!

She's going to be a big sister!

Overall we had an awesome holiday!

Pink or blue?

This morning we found out the baby's gender, and tonight we shared it with Willa!  Enjoy!

After we stopped filming, she still had some reactions, it was too cute not to film!

Looking forward to tomorrow!

Tomorrow is the Big Day!!  Well, second biggest day, behind the real day, but you know what I mean!

The gender reveal!!

This may be blasphemy, but a teensy part of me is more excited about tomorrow than the birth, since I shouldn't feel any pain and my sleep won't be significantly changed tomorrow, but I will get to learn something important about the little one in my belly.  Then Jeremy and I can get serious about names, I can start tweaking the nursery, and we can start using real pronouns (I always feel bad about objective ones!).  So far we have been calling this one "Cubbie" where we called Willa "the Bun."  Time will tell if we drop that nickname since it's what Willa calls her little sibling, and I think we will keep it up until we reveal the proper name, ie when the baby arrives (July 5 is my due date, in case I forgot to mention).

Because we are finding out on Valentine's Day, and you guys know I love me some themes, I had to do a little something special for the gender reveal pool at work.  Behold:

In case you can't read it, it says "Violets are blue, roses are pink, will Brie have a boy or a girl, what do you think?"  Yup, wrote that myself.  Pretty proud.  For the boy side there's a heart that says "Oh Boy."  For the girl side, the heart says "My Girl."  A little ridiculous, but I thought it was cute!  Willa helped me put conversation heart stickers all around it for some added charm.  It's been hanging in the office for a week and I love it!

Although the votes look even, in the general population people are guessing boy across the board.  Willa's teachers have decided that it's a boy for no real reason, her pediatric nurse said I was carrying low for a boy, and my in-laws think it has been active enough to be a boy.  I have also been using male pronouns in passing, but I think it's because "Cubbie" is generally a more masculine nickname.  It should be noted that I used male pronouns for Willa too, so clearly I know nothing!  I think Jeremy is the only one predicting girl, so if he's right he outsmarts everyone!

People have asked if I have a preference, and when I say "no," they give me a nod and a little smile and ask, "no really, which do you prefer?"  I guess most people have a sort of leaning one way or the other, but truly, TRULY, I don't.  Both sexes have a benefit for now, if it's a girl we can use all the same clothes and shoes, but if it's a boy we get a new experience, which is so fun!  I feel like I have an idea of how to parent a girl, but I know that the sister/brother dynamic can be awesome, like it was for Jeremy with his sister and for me and my brother.  Then again, sisters can be so sweet and close, and be best friends for life, so that would be amazing too!  Really I can only see benefits to both, so it will just be a fun surprise tomorrow.

In regards to names, we will do the same thing this time around where we don't reveal the final choice until after he/she comes.  We may not even have just one that we like until then, since I like the idea of picking after we see that little sweet face.  So don't ask, you won't get far :-).

After we find out I am going to do reveals in a couple of different ways.  First, we will call family and any friends that want to know directly as soon as we know.  To keep with the V Day theme at work, I'm going to do a Hershey bar reveal.  And after school, we will give Willa a box of balloons.  I have always loved the balloon idea, but I'm too impatient to do it for Jeremy and I, so I'm glad to have her to do it for!  I will shoot a video of her opening it and post it here and on Facebook for anyone else that is curious tomorrow!

Wish us luck, and feel free to post with guesses!

Oops, I did it again!

Yup, I'm pregnant again, woooo!!!!

Before I dive into all of that, I have to acknowledge that I continue to be terrible at keeping this blog on a regular basis, which I will attempt to remedy in order to keep as close a watch on this pregnancy as the last.  Well, maybe not AS close since I have a toddler to keep up with, but I will at least try to keep it updated after all doctor's appointments (especially sonograms), bump updates, and major milestones such as gender reveal (tomorrow, eep!) and nursery completion.  "Try" being the operative word.  I will also do my best to post pictures of Willa from the past few months including Christmas and her third birthday.  As always, your patience is appreciated :-).

Anyway, back to this pregnancy!  As of today I am 19 weeks and feeling great.  My first trimester was a little rough, plagued with extreme fatigue and very little appetite (even applesauce made me green, crazy!).  Luckily enough, around the new year/second trimester I felt good enough to eat.  Still pretty tired, but I think I can attribute that to Parenting While Pregnant.  So sleeping past 7, no semi-weekly yoga classes, no long hours lounging on the weekend.  Jeremy is an absolute CHAMP when it comes to relieving me as much as he can, but the man is human and works a full day, and I just love being with Willa, so tired it is!

The biggest difference between my pregnancy with Willa and this one is how fast my bump seems to be growing this time around (and no, dozens of people that have asked, I am NOT carrying twins!).  See below:

Two months (?!)

Three months

Four months

As you can see, I am rapidly expanding!  It definitely made concealing the pregnancy a little more challenging at the beginning, since we didn't want people to know before we shared the news at Christmas, but luckily I had some strategies that I used with concealing my first bump that worked again,  Granted, I didn't have to use them until the fourth month (I didn't blab until I was 17 weeks the first time around), but I am choosing to not focus on that!

Other that that the only real difference has been my cravings.  Whereas I could eat donuts, waffles, and vanilla soft serve non-stop with Willa, this time around it has been olives, cornichons, and salt bagels with cream cheese.  I actually can't stand anything too sweet (sorry, Duck Donuts!) and have been SUPER thirsty thanks to all the saltiness, but I still find myself with a jar of olives and a fork most nights.  No judgment!!

So overall we are very excited to take this journey again, planning for it to be the last time I'm pregnant.  I'm looking forward to keeping track of my memories at this time, which will probably go by in a flash!  Here's hoping I keep it up!