Baby Sprinkle

My best friends Angie and Megan held a very intimate Baby Sprinkle for me on January 22nd. It was such a surprise and everyone (including Rob) did a fantastic job at keeping me in the dark. In case you have never heard of a Baby Sprinkle, it is a smaller scale Baby Shower in which guests "sprinkle" the mom with the little necessities she needs for the new baby. It is not a full blown Baby Shower and is often used for any children born after the first child.

My friends and family sprinkled me with necessities for our Baby Boy: adorable baby boy clothes, diapers, blue blankets, boy-themed bibs, blue sleepsacks, and blue sippy cups. Our little boy is now set to make his debut in another 2 months. Even Alaina got a present from her Aunt Cindy and cousin Lauren: a Big Sister t-shirt that she can wear to the hospital when she meets her little brother for the first time. :)

Baby Sprinkles are a relatively new thing but I will tell you, as a mom who had everything pink and girly but nothing for boys, I was glad my friends took it upon themselves to organize the sprinkle and help me out. How lucky I am to have these ladies in my life! Here are a few pictures from my Sprinkle:

The best group of girlfriends

With Angie & Megan

With my mom, sister, and niece

No surprise what I'm having! :)

Heyyyyyy!

Fun in the Snow!

Frederick County seems to have missed out on every major snow event of this winter. There have been two major Nor'Easters to hit the East Coast since December 26th and both of them missed DC while dumping over two feet of snow on New Jersey, New York, and New England. But last week, Frederick got 8.2" of snow and we did not miss the opportunity to take Alaina tubing. We took her to a hill in our neighborhood and we sent her on the ride of her life. There was a coating of ice atop the snow so her snowtube took off down the hill and Rob had to literally sprint after it just to catch her. I think this freaked Alaina out because after this one (and only) run, she was done! She didn't want anything else to do with tubing. Instead, she wanted to go home and build a snowman. Here are some pictures from our snow adventure:

1st Dentist Appointment

Alaina had her 1st dentist appointment in January and it went just as well as I thought it would -- HORRIBLY! I took her to the Pediatric Dental Center in Frederick and it was jam-packed full of children and was quite overwhelming. Even the exam room in the back was a large, open room with no privacy. Crying children were everywhere. Needless to say, we won't be taking her to that place again. We have found a family dentist based on the recommendation of a good friend of ours and we're hoping for a better experience this summer. The good news is that Alaina's teeth looked great and she had no cavities!

Baby Boy's name

I'm happy to report that Rob & I have finally decided on a name for our son! It only took us 9 weeks of discussion to figure out what we should name him. The good news is that Alaina has already learned how to say his name and has been pointing to my belly and saying his name. So cute! Can't wait to share his name with you all when he is born in March.

29 weeks and counting!

I'm happy to report that the 3rd trimester is here and I have only 11 weeks (or less!) to go until we get to meet our baby boy! It always amazes me how quickly the 40 weeks of pregnancy pass. Seems like we had just found out that we were expecting a baby and now he'll be here in a matter of weeks. Unreal!

I am in full nesting mode and am busily preparing the guest bedroom for Alaina's big move. After she's been moved into her new bedroom, I can then concentrate on getting the nursery ready for her little brother (the toddler bed needs to be converted back into a crib, his clothes need to be washed & hung up, all of Alaina's pink blankies & clothes need to be moved into her new bedroom, etc.).

We are planning to move the furniture out of the guest bedroom tonight so that we can paint the room this weekend. Next Saturday we're moving Alaina's big girl bed & dresser into her new room. The furniture she'll be using had been my bedroom suite as a child but I'm debating on whether or not to paint it. It's in such good condition that I almost hate to paint it white but white furniture would definitely look better with the rose-themed bed linens. Decisions decisions.

And then there is the whole pesky issue of picking out the baby's name. We still haven't decided on a name for our little boy but I'm hoping we can do this soon because I'm getting really tired of calling him "Baby Boy." It will be nice to associate a name with the little guy who is kicking the crap out of my stomach. :)

Speaking of stomach, here are some belly pictures. Don't laugh too hard!

20 weeks

28 weeks

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Year! Ours was quiet -- Alaina wasn't feeling well so we had to cancel plans with friends of ours and we ended up just staying home and relaxing. But I will say there is something very calm and relaxing about watching the ball drop with your hubby while lounging around in your pajamas.

New Year's Day was full of the traditions I've come to love over the years: the Tournament of Roses Parade, Penn State football, and a family dinner. My mother hosted the annual Lucas Family New Year's Day dinner and it went quite well. Mom & Dad served the traditional pork & sauerkraut, baked corn, and dinner rolls. Cindy & Bill provided the mashed potatoes and creamed grapes. Rob & I brought homemade applesauce, a tirimisu trifle, and rum cake. I'm not at all biased when I say that Rob's rum cake was d-e-l-i-c-i-o-u-s.

As for New Years resolutions, I only believe in making ones I can actually keep. So the tired resolution to "lose weight" is fantastic but not realisitic until after the baby is born because who are we kidding?? I won't be losing any weight during the 3rd trimester! But you'd better believe that I'll be hitting my diet & exercise program hard in April after the baby is born!

I believe I will resolve this year to blog more than I did in 2010. I blogged 16 times in 2009 and 33 times in 2010. Double! Will I be able to blog more than 33 times this year? That remains to be seen but I'm sure willing to give it a shot.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND YOURS!

Christmas 2010

Another Christmas season has come and gone and we're now getting back into the groove of a new year. The many weeks of preparing are behind us and now we're resuming our normal day-to-day routine. I wish the celebratory Christmas season would last for longer than one day. (sniff sniff) Oh well! Next November will be here before we know it and it will soon be time to begin the Christmas decorating, cookie baking, and gift shopping all over again. YAY!

Christmas 2010 was full of wonderment as we enjoyed seeing it through Alaina's eyes. She absolutely fell in love with the Christmas cartoons we enjoyed as children -- Frosty the Snowman, Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer, The Grinch (or "The Pinch" as she called him), and Charlie Brown's Christmas. She learned a few of the words to "Jingle Bells" and would sing and dance to it whenever she heard the song.

We started a new Christmas tradition with Alaina this year: we were visited by the Elf on the Shelf whom she named "Ziggy." The story goes that each night the elf returns to the North Pole to report to Santa Claus on the behavior of the child/children in the house. Every morning the elf is in a new place in the house and it becomes a sort of a game. Every morning the first thing Alaina would do when coming downstairs was look for Ziggy. It was very cute!

Another new tradition we began this year was going to the tree farm to chop down our own tree. No more going to the lot and buying a pre-cut tree. No sir! We're going to do it the old-fashioned way and chop it down ourselves (well, at least Rob will chop it down). We had a great time picking out our tree and cutting it down. What a beautiful Douglas Fir it was too!

Christmas Eve was quiet as usual and we wouldn't have it any other way. We went to the 5:00 PM Family Service at church and then came home and had dinner together. After dinner we all hung out and watched some of Alaina's favorite Christmas cartoons. Alaina and I wrote a letter to Santa and then left cookies and milk out for him next to the tree. After Alaina went to bed, Santa Claus came to visit! He gave her a set of Singa-ma-Jigs, a shopping cart, doll house, art easel, and PLAY KITCHEN!

Christmas Day was absolutely wonderful! Christmas morning was so peaceful and the three of us enjoyed sitting around the tree opening our gifts as a family. Alaina really enjoyed opening her gifts this year and was more than willing to open Mommy & Daddy's presents too.

Alaina made out like a champ at Christmas; I'm so glad that she's not spoiled at all (sense my sarcasm here):

• MeMe and BawBaw (my parents) gave her a set of Scooby Doo DVDs (or "DeeDo" as Alaina calls him), some books, a baby doll, a doll bed & high chair, some new clothes, and the Weeble treehouse
• MeMaw & PePaw (Rob's parents) gave her a Leapster Tag Junior and accompanying books. It's fun to see her sitting on the couch with her reader as she "reads" the books to herself. They also gave her some washable fingerpaints and a Scooby Doo stuffed animal.
• Pappy (Rob's dad) gave her one of the Llama Llama books
• Aunt Cindy, Uncle Bill, Lauren & Andrew gave her some really neat gifts including a puppet, a baby doll, two Blue's Clues beany babies and a DVD, a book, a remote control puppy, and a color & shape sorter
• Uncle Jeffrey & Aunt Michelle gave her a personalized bath towel and mit from Land's End, a set of magnets that spell out her name, and a set of Legos.
• Uncle JB and his girlfriend got her some really neat Zhu Zhu Pet accessories to add to her ever-growing Zhu Zhu Pet town.
• Lucy gave her an "Alive" white tiger cub

She absolutely adores her new toys and has had lots of fun playing with them this past week. However, Rob and I are wondering where we're going to put everything. I have a feeling that we'll be converting the basement into PlayLand sooner rather than later.

Here a few of my favorite pictures from Christmas 2010: