Baby #2!!!

We are so thrilled to have seen our sweet little BOY number two today!!! I really feel like the Lord has been telling me to pray for an Abigail before we even got pregnant but today I woke up and thought - Abigail is for later whether our adopted daughter or biological. But today I will wear blue for boy. And I was right!

Everything about this pregnancy (minus the morning sickness) has been so different emotionally. I feel like now that we know how precious life is and how precious parenting is, we are so much more drawn and excited to this pregnancy. Not that we weren't before, we were of course thrilled with Luke. But this time we know how beautiful it is on this side of things and to get to see our precious boy in my belly today was absolutely wonderful. We came home with a CD full of 3D and what is it - 2D? images for free and our ultrasound tech's excitement was so awesome the entire time. With every toe, finger and heart beat that we saw she talked to our baby as if it were her own. Very sweet.

This time around my weight has been a huge issue (as in, don't gain 55 pounds please) but after seeing that we're having another boy and he's already measuring ahead despite my low weight gain we are confident that Billy & Lily Grimme make long babies :) Here are a few pictures to date - we will have another ultrasound at 28 weeks and 38 weeks to make sure there are no surprises upon delivery and to decide how to move forward with delivery. After today we decided induction is not on the table so we will either have a miraculous natural delivery before 39 weeks or a C-Section at 39 weeks.

Here are a few pictures of our precious son number 2!

Luke at 18 Months

I started writing this post while Luke was sleeping about a month ago. He woke up. Shocker :)

Little man is officially 18 months old and boy what a whirlwind the past few months have been. Active is an understatement. We hit the ground running around 7 am every day and don't slow down until it's time for bed. He takes a good two hour nap (although today we're pushing 3...) every day which is a nice break for one tired mama! He dropped from an uncharted height (greater than 110% they stop charting) to back in the 97% where he has stayed most of his life, in the 75% for weight and is talking. up. a. storm. Very rare for an 18 month old boy to talk as much as he does.

He is most definitely an introvert like his father at this point. At home he is WILD. By wild I mean running around the house "so fast", chasing Wyatt, trying to ride Wyatt, standing on his train and truck instead of riding his train and truck, climbing and jumping off of EVERYTHING, spinning in circles until he cannot hold himself up - then repeating all of that about 10 times everyday. The minute we get with friends or other children he observes. It takes him about an hour to really warm up and let loose. He beats to his own little drum (which is fine by me!) and is in no way interested in following others.

We started potty training about two weeks ago and it's going really well. I would say he's 75% there with accidents only occurring out in public when I can't get him to a potty in time. He also moved on up to a toddler bed..I won't lie, the first couple of nights I climbed in with him since he looked too big for my liking. I can't believe my baby isn't in a crib anymore!!! He thinks he's big stuff. It started out great until he figured out child-proof door knobs. We had to go back to the drawing board and thankfully after introducing him to Billy's old monkey from when he was a child, he's back to staying in bed for the night and sleeping well for the most part.

Favorite Foods:

Hot diggity dogs. And that's what he calls them. Pickles - favorite is an understatement. Chocolate ice cream. Broccoli. Peaches. Any kind of melon. Blueberries. Mandarin oranges.

Favorite Activity:

Anything OUTSIDE. And this mama is not so interested in the hot and bothered business so I feel kind of bad for how little time we've actually spent outside recently. 90's-100's isn't really my thing. He's also a huge fan of coloring/writing. A lot of people ask how he knows so much (colors, alphabet, numbers, etc) and I really think it's because he will sit and color for a solid 45 minutes multiple times a day and all he wants you to do is write letters and numbers or draw things for him while he talks all about it. It's really very fascinating.

Favorite Person:

DADDY - of course! He loves to do anything like his daddy, say anything like his daddy (hence the hot diggity dog phrase), be anything like his daddy. They are two peas in a pod and twins with 28 years in between.

And here's a few favorites of our Little BIG Boy! It's sad how few pictures we've taken this month. Maybe I'll take a some today just for fun.

Big Boy Thomas Pants

Happiest boy ever. 5 Minutes later telling him we're going inside, not so much.

Like I said, twins. Helping me can tomatoes.

San Fran 2011

It's very peaceful in our home right now, and rare is the day that I'm actually awake to enjoy it. Short rest, quiet snack, bills paid, pictures uploaded, and what's that? Even a blog post!

Billy and I had the awesome opportunity to go on a vacation to San Francisco just the two of us...what a breath of fresh air!! Don't get me wrong, I love my job, but getting to sleep in and eat on my own schedule was such a treat. It was a very relaxing, laid back, do what we want-when we want kind of trip full of uninterrupted meals and conversation. To that I say YES! And did I mention it was a cool, breezy, overcast 62 degrees while we were there? Hello jeans, sweaters and clam chowder :)

The first day we spent driving through the mountains visiting various beaches and forests - truly amazing how there are such vast differences in landscape so close to each other. We also ventured to Sausalito, a very quaint town with a few fun shops and delicious cafes. The next day we spent drove around some more looking at lots of beautiful (and oh so expensive) neighborhoods filled with lambhorginis, porsches, ya know the usual... We also went over to Palo Alto for dinner and dessert, another fun town with a little shopping. My favorite day was just staying in the city and making our way through Fisherman's Wharf and Fort Point, sipping on mochas and eating a giant bowl of clam chowder on the water. A cool breeze, cozy sweater and hot bowl of soup brings my heart much joy amidst the 104 degrees we've been experiencing here in NC. It was so nice to just spend time enjoying my awesome man of a husband. I love that 3 years and a baby and a half later we are still the same "us." Luke has changed us for the better but he hasn't taken over our marriage which was a huge fear of mine. It was a great escape for the two of us and when we came home we were able to love our sweet little man even better. Shout out to Nana and Papa who kept our boy happy and full while we were away :)

Here's a few from our trip: