Papa!

My parents were out of town for a while, then we went out of town, then my dad went back out of town. Tripp had been looking and wondering where his "Papa" was and hoping he would be back soon. Well, this morning when I dropped Tripp off at my parents', my dad stuck around to make sure to see Tripp before leaving for work. He was one happy boy, to say the least.

A Turning Point

I am days away from being 5 months pregnant. In some ways this has been an incredibly fast 5 months, but in others, it has been ridiculously slow. The slow part has to do with the not feeling so good. But ever since we were in Montreat, I have been feeling a lot better. On Friday night, I was watching some kids who happen to have a really old dog who has basically lost control of her bowels (which I did not know going into the situation or I might have all of a sudden become "busy"). After cleaning up a big poopy mess and not throwing up, I figured I was feeling pretty good. So yesterday I decided I would try to not take the anti-nausea medicine and see what happened. I felt pretty good all day. I had a moment or two of weird feelings, but who doesn't have that occasionally, even when not pregnant? I just had a little snack and felt much better. Today was even better than yesterday. I am not ready to flush my pills down the toilet (or whatever you are supposed to do with an unused prescription) but I am so thankful for the fact that I have been feeling much better. I have been feeling the little babe kick lots so that has been really fun too. We haven't exactly told Tripp yet, since his concept of time is not that great. We told him just a few days before leaving for North Carolina that we were going, and I quickly lost count of the number of times he asked when we were going, how long till we got there, where we were going, who would be there....(I think you get the point). I guess it wouldn't be completely fair to not tell him till I go into labor just to avoid answering a bunch of questions, but we at least decided to start talking to him about babies in general. Maybe in the next month or so, when I start to really pop out, we will talk about it more. In the mean time, he just thinks I am funny for changing outfits multiple times in the morning in the mostly futile attempt to find something that looks ok. It is quite assuring though, that when I put on a new outfit, he looks up at me and says "You look so nice Mommy." That sure helps boost my ego.

In this new found state of good health, I seemed to have found my cooking skills again. I whipped up some delicious pasta, if I do say so myself, the other night. It could have been that it was pretty "regular" tasting and that our taste buds have become accustomed to some pretty lame excuses for dinner in the past 5 months, but I really do think it was some delicious pasta. If you don't have the America's Test Kitchen Cookbook, you really need it. I made that pasta the other night, then home made mac 'n cheese last night, a chocolate cake last week and have a few more recipes on the menu for this week. But tonight, I am trying to outdo myself one more time. I am attempting some home made chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwiches. The recipe is from my newest Martha Stewart magazine and it looks delicious. I had a helper this afternoon while I made the cookies. I needed to distract this helper from actually helping me since the first thing he did was pour a very large amount of baking soda into my just perfectly measured flour, so I gave him a snack and some measuring spoons to use to eat the snack.

It worked well and he even got to be my taste tester (except his ability to taste test cookies is about as good as his ability to help me decide which outfit looks best. No matter how the cookie turned out, he proudly announced, "This is so tasty Mommy").

I didn't exactly fill him in on the part about making these cookies into ice cream sandwiches later, but I am pretty sure he is not worse for the wear. Nelson and I however, are about to enjoy some of this:

chocolate chip cookies

plus ganache

plus chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream

equals this

Yum.

Montreat!

We had a great time in Montreat, North Carolina. It went by way too fast even though we did not actually do a lot except hang out (which to me, is that way a vacation is supposed to be). We played at one of the best parks in existence,

took walks,

ate delicious food,

and were just together with the family.

It was great to just spend time together in a truly relaxed environment. I really wish I did not have to work in the summer cause then I might spend a whole month or so there! It really is a great spot!

Marian the Meerkat

Not everyone has a stuffed meerkat. But thanks to my brother and sister-in-law and their recent visit to the San Diego Zoo, Tripp is the proud owner of Marian the Meerkat. When I asked him what the meerkat's name should be, he replied "yeah" which is what he says when he doesn't know the answer to something. So first I suggested "Anna" after his cousin who he took a special liking to on our recent vacation to North Carolina. He didn't like that (sorry Anna) and then he said "Marian!" At first I was so confused, I thought he was saying Mary after his Nana (but I do not think he knows her real first name). I said "Mary?" he said "No, Marian, the other Marian is at the pool!" Then I got it, he named his meerkat Marian after the little girl at the pool. If only she knew that a little boy named his stuffed meerkat after her. So now he has three special animals- Blue Dog, Charlie Dog, and now Marian the Meerkat. You can see the name progression there too. As he gets older, his naming convention gets a little more sophisticated. Blue Dog was his first special friend and was aptly name after his color, Charlie Dog was his next special friend, named after his favorite babysitter's brother (who came over to play one day), and now Marian, named after the other (emphasis added by him, every time he says it) Marian, the girl at the pool.

Ready For Summer

I am really ready for the summer. It's not like summer is really any different for us as far as our schedules or anything like that, I think it's more that we can be outside, enjoy the sunshine, go on vacation and just enjoy some of the fun things St. Louis has to offer. I think also, it has been a weird winter. I have been pretty sick with this baby #2, but I am finally starting to turn the corner. I realized the other morning how sick I have been when I watched Tripp go into the bathroom, lift the lid to the toilet, make some coughing/spitting noises, then flush the toilet and say "I'm ok Mommy." I guess he's seen me do that a few too many times over the past few months. I really couldn't be more thankful/excited for this new life, I am just looking forward to having some days (and nights too) where I don't feel sick all the time. Plus, I know I could have it a lot worse and I know a lot of people who have had it a lot worse. So I have no room to complain. I have seen God's graciousness to me throughout this time and have felt him sustain me through some not so fun times. For that I am very grateful.

On another not so great note, my grandmom passed away a few weeks ago. She had Alzheimer's so I am incredibly thankful she is not suffering anymore, but it is definitely hard to be here without her, even if all she could do before she died was to lift her head and smile. It's also hard to see my mom and grandfather miss her, and to see my grandfather be alone after having been married for 64 years. He told me the other day that he and my grandmom were the third generation to be married for over 50 years. My grandparents loved each other and they both love the Lord. Their involvement and influence in our lives is beyond measurable, and I am just thankful for the time we did have together. Grandparents are definitely a gift from God!

And then on a much happier note, there's this kid.

I mean, he is really just awesome. I am thankful for his sense of humor (which he often comments on "I so funny Mommy") and his big smile. I love spending time with him and feel blessed to be his mom. Of course, we have our moments (like this morning when he cried/pouted for a good 10 or 15 mins cause I wouldn't let him watch a movie. I should have said yes cause it was ridiculously early and I have a theory that any screen time before 6:30 a.m. doesn't count as TV time for the day. It counts as "Mommy is really tired and you shouldn't wake up at 5:45" time but I felt like not letting him make a habit of it so crying ensued. but whatever.). Anyway, he is great, and Nelson and I just love being his parents! I know I've said it before and I know I will say it again, but it's definitely the hardest thing I have ever done but there are times when I have literally felt my heart swell with happiness for him and have cried tears of joy because of his excitement over something (most recently- the carousel at the zoo where he rode the penguin and as soon as we started moving, his face lit up like it was Christmas morning. He exclaimed "We're going up and down AND around Mommy!"). Seeing your kid excited about something is really the best. Just like I would much rather get hurt than him, I would also much rather him be excited over something than me.

Well this is post is getting long, and I think I have posted enough pics of Tripp, so I need to wrap things up. Here's to summer when I have to give Tripp a bath everyday cause he has played hard and gotten all sweaty, when we can go on walks and listen out for the ice cream truck, and when (hopefully) Nelson and I can go out on date nights again and I don't feel like I need to spend the whole time in the bathroom!

Cooking with a Two Year Old

We have a small kitchen to begin with so if you add a small child that likes to sit on the counter when Mommy is cooking, then you are looking at some small space to do any kind of culinary work. Thankfully I found a recipe for some blueberry muffins that only needed five ingredients, so we had enough room to do our work and even found a spot for the fire chief's hat.

Location:Cooking with a Two Year Old

Tripp's Second Birthday

Today was Tripp's 2nd birthday and it was probably one of the best days of his life so far as well as one of mine. It brings a tremendous amount of joy to me to watch him get so excited about things. Perfect example: When he saw the car of his friend who was coming over to play this morning he came running to me and said "Mommy, this is so fun!"
We started the morning at the donut shop eating breakfast.


Then we headed to the fire station with a friend for a visit.


Even though Tripp has been to the station lots before, he could tell this was a special time- even the fire fighters were excited for his birthday (probably cause we gave them some cupcakes)!


We opened presents and then finished off the day with dinner and custard with Nonny and Papa.


What a great day!