18 weeks preggeroni!

First of all, it's really hard to take a decent pic of yourself in a mirror! I was shocked, but with Reid out of town and Piper not the best photog yet, I was left with little choice but to grab the camera and document this peanut's journey on the start of week 18. Number 2 is well on his/her way!

And before we get back to being very happily and excitedly pregnant again, I need to back up and post Piper's 2 year stats. This poor kid (and the next one, let's be honest) are kind of screwed in that I'm just not a baby book type of person. I don't even own one for Piper, but I do want to keep track of these things, so very belatedly, here are her stats from July ...

Height: 34.5 inches - 75 percentile
Weight: 30 pounds, 8 ounces - 50 percentile
Head circumference: 19.5 inches - 90 percentile

Okay, back to the present and my poor attempt at documentation of our children's lives. I realized the other day that we started taking pictures of Piper (in my belly of course) when I was 16 weeks pregnant with her, and from there, they were almost weekly. I think the time period became a little spread out in the third trimester, but the fact is, she now has a nice little timeline of pictures where she gets to see my belly get bigger and bigger. When I was thinking about that, I felt guilty about this time around and not having taken any pictures OR documented any sort of commentary about this pregnancy yet. Maybe this kid won't care - and maybe Piper won't care about her well-documented, and at times embarrassing, journey - but we should at least give it another shot this time around. So although I will end with our Christmas card pic in typical 'Ode to Piper' fashion, the rest of this blog gets dedicated to her little sibling and its journey so far.

We first found out we were pregnant on labor day ... and from there, the real nerves set in. To be perfectly honest, the whole process, although short, was super nerve racking. Even before we started trying, I was terrified of it being a long, difficult process (actually getting pregnant, that is). Much to our surprise, that was not the case. We got pregnant the first time out (thank you, ovulation kit!) and therefore avoided all of the stress that getting pregnant can entail. But as soon as we found out we were pregnant, the stress of staying pregnant set in. I knew I had an increased risk of miscarriage due to some anatomical changes that have taken place (thanks ligaments, for failing to do your job years before that should have been the case) and we were also at an increased of another molar pregnancy. I considered both of these facts daily and the first trimester slugged slowly by.

Our 8 week ultrasound went well. No signs of any blood pockets and the heartbeat was nice and strong. Prognosis? Who knows. Sit tight until the 12 week ultrasound. So the next month SLOWLY dragged on and the next ultrasound finally arrived, where we were met with a beautiful wave of a hand - hooray!!

All of our fears and trepidations disappeared and joy and excitement were allowed to set in. I can't describe the feelings of relief I felt. We've had happy ultrasounds and we've had nightmare ultrasounds ... but the experiences you simply can't shake when going into the unknown are those negative ones. Well, that is, until you see the little miracle happily living inside of you. It's simply amazing.

And since then, the time has absolutely flown by. I have a hard time believing that this pregnancy is almost halfway over, and I'm sure the next 22 weeks (well, hopefully a BIT less than that, but who knows) will keep going by pretty quickly. I first felt the little peanut kicking me the night of Thanksgiving. I was shocked. I was barely 15 weeks, but there was no mistaking it, and since then, pretty much daily, I can feel him/her moving around in there. It's such a wonderful feeling, and I can't wait until Reid and Piper are able to feel this one too. I know this little guy/girl has a big sister who is very anxious to feel him/her!

And yes, the annoying "it", "him/her", etc will continue because we aren't going to find out the gender until the day this one enters the world. I don't love calling it an it, but that's ok. It's all well worth the wait.

And as promised, I'll end with the picture we used on our Christmas card ... the funny part is this is the only snow we've had all year and it was almost 60 degrees when we were making the snow man. Piper's wearing her winter coat only so that we don't look negligent. Happy holidays to all!

Happy 2nd birthday, Piper!!

Today, Piper turns 2. Unbelievable. She's spent the last three days celebrating and can very clearly say "Happy Birthday me." She's awesome and we love her more than I can eloquently say - even after a very difficult day of terrible twos ... of which today was one of many!

I know when I wrote the last short blog, I said I would cover why I went through a very lengthy blog hiatus. To sum it up, we had an amazing vacation in Turks and Caicos, only to come back to more not-so-great news. I just felt like life was continuing to deal us a crappy hand and I needed to not write about it because then I thought about it more. I'm incredibly skilled at squashing bad emotions deep down, ignoring them and moving on - waiting until life is good on its own again. With some things, this strategy has worked, with others, it hasn't (particularly grieving), but life IS more positive now so I'm ready to be back, chronicling our lives for Piper to someday read later on in life.

The really good news is that the cancer scare is over! I have one more set of monthly labs to do and then my trips to the lab for HCG levels are DONE. Thank God, because I hated that the lab people knew me by name and were curious about what was going on in Piper's life. I wanted to be anonymous, but my frequent shopper status prevented that and it drove me nuts.

So back to fun stuff!

Reid and I are rarely spontaneous ... but we were this past weekend and it was an absolute blast. Friday afternoon, we booked a room for that night in Westport, NY. We stayed at a really unique inn with great views of the lake. We were all in the same room, but it was just fine. Here's Piper with her crazy hair before we actually got going on Saturday. That's her "smile" face ... go figure.

After a great breakfast, we launched the boat and drove it up to Essex, NY, which is so far, my favorite little town on Lake Champlain. As we docked the boat, their fourth of July parade was about to start so our timing couldn't have been better. After exploring Essex and a fun lunch on the water, we were back on the boat for what was easily one of the best boating days we've had. I'm smiling now just thinking about it!

And then Monday was Piper's 'family' party, followed by her 'friends' party yesterday and another great play date today. So much celebrating and so much fun, but it's definitely taken a toll on Piper, who as a toddler, tends to be emotionally fragile (or volatile, whatever) at times. She's had a blast, but was so tired today, I could tell we may have crammed a bit too much fun into a short amount of time. Good thing we have a low key day of the Great Escape tomorrow ... ooops ... I predict a major meltdown in public at some point tomorrow :-) But all in all, the memories from this weekend and Piper's official transition into a "preschooler" are ones that I'm so excited to remember. Including watching her explore her new ride while opening presents on Sunday ...

Big girl bed!

It's Piper's first night in her crib converted into a toddler bed, and so far, it's not going well. She's in it out of our own desperation for a good night's sleep - she's been sleeping terribly and this was a suggested solution. Maybe she is sick of her crib and wants to be more independent. Or maybe she's just going through a phase. Or maybe it's her two year molars coming in. Or maybe she's just testing us to see how long we'll let her cry, and how many times she can keep us up at night, until one of us breaks out of sleep deprivation and lays down next to her crib until morning. Toddlers are complicated creatures!

And yes, I fully acknowledge that it has been FOREVER since I've blogged last. I'll address that in my next post ...

Great expectations

The problem with great expectations, and I don't mean the book here, which I really liked, is that when life doesn't work out how you want it to, there are great disappointments.

Take today, for instance. We were so pumped to get to Turks and Caicos and start our vacation. Pumped enough where we didn't even mind getting up at 3:40 this morning to make our flight. Then the snow set in around 6 am ... and here we still sit in NY, with a flight tomorrow. Now, obviously way worse things happen in life than missing a day of vacation, but I would be lying to say that I'm not disappointed. Tomorrow, there will be sun, friends, and warmth!! Or there better be ... :-)

Peace out snow ... bring on the sun!

The one bad thing about all of the traveling Piper and I have done together is that she's now a total and complete mama's girl. I call her my Velcro baby. She is literally stuck to me at almost all times ... and this is a problem. She'd gotten to be a great daycare kid. I could drop her off, she'd wave goodbye, and then have a happy, fun-filled day. The last few times she's gone now, though, she wavers back and forth between having fun (when she's focused on an activity, such as an art project) and crying for mama. Every time I've picked her up, I can here her crying when I walk into the building. Ugh. When we get back from vacation, we need to figure out how to fix this ... any suggestions? Maybe having her go more than once a week for a while?

And now, let vacation begin! We will be out of here super early tomorrow morning, on our way to see friends in Turks and Caicos. Erica, Pierre, and Sylvie - can't wait to see you :-)

Be prepared for super cute pics of Sylvie and Piper's all day play dates. Let's just hope Piper's not a huge bully ...

Happy 100th to me!

100th post that is. It may have taken me a while to get here, but that nice round number makes me smile nonetheless.

So back to Florida.

We left for Florida on a freezing cold morning and were greeted by a smiling Charlotte and the warm sunshine. Ah ... heaven. During this trip, Piper experienced many firsts. Her first trip to the beach; her first time to a zoo; her first safari (mine too); her first time feeding a giraffe (mine too); and her first experience with flip flops. The last left her with a tiny blister between her toes, but she loved all the rest and the smiles on her face throughout the trip made it one of my favorites also.

One of our first stops on the trip with Aunt Char was to buy a much needed pair of sunglasses for the peanut, and if I had known how big a hit these sunglasses were going to be, I definitely would have bought more than one pair because they're bound to break at any moment. In general, Piper LOVES accessories: hats, anything for her hair, shoes, and now sunglasses. She sports them day or night, inside or out. Basically she's a movie star in the making. They're huge, pink, sparkly, and absolutely rock.


From CVS, we went to the Loggerhead Marinelife Center where Piper was introduced to turtles. Her reaction was actually less than I thought it would be, but I blame that on her exhaustion, which is very obvious in this pic with Char ...


We did so many fun things that it would take me all night to list them out, but by far the highlight for Piper was going to Lion Country Safari, and we 100 percent owe that excursion to a snow storm in the northeast. We were supposed to fly back on a Tuesday, and when Stanton dropped us off at the airport that morning, our flight was on time and everything looked good. Then, one by one, every flight into the northeast was canceled, and all of a sudden, we had two extra days to spend in Florida. Besides lugging all of our gear out to the rental car while sweating profusely and cursing under my breath so Piper couldn't hear me, and obviously us both missing Reid, I was psyched for the extra time. We drove ourselves back to Char's, did a load of laundry and hit the pool. The following day, we headed to Lion Country Safari, and I will fully admit that I was super excited about this trip. I know I can be pretty cheesy, but I've always wanted to do a drive through safari and was finally getting to do it, and in a rental car no less! Let the fun begin.

After a stern lecture from the attendant about keeping our windows closed and doors locked, we headed into the park. First stop, ostriches. The birds were huge, and literally right outside the window. Piper took one look and started signing and saying "more" over and over again.
By the time we hit the zebras and rhinos, she was trying to open the door ...

After the drive through tour, we had lunch, where I asked Piper if she wanted to go feed the giraffes, one of the activities at the little theme park they had. She started giggling like mad and signing for eating (tapping her finger to her mouth). So off we went to find the giraffe feeding station. We did it once, and then before we left, we had to do it again. And when we left the park, Piper cried her eyes out. She had the BEST time and still starts giggling and tapping her finger to her mouth every once in a while. When she does, I say "did you feed the giraffes?" and she dissolves into giggles. Freaking hilarious and adorable, rolled into one. We had the attendant take our pic with Manofwari, the giraffe we fed the most and Piper's eyes are closed, but we do have a decent one of her actually feeding him. This was the second time around and she had absolutely no fear, just pure delight!
Just like seeing Heidi, it was great to see Char and to be wrapped in friendship. It's not as if we don't have friends where we live now, but sometimes seeing someone you've known for more than a decade makes all the difference.

I feel like I have so many memories of this trip that I'll have forever, and for that reason, I so wish Reid had been there to share in them with us. The good news, though, is that in a very short amount of time, all three of us will be making new memories on vacation in Turks and Caicos!

One more blog and I'll have made my 10 in 14 goal. I've actually really enjoyed the exercise, and while I can't promise a ton of posts from vacation, I definitely want to keep up the pace when we return. No more months of one post. That's just crap! I'm here to say that the next 100 posts will come a lot more quickly than the first.

Good lab results!

And I forgot to add this to the previous post, but lab results came back today from last Friday and we're still headed in the right direction. HCG levels are down. YAY!!!!