It's a....

Since we found out we were pregnant, I never had a strong desire to find out the gender of Baby #3, as I already had both a girl and a boy, and the gender didn't really matter to me -- I loved having both genders equally and so either would have been perfect and I thought being Team Green and finding out at the birth would be so fun!  However, Chris had a burning desire to know and of course, Lucy wanted to know.  She told her teacher at school that she really wanted a girl, but just KNEW it was going to be a boy... I even caught her whispering to my tummy a few days prior to finding out and when I asked her what she was saying she said "I'm just telling the baby 'Please be a girl, please be a girl, please be a girl!'"  Sweet baby...

So I made an appointment to find out.  We went somewhere different than we did with Lucy & Austin, we went to First Photo in Macon, Georgia.  It wasn't as cozy feeling as Baby Dimensions, but it was just as good.  The sonographer started first trying to find the baby and all and when she said, "okay, let's see what the baby is.." Lucy was whispering "girl, girl, girl, girl..."

Well, God must have heard the desires of my first precious baby's heart, because Baby #3 is a GIRL!!

Charlotte Rebecca Giles

Lucy could not be more thrilled and talks to her and about her every day.  She's constantly thinking of her, what she will like, what her favorite color will be, finding her old baby items and wanting to save them for Charlotte.  It's really the sweetest.  While I honestly did not care one way or the other about the gender, I secretly wanted it to be a girl for Lucy.  Austin will never know one way or the other, but I didn't want Lucy to feel disappointment, and I'm so glad she gets the experience of a SISTER!

I'll post a baby update later this week (hopefully with a picture!)

Happy WINDS-day!

This week, coming back from Spring Break, was a long one for us!  It seemed to never want to end!

Baby #3 has me very exhausted.  I don't know if it's having two other children who are so young, being in exhausting stage of pregnancy during an exhausting time of the school year, or a combination.  But by 4:00, I am worn OUT!

We had to get onto Lucy this week because she was still wanting to run after her  Daddy as he dropped her off for school.  We had to tell her that if she did it again, I was going to have to start taking her to school.  She doesn't want that, because then she is there so early she has to be dropped off in Austin's daycare room, and it makes her feel like a baby.  After we told her that, she hasn't done it since.  She's also been riding the bus to my school in the afternoons.  She doesn't care for after school too much, and it costs the same for me to have her ride the bus as it does to send her to after school, so I let her just ride to me on the days that Cindy can't pick her up.  (Cindy has gone this week to Jekyll Island with Kacie, Wesley, & the girls since they are on Spring Break) Lucy also started saying "yellow" this week.  It's not consistent (yet!), but it is still sad to hear her lose her "Lell-low" :(  She has been learning about space at school and is very interested in our Earth, other planets, Sun, & stars.  So fun!  Her class is taking a field trip to the planetarium at GCSU next week -- I know she'll have a blast!

Austin is starting to enter his "terrible two's" except, they're not terrible.  He's just wanting to become very independent, such as feeding himself completely.  Even something as messy as spaghetti.  And he's not wanting to share.  Anything he sees that he wants, he thinks he can get and will try to bully it out of your hands (or more often, Lucy's hands).  We're having to be strict on him to not hit or push.  He's talking more and more every day.  A lot of it is still probably very incomprehensible to others, but to us, we know what he's saying. He can say:  Mama, Dadda, ball, Mel-mo (Elmo), Dat (Mickey Mouse -- he used to say "mee mow" but then changed it), ball, juice, num-num (gummies -- his favorite snack!), Lilah (what he calls any cat after our cat, Delilah), thank you, love you, bye, hi -- I think those are it! 

Yesterday, we went to Chilly Milly after school and met Dena Stancil and her girls.  Lucy enjoyed hers and Austin didn't care for the one I'd fixed him.  I figured he wouldn't because he doesn't care for cold food, but after I fixed mine (fudge brownie batter, with real brownie bits, cookie dough, white chocolate chips, milk chocolate chips, hot fudge, & whipped cream), he ate every bite!  He was a MESS!  He had it, literally, from head to toe.  Then, he walked out of there like a boss, who just dropped the mic, on a mission to the car.  There were some college girls sitting outside of Velvet Elvis and they were just going on and on about how cute he was.

 We had so much fun with Dena and her girls we decided to do dinner at their house last night.  Ally Grace was so excited to have someone her size to play with.  She just kept loving on Austin, knocking him down with hug after hug.  I mean, can you blame her?  He is a handsome hunk!

And these two girls had the most fun they've had together! I think they finally remembered each other, so we didn't have to spend our whole time being shy and trying to warm up to the other one.  Ha!

 Here's a picture of the Fab 5 (soon to be Super 6!)  Lucy had played Beauty Salon with Caylin & Suzi Kate.  That's why they're all dolled up! ;)

Today is Saturday, and it's windy outside making it a little chillier than it has been.  Our cabinets that we had built for the playroom were delivered, and Chris is outside painting them white.  My two babies want to be outside playing.  So we got all dressed and bundled up and headed out.  Lucy was doing great, but Austin wasn't happy.  Probably just too cold.  So I headed back inside with him, but now he's upset that he's not outside!  Can't win for losing with that kid!

We'll try heading out again later.

Rain, Rain, Go Away (after you wash the pollen away!)

Today has been a very rainy day.  In fact, it was a very rainy and stormy night!  

Chris took me out to dinner at the Brick last night for my birthday, and we took Lucy along with us.  Poor thing wanted to go so bad, because she just loves going out to eat at the Brick, but she was so tired!  She had ridden her tricycle all the way from CiCi & Papa's house to our house yesterday.  Took her almost an hour!  On top of no nap, she was just worn out.  So, we had to deal with her being a little loopy at supper last night, but she was fine and we enjoyed a good meal.  She then spent the night at CiCi & Papa's.  

It stormed all night though!  I'm talking thundering and lightening and lots and lots of rain!!  And it's barely slowed up today, with several more storms and only patches of time with no rain at all.  It made for great napping weather, though, as I got BOTH of them to nap for almost 2 hours!  Lucy barely wants to nap anymore, usually just settling for "quiet time" with her iPad instead.  But with today's storms, she napped -- hard!  Poor thing needed it.

I'm glad we've gotten all of this rain -- it's going to wash the pollen right on out of here!  The pollen has finally gotten to each of us.  It's been giving me drainage at night, which is terrible since I already have a hard time sleeping with the nausea and the getting up to tinkle.  Yesterday, it had both Lucy & Austin's eyes all swollen and goopy.  Lucy's right eye was so red and swollen, I sent a picture of it to her doctor (Dr. Bowers) and he actually called her in some Amoxicillin.

Today is our last "day" of Spring Break.  After this weekend, we all start back to school for the final 35 days (7 weeks).  Lucy is in Pre-K at Learning Safari with Summer Leggat as her teacher (Assistant is Morgan Brown).  Austin is at Learning Safari, too, in the 1 year old class.  He doesn't love it.  And I'm teaching 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade Special Education self-contained this year.  I enjoy it a lot!

So, we've got lots of winding down to do, and gearing up to do for the Summer!

"For the First Time in Forever..."

I'm baaaaaaa-aaaaack!

When I started this blog, way back when, I was the owner of a Dell laptop, and typing up a blog took no time at all and I was able to do it more easily and frequently.  When that laptop bit the dust, I was gifted an iPad by my husband for Christmas, and while I LOVE my iPad, it is not very convenient for typing long blog posts.  

I didn't realize just how much I missed blogging until my baby boy turned 1 and I realized I had not documented his first year like I had done his sisters.  This made me SO sad, because as a middle child myself, I know he's going to miss that one day.  Sorry, future Austin.  Thankfully, his Daddy does a FANTASTIC job of journaling every few days in a composition notebook.  But it's just not the same. 

So, for my 29th birthday (TODAY!), Christopher surprised me with a brand new Mac laptop!!!  Y'all.  I could not be more excited!  I am ecstatic to get back into the world of blogging and fill up posts about Lucy & Austin's daily doings.

Aaaaannnnnd the new baby's!  That's right -- #3 is on their way!  We found out February 24, 2016.  I got the notion to test when I started gagging while browning turkey meat to make spaghetti, and the smell of tuna made me want to vomit.  So, while Lucy was at dance, I went to Kroger and bought a test, came home and it turned pink RIGHT away -- like, before the control line even had a chance to show up!  I freaked out, went and picked up Lucy and planned how I was going to tell Chris.

I decided to put the test in a bracelet jewelry box that I had saved (I save all of my jewelry boxes) and wrote on the top "Something Special for You..." 

You see, Chris and I had decided to try for a 3rd baby, but the other two took us nearly 6 months before we got pregnant, so we figured it'd take about the same amount of time, we'd get pregnant this summer and have an end of school year baby so I could take the rest of the school year and the summer with the baby.  Turns out, God had a different plan and this baby came a lot sooner!  So, he was not shocked but surprised and VERY happy! 

We kept it a secret, just the two of us for a while, until I started having a weird pain to the right of my belly button... about 4 inches to the right.  They wanted me to come in to make sure it wasn't an ectopic pregnancy, so I rushed up to the doctor.  On March 2, 2016, I saw our baby for the very first time.  Still so tiny, looking nothing more than a little bubble, I could see their heart beating at only 6 weeks 1 day pregnant.  The doctor was thrilled that everything was in place, that he could already see the heartbeat (must be strong!), and said the pain I was feeling must just be ligament pain or gas.  Everything was perfect!

So, when I came home, we told Lucy that I had something in my tummy.  She has been wanting another baby (particularly a sister) for quite some time.  She even asked Santa for one.  She was very excited to learn that there was in fact a BABY in my belly!  We created a fun little video on iMovie and announced it to both of our families that way.  We went and showed it to his parents in person, but I just couldn't stand not telling my family right away and sent them the video over my phone.  

Needless to say, everyone was surprised but THRILLED!  We cannot wait to welcome #3 to our family and round out our family of 5.

Stay tuned... This will be updated a lot more frequently now.

Much love,