Drive-Thru Safari

There is a cute little drive-thru safari park near Rusk.  I remember going there twice when I was little.  The first time, a buffalo stuck his entire head in our car, and the second time a llama sneezed green boogers all over my mom and me.  So when my dad suggested we take Henry, I was definitely on board!

Hank loved throwing the little food pellets.  Not necessarily at animals.  He would throw food in the car, while the windows were rolled up.  He also stuck food in every nook and cranny in my car.  I still randomly find pellets hidden in there.

 He didn't have any problem hand-feeding anything that came to the window.  He really is fearless.

I love this camel's smiling face.  I shall name him Leopold.

This guy was big.  Really, really big.  I like to think his name is Hoss.

And this is a baby zebra.  Oh my gosh.

May Things

It's mid-June, so it's about time I get some May pictures on here, right?!  

My A-DORABLE cousin Jennifer graduated from Lufkin High School a couple of weeks ago.  She's a tiny, sassy little thing.  She just made the pom squad at UT (you know, those gorgeous girls that wear chaps on the sidelines at the football games?  Yeah, she's one of them.)  She's going to see if they have any maternity chaps for me to wear around the house and to go grocery shopping and stuff.  

Hank and his Sweetie at graduation

The older DuBose girl cousins (Meagan, Lauren, Erin, Hot UT Pom Girl Jennifer, me, Madeline)

And all (but 1) of the DuBose girls, plus our sweet Memaw in the middle

And then here's just some random pictures from my phone.

His hair will grow to cover the receding hairline one day, I just KNOW it!

Hank and his Coach, going to grab a bite to eat

If you look carefully, you can see blue shaving gel on his face. He was trying to be like Daddy.

$.50 corn dog day at Sonic! WOOHOO!

And we got a new pool

Before swim lessons

During swim lessons

After swim lessons!

The boy likes to make noise

Baby #2 Love

My life is so all Henry, all the time, I thought I should take a moment to give a shout out to Baby #2.  

Baby #2  has been so easy compared to my first pregnancy.  I only get sick a couple of times a week, but that's really it!  With Henry I craved fruit all the time.  With this one, it's Chick-fil-a, and Raising Cane's.  But Henry and I stay super active, and found a walking trail that we love, so we walk 2.5-3 miles a few times a week.  That should balance out Chick-fil-a, right??

I never took weekly pictures of my pregnant belly with Henry.  I've only taken 1 with this one so far.  Here's me at 17 weeks:

I don't know what this kid has been doing in there the past 3 weeks, but I am almost 20 weeks now and CONSIDERABLY bigger.  Maybe it was the Reese's, Cane's, and turtle cheesecake from my last post.  Just a theory.

We could have found out the gender today at our sonogram, but decided not to.  But it's a boy.  Wanna know how I know?  Look at this face:

That's a boy face.  (I have some serious apologizing to do if this turns out to be a girl.  She will be so sad that I thought her face was boy-ish)  He is about 6 inches long from head to bottom and weighs about 1/2 pound.  Or, as my weekly email put it, "about the size of a large tomato".  My due date is October 24.  Just in time for cute tiny Halloween costumes.  YAY!

In other good news, I passed my 3 hour glucose screening!  I had gestational diabetes with Henry, so they screened me early since I have a good chance of getting it again with all future pregnancies.  I failed my 1-hour test, so I had to go back in for the 3-hour test.  I wasn't feeling good about it.  I just assumed I would fail.  But I got a call today that everything was normal, and they will retest me in a couple of months.  WOOHOO!  Bring on the carbs!  Oh pasta, how I love you!

At the sonogram this morning it was opening and closing its mouth, and the doctor said it was drinking.  It might be the sweetest thing I've seen.  I don't feel any huge karate kicks like I did with Henry yet.  Right now it's just gentle little nudges.  Let's hope that's an indication of this one's personality.  Laid-back, calm, peaceful....  I can always dream, right?!

My Cup Runneth Over

I am way behind on posts.  I apologize to all my readers out there (Mom and Nancy.)  And I haven't been great at taking pictures of all the fun stuff going on lately.  And then I don't want to load them on my computer.  Because when Henry sees me get out the computer and not immediately go to YouTube to watch Yo Gabba Gabba, a tantrum ensues.  Sweet mother of mercy, I CANNOT watch "Don't Bite Your Friends" one more time.   And after I put him to bed I'm so super busy doing dishes, laundry, cleaning, doing important things   falling asleep on the couch that pictures don't get loaded then, either.

A couple of weeks ago was my birthday and Mother's Day.  Poor Sam has to generate thoughtful gifts twice back to back in May each year.  He did a great job this year.

I received my first gift the day before Mother's Day.  I got a trip to Wal-Mart by myself!  OHHHH what a gift.  To be able to casually stroll and actually look at what I'm buying without juggling a shopping list, pen, coupons, sippy cup, Goldfish crackers, and avoiding eye contact with other shoppers is a dream come true.  I even stopped at McDonald's to get a Dr. Pepper because I could stick it in the part where Henry usually sits.  Bliss.  I felt an overwhelming need to tell EVERYONE that my husband was at home with our child so I could go to the store by myself.  "So....getting pinto beans, huh.  That's cool.  I'm shopping by myself today..."

Sam said we could do anything I wanted on Saturday.  I wanted to go to the Plant Shed and stock up on plants for our yard.  I had the best time wandering around, looking at plants and flowers.  Then I saw this:

To quote the eccentric old grandma in the movie Hope Floats, "My cup runneth over."
And also, the Bible.

Be still, my heart.  The phrase that immediately came to mind was, "My cup runneth over."  I just realized in that moment how much I loved my boys and I loved that day and I love my life right now.  They are just the cutest.  

After we worked in the yard for awhile, I wanted to go for a walk.  We enjoyed the perfect weather and the boys checked out some ducks.  I didn't realize until later that they are both wearing plain navy t-shirts and grey athletic shorts with stripes on the side.  I told you, they are seriously the cutest.

While we finished up some yard work in the backyard, I decided to let Henry play in the water.  We hadn't bought him a swimming pool yet, so we improvised.  A plastic storage tub and water hose.  Redneck style.

Studying the mechanics and inner-workings of the water hose.

Saturday night, Sam decided to go out and get all my Mother's Day gifts.  He brought back a Reese's party pack.   That's 8 little Reese's cups, people.  I don't usually like sweets, but this was incredible.  I planned on eating one, maybe two.  I don't know how this happened:

Please ignore my chipped toenails and bunion.  Thank you.

Sunday morning I opened my Mother's Day gifts.  Sam went WAY overboard this year.  Then when I turned on Pandora to get ready for church, this was the first song that came on:

It's like N'Sync was personally wishing me a happy Mother's Day.  "Hey girl, thanks for sticking with us through the times when we wore matching silk pajamas and that stage when we thought we were marionette puppets.  Happy Mother's Day."  You're welcome, guys.  You're welcome.  N'Sync Alwayz & 4-EVA. 

The rest of my birthday/Mother's Day celebration involved a nap, turtle cheesecake, and Raising Cane's chicken.  Enough said.  It rocked.   

It's Probably Going to be a Pirate.

         You never know what you will be asked when announcing your pregnancy to a bunch of 5 and 6 year olds.    We played the game "Sink the Ship" at the end of the day (it's like Hangman, but less disturbing.  Except a ship is sinking and there's a man onboard with a sad face.  So I guess it's really not that much better.) Even after they guessed the sentence, the all just looked at me blankly for awhile.  I had to finally day, "I have a baby in my tummy!"  Here are a few of my favorite responses:

-"But Mrs. Amy, didn't you JUST have a baby?!"
-"But you already have Henry, and he's a little bit crazy."
-"How do babies keep getting in there?!"  (I pretended like I didn't hear this one.)
-"My teachers are ALWAYS pregnant!"
-I stretched my shirt tight over my stomach and told them there is a baby in there and my tummy is going to start getting bigger and bigger.  A sweet, sweet little girl said, "It's already kinda roundish!"
And after someone asked if it's a boy or girl, I said, "I won't know what it's going to be until it comes out!"  To which a student says quietly and solemnly to himself, "It's probably going to be a pirate."  

Probably so, Jackson. Probably so.

Surprise!

So, remember in January when Sam and I had a relaxing few days in Playa del Carmen?  Well we brought back a souvenir. Not Mexican vanilla, or a figurine of 3 mariachi band frogs.  But this:

 I'll give you a moment to pick your jaw up off the floor...

And now, to answer some of the FAQs:

1.  Did you mean to?   No, it was not planned.  (Not by us at least.  God has quite a sense of humor.)  We were going to wait a couple of years before thinking about going for #2.  I cried for a day or two, but now I'm excited.  I feel blessed to be pregnant when so many women would love to be.

2. Don't you two know how babies are made! (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)  No I've always wondered that, please tell me every detail!

3. Boy or girl?  We don't know yet, and aren't going to find out before the baby is born.  We already have most of the gender-neutral stuff we'll need, and it's going to have to share a room with Henry anyway.  We'll slap a bow on her if she's a girl.  I'm sure the grandmas can find time to get a dress or two.

4. How are you feeling?  Amazing!  I was sick the WHOLE time with Henry and have felt almost nothing with this one.  Other than a day or two of just feeling gross, it's been a breeze so far!

5. How is Henry going to do with a little brother or sister?   I think he'll be great.  His teachers at school are always telling me how sweet he is to the other kids.  He loves his friends and needs a little one to play with at home. 

6. When are you due?  The end of October.   Hence all the tiny baby Halloween costumes I'm pinning on Pinterest. 

So, your prayers would be great.  Prayers that the pregnancy would continue to go smoothly, prayers that I suddenly get amnesia and forget how horrifyingly awful Henry was in the first few months of his life, prayers for a happy, healthy little one who sleeps through the night from the moment he/she is born.... :)

Opening Day Date

Sam and I have gone to Opening Day together for the past few years.  This year Henry was going to stay with his grandparents, and Sam and I were going to go on an Opening Day date!  Yay!  Sam woke up sick Friday morning and decided he couldn't go to Opening Day.  I had to decide whether to go by myself, or take my 15 month old and risk tantrums, tiredness, hunger, tired arms from carrying him, tantrums, screaming, hitting, and possibly more tantrums.    I chose to take my 15 month old.

I was prepared for the worst. The whole way to the game I gave myself a pep talk.  I reminded myself that he's just a toddler, that the game will be right in the middle of naptime, he won't be able to move around, and he won't want to sit in my lap the whole game.  I reminded myself that this was a special day, and I was going to enjoy it, no matter what happened.  

He's excited to be on a date with his mom.  Really.

Henry insisted on walking from the car to the Ballpark.  It took awhile.  He takes little baby steps, and gets distracted easily.  By cars, people, birds, sounds, cheering, people tailgating, shiny things...pretty much everything.

I mean, how cute is this?!  So cute, right!?

We finally made it to the Ballpark. It was about 2 hours until game time, and I didn't want to make him sit for that long.  So we walked.  And walked.  And walked.  We walked around the whole stadium, watched batting practice, and let random people take pictures of Henry.  Our seats were on the third deck, so I decided to make our way to the escalator.  Which was broken.  Which means I got to carry my chunky little love up the never-ending ramps to the third deck.

Henry had fun running up and down our row until people started showing up.  Then it was time to sit in my lap.  I took a deep breath and prepared myself for a long 3 hours to come.

My wild man was an angel.  He did not move for 9 innings.  He clapped when everyone else clapped, danced to the music, and gave Josh Hamilton the silent treatment.  (He did not "boo", we talked about how that is bad sportsmanship.)  He made friends with the people beside us, and even took a nap for an inning.  Sweet baby woke up in time to see the last half-inning, and cheered when the game was over.  I don't know who took over my child's body, but he was amazing.  

I LOVE when the planes fly over

He will probably never know how special this day was for me.  I love this stage he is in and know there will be a time (too soon) that he will think it's lame to go to a baseball game with his mom.  I know he won't want to hold my hand, sit in my lap, or fall asleep on my shoulder.  I needed a day like this.  Everything about this day was perfect, and I hope I remember it forever.