Fun weekend pictures

Some say I don't include many details of "Monster" in my blog... Well, here he is... *Thank you Deddy for taking his picture!* :)


Ryan is not short changed on pictures by any stretch of the imagination. But, I have a really bad habit of taking these awesome pictures of him and never printing and framing them. We have pictures of him all over our house, but they are old. I'm determined that it will change! I have a beautiful 3-picture frame with 2 vertical 5x7's and 1 horizontal 8x10 between them hanging in our living room. I'm going to print these three out and replace the older pictures. I'll keep you posted with an update!

Ryanisms

Ryan and I left Brett and the dogs this weekend and headed to the beach! We missed Brett, but he belonged to Highland CC this weekend so I figured we might as well go on and enjoy ourselves. So, we went with Mama, Deddy, Mimi, Michael & Laura (Michael's gf) to our little place in Salter Path, NC (on the same island and between Emerald Isle & Atlantic Beach).

We had a fantastic time, but I can't help but think ahead to this time next year. Member-guest week at Highland CC will be the same and I will more than likely, once again, be heading to the beach with an 8 month old and a 3 year old. The difference between now and then?... hopefully, that three year old will be fully potty trained!

This weekend was full of "Ryanisms". Maybe it's just because he's my child, but I think he is absolutely hilarious.

Ryanism #1: I wanna pee in the dirt!
Mind you, we have been full blown potty training for about a week now. As we were driving down there on Friday afternoon, he says "Mommy, I got to potty. I wanna pee in the dirt." The effects of one paniced pee pee adventure are awesome. Back story - The other day, he and I were on the way home to Fayetteville. We were traveling on I-40 when he said he had to potty. So, of course, I was not going to pass this WONDERFUL opportunity up, so I pulled off at the next rest area. I still haven't fully prepared myself for him to use a nasty public rest stop bathroom. My germophobic fears resulted in me pulling to the very back of the parking lot and allowing him to drop his pants behind the jeep and pee right there in the grass. At the time, I subconsciously knew that I was probably setting myself up for numerous requests to "pee in the dirt," but I wasn't focused on that. I was tied up with the fact that my wonderfully smart 2 year old had just asked me to stop so he could pee in something else besides his pull up. I was thrilled!

Ryanism #2 - M&M Rewards for DeeDee
Also has to do with the potty.) Different potty training tactics work for different children. I first tried stickers with Ryan. He wasn't impressed. So, after watching a SuperNanny episode and learning the M&M technique, I decided to move on to that. It works! Ryan gets 1 M&M for going pee in the potty and 2 M&Ms for going poopy in the potty. Over the weekend, my Deddy came out of the bathroom in front of Ryan. Ryan then turned around, clapped and said "Yayyyyyyy DeeDee! Wanna M&M?" I couldn't contain my laughter!

Ryanism #3 - Ice the nose
Saturday evening my Mimi, my Deddy and I were sitting on the deck of the trailer talking. Ryan was playing with his new dump truck I just bought him that morning. Unfortunately, he lost his balance on the side of the deck and fell, nose-first into the deck. Let the record show that my son has had his first bloody nose. Sorry to say, I'm sure it won't be his last. Anyway, I take him inside to comfort him. Deddy grabs a bag of ice, Mama grabs a wet wash cloth and after about 5 minutes of screaming (boo boos on the nose HURT!) I get him calmed down enough to try and comfort him and wipe the blood off his face, my shirt and everywhere else (boo boos on the nose = lots of blood). I tried to show him that the bag of ice wrapped inside the wash cloth and placed on his nose will help him feel better. So, what does Ryan do? He unwraps the wash cloth from the bag and hands it to me, then unzips the bag and takes a piece of ice out and places it on his nose. He's a funny thing!

24 week belly shots

I took these this evening right after my massage and before I went out with the girls. I need to go back and look at my belly shots from Ryan and see if I'm still carrying differently.

No title -

I'm 24 weeks today! Wow, time has flown! 112 days left until I reach 40 weeks. 13 days left until I reach freak-out mode. I'm sure that 112 days will turn in to 113, 114, 115 days and so on until I reach 41 weeks. I keep telling myself that in hopes that "Monster" will decide to show his face a few days early. A week or 2 early would be quite nice actually.

This week is hell week for Brett, otherwise known as the annual member-guest tournament at his country club. He will receive the biggest paycheck of the year and more than half of it will be overtime that he's pulled this week, working ridiculous 7am - 10pm shifts all to guarantee absolute perfection over the course of 3 days. The money is nice but I will miss my husband and Ryan will miss his Daddy. Unfortunately for him, we will not stick around for the chaos! Ryan and I are off the the beach! I wish we could leave on Thursday evening, but due to a very exciting teambuilding outing I have on Friday, we can't leave until Friday afternoon. Get this...my department at work (4 females, 1 male) is going to the Ft. Bragg Clay Target Center to experience skeet shooting. Imagine, if you will, a hormonal pregnant chick out there with a shotgun. Hmmmmmm... Need I say more? When I told Brett about this adventure, his eyeballs almost popped out of his head. No words were needed.

This is also an exciting week for us. Brett has just launched a new business here in Fayetteville using 3D motion analysis to teach golf lessons. He's teamed up with a local fitness club and will be giving lessons to his country club members as well as the public! I'm excited, he's excited! It's an awesome experience that has just sort of fallen in to place nicely. I have faith that it will be successful! Not to brag, but Brett is very good at what he does. He has a way with his students and he's just awesome. I'm so proud of him! There is a plan for us and I'm confident that we are finally on the right road towards fulfilling that plan. We just had to get back to Fayetteville to do it, with a few stops along the way. :)

As for me and the pregnancy...I'm doing great. This pregnancy has taken some time to get used to, but after 24 weeks I think I've finally settled with the idea that it is going to be different that my pregnancy with Ryan but I'm going to be ok. My mood swings have settled down and I think my hormones have leveled off a little bit. Note - I said *a little bit*. Maybe it's because last week was so stressful, but the past 4 days have been easy-going. I was supposed to have a prenatal massage and facial on Friday. However, 2 hours prior to my so-desperately-needed appointment, the manager of the spa called and said the massage girl had to leave and my massage was cancelled. I was angry, upset, and a lot of other words. I actually cried. That woman had no idea what kind of week I had, nor did she know how badly I had been wanting that massage. Not only that, but she was rude about it. But, my wonderful husband made it all better and gave me the best massage I've ever had on Sunday night. Plus, I get another one this afternoon at a different spa! I'm a lucky woman!

HSIOW

Today is Wednesday, and Wednesday is beating my arse! Hence the HSIOW title of this entry...adopted from a friend of mine, HSIOW stands for "Holy Shit It's Only Wednesday." From the time I got up this morning until now, I've been smacked with "problem" after "problem." I use quotes since my problems are relative. Nonetheless...I was not prepared to find a new obstetrician today. And why? Oh, that's the easy part. My employer has decided that our current insurance carrier charges too much, therefore, we will be switching to THE ONLY insurance carrier that my current OBGYN DOES NOT accept. Not only that, but I'm 23 weeks and 1 day; 3 weeks and 1 day farther along then the cut off for most OBGYN offices in this area to accept new patients. Add a couple small fires that started today that have to do with the program I run and needless to say, I'm a little edgy today.

However, with all that said, I had my monthly appointment today. Baby Monster is looking great. I am now 143lbs. EEK!!! That would be a grand total of 17 lbs gained during this pregnancy. When I voiced my concern to my nurse, she looked at me as if I had 10 heads and told me I was perfect. "Ashleigh, Ashleigh, Ashleigh, " she said. "I could only dream of being 143lbs NOT pregnant! When you get to be the size of an elephant, we'll stop you, but for now, you're perfect!" For the record, I gained about 27lbs with Ryan. So I'm trying to stay right around there. I have 17 weeks to go. I h ave a feeling that I'm going to go over 27lbs.

As for everything else...My pee was good, my bp was 104/something...(normal for me), she measured my fundal height and said that was right on schedule, and last but certainly not least, Monster's heartbeat was absolutely beautiful and in the 130s.

My next appointment is scheduled for June 10th, but since I'm having to switch docs, I would imagine that it will change. I guess it is a blessing in disguise that we are switching insurance carriers. I really really love the doctors at my office, however, the nursing staff and the office staff really leave something to be desired. They are rude, never smile, some rarely make eye contact, they are slow. And as far as I'm concerned, I can love the doctors all day long, but if the nursing staff sucks, then you're positive experience goes out the window. Hopefully the switch will be worth the stress and anxiety that I'm feeling right now.

Monkey Hugs

I. Love. Monkey Hugs! I was greeted at 6:30 this morning by a wide-eyed smiling little boy who wanted to make his Daddy some coffee. I'm not sure why he was up so early, but he made me smile when I wouldn't normally be at that hour. Brett was still in bed since he didn't have to be at work until 11:00, which meant Ryan had the opportunity to be lazy and not rushed to get to school. However, he insisted on getting up and his first thought was about his Daddy's coffee. That says awesome things about his little heart and his feelings for his Daddy. So, I held him up as he put the coffee in, he helped me add the water and then we got a cup for Daddy and he placed it under the spout and pushed the brew button. He was so excited that HE had made his Daddy's coffee. His eyes just said it all. Then, while I was still holding him, without me asking for one, he looked at me, threw his arms around my neck and his legs around my [expanding] waist and squeezed so tight...I could have let go and he'd have stayed exactly where he was. That, my friends, is the definition of a Monkey Hug, and oh are they amazing!

Happy Friday! 1 hour and 33 minutes until I get my next Monkey Hug!

Retail therapy cures most...

My closet threw up this morning. After attempting to slide 3 pairs of capris over my enlarged thighs and rear end and 4 different shirts that either weren't long enough to cover my growing belly or too big because I'm just not big enough to wear them yet, I gave up, settled with a t-shirt and the jeans I wore yesterday, called my Mama and pitched a mini-temper tantrum as if I were a 16 year old not satisfied with her wardrobe.

With Ryan I had no problems; at least not with my clothes. All the weight that I gained was in my belly. I had this wonderful belly band that transformed any normal pair of pants (or any other bottoms) into maternity pants. I wore the majority of my normal clothes and all was wonderful with the world. Well, not this time. My glorious rump and thighs feel like they have grown just as much as my belly, which means I can't fit in any of my bottoms passed my thighs. It's frustrating, depressing and very annoying. I looked in the mirror this morning and wondered where the weight in my butt was hiding because I swear the thing looks flatter. I don't think I've ever disliked my body so much in all my life.

So, what's a preggo to do? SHOP!!!!! I will say that Fayetteville's selection of maternity clothes suck! However, after going to TJ Maxx (no maternity section), Old Navy (no maternity section), Target (crap maternity section), I finally hit the jackpot at Ross! Normally, I can't find a whole lot at Ross, but today their maternity selection was ginormous! I got 1 pair of pants, 3 pairs of capris and 3 shirts and could have very well gotten more, but I figured I should be responsible and pay my bills. All-in-all a very successful shopping trip and now I no longer have to go pitch fits in the morning because my clothes suck. At least not right now.