Our first SECOND holiday- Easter!

My baby 1 year ago, at Easter:

And back to present time:

Baby Allie Lynn:

We had a wonderful Easter this year! The weather was beautiful, we spent it with some great friends, and I was reminded of how much I truly have to be thankful for. I couldn't help but take a few minutes and remember that this was Trey's very first "second holiday"! There won't be anymore "first Christmas, Easter, 4th of July, Halloween...". So, in my nostalgic moment, I did go back and look at some of my favorite pics from last year, at this same time. I think that it probably bodes well for me that I am nostalgic for those baby times- especially considering that I am 11 weeks pregnant with Baby #2!

We've had a busy week around here! Trey got a new cousin, little Miss Allie Lynn was born on March 29th! She is a cutie pie! Again- holding her brought out those desires for little baby things again! Unfortunately, Trey is going through a less than accommodating stage and was a stinker in the hospital. These days, the only thing that can make him stop crying are Cheetos (I know, what parent gives there child Cheetos?- that's an easy one- US).

We also went to an Easter playdate at our friend Hillary's house- she is the queen of holidays, and always goes all out for mini photo shoots with the babies! The neighborhood had their annual Easter egg hunt, which we attended. There were a TON of kids there, so we snatched a few of the eggs and let Trey play and hunt after the crowd cleared out! These days, Trey is spending the majority of his time outside- usually helping Daddy with anything he can. Nothing makes Trey happier than getting to push his lawnmower or ride his motorcycle outside while Daddy does outside things (I'm not sure exactly what outside things are- this is their"man time").

Despite all of this, Trey has been unusually cranky and I'm going to blame it on the teeth. He is shoving his fingers way into the back of his mouth and chewing like nobody's business. We are still trying to wean the bottle- I actually don't think this has been all that difficult, except that the only way I can get Trey to drink a significant amount of milk is to give it to him in a bottle (in the morning). I guess that is our next hurdle we will have to tackle, but for today, I'm not going to worry about it too much. He is beautiful, healthy, smart, and funny, and there is nothing more important that that.

As I mentioned before, Trey is becoming quite the little stinker! Doug and I spent 4 days looking for one of my shoes, which we couldn't seem to find anywhere! We knew Trey was behind the disappearance, but we searched and searched and had no idea where the shoe went! One night, Doug went into one of the lower cabinets to pull out the electric stand mixer. Inside the mixer bowl was my missing shoe! What in the world possessed him to put it there, I will never know... We are still missing 2 picture frames and a candle- I will probably find those years from now in some hidden, obscure location :).

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter and spent time being grateful for the sacrifices made for each of our lives!

My Toddler Week 1

I titled this blog "My Toddler Week 1". This will ring true to you mother's or almost mother's out there who are members of http://www.babycenter.com/. When you get pregnant, I would guess that most of us immediately signed up for pregnancy updates. The email updates are always titled: "Your Pregnancy- Week 10 (11, 12, 13...)" with a little synopsis of what to expect from that particular week. Once you actually have your baby, you then get email updates titled: "Your Baby- Week 1 (2, 3, 4...)"- you get the picture! :) Well... much to my surprise, this past week, I got my weekly email, fully expecting it to say "Your Baby- Week 53", and instead it said "Your Toddler- Week 1"!!!! I actually had to take a second and let this sink in... I HAVE A TODDLER! What?!?!?! And then, of course, I thought- "will I continue to get these emails and will they one day say: 'You Teenager- Week 1'. Yikes!"

Ok, this week brought St. Patrick's Day- always a fun holiday, and it was actually Trey's first St. Patrick's Day! His official due date was March 14th, and I truly believed last year that he would be here before the holiday, but much to my dismay, he was not. This year, we got to spend it at Hillary's house for a playdate with all of our little baby friends. Trey fought the nap that day, so we couldn't stay for too long, but it was still fun.

We also playdated with Eddie and Melissa on Friday by going to lunch and walking around Birkdale. Eddie and Trey are so cute together, and we had a great time!

Saturday was Trey's 1st Birthday! After all of our partying the last few weekends, we decided to spend the day as a family- just the 3 of us, and very low key. The highlight of the day was that we took Trey to Snip-Its for his very first haircut!!!! He did awesome, and the ladies in the salon were so great. He got to sit like a big boy in a chair that spun, and he ate animal crackers and watched cartoons. I'm pretty sure it doesn't get much better than that! We also flipped Trey's carseat around this week, so now he is facing forward, and LOVES it! I am completely distracted while driving now, since Trey wants to be Mr. Chatty and talk to me the whole time, which of course I want to see, therefore forcing my eyes to leave the road. Don't worry- I'm working on this and trying to be a more conscientious driver.

On Monday, Trey had his 1 year checkup at the doctor's office. His stats are:

Weight: 20 pounds, 6 ounces- 25th percentile

Height: 28 1/2"- 25th percentile

Head Circumference- 45 3/4- 40th percentile

Up to this point, Trey's head has always been relatively small compared to his body, but now the tables have turned!!!! Dr. Lodes said that only 50% of children are walking prior to their first birthday, so he was impressed by Trey's skills. He also said that at this stage, Trey should be saying 3-5 words. Between you and me, I'm not sure Trey is really saying any words. He CAN say Da-Da, Ma-Ma, and Bye, but getting him to say it on command is pretty much impossible, so our goal from this point forward is to hit the vocabulary hard! :) We have also been working on getting rid of all bottles. We are 100% done with daytime bottles.... getting rid of that bedtime bottle is a LOT harder! Trey cried for 40 minutes last night before we gave in and just let him have a bottle (filled with water) for a few minutes. It kind of makes the crying completely counter-productive if we just end up giving in at the end, doesn't it? But we're trying, and we'll keep trying until we succeed!

That pretty much covers it for this week! Trey is getting a little bit closer to being a big brother every week! We are on week 9 out of 40 weeks, so there are 31 weeks left until Trey's little world is turned upside down!

Some Professional Photographs

I've been meaning to post these for a while... The Professional Photography Group saw Trey and asked if they could take some pictures for FREE! Well, I'm not a person to pass up anything free- especially when it comes to pictures, so here they are! Trey was in such a silly mood that day, which made the photo shoot extra fun. Hope you enjoy them!

A Birthday Party for the Big Brother!!!!

So, the big news of the week is that Trey is going to be a big brother!!! We found out on Valentine's Day, but we were waiting to share the news with too many people until we went to the doctor and found out the due date, hear the heartbeat- all of that fun stuff! The due date, as of right now, is October 31st... yep, a possible Halloween baby!

Trey's world this week consisted of a MUCH appreciated playdate with Becky and cousin Evan- they kept us company all morning, and even went to lunch with us! Evan and Trey are hilarious... they don't really play together, but they will are starting to become possessive of their toys, and whatever someone else is playing with is guaranteed to be the "cool toy". They also copykat each other- this includes shaking their heads no-no-no, clapping, or pounding on the table. Pretty much, typical boy stuff!

This weekend brought a visit from Uncle Brian and Aunt Kristyn, and it was a ton of fun! They brought Band Hero, which Trey totally "jammed" out to while we were playing. :) We also had a big North Carolina birthday party- complete with a Train Conductor that did magic tricks and games with the kids. It was a huge success (a little tiring), but worth it all!

A Birthday Party in Virginia!

I'm exhausted from this past weekend, so it might be a little bit of a struggle to remember everything that has happened in Trey's small world this week! The biggest thing is that Trey is 100% walking! He doesn't walk 100% of the time, but there is no doubt that he can definitely do it. With the walking, we have now experienced some major boo-boos! He feel down a small step at NaniJay and Big Daddy's house this past weekend and busted his lip, he scraped the side of his face, he came home with 3 or 4 cuts on his hands (probably from constantly falling and bracing himself), and got a pretty big bump on the back of his head when he fell backwards. I'll be so happy when he gets a little more balance to this new walking thing! :)

While we were up in Virginia, we decided to take the opportunity to throw Trey a birthday party with his NoVa friends. Trey was a little overwhelmed with the different surroundings, all the people, and sleeping in a new place, but it was still a lot of fun!

Trey spent a lot of time with Grammy and Papa, and NaniJay and Big Daddy while we were there. As soon as we got home on Saturday night, everyone wanted to tell the story of Trey dancing. Apparently everyone was watching an old movie (a musical), and Trey pushed his choo-choo train over to the coffee table, climbed on top of the train, took another step onto the table, and started dancing to the music! I can honestly say that he does NOT get this trait from his father :). My little dancing machine!

Another big week is ahead of us, but I'm looking forward to it!