Well, I am officially 14 months into this journey of motherhood and many things have changed in those 14 months. It’s amazing to me at how quickly I became an “expert” at mothering Jonathan-not necessarily an expert at parenting, but an expert on him. I know how to tell apart his cries, those for attention and those for real needs, I know what he likes to eat, what he doesn’t, when he’s full or just wants to play. I know how to get him to sleep, how to soothe him in the middle of the night and how to make him giggle all over with laughter. There are still things I don’t know, some times he’s upset for no apparent reason or I don’t know what’s hurting him, especially if he’s sick. But, despite these few times, I’d say I’m a Johnny expert. If I adopt a baby someday–or toddler, I wonder how long it would take to become their expert? It’s been a journey with Jonathan and I wonder what the new change in routine would be like for that baby…will someone tell me his/her favorite song? food? bedtime routine? Probably not…it’s a new type of journey that’s been on my heart a lot lately. I’m praying for you sweet child of ours…we are praying for you.

17.5 weeks In
So, I am 17.5 weeks pregnant, haven’t felt many movements lately but I know it’s still early. I sure have a belly, strong sense of smell, and emotions running high to tell me I’m pregnant. Can’t wait to find out if it’s a he or a she, will definitely be able to get cracking at things when we know!

A few memories from the weekend:
This weekend was a good weekend despite JT still having a lingering cold. He is recovering from his cold, and doing much much better but still has a slight cough and runny nose from time to time. We went to City BBQ Friday night and JT loved being out. There were lots of kids there and he loved the pulled BBQ (no sauce) Mac N Cheese and Corn pudding. He kept making friends with other kids and people at other tables, he’s such a hit when we go out. So after a fun dinner, we went home and JT walked up from the car to the porch without being carried, Josh and I each had a hand and I remember thinking this is what I want my life to be. I am so thankful for my beautiful family and the little things in life like each of us taking Johnny’s hand and walking up to our lovely house. We are blessed.

On Saturday, Jonathan climbed down the stairs! I was just telling Kendra that he hadn’t done this yet and there he went! I was so proud of him, of course he still needs lots of supervision, but he’s becoming such a big boy. We had a guest (Jeremy L.) this weekend and also had Dan and Beth over for lunch today. I’m glad they got to see him be so mobile. It was nice to hang out with friends.

The rest of the evening has been fairly relaxing, just watched NCAA basketball tourney, and spent some time with the hubby:-)

I am so excited that today is the first day of Spring! It has been such a long winter, full of more colds than usual and more snow than I can remember in recent years. I am so thankful that we are looking ahead to warmer temperatures, summer vacations and will end the beautiful summer with a beautiful new addition to our family.

This weekend was both fun and miserable depending on the minute I choose to remember. On Saturday, Josh had plans so I decided to take JT to the park because it was beautiful out. I had this beautiful picture of having fun watching JT play, pushing him in a swing, going down the slide, feeding ducks with him clapping his hands and smiling–the perfect picture in my mind. When we got there, I buckled him in the stroller and headed to the playground–the sun was out so his eyes were bothered (as usual) so I tried to keep him shaded as much as possible but he didn’t like his hat. We get to the playground and I let him out, thinking he’d run to play. He just looked up at me as if he was asking “do I really need to go do this?” I walked him over to one of the jungle jims and he didn’t really seem interested in touching it, climbing on it, or even crawling under it. So, I tried a swing. I put him in, facing away from the sun and it was instant tears! The poor guy…the slide was no better, you’d have thought he was being tortured by being told “let’s go play!” Finally we went down to feed the ducks and he just sat there looking completely bored, I at least had some fun at this point but we quickly left so he could go home. He went to sleep pretty quickly at home (though his last nap ended about 1.5 hours before this point, so I was surprised), I put him down and decided I needed a nap too after all that. This–would be the miserable part.

The fun parts were watching Jonathan play with his ball popper very enthusiastically. He responded well to my cheering and clapping as Josh caught it all on video. He was filled with so much joy as he played indoors–such a sweet memory. We also had fun going to the McNeelys do discuss an upcoming trip to Gatlinburg. I’m very excited to get to go back to the mountains this year–we absolutely love it there and will be fun to experience with friends. Josh took JT home early because it was bedtime, good and bad thing about bedtime routine is that JT goes down super easy most of the time, but he needs to go to bed when he wants to or he is miserable and fusses. I think most kids do this too probably, but we never let him go on, we always just put him to bed and let him get his sleep. I just wish he’d go down easier at other places, he only likes to sleep in his bed for the most part:-/

Sunday evening was a good evening at home. I enjoyed watching Jonathan play and it was bath night. Bath night is always fun because it involves “freedom” and letting JT run around the upstairs before and after his bath. He is so cute when he walks now, I just love to see him explore new things and walk around like he’s in charge.

So there it was, mostly a good weekend despite Jonathan teething and wanting to sleep more than usual. Can’t wait to get out of this teething round and enjoy my little boy again!

My favorite quote of the past year is this: “parenting is about long days and short years.” I find a great deal of truth in this statement and it can be applied to other aspects of life too, I suppose. I absolutely love being a mom, but it has it’s challenges, almost daily. A lot of my personal challenges as a mother stems from the fact that I am a working mother and now that I no longer feed Jonathan in the mornings, sometimes I don’t see him until 5 when I get home. Sometimes he likes to nap as late as 5 or 6 and then go to bed at 7:30 or 8 so I end up with 2, max of 3 hours with my son. During that 2-3 hours, I am also getting dinner ready for my family, seeing how my husband’s day was and thinking of the tasks I need to do to get ready for the next day. Those hours don’t usually go that quickly either, sometimes they can feel like a whole day. But that’s the mantra behind the “long days” quote. Yet, I look back and the year, actually now 13 months has gone by very quickly. Hard to believe he is walking around, making new discoveries every day and growing increasingly independent. I LOVE to watch him grow, and cherish every second I can because I know he won’t be this little forever.

He is already in bed now, went down at 7:45 actually. His day was like this: up at 7 for a bottle, back to bed until 9. Up at 9 for breakfast and playtime with daddy til 10:30, nap 10:30-1:30, up for lunch and playtime then back to bed at 3:30. Woke up around 5/5:30 for dinner, more playtime, batch time and then went to sleep at 7:45. He loves to sleep! Maybe he’s just going through a growth spurt right now? I suspect so. This type of schedule makes it hard to play a day and make it to church. If he slept anywhere, it wouldn’t matter but since about 9 months he is very particular about where he sleeps so we have to adjust.

My pregnancy is going very well, I am feeling very well and haven’t experienced much back pain (yet.) That was the hardest part of my first pregnancy and I was feeling it by this time. Hoping it stays away, especially as I now have a toddler that already likes to play with his little sibling by climbing all over me and my expanding belly. This week, I will be 15 weeks so it seems appropriate to be switching my wardrobe over to maternity! Yikes, I really need to get to work on that! Clothes are starting to not fit or not fit right and I can’t wear my over sized jammies to work, unfortunately.

Sorry if this is a boring post, just wanted to capture a few things.

This pregnancy sure seems to be moving! We’ve known now for almost 10 weeks! This makes me so happy, while I want to enjoy my pregnancy, I’m not too upset if the time goes quickly. I am really looking forward to my maternity leave to spend more time with Jonathan and see what it’s like managing a household with two little ones.

We’ve all had colds lately and Josh’s and mine are still lingering a bit. Nasty coughs and lots of congestion have plagued our household for about 10 days now. I am really glad JT is doing so much better though. It’s amazing how different his personality is when he’s sick. It’s very difficult to deal with (though I realize he is a very healthy child overall, not complaining here one bit) and very hard to see your child so miserable. He cut two more teeth at the same time so that woke him up quite a bit in the middle of the night :-/ But, now that’s he’s better he is soo happy! It’s so fun to play with him and watch him discover new things. Lately he’s been getting into all of the kitchen cabinets and wants to reorganize the pantry. We still need to work on getting new latches and moving the cleaning products to a different sink…

Life has been full of storms lately and I just weather them one at a time. I am pretty confident in what the future holds for me/us and I really look forward to that. Just need patience to get there.