Mother's Day

I had a wonderful first Mother's Day! We celebrated the whole weekend.

We had sushi.

Graham said he'd rather have giraffe legs instead of sushi. :)

 

We had crab legs.

If you're ever in Atlanta, eat here. And then walk around here.
It's even more fun if you have a few drinks with dinner and then walk around after dark. :)

 

 

I took Graham to meet some animals at a local farmyard.

 

Billy goat!

 

 

We went on the swing set.

 

 





I got a card and travel coffee mug with my sweet baby's hand and feet prints.

Me and my Super-Graham!

 

We napped.

 

Be still my heart...so sweet!

 

Graham fed himself. :)

The hubby even helped me make a carrot cake. (I've been craving carrot cake recently!)

 

I LOVE being a mommy!

 

 

Now Josh is putting Graham to bed and I'm about to relax with a glass of wine, Game of Thrones and Mad Men.

Happy Mother's Day to all of the mommies out there!

Graham is 7 months!

Graham, you're almost 8 months old. That just seems soooo old to me. You're not my little newborn anymore!

 

 

This month your personality is really coming out - you are staring to love on us and talk a lot!

You can say "Dada", "Mama" (yay!) and "Nana." I think you've said "Hey" too. Not that you know what any of that means, but it sure is cute when you talk! And you've started waving. You'll wave, then clap, wave, then clap. I love it!

 

 

Saying "Mama" ---

(And growling a little bit there at the end. He learned that from Jack.) :)

 

 

Saying "Dada" ---



 

 

It's the cutest thing ever when you give us kisses. You'll reach out your arms towards my face and open your mouth. So sweet! You also headbutt us - we think that's another way of you giving kisses.

 

 

 

You are way more aware of your surroundings. If you see something that you want - you fuss until you get it. I haven't let you hold my phone yet because I know if I let you have it once, it'll be yours from here on out. :)

 

 

Lots of firsts this month too!

 







First time on the top of Stone Mountain. (We rode the Skyride up - we didn't brave the hike with you.)





 

 



First ride in your big boy stroller.

First time feeding yourself a bottle. Man, it's going to be awesome
when we don't have to feed you anymore. But I'm sure I'll miss the snuggles...

 

You're really interested in Lacey and Jack now. You love petting them!

Trying peas. You are NOT a fan.

You are sitting up like a rock star. And you can play by yourself for a pretty long time.
Still no signs of crawling, but I am just fine with that. :)

 

First trip to Dollywood. We spent a long weekend in Pigeon Forge.
You were awesome the entire trip. It was a blast!

 



Best. Photo. Ever!
My little hillbilly baby.

 

Happy 7 months baby Graham!

Now quit growing up so fast!

 



Viva Italia Day 11 and 12

*All Viva Italia blog entries are re-written from the journal I took with me on our awesome vacation to Italy.*

11/1

On the train ride to Venice, we sat next to some people from Little Rock, AR. They were complaining the whole time about their nannies! (Rich people problems.) :)

More Coke Light!

We were a little confused about how to get a ticket for the water bus when we got off the train in Venice. But we figured it out. It really is crazy to take a boat everywhere instead of a car! After we checked into the hotel, we walked around and found a place for lunch. I had pizza with huge chunks of parm cheese and arugula. (Have I already said in my Italy recap that Italians call arugula rocket? I should totally call it that from now on!) Josh got his spaghetti carbanara…again!


Our hotel was awesome!
(photo source)

 

 

 

 

 

11/2

We had a walking tour schedule for the next morning and it was pretty short. We saw the Doge’s Palace and St. Mark’s Cathedral. They were having mass, but we still got to go in. After that, we went to a fancy little local restaurant where we tried some traditional Venetian seafood dishes. We had an appetizer of salted fish – it had shrimp and sardines – the sardines were actually really good! Then Josh had salted cod with polenta. His dish was sooo yummy! Cooked perfectly and then purred until the fish was nice and creamy. I had rolled sea bass with tomatoes, capers, and arugula. It had a really tasty sauce on it too. For dessert, Josh and I shared a bowl of warm chocolate soup with gelato. Mmmm!

 

 

After that, we walked around and explored for a long time. Josh finally bought his Italia jacket that he was looking for the entire trip. I bought some tiny black and gold Murano glass earrings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For dinner, we went back to the pizza place we had eaten at the day we arrived in Venice. (It was the most affordable place we could find.) Since it was our last night – we went all out! We got a bottle of merlot and later on, got a ½ bottle of the “vino della cassa.” (The house wine.) I had a capresse salad (mozzarella, tomatoes, and lettuce – not basil like I wanted – boo) and tortellini with ham and mushrooms. Josh had spaghetti “amatriciana” (spicy sauce). And after all of that? We also got a pizza with spicy salami. Hey – it was our last night after all!

Venice was great, but we really were ready to come home by that time. We were so tired and we really took it pretty easy on the last leg of our trip. We still walked around a lot and explored. We ate gelato and watched people riding in the gondolas – although neither of us really had a desire to ride in one, so we skipped out on that.

11/3

To get to the Venice airport, we splurged and rented a private water taxi to take us back to land where we caught a regular car taxi. We figured it would be a fun and smooth, easy way to end the trip instead of trying to figure out the water buses and rail way. And since we didn’t ride a gondola, we figured it would be fun. I felt like a rich person when the taxi floated right up to the front door of our hotel and we stepped in. It had rich mahogany interior (Anchorman anyone?) and blue velvet cushioned seats. Very fancy. :) It was so much fun riding through Venice in such a fancy boat!

So to sum up our Italy vacation…

IT WAS AMAZING!

Everything went surprisingly smoothly. Josh and I handled all of the uncertainties well – and we didn’t argue much (only a few times when we were trying to agree on where to eat). :) Our motto for the trip: “We’ll figure it out!” Any time we got stressed about what we needed to do (how to catch the water bus, how to get to the hotel from the rail station, directions to the meet up locations, etc.) we would just say, “We’ll figure it out!” And we did! I’m such a planner and a control freak, I was very proud of myself. :)

The food was amazing, the history was amazing, the wine was amazing – everything was even better than we expected. I’m so happy that we were able to take such an wonderful trip!

 

35 Weeks!

How far along? 35 looong weeks. This pregnancy seems to be moving slower and slower the closer we get to the end!

Maternity clothes? Yep. My belly is getting huge. I can still wear some of my regular dresses, but I'm worried I'm stretching them out!
Stretch marks? Not yet.

Sleep: Eh. I'm up a lot to pee. But I can usually go right back to sleep.

Best moment this week: I threw a small, informal surprise "beer and diapers man shower" for Josh. He was totally surprised and kept telling me that I was the best wife ever. :)

Miss Anything? Sleeping through the night, not feeling huge, having small, un-swollen feet, wearing my wedding rings...this list is starting to get long. Come on Baby D!

Movement: Not as much as before. Baby is getting bigger and has less room to move. He's wiggling around near my belly button right now though.:)

Food cravings: Green grapes this week. They've been yummy!

Anything making you queasy or sick: Nope.

Gender: Sweet boy! (Why is this question on here each time? It's not like the gender is going to change!) :)

Labor Signs: Yesterday, I was feeling SO much pressure down there. Every time I stood up, it felt like the baby was going to fall out! Today is better though. I guess it was just how he was positioned.

Symptoms: My feet and hands are pretty swollen now. I hate how they look. :( My hands get so swollen while I sleep that they hurt. And my belly is HUGE!

Belly Button in or out? Still in, but it looks way different.

Wedding rings on or off? Both are off. So sad.

Mood: Ok...I'm not gonna lie - I'm getting pretty uncomfortable and impatient. And I still have over a month to go! I'm trying to stay positive though. The longer he stays in, the healthier he'll be. But I sure can't wait to meet him!

Looking forward to: Finishing the baby's room, installing the car seat and...going into labor! :)

31 Weeks

Yes - you read that right. I'm only 31 weeks. Baby D has been measuring small all along and my doctor finally decided to change my due date from Sept 16th to Sept 30th. Boo.

How far along? 31 weeks.

Maternity clothes? Yep. But I'm so sick of them! So I've been making my non-maternity clothes work. Throw on some leggings or add a tank top - hey it works! :)

Stretch marks? None at all on my belly. So crazy - I really thought I'd get a lot since I have some from before.

Sleep: I've been starting to wake up more to pee at night, which is annoying. I try not to drink too much water in the evening but I get so thirsty!

Best moment this week: Baby D has been getting the hiccups -  so cute!!

Miss Anything? Red wine, sleeping through the night, my non-maternity clothes.

Movement: LOTS! Especially at night. But I still love it!

Food cravings: Sweets, milk, chocolate. I ate an entire chocolate cake in a week - I think Josh may have had one or two pieces. The sad part was that I didn't think about putting a scoop of peanut butter on top of the cake before heating it in the microwave until the last piece. That stuff was GOOD!!

Anything making you queasy or sick: I had a bite of Josh's pork sandwich the other day and it still tasted gross, but nothings making me sick.

Gender: Sweet boy!

Labor Signs: LOTS of braxton hicks contractions. Which is why I've been drinking a ton of water and getting up all night to pee. My stomach gets tight and the right side mounds up when I have a contraction. It doesn't hurt, but it's not very comfortable. I had one really bad one the other night while we were taking a walk. It was so uncomfortable, I thought I was going to have to ask Josh to go get the car and drive me home!

Symptoms: Just contractions, a big belly and getting up all night to pee.

Belly button in or out? Still in - Josh is sure it's going to poke out. I think it won't. We'll see who wins. :)

Wedding rings on or off? My engagement ring is off for good. I never got my wedding ring sized, so it's just a bit bigger and still fits.

Mood: Pretty good. Impatient and ready to meet my baby and not be pregnant!

Looking forward to: Our tour of the hospital is next week. We already took a childbirth prep class and a breastfeeding class. But I must read too much because I didn't really learn anything new. But I'm excited to do the hospital tour - I think it'll make me less stressed about the birth.

Just the Two of Us

The hubby and I went for a walk tonight down to the pond to feed the geese some stale bread. We had such a nice time-gotta enjoy these last few months of just the two of us!

On our way back to the house it started raining, which just made the night more special. There's something romantic about walking in the rain with the person you love!

We even kissed in the rain. :)

Babymoon in Pictures

Our babymoon was wonderful! 

 

I kissed a dolphin!



It's always been on my bucket list to play with dolphins - I finally got to do it!
And as you can tell from my face in this picture -  It. Was. Awesome!!!!



Baby D. and I spent lots of time soaking up the sun.



We said hi to all of the fish in the aquariums.



The hotel was beautiful! We did lots of walking and exploring around the resort.

Baby D. kissed a dolphin too!

This pirate wanted to feel Baby D. kicking. :)

We ate dinner at some crazy overpriced fancy restaurants.

Josh tried all the water rides.

Shark!

My goofy hubby. :)

Watch out for Jaws!



So pretty!

 We really had an AWESOME time. (However, I will say that the food prices at Atlantis are ridiculous...) The resort was beautiful and we spent lots of time relaxing and soaking up the sun. I didn't think I'd be able to do the dolphin experience pregnant (I googled before I left and people online said that it wasn't safe - the dolphins can sense the second heartbeat and it freaks them out..) but I decided to ask anyway when we got there. We got a BOGO deal on the dolphin experience with our hotel room, so I figured, why not just ask? I understand if the resort doesn't let you because of liability reasons, but it can't hurt to ask. Turns out - you can totally do it pregnant!! I was crazy excited and it was the highlight of the trip!

I'm so glad we were able to do a babymoon before the baby arrives. Every day I'm amazed at how blessed I am. I have a wonderful husband, a loving family, great friends, a sweet baby boy on the way, a house over my head, money in the bank...God is so great!!