There's Hope!

Scarlett's teeth have been a stress for me, but recently, I've let go of a lot of my worry.  I just can't feel upset about her baby teeth, or lack there of, because there is literally nothing short of surgery that I can do about them.  I still am concerned about what other kids will say if they notice her teeth while she's at school, but then I read this quote on people.com and felt a huge wave of relief!  Scarlett's not the only one with wonky, nasty teeth!!!

people.com

"For the first eight years of my life, I didn't have front teeth.  I was pretty sick as an infant, and antibiotics rotted them.  But then I started to take dance lessons, and I eventually got some teeth."  --Charlize Theron

1, 2, 3...SEVEN!

A little bit of this, a little bit of that...

• It cracks me up every time Scarlett counts past three...apparently 4, 5, and 6 do not exist.  She counts "1, 2, 3...SEVEN!" whenever there are more than one.  Love it! 
• I've learned something since I've been pregnant.  Lay's chips are way better than Humpty Dumpty.  Like 100x better.  I have never been a chip person (I much prefer ice cream!), so I was unaware that there was a difference!
• Just a few nights ago, I realized that my bedtime routine with Scarlett is going to be impossible to continue once Baby 2 arrives.  I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to realize this, but I'm pretty bummed about it.  I know that we'll work ourselves out a new routine that works with another baby, but I enjoy our time together at night.  Baby 2 also is putting a deadline for Scarjo's time in our bedroom!  But that's a whole other battle...!
• I am loving Justin Bieber's new song.  Embarrassing...but oh so catchy!!!
• I want everyone to come watch Scarjo at her gymnastics class.  It's a bit ridiculous, but she has a reputation (in my family) as being kind of a monsterbaby, but in gymnastics, she is an angelbaby!!!  I need witnesses!
• On top of being well-behaved, Scarjo does rock at gymnastics!  It's so fun to watch her doing something crazy on the bars and then look to make sure I'm watching!!!  Sweet:)
• Okay, now that I've gushed about her good behavior, I can spill my guts from yesterday.  She had a meltdown about every hour.  And not like a little hissy fit, I mean full-on, make your ears bleed screamssss!!!!  I was going INSANE.  I may have told Tyler, "If this was all that parenting was about, I never would have had kids."  Thankfully, today we've turned a page!  
• I think the ladies on The View have replaced my co-workers.  I get to hear their opinions on the latest news stories and pick which ones I agree with.  
• MODG, please start writing posts again!  I don't live in PA, so I can't go to Listen to Your Mother, but I really miss your posts.  Especially baby gear that rocks posts.  Work on that, thanks!
• WHEN IS JESSICA SIMPSON GOING TO HAVE HER BABY???!!!!!  It seems like she's been pregnant forever.

I knew she was being too quiet!!!

Here is a picture of Scarlett.  She totally got into Auntie Mary's fancy make up, but at least she got it all in kind of the right places!!!!  

One of the BIG GIRLS!

Fancy posing in Cam/Alyssa's hand-me-down sweatshirt!

Scarlett is turning into one of the big girls SO QUICKLY!  When we go to my mom's, Scarlett stays outside to play with Camdyn, Alyssa, and their neighborhood friends.  She follows around the big, big girls like they're celebrities; it's the sweetest!  On top of totally tiring her out with their running through the sprinkler and swing set games, I get a break to sit and chit chat!  A-MAZ-ING!

Baby 2

I wrote this post an hour after finding out I was pregnant with baby 2.  It's fun to go back and see exactly what I was thinking when I was still in shock.  Once the shock wore off, my feelings changed about a lot of things, but it's fun to look back and watch me freak out all over again!!!  

We are having another baby!!!!  I just took the test tonight, right before my shower, and there were instantly two lines!  I was silent happy squealing as I jumped into the shower.  After I lathered and rinsed, I hopped out, moisturized, brushed my teeth, threw on some jammies, grabbed the test, and flew down the stairs to share my exciting news.  It was fun to have my very own secret for a few minutes, but I was dy-ing to tell Tyler and Mary.

They. were. shocked.  So was I, really, but I had been thinking of every scenario with Scarjo as if I already had another baby, kind of like I was mentally preparing myself for baby 2 for a while.  We knew we wanted more babies, it just was faster than we had anticipated.

 Last fall, I had taken a few negative pregnancy tests when my period was a few days late, so this time around, when I was late, I just kept thinking it was coming.  It took us so long to get pregnant with Scarlett that there was no way I thought it'd happen so quickly.

After the excitement wore away a little, I started feeling nervous, like 'OMG, are we really doing this all over again?!'  Then I got even more excited thinking about Scarlett having a little baby in the house.  She will be in heaven!  It makes me a sad that it won't be just me and Scarjo.  I want Scarlett to be my helper and for us to still be a pair; I just don't want to lose my one-on-one time with Scarlett and with two little ones, that will be impossible.  I'm determined or this baby to only affect her in a positive way.

Then I started thinking logistics.  We have got to get Scarlett sleeping in her own room.  I mean, she's in her own bed finally but we are going to have to move it into her bedroom.  Oh!  And I want to move! And I need to potty train Scarlett!!!!  Eeek, stressful list of things to do before this fall!!!

We have no idea how far along I am.  I'm excited to call my OBGYN tomorrow!!!  I went to my annual last month and told my nurse that we are hoping to get pregnant, so telling her our happy news will be fun!

I have yet to share the news with anyone other than Mary and Tyler (obvs.).  This time around, I want to do things differently, though I'm not sure how differently, yet.  I'm hoping to blog more about the pregnancy along with my Scarlett posts.  My pregnancy with Scarlett isn't super-documented and I wish now that I had done a better job.  I also want to go to the gender ultrasound with just Tyler, Mary, Scarjo, and Lulu...or maybe just Tyler...and then be able to tell everyone the gender ourselves in a fun, unique, pinterested-idea way, but we'll see...

For now, I'm just excited, nervous, exhausted, and determined to not get super-fat!!!  Wish me luck...!

PS--I have already misplaced the first pregnancy test that I took...this pregnancy is already different than the first!  I kept all 500 of those bad boys in my top drawer for months!  (ew?  I think so now.)

Nameberry = my bestie!

So, Scarlett and I went to our first monthly appointment yesterday afternoon to hear baby 2's heartbeat!  It was really there, so I guess baby 2 is for real!  Now that my sickness has gotten better, my symptoms seem to have disappeared, so the fact that I'm pregnant still seems surreal.  But there was a heartbeat!  It was beating 150 bpm...seem in the higher range to you?!  My first sign that it could be a girl!  But we'll see...!

When I found out that Scarlett was a girl, I knew immediately that her name would be Katie Scarlett, but with baby 2, I've turned to nameberry.com to help me out.  I have a few names that I love.  Tyler's already vetoed my favorite, but lucky for me, his vetoes don't count!  ;)

Okay, here we go, I'm spilling the names early, but who really knows what we'll end up going with.  Here are my favorites for a baby girl...

1. Prudence.  I am in love with this name!  To me, it's classy, clean-cut, and different.  (Tyler hates it.)  Pru is the sweetest nickname.  It means "caution" but I clearly don't choose names for their meanings; Scarlett means "red."  Also, I don't know any other people named Prudence; this is huge for me!
2. Vivien Leigh.  Um, hello, how perfect does that go with Katie Scarlett?!  Can we say I'm juuust a little obsessed with Gone with the Wind?! Yes.
3. Marilyn.  I have been in love with Marilyn Monroe since forever.  If I choose to name baby 2 Marilyn, it will be very tempting not to just name her Marilyn Monroe Smith; it has a nice ring to it!

So far I have a few names that I feel lukewarm about.  Boys names are hard.  (Anything will be better than "Hawkins."  Yikes, what were Tony and Candace thinking?!)   Obviously, I love the name "Maximilian" after my brother, even though at the moment he is not exactly uncle of the year.  Here are a couple others...

1. Theodore.  Theo is a cute nickname.
2. Frankie.  This is actually my favorite boy name!  I might name him "Francis," but will for sure use the nickname, "Frankie."  Cute!

And that's all I've been considering so far...I really can't wait to find out the sex.  I think it'll be sometime in June...only 8 more weeks!

SO. MUCH. NEWS.

Molly, Scarlett, me, Alyssa, Grammum, Tyler, Mary, Louisa

Clearly, March was not a successful blogging month for me.  I have been distracted and sick and then as more time went by, the harder it was for me to get back into my groove, so I just stayed away.  So to ease my way back into blogging, I'm doing a list!  Here it goes...

1. I'M PREGNANT!  We found out super-early.  (February 20th) So I had to wait and wait for a successful ultrasound where they could actually see something (waiting is painful!), and so finally at 7 weeks, we saw the baby and heard the heartbeat!  Baby 2 is due on October 27, 2012.  
2. Scarlett is already calling Baby 2 her sister...we hope she's right!  ;)  Although this family really could use a BOY!
3. Lulu was on the FRONT PAGE of Sunday's paper!!!  Adorable!
4. We cancelled Scarlett's surgery on her teeth.  It was a huge, very difficult decision to make, but after many sleepless nights, we decided to cancel.  Scarlett's teeth are getting worse, but I just couldn't imagine putting her to sleep and having such an invasive (IMO) procedure done for cosmetic reasons.  It felt wrong.  We'll decide if we're going to have her bad teeth pulled once she turns three.  
5. On a more light-hearted note, The Only Way Is Essex rocks my world (during nap times)!!!!  I am addicted!!!  I love Lauren and Mark and Kirk and even Lucy!!!  I do miss Amy, though.  You will talk with a British accent in your head after watching this show.  Swear.  
6. Morning sickness sucks.  I thought that I was "sick" with Scarlett, but it turns out, I was being a drama queen!  With Baby 2, I have been siiiiiick since 5 weeks along.  Not. Fun.
7. On a positive note, now that I'm 11 weeks, I'm feeling like I might survive this pregnancy!!  
8. I have packed away the cloth diapers because Scarlett is potty trained!!!  Woohoo!!!   At night, she is still wearing a pull-up.  We're waiting until she goes a week with a dry diaper to try undies at night.  Her dry diapers are the norm, but every third night, she'll pee a little.  During the day, though, she is totally potty trained!  The first few days she had three accidents and then nothing!!!  Now we pick out fun, new undies when we go to the store!  (because I never do laundry!)  
9. Tyler is in Texas until the 26th with the catastrophe team...being a single parent is tough.  Yay for live-in entertainment AKA Auntie Mary and Lulu!  Oh!  Scarlett says, "Lulu" now instead of "Nenu."  It is hilarious to hear her stumble over those L's!!!!  Cutie-cutes!
10. Scarlett thinks this is "her song."  LOVE it!  I am obsessed with it, too, which makes me almost as bad as Mary.  She downloaded Justin Bieber's new song.  Shameful.
11. I just want to see a new picture of Blue Ivy.  I got all excited when it was announced that Beyonce released a new website, but there are no new baby pictures.  Bummer.
12. Now that Baby 2 is coming, I have to figure out a way to get Scarlett out of our bedroom and into her own room...wish me luck.  :-/
13. Bloom came out last week and to prolong the book, I've been going back to read Kelle's blog posts from around the time that the events in the book were taking place.  Normal fan or a little bit obsessed?!  
14. After her family, Scarlett's most favorite person in the entire world is our "mail-mail."  She diiiiies when he hands her the mail and if there's a package, that just confirms the fact that the "mail-mail" loves her back.  Turns out, I like to shop online, so the "mail-mail" brings lots of packages.  AND Tyler used to collect beanie babies (If I had known this, I'm not so sure I would have still married him!) and my MIL thinks it's that Scarlett needs all. of. them.  So every few weeks, more beanie babies arrive.  Great.
15. We are keeping our house!  I'm feeling more settled now that we've made a decision, but also disappointed that I'll be here for a few more years.  We met with a realtor and he was pretty sure that we'd have to take a significant loss if we wanted to sell in a reasonable time, so we're going to keep doing small upgrades and wait for the market to get better!
16. Has Jessica Simpson had her baby?  Apparently, OK! Magazine thought she would have had her baby girl by the time the latest issue hit news stands because this is their cover.  

source

My pictures are being wonky, so I'm adding them at the end!

Scarjo and Sexy Frexy

Lulu, Camdyn, Scarlett, Alyssa Lou!

Scarjo using "Alyssa's potty!"