It’s a Boy!!

Yes… I was supposed to post the day after my last post, but the move and the pregnancy have worn me out.

As you can see from the title of this post, IT’S A BOY!!!

William and I were shocked to find out it was a boy.  I think we were both expecting we would have another girl, but it’s great that we’ll have one of each!  William wasn’t able to go to the ultrasound appointment I had for the gender scan, so the physician printed the images with “boy” written on it and sealed it in an envelope for us to open later once we were together.  I have to admit it was hard to go all day without opening the envelope.  We decided to go to dinner at one of local favorite restaurants and when the dessert was delivered, we opened the envelope and saw “BOY” and I think both our mouths dropped open in surprise.  Laurel decided to closely examine the ultrasound photos herself to see what all the fuss was about, but she still doesn’t understand the concept of a baby brother.  It was an exciting time.

We are slowly but surely getting ready for the baby, but feel we are so much further behind where we were in planning when I was pregnant with Laurel.  We purchased so many items by this time in the pregnancy with Laurel.  We finally ordered furniture 2 weeks ago, but we still have a few more items to purchase for his room.  Our stroller converts to a double stroller with a rumble seat, so that takes care of that.  We are also able to use the same infant seat we had for Laurel.  So, I think we at least have the major items out the way.  Now it’s just baby essentials like diapers, wipes, clothes, and other room decor.  William has agreed to decorate the room again this time, but I have offered to help him.

We do not have a name picked out yet, but are taking suggestions!  We have a few names on the short list, but are still having a hard time.  We were interested in “L” names or “W” names so perhaps he could have William’s initials, but at this point, I think we are exploring everything.

Well… that’s the update for now.  I am trying to multitask and watch the State of the Union address as well. 🙂

 

 

 

 

Growth!

It’s been a busy few weeks for the Cody household.  We moved into our new home last weekend, Laurel is growing like a weed and turned 18 months this past Thursday and my belly has certainly grown in the past few weeks as well!

I’ll start with Laurel.  It’s pretty amazing to watch her grow and develop.  She seems to say or do something new everyday.  She is talking and babbling much more these days and loves to repeat what you say.  Her vocabulary has expanded, so she is able to communicate basic needs to us.  It was no secret that she loves music and dancing and it seems she is singing a lot more these days.  Her daycare sent home a CD of songs they also sing at school and she loves to sing a long.  She still loves Elmo and singing with him and she also still loves her books.  She went shopping with daddy today and bought a potty chair, so I guess we will begin potty training soon.  She has her 18 month check-up this week, so I guess we’ll see more specifically what we should be working on.

We FINALLY closed on our new house last Friday and moved last Saturday and are quickly adjusting to life in our new home.  To have all of our belongings out of storage and having room for Laurel to play is really refreshing.  We love having space to spread out although we were pretty covered in boxes until the last couple days.  I finally got the kitchen unpacked last night and my mom came over today and helped unpack more of Laurel’s toys and items for the upstairs bedrooms and linen closet, so we have more “livable” space now.  Tonight I am going to try to finish unpacking in the bedroom and closet.  A few days ago it felt like we would never be done unpacking, but I am finally seeing a light.  I think the fact that William’s spring semester at school started this week and I had a busy work week with 6am meetings on two days and a 7am event to attend this morning complicated unpacking.  We were both too exhausted to really do much.  I stayed up much later than I should have trying to get things unpacked, but the pregnancy definitely makes it difficult to go too crazy.  My swollen ankles quickly brought me back to reality, but I also really want to feel more settled before I get too much further into the pregnancy and we switch gears to prepare for Cody baby #2.  So far though, we love the house and the community.  We were invited to dinner by one of our neighbors and will have the chance to meet other neighbors as well, so hopefully William and I can become more social and meet new friends on this side of town.  We are about 40 minutes away from where we used to live, but the location is great.  We are 15 minutes from the airport, 20 minutes from downtown, 12 minutes from William’s job and 30 minutes from mine not to mention close to many more amenities than we used to be, so it feels great!

On to baby news…..

We found out the sex of the baby!  I will try to scan a picture to post tomorrow, so you’ll have to hold out for one more day.  William wasn’t able to accompany me to the ultrasound that day, so the physician printed the image with the sex of the baby and sealed it in an envelope.  Later that evening, we went to dinner and ended with dessert and the big reveal.  I will say that everything seems to be progressing nicely and he baby appears to be healthy and growing on schedule.  I am 22 weeks and have been feeling pretty good with the exception of some major sciatic nerve pain that has been bothering me, but probably because I have been doing a little much lately with the move and packing and unpacking.  Hopefully that will go away soon.

Well… my break is over.  I am going to doing a little more unpacking before going to bed.

More to come…

Singing with Elmo

Here is a video of Laurel playing with a Christmas present from her godparents. This has quickly become Laurel’s favorite toy. She play with it more than she ask to be read  Click, Clack, Moo.

I am still trying to get a good video of Laurel dancing. She typically stops what she is doing and tries to play with the camera any time we pull it out. This short clip is the best I have been able to do.

Happy 2013!

2012 was another great year for William and me.  We had a great year of celebrating starting in January with my cousin’s wedding and taking Laurel to Cleveland to meet my extended family.  We quickly progressed through our first Mother’s Day and Father’s Day followed in July by Laurel’s first birthday celebration, my parents moved to Dallas, William got a tenured track position, we took an awesome trip to Turks and Caicos, celebrated 5 years of marriage, sold our house, moved into a two bedroom apartment, and of course found out that 2013 will bring us a second child!  Lot’s of excitement.

It’s hard to believe that 2013 will be even better.  January will bring the 100th year of my beloved sorority, we will likely learn the sex of our next child, and we will move into our new home that we plan to be in for many years to come.  In April, I will celebrate my 15 year high school reunion and the 100th year of my high school.  May/June will be full of welcoming Cody baby #2.  July will be a fun filled 2nd birthday party for Laurel, and oh yeah we will end the year with my mom will officially become a senior citizen…65!!  Don’t worry… she won’t be mad at me for that, she has no shame in sharing her age since she looks much younger!

I hope that you and your family were as blessed as our family was and pray for a joyous and prosperous 2013!!!

The best is yet to come…..

Laurel’s going to be a big sister!

That’s right… we’re expecting Baby #2 May 30, 2013.

We are obviously very excited and looking forward to our children growing up together and hopefully becoming great friends.

We don’t know the sex of the baby yet, but I am about 17 weeks along, so we may be able to find out sometime in January.

Laurel does not seem to understand the concept of “mommy having a baby” or being a “big sister”, but perhaps as we get closer she will understand it better.

The next few weeks will be very busy with Christmas, moving into our new house, travel for William, and just our usual routine, but I will try to do a better job of posting updates and photos to the blog.

Merry Christmas!

Dancing

Laurel has always loved music and moving along with the beat, but recently she has become more and more animated while dancing. It doesn’t matter if it is popular song, a commercial jingle, or music from a tv show. If it plays for more than a few seconds she jumps up a starts dancing. I didn’t catch her signature one legged dance move, but I’ll try again later. Maybe I can get Kyllan and her doing it at the same time…

Sorry about the video quality. I made a dash for the camera and started filming so fast I didn’t focus.

Eat… Eat…. Eat!!!

I don’t know where to begin with an update on what Laurel has been up to, but let’s start with food.

Eat… Eat…Eat….

William and I hear those words all day long.  I think Laurel eats more than William and I combined…seriously.  How she is only in the 40th percentile with her weight is beyond me.  Don’t I wish I had her metabolism! Laurel will eat pretty much anything, but her favorites are probably waffles and bread.  She loves her carbs!  She does eat most fruits and veggies too and has recently become a fan of bananas and strawberries.

Words…

Laurel is starting to say a few more words and is learning basic vocabulary like the sounds animals make.  Her favorite animal has to be a duck.  That seemed to be one of her first words.  She can also say cow and dog  and make their respective sounds.  She cannot say horse, but she knows the horse says “neigh… neigh”.  She knows her body parts and loves blinking her eyes when we ask where her eyes are :-).  She also knows basics like mommy, daddy, baby, ball, milk, etc..  My favorite thing is when we read her alphabet book and we get to “i is for ice cream” and she says, “yum yum yum”.  I’m telling you, the girl LOVES  food.  She has only had ice cream twice, but if it looks like edible… she likes it.

At daycare, she seems to enjoy reading time, music time, and outdoor time.  Oh… and of course all meals 🙂  They comment on her ability to sign words and “more” is her favorite word to sign.

Well… I am running out of steam, but as you can probably tell, Laurel is staying busy.  William has been begging me to post for weeks, but I can never type just one or two sentences and seem to write novels every time I make a post, but I think I will stop to keep from boring everyone.

We recently took a trip to the Dallas Arboretum to visit the pumpkin patch and see the Chihuly exhibit, so we’ll post those photos soon.