I feel like I keep saying this
every month lately, but May was literally a whirlwind of a month. This month we celebrated 6 years of marriage,
my 3rd Mother’s Day, and my 28th birthday. Plus we also enjoyed a wonderful weekend in
NC with a group of good friends, whose hubbies all work with Ben and we will be
parting ways with very soon. Oh and my
parents came to visit for a week in there as well to help celebrate my
birthday. Though it has been a
whirlwind, and a bit exhausting at times, it has been a wonderful month full of
lots of quality family time.
Three of the big events this
month all took place during the same month.
My last trip before Baby D’s arrival was a fun-filled trip to Franklin,
NC from May 10th to 12th and May 12th is our anniversary
and also happened to be Mother’s Day this year too. Being pregnant, and not having a lot of
motivation to plan anything beyond the trip, we decided to use the trip as our
celebration of both our anniversary and Mother’s Day. It was a quick trip, but it was a blast to
spend it with friends. We carpooled with
our good friends the Reeps which made for a wonderful trip and then had a blast
spending time with the rest of the couples once we got there. We spent two nights in a cabin in the
mountains and had a blast making meals together, hiking, playing games, and
they even surprised us with a little baby sprinkle for Baby D. So much fun!
Then on our way home we visited the Biltmore Mansion with the Reeps and
enjoyed another fun and great conversation-filled car trip home.
Pretty waterfall
up on the mountain
Prego ladies conquering the mountain
Family photo up top
Hiking is hard work
Biltmore
My parents actually arrived in
the wee hours of the morning on the 13th, so we enjoyed a little
less than a week with them as soon as we returned from NC. They made a somewhat last minute decision to
come down and spend time with us for my birthday. God was definitely behind that happening and
we didn’t even realize it at the time.
Not only were they here for my birthday, but Ben ended up having a third
nose surgery the day before so they were here to be a huge support in
that. I am not sure how I would have
managed taking care of Alethea and helping Ben to recover from surgery without
them here. Being 36 weeks pregnant,
having the extra support probably kept me from having a nervous breakdown, lol.
Magnadoodling with Papaw
Reading with Mamaw
Running from the waves
And then laying down in them, lol
For my birthday (actually the
day prior since my parents left the morning of my bday), I decided that I
wanted to keep it pretty simple and opted not to have an actual cake because I
just didn’t want to have that much sugar in my house to finish up, lol.
(especially since my parents had brought my favorite Amish whoopee pies and
banana bread that I had already been indulging in J) My self-planned birthday celebrations ended
up involving a solo run, followed by a trip to the farmers market to get our
normal goodies as well as some of my favorite homemade cookies (my first treat
of the day). After that we went to a
beautiful nature park I had heard raves about called Cypress Gardens. It definitely lived up to its hype and we
enjoyed a beautiful walk around the swamplands, checked out the butterfly house
(Alethea’s favorite), and saw a bunch of fish, reptiles and amphibians. We came home so Alethea could nap and then
headed over to Mellow Mushroom to enjoy some yummy pizza, followed by my final
indulgence of Coldstone Creamery ice cream.
Yum!
Cypress Gardens
My little butterfly
Mamaw got her ice cream of her own
Family ice cream for Mommy's bday
blue face :-)
For Ben this has been a month
full of waiting it seems. He was getting
leads here and there with jobs, but nothing too exciting and he was anxiously
awaiting news of the hiring freeze being dropped at the company he was really
interested in working for. Finally in
the last week of the month things seemed to be heating up and he had an
interview at a new place local to Louisville as well as the company that had
finally dropped its freeze. All of this
led into more interviews to come so hopefully June’s update will have more info
on that. We also had a slight scare with
his orders potentially being moved up to June 30th being his end
date in the Navy (too early for us), but thankfully he got the official orders
changed as of the final day of the month and he does not have to be done until
August 31st. Yay for being
able to officially breathe a bit easier!
And, as I mentioned before, he had his third and final nose surgery so
hopefully everything is all fixed and, with the help of allergy meds, he will
actually be able to breath like normal.
There isn’t too much exciting to
add for me this month. I finished off
the month at 38 weeks pregnant and in the last few weeks of the month the third
trimester fatigue finally set in.
Pregnancy has been good to me thankfully, but my body is showing signs
of being ready for Baby D to be here and we are definitely anxiously awaiting
his/her arrival! One neat way I have
seen God working this month, and in the months leading up, is that He has
really allowed Ben and me to be at peace with so many unknowns. We don’t know when Baby D is going to arrive,
we don’t know what job Ben is going to have by the end of this summer, we don’t
know where we will be living at the end of July, and we have no idea when we
will actually be making our transition to this new life we have been praying so
hard for. Even despite all of that, we
are at peace trusting in Him (not something I even thought possible for me). I also had fun participating in a virtual marathon where I had to run 26.2 miles during the month of May, however it only took me 7 runs to complete (less than 2 weeks).
My "marathon" completion photo...Alethea is not a fan
As for Alethea, I am going to
try to remember what the month of May was filled with for her but we will see
how well the pregnant brain works on that, lol.
Alethea turned 27 months old this month (I can’t believe how fast her 3rd
year is already starting to fly by). I
measured her stats again (not sure when I will stop, lol) and she is up to 38
inches tall and 30lbs 12.8oz. I guess
this month was a chunking month with just a little height growth involve. J I think she may have even gotten a bit more
hair this month too. We have had many
people , some we know and others we don’t, say they like her haircut and we
always have to just laugh and inform them that she has still yet to have enough
to cut, lol.
Who says you can't climb in a skirt, lol.
This month has marked a lot of
awareness of Baby D. She seems to be
grasping the concept of a baby coming more and more. The process of setting up things for Baby D
has seemed to help with that. When we
were setting up the pack n’ play in our room Alethea kept talking about how she
was going to sing to Baby D and when we ask her what she is going to sing, she
always says “I sing ‘So Big’ to Baby D!”.
She also has scolded baby several times for “kicking” Mommy when I have
told Ben that Baby D just kicked me, lol.
Ben also installed Baby D’s car seat and made a big deal about how
Alethea was going to get to sit next to Baby D.
So now every time she gets in the car she says something along the lines
of “Baby D sit next to me so shop?!”. I
think she is going to love being a big sister and I am so excited to introduce
her to her new baby brother/sister next month!
She always wants to pose after I take my bump shots
Out on our Alethea Day adventure....trying to make sure to be intentional
about special things for her before Baby D arrives
As each month goes by, she seems
to be developing her language skills more and more. Most of what she says is in full sentences
these days and most people are able to understand a majority of what she says. It has been really fun to see this develop
more and more each day and to be able to truly carry on conversations with our
sweet little girl. The only downfall is
that, as a result of her trying to learn, she is constantly repeating things
and asking questions so we don’t get a lot of quiet time around here when she
is awake. This month has marked a big
push in the presence of possessive speech and she loves to say “I love my
Daddy/Mommy” or “I go church play with my friends?”, etc. It’s so neat to see how speech develops
without any formal training beyond simply talking to her and repeating what she
says to confirm we understand.
A rare quiet time in the car as a result of lots of playing and skipping nap on Memorial Day
One issue we have run into this
month is Alethea’s desire to be the focal point in the room when Ben and I are
trying to talk. It seems that as soon as
we start talking to one another or one of us is trying to make a phone call,
she starts to talk a ton and try to get our attention which makes it really
hard. She has become a fan of saying “no
talk” when we are talking to anyone other than her at times. As a result, we are trying to teach her how
to say excuse me when she wants to say something. It started out with her saying “cuse you”,
but now she is actually saying “cuse me” pretty regularly and is okay with us
addressing her with an “I will talk with you when I finish…” type
statement. This has been a lifesaver at
times, though she still has her moments.
I feel like there is much more
that could be said about her development this month, but the words aren’t
coming. So this is our update for now,
and next month will involve just as much of a whirlwind I am sure!
She cracks me up!
Swimming with Daddy
Splash!
Swimming to Daddy
She loves her new floaties
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