Last day....

Oops! I was so very close to missing the final day of my 'blog everyday for a month' plan- talk about fail! 

We just returned from a great weekend spent with family. We did some Black Friday shopping and hubs and I went out 4 different times to upgrade our phones, and finally today we were able to make it happen. We ate well, laughed a lot and really enjoyed watching our babies interact with our family! Now it's time to rest up for a marathon unpacking/grocery shopping/catch up day tomorrow! 

Thanks for hanging in with me this month- hopefully this will give me the bug to be back in this space writing more often. 

A special day...

Two years ago, on the day after Thanksgiving, just before I headed out with my family to do some black Friday shopping, hubs gave me my first stimulation  injection to kick off the cycle in which we made our boys! Though today isn't the same 'date' and isn't exactly two years later.... the day after Thanksgiving will always be the day we started making the babies who made me a mama!

I've always loved this day. Now, I just love it even more!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

I hope you are all having a fantastic day and finding something to be thankful for on this day. Today I'm thankful for two of the sweetest little one year olds in the world, and for the hope I was able to cling to two years ago on this day. Two years ago, I was one day away from starting stims for the cycle in which I conceived our boys. I am so grateful for the opportunity we had to pursue treatments and for the science and doctors that brought us our boys!

Crossed Wires...

So, the other night Hubs and I were sitting watching the circus that is our living room in the evenings. As usual, we looked at each other, smiled and both said how much we loved our family and our boys. I saw the twinkle in his eye, and I knew what was coming. 'I wonder what it will be like to add another.' He then proceeded to say- are you still planning to move forward in January.

My eyes widened, and I stopped breathing.

I'm not sure how the wires got crossed, but I assured him we would be moving forward in A January... but not this one! He laughed, reminded me I'm almost 31 (in 7 months!) and agreed that NEXT January really is a better plan in terms of the boys. I'm not going to lie- I'd be game to move forward in a few short weeks- I loved being pregnant and I adore the newborn phase, but I am not ready to have my boys be anywhere but the center of my universe. They need my undivided attention for at least one more year-- they are still babies!

I'm not sure how, after several conversations on the topic we still walked away with differing thoughts on the matter, but I'm glad we could both agree ... 13 months from now we will be hoping and praying a fall baby will be joining our family!

Tricks my kids do... part two

I'll be the first to admit we haven't fully baby proofed our house. We've set up blockades and moved furniture around, but we haven't gotten totally serious about it because 'easy' baby proofing was working-- mostly.

Until today.

I was laying on the couch icing my back -- which is still a little sore from the back issues I experienced a couple of weeks ago. The boys were in and out of the living room, back and forth to the playroom. It got pretty quiet and then came a ridiculous amount of laughter from both boys. I was as quiet as I could be as I inched around the corner into the playroom. One of the blockades we'd used was an ottoman holding up a large pillow covering the bottom of a bookcase where we house some office supplies. A had gotten up on top of the ottoman before to press the printer button over and over and over, but that wasn't what was happening today.

Today BOTH of my children where standing up on a relatively small, slightly angled leather ottoman playing what can only be described at the baby version of king of the hill. I laughed first, just for a second-- then I saved their lives.

Seriously, each day we don't have to make a trip to the ER I count as a win! I'm still very skeptical we'll make it to 2 without stitches or some other dramatic event. Boys will be boys I guess!

Packing up

It is holiday travel season, and traveling with kids is HARD work! While hard, it is totally doable with a little extra preparing. For us, making a list is key, and thinking of each part of our day while we are away is a big deal. I find that if we can keep up with our routine as much as possible it makes our days and more importantly nights, easier. Not to mention the transition back home again. So, here is a bit of our list for our boys at 15m.

• Pack-n-play -- the place we are staying already has one crib for the other boy.
• Lovies and lollies-- don't cross my babies at bedtime.
• A portable highchair-- both homes we will be eating meals in has either one or two high chairs so our portable will supplement.
• TOYS! One home has an insane amount of toys, the other has just a few, so we will take a good sized basket of favorites with us.
• Food. We'll pick this up when we arrive, but it is so important to have things the boys will eat. When you're away from home, so much is already different, food can be one thing that stays consistent.
• Obviously clothing and shoes.
• Medications and a thermometer. Nothing is worse than thinking your kid feels hot when you're out of town and having to run to Walgreens in the middle of the night!
• Any and all of the things that help your kiddo sleep. For us that means music and the firm little pillow H uses at night.

Most importantly take your camera or phone and snap some pictures of family and friends loving on your babies!

Baby Dance

I watched a movie a few days ago while I was laying around with a sore back. It was called 'Baby Dance' and was, from my perspective, a pretty good movie. I'm not an adoptive parent, and even though I read several adoption blogs- I haven't lived it, and can't speak too much to how it all works, or doesn't work. What I DO know, is that when I watch a movie with an infertility theme, if it isn't done just perfectly and doesn't capture the emotion/heartache and speak about things in an inteligent manner I HATE the movie. So, keep that in mind if you decide to watch it.

I think it showed a lot of the things people don't talk about when it comes to adoption. Like all of the millions of feelings that go into making that choice in the first place, what you would do if the baby you were matched with ended up having some sort of issue, how you deal with the birth family, differing emotions from the waiting mother and father, etc. The movie was older and was probably set in the 80's-ish and I really have no idea what adoptions were like back then. But, as I watched all I could think was, I don't think I'm strong enough to do that.

It certainly isn't the norm from the stories I've read or heard from people I know, but my goodness, if that is how it once was, I can't even imagine. So, here's to you adoptive parents-- even though this was just a Hollywood glimpse for me into adoption I commend you for your strength when it comes to the choices you have made.