Easter egg hunt smooches from Rudy
being silly a day at the park "ridin' along in my automobile"
April is finally turning out to be a beautiful spring month and we've been LOVING it over here! This winter felt so long and depressing to me and I'm very happy to see it fading away - bring on the heat!
Last week, the temperatures were in the 60's and 70's and Jack and I spent every day outside, going for walks and taking trips to different parks. It's so fun now that Jack is walking now and that he still finds everything neat and interesting. He loves to play and explore! Although this time is awesome, I have days where I just long for the way things were last year, at this time. Jack was a little over 6 months old and still such a baby baby. We would go for lots of long walks and many times, he'd doze off in his stroller, looking as peaceful and as sweet as ever! I just have so many precious memories of moments like those. However, I have to admit that there are many things about the toddler stage that I am enjoying much more than the baby stage... particularly, Jack's sleeping! He has become the best sleeper for us over the past several months. Some days, I think I need to be more grateful and appreciative, because we endured a rough 15 months of sleeping woes! I was telling Jeff last night that, even though it was pretty hard, I'm glad that we just waited for him to be ready to sleep through the night, rather than trying to implement all kinds of sleep training stuff. It's definitely easy to say that now, as he's sleeping great these days! Because I am usually the one who puts him down for naps and for bedtime, he is most used to me, so it's still a little tricky for him to go to sleep for others, but once he's asleep, he stays asleep. I love our little sleep routine and lately, he's started pointing to his crib after we finish reading books and saying our prayers (before I sing our songs...). But it's really sweet, because I lay him down and will usually sing "Our Father," as I rub his back, and then I say "good night, love you, God bless you" and we blow each other kisses as I walk out of the room, and then he nestles down with his little animals and falls asleep. It's wonderful!!
March 20 marked the last day of nursing for us. He was a little over 18 months. We were really only nursing before bedtime and sometimes we wouldn't even nurse every day, but it was just part of our routine, whenever I put him to bed. I did not plan to stop at 18 months and he was not showing any signs of being ready to quit, either. However, I was about 7 -8 weeks pregnant at the time, and nausea had set in big-time, and every time that he nursed, I felt so sick and uncomfortable. For the next couple of nights, Jack would lightly tap at my shirt, and I would just tell him that we were going to rock and sing songs for a little bit and he seemed ok with that. I am glad that we had a peaceful weaning situation and I'm so thankful that we had that nursing relationship for as long as we did. I'm glad that I was able to nurse pretty easily and I think that it really did give Jack a good and healthy start!
So, yes, I am pregnant and we're expecting this new little baby in November!!! My due date is November 1. I am almost 12 weeks along and starting to feel much better than several weeks ago. We're really excited to have another baby and for Jack to be a big brother. Of course, we're also pretty anxious about how another baby will change our family dynamics, as well as lots of other things. But, we think that it will be such a blessing to have another baby! I've been very emotional this pregnancy. Really, I've been overly emotional since I gave birth to Jack, but my tears have definitely multiplied over the past several months. I cry at certain songs, I cry thinking about different milestones that Jack has reached, and I cry when I imagine what life will be like with a new baby. I also find myself having a lot of nostalgia lately, about living in New York and Chicago, and about my time with Jeff, when it was just the two of us. I feel kind of bad and guilty to admit this (and this was something that I struggled with so much before Jack was born), but there are still days when I desperately miss those days! I would not trade my life right now for ANYTHING, but I do wish that I could have bottled up some of those days and I wish that I could relive them, just every once and a while!
Jack is napping right now and I think I'm going to go out on the deck and do some reading before he wakes up. After he wakes up, I'm sure we'll have lots of outdoor adventures. His favorite thing these days is a little tikes car my mom found for him. It has a removable floorboard (and we're currently using the floorboard) and one of those long handles, so that I can push him, b/c he doesn't quite get pedaling yet. The car has a steering wheel and a horn and he is happy to sit in there and ride around for long walks in the neighborhood. It's too cute! We'll probably take a walk to the duck pond, play on the playground, and then walk home, in time to greet Jeff as he gets home from work. Sounds good to me!
