North Carolina Road Trip

We started our second long road trip of Joey's little life right after our family visit.   This kid just turned two and already has done two cross country trips!  What an overachiever!  

We left Southern California on a Sunday afternoon and arrived in North Carolina Friday afternoon.  Whew! We were all very happy on that first day!  The road trip had finally arrived!

 We took Interstate 8 to the 10 to 85.  This route took us through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina!

My fam thought the desert was pretty, but none of us were big fans of it.  Glad we got to see it, but okay if we never see it again!  Ha! 

Plus, it was 105 degrees!  What.  The.  Hell.   

 

Meemee and I took turns driving, while Grandpa entertained Joey or kept the driver company.

Joey was pretty stoked about having an entire entourage to cater to his every need.  

We tried to drive about eight hours a day, at least at the beginning.  This really wasn't too much driving time, but for an 8-month prego and toddler, eight hours was a plenty!

We did some night driving, but not too much.  Some nights Joey did not go to sleep until 1 AM!  This was due to time changes, and someone sneaking A LOT of grandpa's sweet tea!  FYI, no more sweet tea for Joey...we learned our lesson.  

We did try to give Joey some down time before and after the day's drive.  An exercised kid is a good riding kid!  Joey loved one of the hotel's pool.  He even tried to imitate his mommy by holding his nose!

One thing we had to do at every hotel was unplug the room telephone as soon as we entered the room!  Someone liked to make phone calls that we didn't want to have to pay for! 

Some days Joey napped in the car, and other days, he did not.  My favorite days were nap days!   

Joey actually slept with me one night.  He hasn't slept with me since he was a few months old.  It was nice to snuggle with him all night, but I forgot how little sleep I actually get when he's in bed with me!  We made sure to set up his play pen the rest of the trip.   

Joey loved to run down the hotel hallways trying to reach the elevators, room, outside doors, or wherever first!

Even though Daddy couldn't be with us in person, we had his substitute stand in!   

The biggest surprise on our trip was Gulfport, Mississippi.  This beaches were absolutely beautiful.  This was an unexpected stop, but we were all so glad that we made the stop.

Oh, did I mention that both my parents, Joey, and I with four months worth of stuff all rode in my Prius!  Talk about tiii-ght!!

By the end of our trip, our driving hours/days were much shorter.  At one point, we were only three hours from our final destination.  However, I protested driving any further because my feet were so swollen and I was tired of being so confined!  Crazy how much attitudes can change with extra hormones and age!

On the last day, we decided to stop at the Greenville Zoo in South Carolina as a final treat. 

We had planned on stopping a little more than we did on this trip, but 6 days in a small little car was a bit more taxing than we all had imagined.   

Our main sightseeing stops were New Orleans and Gulfport and Greenville.   

Even though most of the trip was pretty good and smooth, we all were ready to cry by the end!  Joey and I are so happy to be at our summer home!

Help Has Arrived

The time finally came, and help arrived!

My family arrived at our house around May 18th and I let out the biggest sigh of relief!  I would finally have daily adult companionship and some parenting help!  

My family only spent a few days in our Cali home before we headed east.  

Before we started our big road trip, we celebrated my sister's 30th birthday, hence Joey's cake face!

Had a cookout with our cousins that came down from the San Fran area and our other cousins that are getting ready to move to Hawaii!

We played at the beach on a really rare warm May day.   

Joey had a great time with all of this extra attention he was receiving!  Center of every one's attention=every toddler's dream!

We're hoping that our family will come to Cali again so we can really show them the area.  However, Joey and I were ready to leave our west coast home to start our summer in our east coast home!   

10 More Weeks

Well, we had our last appointment with our California doctor last week and I must say that it was a great appointment!

First off, I do not have gestational diabetes!!  This also means that I passed the one-hour glucose test, so I don't have to take the three-hour test!  Holla!  I was very, very happy with this news.  

Baby girl's heart beat was in the 150's.  Very good.

Since the doc has not measured my belly once during this pregnancy, I have been a little concerned on how this baby is growing.  The doc finally measured my belly and baby girl is growing right on track, 30 cm=30 weeks! Woo hoo!  (Still haven't gained a pound!  Whoop whoop!)

My blood pressure is good, but my heart rate has been a little faster here lately.  An increased heart beat is a pregnancy symptom, so I wasn't too nervous about this but the doctor still checked it out.  My heart rate was a bit increased, in the 80's, but the doc didn't seem too concerned by this.

I've had a bit of pelvic pressure this past month.  The doc told me just to keep an eye on it and make sure I'm drinking plenty of water.  This goes for our cross-country road trip.  Can you imagine how a very pregnant lady staying super hydrated is going to go with a five-day road trip?!!?  This should be wonderful.  

Two!!

I can't believe that our little guy is two years old! 

It's so funny.  Joey must have known he was about to be two because it seemed that the three days prior to his birthday, he made all kinds of leaps and jumps in his development!

Joey finally started to put two words together!  His favorite "phrases" are "my ____".  Like "My shovel".  "My turn."   "My toy".  I know some of his other buddies had already started saying multiple words, so I was getting a little nervous that he hadn't yet.  Luckily, he finally figured it out!  He's also saying words that I didn't even knew he knew, like mango!  I know he knows mango, but he actually pointed out a dried mango and asked for a mango!  How did he know that?!?!  He's also putting stuff together, like when we walk into a dark room, he realizes it's dark.  He'll say "dark, dark".  It's just so crazy how, literally overnight, he started putting things together!  

Joey is also very social, which is no surprise.  He's always been a pretty social kid.  However, our little man has really started to take to the little ladies.  He has no issues flirting with some of his little girl buddies!  One of the moms in our toddler class even made a comment on how cute Joey was trying to flirt with this red head that he used to fight with at the beginning of our class session!  (I think Joey has a thing for red heads and this little blondie, Peyton, in the photo above!).

Joey as a newborn!  Wow!

Joey also started to go down slides all by himself.  Even super tall slides.  Even goes down them face first!!  This really blows my mind because just last week, I would have to climb half way up the slides to hold his hand going down!  What gave him this sudden urge of courage?  

Joey at 1 year old!

Joey has slowly put on some weight since his 18 month checkup.  He now weighs 26 lbs, and is 34 inches tall.  This puts him in the 24th percentile for weight and 50th percentile for his height.  The doc didn't seem overly concerned about his weight since he was only in the 30th percentile at his 18 month checkup, so he's stayed about the same.  

The doc did get on me about trying to get Joey to eat more.  Joey doesn't like to sit still, so if I want him to eat anything at meal times, I have to let him go play for a minute, run back for a bite, go play, run back for a bite, and so forth.  It's really annoying, but it has been the only way to get him to eat.  I've also started letting him eat his meals while in front of the TV.  I don't know if him zoning out helps tame his energy, but he's been eating full meals by doing this.  I know these are horrible habits to create, but otherwise, he doesn't eat.  The doc also wanted me to make Joey sit at a table and eat a real meal for at least 10-15 minutes each meal so he realizes that he has to sit still to eat.  So what's more important, my kid sitting at a table and not eating, or him having some sort of distraction in order to eat all of his meal?  Maybe once we're in NC with lots of family to eat with every meal, he won't mind sitting at the table.  I guess I'm just not stimulating enough for my son! 

Joey at two years old!

I also asked the doc about Joey's aggressiveness.  She said timeouts are good but two-year olds usually don't get the whole principle behind the time-out.  They will just do the crime again, and right after the time-out sometimes...which has been true in Joey's case!  The doc suggested when Joey does something bad, putting one of his favorite toys in a time-out where Joey can see the toy, but can't reach it.  Explain to Joey that because he did whatever crime, he loses his favorite toy.  We'll have to try this technique tomorrow.  

Joey only had to get one vaccination, Hepatitis A, today.  He handled it like a champ.  No crying, no flinching, not even a bit of recognition of getting a shot!  

Joey is doing great and seems to be a very happy and well developing little two year old!  

Party, Party, Party!

Our little boy turned the big 2 this past Monday!  Since Joey is a product of Michael and me, we had to have a party (or three) to help celebrate his big day!  

For all three parties, I made homemade white cupcakes with cream cheese icing.  The theme was wild animals with monkeys, hippos, and a lion being the main characters.   

 

I was really proud of my cupcaking skills, but I am so cupcaked out that I don't think I'll make another cupcake...at least, until the next birthday!

The first party was with our really good friends (that are also military related) on the military beach.  We rented a picnic/playground area to hold the festivities.  This was the most boring and mellow party that I have ever thrown!  A lot of people have told me that all young kid parties are like this.  I disagree!  Joey's 1st birthday party lasted all day and night and was hopping!  Anyways, we grilled out, played with bubbles, and let the kids play on the playground.   

 My friend, Jackie, also painted the kid's faces!

Joey seemed to have a good time and liked all of the attention being on him!  The picnic area was also right next to the train tracks, so that kids got to see the train go by a few times which they loved!  A fire truck also graced us with its presence...not because of us, it was just passing by.

 Joey really didn't eat too much at the party, but I think that's because there was so much going on!  However, he did chow down on one of the monkey cupcakes once we got home!  Yummm!!

On Joey's actual birthday, we had our Mommy and Me class.  Joey was the Happy Helper and his teacher, Ms. Jami, gave him a crown and birthday button to wear.  He actually wore that crown for a pretty good while.

 Joey really likes getting to hold the flag while the class says the pledge.  

 He also loves to check the class mailbox!

The kids got to do balloon art for this day's craft!   

Joey really liked playing with the balloons and paint.  He really wanted to pop all of those balloons!  Balloon popping is one of his favorite pastimes these days!  The class all sang to Joey and enjoyed the cupcakes to wrap up his special class!

We had one more party to host (this was with all of our town/civilian friends), so we had to make lots more cupcakes!  Joey had no problem helping me with that! 

I host a playground meetup at different town playgrounds once a week (something I learned from my AK mamas!), so it was only fitting that Joey's town party was at one of our favorite parks!   

I don't think Joey knew what to do with himself!  We usually don't go anywhere in the afternoons, so I'm sure Joey was all excited that we went to a "far away" playground after nap time (which he didn't take!!)!  

Joey had a great time playing with all of his buddies, blowing bubbles, and eating yet another cupcake!!   

After we left this final celebration, we rushed home so we could Skype with both sets of grandparents!  Joey really misses seeing his family, but likes when he gets to see them on the computer!  He actually hugged the computer during these Skype calls.  

As Joey's Mom, I think that his 2nd birthday was well celebrated!  The only thing that could have made it better was if Michael could have been with us.  Michael made Joey a couple of videos before he deployed, so we made sure to watch those videos a bunch on Joey's actual birthday.  Hopefully, Michael will be able to be with us for Joey's next birthday!

Yes, I am Pregnant.

 

29 weeks!!  Holla!!  :)

I ran into someone that I haven't seen since December today.  I had to tell her that I was pregnant and due in about 2.5 months.  She was shocked.  Talk about a confidence killer.  And please, do not tell me how awesome it is that I don't even look pregnant.  I am bigger.  My clothes don't fit.  So, when someone is shocked that I am actually pregnant because I don't look it, well, that just makes me feel fat.  I'm only pregnant a couple of more months and I should only get bigger, so I'm trying to not let it get to me.  But mad kudos to me for not gaining any weight, so far.  I am the bomb!  :)