Business Mama

Well, I've done it again-I opened another Baby Boot Camp franchise. This time in San Antonio! This city is proving to be a bit more challenging than Washington state. I am off to a very slow start. I held my first class on July 7th and disappointingly had no one show up. :( I had a hand full of people who had RSVP'd for the first class but didn't have anyone show. I didn't expect them all to show up, but I hoped for at least 1! Since then I have had 2 moms come to a class. So frustrating! So anyhow, that is my current endeavor. Even though the progress is slow, I'm excited about owning the franchise again. I really enjoyed my group of moms back in WA and look forward to getting another group going here. The camaraderie and common goals and values of the other moms is just so nice to have.

Dog Days of summer!

I can't believe we are more than half way through summer! 4th of July has come and gone and now all the back to school stuff is out! What the heck! But, I won't fret, because summer in San Antonio seems to last until November and Brady is already in summer camp which is the same days and hours that he will be going to school in the fall, so it feels like school has already started. It has been a good summer thus far. It has been HOT! We have been eating a lot of popsicles and have been doing a lot of swimming. If you ask Brady what the summer is all about, he will say "Popsicles and going to the pool!". Such a good little parrot! Heehee!! He took two sessions of swim lessons after t-ball season was over and he can now swim all by himself! I love to watch him swim-it is so cute and so exciting! He is so proud of himself.

Our month of July was super busy with a visit from my nephew David. Most of you probably remember him as the ring bearer in my wedding when he was about a year old-he is 7 years old now!! Can you believe it?! I can't! He stayed with us for 3 weeks and we had a great visit. During his visit we took the boys to a Missions game (minor league baseball) and to see Toy Story 3 (which all 3 of them LOVED-even Grayson who I was a little nervous about if he would sit through the whole show, but he did) and had an early birthday party for David before he went back home. It was a wonderful visit and the 3 boys had a blast playing together.

Mimi, Pa Pa and the grand-boys. Brady and David at our 4th of July "picnic"-way too hot to sit outside!

I gave him his food but he kept crying and pointing to my corn. So I gave him the cob and he gobbled it right up! This boy can eat some corn on the cob! Talk about an All American baby!

My pretty flag cake-this one's for you Granny!

The boys in their matching 4th of July duds. Brady has the same shirt as Grayson, but I think Brady got his dirty or something.

It was really tough to get these 2 busy little boys to pose for a picture.

David

My boys. We are at the field waiting for Brady's last t-ball game to start.

Grayson climbed up on the couch all by himself and crawled over to sit in front of brother. He was so proud of himself! It was so cute!

Grayson was climbing in and out of the drawer below the stove-I have a picture of me doing this at about this age. Must be the thing to do!

Yup, this is definitely my boy-licking his ice cream bowl trying to get every drop of his chocolate ice cream!

Do I have something on my face?

Yay chocolate ice cream!!!!!!!!!!

It's cycling season!

The cycling season is upon us and we are in full training mode! We've actually been riding hard for a few months now, hence the reason for the lack of blogging. Every free moment I have seems to be spent on my bike. We have registered for 2 rides this season-The Hotter-N-Hell 100 and the MS 150. We are officially committed! Plus, the Tour de France started on July 3rd, so since the start of the tour we've been hooked on watching the stages and are participating in a virtual Tour put on by Map my Ride. Since the start of the tour, I have logged about 250 miles. Holy shnikes, that's a lot of miles! The tour on map my ride has been a lot of fun though! If anyone is interested in playing with us, it is free to join at mapmyride.com. You can join our team, we are team Share the Road, and start logging miles with us! I have actually won a yellow jersey by being the stage winner in the women's category on day 1-wahhoo! Then I won a fancy bike seat in one of the weekly drawings! Fun stuff!

My pops, Tim and I going out for a 40 miler on the 4th of July.I wiped the floor with those boys on this ride! Heehee!!!

The Wonder of One

My mom and dad (Mimi & Pa Pa) were going on vacation to MI for my dads high school reunion and to visit both of their families who live in the same town of New Lothrop, MI. They thought it would be fun to take one of the boys and we decided, oddly enough, that Grayson would be the easier of the two. Reluctantly I said ok-12 days is a long time to be away from my baby, but at the same time I wanted the rest of the family to meet our newest addition before he's 12! Haha! So, I did what all moms do and planned and packed for a week to make sure Mimi and Pa Pa were well prepared to travel with an infant. I'm pretty sure they both forgot how much "stuff" it takes to travel with an infant. As I made my list for my big trip to babies r us to get stuff for the trip, I asked my mom if there was anything she could think of that she might need for Grayson for the trip and she responds with, "A towel, I don't have a baby towel." Oh silly grandparents, how quickly they forget. So I go to babies r us, get the towel, and everything else under the sun that she might need for the 12 days including 2 days of driving up there and back. Then I spend a day preparing 12 days worth of meals for Grayson; I have been making all of his baby food, so when we try to go to jarred baby food (even the organic stuff) his stomach and bowels don't tolerate it too well. So I figured this would help to make the trip easier. So I prepare a cooler stocked with 12 days worth of pureed lasagna, steamed and diced pears and carrots, organic milk and yogurt and cheese. Then of course I wrote up a Grayson instruction manual and packed up his clothes, some toys for the car and Great Granny and Grandpa's house, snacks for the car ride, the pack and play and other odds and ends and sent him on his way. Eeeek! He has been gone now since Saturday and I really miss the little fella!

However, I have to say, I forgot how easy it is with just one child! Ah the wonder of one! Especially now that he is 3 1/2 and insists on doing everything his self. It has been wonderful! I have gotten so much done. It has really given me a chance to take a deep breath and re-boot. It has given me the opportunity to re-connect with Brady a little bit. We've been playing lots of board games, games on the computer, he's been helping me cook and take care of the garden and he has gotten in lots of bike rides. I have a 3 mile loop around our neighborhood that I jog and Brady rides his bike next to me. I have to push him up most of the hills which has been 10 times easier without having to steer and push the double jogger at the same time. So the other day during our 5 minute stop at the playground in the middle of our bike ride/jog I looked at Brady and realized how grown up he is! Suddenly I thought how did this happen?! Just yesterday he was my baby! Just yesterday he was that little toddler toddling around not able to form full sentences. Now he is climbing up rock walls and climbing over the top, going on 3 mile bike rides and rambling on in the back seat of car rides asking why do we need clouds? Why do we need trees? Why do fish live in the ocean? Why do dinosaurs eat other dinosaurs? He went from the kid who I couldn't get to eat anything to the kid who now loves hot sauce on everything! The kid who ate a whole fajita with chicken, green and red peppers and cheese on it! He is now the kid who can use the mouse to play games on the computer who can trace letters and goodness, the list could go on for miles. It just amazes me that they really do grow up so fast right before your eyes. My first born is no longer a baby or a toddler, he is now a little boy. Simply amazing.

Brady helping me cook supper.

Look at all our cucumbers and zucchinis from our garden!

By the way-anybody have any ideas of what to do with a plethora of cucumbers??

Home Sweet Home

We have now been in our new house for almost 3 months and I am finally getting pictures and our address posted! A few weeks ago we finally got the garage finished and we can park both cars in the garage-waaahhoo! Tim put up shelves and lots of hooks to hold my thousand and one strollers and our many bikes and other garden/lawn tools and such. Now that that is done I finally feel like we are all moved in. Big sigh of relief! We all (even the dog, Wilson!) are loving our house! It is so nice to have so much space as compared to our cramped apartment. And it is even nicer not to have to yell at Brady to walk lightly as to not disturb the grouchy lady downstairs. This house has 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms and a loft upstairs. We have a fenced in backyard so we can let Wilson out whenever he wants and he can run around, and when Brady gets too rambunctious I send him outside too! It is wonderful! And not to mention we are about 15 minutes away from my parents, so the boys get to see Mimi and Pa Pa very often which has been great as well.

Our new address is:

131 Palma Noce

San Antonio, TX 78253

No, we did not get a mini-van! Tim's mom was here visiting when I took this picture and that is her van. :)

Our patio that we had poured soon after we moved in. The patio furniture was my mother's day present-Thanks boys!

Our house was built on a sheet of limestone, so digging into the ground wasn't really a possibility. Tim built this raised garden for me and it has just flourished! I planted zucchini (which is in the back left corner and has completely taken over), cucumbers (they are right in front of the zucchini and are coming in a close 2nd to taking over, tomatoes, carrots, green beans, bell peppers, basil, parsley and cilantro.

I was able to designate a Grayson cupboard where we keep all our Tupperware, sippy cups and plastic bowls and plates. His new favorite thing to do is to get in the cupboard and clear out the contents and suck on each and every one of the sippy cups!

What's up mom?!

Here is the loft/playroom. Tim put these shelves up for me for all their toys-it looks like toys-r-us doesn't it?!

Here is the other side of the loft. The 2 doors that you can see are the boys bedrooms.

We have a baby gate at the top of the stairs, so sometimes I will close all the other doors and let both boys play up there while I'm busy doing other stuff downstairs. Well this particular day, I went up to check on them and this is what I found. They cleared all the shelves and had piled all their toys around them. They were pleased as punch with themselves! The little turkeys!

Bittersweet

When we got back from our Mexico trip Tim and I started trying to get pregnant again. Yay! We got pregnant with both the boys on the first try, so we figured this time would be pretty easy again. And wouldn't ya know, this time around did not disappoint. We tried and we got pregnant! We were super excited, but something felt a little off. I had a lot of cramping from the get go which I didn't have with the other two pregnancies. I didn't have any bleeding, so the nurse at my orientation appointment last Tuesday said everything was probably fine. But sadly on Saturday, during Grayson's birthday party, I started bleeding. Fortunately my parents and Tim's mom were there so we left the boys with them and Tim and I headed out to the ER. They took blood to test my hcg (Pregnancy hormone) levels and did an ultrasound. My hcg levels were still elevated at 1470, but in pregnancy they like to see that number between 1500-3000 then it should increase daily as the pregnancy progresses. So my low number suggested something was wrong but wasn't conclusive because they didn't have prior hcg level to compare it to. But when they did the ultrasound they didn't see a fetus and at 6 1/2 weeks we should have been able to see the baby. So they sent me home and said I needed to come back on Monday morning for a blood draw to test my hcg levels. And sure enough on Monday morning my hcg levels had dropped down to 147. The Dr determined that it was a miscarriage. We aren't sure why it happened and there is no way of knowing. These things sometimes just happen. All the Dr's and my family have repeatedly told me it wasn't my fault and there wasn't anything that I did that caused this. And I know this. I have read enough books on pregnancy and I know that a miscarriage is a possibility with every pregnancy. But it doesn't make it any easier. It still doesn't keep me from saying it's not fair. Why did it have to happen to us?! My brain knows that the pregnancy terminated itself because something was wrong, but I can't help but think why didn't this baby want me? The only way I keep coming up with to describe this whole situation is, this sucks! All the way around. Not only does it suck emotionally, but it hurts physically. This sucks. And this is one of those things that people don't talk about it, but is statistically pretty common, and that's why I'm writing about it. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has gone through this. And the way I see it, when we try again and have a successful pregnancy it will be that much sweeter and that much more exciting. We'll take a few months off then try again. Please say a prayer for the little one that didn't make it.

Happy Birthday Grayson!

It's hard to believe that Grayson is a year old! It seems like just yesterday that I was walking into the hospital with water trickling down my leg making my flip flops squeak and Brady saying, "Mommy, you're dripping!". It has been a wonderful year and every day Grayson does something to make me smile. He went to the doctor for his 12 month well baby on his birthday, May 13th and checked out just fine and had to get 4 shots and a finger stick. Poor baby! He weighed in at 19 lbs 13 oz putting him in the 8th percentile, and is 29 3/4 inches tall putting him in the 42nd percentile and his head is 46.2 cm putting him in the 42nd percentile as well. I was really surprised at where he was weight wise! The Dr wasn't concerned though. She said he doesn't look underweight and is eating well, so this is just how he will be-tall and skinny just like brother. He has hit all but one milestone which is using 1 or 2 words specifically. The milestones that he has reached are:

• follows one step commands
• plays peek-a-boo
• shakes his head no
• imitates speech sounds like da, ma and makes a car driving sound while playing with his cars-such a boy already!
• picks up small objects with index finger and thumb
• uses a sippy cup only-he is completely off the bottle!
• he is on whole milk and not formula anymore
• and most notably is WALKING!!!!! He is walking everywhere now and is going up and down the stairs. He took his first real stroll across the family room on April 20th (11 months).

For his birthday his Nana came down to visit from Kansas and we had a couple parties and cakes for him. We did a small celebration on his birthday day which was Thursday. I made him a cupcake and we sang happy birthday and he had his first bite of cake and frosting. Then on Saturday we had his party, which went horribly awry (more on that to come), and was then continued on Sunday which is when he opened presents and had his Winnie the Pooh cake. We also went and had his 1 year old pictures taken which I had made him a little cake to eat for the pictures. So, needless to say between Thursday and Sunday the kid had so much cake he was beginning to think he got cake at every meal! And Grayson thoroughly enjoyed all of his cakes. He was really cute about it too. He was very slow and deliberate about eating it. He would dip his fingers in the frosting and lick them and was perfectly content eating it that way, so we had to help him get into his cake a bit. But once he got into it, he ate that cake right up! Good celebrating!

Homemade cake by Momma. This is the same cake I made for Brady's 1st birthday.

One of his favorite things to do right now is to try and kneel or stand on top of his fire truck. He works so hard at it and gets so excited when he finally gets on top.

Our little walker!

Birthday Boy!