23 Weeks

*How far along?: 23 weeks 4 days

*Weight gain: I'm not sure...I go back to the dr. in one week. My guess is 7-10lbs. up from pre-pregnancy weight. I only gained 17lbs. total with Brogan so this weight gain is a little unnerving. Darn pizza at 9pm!!!

*Maternity clothes: VENT: It's impossible to find maternity sweatshirts that are not zip-up hoodies. With Brogan, I didn't need cold-weather maternity clothes and plus, I worked so I couldn't dress like a bum during the day. But now that I stay home, can I please just find a stinkin' sweatshirt that is made for pregnant women?? VENT OVER.

*Sleep: I can't get enough. I get about 9 hours each night and it seems like nothing.

*Stretch marks: None

*Best moment of this week: My friend Shanda gave me a pack of hair barrettes for our baby girl! I have no experience with them, but they are soooo cute and tiny!

*Movement: Yes, especially when I drink orange juice and eat chocolate right before bed :)

*Food cravings: nothing too weird- pizza always works! And pink lemonade crystal light (that does count as water, right???) :)

*What I miss most: having a waist

*What I'm looking forward to: still working on that perfect name!!!

*Words of wisdom: Hot dogs are so tasty. :) I didn't eat a single one with Brogan b/c of them being unhealthy. Pssshhh! I've already eaten 3 this pregnancy and enjoyed them tremendously! Don't you feel wiser for knowing that? haha

*Milestones: as of today, baby has developed a hand grip reflex and startle reflex (justmommies.com)

22 Weeks

*How far along?: 22 weeks

*Weight gain: 5 lbs. up from pre-pregnancy weight

*Maternity clothes: Yes please. I could live in sweatpants my entire pregnancy and be perfectly happy.

*Sleep: Despite getting up countless times because of my insane bladder, I sleep pretty well. This could be due to my slight benadryl addiction. Maybe.

*Stretch marks: None so far. I was blessed that I didn't get any with Brogan. Keeping my fingers crossed for none again!

*Best moment of this week: Going to the Carter's outlet with my mom and browsing the girls clothes. My daughter will definitely be dressed in pink---pink sweatpants heehee :)

*Movement: Lots and lots! I love it. When I switch sides at night, I can feel her switching positions too. It's just adorable :)

*Food cravings: Peanut butter pie for sure (like 2 pies in one week!) and ham sandwiches with tons of shredded lettuce. And orange juice.

*What I miss most: When I was pregnant with Brogan, I could come home from work and put my feet up and watch tv the rest of the night if I wanted. That definitely doesn't happen now.

*What I'm looking forward to: Getting through Christmas and then starting on her nursery

*Milestones: According to babycenter.com, our baby girl is approximately one pound. So little!

Thanksgiving

It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving has come and gone and it's now December. We had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving this year. Brogan was old enough to enjoy all the yummy food and since I'm pregnant, I didn't feel bad for all the food that I ate :)We had lunch with all of my family at my Nana's house in Durham. Then we traveled to Stokesdale to visit with all of Tadd's family. We have so much to be thankful for this year! Here are a few pictures from our day.


Brogan enjoying his Thanksgiving dessert :)

Brogan and his Uncle Bryan

What a difference a year makes! Thanksgiving 2008

Thanksgiving 2009

20 Weeks

*How far along?: 20 weeks 3 days

*Total weight gain: I'm up 5lbs. from my pre-pregnancy weight

*Sleep: still awful...thank goodness I can take benadryl!

*Best moment of this week: Finding out the baby is a GIRL! COMPLETE SHOCK!

*Movement: Loving it :) It's the best feeling ever!

*Gender: girl girl girl girl... when will it finally hit me? Maybe I need to go shopping and buy something pink!

*Food cravings: Still nothing specific. Last night at 9:15, I enjoyed some instant mashed potatoes haha :)

*Belly Button in or out: Out and it's not going back in. I need a new question.

*Maternity clothes: I finally wore some maternity tops this week and my belly is thanking me. I still prefer wearing sweat pants to maternity jeans- but that's nothing new. I hate wearing jeans- period.

*What I miss most: hmmm, I'm gonna say nothing. Besides the lack of sleep, being pregnant is just wonderful!

*What I'm looking forward to: thinking of a girl's name. I hadn't even LOOKED at the girl lists- just the boys. Oh, and looking at pink bedding.

*Milestones: the 20 week u/s showed that our baby girl is HEALTHY and everything looked great.

The Results are In!!!

Tiny fingers, tiny toes,
Little itty bitty clothes.
Dresses, ribbons & hair to curl,
We're tickled PINK we're having a GIRL!

and YES! We are in shock! :)

19 weeks

The biggest difference between this pregnancy and my first- I don't have any time to THINK about this one. I cannot believe that I am almost halfway to meeting the newest member of our family! With Brogan, each week creeped by and I just longed to get to another week "milestone" so I could be more pregnant. With this baby, I'm wishing time would slow down and that I could actually enjoy being pregnant. I thought I'd give the little one in my tummy some much-deserved attention and talk about him/her.

*How far along?: 19 weeks 2 days

*Total weight gain: as of my appt. 2 weeks ago, I was up 2lbs. from my pre-pregnancy weight. I lost 3lbs. in the first trimester from horrible food aversions. So, I guess I've actually gained 5lbs.

*Sleep: horrible! Of course Brogan is sleeping through the night, but this baby is sitting so low already that my bladder can't go more than 1-2 hours without waking me up. And I so miss sleeping on my stomach.

*Best moment of this week: I was sitting down and Brogan came up to me and pointed to my tummy. He didn't say anything, but I like to think he's noticing something different. I keep telling him "baby" and pointing to my stomach.

*Movement: all the time! I started feeling little flutters around 17 weeks. It lasted about 2 days and then it went into full-fledged bumps and kicks. It's unreal. Tadd can already see and feel the baby move. I don't know if it means my stomach muscles are just lousy from having Brogan and I feel more movement OR that this pregnancy is further along than we all think. Hmmmm...

*Gender: we find out in ONE week! I'm still 90% sure it's a BOY!! :)

*Food cravings: Last week it was cooked squash (thank you Momma!) Nothing too specific this week...seems like I only want "real" food and not snacks. No hot wing craving this time :)

*Belly Button in or out: Out! ALREADY! It didn't pop out with Brogan until the 3rd trimester. It popped out this time in the 1st trimester. What the heck?

*Maternity clothes: I'm horribly in-between these and regular clothes. I got some cute new maternity tops for my birthday and I'm so ready to wear them!

*What I miss most: Enjoying being pregnant...and sleeping on my stomach

*What I'm looking forward to: Finding the perfect name. Nothing is sounding just right. Boy or girl.

*Milestones: Feeling the baby move- I just LOVE when I lay down at night and the baby goes wild!! He/She must think that nighttime equals party time! :)

Well that was a lot of fun! I will have to try to do this more often so Baby Grandstaff #2 gets some more attention! :)

Chef Brogan

Since it's so yucky and wet outside, Brogan and I decided to whip something up in the kitchen. We were going to make sugar cookies but our eggs were expired. Plan B= vanilla puddin'! This was Brogan's first time really helping me "bake" (I can hardly use that word for pudding) and he seemed really into it.
I let him practice with the bowl and whisk while I got the ingredients ready (all 2 of them).

"YES! I have the whisk!"

"Seriously mommy, I can do this with my eyes closed"

Then Brogan put his mastered whisking skills to use and stirred the mix into the milk.

Really getting into it now

The best thing about pudding is we only had to wait about 5 minutes before it was ready to eat!

Yummm!

October was a busy month!

We had such a fun October...the pumpkin farm, the NC zoo, the State fair, a quick trip to Lynchburg, and Halloween made the month fly by. Brogan turned 16 months old and just keeps getting cuter, smarter, and funnier every day. Here are some pictures from the past month.

He loved the baby pumpkins the best

Petting the mini-horse

We couldn't see the real buffalo, so this was as good as it got

WOW!!! A leaf!

Brogan's favorite animal- the LIONS! He loves to roar like one :)

Stopping for a goldfish break

Our family at the State fair

The PBS tent was the biggest hit of the day for Brogan

They kept playing the Sesame Street theme song and he just kept dancing! He loves Big Bird!

In Lynchburg at GiGi and Grandad's house- Tyson wanted his bed back

Our ferocious lion! ::roarrrr!::

He picked out his own candy- a dum-dum!

Someone gave him animal crackers and WOW was he happy :)

Making sure that Daddy didn't get scared by all the spooky decorations :)

It won't be like this for long

I'm sure you've all seen this video or heard the song on the radio. It's always a reminder to me to just stop. Stop the to-do lists. Is it really that big of a deal if my dirty clothes sit in the hamper for one more day? If there are more dishes in the sink than I prefer? If my blog isn't updated on a consistent routine? No, no, no. Is it really a big deal if I miss playing with my son. Yes. To be honest, I've never been the most productive person on the planet. Tadd will agree 110%. I am a procrastinator like you've never seen. I enjoy sitting on the floor with Brogan all day long and playing, reading, and singing with him. BUT, my guilty conscience always starts blabbering away at me. "Go clean the toilet", it nags. "Go throw the wet towels in the dryer before they sour", it continues. "You haven't made the bed in a week!" It's screaming at me now. I guess it's the conflict of being a mommy and staying at home. My job is to take care of Brogan AND our house. But I'm reminding MY annoying conscience that Brogan comes before the toilet, the laundry, and the million other chores that seem to never end. It WON'T be like this for long. Now, who's going to remind me about this post when baby #2 comes along and I'm pulling out my hair?!?

Who's Excited?

Brogan is!!!

Brogan wants to tell everyone that he's going to be a big brother sometime in April! My due date keeps changing, but as of today I am 13 weeks 2 days pregnant and the baby's due date is April 10th. We are super thrilled about this Easter baby :)

I stink at blogging!

It just doesn't rank high on my to-do list. Facebook is much easier :) So much has gone on since I last posted. Too much to really remember. I will try to give a re-cap of the last 2 months.

-Early August, I went to Ocean Isle Beach with my family. Tadd had to work and couldn't come with us. It was actually Brogan's third time at the beach, but his first since he's started walking. He loved the sand! Hated the water! After putting his feet in the ocean, he had had enough :)


-We traveled to Florida back in August and had a great time staying with Chad and Michelle and Tim and Tandy. Brogan was in 7th Heaven playing with Cobe and Cayden. The first thing he did every morning was run to their room. Each night, while they were in bed, Brogan kept sneaking into their room to play. It was so hard for him to come home to a house with no playmates.


-While we were in FL, we went to the Magic Kingdom! It was so exciting and Brogan really enjoyed watching Mickey Mouse and all the other characters on stage in front of Cinderella's castle. However, Tadd and I realized it was a little more difficult going to a theme park with a baby. It took us 4 hours before we ever rode a ride. We kind of drifted all over the park without a game plan. Eventually we ended up riding 5 rides and Brogan enjoyed all of ONE of those (Small World). After we met Mickey and Minnie, we gave Brogan his lovey and that was the last time we ever saw it. We spent the next 2 hours re-tracing our steps and going to every lost-and-found station in the park. No luck. Poor baby was not happy without his lovey. FINALLY he took a nap in his stroller. Thankfully, we had a back-up lovey in the car!! It sounds like we didn't have a good time, but we actually really did. Once Brogan took a nap, he was excited to see the parade and dance to the music. And I got a soft pretzel with mustard so I was in my own 7th Heaven :)


-We also visited Disney Hollywood Studios (which I will always call MGM b/c that's how I remember it.) We went with Tim, Tandy, Cobe and Cayden and this time things went much smoother! I'm sure Tim and Tandy know the parks as well as the workers do :) Brogan LOVED the Beauty and the Beast show and the Playhouse Disney show. He did well on all the rides and even fell asleep in my lap on the Great Movie Ride. For lunch, we were so excited to eat at the Sci-Fi drive-in restaurant. All the tables looked like old cars and we watched old movie/cartoon clips while we ate. So fun!



-Brogan said "ma-ma" for the first time on September 5. He still says "da-da" ALL the time but when he needs/wants something RIGHT AWAY, I get to hear "mamamamamamama" and it's music to my ears (for now anyway!) :)

-I have completely weaned Brogan from nursing. Well, actually he pretty much weaned himself from the bedtime/middle of night feeding. I thought I would be devastated, but knowing that he was ready made me feel better. I still get to rock and sing him to sleep every night so I still feel "needed". My goal was a year and we made it to 14 months!

-I took Brogan to his 15 month check up (although he was closer to 14 months) and WOW the kid freaks out at the sight of a nurse/doctor. I hate having to hold him down, but how else can Dr. Bailey look in his nose, ears, mouth? After his shots, he cried all the way to the car. :( Brogan weighed 19lbs.13oz. and was 32in. Dr. Bailey said he wanted us to come back in 6 weeks for a weight check. He said he wasn't worried since Brogan is gaining (verrrrrry gradually) but just wants to play it safe. Hopefully by then he will hit the 20lb. mark! I've been trying to fatten him up a little...some butter here, some cookies there haha :)

And because it's my blog, I'm just gonna brag about my boy now:
-when Brogan wants to go outside, he brings us his shoes and says "sssssssh"
-when we ask, "what does Big Bird say?" he answers: lalalalala (sings it like Big Bird does)
-when we ask, "what does the lion say?" he roars (although it sounds more like he's clearing his throat)
-if we ask him to go get his cup/lovey/ball/book/shoes, he does it
-he moved up to the 1's and 2's classroom at church and only cried for a few minutes...then played with all his friends. MUCH better than the nursery!
-when his Praise Baby or Baby Einstein DVD's start showing the credits, he runs to find the DVD remote
-he still loves to shake his booty! :)

I think that's all for now. Whew! Blogging is exhausting. I need a nap.

Help us win a free gift!

Please help us win a free gift~ all you have to do is leave a comment on Andrea Halsey's blog (Brogan's pictures)

http://www.andreahalsey.com/index.php

If we get 30 comments on her blog, we win a FREE gift. If we get 40 comments, we get TWO gifts! Woohoo! It will only take a minute. Thank you SOOOO much!

C is for Cookie!

My mom recently went to Trader Joes down in Chapel Hill and was so sweet to bring Brogan a tub of Cinnamon Schoolbook Cookies. Sadly, Brogan has eaten about 4 of them and I've downed the rest. They are DELICIOUS! They taste kind of like cinnamon bun dough before it's cooked. YUMMMM...raw dough! :) I keep telling myself that they are actually healthy because there's no preservatives or artificial colors/flavors - and avoid looking at the nutrition label. Actually, I just peeked and 15 cookies is 130 calories. That's pretty decent, if you can just eat 15. Me? Never. I just keep on and on. But they are some fun little things...you can spell anything. I didn't actually look to see if every letter is in there, but I did see a 'Q', so I'm guessing all the other "unpopular" letters are in there too. I will have to remember these cute cookies for when Brogan goes to preschool- I can send him a B,R,O,G,A, and a N cookie. That's all. The rest are for mommy :)

The nearly empty container:

Such FUN cookies!

One Year Stats

We went for Brogan's one year checkup yesterday and everything looked great! Usually Brogan is all calm and happy at his appointments (until time for the shots anyway). However, this visit, he started freaking out the minute Dr. Bailey walked in the room. It was very difficult to hold him still while he had his little exam. I guess Brogan remembered his last visit?!? Anyway, here are his one year stats:
Height: 28.5 inches (10th percentile)
Weight: 19lbs. 11oz. (5-10th percentile)
Brogan's a tiny little thing still...but definitely healthy. He eats great, but must have his daddy's metabolism (LUCKY!)

Brogan in the waiting room...before the meltdown :)

Taking a ride in his new wagon

Sweet boy! :)

Happy 4th of July from Mr. Fun and Independent :)

Happy 1st Birthday to my Baby!

This has been such a bittersweet day. Feelings of excitement over watching my baby grow up to be a sweet, smart, strong, and hilarious toddler are mixed with feelings of sadness over my baby not being so little anymore. I once read that we eagerly await our child's "firsts", but never really know when their "lasts" will happen. Last time taking a bottle, last time in the baby tub, last time playing with a certain toy, last time being nursed to sleep. The feelings going through my mind are so hard to explain. I'm sure other mommies understand. Since I'm having such a difficult time expressing how I feel, I'll just write my sweet angel a little note and leave some pictures. The tears are already falling. This is so hard!

Dear BroBro,
Happy 1st Birthday baby boy! Words just cannot express how much love I have for you in my heart. The second I laid my eyes on you, I was so in love. I honestly never experienced a love so intense and so instant. You have brought such joy and life into our home. I can't remember a time without your contagious laugh, your head-butting, your blue lovey, watching you suck your thumb, your sweet wave, stinky diapers, and toys all over the house. I treasure our memories we've made this past year, especially nursing and rocking you to sleep every night and singing "our" three songs over and over. I am just so blessed that God has chosen me to be your mommy. I know that He has big plans for you! I love you so much sweet baby!
Love, Mommy

Just minutes old...6lbs.7oz.

So peaceful

Checking out his new world

Our little family :)

Oh how I miss my teeny weeny baby...now he's a wild man! :)


What a difference a year makes!

Birthday cake #1

Birthday cake #2

The birthday boy on the way to church...19lbs.

Relaxing with Daddy on his birthday

Me and my sweet baby!

1st Birthday = 1st Chilly Willy :)

Birthday supper at McDonalds...yum yum :)