Eleanore's 1st Christmas and other holiday happenings

Christmas was RIDICULOUSLY short. We drove to my parents (15 hours) on Thursday night/Friday morning, went to my grandparents on Sunday (4 hours), and drove back home Tuesday morning (10 hours). It was hectic, but well worth it since I haven't seen the majority of my family since last summer. Ellie was also very clingy because there were so many new people around so she did wear me out quite a bit. No biggie. Everyone took the news of Baby #2 really well. I would say most were shocked, but quickly got used to the idea. I really hope that everyone is happy for us, but you just never know.

Ellie received WAY too many gifts, so I'll just highlight a few that I really like (and the ones she pays attention to the most).
-wooden puzzles
-CUTE clothes
-stuffed animals
-White Sox sippy cups and slippers
She received this bear/dog from her 'Aunt' Jenna, it has 40 songs and teaches her different body parts.
-an Elephant that shoots out balls
-a GIANT Sock Monkey, I think it is about 3 feet tall.

Overall, I think she enjoyed Christmas. She really got into opening presents and even tried to open a few that weren't hers! Unfortunately Ellie came down with a cold on our way back home, so she is miserable. Poor baby girl.
Jeff and I are also under the weather, but I think it is worse for Ellie because she has no idea what is going on. She can't sniff. She can't blow her nose. She just rubs snot and spit all over the place.

Other holiday schtuff:
-I learned that it is better for babies to be gap toothed so their teeth have room to move as they get older
-It snowed in OK; snowed in IL on our last day
-saw my preggo cousin who is ADORABLE pregnant. Her belly is so so tiny and she only has 7 weeks to go! I can't wait to see her little girl
-Best convo of the trip: Papa: Brady you look pooped, are you pooped? Brady: No, I'm potty trained!


Baby #2 also got a gift from my Aunt Becky. Totally unexpected, but I'm sure the newest Davidson will appreciate it-it's a sensory ball, all soft and squishy and full of interesting things to see and touch. I'm about 13 weeks along-nothing really to add. Still no morning sickness, no aches, no pains, just tired. I don't go back to the doctor until July 17th so I'll let you know if there is anything exciting then. We should find out the gender of Baby #2 around Valentine's Day so we can stop calling him/her Baby #2 and finally settle on a name.

Names we have so far (keep in mind that these are Jeff's choices because that's the deal we made):
Girl: Zoey...I don't think he/we picked anything else
Boy: Asher, Soren, Carter, Corbin...
For either a boy or girl we like the name Grey as a middle name.

Let me know if you have any other unique names to add. They have to be fairly unique for us to agree on them or they are super classic-but classic in a unique way. That's the most awkward sentence I've ever written.

How we are telling my parents

So this is the outside of the box. I don't have a fancy camera so this is about as good a quality as I can get and I'm not super crafty so I didn't spend too much time worrying about making it look cute.
I should have taken a picture of all the cards before I put the box together because I do not want to take off the lid and mess with it now. BUT I do have a copy of the poem that my friend found or made for me (I'm not sure where it came from because she just emailed me some ideas) that went on the cards so I'll share that with you.

We have some special news to say,
The kind of news that just can't wait

The special kind that makes you smile,
The kind that is definitely worth the while

There’s someone special you’ll get to meet,
On July 4^th and it’ll be so sweet.

How freaking adorable is that?!?!?!?!

11 Week update

Ellie playing with her new laptop.

Went to the doctor today. Jeff came with to talk to them about the payments they wanted us to make. Long story short: they wanted us to pay twice the amount I pay for my freaking car every month; Jeff made sure that wasn't going to happen.

Baby #2 is doing as well as we can tell. We got to the hear the heartbeat and both doctor and Jeff are placing their bets on it being a boy. If it is a boy, we are officially done having kids. If not...then I don't know. The due date is July 4th, which is WAY OFF my calculations but I will totally take a 4th of July baby :) Now I have to put together the 'gift' we are giving my parents to tell them of this great news. If I can get it done in time I will take some pictures and post them on here because I think my idea is really quite exciting. If I can get some pictures of their reaction as they open the gift then I'll post those too.

Miss Eleanore is doing fine-still working on getting those top two teeth completely out. The doctor told us that we want her to get teeth later and lose them later because that is better in the long run. I guess I'm going to stop being impatient for her to get those teeth! She's been doing a lot of screaming lately and it cracks me up! I think most parents are annoyed at this stage in development, but really every new thing she does just amazes me. I hope I always feel this way. She had her first painting experience last week-I'll have to get Jeff to send me those pictures since they are on his phone. She didn't really understand what to do and I'm not sure she liked it, but she made a very pretty picture for her Grammy.

Side note-I REALLY want to meet Alton Brown. He is quite possibly my favorite food network star ever.

Finals Week!

Finals week is finally here! 2 finals down and 4 more to go. I know the students find this week extremely stressful, but as a teacher it is the easiest week. The only thing I have to worry about is grading 6 classes worth of finals which comes out to be around 115 tests. Since I'm an English teacher that means A LOT of essays, short answers, and vocabulary...lots and lots of vocabulary. I wish we had scan-trons at my school, then at least I could cut down my grading time in half. But I shall not complain because my students have it way harder than me this week and my prayers go out to them.


On a more exciting note-
Ellie will have her first Christmas this Saturday!!!! Since we are going out of town to see my side of the family on actual Christmas, we are celebrating with Jeff's parents on Saturday. I can't wait to see what she does with presents-will she tear them open? Just hit them, like she does everything else? Or be more concerned about the dogs running around her? I am also curious to see what she gets, we asked for more interactive toys since she doesn't have that much. AHHH I'm just so excited for her!!
More Ellie news: we are SOOOOOOOOOO close to having the top two teeth completely out. She has been biting her little lips like crazy, which has been her only complaint this time around so not too shabby. BUT her doctor warned me that he thought she would have a gap tooth and it really does look like that is going to happen-nothing a little dentistry won't fix, but hopefully it doesn't affect her until that time comes. My brother had messed up teeth until high school and he did fairly well, so she can learn from him.

Baby #2-no updates for now, but I am going to the doctor on Monday so you'll get updated then.

Off to eat pizza rolls... <3

#2 is TOTALLY different

I have been feeling so off lately. I'm 9 weeks (and a few days) along and I feel miserable. I am tired, cranky, irritable, nauseous and overall just a basket case. I was not this way with Ellie.

Part of me is so nervous that something is wrong and the other part of me is being rational about all of this. Pregnancies are different every time, you can't always guarantee an easy one. I was lucky the first time. Baby #2 just wants to give mommy a hard time.

Meanwhile with Miss Eleanore-she has developed some sort of rash on her stomach, back, and face. We do not know what it is from, but if it doesn't go away by Saturday then she has to see the doctor. Other than that she is getting SO big! Almost 20 lbs, super tall (still), slowly growing hair, and FINALLY she is getting the two top teeth! She truly is the best thing that has ever happened to me or Jeff and we can't even imagine how we lived before she was born. It will be even more interesting to see her interacting with her little brother or sister.

Hopefully this grossness will pass-I know it will-and I'll have more exciting, less depressing things to talk about next time (maybe after my next appointment).

After doctor update.

Went to the doctor the day before Thanksgiving. About 7 weeks along-a little off from my calculations, but who knows what is right with babies after all Ellie was 'over-baked'.

That would leave my due date around the middle of July. Perfect. The hottest time of the year in Texas. Just wonderful. It does mean that I don't have to take any maternity leave really, so that saves money.

Money. Pure evil if you ask me. Babies are so expensive, I really don't know how regular people afford things. Maybe it is just that I'm not regular people, I'm poor people.


P.S. I watch the show Glee and tonight's episode when Coach Beaste sang...epic.

In the beginning

In the beginning, Jeff and I wanted to have children. He wanted to have them RIGHT AWAY and I wanted to wait-after all I was only 23 when we got married.

Plans change. Surprises happen.

SURPRISE!! We found out that I was pregnant with Eleanore (yes, it's an old name get over it) in June of 2010, she was born February 2, 2011. She was named after my grandmother and her birthday was my grandfather's as well, such a coincidence!

We were happy-over the moon-elated-proud-excited-awestruck-and so many other things I can't think of right now. I was perfectly content with her being the only child, she was perfect who needed more?!?!

BUT THEN...9 months later, I start getting nauseous. I'm late. I'm overwhelming tired. CRAP.