a birthday

Thank you all so much for your comments on the pregnancy. It feels very, very strange that people know so early this time and I continue to ask you to send good thoughts our way. I have yet to call a doctor or a midwife (but have shared it with the internet - ahhhh responsible parenting at its finest!), but have promised Karl that I will do so within the next 24 hours. At this point, I intend to call our midwife from Nate's birth and we are tentatively planning to see her only. Midwives in Arkansas do not have hospital privileges so that tentatively means we are planning a homebirth. I use the word tentative b/c there is no way that I can know what kind of pregnancy this will be and we all know plans like those can change, yes? Yes. To answer your BURNING "how are you feeling" question, I feel great. A little tired, a little nauseous here and there, but great overall. I'm definitely one of those super-annoying people who enjoys being pregnant even when vomiting up breakfast, lunch and dinner. I haven't really decided HOW to share this pregnancy on the blog. Last time, I did size comparison and belly pictures week by week. Again? Too much? We'll see how it flows?

Our little family of 3 (3.25?) headed to Tulsa this weekend to celebrate a first birthday. Specifically, this guys:

Karl took Friday off work and we thought we'd get in the car around Nate's naptime. I was so excited to leave early because generally a weekend out of town doesn't start until the 5pm Friday hour and then we get there LATE! and then Nate is AWAKE! and all thrown out of whack and it's not that fun trying to put him back down in a strange place.

Cue Friday morning and a whiny, fussing, getting over croup-still-on-steroids-so-whiny-yet-hyper toddler. We packed amidst pleas of "watch Cars" (the movie) and "waffle please" and more mutterings and whining and tears. (Did I mention the whining?) We wound up getting in the car early praying Nate would sleep (based on the maybe six or seven hours he got the previous evening). It didn't really pan out and he woke after an hour crankier than before. We were about two hours into a four hour drive and we seriously considered turning back around. It was all very "I'll TURN THIS CAR AROUND" dramatic. (I swear to God the medicine he was taking is the devil. It made him hyper. and sleepless. He was superhuman in his sleeplessness!)

The whole weekend for Nate was really a pretty big mess and we felt super guilty b/c we know he wasn't feeling normal and he certainly was showing all the parents of soon-to-be-toddlers what they have to look forward to! The hour the party started he ASKED to "go night-night" and he slept through the whole party. (Which, in all honestly, was more enjoyable for both Karl and myself. I'd much rather him sleep than WHINE. GOD THE WHINING.) (and GAH the guilt of not staying home! We really thought he was more on the mend than he was.)

On the whole, I'm glad that we went and were able to celebrate. In addition to the party, we shared meals and laughs with many of our favorite friends. It's hard to realize that the trips are becoming more strenuous the more our families expand. It's also hilarious that we now go to bed at 10 p.m. even out of town.

Jenny worked so hard on this party and it was absolutely WONDERFUL. If you are ever in need of a theme for a baby party, I highly recommend the Alphabet route. So many adorable decorations. The fence letters might be my favorite part. You can see them in the background of this shot: (There were also ABC cookies, ABC crayon molds, ABC fabric for the tableclothes, sandwiches in the ABC shape, and oh-so-much more. Seriously, it was amazing.)

Oh and don't forget your party mustache (created by Maddox's Aunt Miya). Everyone got one and they made me REAL happy: