William Wednesday

Tuesday nights we have our D group in Monterey so, when possible, we like to go down to the farmers market for a little while until it's time for group. We don't usually get anything that really required us to be there, it's just fun to walk around, grab little snacks, taste fresh produce...and in the instance when we need something we grab it.

Yesterday we were walking down the street eating our snacks when William stopped at a jewelry booth. He said 'mommy these earrings are beautiful! I want to buy you some you need some new earrings'

I thought it was the sweetest thing and said 'that's so sweet bear! Do you have any money?' 

'No, but dada does!' As he reaches for his wallet. 

Charm and brains. Where did he come from?

Quick quote

I decided since I don't have time or material (ok just time) for a long post I'd do a quick quote for the day.

The day was Sunday FYI.

Austin was in William's kids church class, which William loved. The lesson was prayer and praying for other people so Austin asked the kids if they had siblings. When it came to William this was his response:

I have a brother, Charles archer. One day I want quintuplet-brothers!

Whoa.

Real

I'm going to be real for just a minute. That's not to say I'm not real all of the time, but sometimes my honesty is found more in my silence than in my words. For example, I've been told by a handful of people that I don't talk much about being pregnant. Some assume this is due to it being #2 but generally people just think I'm being seclusive. Really it's neither. Haven't you ever heard, 'my mama always told me if you don't have something nice to say it's better to say nothing at all?'

Ok, That's a bit of a stretch, but not much. 

To be frank, I am not very much enjoying my pregnancy. There. I said it, in all it's ugly honesty. I feel very guilty about this for a few reasons. First and foremost, I wanted this more than I've ever wanted anything in my life. So to not be enjoying it seems to be greedy and ungrateful and just wrong. Second, for 30 weeks I loved being pregnant with William. I say 30 weeks because up until I was put on bed rest it was a cake walk. Morning sickness? Aches and pains? Food aversions? Mood swings? What in the world are people even talking about? I went about my life as if the only things that changed were my luscious hair, blemish free skin, and small little bump. Once I was on bed rest I did experience some pain and frustration but it was minimal, and the end was so close I could taste it. I loved being pregnant and thought for sure I could happily do it 3 or 4 times and keep a smile on my face.

And third, people talk about the miracle of pregnancy all of the time in the sense that you should be glowing and overjoyed and just over the moon with love and happiness.

That's not to say for one second I'm not over the moon with love. I absolutely am. And at almost 6 months I can finally start to see the end in sight - and it looks beautiful. I can almost close my eyes and imagine the sweet baby boy curled on my chest while I kiss his forehead. I'm absolutely in love with him and with the blessing of being his mom.

But being pregnant? Yeah, not so much. Not this time at least.

I hurt. All of the time, I hurt. My hips hurt, my back hurts, my pelvis hurts. It hurts most when I move - so yeah, all or the time.

I have heartburn. Forever. I have heartburn if I eat jalapeños and I have heartburn if I eat bread. I have found that it's much worse if I eat the following:

Spicy food

Mexican food

Red pasta sauce

Red onions

Chocolate

Cheese

So - yeah, my favorite foods. It's a difficult choice - minimize my pain (never eliminating it) or enjoy the food I'm eating? Tough call. I know I'll get it no matter what, so it's hard to really convince myself to curb my eating, though I probably should.

I'm huge. Huge is a relative term and I get that. I was smaller than my doctor wanted at this point in my first pregnancy so comparing isn't really fair, and I get that too. But I feel like I'm 8 months along, not 6. I have 3 more??? How? Where will it go? How is it that every other pregnant person in the world sports a cute little bump while I am growing a blue whale?

As you can see, I don't have a lot of nice things to say. I have a lot of griping. A lot of whining. And honestly, it just makes me mad how negative I am. As I type this, someone somewhere is crying because she just found out - one more month - that she's not pregnant. And here I am complaining about all of the things she'd give anything to experience. Ridiculous! 

I know we are all entitled to experience pregnancy in our own ways, and I know each pregnancy is different. I know that my physical misery right now is nothing compared to the joy I have for the blessing of baby boy #2. I know that 3-4 months from now I won't even remember what pelvic pain felt like, nor will I care. Even as I endure it I know it's worth it. It's worth it - a million times over.

But I don't like it. And I don't like that I don't like it. You with me?

So forgive me for not documenting my conversion into a whale. And forgive me for silently enduring the less than fun parts of pregnancy. And forgive me, please forgive me, for the pity party I just forced you to join in on. Please forgive me.

I am beyond thankful and beyond blessed, it's just not been the most pleasant path to the finish line. But that's ok, I'd do it all again - and likely will. So the complaining will be kept to a minimum.

And here you go. 

P.s. 23 weeks was clearly my prime. 

William Wednesday

Just a quick little story before I dive into tax for the day.

This morning William asked what day it is today. I told him it's Wednesday February 26th. He got excited because he knows he is going on a field trip to the post office today - he's so excited about it! After he realized its field trip day he added, 'we are almost done with February!'

Austin said 'after February is march, then April, then may, and then what happens after that?'

'MY BABY!!!'

Austin laughed and said 'yes your baby brother will be here in June!' 

'And then mommy will be small again!!!' Said my sweet precious son.

............................

Hopefully you've had an equally exciting morning :)

Where's the big city girl?

I spent 18 years in one of the largest cities in the nation. I also spent 6 years in Denver. It's not quite Houston but it's big.  That means I have spent 80% of my life as a big city girl. Big freeways, large shopping malls, traffic and congestion should all feel like home to me. When we first moved here I remember thinking, 'where is everything?' As I searched for food venues, shopping centers and other metropolitan type locations. Date nights even seemed gloomy with such limited options.

Apparently 2 years in a smaller area will wipe that completely clean.

This weekend I started to get a bit stir crazy and I interpreted that to mean I needed to get out of the Monterey peninsula region. It's small here and sometimes I just think I need to have a taste of the faster paced, bigger life.

No no no no no. In hindsight, my stir-craziness was most likely a result of spending my time couped up in the office, NOT a result of needing some big city air.

Yesterday William and I went to San Jose to go to the container store. SAN JOSE. It's not even a big city people! It was a long trip just for the container store but I thought I just needed to get out. Plus I'd travel almost any distance if the destination is the container store - that's a no brainer. 

I will say the 1.5 hours we spent in the store were quite heavnely. William was well enough behaved for me to go up and down every aisle and I got some fun little things for Charles's closet. Nothing big - I went for a $20 item and came out only spending $100, so I think it was a controlled success on my part. Plus it's just such a relaxing place!!!

However.

The 20 minutes it took for us to park - from the moment we entered the garage to the moment we walked out - plus the 30 minutes (and one near-rundown in the crosswalk by a cool guy in a muscle car) it took us to exit the parking garage nearly took away all of the zen the container store had provided. It was a complete madhouse.

Poor William knows nothng of that kind of traffic. As we were trying to get back on the freeway he said 'mommy the light is green we are supposed to be moving' -- yes sweet dear small city child, I know. But sometimes you sit still through a few rounds of a green light for no apparent reason. 

Then when we were about 20 minutes from home William said, 'mommy we have been gone a long time. I'm homesick for Monterey'. 

I'm not sure where the journey of life will take us next. but if it's anywhere bigger than this quiet little 50,000ish peninsular region, I'm gonna guess it is going to be quite the culture shock. For all of us.

Bring on the anxiety - and bring on the tequila!

My Royal Family

 I promise I'm not obsessed with the royal family, but it's hard to deny I'm practically related. Out of respect for Aunt Joy I won't publicly share how we are (err, may be) direct descendants of the British Royal Family, so let's just say there is a high possibility. To know I have some direct royal lineage is cool enough. Add to that the fact that some refer to me as Texas Royalty (you know you're jealous) and I'm practically a queen. Which makes my boys princes right?

We already have Prince William, born shortly before the royal wedding which brought a lot of publicity to his name. So now it's only fitting that we'd dub another Wallis a prince don't you think?

Let me introduce to you - a few months in advance - Prince Charles Archer Wallis

That's right folks, our unnamed baby now has a name! I was so worried We'd have to read the doctor's name tag at the hospital to frantically pick a name but we finally decided on one.

William hadn't quite let go of Archie. Well, he hadn't let go at all actually. And we were at a stand still on a few names which had pros and cons. Bottom line Austin and I couldn't agree, and William was absolutely certain it was Archie. This was a problem. 

We had already put Charles on the table as it is Austin's middle name and we both liked it, but we weren't sure. Then a few things happened. First a coworker made a joke that we could have two princes. The joke was funny, but more than that I liked that the random suggestion was one we had already been debating and she had no idea. Then one day we were talking on the phone to oh gosh and William called the baby Archie. Oh gosh said 'what about Charles? Or Charlie?' I let William react and at first he wasn't sold, but later that night he said 'let's read books in Charles Archie's room'. I texted Brian to ask where he got Charles and he said 'I don't know, just kind of liked it. And isn't it Austin's middle name anyway?' I explained that it is, and it was currently one of our front runners.

We hadn't sealed it off as a done deal but for the next couple of weeks William would occasionally just call the baby Charles or Charles Archie. We were both growing more and more fond of it, and also realized the longer it went the harder it'd be to change William's mind. So, when Austin was in Texas I tried to sell our other top 2 names to William and he wasn't having any of it. He just kept saying 'no he's Charles'. So I said 'ok how about Charles Archer?' He got VERY excited and kept repeating 'my baby brothers name is Charles archer!'

So, we made a video and sent it to Austin with a caption that read 'I think we have a name' he replied 'I love it!' And that was that.

William is SO excited for Charles to get here, and so excited about his name. He got some practice this weekend and if you ask me, he looks like he's in heaven.

P.s. If we have a third boy I promise his name won't be Harry.

Happy valentines day!

William and I made cards for dada last weekend while he was in Texas. William designed his own a he wanted to make a circle book, so he picked colors and I cut them into different sized circles. After the pieces were all finished I poked holes and connected the pages with a cute brad so it is a little love book, as he calls it. Then he added some stickers for decoration. William impressed me with his writing. I didn't help him write any of these letters, I just told him how to spell LOVE. I planned to tell him how to spell YOU but he wrote a U before I could tell him, so I left it alone. Too cute!

Oh and if you're confused on the spelling of his name, apparently the M is 'eating all of the other letters' - I personally love it :)

Hope you have a very happy Valentine's day!