Valentines Day 2010

Well, this Valentines Day was a bit unusual. I spent the two days before Valentines Day admitted to the hospital because my amniotic fluid was low. Lawson is not due until March 8th, but it looks like I won't make it that far. We aren't sure what is going on, but thankfully the baby is still growing and looks fine. The placenta on the other hand, looks like it is about finished (doing whatever it is that it does :). Luckily, the doctor discharged me from the hospital on Febuary 13th so I got to celebrate Valentines with my 2 favorite boys (but she has put me on strict bedrest for the rest of the pregnancy.)



SO....there went our Valentines Day date plans! But making the best of it, Andrew picked up Carrabbas to-go and the 3 of us had a nice "family dinner date." Nothing could be sweeter than the sound of Lincoln running in the door, clutching a big bouquet of flowers and yelling "mommy - happy valentines mommy --here are some flowers!!" I feel so blessed to have two wonderful guys to celebrate with! It was a perfect day.

Preparing for Lawson

Wow...how time has flown with this 2nd pregnancy! I think Lincoln's nursery was ready 3 months early, and by January and we still hadn't bought a crib for Lawson! We have been so busy lately, and I find myself procrastinating. Maybe it's because I'm not nervous about having another baby - we are just thrilled and excited. Or, maybe it's because I realize that the baby won't even know where is he (or if his nursery is ready) for the first few months.

Finally, however, we bought furniture and my parents helped us put it together one weekend in January. I'm not due until March 17th (the C-section will occur on March 8th), but it will make me feel better to have the nursery completed by then, all the baby clothing washed and ready to go, etc. The theme is cute and is something that will hopefully grow with Lawson - potterybarn pirate ship bedding, and my mom made coordinated crib bedding. (Lincoln has decided that he now wants a pirate room...but we told him he is welcome to play in Lawson's room anytime. His room is staying themed as "safari" for quite a while.)

Here are some photos of us getting the nursery ready:

(Well, this photo actually shows Dad putting Linc's hut back together in his room (it had been disassembled since our move several months before.)

Me, almost 8 months pregnant.

Lawson's dresser came from Ikea...not the easiest assembly instructions to follow. Mom and I spent quite a while trying to figure it all out!

Linc enjoyed "helping" (sometimes playing with real tools, or when we needed to use them, he'd run and get "his" (fake) tools from his tool set.

*As I am writing this post months later, to catch up on blogging, Lawson surprised us and arrived 5 weeks early. The nursery wasn't quite complete when he was born, but my mom came to Houston and made the crib bedding during those first few weeks. It turned out great! Moms are simply the best :)

Christmas 2009

We celebrated Christmas multiple time this year - first in Houston, just the 3 of us. Then, we went to Michigan. In January my parents came to Houston for a "3rd" Christmas (I'll post pictures of that later.) Lincoln will probably grow up thinking it's normal to celebrate several times, but as I adore Christmas time, I say the more times we celebrate, the better!! :) It was really fun to have a White Christmas up north, to be able to visit with both families, and enjoy our last holiday as a "family of 3" before our sweet baby is born.

Christmas in Houston

Before we left we did our own family Christmas at home as we've done the past few years. But instead of picking up dinner, or cooking (in the past we've done We went out to dinner, then came back to open gifts. Lincoln got a tool set (his favorite gift) some bath toys, a foam sword (Yes, I only bought one...being a girl, it did not occur to me to buy 2, so he could sword fight with someone. Andrew immediately caught this disparity, but since Christmas I have been unable to find another one. I'll keep looking :) The funniest part, however, was that a few weeks earlier Linc had seen "Spike Jr. Dinosaur" on display at Target and declared that he really wanted one. It walked, roared, laughed, etc. (He's been very into Dinos lately.) I then did something I swore I'd never do - I became that parent who tried to track down "the it toy" for Christmas. Of course, every store was sold out by this time. But on a 3rd round of calls (yes, I spent a whole day at work not billing, trying to find this silly dinosaur) I struck gold at a Toys R Us. They had one returned! So I leave work early to rush over there and buy it. I got caught in a freak rain storm and spent 1 1/2 hrs on the highway attempting to get home, due to traffic accidents. BUT STILL, I HAD TRIUMPHED. As I glowered in traffic I glanced at Spike and felt justified - Lincoln would be so excited! I couldn't wait for him to open it. So, imagine my surprise when Lincoln opened Spike, we got him out of the box and turned him on, and Lincoln burst into tears. He leapt into Andrew's lap yelling "no, no, no, scary. Put him back." Humph. As I write this entry (3 months later) Spike is still sitting on a shelf, barely played with.

Christmas in Michigan

We had a fun, busy trip up North. We spent time in Battle Creek and Grand Rapids, saw tons of family, and loved watching all the little cousins play together. We especially loved watching Linc interact with all of his cousins. (Lincoln thought Gaines was the coolest person on earth and also enjoyed playing with Ana, Maddux, Mya, Braylon, Riley, Carter, and Morgan.) They all kept us laughing! Linc and Ana both loved to dance, and turn on every single Hallmark Christmas toy that made noise in Grandma and Grampa's house (and they had several...by the end of our visit, all the adults were a little sick and tired of hearing "Frosty the Snowman" or "Grandma got run over by a reindeer." But not the kiddos! The 110th time was just as hilarious as the 10th.) They loved playing with all of the toys down in the basement, and even tried their hand at baseball on the Wii (Gaines was old enough to begin to get it...Lincoln just liked to swing the controller around :) Andrew, Lincoln, Gaines, Ana, Shawna, Will, Steve and Brandon also went sledding. Lincoln thought the sledding part was fun, but didn't like falling in the snow. Gaines and Ana, however, were ALL OVER IT. They all looked so cute bundled up.

Here are some pictures that captured our trip -

The last Christmas morning just the three of us!

"GG" bought all the great-grandkids matching Christmas outfits...and we managed to get all of them in one photo (but not all looking at the camera, of course!) (Except Maeley, who was in Georgia with her other grandparents.)
And on the Leeser side (minus Maeley):
Love my "sista" Shawna!


Linc with his great grandpa Leeser (86):

Linc and Gaines - Best Buddies!
We love Uncle Brandon! (Next Christmas, Brandon will be deployed in Iraq, so it was especially good to be able to spend this holiday with him.)

And...sledding!

This was also the first year that Linc started to understand some Christmas traditions. We had not talked much about Santa, figuring that he was still a bit young to care. But boy were we wrong; apparently they talked A LOT about Santa at his school. On Christmas Eve, as he was going to bed, Lincoln asked "Santa will come because I've been a good boy? Will I get presents?" When we assured him that was correct he said "Good - because I want a reindeer." We tried to explain that Santa didn't leave reindeer under the tree, but he wasn't disuaded. He then declared that we should go to the North Pole to "visit the deer" like "Pooh and Piglet did." (A Winnie the Pooh Christmas special had aired recently, stoking this desire :)

"2nd Christmas" in Houston

In early January, Grandma and PJ came to visit and have Christmas with Lincoln. By this time, he was a pro opening gifts. He loved his Melissa and Doug puzzles, playdough set, and set of fake food and a knife that he could cut. (who knew that slicing wooden zucchinis and loaves of bread could be so exciting to a toddler? But it was!) It was a great visit. Mom and Dad were also very helpful getting the nursery ready for Lawson's arrival - but that will be another post!

Basketball shorts...

Lately, Lincoln has one outfit of choice - "basketball shorts" (any athletic shorts, similar to those his daddy wears) and a t-shirt. Regardless of the fact that it's cold outside, or that he's worn them every day for a week (yes, I wash them in between wearings...and have bought more pairs) and he seems to think that this is an appropriate outfit for any occassion. It's hilarious. Every day, he begs to wear them to school (he can't, since it's winter) and every day when I pick him up says "go home and put on basketball shorts, mom?" It's like his "home uniform." His latest favorite is a pair of black Nike mesh shorts, but they are a bit big...he looks like he's playing basketball in the hood, sagging the shorts to his calves.

Super hero fun - the latest clothing obsession

When my mom was here after Lawson's birth, she bought Lincoln a set of Superman pajamas (yep, the cute kind with the cape.) He went crazy over them - for a solid week, all that he wanted to wear. We had to pry them off of him to wash them. I caved and just let him wear them to the park, the mall, and on errands (you're only 2 once, right?) and it was pretty cute. My mom decided to buy him "a spare" and Lincoln chose Batman. (Keep in mind, I don't think he really understands who Batman or Superman really are; he's never seen the cartoons or movies...but the fact that they have a cape is all the info the boy needs.)

One day while my parents were in town, Linc decided that he wanted to wear his Superman pajamas to the park. Why not? You're only 2 once...

I have decided that I absolutely adore this age - there is nothing more precious than little boys!

Baking with Lincoln

Over the past few months, Lincoln has been so much fun in the kitchen. He LOVES to help bake (especially cupcakes and muffins.) His favorite part is to crack the eggs (this often leads to me fishing egg shell out of the muffin mix, but oh well) and to watch the Kitchen Aid mix it all together. He's a joy!

Halloween 2009

This year at Halloween, Lincoln cried a little less when he wore his costume. He was Curious George (yes, that's right - the little monkey that is supposedly always happy. No so much.)

We actually had 3 chances to wear the Halloween costume, and went 1 for 3.

The first was his parade and carnival at school. It did not go well. As his class rounded the corner in the parade we could tell that Lincoln was on the verge of tears....as soon as he saw us, he broke rank and ran straight for Andrew sobbing.

The second was trick or treating in our neighborhood. Linc actually got really into this - as soon as the first trick or treaters came to our door, he decided that maybe going to get his own candy was a good idea :) Andrew took him down one side of our block, and then I did the other. He was precious. When he would go to the door sometimes he would remember to say "Trick or Treat" - but other times he would say "Candy, please?" At least he always said "Thank you." It was fun.

The third "costume opportunity" occurred the next night at our church's Family Fest. It, too, did not go well. Linc was totally over Halloweedn - he refused to wear his monkey mask (so he looked like a monk in a brown jumpsuit) and refused to smile or play games, and instead just held out his candy bucket and frowning until people gave him candy. He kept asking to "go home now" and informed everyone at the carnival that "he was sad." So he and I left early. Maybe next year!