When Summer Came Early

Has this been a crazy March or what?! We've had record highs and though it's been great to get outside, it was sort of confusing. Little Charlotte had nothing to wear because most of her summer clothes are a size up and on top of that, she only had two outfits that were for hot weather. We didn't have just two or three days of this hot (I'm talking 80+ degrees!) weather, we had something like 10 days.

We had lots of fun during our sample summer, so I thought I'd share some pics!

45 minutes of fun! Learned my lesson though - splat mat = slip-n-slide when water is added. (duh)



 


My little cutie



Shouting at the birds



That dog gone hat is always covering her face




This is actually a shirt. Works as a dress too!



Who needs fancy toys?

We thought we could do a diaper day in the heat, but the stinker figured out how to take it off.

Pregnancy Cravings - Fact or Myth?

I could make myself believe that cravings during pregnancy are just an excuse for women to be all crazy bananas and make their husbands go on a quest until they find that perfect treat to satisfy the craving.

I mean, I crave things when I'm not pregnant, as I'm sure most people do. But it's kind of easy to get over. Let's say you really want a greasy cheeseburger from Culver's (holy crap, Culver's is so good. I feel so bad for anyone who has never had it.) But then you talk yourself out of it. You know it's not that good for you, so you make yourself order a small salad. And you survive. You are full, you feel good about yourself, and you pat yourself on the back for resisting the urge.

But with pregnancy, or at least in my case, I will attempt to talk myself out of eating junky food. I prepare vegetables or order salads. And I proceed to gag and stifle the vomit. I don't really have much in the way of morning sickness, but good golly, as soon as I eat a vegetable, it's gag city, chick.
So back to the whole cravings "myth" - I want lemonade ALL THE TIME. It has to be the real kind. Preferably made with cane sugar and no high fructose corn syrup. If it's strawberry lemonade (with real strawberries) omg, even better. And here's the thing: I don't like lemonade. I like a good Arnold Palmer on occassion, and maybe a lemonade cocktail...but I never ever ever want lemonade. I normally try to avoid drinking my calories, and the urge to consume barrels of lemonade makes that difficult. I've tried just doing the water with lots of lemon thing, but that's b.s. Worst idea I've ever had. Oh, and sugar substitutes just will not work. I try to avoid them anyway, and that's going to really screw up my dreamy, tart, lemonade.
Must be real lemonade. My mouth waters. And I never even liked the stuff to begin with. SO weird.

I haven't noticed too many other cravings besides things like fruit, which I'll take! And today strawberry pie sounded like the bomb and I don't like pie.

Did you have any cravings that you knew were different from just wanting something you always want anyway? And better yet, pica? I'd love to hear a story about how you crave non-food. Fascinating...

And also if you have a recipe for some bomb ass lemonade, please share it with me, before I go broke on my mission to find my favorite.

A Word About Las Vegas

About 6 weeks ago I crammed a carry on with mini dresses covered in sequins, sky high pumps, and false eyelashes. We had our trip planned for weeks and we were so looking forward to getting away! We would take a break from our parental duties, stay up late, win some money, indulge in cocktails-a-plenty.
A good time always awaits us in Las Vegas.
The day before our trip I thought...hm...pretty sure I was supposed to have a *certain* visitor by now. But the last few months it's been quite screwy, so I really wasn't all that concerned. (I'm talking about my period, dummies.) So, just for some peace of mind, I thought I should probably take a pregnancy test before we left on our trip. I knew it would be negative, but I knew I wouldn't enjoy my trip to the fullest if there was any doubt. Even though my purse never has a pen, and my diaper bag never has wipes, I seem to always have a pregnancy test on hand.

And wouldn't you know it. It was positive.
Or a big fat positive as they say in the baby making biz.

While thinking in terms of the long term future, I was absolutely thrilled! But it's my short-term response that made me feel guilty. I think it went something like this: Holy SH*T. (I had a toddler sleeping, I didn't want her to hear me swear.) We were getting on a plane in just over 24 hours with our siblings who really know how to have a good time. I didn't want to ruin their fun!

And while I've had day dreams about the adorable way I would tell my husband our wonderful news of expanding our family, maybe "Juno" style where I arrange a big chair in the front yard and chew on a pipe before I tell him the news. Or maybe like Aunt Becky and Uncle Jesse from Full House where Becky makes Jesse baby carrots, babyback ribs, and baby got back. Wait...that's not right.
The only thing I could manage to do was call him. It wasn't cute, it wasn't well executed, it was what it was.

"I'm pregnant."
It was awkward and abrupt.

It hadn't set in yet and we didn't know what to think. Adding more children to our family has always been our plan, it just happened sooner, and easier, that we would have ever planned.

But now that the dust has settled (and honestly, it settled about 30 minutes after I found out), it feels really good. I am happy, feel oddly at peace considering the chaos that is about to ensue in a few short months, and simply exhausted. And I love it.

Here we go!!!!