LIfe Updates

First of all I want to thank everyone that commented and reached out after my last post. It was very comforting hearing all of your kind words and best wishes. The past couple months have definitely had their ups and downs and admittedly I've been quite a funk of just not really having much motivation to do anything. The time of year, right after the holidays, along with the depressing winter weather and seemingly constant sickness that we've dealt with hasn't helped my mood much either.

But slowly and surely I seem to be coming out of it. The longer days and steadily increasing temperatures are definitely helping. And despite dealing with the loss I had in December and my yearly case of winter blues I did have quite a few fun and happy moments over the last couple of months. 

In January we took Hunter to his first Monster Truck Jam. Hunter has been OBSESSED with Monster trucks for close to a year and even watches videos on YouTube so when we saw one was coming to DC we knew we HAD to take him. And he had a great time, though admittedly I think Kristian had even more fun. He did get a bit scared at one point when he took of his headphones and realized how loud those trucks actually are. 

Kristian and I also had a very nice date night courtesy of my company's belated Holiday dinner/party at The Capital Grille which is a very nice restaurant with amazing food. We had such a wonderful night full of good food and lots of laughs with my coworkers. 

In February we celebrated Valentines Day with a nice, quiet evening at home. We dropped Hunter off at my mom's house for his first solo overnight visit and they both had a blast. Not having him home made the house very quiet and bit a strange but it was also nice to be able to sleep in the next morning. 

We've had quite a few snowstorms this winter which has thrilled Hunter. He just loves the snow and could stay out playing for hours. I actually didn't mind the few snow days I had home with him either. 

Easily the highlight of the past two months was the birth of my new niece!! Miss Violet Christine was born on March 5th, five days past her due date and the day after her daddy's birthday, during a snowstorm! We all had a feeling once we saw the weather forecast that's when she would decide to arrive and we were right. Luckily they made it to the hospital safely and she arrived about 5 hours later. My brother and sister-in-law didn't know the sex but we were all thrilled to find out they had a little girl who is named after my grandmother (Violet) and her mommy's middle name (Christine). The best part is they live right up the street from me so I've been able to get baby snuggles often.

Hunter was so excited to meet his baby cousin the day after she was born. He did so well and was very gentle with her. It was a bit surreal being back in the hospital where he was born now three years later. In fact they were in the room right across the hall from mine. 

In other big milestone news, Hunter had his first dentist appointment on St. Patrick's Day (the practice we took him too doesn't take patients under 3) and he did AWESOME! I was so proud of how brave he was. He didn't cry or get scared, in fact he seemed to really enjoy the whole process. It helped having one of our friends as his dental hygentist, oh and the treasure chest at the end of the appointment may have helped a bit as well!

We don't have any major plans or events coming up in the next couple of months and to be honest I'm really happy about that. Right now I really just want to focus on quality family time and spending as much time with Hunter as I can, he's growing up so fast and I really want to enjoy this time with him since I'm still hoping to one day add a little brother or sister to mix. 

Loss

Two weeks ago, the day before Hunters 3rd birthday I miscarried our second child. It was a heartbreaking loss that came only a couple weeks after finding out I was pregnant and after about 7 months of trying to get pregnant. It happened naturally while I was at home and later confirmed at the hospital. It was only a few days earlier that we had excitedly shared the news with our immediate family for Christmas. The timing was a bit of a punch in the gut (not that there is ever a good time for this sort of thing), because exactly 3 years earlier we had been heading to the same hospital to start the process of having a baby and here we were 3 years later on the same night, going to the same hospital to confirm the loss of another. I could have waited until the next day to confirm at my doctors office but I refused to get bad news on Hunters birthday. I didn't want this to in anyway tarnish his special day.

While this loss as been hard we are trying to stay positive. At least I was able to get pregnant again, which for a while I had worried wouldn't happen.  And as far as miscarriages go, if you are going to have one this was probably the best scenario for it to happen in....I was at home (on vacation from work), it happened early (before we had told EVERYONE) and it happened naturally (no surgery needed). The doctor also didn't see any reason why we couldn't try again. So we will...try again...and hopefully we will get some happy news again soon and bring home another healthy baby. And if not, we are still incredibly blessed to have our amazing son who has brought us both so much joy and comfort through this whole process. We have also grown so much closer as a couple, my husband as been truly amazing the last few weeks and I couldn't be more grateful.

Three

On Dec. 30th Hunter turned 3 years old! It's still amazing to me that I have a 3 year old, he's no longer a toddler but a full fledged pre-schooler who seems even older than his age. We had his 3 year check up yesterday and he did amazing, unlike last year where he cried the entire time, this year he smiled and talked to the doctor and performed all the tests without any issues. He's perfectly healthy and now weighs 38 lbs and is 38.5" tall, our perfect 38/38. He's grown 3.5" in the last year which his doctor said is on the high side. It doesn't surprise me since he's bigger than most of the kids his age at school.

I really loved the age of 2, it was far from "terrible" that is typically associated with that age. Hunter really grew into such a wonderful, sweet, funny, smart little boy. His communication and reasoning skills amaze everyone that knows him and they all insist that he seems much older. I just love our conversations and seeing his imagination in action when he's playing. And he's funny. Really, really funny! This kid is a total comedian and we're convinced he's the future class clown. His goal in life is making people laugh and he does a great job of it.

Hunter is a total mama's boy, he's constantly offering up hugs and kisses and telling me that I'm pretty and that he loves me. Total heart melter. He also insist that I put him to bed or comfort him when he's sad which is sweet but exhausting at times. With all that said he does adore his daddy, they are always having little adventures and he's pretty much a mini version of Kristian personality-wise.

This was a big year for Hunter developmentally with the biggest change being that he is now potty-trained!!! Starting right at 2 1/2 he began using the potty at home (he had been using it at school for a few months prior) and within a couple weeks was fully day trained and in underwear with very few accidents. A couple months back we even began putting him in underwear during nap time and he did great. Now he's only in pull ups at night and sometimes he will wake up and tell me if he needs to go but he still has a wet pull up every morning so we are far from being 100% in underwear.

In November we finally transitioned him to a "big boy" bed ... converted his crib to a toddler bed. Hunter never tried to climb out of his crib and slept great in it, he even said he didn't want a big boy bed whenever we would ask him. But finally, on Thanksgiving weekend we bit the bullet and changed it over, surprisingly he LOVED his "new" bed. What he didn't love and what was a harder transition was getting rid of the paci which we did at the same time. He only used it for naps and bedtime but it definitely helped him sleep and taking it away was tough on all of us. For a good month he continued to ask for it and even now if he wakes up in the middle of night it's much harder to get him back to sleep. He has started having bad dreams and insisting there are monsters in his room so sleep hasn't been that great. He has also slowly begun to give up naps, much to my disappointment #napsforlife.

For his birthday this year I skipped the big birthday party at home and went the easy route of having his party at a local bounce house play place.... all I had to bring were the goody bags and juice boxes and his Aunt Melissa made and brought his cake. The bounce house place did everything else, including providing the food and drinks and all for far less than I normally spend on home parties so it was a win all the way around. Oh and he had a BLAST!

Hunter continues to bring us so much joy, I couldn't ask for a better little boy. He is the absolute light of our life and we are so thankful for him.

Last Day as a 2 year old!

Happy Birthday! 12/30/14