Cute little bunnies.

We survived Charlie's first road trip! For Easter, we went down to Atlanta to spend the weekend with Aunt Carly and half of the grandparents. Charlie did great! He and Hanker shared the back seat. Somehow we managed to cram all of our crap, Charlie's crap, Hank's crap, and ourselves in the car somehow. I'm still not sure how we fit all that into my sedan and still had room to breathe.

Since we're establishing a pictorial pattern here, I give you... Easter.

 

  The scariest mall bunny I've ever seen...

 

 Concentration. 

  

Road trip buddies!

 

 Cutie.

 Our first attempt at a basket. I think we did well. 

 We also celebrated my birthday. SJ was sweet enough to help me blow out my candles. 

 Someday his newborn clothes will fit. Sadly, that day is not today.

 Charlie and Meme both waving during the Easter egg hunt. 

Two sleep deprived parents. Yay for sunglasses.

Baby Gear.

As I stated yesterday, we're getting closer!! I don't remember if I've said this or not lately, but I feel wholly unprepared for this child. We have tons of crap, but I still don't feel like it's enough. I know, I know. I'm trying to think of this as if I were preparing for a vacation... whatever I don't have yet, I'll buy later when I need it.

We got in our car seat. Yay! I went with UppaBaby Mesa, mainly because it's so light and easy to use, or at least it was in BuyBuyBaby when Michael demonstrated for me. With my body issues, I needed something that was super safe, but didn't weigh a ton. With adapters, we can use it with our Baby Jogger City Mini, which I can't wait to use.

Tonight I've been researching baby carriers. I've narrowed it down. I think. We're going to start with a Boba wrap, and then move to a Tula carrier once he hits 15lbs. I could get a Tula to use now, but then I'd have to buy a newborn insert and that's $40 additional dollars I'm not interested in putting into this situation. So. Boba for now and Tula for later.

Our diaper bag will be here tomorrow. I went with a Pottery Barn one, mainly because it's cute and has lots of pockets and storage options. I'm ready to pack it for the hospital! I've also been working on collecting all the crap I'll need for my hospital bag. Gah. I'm going to feel like we're moving in to Presby, which I guess, we will be for a few days.

The only major thing we're still needing is a crib mattress. Or at least I think that's all we need. And we don't need that immediately, because he'll be sleeping in the pack n play in our room for the first few weeks.

It's just so hard to know how many of what you'll need. How many newborn outfits/diapers? How many swaddle blankets and sleep saks? How many paci's and what kind of bottles? Which formula to use as a back up when/if breastfeeding doesn't work? Do we use a video monitor or only an audio one? GAH.

Clearly, Hank is just as excited about our car seast as we are .

Oh baby!

So. It's been a long week. I've puked all over town, fallen asleep at work, and heard the baby's heartbeat. HOLY CRAP.

I had my first official doctors appointment on Thursday. It took me approximately 45 minutes to pee in a cup. Yep. Talk about a shy bladder. Once I FINALLY squeezed out some urine, they immediately took me back to the room with a big CONGRATS! My doctor came in beaming, so excited, and ready to chat. We talked through all the, what I assume to be normal, things. Symptoms. Problems. Expectations.

They were able to squeeze us in with the sonographer too, so we were able to see and hear the baby that same day. Puking the last 5 weeks, being so tired I can't hold my head up, hearing the doc say congrats did not feel real. As soon as I heard the heartbeat, it was there. Real. Actual. And boy, did the tears start falling. Even sweet Bob teared up a little. The sonographer printed some pictures for us, and then I went out to do the pre-screening blood tests for genetic disorders. They haven't taken that much blood from me since the mysterious elbow incident of 2010.

So anyway. We have a baby. Growing and making it's Mama super crazy sick. Hank also seems to be aware of it's presence. He's now resting his head on my belly when we sit together, and it's super sweet.

For now, meet our March baby!

Sappy Saturday.

Some days I realize just how lucky I am. Usually these are days when Bob is home. This morning, we walked Hank down to the waffle shop in our neighborhood, sat outside, and had a lovely breakfast.

This past week was our two year first-date-iversary. At this point, we've known each other for 11 years. We've been "together" for two, married for a little over one. We spent the week together, doing all the things we love.

When I stop to think about what we have with each other, I still get weepy. Sad, I know. We both acknowledge our joint sappiness frequently.

You always hear people say, "I married my best friend." They start dating and then become best friends. We became best friends and then got married. We truly have the very best of both worlds. Finally.

This concludes this edition of Sappy Saturday. 

Evolution of a dog's name: Hank.

Hank the Tank
Hanker the Tanker
Honker Tonker
Honkey

No. The irony is not lost on me. We have a black dog that we call honkey. 

Which brings me to my favorite line in a current song, "Damn! That's a cold ass honkey."

Hanker's new hairdo.

Hank the Tank got his first big boy haircut this morning. He looks so skinny now!

The ladies said he was a good boy and played well with all the other doggies. They kept him around 3 hours, during which time I went and purchased him a horse stall. I mean, a large size crate. He outgrew his "intermediate" one, so we went up a size. And it's freaking gigantor. Good thing we're building a bigger house... the new one barely fits in our living room!

Bark Box!

So, ya'll know Hank is spoiled, right? Well, now it's official. I don't remember where I saw it, but I came across Bark Box. It's a monthly treat box for super rotten doggies. Our very first one came in the mail today. We just did one month as a trial to see how we'd like it. Since the Hanker loves it, we'll be ordering again. Maybe monthly. But don't tell Bob... I'll be using my newly acquired paycheck and not future house funds. Maybe.

Checking out the box.

The goods: A stuffed bone and rat (which is already minus one ear), a sample container of poop bags, and two bags of all natural treats,  

Feel Good Treats Classic Ranch Bars and Perfect Peanut Butter Little Eatz.

"Is all this really for me, Mom?"

Sniffing it out to make sure it's all legit.

Already bestest friends with his new rat, Ralphie. As you can see, Ruby the puppy dog, and Daisy the cow have fallen by the wayside. Ralphie is now king. 

(And yes, we name all his toys, and yes, he knows their names.)

 

Like them on facebook or visit their website. They have a coupon right now for $10 off your first box. So for just $19, your princess pup can get all this! Hard to beat!

Valentine's Day.

So I typically don't celebrate Valentine's Day. I don't protest it or have anything against society as they celebrate. My Mamaw died on February 13 a few years ago, and I had to go pick out the flowers for her funeral on Valentine's Day. Soooo. This date is usually just a sad reminder...

Knowing how Bob likes to celebrate every conceivable holiday, I participated this year and I was excited to do it for him. I struggled on what to get him, and finally decided on a man bouquet, thanks to Pinterest. His "bouquet" had duck tape, hot sauce, airplane liquor bottles, beef jerky, Big League Chew, some valentines candy, cigars, some Grizzly (to encourage his bad habit), and sock monkey.

Tangent time: So sock monkey's have kinda become our thing. I'm too lazy to see if I even explained Monkeytoes previously on this blog. When we sleep or cuddle, we grasp each others big toes with our big toes and kinda link them together. Anyway, that's where monkeytoes comes from. For his last deployment, I bought a mini baby sock monkey (nicknamed Don Juan), sprayed a shit ton of my perfume on him, and put him in a plastic bag.  So DJ went to Afghanistan, came home, and now lives in my office. ANYWAY.

He and the fuzzy butts got me candy, lily's, which are one of my fave flowers, and some Nook gift cards. It was perfect. We stayed home last night and cooked dinner. He grilled steaks and I made bang bang shrimp and we had some cheddar stuffed potatoes from the deli. After dinner, we just watched movies. It was awesome.

The fuzzy butts got involved in Valentine's day too. Here's the card they sent to their Grandma, their MP, and Bob. Oh and all of facebook, of course.

 

 

Professional Job Hunter.

So. Since I've been in Charlotte, I won't tell you how many jobs I've applied for, mainly because I haven't kept count. Lately, I've felt like a professional interviewee. I've been to several interviews with no job offer following (not counting the sub position, which technically I never really interviewed for... I just knew the right person).

Today, I had another interview. For my all time dream job. The job that I've been searching for since I left college and a job for which no one else would be more perfect. And it went really really well. I'm trying not to get too excited, because I've been here before. Sitting in front of a job that I thought I wanted, that I thought I'd be perfect for, that I thought I had in the bag. Only to get a rejection.

So. Please think happy, job offering thoughts for me.

If you can't tell, I'm working through these life decisions one at a time (completely unintentionally). Got the dog. Need the job to get the car. Vegas to celebrate. Foot surgery to repair additional damage done from walking all over Vegas. Life complete.

Meet Hank.

Remember those life decisions we were trying to make a week or so ago? Well, we figured a couple of them out. Namely: Hank.

Meet the newest member of our family!

Jess and I drove to Nashville to meet Hank's foster Dad for the adoption. 

I loved him at first sight. Hank, not his foster Dad.

How could I not love this sweet face? 

He was so good in the car for the 7 hours from Nashville to Charlotte.

He made himself right at home. Obvs. 

He has a bed downstairs that matches our living room. He also has a monster pillow in our bedroom where he will sleep at bedtime. He loves it. And yes, he's using his puppy dog as his pillow. Adorbs.

He met Jack. And they did fine. Today, Jack has had fun playing with Hank's tail, boxing his new brother, and playing chase. It's such a pleasant change from our last experience. 

We love our new baby brother!