Another boy...

Having another boy is hard. Why? Well because honestly I just want to go out and buy all new stuff, not use the same old boring stuff I had with Kai! I mean, seriously, it's been 3 years since Kai was a newborn and there are some wicked cool new gadgets out there that I just am itching to buy!! However, I am behaving (so far) and literally talk to myself daily, reminding me that it's really not worth it and that I'd rather save the money for MY new wardrobe after I pop this sucker OUUUUUT!! With all this self control I has been showing, I have made a few little purchases for the little guy. I mean, that's no big deal right? Not to mention all the amazing gifts people having thrown our way. Seriously grateful and overwhelmed with everyone's generosity! But anyway, back to me. I bought this little newborn hat a couple weeks ago and just got it in the mail roday...annnnnd I just LOVE it. I think it's so adorable and can't wait for little Xavier to wear it. The best part? He won't be old enough to rip it off so I can make him wear it all summer...okay, okay probably not, but at least for newborn pics and such! Anyway, can't take any credit for making this, though I did think of lying to you all like I did to my mom, but in all actuality I ordered it from Etsy. I'm kind of addicted to that place...


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Seriously, sit still!

If you know Kai, or if you know Brian or myself then it's safe to assume that you would know that Kai has A LOT of energy. No joke this kid cannot sit still to save his life. Movies or TV can hold his attention for MAYBE 20 minutes (max) but that's only if there is absolutely positively nothing else going on anywhere near him, otherwise, he's out. Even if the TV is on he'll typically watch for a couple seconds (literally) and then run and do something and maybe run back to watch a few more seconds. It's ridiculous. Trust me, this is in no way a complaint...as far as TV goes. But there are days, especially being 35 weeks pregnant, exhausted, emotional and down right lazy, that I would LOVE for Kai to sit down and shut up. Just give me a few minutes of peace and quiet, a moment to rejuvenate and take a deep breath without being interrupted. Shoot I would be satisfied if he let me go pee without him running in saying "Mommy what you doing?! Mommy go potty? I flush it?" I know, sounds harsh but I'm just being brutally honest. He talks a mile a minute with a thousand questions in one breath and sometimes during the day I just need him to rest his mouth. Is that too much to ask? Apparently. However I made the most amazing discovery today. We were in the garage doing a little craft for Xavier's room when Kai picked up a pair of scissors (real safe, I know) and sat and cut up paper for at least an hour. No running around, no asking me a million bajillion questions, he just sat there in almost complete silence (talking to himself occasionally) while he cut away at my little crafting scraps. It was glorious. I mean, truly glorious. It was seriously as God just sent me this perfect little gift. A breath of fresh air. Amen.




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Easter.

Yep, it was a couple of weeks ago, but guess what?! I'm pregnant, I'm exhausted and I'm extremely hormonal...not to mention that I have an energetic little 2 year old that, once he is in bed, makes me want to do nothing but sit on the couch and shut my brian completely off, like a vegetable. And to be completely honest, most of my blog posts have been done from my phone BECAUSE I have pictures on my phone (makes blogging life a lot easier)...unfortunately this is not true for Easter, which meant I actually had to sit at the computer, which meant that I had to wait until Kai was in bed otherwise he would be crawling all over me hitting buttons, asking me to play certain songs and screaming "LOOK AT ME! LOOK AT ME!" while he danced, spun and sang his lungs out, which would lead to me completely giving up on doing an Easter post. All this being said, I forced myself to sit at the computer and write an Easter blog. Why? Well because it was probably one of my favorite Easters!! My mother in-law was in town, Brian's sister and her family only live about an hour away (YES!!!) and Kai (along with my nieces) were old enough to be really fun with the Easter baskets, egg dying, egg hunt and of course the celebration of Jesus!!

So for your enjoyment, here is a summary of our family-filled fun weekend...in picture form!

the kids actually playing together nicely...this is rare, trust me.

shopping with all girls...

...is exhausting.

  

lunch with Gramma

going to cheer on Melanie at her soccer game!

Gramma to the rescue when Mommy and Daddy were on a date

Easter craziness...

Time OUT!

This past weekend I was able to spend some good quality time with my sister in-law, Shanna. One day, in the VERY late hours of the night actually, we had a good ole fashioned heart-to-heart about how freaking exhausting kids are. Now don't get this twisted, this was NOT a whine fest or a pitty party, it was a legit conversation about our kids and some of the things we struggle with daily. We both agreed that one of the hardest things as a mother was consistency in discipline, especially once you have more than one. Clearly I'm still only running around with one child, but let's face it, exhaustion kicks in and you tend to let things fly when really, you probably shouldn't. Taking 2 steps forward and pretty much a million steps back. It's a daily battle for me, especially after saying "no" for the millionth time in the day and giving Kai his one hundredth warning for doing the same thing (with a little different twist to it each time so it's not "technically" the same) over and over. Not to mention that each kid is different in what type of discipline works best for them. This parenting gig is for the birds I tell ya! Sometimes I wish we could literally program our children, yep, just like a computer. Admit it, you've all thought the same thing at least once a day. No? Okay, maybe it's just me that wishes that...or you're all just a bunch of liars. Anyway, as we sat there in the weeeee hours Shanna suggested a few things that had worked with Melanie, her oldest daughter, who happens to be very similar in personality as Kai (both full of energy and very -VERY- strong willed).

Fast forward to Monday. Ohhhhh what.a.day. Challenge after challenge and battle after battle my struggles with Kai became more and more exhausting (physically and emotionally). Suddenly, it was like the Lord himself smacked me upside the head and said REMEMBER FRIDAY NIGHT?!? And then and there I put my foot down. I gave Kai his last warning and sent him to his room for time out and shut the door. Moments later I hear the door open. Oh this just ain't gonna fly little man. To give him credit he wasn't trying to get out of his room, he went back to his seat, but he simply wanted the door cracked. Unfortunately for him time out is not on his terms so when he's screaming his brains out, I choose to keep the door shut. But holy cow, the kid is sooooooo freakin' frackin' stubborn that he refused to stop screaming. I went in about a dozen times trying to explain that until he could sit quietly for 3 minutes he was not to get out of his room. 45 minutes later the kid is STILL screaming. "My hand hurts...my toe hurts...I cold...I hungry...I tired...I poop...I stop crying..." and so on. Now before you start thinking, "you locked your kid in his room screaming for HOW long?" Let me clarify that I went in every 5 or so minutes to explain why he was in there and the circumstances in which he could get out. So there. And when all was said and done he told me why he was sent to time out, why he got a spanking and why he had to stay in his room. And to be REALLY honest, he got out right before Daddy got home, which probably was his life-saver. No one likes to still be in trouble when Daddy gets home...yikes! Sooooo day 1 and it was already sinking in, or at least I lied to myself to make me feel better about letting my child scream bloody murder for that long. So for now I consider that a win for mama bear. BOOM. Now what? Bring parenting on, I'm a pro...

Well day 2 was almost as "great" but fortunately for Kai, it was Daddy's birthday and people were coming over sooooo "operation discipline" was cut a little short...but I think it's still sinking in because let me tell you what has been happening POST time out. Kai will grab "his guys"...which are technically any of his toys that are of human form...and then he puts them in time out and gives them a spanking, followed by a short talking to and a kiss with "I love you". When I ask him why they were put in time out he gives me the same exact reason to why he had been sent to time out. It's really quite cute AND reassuring knowing that he is understanding the reasoning for his punishment. This morning he even got the timer out and told "his guy" to not move until the timer went off...he'll make a good daddy one day :o) Now let's just hope I can get things into check before little Xavier comes to town because we all know that I will be completely EXHAUSTED with a newborn...Kai might get away with murder.......................


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New Orleans.

Now I know most of you, myself included, when you think of New Orleans you don't think "perfect place to take your almost 3 year old"...and seriously, it's probably not. When Brian told me the Final Four was there my first thought was that we were definitely NOT going. Then I look at plane tickets and knew we definitely weren't going. Seriously people, jack up the prices by $200+ for that weekend? You're not getting my money. My second thought was, I hope Brian doesn't expect me to drive there when I'm 32 weeks pregnant. Given my swelling pregnant travel history, that was a definite NO. And THEN I thought, my sister will probably want to go and if I could see my sister I could probably deal with a little (a lot) swelling...until I saw it was a 13 freaking hour drive. HELP! My dedication to seeing my sister (seriously I would do anything to see family at any time, even if that meant popping out a Bayou baby) took over and in a state of insanity agreed to make that drive with my very energetic 2 year old. Woah. Now I know what most of you are wanting to know: LET'S SEE THOSE SWOLLEN FEET (cue evil laugh). Well guess what?! This pregnant mama didn't get the least bit swollen SO TAKE THAT. I will say, however, that compression socks are probably the sexiest thing a woman can wear, so yes, I wore them the whole drive down and back. I can't really say for sure that they are the reason I didn't swell, and I'd like to give my awesome body some credit, but for the sake of this post and to any other pregnant women traveling, spending the $20 and get yo'self some fool.

This was after traveling in June when I was pregnant with Kai. 

Can you say elephantitis? Don't let this happen to...ANYONE.

So before we took this epic journey, Brian and I agreed that for the my health and the sanity of our traveling toddler, we would drive to Memphis the first day and then onto New Orleans the second day. We thought it best, for our marriage haha, to take our time and allow for any stops that I might need. And I will say that I was quite the trooper. Oh yeah, and so was Kai. But seriously, pregnant and all I didn't ask to go to the bathroom every 30 minutes and I waited patiently until I saw a "Rest Area 1 Mile" to ask him to pull off so I could stretch and such. So yes, I will give myself a pat on the back for that. As for Kai, he was a stud. Once I realized that road trips with a little guy were no longer about enjoying the scenery and the company of my husband, but more so about keeping your own child happy and pre-occupied by trying to find trains, birds, trees, trucks, bridges, clouds, tractors, cows and pointing out big bugs that would SPLAT all over the windshield, the trip became a breeze. In some crazy moment of insanity I thought that maybe a movie would buy me a few hours rest, but we weren't quite that lucky. The whole drive he probably watched a total of 40 minutes of 2 different movies. Epic fail. So I whipped out my "mama skills" and got creative. And we actually had a lot of fun and lots and lots of laughs.

We got to N'Awlins later Thursday afternoon and it was a pretty low key afternoon. We took Kai to the RiverWalk and watched the big tug boats, chased birds and indulged in some authentic cajun cuisine...pizza. Look people, I was just trying to get my kid to eat. He's only a whopping 25lbs and I KNEW that he would eat pizza, so let's not get to judging me quite yet. Brian wanted to meet up with some friends that night (aka: schmoozing) so Kai and I headed back to the hotel, got cleaned up and went to bed. I knew the next couple of days would be a doozie, so calling it a night a little early while in New Orleans was okay with me...and apparently Bourbon Street isn't really for kids under the age of...well no kid should be on that street at any time of day, let's just say that. Woah.

The next couple of days kind of blend together, but I know for a fact that Friday morning was a rough one. For some reason I thought it would be a great idea for me and my pregnant self to walk around pushing a 2 year old for, oh 5+ straight hours. NOT.A.GOOD.IDEA. We had fun and went to Cafe Du Monde for some magical beignets for breakfast, but by the time I got back to the hotel for Kai's nap, I was starting to having some minor contractions. Not bad enough to call Brian back from all his "functions", but bad enough to have my phone in hand while Kai slept. It became a joke that I was going to legit have a Bayou baby...and that would have been true dedication, but I'm sure glad I chose to rest until later. Luckily, this little contraction "scare" also made me look for alternative ways of travel and we came upon this little trolly/train that was only $3 to ride ALL day...AND Kai was free. BIG TIME!!! It took us all the way from our hotel, along the RiverWalk and down to the French Market, which really wasn't that far, but when you walk back and forth a million times, it freaking adds up (STOP JUDGING MY PREGNANT LAZINESS!!) Actually, it had nothing to do with me being pregnant, I really only took the train because Kai is OBSESSED with them ;o) No, but really he is. That was probably the highlight of his whole trip. Not going to lie, one afternoon we rode it back and forth a couple times just because we were waiting for Brian. Yep, I'm one "hellofa" mom. 

Anyway, the next couple of days we pretty much just explored. Went to the French Quarter, walked down Bourbon Street (in broad daylight), walked (yes I did do more walking) along the RiverWalk, drove around to the "devastation", saw the Tulane and Loyola campuses, went to the French Market, ate authentic cajun cuisine (not pizza) and really just had a good time. The NCAA does a really good job at having other things going on within the city. ESPN was set up in a couple different locations, Bracket Town, which is mostly for kids, but we have fun (and we got to meet Roy Williams) and they had concerts daily along the RiverWalk. It was truly a good time and probably one of my favorite "family vacations" to date. 

Lastly, I have to say that Brian did an AMAZING job at managing his time for "work things" and family. And not to toot my own horn, but I did a pretty good job at letting him do "work things" without getting too upset (jealous). One of my concerns on going on this trip is that Brian will be so busy with work while he's there that we will just be left to do our own thing, which is fine, but it's always better when he's there to experience some of the fun we have. So I was very happy with the way this trip went. So much fun, so many memories and lots and lots of laughs. Not to mention that we decided to stay an extra night so I could spend more time with my sister, which meant that we had to make the drive home in one trip...14 hours on the road and Kai was AWESOME! Seriously, I couldn't have asked him to do any better. If anything, I was the one that was whining about wanting to be home. HA! Gotta love family road trips BABY!

Warning, picture OVERLOAD. 

Watching his 10 minutes of Shrek before he got bored

He kept asking for one of these the WHOLE first day, 

then we gave him one...took a bite and was done. 

 Stop taking pictures!

 Picking out his beads...

 ATTACK!!

  

Gotta be stylin' 

 The view down Bourbon Street

Fried dough for breakfast? Yep!

 Patiently waiting for the next train...

Everyone has to jump on the beds when you're staying in a hotel!

 Bracket Town fun with Daddy!

More Bracket Town fun with Rachel and Bautista "BREAK YO' NECK"

Verbal commitment to UNC with Roy Williams

Cheesin' it with Daddy!

 Shootin hoops

This kid can literally not NOT run.

Vacations are exhausting. Love.this.face.