IT'S A......GIRL!!!!!

We had the gender ultrasound to find out if Baby Number 3 is a boy or girl, and we are so very excited to announce that we will be adding a GIRL to our family!!  John and Dawson both thought it was going to be another boy, and even though I guessed girl, I was surprised that it really was!  In asking all of our friends, about 95% of people guessed girl! 

We are all so excited!  I was worried that Dawson would be disappointed since he has said it's a brother the ENTIRE pregnancy so far, but we told him he was lucky because he would have a brother AND a sister.  He was completely fine with it.  Now he talks about having both a sister and a brother with excitement!  I can't wait to have some pink in our lives and see what life is like with a little girl!!

As we have with the previous two pregnancies, we had our boy and girl names ready to go at the ultrasound.  Baby Number 3 will be named Nora Kate.  We actually picked this girl name out back in 2008 when we were thinking of names for Dawson if he had been a girl, and then we were going to use it for Carter if he had been a girl...so we are very excited to finally get to use it.  The name is really special to us because my grandmother's name is Nora, and John's grandmother's name was Katherine.  We will always call her both names, Nora Kate.  I love double names like this, and I'm so excited.  Dawson has started calling her by name, and it's sweet to hear him say her name and talk about his sister. 

Speaking of siblings, we took both Carter and Dawson with us to the ultrasound so they could see the baby.  Carter, of course, had no idea-but still we can say he was there.  Dawson was interested in seeing Nora Kate on the screen, and the ultrasound technician was so kind with him.  She turned the machine on to the 4d setting, so Dawson could really tell that Nora Kate looked like a baby.

 

 

Here's one of the ultrasound pictures where

you can see Nora Kate's face and arms.

I am so excited for pink...

and I think Nora Kate's Aunt Em

is too!  On the day of the ultrasound

she brought us Nora Kate's first gift-

this soft pink blanket and pink pacificers!

I love it!

AND our friends are excited for us

to be adding a girl to our family, as well!

Our friends Chris, Alana, and Colt

gave us this ADORABLE hat for

Nora Kate!  I love it! 

(I tried to put it on Carter to see what

it looks like, but he got lucky because

his head is too big!)

Carter's 13 Month Update

Our sweet, happy baby is already ELEVEN months old!  I'm not sure how this has happened so quickly, but we are loving every minute of Carter at this age! 
He continues to be a very happy baby.  Right now he is on the verge of walking any minute it seems.  He's great at cruising along tables, couches, toys, and now he even pulls up to standing by just balancing himself against the wall.  So he can even cruise along the walls without a ledge to hold on to.  We are watching for his first step, and we know it will be soon!  He's such a fast crawler though, that when he really wants to get to something quickly (like his brother's toys), he drops to his knees and speeds across the playroom.  He has also started walking behind his push toys this month, but he really seems to prefer cruising over this.  When the push toy gets going to fast, instead of being afraid Carter just laughs and tries to catch up!  It's hilarious!
This month Carter has continued to be a great eater.  He LOVES eating food, and he has decreased nursing to just 4 times a day on his own.  He seems to eat all the time, and I think he just enjoys feeding himself.  His favorites to feed himself are probably dairy free bread, any fruit, and peas.  He continues to eat meat and more veggies that I've made into baby food, but he's not as interested in picking up pieces of chicken to put in his mouth as his favorites, although he will sometimes do it.  He always accepts it off the spoon though.  Along with all this interest in eating, has come an interest in snacking too.  When Dawson has a snack, Carter begins signing "more" and yelling "more!" frantically as if we never feed him!  Usually I get him a dairy-free snack, and he's happy.  But lately he's been crying to eat the same thing Dawson is eating and chasing Dawson around for the food.  Dawson's snack usually has dairy (think Cheez-its, goldfish, etc), so this has been a little bit of a dilemma.  I am thankful that he's such a good eater though!  He has gotten to try A LOT of new things this month, too many to list really, but I think he's enjoying expanding his diet!  He's also become a pro at drinking from his sippy cup, and he drinks a whole sippy cup of water over the course of the day-on his own when he's eating or sees Dawson's with a cup is usually when he wants it.  What really impresses me about the cup, is that he's so good at drinking out of it.  He only holds the handle with one hand and turns it up to get a drink. 
As for teeth, Carter's 11 month pictures still showcase a gummy grin!  He is, however, a drooly mess right now, and we can see two teeth on the bottom just under his gums.  He has not been fussy at all, but we know these two will pop through any day now. 
Carter is getting to be such a big boy, and he thinks he's just like his big brother!  Carter only wants to play with big kid toys in the playroom like tractors, trucks, and trains!  He also loves to crawl over to Dawson and wallow on him trying to wrestle, or as we call it "play rowdy."  Speaking of big brother, Dawson and Carter seem to be playing together better and better every day.  Carter is so lonely when Dawson isn't here.  A couple of times lately Dawson has gone to have time with grandparents, and Carter has asked "Bu?bu?Bubu??" all day long!  The most recent time, when we watched Dawson get in his Nana's car and ride away, Carter started crying.  So sweet!  I play with Carter the whole time Dawson's gone, but he's so much happier to play with when Dawson's here...apparently I'm not as entertaining and fun as when we all play together!  I'm so glad that these two have each other to play with though, and I love watching them as they begin to interact more and more.
Carter is becoming more and more vocal.  In addition to the words he's been saying for a while he has added "book,"  "bird," and "all done" to his vocabulary.  I have taught him the sign for all three of these, and he will do the sign for all done as he says it; BUT he really prefers to say the words over signing them...I guess communication is the goal, so I don't push it.  I still love to see his sweet hands signing "more" though, and he does this ALL the time!  The sweet thing is that he has learned the meaning of "more" not just associated with food, but sometimes if you stop playing he will sign it wanting you to play again!  He has also started saying "no" and shaking his head.  He does it in the appropriate times also.  The other day I said, "Carter do you want to go get changed?" He stood at the train table, shook his head, and said, "no no!"  I signed "changed" to him (a sign he knows), and he said no again!  Another new addition to his vocabulary is "uh oh!"  He now drops/throws things on the floor on purpose just to say uh oh.  Then he always gives us a big grin.   
Quiet possibly the best development this month has been the new sleeping habit Carter picked up...sleeping through the night!!  Carter has been sleeping through the night for about 3 weeks now, and it's amazing!!  He does it all but about 1 or 2 nights a week.  It's awesome to sleep through the night, and I could not be happier!  In terms of sleeping, Carter is iffy on his morning nap.  He takes it about half of the time.  When we're home he naps one hour, but if we're out he is content and happy to stay awake.  Carter ALWAYS takes an afternoon nap, and it usually lasts about an hour and a half.  Carter just doesn't require a lot of sleep in the day, which is fine because he's generally happy!
We love our sweet Carter so much, and we really cannot believe that it's been 11 months since we welcomed him into the world!
Here are some pictures of our big 11 month old!!

Carter walking behind his dino push toy!

Dawson and Carter absolutely LOVE to get out

the tents, tunnels, and balls all at one time.  Carter

crawls through the balls (all 150 of them) and in and

out of the tunnels and tents.  He loves to chase Dawson

through the tents or into the tunnels.  They were playing

really well together doing this until I grabbed the camera,

then they both just starred at me like they had been caught!

 

 

 

 

I LOVE THIS!  A couple of months ago

Dawson's friend Charlie taught us a new prayer.

It's the superman prayer.  We hold up our arms

and sign the prayer to the theme of superman.

Dawson insists that this prayer be the one done at

all meals!  Carter has started doing the superman arms

when we're doing the prayer.  Here he is taking a break

from eating his apple sticks to do the prayer with us

at breakfast.

He is always very intently focused

on doing his arms when he does

the superman prayer.  It's serious business!

This is the happy face of a boy who

just ate a Chick-fil-a grilled nugget

and french fry, and he loved them!

 

Carter is always happy to be eating

especially if he's getting to feed himself!

 

Official 11 month picture.

He looks like such a big boy!

Official 11 month brothers picture.

This month's pictures were the most difficult

(yet) to capture.  Dawson cooperated perfectly,

but Carter was wild and wanted to explore!

Then they both got wild!  I know this picture

is blurry, but I still just love how they're both

giggling and being silly!

February 2013

February was another fun month for us!  We started out the month with a birthday party for one of Dawson's friends, Charlotte.  She had her birthday party at Tumblebears Gym which Dawson loves!  For the party they even got out the zipline, and Dawson was so brave to do it!  Unfortunately the picture I got of it was not too great.

 

February was a cold month and we have had some snow off and on, but we also had about 3 days where it was warm enough to play outside for a little while.  Both Dawson and Carter were thrilled to be outside. 

 

We went to the zoo once this month.  It was a rainy day, so we just went to Storytime at the Zoo where the kids got to listen to stories, pet a hedgehog, and then make a hedgehog out of construction paper and stickers!  After that we spent the rest of the morning in the Wee Play Area.  Carter even had fun crawling and cruising around the baby area here this time!  As we left it had stopped raining so we got to see a few animals before heading home!

Dawson was excited to also get to pet this lizard!

Dawson and his friend Jay playing in the Wee Play Zoo.

Carter LOVED this crawl area!

 

One of Dawson's favorite things we did this month, was go on a visit to the fire department with our Moms of Maryville group.  Here fireman Steven is putting on all his gear to show the kids that even with the mask on, he's not scary!

Dawson loved climbing up in the big truck!

Dawson and some friends climbing on another truck.

Dawson and Colt in the big truck.

Dawson with Fireman Steven.

Dawson loved this!  He said it was like a Gator

for the firefighters.

A fun morning at the fire department!

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of Carter

at the fire department.  I had him in the Moby wrap

the entire time we were there.  (Which was probably his last

time in the Moby, because he was pushing right on baby three!)

 

Since the month has been SO cold, we have had a lot of indoor playtime, and Dawson and Carter are starting to interact more and more when they play.  I love it!

 

 

On Valentine's Day we had heart-shaped

pancakes for breakfast (dairy-free so Carter

and I could enjoy too!) 

 

 

Oops!  This picture got out of order, but one semi-warmer day I loaded the boys up and went to the park to work on Dawson riding his bike.  We had a fun morning, but we were getting a little chilly by the time we were done.

Dawson looks like such a big kid on this bike!

 

 

 

Now back to Valentine's Day!  Here's

my Valentine Dawson! So handsome!

 

We made this Valentine's Day cake for a little

Valentine's party we had with M.O.M. friends.

 

My two sweet Valentine's!

 

 

Lolly with her grandsons on Valentine's Day.

 

 

Then we tried to get the same picture with Pop,

but the boys got a little rowdy!  I still love this

picture, though!

 

Nana and Grandad came by with Valentine's

for the boys too, but for some reason I wasn't

thinking and didn't get any pictures!  :(

Here's my precious Carter on his first Valentine's Day!

 

 

At the very end of February, our friends the Whites drove over to visit us from Asheville, NC.  We had such a fun day watching all of our kids play at catching up.  Even though the picture below, doesn't show it-they all had a great time playing!  We hadn't seen them since the end of summer, but hopefully we will see them again soon!  Left to right: Dawson (3.5 years), Carter (10 months), Henry (2.5 years), and Thomas (1 year).

 

 

One of Dawson's newest tricks is getting in Carter's crib.  He thinks it's hilarious.  I think it's funny to see how big he looks standing in the crib!

 

Then we ended the month back at Tumblebears Gym for a playdate!  Dawson's current favorite thing to do there is swing on the rope, and I think this is where we spent most of our time.  He was begging me to take pictures of him on the rope, but he swings so fast most were blurry. 

 

Dawson loves it when we go shopping at

Earth Fare because they have his size shopping

carts!  I love how cute he looks pushing this!

My helper!

Baby Three Update: 16 Weeks

Time for an update on Baby Three!  Today's the last day of the 16th week for us, and we will find out the gender on Wednesday!!!  We're so excited to find out.  John and Dawson think the baby is a boy, while I'm guessing girl.  I thought my pregnancy with Carter went by quickly, but this pregnancy is flying by!  I cannot believe it's already time to find out the gender!
To answer all the normal pregnancy questions-
-How have you been feeling?  I've been feeling great!  This has been the easiest pregnancy!!  I had no nausea or morning sickness, and my only complaint was being tired early on.  Thankfully even that has passed now.  I've still been feeling good enough to run a couple of miles at the gym a few times a week even.  I'm hoping that this will continue to be an easy pregnancy all the way through to the end!
-What are you craving?  I'm not really craving anything specific.  My diet has been so restricted eating dairy-free for Carter's milk allergy, that I think I've gotten used to a limited amount of choices.  If anything, I think I could always eat some salty chips though!  :)
This past week, I started feeling the baby move for the first time, and it's still just as exciting with number three! 
So, next time we update the blog we will be sharing the baby's gender and name!!!
For now, here are the weekly pictures.  The baby is growing!

13 Weeks

14 Weeks

15 eeks

16 Weeks