Making the days count

It's almost the weekend...thank the sweet baby J. This week flew, but let's be serious, weekends are the best and with only a couple more to spend as a family, I'm savoring them.

I had my 16 week appointment on Wednesday, which was quick and easy. Heartrate at 155, everything looked good, quick bloodwork and I was out the door. We scheduled our gender ultrasound for October 29th and then I have my 20 week appointment on the 31st. Unfortunately D will be unavailable for both, so with the help of a friend's idea, I've started getting a little reveal set up for him abroad. 

I'll admit...for 1 second these made me
wish I was going to have one of each!

He said he doesn't mind if I find out first, as long as I tell him before spilling to everyone else. Simple request, right? Well rather than just say, "We're having a ____!", I'm wrapping up these sweet little onesies into tiny little packages and numbering them 1 and 2. When we get to skype, the plan is to (hopefully) remember which number corresponds to boy or girl and have him open that package, which will reveal the gender of our babe! This also allows me to be there for his reaction and get excited together. I'm loving the concept and hope it works!

For Grace, I'll get some balloons in the appropriate color. Maybe do a reveal a la Kelle Hampton and open something together. Cute photo op (clearly don't expect a video from me...haha) and you know how much my kid adores balloons.


(Source)

This is the first "exciting thing" lined up post D leaving, and it's one that I can count on being a great moment for us all. As far as D's deployment, I know I said I wasn't going to talk much about it on here. But I lied. I mean, I'm not going to talk about where he is, when exactly he leaves/returns, and what he's doing- but I think a large part of the next 9 months are going to center around how we function without him here. How our daily routines change and how I make the most of having an opportunity to stay productive, positive, and oh you know, raise and 2 year old and bring another child into the world without having my number one support system around every day. So I'm planning to share and looking forward to tackling the time head on and keeping super busy with life in general. I'll be sharing parts of this with you. Hopefully one day, when daddy being gone is just a blip on the radar, Grace and I can look back on all the time we had together and how we made the most of it. :)

Before we get quite there, we are making sure to have quality time all together. Last night I decided I didn't want to cook that we were picking up sandwiches and taking them to the park, so that's what we did. There aren't any pictures because D and I spent our time on the playground with our girl, cheering her down the tall slide, climbing up big kid playground steps, and running to and from the swings. We practically had to beg her to leave...which wasn't too sad because we got ice cream on the way home. Grace prefers playing in our little ice cream shops toy/chalkboard area to actually eating her ice cream, so mommy and daddy enjoyed ours while she played. We wrapped up the night with some outside time with our dogs, a MUCH needed bath, and some sleepy cuddles before bedtime. It was perfect...and something I'll be adding to our schedule at least once a week this Fall.

So that's where we are right now. We have a jam packed couple of weeks and then you know I have some plans in the works for the next several months. I don't know that fun is the correct word to use, so how about: interesting times ahead.

xo,
H