Mamma Needs Some Quiet Time Too!

Last night I was given the best gift my sweet husband could ever give me, some quiet time ALONE!

Ryan has been working like a MANIAC since we moved to Texas. It is not at all unreasonable for him to be in the operating room until midnight a couple times a week. If he makes it home before 9:00pm I get really excited. This was a really hard adjustment for me when we moved here but now I'm used to it. Usually once or twice a week he will go a day or two without seeing Owen at all, but usually we try to stop by the hospital to see him if it looks like the day is going to end this way. Because of this crazy life we lead Owen often stays up late in order to see Ryan. That's just how we roll.

Yesterday started with Owen crawling in my bed at 7:20 (early for me because I went to bed after midnight in order to say "HI" to my husband before I collapsed in bed) and started crying because I wouldn't immediately turn the TV on for him. I knew at that point it was going to be a long day. Owen was a complete hyper chatter box ALL DAY and by 9:00pm when Ryan made it home I was exhausted! So after our initial greetings and getting Ryan something to eat I asked in my sweetest pleading voice, "Babe, can you please be Dad for a little bit and let me go take a bath and read for a while by my self?!?!" He was so sweet and said, "Of course" and after that he wouldn't let Owen even talk to me.

I wish I had a picture to show you what happened next but it would be pretty inappropriate but I did end up in a big bubble bath with a book in one hand and a mug of super yummy mint hot chocolate in the other. Ryan and Owen came in to check on me (aka: give me an update on the Cardinals game, as if I that was of real concern to me while in the bath) and I just giggled with delight.  On the way out Owen said to Ryan "what's she doing?" and Ryan explained, "Sometimes Mamma needs some quiet time too. Let's go." It was a great hour long bath, totally relaxing! It truly was a gift! Thank you Ryan!

Ryan + Ann + Owen + ???

So I know I'm a little behind in sharing our family's amazing news and most of the people in our lives already know, but for recording purposes I figured I might as well "post the news".

We are having a baby!!! 

We are thrilled beyond belief. It has been a long 14 month process, which we did not expect. Owen came quickly and without much effort at all (sorry if that is TMI). We always had this picture of what our family would be like and it never included our first two kids being 3 years a part, more like 2. 

I have the personal goal to run a 1/2 Marathon between each kid, #1- to keep myself fit and #2- to keep my weight loss between each kid in check. So I ran my second one at the beginning of May 2010, with my amazing friend Jessica who I must say is a trooper and a half because she ran 5 miles on her own at 6am before the race because she was training for her own full marathon then she ran my whole 1/2 marathon just a few steps ahead of me the whole time to keep me moving--it was the first time I'd run it without a group of girls running together. So shout out to Jess. You're the best! (sorry for the tangent) Anyway, the plan was to get pregnant right after the race and have a baby in February-ish of 2011. Well that obviously didn't happen and we were super sad month after month. We couldn't figure out what God's greater plan was for us. The timing would have been perfect as I was surrounded by friends and had a great support system in place in St. Louis. But for whatever reason, we were left babyless and sad. 

So after may months of no luck, and another 1/2 marathon behind me (I might as well keep running I thought), we consulted my OB who eventually put us on Clomid. After 3 cycles we are now pregnant and due on March 2nd, three days before Owen's third birthday. We are thrilled and relieved. Owen is super excited and has declared to the world that is is a girl. We are hopeful but would be equally happy to welcome a little brother. But in my gut I feel it's a girl. We find out on October 12th, if all parties cooperate. 

Side note: I know my mother is going to die when she reads this, she is much more private than I and will probably think sharing these details is wildly inappropriate in such a public setting, but the truth is the more we struggled to get pregnant the more I came to realize that there are A LOT of people in this world who struggle to get pregnant when they want. I firmly believe you have to find your own comfort level with talking about such private details but it was such a comfort to me to discover so many people, even some of my closest friends and a random flight attendant I sat next to, were going through the same thing I was. For so long I thought I was broken, or thought maybe we weren't going to be able to have any more kids. But the truth is.....I don't know! I have NO IDEA why some people can get pregnant when there husbands just look at them like my dear sister in law, mother of 7 kids, or two irresponsible teens wind up preggers. (Uhhh...don't get me started on that injustice!) Another sister-in-law of mine who is in her mid 30's and knows LOTS of people with kidos told me that she only knows 2 people in her whole life who have never struggled at anytime to get pregnant when they want. That is amazing. So for anyone else out there who is still playing the waiting game.......have comfort that there are many many many more people on your side of the court playing the same game. 

I told my family when we were 7.5 weeks along because I was home for a bit of a family reunion. My sis-in-law had made these awesome shirts for all the grand kids to wear during a family picture. 

The night before the pictures we were all sitting in the same room celebrating birthdays and graduations and talking about the pending photo shoot and admiring the shirts. I told Jennie, who made the shirts, "Now I wished I would have gotten you to make a t-shirt like this for me to wear," and I held up a paper sign to my belly with the same icon but that read "- 7.5 mo." It took most other people a few seconds to figure out what that meant but she jumped up with tears in her eyes and hugged me. She knew we had been struggling for a while and was so happy for us. Then my other sis-in-law Arwen did the same. My dad sat on the fireplace stunned....so happy but didn't know what to say. By the time everyone understood what was going on there were lots of happy tears and excitement. It was such a cool moment. (Thanks Jordan for the idea.) 

Ok, that's enough baby talk for now. Thanks for all the well wishes. We are so happy. 

Famous!

Owen and I made a little trip to the public library last Thursday just before close. While we were searching for books the art director asked if he could use Owen in a new campaign they are doing to promote library card sign ups this fall. Of course I said they could and they shot a few pictures of Owen by himself and a few of him with another little girl. These are the two the photographer sent me. Not the best, but they are still cute. I love the little gap between his front two teeth. Hopefully the ones they use will be better and of both kids. If it all works out he will be on a sign just outside of the library and on a big banner during one of their campaigns outside of the big fancy grocery store here in town. Owen could be famous! (We'll see....)

It's been a long time.....

Friends, family and anyone else who cares to read about the lives of our little family,

It has officially been over 10 months since I last posted anything. I know that is sad, I was doing so well. I told my friend Sarah, who convinced me to start a blog, that I felt too overwhelmed by all that had happened between last December and now to want to start again. She sweetly said, "Yeah, well you got to start somewhere." So...here we go. I'll do my best to catch you up on the fun things that have gone on in our family in the last 10 months another time, but for now the biggest thing that has happened is Owen started preschool. My little boy is so big!!! 

Our little boy has gotten so big! Doesn't he look like he's 5?

 Owen loves taking his lunch to school. He wants me to make him a quesadilla every time. 

 Rockin' the Elmo backpack. 

In front of his cubby.

He loves his teacher, Ms. Myra, and the 5 other boys in his class. I feel for his teacher sometimes with 6 2 year old boys for 3 hours. That is a lot to handle, but they all seem really sweet. He loves to paint, and play on the playground, and play with all the trucks and cars they have there. But his favorite feature in the classroom is the small sink. There is a small section of the countertop that is sunken lower and has a little sink and mirror so he can see himself wash his hands. He can do it mostly by himself. When I was checking out the schools in town they all looked much the same to me. But when we visited this school and he saw the small sinks and said "Mom look, it's just my size!" He said the same thing in all 4 classrooms we visited. Ryan tells everyone that I picked Owen's school because it has little sinks.  

I LOVE to pick Owen up from school. He is so excited to see me! He screams "Mommy"and runs to arms. I can finally feel a little of what it is like when Ryan comes home at night. He's been greeting Ryan like this since he could talk, but not to me because he's with me all day. Now those few moments around picking him up are so sweet and filled with enthusiasm that they have become some of my favorite moments of my day.