Spring in the Pacific Northwest!

It has been a little while since our last blog post, but not too much has been going on in our world.  Trevor has been traveling a bit for work; he made one trip to New York and one to Panama as well.  Both times he was gone for about a week.  It’s hard to have him out of town and Blair definitely notices when her daddy isn’t around.  I’m just over 29 weeks pregnant now and feeling pretty good.  I am still trying to run at least three times a week, for about three miles each time.  It’s starting to get a little uncomfortable though so I am not sure how much longer I will last.  I also started doing some prenatal yoga, which has been great.  We opted not to find out the gender of the baby, so we still don’t know who’s in there!  I am so excited to find out though!  11 weeks seems so soon but yet so far away at the same time.

Blair is now a little over 21 months old and we have definitely entered the “terrible twos” a little early.  This is the most fun phase with her so far, but also the most difficult at the same time.  She is certainly testing her boundaries and expressing her personality more and more every day.  I love watching her discover so many new things.  She is such a character sometimes with the things that she says and does.  I love it.  Some of the things she has been up to in the past couple months:

• She loves to try on my shoes and walk around in them.  One day she put on a pair of my heels, walked over to the mirror, looked at herself and said, “So cute!”  Now, believe it or not, she didn’t pick this up from me.  I’m sure she sees Trevor and I look in the mirror when we get dressed, but we don’t say things like that when we are checking the mirror – I promise!

• In the house we have Teddy Dog and Teddy Bear (Blair’s teddy that she sleeps with) which can cause some confusion.  For example, why wouldn’t Teddy Bear take a bath in Teddy Dog’s water bowl?  I can see how that would totally make sense to a 20-month old when in reality it’s kind of gross.  Teddy Bear did get a proper bath after this episode.

• She still makes me sing songs all the time.  We have also been counting everything: the number of dogs we see on our daily walk, the number of birds that sit on the telephone wire while we are eating brekkie in the morning, anytime we go up or down stairs, we count the number of steps, etc.  She can count to fourteen and recite most of the alphabet –she needs a little bit of prompting with the alphabet, and she usually won’t do it on demand, but I often hear her playing in her room counting or singing her ABC’s.

• She still loves her books and loves going to storytime at the library every week.  Some of her books she knows so well that she can actually recite them.  She will sit down, turn the pages and tell the story (with lots of enthusiasm).

• She loves, loves, loves to be outside in the garden.  We have been planting our vegetable garden and she LOVES to “help” out.  Blair is one girl who is not afraid to get dirty. Unfortunately she can get a little overzealous – she destroyed a few of the plants we had started inside and were transplanting outside.  Oh well.

• I finally convinced Trevor to take a day off from work and we took her to the zoo for the first time.  She was a crack-up while we were there and loved to see the animals.  She calls the orangutan “orangutan-tan” which we found hilarious.

• Easter was a big hit at our house.  Our super-nice and generous neighbor had an Easter egg hunt in her backyard for all the kids on the block (all of her kids are grown up and she has no grandkids yet).  Blair loved it – once she figured out that there was candy in the eggs, it was a little hard to motivate her to continue looking for eggs as opposed to sitting down and eating all the candy.

• Swimming has been a big flop so far this session.  We moved up a level and it seems like Blair has regressed a little. All of a sudden she’s afraid of jumping in and going underwater. I think it might have something to do with the fact that the kids are much bigger and it intimidates her. Hopefully she gets over it soon. Until then, I just keep dunking her against her will.  I’m kidding…kind of….

Because he’s a member of our family, I have to also give an update on Teddy. Sometimes I feel bad for Teddy because since Blair came along, he doesn’t get 100% of our attention.  When I come home with my arms full of groceries and a wiggly toddler, I’m not even able to give him a pet sometimes before I send him outside.  A few weeks ago we were all on a walk together. As we got close to the house, Trevor and Blair decided to walk up the back alley behind our house and I walked along the street in front so I could get the mail. Teddy hates it when we split up like that – he’s always so conflicted as to who to go with. He started to go with Trevor and Blair and then thirty seconds later, he came sprinting around the corner to catch up with me (impressive given his arthritis) because he was worried about where I was. It made me smile – he is such a great dog. We took him to the vet this week for a check-up.  They gave us some pain meds for his arthritis so hopefully that will help him enjoy life a little more. While they were examining him, the doctor noticed that his liver was enlarged. They did some blood work and urinalysis and determined there is definitely something wrong with his liver.  The vet isn't sure what it is - could be cancer, could be some kind of disease, or could be an infection.  No matter what it is, Trevor and I both agree that we won’t go to great lengths to treat it.  Teddy is twelve and a half years old and he has lived a great life. We’d rather have him enjoy the time he has left. It is really hard to think about our life without Teddy in it, but I know we have to face that reality at some point.  Until then, we are just trying to let him do all the things he loves – which includes digging up our flower beds at least once a week!

Hopefully I update this blog sooner next time.  If this PNW weather keeps up, I should have plenty of time indoors to do so.  In the meantime, here are some pics of our latest adventures!

We took a little trip to the local zoo with Blair's BFF Sydney. They posed on some of the animal sculptures.

She wants to be a runner, just like her mommy.

This is what happens when Daddy is in charge of the bath.

Reading books again! She recently started crossing her legs like this and I think it's so cute.

Such a helper in the garden!!

There is a great farm and feed country store near our house. Every spring they get baby chicks for sale - Blair loved to visit and see the babies.

Visiting the zoo with Daddy.

Got some Easter loot!

Blair in her pretty Easter dress.

Teddy loves to roll around in the grass like this.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY - WE HAVE A BLOG!!!

We have been meaning to start a blog for some time now but “life” has just gotten in the way and prohibited us from actually getting started.  That or I am just lazy which is equally as likely.  I also thought “who would really read our blog?”  Then I realized since all of my family is on the east coast and all of Trevor’s family is in Utah, it might be nice for them to see what we’re up to.  In any event, we decided that our little family would be all grown up before we ever really had time to start a blog and then we’d regret not documenting things better.  So here we are! 

Today is Valentine’s Day and I am officially 17 weeks pregnant with Baby Downs #2.  We are really excited.  I’m more excited now that I am feeling better.  The first few months were miserable (much worse than with Blair) and I am finally feeling better the past few weeks.  I am exercising more and I am hungry all the time – which is nice because before there wasn’t anything I wanted to eat.  We still aren’t sure whether we are going to find out the gender of the baby.  We didn’t with Blair and I really liked it.  Trevor not so much.  I did promise him that we could find out for subsequent children, but then changed my mind (I figure since I am the one carrying and delivering these babies, I have that right).  So we’ll see – we have three more weeks before the ultrasound and will think it over some more.

Blair is almost 19 months old now and we are having so much fun watching her grow.  It’s so amazing watching her learn and discover new things.  Everyday it’s something different.  She is talking a ton and has a pretty large vocabulary.  The other day we were at the park and she was climbing some stairs to get to the slide.  I asked her if she needed help and she said “No mommy.  I got it.”  I’m amazed that I have conversations with her where she actually participates in back and forth dialogue using full sentences.  She’s also a parrot and will repeat anything and everything she hears, so we have to be extra careful about what we say around her now.  Blair really loves to read books and I often find her sitting in her room, “reading” to her stuffed animals.  We could read books all day and she’d be in heaven.  She also loves to play outside and go for walks with Teddy.  We’re still doing swimming classes and she’s getting much better.  She can go underwater for a little more than three seconds now.  She can also sit on the edge of the pool, “fall” in face first and then turn around and pull herself up to hold on to the edge of the pool.  I’m glad she is so comfortable in the water and hope we can continue with lessons.  The other thing she is into right now is singing.  Anytime we are in the car, she makes me sing to her – nonstop.  I barely finish one song before she says “Again, again!”  Consequently, she can now sing (sort of) Ring Around the Rosy, Happy Birthday, and a couple others.  Trevor and Blair have lots of daddy-daughter time and it is so special for them both. Trevor really loves his alone time with Blair and I think it’s so cute.  I really think he doesn’t want me tagging along most times because he just loves his one on one time with B.  They love to go to the pet store together and look at all the animals.   We are both so in love with Blair and marvel every day at what an amazing little girl we have.

Trevor is still working at Elevar Equity, the private equity firm he has been with for the past couple years.  His office recently relocated to a building much closer to home and cut his commute time in half.  Blair and I often meet up with him for lunch.  He travels to India once a year; one of these days I might tag along with him.  I am enjoying being a stay at home mom, though I do occasionally miss my old job.  Being home with Blair is way harder than I ever thought it would be and definitely harder than any job I ever had before.  Luckily it’s also way more rewarding, and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.


Teddy is still the most lovable dog in the world - except on the days when he gets bored and digs up our flower beds.  He is eleven years old now and is doing pretty well physically.  He has some arthritis and can't walk nearly as far as he used to, but for an eleven year old dog who weighs a healthy 120 lbs, he's doing well (I wasn't being sarcastic there - he's just big, not fat).  Blair LOVES Teddy....Teddy tolerates Blair.  He is so gentle with her though, which I appreciate.  Teddy definitely gets less attention now that Blair has entered our lives, but luckily he has made friends with the neighbors and spends a good portion of his day next door hanging out with them.  They love him and spoil him with attention, treats and toys.  In his old age Teddy likes to wake up and be let out around 5 a.m., which means we are usually awoken at that hour with some seriously nasty hot dog breath in our faces.  He doesn't even need to go to the bathroom - he just wants a change of scenery and goes back to sleep on his bed outside.  I am so glad that Blair is able to grow up knowing Teddy because he is such an awesome dog and really is part of our family.

I think that’s it for our first post.  Hopefully the next one will be more exciting but don’t count on it!  Here are a few more pics of what we've been up to:

Reading one of her books to bear (she also had a nice shiner in this pic).

Blair and her buddy Teddy.

Pigtails, Puma warmups, and Elmo slippers - what more do you need?

Making - and eating - sugar cookies with Daddy.

Central Park, NYC in January - one of the only pics we took because it was really, really cold and we didn't like standing still for too long.

 She doesn't really get it yet, but I like to think she's excited to be a big sister.

Blair and her BFF Sydney coloring while wearing their cute little tutus. I don't dress Blair this way on a daily basis but they had a tutu themed birthday party to go to.