As I patient/impatiently wait...

Ok, so I know I am stubborn and I wanted baby Salatino #2 to wait until after Chase's birthday and Brad's and come on his due date, which is today. But apparently he is too because here I am, on the couch with no pain. I was determined he'd be here tomorrow, well he still could, but I would be in the hospital right now, not on the couch.

I've done so much in the past week that I am surprised I haven't started labor yet. I definitely haven't made it comfortable for him to be in there but maybe he likes all the movement. Chase and I went grocery shopping today, a two mile walk down the road and up a huge hill and ended the night picking up sticks. Still nothing. Well, he is moving a lot in there, as if he is turning around, so at least I hope he's not too big because he still has room to move. One more day means more weight...not in my favor.

I've nested to the point that I've even started to nest in the shed converted work out room too. And I almost nested too much in the house to the point where I just want all the furniture out of the house because it feels overwhelming. But since we don't have any decent storage, closets etc, I have to have some extra furniture to hide all the toys that come with little boys. And having four different flooring in our living room, stairs, and hallway is starting to bug me. I know in time we will either finish with hardwood or re-carpet but ugh, it's getting old. No one to blame but myself, I'm the one that tore it out, but it is better than before, cleaner I should say, not looks.

So hear I sit, baby Clayton is already a week old and baby Celso will be entering the world tomorrow. Like Brad said I just like them well done. Thankfully though I am not uncomfortable and I am healthy.

One of them mornings...

Have you ever had one of them mornings where it just needed to start over? Today was one of those for Chase. He's been off schedule for the past few days and decided this morning to start it early, 6am, after not going to bed until 9pm. He usually doesn't wake up until 7 or so and after having an early morning, 5:30am, yesterday and not a good nap, this morning was just not good.

I kind of had a feeling from the way he was crying when he woke up that he might be miserable. Brad got up with him while I got some more zzzzz's. I couldn't fall asleep last night and when I finally did, I didn't sleep well. Turning from one side to another is a monumental task and always wakes me up.

Anyway as I drifted in and out of sleep this morning, I heard a few glimpses of how the morning was going, and it was not good. Chase was so whiny and he wanted everything opposite of what Brad said/offered. Brad was doing good at holding onto his patience but I could tell it was starting to slip.

I finally woke up around 7:30 and rescued Brad. Chase at this point was out of control. Throwing himself on floor and being outright naughty and miserable. Oh the joys of a two year old tantrum. I picked him up and told him we needed to start his day over and pray for a good spirit. I took him to his room and laid him in his bed, of course this made him even more mad. I just sat on the floor next to his little bed as he had a fit and was uncontrollably crying, you know the absolutely I am naughty cry. I was fresh so I had a lot of patience and just kept saying to myself, he is over tired and can't help himself. He doesn't want to be naughty but is so far off the deep end he can't recover. I told him we needed to pray for him to have a good attitude and sweet spirit. I then prayed that I would have a sweet spirit with handling him. I just kept saying "A soft answer turned away wrath."

Eventually I told him he needed to stay in his bed and go back to sleep. Of course he was not having that and was miserable. I shut the door and went downstairs. I could hear him get up and go to the door and start crying. Either he was going to cry himself to sleep at the door or go to his bed, which I knew wasn't going to happen. So I let him cry for awhile and went back up and gave him some loving and just held him. I sat on the edge of his bed and rocked him. "Mommy hold Chase like a baby. Mommy rock Chase." he said in between sniffles. I rocked him and rubbed his legs and feet as I watched him give into the monster within and fall asleep. I would have loved to hold him for a bit but his baby brother in my big 'ol belly kind of gets in the way and I am quite uncomfortable. So I carefully laid him down and he whimpered but finally went back to sleep.

Now I just hope he rests enough to start the day fresh and anew as the sweet Chase.

Chase's 2nd Birthday!

We celebrated Chase's 2nd birthday this past weekend, 5/1, we had to make sure we got it in before his baby brother arrives. Let me tell you it was the most exhausting two days ever. Friday I did nothing but run around, doctor's appointment, garage sales (of course), grocery shopping, last minute birthday supply shopping, Salvation Army find (answered prayer...another post), cleaning and more. It was a late night. I did little favors for all the kids and was up putting those together. That was the most fun that day even if it was late.


Saturday was exhausting too but for a whole other reason...it was his Birthday Party!! I started out the morning by finishing his cake. I did three different cakes, yes three. Funfetti cupcakes, and then a double layer cake, half chocolate and half yellow with vanilla pudding in the middle. It was quite tasty and turned out cute, I'd say.





Thankfully I don't plan parties until late and after naps, 4pm, so I had the whole day to finish preparations and cleaning. Plus, we had to make a drive over to pick up my new double jogging stroller, again another answered prayer found on craigslist, love that site.

We were blessed to have such a beautiful, warm 70+ degree day. Definitely not the norm for NY on May 1, but truly a blessing since we have many cousins and friends that were invited and we needed the big, open outdoors to play. It was nice having the weather cooperate with us, even if it was a little windy, but that is how it is on our hilltop.

It's hard to be the party planner, hostess, mommy, wife, assistant chef and photographer for a birthday party, and oh yes, 8.5+ months pregnant on top of that. So I might not have gotten as many photos as I would've liked. Well for one, I wanted a shot of all the kids together with their "construction" party hats on, but that didn't happen. Or just one of all the kids would have been nice. Nor did I get one of all the party favor boxes I did for each of the kids. Well, I do have Chase's still that I can get a picture of, I don't know we'll see. Kind of low on the agenda right now.

Ella decided Papa looked better with her hat on. Anyway it was a wonderful day and I believe everyone had a great time. Dinner took a little longer than planned, I guess our grill wasn't as big as we thought when you start to cook 35 hamburgers plus hot dogs. But after a few grease splashes and small grilled contained grease fires, everyone was fed and ready for cake/ice cream and presents. While Brad and I attended the grill, we had some tattle tales let us know that Chase was checking out his presents on his own. So yes, there were a few items that got opened that I am not quite sure where they came from but that's ok I guess, we should have been watching our child. :)

Where have these two years gone? I can't believe that our lil man who came into this world at a whopping 10lbs. 2oz. is already two. He's such a blessing and joy. Every day is a special day with moments to remember and cherish. I love my little chatter box, he just loves to talk and talk, full sentences too. It's so funny because sometimes he gets so excited that his tongue can't keep up with his brain. He starts and stops a few times until he gets it just right.

He knows most of the letters of the alphabet by looking at them and the sound they make but he doesn't know the ABC song. I guess we taught him backwards. He loves to count, working on counting to 20, almost there.

It's amazing what a little man he is, so independent and such a personality and already a negotiator. Where do they learn that anyway?

A Christmas gift from Grandpa S. that needed to come out to play. He's just so stinkin' cute.

Chase was the only one that wore his hat for most of the day. He loved it and it was so cute on him.

A little bit of everything...

Tonight was a night of sorting through some of Chase's clothes, ones he has outgrown or are winter. My intentions actually were to shampoo his carpet but decided it would be better to do that during the day so it will be dry by the time he goes to bed. So sorting clothes it was. Daddy took Chase to the garage with him for a bit so I could hammer down and get this task over without little hands helping me to "sort" them. But goodness, it is certainly a more challenging task when you are 9 months pregnant, sitting on the floor just isn't that convenient or comfortable nor is going in the attic. So after I realized how demanding and tiring it was to crouch in the attic, and get into containers, I decided to throw them in some diaper boxes until I have my belly back to size and I am more functional.

After about 45 minutes, I hear little chattering which meant daddy was bringing my busy hands back in to help me. He likes to help daddy in the garage too and that lends daddy to not getting much done either. So I had to distract him that he wasn't going back out, a hershey kiss did the trick. He came upstairs with me to finish the sorting. And I was right on his help "sorting" but that's ok, I was just about finished so I let him "help".

As I was picking up, he was laying on the floor chit chatting so I decided to join him. I grabbed his blanket, bundled it up in a ball and laid down as if we were looking at the stars. "What's mommy doing?" he chatted. "Laying down with Chase." "Mommy silly." After about 2 minutes, if that, I realized that again being 9 months pregnant and laying flat on the floor wasn't as comfortable as I wished nor did the baby think so either. So I rolled to my side, again not that comfortable but we were having fun. Chase grabbed some of my blanket to put his head on and then out of nowhere he says..."Chase happy." Awww, it just melted my heart. I replied. "Mommy happy too." Then after a few more minutes of chit chatting with each other he says, "I wuv mommy." Oh my goodness, again melt my heart. So sweet, so innocent, so real.

I may be nesting but stopping to cherish a few moments with my little man was priceless. Too bad he had to be a stinker at bedtime. Oh, bedtime, he's so unpredictable from day to day.

Oh, he has finally figured out his strength and can open the fridge by himself. So before bedtime we were getting a snack, well he was getting a snack while I was putting away the dishes. "Chase need cheese." So he grabs the cheese. "Chase need yogurt" and picks out a yogurt. But as he was choosing a yogurt the fridge started to close on him. "No fridge! Chase not done yet." He says yelling at the fridge. "No fridge, no close. Mommy need fridge open." He probably yelled at the fridge 3-4 times and you could hear the frustration in his voice, so I inconspicuously held the fridge open for him while he finished getting his snack.

Oh and I am about ready to be done with being pregnant. It's quite difficult to do the nesting I need to do with a big 'ol belly. I am organizing and beyond. I found some awesome thrift store/craigslist finds this past weekend, but they inadvertently caused me more work to get organized. I love hand-me-downs and we have received them in the toy department too. And since our house isn't quite set up for lots of toys, I must be organized to keep them under control. Thankfully for his birthday I requested outdoor things from family, where I plan to be all summer.

But anyway, everything I attempt to do causes some pretty intense braxton hicks, which are ok to me, maybe real ones will start, but I am trying to get past Brad's birthday. I got past Chase's, but Katie didn't. Baby Clayton was born on Chase's birthday. I thought that was so neat and special. Now when is it my turn? Brad says my actual due date, May 12. We'll see, I say May 9 or 10, no one knows but God.

So enough gibberish. I have a birthday post to finish but unfortunately Photoshop is not working which means I can't post pictures and you have to have pics to go with the party. Grrr.....

Chase enjoying his B'day cupcake

Ok, so I let Chase cheat and have a birthday cupcake the afternoon of his birthday party and right before his nap. I figured it's his birthday rules can be broken.



He decided to smash it with his hand and wasn't quite sure of the result it created.
But then started getting "creative" with the very blue frosting.
Very creative.

Where's Chase?

So Brad went to check on Chase tonight because he bumped his head twice today, once from falling out of the race trailer to the gravel driveway, chicks dig scars is what Brad had to say as I noticed a red, bloody spot on his forehead. But thankfully it's not horrible. Then, when he was getting ready for bed, he fell and bumped his head on his bed. So we just wanted to make sure he didn't have any concussions.

Anyway, Brad goes to check on him and he didn't see him right away in his bed. He stepped further into his room thinking he was up near the headboard. Nope. He wasn't in his bed at all. Brad's heart skipped a beat until he turned around and saw him fast asleep hanging off the glider. I have no picture of this, but apparently he was on his belly with his feet dangling, fast asleep. Now mind you he had been sleeping this way for almost three hours. Crazy boy. Brad of course picked him up and laid him in his bed.

Oh the freedom a toddler bed brings.

Fun on the Farm

This late in the year and sickness still makes it's nasty way into our homes but finally after, goodness, two weeks of no Gracie or Katie, we finally got together. We met up at Lollipop Farm for their Farm Day. It was an absolutely beautiful day and the kids had so much fun.Poppy Lee came too.
The duck is giving us a show.
They both loved the goats. Chase was going to each of them and petting them, sometimes a little aggressively or should I say excitedly. He was just having to much fun actually being able to touch and feel a real live goat. Normally the ones we visit are behind the fence and you can't really pet them.
And of course our donation to Lollipop to get a balloon in return.

Chase BIG Smile for mommy...

I was working on Chase's birthday invites, late, yes I know, but I have absolutely no time. Anyway, I had no good pictures of him looking at me smiling. You can tell I've been slacking in the photo department, I didn't have hardly any recent ones of him. So today I attempted to take a few shots, just fun, nothing overly special.

I tried to coax him into giving mommy a BIG smile, show mommy your teeth. This is the result.
And one of the winners! I was actually able to get about five good smiles.

Oh so yummy green smoothies

Someone besides me enjoys my green smoothies.
More please. Looks as if a chunk of banana from this smoothie made it to his chin too.

Just so tired....

I have so many posts lingering in the back unpublished but by the time I get done, I have no energy to edit the photos that go with. There are so many wonderful, memorable posts just waiting for me to hit "publish" but I so can't without photos, just not the same. Eventually, maybe tonight, we'll see.

We're getting down to the wire with just 5 weeks or 38 days to go, as my little baby countdown reminds me everyday. So much to do and so little time.

The past two weeks have been exhausting between out trip to D.C., having an awful cold and now preparing the baby's room. I remember this time with Chase, his room was painted and all his clothes put away in his dresser. His little brother, not so much. His room is actually worse off than Chase's ever was, well at least Chase had carpet in his. I tore out the carpet in the office over a year ago and we purchased laminate wood flooring to replace.

So far I am getting there with the baby's room, the paint color was picked out, which is half the battle most of the time. And I happy to say that the one I chose was the one I used. First time, I think, that I didn't take it back to get adjusted. But after painting the walls it was too "baby" for me so I've added my own flare. Pictures of before and after will soon come, but first the "after" must be completed. A much harder task with a 2 year old to entertain.

I feel bad when I have to tape and paint, like I am denying Chase some good mommy time but I try to involve him too, which is interesting. But after tomorrow the last bit of paint will be completed and Brad will start to put the floor down. Then we can start putting together the furniture. Soon enough it will be complete. Now to organize all the "stuff" that was in that room and what to do with it. I foresee purging more in my future...office stuff, odds and ends, toys and the list goes on. Just when I thought I was doing well.

Just so tired...by the end of the day I am whipped. Between work, keeping up with housework, baby preparations, lia sophia, enjoying the outdoors...well I am just pooped. But no complaining, I am thankful I have all of the above, just really ready for the room to be done.

I guess instead of this post I could have edited some pictures. Maybe I will do just that.

Yes, it's finally happening...

No, not me going in labor. Ha. But rather Brad and I are finally going to get away for a few days. Last February we attempted to go to Niagara Falls but Chase got really sick and I wasn't about to leave him, no matter how good Nonnie's are. And then this past December we were supposed to go to NYC for a couple of days, and well that was during the time when Sierra was sick and failing. So to say the least, we have not had our date time yet. I guess with baby #2 coming in just 8 weeks, I've been itching for some mommy and daddy time before there is no more "me" time or "us" time.

On a whim last week I decided we should go to Washington D.C., someplace Brad has always wanted to go and I haven't been in 15 years. And this time there is no backing out. I took a chance and did priceline.com and named my price. Pretty interesting and kind of scary. I did some research for two whole days trying to find the best deal, best reviews etc. and then on a whim did priceline.com. Crazy, huh? All my research and thoughts were out the window. We are staying in a 4-star hotel in Arlington, VA for only $80 a night. Not bad I thought, but I wished I went less, but I'll take it. When it was accepted, I immediately was like, oh boy, what did I just do? I guess it was the absolute of our trip and there was no changing our hotel. It's this upscale, modern hotel, Hotel Palomar. No continental breakfast, but they have a very nice restaurant, which I am sure we won't be eating at because it's outrageous.

Right now I am planning our itinerary for our trip. We have many stops that are mandatory and a few we would like to see. But with only two full days and two half days we are limited with time. So far we are going to the Holocaust Museum, The National Archives, Bureau of Engraving, Air and Space Museum, Museum of American History, Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Memorial, Washington Monument and on the last day, the Arlington Cemetery. That's it for now but I am not done planning.

I am very excited but kind of nervous too. We've never left little man and I know he'll be fine but I'm still nervous and already missing him.

I hope it's as nice as these pictures.

I am still here...

Wow it's been almost a month since my last post. I haven't ever gone that long since I started blogging. Well, I guess a computer that went kaput and the last minute decision to do a Bridal Show for lia sophia, really messed up my blogging and time. Actually, it has and it hasn't. I did start about five posts but my other computer kept freezing up whenever I would access my photo programs. So they are behind the scenes until I get the pictures off my camera. Hopefully this week.

But in the past few weeks we've had some major milestones happen in our house...#1. Chase is now in a toddler bed. And yes, there is a story behind the first few days of that. Again, a post started but behind the scenes. And #2. Using the potty. Just out of the blue he decided he wanted to use it and every time before bed. Can you say excited? It's been interesting still.

Tonight I am ready for bed, Chase's molars are coming in and he was sporting a fever all night last night and today. Brad and I took turns with him last night and again today. Thankfully he is feeling better and sleeping, as of right now.

As for me, I am tired and feeling oh so very HUGE. I just feel like my stomach has stretched twice the size in one night. I am not looking forward to another 9 weeks, I just get sooo big and ugh. Maybe I will psych myself into going a few weeks early, maybe the end of April. I don't have any lia sophia shows booked that week so that just might work. :) Plus they say babies get bigger so at two weeks early, I should have maybe a 9lber. Goodness, and that is small for me. Geez.