Accomplishments

Today was the first time I left the house with both kids by myself! I felt so accomplished when I was finished with my two very quick errands. Never mind the fact that I made up my mind to actually run these errands at 8:00 this morning and it was after 11:00 by the time we were all three dressed, fed, and in the car...I managed to get it done all the same.

I can remember so well the early days of my motherhood after Christopher was born. I felt like it took me forever to get out of the house, and he was just one child. Eventually it became easier and easier and before too long we were out and about all the time. I guess maybe it will be that way with two kids. I'm sure I will adjust and before I realize it I won't even remember life before Lucy. I mean there are thousands and thousands of mothers who have more than one child so how hard can it be??

I would also like to add how incredible my little boy really is. He has so far surpassed any expectation I had of him being a big brother. He continues to simply adore and love on his baby sister. He is so eager to help and he just melts my heart all the time. Today I had Lucy sitting in her bouncy seat while I was in the shower. After only a couple of minutes she grew tired of that and started to cry. Christopher immediately came in from my bedroom, where he had been watching TV and playing with his trucks, and began to sing the ABC song to Lucy (he had helped me sing to her a couple of days ago and since then it is the first thing he does when she cries now). She only stopped momentarily and then the wails came again. Christopher disappeared into my bedroom but returned shortly, this time with her pacifier. He gently gave it to her and then asked "All better?" When that didn't work he left again but then came back with a different binky (we're trying a few different kinds to try and get her to take one of them). This time, she took it and stopped crying long enough for me to finish my shower. I couldn't believe he did all of that on his own without my even asking him to help. I can already tell Lucy is going to be a very lucky little girl. In about 15 years when some boy breaks her heart, he is going to have to answer to her big brother.

Tagged

My friends Dena and Gina tagged me on their blogs. I guess this is some sort of game in blog-land. I am supposed to list seven things about myself that most people don't know...

1. I played the flute for a couple of years in middle school, why, I will never be sure.

2. I had the BEST job in high school as a yogurt maid at the local A-town TCBY. It seriously was the best job and I loved working there. Sometimes I still get a craving for my special strawberry-banana milkshake that I always made when I was closing. Mmmmmmm...

3. I made it through almost my entire Freshman year of college without ever doing laundry. By this I mean I think I only actually did one load in the dorms. All the rest of the time I sent it home via my roommate, other Abilene friends, and myself. They would drop it off at my parent's house on Friday and my mom would have it ready for them to pick up on Sunday all folded and ready to return to me. Can you say spoiled??

4. On the spoiled note, my mother also made my lunch for me all the way through high school. She also wrote notes to me on my napkins!! I wonder if I will do this for my kids??

5. Up until I decided that I wanted to marry Cory, I was going to move to New York after college to pursue a career as a broadcast journalist.

6. On our honeymoon, we were asked to participate in a kissing contest and we won. Granted our only competition was two other couples, but still.

7. I have an EXTREME fear of wasps and bees.

OK, now I'm supposed to keep the game going so I'll tag... Meredith B. and Emily R. You guys are it!!

Lucy's First Week

Miss Lucy is officially 9 days old and we have almost been home for one whole week! Things are going just great. She sleeps alot, which I'm sure will end soon, and she is eating quite well. My mom is still here playing the role of nurse to me, and entertainer to Christopher. In other words, I've yet to be alone with the two if them by myself. However, my little boy is so sweet and is already proving to be a great big brother and helper. He will bring me a diaper and throw the dirty ones away. The other day, he went all the way upstairs for me to get my Boppy pillow and brought it back down for me to nurse.

Like I said, Lucy sleeps, alot! You forget how much they sleep during these early days. She is staying awake a little more each day which is fun and allowing for me to get some pictures of her awake!! We've had some visitors and this weekend, my brother and his wife flew in from California to meet Miss Lucy.

I'm still getting used to being surrounded by all this pink. We've gotten packages in the mail with adorable little girl outfits for her and I still can't believe I get to dress her in them! For those of you that know me well, I was sure I was going to be the mother of all boys. Don't get me wrong, I am beside myself with happiness over having a daughter, I guess it is one of those things where I feel like I should pinch myself to make sure I'm not dreaming!! I just feel so blessed to be able to experience the joys of both a little boy and a girl.

Enjoy the slide show of just a few pictures of our first week at home. We're having a ball with our bundle of joy!!

We Welcome With Love...

Lucy Baylor arrived Thursday, April 3rd at 8:55 a.m. She weighed a healthy 8 pounds and 1 ounce and measured 18 and a half inches.

We are overjoyed with the arrival of our daughter! Everything with the birth went beautifully and Lucy and I are both doing just great. Our hearts have just melted watching Christopher interact with his baby sister. He says, "I wuv her" and "it OK Wucy" when she cries. Seriously, one of the sweetest things I have ever witnessed.



Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, well wishes, visits, adorable gifts, cards, flowers...the list goes on. We feel so blessed with the newest addition to our family!

And yes, I changed the colors of the blog in honor of our sweet baby girl!!

Happy Easter!

We had a great time celebrating Easter today. Christopher had some eggs to find first thing this morning when he woke up. As soon as he found one he would open up the egg and become very excited about the Hershey Kiss that was inside. Cory and I thought it was so cute how with each egg, the excitement was still there and very genuine, even though all the eggs had basically the same thing in there!

We went to church and took our friends and neighbors, the Dubes with us. The service was beautiful. It is always such joy to sing "Christ the Lord is risen today!" I always think of all the churches filled with people probably singing the very same hymn at the very same time. Then I think of the tomb, all those thousands of years ago and what that must have been like to experience the risen Christ.

After church, the Dubes came over here and the boys hunted some more eggs and we ate a very casual lunch. This preggo was not about to cook a big meal so I ordered some salads and no one went hungry. The boys were so funny finding their eggs. Since Christopher had gotten a little practice earlier this morning, he seemed to have the idea down. As we would try to point out some eggs to Drew, Christopher usually ended up swooping in for the steal. But my little angel was so sweet and instead of keeping the eggs for himself, he kindly gave the ones that he found to his friend.

Here are some pics from the day:

Please notice the Christmas PJ's


Christopher in his Easter outfit. FYI, to those of you reading this who might not appreciate his style. I would dress my child like this everyday if I could. However, he is way too BOY and would ruin these nice clothes if I did.




Using bubbles to try and get the boys to look at the camera. It didn't quite have the effect we were hoping for!


The Locke Family - quite possibly the last time there will only be 3 people in the picture!



I hope you all had a blessed Easter!

Countdown Calendar

About a week ago, I started a "countdown to baby calendar" with Christopher. In similar fashion to the Advent Calendar, each day until the baby comes, he gets to open one "door" on the calendar and inside there is some fun activity for us to do. He actually really likes it. It is about the only thing that sort of has to do with the baby that seems to interest him. He refuses to read any of the books I've gotten or anything like that so I think he is pretty much going to be in total shock when he has to share his Mommy and Daddy with someone else!


Christopher and his calendar

Anyway, today the card from the calendar said that we could go get ice cream together. Right after lunch, we heard the ice cream truck driving by. So instead of taking him up to Cold Stone as I had originally planned, we ran outside (actually my cousin, Beth physically chased after the truck) to buy our ice cream. Of course it turned out to be the biggest mess but we enjoyed eating outside in the sun after all the rain yesterday!


Enjoying our frozen treat!


That was YUMMY!

Celebrating Baby Locke

On Friday night, my neighborhood bunco group threw me a little baby shower! My sweet neighbor, Stephanie, organized it and I had such a great time! I feel so blessed to be surrounded by so many people who share in our excitement for the newest addition to our family. The baby received some wonderful gifts. When I got home and showed them all to Cory we both realized what a reality this is really becoming. Cory kept saying things like, "I can't believe in less than 4 weeks there will be a real baby using those things." I kept saying things like, "I still have so much to do before April 3rd," I hope Baby Locke doesn't have any plans on arriving early!!

Anyway, here are some pictures from Friday night. Again, I have to give special thanks to my neighbor, Stephanie. Please notice the cake that she made. She also made Cory's birthday cake for me, if any of you remember reading that post. She is really VERY talented. With so many of our neighborhood mommies in attendance on Friday night, she's liable to be hit up for some additional business now!!!


A sweet lullaby book from Amy.


The official Peeky Boo Baby nursing blanket! One of my friends has recently started a business selling these fabulous little nursing blankets. Visit their website at www.peekyboobaby.com


Adorable hooded frog towel from Stephanie.


The cake! Or should I say, the work of art!!