July Happenings!

On July 1st we found out that we are having a little BOY!!!  I can't tell you how excited I am!!  I would have loved to have another girl, but there was just something inside me that really, really, really wanted a boy this time.  Maybe so we'd have one of each and now for the next two I won't have to worry what we're having.  But regardless, we're having a SON and I am just thrilled!!  Here are a few pics of our baby boy and the proof that he's a boy.  :)

Keira was also very excited to have a little brother.  We tried getting a good picture to post on facebook but were pretty unsuccessful after many tries.  Here are some of the best ones.  :)

The Saturday before the 4th, we had a staff get together out at the Wallace farm.  It was fun to go out there and hang out with everyone and watch the kids play.  I actually got to shoot a gun!!  :)  haha.  The joke was this is what we do in Kansas....pregnant women shooting guns.  :)  Yikes!!  I felt very country! Here are some pics from that afternoon:

Our fourth of July was very, very low key.  Pete had to work a lot of the weekend and so Monday it was nice to have him just be home.  We slept in and then went to the Riverside park and there was supposedly a "Children's Parade".  I just saw it online so we decided to take Keira.  Well, that's exactly what it was, children parading on their bikes, strollers, etc.  It was still fun to be out and about and Keira got to play in the water fountains and at the park.  It was pretty warm outside already so we didn't stay for too long.

Keira's 4th of July attire.  :)

We had lunch and then Keira went down for her nap and Pete and I spent the next 3 hours doing this:

We were pretty impressed how quickly we got it done for how hard it was!!

That night I wanted to go to the fireworks so we decided to wake Keira up and head down to the river.  We found a parking spot and put our blanket out.  And waited.  And waited.  We waited with hundreds of other people and only saw fireworks off in the distance!  :(  I guess Wichita did their fireworks on Saturday night and we never got the word.  SUPER disappointed!!  Booo!!!  :(  Oh well, I suppose we'll know better for next year.  We should have just got on our roof and watched our neighbors cause from what I hear, they put on a pretty good show.

Anyways, I'm off to a Thirty-One party tonight and praying for success!  I'm officially in my DIQ right now (Director in Qualification) and if I hit the goals I need to I'll be a director next month.  THEN if I hit them 3 months in a row I'll get a $1000 bonus!!  Whoo hooo!!  The pressure's on!!  I'm still loving my job and working really hard at it!!  I just earned a $1,600 Best Buy gift card and next year will plan on earning a trip to Mexico for Pete & I.  I'm so thankful for the opportunity to work from home and still make a good income!!  And it only goes up from here!!  :)

Summer Days

Summer is well underway as we've had multiple 100 degree plus days so far.  I always said I wanted to live somewhere warm, but quite honestly, I'm not a huge fan of that degree of heat.  Unless I'm in my swimming suit at the pool, give me the air conditioning and fans.  Speaking of air conditioning...last week on one of those wonderful 100 degree plus days, our lovely air conditioner decided it wanted to take a break and quit working on us.  UGH!  This preggo mama was not a happy camper by the end of the day.  When I put Keira to bed that night our thermostat read 94 degrees.  I had a huge headache and all I wanted was the air conditioner man to get to our house STAT!!  Needless to say, it went out Sunday morning and he came Monday afternoon and Tuesday I got sick.  Who knows if it's because of the heat but I wouldn't doubt it.  I woke up with a 101 temp and was on the couch all day.  Not a fun week to say the least.  Oh well, all is good now and my house is back to a comfortable 78 degrees (yes I keep it that warm during the day).  :)

Keira and I have taken a few trips to the pool and I'm loving it.  :)  She looks so stinking cute in her little swimsuit and I feel like a beached whale with my preggo belly.  I finally broke down yesterday and bought myself a maternity swimsuit and as I look at it, I feel like I've officially moved to the "mom" swimsuit.  Hmm.  Don't know how I feel about that one.  Not feeling very cute at the pool these days that's for sure.  I suppose that's my life these days, I mean, I AM a mom of soon to be 2 kids so that puts me in a different category than the single, skinny, sexy, bikini wearing girl at the pool, right?  That's life these days and while it's not as thrilling  as strutting my stuff at the pool, I'd much rather have the life behind the "beached whale" body than that of the single, bikini girl.  I have a husband who I am desperately in love with, a daughter who I can't kiss enough and a baby on the way who I know will steal my heart the minute I meet him or her.  Life is good and I am more than blessed!!  I'll take the "mom swimsuit" look over the other any day.

My sweet girl is getting so big!!  She's 14 months on Thursday and just full of life!!  Her new things these days are:
* Hearing and recognizing when airplanes fly over our house - she points to the window and looks and me and says in her own way "airplane"
* Getting scared.  This is a new one that has just started this past week.  The two things that scare her are when the fridge makes the ice and makes a funny noise and also when the door bell rings.  I have to say it's kinda cute when she gets this terrified look on her face and then runs to me.  I hate that she's scared, but she's cute while she does it.  :)
* Running.  She's quite the confident walker and gets ahead of herself sometimes and leans forward to go faster and usually ends up tripping over herself.
* Pickiness.  She's not a fan of the veggies and won't pick them up herself and eat them.  I still have to make the pureed veggies and feed them to her.  She'll usually eat them this way and I always feed them to her first when she's really hungry, but she's definitely starting to like the breads and pastas and sweets much better!  Smart girl haha!  I still haven't given her many sweets, it's usually pretzels or vanilla wafers or something like that and I want to keep it that way for the most part.
* Naps.  She's been fighting her morning nap lately which makes me think we're getting ready to transition to 1 nap.  I like the morning nap and would like a month or two more of it, but I will say yesterday she slept for a good 3 hours after not having a morning nap so that was nice.  :)
* Things she loves - books, books and more books, her shopping cart, wet washcloths (?), taking her clothes out of her drawers and walking around with them on her shoulder (?), baths, swimming, kicking in the water, cheese, yogurt, her sippys, Wrigley!

Life is going quickly and I can't believe I'm already almost 16 weeks pregnant with this second baby.  We find out July 1 what we're having (2 weeks from Friday!) and I can't wait!!  I think I'm secretly hoping for a boy, but will be so happy for a girl as well so Keira can have a sister.  The Lord knows what will be best and I completely trust His judgment.  :)  Our little peanut is growing like a weed and I'm just so thankful for BOTH of our kids.  :)  God is GOOD!!!

A new chapter

And so we begin yet another exciting chapter in the Goodman family.

I'm pregnant.  Again.  :)

I feel like it was just yesterday that I was shouting it to the world that I was going to have my first baby....and now here we are pregnant with the second!  I have a 1 year old and a baby on the way!  Crazy!!!

I am so, so, so excited!  Really nervous, but really excited.  I've always wanted a big (4 kids) family so this is Lord willing just going to be one of a few more pregnancies.  Right now I'm just about 10 weeks (tomorrow).  This time around I wanted to wait a little longer to "announce" my pregnancy.  I'm not really sure why, but I think I've just heard of so many friends miscarrying I have been a little more nervous for this one.  However, we went to the doctor for the first time this morning and got to see our little peanut squirming around!  It is one of the most incredible things!!  The lady who was doing the sonogram was pointing out the arms and legs and heart beat and it's just such a different feeling this time.    I think with Keira all the unknowns were so obvious and we had no clue what we were in for.  This time, I know how much I love my babies and I know how much fun it is to cuddle with them and I know how great of a feeling it is to get kisses and lovies from her and I know how much fulfillment and satisfaction I get from watching her learn and grow.  Having kids is the most incredible, fulfilling thing I've ever done and I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I was made to be a mom.  It is by far the greatest thing I've ever gotten to experience and so that's why this time, I think there's a different spirit in my heart about what's to come with this new baby!

I have to say the whole two kid thing does make me a little nervous.  Like how do I grocery shop with two kids?  And how do I get two kids into and out of the car without Keira running away?  And how do I nurse an infant in one room with Keira running free in the other?  How will I function with a 19 month old and a newborn and NO sleep?  We are definitely into a routine and schedule now and it's kinda nice.  That whole transition took a lot of getting used to when Keira was born so we'll see how I do with it the second time around.  I think maybe now that I know what to expect it might help a little bit.  In more areas than one!

I am already counting the weeks until I can find out if we're having a boy or a girl.  I don't know how people do it and wait until birth!  Hahaha.  I know it's a great surprise, but I am way too much of a planner to wait until I'm taking the baby home with me.  I love it when others wait (okay if I'm honest the suspense kills me!!), but I will find out the gender with every baby I have.  :)  If I'm honest I'm hoping for a boy.  I want a son and I know Pete wants a son as well so I would love to get the "one of each" thing taken care of.  I would love to buy boy clothes and get to do boy things as well.  I grew up with 2 sisters so raising a boy would be something completely new for me.  I was 99.999999% convinced that Keira was a boy and completely dumbfounded when they said she was a girl so I'm not making any predictions this time.  I will say though that I would love to have a girl as well.  I love having sisters and I would love for Keira to have a sister so close in age to grow up with and share clothes with and life with.  Not to mention the BINS FULL of girl clothes that we already have would be nice to be able to reuse.  :)  Whatever the sex of our baby is, I know it's what God has planned so I will be excited either way.  I just can't wait until July when we can KNOW!!!  :)

Here are the first pictures or our little babe that we got this morning.  Isn't he or she SO CUTE already?!?!?!  :) :) :)

Weaning

For the last couple weeks I've begun the weaning process with Keira.  I was nervous for it expecting to be in a lot of pain but honestly, I haven't really felt anything which is very nice considering I heard horror stories from my friends of how painful it was!  I will admit it is kinda sad to think that my days of nursing my first baby are almost finished, but I know once I'm done with it I will be glad.  We're down to two feedings a day and it's kinda nice quite honestly.  :)

Keira's birthday is 1 week from today!  I'm so excited for it and can't wait to just celebrate her all day!!  Granted she won't really have any idea what's going on, but it will be more fun for us to make a big deal out of her on that day.  You only have a 1st birthday one time and you have to make it special.  My mom gave me a bunch of decorations that we'll use and I'm going to figure out how to make a special cake this week.  Cyndi will be here so I'm sure she being the expert in the kitchen will help make everything wonderful!  We're having a birthday party from 1-3 pm and I hope a lot of people will at least stop by.  It's just fun to get excited about our little girl!!!  :)

I ordered a bunch of pictures this week to fill up her baby book with and included a monthly shot of her each month.  Here are the ones I have.  My girl is getting so big!!!!!

newborn

1 months

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

 

8 months

 9 months

10 months

 11 months

It's almost here!

Keira's 1st birthday is just around the corner.  Now I'm no longer counting months until she's 1, I'm counting weeks!!  A couple people asked me today how old she is and I had to say "She'll be 1 in 3 weeks!" YIKES!!  Where did the past year go??????  I can honestly say this past year has been one of the greatest years of my life.  Fastest ever...but greatest none the less.

I keep reminding myself throughout the days that I need to update my blog.  I haven't written in over a month and I feel like I'm going to miss out on recording and marking things that Keira's doing and the new things she's learning.  While some of you who read this may not care when she takes her first steps, or what she's eating, or how she laughs so hard at Wrigley, I'm more writing it down for myself so I can come back to these entries when she's older (or when I have other kids to compare) and remember these days.  I never want to forget this first year of my first daughter's life and so I write...or type....the little details that may mean nothing to you but mean everything in the world to me!!

Words - She is JABBERING on and on and on these days!  Literally this morning I don't think she stopped talking for like 20 minutes straight.  I LOVE it!!  :)  She just plays on the floor with her toys (or the dog dish or Wrigley's kong or her bibs and washcloths or the dish towels and placemats...) and talks talks talks to herself.  Her voice melts my heart.  Sometimes she gets this really high pitched voice and I think she just likes to hear herself when she does that voice.  It is the sweetest thing ever!  That little girl said "mama" as her first word for like 2 weeks straight and as SOON as she figured out how to say "dada", I haven't heard "mama" since!!  That little stinker!  I say it to her all day and she just looks at me like "what are you doing mom?!"

Faces - She's just started making this face where she scrunches her eyebrows and nose and purses her lips and it's almost like a mad face but whenever she does it I just have to laugh so hard.  She also loves to stick her tongue out all the way and then of course mommy has to do it and we just look at each other making funny sounds with our tongues hanging out.  :)

Schedule - Our schedule is pretty similar at this point each day, other than Sunday when we have church.  Keira's been waking up around 8 am and I always go in finding her standing up at her crib smiling away with her crazy bed head.  I love her little grin as I walk in the door cause she knows I'm coming to get her up.  :)  She nurses right away and this is the feeding that will be the hardest to give up. When she wakes up, she's ready to eat!  And eat a lot!  It's not going to be a fun week for me when we drop this feeding! OW!  I'm dreading it already.  After she eats though is some of my most favorite times of the day.  We always read together and read about 3 books.  One of them being her Tiny Bear Bible.  It's super short, rhyming Bible stories that are just perfect for her.  We cuddle while she continues to wake up and she just LOVES being read to!!  That 15 minutes or so of cuddling and reading are some of my favorite moments of the day.  :)  After that she eats breakfast (cereal mixed with fruit) and then plays for 1 1/2 hours till she goes down again at 10.  She usually sleeps for 2 hours then nurses again and has lunch around 12/12:30 pm.  Plays some more or we run errands and then nap again at 2 (if we're lucky!).  Bottle and snack at 3:30 then dinner at 5:30/6ish with Daddy. After dinner she spends time with Pete and he always puts her "jam jam's on" (they have a song they sing while doing it!).  :)  So cute.  :)  Bed at 7.  And I must add that she is a CHAMP when it comes to going to bed.  I barely ever even hear a word from her after I lay her down.

Food - She's eating most everything these days.  I tell ya that little girl has an appetite!!  Pete asked me last night if I should stop feeding her at some point. haha.  I told him I don't care how much broccoli and cauliflower she eats!  I'll give it to her if she wants it until she's so stuffed she can't get another bite into her!  Being that my huz doesn't have the greatest eating habits (pizza, spaghetti o's and hot dogs...ugh!), I'm being pretty strict with Keira and what she's allowed to eat.  I want her to grow up liking veggies and fruit and making healthy eating choices and there's no better time than to start than right now!  When she wants more of something, she tries to say "more" but it just comes out like mumbles.  Her little arms shake and her legs kick and when I sign more and ask her she gets a big grin on her face so I know she understands what it means.  :)

Sleeping - Last night I put Keira down at 6:45 pm and she didn't wake up until 8:30 am!!  I was starting to get a little worried cause she's usually at least stirring by 8 am but she was just fine.  This spring ahead time chance has definitely worked for my benefit.  I wasn't a fan of the falling back an hour, but I just kept putting Keira down at 7 even after we sprung ahead (and it would have been 6 pm) and now she just sleeps an hour later.  :)  I've heard that the earlier you put your baby down, the longer they will sleep and I couldn't agree more!  I think that is one of the best "rules" I've heard yet haha!!  She has been fighting her naps though.  I'm wondering if we're getting close to dropping down to 1 nap.  In the mornings she goes down at 10 and always sleeps a good 2 hours.  It's the afternoon one that we've been having trouble with lately.  Every day is different...one day she'll sleep 2 hours in the afternoon then the next she won't sleep at all.  I'm just going to keep trying to stick with 2 naps at this point because I'm not ready to give up that second "mommy" time!  :)  I still think it's good for her to have a rest time anyways.

We've been doing a lot more things with friends and their kids.  Keira's getting to the age where she plays and interacts with other kids and I love it!  I'm so anxious for summer to get here so we can go to the pool and the zoo and take walks outside!!  There have already been multiple 70 and even 80 degree days here so we're definitely getting out of the house more which is great!  Although I will say I'm not looking forward to the 95/100 degrees in July and August.  ugh.  I always thought I would love the heat, but summers here are brutal!  Maybe I'm just having bad memories of last summer when I didn't want to go anywhere with Keira just being a couple months old and out in that heat, but I just remember being miserable!  Hopefully this summer will be different as we can actually get in the water now.  :)

This past week my mom and sisters and Elyse came to visit for a few days.  It was great to have them here and I'm so thankful for them!!  We spent many hours talking and laughing and watching the babies crawl around and eat their toys.  Elyse and Keira are so different.  Not only in size, (Keira's a beast compared to little petite Elyse!!) but in personality as well.  Elyse is definitely more assertive and vocal and much more dramatic.  Keira seems to be more laid back and passive.  It's funny to watch them together!!  They are just so sweet and I hope they grow to be great friends!!  Now we just need to live less than 10 hours away from each other so that can actually happen.

Keira took a few steps while they were here and that was so fun to see.  :)  She's definitely still wobbly and her problem is that she leans forward to reach out to me or Pete and that throws her off balance.  It is still super cute and while I know life will pick it up a pace once she starts walking, I'm anxious for her to do it.  :)  I just love watching new babies walk.  There's just something sweet and special about it.  :)

Well I think that's most of the updates.  Again, for those few who read this, it was probably pretty boring, but I do it for myself to go back and read later on.  :)  I'm still obsessed with my girl and so, so, so, so, so thankful that I get to stay home with her.  The Lord has definitely in every single way possible provided through painting for Pete and Thirty-One with me to make that possible.  I'm living my dream right now - an incredible husband and a beautiful daughter (and a crazy, hyper but in a weird way I still love him, puggle Wrigley).  :)  My life is BLESSED!!!

My heart is heavy.

This morning my heart feels very heavy.  My friend from college, Audrey, and her husband Kyle lost their 5 month old baby girl Annabelle Joy last night.

Annabelle Joy

Kyle & Audrey

I don't know all the details but from what I do know, she had something called SCIDS which from my understanding is basically no immune system.  Her little body was unable to recover and last night she went to be with Jesus.  I sit here in my home with my little girl sleeping soundly in the room next door and I just weep.  I weep because I can't imagine the pain Kyle & Audrey are experiencing right now.  I weep because I think of how much I love Keira and how much it would hurt to lose her.  I weep because I know that Jesus is weeping right along with us.  I weep because of anger at this world for the sin we live in day in and day out.  I weep because my heart hurts, for myself but mostly for Kyle & Audrey.  I know this is a cheesy picture of Jesus, but I'm a visual person and seeing him here holding this little baby is what I believe He's doing right now in heaven!  She's looking straight into the eyes of Jesus and experiencing a satisfaction and comfort that we have yet to know until we stand in his presence and he reaches out and physically holds us as well.  He's holding that sweet girl right now and to be honest...I'm a little jealous.

A few days ago I was reading in John 11 about when Lazarus dies and Jesus goes to him.  In this moment I am continually reminded of the oh so common verse "Jesus wept." (John 11:35)  I get this picture in my head of Jesus leaning over Annabelle and just weeping because He loves her so much.  He's weeping because He desires so much more for us as His children, yet because of sin, we choose to live in guilt and hurt and pain without even knowing all that He has for us!  He's weeping because he knows what we were created to be.  He's weeping because he hurts that one of his precious daughters didn't get to experience life on this earth for more than 5 months.

"Jesus wept."  

The next verse says, "Then the Jews said, 'See how he loved him!"

Oh how Jesus loves us!  His heart breaks when we are hurting!  When things like this happen it's easy to ask God "Why?" or blame him for taking this sweet little girl long before she could really experience all that life has for her.  And I'm not the parent in this case so it's easy for me to say now, but the answer to the Why? is because we live in a world saturated with sin!  I can't imagine what it would be like to lose a daughter so young and so innocent....she didn't do anything to deserve her life being cut short!!  But as I was laying in bed this morning thinking and praying for Kyle & Audrey, I kept thinking (or the Lord kept bringing to mind) that Annabelle's purpose took only 5 months to completely fulfill!  God KNEW from the moment that she was conceived that she would only live 5 months!  Her death did NOT take him by surprise!!  That little girl, while not even knowing how to talk or walk, fulfilled ALL, every last short minute, of what God intended and purposed for her life!!!  If she would have lived another day on this earth, the purpose of what she was first put her for, would have already been accomplished so she would be living for nothing.  I am reminded as I write this that each one of us are put here, not knowing for how long or short our days might be, for a very specific purpose.  Once that purpose is fulfilled, God takes us home.

Psalm 90:12

Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Oh Lord may I live each day with PURPOSE!  May I know that you love us enough to weep when we hurt!  May I seek your face when I am hurting knowing that you are the only one who offers complete peace!!  Be with Kyle & Audrey in these moments, days, months, years ahead of them as they miss their little girl and do life without her.  May I always know that you've experienced loss and know what I'm thinking and feeling.  Lord Jesus may this world come to know you and be FREED from the chains that sin holds us down to!  I long for the day that our bodies are made new and our suffering is no longer.

Do you know that Jesus loves you?  No really.....think about it.  Do you live in such a way that the God of the UNIVERSE LOVES you??  How does your life reflect what you believe???

I seriously love this.

My girl is just SO much fun lately!!  I seriously laugh so hard at her all day...and I can imagine that she's even going to provide more laughs when she starts talking.  My favorite things she's doing now is blowing loudly by pursing her lips, squinching up her nose when she smiles, she has this high pitched coo and just sings and listens to her voice, she's just learned her "g" sound so that's the new one that's frequently used, her left top tooth just broke through (and we're anxiously awaiting the pair...she's NOT a fan of teething!) but she has started to push her tongue out and I think she feels the top tooth with her tongue....there are just so many things that I just love about this little girl!  I am absolutely obsessed with her!!  For those of you who are moms, you know what I'm talking about.  For those of you who aren't moms yet...just wait...it is seriously the greatest thing EVER!!!!

I mean, LOOK at her!!!  Honestly!!!!  GOD THANK YOU FOR MY GIRL!!!!!!!