Seabrook Island

So, off we went in late June to Seabrook Island, just outside of Charleston, for a beautiful weekend with Philip's side of the family & to celebrate Jenn's sister Jess getting married!  What a fun time with family and Kinsley's cousins!  We took lots of great photos from a great weekend...this is what happens when we break out our "nice" camera and everyone actually gets dressed up = picture time!!!

Kinsley and Daddy in the pool!

This is me getting a feeling for what TWO little ones will be like!
(The pool water helped!)

Lilly and Kinsley...sweet girl cousins who just couldn't get enough of one another!

MayMay and Kinsley in the pool! 

Lunch oceanside - life doesn't get much better than this!

Sunset at the marina with my girl!

Loving the big boats at sunset!

Love these shots from behind of Philip and his girl.

Kinsley was getting a little tired before our late dinner...
but there's nothing like her daddy's shoulder.

Family shot at the marina before dinner!

Me and "baby Carter" taking a break before dinner!

Kinsley with Aunt Kelly and Uncle David!

Silly girls, ready for the wedding - and "Hollywood"!

Family shots by the beach pre-wedding!

25 weeks!

Kinsley, mama, and baby Carter!

Looking at the sailboats.

Kinsley and Pop

Two handsome men: Philip and his dad!

Daddy and Kinsley looking for more sailboats!

The Bride and Groom after saying "I DO" beachside! 

Sweet cousins!

Jenn, Chris, Julian, Alex, and Lilly

Mary and Tom

Kelly and David

Philip's Aunt Anne and Uncle Ray

Mary, Kelly, and Anne

Sister-in-laws!

Love this photo of Mary & Tom and all their grand children!

One last family photo before finally packing the camera away for the night!
What a fun trip!

Start of the Summer!

If I was still counting Kinsley's age in months, today would be 27 months (oh, and "23 weeks" for her little brother)!  We are quickly approaching 2 1/2 years - which also means that we are quickly approaching baby Carter's arrival, as he is set to arrive just 3 short weeks after Kinsley turn 2.5!  There's so much to do this summer to get ready!  We actually have a lot of the nursery ready to go - the crib's already moved in, bedding is already washed, still need to move in the dresser & changing table and clean out the closet, and we just picked out the paint color last night: the sweetest shade of baby-boy light-blue...just need to get those gallons of paint filled and get the paint on the walls, and we will be well on our way to completing his blue / green / yellow nursery.  'Cause this baby is NOT going to catch this mama off guard this time around - poor Kinsley's nursery wasn't completed until 4 months after her early arrival.  I will be ready well ahead of time for baby #2! :)

We had my 22-week "high-risk" check-up last week, and Carter was projected at 1 lb. 3 oz. and gave us a beautiful profile shot.  He and I area both getting bigger and are continuing to stay healthy!

Baby Carter's sweet little facial profile at 22 weeks (1 lb 3 oz)!

22 weeks!

Unfortunately, some of my not-so-favorite pregnancy symptoms are also kicking in: at night I have started to get my first signs of acid reflux and Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) - I had both pretty bad with Kinsley too, so I am not thrilled about these symptoms starting so early with Carter.  Ugh.

Kinsley is cracking us up these days, and she is loving Summer so far!  Our family had some type of sinus-virus thing that got passed around for the last three weeks, but she is finally feeling much better these days!  Mommy's reduced hours at school means more time with her.  We love having "dance parties" in the kitchen to her favorite dance song: Nicky Minaj's "Starships" (ahem, the "clean" version), painting toenails (a new color each week - she's already chosen my OPI "green" for next week), playing hide & seek with dada, with her water table or bubbles on the deck, going to the park or pool, heading up to the lake / boat whenever we can, attending her 2-week long swim classes going on right now, getting started with her first soccer lessons starting up the end of June, and eating her new favorite: ice cream cones...every single day.  She is obsessed!

We are continuing to passively potty train, having success with the poopie's but not with the pee-pee's.  She has a piggy bank and every time she "goes" she gets to add to her bank - she loves shaking it and hearing the change jingle inside.  We have a family wedding trip to Charleston in a few weeks, and I am thinking that after that, we will attempt to dive into the potty training thing a little more stringently.

Here are some photos of our June so far!

Swim class with her buddies Leighton and Kendall!

In the water with dada!

Summer days = lunch by the pool! 

This is what a tuckered-out little girl looks like after a long day of playing with her Beebe and Papa!

She never ceases to make me laugh in her upside-down, hot-pink, heart-shaped sunglasses!

Movie star!

Visiting her papa at Marist - she loves it up there!
Here, he was helping her "practice" for  signing her future college athletic scholarship! :)

Bye Bye Paci's...

Yep, bye bye paci's...it's so bittersweet to type that.  What a huge accomplishment, though, for a little girl who has been comforted by her paci's since the first day she was born.  Literally.  In NICU, they use paci's to help get preemie's to practice the art of sucking, since that is not usually "learned" in the womb until around week 37.  So when you are born at 35 weeks, sweet NICU nurses attempt to teach you to suck / swallow / breathe outside the womb.  And Kinsley loved her paci from the start.  Seems like that was just yesterday...


Kinsley's paci has always been present.  I don't think that we have gone anywhere without one in at least arms reach in case of meltdown from a tired / cranky baby or toddler.  She sleeps - I mean slept (past tense) - with no less than 3 in her crib or bed.  When she was little, it was not uncommon to see her with a paci hooked to her bib, shirt or swimsuit with her little paci-clip.  We took many-a-photos with paci present, sometimes getting in the way of her sweet smile.  It was common to see her fall asleep in one in her mouth and one in each hand.  She never took to a stuffed animal or "lovie" that she had to take everywhere with her and fall asleep with...it always was, and always has been, just her paci's.


But last Thursday night, out of nowhere, after a successful poopie in the potty & bath as we were getting ready for bedtime, I asked Kinsley if she still needed her paci's..."Big girls go potty in the big potty and don't need their paci's!" I said, sort-of flippantly.  "Do you want me to just throw these in the trash can?" "Okaaay..." she replied, catching me completely off guard.  I immediately backpedaled.  I mean, I couldn't just throw them in the trash can!  So I said, "Kinsley, do you want to give them to baby Carter?" and once again, she replied "Okaaay!" and hopped off her bed and marched right into what will be the nursery (which she already sweetly refers to as "baby's room") and dropped two paci's right into the crib.  Then she marched back into her room and we high-fived.  That night, she finally fell asleep - albeit, it took a little longer than normal - sans the paci's.  Then the next day at school, same thing, no paci for her nap and she slept for an hour and a half.  And just like that.  That was the end of the paci's.  This trend continued all weekend.  A team effort by mommy, daddy, BeeBe, MayMay, and her teacher at school = to resist that sweet face asking for her paci before bedtime or nap time.  Everyone knew the response about her giving them to the baby, and Kinsley, my strong little trooper, seemed to understand each time.

What we didn't anticipate was a 102 fever that hit Kinsley later this past weekend, her first time with Strep Throat, and as I discovered when she was crying with her mouth wide open at the doctor, her back molars breaking through the surface of her little gums.  Ugh, I knoooow, seriously, what a weekend to begin "Operation Bye-Bye-Paci," right?  But as much as I wanted to give her a paci 'cause she wasn't feeling good, I knew that we couldn't go backwards.  We were already days into a successful start.  So here we are, a week later, and while she's still not 100% well, she has almost stopped asking for her paci's completely.  They have been cleaned and stored way up high in a cabinet in a ziplock bag.  'Cause mommy doesn't have the heart to throw them out.  They were one of the last things that was keeping my big girl as my baby.  I am so proud of my girl.  All we have left is the transition out of diapers (who knows when that will happen) and she will be 100% big girl.  Makes me sad and happy all at the same time...relieved & proud, yet anxious, 'cause I know there's a whole new baby experience arriving in just four short months.

Feeling him kick...

It happened this morning, at 20 weeks/4 days, and it was just as awesome & special as when it happened with Kinsley: Philip got to feel his baby boy kick this morning while we were laying in bed.  Carter is getting more and more active and I can feel him kick and punch all the time now.  It took me a little longer to feel him than with Kinsley because of the different location of my placenta this time, but I finally started to feel Carter's first flutters about a week & a half ago.  Now that he's finally a little over the "size of a banana," he must have also gotten a lot stronger in the last week & a half as well, cause Philip got have that same experience this morning as I previously did.  I think the pregnancy always gets more "real" when you can feel a little baby moving inside you.  And I loved Philip's reaction, as he laid there with his hand on my belly: "Oh wow - Stace, I think he is gonna be an active one."  Ahh yes, just like our little girl.  We are gonna be busy.  In fact, I got a little taste of what life will be like: 10 minutes before my alarm went off, I awoke to a cry from Kinsley on the monitor and a kick/jab from baby Carter in my belly, simultaneously...like, Mom, get up, you will never get to sleep-in ever again!  Agh!  Life is gonna get both exhausting and exciting here in a few months!

Halfway Through May (and Pregnancy!)

May has brought about...

My 3rd blessed Mother's Day (spent with family, our baby girl, and our baby boy on the way); sunny, warm evenings with post-dinner strolls outdoors; 20-weeks and the halfway-point through our pregnancy!; girlie-time with Kinsley and mommy involving some pink nailpolish and 10 sweet little toenails; Kinsley counting everything, all the time, and getting our attention with her new favorite sayings: "Mama / Dada, WOOK (look)!" and "Mama / Dada, I do it!"; Kinsley's plethra of boo-boo's lately (I keep telling people that a boy will not be a whole lot different from the acive girl we were blessed with) and her new obsession with band-aids that depict Dora or a Disney princess; me saying "Kinsley, you are a silly goose!" and her replying "I'm not a goose, I'm a princess!" everytime;  more potty-practice and success!; and lots of family time already spent on the lake!  

My special, handmade Mother's Day cards.  Looove them.

Enjoying a delicious Mother's Day brunch at Danny & Angela's house!

Daddy/Daughter after-dinner stroll at The Forum - they are twins - seriously, look at the direction of their heads, their left hands, and their stride.  Twins.

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One of Kinsley's Mama, I do it! moments: washing her hands.  I must say, I love that she loves doing this healthy habit, even if it is "all by herself." :)

~ Days and Evenings Spent on the Water = Happy Family! ~

~Kinsley's First Pretty Pink Polished Toenails~

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 And finally, proof that we are halfway through our pregnancy journey to meet our baby Carter:
the growing 20 Week baby bump!