The BIG GIFT has been purchased!

Jason and I have debated for awhile what to get Gavin for his 2nd birthday.  It makes it much harder of a decision when we don't have much of a chance to talk about it and we can't shop together.  Jason was determined to get Gavin a remote controlled 4 wheeler.  We did a lot of internet research, reading reviews and trying to find a good price.  I finally just took Gavin and went to Toys R Us and put him on EVERY motorized vehicle they had.   We noticed online they they all said Ages 3+ and after our hour and a half trying them all out, I realized why.  Gavin just wasn't quite tall enough and didn't have the coordination needed to steer, etc. by himself just yet.  It won't be long, but it's just not there right now.  So, I made the ultimate parenting decision and nixed the 4 wheeler idea.  This was HARD to do, as I really wanted to honor Jason's wishes.  I just couldn't justify the expense, knowing that it would sit in our garage for months until Gavin was tall enough.  

While testing out the vehicles I couldn't keep Gavin away from the train tables.  He'd run to them every chance he had.  When I saw that the Imaginarium brand of train table was on sale, I knew this was meant to be.  I had an employee come over and I drilled them on questions, wanting to know everything included in the price, comparing it to the MUCH more expensive Thomas the Train brand table, etc.  He was a good salesman because he had me sold.  We also had a little $$ left on a Toys R Us gift card so that helped even more.  I purchased the Train Table (pictured below) and they loaded it in the car for me.  Jason is not at all upset about the purchase and we will instead look again at 4 wheelers when he's home for Christmas and Gavin is a little taller/more coordinated.  

We are having Gavin's birthday party on Sept 4th in DC, but the plan is to give him his big gift on his real birthday, the 15th.  I'll put it together after he goes to bed on the 14th (NOT looking forward to that!) and it will be all set up for him when he wakes the next morning.  I can't believe the table comes with everything you see below.  Gavin is going to be thrilled!  He is going to love his big boy train table.  Can't wait to see his reaction that morning.  I will have the video camera going!  :)

Snipity Do-Da's Kids Salon

I'd heard about a new kids salon in Savannah and really wanted to try it out.  We went today while running errands and it was love at first sight for Gavin when we walked in.  They had a train table set up, a chalk board, lots of books, etc.  When he was up, they asked him what movie he wanted to watch (he picked Buzz Lightyear) and they let him pick the color of sucker he wanted.  He got to bring a couple of the trains over to the chair.  I couldn't believe how great he did.  They also offer a military discount.  I'll have to upload an after picture later.  We were busy running lots of errands and I forgot!  But - he looks super grown up and is now officially ready for his 2nd birthday party :)

Advice for those thinking of going - book an appointment if you don't have time to wait.  They see all scheduled appointments before they will see walk-ins.  We got there with no wait, but other walk ins after us were upset that people with appointments got to go first.  (If you click on this post title, it will take you to the salon website for pricing and directions!)

Bloomin' :)

One incredible man...

Cards arrived the mail from Jas today
(they were out of baby girl cards in AFG - excuse the blue)
Gavin LOVES his baseball card and hasn't put it down since it arrived.

And a special delivery... 30 of my favorite flowers
~PEACH TULIPS~

The card attached to the flowers

As I sat emailing Jason a thank you today I was brought to tears just thinking about what did I do to deserve this amazing man in my life.  It's not even the gifts, it's the sweet thoughts and words behind them (Yes - I am a "Words of Affection" person in the 5 Love Languages!)  I know how busy Jas is in the current job he's doing, so for him to take the time out of his day to pick out and write both Gavin and I our own cards and to order flowers is just above and beyond to me.  Somehow he just knows what we need and how to remain taking care of us from half way across the world.  I'm blessed to have such a wonderful father to our two children.

Today he also took the time to remember it was Gavin's last swimming lesson class of the summer, so he called just as we were pulling in the Aquatic Center to tell Gavin to have a great class and to listen to his teacher and mommy.  He told Gavin to be brave swimming on his back (thats been a fear of Gavin's these last 8 classes).  Believe it or not, Gavin was much more relaxed on his back today and did it!  It wasn't two hours later that Jas called back to ask Gavin how his last class went and to follow up with him.  Now, I now that getting two calls in one day is RARE, but I'll take it!  It makes such a difference in Gavin's life to know that Daddy is still following up on him and shows great interest in everything he does.  I'm so proud to call Jason mine!  

Thanks, baby, for making our day.  Can't wait to wake up tomorrow and see my blooming tulips and think of you and smile... We're one day closer to reunion.

What's been going on in the Smith household...

We've had A LOT of this lately
(NOT COMPLAINING)

...Which has led to lots of organizing.  Gavin isn't sure he's ready to put all his newborn-24 months stuff in "Neena's storage" yet.  He keeps opening the boxes and pulling out the occasional shoe or outfit and wants to wear them again!

Bedding and newborn-12months stuff... Oh the memories that were brought back when I packed all this away.  Where did that first year go!?!?

And 12-24 Months stuff.  Another year of memories brought back.  Where have these last 2 years gone?

And the chaos that has become my dining room.  I promise there is  some sort of organization going on here.  We have a Goodwill box, a give to friends box, and a stack of Gavin's baby stuff that my mom is going to make a quilt out of for me.  

Over a year ago I was at a yard sale and bought this awesome Lego table for $3!  Gavin is finally old enough to enjoy it so I brought it in this weekend for him to enjoy since we haven't been able to spend too much time outside lately.

He loves building and shows me everything he makes!

Last night we had dinner with Elizabeth and her family that is in town visiting.  She was so sweet and brought Gavin and I a gift bag to dinner.  Inside was a card and all this for Stella.  I LOVE IT ALL!  She also had a new Melissa and Doug puzzle for Gavin with vehicles.  It makes noises when you get the pieces in the right place.  He LOVES it and played with it before bed last night.  I have a video I'll try to post later.  Thanks so much Elizabeth!

Update on the Grandpa's!

Pop was spotted in Afghanistan again.  Unfortunately it was not under the best circumstances this time but it is still always good to see a picture from far away.

Remembering the Fallen

Kabul - NATO Training Mission - Afghanistan leadership participate in a memorial service on Camp Eggers for Petty Officer 3rd Class Jarod Newlove and Petty Officer 2nd Class Justin McNeley July 30, 2010. The sailors' bodies were recovered after the pair went missing in Logar province last Friday. (U.S. Air Force photo/ Staff Sergeant Matt Davis)

And Papaw recently decided to lose some weight - I heard yesterday that he is down 21 pounds and has reached his goal weight.  Can't believe how quickly he did it.  The most impressive part is that he has given up Coke!  For anyone that knows David, this took a big commitment!  Go Papaw!

Stella Nicole

Today was such an exciting day.  We've secretly had an ultrasound scheduled for about two weeks now.  Boy was that a hard secret to keep!  With Jason being away we really wanted a way that he could still be a large part of the "announcement" - so we had to keep the appointment a secret.  The appointment was at 12:15pm and Jason called by 12:45.  He only had a minute to hear the result.  Gavin quickly got on the phone and told daddy we were having a "Baby Stella" - I heard Jas yell out, "So its a girl!?!?!" I said yes and he had to go.  I hated that our conversation was so short, but at least Gavin got to be the one to tell him the news.  Then I had to keep my mouth shut the rest of the day.  That was HARD!  We'd planned for Jason to email all of our parents/grandparents/siblings/aunts when he got off work to announce the big news.  It was exciting to surprise everyone.  At 6pm our time he was able to get the email out.  I instantly started receiving phone calls and loved hearing peoples replies to how "sneaky" we were.  I'm so thankful Jason was able to feel a large part of the process from half way across the world!  Thanks to everyone that has already replied to him and his email.  He'll be thrilled to get all the emails tomorrow about his baby girl!

The name Stella means "star of the sea".  We loved this because it seems like a perfect name to remember our time in Savannah and our love for the ocean!  Some of our favorite family memories to this day our at the ocean.  It's also a pretty unique name and that was another thing we wanted.  Her middle name, Nicole, is after me - thats my middle name as well.  We struggled to come up with something and Jason said one evening he'd like her to be named after me.  I was flattered!  And that was it!

On the drive home from the ultrasound I had to make a stop at the Carter's outlets.  I hit up the clearance racks and picked out a few outfits for $3.99.  This girl is going to be spoiled!  It's so funny how quickly I changed after finding out we have a little girl.  Pink isn't such a bad color after all!  I've already picked out the cutest bedding from Pottery Barn Kids.  We're going to do Stella's nursery in pink, green, and white.  She'll use the same crib and glider we had for Gavin.  

I'm so OCD I've already started working on projects around the house to make room for baby Stella.  I boxed up all Gavin's bedding and his clothes from newborn-24 months since I know we won't need any of that for this baby.  I have a huge Goodwill pile and the rest will go to my parents big storage room when I visit Tennessee in September.  

I love finding out what our babies are as early as possible in the pregnancy.  I feel like such a stronger bond forms when you know the gender and can call your baby by name.  It's especially important to me this time because we have Gavin and it's a hard enough concept for him to understand an unborn child.  I love now being able to talk to him about how he is a big brother and he's going to have a baby sister.  He knows her name now and I just love hearing him say it!  

Alright, I've got to get to bed, but here are pictures from the ultrasound today.

16 weeks, 5 days

Strong Heartbeat at 161 bpm

Growing so big

It's a GIRL!  

Stretching out

5 toes...  And she has the space like Gavin and I do!

One more

Gavin and I after the ultrasound... couldn't wait to share the news with Jas!

Rained Out

Last night we attempted to watch another Sand Gnats game.  On our drive to the field it started storming horribly.  I still drove out there just incase the weather let up.  It did seem like it would for awhile so Gavin and I went ahead into the stadium.  The weather never stopped, but we stayed under the covered section and Gavin still had a great time.  He was able to meet a couple of the baseball players and they signed a ball for him.  He also played in the stands with his new buddy, Ryan.  The team did a great job of keeping the fans entertained and played lots of fun music that Gavin loved dancing to!  Fortunately we can reuse our game ticket to get into another game for free.  We'll probably attend one more next week before the season ends.  Not sure what Gavin is going to do when baseball season is over!

I gotta go potty mommy!

A Downtown Kinda Day

What I really wanted to title this post was "Kids Should Come Issued with Leashes" but I figured that probably wasn't appropriate... but let that explain the energy level of my son yesterday!  I wanted to get out of the house so we got ready and went to the Jepson Center for the Arts downtown.  (This museum has free admission for all active duty military and their families until Labor Day.)  We met up with a friend, Rachele, and her two kids, Ryan and Lauren.  Gavin was excited to have new buddies to show him around the museum.  They have neat areas for the kids to explore and build.  The blocks, magnets, and drawing board were favorites of Gavin's.  It was EXHAUSTING following Gavin from exhibit to exhibit, up the stairs, down the stairs, and making sure he kept each "item" at its proper station.  If the place had been crowded I really would have kept Gavin in the stroller, but since we were the only people there I figured why not let him have a good time explore and learn.  Then, the frustration came - an employee came and told Rachele and I that our kids were not allowed to run around like they were.  There were many nicer ways that he could have said it, but his tone and the way he said it really annoyed me.  Our children weren't bothering anyone.  So... we headed out to Loco's for lunch.  Another bad experience, not on the part of our children, but instead the kitchen staff.  Really frustrating.  When I got to my car to put more money in the machine (you can only pay for 2 hours at a time) there was a parking police there and he'd just given me $65 worth of tickets.  $50 for an expired tag (which is really up to date, I just apparently forgot to put the new sticker on my tag!) and $15 for being 3 minutes late to refill the machine.  Errr!  I should have taken the first clue at the museum that it was just not a good day for me to be out and about!  I had promised Gavin ice cream at Leopold's (we've been wanting to try that place out forever) so I kept true to my promise and re-paid the parking meter and walked to the ice cream shop.  It was a good time, except that 5 minutes after I bought Gavin a kids scoop (and he only took one bite) he decided it'd be fun to throw it in the trash!  The day only got worse when on my drive home I got a call that our battalion lost two more soldiers.  Of course it put my day into perspective and I realized that all my frustrations really weren't so bad compared to the loss that the families of these two had just suffered.  I took Gavin home for a nap and I used the time to just decompress from the morning.  We headed to the gym when he woke up and I was able to let go of some of the stresses.  Picking up Chinese Takeout on the way home topped off the day and Gavin and I both went to bed early.  

Here's to today - that it will continue to be a better day.  And as always, prayers for our soldiers serving overseas and the families left behind.

Building with blocks

Wall of Magnets

Drawing

Leopold's Icecream

A real working Juke box!

Love how this one turned out

Say Cheese!

This little boy lights up my life!

$1 Admission

August 16 - We love $1 Mondays at Grayson Stadium!  Another bonus was that it was a double header... Sundays game was rained out.  I made dinner at home then we drove out to the game.  Gavin was truly decked out from head to toe.  I just LOVE his $2.99 steal from Gymboree - he's too cute in his baseball shirt!  He was cracking me up because as we walked in he struggled to hold his baseball glove, bat, hat, and ball... but still wanted to take a look around the gift shop!  Like he actually had room to hold anything else!  :)  He's a true fan.  I really hope he's as excited when football rolls around.  I'm sure once Jason gets home with his full enthusiasm for football, Gavin will jump on the Buckeye Bandwagon!  :)  But for now he's 100% Sand Gnats!  

Hilton Head, Day 3 & 4

Hilton Head, Day 2

Ready for a day at the beach/pool

View of Resort from the beach

Beach at Hilton Head

We hit up the pool after the beach :)

After lunch, Gavin snoozed poolside!

So I was able to relax and catch up on Hollywood gossip :)

Everyone arrived at the resort between 4-5pm for the retreat.  We had a very nice outdoor dinner served from 6-7pm (they even had a kids buffet!).  Only issue was no high chairs, but fortunately I had brought the stroller and just strapped him in that while he ate!  Next we all dropped the kids off in the provided childcare and did our first session from 7-9pm.  It was all about our personalities.  We took an assessment to find out which personality we best fit and then we learned about them and our strengths/weaknesses and how everything plays out in our relationships.  It was pretty neat!  Jason and I are for sure different personalities!