Snowflakes and Smooches!

It has been a long week. I blame a lot of this feeling on the weather! It seems as soon as one snowstorm is over, another one jumps in. Just this past Sunday, I had a familiar (and horrifying) episode of Deja Vu. I was driving to the IX Center to work the one shift this month I had scheduled for work. I nearly got into a car accident. It was horrifying being 6+ months pregnant and watching your car fishtail , just like the 2 vehicles in front of you, followed by a red Mazda spinning out of control inches in front of you. I was only going about 45 mph, the Mazda appeared to be going around 70!  The Mazda slammed into an SUV that was in the "original" accident (which was partially in the lane that I was in). Something was there with me that morning, and I know that God had sent an angel to guide me and my unborn baby safely. My whole body was trembling, even my teeth were chattering. I was truly blessed to be spared, to be able to leave without any harm. What a beautiful thing it was to come home to my husband and sweet Olivia that night. I kissed them and hugged them a little tighter.


Olivia has been really affectionate lately, and as any Mama ~ I LOVE it! She has been kissing me .... over and over again! It is so sweet to see this side of her. I love when she kisses me and then immediately leans in for several more smooches......She also is starting to understand I have a little baby growing in my belly (I am guessing because it is growing larger) . She will rub my belly, smile and say "baby" . Sometimes she will rest her head on my belly and wrap her arm around me and just smile. It is such a precious moment!

I recently came across a quote online and made a sweet little picture - I want to have this printed out for Olivia and the new baby and frame it :

How Beautiful is this?!

Valentine's Day was so sweet. It sucked that Brian had to work the evening , but we made the morning and afternoon special....We got Olivia a card and some toy trucks! I had noticed at a recent play date that she loved the toy cars and airplanes, so Brian picked up a small set . She absolutely loved them and played with them all day. She calls pretty much any vehicle a "car" which is cute. 

Sunshine!

I wish my blog title for this week's post would be referring to the weather, but it is not. We are stuck in the same crap - tastic pattern of snow, cold, snow, cold.  Cabin fever is kicking in, and I honestly cannot wait to see the grass at this point. Sad, huh?

It has been a busy couple of weeks. I wanted to throw my best friend Jenny a sprinkling, which is a small shower. It was such a happy day! I did a cupcake trial a few weeks back and the came out beautiful :

The Actual Sprinkling was really nice... My sister came over and helped me make pretzels that I used as favors. They turned out very pretty :

The Finished Product...I added Pink & White bows

Fondant Flower cut - outs

Working with rolled fondant.....You need to be patient!

So much has went on the past couple weeks  -  and I feel like I probably will forget to share a few things on here, but no worries!

Olivia has added a few more words to her vocabulary:

 "Sock"  Not only does she love saying the word, but she also has a habit of taking any clean clothing from the laundry basket (or anywhere she can find an article of clothing) and scatter them around the house! It is funny to find random articles of clothing here and there . . .

"Wow"   Usually a word she says when she looks outside or sees something she really likes .

 " Bubbles"  I recently purchased tiny tubes of bubbles as a favor for a shower, and a few were leftover. Naturally, we play with them in the house! It has been a brutal winter and we are stick inside. Olivia is so astonished and excited when we get the bubbles out. She very quickly caught on to saying "bubba"! Such an awesome feeling to see such joy and giggles :)

"Sunshine" So, she watches her favorite show Blues Clues on Nick Jr©.  In between shows they have music snippets from all different programs from the station. There is a cute catchy little number called " Sunshine Power", and Olivia goes crazy over it! She twirls around and now sings along too . Sometimes I sing it to her and get the same reaction! She just says "suh.shy" over and over again.

Speaking of TV, Every morning while Mama watches the news, there is a cute little animated Avocado commercial that immediately sends Olivia into dance mode.  It chants Avacado-o-o-o-o-o-ooooh! and she repeats the oh-oh's as she is dancing and laughing!

Sick Mama.....Well, without getting into too many details - I have been placed on heavy antibiotics. If I do not get better in a weeks time - I will have to consult with a surgeon. Not the news I wanted to hear while being pregnant, but nonetheless I am staying positive. I have an amazing and supportive husband and family / friends, so I know no matter what the outcome, I am surrounded by lovely people.


I am 25 weeks pregnant.

Our sweet baby girl is approximately 2 pounds , and 13 inches long.
She is kicking like crazy, especially at night! I have to be careful what I eat because the heart burn is out of control! Doctor said baby is where she should be, and based on the ultrasound due date is projected at May 24, But they will keep it at May 25 because it is a day off. I wouldn't mind meeting our little princess a day early <3


I will end on a fun note, My Makeover! I went in with a ton of light brown hair all the way down my back .... I walked out with 10+ inches of hair gone, feeling like a hot mama :) When I texted a pic of my new look to my husband he replied with Hubba Bubba!  He liked it a lot! It was an amazing pick me up and I was so fortunate to be picked for this . . . .

Before

Hair + Makeup After!

3 different colors + ombre effect!

I Love it!

And MOST importantly . . . . Baby Loves it too!

Goodbye

This is one of those things you truly dread. Losing a family pet.

Firstly, I do not want anyone to discredit the importance of this little guy, he held a very important role in our family.  He was our little ray of sunshine. His name was Baby, and he is a Peach Faced Lovebird.

 

He came into my life long before Brian or Olivia. I was about 21 years old Living with my parents. As soon as they told me that their lovebird pair had laid eggs I told my parents that I simply had to have one of the babies! Of course they said yes. The babies hatched , but the mom was a bit over-motherly and was starting to smother them. So I picked my bird, before he was technically "ready" to leave the nest and had to take care of him day and night. This entailed keeping him warm (he barely had any feathers and was pink and so helpless) and feeding him via syringe multiple times a day. I would come home for lunch just to feed him and hold him. He grew beautiful and strong , and had such a sweet and loving personality.

It is not typical to keep a lovebird single. But he was the only baby that survived. He was special, and I loved him. I moved out and of course he came with me! My Vet had commented on 2 occasions how delightful he was , and "if I ever wanted to find someone to take him in, she was happy to do so". His joy was infectious. Everyone lit up when they saw him. When he was 3 he was introduced to my new kitten ! They were best buddies and kitty would literally sleep next to him most of the day. He never once tried swatting at the bird, it was funny - like they had an understanding of some sort......

I went through a very bad depression, and sudden move, and of course my Bird and Cat came with me . I swear they really felt my pain and got me through those first few months when I felt as if the world was closing in on me.

Fast forward to present time, and Brian and Olivia both love this sweet little bird too.
Every morning our Daughter Olivia has to say good morning and night - night to "Bird" . She would stop by his cage several (yes SEVERAL) times a day and point to him and say either "up, up" or "birrrrrrrrd"

Bird was even one of her very first words!

There are so many things I could say.... My heart and my home feel empty. The sweet sound of his chirping and happiness are now replaced with silence. The morning and night ritual of addressing him are now just a memory.  Our little sunshine is gone. I will never forget losing him. I am sure every February 8th I will look at the calendar, and have a heavy heart. But then again every day I can also reflect on how he truly brought joy , love, happiness and comfort to our home. And that, is irreplaceable.....

Goodbye, our sweet friend, for now you sing in heaven with the Angels!

Roller Coaster of a Week!

Well it has been a CRAZY week! Some Ups and downs for sure .... But no need to get into all of the negative garbage, so not worth it! I like to focus on all of the positive things :)  Out with the bad and IN with the good!

After my daughter was sick (it started Sunday the 19th of January) for days with a fever ranging from 101 to 103 degrees. It spiked Wednesday to over 104! I can say this was the scariest moment for me in her tiny 18 month life. She started to break out into a rash, and so I called the nurse line for our doctors office. Although the nurse was a bit snarky, she reassured me that we did not need to go to the ER due to Olivias symptoms. She was eating and drinking. But as a mom, I thought ....Shes SO hot. She's so tired. She 's SO sick. She's so NOT herself. I figured she could co- sleep with me in our Queen bed. That way I would be right there next to her if she needed me. This was literally the 3rd or 4th time I had ever had her in bed with me. She whimpered , tossed and turned. I pretty much stayed up that whole night. I checked her at 4 am and her fever was down considerably. I slept well after that! When she woke up, I noticed her rash was still there.... We had already scheduled an appointment with our pediatrician , so I figured she would tell us what it was! She said it was just a rash from the fever and it would go away in 3-7 days .

Poor Baby's Fever Rash

That night her fever dropped to 99, and she was feeling much better. The next day she woke up her bubbly self! I cannot express how happy I was to have my sweet, funny, beautiful girl back to her normal self!

Holy Snow! We got pounded with a crap ton of snow. Cleveland / Northeastern Ohio always gets slammed in the winter but this past weekend was so bad ( We live in the secondary snow belt - which means more ).
It was so bad that for the first time in 3+ years I had to call my part time job, and told them I could not drive in. They said that they understood.

Daddy took a break from clearing the driveway to throw snowballs at the window!

Sweet little Olivia was belly laughing so hard when Daddy threw snowballs at the window! I was amused too :) Brian is such an Awesome Dad, even when he is working hard ! And trust me that driveway was hard work ,  he was out there for over an hour!

Well, I am 23 weeks pregnant, and by the end of this week baby girl will double in size!
I must say this little one is very active and I definitely feel her random dance parties in my belly. I have been feeling great, and it is nice to enjoy pregnancy .

I got a call today, I was informed that I am one of 20 people selected to receive a makeover at my local hair salon! Needless to say I was excited  and need a fresh new look since pregnancy has me feeling a little self conscious about myself! I will post the before and after next week....I am so excited!!

Olivia picked up on something I do here and there to tease her! I asked her if she was ready for "night night" (which I do every evening before her bedtime stories), and she climbed on the couch next to me, plopped on her back, closed her eyes halfway, and made snoring noises! I immediately giggled. How cute and hilarious. This little girl has quite the personality. So I joined her in the fake sleeping, thinking she would stop , however she just lay there and continued doing it with me! I really wish Brian would have been able to see it.... These are the moments that bring me so much joy. It makes me realize that although it is a sacrifice for me to stay home and not work, these precious moments outweigh everything.