21 1/2 Weeks

I am sorry I have been so terrible about posting pictures of myself and my belly. Being pregnant with your second child is very different than the first time around. The first time you spend so much time day dreaming about your baby-to-be and are so in love with your belly and being pregnant. With the second you are just as excited to be having another baby but you just have no time to think about it or yourself. In fact most of the time I forget that I am pregnant until I look down and see my growing belly. I am also reminded when Alex wants to sit in my lap or be held but she can't figure out how to get around my belly so she tries to smoosh it so maybe it will go away and she can be cozy in my lap or arms again! I promise to take a picture of myself over the weekend and post it the beginning of next week.

My parents arrive tomorrow for a long weekend. We are very excited to see Grandma and Deetz. The last time we were home Alex named my Dad Deetz. Grandpa is just too hard to say so somehow she came up with Deetz. We have absolutely no idea how but it is cute! Alex is doing great, saying a few more words and babbling a ton. She really wants to talk. Although she probably thinks she is talking when she is babbling in her own language!

First Haircut

BEFORE


DURING


AFTER


Alex had her first real haircut this week! She has had her bangs cut at home a couple of times but I decided it was finally time to go get a real haircut. She did great once I got her to sit in the chair. She wasn't sure what was going to happen to her if she sat in the chair. So I promised her I would take her to the pet store afterwards to see dogs if she got in the chair and sat good. (For those of you that don't know, she is obsessed with dogs.) She got in and sat like an angel the entire haircut. She looked so big and so darn cute sitting in the chair getting her hair done. (And of course I took her to the pet store afterwards like I promised.)

In addition to her first haircut I started potty training this week. Today was the second day. Yesterday she was so excited about her own toilet that she said yes every time I asked her if she needed to go to the bathroom. Of course she never went to the bathroom. She just sat on it and smiled at me or talked in her own language. She also wanted to go to the bathroom every time I went. She also thought that she should be completely naked when she went. Every time I had to tell her that we keep our shirt on when we go to the bathroom. Today, typical of any child at this age, she was the complete opposite and said no every time I asked her if she needed to go to the bathroom and had no interest in sitting on it. We'll see how tomorrow goes.......

It's a Boy, Boy, Boy!

We found out today that our new little bundle of joy is going to be a BOY! We are so excited! We are very happy to finally know what that little person is inside of my belly - a boy for Alexandra to boss around! The bossing around will be good for him though; my brother turned out great and I'm sure it was because he had three sisters! Baby and I both are doing good. I've gained a few pounds and the new guy is where he is supposed to be at growth wise too. I am almost halfway through my pregnancy at 19 weeks.

Now we have the difficult quest of deciding what to name this little guy. We know we want to follow the greek tradition and name him after Nick's Dad. We just cannot agree on what form of John - John, Johnny, Jonathan, Yanni - to call him. We have 5 months to figure that out so in the meantime I am just excited to think that a little boy is going to be joining our family!

We're Home!

We are back from Greece! We had a great time vacationing and visiting Nick's sister, Chris and her family. We spent the first week on Poros, a greek island. The second week we were there we split our time between Nick's parents' house in Kalamos, a beach town outside of Athens and his sister's house in a suburb of Athens. Alexandra loved the beach, which we were very happy about. We had tried to take her to the beach a couple of times here in Florida but she hated it because she does not like to be dirty. I guess all it took was her cousins to get her to like it. She liked the shower at the beach more than the water. In the water she didn't want to go beyond her knees. She wanted to go stand in the shower though as much as I would let her. She loved her cousins Ioanna and George. She had a great time playing with them. After being with them for two weeks I'm sure she is wondering where they are and why she is now stuck with just Mommy all day long.

Alexandra had her 18 month appointment today. Her height continues to be off the charts. She is now 36.25 inches. Her weight is average at 25 pounds.

We find out on Friday whether the new baby is going to be a boy or a girl! We can hardly wait to find out. I will post the big news over the weekend.