Unexpected surprise

It's not a girl! It's a BOY!!! 

Our hearts are exploding with joy all over again! And shock! And excitement!

Starting from the beginning... due to A being over 40 and high risk... we made to choice to do genetic testing early for both of our pregnancies.  This was more so for preparedness than anything else. At 11 weeks, we had blood work done and within a couple of weeks were told everything looked normal and that we were having a little girl. Knowing these tests were 99.7%  accurate we announced to the world that we were "tickled pink". 

Imagine our surprise when a bit over two weeks ago we went in for an anatomy scan only to find little boy parts on the ultrasound.  At first they didn't want to go against the blood work but then tons of concerns started coming up...  So we decided to do another round of genetic testing to verify. 

Our genetic counselor called us this week and we are very thankful to announce that all the tests came back normal and that we are having a little BOY.

This little guy is also showing a kidney issue like Dillion had in utero. We are praying it resolves before birth as it did in D. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers!

12 months... 1 year already

November 24th, 2019

We are in the last month of the first year of this little guys life. What a year it has been! He is now a whopping 26 lbs and over 30 inches long. Way to grow little guy!

 Unless he is sleeping, he is on the move. His favorite place to sleep is snuggled up with momma and to be fair there will come a day in the near future that he won't be able to do this so I am enjoying every moment.

 He is at the point of exploring everything so my early ed background is starting to come into play.

 Halloween with this little dragon was fun. We did go trick or treating in our neighborhood and it was cold enough to get away with this outfit.

D loves music and has rhythm.  

 There is nothing this kid won't eat. We are thrilled that he eats what we eat and enjoys mealtime with us. Favorites right now are strawberries and lima beans!

He still gets up at least one time at night but he takes 2 decent naps during the day.

He is my sensory child where everything goes in the mouth. Finger paint is colored yogurt! As you can tell ... he loved it.

He still loves his books!

Grandma and grandpa Calhoun came out for D's 1st birthday... we drove to Joshua tree and spent the afternoon exploring.

It was a fun

11 months

Wow where have the last 11 months gone.. . Can't believe next month at this time we will be cleaning up from a 1st birthday party!

What have we been up to this month? A lot of learning and growing... D is a little bundle of energy so the moments he falls asleep... it is a moment of rest for every one!

He loves looking at books and can spend a food bit of time pulling them off the shelf and perusing them. He is gentle with them and understands how to turn the pages. 

Momentary rest for all. Look at those lips!

We had our first date night concert to see Rod Stewart without D which means grandparents had bedtime duty! He did great!

We had three Penner kiddos over for a Sunday afternoon and D loved hanging  out with them and I think they were just as entertained. 

We love going to the safari park and waving at all the animals. 

We also enjoyed seeing the bird show.

While Joe and Lori were here visiting from Egypt, we went to Disney for the Oogie Boogie fest  

We all dressed up and enjoyed a fun evening out.

D's first amusement park ride was midway mania with daddy! He loved it.

Cant say the same for the carousel... it was great until it started to move. Daddy had to jump up with him and hold him for the duration of the ride!

He loved the Mickey and Minnie halloween stage show. 

And he got his first visit Disney pin. With the exception of 2 naps... he stayed up until 10:30  when we headed home.  

First time trying an apple cider donut. Not a huge fan!

We also went apple picking while Joe and Lori were here. D loved eating the fruits of his labor!

He is an absolute delight!

He may get messy eating but he enjoys cleaning up.

More books. Found the Wonky Donkey book at a consignment sale... it is phenomenal!

We are learning that with a little sometimes things dont go as planned and you have to slow down and smell the roses.

And some moments just play on the dirt.

And when they fall asleep ... you let them sleep.

This has been the month of getting up at 5am to see daddy off for work and then these two play in the bonus room while mommy supervises and wakes up! 

With that early of a wake up... sometimes it is hard to stay awake while we finish our lunch.

Love cute exploitative moments! They are truly little only once and they grow up so fast! 

This month we have been working on more use of utensils and sippy cups. Still work I progress but I do have to say this kid loves mommas enchiladas and he has finally started eating white potatoes. He still only has 4 teeth... 2 top and 2 bottom but that has not limited him on what he eats. We  are expecting more teeth coming in with all the drool and fussies.

For his 11 month birthday we took down 7 trees and he loved watching the Bob cat working in the yard. We would be outside more but it is in the upper 90s still.