Discussions with Daddy: Segment 5

So, you may be thinking to yourself- your blog is still in early June while the rest of the world is nearly in September.  Well little reader- that's a very astute observation on your part.  I have reached a hurdle.  The next BIG event (obvi) was my sister's wedding.  Your's truly did an abysmal job of photographing this occasion.  So I'm working on collecting photos from various resources to ensure that it ultimately gets documented with the visuals it deserves.  So HOLD YOUR HORSES - it's a-coming.  Then the flood gates will open and I'll get you caught up on this ever-expanding midsection of mine as well.

In the meantime, I just realized I forgot to give you all your quarterly insight into the Martin household via my Discussions with Daddy segment.  Alas, we WILL hit 4 posts in August, which is 4x more than I delivered in May and June.  At this point, you know the drill.  Without further interruption, here we have it:

• (At dinner as she shoveled a variety of items that don't go together into her mouth.  I don't recall the exact items at this meal but recently this child put cheerios in refried beans.  So it's a common occurrence.)  "Do you think we need to get her taste buds checked?  I really don't think they're working."

• (One night during bath time.  Em HATES water in her face but has not figured out the cause and effect of not putting her head back to avoid said water in her face.)  "I am pretty sure we just water boarded her.  I've never been through the process but that has to be it."

• (After I was brutally rebuffed for a hug from our beloved daughter.  This is a daily event in our household.)  Me:  Do you think this child will ever love us?  Ryan:  I don't know.  I mean, she'll need a car one day so maybe.

• (One evening when she accidentally tipped her cup over on the edge of her highchair tray.)  There ya go- pour some out for your baby homies.

• (One morning while getting her dressed for school she was particularly fascinated with the fan.)  That's a fan, honey.  There are different kinds of fans- that's a ceiling fan but also Mama is a big fan of Daddy.  (Apparently they both live in their own worlds.)

• (One morning while playing with her toys before school we heard an audible fart.)  Em, we gotta go.  Where there's thunder there's lightening and Daddy doesn't want to be around for the storm.

• (One evening while brushing her teeth.  Emery HATES having her teeth brushed and it's a battle every night.)  Let's just give in.  Forget these teeth- they're a starter set anyway.

These crazy kids make my world go 'round.

Sugar & Spice or Frogs & Tails: The Sequel

With our sweet Bucket, we contemplated not having a gender reveal at all given that our family and friends are busy people with lives of their own and we hate when we inconvenience them.  Upon further reflection, and much questioning from the Grandparents, we realized that Baby Martin #2 deserved their own moment in the sun and that when we looked back we would remember the excitement of sharing that moment with loved ones and not the stress or worry leading up to it.

So Monday June 9th, my family (we missed you Matt!) & Ryan's got together at Guadalajara and got our gender reveal on.  Ryan & I decided to keep it to just family this time because we had a VERY narrow window to do the gender scan and do a reveal.  When I say narrow I mean that I hit 16 weeks while in Finland for a work trip and was entirely unsuccessful in convincing my Doctor that 15 weeks and 4 days was basically the same as 16 weeks (tearing up like for a speeding ticket doesn't really fly, FYI).  I returned on Saturday and had to leave again the following Wednesday for Aunt Julie's wedding.  So we basically had one day (Monday) to do our gender scan, gather the crew and get our celebration on since Tuesday was reserved for last minute packing and taking Miss Em over to Jonathan & Melanie's.

As you might guess, after a week of Daddy daycare, our house was a complete and utter disaster so we opted to have this moment at a public location as opposed to amidst laundry and toddler home decor ideas a la Emery.  I knew since everything was happening the same day, which happened to be crazy busy at work, that I wouldn't have time to take the envelope to a bakery or any other place to come up with a clever pre-planned way of revealing.  Luckily, Nonnie and Daddy came to the rescue and had the idea that we ask the waiter/waitress to bring us all a round of either pink or blue drinks dependent upon what the envelope revealed.  Looking back on it, maybe they really just wanted a drink.  Either way- I liked the idea so it stuck.

I guess before I drop the gender bomb I should back up a second and tell you what we were thinking Baby Martin was.  To be clear, we both knew we would be excited either way.  With the second there are pros to either gender- it would be fun to have one of each but it would also be fun to see the bond between same sex siblings.  So anyway, with Emery, Ryan knew from day 1 it was a girl.  I felt like it was a boy but not strongly.  With this baby, I was sure it was a boy.  Like... I would have bet a pretty good chunk of change on it.  When people asked me why, I really had no concrete explanation... I just felt like it was.  Ryan has always said he feels like he's destined to be surrounded by women his whole life.  What man wouldn't want to be so lucky?  ;c)  However, I was so convinced that it was a boy that I think I had him sold on the idea as well.

So, with great anticipation, we handed the envelope off to our waitress, who was amazing about the whole thing.  Five VERY LONG minutes later, she and a crew of other people arrived at our table with a round of drinks on a tray covered by napkins.  (I really, really wish we had thought to take a picture of this because it was so thoughtful of them but alas- I was way too excited.)  When the napkins were removed we were all greeted with... PINK MARGARITAS (virgin for the Mama).

Whoa Dad.  Should you be drinking that so fast?

Upon this knowledge, the Mama teared up because she knows how incredible it is to have a sister, Paw paw exclaimed that he knew it and Daddy just started drinking his marg as fast as he could as he mentally started adding up the cost of multiple weddings, shoe shopping budgets and the noise cancelling earphones he would need to drown out the sounds of teenage girls running around on the phone.  

We are all so overjoyed to be ushering another princess into this world and to get to know her- the things that make her happy & sad.  The things she likes & doesn't.  How she's just like Emery & how she's completely different.  Each new family member is like another piece of the puzzle and I just know this little lady is going to help us feel more complete. 

It was truly such a fun way to reveal the gender and I am so grateful to our families for taking time out of their lives (particularly Kylie for sharing her birthday dinner with us) to be with us.  We love and appreciate you all and can't wait for Bucket to meet, and be babysat, by each of you!  ;c)

The birthday girl with her cupcake.

I am not even going to swat your hand right now because I'm so focused on this cupcake Mama.  When Bucket has a birthday, will I get cupcakes?  If so, then maybe I'm on board with this whole Big Sister gig.

Kylie's 4th Birthday

On June 9th our precious niece celebrated 4 full years of gracing the world with her infectious smile, laugh and sass.  The day before, June 8th, her Mama threw her a birthday bash at the second greatest place on Earth (second only to Disney World)- Chuck E. Cheese.

Ryan, Em & I made it out to celebrate with her and had such a fab time.  Enjoy the pics of our little party animals below.  Happiest of Birthdays to you, Miss Kylie!  We love you so very much.

Riding in Cars with Mice > Riding in Cars with Boys.

I wish I looked this simultaneously dainty and coordinated when throwing a ball at my current age, let alone 4.

Kylie & her BFF from school.

Just walking around.  Leaving stray balls, tokens & tickets in her wake.

Spying on the kiddos.

Re-igniting Daddy's dream of having a quarterback.

What?  Quarterbacks don't put the pigskins in their mouth?

Can't hear you yapping at me over the sound of my adoring fans, Mom.

Presents + pizza = greatest day ever.

Our little groupie.

Me & my little love bugs.

Go Shout it on a Mountain: The Sequel

Author's Note to our Sweet New Bundle:  The documentation of our telling people the news of your existence will likely be less verbose and picture-laden then your older sister's.  Please know this has absolutely nothing to do with a lack of excitement, joy or interest and everything to do with the fact that over time your Mama's ability to be patient with secrets and their documentation has been reduced to nil.  Know, always, that you are and were as equally anticipated and fawned over as your sister.  Just because the documentation is spotty doesn't mean the emotion was!

RYAN (Baby Daddy)
As I shared here, I found out about our newest little nugget the evening of March 4th.  On a somewhat maniacal whim, I took a pregnancy test right before I went to sleep.  I immediately walked out of the bathroom, got in bed and told Ryan that we were going to be a family of 4.  We were both incredibly excited, nervous and surprised.  I don't recommend taking a pregnancy test at night because it makes it really hard to sleep.  Like the night before Disneyworld.... except 9 months before.

MOM, DAD & JULIE (Nonnie, Grampa & Aunt Julie)
Due to the fact that I had an important (read: bridesmaid) dress to fit into that I already owned, I knew that time was of the essence in telling Aunt Julie.  Thus, we weren't really able to wait as long as my inner-paranoid mother self would have preferred.  It just so happened that on March 29th my sweet sister had a wedding dress fitting scheduled that my Mom & I decided to make a day out of.  The plan was to hit up the wedding dress fitting, go look for Mother of the Bride dresses and then grab lunch together.  After some convincing from Ryan that telling them that day wouldn't be spotlight-stealing, and that I needed to get the dress situation worked out so I wasn't constantly harassing him to help me shove towels into the dress to "imagine", I talked myself into telling them over lunch.

The day before I took about 5 kajillion pictures of Emery in our backyard as a means of revealing the big news.  As you may know, taking pictures of a 1 year old is like wrangling cats - even if there's only one.  I eventually called it a day and settled on 2 pictures.  So over lunch at La Madeleine, I told my Mom & Sister I developed a few pictures of Emery for them and handed them the following:

Someone to play with?!  Eeeee.

Wait... I have to share though?  Never mind.

There were a quite few happy tears spilled over some Chicken La Madeleine.  Luckily my sister agreed to still love me despite being pregnant for her big day.  Bucket & Emery have no idea how lucky they are!

My Dad was, of course, not a part of this girls' day so I gave my Mom permission to show him the pictures as a means of revealing it because she was way too excited to have to wait to tell him until I would see him next.  Ryan and I immediately received a bunch of happy & excited texts from him that evening.  I wish I had taken screenshots, but I am fairly certain they involved him spouting off ideas of things he could spoil a new grandbaby with.  Tractors.  Life Size Dollhouses.  Baby iMacs.  You name it, it was probably swirling through his mind.

RYAN'S MOM, DAD, TIFFANY & KYLIE (Grandma, Paw-paw, Aunt Tiffany & Cousin Kylie)
Ryan & I waited a few weeks to tell his parents only because they didn't have any important items of clothing that I had to squeeze the big ol' belly into for them and I wanted to make sure I got my first doctor's appointment under my belt to ease my paranoia.  We told them Easter Sunday when we went to go visit.  We gave each of them an egg filled with jelly beans and a note that said they were going to be a _____ (Grandma, Pawpaw, etc) again in November.

They were all, of course, super excited.  After all, the only thing better than 2 precious grandchildren is 3, right?  I should have taken pictures of their reactions and the eggs, but I did not (are you sensing a theme here).  To create the atmosphere, check out this post and imagine everyone with a huge grin.

JEN 
Jen & I went on a soul mate date to Perry's (because we are fancy) one Friday in April.  As any good BFF is apt to do, she immediately forced me to order a drink upon sitting down.  I made sure to order the same thing she was having.  Right after our waiter left I told her that I was with child yet again and pushed my drink across the table to her.  Of course she was also super excited.  She worried about the fact I wouldn't get to drink at Julie's wedding, but I made her promise she would take care of enough drinks for the both of us and all was good.

Also, that meal was delicious.  BFF's are the best!  (This is the important commentary you receive when a preggo forgets to write all this down until well into her second trimester during lunch time.)

MY INDIANA FAMILY
We took a big break from telling everyone after Jen until I hit 12 weeks on May 5th.  As I stated about 10x above, this Mama is paranoid and wanted to make sure I got a few appointments with heartbeats in before sharing the good news.  What more appropriate time to let people know you're sober for the next 9 months than a day who's emblem is the margarita?  So I went for it.

Telling the Indiana family was particularly exciting this time because about 2 weeks before my cousin Miranda told us Houston folk that she was pregnant and was due November 7th.  It took a lot of willpower for me not to tell her that I was just 10 days behind her when she told us.  Last time I took a lot of screenshots which I completely failed on this time.  Trust me though- there were a lot of emoticons flying.  Drinks.  Babies.  Bows.  Trucks.  There's never a shortage of excitement from that crew!

RYAN'S MISSOURI FAMILY
We told Ryan's Missouri family on the day of the marg as well.  As stated above, keeping secrets really has gotten difficult for me!  Like with my family- no screenshots were taken but there was LOTS of excitement.  Mainly that I had agreed to keep Ryan around for at least one more child peppered with concern that he would be influencing yet another young mind.

EVERYONE ELSE
We told basically everyone else on Cinco de Mayo as well via alternate forms of email/text, etc.  I haven't individually named all of you but trust that telling each of you was equally as exciting and meaningful for us.   This time there wasn't any confusion as to the baby being twins thanks to two ultrasound pictures.  I know I sound like a broken record, but there were LOTS more emoticons, exclamation marks and capitalized fonts.  I really can't emphasize enough what an awesome emotion it is to get to share such big news and have your excitement reciprocated by the people who mean the most to you.

Suffice it all to say that everyone has been so kind and celebratory that it just reminds us how fortunate we are to be loved by such an amazing support network.  You all have been so integral thus far in Ryan & I's parenting journey and I know that you will continue to be even more so as we add sweet Bucket to our brood.  Thank you from the very bottom of our overflowing hearts for all your well wishes, prayers and love!