17 Weeks Pregnant

I can't believe I waited 17 weeks to actually take my first pregnancy picture. I have several things working against me.

1) I'm bigger now than I was at 20 weeks with Grace *sigh*

2) I'm never in ANY pictures anymore. I'm not sure what it is, but once you become a mom you can add 'photographer' to your list of jobs.

3) I just can't seem to get really motivated to take a picture, then download it, then blog about it. But, alas, here I am. Frankly, I'm doing this to put off the 2 massive loads of laundry I need to fold. We recently got a new washer/dryer. Let me tell you, those high efficiency washers are GREAT but it basically doubles the amount of laundry you fold with each load.

So, here is my very first pregnancy picture with baby number two. We took this on 'Easter' Sunday. Aaron and I never make it to our church on Easter because it's a madhouse. I mean, "park and ride" kind of crowds. So, we all dressed up as a family and went last Sunday and called it 'Easter'.

A few Easter Sunday pictures with Gracie. This is, by far, the most expensive dress she owns. Our neighbors bought her this dress last summer when they went to Paris. Of course, they decided every girl needs a dress from a Parisian Boutique, so they came back with this for Grace. It's adorable.



Daddy's little girl. This girl has Aaron totally wrapped around her finger. It's so cute. She knows that all she has to do is give him a kiss and she basically gets what she wants. She usually uses this technique to watch more Elmo on TV, so it's still kind of cute. Not so cute will be the day she follows that kiss with a request for car keys or money!

Happy Hour

A few weeks ago a friend told me about the "power of the dip". By that, I mean, if you can't get your kid to eat, try teaching them to dip their food in something else. Chips into guacomole, pita into hummus, french toast into syrup and anything into ketchup. It worked like a charm for Grace. Oh, and she loves to say "dip-dip" with each dip she takes. It's so cute.

Grace and I decided to enjoy happy hour one afternoon. A little chips/guac action is always a good plan. All she's missing is a salted sippy-cup rim...oh, and tequila. She has to wait another 20 years to enjoy that with her chips and guacomole. Of course each bite was accompanied by her "dip-dip" narrative.

Mmmm. Anyone else craving happy hour yet?

Cooking & Eating - her 2 favorite things!

Grace has become quite the little sous chef lately. She really enjoys 'helping' me cook. Our latest creations have been chocolate chip cookies and banana bread. Needless to say, the cookies were her favorite thing to cook. She discovered chocolate chips and I discovered the sugar high that comes with them.

I premeasure all of the ingredients and then she helps me add them to the kitchen aid. She is so proud of herself for being such a great helper. Her reward? Chocolate chips, of course! Here are a few shots of her in action

We also enjoyed a breakfast date with our friends Erin and Wesley. French toast and homemade jam for dipping was on the menu for these two. They enjoyed breakfast and play time in their jammies. It was adorable!

They have been 'friends' since birth and really enjoy each others company. It is so cute to watch them interact and play together. Grace refers to him as "Sesley" and always wants to know when we will see "Sesley" next.

Pregnancy is going well. I'm 14 1/2 weeks along and feeling really well. At this point I was still sick when I was pregnant with Grace. I'm tired but, other than that, feel wonderful. Oh, one more thing....I'm HUGE! My belly is the size it was when I was around 20 weeks pregnant with Grace. What gives? I wasn't even in maternity pants with Grace at 14 weeks and I've already been in them for over a month with this pregnancy. *Sigh* Needless to say, I probably won't be posting any prego pictures :-)

Announcing:

The Gore famiy will be expanding by 1 this September. I can still hardly believe it. Grace will have a little brother or sister and I will officially be outnumbered during the day. We are so excited to welcome baby #2 into the family, but I must admit that 'excited' is not my top emotion at the moment. Right now, my emotions are:
1) Tired
2) Scared to death (what have we gotten ourselves into? Eeek!)
3) Excited


I'm 13 weeks along right now and feeling rather good, considering. I was completely exhausted and nauseous with Grace till about week 20, so the fact that I'm starting to feel a bit better by week 13 is very promising. Plus, I just don't think I could deal with fatigue and nausea for another 8 weeks. It's just too hard with a little one running around the house all day. No more pampering my pregnant self!

We decided that we aren't going to find out the sex of this baby. Some people are already telling me that the suspense will kill me. They may be right, but I just don't feel the need to find out right now and don't even feel any suspense. Of course, that will grow as we get closer and closer to September. I think that waiting till d-day to find out what we are having will be amazing. Plus, I'm a person who usually never gets surprises. Not for lack of effort on others behalf, I'm just a really, really good guesser. Ask my parents. I've guessed just about every Birthday and Christmas gift since childhood.

In other news, Grace is growing like a week and talking like crazy. This girl seriously learns or masters a new word every day. I'm kind of sad about the mastery part. I really like her 'baby names' for things, like 'YaYa' for Oreo the cat. Now, she says O-eo.

Grace has become particularly more loving lately and loves to cuddle with her stuffed animals and is evern starting to say 'I love you'. Does it really count when I tell her to say it to me? I like to think it does!

Here are a few recent shots.

These 2 are compliments of my friend Erin. I was able to benefit from her nice camera and homework for her photography class. Grace and Wes were really jamming. Grace on the drums, Wes on vocals. Nothing hotter than a guy in a band! :-)