3 Year Check Up

On Wednesday, we got to go in and see Dr. Strasser for his well-child check up.

He loves those suckers!

Barrett is 40.28 inches tall (96th percentile), weighs 34 lbs and 39 ozs (77th percentile), and his BMI is 14.91 kg/m (15th percentile).
Growing Great!!

Finding Out

For over a year, Neil and I went back and forth on deciding to try for another baby.
We decided to finally go for it and we tried in August, then I bought some ovulation predictors for September and that's when I got pregnant!

I took the first pregnancy test either September 22 or 23, the day I should've gotten my period.  It was negative.
I took another pregnancy test September 26 when I still hadn't gotten my period. Negative.
Then I started getting minor cramps and even some odd ligament-like pain.
I took another one on September 30. POSITIVE!  I had to text Neil a picture of the test because he had left to fly to Texas.  I actually thought he'd already be in the air, but I caught him just in time. He was so excited!

My cycle is never as long as it was that month, so I was pretty sure I was pregnant, but since the tests kept showing up negative I tried not to think about it til I could get a positive result.   Even though I was getting negative pregnancy test results, I was starting to get plenty of pregnancy symptoms... my boobs were already getting a little sore, I was peeing all the time, already getting bloated, increased sense of smell, and getting super emotional! I think I cried in every rerun of Scrubs I watched that week! (Scrubs is a comedy sitcom, in case you've never seen it!)
I took these pictures the same day I took the last pregnancy test just for funsies.

Bear heard me taking pictures and jumped right in. I'm so sad that this one is blurry because it's my favorite one!  He kept standing there and saying, "Just one more."

My starting weight is 119 lbs, that's probably 5 or 6 lbs heavier than where I started when I got pregnant with Barrett.  I weighed in at the hospital on delivery day with him at 149.5 lbs.  Hoping I can stay in that range again this time!

This is my first ultrasound I got at 8 weeks.

When I was only 7 or 8 weeks pregnant, I was getting Bear ready for bed and he looked at my stomach and said, "WOW your belly's really full!"  He didn't know I was even pregnant yet, but I guess I was starting to show pretty early on!

Best Brother Ever

We also announced my pregnancy on Barrett's birthday.  Well, we told my parents the night before we left for Disneyland because while we were gone, they left for Honduras. Then we told Neil's parents while we were in Disneyland with them, so this announcement was for the rest of the family.  And then of course we texted everyone who wasn't there and posted it on Instagram and Facebook to tell the rest of the world as well.

I am 12 weeks and feeling pretty good.

Baby at 12 weeks.  I should've put little arrows pointing to what's what, but it's a profile shot, baby's head is on the right.  It was moving like crazy and was waving it's little hand at me.  Seriously adorable!

Barrett's Birthday

Bear turned 3 on Tuesday and I think he had a pretty great day.  

We started opening presents right after breakfast and then let him open a few more every few hours so he wasn't as overwhelmed at one time.

Besides the clothes he got, pretty much everything else was from Disneyland and he was super excited!  He LOVES his new talking Buzz and Woody toys.

He's been asking for a Jessie cake for at least a month now.  I bought this little set in Disneyland and decided to put Woody and Buzz on there too just for fun.  After saw these three, he wanted to put all the rest of the gang on their too (Bullseye, T-Rex, Emperor Zurg, etc) but there just wasn't enough room.

He was so glad to have some of his cousins over to celebrate with him that night.

And so excited to get to blow out his own birthday candles!

We facetimed my parents since they're in Honduras at the moment and they had to miss out on his party.

Happy birthday my beautiful boy!

Las Vegas

We flew to California on Sunday and then drove to Las Vegas from there on Tuesday evening.  Neil had a conference there on Wednesday and Thursday and since we had a free room, we decided to just make a whole big trip out of it.  

We got checked in to the Cosmopolitan pretty late that night and were all exhausted.  Bear got to ride through the casino in style.  He wanted to play the slot machines SO bad!  Every time we passed them (which was a lot), he begged to play!

Another bed to jump on!  We had to wait even longer to go to bed once we got into the room because they hadn't delivered the crib yet!

Wednesday, Bear and I were on our own to explore and play.  We went across the street to the Miracle Mile shops for some snacks and some shopping.  He got the m&m cookie and only wanted the m&m's.

Then we went to the Bellagio to see the big fountains and the indoor garden.  He wanted to touch the water so bad but just couldn't reach.

Oh the fits.  I think he was throwing a fit this time because he wanted to go back over to the talking tree.  Just keeping it real, people.

The talking tree.

We met Daddy back at our hotel while he was on his lunch break.

He and Bear got to run around for a couple minutes.

Later that day we went to the m&m store where Bear got to pick a bunch of different colors of candy and then he ate them all in one sitting.  We're good parents like that.

Thursday, I took Barrett over to the Mirage to their little "zoo".  It was actually really awesome.
Bear loved watching the dolphins.

They had some white lions, white tigers, a few other types of big cats, and 3 BABY white lions!

None of these pictures are all that great because my camera just wanted to focus on the fence. This lion (I think it was a lion anyways) was super cute playing on the ball.  All of the animals were really active and fun to watch.

The dolphins doing some cool tricks.

Here's 2 of the baby lions.

There was also an under water viewing area that Bear really liked.

Thursday night, Bear and I flew home and Neil stayed in Vegas to meet up with some friends for the weekend.   We had a great week but are so glad to be home again!

Disneyland

Even though Barrett had been super sick the week before, we had been planning to go to Disneyland last week to celebrate his upcoming birthday.  We went anyways, and although he was a bit grumpier than usual, it all worked out pretty well.  

We flew in on Sunday and since our hotel room wasn't ready yet, we went over to eat and play at Downtown Disney.  Bear got to build and race some cars at the Lego store. 

He got most of his birthday presents from Disneyland.  This Buzz Lightyear gun was the first thing he picked out.

He was pretty excited about jumping on the bed when we did get back to the hotel.

On Monday we went to Disneyland.  Get this- Pat (Neil's dad) had NEVER been to Disneyland and Dawn (his mom) had only been once when she was 5!  Isn't that the craziest thing you've ever heard!?  I'm so glad they came with us and got to experience the magic of Disneyland!  We got Bear a little "Happy Birthday" button to wear and got Pat and Dawn "1st Visit" buttons.

Going in to Cars Land.

He was excited (and didn't get scared) to meet Mater.

Toy Story Mania.  I wish the line hadn't been so long on this ride- we would've gone again and again!

Me, Bear, and Dawn on The Little Mermaid ride.

He liked these little bumper cars.

He wanted to meet Goofy and then when we were practically next in line, he changed his mind and decided he just wanted to go on a ride.  Obviously we finished waiting in line anyways and he wasn't happy about it.

Still grumpy about not being on a ride.  They had all the Christmas decorations up around Disneyland and California Adventure and it was sooooo great!  Seriously, the magic of Disneyland plus the magic of Christmas is amazing.  I'd never been when they had their Christmas decor up so I was really excited!

We finally got on Dumbo and he was happy again.

They rode the teacups 3 or 4 times I think, I only had the stomach to ride once.

Pat actually laid down in the middle of Main Street to take this picture!  Bear was too excited about his Cheetos to even care what Papa was doing!

Bear was super excited to get to see Lightening McQueen too!

He was really sad about being too short to go on the Lightening McQueen ride, so we hopped on the next closest ride and he loved it!

We took a nap at the hotel on Monday so we could come back and see the Holiday edition of the World of Color show.  It was so good!  I wish I could've gotten a good picture of Bear's face during it but it was too dark.  Magic I tell you.

That $7 popcorn was ridiculously good.  Bear ate almost the whole box by himself on Small World.

This was on the Monster's Inc ride, it was the last ride we could go on before we had to take Pat and Dawn to the airport and drive to Vegas (I'll tell you about that later).

We DEFINITELY needed more time at the parks.  It was SO much more crowded than I was expecting, a day and a half was not nearly enough!!