Gwen as a big sister?

A couple of people have asked me if Gwen knows about or is excited for the baby. I tell her about the baby almost every day and ask if she's excited. She just looks at me and says, "Baby..." and then continues to do whatever it was she was doing before. Sometimes she'll look around for the baby I'm talking about. Sometimes I'm completely ignored. So yeah, she has no idea what's going on. She points out babies in public places and last week at church she decided to crawl with a baby in the foyer, which was hilarious. She loves the two books pictured in this little photo shoot we had with Photography Hill, and asks to read them whenever she sees them. She tries to feed her baby dolls and give them baths. But when it comes to comprehending that I have a small baby inside me that is going to grow and grow, she hasn't got a clue what I've been talking about, haha. We've got about 6 months to teach her all about that. She'll be 2 years and 2 months by the time the baby is born. She's going to grow so much during that time! I have no idea what she'll be like, then. It's exciting and a little terrifying. Toddlers are hard, yo. Two kids will be harder, yo! 

I really like this book pictured above. It teaches kids about attachment parenting. I wouldn't really call myself a full on attachment parent, but I have AP tendencies, especially when it comes to newborns. The book has illustrations of skin-to-skin contact between the parent and baby, breastfeeding, co-sleeping, and baby wearing. I love it. There's another book in the series called Baby on the Way that I definitely need to check out. Maybe that one will help Gwen understand more about this new baby business. 

A question to you veteran moms out there: How have you prepared your kid(s) for a new baby in your family? Any advice you have is appreciated. 

Another baby!

I always told myself that I would avoid having a baby around Christmas time if I could... hahaha! But we may have a Christmas baby on our hands. I have a lot of feelings about that, but I think I'm going to save all that for a video. For now I'll just share how excited and happy I am to finally announce this pregnancy! I've been feeling absolutely terrible with morning/all day sickness. Maybe now that everyone knows, my body will realize it's time to get into second trimester mode, the most wonderful time of pregnancy.

Yay for another baby!

Photos by Photography Hill

Favorite Movies

I'm back with another video. If you like talking about movies, watch this! I've watched a couple of these types of videos and wanted to give it a shot because I love movies! Watching movies may be my number one, favorite thing to do. My mom has always had a huge movie collection and she loved taking us to the theaters as we were growing up.

Sorry the video is kind of long, but there were lots of movies to talk about!

p.s.! I'll be participating in this again and I'm pretty excited! Get on the bandwagon! 

Butterflies in Motion

More butterflies! I enjoyed putting this video together, but I'm kind of sad about how short it turned out! I wanted to film more while we were there, but Gwen was getting very tired and grumpy so we decided to go home earlier than I would have liked to. I've watched this a ton of times because I just find it so relaxing. I hope you enjoy! 

Follow the Butterflies

Last Monday for Memorial Day we took a little trip to Butterfly Wonderland. I had been once before over a year ago with friends, but Gwen was so little and mostly slept in her wrap (I miss those days!). So I wanted to share the butterfly magic with Gwen and Ryan. It was kind of hard to tell if Gwen liked the butterflies. She definitely liked running around inside the atrium and she liked the little pond with fish so much that she cried and made a scene when I wouldn't let her jump in. Maybe she hated the butterflies, seeing how she nearly killed one.... See, a big one landed on her leg while Ryan was holding her. I scrambled for my camera to get a picture, but Gwen instantly grabbed the butterfly and a couple of pieces of its wing floated to the ground as it lopsidedly flew away. It was so sad! Poor, fragile creature. 

It was a pleasant visit, but I'm not sure when will be the next time we'll go. It isn't cheap. As we were driving up to the place, we saw the huge aquarium they're building next door! I don't remember when they'll be opening, but I'm excited to check it out. There's a small aquarium close to us in Tempe, but Gwen and I have definitely exhausted it. I'm interested to find out what this new aquarium has to offer.