Day late and a dollar short

So it's more than a day late and I won't even get into how short things really are, but long story short:

Mia and I moved in with Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Tif back in August when I started my new job teaching kindergarten in Salt Lake City. Zeus is still finishing up grad school in Texas, and will be joining us periodically for the baby's birth, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Needless to say that with the move and settling in and starting a new job and living the life of an almost single mom, as well as being in the last tiring trimester of pregnancy, I've been exhausted. Too exhausted to do much besides be a teacher and mommy and occasionally check Facebook and emails for family updates. Way to exhausted to blog even, which is why I'm so behind.

Speaking of the baby's birth, I think my last post was the one where we shared that we were actually HAVING baby number two, and as of yesterday, my due date was a month away. However, when I went to the doctor's on Tuesday, he decided to take the baby 3 weeks early because of my Herman surgery after Mia was born. (To read all about Herman, click here: http://moreno-madness.blogspot.com/2011/01/fibroid.html)

Yeah, so I was pretty surprised to find out that baby girl number two will be making her grand debut NEXT SATURDAY. That's right. Three weeks early is in a week and half - NEXT. SATURDAY. Wowza!!!  Now to bust my hiney to get two and a half weeks of sub plans ready during the next four days of school!!! We only have two more days this week, and then two days next week (W-F we have off already). Not to mention we have fun company in town - my sister Nikki and her family from Germany and my brother and his family are driving in tonight for a week from Arkansas so I'm going to want to do nothing but play with them and sit with my feet up!

Oh well, if it wasn't a bit chaotic, it wouldn't be my life, eh?

Here are a few belly pictures before we welcome this second little girl into our family next weekend.  :)

Mia, myself, and the baby belly last month.

Baby belly as of last night.  :)  Yup, it's popped and she's dropped.

35 1/2 weeks of baby belly.  lol

And because it's fall and Mia's too stinking cute to not have some shots of her own, AND since it's been so long since some of you have seen her, here's some Mia shots from Monday night at the pumpkin patch.  :)

Just chillin'... in my holiday duds... on a pumpkin.

Quick shot with mama and "beebee seester" belly.

Life is good!

Forever and a day

Man, it's been forever and a day since I've posted anything and I'm feeling a little sad about that. Needless to say, life has been crazy!

Well, I guess first things first, we found out some exciting news back in March that I've been dying to post about for those that don't already know:

We got our faint second pink line, and you know what that means - BABY #2! 

Mia was excited to announce our happy news with the new shirt I made her.  :)

Yuppers, she's going to be AWESOME!  :)

Baby brother or sister are set to make their debut early November. Our due date is November 10th, but because of my fun fibroid escapade and surgery, I'm not allowed to go into labor so the doctor figures this new little one will be born November 5th via c-section.  The crazy part is, that since we decided to hold off on sharing the news for a while with other than close family and friends, we're already at 18 weeks and nearly half way through already!  We haven't had our anatomy scan yet because my OB is sending us back to the specialist we went to with Mia so they can do an in-depth ultrasound. Since Mia was born with a cleft, they just want the specialist to check everything out, but as of now they are not treating this pregnancy any differently than any other pregnancy. The only thing that they had us do a little differently was for me to take and additional 4mg of folic acid once we decided we wanted to try for another one, and then to continue taking it through the pregnancy. Folic acid is suppose to help prevent mid-line birth defects, among which is clefting. It's not a fail safe, but worth a shot.  :)  

We went in for something called the First Trimester Screen at 12 weeks and got to see our little one again. This screening is non-invasive and checks for Downs Syndrome and two different types of Trisomy. Our scan and testing came back with a pretty strong negative for both, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that we are really free and clear on those things!  Here's what our little one looked like at 12 weeks.

Little head on the left looking up with a little hand in front of the face and the torso and a shadow of a little leg to the right. It was so fun to see the little legs kicking and see our little one moving around!

We'll be having our anatomy scan on June 25th to find out if we're having a boy or girl and we'll also find out if this little one will be cleft affected or have any other things going on. I didn't realize until after the appointment was scheduled that it's scheduled on Mia's original due date. So fun! She came five days later, so the last week of June will be an exciting one for us. We'll find out what we're having and we'll also be celebrating our little Mia turning TWO! I cannot believe how quickly time has flown!

I'm kind of thinking this one is a boy, and Zeus is pretty sure it's a girl. So, what do you think? BOY or GIRL???  :)  If you can, please leave a comment and let me know what your guess is and we'll do the big reveal on the 25th.

Easter Sunday

My nephew DJ's birthday was the day before they hit the road to come and visit so we made a cake for him and had our own little celebration.

DJ and his "one to grow on" candle - the only one we could find.  :)

Easter Sunday we got up at 7 am. SEVEN AM to go to early morning mass so Danny and his family could hit the road for the 6+ hour drive back to Odessa. Did I say we got up at 7 am. That is NOT our typical Sunday morning sleep in time of 9 am.

The Mass we went to was in Spanish and really made me wish I was more fluent in Spanish! The priest had this wonderfully deep and melodic voice that made it a pleasure to listen to in any language. During one of the "stand up" times, I noticed that Mia - who Zeus was holding at the time - was leaning forward and blowing loudly. It took a second for us to realize that she'd seen the candles up front (we were about three pews back) and was trying to blow them out!  lol  She's so smart and observant! She also was "hip hop" hands in the air dancing to the Mexican church band that had guitar and accordion and tried to sing along with the choir a few times.  lol  She totally cracks us up! She wore her new Easter dress from her Tia Bertha - thank you Tia! She looked so so cute!

My pretty girl in her pretty Easter dress, all showered and clean and lotioned up - almost ready for church.

Saying hello to cousin DJ before we all headed out the door. I didn't realize they matched!  :) Thank you Auntie Brienne and cousin Sadie for passing along the darling shoes, which went perfectly with the dress!

Wowza! We then picked up Zeus's dad from the nursing home and went to Sunday brunch at Golden Coral - yum! - before bidding them adieu and rushing to get ready for our next Easter gathering. Luckily, before they left Zeus thought to get a family photo. Good thinking baby!

Here's part of the Moreno clan.  :)

Our friends Olivia and Eddie had this amazingly awesome Easter party. We got to see some great friends, have some fabulous food. We had such a nice time and Olivia throws a killer party. She had the most adorable Easter baskets for all of the kids and they also did an Easter egg hunt.

The kiddos with their BEYOND adorable Easter baskets prior to the Easter egg hunt.

Mia actually kind of got the idea this time of finding eggs, though we still had to point them out.  :)

And lots of confetti eggs. This time the confetti eggs weren't quite as traumatic for her.  :)

There were TONS of them! I think there were over 12 dozen egg cartons of them and they were a HUGE hit with the kids.

Mia loved her Easter basket, especially the eggs - she loved popping them open...

...and she was a big fan of the jellybeans inside!  :)

Our good friends Robert and Melissa and their darling boys. Zeus grew up with Robert and they've been friends for forever.

Olivia, Eddie and sweet little Adelina. Eddie is Robert's younger brother and we met them when they moved here to Austin. We are SO glad they did. Mia and I can't get enough of our Olivia and Adelina time!  :)

Not sure what all was going on with Mia in this photo, and Zeus is apparently looking at another camera, but que sera!  lol  

Mia loved the gel window clings from the Easter basket she got from Olivia. Fun times!

Mia sporting her cute Easter bunny glasses from said Easter basket.  :)

Happy Easter y'all!

Pre-Easter festivities

Mia loves to color and I love it when I can get photos of her and her papa coloring away. She loves coloring almost as much as she loves her papa and I.  :)  On this particular day I had done her hair in two little braids, and when I say two little braids I mean two REALLY LITTLE braids.  lol  When Zeus got home that day he was upset because he thought I'd gone and cut her hair again without him knowing about it. Nope, just two really tiny braids and all the hair falling out around it. Little cutie pie.

If you look REALLY close, you can see the really little braid.  :)

Coloring with her papa - I love how she concentrates when she's coloring.  :)

Mia sporting one of the newest Cleftees designs. My little cutie pie!

Zeus's younger brother Danny came into town with his family for the weekend. We were so excited to see them and to have some company for the weekend! Today we went to a ranch for a pre-Easter get-together. The kids had a blast and it was fun for the adults as well. Zeus took his disco and he and his brother grilled up a ton of meat and tortillas which were a big hit! The kids had a blast running round and playing and exploring and we all went on a fun little hay ride as well.

Cousin's Carlos, DJ, Dahnia and Mia - man it's hard to get a good photo of four kids at once!

Mia and her basket from Tia Hilda and Tio Danny - thank you!!!

Uh, am I really suppose to pick this up?

Mia and Dahnia with their spoils - a grand total of three Easter eggs. :)

Kisses before papa smashes a confetti egg on Mia's head - sneaky, sneaky! 

Mia was NOT a fan of having confetti all over herself!  lol ...

...but she sure looked cute!  :)

Waiting with her drink, aka "gink!" for a turn at the Easter egg pinata.

Me and my girl - I adore you baby girl!

My ever-skinnier hubby (he's lost nearly 95 lbs this past year) and the little girl who rules his world.  :)

Mia thought hitting the pinata was super funny and was interested for a whole three swings at it.

Picking up a few of the spoils. Fun, fun!  :)

All in all, a very wonderful day.

Easter greetings from Z and I.

Sick and scary - boo!

So, Mia's not been feeling well since Saturday. She's got a yucky cough and congestion going on and isn't sleeping very well at night. She's still such a little sweetie though and I'm definitely trying to soak up every extra moment of snuggle time, even if it's been a lot of middle of the night snuggling.

The night before last Mia woke up a LOT. A few times when I was so so tired, I layed in bed and prayed that she would be comforted back to sleep so that I could sleep. This happened two or three times and she would settle back down, but then she woke again at 5 am and I felt like I should go in and see what was going on. I went in to find my sweet baby girl sitting in the corner of her crib snuggling her blanket as she sickly and sadly cried. It broke my heart and I was so glad that I went in. I changed her wet diaper and snuggled her and she thankfully went right back down.

Last night she slept pretty good, but woke up again at five am. I'm hoping this isn't a new trend brought on my this sickness, but with what I found the night before in my mind, I went into her dark room to check things out. As soon as she saw my shadow walk into her room, she went vertical saying, "Mama!" I picked her up and our foreheads were about an inch apart as I waited for my eyes to adjust so I could see her sad little face. I leaned over and kissed her sweet little nose. As I turned to walk to the chair in her room to rock and snuggle her, she quietly and sweetly said, "Boo."  lol  Awe, my sweet little girl!

February at a Glance

Man, how time flies. I think this was one of the longest break in blogging that I've had - almost two months! Guess it's time to catch up, so here's what we were up to in February:

Went for lots of walks.

Stopping to pick and smell the flowers along the way.

I fell holding Mia - as I turned to go down a step my ankle folded on the uneven ground and I went down with Mia on my hip. I was able to protect her body and head, but her hand that was hooked around me got crushed on some rocks and wood. It was SO SO sad and was probably the low-light of the month! Even now, two months later, she holds that healed hand out to show people her "owie".  :(

Band aids make everything better...

...as do snuggles with good friends.

Mia's new thing is throwing her arm around your shoulder...  lol

Banana thief! I broke off the small end of the banana, put the other piece down, turned for 1/2 a second and turned to find THIS!

Mia ad I celebrated mama's birthday with a FREE birthday breakfast at Denny's. We shared it and both thought it was SUPER yummy and plan to make it a new birthday tradition.

Mia and papa waiting for our friend Monica to come and pick Mia up so that we could go out for my birthday. Zeus got us massages for my bday and we went out for a yummy dinner at Chilli's. I think I'll probably be giving us both massages for HIS birthday as well!  lol

Couldn't resist snapping a few of Mia loving on her papa.  :)

And again with her arm thrown across someone's shoulders.  :)

Mia helping mama blow her birthday candles out - we could only had Mia's first birthday candle, so we used it as "one to grow on".  :)

Weather got warm enough for a sun dress - yay!  Glad to see she still looks little in at LEAST one photo!  :)

Future snowboarder on our hands, practicing on mama's sandal - following in mama's footsteps.  :)

Papa picked up Grandpa Agustin from the nursing home for a visit.

Papa's Valentine card we made, with her hand prints in the heart and her "I love you!" in Mia speak.  :)

Trying on some panties while mama TRIES to fold laundry.

Went for more walks and sadly lost this hat on one of our outings. I was so heart-sick over it because I LOVE that hat on her.  :(

Riding on mama's shoulders while I vacuum. She HATES the vacuum and has to be in my arms or on my shoulders while I vacuum or she screams her little head off.

Tea party with papa - such fun!

Papa showing Mia how to "toss one back".  lol

Snuggles - LOOK HOW LONG MY BABY GIRL IS GETTING!!! 

Oh NO! Papa eating Mia's toots!

My newest favorite way to do Mia's hair, now that she's finally got some length to it - Hooray! How do I get her to hold still, you ask? Well, she's watching her favorite, the Wiggles...

...AND I bribed her with Whoppers.  :)

I think it's worth it occasionally.  :)  She's just too dang cute for words! Man oh man how I love her!!!

Story time and silly faces with papa.

Never too young to floss...  :)  

Puzzles are serious business.

Oh my goodness, I LOVE the secret twist here!  :)

Rocking her owl boots from grandma.  :) 

Swinging with friends.

More fun with mama - eating blue raspberry dip-em-sticks - YUM! Mia's sitting on my lap and just saw this picture and said, "Ahhhh!"

Love's saying, "Bye-bye!" as she closes herself in the pantry.  :)

Little cutie pie took a tumble down the stairs at a friend's house and skinned off the end of her nose.  :(  Luckily it scared us all more than anything and she rolled like a tootsie roll rather than head over heels. Still absolutely NO fun hearing your little one tumble down stairs.

We had a great time on Leap Day at a mommy meet up with other Austin area cleft mamas and some of their little ones. So nice to have other mama's in the same situation to chat with and share with and ask questions of! Our little group is actually double this size but some mommy's couldn't make it because of sickness or working. 

Mia making a quick run for it, silly girl.

D - unilateral, Mia - bilateral, E - bilateral, T - unilateral; Aren't they all so stinkin' cute!!!  :)

I'm sure there's lots of other things we did in February that was noteworthy, but I'm drawing a blank right now. Oh wait, we were suppose to fly to Utah, Mia and I, to visit grandma and grandpa, but I got really sick and we weren't sure what it was so we ended up having to cancel last minute. Bummer! I think it ended up being a horrible ulcer flare up - not sure cause I haven't had one before or since. Now we have something to look forward to in May.  :) 

I'll have to come back to this if I think of anything else. Otherwise, for now, that was our February and now we're off to finish off the month of March which we shall update soon in a like fashion.