Almost there!

Since it is after midnight now, I am 20 days from my due date of October 5th. Things have been busy over here. We are trying to finish part of our basement, build a fire engine bunkbed from scratch for our son, and then move the existing office into the basement, the son into his new bed in the old office and re-decorate the office, as well as decorate the existing nursery for the new baby. We hope that we finish everything before the baby gets here. Our son is also having his 2 year old birthday party on Saturday. He'll turn two next Monday, on the 21st. So we have a lot going on. Not to mention that I am tired all the time, and this has not been as easy of a pregnancy as it was with my son. Though I have not had the swelling issues I had with Riley and have not had to go on bedrest (I'd been on bedrest 9 days with Riley as this point), this pregnancy has been more difficult. Nasuea for 16 weeks straight. Severe indigestion since before teh pregnancy test was positive that only stopped for a couple of weeks between 16 and 18 weeks. Braxton-Hicks contractions that started at 18 weeks I believe. Lots of baby movenments, some of which are painful. More exhaustion with this child as well. So between trying to help my husband care for our toddler and being pregnant, it has been a rough 9 months. All of this while working fulltime! It will all be worth it in the end when the baby gets here. We did not find out what we are having this time either (I had to veto my husband's request that we find out this time). SO it will be exciting to see what the baby is. Today Riley refused to wear a pair of shorts that we classified as "baby pants" and said that they were for the "girl in mommy's tummy". Perhaps he knows something that we don't! Only time will tell. I guess that is about all for now. Until later...
-Lawyer by Day and Mommy by Night

Big News!

I have big news to announce! Our son will be a big brother in the fall! I am 6 1/2 weeks pregnant. I am due October 5th. We are all very, very excited over here! They will be almost exactly 2 years apart as the baby is due 2 weeks after my son's birthday. So far I am feeling pretty good. I have had a lot of indigestion but that is about it, besides being tired. Hopefully it will continue to be a great pregnancy. With our son, I had to go on bedrest at 36 weeks due to severe swelling from my knees down so I hope that does not happen this time. And I also hope that this spring and summer will be mild and NOT hot. In 2007 when I was pregnant with our son, it began getting hot in March! It was a long, long time from March until September 21st. So a nice cool spring and summer sound great to me! Not much else going on here. It was a long week in court this week as it was trial week but I managed to survive. Next month's trial week doesn't look bad at all. Hopefully we can manage to try some new methods in traffic court which will keep me on my feet less. Until then...
-Lawyer by Day and Mommy by Night

Great Weekend!

I surprised my husband on MLK weekend and went away to the Biltmore Estate in Asheville for the weekend. We left on Friday and returned on Monday. We stayed at the Inn on Biltmore Estate. It was very nice and relaxing. We left our son with my parents for the weekend. He had fun there, despite developing a cold/ear infection while he was there (probably had started the day before, though). We toured the Biltmore House, winery and farm and then shopped in the historic Biltmore Village and in downtown Asheville. We also went ice skating at the civic center in downtown Asheville - just happened to be walking past a few minutes before the next ice skating session. It was a lot of fun! We had ate at some great (expensive) restaurants. All in all, it was a lovely weekend. It was a great way to spend a weekend, especially since we just had concluded a trial week at work. Though I didn't have any trials this week, I was in court until 8:45 on Monday night. I am glad that this doesn't happen too much! I still got to spend a few minutes with my son when I got home - but it was only a few minutes as we have instituted a new bedtime of 9:30 for him. He seems to be doing well with it. A couple of days after we returned from the weekend getaway, our son turned 16 months old! I can't believe that he is growing up so fast. He is so smart! He speaks a lot of words and several phrases. His new favorite word is... MOMMY! I am so excited. He says Daddy a lot but he's never said Mommy more than a hand full of times before. It is perhaps one of the sweetest sounds ever! The other one is hearing him say I love you! Not sure that he is doing anything more with that than repeating what we say, but it is still awesome! Well, it is late and I am tired so Until then...
- Lawyer by Day and Mommy by Night

Great Christmas!

It is four days after Christmas and our house still looks like Christmas exploded! But it is a good explosion. We had a really good and relaxing Christmas. Everyone got a lot of presents. And we still managed to find time to relax. I was tired at the end but not over tired. Riley had an absolute ball. He got so many things for Christmas and he honestly has enjoyed playing with each item. He is learning and growing so much. We found a fifth tooth coming in on Saturday. He is starting to repeat or try to repeat many words and phrases. "I see you" and "Love you" are two new phrases from this weekend. Total he can say about 35 words and 4 phrases. He goes tomorrow for his 15 month checkup. Anyway, I hope everyone had a great holiday season. Until then...
- Lawyer by Day and Mommy by Night

Historic Night!

Although the polls predicted the result, I still sat in amazement tonight as Obama won! I am so proud of my country that we were finally able to move past our racial issues and elect a president of African-American heritage. I am saddened that it took almost 150 years after the Civil War and Reconstruction period. I truly thought that McCain's speech tonight said it all - America has spoken and it is time to move on and accept our new leadership. Unlike in previous elections, it appears that Obama won both the electoral votes as well as the popular vote! I hope that any remaining race issues this country has will go by the waste side. I don't want to raise my son in a racist society and I hope that the election of this new president will resolve remaining issues for our country. Though I live in county that still has a majority of white Americans, though the numbers of non-whites is rapidly growing, I don't want to raise my son in society filled with racial issues. I grew up hardly knowing anyone that wasn't white. I had a African-American roommate in college and I used to work with many African-Americans and have grown to have several close friends that are African-American. I moved onto a street with neighbors that are from a diverse group of ethnic and racial heritage. I hope that my son grows up in a world much more diverse that I have done so. I sat almost stunned tonight as Obama won. I expected it but still it was amazing to watch! My only regret is that I didn't actually vote for Obama. Though I agreed with almost every platform he had, I voted for McCain in order to give a women a shot at getting near the White House. My husband voted for Obama, though! Well I guess I better get back to preparing for a motions hearing tomorrow. I was in court until almost 9 pm Monday night and did not get home before my son went to sleep. And then this morning I had to leave early in order to be back in court by shortly after 8:30 so I didn't see him too much this morning either. Then after work today, which I didn't leave until 6:30, I ran by and picked up my son and husband and went to a local restaurant to wait with a friend that ran for mayor (and lost unfortunately) of a small town up here (app. 1000 residents with about 200 registered voters only 100 or so which voted!) for the results of the local election. My son fell asleep on the way back from the restaurant and didn't wake up when we got home. It is trial week this week so there was been a lot of extra work this week and not much Mommy time so far. In addition to a motion, I will likely also to to trial on a separate case tomorrow. My son's body still hasn't adjusted to the time falling back so he has gone to sleep earlier in the evenings. He grew up a lot this weekend, though. When he got back from Grandmommie and Granddaddy's house on Sunday, he was walking all over the place and he was refusing bottles! No more bottles! He drinks all his milk from a sippy cup. I just posted on Sunday that he wasn't walking very far just yet and was not very willing to take milk from sippy cups yet and then we arrive at my mother's house to pick him up and he walks down the way towards us! And it wasn't a fluke, he is walking everywhere! And all the bottles I sent for him to use on the weekend went unused! He refused to drink from a bottle! Both mornings this week so far I have given him milk in a sippy cup and sat him on the couch and he drank all his milk, gave me the sippy cup when finished, and got down the play! I no longer have a baby - he's a little boy now! Hopefully I'll get more time later in the week to spend with him before he grows up anymore! Until later...
-Lawyer by Day and Mommy by Night

13 months old!

My son Riley turned 13 months old on October 21st. I don't know where the time went. He is definitely a toddler now! He can walk but chooses not to as he is still unsteady and would rather crawl and get there faster. But he did walk about 6 feet on his own at a party on Friday night. He can communicate well, just not in understandable words! He points a lot at things he wants and he just keeps pointing until we get it right. If he wants milk, he'll go and sit by the fridge and point at it. If he's hungry, he'll sometimes go and sit by his highchair. He definitely understands a lot of what we say. If we say something that he wants, he'll stop dead in his tracts and look at you. But if he doesn't want it, then he won't respond at all. Yesterday he dropped something on the floor when he was playing and he understood me when I asked him to pick it up and give it to me - he picked it up and gave it to me! If he's mad at you, he'll face you directly and growl at you or make a terrible screeching noise to your face. He babbles all the time, too. He can say dog and Daddy pretty well. He is working on saying ball. He is so cute. He is almost drinking milk out of a sippy cup. He has been drinking water out of a sippy cup since the summer but he just envisons that milk comes in a bottle! We are working on getting him to drink his milk out of sippy cups as well and we are making good progress. He did, though, manage to break the drawer underneath his crib the other day. Apparently while his Daddy was using the restroom, Riley pulled out the drawer underneath his crib and then tried to climb on top of it which bent the metal guide on the drawer! So the drawer is now on the floor waiting to be fixed! What can I say, he's all boy! I certainly miss him everyday when I go to work but I also know that as tired as I am when I get home from work, if I stayed at home with with, I'd be exhausted by noon! Currently Riley is at Grandmommie and Granddaddy's house (my parents). Grandmommie picked up Riley yesterday and he spent the night there. This allowed my husband Tony and I to do some Christmas shopping and to get some much needed cleaning done (or at least we hope to get the cleaning done today!) I can't believe he's old enough to have a sleepover already! From what I can tell, he's having a ball! She had to move a few fall decorations and pull him out of the fireplace! Well, I guess I better go and help my husband finish our cleaning before our little monkey comes back home! Until later...
- Lawyer by Day and Mommy by Night.

We can clap!

Riley learned a new trick yesterday. He can clap! He claps a lot now. But he will also clap upon request. Just say Riley can you clap for me and he'll stop doing whatever he's doing and clap! And this is not even something we have worked on! He just started doing it and clearly understands the meaning of the word clap! I think we are working on some more teeth as well as the dentist said that his gums were swollen and he hasn't slept well recently. He got a good report at the one year visit at the doctor on the 25th of September. He weighed almost 22 lbs and was almost 30 inches tall. The doctor did suggest that he drink 24-32 oz of whole milk each day! This seemed like a lot to us. We working on adding more milk into his diet but it is difficult. One day he had 17 oz between what he drank and what we used to make cereals with and that was a record for him! He is still nursing in the mornings and the evenings so he isn't totally on whole milk yet anyway. He usually eats a yogurt each day so he gets other dairy in too. He just so cute but boy is he a handful! I played with him yesterday for about 30-45 minutes outside near the sandbox and I was exhausted! I think we definitely underpay our nanny! Although I miss being at home with my child, I think I am still exhausted after working all day and being in trial than I would be chasing after my little monkey all day long! Well, I better go. My husband just came in from the store (we forget to buy whole milk) and brought both dinner and flowers! What a wonderful husband I have. Well until later...
-Lawyer by Day and Mommy by Night