Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!!

A Beautiful Christmas Season

It's not even Christmas yet and we have already done so much to celebrate. The first weekend in December Conrad stayed with his MeMa and Big Pop to head to their local Christmas celebration - complete with a visit to Santa! He went down on Thursday and was initially coming back Monday but by Sunday he was ready to leave...is it bad that I was happy about this? Our big boy actually MISSED us! We definitely missed him too but it did give us some extra one on one time with Prescott.

Sean's family celebrates St. Nicolas Day and every year we get an ornament or decoration from St. Nick - and now the boys are starting to get their own  collection as well! Conrad loves, loves, loves Rudolph this year so my mother in law got him the DVD and figurines. This kid is obsessed, I tell you! He is even asking Santa for an abominable snow man (uh oh, Santa's Helpers better get on it!) for Christmas this year.

We can't wait to see what Christmas brings with our family of four!

Life Lately

Has been wonderful! Yes, tired nights but those are expected. Conrad is adjusting better than I imagined and Prescott is (dare I say it?!) a much easier baby. Here's what we've been up to:

Meeting his future BFF - my amazing friend of 8 years had the same due date as me and had her baby exactly one hour before Prescott was born - different hospital but awesome all the same. We are excited for maternity leave and play dates together. Especially since her older son is one of Conrad's best friends too!

Family of four!

Double stroller - this having two kids thing just got real!

I braved it alone and took both boys to lunch - and they did so well!!

We are all still getting used to routines and each other but life is good!

Happy One Month Prescott!

Dear Prescott,

I can't believe a month has already gone by - time is quickly ticking away and you are already so precious. We can already tell that you are a calm, sweet little man - thank goodness! We were so worried that we would have another rough go of it but you've proved us wrong. Everyday with you keeps getting better and better.

You are a solid eater and usually only fuss when you're hungry or wet. AND YOU SLEEP ALL THE TIME! We just weren't used to this since your big brother never slept so I'm constantly checking to see if you're breathing. The doctor assures me this much sleep is normal :)

You had your first Thanksgiving, Daddy's birthday, St. Nicholas Day, and now Christmas is around the corner!

We love you little Peanut!

Our Little Turkey

Our hospital enlists a professional photographer whom we hired - if you are ever giving birth at an INOVA hospital I definitely recommend taking them up on this! It was only $100 and we got a disc of about 120 pictures plus several more printed out. These three are my favorite:

Prescott's original due date was Thanksgiving Day - our little turkey! When we found out our due date I immediately bought this hat on etsy.

Look at this handsome baby - love those lips!

Cutest brothers you ever did see

We have so much to be thankful for this holiday season. For now we are settling in and adjusting to being a family of four - feeling full of love and gratitude.

Prescott's Birth Story

Unlike Conrad's, Prescott's birth story is (thankfully) very uneventful. Since it was a scheduled c-section, Sean and I arrived at the hospital on the morning of November 20th at 630 am ready to rock and roll! I must say it was very odd to know exactly when your baby would be born. It was also very strange to walk yourself into the operating room and seat yourself on the table!

This time around I was much more sore afterwards but not as tired and less stressed - probably because I knew what to expect. And this time they let me hold him right after which they didn't do with Conrad.

A few hours later my in-laws came so that Conrad could meet his new baby brother. We had bought him a transformer "from Prescott" and Conrad and I had gone to the store the week before to buy some things for his baby brother so they were able to "exchange presents". Conrad was then very enthralled with his new Transformer and didn't much care for the baby after that. Which was probably a good idea since all of the family was focused on Prescott.

We had a photographer from the hospital take some pictures right there in the hospital room which was awesome! I'll definitely share those later.

He's Here!

Announcing...

Prescott Edward McCumiskey

born November 20, 2015 at 9:01am

8 lbs, 21 inches

We are all doing well and are so in love!

Our Little Transformer

Conrad's obsession over the last several months has been Transformers! He loves, loves, loves playing with the figures (and some of them were Sean's) for hours on end. So when it came time to plan his birthday party, he of course asked for Transformers!

We hired a face painter (best idea ever! The kids loved it) and borrowed a bounce house from a friend. 

Even though we had a blast and hosting was relatively easy thanks to Costco and help from the family, I think this is one of the last years I'll host a big birthday party at the house - too much work, prep, and cleanup. And for the same cost we can host a party at a local gym or park or something similar. Except for maybe baby boy #2s first birthday...we all know I love a themed party :)

Happy Birthday Conrad!

It's so hard to believe that in the span of 3 years we can have such a sweet, handsome boy on our hands. 3 years ago, Conrad,  when you were in my belly we were so anxious to see what you looked like, what your personality would be, and just how much we would love you. Well, Conrad, you turned out to be an adorably cute, smart, clever, sensitive, brave, goofy little guy and we love you so much more than you could ever imagine.

You are so advanced for your age in speech, reasoning, and understanding. And you're so tall - albeit kind of awkward but you're getting faster and more athletic. You love to eat, play with Transformers, watch UmiZoomi, play outside on your "motorcycle", play with stickers and play dough.  We can't wait to see what the next years will bring with you as a big brother. We love you!!!!

Let's Find a Cure

Being in the senior housing industry, I see and meet those with dementia or Alzheimer's every day. Or if I'm not meeting them I'm meeting their families and care givers. From a professional standpoint Alzheimer's is tough. From a personal standpoint it's excruciating. 

My Gramps, my mother's dad, has been experiencing a mental health decline for the past several years. We now have the diagnosis of Alzheimer's - and even though we knew that to be a possibility all along it's still a great blow. There is no cure. There is no getting better.

What was once a vibrant, social, hardworking, independent man, is now a quiet, reserved, and totally-dependent-on-my-mom person. Not only is this rough on him but it's devastating for my mom. However, she carries it like a champ! She's a true advocate for him and is totally devoted, especially since her mother, my Gampi, passed away almost two years ago. I can't imagine those that don't have a daughter like her to look after them or those that don't have the monetary resources for homes such as where I work.

This is why finding a cure for Alzheimer's is so crucial. With the baby-boomer generation getting older and our life spans getting longer, more and more will receive this diagnosis every year. The research and support that is provided by the Alzheimer's Association is amazing and my family whole-heartedly supports them. This year we did the annual Alzheimer's Walk with my whole family. My mom won an award for individual contributor and fund-raiser. She also (in my book) wins an award for being an amazing daughter and advocate for my Gramps. 

For more information on how you can help, visit www.alz.org. 

My Big Boy

Big news in our household!!! Conrad started pre-school! Our little guy (who will be 3 in October) started at a new "big boy school" on Aug. 31st. And boy were there tears. Lots from both him and me. The first day he was very excited:

Ahh....love that curly mop!

However, once it set in that this was an all-day, every-day affair the novelty wore off and he freaked out. I don't blame the kid - for the past almost 3 years he was with his daycare provider, Farzaneh, almost one on one the whole time. She had him since he was 4 months old and she was like a grandmother to him. He was totally spoiled! So he went from that to a class of 22 kids (and this kid doesn't like a lot of loud noises or ruckus) with lots of structure and schedules. It was a lot for him to get used to, poor guy. Things have gotten better but only after I had to have a conversation with the principal about receiving help from the teachers at drop-off. I kid you not, I absolutely need someone to peel him off me each morning. It's now an unspoken agreement between me and Sean that he does drop offs whenever possible because I can't handle the sadness - I end up running to my car and bawling :(

I know he'll adjust and get better and that this will be good for him in the end - hey it spurred his potty training and now he's fully potty trained before age 3! For baby boy #2 we will definitely put him in sooner in hopes that it will be an easier adjustment. It's these times that make me desperately want to be a SAHM but it's just not in the cards (or bank) for us. Major mom guilt here - what's a mom to do?! 

Where has the summer gone?

I'll say it time and time again - the days are passing by too quickly. I'm trying to spend as much time with my little guy as possible before #2 comes:

And Sean and I are desperately trying to get stuff done to the house because we know my ability to help will be much less once the newest baby boy comes. 

When we moved to our house one of the main things that attracted us to it and our neighborhood were the big yards and trees. However, the maintenance is slowly starting to creep up on us - we are just trying to stay afloat here! I think we'll eventually have to hire some professionals just to get everything done all at once as we can't handle it all. And neither can our cars! Here's just a part of a project:

We loaded my tiny SUV with 30 bags of mulch and 5 bags of top soil. We then had to go back for 12 more bags of mulch! Whew, home ownership is great but man it's tough work! Anyone know the name of a good landscaper? ;)

Pregnancy Thus Far

So unlike the first time around I've been horrible about keeping up my pregnancy updates. I've always heard that baby #2 gets the shaft and I'm afraid to say that I think that's the case here. Things are just so busy! If things are this busy now I'm super nervous for when we add another one to the mix. I only took one picture so far to track my belly:

For comparison, here's me at 15 weeks with Conrad:

And then when we found out it was another BOY we had Conrad introduce the gender with a balloon via Facetime with our families:

He had too much fun with that balloon, however, he was quite sad that it's not a baby sister. I'm sure he'll get over it once he sees how much fun he and his baby brother will have. Now just to decide on a name. If it was a girl we would have no problem - but however with a boy we are at a loss. I really like the idea of keeping with family names but it's tough to agree on one. I have a list with about one hundred 12 names and Sean likes maybe 5 of them. Oh dear.

Summertime Fun

Time is just flying by! This summer we've spent lots of time at the lake with my in-laws, which is, of course, one of Conrad's favorite places to be! With the boat, jet ski, go-cart riding, and swimming available all the time it's no wonder he loves to visit MeMa and Big Pop.

Every year we try and get to the lake for either Memorial Day or 4th of July and my in-laws are gracious enough to let our friends come too. We have been coming for several years now and it's funny how we started out with no kids and now we all have little ones running around!

We also took our annual beach vacation with Sean's family - and as always, the trip didn't disappoint! It's so hard to believe that this time next summer we'll have another little one added to the mix. Conrad is getting SO big and was much more brave with the ocean - in fact, we had to keep a tight grip on him as he wanted to go out farther and farther into the water!

More Catching Up

Since I have a lot of catching up to do since January and don't want to inundate everyone with a ton of pictures, I decided to break up our happenings since January:

Sean and I attended a beautiful wedding on the Chesapeake - weddings can still be fun when you're preggers but definitely not as fun as when you can imbibe on champagne!

Our town had its annual Memorial Day fair and it didn't disappoint! Conrad and Brayden loved the Ferris Wheel...Sean, not so much.

I ran another 10k with my BFF who is expecting baby #2 just one day before me!

Our little tiger had lots of fun at another town fair (let me just say I love where we live!)

Conrad and I are continuing to spend lots of time together before #2 comes. I'm trying to take off at least 1 day a month from work to just do stuff together with my little man.

Countdown to #2 continues!

Well Hello There!

So yeah, it's been a while...

Let's face it, being a working mom is not easy folks...duh. Finding the time to post things is HARD because of course all your free time when you're not working is spent with your kid (minor details here). But I recently decided to take the plunge and made the decision to "quit" Facebook (although lez-be-real this is not permanent, I've done this before - I just had Sean change my password so I can't get in - sad, right?). I just found myself wasting waaaayyyy too much time on it and there were too many political posts, articles, ads, and links to stuff I just don't care about. I found myself scrolling until I found pictures of people I'm still interested in (but can see these on Instagram!) and the rest was just fluff.

This is a round-about way of saying I'm picking up the blog again so that my friends and family who aren't on Instagram can have a way to still see pictures of our cute little guy and keep up with what's going on in our family. So, here's a quick recap of what we've been up to:

Yep, that happened! Baby Mc # 2 is expected to arrive Thanksgiving day! We are so excited to welcome this new addition to the family and can't wait to start working on the new room, break out all those old baby clothes and toys, and introduce Conrad to his baby brother! 

One of the best parts? Five of my good friends are also pregnant and we are all due within three months of each other! Maternity leave won't be so lonely this time around and I'll have fellow sober peeps to hang out with!

My main man is getting SO BIG...I can't believe he'll be three in October! And he's starting pre-school at the end of August (wahhhhhhh). Time is FLYING by!

Conrad is still pretty tall for his age and likes to act like such a big boy - we are in the midst of potty training (almost there! any advice for getting them to go #2? he's nailed #1 on the potty but can't seem to get past going #2 on the potty!!)

With my work schedule super crazy, Sean traveling for work a lot, and a lot of other family stuff going on we are just trying to relish this summer together before becoming a family of four!!

Time: PLEASE stop going by so fast!