16 weeks

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I had my 16 week checkup this week. Pretty normal and on track. Well, if you consider threatening the 5 yr old and stuffing goldfish in the 1 yr old normal. JoJo’s heartbeat was 158 for those who think you can predict the sex by that number. My 20 week ultrasound is scheduled for June 25th. So frogs or flowers will have to wait until then.

P.S. Along with some of Megan’s other cute phrases like “stawbrr tortkak” (strawberry shortcake), “ank ooo mommy” (thank you mommy), and “ear ooo go, mommy” (here you go, mommy), she now can say “baby JoJo”. She has no idea what that means, but that is beside the point.

Photoshoot

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It is simple. We were headed out for the day with Daddy and I thought they looked cute. “Let’s go outside real quick and take a picture before we leave.”


“Look at the camera Alyssa.”


“Alyssa. At me.”


“Meeeegan! Look at mommy.”


“Got it.”

Nope, I just Photoshopped it. (Yes, I am good at it.) But something prevents me from printing these type of pictures to keep for myself, because the event I have supposedly captured didn’t exist. The other pictures actually tell a more accurate story of my kids at this age.

They do a little better individually.

And this is our bunny who usually eats breakfast with us.

The Class of 2008

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Preschool graduation that is. They had a very cute, elaborate ceremony for Alyssa’s school allowing each kid to walk the stage and receive a certificate. They marched in to the typical graduation theme song and preformed a few songs for us. Most of the kids preformed…okay maybe all of them but mine?? They sang three songs and Alyssa told me early that week that she was only going to sing “I am a Promise”. She did not lie. She stood very still and solemn during the other, but jazzed right up on cue for her song. I couldn’t help but smile that she actually did one song. Oh, did I mention that she is the only kid without her cap on? At least she was easy to spot. Afterwards, she walked down, shook her teacher’s hand and received her award. As silly as it seems, I was very proud of her. Immediately following the ceremony, we walked down the hall to get her cap that she chose not to wear, and she insists on putting it on and proceeds to wear it the rest of the evening. She also showed me all the moves and sang along with her preschool songs on CD the next day, but forbid me to video … ugh! She is definitely a non-conformist.

Baby A.K.A. Jojo

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Here is the post you have all been waiting for. You are saying to yourself, “What’s the deal? She tells us she is pregnant and we don’t hear a word about this new baby.” Without further ado, meet Jojo. (I decided we needed to give the baby a name, and Alyssa picked it out)

8 weeks

11 weeks

Okay, so I have done this four times now, but I was truly amazed at how much the baby grew in three weeks. At 11 weeks, we are still only talking about 1.5″ long, but the picture seemed to show a true jump in size. I just don’t think you ever get comfortable with the idea of pregnancy. The whole miracle of it all. I am still amazed when I see that form on the screen.

I visited with my doctor last fall. I scheduled a consultation with her and we just talked about Noah and what I may want out of another pregnancy. I really liked her from the first visit. She had the right balance of compassion, professionalism and knowledge. I am able to treat this pregnancy however I want, really. I am not considered hi-risk, I wasn’t with Megan either. But I told her that I may need the extra monitoring toward the end for my peace of mind…then again I may not. Either way, so far I am very satisfied with my care and the office.

As of today, I am 14 weeks along. If I stop to think about it, I guess I have felt better in the last 2 weeks. For the last 10 or so, I have felt worse than with any of the others. Which doesn’t say a lot, because I was not a bit nauseated with the others. This one hit me different though… manageable, just annoying really.

Alyssa is calling the baby a boy and is really wanting a brother “on Earth”. We have had the conversation that God may decide we need another girl, but we can drive that home if we find out it is a girl. Until then, I may just let her hope it is a boy — her and her Papa. So for now, everything is good on the baby front. I will continue with the 4 week checkups and will keep you all posted.

Yeah Cousins

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My brother and family were here for a very quick visit. They had a funeral to attend nearby in Tennessee, so were able to spend one night with us. We kept their visit a surprise from Alyssa and when they knocked at the door, she was a little in shock I think. She talks about Blakely coming all the time, so I thought she was going to be so excited. But her reaction proved that she didn’t understand why all her family was peering at her through the front door. We had a great time hanging out with them and I know the kids enjoyed being together.

Thinking of Heaven

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The Heavenly Daily News
from Aunt April

It was an exciting day here in heaven last week. The
sun was shining, as always. The birds were singing,
always do. And the excitement in the air was building.

It was the birthday of one of heaven’s precious
children. Noah Whaley was turning 3. It was the
birthday of many others, that’s true, but an
excitement builds in heaven for the children when Noah
Whaley has a birthday.

Every May 3rd, children run to the edges of heaven to
see and hopefully get a balloon, and Noah is no
different. His dark hair pushed from his angelic face
as he ran at full speed to heaven’s edge. “Wait for
it” he told the other children.

Within seconds balloons started arriving in heaven.
Children eagerly reached and grabbed the string, each
carrying a message for Noah. “I love you” one said, “I
miss you” said another. Each message was in a
different voice, each message conveying the love the
sender had for Noah.

By the end of the day, each child had received a
balloon and shared it’s message with Noah, who by this
point was covered in cake. Angel food cake of course.

Noah finished this exciting day in the arms of Jesus.
He ran to Jesus with all the messages that had been
sent that day. Jesus examined them one-by-one. He
fashioned all the messages into a blanket and covered
Noah with it. And so Noah slept, surrounded in his
family’s love.

Last Day

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We tried something different this last day. We saved the beach until evening and rode bikes and played a little putt-putt in the morning. There is bike rental on the property so we checked them out and rode over to the putt-putt course. I must say, Alyssa has the best attitude of the worst putter I have ever known. She had a blast all 18 holes. I think her best was a 2 and her average was more like 12. It was hilarious to watch her “scoot” the ball toward the hole. She did not complain once or even notice that too many hits was a bad thing. Then again, she wasn’t surprised when she “beat” mom and dad too. Megan had a good time carrying her putter and ball around for about 5 holes, then she was done. So we tried to find interesting things at each hole to entertain her, like the tiny frogs on the green. We rode the bikes back to the house, ate lunch, then continued on to a park where Ethan managed to get into a fight with a palm cactus of some sort. I am afraid to say he had to ride to the nearest hotel with his hand dripping blood. And… classic line of the trip: While I was outside with the girls waiting for him to clean up his hand, Alyssa says to me,” I wish it were you that had gotten hurt and not Daddy. I like him better than you.” Touching, isn’t it?

After naps, we headed out for our last chance at the beach. We found dozens of more sea shells, flew the kite and had fun spinning in the sand. All in all, a great trip. Wonderful trip.

Since we did not buy any souvenirs, we felt obligated to buy Megan the puppy she kept pulling out at Cracker Barrel. Of course, with that came a pink pony for Alyssa. But watching Megan pat and talk to her new friend in the car was priceless. That’s it from Destin.

Final pics in beach gallery

Back in the sun

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The next day was just as much fun. A shirt for Alyssa’s red shoulders and we were good. We spent the morning at the beach again. Then after nap time, we got dressed and went to the Village. It was a pretty cool place with lots of restaurants, shops and a great playground. It was nice to just be outside and enjoy watching the girls run around.

“Let’s go Megan!”

Our awesome sand castle 

More in the beach gallery 

Destination: Destin

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We took our first family vacation to Destin, FL this week. We thought both girls were at a good age to make it 8 hours in the car and enjoy the beach. After about 1 hour in the car and 2 concerns if we were almost there, I decided we needed some sort of way to keep time for Alyssa. I had read that someone else did something similar on a long trip, so I gave Alyssa a bag of 12 skittles equaling 6 hours. Every 30 minutes an alarm went off and she was able to eat one. We explained that we would not be there until all of them were gone. She did not ask again…instead she asked if it was time to eat her skittle.


We got in that day in time to show Alyssa the beach and scare Megan. Megan did not like the water. It is loud and I guess the waves scared her. She is really the independent, exploring child, and I was very shocked she did not like it. She never went down to the water, but would eventually sit with me if she was directly in my lap holding on tight.

The next morning we went straight to the beach. Alyssa had a great time. She loved to walk up to the water, jump over the waves. She begged Daddy to get in the water despite how cold it was. They played, kayaked, and even got in the pool. It was too cold for me. Megan however, preferred to sit under our umbrella and play in the sand. They each had fun in their own way.

More to follow…

Beach Gallery

Today

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Today my son would be celebrating 3 years old. I cannot believe it has been 3 years. 3 years is a long time to hold on to only memories. It has been a long time since I saw his face. A long time since I held him close. A long time since I smelled his sweetness. A long time since I ran my fingers through his brown hair. But what do you think 3 years in heaven is like? I bet to Noah, it was only yesterday when he was held close to his mommy. Only yesterday when his daddy sang to him. Only yesterday when his big sister proudly held him for the first time. And only yesterday when his family stood at his bedside radiating love towards him. There is so much I feel that is undone here on Earth. Many things that my human-mind thinks it needs to experience before it is my time to leave. But it is times like this, that I would go running to the gates to see my Noah again. Leave all of this behind, pick up my son and hold him. Honestly, my fear is that I won’t get that. I don’t know what heaven or the new heaven or the new earth will be like. Will Noah be the infant that I remember? Will I be his mother? Or perhaps we just have a connection to each other, but we are unsure what it is. I believe that I will see him again, but I don’t like that I don’t know what form that will be in. I trust that God will fulfill every desire I have for our reunion when that time comes.

In the meantime, Noah, we will talk about you, we will touch your picture, we will give you kisses, we will tell complete strangers about you, we will wish you good days in heaven, we will tell your new siblings about you, and we will remember.