It's a.....

I know, 3 blog posts in one night, right? Who am I? Well, Jack went to bed early, and I have plenty of time to kill and the computer all to myself.

Oh right, it's a.... BOY! We had an ultrasound this morning and the tech was able to tell right away that it's a boy! I was trying not to get fixated on one or the other. I was really truly happy with either. We'd have a buddy for Evan, or one of each. But I must admit that I entertained thoughts of a baby girl a little more because this pregnancy has been soooo different! So I was quite surprised when the tech said it was a boy! We are soooo excited though! All day we've kept saying to each other "2 boys!". Evan will be a great big brother, and I'm sure will pass on his antics to little brother. Everything he did today, I now imagine him doing with a little brother. Dancing to the Glee version of Bust a Move, running back and forth with his Moe's balloon, playing football. It'll be chaos, but so much fun!

So I'm 18 weeks now, and still kind of in disbelief that I'm pregnant! I'm so distracted by Evan and life so often that I don't stop and think about it as much as when I was pregnant with Evan. I don't have a huge belly, although it has finally popped which gives me a reminder now! But I haven't really had any cravings, and baby boy is much more chill than I remember Evan being at this stage so I don't feel him as much. I realize this is when most people only start to feel tiny flutters, but I was feeling Evan swirl all over the place from 16+ weeks. I do feel tiny taps now and then, which I treasure. I've missed that feeling!

Well, I hope to keep up with blogging more often now, we'll see how that goes!




(I would love to post the ultrasound pic we got today, but our new printer doesn't have a scanner :( Maybe I can do the old school way and take a picture of the picture!)

Harvest Party

I wasn't sure if I wanted to bring Evan to our church's Harvest Party this year. We went last year so Jack could be a photographer, and I seemed to remember it being more ages 4+ appropriate, and thought Evan would be overwhelmed. Well, when I was shopping for Evan's birthday presents, I saw a little monkey costume that looked like Curious George. Given Evan's obsession with the little character (probably because he's so much like him!) I couldn't resist buying it, and at only $11 it wasn't a huge investment for a one night wear.

He really didn't want to wear it and it took a few days of just showing him the costume before we could attempt to get him into it. I admit, I had to bribe him with cookies. But we snapped up a bunch of pictures in case that was the only chance we had.



We brought him that Saturday and hoped for the best. As soon as we walked in the door, Evan got freaked out by a dinosaur costume (turned out to be my junior high English teacher, Mrs Bellamy!) and ran for the door crying. She pulled up the hood to show him it was just a person, and he stopped crying but told her "bye bye!". Off to a rough start, and we still had to get him into the costume! There were a lot of tears as we were getting him into it, that no amount of cookies could console. He wouldn't even entertain the idea of a cookie. But he eventually came to terms with it, somehow.

I'm so glad I brought him. Almost all of the activities, save the trivia and chess, were perfect for him. Bean bag toss, golf putting, basketball, throwing a football through the hoop, and many other carnival type games. He had a blast. And in future years, maybe we'll let him keep the candy!

My 2 year old

So Evan turned two on October 21! I made sure to give him lots of kisses and hugs, and grabbed him and attempted to put him on my chest at 4:30 (his time of birth), just like I did last year, and just like the midwife did 2 years ago! Well, I was trying to reminisce to myself because I knew he wouldn't understand what I was talking about and as I was, he pinched my lips as if to say "enough, Mom! I don't want to hear my birth story!".

We had a little McDade celebration on his actual birthday which was a Friday. We had homemade ice cream cake, presents from Papa and GG, and kept him up way too late! Then the next day, we had a little family party with both sides. A nice pizza party (and Evan was too busy playing with cousins to stop and eat!), cookie cake and leftover ice cream cake. We did more presents, and Evan loved unwrapping but was still a little overwhelmed with the whole ordeal. He seemed to love playing with everything though! We got him a little table with 2 chairs and GG made him some playdough and got some playdough toys, and that turned out to be the hit of the party! For all ages!

I'm sure this coming year will bring challenges, as I've already seen Evan adopt the Terrible Two phase, but he's also becoming more and more adorable every day.

Jamaica!

We just got back from a week long trip to Jamaica. We celebrated our 5th anniversary and enjoyed a second babymoon and Evan tagged along pretty much for free because he doesn't turn 2 for another week! We originally booked our stay with Beaches Sandy Bay in Negril, but after 2 nights we switched over to their neighbor and sister resort Beaches Negril which had a lot more activity and bigger pools, and was nicer. Yes it cost a little more, but it was way more on par with what we were expecting and we had an amazing time. There was some rain the first couple days but it cleared up in the afternoon, and we had a couple spotty storms later in the week, but other than that the weather was beautiful! It was plenty hot which made the pool and ocean wonderful. Plenty sunny which made us appreciate the shade and avoid getting burned for the most part! The evenings were very comfortable and the cloudy horizons led to some amazing sunsets.

The resort is a sponsor of Sesame Street so there are characters in costume that wander every day. We signed up for a character breakfast before we left but quickly realized when we got there that Evan would be terrified so we cancelled that. He enjoyed the shows, but from a comfortable distance and would cry every time they came too close! But he would always ask about all of them when they weren't around. My favorite was when he asked for "Ernie and Burped".

They had a nursery program which allowed us to drop Evan off now and then to get some time to ourselves. We had some free time on the beach and had a few kidless dinners. Evan loved the nursery and the workers there were so great with him. While we were at dinner, they even took him over to the nightly Sesame Street show so he didn't have to miss it!

After the first Sesame Street show we went to, they had a steel drum band come and perform (and Jack and I even recognized some of the performers from a show on our honeymoon!). Evan grimaced his way through Sesame Street, but he danced his little heart out to the steel drum music, doing his best to imitate what they were doing. After the show, they played some dance music and Evan actually danced along to the cha cha slide! Of course he was a step behind the whole time, but that's where he and Jermaine became dancing buddies for the week!

Evan placed his first order by himself. He went up to the bar and said "Hello", and the bartender turned around and said "Hey mon. What can I get you?" and Evan said "um, apple juice?". When he got his apple juice he said "deetoo" (thank you) without being prompted! I was so proud! My family always tells me the story of when I was about Evan's age, maybe even younger and I placed my first order at a restaurant... and it was in Jamaica! I ordered "boogoo, feyes, and wahwoo" (burger, fries and water).

We wrapped the amazing week up with a Reggae Beach Party the last night we were there and we were expecting entertainment in the form of a fire dancer, limbo dude, and others. What we got was a fire dancer and a DANCE PARTY. And Evan had a blast. Jermaine quickly picked up on Evan's favorite move (the run and jump) and did it with him for about 15 minutes straight until they were both pouring with sweat. Then Jermaine brought him up on stage with the rest of the entertainment crew and Evan let lose. He pulled out all his moves (mostly jumping and a little running with the "Evan one arm pump") and he even attempted some of the reggae moves that the entertainment crew was doing, all under the close supervision of Jermaine! He probably danced up there for at least 15 minutes until some of the dancing got a little too crazy and he might have been trampled. As soon as Jermaine brought him back to the rest of the dancing guests out front, he cried and pointed at the stage. So back he went! Jermaine was so great and the two of them had such a great time. Jermaine even came to see us off in the morning!

Jack seems to be planning our next trip already. Whenever it is, I know we'll have a blast!

Home Improvement

We will be expanding our home by two feet in April!



We are very excited to announce that we are expecting McBaby #2, due April 3!!! I've been feeling pretty different this time around. I barely had any nausea with Evan but this time I spent a good few weeks pretty sick and tired. But my energy is back and food is appealing again! No cravings yet, but plenty of first trimester aversions. I thought this baby might be a vegetarian! But meat is good again! We should be finding out if it's a boy or girl sometime in early to mid November. I guess that's all to report for now!

Evan's first prayer

Evan's bedtime routine, when we're at home which isn't that often anymore with Jack's family in town, consists of reading books in the rocking chair, saying a blessing that my dad said to me every night (Numbers 6:24-25), hug and kiss and down to bed. Lately he's been asking to pray (by folding his hands and squeaking) when we're done with books, so I've been praying with him for the last week or so, going through a list of what we were thankful for that day. When we were done last night, he wanted more so I said "you do it". And he did!

"Deetoo Fry, Daya, batz, Daddy, Mommy, Farty, poop, nono, peepee."

Translated: "thank you for Strom (Evan's uncle), the Incredibles, pizza, Daddy, Mommy, lovey, poop, fan, peepee."

I had tears in my eyes from laughing, being so moved, and maybe a little from being 5th on the list!

Summer Fun

Meant to put up this post a few weeks ago once I got a picture of the sunset from my in-laws new house off the camera but clearly, that's taking too long so here we go without the picture!

We've had a crazy month, with many different subsets of family living here. On June 27, Jack's parents, sister, brother, their 2 cats and dog, and 3 cars, and many boxes of stuff moved into our house in between house closings. Aside from some animal misbehavior, we've had a blast having them here.

Pretty shortly after moving in, Catherine's boyfriend Jeremy came down for a visit. We had fun going to Moreau, enjoyed the 4th of July parade and fireworks, and had a great day in Saratoga for Catherine's birthday. Evan rode the Congress Park carousel with me, we walked up and down Broadway, had dinner at Cantinas (YUM), and stopped at Yaddo Gardens on the way home.







After that, we have spent time with different subsets of family. Tess and Joseph headed to Florida for 8 days and the day before they got back, Catherine left for Maine for about 2 weeks.

It went a lot faster than I expected, and I'm blessed to have such wonderful in-laws. I know many would cringe at the thought of hosting their in-laws for just short of a month, but it actually ends up being a lot easier having them here than not. They have truly spoiled us, and we felt a little sad to have them leave. The house feels a lot more empty.

But we spent the afternoon into the evening at their new house yesterday and it's the start of a new and exciting fun chapter that has completely overtaken any feelings of sadness to have them move a whole 15 minutes away! Even though the movers hadn't come yet, we felt like we were on vacation at their house yesterday. Their new house is right on the Mohawk River! We swam in the river, fished, watched the boats and jet skis go by, and Evan even joined in the fun when he woke up from his nap. He's been in an anti-water phase for about a month now. He splashed, giggled, and dunked his face in the water many times. He waved and said "hi" to the boats going by. He "fished" with Daddy. We finished the evening with a cookout, watching the sun set over the river from their patio, deck and 3-season room. The 3-season room will be a favorite to all of us, being able to hang out "outside" and bug-free. Looking forward to many fun times at the new house!