Frankie's school Christmas program

Last Friday, Frankie's day care had their annual school Christmas program.  Frankie had been talking about it for weeks, and we were so excited to see what his class had in store for us!  He had been singing "Jingle Bells" a lot around the house lately, so we figured they were going to sing that song for us.  There were nearly 700 parents and family members in the audience, so I was a little scared that Frankie would be overwhelmed.  But, the kids did so great!  They had each classroom go up on stage and "sing" or "perform" one or two songs.  His class did "Jingle Bells" and "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer."  He did so good!  But of course they put him on the very far left-hand side of the stage, and we were on the far right-hand side, so I was not able to get the best pictures.  We were so proud of him for his first "performance," and I can't wait to see many, many more!  I love that this school has programs like this.  Here are a few of the pictures I got of Frankie and his classmates at their Christmas program:

Holes for a Hero

These last few months have been insane.  Not only have I been pregnant and sick, but Frank and my family have been planning a major fundraising event for Monte.  Finally, on December 10, all of our hard work paid off!  We hosted the Holes for a Hero golf tournament at Sweetwater Country Club in Sugar Land, and the turnout was AMAZING!  We raised nearly $33,000 for Monte's recovery fund.  Almost 130 golfers came out to support the event, and we raised nearly $6,000 from the amazing live and silent auction items that were donated.  We are so happy and proud of the way the event turned out.  Most organizations take an entire year to plan a big fundraising event, and we threw this tournament together in just over three months.  I want to thank everyone who helped make this event possible, especially my Dad who really stepped up and helped recruit golfers.  Everyone in my family helped out, and Frank and i truly appreciate all of their efforts!  I also want to thank all of my friends who came out to volunteer on the day of the tournament--I truly do not know what we would have done without you!  We have learned so much about fundraising this year.  It is one of the most rewarding and frustrating things I have ever done.   In the five months since Monte was injured, we have raised almost $90,000 for his recovery fund.  We feel like it is the least we can do after everything he has given to us and our great nation! 

My little guy

Last week, in the wake of the Connecticut shooting tragedy, I left work early on Friday and Frank and I made a special effort all weekend to shower our little guy with as much love, hugs, and kisses as possible.  I am completely heartbroken for all of the families who lost their innocent little boys and girls in such a horrific way.  I am also so thankful that I have my little guy to love. 

In other news, I think Frankie may sense that a new baby is coming.  He has been giving me a really hard time lately, especially when I am trying to put him down to go to sleep.  He wants to be read a million books, sung a million songs, and even after all of that, he does not want to be put down.  He has always been such an easy sleeper, so I am puzzled by why he is suddenly fighting going to bed.  And of course he only does it with me.  With Frank, he goes down right away just like normal.  When I laid him down tonight he stood up and screamed "Mommy come back!!" for five minutes before he finally laid down.  It breaks my heart to hear him call for me like that!  I hope this is just a phase.

In other Frankie news, his new favorite phrase is "that's mine."  He says it about everything.  He also likes to take about "my hose, in my yard, by my house," or "my white car with my radio and my music."  Everything is "mine."  He has also started to negotiate all the time.  I will say, "it is time to go upstairs," and he will say "a few more minutes."  I will say, "ok, two more minutes."  After two minutes, he will say "one more minute."  After that one minute, he will say "last minute please."  Ha, it is so cute and hard to say no!  But I can already tell that everything is going to be a battle with him.  We also negotiate almost every night at meal time.  

As far as my pregnancy goes...I am finally starting to feel normal again!  The nausea is almost completely gone now, which is a HUGE relief.  I am still having that nasty metallic taste off and on, but otherwise I feel pretty much back to normal.  My stomach is getting bigger by the day, and I really need to start wearing maternity clothes, but we have been too lazy to get them out of storage.  I have been craving cheese and spicy food.  Quesadillas, pizza, and mushroom melt sandwiches from Potbelly sound great pretty much all the time.  I am starting to feel the baby move more and more which is really exciting.  I will be 15 weeks tomorrow!  I feel like this pregnancy is flying by much faster than the first one did.

Brunch with Santa

While we were in Houston for Monte's golf tournament, we went to "Brunch with Santa" at my parents' country club.  The place was packed with kids, parents, and grandparents all dressed in their Christmas best to meet Santa and enjoy brunch.  As soon as we turned the corner and caught our first glimpse of Santa, Frankie burst into tears and demanded to be picked up.  He was NOT a fan!  We waited in line to take a picture with Santa for approximately 10 minutes, and during our wait he got progressively more nervous and clingy.  We did not even attempt to put him in Santa's lap.  Instead, I sat on Santa's lap and Frank held Frankie behind us.  Frankie is almost smiling in the picture, which makes it look like he was not as bothered as he really was.  Hopefully he will be a bigger fan of Santa by next Christmas!

14 week doctor's appointment

Today I went in for my 14-week doctor's appointment, and it went great!  I have only gained 2 lbs so far, which is both great and hard to believe.  Frank came with me this time, and we got to hear the baby's heartbeat on the doppler.  It was beating away at 160 beats per minute.  The doctor commented that with such a high heart rate, she predicted we are having a girl, however I reminded Frank that my old doctor said the exact same thing at my 14-week appointment with Frankie (of course his heart rate was lower, 150).  So....who knows!  We go back on January 4th for the BIG ultrasound to find out if we are having a boy or a girl!  I am leaning towards girl this time...but of course we will be happy either way.  

A silver lining on a very bad day

I have had a cold since late last week, and it has seemed to be getting worse instead of better.  It does not help that I cannot take much except Sudafed, which does not help me sleep.  Anyway, this morning I went to work and my secretary asked my why my eyes were so red.  I had noticed them bothering me last night, but I thought it was probably just because I was dehydrated so I did not think anything of it.  However, they progressively got more red, glassy, and icky throughout the day, and now I am pretty sure that I have pink eye.  YAY.  I could not get an appointment with my doctor until tomorrow morning, but I came home from work early to rest.  Frank is making me stay away from Frankie because he doesn't want me to give him pink eye or whatever it is I have.  It is so heartbreaking to hear him in the next room but not be able to go out there and play.  As I was sitting here feeling sorry for myself, I felt the unmistakable feeling of Baby #2 moving in my stomach.  I have been feeling random, fleeting movements for the last couple of days, but this was the first time I was sure I had felt the baby.  It is such an amazing feeling!  It definitely brought a smile to my face on this otherwise awful day.  Hopefully the doctor can provide me some meds to help me feel better!

Sick of sickness...

I feel like I have been "sick" for more than two months now.  I have not worked out (almost at all in 2 months, ugh!!), and doing anything has seemed to take extraordinary effort.  Last Thursday I could not sleep and my throat was absolutely on fire.  I finally took some tylenol and got to sleep by about 3 am, but when I woke up in the morning, I was feeling terrible.  I stayed home on Friday with what I thought was a sinus infection or a really bad cold.  On Saturday I felt a ton better, but Frankie woke up with a fever and I was feeling very exhausted and nauseated.  On Sunday morning, I woke up throwing up and I have felt crappy the rest of today.  Frankie also still has a fever today, so we will need to take him back to the doctor tomorrow.  I am so sick of being sick or taking care of a sick child!  This week is going to be super busy with work and getting all of the last minute stuff done for the golf tournament, and I really do not have time to take any sick days or feel under the weather.  Hopefully Frankie is not too sick and is feeling better tomorrow, and hopefully I am close to the point in pregnancy where morning/all-day sickness starts to fade.  I think I was throwing up until 14-15 weeks last time, and I am almost 13 weeks now, so it should not be too much longer!