What I wake up to... I love being a mommy!!

I cannot even count the number of friends that have had or are having babies this year!  Colton was born to Amanda and Kevin on July 2nd.  We took a trip to Hillsborough yesterday to meet him.  Chris is only 10 weeks older than him and I cannot believe that he was that small at one time, not to mention just a few weeks ago.  AND he was even smaller than Colton because Colton weighed 8lbs 11oz at birth, Chris was only 7lbs 1oz...

Chris has taken a liking to the water!  We take him swimming every week and he loves it!  TJ has all of a sudden decided that he loves to swim too and is no longer scared of the water!  They will both take swim lessons this fall when Chris turns 6 months.

Here are a few shots from TJs AAU Nationals...

I have slacked for an entire month!  Sorry!  We have been really busy this summer taking Chris to the beach and then an 11 day trip to Knoxville & Memphis for TJs AAU National Championship.  I haven't found much time to sit still & blog.  So here's to doing better & catching everyone up!

The Guilford County Smart Start nurse made her final visit to our house today.  I can't remember if I already blogged about this or not but Guilford County has this great program where they offer nursing support to all new mothers in Guilford County where they come to your home and weigh the baby, listen to the heart beat and belly and answer any questions you may have.  The program is completely free so I don't understand why anyone wouldn't take advantage of it.  The nurse stopped by today and weighed Deuce.  He now weighs 11lbs, 12oz!  Almost 12 pounds!!!  She commented on how alert he is, how aware he is of my voice, how well he holds his head up and how well I was doing with him.  She also commented on how long his eyelashes were, lol!

We took the family up to DC/Maryland for the Maryland Invitational (TJ's AAU tournament) this past weekend.  I was pretty excited to take Deuce (as Ed has affectionately named him) and a little anxious at the same time.  I didn't want to pack too much but I wanted to make sure that I had all that I needed.  I was curious about how he would do in the hotel and if he would be super loud and wake up TJ along with all of the other hotel sleepers.  But to my surprise, he did pretty well.  As with most babies, he slept pretty good in the car so he slept a little past his regular feeding time.  This allowed me to pump a full bottle at the normal feeding time while in the car.  When Deuce got hungry, we gave TJ the bottle and he fed the baby in the backseat so that we didn't have to stop.  We did this twice on the way up and the way back.  It was a very smooth ride.

The hotel we stayed at was amazing.  It was the Gaylord National and was right on the Potomac River looking out at DC.  You could see the Washington Monument and the Capital Building from our room which excited TJ because they had talked quite a bit about DC in school.  After he asked us if he could go meet President Obama, we decided that we should plan a trip back just so we could take him to see the sights.  (He also saw a road sign for Boston and asked us if we could go watch the Celtics and the Lakers play in the championship game - he was dead serious too).

Big Tigger from BET's Rap City hosted the 9th Annual Celebrity Classic to promote HIV prevention and awareness and several of the events took place at the Gaylord.  There was an allstar basketball game and several of the players were staying at our hotel including Vince Carter, Jameer Nelson, Kenyon Martin, Jayson Williams and others.  So we had a good time riding the elevators with the celebs, especially since we were there for the AAU tournament.  Several of the kids from older teams camped out in the lobby the whole weekend trying to get as close as they could to all of them.

Deuce didn't really like sleeping in his pack and play in the hotel so that was a struggle.  My dad and sister drove up for the tournament so it was nice to spend the weekend with them too.  This weekend we are off to the beach and the next we are off to Knoxville & Memphis for a week.  By that time, Deuce should be a pro at travelling...

Both of my mom's parents are from Greensboro and have a long history in the city working for Cone Mills.  Prior to moving to Greensboro with Ed, I have also had a pretty long history spending time in Greensboro.  My grandmother was one of 10 children and 2 of the sisters are still alive.  They both still live in Greensboro and live pretty close to us.  Our family used to celebrate Christmas in Greensboro every year, even before I moved to North Carolina.  We would get up Christmas morning and drive from Hampton, VA to Greensboro to see my mom's entire family.  When my grandparents were alive we would visit them and my grandaddy would take me and my sister to the mall where there was an indoor skating rink.  That mall has since been torn down and is now a Wal-Mart...one that Ed and I visit frequently as it's only a few miles from the house.

With all of that being said, all of the family members are buried in Greensboro at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.  When I first started coming to Greensboro to see Ed I tried and tried to figure out where the cemetary was.  I could envision the cemetary in my mind but I had never drive there so I wasn't sure how to find it.  Once I finally did, I discovered that it is only a few blocks from Ed's job.  I try to visit it as often as I can.

Last week after having lunch with Ed I decided to take Chris over there to talk to his great grandparents and introduce them.  Here are some shots from meeting his great grandparents as well as his great uncles and aunts...

I went back to the doctor last Thursday for my final appointment with Dr. Henley.  He released me to get back to normal activities and after a step on the scale, I have dropped 52.5lbs - in 6 weeks!  YES!  And to Mother Nature's invention of breastfeeding: I LOVE YOU!  I am now 15 lbs less than I was when I got pregnant...WAHOO!

Does anybody have any tips on how to hit the lottery big?  I am so enjoying staying at home with the little guy and I can't imagine ever going back to work.  At least not until he starts school.  I have decided that I am going to hit up the serious job search after we get back from Memphis on July 5th.  The one condition on a job that I have is that it has to pay me enough to cover daycare expenses, which can be up to $800/month for infants - on top of all of the other bills we have, and there are A LOT, AHHH!

The weather was so nice today that Chris and I went and had lunch with Ed and then we headed to Country Park here in Greensboro for some exercise.  There is a drive/track that runs around the pond/park and it's 1.6 miles.  So I put Chris in the sling and we got moving.  I was sweating hard and I equate it to carrying two 5lb hand weights with me the entire time.  I felt great afterwards and think I will make this a regular routine for us!  He slept the entire time and right now he loves being outdoors.  Anytime he is crying, I take him outside and he just stops!