Movin' on Up

Maybe a better title for this post would have been "Buildin' on Up" instead of "Movin' on Up".  There's been a whole lot of activity going on at our lot recently and every day as I drive by (yes, I detour so that I can check it out) there seems to be something new completed.

Matt and I made a trip to Omaha on Tuesday for official house business.  We picked out everything from windows, interior/exterior doors, banisters, toilets, faucets....you get the point.  It was a very productive day!  Luckily Matt and I have very similar tastes when it comes to this sort of thing.  It makes the process a whole heck of a lot easier.

When we drove by the house on Tuesday we were thrilled to see that the ground floor was starting to take shape.  This part of the building process goes SO quickly and it's fun to watch the bones of our future home being constructed.

By Friday evening there had been some major changes.  After work it's always a race to beat the setting sun, but it was just light enough for me to snap a few pictures.

This is the front view of the house.  Going from left to right you can see the front-facing single stall garage, followed by the side-facing double stall.  There will be big windows cut into that big mass of wood eventually. The first opening as you move beyond the garage is the front door, followed by a window opening to our office.  The second floor is well on it's way and with another week of "mild" January temperatures I'm sure that we'll have a framed roof before you know it!

This week we're planning another trip to Omaha to check out flooring, shower tile, countertops and cabinets.  So many decisions, but I'm loving every minute of it!

A Little Something on Your Face

It seems as though Harrison requires a lot of BATHS lately.  

He loves him some carrots!

This little piggy ate a WHOLE banana the other day!

Little Boy Blue...berry

Saving a little snack for later.

Sweet potatoes = hands to the face.  There's just no stopping it.

After our feeding challenges with Charlotte, Matt and I are thankful for Harrison's healthy appetite.  He LOVES dinner time and has the rolls to prove it.  Just imagine how chubby he would be if more food actually made it into his mouth instead of all over his face!  

Weighing on my Heart

Sweet baby girl,

Something pretty big happened in our house sometime in the past 2 months. Something that has my brain/heart working overtime.  

It started back in October when I took your baby brother to his 4 month well-visit.  His visits are always pretty routine...weight, developmental assessment, shots.  This one was no different.  He was given a clean bill of health and we were on our way.  The first thing I did after we left was call Daddy and let him know what a BIG little boy we had.  At 4 months old he had already surpassed the 15 lb mark.

Fast forward 2 months... 

Two weeks ago I took Harrison to see Dr. Whitcomb because of a nasty cough.  He was due for another well-visit and one more round of shots, but all of that had to be put on hold due to the fact that he was sick.  They did weigh him, though, and I was startled to see 18 lb 15 oz flash before me on the scale. 

15 lb.  

18 lb.  

Somewhere in between lies 17 lb 8 oz...the weight you were the last time I held you in my arms.  I had just weighed you the night before.

I didn't expect for Harrison to get there so quickly (a whole 6 months faster than you did) and a part of me hurts knowing that I didn't realize it at the time.  There isn't a day that passes where I don't ache to feel your weight in my arms again.  I want so badly to have one more chance...to remember how you felt snuggled in my arms...to experience that physical moment one more time.  I wanted to hold your brother when he was 17 lbs 8 oz, close my eyes and imagine that it was you in my arms.   I realize that that may sound unfair to him...but it's true.  There's no good way to explain it.  

Maybe it's a good thing it passed unnoticed.  
Maybe God was trying to shield my heart from the grief that it would have triggered.  
Had I known, I'm sure I would have been a mess.
I'm sure I would have felt torn in two.

I miss you, Bear.  All 17 lbs 8 oz of you.

Loving you beyond words or explanation, 

Mommy

Taking Shape

A week or so ago Matt got a text from our builder letting us know that the next available house framers would be heading our way!  EEEEE I was so excited when he called and let me know.  On Saturday we were back in Omaha and decided to swing out to the lot, hoping to see that things had started taking shape.  I was secretly hoping to pull into the development and see the shape of our 2-story abode towering over us...a girl can dream, right?  

Side walk-out

 What will soon be a front porch and the main floor

With a forecast full of "warmer" temperatures and void of snow/rain for the next week, I'm sure that things will start coming together quickly.  Its hard to believe that we're already over 1/2 way through our final year as renters and that there are only about 5 months until we move!  Yay for framed basements!

Harrison's Mini Vacation

The first weekend of December (yes, this post is a little bit late) Harrison went on a little weekend vacation to Omaha while Matt worked and I was in Kansas City for our yearly "Goeser-Schmitz-Mom-Sister-Aunt-Cousin" shopping trip.  It was the very first time that I had spent a weekend away from either of my kiddos.  Come to think of it...the only time that I had even spent a NIGHT away was when Matt would stay with Charlotte in the hospital.  Crazy, huh!?  

I was a little anxious about the whole deal.   Harrison on the other hand could have cared less.  He was having too much fun to even notice that his mama was gone!

He spent all of Saturday playing and snuggling with Grammy Vicki and Grandpa Steve.  He looks pretty miserable without me, right?

On Sunday he went to visit NamNam, PopPop and uncle Abe.  They took advantage of the uncharacteristically warm December day and went to the zoo!  He loved it so much that he even got a ZOO PASS for Christmas this year.  

Harrison had SO much fun with his grandparents, I had some much needed "mom time" and Matt...well...he worked.  I guess 2 out of 3 isn't bad!  Thanks to everyone who took such good care of our little man (and for texting me lots of pictures to help me though the weekend!)

Hand-Me-Downs

When we found out that we were having a little baby boy back in February 2011, I was pretty confident that aside from clothing, most of our current baby toys/decor/etc. would be reusable.  We tried to keep things pretty gender neutral the first time around and were pretty prepared when it was boy time.  Of all of the items that we have been "re-using," there have been a couple of hand-me-downs that have been a little harder on me emotionally. 

Hand-me-down #1:  Diapers

I was in the basement a few weeks back searching for a few items among our stacks and stacks of boxes, when I came across one that was full of diapers.  I froze for a minute, knowing that they were ones that were left over after Charlotte died.  I threw the diapers in a box knowing that some day we would probably have another baby and that they would come in handy.  Charlotte, our petite little girly, was 12 months old and wearing a size 3 diaper (she had very deceiving chubby cheeks!).  Her brother is now 6 months old and sporting those same size 3s.  Notice I didn't call Harrison "petite"!  Charlotte's sick heart had to work a lot harder than Harrison's healthy one...meaning that she burned calories at a much faster rate.  Combine that with her feeding struggles and you get a little girl in the 10th percentile for weight.  We knew that Harrison would likely be bigger, but a part of my heart is sad knowing that he's already bigger than she ever had the chance to grow.

Hand-me-down #2:  Highchair

This one was a tough one for me.  Last May we contemplated selling Charlotte's highchair and getting a new one for Harrison...there were just so many memories (good and bad) of that silly chair.  It was an observation point for many after dinner dance parties, countless photos, stolen popsicles and eating celebrations....all good things.  But those highs were also accompanied by the frustrations of feeding a little girl who flat out didn't want to eat, or wanted to eat but would randomly gag and empty her tummy.  In the end we kept the chair and I'm really happy that we did.  It's just another piece of Charlotte that we are able to share with her baby brother.

Charlotte - 6 months

Harrison - 6 months

Hand-me-down #3:  Special clothes

Sigh....another hard one.  Most of Charlotte's clothes are packed away in totes just in case there is another baby girl in our future.  Some that we deemed "Charlotte's and only Charlotte's" are safely stored in her cedar chest.  She did, however, have a few items that were "hand-downable" to her baby brother...3 items that I know she would have been proud to share.  

Charlotte - 8.5 months

 Harrison - 6 months

And yes, Matt is wearing the EXACT same outfit in both pictures....and not for the sake of making the pictures look the same.  The picture of Charlotte was taken on the day that the Packers won the Super Bowl, and that OBVIOUSLY makes it a "lucky" outfit.  If it's game day, he's wearing it!  Boys are weird like that.

I wasn't sure how I would feel about pulling these items out of storage...for some reason I had always thought of them as being Charlotte's.  I've had to remind myself that it's normal for little siblings to have hand-me-downs and smile knowing that Harrison's big sister is still very much a part of our home.

Christmas in Pictures