New Year, New Post (Long Overdue)

I think it’s been over a year since I've posted anything to this blog, so needless to say I’ve been a huge slacker. One of my New Year’s resolutions this year is to write more, whether on here, my other blog, or just for myself and not for the world to see. Writing has always been an outlet for me, one that helps me talk myself through my own experiences in life, gets things off my chest, and lets me express what I’m feeling and thinking better than I am able to say it out loud. I love writing, and if I could make a living simply reading and writing about whatever I wanted from my couch, I would probably be a millionaire by now. Or at least a six-digit salary earner. Anyway…

There are probably a thousand things I should write about to get this blog up to speed since the last post, but that sounds really boring and monotonous to me, so I’m just going to give a quick rundown and pick up where I want to.

Long story short, we had our baby, yay! It was (IS) a girl, yay! Her name is Tesa, and she is the cutest, perkiest, funniest, smartest baby in the world. Here’s proof:

Making dinner for Mommy and Daddy in her new kitchen!

She turned ONE in October, and I can’t believe I already have a toddler. There are days when it seems like I should still be pregnant and nervously preparing for her arrival. But in reality I have a walking (or running), talking (almost) little person with a big personality that consumes my life everyday, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

In June, we took her on her first big vacation, a cruise to the Caribbean. Everyone thought we were crazy, but our group had over 20 members of our closest family and friends, so we had lots of help. As you can see, she had a really rough time!

She was the star of the ship!

In December, we flew her across the country for a ski trip in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. She was not a huge fan of the snow, but she LOVED hanging out in the Baby Bjorn with Daddy and seeing all the pretty lights!

Could there even be a cuter face than that?!

In Tesa’s fifteen months, she has been in ten states, and flown over several others. She is quite a traveled baby, and lucky for us, she does so well in virtually any situation. She is seriously the easiest, most well-behaved child in the world. (Knock on wood!)

As good as Tesa is while traveling, it is HARD to cart a toddler and her massive amount of necessities with us everywhere we go. This year, we returned from our week long ski trip, and the very next weekend we turned around and drove to Atlanta, spent two days with Tyson’s family, drove back, spent a day with my parents, drove to my grandparents, and spent another day there. I love being so close to both families so that we can make those trips in a day, but it was a lot of traveling for such short visits! I can only imagine what it will be like when Tesa has a little brother or sister and we have TWICE the amount of clothes/food/diapers/gear/toys to lug around with us!

Despite the chaos and confusion of getting from one place to the next when we were supposed to, the Patrick family had a fantastic holiday. I see a lot of my family anyway, but it’s nice to have the whole crew together at once. And I love when we get to see Tyson’s family and they get to see all of Tesa’s new tricks and sweet faces. She is truly my pride and joy, and I love to see other people getting so much enjoyment out of her laughs and cuddles too!

Tesa’s Second Christmas will always be one for the books. It will be the one I always remember as the year we lost our dining room and Tesa gained a playroom. Seriously, there were JUST THAT MANY toys. To say that little girl is loved and spoiled would be the understatement of the century. Here are some pics of our adorable “dining room,” before and after:

I mean, even I'M kinda jealous of this playroom...

So now everything is returning to normal, some things more slowly than others (i.e., Tesa’s regular sleep schedule...), and though I’m sad to see the holiday magic fading away, I’m also kinda glad to be getting my old routine back, and doubly thankful for some much needed time at home. Tyson and I were talking about our plans earlier this week, and when we realized at the same time that we had no real obligations or any place we had to be this weekend, you should have seen the joy on our faces. It was like Christmas all over for us! All the traveling and visiting and jet-setting is great, but sometimes there’s just no better place than home sweet home!

It's A Girl! (We Think...)

Pregnancy is a very convenient and all-inclusive excuse to use for just about anything; namely for why it's been two and a half months since my last blog entry. Not only is it convenient, it's also very valid... In the past four months, between trips to the bathroom (both to pee and puke...pregnancy is not pretty, people), frequent naps, doctor visits, working hours, and what limited social obligations I've been able to keep, it's hard to find any time to sit down and write an update that's more in depth that a quick Facebook status post. But at 20 weeks and 3 days into my pregnancy, things have finally started to quiet down and slowly return to normal, which I'm sure Tyson appreciates almost as much as I do.

After what has seemed like FOREVER, we've finally reached the halfway point and are now in the home stretch of the pregnancy. Just 137 days (give or take a week or so) until we get to meet our beautiful daughter, and we could not be more excited!

"Wait, daughter?" you say, "But I thought... Last I heard you were having a boy!"

Yeah, that's a funny story.

At 11 weeks, our doctor made a preliminary guess from an ultrasound that we were having a boy. Of course, there's a lot to still be determined at 11 weeks, and we were very careful and mindful of the doctor's warnings not to take that guess to the bank. At 15 weeks, just before Mother's Day, we asked our doctor if he might be willing to give us another ultrasound and make another guess about the gender since we were hoping to be able to tell our moms as a Mother's Day present if they should expect a grandson or granddaughter. Again, our doc said his best guess was a boy, but warned us that it was still too early to be sure. We told our families just that, and we were all content. But a few days later, curiosity got the best of me, and I bought an over-the-counter gender test that a cousin had told me about to see if we could confirm the whole boy/girl question. The Intelligender test claims to be 90% accurate at as early as 10 weeks, so I felt confident taking it at 15-16 weeks. The results were a very obvious BOY reading, so we proclaimed to the world (via phone and Facebook, of course) that we were having a son, and thus began to plan accordingly.

Fast forward to our 19 week ultrasound last week. I'm half-sitting-half-laying back in the vinyl doctor's office chair with my feet up in those stirrups, and the ultrasound tech asks us if we would like to find out the gender of our baby. We respond yes, and Tyson adds that we are pretty sure we already know what the results will be, since our doctor estimated a few weeks ago that we were having a boy, and a gender test confirmed it. We make small talk with her about the name we have already picked out for our son, when all of a sudden she gets quiet. And then she says, "So... You were thinking it was a boy...? Because what we're looking at here are girl parts."

I can not begin to describe to you the speed with which our jaws hit the floor as she pointed to the three white lines clearly displayed on the screen (classic telltale sign of a girl baby on an ultrasound picture). And then we just laughed, and Tyson said, "Well I instantly hate all boys now." Already an overprotective father to his little princess! :)

So anyway, a girl it is. Tesa Jane, to be more clear. Tesa, a combination of her parents initials, Tyson E. and Stephanie A., and Jane, the name of Tyson's absolutely amazing grandmother, a woman that baby will be forever honored to be named after. And seriously, Tesa Jane? How much more refreshingly Southern can you get? At any rate, she's already quite the débutante in the sense that she does not let me forget she'll be coming out into the world soon. I think even my doctor is flabbergasted with how much she likes to kick and squirm around in there! Tyson likes to say she's already high maintenance like her mother, but I think we all know she comes by it honestly from BOTH of her parents!

I'll try not to let it go so long between now and my next post, but until then, enjoy this YouTube video of what I can only imagine is the happiest baby in the world. Hopefully Tesa's temperament will be similar to this adorable little one!