Valentine's Weekend

Rob and I had a pretty low-key Valentine's evening at home, but it was nice because Rob treated me to a delicious meal that he cooked.  On the menu: steak, bacon wrapped scallops, sauteed mushrooms and roasted asparagus.  And for dessert: german chocolate cake gelato.  I was pretty excited to give Rob his Valentine's gift.  Not only was did it go along with the Valentine's theme being red, white and black, but it was officially the first thing I bought for baby...

The weekend got a lot more exciting on Saturday when Rob's best friend Hayes, Caroline and their pup Oliver came down from Michigan for a visit.  We've spent Valentine's days/weekends with them before, and it was great to be able to do it again.  We had some good meals out, cooked some good meals in, watched a lot of the Olympics and House of Cards, some video games were played, did some shopping, they went on the CNN tour downtown, to the Varsity and Piedmont Park one day while I was at work, and we made multiple trips to the dog park so the dogs could get some energy out.  Oliver dominated the obstacles at the dog park, and surprisingly Roxanne even did one of them too after barking at him the first few times he did it.  She did take a tumble right off the edge one time, but she was fine and got up and did it again.

                                       

Girls weekend in PA

Last weekend I had a really great visit with one of my best girl friends Linds (we met in 2nd grade).  I last saw Linds a little over a year ago, but it had been 2 1/2 years since I was back in PA and since I'd seen Savannah (Lindsey's adorable 3yr old daughter). She was just a babe back then, only 8 months old.  Now she is an actual mini person with her own hilarious personality.  I loved spending time with her and getting to see Linds in her element as a mom.  It also made me realize that in a few short years I too will have my hands full with a little one of my own!  I will need to work on watching every word I say and not letting the little one see me crack up when they do something bad.

Sav really wanted to take our pic with the snowman

It was so nice to just talk and catch up with Linds, and with all of the life changes going on with both of us it's important to be able to spend that time together now.  I know things will be a little different once the baby comes and definitely not as easy to pick up and go away for a long weekend.  One afternoon we went shopping and stopped at Babies R Us where I had Linds point out any must haves that I will need.  It was fun, really helpful and eye opening.  So.much.(expensive).stuff.  Babies need so much stuff- and big stuff- that really is going to take up all free space left in this house.  I knew this to be true, but going through all of the aisles and seeing everything you will one day own right in front of you makes it even more real.

Saturday night we had a fun dinner with Kelly (high school friend, who is also due in July with baby #2!).  I don't know how it's possible, but I don't think I have seen Kel since my wedding.  We clearly had a lot to catch up on because we were at the restaurant for over 3 hours!

Baby P got some of his/her first gifts already from Linds, her parents Mary Jo and Tom, and and Kelly.  So sweet of them and such adorable, tiny, gender neutral things :)

My only regret of the whole weekend is that we didn't take nearly enough pictures!  We didn't even get one of just Linds and me, but here is a selfie gem with two of my favorite girls...

I saved the best news for last...

Now that you are caught up on the highlights of last 4 months at the Porter household, we have one more important update...we're having a baby!  It still doesn't feel real as I write this, but I'm now into my second trimester and baby Porter is due at the end of July!

We are feeling all of the things you would expect first time parents to feel - mostly excited, happy, anxious, a little in disbelief, but also nervous and scared for all that it to come that we have no idea about until we experience it. We've decided not to find out the gender until he or she is born.  We think it will make the birth day that much more exciting, and it is one of the only true surprises you can experience, so we are OK waiting for it.

Strange to think I'm a third of the way there and I haven't bought a single thing related to baby, and haven't even started thinking about names.  I know it's only been 15 weeks, but it is starting to feel like my pregnancy is flying by.  I think I can say that now because the worst of the 'morning' sickness is over.  But for 6 or so weeks there it was bad, worse than I expected it to be.  All I can say is it really shouldn't be called morning sickness when you feel sick all day, every day.  There are still a few mornings here and there where I get sick, but luckily they are few and far between.  I'm not showing yet, but I'm sure the bump is not too far away now.

Rob has been the great, supportive husband I knew he would be.  Always asking if he can get me anything, helping out more around the house and always appreciating whatever 'meals' I did cook/buy/warm up during the first trimester when there were only a handful of things I could stomach.  I always thought it would be fun to find a creative way to surprise him with the good news I was pregnant...until I actually got pregnant, and then I couldn't imagine keeping it quiet long enough to surprise him.  I took a test very early one morning (without him knowing) and I was shocked to see the + sign.  I found him downstairs making breakfast and said, "OK, don't freak out, but I might be pregnant....I took a test and it's positive," and then I showed him the stick.  He was caught off guard because I am never up that early, and said something like, "Wow really? And I thought you just wanted a breakfast sandwich or something."

And here is our fur baby helping to announce the coming of our human baby :)  We really do treat her as if she is our real child sometimes (all the time), and I know I'm not alone and there are lots of other proud puppy parents out there reading this!  But I honestly am a little nervous for what bringing a new baby into the home will mean for Roxanne.  Both because for once in her life all of the attention will not be directed at her, and because she does not like kids.  She isn't mean to kids, I've never seen her be mean period, but she is just very nervous and unsure of kids and their loud squeals, quick sudden movements and how they act in general.  I'm hopeful it will be different when it's a baby that is part of her family, who she will have to interact with to some degree every day, who she will see slowly get bigger and grow up into the crazy 5 year old she currently dreads.  For now we tell her to enjoy these next few months where she is still treated like the only child and every toy in the house is most definitely hers.