Baby Deuce!?

On January 15th, after not feeling well for a few days and having a particularly rough morning that included me throwing up while little Dempsey watched on in concern, I called Jill to come down and help me out so I could get some rest. While texting back and forth with Finn, he asked if I might be pregnant. Pregnant!? What? No, I was sure that wasn't the case and that I probably just had some weird bug. He suggested I use one of the pregnancy tests that we still had on hand from our attempts to get pregnant with Dempsey; you know, just to be certain. Thinking nothing of it, I went ahead and peed on a stick. Within about 10 seconds the test came back...POSITIVE! We were pregnant....AGAIN! I immediately texted Finn a picture of the positive test.

And then I waited....and waited....and waited. I paced in our room with countless emotions washing over me. I felt excited, anxious, nervous, astounded, scared, thrilled, shocked, flabbergasted, numb, tingly, giddy! The list went on and on. Pretty much every emotion one could possibly have seemed to be flooding through me all at once. I just couldn't believe after trying so long to get pregnant with Dempsey that we were pregnant again and so soon. I also couldn't believe that I just found out this surprising news while Finn was at work and Jill and Dempsey were playing in the living room just outside my bedroom door.

When Finn finally called me back, he sounded just as shocked as me. Yet, he also seemed to have known all along. He was the one who told me I should probably pee on a stick, after all. By the time he got home to talk about the news I had gone through every emotion each about a thousand times. It all felt so unbelievable and in many ways, impossible. We had no idea what we had just gotten ourselves into.

At this point Dempsey was a little over 10 months old, still a baby, not walking or talking, completely and utterly dependent upon us every second of the day for every need and want. It seemed to me that there was no possible way I would be able to have TWO babies! Two under two was never in our thoughts or plans. Or was it? Finn had always said that he wanted to be done having kids by the time he was 30. That seemed pretty unrealistic, but now, it was totally within reach. Only, we hadn't even decided if we wanted more than one kid. "Two it is!" we figured. This all must be part of the bigger plan of which we secretly have no birth control over!

We were about to embark on quite the journey! Two kiddos, 18 months apart. I would be pregnant for the much-anticipated nuptials of Hanni and Freddy in Hawaii. I was going to be pregnant while chasing around a soon-to-be walking, talking, running toddler! Pure craziness was about to ensue...of that much we were certain!

We also knew that we were about to bring another awesome, adorable, little person into this world. One that we couldn't wait to meet, to find out what s/he would look like, sound like, be like. We knew that Dempsey was going to make the best big brother in the world...even if he had no idea what that even meant. We knew that this was going to test us as a couple, but that we were ultimately up to the challenge. We were about to complete our beautiful family.

We decided to share the big news with our sisters first and then after going to the doctor to confirm and figure out our due date, we designed and made a onesie for Dempsey to wear to tell our parents. We invited everyone over for the USA v Honduras WCQ match and waited for someone to read Dempsey's onesie. Much to our surprise, Jeff read it first and his reaction was amazing! He read it out loud then said..."well, that's not true!" Then he looked at me, said "is it?!!" then jumped up and gave me the biggest hug ever! Everyone else quickly took to reading his shirt and figuring it out! Luckily we had such great news to share since the USMNT lost the first game of the hex!

One Year of Dempsey-ness!

Dear Dempsey,

My how time has flown by! We can't believe that one year ago we were at the hospital, ready, waiting and laboring away to meet you and didn't even know if you would be a boy or a girl! It's crazy to think back on your birthday and remember that day and to see the pictures of you just minutes to days old compared to now. You have blessed our lives in such a truly indescribable way! From the moment you came into this world you have been nothing but the most incredibly happy baby! I think you love us almost as much as we love you!

It's amazing how much you have grown both physically and mentally over the last twelve months! At your one year check up you weighed 23 lbs, 1 oz and were 30 1/8" tall. That means you have gained almost 16 pounds and grown about 10 inches since you were born!! Your definitely filling out and have developed your mom's cheeks now - you lucky little guy! You are one adorable, tall, and chubby little one year old! The one year, month-by-month photo collage is complete and it's fun to see how much you've grown into your chair!

You have learned a lot of new words over the last month and use "Oakleigh", "Oakel", "Oak", "more", "hot", and "up"quite frequently. You are pretty cute with "hot" because you whisper it whenever you say it. You use "more" when you want more food, which is helpful for your parents because sometimes we don't know that you can eat so much food! :) You still love being outside; although we got a fair amount of snow in February and it was also pretty cold so you didn't get to spend quite as much time outside as you would have liked. You love your puppies and chickens and definitely say Oakleigh, oakel, oak on a very regular basis. You have really started to love books and will hang out and read for more than five seconds at a time, which is a pretty big deal in baby land.

You started standing up on your own the first week to ten days of month and your balance was getting better everyday. You even took your first steps this month. You did a lot of laughing and squealing during those first few terrifyingly awesome steps too. The funny part is that you tried walking a few more times after that night and we could get you to take a few steps here and there, but for the most part you returned to crawling - apparently you thought this was a much safer/faster route to wherever it is you wanted to go! Luckily we captured your one night of walking fun on camera so you can enjoy that for many years to come! 

For your first birthday we kept it a family affair and tried to not go overboard with a theme and decorations; but we still kept it fun and colorful. Both of your great-grandma Marge's came, your Aunt Charlotte, your Aunt Hanni, Uncle Freddy, and Grandma and Grandpas from both sides and of course, your mom and dad! Grandma Lisa made you TWO cakes! One was shaped like your favorite bath toy - an orange and blue octopus and that served as your smash cake. The other one was a layered cake with bright colors inside - which was for the adults. You really weren't too sure what to think of the cake - it was a big departure from your usual diet full of lots of veggies, fruits and lean proteins. But, you had fun nonetheless and particularly enjoyed sharing and feeding your cake to everyone else! You got plenty spoiled with lots of books, a wagon, a little gym membership, toys, clothes, and everything else your little heart didn't even know it desired! You are definitely a very loved. For even more great pictures of the day and time when your Great Grandma Marge from Illinois was in town just click on over to your Aunt Hanni's facebook album.

You are a pretty adorable little dude to photograph, so mom takes at least one picture a day. Although in all honesty it's probably closer to 15-20 pictures most days! This month I pretty much only instagramed pictures of you, as you can see below! You had lots of fun with paint, reading with your dad, eating fruit, and you especially loved helping your dad do the dishes this past month!

Mr. Dempsey, we really could not love you any more. You are the most incredible gift we could have ever received! We have had so much fun over the past year watching you grow and learn and we can't wait to watch that happen as much time as we are given to do so! You light up our lives and make us laugh and smile everyday. Thank you for being such an amazing little man! Cheers to your first year!

Love,

Mom and Dad

11 Months: Wait. What? Nearly a Year!??!

Well this is by far the latest I've posted Mr. Dempsey's monthly update. But, luckily we still took the pictures on time since he's changed so much in the last 10 days! :)

He still has just 4 teeth, but he's been working on at least two more and possibly four more. It's extra funny that he doesn't have his top two front teeth because it sort of looks like he just has fangs up top! He hasn't had a wellness appointment again, but will have one just after his 1st birthday. But, I'm pretty sure he's grown a few inches! He is definitely a long/big kid (even though I have nothing to gauge that on)!

We spent a lot of time this month playing with the wide variety of toys he got at Christmas - although his favorite toys are still things like junk mail, the Tupperware drawer and any item that he really should not have access to. He still loves nature and we've had to move to walking him in the stroller because his 20+ lbs is getting a little bit heavy for the Baby Bjorn. Luckily, he really loves his stroller and even becomes somewhat catatonic for parts of our walks - it's actually really funny.

He's learning new noises, particularly loud, ear piercing shrieks which he finds to be absolutely hilarious! He has started laughing more as well. This should have been in last months post, but since it wasn't there, he continues to know and use three words: "uh oh," "mama" and "dada." He's also said "Oak" at least once, but it was probably a fluke. ;) He really likes to wave to people, and last month he started waving goodnight to me which is totally heart melting. He loves being crazy - and it would be ideal if we lived in a small, padded gym because he likes to throw himself on things/at things/over things. He loves to climb things. He also loves when you grab his arms to climb up your body like a rope or mountain climber, which is pretty adorable.

To channel his love of craziness, climbing and gymnastics, for his 11 month birthday we took him to the Little Gym in Littleton for a tumbling tots class. It was so much fun and he definitely enjoyed looking at all the other kids and participating in all the activities. He was the youngest of all the kids there by about 6 months or more yet didn't seem to be much smaller than any of them. We did somersaults, wheelbarrows, used hula hoops to walk, sang, played on a variety of foam stairs, ramps, springboards and even the bars! Dempsey would only hang on the bars for the class instructor which we thought was funny! But, he clearly enjoyed Mr. Nick's spotting technique! :)

Finn traveled for work this month and we sent him lots of pictures! Finn and I also went to an awesome concert, The Reminders. They are one of my favorite groups to see live and they are husband and wife MCs from Colorado which makes it all the more fun to go see them. Finn and I also went up to Copper Mountain to enjoy some of the fresh snow that had been falling in the high country. I'm getting better every time we go but still have a terrible time carving - but like I tell Finn, at least I can ride goofy footed as well as regular. Right?! :) I started my final semester of graduate school, the same day we went snowboarding actually. I can't wait to be done with my Master's...this last year has felt particularly slow and brutal...but there is a light starting to glimmer at the end of this long ass tunnel! Here's some fun instagram photos from the month. I left off the most popular one of chicken and waffles, but you can click over to the bookface if you somehow missed that awesomeness.

I can't believe the next Dempsey blog update will be for his FIRST BIRTHDAY!!!! How in the world did that happen? Can anyone believe that a full year has gone by since this little man came into the world??? I know I can't. I'm just completely and utterly shocked! AHHH!!!

Ten Months of Awesomeness!

Well, ten months has come and gone and it is truly frightening how quickly the time has passed! He now has 4 teeth -- his two lower central incisors and his top two lateral incisors. As his top two were coming in he also came down with a pretty bad cold; which also happened to be three days before Christmas. It was really hard seeing our usually super-energetic and independent little guy be so stuffed up, snotty, coughy and needy. You want to fix it but you know it just has to run its course. And, even those who saw him on his worst days said that he was the "happiest sick kid" they had ever seen. We truly lucked out with this happy-go-lucky little man.

He has definitely been growing, although it is more length-wise rather than weight-wise. people often think that he might be older than he is based on his size. We have no idea, to be honest, since we don't have anyone to compare him to. But looking back on his old pictures, as well as comparing him to the newest member of the family, Mr. Caleb, who was born on Nov. 29th, we can for sure say that he seems gigantic these days! :)

We have been spending lots of time playing, cruising along the furniture, reading books, practicing walking, crawling, army crawling, being in nature and about 500 other activities every day! :) He learned how to stand up in his crib this past month and that has been fun but also presents some challenges when it comes to nap times. He has recently become much more confident in his ability to go from standing to sitting, but has not seemed to master that skill in his crib. Between the cold, the teething and his new found ability to stand up in his crib (and look out the windows), his nap schedule has not been going as smoothly as it had been. He sometimes plays through his entire afternoon nap and has also passed on his morning nap. This makes for an interesting day and usually a fussy bedtime and night wakings. He had been sleeping a solid 12-13 hours at night but has been waking up a bit more than usual recently. Hopefully this will all pass soon! 

He is sooo very close to walking on his own. He walks pretty well while just holding onto one of our fingers, particularly if there is a dog he can walk chase after! He is just very hesitant to give up that other hand! He can balance for a little bit of time on his own, until he realizes that you aren't letting him lean against you anymore. It will be very exciting when he gets the confidence to take those first steps!

I've also been trying to use instagram a little bit more (ashleighr22). I like it. I don't always share my pictures over on the book face because I don't want to be that annoying person who posts pictures of their awesome kid every single day, but it seems much more socially acceptable on the 'gram! :)

The little dude got to celebrate his very first Christmas this year! That was pretty exciting! Unfortunately, he was a snot-nosed mess. But he was a total trooper. He participated in our annual Christmas Eve party at our house and then went to both sets of grandparents' houses on Christmas day. He even helped put out some nutmeg logs for Santa on his plate that my mom made him (check it out in the picture below) on Christmas Eve!  We changed up the usual routine a bit to make our lives a little easier and we all went to Jeff and Jill's house for Christmas dinner rather than us going back and forth between our parents' houses throughout the day. We still did gift opening at both places and to say that he was spoiled is such an understatement; it's not even funny. We were all more than spoiled, to be completely honest. It was a great day, despite the terrible cold that he had. I can only imagine that next year will be so much different when he is nearly two years old! Overall, his first Christmas was a day filled with fun, family and lots of love! :)

On another Christmas note...all the kids got Jill Broncos tickets for Christmas! She had never been to a game, even though she is one of their biggest fans! Finn captured the priceless moment of her opening the gift on camera and I thought you'd all love to see it!!

As usual, our month was pretty full of activities. But, one of the more stressful but also exciting things that happened to me was that I traveled to some of our study sites for work and we are finally getting our study kicked off after a couple years in planning mode! I also ate some good food, and drank some beer that I liked and nearly broke my finger in a rental car trunk. It was a great trip. Finn got to help me put together  the dog saliva collection kits for one of our sites this month and he was the best assistant money couldn't buy!! 

I would like to say I will blog again before next month, but it seems pretty unlikely. I'm in my FINAL (yahoo!) semester of grad school and work is getting busier everyday and Dempsey moves about 100mph 90% of the time....soooo yeah...see you all next month!! :)

Love and Kisses,