Happy Halloween 2012!

You know I love to keep Brady's Halloween costume a secret until October when I send out our annual Halloween card to our closest friends and family.  I send about 45 of these, whereas I send out over 100 Christmas cards, so it's a pretty elite list.  We think it's fun to send them out because most people (especially those in the older generation who don't use computers) don't get to see kids in their Halloween costumes.  I take pride in the costumes I choose, so of course I'd like to show them off!

We scored this Mickey Mouse costume at the Disney Store at the Mall of Georgia outside of Atlanta last September.  I bought it in a 3T because you never know with kids and I didn't want him to outgrow it before he got a chance to wear it.  If it was too big, I figured I'd wait a year.  Fortunately, Brady has a very long torso, so the costume fit perfectly!  We tried it on for the first time after arriving home from Germany and initially Brady wasn't too happy about it.  The hat was the main problem (as it was the year before).  It took a while, but with his love of candy, I got him to understand that putting on the Mickey suit would mean candy.  That did the trick and as you can see from the picture above, Brady didn't give me a hard time while trying to get his picture and was actually smiling!  Last year, I think I took about 50 pics before I got one I could use.  He can't wait to go out and trick-or-treat around our neighborhood tonight.

Believe it (which you probably will) or not, I have already purchased next year's costumes for both Brady and Izzie.  You all know I'm a planner and have had my eyes on the costume sales as we've gotten closer to the holiday.  I had one plan for two boys and another for a boy and a girl.  I'm a fan of the theme thing.  I have both in my possession already and can't wait to see them wear them in a year!

Pumpkin Carving 2012

With Halloween only a few days away, it was time for us to carve our pumpkin.  Remember, it weighs a massive 44lbs, it's no small pumpkin.

Brady is much more independent and interested this year, so we pulled out his shape book and let him choose which shape he would like for each eye, the nose, and finally the mouth.  He was a little bummed when we were done and he still wanted to add a star.

 He has to be involved in everything, so when it came to drawing the shapes on the face, he couldn't be left out and Andy helped to guide his hand.

Brady developed a love for seeds in Germany and knew from the previous day when we did our gender reveal pumpkin, that there would be yummy seeds inside this pumpkin too.  He wanted to help scoop some out.

He thought it would be a good idea to try and taste the pulp and quickly spit it back out.  Lesson learned ;)

After his attempts to scoop out the seeds, Andy got to work really digging them out.  Brady grabbed the tiny pumpkin knife and tried his hand at carving.  We kept a very close eye on him the whole time to make sure things stayed safe.

The pumpkin was too thick for the tiny pumpkin knife to cut all the way through, so Andy had to use a butter knife to get all the pieces out.  Brady is watching on eagerly.

 So glad I can tell this sweet boy that he's my best boy for a good while longer.

After a while of letting Andy carve, Brady would get impatient and scream, "Brady turn!" and try ripping the knife from Andy's hand.

I love the look of concentration.

 

His hands are out, while he screams, "Stop daddy! Brady turn!"

Andy decided the only way the pumpkin was going to get carved was if he guided Brady's hand while carving.

Father and son hard at work.  I can only imagine the cool things they'll continue to do as Brady gets older.

I was trying to get a pic of Brady with his carved pumpkin, but he wasn't interested, so he covered his eyes.  I am kinda like the paparazzi some times.

A Halloween Gender Reveal

 

If you didn't read the pumpkin next to Brady, he's getting a little sister!!!!  We are beyond excited to have one of each gender and to get to do things all over again, this time with a little girl.  Can you tell from the picture that Brady is excited?  The day before I took the pregnancy test in June, I asked him if he wanted a brother or a sissy.  He immediately said sissy and the next morning the test was positive.  People say kids are really intuitive about these things and he continued to insist it was a sissy and would get very upset if we even suggested it could be a brother.

Andy and I never had a strong feeling one way or the other what this baby would be.  They say different gender pregnancies are different, but they haven't been significantly different enough for me to think it would be a girl vs. a boy. They also say a mother's intuition is pretty spot on.  Not the case with Brady as I was convinced he was a girl.  If you go by the old wives tale of heart rate being an indicator for gender it was right for both kids, but of course we didn't take that for more than the old wives tale it was.  Also, there is a Chinese gender calendar that takes into account the mother's age and month of conception.  That was also right for both kids, but is wrong for so many other people.

A lot of people assumed boy after my last post because I said the baby was quick to show off their parts.  Girls have parts too!  Above is the shot that shows the three white lines (between her little bum cheeks) that indicate she's all girl.  We had a very clear shot earlier in the ultrasound where you could see the legs and the lines in between.  I knew what I was looking for because I had a boy first.  When I saw the baby with legs wide open and those three white lines instead of anything poking out, I knew it was a girl before the tech said it.  Andy, on the other hand, had no idea what to look for on a girl and had a hard time believing the tech.  She went back and took this picture, pointing out each of the three lines and telling Andy what each one represented.

A girl born with the Trapuzzano name (in our clan at least) is not something that happens very often.  The last time was 26 years ago, and the time before that was 58 years ago, so you can see it's really rare.  Andy and his brothers joke that it's physically impossible for them to have girls as there are three of them, their dad and their Uncle, then their Grandpa Trapuzzano was one of three boys (and they had one sister).  We are glad to prove that theory wrong.  Not sure they're going to know what to do with a girl.  Interestingly enough, both mine and Andy's moms were one of three girls and we only have girl first cousins.

A lot of people have trouble naming their children, but not us!  Believe it or not, we decided on our first boy and girl name within a month of dating, so they've been set since the summer of 2007.  Obviously, our first boy name was Brady Charles.  This little girl's name will be Isabella Betsy or Izzie B for short.  Isabella is a beautiful Italian name (we are both Italian) and Betsy was Andy's mom name.  She passed away when he was kid, so we wanted to honor her.  Of course, in 2008 the Twilight movies came out and the name Isabella skyrocketed to the number one most popular girl name and there are Bella's everywhere (including one of Brady's cousins).  We are hoping that calling her Izzie will set her apart.  As of this year, it's fallen to the number five spot and we can only hope it falls more in 2013.

Having a little girl opens up a whole new world of possibilities for us and of course, for me when it comes to shopping.  I've always dreamed of crossing the aisle in the kids store and shopping for a little girl.  And now that's a reality!  Yesterday, i just couldn't help myself and bought the outfit above.  I can't wait to see her in it.  Since we have mostly boy clothes (with a few neutral items left over from Brady), we will definitely be needing girl clothes, so anyone shopping for us for Christmas will have no problem figuring out what to get us ;)

20 Week Ultrasound - Izzie B

Yesterday was our 20 week ultrasound for baby #2.  We were so excited to find out whether we were getting another boy or our first girl.  We would of course be happy either way and just wanted to be able to refer to the baby by name.  Andy took the day off work so he could come and Brady was there as well.  Brady is so cute because he's so empathetic.  He remembered from last month that we would get called behind the door and couldn't wait.  When we were taken to the ultrasound room and he saw the reclined table, he started to say, "Uh oh! Owie!"  I reassured him that it wasn't going to hurt and we would get to see the baby on the TV.  The whole time he remained concerned and wanted to hold my hand through a good portion of it to make sure I was ok.  He knew I would get a shot later (flu shot) and when I did, he sat on my lap and watched.  I told him that I wouldn't cry and it wouldn't hurt, but when the nurse gave me the shot, both of his little fists clenched tight.  He's such a sweet boy!


 

We've had two different rounds of genetic testing done and both came back with the best results you can receive.  The ultrasound confirmed that the baby is growing perfectly and everything looks great!  The baby is very active like its brother and there are many times at night I have to switch positions because it's simply too much at one time.  Andy has been able to feel it from the outside and we weren't able to do that with Brady until much later.  The baby weighs approximately 15 ounces and is at the perfect size for almost 21 weeks.  The tech asked us as soon as we entered the room if we were interested in finding out the gender.  We knew going in that we couldn't handle the suspense of waiting until the baby was born, so we eagerly said yes.  She said she usually waits until the end to reveal the gender, but our baby is very cooperative and showed off its parts so clearly that the tech told us within the first few minutes.  We and a handful of close family know what the baby is and I will be doing a special Halloween gender reveal on Saturday so stay tuned!

A precious tiny foot!

The tech thought this was a really cool shot.  The baby had one leg fully extended.  You can see the bright white lines of both leg bones.

The really cool thing about my new doctors is that they have the capability to do 3D ultrasounds.  We weren't able to get a really clear shot because the baby kept putting its hand near its face, so this is the best one we have.  They don't have much fat on them at this point, so you can only make out a very skinny, skeleton-like face.  We paid to have one done at 29 weeks with Brady and will do so again with this baby.  Andy claims that he could perfectly picture what Brady would look like from that ultrasound, but I still couldn't.  It will be cool to compare the two and see if they'll look alike!

DeBuck's Pumpkin Patch & Nana and Dubby Visit

Usually about a week and a half before Halloween, we head to a local pumpkin patch and pick out a pumpkin to carve with Brady.  In his three Halloweens, we haven't been to the same pumpkin patch twice with all of our moving around.  It also worked out nicely that my parents decided to come visit this weekend, which was when we were going to pick out our pumpkin.  We moved away when Brady was 5 months old, so they've never been able to experience many of these things with him.  It was really special that they could be here and watch him pick out his pumpkin.

 Nana and Dubby on the hayride waiting for the tractor to pull us to the pumpkin patch.

 Brady decked out in his jack o lantern shirt ready to pick out a pumpkin.

We had a little incident while looking through all the pumpkins.  We even have it on video where Brady points me in the other direction and I head off to check out the pumpkins.  Then he turns around and steps in an open rotten pumpkin.  This kid is sneaky and tons of trouble!  This is him sitting on the pumpkin I found for him.  It was HUGE!

Don't let the size fool you, it outweighs Brady by about 14lbs!  He weighs around 30lbs and this pumpkin weighed in around 44lbs.  It's by far the biggest pumpkin we've ever picked.

This year, with our new addition, we decided to get a pumpkin for the new baby.  We told Brady that his pumpkin could be as big as Daddy could carry and that he could pick one for the baby that he could carry.

Back on the hayride with our pumpkins securely loaded on board.

We stopped to view a bald eagle's nest in a tree on the property.  Brady was more interested in the baby's pumpkin.

Once we got back to the main area they had carts that you could use to get your pumpkins to the weighing station and then your car.  Usually we pay the admission to do the other activities at a patch, but it was past 3PM and way past Brady's naptime when we got there, so we got the pumpkins and headed home.

The remainder of Saturday was spent relaxing.  Brady fell asleep on the car ride home and went immediately to bed when we got there.  We turned on the TV and vegged out in front of football.  It was a pretty decent weekend for all of our teams.  Sometimes we can go a whole season without Pitt, Penn State, and the Steelers all winning in the same weekend, but they pulled it off this weekend, so no grumpiness on Monday morning.  While I was staying at my parents' this summer, I was watching the food network and saw Rachel Ray cook an amazing beef wellington with blue cheese and watercress instead of pate. I made a mental note to have Andy try it sometime.  With my parents visiting, it was the perfect opportunity and it was amazing!  We were all stuffed at the end and realizes that half of a wellington is enough for one person, so we can cut the recipe in half next time.

Sunday morning, we headed to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn.  We had been in March 2011 when we visited for a conference Andy attended, but several exhibitions were under construction.  It was free that day because it was the museum's 83rd birthday.  It houses amazing historical artifacts.  Above is the limousine in which JFK was shot in Dallas, TX.

A side shot of the JFK limousine.  They modified it in 1964 to add a reinforced steel top, so it would no longer be a convertible leaving a president open to attack.

Eisenhower's limousine

FDR's limousine

Teddy Roosevelt's house drawn buggy

A huge steam locomotive.  I put Andy and Brady in to show the scale of how large it was.

A coal powered locomotive.  Brady was in heaven with all the cars and trains.

Check out the snow plow on the front of this train.

The chair from the Ford Theatre in which Abraham Lincoln was shot.  You can still see the blood stains on it.

They have a weinermobile, so they also have a bun and toppings so you can lay in it and be the hotdog.  Brady thought this was pretty cool.  He was 13 months the last time we went, so he didn't do much.

Just relaxing.

Even though Andy had raked the leaves the weekend before, in the course of a week our yard was covered in leaves again.  We decided after the museum to rake them up and let Brady jump in them again with Nana and Dubby watching before we got rid of them.  It was much drier this time, but of course the leaves at the bottom were still soaking wet.

Dubby kept using the rake to pile more leaves on top of Brady.

Brady completely buried in the leaves.

They both got a kick out of throwing Brady into the leaves.  I managed to catch a great shot of Dubby and Brady in mid-swing.

Brady's turn to rake.

Brady was such a good boy and stopped playing to tell us he had to go potty.

We were so grateful my parents made the effort to come out and visit us.  Most of the rest of our families don't realize how expensive it is for us to come home, but expect us to always be the ones coming to them.  It's quite an effort and takes a lot of planning for us to come home and we usually only do so when there is a reason.  With the new baby, we will be traveling home less and less because the memories of driving out here when we first moved when Brady was 4 months old is more than enough to deter us while this baby is young.  Fortunately, my parents and brothers are willing to come to us and we will host our first Thanksgiving just one month from today.  It's a rare treat to have all of us together and we're sure to have a good time.