With Boston's first birthday party taking place next Saturday, I thought I'd share some of the items on his "wishlist". You'll notice pretty quickly that there aren't many toys on his list. Having just celebrating Christmas, our little guy was blessed with SOOO many toys that we had to put many in storage to pull out as he tired of the ones in the house. That being the case, we hated the thought of people spending money on toys he just didn't need or wouldn't play with all that much. So in lieu of toys, we asked our friends and family to donate some things our little guy could actually use. I'm not sure how much he'll approve of this little list but his parents sure do appreciate it (;
Rash Guards + Swim Trunks: Kevin's aunt has a pool and we have all intentions of spending our summer there. That said, our little guy will need quite a few swimsuits and the Cat and Jack line at Target sure doesn't disappoint.
Pajamas: At the end of last season, I scored big on Boston's wardrobe for this summer. I was able to grab tons of shorts and shirts for $1-$2 each piece. However, I didn't get my hands on any pajamas at the end of the season and considering our little guy is busting out of his current ones, I'd say it's definitely something he could use. I'm currently loving all of the three piece options Carter's has to offer.
Camelbak Kids' Cups: Sippy cups are one of my biggest nightmares. They can't break easily; can't leak; and I like them to all be uniform so I know which pieces go with what. That being said, we decided to skip all of the stage sippy cups for our little guy and jump straight to the Camelbak and Contigo cups for kids. Harper has them and we LOVE them.
Baby Wipes, Diapers, Diaper Pail Refills: We can always use diapers, wipes, and genie refills! And it always makes me sad that no one thinks to give them after you actually have your baby. Any of you mamas feel the same way?
Police Car Cozy Coupe: It might be a toy, but his cozy coupe can be used outdoors. Harper got one for her first birthday and still uses it to this day. Since she has no intentions of sharing hers, and it happens to be pink, this police car themed cozy coupe is just perfect for our little man. And apparently some friends of ours think so too, because they've already purchased it :P
Target Gift Cards: We were blessed to have gotten a convertible car seat for Boston at one of our baby showers. However, we need another one for Kevin's car. Since we hate to ask for a car seat as a gift, gift cards work great to be combined to get our little guy a new seat. And if we get too many gift cards, we can definitely use them to purchase other items he'll be needing throughout the year.
Well that's his list in a nutshell. We in no way expect our guests to bring our little guy something when they come to his party but so many people ask what he needs so hopefully putting together this little list will help.
It's hard to believe our little man is approaching ONE! It seems like only yesterday we were anticipating his arrival and here we are eleven months later anticipating his first birthday party. And when I say, anticipating, I mean it. I am so, so excited and can not wait for the actual event to get here. As the co-owner of a party business, it should come as no surprise to you that I've been planning Boston's birthday party for the last four months. Our intentions were to have a vintage themed baseball party for our little man but as we got to know his personality and started nicknaming him, "The Wild One", it only made sense to throw our little guy a Where the Wild Things Are birthday party. As a teacher, it's one of my favorite books, and it couldn't be more fitting for our little guy.
As I prepared for his birthday party, I also started thinking about his first birthday photo shoot. In my mind I knew exactly what I wanted. I shared my vision with my cousin, who happens to be an amazing photographer, and a few weeks ago, we got to carry it out. The end result was everything I could have envisioned and so much more. Just look for yourself...
It's hard to believe that my little guy is already three weeks old today. When Harper joined our family two and a half years ago, I felt like time started to pick up it's pace and it started to pass by quickly. Yet, since adding Boston to our mix, I'm realizing that when you have two babies, time passes at lightning speeds. In some moments, I feel like our little guy has been with us forever and in others, I feel like he just got here which happens to be what I want to talk about today. So let's start from the beginning....
When I went in for my 38 week check up on Thursday, February 18th, my doctor informed me that she wouldn't be on call the weekend before Boston's due date so she asked if I'd like to be induced the following week. The question caught me completely off guard as she's not one to just take your baby early if it's not medically necessary so coming up with a response took me a moment as I mentally weighed the pros and cons.
You see, Kevin and I had discussed induction prior to my appointment and I had told him along with my coworkers, family members, and friends that with this pregnancy, I hoped to go into labor on my own. I wanted to experience true labor...contractions, water breaking, and all as I felt like I had been gypped out of this experience when I was induced with Harper and I wasn't sure whether or not I planned to have more children so this could be my only chance. Yet, the other part of me considered the fact that Harper came late and with late pregnancies comes a variety of other complications and risks. To top it off, Kevin had been working non-stop, fifteen days in a row in fact, and the following week he was actually scheduled to have some time off making it much easier for him to be home with me and the baby. So after thinking it over for a few minutes and sending Kevin a quick text to ask him what he thought, we decided that moving forward with an induction was the way to go. I talked it over with my doctor and we had two options. I could be induced on Tuesday, February 23rd or Thursday, February 25th. Since Kevin was scheduled to be off on Tuesday, we decided that that would work best. So when I left my OB-GYN's office, our little guy had a birthday scheduled for four days later.
Heading into work the next day, I let my principal and teammates know that Monday would be my last official day of work. Many of my coworkers encouraged me to take Monday off and enjoy my last day resting and relaxing before our family was joined by another member, but I just laughed and told them I'd be there Monday because there really wasn't any point of just sitting around at home and using a vacation day when I could save it for after the baby got here. But just in case I changed my mind or Boston decided to make an early appearance, I stuck around school later than usual that Friday tying up loose ends, completing paper work for my leave, laying out everything needed for the following week, and straightening up my room before I called it a day and headed home.
Kevin had to work that Saturday and Sunday so while he slept during the day, I soaked up my last few moments with Harper as an only child. On Saturday she and I headed to Greensboro with my sister and did some shopping as I figured that would be the last opportunity I'd have for a while...after all, the thought of shopping by myself with two babies is a bit daunting. We grabbed Starbucks, as was Harper's request, and stocked up on groceries for the coming weeks. On Sunday, Harper and I slept in, watched cartoons all morning, then whipped up some lasagna for my family to come and eat after church. It felt like a successful weekend, yet all I could think about was how good it would feel to spend the day at home tomorrow instead of going to work. So I sent one of my teammates a message and told her I was struggling with the decision to take the next day off or to "suck it up" and go in. As a mom of two kids herself, her answer came quick and with certainty... get a sub and enjoy the day at home! So with that, I reported my absence and lined up a sub....all the while feeling completely guilty. But then Monday rolled around....
We are so happy to introduce the newest member of our family to the blogging world.
Meet Boston Grey Holt.
He made his arrival on Tuesday, February 23rd at 4:05am.
He weighed in at 8 pounds 13 ounces and was 21 inches long.
Needless to say, we think he's absolutely perfect!
I'll have his birth story up on the blog next week.
Until then, I'm off to snuggle with our two week old for just a little longer!
