A brother for Ephram!

Okay, I need your best boy names because we’ve got nothing picked out. Comment below! The more original the better. ;)

xo,
donya

Woops! posting this one a little late…

While visiting the beach this past weekend, Ephram picked up a handful of soft, white-ish sand and exclaimed, “Snow!” This is either evidence of being away from Minnesota too long, or just the fact that I don’t have enough photos from the beach printed and hung around the house yet. Probably both.

Thursday is my big ultrasound – the one that reveals the sex of baby #2. To say I’m excited is a bit understatement. I cannot wait to refer to Ephram’s future sibling as a brother or sister finally. Of course, once we know, it will be time to finally start settling on a name for him or her. If it’s a girl, we’ve totally got this covered. If it’s a boy though, well, I fear we might not settle on a name until we are at the hospital.

I’ve gotten so many questions regarding how I’ve done my pregnancy series (both with pregnancy #1 and #2), so I’m planning a “how to” post for next week.

I’m so in love with this super simple photo-a-week project by the incredibly talented Erin Vey. Most people cringe at the thought of trying to keep up at such a committed project, but definitely read her method here. You just might want to give it a shot with your own children. Wouldn’t you love to have something like that created with photos of you from your childhood?

Our friend Amanda is visiting us this week and before picking her up from the airport we told Ephram that Amanda would be visiting. He quickly shortened Amanda to Manda, which then became Santa (since they rhyme – sort of). It’s been three days and he’s still calling her Santa. (It’s just too adorable to correct.) Between his snow/sand mix-up and this, Christmas could be a little confusing this year for him.

This past weekend Ephram was invited to a birthday party with a petting zoo! Serious. Emery, your 2nd birthday party will probably be one that Ephram remembers for a very long time. Though the animals might remember Ephram even longer. :)

It’s that time again. My belly is growing!

Since the moment we began planning for baby #2 (which was actually quite a few months before we actually did have a baby on the way), I’ve been brainstorming a new pregnancy photo series in my head. Unfortunately, I never came up with anything that satisfied me and I started to run out of time! My belly was starting to grow and I wasn’t documenting it! Luckily, while writing out my daily to-do list a couple weeks ago and adding ‘belly picture’ to it, I came up with this little idea in my head. My inspiration came from Serena & Lily. I love their designs so much, don’t you?

So here we go with weeks 17 & 18. My belly sure didn’t grow much during the first trimester, through all the nausea, but boy is it popping out now that my appetite has returned. :)

Time to get the stretchy clothes out; my button was undone in that last photo.

xo,
donya

So grateful to have photographed so many beautiful, amazing, & lovely mothers over the past year.

xo,
donya

The very reason I yearned for a backyard the entire time we were without one; the essence of a two year old shines so brightly outdoors.

He’s pure ‘two year old boy’.

xo,
donya

PS. Interested in capturing photos like this of your child? Let’s get started.

My fingers are still crossed, but I have, so far, successfully avoided catching the cold both Ephram and Beau caught last week.  That’s reason enough for a celebration in this household.

So, my efforts towards potty training Ephram last week pretty much fell flat.  We’re just going to have to wait.  But, there has been a slight epiphanie in the Gjerdingen household – if you sing Old McDonald to Ephram, he’ll let you change his diaper struggle-free!  Man, if only I had come up with this thought about 4 months ago!  At least I’m no longer desperate to potty train him anymore and much more okay with waiting.

Though I normally wouldn’t share a video of scraggly me, still in my pajamas and robe on a Sunday morning, this is just too cute not to share.  And I know several of Ephram’s grandparents who would love to see this.  So, please ignore me in the video and give your full attention to the adorableness that is Ephram singing his alphabet.  And by his, I mean, his.

Casey of Paper + Twine shared the birth story of her second son yesterday and I was anxious to hear it.  She’s actually from the area of Houston we now live in, and had her first son here in the US, but moved to Scotland around the same time we made our big move.  If you’ve ever been through a pregnancy in the US, I’m sure you’ll find her experiences, and the differences, a little interesting.

If you are in the market for an awesome and unique looking iPhone case, definitely check out Kal’s artwork on these cases via UnCommon.  So, so cool.

Did you see Justin Timberlake is now designing home decor items? I’m not sure what’s cuter – him or those designs?

I couldn’t find a Tuesday worthy photo to share today so I dug up one that never got blogged from last summer.

PS. In preparation for a new blog series here, I’ve got a question posted on the Facebook page that needs your response!

Remember this moment: We sat on the cool tile after lunch. It was your first time in underwear and there was no way I was going to let you have an accident on the brand new carpet. So we colored with crayons, did puzzles – anything to keep you occupied and on an easy to clean up surface.

I’m not sure you’re ready for this leap towards being a big boy. Do you understand the process? Do you understand the reward? I wish I knew for sure. Yesterday didn’t go well. I expected that and I should have known it would be hard. There were many accidents that afternoon, many of which were just minutes after you sat on the potty. It makes me want to give up – after only one day. But we’ve reached to the point where I’m not sure if fighting with you over changing your diaper is harder than this.

Something I never realized about parenting, until I was one, was that it’s all baby steps. There’s no giant leaps. Like how learning to walk didn’t happen overnight. One step here, five there, and a few days later you wobbly walked everywhere. I know this skill will be the same, but it’s still really hard for both you and me. After your final accident of the evening, I retreated to my computer to search for toilet training tips once again. And this one stood out:

You can lead a child to the potty, but you can’t make him pee.

I’ve done what I can to prepare you, Ephram, but I need frequent reminders that you’ll figure it out on your own time.

First off, thanks for all the house love last week! Everything is unpacked and we couldn’t be more happy. Well, I guess I’ll be even more happy once my frames are up on walls eventually, but for 4 days in, we’re incredibly content with our new house. Ephram especially is enjoying the extra space to play. Oh, and have I mentioned that our dishwasher actually cleans dishes?! Sorry, apartment dishwasher, you just weren’t cutting it.

Sadly, our lizard, Francisco, was absent from our apartment deck on Tuesday and Wednesday as we made our move. I worry he may have become lunch to some pesky birds that had been eyeing him up all week. I sure hope he’s not the last one we see this year. Anoles are just so cute!

I swear the universe is trying to tell me something. Lately, I’ve been surrounded by inspiring people getting their run on. I was so proud of myself last summer for working through the C25k program, but once Fall came I lost a lot of motivation for running. And then the Fall cold season came and I found myself wheezing and out of breathe less than a half mile in on any run I attempted. I actually still get the wheezing occasionally in the evenings, just while sitting and watching tv. Super fun, let me tell you. And this is even after one round of antibiotics for it (pre-pregnancy)! Anyways, I’ve decided that post-baby, I WILL be getting back to running. I love having something to look forward to, but in the mean time, feeling baby kicks isn’t so bad.

Toddler speak is my new favorite hobby. I’m serious, who needs real hobbies when you can sit and listen to a toddler learn to talk all day long? The best quote from Ephram this week was last night as I let the water drain from the bath tub, “Water gone… I missing the bath!”

Did I mention how nice our new neighbors are yet? No?! Well the evidence now sits in my house: our first house-warming gift came yesterday from the loveliest (and also pregnant!) next door neighbor.

Today is moving day! I have no idea when I’ll get around to posting “after” photos. With a toddler and a baby on the way, I’m sure the painting process will take awhile. I’m perfectly okay with that though, and it will likely be an ongoing project for years to turn this house into the home we want it to be.

This post took me far too much time to pull together, but in reality, the house is all that’s been on my mind lately anyways. I’m sure my plans for each room will change and evolve with time, especially as we settle in to the house and change our minds on certain aspects of the house, but these are the images floating around in my head right now, so I thought I’d share!

Being a new home, there isn’t a ton of work needed in the front of the house. There will be two new Live Oaks planted by the builders soon, and the lawn needs some watering, but other than that, I don’t have any big plans out here. On the other hand, I’m sure my husband, the gardener, does. The backyard will be his main focus for quite awhile though.

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The entryway is great. Like the inpiration photos, I’m hoping to find a great piece of furniture to serve as an anchor for a medium sized mirror and a nice spot for a plant and a few photos. Our previous home was a split-entry and I think I’ll really enjoy having more room as guests enter the house. But, more room here can also mean wasted space. Especially since we’ll be primarily using the door from the garage and not this door. So in order to keep the space functional, the piece of furniture I choose will hopefully serve as extra storage for our office (which is actually a dining room), just off to the left of the above photo.

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Turning 180 degrees from the entryway, this is your view. For some reason, I think I’m most excited about this little space. I’m not sure what it’s real purpose is supposed to be, but I call it the mini-mudroom and I immediately knew it would be great spot for hanging purses, jackets, backpacks, Ephram’s library bag, or a diaper bag. Along with a spot for keys, shoes, wallets, etc. It’s hard to see it in the top left photo, but just beyond this little space is a door that leads to the garage, so this should be a great catchall spot. I’ve fallen in love with the board and batten look (in the middle inspiration photo) and if I could make it happen with the wave of a wand, I’d probably do it throughout 75% of the house. But we’ll start here and see how it goes.

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The office is really a dining room, but in a 3 bedroom house with (soon to be) 4 people in the family, this is what will work for us. I don’t have any real definite ideas in here, other than anything that will keep it easily looking clean and organized – since it’s right next to the entryway and all guests will see it. Beau and I bought matching desks and desk lamps right before we moved, so that’s our starting point. The evolution of this room will be interesting.

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I know it’s just a laundry room, but I’m still hoping to make it look nice. Our old laundry room was in the utility room basement, and always stunk like cat liter… So this one is a breathe of fresh air in comparison. I’m pretty excited about it.

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Oh, the kitchen. It’s a really nice kitchen; granite countertops, nice cabinets, but not 100% my style. It’s growing on me, and hopefully will continue to as we live with it for awhile. The stainless steel appliances make the kitchen beautiful, but I don’t have a photo of it yet. Right now I’m headed in a turquoise and coral direction.

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We already have brown leather couches and dark end tables. So mostly I’m hoping to add pops of color throughout the living room through pillows and art. We gave away our tv stand when we moved, and I’ve always wanted to wall mount our tv, so figuring out how to do that along with finding storage for some toys will be my main focus in here, I think. The door and windows you see, opposite the kitchen side, lead to the backyard.

Okay, that’s enough for now. I’ll post the bedrooms and bathrooms and backyard in part two!

We move into the new house this week! In the past couple of weeks, Ephram has started saying “most home!”, meaning almost home, at the first sight of our apartments as we return home from wherever we’ve been. It’s super adorable. On Saturday, we took a day trip down to Corpus Christi (which was super nice) and on our way back Beau asked me, “Should we spin by the new house?” to which I always answer yes. As we entered the neighborhood, Ephram started saying, “most home! Mama, milk please?” and it made me so happy. Too bad the new house doesn’t have milk in it yet.

On Sunday we discovered a cute Soda Fountain and Cafe called Another Time in downtown Rosenberg, our new town southwest of Houston. The ice cream was excellent and the atmosphere was awesome. It might have been the first time I felt a vibe similar to our old, small town, Northfield coffee shop that we visited so regularly. Other than the people, I think that coffee shop (and the walk we used to take at least a couple times each week to get there) is near the top of things I miss from Minnesota. So finding something that brought that small-town-in-the-country feel back to me was a very good thing.

Ever thought of videoing your child for a few moments every week from birth to age 12? Ya, I wish I’d thought of it too. So cool. (thanks for sharing, Stacy!)

I’m not sure if I’ll ever get Ephram interested in coloring enough to get a collection of artwork going from him, though I’ll continue to wish until I do. If you’ve got a stack of adorable artwork from your little ones, definitely check out the new photobook template by Paislee Press.

Now that we’ll soon have a backyard for Ephram to play in once again, and swingsets are looking expensive and large for our space, I’m thinking a water table might be a perfect activity for a toddler who loves water. If you’ve got any recommendations on water tables or any outdoor toddler toys, I’d love to hear. This Sand & Water Farm (with a train!) might be too perfect for Ephram.

For all of you in the northern states who’ve been jealous of our outdoor adventures lately, I’m here to tell you that the first real stretch of heat and humidity will begin for us tomorrow/Thursday. I’m probably not ready for it, but these first 4 months in Houston have been gorgeous, so I feel I shouldn’t complain when the humidity does begin for the summer. I’m still really curious what the summer will be like. If Houston’s January felt like Minnesota’s April, and Houston’s April felt like Minnesota’s July, what will Houston’s July compare with? I still say that staying inside during much of the Summer can’t be any worse than staying inside during the long Minnesota Winter. Though you won’t see this in the Minnesota Winter. ;)