Change is my only constant!

It's hard to believe that my last post was the week after thanksgiving. I feel like life has been a total blur over the past two months. It's February and I feel like the year is already slipping out from underneath my feet.  Let's see if I can catch myself up on everything that has happened recently....  Our baby girl is officially a toddler. She turned 2 on December 4 and we had a beautiful little party for her on the 3rd. We had close friends and some family there. Between her birthday and Christmas, Afton was given 7 baby dolls!!!!!  I feel like we live in an orphanage!!!!  She loves them all and spends most of her day feeding them and putting them to bed. She has one that stays in the car full time, 1 that is a bath baby so it camps out in our bathroom and her "Afton baby" sleeps with her and piggy every night. Afton had developed so much over the past year. She is so smart and SO sassy. She has a mean streak like nothing I ever thought I would experience. There are nights I call my mom bc I simply don't know how to handle her. Her language is finally starting to take off. Her newest words are taco, brownie, donut, I want one, all done.... those are the few that come to mind right now. We are working on no thank you and yes ma'am. At her 2 year appointment we were a little shocked to find out she has gone from the 90 something % from her 1 year appointment to the 20 something % to date. I remember her as a little bitty baby & people always told me she was going to be a "big girl". This girl is so tiny now!  I cannot wait to get her next to her cousin. Afton's short and Liliana is tall. At only 5 months apart, it's going to be a sight!  My mom was able to fly to VA for the party. We LOVED having her here for a few days. It was a very short visit but we will take any amount of time we can get with her. Afton has called my sister Mimi since forever and several months ago she started calling my mom Mimaw!!!  It's so cute to hear her say. Every single morning we have the exact same conversation... without fail!  Afton: Mimi??? Me: she is at school.  Afton: Mimaw??? Me: she is at school too.  Afton: daddy??? Me: he is at work.  Afton: oh no!!!! Me: that's exactly how they feel!   She has learned exactly where the hot dog counter is at SAMS club. When she decides it's time for a hot dog while we are shopping, it's like trying to keep the alien from going back to the mother ship!!!!!  Impossible.  She is extremely strong willed. She knows exactly what she wants and what she likes. She hates to eat but loves her fluids. This girl loves ice water and we have to keep a close eye on cups bc she wants to eat your ice. That's a no no for baby teeth. She LOVES to jump and dance and sing. Ohhhh mercy this girl loves to sing. We took away her paci a few weeks ago and that has been dramatic. She still uses it at nap and bed time though. Now that the paci (her wee) is gone, she is really working on perfecting the temper tantrum in the car.  Being a mom is hard. Being a mom to a toddler is EXTRA hard. This too shall pass. I love this sweet girl with everything that I am! Baby #2! The weekend after Thanksgiving, we went in for an elective ultrasound and found out we are expecting a BOY towards the end of May. There was no hiding the fact that he was... a he, lol. I knew going in that it was a boy... even though I really wanted another girl!  As the months have passed, we are so so excited we are having a little boy and so anxious to meet him. This pregnancy is flying by.  I am 25 weeks 3 days and for the past 4-5 weeks I have really been feeling good. I switched to a prenatal vitamin with iron and added an iron supplement and the difference in how I feel is amazing. Of course I'm still tired every day, but I don't feel this horrible fatigue in my muscles all the time. Paul has named this little guy Levi Samuel. He is measuring exactly on track with my due date and according to the ultrasound tech, he does not have an overly large head, lol. Bless him!!!  I have been wondering how big he will be on delivery day and I'm predicting he will be our heavy weight of the two kids. Afton was 7lb 12oz at 10 days late so I'm guessing he will be somewhere close to 8lbs but not 10 days late.   I've been trying to decide when to move Afton from her crib to her big girl bed. We originally planned on putting her in a full size bed right away but after a lot of thought and evaluating space, we settled on putting her in a twin bed instead. I don't want her to feel lost in her new bed... and it takes up less space. We have a wonderful store in our area where we can buy Amish built unfinished furniture, so we have a bed picked out and will buy it in the next month or two and stain it when the weather is nice. I have her new bedding purchased and am really excited to put everything together.  The past few weeks have been extra stressful for our little family. We had upstairs neighbors (that made us about go crazy) FINALLY move out. We were so excite at the idea of finally getting some sleep. Well, we spoke to soon when we voiced our excitement.... the new neighbors were 100 times worse. They moved in late one evening and night after night , they would tromp around the apartment until 4 am. We could not sleep and it was more than we could handle. We did not think it could get any worse... and then it did. They are the only people in the building that smoked... and all their friends smoked. So, the building smelled like an ash tray all the time. And then we started smelling marijuana. One morning (around 1 am) Paul finally walked upstairs to ask them to please keep it down. He was cussed at, called a liar and other racial slurs. He finally had to just walk away from the conversation. That was the breaking point for us. He spoke with our leasigng manager that next Sunday afternoon, and when he walked into the apartment from that chat, he announced we were moving into his parents house the NEXT morning. Saying it was an Emotional day for me is 100% an understatement. It was an emotional day for many, many, many reasons and the news of us moving SO quickly put me over the edge. I can honestly say though, that in the hardest of moments, people's true colors shine the brightest. I immediately called my dear friend Kelley and asked if she could please take Afton. There was zero hesitation. She drove into town and took her for 2 nights. It's the only way we were able to get packed and moved so quickly. Her husband dropped everything he has scheduled for work that day to help us move... again.  We are so so so thankful for this wonderful family who is ALWAYS there for us when we need them the most.  We have lived here for a week now and are finally settled in. I'm thankful I have a gift for organizing Bc organization is key when living in small spaces. Last time we lived here Afton was 5 months old. Now we will have a toddler & a newborn. It's a slow process Bc items I need to organize are not cheap... but it's coming together and I think it will work out just fine for the next 10-12 months. We have a goal of how much we want to save during our time here and once we hit that goal, we will begin the house hunt again. We feel it's important for Paul to not kill himself in overtime, And we know the best way to make that happen is to have an even bigger down payment on a home. I know that our current sacrifices will provide us with future blessings.  I'm sorry this post has been so long. That's the problem with not posting as often as I should. I hope the rest of winter treats everyone well. Spring will be here before we know it and then the summmer heat will be killing us all. It's all going to go by so quickly and I'm not ready for it yet. I'm trying to enjoy all of my 1 on 1 time with my little girl before her brother arrives and turns her world upside down. I'm so blessed though Bc my mom will be here for 4-5 weeks to help me figure out how to be a mom of two. Lots of fun things are in the works for this summer... JAMS motor competition, beach trip, mid Atlantic motor competition... just to name a few :). It's going to be fun!   EQ