snuggle bug

It's been pretty hot here this week and the upstairs is getting pretty sticky. Luckily Zuri seemed to fall asleep well tonight and when I went to check on her a bit ago she was seriously spooning her teddy bear. The sight of it made me pretty happy. She's so funny.. I love my little bug.

one week

Photo by Brinn Willis

I am coming to my final week here in Buena Vista. Which means it's beginning to set in that I'm really leaving my home of four years. Four years isn't really too long, but it's the longest I've lived in one place since I was 16. And in these four years a whole lot of life changing has happened. I moved across the country from my family, (save Cami) met my husband, got a dog, improved a home, had a baby, and graduated college. Pregnant. In my short 23 years that feels like a lot to accomplish. And I am proud of Chris and I. I feel like we've done a lot together already.

Cami threw us a little going away party Saturday. We had some close friends come hang out with us and it was nice to have people say they would miss us. And yes, we will miss you too. I don't make friends easily...close friends, but I have made some very good friends here and It will be sad to leave them. Which is why I haven't mentioned it before, I don't like good-bye's and I don't like saying "I'll see you again soon." Cause really, who knows when I'll see these good people again. I'm sure I will one day, but it makes me sad to think I have to start over in that department and I don't like to bring the good-bye stuff up. So this is the only time you'll hear it. Not cause I could care less about leaving BV, but cause I just don't enjoy that part of it. I don't handle sad well.

I've been thinking of what I will and won't miss about BV just so I can remember the better of it all and here's what I've gotten so far:

I'll keep the dislikes short just so it doesn't seem like I'm a total ninny. I seriously won't miss:

.The giant bugs, mosquitos and gnats.

.The summer heat and humidity. It kills me.

.The long distance to get to any civilization. (by civilization I mean Target)

.Driving an hour to get to my Dr.

The better part of BV I will miss:

.The fall.

.Big snow storms.

.Thunder storms.

.The purple and yellow blossoms in Spring.

.Fire flies.

.The family and singles wards.

.The total lack of traffic.

.My professors.

.The small business owners.

.The SVU intimacy of knowing everyones business and them knowing mine.

.Our neighbors. They are awesome.

.Our couple buddies and their babies.

.Cami and her fam. Caleb's girly sounding good-bye's and Josh's 'peace out' everyday.

.I'm sad mine and Cami's latest beans won't get to know each other the way Zur and Caleb got to.

.Kroger's chocolate milk.

.Seeing Chanz grow up at college.

.Our house....man I'll miss it.

.My hair stylist, Robin, she's a miracle woman.

.And our family photographer, Brinn. I've never had such awesome photos of us all.

That's all I can think of at the current moment...But I'm sure there is more.

Farewell in a week BV.

Zuri and her noodle

So we're sitting here at dinner, dying because Zuri just figured out how to slurp.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

A little blasting of the past

Cami found these amongst her collection of photos and I thought they'd be fun to share....for no apparent reason. These are back in California in 2006 for her and Tyson's engagement party. I was only able to get off work to have a quick dance, but it was really fun.

Ok, the real reason is for me to relapse on what my long hair looked like. Lately I find my self wishing I could have it back in a flash instead of years and years of patients. I do like the short though...I'm beginning the debate of 'to grow, or not to grow'

Cami and mama. We picked up a lot of our mannerisms from her. It always makes me laugh when we realize we're all three doing the same thing.

yup. That's for real! mad skills

I had to throw this in cause I don't think I've ever posted pictures of my oldest brother, Yancee. So this is the mystery brother. He's cool. (And home from Iraq, yay!)

And of course the other more important reason for the random photos is Father's day is coming up. This year I want to make it real good for Chris. We didn't do much for my pop-pop when we were kids and I think I'd like to change that. I want my babies to know how great their dad is and to celebrate it. So here's my pop-pop. He's pretty hilarious when he gets a chance to kick off his shoes and party.

My Dad LOVES dancing with his girls.

Kid books. really.

I try to make it to the library every few weeks to get Zuri a bundle of board books that we read at bedtime. The Lexington library has a much larger selection of toddler books, but we don't make it over there often so we just head to the BV library. Which is still cool cause there are never any other kids there and Zur can just play freely with the toys and puzzles.

My point with the slim pickins' at BV library is it's easy to find some kind of old and kind of weird books. Like this one : Titled, "Baby is Happy."

"Baby is happy.

Baby is sad.

Baby is good.

Baby is bad.

Baby is grumpy.

Baby's in bed."

Uhh... seriously?

Progress and Kid Books

Today was a busy Saturday. Which is good. We need busy Saturdays since we have such busy weekdays with school we have to make up for the lost time.

Here's what we did:

I got a hair cut. (I'll miss Robin miserably. I hate finding new hair stylists...I trust no one with my short locks)

We all got a nap in. yep, a busy Saturday and still squeezed in a two hour nap. It was glorious. Especially because my second trimester has been more of what a first should be like. It's like my body decided to switch it up a bit this time around.

Chris went crazy on the back yard and cleaned it up a TON. The back yard was a complete mad house jungle when we first moved in and each year Chris makes it less so. It's getting close to become a real yard, but with limited time and funds it would be any perfectionists dream. Which I'm sure our neighbors would like cause their yards are immaculate :) It still looks a million time better then before though. And I'm sure Chris now has a bunch of ticks wiggling all over him. yuck.

I packed up and sorted through all of our clothes. I'm pleased to say we took a whole car full of stuff to Good Will. I don't have a terrible time parting with clothes, but they do need a good sort through now and then. It was good to have a little cleansing. I didn't realize how little clothes Zuri really needs. I just love little girl clothes though. They are my favorite things to buy. For sure.

We have breakfast for dinner. One of my faves. French toast, sausages, and strawberries. Zuri has never had french toast and she loved it. She even ate a bunch of sausage too. I was surprised to see her snarf it all down so joyfully. Well...not too surprised I guess she's a good little eater.

A quick Wal-Mart run and then Zur went down for bed. I suppose it doesn't sound like a ton of stuff got done, but I think it was a good progress with getting ready to move.

And of course a little Zuri chatter for myself:

She is kind of the greatest munchkin in my little life. She's been so happy and enjoying everyday so much. She is starting to do little crazy dances and shakes her head back and forth like crazy for a bit just to be funny and entertain us all. It totally works.

She found a little bug crawling on the floor the other day and seriously just sat and played with it for a good 20 minutes. She'd set it on her arm and watch it crawl around a bit and when it would fall off she'd repeatedly say, "where'd it go?" until she could find it again. It was the funnest thing to watch. And yes, I let my kid play with bugs apparently.

My recent favorite has been her saying "cute!" when I put shoes or clothes on her. I say it to her all the time to make it so she likes getting dressed in day clothes or pj's instead of fighting them. Guess that worked out well. I get a kick out of her daily excitement.

She's also starting to bite her nails.... Not just finger nails, but toes nails too. (watching her wiggle her toes into her mouth is stinking funny though) WHAT?! She's only 16 months! I used to have a terrible habit of biting my finger nails. Tell they bled sometimes. not so good. I mostly broke the habit in high school, but every now and then I'll bite them if I'm nervous or bored. She must have noticed and picked it up. Bad example mama.. Any suggestions on how to break her of it? I have no clue.

She's one fun kid though. She and I went to lunch together today and she just hung out eating some waffle fries and alternated sips of root beer and a mango smoothie. A nice little memory of Zuri bug.

That is my ramble on for the day.. I love the Zur and my hub and my dog. They're a good little trio for me.

UVA and an assortment of ramblings

I know in my last post I said little Dot was all healthy and ship shape. Well the midwife called the next day and said her kidneys were a bit too big and if we wanted we could get a better ultrasound up at UVA to get a better look. I'm pretty sure they have to say that so they don't get sued.

What is the problem with dilated kidneys? According to the nurse today she said it's one of the better things that could go wrong. (I still don't feel like anything is really 'wrong') It is either a sign of down syndrome or a blockage in the urine track.

After todays very detailed ultrasound (we have a billion great pictures of the little dot now) down syndrome is pretty much ruled out. They said the kidneys are still dilated, but 80 % of the time whatever the problem is resolves itself by birth. Just in case, we'll have another ultrasound in the 30 week area and if they are still too big then she'll get an ultrasound of her own after she's born to see if she'll need minor surgery or not.

It's just good to know so if she does show signs of fever or whatnot after she's born then we'll know most likely what the problem is. Resulting in no kidney failure....cause that really would be bad.

So that was our Wednesday. Zuri hung out at Aunt Cami's as usual and it was weird how much I missed her on our day trip up to Charlottesville. But we did have a quick lunch at a delicious Vietnamese restaurant, Lemongrass. That was nice. I just love Vietnamese food no matter what. It's awesome and I crave it all the time I swear.

Zuri is starting to notice my belly getting all big now. We ask her to find the baby and she'll poke my belly button then proceed to laugh like crazy. I think she may have some words confused:) I think she'll be a great big sister. Minus some eye poking that she seems to do with other babies... She puts her stuffed animals to bed with blankets and tries to put diapers on them. She's got a good maternal instinct already. What an awesome kid. I just love how fun she is.

Maymester is cruising along ! 11 days of classes left. Wow. Thank heavens for Chris or I'd die in Spanish 4. He's my human dictionary. I really do appreciate Cami for watching Zuri EVERYDAY from 10 to 3 and Lauren for helping on the days when Cami's got her dr. appointments for her recent babe. Where would I be without all this service? Oh, right without a degree. What will I do with this degree? psh, who knows. (the goal currently is to keep printing and try to get into some galleries later on)

The MOVE. Is in just a few weeks. I started packing up last week. We have both our parents coming to visit/ help us at the end of the month. Thank heavens for them too. we seriously have some incredible families. Score for us!

Dot

August 2009 we had our first fun experience discovering what Zuri bug would be, and today we got our second fun experience! I love ultrasounds. Zuri was awesome for us. A little wiggly at first once she realized there was something going on with my stomach she got nervous and started freaking out. She was fine once she could sit right next to me and laugh at the exposure of my belly button instead of hers.

Our scanner is on the fritz so these are taken through the handy phone. They work though!

Apparently the Chinese gender calendar is much more truthful in its ways than the cake. We are having...

a little niña!

She was in one tight little ball for the first little while. It took me rolling on both sides to get her to show us anything. I don't blame her, that's a bit invasive I suppose. I normally wouldn't post the image above, but we thought it was funny how you could see her shinny little bun cheeks. Ultrasounds are insane with how well bones and organs can be seen. It was fun to watch it all.

She's a perfect size and all ship shape health wise which is excellent news. I was a bit worried just because I haven't been as cautious about chemicals and foods with this girl as I was with Zuri.

We are thinking of the name Dorothy. We'd call her Dot. After my great grandma. She sounded like a pretty fun lady. We need to name our next kids from Chris' side of the fam so it evens out the scores! (Zuri's middle name, Rose, was from four generations of ladies on my side. nice)

Thumbs up. She's got a nice sense of humor I think.

The Cake Has Been Cut

Our friends, the Soffes', told us about a fun gender predictor game that they did with their first bebe. I totally love that crap too so I was all for trying it. This is how it goes: you make a cake that is half blue half pink and frost over it so you can't see the color. THEN you spin the plate and cut wherever you please. Whatever color you cut into will be your baby's gender. Interesting, yes? I thought so.

Tonight we had a little mini party of our own. Lauren made the mini cakes, the men chatted and little Mack and Zuri run around like the good little buddies they are. (except for when Zuri smacked him with a brush instead of asking him to move. You'd think she could say that much for how much she talks :) She did say sorry though, which surprised me cause I had no idea she could say that. So sorry little Mack.)

I'll let Lauren tell you what she got (uhh spoiler alert the magical cake said a girl which I agree with) and I cut....right into the middle of blue and pink....hmmm. an IT?!? WHAT! so we just counted it as a fluke and I took it as maybe the babe won't let us take a look tomorrow at the grand show so we won't know. Better than an 'it' baby right? We cut again cause I wasn't about to settle on that and we got BOY.

We will see tomorrow afternoon! Any last minute guesses? So far the vote is very much towards a girl with only two boy votes (one is mine).

Thanks Lauren for making the cakes. very fun times.

A little trip to the Zoo!

On Monday we took a little trip down to the Mill Mountain Zoo in Roanoke. I have to admit I had no idea there was a zoo in Roanoke. Goes to show how adventurous I am around here. It was fun! Totally off season and that was perfect. No people (pretty sure we were two of four families there) and perfect weather. Thanks mama!

Picture-esk moment on the tiger.

It took us a good fifteen minutes to get past the first two animals.

Papo made sure we got pictures of him with his great-grandkids.

Grandma Hardy (isn't her hair awesome?)

This was finals week. It's been so beautiful here being outside is actually a nice thing.

I found more amusement with random creatures...Like these guys. Zuri loved them too

This is more of a joke with Chris, but I just love how these little guys move about. SO entertaining.

and THIS was the funniest to watch. Zur is the best.

Chris and I started our summer classes today...Who knew that graduating was such a tease! I have never wanted to be done with school so bad in my life. I kid you not. My classes have fun people though so at least they have that going for em.

A little bit of that...A little bit of this

Saturday was mine and Chris' big day of graduation! It was fabulous, and very unbelievable at the same time. Thank you to Dad Vial and everyone else who took all the photos for us. It was great to have it all documented! I'm sure there are more to come, but these are what we have now.

Zuri slept through most of the ceremony

Spam! and Papo in the back

Chris' mom and dad

Chanson was in the choir who sang Shenandoah. Oh so pretty

Look at that stud.

Chris' Political Science advison, Dr. John

My art advisor/mentor/coach. Professor Himes

President Smith. He got pretty excited that we brought Zuri along. We had to, it's tradition my parents walked with me

President Smith

There you have it ! Thank you so much to our families who helped us through. I really don't think it would have been possible without you guys. Especially Cami watching Zuri, I couldn't have graduated without her help.

It's a bitter sweet thing. I thought being done with BV would have been the greatest thing ever, and although I really don't enjoy the blazing summers or the freezing winters here it's been home for four years. It's where I met Chris and it's really all we've experienced so far together.

And I've loved living so close to Cami and her little family (by the way, her next baby is yet another boy! FUN!) I hope we do again someday. It's a little frightening and sad to leave our home in about a month, but I'm very excited to be close to our families on the West Coast and start off a new chapter of the v-love lifestyle. The changes are coming! Chris will be doing research at his dad's law firm and we'll have another munchkin in September..wow

It was GREAT having so much family out here. Chris' parents came out early Thursday morning and helped/ saved us with finishing our final projects for school and my parents and papo came out early Saturday morning to party Hardy style.

Next Tuesday is the Little Bean's day! We find out what it is so anyone have guesses for what the little one is? I keep calling it a he, Chris is convinced it's a girl. I quite frankly would love either. We have many names for either so no pressure there.