Hello! Sorry I’ve been MIA. The last five weeks have been a combination of absolute love and pure exhaustion. It’s crazy around here (whoa, two under two) but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

So, without further adieu, I’m thrilled to announce the birth of our sweet baby girl, Coco. Born 11 days late, on May 21, 2015 at 7:12am. Weighing 7lbs 5oz and 19.5″ long. She came out with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck a few times and a broken collarbone but she’s one tough cookie and already on the mend. Coco is a sweet, easy, happy baby.

Big brother is in love (most of the time) and we’re adjusting as a family of four. Life is so, so sweet.

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As of today, there’s no baby. And I’m okay with that. I’m still feeling good – except at night when I’m exhausted – and I’m enjoying every “extra” day with Mr. President.

There were a few second-tier items on the #bucketlistbeforebaby that I wasn’t sure we’d be able to check-off but thanks to a few extra days, we’re still out & about. Checking out the city. Riding the metro. Drinking milkshakes. And hanging out. I love it!

baby: Mr. President was born at 41 weeks, and I’m at 40 weeks 4 days with baby #2. Baby must be really snug, and I don’t blame him/her. Life is probably pretty easy in my big ol’ belly. I’m still feeling good! Tired at night but that’s to be expected, right? I’m getting anxious to know whether baby is a boy or girl but otherwise, I’m good for a few more days.

adventures: Mr. President, BJ and I went to DC last week for the WWII flyover airshow. And wow, was it cool! It was a way to honor veterans on VE-Day and celebrate 70th Anniversary of the end of WWII. So thankful for their service to our country, and to all who serve today!

After I posted about our #bucketlistbeforebaby, a handful of friends suggested we check out Clemyjontri Park in Mclean. I wasn’t sure we’d make it before baby, but I’m happy to report that we did. Clemyjontri is a park for every kid – including those with disabilities. It’s such a cool playground and Mr. President had a great time.

food: I can’t get enough of Mexican Haystacks – a delicious combination of flavors and color.

Brown rice + cilantro
Ground chicken cooked with salsa
Toppings: red pepper, red onion, mango, avocado, tomatoes, and cilantro

Talk about delicious!

giveaway: I had a chance to try The Runner’s Choice and it’s been a lifesaver these last couple of weeks (hot temperatures + pregnancy + swollen feet). To put it simply, The Runner’s Choice is for those who have sore feet and want relief. It’s scientifically formulated with 100% natural botanical oils of almond, eucalyptus, eucalyptol, wintergreen, peppermint, and spearmint (bonus: it smells really good). I use it in the morning before LJ and I head out for the day (playground, long walks) and before bed (to soothe feet after a long day). It works really well! If you have sore or tired feet, are a runner, or on your feet all day, this is one giveaway you don’t want to miss.

3 lucky winners will win a bottle of The Runner’s Choice, valued at $20/bottle.

enter here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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I am thrilled to partner with For Two Fitness for an amazing post-Mother’s Day giveaway. I love For Two Fitness maternity gear and wore it throughout both pregnancies! For Two Fitness is running a phenomenal giveaway for the new mom or mom-to-be. 

Details + Enter:
This year, we are celebrating Mother’s Day all week! We are so thankful to YOU — our community, customers, friends, moms and moms-to-be. To express our thanks, we are hosting a huge giveaway this week in partnership with some amazing brands and our ambassadors. The Grand Prize is valued at more than $1000.  We have phenomenal prizes, from Joovy, Garmin, Feetures, Sara Haley and us, For Two Fitness – all facets of your fit mom lifestyle are in this prize pack!Prizes are brought to you by our wonderful brand partners, sponsoring ambassadors and of course, us here at For Two Fitness. Here are more details about the grand prize – everything you see below:

Grand Prize Giveaway items:

•     Joovy Zoom 360 Jogging Stroller
•     Garmin Forerunner 910XT GPS with Heart Rate Monitor (link)
•     Feetures Graduated Compression Socks
•     Sara Haley’s Expecting More and Sweat UNLIMITED workout DVDs
•     For Two Fitness maternity fitness outfit (top and bottom of winner’s choice)

This contest runs from Monday, May 11th through midnight on Friday, May 15th.  Please follow all of our contest co-hosts on Instagram:

•     Jessica from 30 Something Mother Runner
•     Gina from Fitnessista
•     Kelly from Cupcake Kelly’s
•     Meg from Skinny Meg
•     Katie from Healthy Diva Eats

Visit For Two Fitness’ Blog to enter!

To my sweet babe Abe,

I hope you know how much I love you. I hope you know that you are my angel, my darling, my star. I love you more than the mountains, more than the stars, more than the fireflies lighting up jars. To the moon and back. You are my sunshine.

18 months ago YOU changed my life. To think that I knew what “love” was before I met you… Becoming a mom, your mom, is the greatest blessing life can give me. Thank you for changing my life.

Watching you grow is an adventure. It’s fun. It’s exciting. It’s exhausting. But I wouldn’t change your love for sticks, dirt, climbing on things that are too tall, running around like a mad man, your sense of adventure, that laugh (oh, that laugh), your personality (albeit, strongwilled) for anything in the world. To me, you are perfect. I love the time that we’ve been able to spend together. 18 months, just the two of us. I’m thankful that I don’t have to work, that I get to spend my days with you. Learning and seeing life from a different perspective. I love our big adventures (check out our #bucketlistbeforebaby) and our little ones (trips to the park, a walk around the neighborhood). I love the way you learn, you are smart, and I hope you always like to learn new things. You make me laugh, you are so funny. And when you laugh, I wish I could bottle that little laugh up forever. It’s medicine for the soul. I love your sweet hugs and kisses, especially the unexpected ones (some of my favorites are when we’re at Whole Foods and you grab me a hug me, and you don’t let go for at least 60 seconds. It’s the best). I love putting you to bed and reading you books. I love singing to you before you fall asleep. And while I haven’t put you to bed every single night of your life, I’ve never spent a night away from you. Not because I couldn’t but because I didn’t want to. I love your (seemingly) excitement for the baby, each day you ask to hear the heartbeat (he’s been to all of my appointments with me), you hug and kiss the baby, you say “hi baby”. It’s such a sweet gift to witness.

Which leads me to, you being a BIG BROTHER. You are going to be a great big brother. I already know it. You are all boy but you have the sweetest little heart, and I know you are going to love the baby.

Things are going to change. I know they will, at least at first, and that’s scary to me. But seeing you with your new brother or sister will change all of that. It will be an adjustment. But you’re resilient, and I know you’ll adapt. We might not have as many adventures at first, but daddy or Aunt Lindsey or Gigi will fill-in temporarily. And I promise to spend at least 30 minutes with you, just us two, while we adjust to a family of four. The baby is going to need me, a lot, and I hope you’ll understand.

I love you. I hope you always know how much I love you. And no matter what, you will always be my firstborn, the one that made me a mom. Your mom.

I thank God for you.

love,
mommy

photo credit: betsey darley photography
if you live in Northern Virginia, check out Betsey Darley. She’s an amazing photographer and I couldn’t be happier with all of the beautiful moments she captures.

Mr. President and I had so much fun checking adventures off of our #bucketlistbeforebaby. I loved spending the extra, quality time with Abe and it was such a gift to see the excitement on his face when we’d try something new. He is so much fun to be around and I’m so thankful to be his mom.

Here’s a recap of our adventures:

1) Lunch date (3) – because we love to eat and we have to eat
2) Donuts date – because donuts before 9am are always a good idea
3) Milkshake date – because who doesn’t love a chocolate milkshake on a warm spring day?

4) Visit the Cherry Blossoms & Thomas Jefferson Memorial
After a failed first attempt, we redeemed ourselves by visiting the Cherry Blossoms on, what was likely, the last “good” day. The weather was perfect and it was fun to metro down to the city to walk around. (cost: free)

5) Explore Teddy Roosevelt Island
What a fun place to take kids. You get to walk over a bridge (!) and there are so many cool things to explore on the Island. (cost: free)

6) Visit Mr. President’s namesake Monument
This one was a no-brainer, we just had to do it. (cost: free)

7) Watch planes take off & land at Gravely Point and eat a picnic lunch
Mr. President wasn’t sure what to think at first. He loves planes, but these are really close and really loud. After a few minutes, we couldn’t stop waving to the planes and running around. Plus we saw helicopters, trains, school buses, and boats. If you have a little boy, this place is heaven! (cost: free)

8) Check out (at least) 5 new parks/playgrounds in our area
This was a fun way to explore Arlington and visit different parks. We have an amazing park in our backyard, but it’s exciting to try new playgrounds. We visited: Lacey Woods Park, Chestnut Hills Park, Dominion Hills Park, Bon Air Rose Garden Park, Thomas Jefferson Park, Henry Clay Park, and Westover Park.

9) Butterfly Exhibit at Museum of Natural History
We love to read The Very Hungry Caterpillar, so we just had to see the butterflies at the Museum of Natrual History. Mr. President loved seeing the butterflies in real life! I wasn’t sure how’d he be with the “no touch” rule, since there are hundreds of butterflies within an arms reach, but he did great. (Cost $6, free on Tuesdays)

10) Play in the mud and get dirty
Is this one kinda cheating? I mean, he plays in the mud and gets dirty all the time. But for once, I just let him do it and I didn’t care. That counts for something!

11) Long Branch Nature Center + tour/exploration
A hidden gem that I didn’t know existed, the Long Branch Nature Center is so much fun. We had fun exploring on the trails, finding turtles, butterflies, and worms. When we ventured inside, we were greeted with snakes, frogs, fish, turtles, and more. (cost: free)

12) Ride The Carousel on the National Mall
Riding carousels are kind of our thing. I’ve taken Mr. President on at least 10 different carousels around the US. There’s just something fun and young about riding on a giant lion or giraffe. He loves them!

13) National Zoo
I’ve lived in DC for 8 years and have never been to the zoo during the day (I’ve been for Zoo Lights), so this is something we both needed to do. It was a beautiful morning and all of the animals were out – we got to see the pandas, lions, tigers, gorillas, elephants and more. And because LJ knows all of these animals, it was extra fun to see him point and call out each animal name/sound. We had to ride the carousel, too. (cost: free, parking: $22 or street parking)

14) Ride the metro
This city slicker was a pro. He insticntly knew to hold on as soon as the Metro left the station. He’s fascinated with trains and the “me-to” (metro) right now, so it was fun to see him get so excited to see the trains and to ride it. (cost: $2.50/way, cost varies depending on route)

15) Find a construction site and watch diggers dig, dump trucks dump, and cement mixers mix
This isn’t super hard to find in Arlington; we can walk 0.5 mile in any direction and find a construction site or a house being torn-down and rebuilt. In this case, we watched as construction crews knocked down Marymount University (Ballston Campus). It was pretty incredible to see a building that big/tall being torn down, complete with crane & ball, excavators, backhoes and dump trucks. On a different note, I never knew I’d learn so much about construction vehicles.

I highly recommend creating a #bucketlistbeforebaby. Whether you’re about to have your second or your fourth, this is something that you can do with anyone. I’m thankful we live in an area with so much at our fingertips, so I realize some of these adventures aren’t for everyone, but even trying something new can be a fun adventure.

I hope you had as much fun following our adventures, as we did living them!

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I went back and forth on what to do for Mr. President’s room when the baby came. Because we didn’t know what we were having before LJ was born, his nursery was gender neutral. I loved it and it felt like his room. So I kept trying to decide what to do… Since we don’t know sex of Baby #2, it made sense to convert the guest room to Mr. President’s new room and keep the nursery as-is. But that felt hard and sad, so I waited until I had a change of heart. Thankfully, I did. LJ loves his “big boy bedroom” and I couldn’t be happier with how it turned out!

I painted all of the artwork for LJ’s room, and my favorite part was seeing his face when he saw all of the construction vehicles on the wall during the “big reveal”. It’s a moment I’ll never forget.

So, here it is:

I’m thrilled with how the room turned out! And even more happy that LJ loves his new “bog boy bedroom”.

Paint Color: Benjamin Moore – Silvery Moon
Bedding & Curtains: Pottery Barn Kids
Rug: Pottery Barn Kids
Crib: Baby Cache (similar)
Dresser: Crate & Barrel (similar)
Chair: Target
Artwork: all artwork done by me

What are some of your favorite decorating tips?

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Getting bigger, it’s a funny yet beautiful thing. One day I can run 4 miles, pregnant and pushing a stroller – and the next day, it’s a real struggle.

At 37.5 weeks pregnant, I’m officially slowing down. 

Let me first start by saying how thankful I am that I can still run, especially this far along. I know plenty of women who can’t run or stop running early in the pregnancy – and even though I’m slow and sometimes have to walk, it’s a blessing that my body (and bladder!) can handle the impact.

After 18 very long days – first a 10 day fever + ear infection for LJ and then ear + sinus infections for me – we are finally able to get out of the house and enjoy the Spring sun! I do lots of walking these days, but we’ve run 2 days this week and it feels good to sweat (barely, but it’s better than nothing). Part of our #BucketListBeforeBaby includes visiting as many local parks/playgrounds as we can, and in this area there are parks everywhere (lucky for me).  I plan our runs to include a park, usually at the half-way point, to let Mr. President play. Even though I’m chasing him around, it’s a nice little break for me too.

Running: very slow + few miles, but I’m still doing it! And since we live so close to the trail system, we spend many hours walking, to include but not limited to, the library, playgrounds, and trips for chocolate milkshakes.

Emotions: This is a tough one for me. I can’t think about “losing” us without crying. Don’t get me wrong, I’m so excited for Baby #2, ecstatic actually, but in 2.5 weeks our worlds are going to change.

Energy: I was feeling great – until we got plagued by ear infections, fevers, sinus infections, and allergies. I didn’t sleep for 15 days. Thankfully, I’ve had 2 good nights of sleep. If we can keep this up for the next 15 days, I should be good to go. At least until the baby comes.

#BucketListBeforeBaby: We are checking items off all the time, and close to being done. We’ve had so much fun exploring and visiting new places. Completed list & pictures to come.

Did you workout during pregnancy?
What did you enjoy doing?

For more miles and motherhood, follow me:
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