In Two Weeks...

In 2 weeks we find out what Baby Pearson is! So excited. We can finally either stop arguing over boy names or go with our ONE choice for a girl. It's so funny because when we were expecting Jaxon it was the other way around. So maybe that means we're having a girl??

Now that we are 2 weeks away, I want to know what you think! Boy or girl? Pink or blue? On the side panel you'll find a Baby Poll. Take a minute to vote. You have until August 9.

For those of you who need a full picture before making such a crucial decision, here are a few facts about this pregnancy:

* I had morning, evening and middle-of-the-night sickness for the first few weeks of pregnancy.

* I have gained one pound to date.

* I have had no cravings :( I actually am eating less now than I did before being pregnant!

* My body temperature has been much colder than ever (100 degree days don't seem to bother me like it does others)

* My feet are colder (for those of you who were at Mary's shower)

* The Chinese Conception calendar says I'm having a girl.

* The needle over the palm goes in a line, which means boy.

* And of course the all-important belly picture.

Now that you have a complete picture.... VOTE!

Email from Ms. Karma

Tonight as I did one last check of my email I open one from Ms. Karma:

"Jaxon has had a phenomenal first week of preschool. He is an absolute delight to be around. He engages in a wide variety of activities and holds such wonderful conversations. I look forward to our first conference in October when I will share the anecdotes from his days at school. I hope you enjoy the web album. I will add to it regularly. Jaxon is a sweet, smart little joy. I am thrilled to have him in my class.

Respectfully,

Ms. Karma"

As a teacher, I naturally wonder how much this is true and how much of this is a "form" note to all parents. I'm sure he is a true joy!

Jaxon - You Make Me Proud!

We have survived the first of school! I am happy to say that I have a wonderful group of kindergartners this year, no cursing, spitting, kicking, running away (remember The Mosquito?). Whew! It is a welcome relief from some of the kiddos I have had in the past.

Jaxon had an absolute BLAST in preschool! I can't say enough how much he loves it. He has even made a "best friend". A best friend whom he did not the name of the first day and who for 2 days had his name wrong. I figured out his name was Shane instead of Chase on Friday when I heard Ms. Courtney call him. Oh well, who needs to know their best friend's name anyway. It's overrated really.

Jaxon and his best friend Shane, aka Chase. Yes, Shane is peddling and Jax is riding.

There were quite a few moments this week when my heart was just full of pride for my little guy.

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On Tuesday, he had a really tough time going to school and then seeing me on the playground late in the morning. Tuesday night we sat down to talk about seeing Mama at school. As we are talking he says, "Mama, let's make a sign. When I see you, you do the sign and I'll be happy and won't cry. "

OMG! Are you serious?? Did this come out of a three-year-olds mouth? I think I shed a tear or two over that one. So he came up with making a circle in the air.

On Wednesday I saw him from far away and did the sign. when I picked him up he said, "I didn't cry when I sawed you because you did da sign and dat made me happy."

Honestly, can the kid BE any sweeter?

******

With Jasper the Guinea Pig******

On Wednesday, he also found a shark book in his classroom and had to show me. He sat down and "read" me the book. No kidding. The kid pointed and told me the name of each shark in the book... Nurse Shark, Blue Shark, Great White, Bull Shark, Tiger Shark, Hammerhead Shark, Goblin Shark, Thrasher Shark, Saw Shark. and he had them all right.

Thursday he was excited to go back to school to read the book. Thursday afternoon his Ms. Debbie told him he cold borrow the book overnight! Wow! He did not let the book out of his sight for a minute. It even sat on the edge of the bathtub during bath time.

*************

The same day he was allowed to borrow the book, he's walking out and says "Thank you Ms. Debbie for letting me borrow the book. I'll bring it back tomorrow." Ms. Debbie says goodbye and turns to the director and says, "I wish we had a class full of Jaxon's. wouldn't that be nice?"

Again... tear.

Then I thought, Really? this Jaxon? Cause I don't think you know him really.

******

Jasper the Guinea Pig

*****

On Friday, as we are driving to school in the morning he says to me, "Mom. I'm so happy we drive to school together. It make me happy. I love you."

Where did this sweet kid come from???

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Saturday morning, he comes into our room and asks to get under the covers with me. "Can we cuddle Mom? I missed you last night."

LOVE HIM!

On a separate note, I will do my VERY BEST not to complain about having to have shots weekly. I overhead two ladies at the grocery store this afternoon and one mom told the other lady, "He's been in the NICU a month now and I have only been able to hold him once!" I wanted to cry right their in the cheese aisle (these darn pregnancy hormones!) The shots will definitely be worth it if I am able to spare that pain for my own family.

Happy Friday to Me?

This afternoon, after a morning full of energetic kindergartners, I came home to find a FedEx package waiting for me. OOOO. What could it be? I didn't remember ordering anything. What a nice surprise. Well, my excitement quickly faded. I opened the package only to find this....An envelope full of shots.

Shots? you ask yourself. Yes, shots. And not the "good" kind as in Tequila, but the kind that will cause me pain ( I suppose the other kind of shots cause pain too).

Let me fill you in. Since Jaxon was a preemie (6 weeks) my OB would like to prevent another pre-term baby. Why? Jaxon has turned out just fine thank you very much. But as the say, "Each day spent in the womb is better than a day in the NICU". So, I must have progestrone shots given to me weekly starting next week until December 19. FIVE months people!

Can't say I'm looking forward to that. Brian is all too willing to give me the shot. Hmmmm. Luckily, my insurance covers the cost of a nurse coming to my house to inject me. We'll see how that goes. I'm less likely to curse at her than I would be to Brian and she's less likely to get pleasure from it as Brian may.

My Loot

That says 22g needle. Not sure how big that is?

Looks pretty big to me

We'll see how this goes. I'll keep you posted.

1st Day of Preschool!

My baby is officially a preschooler! Yesterday was his first day of school. {Sigh}. I can't believe this day has arrived. We have been talking about it FOR.EVER! He was soooo excited! Sunday night, at around 9:30 pm, I went to check on him one last time. Usually he's sound asleep. On this night, his eyes were WIDE open. I asked him why he was still awake and he says, "I'm waiting for you to get me up for school." Awww. He was excited.

He woke up happy as can be and ready for school.

The nice (?) thing about Jaxon's preschool is that he is also at my school. It works out well. I can take him with me in the morning and bring him back in the afternoon. I even get to see him when he's at recess.

Walking to the school

In front of his classroomIn front of his cubbyMama & Jaxon's first dayHe had an absolute blast! He was so flippin' happy when I picked him up at 11:30. The teachers were so sweet, telling me what a helpful, friendly, polite, sweet kid he is. It made my heart burst with pride. He helped clean up the toys after recess, he said "please" and "thank you", he even shared! I think he was craving some stimulation and kid-time.

For the rest of the day he wouldn't stop talking about school. His teachers, Ms. Karma & Ms. Courtney. The school pet, Jasper, a guinea pig who likes to eat grapes. The hermit crab, who is nice and doesn't pinch. The magic box... it had hats in it and Jaxon chose the conductor hat!, The book Ms. Karma read. The kid who screamed really loud and he told to "shush" because screaming was not nice at school. We heard it all.

The best part about his school is that the teachers send you pictures at the end of each day! How amazing is that? For some reason, whenever I upload pictures that weren't taken from my camera they turn out small. Who knows.

Making new friends at the "cafe" Building at the construction center.

Jaxon's favorite part... Jasper the Guinea Pig

Building a puzzle with new friends

Music & Movement time

Here's a Jaxon telling Brian about his first day

Now, the second day did not go as smoothly. Frankly he did not want to go to "school again." And he made it known. The only way I got him to go out the door happily was to tell him he could watch TV in my classroom for a little bit before going to HIS classroom. Oh, then there was the walk to his classroom from mine. Tears, tears, tears. He didn't even want to walk into the room. Thank goodness for Ms. Courtney! She asked Jaxon to help her feed Jasper breakfast. That's it. That's all it took. He turned to me and said, "Bye Mom! I'm going to feed Jasper." As if he had not just been crying 2 seconds ago!

Now remember how I said earlier that it was nice being at the same school? Yeah, well not at recess time. He spied me this morning and started BAWLING! Poor thing. I went to talk to him and he grabbed my hand and said, "Pleeeeeease don't LEAVE ME!" Talk about ripping my heart out. So what's a good mom to do? I left him. Yup, screaming and crying. But again, thank goodness for Ms. Karma this time. She came to my room not 5 minutes later to show me pictures of Jaxon playing happily with another little boy. He's all about putting on a show for mom and making her feel guilty.

Again, he talked nonstop about his day. He even learned a new song and sang it for me! Melted my heart.

I can't wait to see what the rest of the year has in store for him. He is going to bloom in preschool!

The Greatest Show on Earth & The 4th

Last weekend was an exciting weekend! We went to see the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey circus and we celebrated the 4th of July.

Brian opted out of the circus this time since we were just saw it a few months ago, but my mom was in! Actually, it was her idea. Of course Jaxon was excited. I mean, the circus means cotton candy, popcorn, snow cones and animals. It doesn't get much better for a 3 year old!

See those stairs? We went DOWN the stairs to see the elephants before the show started. As soon as our feet hit the floor the ring master announced the elephants were leaving and we were to head to our seats. Super. Back UP the stairs we went. Only to find out we had to go DOWN to get to our seats. Let me tell you, Jaxon was not a fan and wanted to be carried. Being the nice ladies we are (and wanting to avoid a melt down) we took turns carrying him, although, my mom carried him more than I did. I decided to get them settled in their seats then I would go back UP to get drinks, and the baby wanted nachos. :) Which meant I had to go DOWN with my loot. Yeah. I needed a nap after all that.

Jaxon "Blue Mouth" Pearson after a snow coneSuch a good little boy

Like every other good Grandmother, my mom had to buy Jaxon a souvenir. Guess what he chose? A sword. If you look closely, he is giving his best intimidating look. Not prompted by anyone. Such a boy.

Days later he is still addicted to the sword. The best thing about the sword is that when he is playing he'll say, "I'm going to whoop you up Mama!" Nice.

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Now onto the 4th. We had a nice quiet day that began with a little visitor in our yard.

Mondays is "belly picture" day. Today, I had a companion. I wonder if in the months to come by belly will reach as far as his head? Once I had my picture taken, he says, "Now you take pictures of me by myself. Spinning." Sheesh!So glad I obeyed, because this is my favorite picture in a long time. How sweet is that smile? And those big brown eyes will just melt your heart (or break it... watch out girls!)And what's The 4th of July in the Pearson house without some fireworks. Since they are illegal in Arizona, unlike in New Mexico, we did not go all out like in the last 2 years. My pryo husband was disappointed.Mike & LoganSkylar
The Bunch Family

NK♥TB

There is only one musical group that I love just as much as Ricky Martin (well, not as much, that just isn't possible) and that's New Kids on the Block. I heart them. I was completely obsessed with them in junior high. I even had a New Kids birthday party.

So you can imagine how happy my 12-year-old self was when NKOTB got back together 3 years ago and went on tour. Thankfully, my friends felt the same way I did and we all got tickets to see them.

Fast forward 3 years and NKOTB is back at it! Oh, that 12-year-old girl is giddy! For some reason, I wasn't on my game and didn't get tickets for us. Thank goodness for Nicole though, because 3 days before the concert she scored tickets via Groupon! Sarah, Nicole & I were off to Phoenix once again (Mary & Ami were in San Diego) .

We first stopped at TGI Fridays for a quick dinner. That's Chase field behind us.

We made shirts again. I was bummed to see that tons of other girls had similar ideas had wore homemade shirts. (this picture was taken from Nicole's FB page, that's why it's tiny)

Please remember I am growing a person inside of me... hence the big belly :)

Oh yeah. The Backstreet Boys were with them. The ultimate boy band, NKTOBSB. I was more of an 'N Sync girl myself.

We rocked it baby! We had a blast.

BSB brought up girls from the audience and Brian (?) chose this little girl. Nicole & I cried. Yeah, we're cool like that. I'd like to blame the hormones, not sure what Nicole's excuse is.

My favorite part? Hands down was the dude the was ROCKIN' it. Check out the guy in the white hat. He loved himself some BSB. He knew ALL of the words. Hilarious. I also think he taped the entire show. I'm sure he's watched it several hundred times by now.

We had a blast. So flippin' fun to leave the kids & husbands at home and act like teenage girls again.

We even got lost coming out of the arena (but saw the tour buses) and lost our car in the parking garage. Oh well. Good times were had. I'll do it again anytime!

I'll leave you with this little golden nugget... Donnie Wahlberg's abs. Oh yeah! Just ask Nicole how hot he was.