Final Four anyone?

   The NCAA Final Four is this weekend. First time in two years Adam and I will not be attending. Two years ago, I got to experience my first Final Four and Championship game in Detroit. It was awesome! Yes KU wasn't in it, but yes I wore my green KU shirt to support the "home" team Michigan State. Too bad I had to witness a UNC victory. I'm still not over it. We did have amazing seats during the championship game, 7 rows back mid-court. (So we were sitting behind the ACC commissioner and I did everything but cuss... whoops... I'm sure when he saw my KU shirt he understood...)

I know - AMAZING seats!! Right behind us is Jay Bilas and Dick Vitale.

   The best part? Getting a picture with Coach Bill Self (KU's coach) during the Final Four games. I was a stuttering mess and almost climbed on top of the two people sitting next to us so I could get to the aisle.

I look so calm. I was freaking out. 

   Anywho, last year I kinda couldn't go. I wasn't supposed to travel after February. No big deal. I got to have my fun in Detroit. But, Adam asked if he could go to the games in Indianapolis. I know. Let the husband go out of town while 8 months pregnant? Seriously though, what could happen? It's not like I would go into labor four weeks early, Adam wouldn't be able to find an early flight back, I would be in labor only six hours, and he would completely miss the birth of his first child.... Right??? Well, that's what I thought. I had no problems with him going to Ohio/Indiana and having fun. At least one of us was getting to go. Adam left on Friday, April 2nd. 

Why would you stay at home when you could hang out with these two?

His famous last facebook status: "At the kc airport, heading to the peak homestead and then on to indy tomm for a lil basketball." 

My response: "It's cool. I'll just stay here pregnant with our firstborn... ;0) If anything happens, I WILL hurt you!"

Let's just say Adam's changed more than his fair share of poopy diapers!

And the countdown continues, ONE week until ONE!!

~Emily

Good food, GREAT friends!

   Brace yourself, it's another walk down memory lane. During this weekend last year, I was having a perfect afternoon at a baby shower for Harrison. It was thrown by several of my co-workers and it was a lot of fun. The food was excellent, the brownie pops were ridiculous (thanks Stasi!), and the games were hilarious (who had the poopy diaper pin, Vicky?).

Looking back, I guess I was pretty big... Ugh...

   I am so blessed to have the opportunity to work with so many wonderful women! And, I'm so lucky they let me share my pregnancy with them! One of my favorite things they did for Harrison was personalize birthday cards. Each guest was given a birthday card and assigned a specific birthday. Each lady wrote a note and I was given all of the sealed envelopes. I am so excited to open his first birthday card! What a great way to think of each of those special women!

My amazing scrapbook Gissel made for me and yes it's up to date!!

   All in all, it was a great last weekend. (Well, technically it wasn't the last baby free weekend but it was close.) I'm so happy I was able to spend that Saturday with all of my confidants, advice givers, mentors, co-workers, and above all, my friends. To all these ladies - you make waking up early and going to work easier! Thank you for everything!!

Put a fork in me. I'm done... Little did we know how done I was... 

We're getting closer to the B-I-G number ONE!

~Emily

One shy boy

   Over spring break, we went to Ohio to visit some of Adam's family. Harrison was great! We had the best plane ride to date and for the most part, he adjusted well to his new environment and kept to his same napping/sleeping schedule (YES!!). He crawled around like a mad man and was Mr. Social Butterfly. Everyone was very impressed with his busy ways!

I loved riding my zebra toy!

   The most hysterical part of the trip was when one of Uncle Daniel's friends (Maggie) came over to play with Harrison. Oh. My. Gosh. He turned into this shy, smiley boy! The first time she came over, Harrison just stared at her with his mouth open. Apparently too dazed to talk/play. The second time Maggie came over he hid behind some of the toys on his exersaucer and smiled shyly. Oh geez, our little boy is already playing hard to get with the ladies!

Maggie just made me so shy - she was flirting with me!

   The countdown to #1 continues next week!!

~Emily

Yeah for spring break!!

   As promised, let the reminiscing begin... Last year I didn't get to go on a spring break trip. Which is fine. I don't have to go on a trip every spring break, but it was the first time in a long time I didn't get to go anywhere. That whole pregnancy thing prevented any fun trips. But Adam and I did take a trip to the hospital for our preregistration and tour. And we did pick out and meet our pediatrician. It's weird how those two trips made everything seem really real, really fast. Spring break also started my non-stress tests. While at my doctor appointments, I was hooked up to a monitor to check Harrison's heart rate, movement and any uterus contractions. Fun times. Most boring 20 minutes of my life. If I was comfortable enough to fall asleep, I would have. At this point, my cankles were getting out of control as well. I swear I didn't have any until my doctor mentioned them. Then BAM! they exploded. (By the way, I voted this as one of my least favorite parts of pregnancy.)

This is about what I looked like during spring break - give or take.

   On to this spring break, we're going on a trip! Yep, we're headed back to Ohio to visit grandparents, aunts and uncles. I'm excited just to be going somewhere. I know Harrison's excited to see everyone and get all that extra love. Adam's excited for Skyline Chili. It really doesn't take much for us to be happy! Today Harrison tried out some of his new St. Patrick's Day clothes. He was so stinking cute in them!! And every time I went to take a picture he busted out this big cheesy smile! That's a new one to me. I guess someone's going to be quite the ham!

My new cheesy smile!

Happy spring break!!

A cankle-free momma!

~Emily

Starting to look back

   I can't believe it. It's almost been 1 year since we were blessed with our sweet baby boy! Adam asked me if it felt like it had been a year, if it felt like time had flown by. To be honest, it's hard to remember Harrison as that little 5 lb 15 oz snuggly bug. But, I feel like he's been in this current phase for a while. So I guess yes it feels like a year since he was a newborn but time hasn't flown too fast. (Thank god.)

  I should warn you that since we're less than 1 month from Harrison's first birthday, I will be reminiscing a lot. I feel for my facebook friends. I fully plan on clogging your news feed with every detail of this time last year. I've decided to celebrate Harrison's first year I would recount his birth story for him in a later post. We all have a birth story - some boring, some funny, some scary, some surprising. I want him to know what I felt. I want him to know what his day was like. I want him to feel the insane amount of love I felt when he was born. I have never felt love like that.

Love for my beautiful and tiny son with the dimple in his shoulder like his momma,

Love for my poor absent husband trying so hard to find an earlier flight and kicking himself for leaving,

Love for my parents for answering my 1:30am call, coming to get me, packing my bag and running red lights on the way to the hospital,

Love for my mom acting as a last minute coach trying to stay calm even though she had no experience with any thing other than a C-section,

Love for ALL of my co-workers that helped my sub who was called to duty 4 weeks early and they never once complained about anything - they told me to stop thinking about school,

Love for Adam's co-workers that called me literally right after Harrison was born to let me know Adam didn't need to worry about work - they had it all covered,

Love for all of our friends and family that sent flowers, balloons, and food, visited the three of us in the hospital, and offered to do anything we needed,

Love for all of my students that sent home cards begging me to come back because they just couldn't pass math without me,

And mostly love for everyone for their support, encouragement, advice, help and prayers.

  I know, we are very blessed to have such amazing family and friends. We're extremely lucky things worked out the way they did. I loved every email, text, facebook message, phone call and card. I cherished all of the messages, hugs and smiles. It all meant so much to me.

I've never felt love like that.

A teary-eyed momma full of love,
~Emily

Can you do this?

   When my brother was younger, he always sat in a "W" position. His knees would be bent forward, but his feet would be behind. His legs looked a "W" (or "M"). It drove my whole family nuts and it looked extremely painful! Little did we all know, it was just preparing him to be a baseball catcher through college. I mean, not all of us could crouch like that for 10-15 years. Anyway, guess who else has started to sit like that? I guess it's time to get out the glove, bat and ball. We need to start our own spring training!!

Really. Who can't do this?

   But don't worry, we plan on being at least a two sport baby. Next up track and field! I think Harrison would make an excellent hurdler, don't you? This is how he sits after he's done crawling around. 

How else do you get out of your crawling position?

I would hate to see these hips at the age of 90!

~Emily

On the move - watch out!

   Yes, we are finally in the world of a mobile baby! It only took 10 months, 2 weeks and 1 day. But, once again, who's rushing?! It's kind of a funny story. For a week or two, Harrison was getting up on all fours, but he was just rocking and plopping. We went to Ohio over President's Day weekend and sure enough, Sunday I set him down on the floor, he saw a toy he wanted, and off he went. It was a wobbly first crawl, but it was crawling all the same. It took me by surprise, neither Adam or I were really expecting it yet. When we got home that Monday, not only was he crawling around, Harrison was all the sudden super interested in sitting up on his knees and trying to attempt to pull up. Really? I thought we just reached one milestone at a time. Did I mention his 6th tooth just came in too? Hopefully we're in a resting phase where we get a rest from a cranky teething baby!

   Here's a slightly more perfected crawling video. (This is the second one we took. The first one? Um... Harrison kinda toppled over into a toy... Yeah not the best one for all to see.) Oh and yes, that weird seated position he gets into is how he gets out of his crawling stance. It looks so uncomfortable. 

~Emily