A Proud Frustrated Momma

So I took a bunch of really cute pictures of my boys playing basketball with family today. I intended on blogging about that, but my cord to the camera is in the room Ryder is napping in. I am NOT risking waking him up so i'll just write instead.

Anyhow about that proud frustrated thing... I was so proud of Ryder on our trip out here. We had a red eye from Phoenix to Harrisburg (Thursday night/Friday morning). We gave Ryder a late nap, and he then just stayed up on our ride to the airport at 10 pm and until our flight at 12:30 am. He was so excited to see the airplane, get on the airplane, and watch take off. As soon as we were in the air we got his blankies out and all crashed for the full four hours flight. None of us slept hard. There was lots of shifting, moving, readjusting, but for the most part our little ones eyes stayed closed and the intent was there. We got to Detroit around 6 in the morning (4 am Arizona time), and he was still great. We ate some breakfast and just walked him in his stroller during the layover because he wouldn't sleep, but was so groggy. Our second flight was short, only about an hour and a half, but was the one we all slept so great on. It was a small plane so Derrik had to sit in a different row since all the rows were only two seats. Ryder had asked me for his monster trucks, but I told him to wait until we were in the air. I somehow nodded off between heading out to the run way and getting up in the air because I woke up in the air with a little guys sitting up with his head limp. He was out cold! I laid him down on my lap and we both took a good hard nap until we landed. He did good yesterday once we got in. He was decent towards family, played with toys, took a nap for us, and even sat through a high school play Derrik's cousin Taylor was in after very little sleep!!! I was so proud. I was really nervous how he would do sleeping on an air mattress in the same room as us. It is our first go around without a pack n play while traveling since we had transitioned to a big boy bed. He went to sleep great last night too. He was up on and off (just crying... not really awake) for three hours in the middle of the night. I think he was just over exhausted, confused, and not feeling too great. He then got himself into a deep sleep and we all slept until 9 am! He is napping now again and was such a cutie pie at the basketball courts this morning.

The frustrated part.... he's not listening! It's the basic get dressed, change diaper, eat food, listen to anything we say part that is just making me crazy!!! I think he has a little cold (we all do... it's the great gift heading into the cold gives us every time!)that I could blame this "attitude" on, but honestly he just stinks at traveling. He stinks at getting use to a bunch of new faces, thinking he can get away with anything and Mommy laying the law down, and realizing things can't always be Ryder's way.

This is me taking a DEEEEEEEP breath... enjoying the times when he's being sweet... and letting the rest go... it's because he's two right? All two year old do this? HAHA... hopefully!

We are so thankful to be here with family, and I guess if it takes having a cranky kid we'll just roll with it.

Maybe those cute basketball pictures will be up tomorrow during naptime so I don't have to rant!!! :)

It's A.....

First things first... Check out this precious little profile picture!

Most importantly we have a healthy little baby growing in my belly :)

Measuring slightly big, but not enough for any due date change.

AND... What everyone really wants to know!

IT'S A BOY!!!

Landon Brennan Lutz

We are so excited to welcome another little boy into our life!
Big brother gets sad everytime we say "baby brother", but I think he'll come around in time

Baby Lutz #2 Update: Week 16 AND Some Stream of Consciousness

Sorry for the chopped off head... it wasn't pretty!

I was running around all day and not showered for the picture.

How Far Along: 16 Weeks

Size of Baby: 4 1/2 inches long

Fruit Size (According to my e-mail from BabyCenter.com): Avacado

Total Weight Gain: 2 pounds (I forgot to weigh myself, but it was still two pounds early in the week.. I had the flu over the weekend so lets just say weigh gain wasn't exactly happening this week)

Maternity Clothes: Some jeans

Gender: Less then 12 hours and we should know! I fully intend on drinking a caffeinated beverage on our way in to get the little one moving around.... no crossed legs for this baby! Still no middle name for baby girl. Derrik suggested ONE name, and immediatley says no to anything I suggest. I want names so i'll just probably go with the one he picked. I'm not too picky.

Movement: Without a doubt! I can honestly feel the baby quite often. Sometime it even makes me jump it's so unexpected. Derrik can't actually feel the movement (I am going to test it out tonight if s/he is moving around), but can feel the big lump the baby makes in my belly at times.

Food Cravings: Still not a huge fan of food... especially after the round of the flu I had this weekend.

Labor Signs: (no comment until third trimester or so)

Sleep: Great... except this morning... i'll share why further down :)

How’s Ryder Handling It: Good :) He's excited to take the baby to the doctor tomorrow to see him/her on the t.v. again. "Baby go to doctor... t.v.... pictures" We keep telling him we will know if he has a brother or a sister, but he's kind of clueless to that part.

What is the same/different as the last time: We've hit a pretty good point in the pregnancy right now. I guess it's that wonderful secodn trimester... just feeling pregnant now.... like last time :)

Symptoms: Everything i've had in the past weeks, but much more subtle thankfully

Best Moment This Week: Laying down almost every night and feeling the baby. Having so much fun with Tricia and Page yesterdy at the bounce place. AND seeing what a great job my boys did together on Sunday surviving without me while I was so sick.

What I Am Looking Forward To: I'm not even going to bother writing it! I can not wait to find out :) WOOHOO!!! AND... we can not wait to see Derrik's family in the coming week!

Stream of Consciousness Time Baby:

Why I couldn't sleep well last night... I woke up to go pee like I do every night (not baby related... this is unfortunatley a norm for me every single night always)and I checked my phone (another norm... I like to know the time). I had a text on my phone from my friend Heather saying her water had broke! She wasn't due until Christmas Eve which put her just over five weeks early. My mind was obviously racing once I saw the text, and I could not sleep. At the end of the day thought Mommy, Daddy, and Baby Nash are all doing great. Nash is in the NICU for a couple days just for observation because he's early, but appears to be doing wonderfully. I can not wait to share a phone call with Heather tomorrow to hear all about their first day :) Our whole baseball community is just so thankful he is healthy... I think he just wanted to show up Zander being two weeks early a couple weeks ago... who showed up Ryder being ten days early two years ago. These boys are so competitive already. Another reason why we NEED a girl in our little group... geez! Anyhow.. my phone seemed like it was going off all day (it was the same with Zander a couple weeks ago), I was packing for our trip, and trying to get ready for family pictures this afternoon. On top of that Derrik dropped his phone in his drink last night and it was dead... I really thought I was going to see him cry for the 2nd time ever in our five years together or punch a wall. He was NOT happy! They replaced it for free at apple... but that was after driving through rush hour to get to the mall from downtown Phoenix for our pictures and then waiting for an appointment at 7:40. UGH... i'm exhausted. I think this day was planned so I wouldn't sit around waiting all day for our appointment tomorrow. I am getting a really sore throat though. I am sick every single time we go to Pennsylvania. The people there must think I am just always sick. I was hoping it would get better, but it seems to just be getting worse throughout the day. We'll see... after the flu last weekend I really don't want to deal with being sick anymore. I'm off to go snuggle my hubby... and try to talk girl middle names a little more. Our appointment is at 8:20 tomorrow with the ultrasound at 8:45... hopefully we'll have an annoucement soon after!

P.S. - Our guess the sex poll on our blog stats:

Boy - 44.19% (19 Votes)

Girl - 55.81% (24 Votes)

Pretty close, but looks like GIRLS win... we'll see!

Saying Good-Bye

I'm not exactly sure when this whole leaving Arizona thing for a month was supposed to be sad. Have we really been here long enough that I am genuinely sad that we won't be seeing friends of ours for over a month. The fact that we have been stuck out here for that long... not thrilled at all... the fact that we've found some of the best friends out here... totally thrilled!!!

Tricia's daycare schedule has been really off lately leaving her typically with one of the babies when we venture out. This week she had both, but it was also our last week together before we left. We decided to brave leaving the house with an almost three year old, two year old, nine month old, I think eight month old (possibly 7), 8 month preggo belly, and 3 month preggo belly. I'm pretty sure we looked nuts lugging all those kids and needed a "the ones in the baby carriers AREN'T ours!" sticker stuck to our foreheads, but whatever! We took the kids to a placed called Pump It Up which has tons of indoor bounce houses. It was perfect. Ryder and Page had so much fun, and both the babies were great. There were probably twenty-ish people there total with six inflatable contraptions. It was the perfect amount of people. Plus the $8 it cost beats the cost of some of those tumble time places!

I say we'll be back, but when we get back Tricia's little bundle will be here which would leave us with me having a huge belly, two toddlers, and three babies. We'll see how brave we feel come those days, but we can dream right :)

We are SO sad to be leaving our friends for the next month+... While we are gone Baby Logen will arrive, and we are SO sad we can't be here to watch Page and see little Logen as a true newborn. You can bet i'll be at their house to hold him within days (maybe the day) of being back though!!!

I took some pictures of today, but honestly the videos are better...

Ryder and Page on the big slide

Ryder giving his best buddy a big huge....

they aren't much for hugging for some reason so it was cute :)

P.S. - 1 1/2 days until we find out the sex of baby #2

I honestly might not even be able to sleep tonight I am so excited.

I can't even tell you how disapointed i'll be if the baby has his/her legs crossed on Thursday!

Changes

I was so bored with my hair...

So I decided to switch it up a bit!

It's going to take some getting use to, but I love it!

Someone else is ready for some changes too...

Like the weather... one week from right now we'll be driving to the airport

to head to Pennsylvania!!!

Anxious!!!

I'm doing something i've never done before this afternoon!!!

I'm soo nervous, but super excited!!!

I'll update later tonight :)

Baby Lutz #2 Update: Week 15

How Far Along: 15 Weeks (I forgot to mention in last weeks e-mail that I was officially in the 2nd Trimester!)

Size of Baby: 4 inches long

Fruit Size (According to my e-mail from BabyCenter.com): Apple

Total Weight Gain: 2 pounds

Maternity Clothes: I gave in... I wore two pair this week. I don't know which is worse though - tight pants around the tummy or dealing with that awful belly band. I need to start really trying on all the pants though to decide what I will be taking with me to Pennsylvania and Massachusetts because during that time period i'm sure i'll be exclusively in maternity jeans and leggings.

Gender: I am so excited to find out! One week from tomorrow. We also have names narrowed down minus a girl middle name. I told Derrik that we have to have the name 100% before we head home so we can make the decision on our own and not start getting lots of opinions.

Movement: I think so this week :)

Food Cravings: Honestly I'm just not a fan of food right now

Labor Signs: (no comment until third trimester or so)

Sleep: Still great... this is one thing i'm really amazing at while pregnant! I could do it all day every day.

How’s Ryder Handling It: Still good. He thinks it's all a fun game right now. It's all fun and games until we bring a baby home and s/he rocks his world! Funny story from this week... Our friend's Brittany and Travis welcomed baby Zander into the world last week (congrats guys!!!). Brit had sent a picture last week of Zander, and I asked Ryder if he wanted to see a picture of Baby Zander because he's so big into babies. He started crying saying "Nooooo.... Baby Sister!" I think he just thinks that is the name of the baby. Hopefully when/if we find out it's a Baby Brother next week we can wipe the Baby Sister idea from his mind!

What is the same/different as the last time: Same - tired and cranky... Different - Nauscious still and headaches

Symptoms: I don't think i've mentioned the headaches much yet. I feel like the list to complain about is always so long! I've been getting the most awful headaches. Just yesterday I had Derrik bring home some Tylonel from the field to start taking. I had been just dealing with them because I hate popping more pills, but they are just making me miserable. It seemed to help yesterday so hopefully that is the answer :)

Best Moment This Week: Being pretty certain that I've felt the baby move quite a few times this week!

What I Am Looking Forward To: Same as last week... 8 days until we find out the sex! 8 1/2 days until we board a plane to head back east to all our family!!! HINT... it'll be the same next week too except with a 1 day countdown!!!

AND... some photos on this 15th week...

A Belly Comparison

What do you think?

My opinion: very different shape and lower,

but in general the same size for the most part

This is What Ryder looked like at our 15 week ultrasound

AND... That was the ultrasound we found out he was a BOY!

The reason Derrik and I so strongly believe that #2 is a boy is because our ultrasound a few weeks ago was from this same exact angle. We both saw the exact same three dots on the ultrasound picture... I guess we will all know next week, but I figured since we found out at 15 weeks with Ryder i'd show the picture so everyone could see what i've been talking about!

F.Y.I.

For those who haven't figured it out the past two times

the time has changed since we have lived here

we do NOT observe Daily Savings Time in Arizona!!!

NO time change here!!!

So for those of you who live on the East Coast...

We are now only two hours behind you... not three!

The Phoenix Zoo

Tricia and Page got season passses to the Phoenix Zoo, and we've been trying to work out a time to go for a while now with them. Our original plans fell through a while back when Ryder got sick so we tried again today. It was a perfect day weather wise, and both kids seem to be on their best behavior which made it easier :)

Ryder on the carousel..

for some reason no other rides make him nervous except this

The awesome giraffe we got to feed!!!
Tricia and Page feeding him

Ryder and I feeding him

They give the parents really small pellets instead of lettuce so the tongue will touch you

And apparently I acted like a complete girl over the situation

The nice rushed picture the guy in charge took for us

Ryder and I looking at the rhinos

(dinosaurs as Ryder thought they were)

This picture doesn't do much justice, but it was Ryder's favorite part of the day

The Choo-Choo

At the petting zoo

This one started charging towards Ryder and he was OUT OF THERE!

The kids on the tractor

On the way out we were talking about how great the kids were and how there was only one really small melt down....

Once in the car this happened!

Videos of the Monster Trucks

The Monster Trucks...

Ryder watching the monster trucks...

The Arizona State Fair 2010 (Monster Truck Show)

Last night was one of the best nights with my boys. I felt that way about Trick-or-Treating last weekend too, so I'm not sure if we are to a stage where we are seeing things through our child's eyes and the world just seems like a better place, or if we just got really lucky two weekends in a row to have lots of fun!

Anyhow... I realized about a month ago that the state fair was back in town. I looked online to see when it was going on and saw the last weekend they were having a monster truck show!!! Of course we marked our calendar for that weekend since our boy is just slightly obsessed with monster trucks. It is all he plays with, and Monster Jam is on the t.v. seriously all day if I let it be (anyone who we are staying with in the coming month be sure to get an episode DVRed for his viewing pleasure!). When we first got to the fair they hadn't quite yet started any of the monster truck stuff yet so we did a couple rides.

Ryder and I on the huge slide... quite the walk up!

Dune Buggy Ride

After two rides we could hear them annoucing over the loud speakers that the Pre-Show Pit Party was starting. We headed over immediately so we could take advantage of any opportunity available. We heard we might be able to get a ride in a monster truck, and it was true!

Hog Wild

Our Ride!

My boys best attempt at a picture with Hog Wild...

Not sure it quite captured their excitement at the moment

This one capture it slightly better :)

Watching Hog Wild take off on a ride

The back of the truck we were going to get on

The next photo is of Ryder on the actual monster truck ride. I had tried to plan the moment out in my head. I purposely set it up so Derrik could sit next to Ryder to make sure he was ok during the ride, and put myself across from him for full photo opportunity. I wasn't going to ride, but paid the $5 just so I could snap photos of my boy enjoying his own little piece of heaven for a whole minute. After looking at the photos today though, I realized it just looks like a bunch of photos of Ryder sitting in a seat. Sooo bummed because it was anything but that! We got to go super fast, over all the jumps, and our boy was beyond thrilled! We were bouncing all around, and I have to say it was even a pretty huge thrill ride for us adults too!!! So Mommy fail on opting for the photos instead of the video. If I could have done both I would have, but I had to make the decision.... so try your best to gather all the excitement going on through this one picture... it does slightly say it all....

"OMG THIS IS SOOO COOL!"

Giving the driver of Hog Wild a high five after the ride

After our ride we got to go see all the other monster trucks that were going to be in the show, meet the drivers, and get autographs. Ryder had zero interest in the autographs or meeting the drivers, but was SO excited to "touch" the monster trucks.

Trying to take it all in...

Daddy and Ryder with El Perro Loco

Finally getting to touch a "mighty mega monster truck" as Ryder likes to call them
Checking out the tires with the driver of Obsession

Wow... this picture surely does not show how thrilled he was...

sometimes the camera just doesn't say it all

Umm... just kind of thought this was a cute candid of the little guy...

Such goofy boys enjoying the fair special... a corn dog

After the corn dog disappeared the monster truck show started. Ryder seriously FREAKED out!!! He was out of his seat, screaming, throwing his hands in the air, clapping, shaking... he could not have possibly been more excited about anything else in the entire world.

What all the freaking out was about...

and this...

One of his excited faces...

And another....

I have videos of the monster trucks and Ryder watching them that i'll post after I get this up

Once the show was over we headed back to the rides. Ryder was also really thrilled about the rides, and i'm sure that would have been a pretty fun night too BUT the monster trucks definitely stole the show in our little guys eyes.

Waiting his turn in line for his first roller coaster ride

Roller Coaster with Daddy

It was kind of hard to get pictures... this was the best one

Another ride....

Daddy making sure he doesn't slide down...

Such a good Daddy :)

Then we went back to the slides for one last ride to waste our tickets...

It was late and we were tired!!!

I wish these picture did more justice for the thrill Ryder had last night. It was so exciting to be able to take him to see something he loves so so much!