A Parenting Achievement

Since Greyson was a tiny baby, he has not been a good sleeper.  We struggled and struggled with getting him to go to sleep, and then with getting him to stay asleep for more than 45 minutes.  Every kid has their "thing", and Greyson's was sleeping.
I remember when he was still really little (maybe 3 or 4 months old) and Tyler was working in Sandy at 6 am so he got up at 4:30 to be to work, and I got up at 5:30 in order to have both of us ready, fed, to the babysitter grandma's house and to work by 8.  That little boy would NOT go to bed before midnight.  I tried everything, but it was a fight every single night.  I would dread putting him down for a nap or for the night because it was just miserable.  So much time was spent trying to convince that little man to sleep by very exhausted parents. 
There have been improvements and things have gotten much better since he was a baby, but we used to have to lie down with him until he fell asleep for naps, and we'd have to stay in his room until he fell asleep at night (which was sometimes 10 minutes and sometimes 50).  He finally got to the point where he would take naps by himself, and I knew something had to change at night so I wasn't spending an hour waiting for him to fall asleep every night.  After about a week of him crying and crying and me being the mean mom, Greyson will go to sleep by himself in his crib.  It is nothing short of a miracle! 
Bedtime is not the worst part of the night anymore.  We have our routine and he might hang out and talk for a bit in his crib, but he goes to sleep by himself.  I don't have to stay in his room or rock him or adjust his blankets every time he moves.  I feel like I have gained so much time at night because it's so much less effort to put him to bed!
Any parent can understand this is truly an achievement. :)

Hamburger or Hot Dog?

20 weeks.  It was time.
We had our ultrasound for Baby Q on January 18th.  I was both excited and nervous.  The tech examined this baby from head to toe (healthy! healthy!), leaving the best for last.  Then we caught a glimpse of some little legs.  And a hot dog.
Baby Quong is a BOY!!!

Hot dog shot

I was, well, shocked.  There's no question about it--he's a boy--but I truly believed this baby was a girl.  And honestly, that's what I wanted and that's what I thought so I was completely surprised to find out I was dead wrong.  Of course I am happy to be blessed with a baby and of course I want any kind I get.  I think G and new baby will be best buds and I love that idea.  We do have a lot of boy stuff already, but they will be born in opposite seasons so clothes-sharing won't work out so well until they're older.  It will be wonderful to have another little man in our lives.  And Greyson is so stinkin cute, this baby is bound to be completely adorable.

Left foot (on left side of pic)

Right arm and hand (top of pic)

Profile of our little man

Bring on the football team.

 20 weeks

Sweet little nothings

Best smile

Greyson was asking for cake and I told him he couldn't have any because I was making dinner.  I decided to make muffins and I got the muffin tin out of the cupboard.  Greyson saw it, yelled, "Cakies!" and started jumping up and down shouting, "Yay!  Yay!  Yay!  Yay!  Yay!"

Sometimes he won't eat dinner, but his cars will!

At Ashley and Kendall's house, we were all sitting in the basement watching TV.  Greyson went upstairs (it's a split level so we could kind of see him still) and climbed up on the piano bench.  He started playing piano and singing to his heart's content and to our great delight.  He entertained himself for a good five or ten minutes.

Car love

G probably learns at least one new word a day.  I am so impressed by how smart he is.  He tries to repeat what we say.  I heard him say "Woody" for the first time (he's already got Buzz down pat).  I was pulling food out of the fridge for dinner one night and said, "and we need the pickles" and Greyson copied me and said, "pick-le?"  He knows how to say colors (blue, red, green, yellow, orange, brown, white, black, pink) but still has a little trouble distinguishing which color is which.  He says "please" like "peas".  He says thank you without us reminding or asking him to.  It's kind of a "ank oo" but we know what he means.  Horse sounds like "herse" and helicopter is "copper".  When he wants you to hold him he says, "hold you".  Nose is "news" and because snow kind of sounds like nose, it's also "news".  His favorite Cars are "Mer" and "McCean". 

Shaving like daddy

A few weeks ago we were shopping at Kohl's.  Greyson heard a baby crying and he turns to me and says, "Baby?  Sad?" and then talked about this "sad baby" for the rest of the night.  The next day he remembered the sad baby and started talking about it again.  Now, even weeks later, we still have talks about the sad baby.  If you ask him what a sad baby says, he leans his head back and says, "waaaaaaa" with a sad look on his face.

Cuddled up

I was changing Greyson's diaper and gave him a dinosaur to keep him entertained.  He was playing with the dino on his tummy and I said, "Dinosaur, you do not bite Greyson's buttons!  Don't bite the buttons!" Greyson thought I was scolding him and burst into tears!  I felt so bad!  It was the funniest and saddest thing!

G and Mom

Cookies

Sometimes when are baking sugar cookies, we get so hungry that we go from this:

To this:

A Big Little Secret

I STINK at keeping secrets.  I will freely admit it.  I just get so excited about things I want to tell everyone!  It's hard to keep things in when it's good news!  Why shouldn't I share when it makes me and others happy?
But then I had a secret I had to keep.  And despite slipping up a few times, I did a really good job of keeping this secret for a LONG time.  I think it helped that there were a handful of people who shared this secret--the people who were most important knew--so we could be happy and excited together.  Because this secret directly affects Tyler and Greyson, so we all kept the secret.
And now the secret is out.
The Quong Dynasty is expanding!  We are expecting a new addition to our family June 4, 2012.  We found out towards the end of September and didn't tell our families until November!  It was a long time to keep a secret, but it was worth keeping.
We had our first doctor's appointment at 9 weeks at the beginning of November and both baby and I were healthy.  We got to have an ultrasound and see our tiny one and hear its heartbeat and it was beautiful.  I can't help but cry when I see that baby and it's really real!  Sometimes pregnancy is more of an idea that you're trying to grasp until you get a confirmation through an ultrasound or you start to look prego or you start to feel the baby.  After we found out, I couldn't stop thinking about it, but at the same time I would forget and then suddenly think, "Wow!  I'm pregnant!"
This pregnancy has been a lot different than with Greyson.  The biggest difference was morning sickness.  With G, I really wasn't sick and only remember a handful of times feeling nauseous (mostly when I smelled coffee--gross!).  With this baby, I had morning sickness almost every morning, but thankfully it was mild (if you can call nausea mild) and I never threw up.  I got better as the weeks progressed and I kind of figured out how to curb it, but some mornings were rough.  I think it's lame too that it's during the first trimester that you feel sick when you can't tell anyone that you're pregnant and explain why you feel sick.  My boss sits right next to me at work and I'm pretty sure she knew well before I told her because the all the signs said pregnant!
So far, I've had less heartburn than with Greyson.  There's an old wives tale that says if you have heartburn a lot during pregnancy, your baby will have a lot of hair.  That was definitely true with G.  I hope this baby comes out with hair too.  I like 'em hairy.  So bring on the heartburn.  And the Tums.
The plus side to morning sickness is that there is another old wives tale that says it's more likely that you will have a girl.  I want a girl.  I can't help it.  Tyler secretly admitted to me that he also wants a girl, but he teases relentlessly that we are having ALL boys--enough to staff a football team!  HA.  I feel like this little baby might just be a girl too....  We'll find out on January 18th!
I feel like the timing of this baby is perfect.  This is exactly when he/she is supposed to come.  Greyson will be two and a half so he will have more time to grow up and more mama & daddy time before things change.  And I'm glad that I won't be prego in the heat of summer, and that I will be able to take my kiddos outside.  It's just the right time.
I am really excited to have this new little baby in our lives....thrilled and scared.  Babies are blessings and I am grateful to be a mom and to have an addition to our family.  Yay for Baby Quong!

9 weeks: Head is on the left and body on the right.  Baby's arms were up by its face.

Thank You Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving, we really wanted to drive to Casper, WY to visit Tyler's sister and her husband.  Tyler's parents were flying in from NJ so we were hoping and praying that we would be able to.  If the weather is bad, I-80 will be closed and there's no getting through.  Fortunately, we were super lucky and the weather was perfect, so we got to go!

There are lots of buffalo in Wyoming

Wyoming just brings this out in you

We ate so much food while we were there.  I think the only time I was actually hungry was Thursday morning.  We stuffed our faces and had a delicious Thanksgiving.  I made pumpkin pie (my annual tradition!) and it turned out really yummy.  Proud moment.


Lupe & Ron

Kendall & Ashley

Tyler & Dominique

We bummed around and played games.  We did some Black Friday shopping and scored some good deals that we were happy with.  We saw the sights of Casper and even went to a museum.  It was a nice little get-away and we were happy spend time with our family!

Greyson as a mammoth

Grandma Lupe in fur

Choo choo!

Thanksgiving is a good reminder of all the blessings we have in our lives.  We have so much to be grateful for, and I'm glad for the opportunity to celebrate it and say thank you!

Halloween!

Recognize us?  Hiccup, Toothless and Astrid from How to Train Your Dragon!

We had a really fun Halloween weekend.  We started off by going to the zoo with my step-sis Annie, her hub Matt and their daughter Mia.  We went trick-or-treating to the animals....or vendors who gave us candy and free kid's meals. 

Cheese!

Then we attended a family party where Greyson's pumpkin won first prize!  Tyler had to work that night, but G and I went to a neighborhood party and he jumped in his first bounce house and never wanted to come out.

Our winning car pumpkin

Tyler's dragon pumpkin

On Halloween day, Tyler and Greyson came to my work and went trick-or-treating to my coworkers in their cubicles.  Greyson started to catch on to the whole idea because this boy loves candy.
That night we went door-to-door as Halloween predicates, and he ate it up!  Once he figured out that he got to push buttons (doorbells) and got cakies (candy) when someone answered, he was in it to win it.  We went all over our neighborhood and brought home a good haul.  He was one tired little guy by the time we got back, but the candy revived him and we watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  Top choice out of the candy bag: tootsie rolls.  Maybe his tastebuds are still developing. ;)


Halloween haul

What a happy Halloween.