A mom I admire

My sister-in-law, Lauren, (pictured below) and I have spent the past two evenings at Babies R Us registering for our new little ones to come. So fun! Lauren, Rebecca (our other sister-in-law), and I are all having baby boys within weeks of eachother. Crazyiness will insue in the Loveless family – doubling the grandchild count in just one month! Since Laur is a veteran mommy (her little girl, Taylor, turns 1 on Monday!) she showed me the ropes of the first time mom essentials.

It has been so fun getting to spend this time being pregnant together. And I am super excited that we will get to raise our boys together:)

Lauren is such a good mom – here are some things I’ve observed that I really admire about her parenting:

1. She is easygoing but prepared. She always makes sure Taylor has everything she needs. (One good tip: She keeps a bottled water in her diaper bag with the formula so making a bottle is easy in a pinch.)
2. She celebrates Tay and makes holidays, family get togethers, birthdays, seasons etc. special and meaningful. (We are having a pool party for Taylor’s first birthday!)
3. She celebrates being a mom. She doesn’t make it seem like a burden or harp on how hard it is.
4. She makes sure her relationship with Jon a priority. She knows that a key to being a great parent is continuing to work at having a great marriage.
5. She gets dressed in the morning. This may sound silly but sometimes it is so easy to fall into a slump of just not showering, wearing whatever and slouching around the house. This is okay sometimes but for the most part, I think it helps your additude and outlook on the day if you get ready for the day. I think this makes a difference in how you parent, as well, and also the example you set for you kids. If they see mom as an unmotivated slouch day after day, that sends a certain message. Don’t get my wrong, I enjoy the occasional pajama day, just as much as the next girl, but I think this whole getting ready for the day thing is something I will put into practice during my mommy days.

I would love to hear about mom’s you admire and what you admire about them! Leave me some comments with your thoughts!

The Name Game

Prior to going on our cruise, Joe and I had our ultrasound appointment to find out whether we were having a boy or a girl. It’s a BOY! We were both shocked because SO many of our friends and family are having boys, it seemed like the coin would fall on girl for us. We are so thrilled to add another little boy to the pack!

While on the cruise, we spent one afternoon sitting on the balcony coming up with a name for our new little tike. It was so fun! We each had been compiling our own lists, so the first thing we did was combine the list to have one main list of names we both liked. Then, we separated the names into “Ones we like for First Names” and “Ones we like for Middle Names”. Here is that list:

First Names:
Miles
Jude
Coner
Carter
James
Parker

Middle Names:
Elliot
Royce
Jace
Rocket (Joe’s mom suggested this name and he thought “his little Wheaton wife” would never go for it…to his surprise, I told him we could add it to the middle name list)
Anders
Barrett
Plus any of the other first names could also be middle names.

Then, we did a million combinations of all the names and settled on 11 full names that we liked. After that, we each rated the names 1 through 6 (6 being the best) and then compared lists:
1. Coner Royce Loveless (Joe: 6, Catie: 1)
2. Coner Barrett Loveless (Joe: 5, Catie: 1.5)
3. Jude Barrett Loveless (Joe: 3, Catie: 2.5)
4. Parker Elliot Loveless (Joe: 4, Catie: 4.5)
5. Parker Jace Loveless (Joe: 4.9, Catie: 1)
6. Parker Barrett Loveless (Joe: 4.5, Catie: 3.5)
7. Miles Rocket Loveless (Joe: 5, Catie: 4)
8. Miles Barrett Loveless (Joe: 3, Catie: 6)
9. Miles Parker Loveless (Joe: 6, Catie: 6)
10. Carter Elliot Loveless (Joe: 2, Catie: 3)
11. Carter Barrett Loveless (Joe: 3, Catie 1)

We both gave MILES PARKER LOVELESS a 6 out of 6! We tried on the name for a few days and it stuck.

Cruise

Joe and I went on our first cruise ever a few weeks ago. It’s one of the great things about living in Florida – you don’t have to spend money on plane tickets to get to an amazing cruise vacation, you just drive to the coast! We decided to carve out this vacation because we realized it would be our last vacation as just our little family of two. While booking the trip, I learned that most cruise lines don’t let you go on the trip if you are more than 24 weeks pregnant. We literally only had one week that worked – my 20th week with our little bun! Below are a few pictures from our adventures in St. Thomas, Dominican Republic, Tortola, and the Bahamas: