Here’s a little something I wrote for my co-workers about my path from fresh-out-of-TCU copy editor to front-end web developer.

It was one of the coolest things we’ve done with Maya in a long time. She absolutely loved it. You drive through the park, staying in your car the entire time, and feed the animals from your car. They come right up to your car to take treats from your hand, and often stick their heads all the way in the car. It was really quite amazing! Among the animals were giraffes, zebras, deer, ostrich, antelope and lots of others.

Halfway through the drive there’s a visitors’ area where you pull off for a break, so we brought a picnic to eat there. It was a windy day, but otherwise the weather was perfect and there were some really pretty overlooks throughout the park. It was strangely hilly there.

The giraffes were definitely Maya’s favorite, and that’s what she told her teacher at school the following Monday.

We got some great photos of him this time since he’s quite a bit bigger: 1 pound, 9 ounces. It’s still crazy to me how small he is for how much weight I’ve put on! The doctor said everything looked great.

Still feeling great this month. Trying to keep the exercise up since that seems to keep the aches and pains away, especially yoga. Sadly I don’t have Bailey to use as an excuse to get a walk in anymore. Poor guy tore his ACL and might need surgery, so we’re bummed about that. He’s pretty sad about it too, I think. He has to rest for the next four weeks in case there’s a chance it’ll heal on its own, so that means he can’t go outside unless he’s on a leash because we can’t trust him to not take off running. So we’re hoping he doesn’t get too depressed the next month!

Maya’s most recent name suggestion for our baby boy is “Cherry Jelly.” Not sure that one will stick! But at least she’s decisive, which Jason and I can’t say for ourselves! We made some good progress this week moving some of the furniture around to get his room ready. My parents will be here the next few weeks, so we have a long list of other projects we’re hoping to complete with their babysitting help and my dad’s construction help.

Potty training update: We have a potty trained girl! So, so grateful for that! She did great and never really looked back after that second day of training. The only thing I still worry about is getting her to go in public. She doesn’t like going anywhere but home all that much, so it takes much bribery to get her to go in a public bathroom. But she can hold it and stay dry for probably three hours, so that’s what she usually does. But we want to get her more comfortable places other than home, for obvious reasons! We’re not always going to be so close to home. Hoping she goes at school this week because last week Miss. Tracie tried with her several times, but she wouldn’t go for it. I don’t want her to hurt herself holding it for so long. Slowly I’m sure she’ll get more comfortable. I think she’s mostly afraid of how loud public toilets are when they flush! And a little worried about falling in the bigger toilet. Poor girl! We are still using a diaper at night, and she usually wakes up wet in the morning, so still have a little work left to do there. I don’t think we get to her fast enough in the morning because she doesn’t need to go for a few hours after she gets up. Guess we need to start using the monitor again if we want to catch her first thing when she wakes up to try to get her in the bathroom. But one diaper a day isn’t bad if you ask me!

All that really came out of it was him telling us there are three places in her mouth where we should start flossing. Let me tell you how much fun that sounds like! We’ll see if she decides to cooperate. She also has another of her molars coming in right now, which I suspected because she has been chewing on her finger a lot lately. Photo is of her afterwards with the balloon they gave her. It was a hit, along with all of the stickers and the new toothbrush. Made it a fun visit for Maya!

We’ve come across lots of things we haven’t seen for awhile with all the furniture moving we’re doing. The desk has been officially moved to “Bailey’s room.” The double guest bed will stay in baby boy’s room. I’m excited to get everything in its new place to see how it’s all going to work out.

This was a big weekend for Maya because we’ve been working on potty training! Fingers crossed that she’s ready and it clicks. We’ve thought for awhile she was ready, so we finally decided to go for it. For a long time now she’s used the toilet a time or two a day. And she’ll tells us when she’s going or is wet. So I borrowed a book from a friend who used a three-day method this author suggests. Basically you stay home with them for three days, putting them in underwear and rewarding when they use the potty. She did great all three days, but today it really seemed to click. She hasn’t had an accident since before her nap yesterday. We even went out to dinner tonight (a friend’s birthday so we broke the “stay home for three days” rule) and were gone for more than two hours. No accident. So we’re hopeful! We’ll update after we know if it’s clicked for her! We’d love having her out of diapers before baby #2 makes his appearance.

When we found out: In mid-November, the day before we left for Columbia to meet our new nephew, I took a pregnancy test and it was positive. We debated telling Jason’s family while we were visiting, but decided to wait since it was so early and I wouldn’t be able to see a doctor to confirm before we left. But it was hard to keep it a secret!

Maya’s baby brother: The sweetest thing in all of this has been Maya. She has been so, so sweet when talking about her baby brother. In the last week, she’s started saying “Maya’s excited to have a baby brother!” It always comes out of nowhere and is so sweet to hear. She’ll often be playing with toys and set one aside and say it’s for her baby brother. And she keeps talking about the animals she needs to get for his bed. She’ll even save part of her snack for her baby brother. It’s been so fun to see her excitement. I just hope she doesn’t get too impatient waiting for him to make his appearance. So far her top pick for his name is “Big Boy.” We’re taking that under consideration.

How I’ve been feeling: Early on I was pretty tired, which was a lot harder this time around between work and taking care of Maya. I don’t get much down time most days, so it was painful not being able to nap like I could when pregnant with her, but luckily that didn’t last too long. The last couple months I’ve felt great, although as I get bigger I’m not sure how long that’s going to stick around.

One thing I’ve noticed is I’ve gotten huge, fast this time! We compared photos from when I was pregnant with Maya, and I swear I’m almost twice the size I was at this point with her. And I gained a lot of weight with her. So I’m hoping the pace slows, or I’m in trouble this time. Thankfully since I got my energy back I’ve been able to work out at least three days a week, and even more now that my work schedule has changed. So it’s felt good to be able to keep somewhat active. One thing I’ve loved this time around is being able to stick with my normal yoga classes. Last time I did prenatal yoga, which was nice and relaxing and a fun way to meet other moms-to-be. But at the same time I was really disappointed to give up my regular classes. I had never asked my doctor about it last time, but since then I’ve started going to the yoga studio where she also teaches! And she says there’s no reason to stop doing regular classes. So I try to get to her class on Sunday mornings.

Maya was so excited to hunt for eggs this year, and when we pulled up, she said “open door Mama, Maya’s excited!” It was so cute. She was so happy to see her friend Lucy, too. After hunting eggs we all ate lunch together outside, including cupcakes, so it really was a special day for Maya!

Then Amy was nice enough to saddle up one of their horses to take the kids on rides. While we waited the kids fed the other horses and the donkey treats. Maya actually loved doing it herself this time. Usually she’s been a little nervous to hold her hand out. But she liked it this time and kept saying it tickled her hand.

Maya was so brave for her first horseback ride! She’s never actually gotten on a horse when we’ve been at Lucy’s house, but this time she was ready to go! I didn’t want to get up there with her since I’m pregnant, so Eric held onto her while Amy led the horse around. She was so brave to get up there all by herself! Such a fun, beautiful spring day.

A few weeks ago I found a couple bedding sets online that I thought she would like, so I narrowed the picks down to two and showed them to Maya. She chose the one she “loved.” It came a week later during her nap, and I unpacked it and laid it out in my room. When she came in later in the day her face truly lit up, and she kept yelling “Maya loves it!” She started curling up in the quilt, saying I love it, I love it. It was so, so sweet! You could see the true excitement in her face.

On Sunday we set the bed up! She’s always had a single bed in her room, so that became her new bed. We put up the rail and put her new bedding on. We had thought we’d wait a few days to have her sleep in it, let her get used to seeing it there, but she was so, so excited about it so we just decided to go for it. So at nap time we tucked her into her new bed! She was slightly hesitant at first, but then got right in. She said she might need to yell for mommy, but she never did! She took a totally normal nap!

We went out for frozen yogurt after nap time to celebrate her first nap in her big-girl bed. And that night she was excited to get in her new bed for bedtime! No more hesitation, from here on out. As we were putting her to bed, she said “Maya’s baby brother is coming.” We’ve been asking her if she’d be OK giving her crib to her baby brother, and she’s been excited to do that. So I guess she thought since she was moving out, he must be coming! She’s also been talking a lot about the animals she wants to go buy for her baby brother’s bed. Baby brother’s very own puppy, Frankie, Pierre and Sammy, the four things that always go to bed with her. (Among the other 10 or so that rotate in and out.)

That first full night in her bed ended up not being perfect but it was because she came down with a cough/cold, not because of the bed. So she woke up a couple times upset because she was coughing/choking so much. But since then life in her new bed is wonderful. She often tells us how much she loves it! Our hope has been that we could get her out of the crib and potty trained before the baby comes. One down, one to go. Although I think the next one will be a little trickier!

Yesterday, after several days of sleeping great, we took her to get a bigger reward. She’d been wanting her own tennis racket, so we let her pick one out and then headed to the park to let her give it a swing. We’re proud of Maya for taking this big transition like it was nothing!

You might notice her “blackish” eye. Poor girl took a spill at the park the other day and ended up with her face to the concrete. And her friend on top of her. That’s why she has some scrapes around her eye. Luckily it looks worse than it was for her! She recovered pretty quickly.

You’ll also notice her goofy smile in a lot of these photos! She’s taken to making a funny face when we ask her to smile for a photo. So unless we catch her smiling naturally, what we get doesn’t really look like her real smile!