Boy Crazy

I think my poor dad spent most of his life around all women so now God is truly blessing him with some male companionship! Jill is having a BOY!!!!!!! My sister found out today that they will be welcoming another baby boy into this world. We were very excited to hear the news and thankful her baby boy is healthy and doing well. This will make number three for Jill & Chad and they couldn't be more excited. There will certainly be lots of little boys around the Jimison household and my parents couldn't be more thrilled...although my mom has already said she refuses to keep more than one at a time ;)

Baby Gunter is the next...

Future Quarterback of the UNC Tarheels - Class of 2031
IT'S A BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well I am sure that many of you are shocked to hear that Keith and I actually found out this time, thanks to my multiple efforts to persuade Keith, he finally caved around 11:59 today right as we were going into the ultrasound room! It was completely amazing seeing our little guy on the big screen and thankfully our prayers were answered because so far we have a healthy baby! I think Keith and I are still in shock from the news but feel so incredibly blessed to have one of each. I've already got Merrin repeating "little brother" after me and hopefully soon she will understand what that means. Hmmm...now if I only knew what to do with little boys...
Here is a great picture of our little guy's profile. He was actually mid swallow with mouth open, so cute!!!

A first for mom...

Well its official, I've had my very first amusing, embarrassing, frustrating and not to mention disgusting moment as a mom. I knew this day would come and surprisingly it only took me seventeen months to get here. Several friends of mine have told me some hilarious episodes they've had during their joys of motherhood and usually I have nothing to share in return...until now! I've heard stories of messy poops, funny quotes and embarrassing moments in general. Usually the poo poo stories are the funniest ones which is why some of you might get a kick out of the following...

It all started with dinner last night...typically Merrin is a very picky eater and usually she only prefers fruit, yogurt and cheese but last night she ate a HUMONGOUS helping of mashed potatoes, barbecued meatballs (great recipe if you want it), corn and bread. Merrin completely shocked both Keith and me by how much she ate and she even had seconds!! We were so proud of her for eating so well that we gave her her very first OREO which she of course devoured in a second. We took a picture to remember her first OREO experience which she gladly cheesed for. As we were getting Merrin ready for bed I realized that we only had one diaper in the whole entire house. I usually always have extras on hand because I buy in bulk and if there are none in the closet I can bet there are some in old diaper bags or purses, etc. but much to my surprise the whole house was bone dry of diapers. I told Keith that I would run out while he was putting Merrin down and he said don't bother, that I can just get some in the morning when I take him to work. Merrin and I had to take Keith to work this morning because one of our cars needed to be dropped off for it's 60K mile check up. Anyway Keith put on the very last diaper on Merrin before putting her to bed and then off to sleep she went. Keith and I woke her up this morning at 7:30 and immediately put her in the car, pajamas and all. I should have thought to throw in a change of clothes for her since I knew we would be going into a store to buy diapers but I didn't think that far ahead. I brought her breakfast usual with us, a blueberry waffle and milk so that she could chow down on the way to the car place. Once we dropped off the car we then took Keith into work, all the while just hoping that Merrin can last a little while longer until we make it to Target for those much needed diapers. Usually I go to BJs but today was an emergency and BJs wasn't open until later. Before heading into Target I decided to stop by chick-fil-a and grab mommy some much needed breakfast (I was starving!!!) and of course Merrin wanted a few bites as well. We downed our breakfast quickly in the car and then headed into Target. Once inside we went straight to the diaper aisle and grabbed the much needed mega box of size 4's and was planning on going immediately to check out but...I thought while I'm there I might as well check out the maternity section and shoes and who knows, maybe the purses too. (I know, STUPID, right???!!) Please don't judge...my pregnancy brain forgets sometimes and obviously I forgot the severity of the situation at hand and that poor Merrin was probably swimming in her nighttime diaper at this point. I even tried on a few clothes with Merrin running a muck in the dressing room. At this point I noticed her squat down (her usual poo pose) and while she sat and pondered for a minute I thought, I should head to check out immediately but instead I went and grabbed some milk which I remembered we were out of as well. At that point I was really starting to smell something so I said OK we are checking out and that we did indeed. Once checked out we started to leave the store when we realized it was POURING rain out so I said, no problem, lets go to the bathroom and do a quick diaper change. So Merrin, the entire shopping cart and I all headed into the ladies room which was surprisingly packed for 9:00 in the morning. I opened our box of diapers and then went to get Merrin out of the cart when suddenly I saw that she had poop all down the side of her pajamas (I'm already embarrassed enough about taking my toddler out in public in nothing but her PJ's but remember this was supposed to be an emergency diaper run only). Oh no I thought so I laid her down on the changing table and proceeded to change her diaper. Of course I had to have an audience of two younger girls who probably thought to themselves "I am never having children if I have to change THAT"! Poor Merrin not only had an entire diaper full of poop but she even had chunks, yes CHUNKS, of poop in her pajamas (chunks of corn to be exact...remember the corn from her dinner the night before). I'm thinking to myself...why oh why did we give her seconds! After minutes of cleaning up poop all over poor Merrin's bottom and legs I had to strip her naked since her pajamas were obviously unwearable so now as if walking around Target in only our pajamas wasn't embarrassing enough, I now had a bow less (Merrin has "Cousin It" hair without a bow) toddler wearing only a diaper to tote along. I was so embarrassed but I didn't want to take her out in the rain wearing only a diaper (thank goodness I at least had an umbrella in my purse) so we ran back to the toddler section, grabbed some pajamas (which are always needed in our house and even more so now that Merrin had just almost ruined a pair) and threw them on immediately in hopes that no one would even know I had a naked REDNECK baby in Target. We then went back to check out, paid for the pajamas that Merrin was already wearing and graciously walked out the store. Poor Merrin!!!! The point of the story, ALWAYS have back up diapers in your house and NEVER think your child can go longer than you think in an already full diaper but of course I'm sure most of you experienced moms out there already knew this! I'm sure I'll have many more moments like this one to look forward to and probably worse! Here is hoping that all of you had a less stressful morning than I.
Here is a pic of Merrin in her new pajamas...tags still on!

BYE BYE "BAPPY"

Drum roll please...........Merrin is officially pacifier free (or "bappy" free as Merrin likes to call it)! It was a decision I debated over for some time but considering the recommendation of Merrin's pediatrician who feels you should pull the pacifier around 18 months, and the fact that I didn't want to wait until Merrin was 2 because that's when the new baby will arrive and I just didn't think it would be fair to pull it then, right when she is having to adjust to the fact that she is not the only apple of my eye, and plus I didn't want to do it in a few months while transitioning her to a big girl bed (I'm only brave enough for one milestone at a time) which left me with little choice...either do it now or wait until she is in Kindergarten :) I am sure many of you moms can relate to my extreme amount of anxiety with pulling this wonderful invention away from my precious baby but much...MUCH... to my surprise, Merrin has handled it beautifully!!! Man, these pediatricians really know their stuff!! He told me that it probably wouldn't be as bad as I thought but I didn't believe him (I'm such a skeptic). Ever since Merrin turned one, she really only had her pacifier during nap times and bedtime so my fear was that my child would never sleep again but on the first night it only took 30 minutes of uncomfortable crying to get her fast asleep, the second night it took a little less but then tonight she was out within 30 seconds!!!!!!!!!!!!! I apologize for the above bragging but I'm just so proud of my girl, she amazes me every day...
Here is a look-back at some happy times Merrin had with her "bappy"!

Home Sweet Home

Merrin and I are officially home!! Our week in Arizona consisted of lots of fun including attending a local splash park, celebrating Emory's 1st birthday, going to an Arizona Diamond Backs game (which was lots of fun although a little stressful with two toddlers in tow) and watching Merrin and Emory have the best time with each other. We truly did have a wonderful time visiting with our family and can't wait to see them all again.
You can click HERE to see the rest of our pictures from our trip. I should have taken more but I forgot the charger for my camera battery :(
A huge THANK YOU to Eric, Laura and my sweet niece Emory for being such wonderful hosts.