Happy Birthday, Thor!!!

Our baby is 2 years old!!!  Whew, have these past 2 years flown. 

July 2008 - 5 weeks old.  This was the day we brought Thor home.

August 2008 - 2 months old.  Thor's very first time swimming.

September 2008 - 3 months old.

Beginning of October 2008 - 4 months old.

End of October 2008 - 4 months old.

November 2008 - 5 months

April 2009 - 10 months old.  Thor sportin' my sports bra. 

May 2009 - 11 months old at the dog park. 

August 2009 - 13 months old.  In the middle of the move into our old house. 

November 2009 - 17 months old.  Recovering from his foot surgery. 

December 2009 - 18 months old. 

April 2010 - 22 months old. 

May 2010 - 23 months old.  Trying to stay cool. 

Thor Early-Insane Copeland - 2 years old!!!

(This picture was taken just a couple of days ago.) 

I cannot imagine Thor not being in our lives.  He has such a big personality and is a great companion dog.  I was very hesitant about getting a dog of his breed before we got him.  But the minute we met this little 6 pound grizzly bear in Temple, Texas, Dave and I were both in love. 

Thor has had his ups and downs with us so far.  He has damaged many, many, many things due to his large size and love for underwear and socks.  He has also had a series of medical problems such as the infected toenail, the bouts of giardia, and the scuffle with our neighbor's dog.  However, all of these things have just made the adventure of living with him that much more fun. 

I'm very grateful to our families who have come to except Thor despite his drooling, shedding, tendancy to step on their toes, and tendancy to snatch napkins and other items off of their tables and counters.   He loves you all, maybe a little too much even!!! 

Happy Birthday, big boy!!! ( I know, I know, he can't log onto the internet, but he can read really well). You are going to make the best friend for our baby, as you have been such a good friend to us.

New Tenant

We are currently TEMPORARILY housing a new tenant at la Casa de los Copelands.  Meet Storm:

Storm entered our lives on Wednesday morning, June 9, 2010.  We had left our garage door open overnight, unintentionally of course, and there was a pretty big thunderstorm all night.  When I woke up in the morning to take Thor for a walk in the rain, Storm was hanging out in the garage hiding from the thunder and lightening.  I fell in love with him immediately.  I let Thor and Storm play for a little bit, and then fed them both.

We left Storm in our garage for the day.  We have good ventilation in the garage and because of the weather it was not going to get very hot.  I spent sometime at work on Wednesday calling vets in the area to see if anyone had reported a missing dog, posted a "found" ad on craigslist and on petfinders.com, and called a couple of no-kill shelters to put Storm on their waiting lists.  I didn't want to have the shelter or animal control pick him up because I felt I could be more successful in finding his home, or a home for him.   We are pretty sure he had a home at one time, but is a stray now.   He will sit and stay on command, and is pretty good with the words "no" and "come".

When we returned from work in the evening, Dave opened the garage door and Storm took off, just bolted out of the garage and ran away.  It was a pretty funny joke because my mom was kidding that I was imprisoning him against his will.  Thor and I took a walk around the neighborhood looking for him, but nothing.  No Storm Thursday morning, but low and behold, Storm returned this morning.

Silly silly silly us, we left the garage open, again.  Thor and I walked into the garage and were happily greeted by Storm.  We took our walk like normal, and Storm followed us the whole way.   So I got back to the house, fed & watered both dogs, and talked it over with Dave.  

We decided to put Storm in the backyard for the day and schedule a vet appointment for him in the morning to see what his health is like.  Dave seems to think the dog has mange, I sort of agree except I really don't know what mange looks like.  He has splotchy patterns of hair on his upper body, but there isn't any exposed skin or scratching.  If he does it's the very early stages and we should know tomorrow.  I do know that mange is easily cured if treated.  Hopefully he doesn't have it.  Maybe he is just older than he looks?  Or that is just his natural hair pattern?  I think he looks good, other than a tad skinny.  He can't weigh more than 50lbs.  He's tiny compared to our big boy, Thor.

So Dave put Storm in the backyard, with some water, and with the dog igloo from my father-in-law that we have been keeping in the garage.  Storm seemed to settle in quite nicely, but Thor was going crazy.  Thor is having a hard time not humping Storm right now.  On our walk he was fine because he was on the leash and I was able to control him.  Once I took him off the leash he would immediately try and mount poor Storm.  I tried to explain the birds and the bees, and that Storm is a boy dog, but Thor could not control his emotions. 

We split the two dogs up because of Thor's, um, issues.

Thor cried and cried, too. 

Look at that face!!!  (Remember, he is looking for a forever home!)

I think that Dave is afraid that I will want to keep him if he is around too long.  I really think he has the potential to be a wonderful pet, and I think that he deserves a good home.  However, I'm not prepared for another dog yet; especially with a baby on the way. 

It is already hard and expensive to board our one dog if we ever want to go out of town, or hard to manage when we take Thor with us to our family's houses.  I would really like to find him a good home.  I think he will make a family very happy if they can open their home to him.  We will take care of him as long as we can, and pending a relatively clean bill of healthy, and we will just go from there.  Kinda like foster parents.

So, on that note, if anyone knows of a family in the Central Texas area that would consider adopting this sweet sweet dog, let me know!!! Also, please spread the word if you can. 

Please comment here, shoot me a message on Facebook, or email me at amcopeland2010@yahoo.com  

Pregnancy survey thingy.

I have gone back and forth about wanting to start a baby blog for all baby stuff so that I can continue to write about other things as well.  However, I have every single social netoworking site already, so I figured I will make my life simple and keep this same blog. 

So I'm sorry if this blog is completely taken over with pregnancy, baby, doctor's appointments, and TMI details!!!  FYI, my next doctor's appointment is this Thursday!  Looking forward to hearing our little one's heartbeat again.  Then we will have the big anatomy scan ultrasound on June 23.  This appointment will allow our doctor to measure all of baby's growing body parts and take a look to make sure that everythings is going well inside.  I'm sort of nervous about this because I really want our baby to be healthy and perfect, and I hope this doctor's appointment can confirm that up to this point.  Who knew that being pregnant could really make me such a nervous wreck about everything. 

We will also be finding out the sex of our baby at this appointment if we are able. 

Below is a little pregnancy survey thingy that I have seen on some other ladies blogs.  I hope to fill out a couple of more of these throughout pregnancy to compare and eventually print out for our baby book. 

How far along? 15w 2d


Total weight gain/loss: Unofficially about 4-5lbs according to our scale at home.  I will know the official weight gain on Thursday. 

Maternity clothes? Not really.  I'm still wearing all of my normal tops, and I have one pair of maternity pants for work that I have worn twice.

Stretch marks? Nope. 

Sleep:  I have not had many problems sleeping.  I still get up to pee about 3 times a night, and then I usually get up to let the dog out around 5am.  No troubles falling back to sleep though!

Best moment this week: I've been VERY good about taking walks lately.  Despite the heat, Thor and I usually find time to take a brisk 30-45 minute walk. 

Movement: None yet!  I'm so ready to start feeling this baby moving around. 
Food cravings:  No crazy or strong food cravings.  I had some killer ones in 1st trimester, but luckily that has passed. 

Food aversions:  I can pretty much eat anything again.  Although, lately raw green bell peppers always sounds unappetizing, but I have still eaten them. 
Gender:  My gut feeling at this point is that baby is a girl, and Dave also has a feeling it's a girl. 

Labor Signs: Ha, no, thank goodness.

Belly Button in or out? In, until I stretch my arms over my head and then it pops out!  It's pretty gross.  I think it's only a matter of weeks before it's fully out.  Kinda excited about that.  Strange, I know.

What I miss: I miss taking really hot hot hot baths every now and then.  I am still taking a bath here and there but I'm keeping the water more warm than hot, and trying to keep the water lower than my whole belly.  I don't want to cook our baby. 

What I am looking forward to:  My doctor's appointment on Thursday. 
Weekly Wisdom:  "The will to succeed is nothing without the will to prepare."  We are preping for a med-free birth using the Bradley method.  We start our series of classes the first week of September and both Dave and I are reading up on natural med-free births right now.  They say that many women are not successful in achieving their birthing goals because of lack or mental and physical prep.  So we have started prepping REALLY early. 

Milestones: I'm now officially in the second trimester. 

Baby thoughts....

There are so many things out there to buy for babies!  It drives me crazy because I want it all, whether we will need it or not.  Everything is just so darn cute, but rationality and budget kicks in, and I know I will have to pick and choose what we actually do get.  I also know that as the baby grows we can buy the items that we feel like would be helpful in taking care of our little one.

Some of the wants and needs that I am currently drooling over:

"Tie One On" by Lovey Duds.  This is very similar to the Moby Wrap, but it has the stylish fabric cover in the front.  There are tons of different designs, too.

These are Gund Baby HuggyBuddies.  I had something very similar to these with a Snoopy head and I took him everywhere until I dropped him on a bike ride one day.  I would love for our baby to have their very own "Theethee" as I called mine.  They have satin ears and are really soothing to rub as baby is trying to fall asleep.

This is the Baby Trend Columbia Jogger.   I don't have my heart set on this particular stroller, but I do know that we will need a good walking/jogging stroller.  So far my only pre-req has been that the stroller's front wheel swivels.  I have heard from other mommas that the strollers without the swivel front wheel is much harder to manuver.  We will also need one of those combo strollers for the carseat.

It's a roller buggy!!!  How genuis is this.  I mean, it really defeats the purpose of going for a walk if you are pushing the stroller like a buggy.  But, it makes total sense if you like somewhere like NYC (or Leander, Texas).

The picture above is the Summer Infant Soothing Spa and Shower.  It is a mini baby spa for a relax bathtime after babies long day of work :).  I will more thank likely not be getting this for our baby, but still it's very neat! 

This item is called the "Breast Friend".  This is SO cool, but I know there are also boppies available that are multi-purpose (can be used for feedings and to assist baby in sitting up & tummy time).  I saw this at Babies 'R Us this weekend and will definately be getting it, or the Boppy, pictured below.

 

The hottest coolest time in Texas: Schlitterbahn, bahn!

Last year Jono, Lexie, Dave and I went to Schlitterbahn on a whim one weekend, and we wanted to do a repeat this year.  This year we went on Memorial Day and Sarah and Brittany also came along and we had a blast!  I would love to go next year, and the year after and make it an annual thing.  I love love love Schlitterbahn, and I love being in a swimsuit and in the water and in the sun.

Unfortunately this year I could not ride as many rides and I usually did, but it was still a lot of fun, and I still got to ride a decent amount of rides.  One of the best things about this water park is that you are allowed to bring in your own coolers and picnic lunches.  We all packed a lunch and shared a locker for our valuables, and we were able to stake out a good table for the day. 

Sarah & Brit chatting away into Schlitterbahn

The girlies

Eating lunch

The Copelands

This was our group picture before we all got sunburns :( (Me and my little baby belly, Dave, Sarah, Brittany, Lexie, and JonO)

I can't wait till next year if we decide to go again with Baby C!!!

Girlfriend can sing!

This is a week late, but I still felt that it deserves its own blog!  Sarah's Spring Choir Show was last week, and let me tell you, we were so proud of her.

Dave, my mother-in-law, Annette, and I all drove up to Killeen on that Tuesday after work.  We had a quick dinner at my parent's house and then we all headed to the concert. 

Sarah sang in about 4 different numbers, and she had a solo in one of the group songs, and she sang a solo song, too!  I was so nervous for her! You would have thought I was the one performing.  She did wonderfully.  Also, to top it all off , she won the big yearly award too!  She was awarded the Choir Director's award. 

I'm slightly more hormonal due to the pregnancy, so I cried of course. Dave got a real kick out of that.  I was so embarrassed that I was actually tearing up that she won this award, but I was so proud of her.  Plus, we have never really gotten to see her perform in choir with so many solos and I was impressed.  The choir director had such nice and powerful things to say about Sarah's talent and her personality. 

My parents have done an awesome job and raising this little girl!  Go Mom and Dad!!

After the concert.  May 25, 2010.

Bathtime!!!

Last week it was finally time to give Thor a bath.  We recently got his flea & tick medicine, but we needed to bathe him before we applied a dose.  Bathtime with Thor is 10x better in the summer because we can take care of it in the yard with a hose, otherwise he is in our tub and bathtime is usually followed by an entire bottle of Draino because of his hair!

Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

This is video of Thor at the start of his bath before I have to help out a little.  He is actually pretty good about it, once he gets over trying to eat the waterhose.

Thor hanging out in the laundry room until he is all dry!

And, completely unrelated:

This cart truly makes my day.  It is two of my strongest pregnancy cravings all wrapped up in one little mobile shop.  Roasted Corn & Shaved Ice!!!