Brothers

Henry sees his little brother for the first time through the nursery window

At home

Manning brought Henry a Hans Solo (Star Wars) figure and he was sooo excited!!!

My first picture with my two boys!

Manning's Visitors

Uncle D and Keller

Aunt Hanna

Nana

Charlie and Manning

Auntie Jeans

Pops

Mimi

Christina

Margaret

Papa

T.T.

John Manning Hook (my Papa whom Manning is named after) and Grammy

Introducing...

Manning Sloan Earnst
Born Friday March 26th at 3:15am
6lbs. 13 oz
20 1/4 inches long

We are home and getting settled in now! Manning is more precious than words can describe and I am overcome with the amount of room a mothers heart makes for a second child. He looks so much like Henry did as a newborn and is so cuddly! I am totally in love!

Nesting

I went into major nesting mode yesterday. I mean, I had this SERIOUS urge to clean my house. And it had just been professionally deep cleaned on Monday thanks to my sweet M-I-L. So off I went sweeping and mopping and dusting each room in the house. And I did not have this urge when I was pregnant with Henry. Just ask Deb ;) She arrived to a pig sty and did her best along with a cleaning lady to get it up to par. You see, I HATE cleaning. I LOVE to tidy, but not so much deep clean.
They say that women go into nesting mode just before they go into labor as a primal need to prepare their "nests" for their offspring.
Here's hoping my labor is just around the corner. I am sooooo ready!

Henry 3 Year Well Check

Henry had his 3 year old well check today with Dr. Traynham. Brad had the honors today since I was working and had my 38 week checkup and reports that it went great! Here are the highlights:

• one shot and one finger prick and NO CRYING! Such a big boy!
  
• retrieving tee tee in a cup for the first time
• Height : 38 inches (75th percentile)
• Weight 37 lbs (90th percentile)

Dr. T said Henry is right on track developmentally and is going to be a "big man!"

The Shrimp

Henry has a new fear in life. The Shrimp!
I fear that this is his "monster in the closet." His "gremlin under the bed."
It all started Friday night when Brad grilled the most delicious shrimp. We cleaned up dinner, gave the boy a bath, and tucked him into bed. Well, we got a shout out in the middle of the night saying that sumping is in my bed. Brad and I both checked in the bed, under the covers, and under the bed. Nothing was there. So we tucked him back in and all was fine. Until the next morning. He woke up and kept insisting that their was a shrimp in his bed. I looked again and no shrimp. We kind of thought Lucy might have gotten one out of the trash and put it in his bed, but it's now been 3 days and his obsession with The Shrimp has grown. He is scared to get out of his bed. He is scared to get his toys unless it's broad daylight. He is scared to put his clothes in the hamper. We have to hold his hand so he can jump really far away from the bed when it's time to get up. I think he really thinks there is this jumbo, evil shrimp looming around the corner ready to attack him at any moment. We keep ensuring him that there is no shrimp and that we are always here to protect him, but he really is scared. Any ideas on what we should do to break this?

Merry Christmas...2.5 months late

For Christmas 2009 Daniel and Keller surprised the whole family and bought us a private cooking lesson. We had a hard time coming up with a date that worked for everyone's busy schedule, but finally came up with March 4th. And it was so worth the wait!

Daniel and Keller had taken a lesson with John before and loved him/became bff's and talked him into giving us all a private lesson. He works out of a show kitchen downtown on King St. call Siematic Kitchen and it is oh so posh. It's a German company with very upscale and modern kitchens. We had to come up with a theme and had a hard time with that with a few picky eaters, but finally decided on Spanish Fare. John demonstrated how to cook clams for the appetizer, Paella for the main course, and fried milk with homemade caramel sauce and ice cream for dessert. I have never had Paella and it was divine! It was chock full of seafood, rice, tomatoes, onions, peppers, and so much spice. And it's all cooked right on the stove top. He is sending Keller all of the recipes and I can't wait to try it!

We had so much fun doing this together and John and Frankie loved each other so much we've invited him over for a Fried Chicken Throw Down for his birthday in May. There is no one on this earth who can cook up some homemade fried chicken like this woman, so it should be interesting:)
The wine flowed (except for me) and the conversation was great!

Daniel and Keller, thank you so much for such a fun and unique Christmas gift! It really was worth the wait!

Batter Blaster

Ok, I am here to promote a rather new product on the market. Batter Blaster! Brad saw it at Costco a month or two ago and thought it looked kind of gross. But then last week on our favorite t.v. show CBS Sunday Morning, Andy Rooney did a whole segment on it so we decided to give it a try.

It comes in a can that looks like whipped topping and you simply pop the top, squirt on your griddle/pan, flip, and enjoy! They are seriously delicious and even my picky 3 year old loved them. He ate 7 "silver dollars"! Brad even put fresh blueberries in mine! And the best part is NO CLEANUP! AAAAANNNNNDDD, it's certified organic, so you can feel good about feeding your family a good healthy breakfast!

So, that's my pitch! Give 'em a go! I promise you'll be a fan!

37 Weeks, Full Term

How your baby's growing:

Congratulations — your baby is full term! This means that if your baby arrives now, his lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though your due date is still three weeks away.

Your baby weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long. But don't be surprised if your baby's hair isn't the same color as yours. Dark-haired couples are sometimes thrown for a loop when their children come out as blonds or redheads, and fair-haired couples have been surprised by Elvis look-alikes. And then, of course, some babies sport only peach fuzz.

Well, it seems as though I have arrived at full term! I saw Dr. H today and she said that if labor started today she would do nothing to stop it. Little bitty is cooked!
I am going every week now and last week we discussed inducing toward the end. I mentioned that I am not real keen on this idea and she agreed. I sort of feel like i'd like for this to happen "organically" unless of course there is something wrong and we need to get him out. With Henry, my water broke the day before my due date so there was no question we were headed to the hospital. I can't wait to see how this one happens! His head is down, heartbeat is good, and my BP is good. I am not even dilated to one and no effacement, but am totally ok with that. I think with the 2nd one you're so much more relaxed about everything.
I am feeling ok, but am getting a nasty cold/sinus infection (3rd d@%mn one this pregnancy). She gave me an antibiotic and said I should be good to go by the time labor comes around. I feel like I'm waddling now and just feel tired in general. But mostly, I just can't wait to hold Manning in my arms and see what he looks like.
I'll be keeping you posted so stay tuned!

Henry's New Room

Brad and I worked all day Sunday to get Henry's new room all set up and the nursery all ready to go. I feel SOOO much better now and feel we are finally "ready for launch!"

I decided to go with a sports theme for his new room b/c I think it can grow with him and not be to babyish. Nothing over the top, just a few balls here and there. He loves it and has slept great the past 3 nights. The nursery is essentially the same as it was with Henry, just a few changes. I'll post those when all is hung.

Now, the highlight of his new room is his special wall art. Courtesy of his Nana, Mrs. Debbie M. Sloan. She hand painted these three canvases especially for his room and they turned out beautiful! I wish I had 1/4 of her talent. These pieces of art will be with Henry as he grows up and as my Dad mentioned, he can pass these down to his children. Very special!

Henry's 3rd Birthday Party

Yesterday was the big birthday party and a TON of fun was had by all! Especially the birthday boy who was surrounded by lots of his little friends! We had it in the Earnsts back yard and it was a beautiful day. The kids loved the ginormous jump castle and so did some of the adults ;)

We had pizza, fruit, bbq potato chips, juice boxes, and spider man cupcakes (courtesy of Mimi)...all requested by Henry.

Each child received a beach bucket and shovel on their way out the door b/c every little Charleston child needs one for the summer!

These were the awesome spider man cupcakes that Mimi made!

And this was one tired little 3 year old!
He crashed after the party, but not to worry, Spider Man got to nap with him.

Thanks to Mimi and Pops for letting us have the party at your house. It was great!

Henry's Birthday (at school)

Brad and I took Krispy Kreme donuts (Henry's fave) to school on Friday to celebrate with his little class. He was so excited when we got there at 10:30 and loved when everyone sang Happy Birthday!