Baby Girl Gensic's Painting

At pretty much this exact same time in my pregnancy with Shepherd, I painted him a watercolor painting for his room. The idea was for him to always have a painting I did specifically for him while I was waiting for his arrival. Thursday, I finished my little girl's painting. This isn't a great picture of it, but you can get a general idea.


Overall, the nesting instinct is starting to kick in pretty severely. I know I'm nesting when I start cleaning in the places no one ever actually sees, and that is what I've been doing every day for the past week. It makes sense. The third trimester officially kicks off tomorrow. Even though this pregnancy has gone fairly quickly for me, three months still sounds like an eternity. I can't wait to have my daughter here in our crazy little home. Shepherd and BJ are currently practicing drum technique with BJ's old sticks and practice pads. Basically, she won't have a quiet house to come home to, but we will make it fun for her.

Things 18 Month-Old's Do

They eat goldfish. Lots and lots of goldfish.

They ask to have their shoes put on at the most nonsensical times, such as on their way to bath time.

They get really happy when they are naked.

They give Sesame Street their undivided attention. (Incidentally, this means that for the first time since Shepherd was born, my hair and makeup are done most days.)

They use their pointer fingers to make they gibberish sound more authoritative. It is actually a pretty effective rhetorical technique.

They know exactly what to do with a steering wheel.
And when their face is positioned just so, their fat cheeks make them still look like a baby in their mother's eyes.

A Few Pictures from Easter

As seems to always be the case, Easter day was wet and cold. Fortunately, Shepherd's expectations of an Easter egg hunt are pretty much non-existent, so we just did a little hunt down our house's hallway. Each egg had a chocolate graham cracker bunny in it, so he just made his way through his afternoon snack one egg at a time.
Shepherd also got some an Easter package from his Mamm and Pap. Here he is opening it!
One last picture. This is Shepherd all after we got home from church. Isn't he so cute in his little suit?!?

The Family Tree

Shepherd and I are spending a few days in Menard so that we can help my dad celebrate his 60th birthday tomorrow. Being around family has reminded me of the gene pool where my son's eclectic personality comes from. So, briefly, here is a list of the parts of our immediate families that I see in Shepherd:

BJ: Just look at them.

BJ's Dad (Papa): Inquisitiveness. Papa is a chemist.

BJ's Mom (Nana): An outie. Everyone else in the family tree has an innie belly button. Incidentally, this is the feature of which Shepherd is by far the most proud and the most apt to show off.

BJ's Sister (Auntie Al): Busyness. Just plain old busyness.

Me: A shy streak. When meeting new people he always breifly looks down at his shoes before offering them a smile.

My Dad (Pap): Gluttony.

My Mom (Mamm): Sociability. Mom is the only other person I know who socializes as much as Shepherd when they go to church.

My Brother (Uncle Bro): A love of books.

Sock Man

Every week of toddlerhood brings new developments, obsessions, and (in our son, anyways) quirks. This past week, Shepherd kept pulling BJ's socks out of his sock drawer and bringing them to me. I couldn't figure out what his wanted, so eventually, I just decided to put the socks on him.

He thought this was pretty great, so he brought me another pair. Since he only has two feet (both of which already had socks), I put them on he hands.

Now, socks are officially the coolest toy in the house. Here is a picture from a few days ago when he brought a pair to his father. BJ calls it "Socks on the Go":

I don't know how long socks will hold a fascination with Shepherd. All I know is that toddlers are wonderfully weird little people, which makes them really fun to live with.

A Muddy Puddle

After five days of rain, my little out-doors-man son nearly went in sane this past week. Only once during the week did the rain let up enough for us to run outside. Here's what happened during our brief outing.

Shepherd immediately noticed the giant rain puddle outside our backdoor, so he did what any self-respecting toddler boy would do. He stepped in it.

Then, he squatted down and ran his fingers through the murky waters.

Soon, he realized that muddy puddles were capable of being splashed much like his bath water.

Of course, he isn't allowed to stand in his bath, but he eventually realized that the muddy puddle was a perfect spot to experiment with step splashing.

And the splashing-by-jumping technique.

Then he found a stick.

And he found that you can splash muddy puddles with sticks.

So he set in the middle of the puddle and splashed the muddy waters with his stick for a good fifteen minutes.
As a result of everything I have hereto mentioned, this is what his face looked like prior to me stripping him down in the yard and carrying him at arm's length to the bath tub.

Needless to say, in Shepherd's book, this was the greatest of all great days, and he finds most days to be pretty great.

Mommy's little farmer

This summer, we are hoping to have a garden in a raised bed in our backyard. Currently, the bed is full of very tall grass, but yesterday afternoon, BJ and Shepherd worked together on remedying that problem.

During the afternoon of hard work, it is possible (that is, if the muddy drool is any indication) that Shepherd ate some (or a lot) of the soil.

He ran circles around BJ while BJ pulled and pulled and pulled.

He examined the integrity of the bed walls while the wind blew his hair in a super-model way that makes me giggle.

This photo is only here to demonstrate the general cuteness of dimpled elbows on toddlers.

He also talked and talked and talked about gardening. Of course, his 'talking' has very few actual words in it, but it still all sounds very important.

All in all, it was a good day outside. All this boy wants to do these days is play outside, and when he is happily playing with rocks, sticks, and dirt, I can't help but think that is exactly where little boys belong.

A totally inappropriate blogpost

Words of wisdom I overheard passed from father to son tonight while BJ gave Shepherd a bath:

"Trust me son. That is the last place you want an infection."

The Wedding

As of Saturday, my brother is officially married. When I sat down to write this post, I quickly found that a day and an occasion this momentous and joyful is hard to put into words, so for the sake of ease, here is a top ten list (in no particular order) of my favorite things/moments about Bro's wedding.

1. the rehearsal dinner. Of course, the rehearsal dinner was my family's 'job', and we had a blast doing it. We gave out paper-back classics for party favors, had handmade bookmarks for the place cards, and had beautiful, handmade menus. And the food! The food was a feast of Egyptian food. Sounds odd, I know, but Egyptian food really should be more popular. It is amazing!

2. playing dress up. It had been a while since I had the opportunity to put on a formal dress and really do my hair. Despite being the size of a small fishing boat, there is a little girl within who just wants to be pretty. Also, it was fun seeing my family dressed up. Mom, Dad, and Bro all looked pretty dang spiffy.
3. seeing Shep in a tie. Being a product of BJ's gene pool, this is sure to be a rare thing, so I am choosing to enjoy it while he is too young to protest.
4. catching up with old friends and family. After three years of being secluded in Kentucky, there were a whole lot of people at this wedding who I hadn't seen for years. Also, I'd never met the one-year-old son of my brother's best man, Will. It was a treat both catching up with the old and meeting the new.

5. being a 'groomswoman'. I stood with my brother and Will for the wedding. As cliche as it sounds, it was truly an honor. When I was first asked to be a groomsman, Mom declared that I would be the prettiest groomsman ever. I responded that while I didn't know about that, I was quite sure I'd be the most pregnant. I was right. (As an added bonus, Will was happy to stand next to me because I made him look taller and skinnier.)

6. watching BJ officiate the ceremony. BJ did a wonderful job officiating the wedding. He shared the job with a wonderful minister from the Methodist church were the wedding was held, and they matched up perfectly. BJ gave the sermonette at the beginning of the ceremony, and it was about how marriage is one of the 'thin places' where we see the character of God and the good he intended for us. Hearing my spouse's view on marriage was pleasantly eye-opening. Basically, I'm really glad I'm married to someone who sees marriage the way BJ sees it.

7. BJ dropping the ring. In a priceless oops, BJ dropped one of the rings while he was praying a blessing over them. After amen-ing, he announced, "I just dropped one of the rings, and it is right there (pointing at the bottom of Stephanie's full skirt)." It was easily retrieved, and things moved on.

8. imagining incredibly cute nieces and nephews. Stephanie was a breath-takingly gorgeous bride, so what can I say? My mind went there.

9. taking communion. Bro and Stephanie decided to take communion as their first act as a married couple, and the rest of the church was invited to join them. It was a perfect reminder of the sacredness of marriage, the beauty of our faith, and the generosity of God. Simply put, it was one of those moments when the presence of God was tangible.

10. seeing my brother happy. Honestly, is there anything better?

The Difference Between a Mother and a Father

On learning our second child is a girl...

One of the first things I said was, "Yay! I get to plan a wedding one day!"

At that exact moment, BJ later informed me that he had been thinking, "Oh crap, I have to pay for a wedding one day."

Forget Super Tuesday: Here is the really important news of the day!

Last time, I let BJ share the news, so this time, I'll let Shepherd do the honors.


She is healthy and beautiful and wonderful. She never stopped moving the whole ultrasound. What an unbelievable blessing!

A gift

A couple of weeks ago, one of the wonderful ladies at our church offered to buy BJ a clerical robe. For those of you unfamiliar with these robes, it is a huge deal to get one. Most ministers are given one by the church they grew up in when they are first ordained, and these robes are pretty much used for the rest of one's career. For the next thirty something years, BJ will look like this on Sunday mornings.


Seeing BJ in the robe means so much to me. For one thing, it represents the generosity and kindness of the people at our church. It reminds me that they have taken us in as more than just an employee, but as a treasured member of their family. It is also an outside symbol of what BJ has been constantly being formed into for the past five years of our marriage: a man of God's ministry. Of course, he is that without the robe, but the robe, in all of it's old-world quirkiness, reminds us that this is a calling different from any other God gives, and that it is to be taken seriously by the one who is called and those who support him or her. Perhaps I'm reading a bit much into a robe, but I am very glad BJ was bless with this gift.

*sniff, sniff*

This pregnancy has been quite different from my first. I was more nauseated and more hungry the first trimester than at any other time in my life. I started showing a lot earlier. But mostly, I've just been much more emotional than I remember being with Shepherd. Crying is becoming a daily occurrence. Here are just a handful of the things that are making me cry these days:

1. One of Shepherd's favorite books is Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney. Since it is a favorite, I read it 3 to 5 times every single day. The last line of the book is the daddy bunny saying to his son, "I love you all the way to the the moon and back." Everytime I read that last line, all 3 to 5 times a day, 21 to 35 times a week, and 90 to 150 times a month, I cry.

2. If you've ever been around me and BJ, you know that we do a lot of psuedo-argumentative, playful banter pretty much every moment we are together. It is just who we are. During dinner the other night, we were in the middle of some verbal jousting when all of the sudden I broke down crying. Whatever little joke BJ had said apparently hit too close to home, and it hurt my feelings. So like a complete idiot, I started gushing tears in between bites in the middle of a nice evening meal. When BJ started panicking and asking me what was wrong, I simply responded, "I'm just so pregnant."

3. For the past couple of months, BJ and I have been watching through Frasier on Netflix. We just got to the episode where a major character, Niles, has heart bypass surgery. When his wife, Daphne, was telling him goodbye before the surgery, I broke down crying. During what should have been a relaxing lunch hour, BJ paused the episode to see what was wrong with me, I sobbed, "I just can't stop thinking about what it would be like if you ever have heart surgery." I probably should have just made the I'm-so-pregnant excuse again.

On that note, here is a picture of the 4-month bump. It is sizeable.

A few things I love about my 16-month-old son

When we have our outdoor time every day, he relishes everything about it. I guess it is one of those things where I'm seeing the world again through his eyes, but whatever is going on, I find I enjoy doing nothing more than standing outside a lot more than I ever have before.

He has a handsome face. I apologize in advance for broken hearts that might occur as a result of this face.

He has the tiniest bit of a shy streak. It is the part of me that snuck into his gene pool.

My Monday morning grocery shopping took over an hour this morning, and he quietly set in the grocery cart an chomped on some snacks the whole time. As every mother knows, this is something to really, really love.

Happy Valentine's Day from Shepherd

Last year, Shepherd was too small to do much more than wear a cute onesie for Valentine's Day. This year, he got his first official Valentine's gift! It was a card and a box of chocolate's from his Mamm and Pap Pierce. Here are a few pictures of my kiddo enjoying the loot. If he likes eating the box this much, just think how happy he'll be when I let him open it!



Also, as a side note, Tuesdays happen to be laundry day at our house, and laundry day happens to be Shepherd's favorite day. The fact that Valentine's Day landed on a Tuesday is just icing on the cake for Shepherd. So here are some pictures of Shepherd doing what Shepherd loves doing the most: playing with dirty laundry.

On expecting my second child

I just did the pony-tail band loop on my blue jean's button for the first time this pregnancy. It is one of those we-really-are-having-a-baby moments.

Pregnancy number two has been much more surreal than my pregnancy with Shepherd. I don't know if it is because it happened so much sooner than we expected or because we had a miscarriage scare early on (a long story for another time), but it is really hard to believe that we will soon be the four of us. Perhaps, that is why I haven't blogged on this pregnancy quite as much. It hasn't sunk in yet.

That being said, the important things have been the same with this pregnancy. I find myself day-dreaming about who he or she might be. I love reading what size it is with each passing week (right now, he or she is the size of an avocado). I am itching to start the nesting process and get a space and essential items ready (this will kick off in a few weeks when we find out gender). But mostly, I just find myself in the mushy process of falling for a child I can only imagine, a process also known as pregnancy. Despite the surreal-ness of the pregnancy, this is exactly were I want to be.