~Hello Fall~

For the majority of my life, I have associated the Tuesday after Labor Day as the 'official' start of fall.  While I'm still usually wearing shorts, and sweating to death (as I did this morning at 645 trekking across the parking lot in the cool but humid DC air), Tuesday after Labor Day was usually the day I went back to school.  In fact, my four siblings started school today, and I may of gotten a little weepy seeing the first day of school pictures of them on Facebook.  

We have had a great summer.  A summer where I can look back and say we did things we wanted to do, celebrated our friends and family's triumphs, and enjoyed our time as a family.  We worked hard.  We made changes to our home, decided to stay a while, and started prepping for big family changes this fall.  We took Rowen to the beach.  We found out baby #2 is a boy.  And Rowen, he has grown so much in these short summer months, and the 'baby' that he was in June seems almost a distant memory.  

And while I usually mourn the end of summer, and the loss of the long lazy days, this year I am eagerly anticipating fall.  Again it may partially be do to my over abundant pregnant lady hot flashes. This fall, probably more than any other will be a season of change for us.  We have spent the last few weeks making major progress in the preparation for little brother, whether it was moving rooms or purging lots of clutter.  We are so close to being 'done' that we can taste it, and in a few weeks I think we will be finished.  From that point on, our time will be focused on enjoying our time as a family of three.  Enjoying these last few months with Rowen while I can still remember what it is like to have one little boy running and babbling around my house instead of two.  

And towards the end of the fall season, that quickly rolls into the holiday season (yes I think Christmas is an actual season), we will meet little brother.  While I'm trying to be patient, I'd be lying if I didn't admit that I can't wait to meet him, see if he is another mini Rudy, and watch his older brother love on him.  I may drag my feet and whine about still having eleven weeks to go, but I know that all too quickly these weeks will fly by, and so will fall.  

Will we be able to look back on this fall and say, 'We did everything we wanted to do', I'm not entirely sure.  But we will do a lot-like go to the pumpkin patch, trick or treat, play in the leaves, and maybe experience Rowen's first 'real' snow.  And at the end of Fall 2012, we will have grown, and will be a family of four.

So goodbye Summer 2012, you were a good one.  And hello Fall 2012!

~Tid Bits~

I am home today, and it has been kind of an odd week, as in I have spent way too much time watching the olympics, and lots of time indoors avoiding the excessive heat.  It was nice to wake up this morning to a downpour, but I'm not looking forward to the after rain excessive humidity that is sure to be here this afternoon. And while it has been a relatively lazy week of summer (isn't all of August that way?) I do have a few things to mention:

~ On Tuesday afternoon we took Rowen to get his stitches out.  A quick, painless, two minute procedure, which was thankfully much easier than him getting the stitches.  After the doctor's visit, we decided it was time to cut his unruly locks, for the fourth time I might add.  I know that if I ever have a girl she will end up being bald until she is two given the hair my boy child has.  We usually take him to a salon in the mall, but they had a two hour wait so we ended up at the JC Penny salon, which in case you didn't know is doing free haircuts for school aged children for the month of August.  Rowen got a great haircut, but it is definitely a little shorter than I would normally like to keep his hair.  Mainly because it makes him look like he is three years old and not 16 months old. 

post haircut and stitches removal

~ Remember when I said we thought we had decided on a name? Well after a month of using it, accidentally calling the dog and Rowen it, and trying to get used to it, I have decided that this name is simply not meant to be.  It is just too close to Rowen, and I can't imagine BR2 as it.  While this doesn't exactly excite Rudy, it wasn't his #1 name so he is ok with letting it go.  On a similar note, Parade Magazine last week announced the top ten boy and girl names of 2012 so far....

Girls

1. Emma 2. Olivia 3. Sophia 4. Ava 5. Isabella 6. Ella 7. Mia 8. Emily 9. Chloe 10. Lily 


Boys

1. Liam 2. Mason 3. Ethan 4. Noah 5. Jacob 6. Jack 7. Aiden 8. Logan 9. Jackson 10. Lucas 

None of my names are on this list, but I found it interesting that the twilight names are finally losing their reign. 

~Right now, and for the past week, I have been burning a new candle combination that I am in love with.

Beach Party + Raspberry Lime = Heavenly.  I found the Raspberry Lime to be a little overwhelming on its own and adding the more muted Beach Party seems to lessen the sweet strength just a bit.  Now if only Yankee Candle would bottle this combination so I don't have to buy two candles every time I burn the combo out!

We don't have any big plans for the weekend, other than hopefully watching the Mexican national soccer team win gold at the Olympics.  They are the only non American team we cheer for, and since the US men's team didn't even qualify for the Olympics I think its justified to have an alternative to support.  I still need to blog about last weekend when we decided to take Rowen to the aquarium, and he was not exactly happy about it.  Combined with the beach the current score in the Rivera household is: Rowen : 2  Mom and Dad : 0.  Although we are thinking of tackling the beach again in late September when it isn't oppressively hot.  Hopefully the weekend brings a break from the heat, but we shall see....

~2012 Half~

Its so hard to believe that it is already July 1st!  This year has literally been flying by! And with the start of a new month there are always a few things I need to catch up on with the blog.  Sorry for the picture overload!

~In a little under four short weeks we will be heading to New Hampshire for this lady's wedding! I still need to get my dress altered, find shoes, and finish up some other details, but I can't wait for her day! I can't believe this picture was taken over six years ago! 

~ We are headed to the beach!  Thankfully with the fourth falling in the middle of the week we were able to take the end of the week off, and are planning an overnight at the beach in Delaware!  Rowen has never been the beach and we are sooo excited to take him!

~Hopefully, Rowen enjoys the beach more than he did his little pool.  A couple of weeks ago I read about an inflatable pool and grabbed one for Rowen off of Amazon.  While he did enjoy the splashing...

Most of the time he was not happy...

And Jack was the only one brave enough to get close to the wee terror....

The crazy storms on friday saved us the decision of whether or not to keep the little pool as it was picked up and blown away! My fingers and toes are crossed that he likes the beach better!

~Continuing with the water theme, every Thursday is water play at daycare.  The kids have to show up dressed in their swim gear and they get to go outside and run through the sprinklers and play with water tables.  The first week Row loved it, last week apparently not.  But I was able to snap these pictures of him because it was the first day that I let him take his backpack, which he loves.  Putting this thing on is pretty much the only way I get him out of 'fun town' in the afternoons without a scene!  Excuse the 5 am bed head!

And that is big dog he is carrying as well!

~ With this crazy heat this weekend (thankfully we didn't lose power) we spent most of our time inside.  This afternoon I decided to tackle Rowen's room and de-clutter, and I'm pretty sure after spending two hours in there I could compete for hoarders.  Thankfully being pregnant makes me want to purge as much stuff as possible, so his room is looking a lot better at this point! 

~Lastly, a few more pictures of the man child.  I think eventually he will be grateful to have a brother so I stop taking his picture all the time!  Rowen is in love with our sunglasses.  Now he won't keep the pairs  I bought him on to save his life, but he could play with ours for hours.  I was able to get a few pictures of him 'wearing' my sunglasses!

I hope you all are staying cool and everyone had a wonderful weekend!