Strange things that escape the mouth of a 4-year old!

Benz and I went out to dinner the other night at a great local 50's style diner called Boppin Bo's. He was off of school the next day and Matt was busy at home studying for his CMA exam, so we went for a mother-son "date." We sat down and Benz insisted on doing it all himself. He opened up the menu and looked to be reading it. I told him the two things on the kids menu he could choose from were grilled cheese or mac & cheese. He seemed to be pondering his choice when the waitress came to take our order. She said: "And what would you like for dinner, little man?" He looked up at her very seriously and loudly answered, "king cake!" (FYI: King cake is a delicious cinnamon roll pastry made in New Orleans only during Mardi Gras season and is covered with purple, green and gold icing and has a plastic baby doll baked inside!)

Every morning I open up Benz's door and greet him with a "Good Morning!" Lately, the first thing out of his mouth, before even climbing out of bed, has been "us go today, Mama?" I guess running the street runs in the family. My Grandpa Meynier just LOVES to get out of the house and go anywhere and that bug definately bit me! Benz doesn't usually care where we go as long as we get out of the house at least once every day:)

We've seen the beginning of Benz's "little white lies." He's pretty sneaky on a regular basis but lately his little tricks have made there way back to my ear. Grandma Brawley picked him up from school a few weeks ago and as soon as he got settled into his carseat he made sure to tell her that "Mama said no nap." That is the farthest from the truth but I think he thought he'd get away with it:)

One step closer to manhood!

Monday was a big, big day for me. As many of you know, Benz has been attending a wonderful speech therapy program since he turned 2 years old. Last January he moved into the 3-5 classroom and he began attending school 3 days a week for about 2.5 hours per day. At first it was hard for me to let go, but now I truly look forward to the time I have alone (especially now since it will only last for another few months!). It gives me a chance to go to the grocery store without Benz trying to sneak all of his favorite snacks into the cart and

gives him a great outlet to socialize and work on his ever developing speech skills.

So when I first enrolled him, they offered me the opportunity to have a bus pick him up in front of our house and then return him to me after school. Matt & I were both not emotionally ready to let a three year old ride the bus on his own, especially one that was struggling to communicate with us. I was the only mom in the entire school that would transport my child to and from each day. It wasn't that big of a deal to me, as it's about 5 miles from our house but only 6 blocks from where I work. But with the new baby impending and lots of other changes to be made to our household this summer, I decided to bit the bullet and give the bus a try now.

So on Monday, he packed up his school bag, put on his coat and shoes and Matt and I hugged and kissed him just as the mini yellow bus pulled up in front of our house. I was able to walk on with him, get him settled and take a few pics for the album. Thank goodness there are seatbelts on this bus; that helped ease my panicked state just a bit. I headed back down the driveway and turned around to see the cutest little face pressed against the window. He was smiling ear to ear and waved goodbye to me and then sweetly blew me a kiss as the bus pulled away with my baby in tow! It gets easier every day and Benz just adores his new mode of transportation but with each step, it gets harder to let him go.

I'm Officially Outnumbered!

So I think you'd have to be living in a cave or off on a faraway island not to have heard the big news a few weeks back. Matt & I found out via ultrasound that we will be welcoming another baby boy to our family in June. It blew us all of the water that day, as many of us were expecting this one to be a little girl. It's a very sensitive topic for me, but we are thrilled that this baby is healthy (from what we can tell) and Benz is so over the moon with the idea of having a little bro to chase around.

For the most part, I'd say my pregnancy has been physically uneventful thus far; I've just been trying to take it a bit easier than I had been. According to my doctor, I have what they call a marginal previa. For those of you that aren't versed in gynecological terms, it translates to being a low lying placenta. From what I've learned, most times the placenta attaches high on the uteran wall. If it attaches low and covers the cervix, that can mean big trouble. Mine is just above the danger zone, closer to the cervix than they'd like. And I guess placentas can travel over the pregnancy and generally move upwards towards the end of the second trimester. So that's what we're hoping for and I will have another ultrasound in about 3 weeks to check on the progress of its voyage. Who knew this blog would be so educational?

Other than the above anxiety, been feeling well and this little guy is kicking up a storm! It's almost to the point where Matt & Benz can feel him from the outside; he just needs to get a little bit stronger. I've been shopping for the nursery (soon to be formerly known as Matt's exercise/Blazers memorabilia room) and we've decided to do a nautical/boat theme. And I've been begging, borrowing and stealing just about any baby item I can get my hands on (I sold most of them after Benz was born and only have his clothes from 2T and up). It's so funny how you don't blink an eye at used clothes or other things the second time around. We've come a far way from my obsession with having to have the stroller match the swing that matched the playpen that matched the carseat!:)

Many of you have asked and inquiring minds want to know.....what will be this baby's name? Well to be honest, we had several girl names all set and ready to go but having to choose another one-of-a-kind boy name has stumped us a bit. So we have one that is meaningful that we both keep coming back to, but we want to be certain it is perfect before commiting. Benz has such a unique name that we feel pressured not to come up with any ol' name like Joe, Bob, etc. And I think the one thing we have agreed on is we're going to keep his name a secret until the big day....so stay tuned; at least that's one surprise that is still to be revealed!