Okay, so I am gonna do my best here to write a quick post. I have been completely slacking in my writing and blogging. I even decided to skip a Reflection 2011 piece, which I think is the first time in like 10+ years I haven't consolidated all the life lessons I learned from the previous year into one overall theme. I would say that my blogging in general is a decent account of my basic life, and when I go back and read what I have written on this site and The Zookeeper-Uncaged, I usually feel pretty good about the message each piece has conveyed as well as what I discovered about myself in the process of writing it. In essence, my blog posts are my reflections now; they are simply written closer to real time.
So far 2012 has been full of excitement. In January we had some of our best elephant sightings at the zoo! Sadly, my grandmother passed away, but she is finally at peace now. We got to celebrate Grandpa's 60th birthday at Stone Mountain's Riverboat with family and friends, and we went to the last Falcons home game. But of course our biggest joy was announcing that we are expecting Baby McQ #2 late this summer!
February brought some Valentine's Day fun, the Super Bowl and an extra special mommy-son day at the zoo. We also got to go to the GA Aquarium with the Stokes family. In addition to all the adventures, Jack made some major potty training progress and stopped wearing diapers completely! Probably though, our favorite February memory was taking Jack to the circus where we saw Asia the Elephant paint with her trunk during the Ringling Bros. pre-show! GRandi went with us, and it was a really special night!
With such a short and mild winter, we are heading into spring with a surprisingly warm March. Even though Baby McQ #2 has the same due date we had for Jack (July 25th), I am already needing summer maternity clothes! Of course warm weather means more outside time, and we have been doing our best to take advantage of our weekends. We took the training wheels off of Jack's bike and have started working with him on riding like a big kid. We also have our own "March Madness" with Jack-Bo, our little basketball star! Jack is an awesome dribbler, and he has an incredible jump shot! I can't believe this is my 2 year old baby!!!
On March 12th we confirmed our gut feelings that Baby McQ #2 is a GIRL!!! We are so thrilled to be welcoming our sweet Lander Lee into our wonderful and loving family. Jack is going to be the best big brother, and Lander is already such a miracle and blessing from God. We are so thankful that she is healthy and that this pregnancy has normalized now. :-) At 21.5 weeks I am finally posting a baby bump pic!
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Coming up we have a special MMPMF zoo trip on what we hope will be another lovely Saturday. Then the last weekend in March, The McQ Zoo will journey out on our first camping trip of the season! With 3 other families going too, we are hoping it will be a bear free experience!
I'm sorry I don't have more pics in this post. Honestly, my computer is overloaded with images, and it is running so slowly that I don't have the time or patience to wait on it. I plan to clean up my hard drive soon though! With working, being pregnant and chasing my precious Jack-Bo around all the time, my personal hobbies have taken somewhat of a back seat. A friend's recent blog post reminded me that I NEED to blog for my own sanity and outlet for my stress as well as to share my joy! I'll try really hard not to wait so long between now and the next post!
For now, good night!
