Jessica Kelso

The past week brought many milestones in the Kelso house. I turned the big two five. Thrasher turned the big one. We celebrated with friends, family, and lots of little monsters. My friend Cassie is a photographer and was amazing enough to come take pictures of the whole thing. As soon as I get them, I’ll post some of the shots. He had a blast! He absolutely destroyed the monster cake I made him, and he went swimming for the first time and couldn’t get enough of it! He loves attention, so he loved having everyone there just for him. We had the party in a friend’s neighborhood clubhouse, which ended up being perfect, but made for one long day. It was all worth it to see him having fun though!

Oh, and something else pretty cool. . . we found out we are having a baby girl!!!!! We just had a sonogram yesterday and got the news! I asked the tech how sure she was, “50%?, 85%?” and she said 99%! The sweet little thing wasn’t shy about showing us her cute little butt and everything between the legs, although she was hiding her face from us! I guess that’s okay as long as I got the go ahead to start buying all things girl! When we first started thinking about having kids and I thought about a girl, I always said “she will never wear pink!” but something in me has changed and it’s all I see her in. I may even have to get my sewing machine back out of the closet and start making things again. . . girl prints are so much more fun! Needless to say, we are thrilled! Kevin is absolutely terrified but I think he’ll come around soon enough. In his words “she’s going to own me”.

Now on to the fun part of figuring out a name! I have a feeling this isn’t going to be very easy.

So the planner in me has kept me awake at night lately wondering what in the world I’ve gotten myself into. I know I’ve still got 22 weeks to figure things out and organize but I also know how quickly time can fly by. I was telling Kevin how I’m already anticipating meeting our little one and I’m slightly envious of my pregnant friends who are due any day now, and of course he stated the obvious, “but we’re not ready for the baby yet!” So true. It’s been one of the most challenging things for me to not be able to really plan. When we became foster parents we knew we would be getting a call for a baby in the age range of newborn – 2 years old, boy or girl. . . how do you plan for that?! You don’t. You get the basics and when you get the baby,  you go out to the store and buy almost everything right away with the gift cards your amazing friends and family got you! That was not easy for me. So now I’m stuck with the same dilemma. We really have no idea if we’ll still have Thrasher when the baby is born. Chances are really high we will, but we don’t know.

So here are just some of the questions running through my mind on a daily basis that I wish I had answers to. . .

- Will we need to buy a double stroller?

- Will we need to  buy another crib? Thrasher will only be 17 months old when the baby is born, definitely not time for a toddler bed yet.

- Will they share a room? Our 3rd bedroom is a office/music/sewing/storage room and I don’t see that changing anytime soon.

- If they have to share a room, won’t the baby constantly be waking up Thrasher?

- How long can the baby sleep in our room in a bassinet? Will I get any sleep with the baby in our room?

- How in the world am I going to take care of a newborn and a 17 month old on my own during the day?

- Most people that have babies this close in age have recently gone through the pregnancy/birth/newborn stage and know what to expect. Not me. Why do I have to do everything backwards?

- Maybe I should rethink this whole stay at home mom thing?

The questions are endless. The funny thing is, before we had Thrasher I had so many questions that kept me up nights, and looking back I see what a waste that was. I’ve spent so much of my life stressing the small stuff when God has always worked it out for me.

I can be a slow learner, but I sure am thankful He hasn’t given up on me yet.