We are planning to head to Washington, D.C. next month. DH has a few CLE courses to attend and we have decided to make a family mini vaction out of it. I've started researching things that might be fun for our 2 yo DS. So far the National Zoo and Rock Creek Park have made my list. I'm not sure how well he'd hold up with museums, but I thought we might try to visit the Natural History Museum to look at the dinasaurs. Anyone have suggestions? He's a high energy kid so I want to try to find things that will hold his attention or give him the opportunity to run around. He also wouldn't do well anywhere with long lines.

At Justin's first trip to the pediatrician at 4 days old the dr we saw gave me the advice, "don't compare this baby to your first". Haha, yeah right. Of course I am going to compare my second newborn experience with that of his big brother. What mother doesn't? Jack was an easy baby. Yes, he fussed and we struggled with breastfeeding for the first month. But did I ever consider him to be a fussy baby? Nope. He had his fussy hour and it was very predictable: every night at 8pm for a good two hours he was totally inconsolable. Fussy hour was gone by two months and life with my happy baby was great. Fast-forward two years.

Well life has certainly been a whirlwind the last month. First Baby Justin arrived and then we moved three weeks later. I was really worried about how all of these changes would affect Jack. His whole world has been turned upside down and that is a lot of a 2 yo to deal with. The little man is pulling through like a real trooper. He has yet to ask to go "home" meaning our old apartment. Rather, he keeps talking about our new house. Good sign! Yeah! But there is one thing we are all learning about in the new house, new boundaries.

Ok, here is my first attempt to post a photo. Here is our newest addition to the family.

So far things are going well. The little man is letting me get some sleep. My only issue with nursing is that my milk came in with full force and I was engorged. Ouch!!! Guess my body remembered how to do this a little too well! But now that we are getting into a good nursing groove things are much better. We had a rough night last night, DS#1 kept getting up and just as I got him back down, DS#2 was ready to nurse AGAIN. Sigh. It was a LONG night.

We welcomed Justin Reed on Thursday, April 17 at 12:45PM. His stats: 7lbs,4 oz and 20 inches (almost a whole lb smaller than big brother).

Everyday I work hard to keep DS busy. He's a high-energy toddler and always on the move. Up until recently, our schedule was filled with things like music class, library story times, nursery school and play dates. As my belly swelled and his tantrum level kicked up a few notches, I scaled back our agenda. So now I needed to find new things to keep him occupied. This month's issue of Parents magazine was a godsend. One of the featured articles is 100 ways to keep little kids happy. Thank you oh wise editors! It couldn't have come at a better time.

I thought it would be fun to post this picture. Enjoy! -Gloria

I considered posting something on this, but it would mean openly admitting to liking NKOTB. I was a part of the crowd that liked NKOTB songs, but was not obsessed over the guys. (Jordan Knight was so cute!) Thanks for confessing for me, J. -Elisa

Okay, I will openly admit it. When I was in my pre-teen and early teen years I was obsessed with NKOTB. While cleaning out my parents attic last summer I found boxes of stuff I had accumulated during that phase. Magazines, VHS tapes of TV performances, CD's, buttons, dolls, commic books, trading cards, and other useless merchandise. Crap, crap, and more crap. Parting with most of the stuff was easy, though I did contemplate how much it would fetch on Ebay. However, the 12 yo in me got a little giddy when I saw this article today on MSN today about my boy band's reunion.

I'm frustrated. Really frustrated. As I have mentioned in the past DH and I are in the process of buying our first home. We initially met with a mortgage broker in February and he told us that based on DH's income and our credit score we were great candidates for 100% financing. No down payment, yippy! Because our assets are limited and coming up with a down payment was going to be struggle for us, we were psyched. After a short real estate search, we found a great affordable townhouse; we were prequalified for the mortgage, and made an offer, which the sellers accepted. Great! The mortgage broker reassured us that the mortgage would be the easy part. Ha, Ha. Yeah right. It’s be snag, after snag, after snag. DH and I are fuming.

Here is yet another area in which children change our perspective. What a conundrum. Thanks for the diary, Jen! -Elisa

As I have mentioned in previous posts DH and I are on a mission to buy our first home. After some initial disappointments with the absurd real estate prices here in NJ we came to the decision that a smaller townhouse would be our best option. On Saturday we decided to take a second look at a really cute place that I saw on Friday and asked DMIL to baby-sit DS. While at our drop off meeting with DMIL she causally mentioned to us that the house across the street from her was on the market. She quickly then commented that it was in no way a suggestion that we look at it but rather a comment because the owners only moved in 6 months ago. After she left with DS, DH and I looked at each other and thought the same thing. Was her surprise at the rapid turn over her real motive? Who knows, but it sparked an interesting conversation where we debated the pros and cons of living across the street from them.

Thanks for posting this diary, Jen! Reminded me of the two times I was pregnant...and HATED IT! You also reminded me of my weird cravings, such as frozen snickers bars and Pink's hotdogs. Sure, you might not consider a hotdog to be such a weird craving, but try driving to Hollywood at 2a.m. just to satisfy it! - Gloria

Well dear MTers I've reached that point, the time in my pregnancy where I can't see my toes. The realization hit me the other day when I was in the shower. I looked down and all I could see was my huge belly. First a sigh. Then a giggle. Yes, I am one of "those" women that love being pregnant. Now don't get me wrong, I don't love everything about it - personally I could do with out all of the nasty heartburn that I've been having. This is a special time in my life and I am trying to savor the experience - the good, the bad, and the funny.

Baby names are something on my mind these days as I have reached the 25th week of my pregnancy. Though, I have to admit, DH and I have had names for babypear picked out since before it was confirmed I was pregnant. All of our names begin with J, so it was a no brainer that this one will be a J name too. So once we found out that #2 is a boy, we both looked at each other and said, well I guess it’s a Justin and not a Jane. We also had no trouble naming DS. We really skipped the baby name books and surfed the Internet a little, but we made no real decisions until after we knew that DS was a boy. However, I know that not all parents take this easy going approach to naming their children. My friend just emailed me this article from CNN about baby name remorse.

Recently we had friends come to visit for a long weekend. Our friends have been married for 3 years and do not have any children. They want kids and are starting to think about trying to conceive. While her DH was out of earshot my friend asked me candidly, "How does having a baby change your marriage?". It stopped me in my tracks. Ooh. Good question. Honestly, it was one that I had not given an ounce of thought to before DS was born. My answer to her: having a baby changes EVERYTHING!