Monday, November 30, 2009

More reasons to be thankful!

Well, we have yet another reason to be thankful this Thanksgiving! We announced to both sides of the family on Thanksgiving day that we are going to be parents again!

Introducing baby P-nut!



We found out we were pregnant again on October 19th, but since we would have both families in one place on Thanksgiving, we decided to hold our tongues for the few weeks until then, and tell them in person, all at once! It was horribly difficult, we almost let it slip a few times, and were almost found out while we were home, but we made it! And what a great memory to have for years to come!

How we told everyone: Since Jeffery's prenatal nickname was Wee P, we decided to stick with that theme, and call this one P-nut. So on that theme, Neal went to a jeweler in Knoxville and got seven small gift boxes (one for everyone at Thanksgiving dinner). On the little layer of cotton inside, we placed a single full-shell peanut in each box. After the meal, we told everyone that we wanted to give them a small gift since we wouldn't be home for Christmas, and told them to open them all at the same time. Needless to say, there were some confused looks. Mama Carcello was the first to ask, "Are you pregnant?" And all chaos ensued!

We are due June 29th, 2010. We did get a sonogram before we left Italy, just as a precaution and to make sure everything was in order. We were 6 weeks at the time, so there wasn't all that much to see. But we did get to hear the heartbeat, and see that everything was just fine! We'll have another appointment to get a better look shortly after we get back to Italy.

The best part is that this baby will be born in the United States! We received our hard orders a few days before Thanksgiving, so we are set to move at the first of March back to the US! Neal will be stationed in Mayport, FL, which is just outside of Jacksonville. We've already taken a very short trip down there to look around and find out about the real estate market. We'll know more specific dates as the weeks go by, but for now, we're pretty sure that we'll be flying out within the first week or so of March!

We've had a great time spending Thaksgiving here in the US, and while we didn't get to see everyone we wanted to (we never do), we're looking forward to another trip through Tennessee in March, then down to Florida. We can't wait to be living in the US again, and we're thrilled that we'll have a great reason for family to come visit next Summer!

We love you all, and thank you for being a part of our lives!

Monday, November 02, 2009

A new word!

Just last week, Jeffery surprised us by learning a new word, one that we were sure would NOT be one of his first besides Mama, Dada, and bye-bye.

From early on, we have made sure to tell him to say please and thank you, repeating them ourselves when he wants or is given something. We knew eventually this would help with manners, but when he started saying "please" last week (and in the correct context even!), we were shocked!

Granted, it is still not a clear form of the word, but he uses it correctly, and it is just SO DARN CUTE! So here is my video evidence, taken just today at his lunch time: