Our Little Sweet Pea

Our second baby shower, like the first, was just beautiful.  If I ever figure

out how to load the photos from that day, I promise to share them on our blog.

For a long time I had assumed we would have a shower for our adopted daughter.

Then we found out we were expecting, and I was thrown for a bit of a loop.  So when

our shower hosts approached me about how to handle the invitation wording, I was torn. 

At Christmas we had announced our adoption to our extended family and friends,

but now there was another baby on the way.  And soon!

Showers are typically thrown for first born children, not subsequent ones, 

but in our situation, that distinction wasn't so obvious. 

Which child would we consider our first born?

 

The one who was born first? 

That would likely be our daughter. 

The first to join our family? 

Technically that would be our son, but only in the physical sense. 

See, our minds and hearts were so wrapped up in our adoption and

thoughts of our future daughter at the time of Carter's conception

that it felt like SHE was here before HE was.

Oh, how I pity those poor ladies in store checkout lines during my pregnancy

who would look at my growing belly and ask the seemingly simple question,

 "Will this be your first?"  Ha!

Rather than choosing one child over the other,

we decided to make our showers for BOTH babies.

On the invitations, I wanted to explain that we were still planning to adopt,

but we were also going to be having a biological child. 

One night I prayed about it and the next morning, before I even opened my eyes,

a little poem just came to me.  It described exactly how I felt about my

future children.  I called my girlfriend who was hosting the shower

 and she though it was perfect.

Here's what the invitation looked like:

Pretty cute, right?

So, why all this talk about showers? 

Because it explains why last month, when I was running ideas by Michael

for Carter's Halloween costume, his favorite idea was a Pea Pod. 

Not only was it cute because I'm a vegetarian and it's a vegetable,

and because Carter is our "homegrown" child, but also

because the theme of our second shower was "Two Peas in a Pod".

So a Pea Pod costume it was.

For our perfect little Sweet Pea. 

I was able to find a costume on eBay for under ten dollars.

It's in flawless condition and fits Carter perfectly.  Score! 

Add a couple tubes of faux leaves that I picked up years ago

plus one adorable baby boy,

and here you have it:

Carter's first Halloween picture!

If you look at his little right hand, you'll see

he is making the ASL sign for "I love you". 

Just a little shout-out from Carter

to his Aunt Valerie, who is profoundly deaf. 

(And adopted!)

And since I can never pick just one,

here are a few more, for good measure:

In honor of our China adoption, our dog

Molly will be sporting THIS on Halloween:

Doesn't she look thrilled?

Linking up with Sunday Snapshot at Ni Hao Y'all

and wishing you all a very Happy Halloween!