28 weeks

28 weeks just in time for the new year.

So far my resolutions are: 1) Have healthy baby.  2) Survive life with 3 kids.

Well see how it goes after that.

Looking snazzy

Kalena recently rediscovered her sunglasses.  You'd think putting them on by herself would give her a 50/50 shot at getting them on right, but I'd guess she gets them on upside down 95% of the time.

And of course Will wants to do everything Kalena does.

And we now own enough dinosaur shirts to get him through a week.  Because pretty much the only way to convince him to get dressed is to show him whatever dinosaur shirt I've picked out for the day.

Christmas photo overload

The Christmas tree before hand.  Looking a little dead.  We've decided the options with real trees are: one that dies like a week after you get it or one that gets sap all over everything.  

(By the way, there are presents for like 10 people under that tree.)

Growing up we always had one big gift left unwrapped next to our stocking.  We don't do stockings for the kids yet, but we do leave one gift unwrapped.  Here's Kalena with hers.

She was so excited about her gift (the cart and food are from my parents) that she would smile and say cheese but not look at the camera.

Here's Will's unwrapped gift (the Little People Zoo from Brian and I.)  I didn't get a shot of him with it, but it has been the most fought over gift of the bunch.  

Brian's parents got each of the kids a triceratops pillow pet and good thing there are two!  Because there would be some serious fighting otherwise.  There actually has been a little fighting anyway because the pillows have names on them and Kalena wants to make sure she always has hers.  

Will made several thrilled and excited faces throughout the morning.  I managed to capture zero of them on camera.

Kalena was happy to smile for me though.

Will testing out his gift from my parents, a Vtech alphabet train.  Again, I promise he was excited about it, despite the face here.

Here's my sister, proving to the world that you never have to stop wearing footed pajamas.  (Also featuring Will and Amelia in their own footed pajamas.)

I mentioned on Twitter the other day that even though my mom's mother died in September, she had already finished all her Christmas gifts, so we each got one last gift from her this year.  Her great-grandkids (my kids & nieces and nephews) each got a set of Little Golden books.  (Which, incidentally, my mom and I helped her pick out when we were visiting in August.)  And her grandkids and my parents got handmade blankets.  It was bittersweet to open them.  Here's ours.

(Not sure why I look half asleep.  I blame Brian, because he took the picture.)

And, last but not least, I managed to get one good picture of Amelia and Kalena dressed up before church Christmas morning.  I shouldn't really take credit though, they weren't coopering at ALL for me, then Jonathan walked over and asked them to smile and voila!  Smiles all around.  (Plus Amelia eating real food which is a rare sight.)

And if you made it all the way through this you deserve a cookie.  Or whatever yummy treat you have left at your house.

27 weeks

Um, it does not seem possible that I am 27 weeks along, but my last pregnancy post says 26 weeks and I'm going to assume that's correct.

I have a horrible cough and it's making me miserable.  So, uh, that's been fun.  It's been like a week and a half now, so hopefully I'll be over it soon.  And soon I'll post more Christmas pictures than you ever wanted to see in your life.

He's getting to be an old man

I woke up to snow this morning, which made me smile because it snowed on December 22, 2009, the day Will was born.  I've always thought it was appropriate that there was snow, since it was December in Colorado, after all.

Yep, 2 years ago, after just 28 1/2 hours of labor (wasn't THAT fun?) we welcomed this little guy into our family:

And now he's this big guy:

 We did most of his birthday gifts over the summer, but Brian's parents sent one for today.  He's signing "please" so I'll help him open it.

Showing me how good his cake is.  (Cake that I totally copied from Jen and her rainbow birthday party)

And making a face for the camera.  I assume this will happen more and more from here on out.

Happy second birthday Will!

Weirdest pregnancy symptom

We all know pregnancy is weird and does crazy things to your body, but some things are weirder than others.  For instance, my most bizarre symptom this time around?  Claustrophobia!

Okay, I don't know that it's actually claustrophobia, but it's something like that.  I get anxious and feel like I can't breath if someone hugs me for too long.  I can't stand to have both kids sitting on my lap.  There are even certain clothes that I can't wear for too long because I feel trapped in them or something.  It's all very weird.  Definitely looking forward to this symptom going away.

What was your craziest pregnancy symptom?

The real deal about Kalena waking up

The other day when I tucked Kalena in, she said something about going in to see Grandma and Grandpa when she woke up.  I thought this was odd, since they're usually gone by the time her sun comes on at 6:45, so I tried to clarify.  "You mean you'll see them when your sun comes on?"  But she assured me that she would see them when she woke up.  So then I asked my mom who confirmed that yes, Kalena DOES go into their room every morning when she wakes up.  At 5:00 am.  EVERY MORNING.

Apparently this is fine with them, and when they're leaving for work they send her back to her room where she waits for her sun to come on.  Right now my sister is here with her two daughters and they're staying in Kalena's room, which means we had to move Kalena.  So my parents (because they are SAINTS) have Kalena and her little toddler bed in their room.  According to my mom, every morning at 5:08 (she says Kalena is very consistent) she wakes up and walks over to my dad's side of the bed and just gets right in his face until he wakes up.  (I'm sure those of you with toddlers are all familiar with this- I know she's done it to me.)  My dad finds this amusing, so then he tells her stories and lets her play on his iPad until he leaves.  And then she stays in there until her sun comes on.

I can't even find it in me to be mad at her for not staying in her room (obviously this doesn't apply while she's actually staying in my parents' room), because she's not waking *me* up.  My parents get up that early anyway so they don't mind.  And then she will go back to her room until it's officially time to come out which I just find sort of weird.  Plus, you know, it's their right as grandparents to let her bend the rules, right?

Selling the house

So we closed on our house last Friday.  Selling our house has actually been one of the relatively easy parts of this whole deal.

Here's a little background, for those of you who don't know.  The house we owned was right next to the college here.  We lived less than a block from the dorms.  The college has been expanding (and is planning to continue expanding) and we knew that eventually they would want to buy the house from us.  So our original plan was to live in the house for a few years, then use it as a rental, then sell it to the college.  But less than 6 months after we moved in the college was buying houses on our block and tearing them down for parking lots.  (I wrote about this when our next door neighbors sold and their house was torn down.)

Anyway, that meant when we started with our whole- Brian finishing school/moving back in with my parents/selling our house- business we knew the college would be interested in buying.  And they definitely were.  And because we'd been in the house for less than a year (we started this whole process back in October) they were willing to use the appraisal that had been done when we'd bought the house.  Which meant that even though housing prices have continued to fall here, they offered us what it appraised for when we bought it.

So.  We had to deal with no showings, no real estate agent, no cleaning (HALLELUJAH!) no fixing anything up, no dropped price, and they offered us up to six months to pack up and move out.  We didn't need six months, so we told them we'd be out by January 1, but still, that would be really nice if we needed it.  All in all a MUCH better experience than selling our house in Texas.  I highly recommend buying property somewhere where you'll have a guaranteed buyer when you're ready to sell.

26 weeks

26 weeks already.  Crazy.

I asked Kari if this shirt looked different on me than it did on her, jokingly referencing the fact that my bra size is considerably larger than hers, and she looked at me seriously and said, "Yeah, I don't think my belly got that big."  I guess it's a package deal.

Christmas decorating

This is our 6th Christmas as a married couple, and so far we've amassed 2 good sized bins worth of Christmas decor.  (Not including my nativities which all have their own boxes.)  Anyway, it seems like quite a bit of Christmas stuff, but not so much that we can't put it all out.

My mom, however, has had quite a bit longer to acquire Christmas decorations.  As a result she has lots.  Like, lots and lots.  So many, in fact, that for the past several years she themes the house when she decorates.  Last year it was snowmen.  This year it's Santa stuff.  We could have picked angels.  Or reindeer and sleighs.  It really makes decorating more fun.  It's like having a whole new set of decorations every year!  Of course, it helps that my parents have the space to store it all.

Anyway, how do you do it- do you get out all your Christmas stuff every year?  Or do you pick and choose?  And how do you resist buying new things every year to add to your collection?  (I don't resist.  And that's why my collection continues to grow.)

No peeking!

I never, ever peeked at my Christmas presents as a child.  And not just because I was a good kid.  I mean, I was a good kid, but that's not the point.  I just never wanted to know ahead of time.  I think anticipating the presents is just as much fun as opening them.

I have heard some funny stories about kids who got into their presents ahead of time though.  For instance, one of my brother's friends in high school told the story of how she and her brother got into their presents, which were already wrapped.  They carefully unwrapped each gift and looked and then started wrapping them back up.  But apparently at some point during the "wrapping them back up" part they ran out of tape.  At which point they moved on (thinking they were still being so sneaky) to using elmer's glue.  Neon colored elmer's glue.  Yeah, pretty sure that didn't fool anyone.

So what about you?  Did you peek?

25 weeks

25 weeks already.  I should probably find somewhere else to take these pictures, the lighting by the front door is so weird.  Or maybe I just need to keep doing them here for consistency.

Anyway, tonight was the annual Christmas dinner thing for one of the book clubs I'm in.  And since my mom runs that book club and this dinner thing is for couples, it's like the one night of the year we actually hire a babysitter to watch the kids.  My point was, going out without the kids is why I actually straightened my hair and put on some makeup.  In case you were wondering.

Bedtime

It's been a LONG day y'all.  So how about if you just click on over and read my Food Lush post and tell me your stories.  (Here or there, comments are my favorite, no matter where they are.)

And now goodnight.

Christmas gifts- lists or no?

I pretty much know what I'm getting every year for Christmas and you know what?  That's okay with me.  Brian asks for a list every year and I give him one.  And really, I give him one that is at least fairly close to our budget, meaning I could end up with everything on it.  He gives me a list too, and he's usually even more specific than I am.  Like, he figures out what everything costs and then gives me a list that costs exactly what we have budgeted.  And that's fine by me.

That said, neither of us are "receiving gifts" love language people.  So I like gifts, and I'm not going to turn them down, but I don't feel less loved if Brian buys from a list instead of taking it upon himself to come up with the perfect gift on his own.  (Gifts are low enough on each of our love language things that we don't do gifts for Valentines Day, our anniversary, or mother's/father's day.)

Anyway, how do you do it?  Do you write a list?  Do you prefer to buy from a list, or do you want to come up with something on your own?  Are we super boring because we're list people?  (I do love me some lists you know.)

Too many things!

All that blogging in November and apparently I've run out of topics.  It seems like I should have lots to write about because I've been insanely busy, but then I sit down and my mind is blank.  Want to hear about packing?  I've been doing a lot of that lately!

As you know, we've moved back in with my parents, so pretty much everything that's coming over here is over here.  And that means everything else needs to get packed up and go into storage.

A little side story here- when we moved back here from Texas we sort of guessed at what we would need, took that to my parents' house and put the rest in storage.  But we didn't know everything that we'd need and we didn't know how long we were going to live with my parents, so periodically we had to get into the storage unit and find stuff.  That?  Was a BIG FAT PAIN.  And a big part of why it was a giant pain is that Brian has issues with the way he packs and labels stuff.  Brian is awesome at many, MANY things.  Labeling the contents of boxes?  Not one of them.  For instance, when we did move into our house I finally found a DVD series that I'd been looking for.  In a box marked "Nativities."  So at some point, probably during one of the trips to the storage unit when I couldn't find what I was looking for, I told Brian that the next time we moved I would do ALL the packing.  If only so I would know where stuff was when I unpacked.

Now here we are.  Moving again.  Which means packing.  And I'm doing it.  Don't get me wrong, I'd still prefer to pack it all myself and know where everything is, but MAN is it tiring to pack boxes when you're pregnant.  Fortunately we have some time still before everything has to be out of the house.  And one of the upsides of Brian being laid off is that he can stay home with the kids while I go pack.  I do not have any idea how I'd get anything done if I had to pack while they were there.  Anyway, packing is really taking away from my free time, but the sooner I get it done the better.  So wish me luck, I'll be doing more of it this week.

It's Friday!

And that means I'm gonna show you my belly again!  24 weeks now.  I typed 23 the first time so time must be going faster than I feel like it is.

I feel like an old lady.  I have trouble getting up out of chairs or off the couch and I have contractions every time I do.  Plus I'm still tired all the time.  

I freaked out a little bit the other day because I missed an unexpected call from my OB's office.  So many "something's wrong with the baby" thoughts went through my head before I listened to the voicemail.  Don't worry though, they were just letting me know that I'm not insured any more!  I knew that, seeing as Brian got laid off.  We don't have our Cobra stuff yet and as insanely expensive as Cobra is, we're gonna have to do it because I'm pregnant and therefore not eligible for anything else!  In Colorado if you're rejected by an insurance carrier you can apply for Cover Colorado (they cover people who can't get coverage elsewhere.)  But not if you're eligible for Cobra!  Ah insurance.  Always so helpful and accommodating and inexpensive.

The Christmas things we DON'T do

I've read many posts on Christmas traditions (and don't you worry, I intend to write one myself) but I thought it might be interesting to post a little list of Christmas traditions we don't participate in and why.

1) We don't look at lights on Christmas eve.  I love to drive around looking at all the twinkly lights, and we definitely will do that at least once (probably multiple times) this December.  However.  My parents' neighborhood has long been one of THE PLACES to go light-looking.  Like, it's made the newspaper's list of places to go more than once.  So on Christmas eve?  This neighborhood is a crazy mess.  We've gone to other things on Christmas eve a time or two and come home and had it take a good 20 minutes to get from the only neighborhood entrance to our house.  (It should take about 2.)  It's not fun, so we try to stay home Christmas eve.

2)  We don't open any gifts on Christmas eve.  I know some people do stockings, some people open all the gifts, some people do grandparent gifts or whatever.  We wait until Christmas morning for all of it.

3)  We don't do Christmas pajamas.  I have purchased Christmasy pajamas for the kids once or twice, but it's not a *thing* we do.

4)  We don't leave treats for the reindeer.  We always did the cookies for Santa, but that was it.  My kids are a little young for this yet, but I will not be doing anything for the reindeer even when they are older.  If reindeer come to our house they're just going to have to go hungry.

5)  We don't read "The Night Before Christmas" on Christmas eve.  I'm sure we'll read it at some point in December, but on Christmas eve I prefer to read the Christmas story in Luke chapter 2.

So, what traditions do you skip out on?

What the kids are getting for Christmas

Probably you don't care, but if you're interested, here's what the kids are getting for Christmas this year.

For Kalena from Brian and I:

A Disney princess dress up set.  (Photo credit: biglots.com)  That's not the exact one, but it's the closest picture I could find.

Dinosaur flash cards.  The girl is obsessed with dinosaurs.

From my parents:

Melissa and Doug shopping cart and food.  She loves her play kitchen (last year's gift) and at one point she had a shopping cart.  They played with it until the wheels fell off.  Literally.  So we figured this would be an excellent choice.  (Photo credit: amazon.com)

For both kids from Brian and I:

A Mega Bloks table.  The kids love their set of mega bloks, but they always want something to build their towers on.  Here it is.  (Photo credit: amazon.com)

For Will from Brian and I:

The Little People Zoo.  I'm actually not positive this is the one I bought, apparently there are two.  I got one a couple months ago on clearance and I'm too lazy to go look at which one it is.  (Photo credit: target.com)

What can I say?  Both my kids are obsessed with dinosaurs.  (Photo credit: amazon.com)

From my parents:

A Vtech Alphabet Train.  The kids played with one of these in the waiting room at the dentist's office and both loved it.  So now we'll have one of our own for them to fight over.  Good times.  (Photo credit: amazon.com)

So.  What are your kids getting for Christmas?

So close

I really want to start writing about Christmas.  Christmas traditions, thoughts on Santa, how much I love hot chocolate, etc.  But I feel like I shouldn't be doing that until December.  Seeing as December is only days away, I feel like I should be able to hold out until then.  Unfortunately that leaves me topic-less until then.  And NaBloPoMo isn't over yet, so now you just get to listen to my rambling!

On to other topics.  (Okay, so maybe I'm not completely topic-less.)  Baby clothes.  When I found out we are having another boy I felt a little bad that my sisters weren't going to get to unload all the baby girl clothes to me.  And a little sad that I wasn't going to have boxes and boxes of darling baby clothes to go through.  But then my parents went to Kirsta's house for Thanksgiving (if you don't know, Kirsta has 2 boys and a girl) and came home with two giant tubs of baby boy clothes!  It's like the maternity clothes all over again!  So once again, WOOHOO for having sisters and all these babies being close in age.

This kid

I'm pretty sure this kid is in for a rude awakening when the new baby gets here.  Kalena is excited.  Will has told me things like, "No baby.  Ucky."  And, "Baby? No baby!"  

Too late now kid!

Well that's a first

We put Kalena to bed every night at 7.  She usually plays in her room for an hour or two, which I suppose means 7 is a touch early for bedtime.  However, she gets up at 6:45 no matter what time we put her to bed, and she's perfectly happy to play in her room by herself starting at 7, so that's what we're sticking to.

Anyway, that's not the point.  The point is, well, okay there are two points.  The first is that the lamp we put in there?  Has made a HUGE difference.  She doesn't leave her door open anymore, nor does she come out in the middle of the night and turn the hall light back on (usually.)  However, the lamp has 3 settings and Kalena goes to sleep with it on the brightest setting (of course) which means someone has to go in and turn it down to the lowest setting before we go to bed.  That's not a problem, but it does lead me to my second point which is this: when I go in Kalena is always in her bed.  (That's another reason I don't worry about putting her to bed at 7- she is obviously very good about getting in bed once she actually gets tired.)

But last night she wasn't!  She was asleep on the floor, next to her bed.  And I'm not sure what to think about that.
 

23 weeks

I'm a little surprised to find myself at 23 weeks already, but here I am.

The holidays are the best time to be pregnant.  Stretchy pants all the time!  Of course, by Christmas I'm going to look like I'm about 8 1/2 months along, but OH WELL.

Thankful

Even in the midst of everything going on here, there are always things that I'm thankful for.  Actually, I feel  extra thankful this year, to the point of being cheesy even.  I blame the pregnancy hormones.  So I'll keep my list brief.

1) I'm thankful for my parents who happily took us in, AGAIN, when we needed it.
2) I'm thankful this pregnancy happened before everything else went south, so that we don't have to wait for "better timing" to have a third.
3) I'm thankful for kids who are healthy and happy, for the most part.
4) I'm thankful that all of our family is being supportive of Brian going back to school.
5) And, of course, I'm thankful for Brian, who is a wonderful husband and father.  And that's something I probably don't say enough.

Alright, cheesiness over.  Back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow.

A Thanksgiving related question

Here's what I want to know: how many of you make your own pie crust?  (I also wrote about this at Food Lush today, but I am very curious.)  I grew up in a house that made pie.  A LOT.  I mean, when you have cherry, apple, and peach trees in your back yard pie is sort of a necessity.  And we always made the crust.  So I grew up thinking that's what people did.

I've always sort of equated it with buying prepared cookie dough.  I was aware that you could do it, but not sure why people would since 1) making it isn't hard and 2) the homemade product is FAR superior.  But the subject of pie is big right now (what with Thanksgiving being tomorrow and all)  and I keep hearing about how nobody wants to make pie crust.  So do you make pie crust?  And if not, why not?

Ultrasound says...

We're having another boy!

I was surprised since the symptoms have been so similar to my pregnancy with Kalena.  Kalena has insisted every time I've asked that it was a boy, so she was unsurprised when I informed her.  Will repeated "baby boy" when I told him, but I'm pretty sure he has no idea what's going on.

Time to think about names!

Big changes y'all

So, Brian got laid off today.

Maybe I should back up.  See, pretty shortly after I found out we were expecting again, things were not great in the industry Brian works (well, worked) in.  I won't go into details, but we decided that we probably ought to come up with a plan B.  After much thought and deliberation we decided that this would be a good time for Brian to finish school.  He's halfway through a computer science degree but had to quit school back when I got laid off in 2009 so we could move back to Colorado.  He's wanted to finish school since we've been back, and we've talked about it several times but it's never felt right.  This time it did.

Anyway, for him to go to school full time, he wasn't going to be able to work full time.  And if he couldn't work full time, we needed to cut WAY back on expenses.  So we went to my parents and proposed that we move back in with them while Brian finishes school.  They were pretty excited about this plan (no sarcasm here, my parents really like having us around.  Okay, maybe it's my darling children they like having around but whatever.)  We started the process of moving back in with them and selling our house.  (Which is another post for another time.)  Brian got registered for school, financial aid in order, then went to his boss and suggested that he switch to working part time.  And his boss said sure.  This was a couple weeks ago.  We figured he'd work full time until January when the semester starts, then go to part time.  And then today happened.

To summarize:
I'm pregnant
We're living with my parents
We have no income
AND THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME.  (Unfamiliar with our history of this?  Check out this post.)

We'll have to seriously consider these patterns next time we want another baby.

22 weeks

And here's what I look like now.

Note to self for future pictures- backlighting plus flash = weird looking picture.  Also, I think I may have mislead you all, but not on purpose!  I'm pretty sure I said my ultrasound was scheduled for tomorrow, but I think it's actually scheduled for Tuesday.  Since I can't actually find my appointment card and apparently I didn't write the time and date down ANYWHERE, this thought is based on two things: 1) No reminder call on Friday (and my OB's office is VERY good about reminder calls) and 2) My mom was pretty sure I told her it was on Tuesday.  Pregnant Elsha does not have a particularly good memory, so I believe my mom is more reliable in this situation.  

Also, my mom should be coming with me to the ultrasound because despite this being her ninth (!!!) grandchild, she hasn't been to one, so she hasn't seen all the cool new stuff they do.  Brian is indifferent about coming (which I get, if you've seen one, you've seen 'em all, and he went to 4 when I was pregnant with Kalena) so he'll be watching the kids.

And one last thing I forgot to mention on the predictions post- this baby will be a tie breaker.  Obviously for us, since we have one of each, but for my parents as well.  Right now they have 4 grandsons and 4 granddaughters.  If this is a girl it will be the first time the girls outnumber the boys.  And the poll is over tomorrow, so if you haven't voted yet it's over there in the upper right.

Hopefully it's over

Well, we've made it 24 hours without any more vomiting, so I'm REALLY hoping that's the end of it.  Brian and I both felt pretty icky today (and slept a lot) and Will also seemed fussy, but that was all.

Now it's bedtime for the kids which means some mindless movie for me.  Wish us luck that we'll all wake up tomorrow back at 100%!

Hating the germs

Did I mention that on Wednesday Brian left to go to Denver with the kids?  He had to go to a funeral (his grandmother's husband) and offered to take the kids so they could see his family.  So this morning he got up and got the kids loaded in the car ready to come home.  They stopped at a gas station on the way out of Denver to get gas and something to drink.  And that's where the vomiting started.

Kalena spent the 4 hour drive home throwing up.  And I was here, so poor Brian had to deal with it all without any help.  Fortunately Will was fine, but still NO FUN.  They did make it home eventually, so now we get to deal with the plague here.  There's a small part of me that's hoping Kalena will be the only one who get sick, but the realistic me says- HA HA HA.  Like we would get that lucky.

Well, at least I can hope it's only a 24 hour thing, right?

Avoiding cooking for Thanksgiving

Y'all, we've been married for over 5 years and I have yet to cook Thanksgiving dinner.  Here's how our Thanksgivings have gone down.

2006: We got married in June and honeymooned over Thanksgiving.  So for our first Thanksgiving we ate duck in Bora Bora.  (I really think this should be a yearly thing.)
2007: I was pregnant with Kalena so Brian's family came to Texas for Thanksgiving.  His mom cooked.  She even made a ham because I had a ridiculous aversion to all poultry.
2008: We drove to Pueblo and had Thanksgiving at my sister's house.  (Long drive from Texas.)  And we ended up having to stay an extra day because of snow.
2009: Back living in Colorado, we went to Alamosa to see Brian's family over Thanksgiving.  One last trip before Will was born.
2010: Thanksgiving at my parents' house.

And now this year.  I figured it would be Thanksgiving at my parents' house again.  BUT.  Then my parents decided to ditch out on us for no reason!  (Actual reason: Kari and Jonathan are blessing the baby over that weekend so my parents are going to that.)  Fortunately I am a genius, so I suggested to Brian that we invite his family here.  And they accepted which means, once again, no cooking for me!  So.  How long do you think I can keep this up?  Do you cook for Thanksgiving or weasel out of it like me?

Too late for more Halloween pictures?

Sometimes we like to joke that Will's finger must taste like chocolate, because it is ALWAYS in his mouth.  Well, this time it actually did:

And I suspect if I'd kissed him his whole face also would have tasted like chocolate.  He sure enjoyed that candy though.

How to ask without asking

I'm pretty sure we all know that it's a big no-no to ask a woman if she's pregnant, right?  Well, I discovered the other day that you can ask without really asking and therefore without sticking your foot in your mouth.  Here's what happened.

I was at the grocery store with my mom when we ran into a woman we hadn't seen in a long time.  I don't know how long it's been since my mom has seen her, but I'd guess I was in high school the last time I did.  Anyway, she and my mom chat for a minute-- how are things, how are all the (now grown up) kids, etc.  Then she looks at me and says, "And look at you!"  She could have been referring to a million things.  I'm taller.  My hair is shorter.  I'm (obviously) older.  If I hadn't said anything she could have easily continued with something like, "You look great!"  Instead (because I am nice) I answered the question she didn't ask and said, "I know, this is my third!"  So we chatted about that for a minute and then we all went back to our shopping.

And there you have it.  A tactful way to find out if someone who looks pregnant actually is pregnant without asking her.

*Disclaimer: I'm sure people say "Look at you!" for many reasons other than thinking you might be pregnant.  So you know, don't be offended if someone says that to you and you aren't.  That's also the beauty of it- it works for so many things.

Prediction time!

Are you all ready with your best guesses as to whether this baby is a boy or a girl?  Here's how symptoms compare (if you're into that kind of thing):

Symptoms similar to my pregnancy with Kalena:
Heartburn starting in the first trimester and as a result of pretty much anything.
Weight gain all over.  I don't actually know how much weight I've gained, but it's definitely not just belly.  (Brian helpfully pointed out that this may be a result of how often I eat, not the sex of this baby, but I'm throwing it in there anyway.)
Chicken aversion.  Not as serious as it was with Kalena, but still there.

Symptoms similar to my pregnancy with Will:
No sweets craving (no more than usual- with Kalena I wanted cake like every 5 minutes.)
PB&J cravings.

Symptoms I had with both Kalena and Will:
Juice cravings.  I can go months without having juice.  Unless I'm pregnant, then I want it every day.
Lunchmeat sandwich cravings.  They're just SO GOOD.
Allergies are worse than usual.

Symptoms that are new with this pregnancy:
Continuation of The Tired.  Normally this lets up at 14 weeks.  Not this time.
Horrible, lay on the couch wanting to die nausea.  Other pregnancies required nothing more than crackers to calm my stomach.
Aspartame aversion.  I couldn't stand diet soda for the whole first trimester.  I now totally get what people mean when they say they can't stand artificial sweetener.  It's alright now, but it still has a very obvious taste so I mostly avoid it.  (I can even taste it in yogurt.)
Craving regular potato chips.  Normally I'm a cheddar and sour cream girl.
The constant headaches.

And there you have it.  Brian and I are both leaning toward girl, but I would have sworn Will was a girl until the ultrasound.  In fact, I believe my response to my OB saying, "Looks like it's a boy!" was "Really? Are you sure?"  So there's that.  Anyway, vote on the poll, (upper right) and give me your reasoning in the comments if you want!

Kalena when she's sad

Kalena makes me laugh when she's sad.  Not that I'm laughing at her sadness (although some of the things she gets sad about are pretty laughable) but she says funny things when she's sad.  For instance.

If she gets sad over something and you tell her it's okay she'll say, "No, I feeling a little sad."
If she's crying and you tell her she needs to be happy before she can [fill in the blank with whatever we're doing next] she'll tell you, "No, I still crying."
The other day she got put in time out for pitching a fit over something and after a few minutes I told her she could get down (off the time out chair) whenever she was ready to be happy.  She told me, "No, I not done, there's still water coming out in my eyes!"  (By the way, she says "out in" instead of "out of" and I don't ever intend to correct her.)

It's not as funny as Will and the awesomely pouty face he used to make, but it still makes me laugh.

21 week photo time

Here's what I look like at 21 weeks.

For the record, I feel a lot more pregnant than 21 weeks.  Which I don't think bodes well for the rest of this pregnancy.  I feel like I'm waddling already.  I get winded walking up the stairs (which, in a 2 story house with a basement happens A LOT.)  I have braxton hicks on a daily basis.  I'm REALLY hoping these things are specific to this pregnancy, and not just a result of this being a third pregnancy.  (Guess we'll find that out next time.)  Anyway.  On the one hand, 21 weeks already, woohoo!  On the other hand, 19 left to go.

Also, for those of you who are wondering, yes we intend to find out the sex of this baby.  I have an ultrasound scheduled for the 21st, so we'll find out then provided the baby cooperates.  And obviously I'll be polling you all before then to see what you think!  Because it's fun to guess when you've got a 50/50 shot at being right.

Out of it

Once upon a time (this morning even) I had an idea for a blog post today.  And then I spent all day doing actual, physical work.  And now I'm totally worthless.  Plus I don't know where my computer charger is and I'm getting low on battery, so I don't even have time to sit here and come up with something entertaining for your amusement.  Because that's what I'm here for you guys- your amusement.

In other news, I'm 21 weeks pregnant today!  So now everything give me heartburn!  I should invest in Tums.

Ummmm, that's really all.  Early bedtime tonight.

Lucky

I've always felt lucky to have sisters so close to my age.  Growing up it meant built in friends, people to share clothes with, and (since I have Kari for a sister) someone to say, "Are you *really* leaving the house like that?"  And now that we're all in the baby-having phase of our lives, there is a whole new list of reasons I'm lucky to have sisters.

First off, as Nik-Nak commented on my maternity clothes post, I'm lucky to have someone to share maternity clothes with.  It's expensive to buy clothes, and it seems wasteful to buy them knowing you'll only wear them for a few months.  Even though I plan on several pregnancies, it's still expensive.  But now?  Three times the clothes!  And while Kari was pregnant she had three times the clothes.  And they'll continue to get passed around until we're all done having babies.

But it's not just maternity clothes.  Check out Kari's post today on the obscene amount of baby girl clothes we've accumulated.  So many that it stresses her out.  Those of you who know Kari know that only a ridiculous amount of clothing would stress her out.  And if I have a girl?  I'll get those clothes.  Or if I have a boy?  I'll get baby boy clothes from Kirsta.  Like the maternity clothes, the baby clothes just get rotated to whoever needs them at the moment.

The newborn stuff gets passed around too.  Kari is currently in possession of a swing and exersaucer originally purchased by us.  Also a bouncer given to Kirsta when Patrick was born.  Because we're not using those things.  Why should she buy her own while we store ours?  Addilyn is the third baby to get good use out of the swing we bought for Will.  Does it make me feel better about the $50 I spent on it?  Definitely.  And it'll come back to us when this next baby is born.

So anyway. Sisters.  Just one of the many reasons I feel lucky.

The best games

My kids (and most kids, I assume) do some really obnoxious things.  But lately they also play a couple "games" that I'm a big fan of.

The first involves me sitting on the couch saying "ready, set, go" while the kids run around in a big circle.  Let's see: this game wears them out- good.  This game involves me sitting on the couch- good.  They will play this game for up to 30 minutes at a time and involves no fighting- GOOD!  I actually wish they'd do this more.

The other "game" they play?  Nap time.

Now, this game does often involve fighting.  You know, four identical pillows- definitely something to fight over.  But it's so cute to watch!  And Will has totally started fake sleeping every time I go to get him out of his crib.  As soon as I open the door he'll lay back down and pretend to snore.  With his eyes wide open.  Kills me every time.

I guess he was feeling fancy!

I got Will dressed this morning in some nice little boy clothes.  Long sleeved t-shirt and camo pants (we're always classy around here.)  And then Will insisted on adding a tie.  He held it out to me and said, "Help! Tie!" over and over until I put it on him.

Really completes the look, don't you think?

Family photos!

Yay!  They're done!  So here are some of the ones I love, but probably won't be going on the cards.

This is a hug, not wrestling.  Looks like it could be either one.

Feeling a little sad that she couldn't go jump on the trampoline next door.

I think it's cute that she'll "give the new baby" a kiss, but I feel like it's a little too cutesy for Christmas cards.  By the way Sally told me I was "lucky to have a belly so early" because it was good for the pictures.  I think that's the nicest way I've ever been told I look really pregnant for how far along I am.

Being thrown in the air, a favorite pastime for both our children.

Sometimes toddler smiles get a little out of hand.

Or a lot out of hand.  Even Will is wondering what she's doing.

Now to go pick my actual favorite card to go with the pictures...

You'll just have to wait some more.

We did end up getting pictures done this afternoon.  And I was hoping to post some of them (in fact, I put off writing this post to see if she'd send me the link to the pictures) but I don't have them yet.  The session went well, the kids were happy and we did a variety of poses so I'm hoping there are lots of good ones!  Anyway.  SOON.

And now a question: what do you do if your kids get up super early in the morning?

Here's the situation at our house.  Kalena still has her good nite lite, so hypothetically she should be staying in her room until 6:45.  But she's developed a couple of habits that are screwing with this.  For one thing, she is in a phase of wanting her door open and the hall light on.  All night.  I close her door and turn the light off before I go to bed only to wake up at 2 am and discover that she's turned the light back on and opened her door.  (Apparently she's inherited my light sleeping.)  Side note here, we've added a lamp to her room in the hopes that being able to turn a lamp on will keep her from needing the hall light.  And it's a touch lamp so she doesn't have to mess with switches or anything.  Anyway, the other thing she does is wake up at like 5 am and take herself to the bathroom.  And then instead of going back to bed she sits in her open doorway, usually playing with noisy toys.

So, any great suggestions from anyone out there?  Because I'm a BIG FAN of 6:45.  It's way better than 5 am.

Foiled!

I had big plans for today's blog.  Well, big plans for today actually.  See, my friend Sally was going to take family pictures for us.  For our Christmas cards.  For free even, because she's awesome.  And then it was 40 degrees and it poured down rain for most of the day, which really interfered with our "pictures in the yard" plan.  I'm hoping we can do them tomorrow, because I'd really like to get these things ordered.  (Am a giant procrastinator, so the sooner I get them the better.)

ANYWAY.  Then I was going to come home and post them on the blog and tell you how fun or stressful or crazy it was.  And how it's impossible to get two small children to look at the camera and smile at the same time.  (That's just a fact of life.)  But all day rain and no pictures instead.

I do have this picture though:

Bedtime stories with grandpa in front of the fire.  Does it get any better?

20 weeks

Halfway there!  

And in other, cuter pictures, Will was dressed like a lumberjack today.

And that is the face he makes when you tell him "say cheese!"

Maternity clothes galore

Remember when I mentioned in my 13 things that my sister was borrowing most of my maternity clothes?  Well.  I have them back.  AND THEN SOME.  My parents came home from seeing the new baby on Sunday evening.  My mom handed me a couple dresses and then told me there was another box in the laundry room.  I glanced in and there was a diaper box, filled past the top and I thought, "Well good, more pants I can wear."  And that was about it.

Monday I talked to Kari who asked if I was excited to see all those clothes and I told her I hadn't really sorted it.  Then she mentioned that there was also a box of stuff from Kirsta.  Good deal right?  So yesterday I started putting away the diaper box stuff and I realized that this box?  Was the box from Kirsta.  The box Kari referred to as the "small box."  I asked my mom about the other box and she told me it was still in the car.  And that she'd need help getting it out, but that I shouldn't be helping because it was too heavy.  Okaaaay.  Yeah, so here's the box Kari meant (with the diaper box on top for reference.)

This picture doesn't do it justice.  (How 'bout that awesome linoleum though??)  There's got to be like a gazillion things in there.  Ballpark.  So that, plus the stuff from the diaper box, plus the stuff Kari gave me last time I was in Denver, plus the stuff she never borrowed to begin with.  Pretty sure my maternity wardrobe is now bigger than my actual wardrobe.

And now some things you didn't really care about.  (Because I KNOW you all cared about everything up till now.)  I can't actually share non-maternity clothes with my sisters.  They're both taller and skinnier than I am.  Luckily maternity stuff is much more forgiving!  (Still, there's already a pair of Kari's maternity pants that are too small for me.  Sad.)  Also, we accumulated so many maternity clothes because our other pregnancies have overlapped so much that we each had to have our own stash.  Now that I'm the only pregnant one I have ALL the clothes.

A little more Halloween

So I was handing out candy at my parent's house on Halloween when, once again, the doorbell rang.  (Little side note here- my parent's neighborhood is SO popular for trick-or-treating that people drive their kids in, park at the neighborhood entrance and trick-or-treat there.)  Anyway, I was about to give some candy to the little ghost at the door when I looked up and realized that guy with the ghost?  Was my brother!  (And the ghost was my nephew so don't think this is totally bizarre.  Obviously I didn't recognize my nephew since he was under a sheet and all.)  Why did this startle me?  Well, here's what he normally looks like:

But on Halloween he looked like this:

Anyway.  Fun times.

It's November!

And around this blog that means NaBloPoMo! This is the 4th year I've done this, and I've managed to post every day the other 3 years, so hopefully I can keep up my streak.

I was planning to write about something (other than Hey! More blogging!) but I am currently trying (and failing) to get rid of an awful headache and I'm pretty sure not looking at my computer screen anymore will help some.  Anyway.  Anybody going to join me in all this November blogging?

Halloween pictures!

Kalena was THRILLED to get dressed up as "a booytiful princess" and go out trick or treating.  Also thrilled about her "crown" which is a crown shaped barrette.  (Stayed on way better than an actual tiara would have.)

She was not so thrilled when grandpa put on his Frankenstein mask.  She is trying to make sure he keeps his distance.  Even though she's seen that it's her grandpa under there.  Will ran away every time he saw the mask.

Will is unsure why I'm taking pictures when I should be helping him open his only piece of candy.

Most excited to eat?  An apple.

Brian asked which piece of candy he wanted to eat and he asked for the apple.  Obviously he enjoyed it.

How was your Halloween?