Christmas 2015

I decided this year that it was a sign I was a real adult when my response to the question, "are you ready for Christmas?" became "as ready as I'll ever be this year."

This year's Christmas season was really fun in a lot of ways.  It was Dellie's first year of really understanding how Jesus fit into the whole season, and was very much excited and impatient for Christmas day to arrive the whole month.

We also did spend the month waiting impatiently ourselves for either a job to show up or some divine help knowing if we needed to pack up our lives and move into our parents' basement.  Thankfully, the answer came just in time to be a wonderful Christmas present - Josh did get the job here in Phoenix we were hoping for.  We found out December 22nd, and it will be a really good fit for where we are at right now. It's a contract position that will last through May (just enough time to have a baby), and pays almost double what most of Josh's fellow graduates are making out of college (just enough money to afford a baby).  We are really relieved and see how God has taken care of the details with this job and what it will provide for us over the next few months as we transition into the workforce world and into becoming a family of four.

So, Christmas! We did do some fun things even though each day we found ourselves stressed to the noggin not knowing what our future was going to look like.

There were three things we wanted to make happen over the month - gingerbread house making, seeing Christmas lights, and going on a snow hunt.

Gingerbread houses were just as much of a success with Dellie this year as they were last year. I was also smart enough not to plan the mass sugar intake right before nap time. We got to do them with my parents as well as some friends, making it all the more merrier.

And we went and saw Christmas lights not once, not twice, but three times! Our first excursion was to a park up in Scottsdale that also doubles as a train museum.  Dellie was beyond herself when she saw a real train completely decked out, and loved taking a train ride through lighted scenes of all sorts of Christmas-y things. We did learn a valuable lesson - don't go to a popular Christmas event the last weekend before the holiday - you will have to wait in line for a very, very long time.

The second and third Christmas light excursions were to neighborhoods throughout Phoenix that pride themselves on going completely all out, including a walk through one backyard that is turned into the story of Jesus' birth. Dellie's favorites were one house that added a third story castle and another neighborhood that offered horse-drawn carriage rides up and down the street.

And, of course, no Christmas of ours is complete without a homemade tree! This year we went simple (easy up, easy down) with a yarn made one along with a few treasured (and lightweight) ornaments to hang along the string.

Christmas day was another small, low-key sort of day (like Thanksgiving) with a lot of opening gifts, skyping, and making a mini Christmas dinner.

It was precious watching her gasp after opening each and every present.

Our gift to Dellie this year was a whole slew of flowers for her to kill grow all by herself. Getting to paint all the pots her favorite shades of pink, purple, and yellow was an added bonus.

Helping make Christmas breakfast waffles with Dad. Sideways glances included.

One-upping our bacon-wrapped Thanksgiving turkey with a propane-torched ham. It was delicious.

And lastly, we finished off the Christmas trifecta with a trip up to Flagstaff the next day. It was, unfortunately, not as snowy as we were hoping, and we were delayed over an hour on our drive by two traffic accidents on the road and a combined 30 minute line at the McDonald's bathroom/order counter. The icy cold wind we experienced more than made up for the lack of powder, and we still were able to do some sledding and have a snowball fight with the leftover snow. It was truly wonderful for us adults to experience below freezing temperatures again (we both are ridiculously fond of all things winter and snow), and we were tickled that our Hawaiian born, desert raised daughter is developing just as much of a fondness herself.

Someone was kind enough to leave an intact sled at the park for us ;)

The rest of the season has been been spent getting our world ready for a whole lot of changes coming in 2016. We've been cleaning out closets and storage and getting wardrobes ready for jobs and growing bellies :)

How was your Christmas? Hope it was also a wonderful time!

Weeks 25-28 With Baby Rubiks

:: Weeks 25-28 ::

It's officially third trimester time! I can hardly believe its 11 13 weeks (sorry! preggo brain!) or less until we meet this little girl. This month was pretty eventful with my mom getting hospitalized, Thanksgiving, graduation, waiting for job potentials, and figuring out what on earth we were going to do about Christmas. It wasn't exactly my favorite last few weeks (honestly, it was really stressful) but it's been encouraging to see God carry our family through it all.

:: Symptoms ::

Heartburn is definitely kicking in more and more, mid/upper back pain every so often (I had to whip out the support band a couple weeks ago to help out on the worse days), braxton-hicks, not great sleep still, and waking up most mornings with achy hips and shoulders. I'm also starting to accidently run into things with my belly, like countertops and such, which is both hilarious and painful. The more fun symptoms have been stronger movements and being able to make out which part of her body this baby is poking me with. 

:: Movement ::

The crazy dances have definitely been exchanged for more purposeful, stronger, and in some ways slower movements. She's also become more responsive to loud noises, caffeine/sugar and getting poked and prodded by yours truly.

Sugar drink for the glucose test. Yum.

:: Worst Part ::

I had the glucose tolerance test done at 27 weeks, and while thankfully I passed, the process to get it done was incredibly frustrating.  I had to go to a lab to take the test, and what should have been a one hour test turned into a two and a half hour ordeal between poor communication, the wrong lab request form, and pretty awful customer service.

I've also been struggling with a lot of insecurity about weight gain, running out of shirts I can fit into, and whether I'm doing enough to prepare for a better delivery this time around. It's all stuff that I know truth about in my head, but emotions have been higher, making it harder to be peaceful about all of it.

::Best Part ::

I realized that this time last year I was getting ready for surgery to get rid of the cyst and wondering if I would be spending the next holiday season still hoping for another baby. It makes me so incredibly grateful for this little girl's existence and how far our world has come in a year.

:: Hubby ::

Josh changed our computer's wait mode from black screen to our photo album, which has meant seeing a ton of photos pop up from when Dellie was a baby. All the nostalgia is kicking in hard - we are getting more and more excited thinking about having a new baby in the house again. We were talking with Dellie about how her sister would be here next Christmas, and that she would probably be about 9 months old then.  Josh looked up and smiled and said, "That's going to be really fun - she's going to be in such a fun age this time next year!" 

:: Dellie ::

She's still dead set on her sister's name being Margaret and likes to poke my belly button while exclaiming that "it's a foot!" She's also decided she has "a little brother for Minnie in her belly" and likes to stick out her stomach to show how much bigger her stomach is getting too. 

She asked the other day if her sister will chew on all the Christmas presents next year. We will see kid, we will see.

:: Looking Forward To ::

The new year! I flip-flop between extreme excitement and sheer terror realizing that every day is coming closer to her arrival. But realizing come January, its countdown time to get life ready for being a family of four!

Graduation! ... And the Future...

Looks good on him, doesn't it?

After 3.5 years of full time school (including most summer school sessions), this guy is finished with a Bachelor's degree in Film Making Practices with a couple of minors in Business and Theatre.

Whew.

The weekend was a pretty fun one, with my parents coming out (my mom barely made the OK to be released home from the hospital/rehabilitation center) to join in the celebration.

We started out the weekend by seeing "A Year With Frog and Toad" in musical form at the Childsplay Theatre here in town.

Dellie was really concerned about the prop trees looking scary at first, but as soon as the lights went up and the singing began, she had the time of her life. We all really enjoyed the play, particularly the part when the actors were throwing crumbled cookies all over the place :)

The favorite treat of choice by Dellie's grandpas is a good old fashioned strawberry milkshake. Without fail, she will get at least one opportunity to down a milkshake with either Gramps or Papa, and this trip proved no exception.

The sugar kicked in quickly and we soon found ourselves with a straw-in-mouth preschooler howling like a wolf inside Ted's Hot Dogs.

And in true form, the weekend wasn't complete without something going wrong - this time it was a bout of sickness that took both Dellie and Josh down the day of his graduation. So while he looks really excited in the top picture, Josh was actually rocking a serious fever and feeling like death. (Dellie was pumped full of tylenol to help her survive the ceremony, which thankfully she did with ease).

Life gave him the flu for graduation. Our small group gave him a half-eaten cake :)

The only question left is, what's next? Well, we still don't know. We are currently waiting to hear back on a potential video editing job here in Phoenix, but the company is having a tough time getting communication between the hiring manager and HR to happen, so we've been left not knowing if Josh has the job or not for about two and half weeks at this point, with no clue how much longer it may take. Our prayer is that we would hear (one way or another) before Christmas. It's been pretty frustrating feeling like we're being strung along, but it fits with the one clear thing we have heard from God as we have prayed about what to do and where to go next:

Just be patient.

So we're continually realigning our frustrated hearts and checking our finances and finding that God is here in the middle of this confusing mess. He's providing for us physically and spiritually, and meeting us each time we choose to face him instead of our circumstances. It's not the December we were hoping for, but we believe that we are in God's good plan.

So please pray for this job to come to a conclusion soon for us.  We would like it if Josh was hired at the place we are waiting to hear back from. And pray that God would continue to provide for our needs and continue to show Himself as a good father and as a sustainer of our spirits as we wait for the next step.

A Mini Thanksgiving

So, when did it suddenly become December? I keep getting Grinchy every time I see Christmas decorations up, until I realize that it's actually time for them. The holidays have been blasting by ridiculously fast for me this year, and it's been hard to keep track of what's next.

Luckily, I remembered that Thanksgiving was coming just in time to get an appropriately themed book from the library to read to Kiddo and buy a turkey before they had all disappeared. Dellie was really excited about all the food we were going to eat ("we have to have cranberries, Mama!") and I thoroughly enjoyed having her actually track with the basics of why we celebrate by stuffing ourselves silly with food we never would eat otherwise.

And yes, we did bacon-wrap our turkey.

Family photo

This year's celebration turned out to be nice and small, which, in the end, was I think exactly what my little family needed. We're currently braving some unexpected stresses - one, my mom wound up in the hospital right before Thanksgiving week due to effects from chemo treatment (at least that's the best guess). We also are still sitting on our haunches waiting for Josh to get a job somewhere. We had originally set a timeline of mid-November for getting our future decided on (should we stay or go), but God decided our plans were not what He had in mind.

We watched football, Dellie taped and colored her very own "rocketship"

Post-dinner backyard hockey

So each day we wonder if we'll find out what we're supposed to do and how we're going to pay for another day's rent, but we also feel that God has very clearly told us to be patient and wait for Him.

We originally flip flopped between going back to Colorado to visit my family and get away from our world for a bit, but ultimately decided to stay here. And staying home, keeping it small and simple, and spending the time skyping with family and watching football was a really good thing for us. It gave us the chance to actually just stop and be thankful for what God has done for us these past years, and look forward to the good that we believe He has for us. He hasn't done anything except good in our lives these past years, so I think I can believe He has no intentions of changing that pattern anytime soon :)

How was your Thanksgiving?

Weeks 21-24 with Baby Rubiks

:: Weeks 21-24 ::

Holy growth spurt!  Its sort of funny actually looking at this picture because it doesn't look like much change from last month. But from my aerial view that I get 24/7, the belly is a-growin. I realized that this is probably the last month of getting to really look and feel pregnant without all the super fun discomforts. Which is sort of funny because I keep thinking about how uncomfortable I already am. Oh boy :)

:: Symptoms ::

I am so thankful the headaches have simmered down and the nasal issues have gotten more manageable (thanks Mom for the tips!). The lastest and greatest have been the beginnings of second-half heartburn (which is actually somehow different than first trimester heartburn), braxton-hicks, itchy skin thanks to belly expansion, and sleep is still touch and go. And the struggle has gotten real in regards to bending over, putting on shoes, or getting up off the floor. Way, way too early for this.

:: Movement ::

I'm thankful this kid has a few inches to grow before she gets access to my ribs! She is a strong mover and sits, head down, nice and low all the time. At my 24 week appointment the midwife was impressed by her strength. It took a while to find her heartbeat (because she is sitting lower than the midwife was expecting) but there was no concern about he being alive because this girl would hit the doppler so hard the midwife was having trouble keeping it in place.

:: Missing Most ::

I'm already growing out of a lot of my clothes already. Vain, I know. Still, I'd rather be getting creative with my wardrobe any day for this kiddo.

:: Best Part ::

I've had a few fun evenings watching what look like mini bombs going off inside my stomach. It's the best phase, getting to see and feel her move around without it hurting much yet.

:: Hubby ::

The naming wars have begun! We honestly have no idea what this girl's name is going to be. I have a favorite, and am trying my dardnest to convince Josh of how wonderful it is. He still hasn't found a name he loves, but I think that's to my advantage thus far.

Getting her self "maked-up" for the day.

:: Dellie ::

She's been a little confused lately about the fact that she really is having a sister.  She asks a lot about why God gave her a sister and other people get brothers. She's also been asking a lot about how big her sister will be when she's born. Her initial guess was about 2 inches long, and doesn't believe me when I tell her that the baby will be as big as some of her dolls. I'm guessing its all just a lot to wrap around your brain when you're three. She's also still stuck on the name Margaret Tiger and worried about her toys getting chewed on.

She has wanted to "feel the baby" regularly, although that has consisted of poking my belly button and exclaiming "it moved!"

:: Looking Forward To ::

We're currently in a point in time where a lot is unknown about our future, particularly with graduating, finding a job, and moving (or not moving). I am really looking forward to all of those unknowns being answered one way or another. I know it isn't really baby related, but it's been such a big part of our world right now that I can't even really comprehend another child coming into our life without getting overwhelmed. It has made it harder to be purely excited for her arrival without a tinge of fear of what else in our world needs to shake out.

Halloween 2015

This year marked the beginning of Kiddo deciding her own costumes. Not gonna lie, it makes me a bit sad. Somehow the concept of Halloween came up a couple months ago with her and she decided from that moment on she was going to be a princess.

For a while she was pretty comfortable with wearing one of her dress up princess dresses (which is quite nice, being handmade by my mom and all), but I was given a Sophia the First dress as a hand-me-down and decided to save it until the last moment in hopes of a big reveal right before Halloween. (Also to ward off any chance of her wearing it incessantly throughout the month of October.)  

Reveal was more of a success than I imagined it would be. The first official costuming time came and I took the chance - here's how it went down:

Me: "Dells, I know you've wanted to wear your yellow princess dress, but would you like to wear this (whipping out Sophia dress) instead?"

Kiddo: eyes huge, heavy breathing for a full minute. "...Really?..."

This girl took the. best. care. of this dress for a full week. She went to great toddler lengths to make sure she had her matching crown, "ambulance" necklace and appropriate foot gear every stinking time she got dressed. So even though it was far from any wonderful ideas I would have had for her costume this year, the outcome was totally worth it.

Here's some pictures from the events we did. I may have gotten close to zealous with all the potential fun to be had, especially since Dellie was even more excited for Halloween than I was.

Her first choice for a pumpkin was the "bumpily one."

She was eventually persuaded into a more paint-able pumpkin, which she painted with just as much gusto as last year.

We went to a pumpkin patch with some friends, complete with haystack maze,

tractor ride (which she loved so much she waited 20 minutes in line to ride it again),

and another pumpkin of her very own to cover in complementary stickers.

On Friday, we went trick or treating with all of Dellie's church buddies in Downtown Mesa.

She clearly had no fun, what so ever.

And Friday night we dressed up ourselves and the house for a quite fantastic Halloween shindig,

which included a giant fake spider (in honor of all the real giant spiders we can't seem to get rid of in our backyard),

along with Hockey Vlad, a pregnant cow, and, by this time, Cinderella (she got tired of being Sophia, apparently). On a side note, I don't recommend The Fly (the 1958 version) if you're looking for a hokey Halloween movie.  There were only two good parts, but they weren't worth the hour and a half of backstory.

Whew, you made it! How was your Halloween? Any trick or treaters? We had about five, I think. No complaints - just means more candy for me :)

Weeks 17-20 With Baby Rubiks

This month's pose was "let's see how close we can get to mom this time!"

:: Weeks 17-20 ::

We are halfway done with cooking this little babe!  I can hardly believe how fast it feels like the time is going. As a whole, I felt like I was able to get more comfortable with a new routine that included regular naps and earlier bedtimes. The new goal is now trying to squeeze in things that I would love to be back to doing, like exercising regularly and start some early prep work for potentially moving in the next couple months (yikes!).

:: Symptoms ::

Most of the symptoms are in my head. No, seriously. Nasal congestion is just getting stronger, and starting to include semi-regular nose bleeds (yech). I've also been getting nasty headaches a few times a week.  Thankfully the doctor doesn't seem worried, but did mention that it could be a combo of hormones and poor sleep. So basically, I need to get more rest. Speaking of sleep, my dream life is pretty wild and I have been woken up fairly regularly by neighbors' late night parties, bathroom breaks, or my own child.

Story time: a couple weeks ago, I woke up around midnight to find our child in our bed, inches from my face, with one of her biggest grins to date. 

"Hi mom! I thought I would come and sleep with you and Dad for a little bit!"  

"Oh... ok." (I was not very awake at this point). 

She stayed in bed with us for about an hour, not sleeping (although she was thankfully very quiet), then said, "I think I'm ready to go back to my room now." She had never done this before, nor has it happened since.

Epilogue: around 2:30 that same night, I woke up to her crying in her room.  I went in to find out what was wrong, to which she replied, "I keep telling Minnie to let me sleep but she won't stop talking!" (insert face palm). Minnie got a stern talking and finally relented for everyone's sake.

:: Movement ::

Plenty. This little one likes it when I eat food, and will perform a few circus tricks every time I consume something. I can definitely feel rolls, shifts, bumps, jabs, and have even gotten to see them from the outside from time to time.

:: Missing Most ::

I'm missing getting to be able to get away with drinking as much caffeine as I want, when I want, without having to brace myself for the side effects if I don't eat something or drink tons of water. Same goes with sugar.

:: Best Part ::

We found out the gender this last Thursday! (I promise I will say what it is eventually.) I absolutely love getting to watch the ultrasounds. It makes it so much more real to actually see the baby moving around. This one was a bit stubborn and shy (just like their sister) and preferred to lay the wrong direction for the ultrasound tech with their legs tucked under and rear end sticking up (also just like their sister).

:: Hubby ::

From the beginning, we have both been comfortable and excited about the potentials of having either a boy or another girl. The days leading up to our ultrasound, however, it started coming out that Josh was really hoping for another girl. He realized that there could be a lot of good for our children's' bonding if they were the same gender, being that they may have a harder time with a four year age gap. I appreciated getting to see his desires for our kids and their future, along with having a great time visualizing him (of all people) being a dad of two girls!

:: Dellie ::

She decided over the last month that she most definitely wanted a sister, "just like Daniel Tiger, and her name is going to be Margaret, too."

:: Gender ::

Speaking of gender (finally!) the verdict is in.  Baby Rubiks is...

a girl!

Nest story time: during the first part of the ultrasound, we got a few "previews" of baby's gender, which both Josh and I were sure was a boy, because there was definitely something boy-looking between their legs.  When the ultrasound tech asked if we were ready, we both looked at her like, "duh, we already know, lady." Turns out, the thing between her legs was actually the umbilical cord. Next time we will leave the deciphering to the professionals.

We are all beyond excited that this little nugget is a girl. I had wanted a sister growing up very much, and as much as I know I only have romantic views of what it will be like, I am really, really grateful and excited that these two will get to experience the bond of sisterhood together.

And as far as the name "Rubiks," we're not sure if we will stick with it or switch to something a little more feminine, like "Rubiksina" or whatever. (wink)

:: Looking Forward To ::

Getting to the fun phase of feeling this little girl move around a bunch, see more of her "personality" come out (activity level, strength, how much of a hiccup-er she is, silly things like that). I'm looking forward to starting to figure out a name for her as well. (Which is most likely not going to be Margaret Tiger. Sorry, Dells.)

DIY Rain Drop Mobile

Admittedly, this project was made about six months ago - one of those "I have been meaning to do this for years and even bought all the supplies for it months ago. Better just get 'er done."

It was inspired by a combination of the paper mobiles I made for Kiddo's first birthday, plus a Pinterest find. I chose to run with the colors, clouds, and rain drops because they fit with Kiddo's room "theme" (a very loose sort of theme, if you can even call it that).

I feel like I'm a broken record saying this, but again, sewing with paper is really stupid easy. The most time consuming part was cutting out I-don't-even-know how many rain drops and clouds by hand.

DIY Rain Drop Mobile

You will need:

• paper (duh)
• scissors (also duh)
• pencil and eraser
• sewing machine and thread
• yard stick ruler - I found one for $2 (I think?) in the paint section of our local home improvement store.
• sanding paper/block (optional)

How you make it:

1. (This step is optional.) Sand your yard stick down to make it look more worn down-slash-get rid of the bright blue printed numbers across it. If you're feeling really crazy, you could probably also stain it a bit to make it look vintage.

2. If you have a small child, find them some sort of entertainment. If they're asleep, find yourself some sort of entertainment. A movie is a great option.

3. Either find or make a template of a cloud and a rain drop. I made one size rain drop, and two sizes of clouds.

4. Chop, chop. Trace and cut your rain drops and clouds to your heart's content. I think I cut 22 or 23 of each color rain drop, 12 large clouds, and 20 small clouds.

Note: I wanted to give the clouds more of a 3D effect, so I made double the number I wanted, sewed two paper pieces together, and slightly folded the front one to get that effect.

5. Lay out your pieces to (1) decide just how you want it to look, and (2) to keep things in order when you sew. I went through various iterations of color schemes, but decided to run with the one below.

6. Sewing time! Carefully pile the first column (top to bottom) to keep the order you want. For example, mine went cloud-two pink-cloud-three yellow-etc. Before starting to sew, give yourself about 9-12 inches of thread, which you will eventually use to tie to the yard stick.

7. Starting with the top one (cloud), sew straight from top to bottom on each piece of paper. Give about a half an inch between each piece.

Note: here are some pictures showing what I mean about the 3D clouds. I put two cloud pieces on top of each other and sewed them together. After I was done, I folded the top cloud on each side of the seam to have it pop out for effect.

sew...

fold...

cloud!

Another note: if you run out of thread in the middle of one of your mobiles, don't fret.  All you need to do is get more thread in your machine, and then start sewing again on the paper over the last couple of stitches.  After you've finished, you can go back and cut off the excess thread.

8. Once all your columns are sewn together, tie them to the yard stick as evenly as you'd like. I wrapped around twice and tied super-de-duper tight, knowing it would be placed above my child's bed and would likely get some abuse from playing and tugging on it.

9. Hang it up and admire your handiwork! I simply used two nails on each end of the yard stick to set it on.  Feel free to do what you need.

Total cost: $2 (or whatever) for the yard stick. Extra cost would come if you didn't have any of the other above supplies.

Happy crafting!

Weeks 14-16 with Baby Rubiks

Welcome to the next installment of Shelby's growing belly!  After this one I will be on track and planning to write about other things, like how boring days at home can be and how mediocre my crafting ability has gotten over the last few months ;) I kid, I kid.

Also the last day I wore that dress before spilling bleach all over it. RIP.

:: Weeks 14 Through 16 ::

According to, well, everybody, including myself, trimester number two is a vast improvement from the first. The process of going from awful to normal wasn't overnight, but more a slow improvement with minor set backs. And I still need a nap every. single. day. and I crash hard around 8:30 every. single. night. I like sleep, but this level of tired has meant being okay with getting less accomplished and being a poor sport when it comes to small group and date nights. Lower energy has proven to be frustrating when I suddenly have this urge to make and clean and cook and organize and purge ALL THE THINGS but not enough energy to actually make it happen.

:: Symptoms ::

Nasal congestion has only gotten stronger, so I'm constantly blowing my nose and hacking up junk (So lady-like of me). I also get headaches pretty regularly, which I'm sort of wondering are due to sinus congestion from said congestion. Still tired in the afternoons and evenings, light sleep, crazy dreams, heartburn, more emotional, and sadly, the beginnings of tiny spider veins.

:: Aversions/Cravings ::

Aversions have basically all but disappeared, with some left over sensitivity to bathroom/diaper smells, body odor, and bad breath, which I'm assuming will stick around until well after the baby is born (just like last time). I have "craved" (if you will) water. I feel dehydrated constantly no matter how much I consume in a day. I have been finding myself wanting to eat fruit simply for their liquid content.

:: Sleep ::

I'm definitely a light sleeper now, but thankfully the midnight bathroom trips are not as regular. I have been waking up almost every morning with a sore shoulder and neck. And I already whipped out the body pillow to help ease some of the hip discomfort.

:: Movement ::

I really, really, really didn't expect this one.  I didn't feel anything until 18 weeks with Dellie, and was totally expecting the same.  BUT.  At fourteen weeks I started feeling this low abdominal discomfort that would almost take my breath away every so often. Initially I chalked them up to super early braxton hicks (which I found out is actually okay after frantically googling whether or not having them this early was okay). After tracking them for a couple days I realized they weren't braxton hicks but actually a rolling baby.

I'm sorry, what?!?

Turns this nugget is a bit of a mover and a shaker, at least so far. Since then I have felt rolling, flutters, and have even been able to make out their body shape from outside when they are positioned just right.

:: Gender ::

Still don't know, but I have been getting a strong sense it's a boy.

:: Hubby ::

Josh started school around the same time as I started feeling better, which I think was a bit of God's grace. He's definitely pretty excited, but he has mentioned multiple times that its been off-set by the other big things in our world that are also looming, like graduating, finding a job, and possibly moving. I totally get it, and definitely have found myself more preoccupied with what will happen after graduation than what life will look like with another child.

Trying to convince me she still fits into baby clothes.

:: Dellie ::

She still lets me know pretty regularly that she's got her own "baby for Minnie in her belly too." I asked her if she wanted a brother or sister, to which she replied that she wanted both. It took a few tries to finally explain that she had to choose, 'cause Mama definitely wasn't carrying two. She wants to name her sibling Minnie ("even if it's a boy") or Purtain (rhymes with curtain). She's also not sure she wants to share her toys with them because she "doesn't want them to chew on everything." 

:: Missing Most ::

A really good night's sleep and the ability to get everything accomplished that I set out to do in a day.

:: Best Part ::

Feeling the baby move semi-regularly has really helped things feel more real. I've also felt like I am finally in a safe enough zone to seriously start planning what sorts of things I'd like to make for this baby.

::  Looking Forward To ::

Looking more pregnant and less like I ate too much pizza. I'm also looking forward to starting on some baby crafty projects!