Jammie Time

Getting ready for bed last night, Abigael ran into the living room and tossed her pajamas onto my lap. I sorted through the pile, pulled out her underwear and handed them to her to put on.
She sat down on the floor and quickly put her legs through the holes. She recited her little mantra. "The tag goes in the back. The bow goes in the front."
"That's right! Good girl."
I then handed her the bottoms to her Strawberry Shortcake pajamas. She repeated the same steps. Left leg, right leg, "the tag goes in the back."
As she pulled the waistband halfway up her chest, she said "I do it all myself. That's how big girls do it!"
"That's right, sweetheart! That is how big girls do it! You are such a big girl now!"

She looked me in the eye with a proud look and said "Your baby is growing up!"

Already?

Saturday Morning

This and That

We're still plugging away in our little corner of the world. With the exception of the everyday little drama, things are going pretty well.
Thankfully, I'm starting to feel much better with the morning sickness. I was beginning to think only birth would alleviate the daily puking and constant nausea. But, no. It only took a week-long struggle with our health insurance to cover a super-expensive anti-nausea medicine to fix the problem. All they had to do was approve it, and POOF, no more sickness! Go figure...
Our most recent OB appointment went really well. The doctor was very happy to see that I've stopped losing weight and even managed to put a few pounds back on in the past four weeks. In retrospect, I think the severe morning sickness I had was my body's way of putting me in better shape physically to handle the rest of the pregnancy. But it still sucked... All the tests we've had over the past couple of months came back with glowing results. The tests for potential birth defects and genetic abnormalities came back perfect. All of the ratios were at the top of scale showing no problems. Our 20 week ultrasound looked great too. The baby was moving around like crazy (I could have told you that) and even showed a few tricks, like swallowing and playing with the umbilical cord. As far as the ultrasound screening, everything also looked wonderful. No detectable abnormalities and the placenta was attached at the the back of the womb (instead of near the cervix). This is really good news because we will be trying for a VBAC (vaginal delivery after cesarean) and everything in our favor will help. All in all, things are looking very well at this point. We're past the halfway point and I'm actually starting to feel like a pregnant lady now. My belly is starting to pop so that I actually look pregnant instead of bloated. I already feel bigger than I did with Abigael at this point, so it'll be interesting to see how I end up.
Abigael is just as wild as ever and continues to entertain us everyday. As amazing as her sense of humor is, her stubborn independence is just as "challenging." We remind ourselves that we've raised her that way, and she'll be better off for it, but, oh my, the battles we've set ourselves up for. It's hard to believe that in less than a month we'll have a three year old in the house. As difficult as she can be, everyday that comes feels like the best age ever.
Brandon is just a busy as ever. The man just doesn't know how to take it easy. He's plugging away at school and almost finished with his nursing school pre-requisites. When those are done, it'll be almost time for the baby to arrive, so he'll probably take the next year off to stay home with the kids (wow, I just said kidS, as in more than one). His leg continues to slowly but surely heal. Unfortunately, almost two years of recovery has taken a toil on his poor body. While the bone continues to do what only it can do, he's still got a long road to get everything else back into shape. But, of course, it doesn't slow him down any. The itch to ride his bikes is too strong to resist and he's back in the saddle. Sunday morning mountain bike rides and the call of the velodrome keep him motivated and constantly tweaking his bikes.
That's about it for one post. I'll leave you with a rare find indeed. A family picture.

Friends?

Don't let the crusty, old furball tell you any differently...I think he actually likes her.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

The cold, rainy weather we've been having has finally paid off. It's snowing! It started with flurries mixed with rain about 3 o'clock this afternoon. By 4:30, it had totally changed over and the flakes just kept getting bigger. Right now there's a good half an inch on the ground and the road in front of the house is lightly covered. I think we lucked out living at a slightly higher elevation than most of Seattle. It'll probably be gone by morning, but it was really fun tonight.
I took Abigael out into our parking lot to show her the falling snow and she loved it! I finally managed to get her back to our patio, but she refused to come inside. We ended up playing outside for at least another hour. The only times she came inside was to either get the dog or stick her hands under some warm water. We caught snow flakes on our tongues and threw snowballs for Zak to catch in his mouth. She had a blast. I think we'll definitely have to take her up to the mountains this winter for some real snow.







(You can see a few more photos here.)