The New Bedroom

Yesterday, I was nesting. I decided I was bored with some of the room arrangements and decor, so I spent a few hours trying to make the rooms look new. However, I got a little stumped on the master bedroom. For the past four years that we have lived in this house, Dave and I have been maneuvering our way around the bed with only about 18-24 inches to spare all the way around. We've kind of lamented the fact that the master bedroom doesn't feel much larger than the two guest rooms, even though we do have a bathroom and a loft attached to the room. I racked my brain to think of some way we could rearrange the bedroom all morning and came up with nothing. Dave came home for lunch and revealed his inner interior decorator by deciding on a way to move the bed and give us more room. I was a little skeptical, but he took extra lunch time to move the bed and end tables. Oh, AND...he vacuumed in the old bed location! (100 HUSBAND POINTS!) It looks awesome! Now we have about 5-6 more square feet to move around in! It's still a little tight on either side of the bed, but the rest of the room is completely opened up.

We were both so excited by the change that we actually went to bed early just so we could enjoy it. And when I woke up this morning, I told Dave that I felt like I was in a hotel room.

For those of you who didn't see it before (I didn't think to take a before picture), the bed was in between the windows. Another side note is that my dad made the bed for our wedding gift - almost 5 years ago.

Was This Planned?

I must admit that I was always one of those people who wondered about the people who had kids spaced very closely together. I wondered if they had planned it that way or if they had a few surprises or if they were open to whatever happened or if they were just plain crazy. Now that I'm in the Closely Spaced Kids Club (and I'm not crazy!), Dave and I have come up with a few responses for when people ask us "Was this planned?" They aren't very clever yet (although those of you who know Dave can imagine that there were some options that are just unprintable :-) ), so feel free to pass on your cute comebacks if you can think of any. So far we have settled on, "No, we didn't plan this, but God did!" This cartoon may be my next comeback:

The Brave Walker

Although Ethan took his first steps about a month ago, on Monday he finally got brave enough to start walking wherever he wanted to go without me spotting him. He is now completely enthralled with his new skill and toddles around just for the fun of it. Dave and I are also completely enthralled with watching him, as well as marveling at his very solid thighs that Ethan has inherited from Dave.

Things That Drive Me NUTS About Grocery Shopping

1) Buying pre-packaged deli meat to avoid standing in line only to get home and discover that the expiration date is TODAY.

2) Separate bags for individual cantaloupes.

3) Separate bag for ONE package of grapes.

4) Getting out of a short line because you realized you needed two of something to meet a coupon requirement.

5) Standing in line for TWENTY MINUTES behind only TWO people!

6) Cashiers who refuse to let willing customers bag their own groceries.

7) Customers who refuse to bag their own groceries.

8) Planning a dinner, defrosting the necessary ingredients, only to discover that the particular grocery store you have chosen does not carry the only ingredient you actually needed to purchase.

Can you tell I didn't have a fun time grocery shopping today?

20 Weeks

Twenty weeks pregnant means that I am officially halfway through pregnancy #2! Wahoo! Dave has decided that I look much better this pregnancy, meaning smaller and less frumpy. He thinks the haircut does wonders towards a slimming effect. Eh, whatever..I'll take whatever compliment I can take that tends towards slenderness. As a comparison, the first picture is me pregnant with Ethan and the second is me pregnant with Noah/Emma.


And to answer the FAQ - 1) I am feeling pretty good. I am tired every day, therefore I take a nap every day. I have heartburn every day, therefore I take Zantac and Tums every day. And I itch constantly - the story of my life since I got pregnant with Ethan. Other than that, the pregnancy symptoms are currently pretty minimal. 2) I am still officially due Feb 8th, but a scheduled c-section is in the works so the actual delivery may happen about a week earlier.

Recent Random Happenings

These don't make full blog entries, but here are some random things Dave, Elizabeth and Ethan have been up to lately.

- Dave and I started going to a learning center class studying the book Shepherding a Child's Heart by Ted Tripp. It's split up into two classes - men and women - and we've both really enjoyed it.

- Dave led the first week of our Community Group study of The Peacemaker and did an amazing job. He was very nervous, but was extremely prepared, got everyone talking, gave excellent input, kept the discussion on track, and ended pretty much on time.

- Ethan is cutting his top two teeth and getting braver about walking on his own. Oh yes, and eating like a starving child at every meal.

- I had a yard sale with my two friends Rachel and Tracy and was the yard sale queen, making a grand total of $123.10. Oh, and I found $50 in quarters laying around our house! I'm making money without actually working!

Like Father, Like Son.

People may say that Ethan is starting to look like me, but there is no doubt that he has inherited Dave's personality.

Pregnancy Brain Hits Again

I'm an idiot. Well, let's just blame it on pregnancy because it makes me feel better. About a month ago, I lost my water bottle. I knew I had taken it to my OB appointment, had it when I got home and then it disappeared. I looked all over the house, in my car, outside, etc. I even accused my husband of having accidentally taken it since we have the same bottle in similar colors. But no, it was nowhere to be found. Eventually, I became reconciled to the idea that I was going to have to buy another one. It was kind of fine because I wanted to switch to a BPA free bottle anyway, so I bought one.

And then....yes, you guessed it. I found it. Where, you might ask? Well, let me tell you...it was in the most clear and obvious place for a water bottle. It was sitting on the shelf in the basement closet. And I still have absolutely no idea why I would put it there of all places.

Ultrasound

Today was ultrasound day...when the nurse called to confirm the appointment yesterday she told me to "drink 32 oz one hour before the appointment and hold it.". Apparently, if you have a full bladder, it pushes up the uterus so the doctor can see better. So I followed directions, and entered the office about to explode only to hear, "Dr Averill is running about an hour behind schedule. She had an emergency c-section to take care of this afternoon." AAAAAHH!!!! Thankfully, the nurses were merciful....but I had to keep drinking. I'm really sick of water at this point in the day.

It was just wonderful to see the baby and have the doctor check off all the various body parts (kidneys, four-chambered heart, stomach, bladder, diaphram, CHECK!). We purposely DID NOT find out if we are having a boy or a girl, but rest assured, we are having one or the other. We think Dr Averill may have possibly slipped up and accidentally told us, but we're not sure. At one point, she was commenting on how the baby looked like he/she had a long neck and said, "Well, it would've been perfect if it was a girl". Hmmm...So now, it's going to get into my head that we're having a boy and I'll be shocked if it's a girl. Plus, Dave and I both thought we saw a distinct body part at one point, but then Dr Averill identified it as the "cord insertion". Really? Are you sure? That really looked like a ______. Oh well...The heartrate was squarely in the middle range at 140, so impossible to use that trick to figure it out.

And then she tried to see if she could get some good 3D shots...ummm, yes, we are having a very frightening looking skeleton child according to this picture. It was a little disturbing, so she went back to the good old 2D shots

Get it right!!

So, I used to be a French teacher and I love everything French language related. However, it is one of my biggest pet peeves when people (businesses, mainly) think it is cool and trendy to use French. I wouldn't have such a big problem with that if they actually used it correctly. Here are some examples (some of my students will recognize one of them because I went on a soapbox about it a few times while correcting their pronunciation):

1) Salon Cheveux (not sure it's still around) - what drives me nuts is not the title, which includes the word for "hair" (correctly spelled). What makes me want to scream is when they completely mispronounce it on the radio ad, thus making it translate to "Horse Salon". There's a big difference between "cheveux" (she -vuh) and "chevaux" (she-voh), people!

2) The fixed menu option on menus - again, not the actual existence of this option, but the misspelling. And there appear to be various misspellings, even on a local French restaurant's menu.
Correct spelling - "prix fixe"
Variation #1 - "prifixe"
Variation #2 - "Prefixe"

AAAAAHHHH!!!!!! How hard is it to check the spelling?? It's in the AMERICAN dictionary!!

Getting Out

I am by nature someone who doesn't mind being alone. In fact, it actually recharges me to be alone. I really don't mind being home all day and I don't often venture to plan activities with friends. That's not to say that I don't like my friends, because I really do; I just mean that I am perfectly fine doing things by myself. However...while I enjoy being a stay at home mom, recently, the days have become slightly monotonous. I started to feel like I needed to make myself get out of the house and meet more people, which is a huge difference for me. So I signed up for a Tuesday morning women's Bible study at church. I only knew one person who was going (Anne), but I thought it would be really good for me.

Yesterday was the first meeting...I was actually kind of frazzled because I left my house late, it was raining, and I had to haul baby (18lbs) diaper bag (2 lbs), purse (2lbs), Bible (3 lbs), and water bottle (1 lb) into church by myself. I felt a bit like a pack horse. Thankfully, Anne arrived at the same time, so she helped me open doors and stuff. When we got down to the actual meeting, there were about 75 women and I discovered that three women from my community group were also there, so it was really nice to see some more familiar faces. We all had to go around and introduce ourselves in front of that whole group and of course, I sat at the first table. Not my comfort zone to stand up in front of that many people, but as my friend Sherri commented, "Baptism by fire!" Anyway, it was really nice. The women were very friendly and welcoming, and you can tell that everyone really enjoys going because most of them have been coming for several years. Next week, we get broken down into small groups, so I'm sure I will get to meet more people then. I'm really glad I went, because it was encouraging to be around other women and have adult conversation. Of course, I'll be out of commission in February, but oh well! I'll enjoy it until then!

YEA!!

Hallelujah! As I sit here typing, little Noah Benjamin or Emma Katherine (yes, those are our actual name possibilities) is merrily punching/kicking away. Like I said before, I have felt little possible kicks, but nothing definite. That is, until church. My little munchkin got carried away by Mark Carey's sermon on the glory of God and started moving around lots and lots. I have to admit that I was slightly distracted from God's glory while reveling in the tiny movements. And then last night I was watching FOX's bizarre new show "Fringe" and apparently Noah/Emma thought I needed a demonstration of what he/she thought about the show because he/she started doing jumping jacks. Love it!

Belly Laughs

Thank goodness I've moved beyond this stage and am now firmly in the "Absolutely Must Wear Maternity Pants" Group.
P.S. Did I mention my neighbor's reactions when they heard I was pregnant again?
Neighbor #1: (in a souther drawl)"Well, I saw she was getting a little pooch, but I wasn't gonna say anything!!"
Neighbor #1: (glancing at my belly), "Well, I just thought maybe you ate a big dinner tonight."

Ethan's Social Life

Ethan has a very active social life. He is extremely popular and I've even had to create an appointment book to keep track of his various commitments. Here's a few pictures of his latest activities with his friends:

Playing with Christian Charles (28 mos) and Toby Moore (19 mos) - his future partners in crime.

Just look at all the buddies he has at Community Group!

Quickening Delay

According to those all knowing pregnancy books, most women experience "quickening" between 16-22 weeks of pregnancy. They also claim that you may feel movement earlier during a second pregnancy because you know what to feel for. During my first pregnancy, I was completely obsessed with trying to sense my little peanut's movement, and consequently, felt him move somewhere between 16-17 weeks. By this point (18 weeks), I was feeling him on a fairly regular basis. However, this pregnancy is different. I have felt some transient twinges or pops that have made me think, "Hm, was that the baby?" but nothing where I've said, "Oh, wow! That was definitely the baby!" In fact, it's starting to bother me that I haven't felt much of anything yet. I keep convincing myself that something is wrong with the baby. On the other hand, I'm a heck of a lot busier and on the move than I was the first time around, so I keep reassuring myself that that's why I haven't felt much. I finally asked my friend Rachel about her experience (since she has two boys); she said that she felt her second baby a LOT later for two main reasons: 1) she was on the move without time to feel those "butterflies" and 2) Gabriel is a much more laid back baby than her first has turned out to be. So that made me feel better, but I am just dying for that moment when I can know that there's a teeny tiny person performing acrobatics in my belly!

Dreams

Pregnancy experts from all the best selling books declare that pregnant women will have very vivid dreams. I agree, but my personal definition of vivid is more along the lines of "obsessive". Since I've been pregnant, I have had these obsessive dreams from which I wake up feeling like I have completely lost my sanity. They are the kind of dreams which seem like they are a skipping record that plays over and over and over. Last night, after shopping at CVS, every single dream I had consisted of a single image - Aveeno moisturizing lotion. That's it, nothing else...just a picture of Aveeno moisturizing lotion. A few weeks ago, after joining Myspace.com to contact the one college roommate who is not on Facebook, every single dream centered around Myspace, Myspace, and more Myspace. I seriously cannot take it any more...I toss and turn and I think I also have restless leg syndrome occasionally (which is experienced by 15% of pregnant women according to What to Expect When You are Expecting). Eventually, I wake up in the morning, feeling completely exhausted and with a throbbing headache. Maybe I should just stop trying to sleep when that happens and read for a few minutes just to get rid of the obsessiveness. I don't know...I'm at the end of my rope.

I will never understand why pregnant women are doomed to sleeplessness for one reason or another for almost an entire year. It seems like we should be allowed to stock up on our sleep since we will be perpetually exhausted when the baby is actually born. I don't care what people say about no sleep now being training for later...that's a load of crock if you ask me. Just give me sleep!!!