26 Weeks

Last night after small groups we came home and Luke started running a fever.  Booooo.  I gave him some Motrin, but it didn't really bring it down a whole bunch.  Baby boy fell asleep fast when I put him in bed (after we rocked for about 30 minutes), and this morning he woke up good as new.  He was one chatty cathy, getting in all that he had missed last night.  As the morning wore on he started having a low grade fever that crept up to 101 by 11:30, so I gave him some more Motrin.  I don't believe he's had a fever since, so fingers crossed it's passed.  Whatever it was.  I am so very thankful that it didn't develop into anything worse, but it's kinda annoying when he gets these random fevers!  I get all paranoid that he's got something terrible and that then I'm going to get it. 

(you can't tell in this picture, but I actually finally got a hair cut last Monday.  I can't believe it's been a week and I still hadn't mentioned it.  I mean, a yearly hair cut is a pretty big deal.  I asked for 1/2 inch off, and she cut more like 2 inches off, but whateves.  It's healthy again.)

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 26 weeks- 97 days left......yikes!  I can't BELIEVE I'm in the double digits already.  But even though I'm under 100 days left, it still feels far off sometimes.  I made the comment this week that I feel like I'm pretty far along, but not far enough for there to be a light at the end of the tunnel.  Maybe around 32 weeks I will?

Size of baby: She's the length of a  English hothouse cucumber.  I guess there is a difference between that and a regular cucumber?

Total Weight Gain/Loss: I'm afraid to look.

Maternity Clothes: Yes and yes.  Although I'm currently wearing Cody's shirt, so technically that's not maternity.  Actually, I wore one of his shirts Saturday too.  Yikes.

Gender: I'm having me a baby girl! Evan Elaine Carver will be here at the beginning of the summer!

Movement: It seems this weeks she's gotten too big to just give a kick or bump here and there.  I'd say 95% of the movement I feel is whole limbs sliding and pushing around under the skin.  It's all highly visible.  Sometimes she's gets a sharp body part and just puuuuuuuuushes against my tummy, and it HURTS!  I mean, push a finger into your bicep as hard as you can and that's what it feels like.  It's got to be her and not just the muscles contracting, cause there is a hard knot where it hurts, and sometimes you can feel the rest of her body in a soft lumpy line coming off of it. 

Sleep: Eh, take it or leave it.  I know you aren't supposed to sleep on your back, but sometimes its the only way to get my hips to stop hurting.  I try and prop myself up pretty high, and only lay there long enough for the pain to go away, but sometimes I fall back asleep.  :(

What I miss: There was something, but I forgot what it was.

Cravings: I can not get enough sugar.  Or chocolate.  I've told you about my cookie dough that I made.  I think half of what I spent our grocery money on today was junky sweets.  Brownie mix.  Strawberry fig newtons.  Ice cream.  Pretzel M&M's.  I just wanna munch all the time.

Symptoms: Still lots of stretching across my belly, and I can really tell that I've got more weight out front which seems to put a strain on the skin and muscles underneath my tummy. Plus I need to drink more water because the Braxton Hicks are picking up a little bit. 

Best Moment this week: Hearing my boy say even MORE words!  At church yesterday in bible class he busted out with "amen" at the end of a prayer, and today he said "blue" (boooo) for the speech therapist when she asked what color Thomas (the Train) was.  Amazing!

Oh, my boy

Luke's personality has blossomed and expanded over the last few months.  In a big way.  Every day that kid makes me laugh, frustrates me, and fills my heart with love.  Today was no different. 

This morning he wanted to read books.  So we read books.  He wanted to play cars.  So I handed him cars from the couch so he could zoom them across the floor (sorry, sitting on the floor is painful at this point.  Wood floors are hard).  Then he ran off to his room and came back with shoes and socks, pointing outside and babbling.  So I put his shoes and socks on him (with his jammies) and sent him out to the brisk morning to play.  Then I got to play.  I put Evan's name on Luke's old Boppy pillow.  I appliqued a onesie for her.  All the while he played nicely outside, punctuated with "Momma kwon!  Momma kwon!"  That's Momma come on! for those of you aren't fluent in Luke-speak.  Bless his heart.  Ever since he's learned that phrase my presence by his side is a must.  But I kept saying things like "Not right now!" or  "Just keep playing!"  I didn't really want to go out side, but how could I say that to such a sweet little voice?  Finally I said "I can't, Momma doesn't have any shoes on!"  He knows one must have shoes to go out side.  So what does he do?  Runs through the house, gets me a pair of flip flops, and brings them to me saying "Kwon Mom!"  Oh boy.  Melt my heart.  I put down my sewing, put on my flip flops, and sat on the bench outside to watch him play.  He played for a little bit, then went inside, brought back his rocking chair, and sat next to me.  I LOVE HIM. 

Then it was time for lunch, time for nap, time for Mom to take a shower.  After all of that I sat back at the sewing machine, and eventually he woke up from his nap.  Not long after he was awake, he came running over to me with his shoes, socks, and a tee shirt (he napped in just his diaper).  After I put them on him I laughed and asked if he was missing anything?  No Mom.  I asked him if he needed pants.  No Mom.  O-Kaaaaaay.  (which he mimicked O-keeeeeey) Off he went outside.  I went back to the fabric flower research/trial/error/attempts I was doing, and he went back to hollering for me to come out with him.  Don't judge, I just didn't wanna.  Finally I told him I couldn't because it makes my nose run.  Which is true.  I'm still itching from having the door open all day.  What does he do in response to that statement?  He brings me a tissue.  What am I gonna do with him?  So tissue in hand I went back out with him.  *sigh* That kid gets me every time.

He even said "Yes please" today!  That was a first.  And last night in the car Cody got irritated with the drivers ahead of us on the street and he said "Come on peeps.  Let's go!"  and the rest of the way home there was a little voice in the back saying "Kwon peas!  Kwon peas!"  When he's pondering a question he'll HHhhhhhhmmmmmm, with the inflection where it starts high and scoops down.  Cracks me up.

Maybe tomorrow I'll take a picture of the things I made today and post them.  I finally googled "how to make fabric flowers" hoping to find some good tutorials on flowers like I see all over Etsy.  Eh.  You can be the judge of how I did.  Maybe I just need more practice.  Tonight after dinner I made some cookie dough and split it in half- put an egg in one half and baked it up, ate the other half.  Okay, not all of the other half, but half of the other half.  A fourth of a batch of cookie dough.  Ug.  It tasted so good at the moment, but now I've sugared myself out.  Not to mention a little sickened at the thought of all that butter and sugar in my belly.  Between this baby and my sugar addiction, I am kissing my girlish figure away.  Scratch that.  I am eating my girlish figure away.

Pinchable booty

Yesterday the boys and I spent most of the day at Shae's house helping them unpack.  Did you catch that part?!  My friend is back!  I didn't write it down here, but I distinctly remember telling her that they wouldn't be gone that long.  I just had that feeling.  And sure enough, a little more than a year later they are back, with an extra kid in tow.  Anyway, for having a three year old (Dakota turned three this month), an almost 3 year old (Luke has three months left), and a one and a half year old (Kayden), they actually all played really well together.  Amazing! 

Today I finally had my stay at home and do almost nothing day.  I sat on the couch and really enjoyed my coffee.  I played play doh with my kid.  I  watched him play with his truck and horse trailer.  For some reason he had to wear his hard hat when he played with them, something he's never worn before even when he's played with the tool/tool box that came with it.

I piddled around on the sewing machine.  I took another 20 minute project and turned it into a 2 hour ordeal.  Wednesday Luke and I ran into a fabric store, where I came across some lavender and green plaid fabric ON SALE for $3.50 a yard.  Heck yes.  I got two yards and lots of ideas.  I used 1 1/4 yards of it to make another blanket, but this time I didn't layer it with anything, just hemmed up the sides.  It really should have taken no time at all, but I thought this would be the perfect project to try out a fancy stitch on the sewing machine instead of just doing a straight stitch up the hem.  All the detail took extra extra time, but I didn't do any of the work, I just had to sit there and make sure that the fabric ran straight.  What ended up taking f.o.r.e.v.e.r was when my bobbin ran out and after I reloaded it, the whole machine jammed.  It developed a giant wad of  thread under the sewing plate, which meant I had to take the machine apart to get to it.  I even snapped off my seam ripper in the wad.  Bummer.  But that seam ripper was probably at least a decade old, so I more than likely did myself a favor by now forcing myself to buy a new one. 

Here's my fancy stitch.  At first I was a little disappointed because the thread blends in with the fabric well and I wished I'd picked a more contrasting color.  But as I kept going, I realized it had been a blessing in disguise.  True to form I didn't measure anything before I started folding and pinning and sewing, and if you look closely to the whole things it's pretty uneven.  But I don't really care.  For the most part it's going to stay in her crib anyway.  I am hoping to really only use the quilt as decoration and have the blankets that I make and the ones I registered for to be the functional ones that keep her warm.  So after I was done I just folded it up and put it in the crib.

Someone wanted to see what I was doing.

Speaking of a little someone, he actually wanted to go pee pee in the potty this afternoon.  Of course I let him, and afterwards in his room I held up a diaper and a pair of underwear for him to choose what he wanted to wear.  He picked the undies!  I couldn't resist getting a quick picture of that little hiney wearing it's first pair of big boy pants.  I  love this little booty!

Unfortunately it only lasted about three minutes.  Not because he had an accident that fast, but because he didn't want to wear them any more.  He got this look on his face and just said "No Momma, no Momma"  over and over again while trying to pull them off.  I would have thought this would be more comfortable than a diaper, but I guess if a diaper is all you've known then the change might not be welcome.  We'll keep trying though!  Maybe next time I can stretch it to four minutes, and the time after that five minutes.  One day in the far off future my boy  will have that cutie booty in undies all the time!

Nursery Extravaganza 2011

Okay, so it's not really an extravaganza.  In fact, in the world of little girl nurseries, Evan's might be considered a little plain.  But the way I see it is there is a lot of space for us to expand on in the coming years.  Lord knows that little girl will rack up more cute things than I know what to do with and I'm gonna need a place for it all.  For now all I care about is the fact that it's done!  It may not be this, but it's ours!

To get a full appreciation of just how much work it took to get this room in working order, I'd like to present a little before picture.  A little insight to the disaster it was before.

(oh, that's a little painful)

You know how my house is nice and neat and organized with minimal clutter everywhere?  How everything has a place and everything is in it's place?  That's because all the things that didn't have a nice neat home, but I couldn't get rid of it, ended up piled in that room.  It was a lot.  And the closet was even worse.  You couldn't step foot in the closet.

But eventually some things ended up here:

(the new bookshelf in our room, where the chest of drawers once stood)

You've seen where the computer landed.  Some more of it ended up under our bed.  Unfortuantly more things than I wanted ended up here:

(you can see bits of the old day bed sticking up here and there, and those two big blue tubs are ALL of Luke's clothes that he's ever worn and outgrown.  I love my little boy things.)

which means at some point we are going to have to do something about that garage.  Yikes.  I NEVER thought I'd be one of those people.  But it's not space we are currently living in, it's not a space I look at too often for very long, and it's not high on my priority list.  Maybe in a few.....ahem.....years?  Anyway, most of the stuff ended up here:

or given away or donated.  Be proud.  It was tough.

So without further ado......Evan Elaine's nursery!

 (looking in from the doorway) (the chest didn't take up nearly as much space as I anticipated, hence the pictures going vertical instead of horizontal like I'd planned) (there will be something on the wall to the left of the window at some point, I just wanna make sure I don't come up with something better than I've already got planned)

 (look at how her headband holder is filling up!)

 (from the corner behind the chest looking back at the door.  I don't think I'd shown you the quilt I'd redone, which was Luke's from his bedding.  The original looked like this.  I just took strips of one of the room fabric and sewed over the blue.  Voila!)

 Ta da!  All I've really had to buy was 4 yards of fabric (one yard each of the four different fabrics that make up her name, the pillow, the baskets, the curtain stripe, and the bow holder), a quart of green paint, the curtains, and a few little accessories (wooden letters, a lamp, print off pictures, new hardware for the chest, materials for the bow holder).  I'm thinking I've spent about $120ish?  Not bad when new bedding alone would have cost me that much!  I feel like I should belong on one of those design on a dime shows.  Basically yesterday was totaly consumed with chipping, scraping, stripping, priming, and painting the body of the chest, and today I FINALLY got to clean my house.  I've been waiting to do that, and have it actually feel clean, for a very long time.  Momma is sleeping good tonight!

25 Weeks and more new words

First of all, in the last couple of days Luke has picked up two new words- pink and two!  Whoo hoo!  That's pretty huge for us.  Making that /p/ sound at the beginning of pink has been so difficult for him.  Unfortunately he's also picked up the words poo poo and pee pee.  While that's great for when he's potty training, it's not so great to shout out and want to talk about during a Walmart shopping trip, which is what he did today.  And for the last few months when ever we are counting he will say "One.....dis......dis.....dis......"  All we had was the one.  But now we are up to two!  Ha!  Every night when we say our prayers together, we always pray that God helps his brain and mouth to work together so he can say more words.  It's so exciting to see prayers answered!  Also today it was cute...he found my pack of nail files and said "aaaaahhh!" while pointing down his throat.  I laughed and said that it was a good idea that it could be tongue depressors, but that they were actual nail files.  What a smart boy to put those things together!  Oh, and one more thing.  I asked him a couple of days ago what his name was, and he said "L-dis-K-E!"  Ha!  I told him that's how he SPELLS his name, but when you say it, it is "Luke".  Funny kid.

Yes, I've written the wrong date by accident.  It was bound to happen at some point.

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 25 weeks

Size of baby: She's the size of a rutabaga.  What is that?!

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Can I stick with the 13 lbs from last week please?

Maternity Clothes: Generally, yes.  But Taylor is taking some maternity pictures for me in a couple of weeks, and I decided I needed a new shirt for the occasion.  I went to Khol's with Mom today and after making sure we had totally picked over the kid's section for anything else my children "need"  ;) I told her I wanted to go to the juniors department to find a new top for the pictures.  She looked at me like I was crazy (I was expecting that), so I asked her to indulge my delusions and just go with it.  She did, and I was able to say a big BOO YAH! when several of the knit tops fit, just in a medium instead of a small.  I ended up getting two- one to wear on the shoot and one just because.  Yay  me!

Gender: I'm having me a baby girl! Evan Elaine Carver will be here at the beginning of the summer!

Movement: Oh man, she actually tickled me to the point where I was laughing this week.  She is still about three inches below my right rib cage, and I have a tickle spot over there. Every few minutes or so she rolls an elbow or tries to high five me or something (seriously, she gets out there.  Like visible through my clothes.) and one time she hit it right on the money.  It's a good thing I was alone in the living room when it happened, otherwise my laughing and yelling out "that tickles!" would have looked really odd.  She's also gotten me a couple of times in the bladder, but thankfully those haven't been square on kicks, just bumped into it.

Sleep: It seems that every other night I'm able to sleep through the night.  Better than nothing.

What I miss: I think I've been okay this week.

Cravings: Still the sweets.  Lots of sweets.

Symptoms: Still lots of stretching across my belly, and I can really tell that I've got more weight out front which seems to put a strain on the skin and muscles underneath my tummy.  And tonight I've been really dizzy.  Odd.

Best Moment this week: Sitting and watching my girl try to come out the side of my belly.  And getting tickled by her.  ;)

Weekend fly by

Whew this weekend went quickly.  Friday I spent most of the day painting furniture.  Yay!  I've got everything done except for the body of the dresser, which will have to wait until next week due to impending rain in the near forecast.  Since I'm not gonna reveal the furniture until the nursery is all done, I'll give you a little teaser. 

Nursery Extravaganza 2011 should be complete by the end of the week!

Something else I got done in that room was a little wall art.  My friend Jenn created some art for me to match the room.  I love having talented friends! 

She already had the family tree and the birdy picture in her shop, but I needed a third item and I love the idea of the words to "My Sunshine" with her name, so I commissioned that one from her. How great is it that she was able to take a snippet of the fabric I've been using and work it in?  Details like that make me happy.

 (our family tree with all four of our names on it)

Then I realized a certain little boy hadn't had his picture taken in awhile and was not only super cute, but acting very silly.

Yesterday I spent making the first of several burp cloths for my girl.  I went and bought a set of colored clothes (I've registered for another set, which I could pair with totally different fabrics!) and got to work.

Finally a sewing project I feel is picture worthy!  I tried a different style than I've ever done before, putting the fabric long ways instead of across the bottom.  I like the way they turned out!  And I don't know if you can see in the picture, but the black and white one has her name embroidered in yellow, and the yellow panels on the sides are ruffles.  How fun are those little deer on the teal cloth?  (Excuse how wrinkled the burp cloth part is.  I washed and dried them before I sewed them, and I didn't iron. Lazy.)

Today was church and my good friend Taylor's baby shower, which I helped to host.  It turned out to be a great shower, beautiful decorations, yummy food (which has left me too full to want dinner at the moment!), and a great turn out.  I'm so glad that my friend could be blessed today for her sweet girl that they've waited a long time for!  Too bad I didn't have my camera to take pictures.  (I know, you are so upset)  (actually, I think the majority of the people that read this were actually there today.)  Anyway, a few weeks ago I made her a little present that I had to keep under wraps until today.

*edit* it won't let me upload any more photos, saying I've reached my limit and have to purchase more?  Is that the limit for one post or the limit for my blog in general?  If I have to pay to post more photos ever, I'm gonna be a little upset.

*edit again* I did have to buy more space if I ever want to post another photo.  Grr.  But it was only $5 for the whole year so I sucked it up.

She's a photographer, so I couldn't resist the camera theme-ed fabric.  The onesie says "photo worthy", cause I know that girl will have more pictures taken of her than of either of my children combined.  Ha!

Also, on a side note, I've added a "Homemade for Evan" label.  Anything I've made for her or her room can be found there.  I know you were dying for that.  You're welcome.

He finally arrived

And by "he" I mean the Verizon man.  See, unfortunately today I had an all day window when he could come.  I didn't have errands to do today.  No.  Not me.  He came on Tuesday, but in the 7 minutes I left the house during my window is when he showed up, without the I'm-on-my-way phone call I was supposed to get.  So that left me with the I-can-show-up-whenever-I-want window of all day today.  Again I was told they would call first, but I  was skeptical.  I just knew that we either be the last stop of the day.  Or the stop that came right during nap time. 

I waited all morning.  At one point I passed the time by doing a little sewing, and that disaster should have clued me in to how the afternoon would go.  I whipped up another basket liner for Evan and I thought "easy schmeeze since I've already made one"  Nope.  I made it too small and therefore had to jimmy rig by adding a panel in the back to make it fit.  It. Looks.  Awful.  So bad that I couldn't even take a picture of it.  And unfortunately I cut the panels for an identical basket liner, so now I've set myself up for another disaster of a project and no extra fabric.  Hopefully I can learn from the bad jimmy rig and create a better jimmy rig, and at least one of the baskets will look good.   Goodish.  Which ever one looks worse will get to hold the sheets and blankets (aka-hide the badness) and the better one will hold diapers and wipes.  Yeeesh. 

Anyway, back  to the internet guy.  Finally about 2:30 I decided I could jump in the shower quickly.  Luke had just woken up, and I figured it was do or die before Kayden got up.  Not before I left a note on the screen door (which was locked) saying I was in the shower and PLEASE CALL ME with my phone number, cause I still didn't trust that they would call me first.  And sure enough, I got out of the shower (with no phone call), wrapped in a towel (which shrinks every day as my tummy grows larger) and there was a man standing at my door.  Scared the bee jeezes out of me.  Of course Verizon would show up at that moment.  I ducked behind the door and hooted until I got his attention to tell him I'd be there in a second, then I threw on a robe and dashed to the door.  Mid dash I noticed that Daisy had pooped right there by the door while I was showering.  *sigh*  Could my life appear to be a bigger mess at that moment?  Oh wait, it could, because then my kid walks around the corner in his jammies shirt (from the night before), no pants or shorts, and a diaper that hadn't gotten changed since he'd been up from nap time.  Awesome. 

But it's done.  My shame is over.  And Cody's computer is now wired to the wall as opposed to wireless through a wall.

Better day

Someone must have said a prayer for my patience, because it was much better today!  It also helped that I feel good about all the things I've gotten done lately and was able to allow myself to relax on the couch this morning.  I had a second cup of coffee, watched Glee from last night, and just enjoyed being curled on the couch. 

That's not to say I didn't get anything done today.  I did manage to get the chest of drawers down the hall and into Evan's room (drawers are still outside, which considerably lightened the load, and I slid some cardboard under it which made it just glide around).  I messed around with it's position and got it situated where I think it will look best.  Yes, it still needs to be painted this weekend (Cody said if I waited until Saturday we'd do it then), but that's okay.   I needed it out of our room and to know where I was going to put it.  I also spray painted a frame I already had for a piece of the wall art I've printed off and hung them on the wall.  Sara stopped by the house this afternoon and approved of the placement of things, so they are stuck!  And finally, I put the bookshelf together for our room and loaded that sucker up.  You don't know how good it feels to finally have all that stuff off the floor and back onto furniture!  Ahhhhh, it's like I've got some control back in my life or something. 

Now the only thing left to really do is paint the chest and bookshelf and some piddly little sewing projects (which will resume tomorrow or Friday.  I needed a break!)  I am so glad I have all this done and behind me so I can relax and just enjoy being pregnant.  I hate having a to do list in my head and always prefer to get things done quickly.  Plus today I was able to read some stories and play play doh with Luke, things I'd been neglecting.  Speaking of Luke his speech therapist came today (Monday her son was sick and rescheduled for today) and she managed to get him to say "boat" and "bus"!  It was only the one time, but one time is better than no times.  And we tried to go over some new letters, but it seems he's learned all the ones he can say at this time.  It's so funny, every time he spells his name he says "l-dis-key-eeee!"  He will not say "u" for the life of him.  L-dis-key-ee!  He also has a stop sign in his room, so he likes to spell "s-t-o-p"  But letters like "h" "i" "q" "w" "r" and "j" are either too hard or he's just not ready for, because he won't say them ever.  My sweet boy is getting there!

24 Weeks

Once again, excuse the awful-ness of my photo.  Sunday and Monday I looked nice and cute, but did I take a picture then?  Oh no.  I spent the entire day doing housework, and my appearance is a direct reflection of that.  On the plus side, I got the old computer desk out of Evan's room, all of Cody's things that he still hasn't dealt with in a box in the garage (where he can now deal with it at his leisure without me going crazy on him), and 4 loads of laundry folded.  Plus I straight up scraped the paint off of two dresser drawers tonight.   I did buy stripper for it, but it was a total bust and didn't work. 

Also, I just went back and tried to do a belly comparison from the last few weeks to see if I've really changed that much, and it just goes to show that I really should take each picture at the same time of day from the same angle.  This week I did it myself with the timer all the way from the dining room table waaaaay after the sun went down, and last week Cody took it much closer (from a higher angle since he's obviously taller than the table) at night, and the week before he took it but stood farther back and it was during the day.  Oh well.  I almost didn't take tonight's at all, so at least I've got something.

Pregnancy Highlights:

How Far Along: 24 weeks. Adding an extra day has made this week seem extra long.  In fact, someone asked me how many weeks I was today, and I couldn't remember if it was 23 or 24.  How sad is that?

Size of baby: Evan is the length of an ear of corn.  And I can tell, too.  The website I get all these weekly things from say that she's still a little more than a pound and about a 12 inches long, but another site I saw this week said she's about 2 lbs and 14 inches long.  That's a pretty big difference to me!

Total Weight Gain/Loss: Welp, according to the doctor on Friday I'm up 13 pounds.  Now, I've seen other weekly pregnancy blogs and those ladies are 10 to 12 weeks ahead of me and only at 16 pounds gained.  Eek!  Plus I'm sure I'll balloon at the end, so it looks like I'm gonna be up a solid 30 lbs or so again this time around.  I should probably stop with all the candy and ice cream.  And milk shakes.  And cookies.

Maternity Clothes: Yes. Please refer to the picture.  Actually, I wrote that before I took the picture.  Don't refer to it.  The shorts and the tee shirt just happen to not be maternity.  I never wear this shirt because it's exteremly large and I hate wearing big shirts, but it was our intermural champions for flag football college shirt and I just can't part with it.  It's come in handy during pregnancies.  The shorts are old work out shorts from when I used to pretend to work out.  Read- jog around the block once or go to the gym and "lift" weights before hitting the pool and sauna.

Gender: I'm having me a baby girl! Evan Elaine Carver will be here at the beginning of the summer!

Movement: She's an active little booger.  And I can tell she's moving up too.  I could have sworn today there was little body part protruding from right under my rib today.

Sleep: Dear Sleep, you will come back one day right?  And when you come back, you'll leave your enemies Potty Break and Hip Pain in the dust?  Okay, thanks.
What I miss: I really missed beer this week.  Don't judge.

Cravings: Just the sweets. And I always give in. But that will stop.  Right.

Symptoms: Besides the stretching of muscles and skin and my tired back, this week the foot cramps have come out to play.  And the shortness of breath.  Sometimes I just have to sit and lean back to be able to fully expand my lungs.  Plus, if it's possible, my patience have become even shorter.  I'm afraid people are going to start walking on egg shells around me if I don't get my act together. 

Best Moment this week: Passing my glucose test!  Not that I was really worried, but it was nice to get the phone call that all was in the clear.  Also at the doctor on Friday she measured the height of my fundus for the first time- the length from the top of my pubic bone to the top of my uterus- and I'm measuring 22-23 inches, so not too far off!  (Typically you should be the same number of inches that you are weeks....so maybe I'll get me another sweet little bitty baby?)

Valentine's Day

I'm postponing my weekly pregnancy update until tomorrow.  Try not to be too devastated. 

Today was a beeeeeeeeee-autiful day.  Just like the past weekend was.  Temperature was in the 70's and the sun was shining.  And while it was just like this for the past two days, today was the first time Luke got to play outside.  After we ran our Monday errands (Target for groceries and Home Depot for  the paint that will freshen up Evan's furniture.) we came home and Luke found his way out back.  He also found an old cell phone that had been buried in the grass or something. 

All I know is that I was getting Kayden going with lunch and I looked out to see him pacing in the grass "talking" to someone.  Later he told me it was Papa.  Hmmmmmm.   Alright then.  I fixed him some lunch and let him eat outside too.

But the conversation was just too thrilling to stop and eat. 

Finally it was that blessed time of day that I call nap time (these days Luke calls it, lay in bed and talk time), and I finally got to eat some lunch.  Right as I was finishing and trying to decided what sweets would satisfy my need for sugar, Cody showed up at the door with cheese cake from Cheesecake Factory.  Yum!  I didn't even care that he'd eaten half of it on the way home! 

Late this afternoon I set the table for our family Valentine's day dinner, and baked some brownies. 

Then I made one of Cody's favorite meals- bacon and shrimp- and we actually sat around the table together.  I need to clean off my sewing stuff more often!  It was fun using our wedding champagne glasses, although don't worry.  Evan still has a couple of DECADES before she tastes the stuff.  At Target I bought some strawberry pomegranate Italian soda, which was not only delicious and fizzy, but a nice deep pink to match the table!  It was fun blessing my family with a little love today, but man, my back sure is killing me.

Oh!  I almost forgot- after nap time I put his shoes back on him and he spent the rest of the day outside until the sun went down.  And the phone?  He has figured out he has pockets, and he kept the phone in his pants pockets all day, pulling it out occasionally when he got a call.  Or needed to talk to the "choo choo's".  Did you know you could talk to trains on a phone without a battery?