Jiffy Pop

I finally felt the baby move!

It's not that I was worried, because we have to get so many sonograms that I know the kid is fine in there. But, it is weird when people tell you, "Oh, I felt my baby kick at 16 (17, 18, 19) weeks" and it was like 23 weeks for me and I hadn't felt a thing. But then the other morning I finally felt the thing moving around. Since then I've felt it three times and Danny actually felt it, too. It seems to be most active in the morning when I first wake up and in the evening after I eat. Danny keeps jokingly asking if it feels like a boy. To me it feels like popcorn popping, maybe I will end up giving birth to Orville Redenbacher.

Stevie's doing better. We went for a long walk this morning and she was TERRIBLE on the walk, pulling almost the whole time. But when we came back she played like a normal dog, chewed on only legal items, and is right now taking a nap. We are considering the Gentle Leader/Halti type leash for her walks, but we are not sure if she is too small still. We'll have to look into it. She is developing some very bad walking habits. She wasn't great when we first got her, but the bigger she has gotten, the worse the pulling is. It's amazing how good Jake was when I compare him as a puppy and Stevie. I do think Stevie will be a good dog, eventually, but Jake was good from Day One. He was just a much more mellow dog who wanted to please us no matter what! One day I hope to say the same thing about Stevie. She sitting here snoring away right now!

The Two Babies

Here is the latest photo of Baby Enos. It's not too clear, but it was nice to have something to show for my Christmas Eve experience with the MEANEST SONOGRAPHER EVER. She was grouchy and rude to Dan and pressed so hard on my hip bones I couldn't walk right the next day. After all that, she couldn't get the picture she needed! And she seemed irritated with me, like it was my fault (the whole problem was that the baby wouldn't roll over). Another perfectly nice tech came in and got the picture and didn't hurt me at all. Anyway, here's the glamour shot:

Blurry!!

At one point the baby was playing with its toes, though, that was cute. And they were trying to get a shot of the profile but it kept putting its hand in front of its face. I wanted to say "no paparazzi!" but I thought Scrooge might punch me in the stomach or something.

I guess everything looked good. No one has called me to explain an extra head or anything. It was my fourth sonogram, and I will likely have more to come. Hopefully I won't get Scrooge again, or this time I will have to say something, like, "ohmygod GET AWAY! Assault!!!" Or even something a little less subtle.

In other news, Stevie has been spending a lot of time in jail:

Today has been very good so far though. She has her good days (or sometimes, hours) and her bad. But overall she has done fairly well.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

The New Addition to our Family!

No, not THAT new addition.

We FINALLY got the green light from our landlords to get a dog! Danny went upstairs one night and pled our case and I guess he got through to them. So we found a shelter which takes animals from the South (since there are so many more strays down there) and brings them up North (where there is more demand). There we found a black lab/German shepherd mix from Tennessee. Her name was Sorghum (if you are from the South you probably know what that means). Now her name is Stevie (as in Nicks, Wonder, Ray Vaughn).

We think she will be a pretty good dog, one day. One day far, far in the future. Right now she is busy peeing on the rug (though she does go outside, too), eating soil from the plants, and ignoring us when we call her. But she also is learning basic commands and she is very quiet and good about hanging out in the crate when we are not home or are asleep. And, she's cute.

Flüten Fløggen Furniture

So what do two reasonably intelligent expectant parents do when they really should be saving money for their soon-to-arrive money sucker? GO TO IKEA of course!

Allow me to justify:
1) My bottom two dresser drawers haven't worked (one doesn't open, one doesn't close) in many months now. The doors at the top are falling off, and you can shift the whole thing from side to side if you dare. So, we purchased:


2) Our coffee table has been on loan from a friend of Danny's for a couple years. He has been dropping hints that he would like it back, to which we quickly find new and interesting ways to change the subject. Finally we ran out of ideas, so we purchased:


3) Our bookcase is more like the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The other day I took a photo album out of it and it shifted a good inch and half to the left. I truly believe the actual books are what is maintaining its structural integrity. So we found this:

4) And finally, Danny has been using as a side table by the couch a gross, splintery, weird table he found on the side of the road. Initially, we decided it was only fit to take camping and use to hold our beers and citronella candles. I am not sure how it happened, but eventually, with Danny's sneaky help, it found its way into our actual household furniture. It was time. Our last purchase:


I know once we have the kid I will be too stingy to be spending money on anything for us, for the first little while at least. So we figured it was now or never. I guess when you turn 35, you figure maybe it's time for a dresser without stickers and spilled nail polish all over it. But you are still too young for a real furniture store. Ikea is a nice place to bridge that gap!

The Butterfly Whisperer

A few weeks ago a teacher I know gave me these little guys to set free with my students. A couple weeks later, it was a Friday and it became obvious they were about to hatch out of their chrysalises. Once they do that, you really have to set them free within 24 hours or they die, so I had to take them home in case they hatched over the weekend, which they did.

It was late in the year for them to hatch and it was very cold and windy out that day, so we don't know if they really made it past our yard, but they can't live in a container, so we set them free to take their chances. I seriously doubt they made it to Mexico, where they naturally migrate to, but maybe they made it past the Mason-Dixon?

Anyway, Danny thought it was cool to see them so close up, so we thought we'd post the pictures. Oh and some others I had did hatch in the classroom, so we did get to set them free with the kids, too. And you better believe I used that popsicle stick (which I disgustingly found on the playground) to act as a barrier between my fingers and those gross bug legs.

What's Hot List

Things I love:

1. CVS brand Rolaids, peppermint
2. Early bedtimes
3. Carnation Instant Breakfast
4. sympathy
5. McChickens
6. Floofy clothes
7. Long scarves that hide my embiggening stomach (at least I like to think they do)
8. good test results (We have no TB, no gestational diabetes, no cystic fibrosis, and most of all no down syndrome!)

Things I think Danny loves:

1. Beer
2. More beer
3. his ability to tune me out when I go off on a roll; a.k.a. beer

He has been SO good to me since I have been knocked up (and before as well of course). He has always been helpful around the house, but the vacuuming, laundry, and cooking that has been going on with absolutely no help from me is amazing. (Well, I do help a little by making sure to put my feet up while Danny vacuums in front of the couch.) I have good days when I actually make it to the grocery store or empty the dishwasher, but on weekdays, it's much more about naps on the couch and ridiculously inappropriate snacks. I'm just saying, I am pretty lucky to have someone who is understanding and willing to help.

How do you spell relief? N-O-E-X-T-R-A-C-H-R-O-M-O-S-O-M-E-S

Well, it has been a stressful couple of weeks. We haven't posted because we have been too busy trying to distract ourselves from a yucky situation, but thankfully all is now well and we are back on track. Long story short, I got some weirdo blood test results that said we had a 1/4 chance of having a baby with Down Syndrome (normal risk for my age is 1/200; 1/4 is remarkably high. Put it this way: if I actually HAD Down Syndrome myself, my risk would be 1/2, and mine was 1 in 4). So we had to undergo tests to find out for sure, some fun (another ultrasound, where the baby spent a significant portion of time on its head) and some definitely NOT fun (an ouchy test called CVS, and it is nowhere near as fun as the drug store I might add). Then we waited. Friday we found out that the results are completely normal; baby has the normal number of chromosomes, none are missing, and there are no extras. Yay!

So now we can get back to the business of being happy we are having a baby, and worrying about normal things, like how we will never again be able to sit at the bar, or how our house will suddenly be filled with primary-colored crap everywhere you look. Hooray!

I can almost hear the dollars flying out of our pockets

So here is the first peek at our future little moneysucker.

Danny commented today that he thought my iron pills were beginning to kick in... yesterday we went to THREE stores AND out to dinner and I still stayed up until 11:00. That is a new record since I have been pregnant. Usually it is like: go to one store, fall asleep in the car, head home, crash out on the couch, wake up grouchy, cry because I am hungry but all food sounds gross, pout for fifteen minutes, eat some Skittles, and then bedtime. Of course yesterday I did suck up all the oxygen in the car by yawning about 164 times but I didn't fall asleep between stops, so that's progress. I did have a Frappucino pick-me-up, I think that may have helped.

P.S. Old Navy's maternity section is WEAK.

Welcome to our blog!

Since I tend to go to bed at about 8 these days, and Danny is too busy watching marathons of Family Guy to keep everyone updated, we decided to start a blog. Read at your leisure (which, of course, means "while at work trying anything you can to not actually do any work." I'm on to you slackers!).

Here we will update you on some seriously exciting stuff, like what we had for dinner or how many socks were missing in the laundry. And of course, we will update you on the latest developments on the upcoming baby. And I made a ridiculously foolish promise to a couple people that I will send photos of my -- ahem -- physical developments, so you can all take bets on if they even make pants or bras that will fit me at 9 months or if I will have to learn how to sew really quick.

So I hope this provides everyone adequate content to make fun of us for, or a respite from doing work, or at least details about us that really you probably never wanted to know.