22 Weeks

Evelyn and I were having a play date at my friend, Hollie's, earlier this week (Hollie has a daughter, Gwen, who is 2 weeks younger that Evelyn, and a son, Sam). Hollie and I were talking about the differences between pregnancy #1 and pregnancy #2, and I mentioned that I hadn't even taken one belly shot yet. Being the good friend that she is, she made me take one then and there, despite not having my hair done!

A Glimpse of Summertime Fun

Last night the nesting bug started to bite, which means I am finally getting around to deep cleaning things I have been meaning to since Christmas break.  First up was the high chair.  We have had Evelyn in a booster at the table since December, so I've been wanting to deep clean the high chair and put it in storage for at least a few months.  Our plan is to get her a small table and chairs set to go in the space where the high chair was for her birthday (and find a new place for the high chair when #2 needs it!).  We took the high chair outside so I could just use the hose and scrub it down.  Evelyn loves pretty much anything with water, so quickly found the running hose.  Here are some pictures of the fun!

 Getting a drink!

 This is my favorite picture from the night - she was so excited!

 While it is much warmer here than where most of you are, it was still a little chilly outside to be playing in the water.  By the time we took her inside, she was shivering!  We got her bundled up and warmed up a little before bedtime!

A glimpse of things to come this summer...I'll probably be joining her to cool off when I'm 8 months pregnant in June and it's already over 100 degrees.  Ugh.

Some Random Early March Photos

Chef Evelyn

Doing some reading about big girl panties

 She LOVES this bean bag from Grammie & Grandad

 Helping Daddy take out the trash and recycling...never too early to start! :-)

I Feel Pretty

Evelyn is in the stage of wanting to do e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. that Mommy does. Today she wanted to sit on my lap while I got ready. I couldn't balance her on my legs and get ready, so I sat her in the sink in front of me...

She quickly found my makeup, figured out how to open it, and started putting in on.

Oh goodness.

It's a...

We had our 20-week anatomy ultrasound today.  Everything looks good, including my placenta.  At 12 weeks (which is still really early) my doctor started watching it because it was low-lying.  Thankfully it has risen like it is supposed to, so no placenta previa!  Praise God!

We also found out that we are having another girl!  She wasn't fully cooperating, but the ultrasound tech said she was fairly certain with what she could see.  None of us saw anything bulging out in the right places, so we're pretty confident!

These pictures are how we told our friends/family...along with some of the ones we didn't use to tell the news!

I have no idea what you are doing Mom and Dad, but these little things are fun to play with!

 And eat!

IT'S A GIRL!!
She looks sad here, but she really just put a jellybean in her mouth...

 I'm going to have a sister!

Gosh, She's Cute!

Some random pictures over the past few weeks...

One morning, little miss naked just wanted to wear socks, pulled up to her knees.

 I got Dan and Evelyn an adjustable height basketball goal for Valentine's Day...Evelyn is patiently waiting for Daddy to get it put together so she can shoot!

 Finally!

 Dunk!

 Watching Sofia the First, her favorite show.  We don't let her watch a lot of TV, so when she gets to, she pretty much assumes this position and doesn't move!

 We have unofficially started potty training.  She has started taking off her clothes/diaper when she poops - so we've started trying to catch her before to let her get used to being on the potty.  I think we have a few weeks/months before we'll full on tackle this, though!

 Evelyn loves to wait for Daddy to get home from work and go "drive" with him.   She knows about what time he gets home, and she'll sit by the door saying, "drive" over an over.

 She also loves helping Daddy unload the dishwasher.

 They make a good team!

A Dripping Ceiling

On Tuesday morning, I was dutifully doing my civic duty by serving jury duty when our nanny texted to tell me our downstairs ceiling was leaking.  Lovely.  Not what you want to hear when there is supposed to be a few stormy days coming.  Fortunately Dan called our handy man (a guy from our church) to come take a look.  Apparently we had a leaking pipe underneath our upstairs toilet that was dripping through the downstairs ceiling.

The new hole in our ceiling

 There's a bucket in that box...the box was to keep Evelyn out of the bucket!

 We had to shove all of our furniture over to the side of the living room to keep it from getting leaked on/destroyed while they were cutting, fixing, texturing, and painting the ceiling.

 The hole in our downstairs ceiling turned into a hole behind our toilet as they were troubleshooting...

 This was the point that I decided we were going to re-paint the upstairs bathroom once we knew if #2 was a boy or girl!

 And another hole in our guest bedroom closet...it's probably going to be a few weeks before I put this all back (and it will probably help get ready for the baby, as well!)

Oh, and did I mention that I have walking pneumonia and a sinus infection in the midst of this?  Fun times.

(Old) Wives Tales, Part 2

We still have a couple of weeks before we will find out the baby's sex, but in the spirit of treating #2 like we treated Evelyn, here's what the (old) wives tales are saying

1.  HEARTBEAT OF THE BABY - if it's over 140 it's supposed to be a girl, if it's under 140 it's supposed to be a boy.  Baby Gaines was about 150 at 16 weeks.
Verdict: GIRL

2.  CRAVINGS - if Mommy craves sweet and creamy it's supposed to be a girl, if it's sour and salty it's supposed to be a boy.  Mommy currently craves cheesecake and sugary cereals.
Verdict:  GIRL

3.  CHINESE BIRTH CALENDAR - uses Mommy's age at conception and date of conception to determine gender. (click here)
Verdict:  BOY

4.  RING TEST - loop your wedding ring around one of Mommy's hairs and hang it over Mommy's belly.  If the ring circles, it's a boy.  If the ring sways back and forth in a line, it's a girl.
Verdict:  GIRL 

5.  MAYAN CALENDAR - uses Mommy's age at conception and year of conception to determine gender.  If both are odd or both are even, it's supposed to be a girl. If it's one of each, it's supposed to be a boy.  Mommy was 34 in 2012.
Verdict:  GIRL

6.  MORNING SICKNESS - if Mommy is super sick, it's a girl.  If she's not, it's a boy.
Verdict:  GIRL

7.  SLEEPING PREFERENCE - if Mommy prefers to sleep on her left side, it's a boy.  If her right side, it's a girl.  Mommy likes to sleep on her right side (and her back, but that's frowned upon).
Verdict:  GIRL

8.  FRIEND EMILY TEST - if one of your best friends has an intuition, go with it.  We had to call these (old) wives tales, because Emily is NOT old! :-)  She's also 1-0 in predicting the gender of our kids.
Verdict:  GIRL

We'll be sure to let you all know what we find out!

Our Little Singer

Over the past 3-4 weeks, Evelyn has started singing to herself.  I love it, I mean LOVE it!  I always wanted kids who loved music, so hearing this is seriously one of my favorite things ever.  She has several songs that they sing during story time at the library that are always on her list of ones for us to sing, and we'll catch her singing parts of them (or requesting that we sing them so she can do the actions).  Tonight I caught her singing after dinner and got a video of her.  After the second "yay," you'll hear her rendition of "Jesus loves me" (listen for 'Bible so...').

Our other favorite thing is hearing her say, "I love you."  I'll get a video of that soon, too!

Boing Boing Bounce!

Wee took Evelyn to Boing Boing Bounce, one of those indoor bounce house places.  She's been a few times before and really liked it, but now that she is getting older (*tear*) and bigger (*more tears*) she has started running around and wanting to do a lot of it herself.  Daddy got quite a workout from climbing up the slide stairs with her.  Not being able to climb and bounce much with my growing belly, I decided to take the nice camera and get some pictures.  I'm so glad I did!

Towards the beginning of the hour we were there - she still wanted Daddy's help

 She loves the big open space jump, too!

 And these balls...who wouldn't like to bounce around a ball that's as big as you are?

 I love this one because it shows the pure joy she was experiencing - she'd always come up at the bottom with a huge smile on her face.

Safe at the bottom!

 By the end, she was coming around the corner and going down on her own (before Daddy could even finish getting up the stairs).  She would say, "2-1 blast off!" and bounce her way down.

 She liked these little guys until they bucked her off...

 The place we were at sometimes has different characters come in (Mickey, Elmo, etc.).  Today it was Minnie Mouse.  She backed up - wide-eyed - not real sure about Minnie.

 Dad - get our hand off - I can do it myself!

 Weeee!

 She also loved the tunnels!

 She did this to herself...I think I'll have a seat here...

 Dancing to the music

 Fun times with Daddy! (and Mommy)