Wiggle Worm

This little baby is quite the Wiggle-Worm!!!

We have good news to report. We had our mid-way (20 week), full anatomy ultrasound this morning. My appointment was first thing this morning. The ultrasound tech sort of sighed as she started. She went on to tell us that her first patient on Monday morning seems to set the tone for the week for her. She signed because this wasn't an easy ultrasound to perform because the baby didn't stop moving!!!! She thought for sure I must have eaten breakfast to give it such a boost, but I hadn't - just a crazy baby! I'm afraid we're in trouble!

So the first answer is NO!!!! We didn't find out if it is a boy or a girl - despite Tony's many, many tries to get it out of her.

The next answer (probably should be the first question), but everything looks good! Everything seems to be well developed and where it's supposed to be. Brain, Spine, Heart & other organs, arms & legs -all seem perfect! Baby measured right where we thought, 19 weeks 3 days and is about 10 ounces - "just over a stick of butter" as the tech described it!

It was so fun to see this little thing! It has a pointy chin like Hannah and looks to have big eyes like her too. The tech said it had a little button nose, but I'm not sure a button nose is possible with mine & Tony's genes!!!

We didn't get great pictures because she had such a hard time capturing anything with constant movement, but we definitely saw lots during the 1/2 hour. We saw hands waving, feet kicking and even here....a yawn!!! Sort of looks like a bad "Scream" pic, but that's just our baby yawning!

And this one is just a shot of it's face. Big eyes like I mentioned and the chin and nose. And then part of it's tummy.

This profile is a little better. It's looking up and the scan is hard to see, but there are 4 little dots that are the tops of it's fingers.

And then this one was our best picture. Another profile shot, but here we have the head and nose pointing up. You can see the cheek and jaw bones, some ribs near it's back and then there is a leg bent with it's little knee up in the air! Isn't the baby so cute???

One really nice thing that I didn't get with my pregnancy with Hannah was that these pictures are actual 4x6 prints on glossy photo paper. I just had the thermal paper pictures before, so I'm not sure if that's new technology or just a newer/better machine. I like it though!

I tried showing Hannah the pictures of her baby tonight. I'm not so sure she really saw the baby in them! I suppose it's hard to see for a 3-year old since it's usually hard to see for most adults!

So anyway, this day started so great seeing this little person! Sure makes me even more anxious to meet him or her!!

In other news, Tony went to Detroit last Friday for the Kiss concert and he's downtown Cleveland again tonight for another one. I'm so happy for him that he gets to see them again - he truly loves it! I just also secretly hope (and out loud I guess) that their tour keeps them out of this area for a while! This gets expensive fast!!! He hates when I say that, but it's true! Oh, well - makes him happy!

Story Time

Hannah went to her first week of Story Time at the Library Wednesday night. It was so much fun. I'm sorry that I forgot to take my camera, but she was so good and had a great time!

This week's story time was all about elephants and hippos. The read two stories, did a few songs and dances and then read the story while listening to the song "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas". Next week is all about opposites. She's supposed to wear her clothes either backwards or inside out next week.....she's not so keen on that so far, but we'll work on it. This is a week session and we intend on taking her every week if we can!

There were about 15 kids there and I'm proud to say, Hannah was about one of 3 kids that sat still, listened and was non-disruptive to the class. I realize more and more just how well behaved she is and how she loves to learn.

She is learning so much and we get nothing but positive remarks about how she does in school time at daycare. She's progressing further and faster than the two 4-year-olds. One amazing thing (I think) is that she can now also spell her last name - all 12 letters!!!! It's amazing enough that she can pronounce it, but now she can spell it out loud and write it too!!! Her Spanish vocabulary is quite impressive too. She counts to 100 and up and backwards to 100 by 10's. She's gets most opposites and she continues to work on rhyming.

She has settled into her new room quite nicely. She loves her new bed and I so far love that her toys are now all up there and not in our living room and family room. She still brings them down to play, which is fine, but then puts everything away before bedtime. Works for me!

So I think I've made up my mind about Tony's little deal for Monday's ultrasound.....I am saying "No Deal" and I will lose out on naming a boy Nathan....I'd rather wait for the surprise until the baby is born. So as long as I can help it, we'll be waiting until the baby is born to know whether its a boy or a girl! One more thing that I'd like to express my joy about is that my good friend Maggie is pregnant too!!!! After lots of trying and lots of heartbreak, she is progressing very well so far and had a healthy looking ultrasound to mark 12 weeks last Friday. Not only is it so cool that she is finally getting this wonderful miracle of her own, but it's so cool for me that I shared my first pregnancy with my good friend Erin and now this one with my other good friend Maggie. Wow - how blessed am I?!?

Moving Weekend

Moving is so much work! And why is it when you move do you need to buy all new stuff?

No, we didn't move houses, just two rooms, but by my exhaustion, I might as well haved moved my whole house!

It all started Friday night right after work. We went to buy a new desk, Hannah's new mattress, new sheets & mattress pad and then had dinner. I got home and surfed the internet for a chair for Hannah's desk. I cannot believe you can't just buy a plain wooden chair to fit at a desk. Only one chair - with no arms, and a natural wood color....Oh, and for less than $100. I opted not to order the chair that came with her furniture for $140 because I was certain that they'd be a dime a dozen, but to my unpleasant surprise, I can't find one. Looks like I'll be ordering the chair that goes with the set afterall....in a few months.

So then Saturday morning, I started doing laundry and cleaning up the house. The furniture delivery guys got here just before 10 and started putting her bedroom together. When they were done, we got Hannah's bed all made (what a pain that is!!) and she was just so excited to be in her new bed. She thought it was just so cool and couldn't wait to take her nap in her new bed.

Then the cable guy came and he ran a new line for the internet into our family room. When he was done, Tony and I put together our new desk. We managed to do it without arguing (much) and it all went together perfectly! We got it done and put the computer back together and we realized it was like 6:30 and we were all getting hungry and crabby, so we took off to get a bite to eat. We ran to Target after dinner and browsed around, but didn't get anything and then went home. Hannah went to bed and I didn't make it much past 10 and went to bed too.

Sunday morning, we got up, had breakfast and then got ready and headed back out. I wanted to go to Bed Bath & Beyond to get a few things. I got a new hamper for our hallway, we got a new lamp with shelves for next to our desk, I got Hannah a second set of sheets and a few other things. I had to return some things to Home Depot and then we got Hannah one of those cubby shelves with the fabric baskets for her room and a shelf to hang on the wall. We all went grocery shopping and then it was alreay past 3:30. Hannah was overdue for a nap and Tony went to watch the Browns game at his buddy's. I don't know what's wrong with me, but I can't just chill....I had to finish putting things together. I cleaned up a lot of the family room, putting things away in the new desk and trying to find a home for all of our stuff. Then I made stuffed peppers for dinner. We ate and then I went to finish putting Hannah's room together. I got her shelves built and started putting all of her toys, books & games in their places in her new room. I got her old closet & dresser emptied and moved over and then I was done! I was happy to say everything in both rooms looks great. I've got to get a few more things to help organize some of the stuff, but I'll do that in time. I've also still got to make Hannah's curtain and put her wall shelf up as well as get her some decoration stuff. I'll also do that in time.

Here's some pictures of our new spaces:

The new office area in our family room

Hannah's new room:

This is her bed. The front part of it has 5 drawers and the backside underneath is a bookshelf.

This is a bad angle, but this is the other side of the bed which is a desk. This is what we need to buy the $140 chair for!

Her new dresser

And the wall with the cubby shelves. Her kitchen is to the left of this and in between her wall & bed are other toys out of the way.

Oh, and one more earthbreaking news of this big moving weekend. Hannah had been telling me that when she moves into her new big girl room, she would leave her lovey's in the old room for the baby. SHE DID!!!! It was all her idea. I asked if she wanted me to put them in one of her new drawers and she told me no, she didn't need them anymore. By the end of the weekend, she had two naps and two night times and never asked for a lovey! Now, of course, she still has her "B" but hey, one big girl step at a time. I have to say, this was sort of sad for me to see her be such a big girl now. Good thing I've got a baby coming to fill that void.

I also started cleaning out that room to start getting ready for a new baby. Oh, and now I've got a dilema. Remember how I've made my mind up to wait to find out if we're having a boy or a girl? Well, Tony's dying and just has to know. I have my ultrasound and now he's given me an ultimatium that I just don't know how to process. He says that if we can find out Monday, I can name the baby Nathan if it's a boy. That's the the only boy name that I love and he previously ruled it out. So do I take my chances on using my favorite boy name or stick to my guns and wait this out?!?! I'm not sure why, but it's not killing me to wait. About the only reason I want to know is so that I can know whether or not I need to keep saving Hannah's old clothes!!! Gee, what to do.........

I need a break from my vacation!

So there might be a little something wrong with the fact that I was anxious to go back to work after taking a vacation week last week. I wanted to go back to work so I could relax a little!!!

Friday, Sept 4th was my birthday. I'm not that big on my birthday, so it wasn't a huge deal, but the ladies at work all made me goodies and gave me cards. They even made waffles for lunch for me, but I got stuck in a meeting and basically missed my lunch party. I finished my day and then headed out of there for a week off.

That night, Tony, Hannah and I went to the Indians game. We had really good seats (for free) and Hannah was a little more into the experience than last year. Although she didn't pay much attention to the game, she did seem to have fun. Tony had her all talked into wanting cotton candy, which I wasn't sure was going to be a good idea, but when the cotton candy guy walked by, I wanted to get her a bag - a SIX DOLLAR BAG. So I handed the guy a $20 and then he asked me if I had change for a $5. So then I handed him five singles. He gave me back my $14 in change from my $20 and walked away. I was sort of stumped for some reason because I didn't think that was right, but I was so confused by how the whole transaction took place for some reason that I just sort of looked stupidly at Tony saying I think he still owes me $5. So after I explained what happened, I told Tony yeah, he didn't give me the five when I gave him the five singles. So Tony went up after the guy to get our $5 back. When he came back, Hannah we opened the bag of cotton candy and it only took Hannah one bite to say she didn't like it! Oh, great - the $6 fiasco and she didn't even like it! As if that weren't bad enough, but who then walked by but the guy who sold the cotton candy on a stick for THREE DOLLARS!!!!!!!! Ah, the joys of going to the ballpark! So anyway, we made it for about 6 innings and then headed home. I totally suck that I didn't have a camera for any part of this day! Oh, well!
Then Saturday, I took Hannah to my mom's and hit up on the second hand stores that I get a lot of her clothes. I realized recently that she doesn't have any fall clothes other than some things that may still fit her from last winter/spring. I got quite a bit of stuff for about $100 - I think about 22 different things. Love getting things for an average price of $3.50-$4.00 and mostly all name brand stuff to boot!

Our poker league started again that Saturday, so we headed over to play. Both Tony and I made it when we merged tables from 3 to 2, but neither one of us lasted all that long in those seats. Oh, well, it was the first tournament, so hopefully we'll get a win or two in throughout the year. Tony was up for going out so we headed to the bar after for some appetizers and drinks - I really lived it up with a root beer! Go figure that I'm not much of a drinker ever, but for some crazy reason, now that I'm pregnant, every glass of wine, bottle of beer or fruity drink looks SO good!! I'm sure I could care less next summer when I can drink againl!

Sunday, we headed back over to my mom's to celebrate mine & Randy's birthday. We had dinner and hung out for a while. I took some pictures of them on the golf course

Then they played outside. Hannah's getting better about playing a little rougher - and actually had a lot of fun having the exercise ball thrown at her to make her fall. She kept asking for more, even after this one:

So I'm loving Craigslist! I posted our old mattress on there about a month ago and that sold in a day. Kinda gross to me to buy a used mattress, but I had one to sell and someone wanted to buy it, so fine by me! Then I posted our desk on there Monday afternoon and it was sold within an hour! For asking price too! I'm going to post some more stuff when I get a chance to do it.

We went to some friend's house for a cookout Monday afternoon and then Tony and I started to clean out Hannah's new room that evening.

Tuesday, Hannah and I did a lot of running around. I got my new bookclub book from the library - The Next Thing On My List. We got her paint for her new bedroom and lots of other stuff and then headed home. I finished cleaning out her room which turned into cleaning out our closets - much overdue task. We had like 5 bags of garbage and 3 bags of clothes to give away. I was tired by the time the room was empty so I hung out and started to read my book until I fell asleep.

Wednesday morning, I was up early and washed down all the woodwork in the room and taped off where I was painting the two colors. I had to take a break around noon to get a shower and go into work. One of the crappy parts of being a manager is that you not only have to go into work on your vacation week, but you have to do it because you have to let someone go from their job due to cut-backs. That's awful! I felt terrible letting one of my admin go, but unfortunately, that's business and she didn't make the cut. Totally crappy though - I sure hope she'll be OK - I really like the lady and it's just too bad things happened the way they did. I came back home and Hannah and I had dinner while Tony golfed and then she and I played outside until her bedtime. I read some more of my book. After Hannah went to bed, I got the bottom part of the walls painted green. I liked how it looked.

Thursday morning, I had my prenatal checkup. Hannah went with us and was excited to hear the baby's heartbeat. I got my order for an ultrasound in a couple weeks and as we left, Hannah wanted to know why the baby didn't talk. She was evidently a little confused about what she was going to be hearing of her baby! We all went to breakfast and then I had to go to the airport to get fingerprinted for an airport security badge for work (more work on my vacation - I have a real problem with this). Hannah and I headed back home and I realized I'd better make some serious progress on this room since my vacation time was winding down. I started painting the pink on top. As I painted and started rolling, I realized how glad I was that I didn't do it in all pink - it's pretty much bubble gum (or pepto) on the walls. I liked it though and it was becoming perfect for Hannah. Here's how it looked with the two main colors (and tape still on)

I stopped painting to get ready for dinner. My dad & Julia came up to go to dinner for my birthday. We went to the Mexican place here in town which was very good as usual. I induldged in strawberry margarita (virgin of course), but that sure hit the spot! Hannah happened to really like it too!!!

Friday morning, I made breakfast for Hannah and I since it was our last week day of vacation together. Tony came home early and took Hannah out with him for a while so I could finish the room. I had to sponge the "chair rail" where the two colors met. I practiced on a piece of paper and it looked good, but it wasn't so easy on the walls. After several attempts I finally got it to look OK and I went around the room. It got progressively better and when it was finished, I liked it! It is such a perfect girly room for Hannah!!!

We just stayed home Friday night. The people that bought the desk came to pick it up and we ran to the store for a few things. Tony and I sat outside for the night with fire in our firepit. I made some more strawberry margaritas which were so yummy. We probably won't have too many more opportunities for a fire this summer, so it was nice to sit out there.

Saturday morning, I couldn't stand my dirty house any longer! I had looked past it all week, but the filth on the kitchen floor got the best of me and I had to clean! I got that done and everything else in the house cleaned up and then it was time to finish Hannah's room. I installed the closet shelving & new light fixture and switch. Tony helped put the closet door back on and I cleaned everything up and it was DONE!!!

I started bringing up some of her toys that will now reside in her room and of course, now she wants to play with everything! Her furniture gets delivered next Saturday. We still have to buy her mattress and I have to make a curtain and get the detail stuff to decorate the room, but it's almost totally done and I love it!!!!! So does she so far! She'll be so excited when her furniture comes and she can start living in her new big girl room!

I was pretty much ready to crash after all this. I layed on the couch for a little and was relieved when no one felt like going out to dinner, so we ordered in. Tony left to go watch the OSU game and Hannah and I just hung out. I actually finished reading my book. I'm not sure if it was that great or just an easy read, but I have never finished a book in three sittings!

Sunday, we got up and got ready and spent the day at my dad's. He had a cookout for his neighborhood people because he's running for a council seat for their township. It was good and a lot of food and Hannah had fun too! I'm not sure who had more fun when she was riding around on one of "Grandpa Tractor's" tractors?? I think it may have been Grandpa!!! He's been waiting a long time for her to warm up to the idea and she loved it!!!

Ok, so now do you see why going back to work today was easier? Whew! And it was even gymnastics night again tonight too! Now that it's past 10:00, I'm about to crash. I've also remembered why it's better to stay more current on these blog posts rather than to wait almost 2 weeks - they're long!!!

Good night!

The Flower Girl at the Wedding

I'm still here - everything is going well. I've just been really busy for the last week.

Last Wednesday, Hannah and I went to dinner with some of the ladies from work. She loved going to dinner "with the girls" and they loved seeing her. It's so nice when I get such confirmation that she is just such a good little girl! She also loved that Cindy brought her some coloring and sticker books and markers!!

Thursday, I had book club. We went to dinner at Long Horn and had a good discussion about our book The Wednesday Sisters which I liked real well. I guess I didn't read it with quite the perspective that the discussion was around, but none-the-less, we had a good review. Then we got into a political debate - that's never good!!! But really, that went fine too. We decided on a new book and a meeting place for next month and we'll figure out which world crisis to solve at a later date!!!!

I took a vacation day Friday. I had to get us all packed and do laundry and clean up the house before we left for Columbus. We hit the road around 2:30 and made good time just until we got close to downtown, but still made it there in plenty of time. We checked into the hotel. We met up with my sister & Will who were here from Florida. She loved that she could get Hannah all wound up and it made me totally crazy that she was so hyper! I guess that's an advantage of being the Aunt!!! We got changed and headed to rehearsal with my Aunt & Uncle. Hannah was loving the taxi rides!!! I thought they were rather gross, but she thought it was great. Rehearsal went well and Hannah did just what she was supposed to do, but I wondered how she'd do with a room full of people looking at her. Then we took another taxi ride to dinner. That went well and was very good, but it was getting late, so we called for another cab and went back to the hotel. Everyone was there, but Hannah needed to go to bed (well, I did too), so she and I went to our room and went to bed. Tony decided to stay out all night and rolled in around 2:30!

We got up early Saturday and had breakfast. I painted mine & Hannah's nails and then she and I took a little nap. I knew I had to fit that in or she'd never make it through the night. When she got up, I took her to get her hair done - in another taxi ride. The girl did a nice job and Hannah loved getting her hair done at the beauty shop. I do have to say though, other than the experience, I'm not so sure it was worth $52!!! She did exactly what I had planned to do myself, but I was too afraid of it not working out and then getting frustrated that it didn't look right, so I just figured I'd have it done. She loved it though and it did look good! I was glad that the thing I made for her worked out so well - I really didn't think I liked it, but it ended up working perfectly!

We got back to the hotel and I started to get ready. Tony got Hannah all dressed and ready and the two of them headed over to the hall. I went a little bit later with everyone else. We took lots of pictures and the day was just perfect. Hannah was so excited and happy!!!

These are my two favorite of her:

Here are a couple of us:

My sister and I:

Courtney, the Bride - she was beautiful!

Bo & Courtney - isn't the skyline great?!

And some of them with Hannah:

The ceremony went well. Hannah did a great job coming down the aisle dropping her petals along the way! She wasn't scared one bit! She got to the end of the aisle and still had a load of petals left, so she stayed up there until she had sprinkled them all!!!

My pictures of the ceremony aren't that great since the room had floor to ceiling windows - I couldn't get the right setting on my camera.

Then we had a cocktail hour and then the reception started. Hannah had an absolute BLAST! She danced (ran) around that dancefloor for about 2 hours. She was too busy to dance with anyone.

One of the ring bearers was chasing her for a while, but then another little boy caught sight of her and was just smitten with her!!! He chased her and his grandma was determined to set them up!! They did get a little dance in, but Hannah perferred to just run around and have him chase her!

She hit the wall around 10:30, which was pretty good. We called for the shuttle and headed to bed. It was a great wedding and a really fun day!

We got up for breakfast Sunday and bid Bo & Courtney farewell to their honyemoon.

Then we packed up and headed home. I was exhausted!

Yesterday, Hannah started her gymnastics class again. It went OK, but there is a CRAZY boy in her class and his sister isn't that much calmer! I sure hope the two of them start getting the hang of waiting their turn and listening or their mom better pull them out!!! The were a bit disruptive, but it was the first night, so maybe they were just excited!!! I was alseep by 9:00 last night! It's been hard going non-stop for days!

On the pregnancy front - all is going well again. I feel the baby moving quite a bit. I'm getting quite a belly now and starting to need my maternity clothes again. I've been more careful about lifting things and taking it easy. I'll be 16 weeks this Friday. Here I am a week ago.