Moving On

M is taking one of his long naps and I am caught up on chores, Bible reading, and rest so I actually have time to blog...yay! If you can't tell from the above pictures, our little man is a big cheese. It's hard to catch him with a natural smile because every time he sees the camera now, he pulls out "that" smile. Oh well, he's still the cutest kid I know (until October when I'll have two of the cutest kids I know...).

Days just keep going by without me knowing it. There was one day that I would have promised you it was Tuesday when, in fact, it was actually Wednesday. All fun times, though, as we are enjoying the beauitful weather (past two days have been rainy, but the next week promises to be sunny and 80s!). M is a big "help" with my garden, which turned out to be mostly container gardening this year. Really convenient and saves the back and the belly from the work of tilling the ground. I am planting a few things in my in-ground garden, though: herbs, one cucumber plant, spinach, potatoes, and carrots. Everything seems to be growing well, we just need those sunny days to really get things underway. Dad helped me plant a few containers at his house, mostly pumpkins and zucchinis and a few tomatoes. He also bought some tomato sprouts to plant, so we're guaranteed some yummy home-grown tomatoes this year! I bought one sprout this year: a jalapeno plant for David for only $1.18. He LOVES those things, so hopefully they'll produce some good ones over the summer. I also bought an aloe plant for medicinal purposes: a drop or two of aloe juice in your nose clears it up instead of using all those chemicals in nose sprays (which you can't use on kids anyway!). I've used it on M a few times and Yana has used it on Brea and it works beautifully. I snip a tip off and it seals itself back up and keeps on growing. I guess it's good to drink and good for your skin, but I haven't looked into that yet. My grandma in FL always kept (and still keeps) one.

Baby seems to be doing nicely, we go for our ultrasound in a few weeks, so it'll be nice to see her (or him) for the first time. I feel her moving around the most after I've just eaten, but not much more. She's probably moving a lot and I'm just so busy I don't notice or my constant motion rocks her to sleep during the day and she's up at night but not enough to wake me. This is where all the day/night confusion starts, I'm convinced. I had a plan to sit during the day and move around a few times during the night to avoid this confusion when she enters the world, but, yeah, that's not possible. I'm still eating like crazy and wishing I could hire a cook to think of yummy, healthy snacks to create so I didn't have to. Meals are easy, it's the inbetween that's annoying since most snack food is junky. D scolded me for going overbudget on our grocery bill last month, but I told him that his toddler eats like a teenager and his baby makes me eat like a teenager, so just be happy it didn't double (notice they are "his" babies to make my case more pitiful...). Haven't heard another word from him, poor guy. I'm making a pot roast in the slow cooker right now and it smells delicious...

D and I have our monthly date night on Friday. He's working til 8pm every other day, so we see each other in glimpses on those nights. He doesn't usually get home til 9ish and I'm usually making myself comfortable for night by 10. He's such a great guy, I couldn't do any of this without him. He's so helpful and patient and loving and supportive. He's always texting me nice things throughout the day even though he's superbusy. We'll be married six years this year and it doesn't seem like it could be that long. We still have tons of fun together and thoroughly enjoy being together whenever we can. I love him. Ok, enough mushiness...

To end, there was one day that Dad was reading M a lift-the-flap firetruck book that is a new favorite and all of the sudden they both pop out of the seat with Dad announcing, "I'm going to bring him to the fire station around the corner if you don't mind." M got his "fireman boots" on (snow boots that are at least a size too small for him but he jams his pudgy feet into them anyway...all by himself...) and Dad loaded him into our van and off they went. Not only did he get to see and touch and sit on a firetruck, but he got to sit on a steamroller and a rescue boat, too. Dad couldn't tell which he enjoyed most, but sufficed to say that every time he sees or reads about a firetruck he says, "Grpa" and "Minah" and points to himself, meaning that Grandpa and Micah went to see the firetrucks. As if Dad wasn't his favorite person in the world already...

Last night, the stars aligned perfectly and D was able to take a picture of my 16-week belly. I'd think of it when no one was around, D would think of it when we were in bed, we both thought of it, but the camera was at Mom and Dad's, etc. Anyway, here we are:

It kind of looks like I'm pushing my belly out, but I'm not...that's how it looks when I stand. It totally doesn't get in the way of anything at this point. I think I was remembering (and dreading) how I felt at the end of M's pregnancy when I was huge and uncomfortable and didn't want to do much. For all the queasiness I had with this one, I haven't had any belly discomfort, for which I'm thankful because M LOVES to read and is always on my lap with a book.

Some other baby-related items include my ultrasound which is scheduled for June 1st. I'm excited because D is on night CT that month and doesn't go into work until 5pm, so he'll be able to come along. I know Mom is coming and I invited Dad, but it's mid-day, so he might be working. Not sure if we'll bring M. I'd like him to see the baby, but it might be too long for him to stay relatively still in a room full with knobs and buttons and everything else he would want to get into. It'll be fun to get our first peek at the baby. We're not going to find out if she is really a she (I'm 75% sure she's a girl) because where's the fun in that? I was trying out baby names on M the other day to see what he could pronounce and what proves to be difficult. He did pretty well on most names, but he does well pronouncing most words, even three syllable ones. (I can get off on a tangent about him, but I'll just mention that he's pointing things out and saying their names now without any "What's that?" prompting. Very fun.). We won't be sharing any names, either, in case we change our mind last minute, to avoid all the potentially-annoying, "Oh, I thought you chose such and such a name. What happened?" questions. I think we're in agreement on a girl's name, but not a boy's name. But we haven't sat down and looked through any baby names, either, so I'm sure we'll find something when that happens.

In preparation for Baby, I'm in the market for a Sit and Stand baby stroller. The older child can sit or stand on a particular spot on the stroller and the other part has a place for a infant car seat which can also be a regular stroller seat when you are past the car seat stage. Found a few on Craigslist, but nothing I've settled on. I'm also reviewing slow cooker recipe books because I'm going to be using that thing like crazy during those first few months. I might even buy another one if I find I'm using it a lot. You can make anything from dips and breads to desserts and cakes in it. I'm also going to be making double meals the last month I'm pregnant and freezing the extra to store up a good reserve. We actually won't need them for a while because we will be staying with my parents for the first six weeks of Baby's life. I can't lift or drive for those six weeks after a C-section and obviously D can't take that much time off, so we'll be moving in for a time with them. Not to mention all the help that Mom and Dad (and all large number of people who are constantly in and out of that house on a regular basis!) will be with M and allowing me to rest whenever I need to. I'm not sure how people do it without help, but I don't want to find out! I firmly believe that even though you are ultimately responsible for your child, family and good friends should be a big part of their lives. I'm so thankful the Lord brought us back to our family and that they are a big part of daily life.

Well I think that's all on the baby update. I've got to finish my second summer reading book while M is still snoozing because when he is up, he is UP and ready to go.

I'm so excited about my garden this year because I was able to start it from seeds (it feels less like cheating). Much cheaper, but definitely more time consuming. I started my herbs a few weeks ago and they're coming along nicely now, too. As you can see, I used seed starter containers that will decompose after I plant them in the soil. Here's what I planted:

2 squares of scallions
2 squares of bell peppers
2 squares of carrots
3 squares of tomatoes
3 squares of peas
4 squares of green beans
4 squares of cucumbers
5 squares of watermelon
5 squares of cantaloupe
7 squares of pumpkins
10 squares of zucchini






...or something like that. Most of the seeds grew; all, I think, except for one or two. I'll have to transplant them in the upcoming weeks, so I'm working out a garden design. I'll be planting the tomatoes in an old compound container and I think I'll plant some potatoes (who are already growing in a plastic bag with absolutely no effort on my part!) in a similar container. I might plant the pumpkins at Mom and Dad's since they have a lot of room. I'm picking up a book at the library that should help me with this next step. I'm constantly amazed at how God designed a tiny seed to hold everything it would need to produce more of its kind. Watching the process up close it a fun experience. M has taken to "helping" me water the plants each morning...so much "help," in fact, that he now has his own plant to water (Spanish moss) so he won't drown mine. It's cute. I got some books out of the library on growing seeds for him, but trucks are his new fascination (obsession!!!) so they didn't hold his interest for long.