Week 29 Update

I don't know about you, but I can hardly believe that we are in week 29 of this pregnancy already! Third trimester is here, and I am visiting my midwife every other week. I'm measuring right on target for belly/baby size, and my weight gain is still definitely low compared to last pregnancy (although Christmas cookies have not helped at all, whatsoever). Overall, I feel good. Little 2P is getting bigger by the minute and continues to do plenty of flip flops to let me know he is healthy and strong!

Life has been so busy, which I'm sure contributes to the blinding speed of this pregnancy. Christmas preparations and celebrations, work responsibilities, studying for the EPPP (licensure exam for me). Oh, and watch for a blog post covering Mikayla's first birthday parties (!!). One happened just after Christmas in New Jersey, and the other will take place when we visit my parents in January, closer to her actual birthdate. Spoiler alert: this girl loves cake!

And the nesting? OH my my. Despite nursing a cold and sore throat for the past four days, I was upstairs yesterday clearing out drawers in the nursery and reorganizing the hall closet to make room for 2P's things. I have a TON of boy clothes, thanks to my dear sister passing along some of Elijah's clothes, and a few friends who also had boy clothes to give. My goal today, if I have the energy, is to do yet another clothing swap, putting away Mikayla's 9-12 stuff and pulling down the 18 month bin. And we will be ready to set up crib #2 as soon as we invite a friend over to help Joel move the mattress and box spring up to the attic, since we took the guest bed down a few weeks ago.

Phew!

This flurry of activity is, I'm sure, related to the start of the New Year and my closing in on the week 30 mark. In my mind, "after the holidays" and "January" have been the objects of my baby-prep procrastination. And now that those are actually drawing quite, quite near, the reality of having this baby soon is hitting me (well, us, if I may speak for Joel as well). Once we are into January, this baby will be here in just two months! Yikes! And I need to fit in a licensure exam and wrapping up loose ends at work before it all goes down.

Overwhelmed? Not at all...ok yes, a little...but with a supportive hubby who is finished with school (a Master of the Masters!), we should be able to get all these preparations knocked out in a timely manner.

Off to wash some diapers...and organize some baby clothes...and then collapse into a heap of sick tiredness for awhile. Stay tuned for "during" and "after" pictures of the nursery as it transitions from a one-baby room to a two-baby circus!

SDG!

(Almost) 11 Month Update

Our little girl is growing so fast! We are continually amazed and grateful for her joyful personality, her love for her parents, and her wonder and curiosity for life - even in our boring little house. We love being around her, and it is evident that she has such a loving heart already. She is definitely starting to show that she is a little person and not a baby anymore! Her introverted, laid back nature shows through (especially around groups of people), though she is certainly outgoing in the comfort of home. While we try to be careful not to allow ourselves to build her up primarily for what she does (more on that in a later post), we are blown away each day at what she is learning or doing. I wrote the first draft of this post two days ago, and when I revisited it, some achievements or milestones already seemed outdated! Here are some new things in Mikayla's world lately:

• She LOVES to hear music and singing. She has also started to dance on command, and has even started to dance spontaneously when her little Mozart cube plays.
• She knows who made her, responding to the question with an exuberant single hand raised upwards. Two hands thrown upwards shows how big she is.
• Mikayla regularly says mamma, dadda, and uh-oh, and we thought we just heard a "ki-gu" for "kitty" when Niko walked into the room.
• Speaking of words, she says "uh-oh" whenever she drops something on the floor as well as whenever she plain old feels like it. Take last Sunday for example. Our pastor just finished reading Romans 3:23, and Mikayla followed it up with an authoritative "uh oh!" Awkward. We are working on context.
• When asked what a cow and kitty says, she responds with "mmm" and "ah-wo," respectively. She can also pick her cow out of an animal lineup when we ask her where it is.
• She also just started with the "n" consonant sounds, which means "no" is on the horizon.
• Though Mikayla enjoys flipping through her board books on her own, she won't sit very still for long for us to read with her. I'm sure that time will come. Hopefully soon.
• She is cruising around on everything, including the walls, and has even started to walk while only holding onto one of our hands.
• Mikayla is fascinated by doors and light switches. Particularly the one big kitchen cupboard that she can reach: we were playing Ticket to Ride this afternoon over the din of her repeatedly opening and slamming it because, well, she can. No pinched fingers yet.
• She loves throwing her food onto the floor, even though she knows she will be disciplined. Most of the time she looks directly at us and still throws it on the floor with an "uh oh!" Yes, Mikayla, Romans 3:23 applies to that.
• Finally, Mikayla has never met a person or situation that didn't warrant a super cute wave. She doesn't always do it on command, and her favorite time to wave is when someone starts walking away after imploring her to wave.