16 weeks and 2 days

That's how long I've had this "avocado" inside of me (that's the food comparison this week)! Or as most would say, that's how far along I am. I just got back from my Dr. visit and everything seemed to be just fine. Go figure, since I have to make my appts. for the afternoon, I always plan on sitting in the waiting room for a long time. So I took a bunch of school work to do. As soon as I got there, I found out that Dr. S has been in a c-section all afternoon and the nurse told me I'll probably have to wait for a while. Luckily, I was prepared. However, as soon as I sat down and got to my work, they called me back. Isn't that Murphy's Law or something? So I guess I need to always plan on sitting for a while to speed things up.



OK, so here's my baby update:

• My weight gain: I've only gained 6 pounds since last visit (total 14 pounds since my 1st visit). Since you're supposed to gain 2lbs./week, that means I still have 2 more lbs. to catch up with...bring on the doughnuts or something! Honestly, I don't know how I haven't gained more than just 6 lbs. this time considering my appetite! If you're wondering, my hunger factor still hasn't slowed down; in fact, I woke up around 4 a.m. anxiously waiting for my alarm to go off at 6 a.m. just so I could eat breakfast. Sad, I know!


• Baby's heartbeat: High 140s-low150s. I'm not going to predict if that's a sign for boy or girl as all of the wives tales showed boy last time.

That's it for now. We have our ultrasound scheduled for the end of May. According to Drew, Momma did it her way last time, so we're doing it Daddy's way this time and finding out! Maybe the baby will be breech at that time like ME was. Hmmm.

How are you feeling?

That must be the standard preggers question. So I thought I'd give everyone a quick update on how I'm feeling. Can you guess by the picture? If not, I'm still hungry 24/7!!! Sadly, ME knows to offer me her food if she doesn't want it because she knows I'll eat it! Also, it doesn't help that my pregnancy email newsletter compares Baby Dees to some type of food each week. So I am now 15 weeks and am carrying an apple inside me. Uh, do you think that's going to satisfy my hunger? No! Apples are actually one of the 3 fruits that I like!

Anyway, I know this was a babbling post, but I thought I'd share my response of how I'm feeling with everyone. Oh, and I noticed that the votes for girl is going up on our Pregnancy Poll. It's interesting to see what everyone is predicting. As for right now, Drew and I are thinking we're having a boy. Ultrasound will be in a few more weeks! Here's a picture of my belly for now. Can you tell by how I'm carrying it?

Pardon my washed-out, tired face. It's an hour past my bedtime! My belly is poking out a little faster than last time and maybe a little higher.

Sweet 16...

months that is! Our baby girl is getting closer to not being a baby girl anymore! Part of me says that with sadness and the other part is with happiness. We're having more and more fun with her everyday. Drew and I keep recapping the new things that she can do from day to day. For example, just last night, I noticed that she sucked her bedtime bottle dry. So I asked her if she wanted more...instead of answering me, she walked to the door, held up her bottle to the knob (like open the now), then "sprint-airplaned" to the refrigerator. I LOVE that she can comprehend things, even though she can't quite talk full sentences yet. k to us yet.

Things she's into:

• She's loved purses and playing with my makeup for a while. As you can see in the picture above, she has 2 purses (one on each arm). I was cleaning out my closets this weekend and pulled out a few purses. Well, instead of making it into the Goodwill pile, Miss Priss drags them around the house with her. We have about 5 purses lying around the house now! As for the makeup, she watches me put it on every morning while she's eating her breakfast and throws a hissy fit if she doesn't get to put on any eye shadow.
• Unfortunately, she has gotten back into the habit of saying "No-no!" The cool thing is that it now makes since when she uses the phrase.
• I'm not sure Dixie appreciates this, but ME likes to put the dog food bites into her water bowl every morning. (Can you tell that our morning routines run smoothly? Ha!)

New words:

• Purple, yup, Mo Mo (my parents dog)

Say goodbye to "Business in the front, party in the back"

This is her before picture.













In other words, say goodbye to ME's mullet! We took ME to Pigtails and Crewcuts on Friday for her first haircut. This place has obviously dealt with cutting children's hair a time or two before us. They had fun seats for the kids to sit in and animal crackers. ME surprisingly sat still and let Miss Shelly touch and wet her hair. Operation "Get rid of the mullet"...SUCCESS!



Who got me wet?

















Ah, the magic of an animal cracker!














Need a lift?











ME's version of a bob haircut.

Easter Day

OK, now that testing is over at school, I finally have a little of my physical energy back. I swear that you walk at least 1,000 miles by the end of the week from walking around the classroom and monitoring the students! I think it's even tougher, though, being pregnant and not getting to sit down, or in my case, eat!

I took this picture after I posted about the Easter Egg Hunt. Notice that her legs are still crossed even when sleeping on her stomach. I love it -- a lady at all times!

Anyway...let me catch you up from Easter. Even though we had a monsoon on Easter, it was still a great day. I volunteered to work in the church nursery that morning and I was lucky enough to be in ME's room and watch her interact with all of the other kids (err...boys. Are there not any girls in this town that are her age?!?!) I was proud of the fact that she was "Miss Independent". Miss Helen in the nursery always tells me how sweet she is, but I've always wondered if she just said that to everyone. But I soon figured it out because everytime a kid cried, ME just looked at them like what's wrong with you and get over it! ME was into her own thing the whole time.

After church and Drew "swam" to get the car, we had lunch with mine and Drew's family. Although we didn't get to hunt for eggs, she still had fun pulling them out of the basket and digging into her mac 'n cheese. Note to self: Food tastes much better when eaten with the hands!

This dress was handmade by Drew's uncle's mom. It has been passed down through several of his cousins. Isn't it sweet?

She loved her Easter basket, especially the fish. She didn't care what else was in there except for the fish (aka Nemo).

A rare family photo op!


Our very own Easter ham.

ME, Taylor, and Leslie's "Woof, woofs"

Last weekend, Sarah and Taylor came in town. So ME and I met up with them and our old group of girlfriends. I had such a great time catching up with all of them! Leslie wanted Sarah to take some pics of her dogs, Tucker and Charlie. So after lunch, we went to Leslie's for the photos. I don't really know how the pix of the doggies (or woof, woofs as ME sometimes calls them) turned out, but I had a great time watching the girls interact with the little pups. Here are some pictures that I borrowed from Sarah's blog to show off the girls hanging out just like Sarah and I did back in the day. Ahh...good times to be had!

Taylor, this is how you strike a pose. I'm an expert!

Umm, I am supposed to pet the doggies!

"And then this is what happened next..." (Don't they look like they're having a great convo?!?!)

That would look fabulous on me! Give it here!

The Easter Bunny and Easter Egg Hunt

Why are kids so afraid of the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus? This year's attempt of the Easter Bunny went right up there with the Santa Claus and daffodils attempts! In other words, not so great. I don't feel so bad, though, because I ran into my friend Lauren and her little girl, Caroline, who was also scared of the bunny.

I think the bunny was a little disappointed. What do you think?

The fish at the store were more fun. She even got to feed them. Thank goodness for the fish pond and the stairs!

After the Easter Bunny, we went to our church's Easter Egg Hunt. She kept calling the eggs "balls". She really didn't get the hang of putting the eggs in the basket, instead she just squatted and held the eggs.

Is she laying an egg herself?

She had her eye on the golden egg filled with playdoh, but a bigger boy took it.

So she guarded the rest of the eggs that she picked up.

Spring Break

Two weeks ago, ME and I enjoyed a much needed Spring Break. We didn't do anything too big, but we had a big time with everything that we did. :) To start it off, my sweet husband did all of the laundry that Saturday. That was much appreciated so I could spend more time with ME and work on my projects!

Sunday:

First, we had a celebration lunch for our family friend, Greg. He accepted Jesus Christ into his heart, so we had lunch at LaLa and Grandy's after his Baptism. No pictures of Greg, but I had to show this cute dress that Daddy Mike bought her. The weather was finally nice to wear Spring dresses; unfortunately, this is the only Spring dress we had.

This is her "airplane" that she and Grandy do.

Since the weather was actually nice that day, we drove to Wye Mtn. to attempt another photo shoot before all of the daffodils wilted. Let's just say that this year's trip wasn't much better than the two trips last year!

The best pictures! Check it out...she has hair that can blow in the wind!

What a lady! She always has her legs crossed.

In honor of the words of Seinfeld: "These daffodils are making me thirsty!"

Get me outta here!

Monday:

She discovered that drinking and driving don't mix. She finally figured out how to go forward on her Walk 'n Ride, but she hasn't figured out how to carry her drink while she's driving. For about 30 minutes, she stayed occupied with trying to place the bottle on the seat, then trying to get on it herself, then figuring out that the bottle was in her way, then putting the bottle on the ground, then getting on and realizing she couldn't reach the bottle. Did you get that? I'm sure she was thinking "Ugh!" I was thinking that I wish I had my video camera ready!

Friday:

Drew took off early to enjoy a little Spring Break with us. We took ME to The Wonder Place. What a fun place to entertain a kid and just watch them explore!

She loved the tunnels and slides!

Hey, that's Daddy down there!

Where did Daddy go?

Our 1st smock for the water table. A little too big!

This smock is just my size. I'm ready for some fun now!

Look closely...the water is NOT going back into the water tub. Instead, ME took an "early bath."

Just a tip for those that haven't experienced the water table yet: a smock is POINTLESS! Bring extra clothes!!!

Saturday:

We celebrated Carson's 2nd birthday at Parkway Place. We had tons of fun crawling through the slides! Thanks, Molly, for inviting us!

ME is waiting so patiently for her yummy piece of "Patty Cake". The birthday boy is at the top in the orange shirt. (Picture stolen from Anna Carol)ME and all the boys. Megan was there, but we don't have any pix of her.

Another day of wet clothes. The lid on her sippy cup wasn't completely on. Thanks Cameron! J/K! She didn't mind!

Mason and ME playing in the doghouse.

After the party, we hung out the rest of the day with the Atkins. Davis and ME had fun with screaming contests and bouncing on the steps. I have a stinkin' cute video of them, but still can't figure out how to post it.

Arkansas weather is C-R-A-Z-Y! One day, it's absolutely gorgeous, the next is absolutely freezing!

I can't believe that she let me put Davis' hat on her head! She hates for things to be on her head.