countdown

Just a few more days until we find out if Fleep is a boy or a girl! Our appointment is on Tuesday afternoon, and I can't wait! HOWEVER, they told me I needed to drink 40 ounces of water an hour before and hold it until after the ultrasound. Is this even physically possible for a non-pregnant person? I think with Snick, they told me 16 ounces. But maybe I'm wrong. It's been a long time.

Anyway, any guesses? Snick has switched from the name Fleep to the name SnuggleBaby. I asked him just now if he thought SnuggleBaby was a boy or a girl, and his response was, "I think you'll know when the machine figures it out. It will see if it is a boy or a girl, so that is the choice." Very sensible.

I've been feeling like this pregnancy is passing pretty quickly, until I counted out the time remaining this morning. After my first count of five months, I had to recount several times using my fingers, because I couldn't believe that at 19 weeks (almost halfway!) I could still have a full five months left! Yikes! I think I'll not think about it that way any more!

I'll have plenty to keep me busy between now and then - I have a baby quilt to make, a full preschooler's room to turn into a shared room (maybe a shared two-gender room), and lots of normal life stuff.

The Resident Pirate

*Since I keep slipping and writing our son's name, I think he needs a blog name! We were talking about names last week and telling him about the story of the name he almost received, and the name we called him while I was pregnant with him, and he loved it so much he said he still wants to be called Snickerdoodle! So I guess we'll audition that one. Maybe I'll just call him Snick for short.*

Last weekend, we had an important event. Snick was invited to his first friend birthday party, and it was awesome. My friend who threw it is my party planning hero! I'm totally a playdate + cupcakes kind of mom, when it comes to birthday parties, but this was awesome!

It was pirate themed, and the boys received hats, patches, earrings, telescopes, compasses, hooks, treasure maps, treasure chests, and sword (very intelligently handed out on the way out the door!). Snick is now completely obsessed with being a pirate.

Since the party, we've watched Pirates of Penzance and the VeggieTales' movie The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything multiple times. And it was really disappointing to him that he couldn't wear a patch and an earring to church on Sunday!

What a cute pirate!

cherry blossom madness

 

A friend of mine recently suggested a new cherry blossom destination - a neighborhood of beautiful homes where the streets are lined with ornamental cherry trees. It was a nice change of pace from downtown - no worries about parking or crowds (although there were a lot of people there!) - so I made arrangements with our favorite local baby cousin and her mommy to meet up there.

 We started off at the playground where they had a little "firetruck" which our little fireman insisted upon driving. 

Then he became a photographer, and snapped this shot of his sweet cousin. I love how she looks even chubbier from his vantage point!

 All the streets looked like this one.

For some reason, he brought a bucket, and started collecting petals - which looked like snow falling down, according to him.

 We gave a few of the branches a good shake to accelerate the collecting process.

 After a while, we found a little stream/drainage ditch where kids were playing, and that looked pretty appealing.

 He loves his baby cousin!

 Climbing up the steep bank.

And finally, dipping in his toes was just not enough, so he just jumped right in. The water was up to his thighs, and I was so glad I had thought to bring a change of clothes! :)

recent saturday adventure

One of the things about blogging again is that I feel more of an urge to do cool things with my family so I have something fun to write about, which is just a win for everyone! One Friday night, we realized we had no plans for Saturday, and after a quick google search, we found out that the National Theatre has free programs for kids on Saturday mornings. There were lots of performances that didn't really look like they were up our alley, but the one for the following day was a pirate comedy show for kids and we thought that would be fun for the little dude.

 On the way into the city - Cherry Blossoms are out!

 He was enthralled with these food trucks, and wanted to diligently study all their ice cream offerings!

 The snugglebug and me in front of the Washington Monument.

 Daddy vs. Son Races

The flags around the base of the Washington Monument.

 I love that his fingers are still chubby.

 The show - Captain No Beard - To a three year old, a show should be on a screen of some sort, so he kept asking when the show was going to start.

 Afterwards we found a little diner for lunch. We ordered pancakes and philly cheesesteaks - yummy!

Please, Mom! No more pictures!

Spring

Spring is here. It's strange to say it after such a mild winter, but it's true. The forecast for the next 10 days looks lovely - not a day with a high temperature below 68°F. Things are beginning to grow again, the trees are in bloom, and the sun is shining. I love it, especially that extra hour of daylight in the evening. It just feels like summer - even though it's still March!


Our little boy asked me yesterday if the pool was open. He is a fish, and has been asking all winter long to go to the pool. Even though it feels nice enough to go, we will still have to wait two more months. He also asked if it was July - but I think that was his excitement about the baby! He insists that the baby will be born in July (Hope not! That would be too early!) and when I tell him it's going to be at the end of August, he digs in his heels and shows his stubborn streak.


In other springtime news, I vacuumed the car today! To some of you, this may not sound like a big deal, but for me to actually get out and vacuum the car, the planets must align, and angels must descend, and a whole host of other conditions must be met. And today was that monumental day! My friend laughed at/with me today when I explained that I was going to vacuum it out last summer, but it was just too darn hot. I finally did it today, because I know it's going to get hot again! And if I let the perfect weather pass me by, I'll just have to wait another year. So anyway, after two full hours of vacuuming, the layers of crumbs and glitter are no more. Although, there are still flecks of glitter here and there to remind me of the Young Women that I love so much. One question, for anyone who lives near a beach. We had some sand in our car from a couple of day trips to the beach, and I couldn't vacuum it up for the life of me. If you live close to the beach, do you just live with this? Do you have some sort of special vacuum that gets it up? These are the important questions in my life.

Also, I don't know if this is related to springtime or not, but I have felt this intense urge to complete my Personal Progress. I've been the Young Women's President for over two years now, and I was a counselor in a presidency for a year before that. It's probably time to get a move on. Personal Progress is not my forte. I don't know how to motivate the girls. I don't know how to get the ones that are anti to give it a try. I don't know how to help the ones that have the desire to stay on track. Maybe those answers will come to me as I try to implement it in my own life. But seriously. Some of these requirements are so super easy for grown-ups. Plan meals, shop, and help prepare meals for two weeks? Check! I know some of my cousins are YW leaders, so I'll share this - did you know that on the Personal Progress website, there is a "special needs version" of all the value experiences? I didn't realize until tonight, and I have a few girls who could totally use that! They are a little lighter on the reading and they give specific journal prompts to guide them as they're writing. Take a look if you are a leader.


OK... Done rambling for the night.

the bahamas (aka heaven)

For our 5th anniversary the Husband and I decided to take a big trip, just the two of us. We're not awesome about going on dates, so it had really been a long time since we had spent much time one-on-one. He spent hours and hours researching, and finally landed on the Bahamas as our destination. So when the time came, we dropped our son off with Grandma, and headed off to the airport for our two-hour flight. I'm just going to interject that as long as we live on the East Coast, I see no reason to visit Hawaii! It's such a quick hop to the Caribbean, and no jet lag! It was awesome.

Weird, no?

We arrived in Freeport, on The Grand Bahama, and picked up our rental car. Looking back, renting a car was unnecessary, but we didn't know and we did have fun exploring a little bit! The landscape of the island was weird. They must burn off the vegetation, which results in these spikes of trees everywhere. We stayed at an all-inclusive resort, since we both liked the all-inclusive nature of a cruise, but we weren't sure how we would end up feeling about being on a boat for long stretches. We got our reservations cheap on Hotwire, and it turned out they have a variety of rooms and they assign rooms based on how much you spent. So our first room was ok, but not the nicest. However, when the septic tank backed up into our bathroom after the first night (so gross!), we got an upgrade. Our new room was freshly remodeled, had a nicer bed and bedding, and it was 67 steps to the sand. Perfect. I forgot to take pictures of the rooms.

The weather was lovely the whole time we were there - they call it the Isle of Perpetual June for a reason! The highs were in the mid 70s and the lows in the 60s. The water was about 73 degrees, so it took a little getting used to during the day, but when we took long walks along the beach in the evenings, it felt warm lapping our feet as we strolled along. The resort had lots of activities to participate in, and a sports facility where you could check out snorkeling gear, kayaks, and even catamarans, after you took a quick sailing lesson. We frequented the sports facility quite a bit.

And now for a picture dump...

How do they get water to be that color? We should teach the eastern seaboard their tricks.

my husband's future boat

We took a long long long walk down the beach one evening, and this is the best self portrait of the trip.

There were beautiful mansions all along the beach. The Grand Bahama is home to John Travolta and Oprah, apparently.

It was so peaceful.

Sunset at the end of our walk. Well, at the end of our one-way walk - we still had to turn around and get back to the resort!

We did a dolphin encounter, and at the same facility, they had parrots.

Or are they macaws?

I was a little nervous.

But not my brave husband.

There were lizards everywhere.

And finally a dolphin!

They had two programs, the dolphin swim, which I couldn't do because I'm expecting, and the dolphin encounter, where you get to get in the water with the dolphins but you're standing on a platform instead of treading water. We each got a kiss from a dolphin, and we got to pet them.

I just liked this little boat house.

One day we went exploring and ended up driving down this little path to a beautiful beach.

There was shallow water between the beach and a sandbar, and we walked a ways down the beach looking for shells and just enjoying the surroundings.

Another self portrait.

The 14 week tummy shadow.

Sunrise on our last morning.

One last little step into the water.

The view of the beach from the building where our room was (our room faced the other way).

The sports facility - just to the right of the picture above. It was nice being so close to the fun!

It was a great getaway! It was so fun to just be the two of us again. I had forgotten what that felt like! And it was so nice to know that our sweet boy was as happy as could be with Grandma and Grandpa. In fact, the morning we flew back, my mom said she asked him, "Do you want to go see Mommy and Daddy today?" His reply, "No, thanks!" I don't think we'll wait another five years to take a little couple's trip again!