The Belly

So, I keep meaning to take belly shots of this pregnancy, and yet.... The only pictures I have are from right before our first ultrasound at 9.5 weeks along.  Until today.  Ok, granted, we are now 17.5 weeks along, but at least I finally got it done!  Yup, I'm pregnant.  In fact I had my first moment yesterday where I caught my reflection in a store window and went woah....  I no longer just look fat (yay!), I look - pregnant.  Dumb, I know, but it still doesn't quite sink in for me most of the time.

  From the front.  (Jeans actually kind of hide the belly some - it's way more noticeable in a dress or skirt, which makes it all seem like a huge difference to me on Sundays.)

The other fun part is that this baby is really strong.  I don't feel it all the time, but starting at about 14.5 weeks I could feel the baby a couple times a week and now it's more like a couple times a day.  In fact, this morning Steve came to cuddle with me during the snooze session on his alarm, and I cuddled up and went back to sleep, but apparently Steve wasn't so lucky.  I must have been out of it, because Steve said the baby didn't want his hand on my stomach and kept hitting and kicking it repeatedly!  I love feeling the baby move, it's so reassuring and makes it all seem real somehow, and I love that now Steve gets to feel the baby too.

Oh, and less than 3 weeks till our next ultrasound when we hopefully get to find out whether this little strong one is a boy or a girl!

Counting and Twinkle

So, this is going to be quick because I need to get ready for work, but I took these videos today and wanted to share then with family.  It blows my mind what Ellie can do without our really knowing she has the skills till she starts doing it!  For instance, she just started counting to 4 or 5 a month or two ago without our having ever worked on it!  And she keeps adding numbers so that now she can count to ten at 20.5 months old.  Maybe that's not that unusual, but it blows my mind.

Oh, and she LOVES music right now.  Especially, Popcorn Popping on the Apricot Tree (nursery song from church), but she knows at least half the words to Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, so here she is helping me sing today.

Yup, she's pretty much amazing.  And SO MUCH FUN!