Our First Fall Day

We went to the farmer's market and then out to a local garden and came home with two pumpkins, two squash, a bag of tomatoes, two eggplants, a handful of peppers, a little melon, and a bag full of apples! Ev had fun - enjoy the pictures!

"This. Is a pumpkin!"

"Mama! You put a pumpkin on me!"

Singing about his pumpkin

Everett's first whole apple

Love these funny faces. He's such a hoot!

"Nom nom nom!"

An Everett Update

I realized it's been a while since I've given y'all the milestones update on Ev.  So here goes as much as I can remember.

The weekend of April 25-26: Feet were discovered.  He had been examining them for a few days and looking a bit startled when they moved.  Over this weekend, he realized that he could control them and they promptly ended up in his mouth.  He now loves grabbing his feet (especially when they are bare) and pulling on them, eating them, drooling on them, etc.

The next week [on vacation]: Being able to grab feet suddenly made it much easier to control the rest of his body.  While he still hasn't quite figured out rolling front to back or moving on his tummy, he did manage to move a bit.  I would lie him down on the floor with his head pointing one direction, turn around, look back, and his head was facing the opposite direction.  It's the beginning of independent movement and it's scary!   :)  Just kidding, it's very exciting, but we're kind of hoping he holds off on the mobility a bit until we move and only have to childproof one house.

   Also during the vacation week, auntie Christy was nice enough to teach mister baby man how to blow raspberries.  He now spits, razzes, and makes farty noises ALL THE TIME.  This also results in his nuk flying across any and every room we are in when he decides it is a good time to razz.  (We used the nuk as a crutch over vacation and now have to work on not using it during the day again....)

And just today: Ev figured out how to hold and use his own pacifier.  Eek!  It takes a while and he ends up with it backwards, sideways, and upside down before he gets it it the right way, but he can do it.  This also goes along with.....TEETHING!  Yes, the dreaded time has befallen us.  Ev was miserable this evening, chewing (and drooling) on everything he could get near his mouth.  You have to feel even worse for the poor babe because he tries so hard to be happy.  In between whines and cries, he smiles at you.  Poor thing.  We finally gave him some tylenol and he fell asleep (only about 2 hours past normal bedtime).

Still working on: 

Sitting - Everett can sit on his own, but for very short periods of time.  He does pretty well with the boppy behind him, but inevitably finds something interesting on the floor in front of him and faceplants.

Rolling front to back - Yeah...he just doesn't like being on his tummy, so....

Moving - I have a feeling this one is coming soon.  I don't know if it will be creeping, rolling, or some other method, but he's going to start moving.

Expanding the palate - Ev has now dined on acorn and butternut squashes, avocado, pears, rice cereal, sweet potatoes, and barley.  After some more work with sweet potatoes and barley, we will be moving on to bananas, green beans, peas, and oatmeal.

Phew!  This boy is growing (huge!) and learning so fast, my head is spinning.  He's going to be a genius athlete who runs the world....at least I think so.  :)

Childbirth class nutjobs [28w6d]

We're all still alive down here, just been busy lately. We had the first of our "every two weeks" appointments on Thursday. The news from the ultrasound is that the placenta has definitely moved out of the way and everything is looking good. Snowpea was 2lbs, 14oz and that was over a week ago now! He's getting big! (Actually that puts him in the 36th percentile for growth, but still!) Blood pressure and all are still doing well, but I did convince the dr. that I had a lovely little infection, so I'm now on antibiotics for a week. Apparently not treating with antibiotics could lead to preterm labor, so there wasn't really a choice there. This baby isn't fat enough to be born yet! :)
Last night we had our first of two childbirth class sessions. With my experience working in the OB department in high school, living with my mother, and just being so smart, I didn't really learn that much. But it was reassuring to hear all the information again and know that Brian was forced to hear it too! He was an excellent "coach" (lamest name ever) and made sure I was stocked up on hot chocolate, orange juice, and graham crackers for the full three hours. Apparently the center realizes that a bunch of pregnant ladies don't want to sit in a hard chair for three hours, so they also had these little wrestling mats that you could sit on. No one else really used one, but I was all over that idea! I even had our two pillows propped up behind me and leaned on Bri's legs. Now, for the nutjobs. Of course, we had the obligatory high schooler there, which wouldn't have been so bad if she hadn't brought along her know-it-all, white-trash mom who talked waaaaay too much. Her boyfriend also showed up later, so their little group of three was just a spectacle to behold. The best/weirdest/OMG situation though, was this very normal-seeming couple. The woman did seem very anxious about the whole idea of giving birth and stated her "biggest fear/concern" during the icebreaker as the "genital mutilation" that would occur. Then, we watched a 9 minute video about the stages of labor and lo and behold, they took 3 seconds to show a baby crowning. At this point, the girl turned away from the t.v. screen and apparently told her husband, "we need to leave now!" They got up, walked out, and never returned. What the heck?!? You are obviously the person most in need of this class (even more so than high school girl) and you get up and leave because you saw a glimpse of what's going to happen to you next month??? WOW! There's $45 down the drain. Nutjob.
Anyway!
Today Brian went for a run and then had to go down to the lab. I decided to take this opportunity to browse Borders and picked up Snowpea's first book! It was hard to decide because they had an awesome fabric version of "Are you my mother?" with a little stuffie bird that could sit in his nest and in the snort, but I ultimately decided that he would enjoy this book more: It's a touch/feel book about kittens! Since Snowpea will be born into a family of two merrows, he needs a book about them!
I also had to mosey myself on down to starbucks and pick up a tall decaf pumpkin spice latte. Seriously, this is one of the reasons I like the fall. :)

A belly? [17w3d]

Holy cow, I'm not so skinny anymore. Or as I am told, I am beginning to look like a "normal girl" now. Thanks. :)
The world of facebook now knows about snowpea thanks to a profile picture update. Including the friends in Korea and Japan! Gotta love the internet!
I finally tried out that darn prenatal yoga DVD today, mostly because I was so ticked off at the mailman for stuffing our box to the point of jamming it, I was ready to destroy someone/thing. It wasn't so bad. Strangely, I do have to use the modified poses that they show for 2nd Tri....but I guess that's only strange to me.
Dr's appointment tomorrow after work, so I'll try to update again then.
Snowpea and my favorite new things: icees, fruitista freezes, fruit popsicles, peaches, and blueberries! Yum! Maybe I should buy some of that V-8 Frusion stuff and try to get some serving of vegetables in me....

Here's the required belly shot from last night - 17w2d:And one with me actually wearing my clothes and having a head:

Brian's off to MN [11w4d]

Brian left for MN this morning and I had my first day of riding my bike to work. It wasn't as bad as I was expecting, but it was starting to drizzle as I rode home and started pouring about a half hour after I locked myself in the house. At least I'm finally getting some exercise in my daily routine! And after I saw the $53 mark on the gas pump yesterday, I might be riding my bike a bit more! (As long as my balance doesn't become an issue of course!) I had to go to Sam's Club this afternoon with a co-worker to pick up a bunch of pop for work, and I am so glad she came. There is no way I could have pushed the equivalent of two carts of pop around the store and to the car. Sad part of the story though: after eating my lunchable at work, I decided I was hungry again an hour later and bought a giant hot dog from Sam's. Well, I'm not the greatest at planning and couldn't manage to push the cart full of pop, my lemonade, and an open hotdog all while maneuvering through the parking lot and my hot dog fell on my leg!!! And of course, it was covered in ketchup, mustard, and relish. Happily though, I took my co-worker's suggestion and brought it back in and they gave me another one for free! Helped my hungry belly, but not my mustardy pants...
Here's this week's picture - taken a little late at 11w3d: