Five Months Pregnant

FIVE MONTHS PREGNANT

The Survey

How far along? 21 Weeks

Total weight gain? Up seven pounds total.  Not too shabby, considering that we had Thanksgiving and a tremendous amount of pre-Christmas cookies in there!

Maternity clothes? Oh, yes.  Some of the belly-panel pants are still too big for me, but I am out of non-maternity pants that fit.  There are a few non-maternity shirts and sweaters I can still pull off, but I'm running out of those pretty quickly, too!

Stretch marks?  Nope.  I doubt it will be long now, though!

Sleep? Now that I'm well into my second trimester, I'm sleeping pretty well.  I'm still fighting the heartburn, but that's calming down with help from some medication, too. :)

Best moment this month? Feeling Little Bit move for the first time!  I'd forgotten what an amazing feeling that is, but I'm happy to say that she's flipping and kicking and headbutting up a storm in there!

Miss anything? Nothing specific.  I miss being able to just pull clothes out of the closet in the morning - I have to try on several outfits before finding things that fit "right" these days... 

Movement?  Yuppers! This little girl is every bit as active as her sister was, and she bumps around all day in there!  I just smile to myself and tell her "hello" when she starts to kick up a storm - I love that little reminder that she's there! 

Food cravings?  Not really.  I crave salty stuff (mostly potato chips) from time to time, but there isn't really anything that I just *have* to have.  

Anything making you queasy or sick? We made beef and broccoli for dinner the other night.  I couldn't eat it because it just didn't taste right to me.  I don't know why - Tom and Sarah both ate it without complaint! 

Gender predictions? It's a girl!

Labor signs? No, thank goodness!

Symptoms?  Belly bulging, heartburn, and all those little kicks...

Wedding ring on or off? On, but sometimes it's a struggle to get it on in the morning!

Happy or moody? Most happy.  I cried for no reason the other night (sorry, Tom!).  Those hormones really mess with a girl...

Looking forward to: Sharing Christmas with my whole family.  It really feels like we're a "complete" family now, and I love feeling like Little Bit is with us as we enjoy time together.  It just makes me happy to sit with my hand on my belly and include her in everything! 

Thoughts:  I'm trying to enjoy every bit of this pregnancy as I know it will be my last.  With Sarah, everything was novel and new.  This time, I'm savoring the little moments - even the yucky ones! - and trying to remember the joy of it all.

Snow-ish

Last year, we got tons of snow.  Lots and lots of heavy, fun-to-play-in, thigh-deep snow.  And Sarah hated it.

 

This year we have had nothing more than a couple dustings of snow.  It's that annoying amount of snow that requires shoveling but doesn't even cover all the leaves still hanging out in your yard (stupid late-dropping oak trees!). 

 

And Sarah loves it.

 

As soon as Daddy went out to shovel, she had her own boots and coat on and was out there playing in the "snow," too!

 

 

One of the things Sarah has enjoyed the most this winter is stomping in the snow.  There can be a 1/4 inch of snow in the corner of the parking lot at Target, and we'll have to walk over and "stomp it."  Imagine her joy when Tom's shoveling made actual piles of snow!

Eventually, she headed out into the yard to explore the snow (notice the beautiful oak leaves).

 

Then she discovered that there was snow on our front steps!

 

 

 

 

Time to explore the yard on the other side of the driveway!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sarah has also discovered that she really likes to eat the snow!

 

 

 

 

 

So what do you do with a girl that eats snow?  First, you teach her that it's only okay to eat clean, white snow.  Then, you teach her that snow tastes even better when you make it into snow ice cream!

 

 

 

 

She was even nice enough to share with Daddy!  I have no doubt that snow ice cream was exactly what he wanted when he came inside from shoveling...

It may not have been a lot of snow, but Sarah sure enjoyed it.  Plus, we'll have a mostly-white Christmas this year!

 

A Holiday Party

We love our daycare providers.  I mean, we LOVE them.  Kelly and Veronica have held our hands through a lot, and we're so excited to have secured a spot there for Baby 2 next year!

 

One of the (many) amazing things about these two ladies is their desire to make everything just a little more special than they have to.  This year, they invited all the parents to join their kiddos for a birthday party for the Baby Jesus!  It was my first school party in a non-teacher role, and I really had fun watching Sarah play with all her friends from school.  She was just happy to have free access to strawberries and stickers...

 

 

As it turns out, it was a good thing I was there to protect Sarah when Santa and Mrs. Claus showed up!  That's right.  My kid was the ONLY one there who wouldn't sit on Santa's lap.  He even had a cool app on his iPad that scanned kids' fingers to determine whether they were naughty or nice!  The only thing that got Sarah anywhere near that scary man in the red suit was the fact that she wanted a "candy can."  (The fact that she calls candy canes "candy cans" is almost cute enough to make up for her fear of Santa!) 

 

Eventually, she agreed to talk to him if I held her...

 

It's amazing how much pull a little sugar can have!

 

Sar-Ko Aglow

Tonight was beautiful.  I mean, TRULY beautiful.  It was in the 50s all day, so we took advantage of the nice weather to go to the park with the Talboys.  Sar-Ko-Par is one of our favorite Lenexa parks any time of year, but it's beautifully decorated all through the holidays, which makes it even more fun!

 

We got there when it was still light out so the girls could play for a while.  This is what they got to look at when they got to the bottom of the slide, though!

 

 

It started to get darker...

 

...but that didn't stop these girls from making Daddy push them on the swings!  Sarah kept yelling, "Push me higher, Daddy!  Push me to the lights!"

 

Eventually, we decided it might be fun to take a walk around the lake and look at the lights.

The best part of walking around the lake is running across the big bridge!

 

Monica offered to take a picture of our family.  This was the best of the three pictures she took.  Does that tell you how great the other two options were?  Jeesh...

 

We continued our walk around the lake, and it got darker and darker...

 

 

 

By 5:45, we were in the car and off to have some warm, yummy pizza with the Talboys!  I love spending time with friends this time of year, and I'm so glad that we got a warm day in December to share these lights with the kids!

 

Cookie Party

This Sunday, we had a cousin's cookie decorating party!  My cousin, Carrie, invited us over to decorate sugar cookies with her kiddos, my cousin Lizzie and her kiddo, and my cousin Natalie.

 

Sarah helped me make the cookies on Saturday afternoon...

 

 

...and on Sunday, she practiced her decorating skills!  She started with an ice cream cone Christmas tree, some sprinkles, a few M&Ms and a handful of marshmallows.  Not bad for her first attempt, huh?

 

 

 

 

 

There may have been some sampling going on here, too...

 

 

 

Aren't these boys adorable?!?

 

 

 

And then there's my delicate little flower, telling me to take a picture of the blue sprinkles in her teeth...

 

 

Sarah didn't want to eat her tree (she was only interested in the decorations), but the boys dug right in!

 

 

 

 

Here is Sarah's completed masterpiece:

 

 

We attempted to decorate some cookies, but Gavin was the only one who stuck around to help!

 

 

Sarah and Aiden were off the the races!  They zoomed around Carrie's house while the rest of us decorated the cookies.

 

 

 

Finally, after days and days of icing cookies (have I mentioned how much I hate decorating sugar cookies?!), we let the cousins open their Christmas presents.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sarah got a super cute umbrella and matching rain boots from Aiden and Ella, and Gavin gave her a great set of wooden fruit that you can cut with a knife (the pieces of fruit Velcro together and can be pulled apart by the wooden knife that comes with them).  She loves both of these presents and plays with them constantly!  Good job, cousins!!!