Finally!

There are many subtle ways this second pregnancy is different. One of them has been movement. Hannah was very active in utero. I started feeling very clear flutters around 12 or 13 weeks, and by 16 weeks Chris could feel the kicks too. I remember going to my 16 week appointment. The doctor mentioned that I would be able to feel movement probably before the next time he saw me. I told him that I already was feeling movement and that even Chris could feel it from the outside already. He gave me that smile that said, "That's so cute that you think you're feeling movement so strong already." Well, he tried to place the doppler on my belly to find the heartbeat, and Hannah kicked so strongly that it knocked the doppler off my belly. My doctor was really surprised and had to laugh at our little soccer player.
This time I was only feeling teeny tiny flutters rarely. I'll be 18 weeks tomorrow, and just this weekend I've started to feel more movement - not just flutters. Finally! I guess it's because that's what you remember from your first pregnancy - actually feeling the life inside of you. So it seems like I've waited forever for this, and it is precious.

Take me out to the ballgame

We finally made it to our nephew's baseball game last weekend - the last one of the season. Hannah had an absolute blast cheering him on with G, her three-year-old companion. They were so cute.

Pictoral Updates

Here's Baby #2's first belly shot. Do you see Hannah's little head in the top picture? Here's why she was so still and quiet.
A late find in the garden as we were cleaning up - a softball-sized watermelon. We promptly ate it, and it was delicious!
Hannah's retro kitchen is teaching her the joys of the cordless phone. She gets so frustrated because she can't just put the phone down in the middle of an important call to go answer her ringing cell!
Reading books with Dada. Hannah spent all of Tuesday sniffling and sneezing with these horribly puffy red eyes (kinda hard to see in this picture). Chris and I got it shortly afterwards. I thought it was allergies, but pollen.com and our local news' website say we haven't had any high allergens lately. Hmm...Clearly we need to move her little chair into the family room so she doesn't have to sit on her shape sorter to read. =)Love these monkey pj's from Aunt Amy. I had to snap a picture as I was putting her to bed in them. She's blowing me kisses as if to tell me to leave already so she can go to sleep.Hannah has to have some form of "shoes" on her feet at all times. She used these empty tissue boxes as shoes one day shortly before the Office wedding episode. We had to laugh out loud when we saw Kevin stealing her idea.

Happy Lalapuss (spoken with a lisp)

When a word is too long or tough for Hannah to say, she'll repeat the first syllable or two, then add a "puss" on the end (more like pooth for Hannah). For example, my mom and dad's dog, Sophie, is "Sopuss" in Hannah's language. Yesterday wasn't Halloween, it was "Lalapuss." And it was a good one. Here are a ton of pictures of our busy, busy day. We started with a morning playing outside because the weather here was amazing! Hannah posed for some pictures with her pumpkin, collected leaves and sticks (our daily activity), and waved to neighbors and cars. When Chris got home, we set out to deliver some goodies to the neighbors since we trick-or-treat with family in another neighborhood. Obviously Hannah enjoyed herself.

After lunch we carved her pumpkin. Hannah, a lover of life, was tickled with every step of that process. She loved touching the "guts" and watching the face appear as we carved.And she even paused for a Mama kiss. Love her.
Here she shows off one of the eyes she helped remove.
Admiring her finished product (which she promptly kissed in true Hannah fashion).We got cleaned up and headed to my sister-in-law's for dinner and trick-or-treating. Hannah loves spending time with her four boy cousins. We ate dinner, monkeyed around wrestling and such, then got dressed up for the evening. Hannah went as a pumpkin princess. It was a mix between a pregnant, sick mama who didn't feel good enough to go all out and an 18-month-old who doesn't fancy costumes or anything in her hair or on her head. I can't believe she kept her pigtails in all day. I had to include this picture of Hannah getting caught in their candy bowl before we left. It has "Who, me?!" written all over it. =)Hannah loved trick-or-treating. She is a true socialite and appreciates any opportunity to wave, smile, and bat her baby blue eyes. We had to laugh, though. We had spent the afternoon delivering treats to neighbors, and that stuck with her. She walked up to every house, reached into her candy bucket, and gave them a piece of her candy. Cutie. Here's the crew all ready to go. Can you believe we got 4 out of 5 looking at the camera smiling? And the poor little frog has a good excuse - he's getting his second front tooth.

Needless to say, we appreciated the extra hour last night, and Hannah slept like a log. What a fun, fun day. I hope you and yours enjoyed as many smiles, giggles, and sugary kisses as we did.

I love to laugh

A few weekends ago we watched Mary Poppins as a family. It was the first time Hannah had seen it, and she was instantly enamored. She watched intently for quite awhile longer than I expected. Prior to watching it, I always sang "I Love to Laugh" to her because she has so many different laughs. The song talks about how some people laugh through their noses, teeth, etc. She got really excited when that scene came on since she recognized the song. When she saw the guy doing this:

she started giggling with her hand over her mouth. She has giggled like this ever since - literally every single time she laughs. It is hilarious!

Today while we were running errands, we went to CVS. I let her carry the box (to keep her hands off everything else) since I didn't have her in her stroller or a cart. She saw some 3' tall Santa Clause figures and asked what they were. I said, "That's Santa. He says, 'Ho Ho Ho!'" She bent down to set down the box so that she had a hand free to cover her mouth to giggle. The second she was finished giggling, she picked up the box, and we were on our merry way. She sure does crack us up, silly girl. =)

Second Child

I'm afraid this poor baby is already receiving a dose of second child syndrome. I had only my second prenatal appointment at 16 weeks, 1 day yesterday. My first appointment (which we thought was around 8 or 9 weeks) turned out to be around week 10. Then my doctor had to reschedule due to a last-minute emergency at 14 weeks. I set my new appointment for 15 weeks, but was sick with the flu. So I was finally able to make it. I am so blessed that Chris gets a ton of PTO and has been to every prenatal appointment with me so far for both my first pregnancy and this one. He loves going, and I love having him there. Because he was able to come, we took Hannah. Even though she had a very abbreviated nap and we had literally been out of the house all day, she was such a little angel. She enjoyed watching the sonogram (even though I know she had no clue what she was looking at), and she had to walk around the entire office saying bye to every soul there. Everyone got a kick out of her.
So this pregnancy is flying by. I hardly have time to think about it, and I often forget I'm pregnant even though I am still having morning sickness. My doctor said that most of the time it clears up completely by 5 months if not sooner, so I'm hoping in the next few weeks it's gone. But still, it's bearable now. I'm also able to control it for the most part.
I'm a little sad because with my first pregnancy I pretty much sat at a computer all day and was very aware of every feeling and twinge and change. With this pregnancy I'm hardly aware and will go several days without feeling any flutters or movement only to realize that I can feel it if I'm just still long enough. I try to savor the opportunity to be still and to really appreciate this life inside of me. Also, I never know how far along I am - another drastic difference from my first pregnancy. I could have told you how many minutes pregnant I was with Hannah. But, after spending an hour or so with my mother-in-law Saturday talking about how I was almost 15 weeks along, I realized I wasn't almost 15 weeks, I was almost 16 weeks. Funny how with the first that made such a huge difference. =)
So many people have asked whether we'll find out the gender. Our next appointment we'll have our long sonogram in addition to my regular montly appointment. We'll find out the gender and will definitely share. I can't believe it's already almost time for that. I've also been asked my thoughts. I have a sister almost exactly two years younger than me - the exact age difference of my two kids. Because of that (and because I have a house filled with girly things) it would be really nice to have another girl. I had a constant friend growing up, and I would love that for Hannah. Even though I know she can be close to a brother too, it's just not the same. On the other hand, Chris really wants a boy. Since I found out I was pregnant, I automatically thought it was a girl just because I've had the same symptoms I did with Hannah. But at the first sonogram, I took one look at the baby and immediately thought it was a boy. I have no idea why. But the same thing happened again yesterday. I think maybe it's because the baby just looks so different than Hannah did already. But my gut instinct says boy. (You may remember that it did with Hannah too, and obviously I was wrong, so this isn't a strength of mine.) What I find so funny is how many people say, "Maybe this time you guys will finally get your boy!" as if that's the only reason we're even having a second child. I wonder what people will think if this is a boy and we decide to have a third! =)
So, furthering this poor second child syndrome, I haven't yet uploaded the sonogram pictures. I'll try to do that sometime soon, and I'll add them to this post if/when I do! Hope you all are doing well.

Why we do what we do (Halloween edition)

A few years ago I posted the results of all of my research on the topic of Halloween. I had worked for years in a Christian school, and the opinions on the holiday are wide-ranging. We took Hannah trick-or-treating last year and plan to continue as long as she isn't scared. We also turn on our lights at our house and welcome trick-or-treaters and load them up on sugar. Part of our Halloween tradition also includes carving a pumpkin as a family and reading The Pumpkin Patch Parable together as we do. We make and deliver special treats to our neighbors and welcome the opportunity to fellowship with people in our neighborhood who only interact on these occasions. Some of us also choose to kiss pumpkins as our annual tradition. =)

I do not take these things lightly and like to have a reason behind what we do or do not do. So, if you're interested, here's the link to that original post. I hope it gets you thinking! I'd love to hear your ideas and traditions in the comments.

An evening at the pumpkin patch

...an exciting place to be.

I just have to say

a HUGE "thank-you!" to my mom. She offered to come help with Hannah Monday when I was put on Tamiflu and got so incredibly sick. Since she got here she did at least 10 loads of laundry, cooked all of our meals, cleaned my house, cleaned my kitchen (down to cleaning the inside of the microwave), did all of our dishes, took out the trash, took care of 100% of Hannah's needs, let me sleep in every day (haven't slept in 2 days in a row since March of 2008), made sure I was hydrated and well-nourished, mowed the lawn (seriously!), washed and sorted all of the clothes Hannah's grown out of in the past few months, grocery-shopped, ran various errands, took Hannah for long walks, took Hannah to the park and the pet store, read 2,347 books for Miss Priss, watched countless hours of Sesame Street, played with blocks on the floor, helped me take Hannah to get her flu shot, took us out to La Madeleine for brunch, and left a roast in the crock pot when she left to go home. I'm sure there are a million little things I didn't mention. Point is, I have no idea how we would have survived this past week without her. Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mom! I hope you spend the next week resting and recovering from all of your hard work.