Approaching 20 weeks!

New Baby is well on his or her little way to 20 weeks!  We are very excited, as this means we will be doing an ultrasound on Friday where we may learn whether New Baby is a He Baby or a She Baby!

At 6.5", New Baby is now about the size of this awesome robot!

"Robots obey what the children say!"

Becca has been feeling New Baby kick for awhile now, but a couple of nights ago, I got to feel New Baby for the first time!  Keep it up, New Baby!

Connor is the Cutest

See? I have photo evidence!

A couple weekends ago, we went to a party for one of our friends who is going into the Navy.  Patrick met this friend through Connor's godparents.  Patrick is best friends with Matthew and I think they are so cute together.  It's so clear to me that they really enjoy each other's company.

It snowed the entire day and never stuck.  Connor enjoyed it though.

On Sunday that same weekend, the Jemisons (Ed, Marie, Jessica, Riley, and Catherine) got to come visit us for a few hours.  It was really nice to have them visit and let the cousins spend time together.

While they were here, Connor and Riley both went down for naps, and I got Catherine to fall asleep using my baby wrap.  So we sent Ed, Jessica, and Marie off to do some shopping at Kohl's.  They got back only minutes after Riley woke up and got some great deals!

Connor climbed up to cuddle with Nana.

Uncle Patrick and sweet little doll Catherine.

Three babies on my lap! Hint: one of them is in my belly, which also sits on my lap.

Catherine had her arm extended and Connor kept getting
tickled by it.  So silly!

I knew all these kids would be really
unhappy to pose together.  It's a winner.

Either Ed gave me a cold, or he got it from our house, but it struck me down pretty hard.  Connor got sick too, but not nearly as bad as I've been feeling, for which I'm gratefully.  Unfortunately daylight savings happened at the same time, so Connor's sleep has been a little off.

Sickypoo Connor last weekend.

Speaking of last weekend, the reason Connor is wearing clothes in that picture is that we needed to go out and see our new car!  We found it at another dealership and they brought it in town for us, and we loved it.  It's the top of the line for the model, which means leather seats, more buttons that you could possibly use, a built in DVD player, and all sort of crazy features.  My Saturn Ion had manual crank windows, so this is a tiny bit different for me!  Since I've been sick, I haven't driven it much, but it is very nice.  Connor likes it a lot.

Video!

For some time now, whenever Connor would see a phone, he would ask for a "Video!"  Here are some of my favorites from the past few months.

Back in December, I made a post where I talked about Connor saying, "One, two, dog!"  He doesn't do this any more, but we did manage to get a video of it once.

Connor requests both the alphabet and the itsy bitsy spider by saying, "AB".  So we have a 50/50 chance of getting it right the first time.

Becca does a game with Connor occasionally where she says, "Ride 'em horsey, go to town! Ride 'em horsey, don't fall down!"  This is the abridged version.

Connor always laughs when I say the alphabet really fast.  Sometimes his laugh is delayed and a bit... overdone.  I wonder if he is humoring me.

New Baby Status Update

Becca reminded me that when Connor was still riding in utero, I was updating the blog with how big he was. I haven't been doing that with New Baby so far (sorry New Baby!),  but I am going to try to start.  

At 18 weeks and 5.5 inches, New Baby is the size of a Pacific Parrotlet.

Becca has been able to feel the baby moving and kicking for a little over a week now.  We are excited to find out in a couple of weeks whether New Baby is a boy or a girl, at which point we can start calling him or her by name (assuming we are decided by then).

February in Review

Spoilers:  nothing much happened.

Well, that might not be fair to say.  We hung out with friends,  Connor learned a ton of new words, Patrick went on a business trip and Connor and I went to Chattanooga.  I got over most of my morning sickness, but I'm still low energy.  I continue to not take that many pictures because 1. we haven't been going outside much, and 2. I'm tired :)

Connor is really out of it after this nap.

Our Valentine's Day heart pizzas.

A visit from the Hodges.  Alex is so cute!

During our visit to Chattanooga, Connor and I met with some friends from my Facebook mommy group to go to the TN Aquarium.  It was a lot of fun, but pretty intense to wrangle all those children.  Connor got socially overwhelmed about half way through the Ocean side and ran ahead to where there weren't as many people.  Every time a room would start getting busy, he would look for the way down to a place that was a little more calm!

Waiting in the ticket area.

Splashing in the water is Connor's favorite. 

Hyacinth Macaws.

More splashing.

Getting a snack.

We stayed in Chattanooga from Monday and until Thursday morning and it worked out pretty well.  Connor actually slept pretty great, I think because he's in the bathroom with no windows.

Wednesday was Sarah's day off, so she spent the night Tuesday and we played with Connor all day Wednesday.  We walked to lunch on the hill above my mom's and on the way back, Connor walked the whole way!  Since he was holding Sarah's and my hands, he would all of the sudden let his ankles go limp so we would swing him in the air.  Once we got on the flat part of Mom's driveway,  we let him go.  He walked a couple steps and then seemed to forget he wasn't holding on to anyone anymore and face planted on the driveway.  His bruise really didn't last long, but he was pretty upset.

He made Sarah lay on the pillow next to him.

Connor is growing more and more independent and I feel bad for him.  He wants to do so many things that he just can't yet.  He is also starting to grow more opinionated and defiant.  He used to just go with the flow is a child took something away from him, but now he insists on having that particular item back.  He has also started getting upset with Patrick and I for telling him no, and has even "hit" me a few times this week.  I would have a hard time not laughing at his ever-so-gentle smacks, but for the angry, vengeful look on his face.

Trying to open the gate in our fence.

This week I did our first time out and I'm still trying to figure out the best method.  I took him our dark guest room and held him still.  I explained to him what was going on and said we were going to stay there while I sang the ABCs.  He melted down and I ended up holding him for a few minutes while he cried about the injustice of it all.  He's a really sensitive person, so I think leaving him alone somewhere would be cruel.  It's going to be rough, learning how to parent this new child.

At least a lot of things about him have stayed the same.  He still sleeps an enormous amount for a kid his age (average is 13-14 of total sleep) with a nap that lasts from 1.5 to 3 hours and nightly sleep from 12-14 hours.  Yes, there are seriously some days he sleep close to 17 hours.  Man after his mommy's heart. I wish I could figure out how to motivate myself to use his naps more productively, but usually I just end up being on the internet and watching TV his entire nap.  I wish I could nap, but they just end up leaving me groggy and feeling worse the rest of the day.  I'm sure that will be fixed once New Baby comes.

Speaking of New Baby, I am 17 weeks now!  I'm planning on taking a bump picture once Patrick gets home.  I started out this pregnancy about 10 pounds lighter than with Connor, so it had taken longer for me to show.  The first bump picture I took with Connor was at 16 weeks and I'm not as big now as I was then.  Our next appointment is a week from tomorrow and then we should be having our ultrasound two weeks after that, but I haven't actually made that appointment yet.  I'm SO excited to find out if we're having a boy or a girl.  It will just be helpful to have better words to use with Connor, and I can get focused on what clothes I need to get.  It's consignment season here in Huntsville!  There are going to be at least 4 or 5 sales this next month, and I want to take advantage of at least one of them.

Connor-isms

When he wants to be held, he holds his arms in the air and says "hug!"

When we are on the potty, he usually follows us saying "peepee" and "poopoo" and to encourage us to finish, he tells us to "bop" ourselves, which is the onomatopoeia we use for when we are wiping him.

Connor did the best thing a couple weeks ago.  I had been really tired, so I had been spending a lot of time laying on the couch.  Connor was listening to music and eating apples and decided to come sit with me.  He climbed up on the couch with me and sat next to me.  I asked him if he wanted to lay down and helped him position himself so he was being a tiny little spoon next to me.  He just laid next to me for 10 minutes, occasionally taking nibbles out of his apple, pulling the blanket up over his arms. This was all very unusual behavior since most of the time if he's near me, he wants milk or videos and he doesn't like to have the blanket restricting him either.

We recently started keeping a log of all the words Connor says, because we thought he was somewhere over 200, but we weren't totally sure.  After making a list for a couple of weeks, we're up to 220 and I'm pretty sure there are several that we forget.  I can't wait until he starts figuring out to put the words together, but for now he only says a couple of phrases that he has learned, like "get it," and "no way."

A couple days ago, Patrick and I were putting Connor to bed.  He was being unusually cooperative and told us it was "night night" time and that he wanted his "sleepsack."  Then when he got on my lap he started saying a "p" word that I wasn't sure about.  Then I repeated it and realized he was prompting us to "pray," like we do with him every night.  It was wonderful.

Every day I read a Bible verse to Connor, along with a prayer, that I get in an email every day.  He comes close to me to listen to tells me "bible" and when I get done praying he repeats "Amen!" loudly and happily.

Playing outside.

Wearing Dada's shirt.

And Baby Makes Four!

This weekend we are finally in the second trimester, so we get to have Connor make a big announcement for us!

How big of a brother is Connor?

There's been some radio silence on the blog, because I've been spending a lot of time laying on the couch, trying to entertain Connor in between naps (mine and his).  It's hard to talk about anything else but pregnancy when you are in the thick of it, but I do have some stories about Connor lined up in another blog post I'm going to make soon.