26 Weeks Pregnant

My belly is getting huge.



Elise's first Christmas!

Mary Christmas and...

We're having a girl! Her name is Elise. This is a 3D ultrasound image of her, taken December 16th.

25 Weeks Pregnant

Nolan Update

Elliot and I saw Nolan and his foster mom at a foster family Christmas party last night. He's still as cute as ever! His foster mother said that he is going to be adopted by one of his cousins soon. That's great news that he will get to stay with his family. We're very happy for him!

24 weeks pregnant!

Last weekend, Elliot and I took our "babymoon" at the Florida Caverns in Marianna, Florida. It was the last little trip we'd be able to take, just us, before the baby arrives. William was visiting relatives and we had the day to ourselves.

It was a really nice day. We had a relaxing and delicious brunch and then went to the cave for a tour.

We snapped this belly picture while we lingered behind the tour group for a second. I'm making a crazy face because I'm squealing at Elliot, "EEEEEEEE! Hurrry up!!!"

19 Week Ultrasound Picture

Profile of the baby's head and part of its chest. Beautiful.

Yes, But That's Beside The Point....

The other day at William's preschool, a little girl came up to me and (looking at my belly) said, "Did you eat too much?!?"

Thanksgiving Day 2009

For Thanksgiving Day this year, Elliot, William, and I met my mom, my sister Laura and her fiance Thomas, and Elliot's mom at a restaurant in Ocala. We had a very nice lunch and it was great to get to see family for the holiday. (Also great: not having to cook a big meal!)

Here is a picture of my mom, me, and Elliot's mom:

23 Weeks Pregnant

16 more weeks! Elliot and I can't wait!

Slammin' A Duck

William loves basketball, and Elliot tried to tell him about slam dunks the other day. He didn't really get it. He now thinks that there is some kind of move called "slammin' a duck" and he refuses to be corrected.

Last night, William got mad at us because we told him he couldn't have dessert until he ate more of his dinner.

"I have a duck at my momma's house!" he threatened us, yelling. We weren't sure what that meant so we let him continue. "I'm gonna get it. I'm gonna slam you with it. You're gonna be slammed with a duck!!!"

It was impossible not to laugh. Which only made him madder. But how do you keep a straight face after a three year old promises to beat you up with water fowl?

22 Weeks Pregnant

Messy-haired belly pic!

Super Close Up of Belly Button Pop Out!

I didn't just use the camera's macro mode, I used super macro mode!

21 Weeks Pregnant

At Least He Understands The Concept

Driving home after picking William up from school a couple of days ago:

William: Sometimes people make mistakes.

Elliot: That's right! It's okay to make mistakes sometimes.

William: Yeah. Sometimes people pee in the bath tub.

Oh, really?...

Baby's Heartbeat!

Check it out!

Pretty Awesome huh?

Thanks Doppler Rental People!

I wove a basket.

A very small basket.

I followed instructions found in Craft magazine and they worked great.

Technically, I didn't follow "all" the instructions but I am too lazy to go back and fix it.

I will do it correctly on the next basket.

20 Weeks Pregnant

Baby's first trip to the fair! Yay for funnel cake!

Spam :(

We had to temporarily block anonymous comments on this blog because we started getting spam in the comments section. Hopefully, we can switch it back soon.

19 Weeks Pregnant

We had our second trimester ultrasound this past Monday. The baby is perfectly healthy! They looked at EVERYTHING-- heart, kidneys, brain, spine, umbilical cord... we even saw the little fingers and toes. Elliot and I also know if it's a boy or a girl, but we're not telling yet. :)

The doctor did say that I'm at risk for placenta previa, because my placenta is positioned very low right now. Chances are that my placenta will rise as my uterus expands, but if it doesn't then that means I'll need to have a c-section. I have to go back for another ultrasound in 6 weeks to recheck the position of my placenta.

Is it bad that I'm happy about getting to have another ultrasound? That means that I get to see the baby again before it's born!

Halloween Kitten

Baby was an unborn kitten for Halloween this year. Meow!

I wish that we could put pictures of William up on the blog, but we can't post pictures of him to the Internet. He was a fireman and he looked SO cute. He got lots of compliments and he came home with a massive amount of candy.

Gosh, I guess it really must be Halloween!

So we go out trick or treating, and it's great. Just like in the movies. Perfect temperature, cloudy full(ish) moon, tons of people of all ages, blocks of decorated and jack-o-lanterned houses giving out great candy. Neither penny nor Molasses based candy in sight! Then when we get back to the house and just to put the icing on the pumpkin we spied these two creepy spiders! Check 'em out!

Actual, honest to goodness black brown widows!

What a night!

18 Weeks Pregnant

My actual belly!

Big Spider

She lives between the glass and the screen. She has been around for months now, growing bigger and getting stronger.

We are pretty sure that she's a Hunstman spider. They don't usually build webs, they just run em down! Legspan is about the size of my palm, which is quite large if you ask me.

Machines at Work

Yes, you can tell from that awesome box of gears, I share my work space with some serious machines. Big ones. Some of them can chop off your arm if you are not careful, others might confuse you if you are not careful. All of them are totally awesome. Here are pictures of the ones I see every day.

Machines need maintenance. Some of them need to be opened up and fiddled with on a regular basis, like this one. Want to know what this one does? Let me zoom out so it will be more clear.

That should clear up the mystery. This machine's main purpose is to train repairmen! Or stuff envelopes.

Then there's this beast, the folder.

This one's a driller.

Here we have the cutter. (The one that can chop off arms.)

And what could this be? (The one that might confuse.)

Don't feel bad, it's a purposefully misleading close up.

Hint: it's in the men's bathroom.

Here it is again, all zoomed out.

I know, it's a urinal!

Oh, it's a sink? I found that one out the hard way :(

Ah yes, the jewel of our pointy, greasy machine crown.

Our latest, quite fancy, printer.

The printed pages end up here and when it's done the blast shield lowers and you can take however many cubic feet of printed paper you ordered out and start printing some more.

And as a bonus, check out our oldest printer:

Yeah it's a linotype machine. Probably the coolest analog device in the whole building. It molds lead alloys to form lines of text that are imprinted onto page then recycled after the printing is done or the line gets beat up too much. It is really cool and not used anymore at least not while I have been here, but we used to use one and if we had to we have the knowhow to use it again, at least someone here does. I heard the inventor went crazy from all the lead! Pretty cool! By the way, I couldn't get a good picture of the whole thing because it is in a storage area.

The Cole Brothers' Circus is in town!

Ta daaaaaaa!

Please allow me to be your virtual RINGMASTER for this amazing display of skill (and to a lesser extent, price gouging)!

First up?

The worlds smallest MotoCross!

Yes, those blurs inside the steel cage sphere are the two or three dudes racing as fast as possible around a tiny, albeit three dimensional track!

Next up?

A cute wild west show with dogs and eventually a pony. A real life dog and pony show!

Then?

A very daring man who walks in a human hamster wheel attached to a bunch of metal that spins around like a human powered fair ride! It was cooler than it looks in this pic and the dude either almost fell or hammed it up really well so KUDOS to you brave sir!

Then there was some of this stuff.

And then a feature element of the show!

The seven man balacing pyramid... (dramatic pause) ...OF DOOM!

Some dude in that pyramid actually did fall but caught himself on the wire with his leg, but got back up and tried again. What a trooper! Good show!

Of course, juggling was next.

----Intermission----

Balancing. Nice.

What circus would be complete without the demonstration of superior hair power? Shock and Awe!

And makeup!

Then a little belly dancing number, complete with camels.

She's not really on fire, it just looks awesome for some reason. Oh yeah, becasue it was awesome!

This girl though, was totally on fire(figuratively).

Boom! Of course there are Elephants at a circus!

Elephants really give a circus authenticity, IMHO.

Then the special, signature event!

Laser guided human munitions! Seriously, that cannon had a laser sight which was probably also a rangefinder too. That vehicle had more technology that the rest of the show combined. Every other thing in the show had probably been unchanged for like 100 years or so but that cannon truck had a green laser sight/rangefinder and very precise hydraulic roll control and an in-barrel cctv monitor. It was my favorite part. All of a sudden the future rolled up and took my breath away. I am not sure if you can tell from the picture but I think it was hovering a few inches off the ground and on the other side I am pretty sure I saw a Mr. Fusion.

17 Weeks

Can you believe how big my belly is already? I feel the baby kicking every day now. Today, Baby gave me quite a thump and I think that if a hand had been there someone could have felt the kick from the outside.