Hump day, bump day!

bV is the size of a papaya!
During month five, the average fetus measures about 10.5 to 11.8 inches and weighs about 12.7 to 20.8 ounces.

bV at 22 weeks:
- Now that she's got more developed eyes and lips, she's looking even more like a newborn.
- She's sleeping in cycles -- about 12 to 14 hours per day (hint: they're probably those times you're not feeling any kicks!).

Ooohhh baby Sheila is riding HIGH. As I remember it from what was mostly a 9 month sleepy stupor, Alex was really low. I felt his kicks and movements below my belly button for sure, but Sheila girl is all up in my stuff. Literally. I've heard terrible, uncomfortable stories from other mothers about rib cage kicks and other below-the-boob shenanigans, and I fear that's what I'll be experiencing as bV starts to run out of expansion room over the next 17 or so odd weeks.

In what comes as no big surprise to anyone, I continue to purchase girly things like an insane woman, partly because the Internet is the greatest thing ever invented, and partly because girl stuff is irresistible. Two words: BABY LEGGINGS.

In summary, I'm sorry in advance if etsy is sold out of all.the.things, because everything is currently en route to my house, instead. A few examples:

hat | poms (i got different colors, obvi) | changing pad cover | onesie | closet dividers | baby leg warmers

P.S. - We're NOT naming her Sheila.

Stopping time.

Joey went out "real" fishing with one of his buddies on Saturday morning (for the record he didn't catch any fish that day, either) so that left me and my little man solo for a few hours.

He asked when we woke up if we could go on a "donut date." Who says no to that? So off we went to our local Donut Hole where he was a DELIGHT. Everything was "yes please" and "I love you, Mom" and "thanks for baking me this donut, nice lady!" It was almost more than my heart could handle.

And then he told me we had to go to the "balloon store" because we were having a Father's Day party and "you can't have a party without balloons." So off we went to the Dollar Tree where he proceeded to again be so delightful in carefully selecting one balloon each for Poppi, Papa John, Daddy and Uncle Kyle.

It was a day for the books, for sure.

And for fun, here's a shot from a few nights ago when we took him to the City Fair:

Fishy, fishy.

For Father's Day, Joey wanted to take Alex on his first fishing trip - so we packed up the gear and a little picnic and headed to a small local lake where they allow catch and release shore fishing.

Days and memories like this will stick in my mind forever. There is nothing, and I mean nothing, that compares to the joy of watching Joey share his love of fishing and the water with Alex.

As far as imparting the empirical knowledge to our son of HOW to actually CATCH fish...well, we'll just leave that to Mom. Because who caught the only two fish we caught that day? Oh, hi. That'd be me.

P.S. - I know Alex looks 100 feet tall and about 12 years old in these pictures and I'm just going with "bad camera angles" as the source of the optical illusion. Because he's still my baby, and he's not really up to my boobs in height. Ok, maybe he is and I just can't handle it.

P.P.S - What makes it better is that those are 18Mo pants that I just cuff on him because I think they are adorable toddler capris. It's fine.

Three becoming four.

All I've ever known as a "family" is three. Just the three of us: Mommy, Daddy and Alex.

Our world is centered around this awesome, tiny human who has thoughts and ideas and let's be honest is his own little opinionated 40 year old. But soon, almost too soon, that world is going to change in a big way.

And it's not that we're not excited about it or embracing the change and everything that will come with having this new thing in our lives. This new pink thing that will be her own, tiny human with her own thoughts and ideas and if she's anything like her Momma she's going to have some real opinions at age 3.

Because we are. We're real excited. All of us. But that doesn't mean I'm not going to miss these last magical four years of it being just our threesome.

Every night when I turn all super mega creepy Momma as I check on him and stare at him and kiss him and re-tuck him in before I go to bed, I take a little tiny moment to myself and just freeze the moments of the day in my mind, knowing that soon there's going to be this new thing in our lives that will get the other half of my attention, the other half of my energy, and the other half of my tucking in time.

My Mom tells me that she was scared, too, before she had me...and then again when she had Kyle. That you have this overwhelming feeling of "where is the extra love going to come from?" or "where will the extra time come from?" But she also reassures me that it does. It just does. And that kinda like magic, when bV arrives it will be just like she's always been here, part of our magical little foursome.

My squishy faced & sleepy little lover boy. Sigh.

Hump day, bump day!

bV is the size of a pomegranate!
At 10.5 inches and about 12.7 ounces, she's big enough now that you've probably been feeling her movements. I have and I forgot how weird and alien-y it is!

bV at 21 weeks:
- As her digestive system preps for the outside world, she's manufacturing meconium -- the tarry black substance you'll find in her first dirty diaper.
- She's already got a lifetime's supply of eggs in her womb -- about six million of them!
via thebump.com

Kind of a crappy picture this morning, but this was the one that my buddy wanted to get in and "hold his baby sister," so I sort of had to include it, you know?

We have bV's name narrowed down to 2...but Alex seems to be dead-set on one name: Sheila. Yes, you read that correctly. When we asked him his opinion on what we should name his sister he told us that God told him the baby's name was Sheila...which is a tough one to argue because Sheila is definitely not in our top 2 choices. We don't know anyone named Sheila, and there's not any characters named Sheila on any of the shows he watches. A mystery, for sure! If God for real wants us to name this baby Sheila I might need a few more signs for confirmation. See also: In stone a la Moses.

And so it begins.

If you are my pal on Facebook, you are aware of my recent shopping binge for girly bedding and accessories for bV's room. I can't stop.

The thought of standing in an aisle filled with baby bedding from floor to ceiling in a brick and mortar store makes me break out in hives and get all itchy and scratchy, so I've been managing most of my shopping addiction online. Thank you, Mark Zuckerberg and other creators of the interwebs for things like free shipping and online coupon codes. I'm the master of these things.

Baby (pastel) colors mostly make me want to vomit, and I want her room to be bright and cheerful and full of polka dots, chevrons and sunshine. I'm struggling with her bedding, because the Queen bed we currently have in her room will remain, so I want it all to go together but not in a matchy-matchy way.

In no way am I exaggerating when I say I ordered no less than 15 options to be delivered to my front door. Half of them arrived yesterday:

everything pictured is from target.com

The pastels will be returned immediately and the front runner is the polka dots. The one you can't really see in the upper left is a crib bumper that has multi-colored polka dots, which I'm also loving but I don't want bV sleeping in a dizzying mess of polka dots. What I'm saying is I need to restrain myself.

The pièce de résistance of the room has to be this:

I know, right? It's 4 tin ceiling tiles mounted together and painted a cheery yellow color with pops of teal poking through what kind of looks like a "weathering" process. It was a gift from my parents for my 30th birthday from one of my favorite home resale shops in Bay City, The Loft on Johnson, and I think it will be perfect hung in bV's room. The pennant bunting is from etsy.

I also have this, which I was considering spray painting hot pink, but it might be too much for the room with the yellow piece. We'll see as it all comes together!

frame. print. but I'm probably going to get this print instead.

A must read.

I had content for today, I swear it.

But then I read this.

And now you must read it. Because it's real, real funny. And also true.