Hold your ovaries, ladies.

Because THIS happened last night:

"Dear baby, who lives in Mom's tummy: will you come to us? When Halloween comes, you can come and we'll give you lots of love, dear baby. Dear baby."

Hump day, bump day (& an anniversary)!

bV is the size of a grapefruit!
At about 10.5 to 11.8 inches and about 12.7 to 20.8 ounces, baby's not just getting bigger, she's getting even cuter.

bV at 23 weeks: 
She's forming little nipples (yeah, really!) Her face is fully formed now -- she just needs a little extra fat to fill it out. She's listening to your voice and your heartbeat -- and even to loud sounds like cars honking and dogs barking. (& her brother telling her stories - more on that tomorrow!)
via thebump.com

In semi-related news, today is my Mom and Dad's 37th wedding anniversary. Listen, 37 years is a long ass time. I don't even know that I will like myself in 37 years. What I'm saying is that they're awesome -- a genuinely amazing example of love, marriage and all the hard work (and fun!) it takes to make it on this crazy adventure we call marriage.

And for the record? They're still as weirdly perfect together as ever. Dad's hair has gotten significantly (ahem) lighter and Mom's is significantly (ahem) chemically enhanced...but they're still the same lovebirds! Just with a few more years behind them, a few more grandbabies to brag about, and lots more adventures to still have!

Thrifty Momma.

If you've known me for a minute, you know that I don't pay retail. To be honest, I'm not sure why anyone would. Sales, coupons, thrifting, and even stores like Marshalls and T.J. Maxx make retail seem like such robbery...and the thrill of the hunt gets me every time.

Anyway, I swung by one of my favorite resale shops in the area, Regeneration, on the way home from work today to peruse the little girl's section as therapy after a particularly insane week at work. For less than $50, I scored the following:

Nearly 10 complete outfits (5 of which are new with tags--a variety of baby Gap, Guess, Carters and Circo), 4 bloomers and pair of Robeez. Um, hai. And please die over the bottom picture. The ruffle bloomer outfit? The tutu/leggings with the kneepatches? I CANNOT.

P.S. - The even better thing about stores like Regeneration? It's a really easy solution for selling your items, too! They offer 30% of the retail value instantly in cash or 45% in store credit on your own stuff that they are willing to purchase and resell, so it can almost be like a fair trade!

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. Three words: BABY LEG WARMERS.

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.

Hump day, bump day!

bV is the size of a banana!
She weighs about 10.2 ounces and measures about 6.5 inches. She's still got a lot of growing to do though.
bV at 20 weeks:
- She's got working taste buds.
- Now, she's gulping down several ounces of amniotic fluid each day -- that's significantly more than before.
via thebump.com

Halfway there, baby! As you can see, Alex is really digging this big brother stuff. He's aware that she's "coming out" right before Halloween, so this morning on the way to Aunt Jane's we were discussing possible Halloween costumes. He told me it had to be "little" to fit her, and asked if his giraffe costume would fit her, since he wore that "when he was only 2." Then I told him when he was a baby, he was Superman for Halloween...so he decided his sister should be Superbaby.

More Alex-isms.

When I tucked him in last night, he asked if he could give his sister a kiss and offered my belly a sweet little smooch. And then he poked his finger into my belly button and said, "Coochie, coochie, coo! I'm tickling you, baby!"

And then when he woke up, the first thing he did was run into our room and ask me how the baby slept.

My heart might explode soon.

Big brother's reaction.

So we told Alex tonight at dinner all about the impending arrival of his little sister, because quite frankly, we couldn't really wait much longer. It far and away exceeded any expectations we had about his reaction.

His biggest concern at first was which highchair she would sit in at Aunt Jane's (because all the"little kids" sit in high chairs during meals and circle time and at the moment they are all occupied...most notably by the littlest munchkin, baby Olivia.)

I can't even with all the things he lists that he wants to teach her and share with her. And that the biggest things he can't wait to do with her is "bring her to Aunt Jane's," "learn her to read a book" and watch TV? Please. And teach her Spanish? Watch for yourself here:


After I shut the camera off, he continued to ask a bazillion questions about his sister and I had to get a notepad out to take notes so I wouldn't forget all of the ridiculous and adorable things he said. In random order:

• He repeatedly asked me to "open my mouth wide" because he could "hear her talking to him through my pipes."
• He asked, "When does she come out? And when does she turn 2? Because then she will have a birthday and we will sing to her." And then he sang the birthday song and I died a little on the inside.
• He urged that we "need to go shopping!" because we need to buy the baby "clothes and bottles and diapers and a crib because babies need these things."
• "Mom! We don't have a changing table. We need to get one of those because mine is old."
• He offered to give her all his sleep toys--even Jake & Emma which is a BIG, BIG deal, people.
• He asked how old she was right now. This was tricky to answer. I went with 'zero,' which I think was both satisfying and technically correct.
• "If she gets sick can I give her my orange medicine?"
• "She cannot glue things by herself yet. Aunt Jane will have to help her, you know."

And the all-time Emmy winner best of the night... "Mom, did you have a crunch her up with your teeth to get her down there in your belly?"

Judging by how the rest of dinner went, he's unfazed about having a sister vs. a brother and already loves her just as much as we do. This, of course, comes as no surprise but it's nice to have it on lock.

We're going to sleep on her name a few more nights and then tell that news...and for those that think they know, I promise you don't!

Oh boy do I have news for you!

So our morning started out with a splash...literally. With water mysteriously leaking FROM the chandelier in our dining area. The ceiling was soaked. This is just how the VeeDubs roll. We can't do anything easily.

So after a call to our builder who's there right now fixing the only water breakage I want to see between now and October 18, we headed out for the big appointment!

I got many really nice and thoughtful texts and calls on the way--so thank you for those, my friends. I really needed to hear the reality that today was an exciting day and I needed to be HAPPY about it! For whatever reason, I've just had a sinking feeling that it was going to be another day of bad news. Really wish I could shake that constant fear, but it's coming with time.

So I unrolled my windows and jammed to this tune on repeat, knowing that whatever news we heard today, we would hear it together and make it through.



The ultrasound was first, and she did all the measurements and such before we could see "the goods." To our extreme relief, bV is perfectly healthy and measuring on target in all the right places. Might I also mention that this is the appointment where you have to have a full bladder while they're poking around down there. Torture, I tell you, torture!

In a hysterical moment, bV was also very shy--positioned breech with the feet tucked in covering the genital area. The ultrasound tech (who we've grown to know and love), laughed with us that we would be the first people in her entire 25 year career that she would have to send away without knowing the gender of their baby. Of course that would be our luck, of course.

So she fished around for awhile and took some other measurements, hoping bV would shift a little. And shift, she did.

That's right, SHE! bV is a girl! Here she is laughing about it:

And here's a sweet shot of her perfect face:

And, for the final shot of the day, a very ironic pageant wave (in perfect form, might I add) for all her people:

It's all still sinking in and we are very excited, but my favorite part of the whole morning was when Joey was sitting thoughtfully while we were waiting for the doctor and exploded into a smile and said, "Guess what I just realized?" I said, "What, babe?"

"I get to walk her down the aisle someday!"

And that, my friends, is what life is all about. Happy Monday!