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.