17 Weeks Pregnant

This is a little belated since I'm technically 17 weeks 4 days pregnant, but oh well. This morning I really felt the baby kick for the first time while I was cuddling with Lexi. It's like the baby knew she was laying on me and felt the need to say hi. I'm really looking forward to big kicks that Stasa will be able to feel. She's so excited about the new baby and tells everyone about "her" (because of course it's going to be a girl, why on earth would she ever have a baby brother?!).

In other news, I've finally broken out my maternity clothes, although I still have to wear some of the pants with my bella band to keep them up. The belly's not quite big enough to fill them, but too big to squeeze into my regular pants. I realized that I'm smaller this time than I was with Stasa and Lexi - all thanks to doing Weight Watchers, so I need smaller maternity pants and skirts. Such a drag that I *have* to go shopping. ;)

Thanksgiving weekend and holiday picture outtakes

Our Thanksgiving was nice. We went to Tom's parents' house for the day and I didn't have to do a thing beyond play with the kids and take a nap. Tough life, right? I was hell bent on getting Lexi to take a nap and she just doesn't do well at other people's houses, so I put on classical music on my phone and rocked her until I thought my arms were going to fall off. At least it worked, although I'm not sure how much longer I can get away with that.




The girls didn't eat much of their Thanksgiving dinner, which isn't that surprising since they hardly ever eat a lot now-a-days. Lexi did eat all of her broccoli, some of her potatoes, and a ton of cranberry sauce ("MY PINK!", she kept calling it).

The day after Thanksgiving I attempted round two of Christmas card photos. The girls were less than cooperative, but after much bribing I finally ended up with a handful of shots I wanted to use. Here are some of the outtakes.

We had just started and already she was over it:


I would love to know who taught her this "smile"



And just when I got one of them to smile the other decided they were done:



God forbid your sister decide to lean in to cuddle:


Like I said, at least I ended up with a handful of shots. Still worth it, but now I'm thinking it's going to be next to impossible to get any of the cute sibling pictures I want once the new baby is here. I am looking forward to a subject that can't run away from the camera. Moving on...

Saturday we went over to Aunt Peggy's house to visit with everyone. The girls had way too much fun playing in the leaves in their yard. I'd forgotten just how many leaves they get before winter and how exhausting it is raking them up. Again and again and again.




It was worth it though to see how happy they were to run through them and jump in them. After awhile we got cold, so we came inside for hot chocolate, popcorn, and foot warming by the fire.


The girls are lucky to have so many family members nearby and get so excited when they get to see them. The holiday weekend was doubly special since they got to see almost everyone and were a little bit spoiled by both YiaYia and Mimi.

Today on the Lexi channel...

16 Weeks Pregnant

Well technically 16 weeks and 3 days, but who's really counting?

I went for my monthly check-up this morning and listened to the Merklet's heartbeat for quite some time. The heart rate stayed in the 140s and the doctor told me the baby was a kicker. Every looks good so far.

I haven't felt any movement yet, but I'm sure I will over the next few weeks. My next appointment is right before Christmas and before that I'll have my big ultrasound and will have more pictures of the tiniest Merklet.

Playing without us

I love the age the girls are at right now. I know I probably say that all.the.time, but it really is great because now they're able to play with each other most of the time, which allows us to do other things like make dinner without interruptions or ::gasp:: go to the bathroom all by ourselves.

Of course there are times when they annoy each other, but for the most part they're pretty good about sorting those things out on their own without our interference. And then there are other times when Stasa just needs alone time and when she does, she'll go in her room by herself for a bit and comes out when she's ready to play with Lexi again.

Last weekend while Tom and I worked on and cleaned the cars, the girls played with their trucks in the pine needles and dirt and were quite happy.




Our trucks were picked up secondhand and are a little rusted and beat up, but after we sand and paint them they'll look better, although really the girls couldn't care less about the aesthetics of the trucks.

Then last night they both climbed up in their chairs at the dining room table and quietly played with stickers and then crayons while Tom made dinner. Stasa was being so loving and giving Lexi stickers to put in her sticker notebook. And the other day Stasa announced to us that Lexi was her very best friend. I can only hope that they'll always be best friends.

Almost four months

Goofballs

The girls and I had a pretty good day last Sunday while Tom and Matt went to the game. We played around the house in our pajamas and finally got dressed and out of the house after nap.

My silly weirdos:






In the midst of all of the silliness, they painted some farm animals and a barn I made out of old file folders.



More silliness at the park:




And after the park we all decided we needed a treat, so we went to "the ice cream store" to get ice cream for the girls and hot chocolate for me. Stasa looked through all of the ice cream options and finally settled on one of the pink ones and then Lexi picked the same.

15 Weeks Pregnant

It's been awhile since I've updated on the next little Merklet, mostly because there's not much to talk about. I'm feeling good - mostly tired, but then again I think that's normal for just about any parent. All of my nausea and most of my food aversions have gone away, but it looks like my good old friend heartburn is here to stay. I'm only hoping that my other friend sciatica stays away this time. My next appointment isn't until just before Thanksgiving and we won't go for our big ultrasound until sometime in mid-December.

For now, I need to make my tired self actually start documenting this pregnancy, starting with my weekly belly pictures. But since I've got the sicky face and am still wearing my pajamas I'm not taking my first belly picture like this. I'll wait until I've had time to pretty myself up so you all can think that I always look like a normal human.

Alright, so no belly picture, but look at this! Little Merklet is the size of an orange now and just growing and growing.

And I'm going to hold myself accountable for taking a decent belly picture this weekend - although there's not much to see yet...mostly bloat.

Happy Halloween!

I love how with each year each holiday becomes more special with the kids. Stasa's really getting it and I love the anticipation that builds as each day passes. She's been so excited about Halloween and took forever just to pick her costume. She finally settled on Ariel, the Little Mermaid. No shock there really since that's her favorite Disney movie right now. Well, that and Monsters, Inc., but Sully and Mike weren't attractive costumes to her. Lexi was just excited because Stasa was excited. And now I can not wait for Christmas. Imagine that build up. AHHHH! It's going to be so much fun every year.

So. Back to Halloween. We started off a bit late with the decorations this year because we've just been so busy on the weekends and the weekends we had time it was gloomy and wet out. We finally decorated right before the hurricane only to bring everything back in, then put everything out again before we went out trick-or-treating. Talk about last minute, but it looks GOOD. I still need to go out and snap a few shots before we break it down. The girls even helped put some stuff out this year and had fun playing with the heads and rats.

We woke up last Saturday and Stasa asked for her face to be painted before we started with pumpkin carving. Easy request to fill and I turned her into a beautiful butterfly.


Then after breakfast we got started on carving up all of our pumpkins. We got Stasa started on cleaning out her pumpkin and baby's pumpkin. She surprised us with how well she cleaned them out and how patient she was making sure all of "the nuts" were out of both pumpkins.


Lexi saw what Stasa was doing and wanted in on the action. She climbed up in her seat and buckled herself in. I opened up her pumpkin and scraped all of the sides so all she had to do was pull the guts out. She stuck her hand in and immediately pulled it out, disgusted and scared. And then burst into tears.


She spent the rest of the pumpkin carving time like this.


Much happier.

Our pumpkins turned out looking good. Stasa requested a rainbow and butterfly on hers (well, honestly she requested Ariel, but didn't like my drawing so we scrapped that). Lexi kept yelling ELMO! so I went with that and didn't butcher his image too badly. And Tom and I stuck with traditional pumpkin faces for ours and new baby's.

Tom, Stasa, Lexi, new baby, mine


Lexi, Stasa, Tom, new baby, mine

I didn't get fantastic costume shots this year because we ended up rushing to get the girls fed and dressed and ready. By the time we got outside for pictures it was getting dark and I think most of my shots came out underexposed and grainy. I'll upload them later and add them to the post - at the very least I did do the unthinkable and got a couple with the on board flash because at the end of the day I just wanted to capture them. All that said, here's my grainy iPhone pic of Ariel and Elmo:


And here are the little trick-or-treaters with Daddy. Stasa remembered the drill from last year and had fun yelling out TRICK-OR-TREAT! but she did need a little reminding about saying thank you. She was so excited about showing us her candy she would forget her manners. Lexi was apprehensive at first, but after the first house it was like a light bulb went off and she thought "Candy for knocking on a door? I'm IN!" 


We hope everyone else had a fun Halloween!