Let the baby gymnastics begin...

I was just sitting here at the computer finishing up some work and realized my lower abdomen was twitching an awful lot this afternoon...guess baby Looney number two is getting big enough to make those internal gymnastic sessions every baby engages in known now! How exciting!

I first started noticing those light sensations about a week ago, which was right about when I first noticed them with Jack (14 weeks) as well, though I would classify Jack's movement as feeling more like little flutters than this baby's. Either way though, it's always reassuring to begin to feel movement, especially now that the belly has popped out! I'm not sure how everyone else progressed in their tummy poppage, but mine sure seemed to go from just a thickening to noticeable little bump in just a few days. With Jack it seemed to be a steadier progression, but the details are a little fuzzy now!

Many people have asked the standard "Do you want a boy or a girl" question and I really never had a good answer with this baby like I did with Jack. With him I just really wanted a boy first, and that worked out great for us! I often joke that I've been hesitant to have a girl knowing what many little girls turn into during the teenage years (having gone through it myself), but after attending a few baby showers of friends having girls this go around, I'm kind of leaning that way! Besides, they get all the cute clothes right? Of course though a boy would be fabulous too.

I'm not much into all the old wives tales about how to tell the sex of the baby, but a friend of mine did show me this unusual trick the other day: She turned my left hand over so the palm was facing up and pressed on the lower part of my hand towards my arm to see if a little bump appeared on my wrist (I guess from a little extra skin there?). Sure enough it did (actually two small bumps appeared), so she tried the other wrist (my right hand) and a bump popped up there too. Apparently the left hand is the "girl" hand and if a bump (or more) pops up, that means one or more of your children will be a girl, and the right hand is the "boy" hand, and if one or more bumps pop there, one of more of your children will be a boy. Well, I've got one boy with Jack so that covers the right hand, so the two bumps on my left hand apparently mean that a girl (or two?) is/are next in line depending on how many kids we end up having. I'm sticking with two for now!

Less than two weeks until the next ultrasound to determine baby gender, whohoo!

The Hazards of Carseats

I have officially discovered how to make myself feel like a horrible mother in about 3 seconds...pinch my son's leg in his carseat buckle :(

I've always been pretty cautions about buckling him in the carseat for that very reason (or burning him with the hot metal piece during the summer), but somehow it just managed to happen a few days ago before I left with my mom for Target. The poor little guy got the most surprised look on his face, which quickly turned to into one of those my-mouth-is-open-wide-but-nothing-is-coming-out things...you know, the kind where your child is so upset nothing comes out at first, but when it does, plug your ears!

Not that I blame him at all. Even a little pinch of skin can hurt pretty good, especially for a little kid. It's one thing when your child is sick or hurt and there's nothing you can do about it, but it's another thing when you're the one that caused the pain! Boy did I feel rotten that morning!

The beauty of young children though is that they still have very short memories, and soon enough he forgot all about the accident and returned to his sweet self. I on the other hand required a little more time :)

Sleeping arrangements

Ok, I need some more advice from you moms of multiples out there...Jack will be right around 23 months when baby number #2 comes along in November, and I'm trying to decide what to do about sleeping arrangements for him and the baby since I've heard I don't want to try and transition him to a bed with a young baby at the same time.

We bought Jack one of the convertible cribs, and so far he's still happily sleeping away in it. I think the answer would be more obvious to me if he was scaling the crib walls every night, but he's quite content to sleep in it right now. I'm hesitant to switch him to a bed too early, because a lot of moms have mentioned that naps tend to dwindle once a child can get in and out of bed him or herself. I love nap time!

Right now I'm leaning towards keeping him in the crib and worrying about the transition after the baby comes, unless he shows signs of being ready for a different bed here in the next few months. I suppose we could buy another convertible crib for baby number #2, that way I don't have to worry about moving Jack out of his too soon. The one we have now has held up really well and was a pretty good deal, so money wise it's an option if we could find a similarly priced crib.

When did you transition your child to a toddler or twin bed? Any tips on how to do it?

Thanks!

Happy Mother's Day!

I sure had a nice Mother's Day yesterday and hope all you other moms did as well!

It started off with a handmade card from Jack (with dad's help of course) and some yummy Taco Cabana breakfast tacos before church, whohoo!

We then had a nice lunch after church and came home to relax for a while before my sister and her family, along with my mom, dad, and grandmother, came over to grill out and play in the pool yesterday afternoon. It was a great day, here are a few more pictures....

Jack sporting his new swim trunks.

Jack and his cousin Lexi

The whole gang!

Mom and the grandsons

Jack and the Vac

I should've snapped a picture of this....but anyway, Jack has moved on from his love affair with the dishwasher to bigger and better things, namely the vacuum cleaner.

This sudden interest in something that makes a good deal of noise is pretty surprising given his tendency to shy away from anything above 5 decibels for many months. I was vacuuming the house before some friends came into town yesterday and he just sat wide-eyed on the ground watching me, not even flinching when I got close to him. As soon as I was done, and unplugged the thing of course, he went over to the handheld vacuum and began to play with it in a similar manner to what he had seen me do. I think what interested him the most was looking down the black hole of the hose to see what was causing all the noise. Is it too early to start training my 16 month-old to vacuum my house?

Unfortunately, I don't have hopes that this interest in vacuuming will translate into any volunteer housework as he gets older, much the same way I suspect he'll lose interest in dad's lawn mower as well.

Random Thought #6: Ways to Keep Your Sanity

A friend of mine sent this to me, thought I would share!

Ways to Keep Your Sanity

1. At lunch time, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at passing cars. See if they slow down.

2. Page yourself over the intercom. Don’t disguise your voice.

3. Every time someone asks you to do something, ask if they want fries with that.

4. Put your garbage can on your desk and label it “IN”.

5. Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks. Once everyone has gotten over their caffeine addictions, switch to Espresso.

6. Finish all your sentences with “according to prophecy”.

7. Dont use any punctuation

8. As often as possible, skip rather than walk.

9. Order a diet water everytime you go out to eat, with a serious face.

10. Specify that your drive through order is “To Go”.

11. Sing along at the opera.

12. Go to a poetry recital and ask why the poems don’t rhyme.

13. Put mosquito netting all around your work area and play tropical sounds all day.

14. Five days in advance, tell your friends you can’t attend their party because you’re just not in the mood.

15. Have your co-workers address you by your wrestling name “Rock Bottom”.

16. When money comes out of the ATM, scream “I won, I won!”

17. When leaving the zoo, start running towards the parking lot yelling “Run for your lives, they’re loose!”

Mission Accomplished!

Just a short update: Bob and I ran out for dinner tonight and decided to walk some of it off in the Woodlands mall. Since I've been on the lookout for ways to avoid wearing maternity clothes while I'm still not really showing and a new bathing suit for the summer, I decided it might finally be time to break down and visit Motherhood Maternity, land of cute pregnancy clothes, but not always the best prices. Bingo! After checking out a number of other stores, I got a belly band (thanks for the suggestion Rebekah!) so I can continue to wear non-maternity clothes a while longer, and also found a pretty cute bathing suit that was reasonably priced. It's always nice to knock out several to-do's in one try!

I know everyone reading this was just on pins and needles wondering "When will Kate find a bathing suit, the suspense is killing me!" Consider your suspenseful wait over now :)