Thursday, April 30, 2009

Halfway Mark!

It has been an exciting month! April brought with it our 4-year anniversary, a fun-filled girls' trip through the Texas Hill Country, and our 20-week appointment!

On April 16th, Alex and I celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary. Unfortunately I was in the throes of battling a nasty cold, so we couldn't follow through with our plans for a night out dancing. Instead, we treated ourselves to dinner out followed by a game of glow-in-the-dark putt-putt golf. It was a throw-back to our young, carefree high school dates and so much fun! We then came home and watched our wedding video, a tradition on our anniversary. It was great to get to relive that day again, and we were once again reminded just how wonderful the celebration was. Alex got me a gorgeous diamond and sapphire ring to commemorate not only our relationship but also the upcoming birth of our sweet baby girl (sapphire is the birthstone for September). It was a wonderful day!

Unfortunately Alex had to leave for his yearly spring trip to Germany the next day, so my mom came into town and we had a great girls' weekend! After lunch with my brother and sister-in-law (who were in town for a friend's wedding), mani/pedis, and a chick flick in Austin on Friday, we got up bright and early on Saturday and headed down to Fredricksburg, an adorable German town tucked into the Texas Hill Country. We spent the day walking up and down Main St. and buying things here and there for Alina...and ourselves. It was the first time I'd really been shopping for Ali, and it was so much fun!! I have to wonder if shopping for a little boy would have been nearly so exciting. We went to a local play that night--Love, Sex, and the IRS. It didn't really have much to do with love...or sex...but it was a nice way to spend the evening. In the morning we went to the Peddler's Fair craft show and bought some tasty dips, and then made a pit stop in Luckenbach on our way back into town. Here are some pictures from our great weekend!

Here we are enjoying slices of pie at a cute house-turned-pie-shop in Fredricksburg.

At the entrance to the Peddler's Show.

Here I am milling amongst the bikers in Luckenbach. They were all drinking long necks (heck, it's what you DO in Luckenbach), but I think I fit in nicely with my bottle of water.
Everybody's somebody in Luckenbach!

On Monday we had our 20-week appointment. 20 weeks! Halfway!! I won't go so far as to say that it has flown by, but it is awesome (and crazy) to say that we will get to meet our daughter in 20 weeks or less!! The appointment was great, as all her appointments have been. She is growing like a weed--she's measuring in the 91st percentile (this means that she's bigger than 91% of all other babies her age), and her head is measuring more than a week ahead! We have already talked to her about having mercy on her mommy and slowing that growth a bit before it's time to deliver. Before we left, the doctor showed us where her bottom and feet are...they are so much higher than I was imagining! I guess that goes along with the whole "91%" thing.

I've been feeling her consistently for about a week now--it's not "bubbles" like some people say, or "flutters" or "tickles," and it's definitely not kicks and punches yet. The best was I can describe it is that it feels squirmy, like she's wiggling around in there. It's so fun to feel her react to what I eat, how I sit, etc. She always makes sure to wiggle around a little to say goodnight and good morning! The doctors said that Alex probably won't be able to feel her for a couple of more weeks, but that doesn't keep him from patiently trying all the time.

Here's the great profile shot we missed last time. I told Alex I think she's going to have my nose!

And finally, here's a shot of me from the same day--20 weeks! Halfway!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Our Beauty Queen and My Belly

Sorry it took me so long to get the latest ultrasound pictures scanned! As mentioned in the last post, Ali thwarted our doc's attempt to get her cute profile, so all we have are front-of-the-face shots. Alex doesn't like when I call her Skeletor, so I've switched to "the beauty queen" (and you can read as much into any inherent sarcasm that you want).


Here's a recent belly shot--as you can see, it's pretty obvious now that this is a baby belly, not a beer belly! This shot was taken at 16 weeks, 3 days.


In other news, our crib is in! We found the crib we loved at Babies R Us, and then ordered it instead from Walmart, saving mucho $ and getting free shipping in the process. Alex wants to set it up now, but I'm thinking we may want to wait until the chair rails are installed. He tried to work on those last weekend, but this is how that went:

Attempt 1: cut chair rails to appropriate lengths with cheap-o miter saw kit we picked up from Home Depot.
Fail 1: Cheap-O miter saw kit was worth every penny we paid and couldn't do the job.

Attempt 2: paint chair rails now so that we won't have to do it when they're on the wall.
Fail 2: No paint brushes.

Attempt 3: mark studs in wall so that when we do acquire an adequate miter saw AND paint brushes, we will know where to nail.
Fail 3: Our stud finder was broken.

Sooo...as you can probably guess, we struck out with the chair rail project last weekend. Not a big deal, though, because we still have lots of time. I keep saying that.......

Alex is in California this weekend visiting an old friend of his whose fiance is also pregnant (due in May). They figured this was probably one of their last chances for some carefree guy time. I plan on spending all this free time hanging out with my sister and my friends, and hopefully getting in a little shopping (that belly looks more and more ridiculous in my "normal" clothes with every passing day).

Hope you are all doing well, and fingers are crossed that the next post will show progress on the chair rails, the crib, or both!