Comparison at 13 Weeks

Here is my belly at 13 weeks:


Looks very similar to this, no?


Guess how far along I am in that second picture when I was pregnant with Malcolm...21 weeks.

Ugh.

I broke out the maternity clothes this weekend. Sad face.

Father's Day

A few weekends ago, we went on a family bike ride. The city closes the street by Lake Washington on Sundays during the summer so bike riders can ride without worry of cars to and from Seward Park. I bought a new bike last summer but haven't ridden it often because Malcolm hated the trailer. I finally got around to selling it and I bought an iBert bike seat to replace it. He LOVES the seat. Tony had bought Chris' old bike from him a few years ago and had yet to ride it before that day.

We had a great time on the bike ride but Tony hated his bike. So, for Father's Day, I got him a new bike (he picked it out). We went on a bike ride to Seward Park; it's this gorgeous park that is just a few miles away from our house. Malcolm loves to sit by the shore and throw rocks into the water. He loves it so much that he throws a big fit every time it's time to leave. Here are a couple of pictures:





We'll be doing the family bike rides for as long as I can manage. Tony is loving his bike so much that he's planning on father/son rides once biking becomes too much for me. He's also eager to get out without me because apparently I ride too slow. Can you blame me? I'm freaking pregnant and carting around a toddler on my bike!

I've also been taking Malcolm out on the bike a few times during the week. We'll bike to the park and to the Farmer's Market. I get stopped constantly by other parents asking me about his seat :)

Atlanta

It seems almost silly posting about our trip to Atlanta 3 weeks after the fact, but I said I would and I'm not one to go back on her word. I'm going to do a short recap.

My awesome friend, Betsy, got married to her awesome girlfriend, Sarah, in Costa Rica a couple of months ago. We could not attend the ceremony for a variety of reasons. They decided to celebrate with all of their friends and family who could not attend the wedding during the last weekend of May in Atlanta. We packed up our bags and got on a plane and went.

We spent our trip hanging out with a bunch of really great people. Kik and Amy came up from Tampa and I actually got to see some peeps from Tallahassee for like, 10 minutes. We also got to hang out with my old friend, Keely, and her 2 daughters. Malcolm still talks about Tuesday (Keely's 4-year-old).

It was a lovely family vacation. Every time I get to hang out with my southern friends, I want to move back just so I can do it a lot more often. Here are some pictures:

After dinner on our last night there:


Malcolm and Tuesday walking in the park:


To see the rest of the pictures, go here.

Results - Thumbs Up!

We got the results from the tests run earlier this week and everything came back negative which is a Very Good Thing. There is no indication of Down's Syndrome or Spina Bifida. For those of you that don't know, the risks of these two things increases an enormous amount once you reach the age 35.

We've been keeping busy with play dates galore. I purposely didn't schedule anything today so I could have a bit of downtime and a few minutes to clean up the house in preparation for tomorrow morning's play date. It's raining on and off today which is wonderful - we needed it very much! Our garden has been a little neglected - there is much to harvest. I harvested the broccoli last night since it looked like it was about to bloom. We'll be noshing on that all weekend. I hope to get out in the garden this afternoon to pull up the broccoli stumps and make room for the zucchini. I also have a ton of kale that needs to be harvested.

A Bee

Here's a little profile of the occupant in my uterus. And no, the technician wasn't even going to try and tell the sex of the baby. Everything looks good so far. At one point during the ultrasound, Malcolm pointed to the monitor and said, "Bee!" We were going to call the occupant 'Jellybean', but now I think it must be 'Bee'.

Checking In

Hi. I'm here. A little tired from lack of sleep. OK, maybe a lot tired. We went to Atlanta last weekend for a little family vacation to visit friends and had good times. I will post pictures sometime in the future.

Pregnancy update: Haven't really had any nausea and my food aversions are pretty much gone. I've started cooking again and buying food which has been nice. My energy is up a little bit but I'm still not pushing myself too hard. Some days it's very difficult not to because, well, the house is not going to clean itself. I have my first doctor's appointment next Thursday and have genetic counseling and ultrasound on the 15th.

Only 30 more weeks to go! Ha.

Comparison

Here's my belly when I was around 7 weeks pregnant with Malcolm:


And now, here's my belly around 8 weeks pregnant with #2:


I already can't fit into most of my pants & skirts and my t-shirts ride up my belly.

Could it be twins?

Dear Energy, I Miss You

Malcolm loves going to the Kid's Corner at the YMCA. He asks for it. Unfortunately, I have had a very hard time mustering up the motivation to work out. When people are usually low on energy, exercise helps except when you are low on energy due to pregnancy. I took him to the gym a couple of times this week and totally took it easy; all I did was bike & walk on the treadmill. It killed my energy for the rest of the day.

I think it's time for me to start doing some menu planning. I've had a terrible time figuring out what to cook for dinner the past couple of weeks because the thought of all food nauseates me. I talked to some of my other pregnant friends to see what they do since this seems to be a problem for every woman when pregnant - they make the standard favorites of the family and *try* to eat it but if they can't, no big deal. Now I need to get off my butt and start the planning.

What did pregnant women eat before cereal was invented?

What I'm Reading

I am fully aware that by the end of the year, I will have very little time to myself. One thing I'm going to do my best not to give up is reading. Right now, I go to bed a little early so I can read in bed for 30 minutes (rarely do I make it that long). I'm currently engrossed in Under The Banner of Heaven and In Defense of Food. I've also started reading Eat, Pray, Love, but it's not grabbed my interest very much. I've been a bigger fan of non-fiction lately; I just haven't read any great fiction recently.

So hey! Happy Belated Mother's Day! Mine kinda sucked. I spent most of it in bed feeling exhausted and nauseous. Bland food is my only friend. Tony gave me the best gift - he took care of Malcolm all day so I could rest. He also got me a beautiful bouquet of flowers.

First Trimester Blues

Gestation is wearing me out, folks. I am TIRED. I don't have the energy to do all of the cleaning that needs to be done. I don't have the energy to take Malcolm out as often as I should. I drink more caffeine than I probably should. I don't remember it being this bad when I was pregnant with Malcolm, but I have a feeling that it was.

The one difference between my first pregnancy and this pregnancy is the nausea. With Mal, I experienced more food aversions than nausea. Very few foods appealed to me. As of right now, I'm having no problem eating, but I am experiencing a lot more nausea. I'm not actually throwing up thank goodness. Also, when I got pregnant with Malcolm, I lost 7 pounds. This time, I've already gained 5. I should admit that my starting weight this time around was 10 pounds less than the first time around, so I'm sure that makes a difference.

Updated Pregnancy List

One of the Ericas had her baby a couple of weeks ago, so she's off the list. Instead of just adding one more person to the list, there are two to add:

Erika
Jill
Chandra
Lisa
Kristin
Shana
Tiffany
Olga
Vaishali
ME!

For those of you that don't already know, I'm pregnant! Tony & I just started trying and it happened right away. If all goes well, we'll have a new little one shortly after Christmas. I guess we know where we'll be spending this winter holiday this year...

Chirp! Chirp!

Our lovely spring weather is about to turn into our typical spring weather...the day Dad & Carolyn arrive. My back is giving me much grief and I cannot clean the house properly before they get here. I know they don't really mind, but I do. Tony stayed home from work today to help me out with Malcolm & to drive me to the chiropractor's office later this afternoon. Let's hope she's able to adjust something to help me mend. My back has been messed up for a week now :(

The Box

My mom sent me a waffle maker for my birthday (thanks again, Mom!) and Malcolm had a blast playing in the box. It reminded me of stories my parents would tell of me and Jenn playing in boxes as kids. Here's a little clip:

Happy Birthday to Me!

There is a long list of things I should be doing right now during Mal's nap time, but instead I'm posting here. Procrastination!

I took Malcolm to the aquarium this morning; it was the first time he'd been since he was way little. He loves fishies. The crowds of school kids on field trips was overwhelming. Tony bought us a membership for my Christmas present. I'm going to try and take Mal there at least once a month.

To celebrate my birthday, we're going out to dinner tonight and having a few friends over later. I should be cleaning and getting the house ready for guests. It's very hard to clean house with a toddler constantly messing it up :)

Spring Tease

We've been having gorgeous weather here the past few days. I love the rain and cool weather, but warm, dry, sunny weather is much more conducive to planting vegetable gardens and playing in the sun. Today is the last day of the spring tease so I'm going to be sure to take full advantage of it with Malcolm after his nap.

My friend, Sandi, got laid off from her job today. That makes 4 friends now (Lorian got laid off a couple of weeks ago).

In other random news:
-loan closed, house is refinanced. We'll be saving over $300 month
-just found out last night that Malcolm got into our 1st choice preschool. Hooray! He'll be starting in September.
-Malcolm is no longer enamored by blueberries. Now he's all about the strawberries. He's decided that he doesn't want to eat all of his previous favorite foods. Eating time has become a guessing game...AGAIN. Oh, the joys of toddlerhood.
-I'm turning 35 in two days and am kind-of ambivalent about celebrating my birthday.

And a very big congratulations to my dear friend, Betsy. She got hitched this weekend to the lovely Sarah in Costa Rica. I wanted to be there so badly but we just couldn't afford it. Fortunately, they are having a reception in Atlanta over Memorial Day weekend for all of those that could not attend the wedding. Our tickets are purchased!

I Stand Corrected

Sunny gave birth to little Spencer at 10:59 PM last Friday after being in labor for 22 hours. 22 hours, People! I visited them in the hospital last Sunday before meeting up with my book club. The new parents are totally in love with their little man.

On Monday, we had a play date with a mom/daughter duo that we hadn't seen in some time. The mom is 22 weeks pregnant.
On Tuesday, it was very apparent that I caught Tony's head cold. I felt too poor to do anything for the next two days. Malcolm got pretty bored.
On Thursday, we went swimming at one of the local indoor pools with Angie & Rowan. Since then, Mal's been talking about 'splashin' in the water' nonstop. I think I need to take him swimming more often.
On Friday, we met up with a high school friend of mine who lives in the area (Tacoma) with her husband and two boys. I find out she's 22 weeks pregnant. We took the boys to the zoo. Mal's favorite exhibit was the Arctic marine animals...where he wanted to get in the water and go splashin' with the whale/seals/walrus/otters.

I'm going to write this down because I keep leaving pregnant friends out. These are my friends who live in the area that are pregnant:

Erica
Erika
Jill
Chandra
Lisa
Kristin
Shana
Tiffany
Olga

That's 9 people, y'all! So please ignore my previous post where I said I thought this baby boom was slowing down. I was completely wrong.

Almost the End of March

I meant to wish Mom & Paul a happy anniversary earlier this month but, obviously, I didn't. The days slipped past me as they often do.

My plan was to do some yoga while the little man napped today but, obviously, I'm not. Instead, I'm drinking a cup of coffee and farting around on the internet. There is a long list of other things that I could be doing and I'll likely get some of them done before he wakes up.

Our good friend, Sunny, is currently in labor. I'm thinking the little guy will be showing up any minute now. Last update I got was early this morning and she was 3cm dilated. After today, I will only have 6 friends in Seattle who are pregnant. I think the baby boom is slowing down and will be surprised if someone else tells me she's pregnant.

Malcolm has been a bit of a grump this week. Tony thinks the cause is from the hours of separation from me over the weekend. I'm not so sure of that. He's started counting to 10 pretty consistently. He was skipping 9 for a couple of days but found it somewhere. He's also singing and it is the cutest thing. His newest is, "Do, a deer, a fee..." and that's as far as he gets in that song. He sings all the time. Probably because I'm always singing to him :)

New Neighbors

In December, our old neighbors moved out. Since then, the unit next door has been blissfully empty until this weekend. While we were enjoying the snow in Whistler, people moved in next door. I realized this fact this morning as I heard lots of running up and down the stairs. However, we should have been clued in last night when we came home and our main floor had the aroma of fried food.

The joys of living in a townhouse. I honestly thought the soundproofing and smellproofing would be better.

Whistler Weekend - Wahoo!

My dear Mom reminded me that it had been awhile since I posted an update. Although I have been keeping this blog for over 5 years now, I still forget to write in it often. How long does it take to establish a habit, anyway?

So! We went to Whistler this past weekend! Months ago, Julie told me that they were planning a trip to Whistler in March. We had a long list of reasons why we couldn't commit at the time. As the trip got closer, our friend, Jill, offered to take care of Malcolm so Tony and I could snowboard. And then, we found out that we could still cross the boarder with just a birth certificate for Mal (this changes in June). And THEN, the currency exchange rate has been fantastic and Whistler's been running great deals on lodging to boost business. I just couldn't let the opportunity to snowboard pass us up and convinced Tony that it would be a good idea for us to make the trip. He was nervous about how Mal would do in the car and with being away from us for several hours.

Our drive up on Friday took a looooong time. Our plan was for me to pack everything up and leave the house by 3 PM and then pick up Tony from work. It was hard for me to get everything done and take care of Mal and meet the deadline. We left the house by 3:30 and picked Tony up by 4. Traffic up was terrible through Everett (always is) and then we met a friend of ours for dinner in Bellingham. We then had an hour wait at the border. Ugh. We didn't roll into Whistler until 11:30 PM. Due to the late arrival, we didn't leave our condo until well after our intended time. Lots of boring reasons why we were delayed. Short story: we only boarded for 3 hours on Saturday. Lots of fun and the snow was great. Saturday night, we had dinner with the whole group (10 of us) excluding the babes and Julie's mom who was taking care of the kids.

On Sunday, Jill and her clan headed out in the morning. My wonderful husband stayed behind to take care of Malcolm so I could snowboard with Julie & Fes. It was another bluebird day with soft snow. We headed down from the mountain around 1:30. We took off for Seattle around 3 PM. Tony gets extra super husband points for having lots of patience with a grumpy baby who slept poorly the night before and really wanted his mommy.

It was really great to get out to the mountains. I sure do miss snowboarding. Strangely enough, I'm not sore at all. I guess the time I put in at the gym paid off!

Blueberry Man

Malcolm would eat blueberries for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I let him. Sure, he'll still eat other fruit, but he's on an extreme blueberry kick. His poops are blue-purple in color. And no, I'm not kidding.

A long-time friend is in Seattle this week for a conference. She arrived a couple of days early to have some vacation time so me and Malcolm played tour guide yesterday. We first went to Ballard to visit the Nordic Historical Museum and the Ballard Locks. We then had lunch at Blue C Sushi in Fremont before heading up to the top of Queen Anne hill to check out the views. We've had gloriously clear weather here so the views were great. Fun times.