Caught In The Act

(Of course, this is one thing I don't mind catching her at!)

And The Verdict Is...

In case the news hasn't made it everywhere, we had our mid-way point ultrasound last Friday. We decided to find out the gender of this baby, and rumor has it...it's a boy! Everything seemed fine, but we won't get the official report until next week at our next OB appointment. We did get some pictures, but unlike Kendra, this little guy is facing my spine so we couldn't get a good profile shot. It vaguely looks like I have a fuzzy alien in there. We did get an adorable foot shot as he pushed against me at one point.

We've been talking to Kendra about how she is getting a little brother, but I'm pretty sure she doesn't have a clue what's coming :)

Our First Harvest

A year or so ago I bought a Meyer lemon tree. After almost killing it last winter, it has come back spectacularly and produced our first lemon!!

St. Louis Wrap Up

We spent last week in St. Louis, enjoying a belated Christmas celebration with the folks there. It was freezing cold, and we got to see a bit of snow, but it was wonderful to see everyone. My family spoiled Kendra rotten with gifts. She had so much fun opening them. She was kind enough to open most of mine as well. She knows that Kendra starts with "K," so naturally, any present with a tag starting with K was hers. I had a hard time figuring out who the presents came from as my darling daughter enthusiastically shredded paper. Being my little OCD girl, she also picked up all the paper and threw it away. It was really cute.

We celebrated my dad's 64th birthday with Dan's famous homemade pizza and some of my (with Alton Brown's help) famous apple pie. Dad really enjoyed having us there. Kendra was happy to make sure all his presents were correctly opened. :)

Seeing all our friends again was fabulous. It was amazing to see how everyone's babies have grown into full fledged toddlers. Their personalities are really coming through, and they are so much fun to play with/watch/listen to. Of course, now we are starting with round two. One friend even had her baby while we were there!

Tomorrow is our big ultrasound - the halfway point! So far, so good. This baby is riding really high, so I look more pregnant now than I did the day I gave birth to Kendra. I also get really winded because my lungs are compressed, and can't eat much at any given time because my stomach is small too.

18 Weeks

And all is well! This little bugger is riding very, very high. S/he's compressing my lungs and stomach something fierce, but is no where near my bladder. It's a nice change, actually :) My blood pressure is perfect, and has remained stable for every check I've had - which is really great news. There was some protein showing today, so I have to run back in on Friday for another check. It could be a bladder infection or a fluke reading. Since high protein is symptomatic of pre-eclampsia it will bear watching, but is of no real concern at this point.

In Kendra news, we have been working on potty training. She did it perfectly this weekend. Not a single accident and really seemed to "get" the whole idea. Until last night. We think she was a bit stuffy in the intestines, and kept saying it hurt. I suspect it scared her and today she wanted NOTHING to do with the potty. We had nothing but accidents :(

I ran to Goodwill and bought half a dozen dresses for her hoping the problem was pants and the up/down issue, but it didn't seem to help. I just now convinced her to try again, and it was met with success. Maybe this will be another breakthrough. (I'm bribing her with M&Ms). In the meantime I've had to scrub the floors, several times, and steam clean the couch.

This growing up thing is rough.