It's a Boy!!!!!!

I guess I should have known from all the acne and the extra vomiting, but that's a boy alright.  I'm not posting the picture with the actual boy bits so you all will just have to believe me.  Yesterday was a triple whammy, ultrasound, OB appointment, and blood test for genetic testing.  Everything is looking great so far.  My next OB appointment will check for gestational diabetes (another blood test, hopefully the last one).  So now the process for project 'Little boy Anderson' begins with painting of the nursery and other boyish decor and thinking of a boy name.  We agonized so much over Holiday's name that this could take a while, but we will let everyone know when we decide.

Christmas stuff and ZooLights

I've finished my Christmas shopping and have most of it wrapped.  David has a little more to do but I think he's close.  Holly's pretty much moved into her new room now that it felt good enough to check it off my To Do list.  We've done the major grocery run so now we're starting to pick up on the other stuff that needs to get done on the house and the yard.  We even managed to fill the green bin this weekend.  We went to ZooLights at Point Defiance Zoo last Saturday.  It was packed with people, it makes sense that it would be on the weekends.  But it's either that or fight the worst traffic in the state on a weeknight...pick your poison.  Since Holly gets carsick the weekend wins.  They had school busses shuttling people from the go-kart site into the zoo and since Holly is all about school busses right she had no problem waiting in line.  She loved being in the school bus, Daddy drawing on the fogged up windows.  The lighting displays were the best I've seen and once you got out of the main entry gathering area it was pretty easy to get around.  The only animals that you could see was what was in the aquarium.  Holly liked the sharks.  She loved the carosel and cried pretty bad when it was time to go.  The line wasn't too bad for food and Holly ate pretty good in spite of the general bustle going on.  If we go again, we need to get there early before it opens so we can get through the lines quicker.  When I was in line to use the bathroom I overheard a woman say, "They should give pregnant women and kids priority to use the bathroom.  I looked around me and saw three other pregnant women besides myself and about a dozen kids and laughed out loud and said to her, "That's everybody here."  She looked bewildered for a split second and then said I was right.  The line to bathroom was the quickest, people usually go and get out of there pretty quickly...especially when it's cold.

New Bed for Holiday

Holly slept in her new bed for the first time last night and made it through the night like a champ.  We have a baby monitor in there just because we won't hear her from our bedroom or the living room unless she's really screaming.  Before she fell asleep we could hear her tapping on something.  I know she likes to hit her feet on the wall, that might have been what we were hearing.  When I checked on her she was perfectly in her bed, head on her toddler pillow, kicked her blankets off since the heater was going but not tangled in the slightest.  We still need to move her stuff into her new room so we can start prepping the nursery for the baby.  I've pretty much kept everything, most of our baby gear is neutral so we can use it for boys or girls.  If we're having a boy we'll need to repaint the nursery and get a bunch of new clothes and linens.  In either case we'll need new curtains (because the ones I originally made are now in Holly's room) and some other baby items simply need to be replaced due to wear and tear.  Probably when I start sorting the baby stuff I'll have a better idea of what we'll need to get or if anything needs replacement parts.

Remodeling Pictures and Christmas stuff

Before the office was remodeled into Holly's room.

With all sorts of weird stuff in the wall.

That just looks painful.

With the help of his ex-boeing electrician boss, David fixed up the electrical.

Holly loves to help.

Happy new vent.

Happy new light fixture.

Happy new wall.

Closet unit.

Here's the flow from the kitchen to the back door with the door to Holly's room on the left.

This wall was a real bear to build.

Nice shot of all the new walls with door.

Profile shot...after David textured the walls, I could help as I was able with painting.

How many different colors do you see?

New toddler bed...Holly really likes her new room.

Just got the bedding last night.

Matches the lamp from Grandma Linda that we haven't gotten to use till now.

The closet has the doors attached now.

Just need the final touches and move in the rest of Holly's stuff.

Putting up Christmas decorations.  Hey! This sock doesn't fit right!

Holly didn't mind us moving her kitchenette to her new room.  She really liked the Christmas tree.  When I unwrapped all the Christmas ornaments she just seemed to know what to do and started hanging them on the tree.  So I gave her plenty of ornaments to put on while I handled the more delicate ones.  She grouped the sock monkeys together because they're friends.  The crocheted snowflakes are in little groups too.  When the spirit moves her, Holly rearranges them on the tree.  After the tree was done, we went outside to help daddy with the exterior decorations.  Holly helped by pulling out and handing the lights to daddy and then we all hung outside ornaments on the big bushes.  Every time she sees the outside lights or the tree, she says, "Wow! It's beautiful!" or "Bright light", but it's always like she hasn't seen it before.

Thanksgiving Pictures

Holly wearing daddy's headlamp.

Here's my Yule Log cake.

The meringue mushrooms were a hit.  They kind of tasted like toasted marshmellows.

Here's Holly with her cousin Ayden.

Playing with legos and linkin logs.

David's carving the turkey.

Here's cousin Kaylie coloring at the big table.

Holiday and mommy are ready to eat.

Everyone is getting settled.

Last night we went to an event at Anna's school where all the students were presenting their 'family projects'.  Kind of like a student science fair only it's based on family roots.  It was interesting seeing what kinds of family histories were presented.  There were a lot of wartime themes presented since so many had relatives that were either in the military or were affected by war in some way.  Holly was more interested in exploring, going to the library, getting dinner and playing with Anna and Ellie.  She did really well in spite of the short attention span. 

Pictures and Writing

 Mommy's Pumpkin.

Daddy's Pumpkin. Notice the penned decorations that Holly added.  She really didn't want to touch the pumpkin guts.  Messy mommy.

Trick or treating at the mall.

With mommy.

And with daddy.

Pumpkins outside.

In the dark!

Quick! Everyone in mommy's ever-shrinking lap.

Playing with magnets.

I think most of these are on the dishwasher now.

Big news!  Holly started writing out some letters last night.  Daddy called out H - O - L and Holly wrote them out.  She has a big bucket of crayons and colored pencils she loves to play with and she seems to prefer the colored pencils right now.  So civilized.  Not bad for a 2-1/2 year old.  She's totally getting it.

Family Picture

 

We made tons of progress on the house this weekend.  Mostly David, Saturday was a bust for me.  I woke up with a headache and it was making me queezy.  So I decided to take some tylenol and at the thought of swallowing pills sent me into a vomit frenzy.  That's the worst it's ever been.  After that I decided I had nothing left to lose so I tried again and got it down.  I just had to eat again within an hour.  Later I had indigestion and back pain so I was pretty much useless on Saturday.  Yesterday we got our lovely family picture done so I can make Christmas cards now.  David and Holly raked leaves. Got our grocery shopping done and picked up paint.  So the first coats in each of the rooms affected have been made.  Hooray!  I'll order Holly's furniture today.  This weekend we'll be able to put up Christmas decorations and by the time the furniture shows up the painting should be done.  That red in the kitchen took Keri and I three coats so I warned David about that.  It's worth it though, I still think red looks great in the kitchen.  The whole house could use touch ups, the bathroom needs to be repainted.



Lots to do...

David's been hard at work on Holly's room all week.  There's been mostly trimwork, filling and sanding going on.  He has a lot of plastic taped up in there now and is hoping to paint the primer and finish texturing tomorrow.  That's the plan anyways.  We're all hoping that the end is near because lots of other stuff needs to get done too.  All the sanding has kicked up some major dust so the entire interior needs a major scrubdown.  But there's no point in doing that until all the sanding is done because it will be back the next day.  I tried taking Holly outside to rake leaves but she got bored quickly with it, she even had her own rake.  I'll probably do it while she's napping tomorrow, otherwise who knows when we'll be able to do it.  Everything seems messy right now.  But when her room is done, we can move her kitchenette in there and then we'll have enough space to put up the Christmas tree.  I'm also hoping we can get a family picture in this weekend so I can order Christmas cards, there's just been no time.

Post Thanksgiving Update

I had an OB appointment last Tuesday and everything is looking great thus far.  We finally got to hear the heart beat.  Holly really enjoyed that part, she couldn't wait to get up on the examining table and reveal her tummy too.  She kept talking about "check-ups".  We went to my Mom's for Thanksgiving and both David's and my dishes were a hit.  Holly really enjoyed hanging out at a different house for the day and playing with her cousins.  My mom babysat Holly the following night while David and I went out for a date night.  Before we left the house Holiday commented on how her daddy was "dressed up" and had "new shoes" on.  We were both surprised that she said that, but it was pretty obvious that David was indeed dressed up.  Holly knows more than she lets on.  David has made a lot of progress on Holly's room over the last couple days.  The wall is built and the door is framed in.  The doors to cabinet are nearly complete.  The texturing of the walls has begun.  I think David has most of the stuff to finish except for paint, I need to pick out the color for Holly's room, it will most likely be some sort of pink.  Maybe by this coming weekend we'll be in a position to get Holly's bedroom furniture.

More progess and Thanksgiving preparations

So David has the framework for the closet/cabinet unit built.  Thus, he was able to build the section of wall that now contains the light switch so the electrical is 100% done and all the grunt work of borrowing under the house is 100% done. He's starting to frame in the door now, which is a pain since every existing element of our house is not square or level.  But once that's in, there won't be much wall left to build. After that is texturing the walls, putting doors on the cabinets, painting, rerouting the cable line and finally putting in furniture.  Holly and I were feeling a little sick yesterday so I stayed home with her.  She's feeling much better today so she's back at daycare today.  We're starting our Thanksgiving preparations, thawing the turkey and such.  I made meringue mushrooms for the first time yesterday and happily they turned out correctly.  They're to go with a yule log cake which will be another first attempt.  But I'll make the yule log tomorrow.  I'll bake the pumpkin pie tonight since that will take up less space in the refridgerator.

Remodeling Progress

David's been hard at work on Holly's new room.  He had last Friday off due to a daycare closure since it was Veteran's Day so he had an extra day this weekend to work on it.  The demolition is 100% done.  The heating/venting is 100% done, he was really happy that turned out exactly how he planned it since he's never done that kind of work before.  The electrical is 75% done, all that's left of that is once the wall has been built he can install the switch to the light fixture and connect to the power.  He still needs to reroute the cable line (yep, that's different from electrical).  Next he's building a drawer/closet unit and then he can build the wall around that unit to fit.  So David made a lot of progress this weekend, but it's all the stuff that you won't be able to see once it's finished.  So right now I'm doing lots of window shopping for a new bed and bedding mainly to watch for sales so we can pounce on it.  Holly's been doing really well with the potty at home, so that's good news.  For a while there she wasn't feeling like eating very much and now she's chowing down.  I swear she's gotten taller.  I haven't needed any preggie pops for nausea for over a week now.  But I'm at 14 weeks and 1 day now so the first trimester is pretty much over.  And if history repeats itself, that means I need to be as productive as possible during my 2nd trimester, because once the third trimester hits I'm going to slow way down and getting things done will become much more difficult.

New videos, new poll and new room

David has put more video on our Vimeo site, there's still more that he needs to put on.  He's working on it.  I see some of you have noticed the new baby poll.  In the beginning, I was thinking that it's a boy, now I'm starting to think it's a girl.  It's all a gut feeling, I really have no idea why.  I'll be exactly 20 weeks on Christmas Day so the gender determining ultrasound will happen just before then, and then we'll know.  David's been hard at work on Holly's room.  The biggest issue is the leftover electrical access boxes in there.  David is getting some help on rerouting and burying that stuff in the wall.  Most of the electrical in the main part of the house is more up to date, but there's been a lot of knob and tube remnants that any electrician would cringe at.  This weekend David is planning on going shopping for materials, he even put in an order for a door so it will be ready by the weekend.  If we're having a boy, I'll probably need to redecorate the nursery.  If we're having a girl, I won't need to change much at all.  But Holly's room comes first, David is roughly shooting for around Christmas time for Holly to get her new room.  That way she won't feel like she's getting kicked out of the nursery for the new baby.  She's getting to be such a big girl that it's probably time for a big girl bed anyway.

Lovely Weekend

We had a pretty good weekend.  I took Holly downtown on Saturday to give David some time to work in the attic.  She really liked sitting in the seat on the light rail like a big girl.  She mostly cooperated with getting in the stroller when I asked her too.  I give that an A-.  She at least held my hand without fuss.  I didn't like the new Old Navy Store downtown so we moved on to Barnes and Noble fairly quickly.  Stayed there for awhile playing with the trainset and reading a bunch of kids books.  We had lunch after that, Holly really enjoyed her Lunchables.  I went to Motherhood Maternity in the Westlake Mall after that and Holly did really well in there running around loose.  The same gal was working there the last time I needed maternity clothes.  She remembered me, my name and what I bought the last time I was there.  I like that one so much better than other ones in the area.  Southcenter is pushy and Northgate is simply sad.  After that we went home on the light rail.  We practiced our colors while eating M&M's on the light rail.  On Sunday we had our friends Nick and Gina over during Holly's naptime and taught them how to play Ticket to Ride.  They did well and everyone had a pretty good time.

Going's On

On Monday we took Holly to Southcenter mall to go trick-or-treating.  She did quite well until the gals at Gene Juarez scared her with their actually scary costumes, but by then most of the stores were out of candy anyway.  When someone is dressed as a banana it's not nearly as intimidating as a bloody zombie. It was pretty busy but tolerable.  All the little costumes were cute.  Holly's Minnie Mouse was popular with the little kids.  Every few minutes I'd hear, "Minnie Mouse!"  I found my maternity clothes and had a lot more than I thought I did.  I just need a couple pairs of yoga pants (because the cat popped holes in everything) and maybe one or two pairs of work pants and I'll be good till springtime.  I'm sooooo much more comfortable now wearing maternity clothes.  I probably needed to make the swap sooner.  I was thinking of taking Holly downtown tomorrow to give David some time to work on the house in peace without a two year old under foot.  We'll do some shopping, some browsing, maybe see Macy's Christmas display and some lunch.  Hopefully that works out.  I forgot to mention that the other day when Holly was coloring Vader walked into the room and Holly raised her voice to him, "No Vader!  My crayons!"  Sorry kitty, Holly's definitely in charge.

The BIG Announcement...We're having another baby

Here are the latest ultrasound pictures.  I'm at 12 weeks 1 day today so I'm due May 13, 2012.  So far everything is looking good.  My results from my initial bloodwork are completely normal.  We're in the middle of genetic testing right now so we're not sure when we'll know anything about that, but we're not worried.  My next OB appointment is the week of Thanksgiving so we're hoping to hear the heartbeat by then, we've been able to see it at least in the ultrasounds.  It seems like I've been more nauseous than the first time, I've thrown up a couple times.  The preggie pops help a lot.  I'm starting to show so I need to dig out my maternity clothes and see what I need to get.  We've emptied out the room that was the office and are going to turn it into Holly's room.  Holly's nursery will go to the baby.  Daddy just needs some time where he can make a racket without Holly interupting.  There's all sorts of rewiring that needs to happen.  I don't think Holiday understands yet that she's going to be a big sister, but she's done quite well at tolerating the doctor's appointments.

Lots of Pictures

Holiday in her Totoro slippers.



Daddy and Holly playing



...with a kitty!

Mommy and Holly all dressed up for Halloween.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

My sister Kelly, my mom and me.

Rowen, Andrea and Willow.

Holly and Anna.

Holly on the roller slide at Maris Farms.

She really liked that slide.

So did Daddy.

Time for the tractor pull hay ride.

Mommy and Holly in front of the tractor.

Holiday on her pony, Snowfire.  She was so mad when the ride was over.

Daddy and Holly coming out of the tube slide.

Laying down makes you go faster.

Now it's time to pick our pumpkins.

Holly's the cutest.

She was hitting the pumpkin here because it was dirty.

She absolutely loved getting her own special pumpkin.

It's the coolest.

We've had more success getting Holly to use her potty at home.  She's even pooped a couple times.  Then she jumps and yells, "I did it!"  We give her all sorts of acolades so she knows it's a good thing and will continue to do it.  She's also had a nasty cold all week.  No vomiting or fever, just snot and a terrible cough.  It really seems like it's taking its time on her too.  The last three days she seems even, not getting worse but not getting better either.  Now David and I are starting to feel it too.