Ultrasound

I had my ultrasound for Awesome Pants today. Everything looks great! And she's not huge! She's in the 51st percentile for weight, which is pretty much perfect. Her estimated weight right now is 3lb 6oz. So she just feels huge to me because she's so much bigger than her sister was, but she's actually normal. Once again, I can't believe how normal this pregnancy has been. Jason and I both keep waiting for the other shoe to drop, and we're just so happy that so far, everything has been great!

Here are some pictures:

I believe her eyes are actually open here (according to our sonographer).

Look at those little toes!

Obligatory profile shot.

The funny stuff in front of her face in this last one is actually the umbilical cord.

New pictures up

I posted some pictured from June here: http://annabellag.shutterfly.com/

I'm having issues getting blogger to upload pictures; so for now, this is all you get:

I'm pretty sure she's so happy because we keep stopping her from shoving crepe myrtle buds into her mouth, which is great fun.

OCD

At times, I can be a little obsessed with numbers. I prefer even numbers, meaning I'd rather eat 2 cherries than 3, and sometimes I touch something an extra time just to make sure I've touched it an even number of times. Powers of 2 are especially pleasing, especially if the power is also even. So while 8 is a good number, it's not nearly as good as 16. It gets a little weirder when I'm tapping out rhythms. I prefer 3 identical short strokes, 2 identical longer strokes, and 1 even longer stroke, if that makes sense. So I guess what I'm saying is that I'm a little OCD about some things, but just a little.

Another way my OCD comes out is when it comes to dates. I seem to run through a little routine in my head every morning where I run through the months until I figure out what month it is. Then I figure out the day. Sometimes I actually add up how many days into the year we are, and figure out what percentage of the year that is. (Hey, I've gotta have something mind-numbing to think about in the shower. I'm guessing this is how I accidentally wash my hair twice at times though.)

All of this is why I'm strangely excited that as of today, I have 80 days left until my due date and this is the 200th day of my pregnancy. (Every time I think about this my heart jumps to think I get to meet my baby in 80 days. Then I have to stop and remember that Awesome Pants might come early or late and that a due date is really not a reliable indicator for when this baby will arrive, which totally messes with my OCD.)

It's not that far away, but my next milestone to be irrationally excited about is in 10 days, at which point I will have completed 75% of this pregnancy (yes again, till my due date, meaning my milestones are oh so arbitrary).

I'm guessing all of this makes me a little weird, but I like to pretend that everybody plays these little mind games with themselves.

Regardless, today is a good day. 200 days down is exciting, no matter how you look at it.

Oh, and I really do want to post more pictures. We have some on our camera that I think are pretty cute, but I keep posting over random breaks at work, and I just don't have the pictures here. So I will try to post more from home.

More rambling from me

Jason was watching Annabella before I got home from work yesterday. After snack time, Annabella grabbed her fork and took it to the dishwasher and tried to open the door. The door was latched though, because the dishes inside were still clean. So Jason explained this to her and went out of the room to do more cleaning. He heard her drop the fork from the other room, but wasn't sure where she dropped it. He looked, but didn't see it. Then, when she wanted to eat again, he went to go get a new fork from the drawer, there her dirty fork was! I know it's such a small thing, but I'm just amazed that she knows where the fork drawer is. She's not tall enough to see in, and it just blows my mind that she thought to put her dirty fork in that specific drawer when the dishwasher wasn't an option. She surprises me constantly by how smart she is.

In other news, I think potty training time is upon us. Annabella goes potty virtually every time we let her sit on her big girl potty. And yesterday she decided to unstrap her diaper and step out of it. So I think potty training time might be upon us, whether we like it or not. (Anybody have any potty training advice? I'm all ears.)

Awesome Pants seems to be growing nicely. My next ultrasound is 1 week from tomorrow, and I'm really excited to see her and hear how big she's gotten. As of Sunday I have officially entered the third trimester of this pregnancy, at least based on all the internet sites I used to look this up. I don't know why there's so much variation in when different people declare the trimester change, but none of the sites I found start the third trimester later than 28 weeks. So yay!

I'm really getting excited to meet Awesome Pants. She's moving and kicking around inside of me all the time, and I'm falling in love with her already. I hope she and Annabella will be the best of friends.

I know there's more I wanted to post, but baby brain has once again triumphed and I can't remember anything else I wanted to say.

Cancer Free!

Grandpa's PET scan results came back today, and the scan shows no cancer!!! Woohoo!

He'll still have to finish the next 2 rounds of chemo, and they'll still monitor him pretty carefully, but if everything continues to look good, then these next 2 rounds of chemo will be his last!

He got his results over the phone today, and he meets with his doctor tomorrow...so there might be more details then.

Woohoo!

Peanut Butter

Growing up, my Grandma always made me open-faced peanut butter and banana on toast. I think this is one of my favorite memories from childhood. So of course, PB and banana is one of my favorite things to feed Annabella in the mornings. I'd be surprised if a time has gone by that I haven't thought of my Grandma while feeding her this, and it always makes me smile. Plus, PB and banana is still one of my favorite treats.

The only problem with this whole situation is that Annabella rubs peanut butter all over herself while she eats. Her face, hair, belly, arms, and legs are usually coated in the brown goo before she's finished. And no matter how well I try to clean her, I'm always worried that her friend Ava, who is severely allergic to nuts, will somehow pick up some peanut residue off of her little body. Which would of course be absolutely terrible.

This morning, our routine was a little out of whack. Annabella was a grumpy bear because she woke up a little earlier than normal, and it always takes her a little bit to wake up and be her cheerful self. She takes after her momma this way. I didn't have time to get her milk ready first because she was clinging to me, and instead I made her PB and banana first. When she saw the food, she finally let me strap her little body into her booster seat. Then I went to get her milk. By the time I got back, she was absolutely covered in peanut butter. I think she must have rubbed the bread all over her face. Seriously, getting this messy takes talent. And it was all up in her hair and everything.

I took one look at her and realized that normal cleaning techniques would not suffice. So this morning, Annabella took her first morning shower with Mommy. She's taken a couple with Daddy before, but he's braver than I am. And he was always just in there to clean her off, not to actually get clean himself. So I was a little nervous about the logistics and such. To my surprise, she LOVED her shower. We have one of those shower heads that are on a tube and can hang down, and she loved playing with it. She didn't love putting her face in the water, but she didn't mind it as much as what I normally have to do to get her face clean. And she let me have the shower head back when I needed it. So it worked out really well, until it was time to get out, at which point she screamed and lunged towards the shower and repeated "mine" longingly over and over. I promised her she could shower with Mama again tomorrow, but I'm thinking that it will probably just become part of our routine for the next little bit. I don't see a way around it. Showering while she screams is just not good for my nerves. And even though I love the few minutes of solitude a shower usually gives me, having her entertained and safe during these moments is more important. Plus, I'm next to positive we're not going to accidentally kill Ava today, which counts for a lot.

Some pictures

I'm taking a photography class, and I need to practice. So I'm going to try really extra hard to post pictures. Hopefully you'll see improvements in them over time.

Here are a few from this past weekend:

Mommy, can I pleeeeeze watch some Baby Einstein?

My pool is awesome!

Why hello, belly! I can't help but notice how you've grown.

What Mommy? You mean I can't take these home?