Bugs, bugs, go away!

It's like an infirmary around here these days.

Jack and I have both had some kind of stomach bug that has left us keeping buckets handy and eating the BRAT diet. It's so sad to see your baby sick, but he is such a sweet boy that he can be vomiting one second and smiling the next. We've watched a lot of Thomas, The Wonder Pets, and Blue's Clues (Jack asks for this by saying "Boo" and opening and closing his hands like Steve does when he sings the song). He's extra cuddly and has been giving lots of spontaneous kisses and hugs. He likes to say "Awww" while he gives a hug - it's the cutest thing. I'm praying that for his part, he's over the worst of it and will start getting his appetite back.

For myself, I thought I was over this bug when I had it a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, it came back in full force. I'm 9 days away from my due date, and as if there were a "good" time to get a stomach bug, I have to say that this feels like the absolute worst possible time to be hunched over a toilet!

Please say some prayers that we're all feeling better soon - and that Patrick doesn't get sick at all - so that we can be rested and ready to welcome Baby T into the world!

Sixteen days!

Sixteen, people!

I'm so excited. Last Friday, I thought I might actually be starting labor - I had cramps and pressure and pain at the tops of my legs for hours. I had such a hard time getting comfortable in bed and thought for sure I'd wake in the middle of the night with contractions, or from my water breaking. But no - I woke up the next morning at 7am. Still pregnant. Oh well. Maybe I dilated some, as if that means anything really (it doesn't).

Jack has just been learning in leaps and bounds. Here are a few of the words he's started saying lately: "bubble", "mama" (finally!), "tinkle", "treat", "baby", "bee", "ball", "blocks", "apple", "circle". If I write the letters ABC on his little Magnadoodle, and point to them one by one, he can name them (this blows me away). If I draw shapes on there, he can point out a circle, a square, a triangle, and a star. If I draw a big square and a little square, he can show me which is which. If I ask him how old he is, he holds up one little Bugle finger. (I call it his Bugle finger because it's shaped just like those little Bugle snacks - fatter at the bottom than the top and I just want to eat it, it's so cute). He can show me where his eye, ear, knee, elbow, feet, fingers, hands, arms, hair, chin, teeth, cheeks (the face ones), belly, thumb, nose, mouth, and tongue are. It is just so fun to teach him new things and to watch him making connections and learning things!

We've also been gradually introducing the idea of the potty to him. I figure since I'm going 100 times a day lately, I might as well tell him about tinkling on the potty. We got him a little one that he sits on while I'm sitting on "Mommy's potty". He loves it, though he has yet to actually DO anything in it other than drop his toys in there. Here are a few potty pictures to make you laugh:

That's what's been going on around here recently. Now if you'll excuse me, my handsome husband just came home from a three-day conference in Connecticut and, well, I really missed him!

Belly shots

Now that we're just over three weeks away from...well, possibly from nothing more than a date on the calendar that could come and go without incident, I thought I'd put up a few more belly shots. I really envy those people who have the wherewithal to take a photo of their growing stomach every week throughout their pregnancy. For some reason, I tend to reach a point where I think , "Oh yeah, I guess we should take a picture for the baby album" followed soon afterwards by the thought, "Oh yeah, I guess I need to get a baby album."

Before we see any shots of MY belly, Jack wanted to show you guys where his belly button is:

Is there anything cuter than a kid trying to look at his own belly button? He's actually gone face down in the bath water in search of it. His favorite time of day is in the morning when I'm getting him dressed and I give him a little diaper time between jammies off and clothes on. He runs around the living room as if to say "Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last!"

Ok, so now for my belly. These are from Friday at 36 weeks. Now, I have an online friend who is pregnant with her second baby, and still has the nerve to lift her shirt to show off her beautifully bulging belly. I wish I did, but I do not have that nerve. Not only do I just feel funny doing it, but an interesting thing happened to my stomach during my pregnancy with Jack: For the entire 40 weeks, I had no stretch marks whatsoever. As I went overdue, I ended up getting one smallish one just beside my belly button and actually thought it was kind of cool that I got one. When I went into labor, ten days overdue, that was still the only one that I had. When I took a shower after delivering, I looked in the mirror and shrieked. My entire stomach was covered with reddish-purplish stretch marks that looked as if somewhere between the delivery room and my regular room, I'd been mauled by a tiger. I have no idea how it happened. Maybe my hips separated during the delivery just enough to stretch my skin to its breaking point? In any case, these same stretch marks, that had just faded to a silvery hue before I found out I was pregnant again, are now back in their full reddish regalia.

So without further ado, here she is:

I not only cleaned the mirror, but I also brushed my hair this time! And did I mention my $13 haircut from the Cuttery? Hello!? I love it! If you live near the Park City Mall in Lancaster, go see Amanda there - she does a great job.

My belly button is not sticking out in those pictures - that's the knot in my sweatpants. I never seem to "pop". I seriously think it has to do with that extra-long torso. I don't really stick out too far, it's all up and down. I can just picture the baby in there, legs stretched out, ankles crossed, kickin' back. What I do like, though, is that my waist is actually narrower from the front because all of my rolls are pulled forward. It's the only time I don't have any semblance of a "love handle" lately. Yeah, after this baby, it's time to get in shape, Eileen.

So there you have it, folks. Not much longer now until we meet this new babe. And I see that we got some more boy votes, so for the first time in the history of this poll (since my initial boy vote on day one), the ratio of girl to boy votes is less than 2:1. The suspense is killing me!

What's in a name?

You're probably wondering why I haven't posted any pictures in a while. The fact is, I need to get a new memory card for my camera. I filled a 1GB card with pictures from Jack's birth through about two weeks ago, and truthfully, I just can't bring myself to delete them. I'll have to just get another card for this new baby because even though I know they're on the computer, or on my external hard drive, there's just something about having them on that little card that I can put in the strong box, that makes me feel better. So as soon as I get a new card, I promise I'll take some more pictures of Jack and post them.

So....names. We're now about 4 weeks away from meeting Baby T. and, of course, we have some names picked out. I love our names, I mean really love them.

A boy will be a junior - Patrick Joseph - after his daddy, and we'll likely call him PJ, though I just love "Patrick". A girl will be Fionnuala Jane. Fionnuala (fi-NOO-la) is an Irish name that is probably one of the more phonetically easy Irish girls' names out there. Names like Siobhan are beautiful too, but just a little tougher to look at and pronounce in English. We'll call our Fionnuala "Nuala" (NOO-la). I just love the way it looks and sounds.

We have had a few negative responses, though. Has anyone else had negative reactions to their choices in baby names? How did you respond?