Half Way Day!

Last night as I was painting in the baby room (read: as I was lying on the nursery floor with Smokey and cutting in baseboard trim), I was listening to the birds outside and to my sweet husband cooking in the kitchen and I realized that in 20 short weeks our lives will never again be this simple.  I also realized how truly blessed I am to have such wonderful people in my life.

Case in point, I'm cutting in trim in the baby's room.  It's going to be a lovely beige color.  My sweet friend, Becky, is coming over next weekend to actually paint the room for me while I'm out of town.  Why is this amazing?  Well, did I mention that the current color of the baby's room is a lovely beige color?  It's just not the right beige color, and she's doing it anyway with very few of the obvious sarcastic remarks that are probably warranted (especially when she is also painting my bathroom and basement room). 

AND there's my sweet husband who has not even once complained or even commented about the extra cooking and cleaning that he's had to do when I've come home to do nothing but take a nose dive onto the sofa.

But on to the fun stuff!  This is my half way day - Week 20 - and it is a beautiful day.  The peonies have decided to pop out.

Our garden is finally planted.  It's currently being guarded by not just one but two Iowa Hawkeye garden gnomes.  The Dallas Cowboy gnome will join the brigade shortly.

And we FINALLY have flooring so that this little baby won't have to learn to crawl on subfloors.  Here is the photo evidence if you don't believe me (and I wouldn't blame you if you didn't)!

Oh, that's not want you wanted to read about?  Silly me!  Well at 19.5 weeks we had our screening ultrasound and...

It's a boy!!!

 

It appears that we have what looks to be a very healthy looking baby boy.  According to our technician he looks "fabulous".  We were able to see his little kidneys, heart, bladder, arms, legs, fingers & toes (well, mostly knuckles), boy parts, head circumference, brain, spine, and other adorable and alien looking baby parts.  We were told he probably weighs about 11 ounces (give or take a few).  He was flipping and moving and grooving so much that I'm surprised she could even get all of these shots.  Ryan finally asked me if I had any caffeine that morning and the tech said that it was good that I hadn't because she was having a hard enough time following him around. 

Let's just say that this little guy is NOT shy.  The very first image that popped up on the screen was the pic that you see above, and he was so insistent on showing us this view throughout the ENTIRE ultrasound that the tech said that it was good we wanted to know boy or girl because there was absolutely no way she could have hid it.  It was so clear to both Ryan and me from the first second that we said it before the tech.  I guess he wanted to be very sure that mom didn't paint his room any shade of pink whatsoever. 

We are so in love with this little guy.  He's totally worth the nightly midnight pee breaks and the peek-a-boo ankles!

Spring Time... For Real

Well, the weekend AFTER mom and Bruce came to visit we had the mass emergence of blooming plants.  As much as I complain about Iowa's winters I do have to admit that I love Iowa's springs.  Here are a few of Ryan's favorites.

Ryan's lilac bush

Close up!  Pretty!

The Red Bud tree that Ryan bought me during the first spring after we got married.

This is NOT Ryan's favorite.  This is where Smokey poos all winter long. 

 Smokey poo apparently makes great fertilizer!

I also think Smokey secretly likes to make Ryan do extra work. 

 This is Smokes watching Ryan mow his "restroom".  Bwahahahaha

It looks like the peonies are our last hold out!  We should have flowers soon.



Spring Time... Sort of

This past weekend my Mommy and Brucey came for a visit.  We planned this trip months and months ago as a belated Happy Retirement trip for my mom.  I know they love to visit quaint little towns so we picked a date that was sure to be blooming and colorful for us to all take a little peaceful weekend holiday in the picturesque town of Galena.  We were so sure everything would be in bloom.  Heck, their website even listed it as "Daffodil Weekend".

Alas, the weather has NOT cooperated so far this season.  Instead of flowers and blooming trees we had rolling hills of partially dead grass and leafless dead looking trees.  Oh, AND it was the Boy Scouts weekend.  The town was full of hundreds of rambunctious little boys.  I'll add that they were super cute and relatively well behaved, but EVERYWHERE nonetheless.  The strangest part of the trip was the suicidal robin that continuously threw itself into our condo's windows all weekend long.  The bird would start on our upstairs bedroom windows at around 6 am and then make it's way to the downstairs windows as we descended for breakfast.  That is slightly creepy if you ask me.  I guess Hitchcock was on to something.

Lack of scenery and creepy bird aside, we had a fabulous time.  I wish the folks were around here more often because we never have a dull moment when they are.  I can't wait for the next gathering so I can kick some more rear ends at hearts!  Apparently Peanut was helping me with my game, or else was really annoyed that I was sitting on the floor, because I got my first "flutter" punch/kick.  Either way bring on the rematch!