Top Heavy

I have been wearing maternity pants for a good month. But today is the first time that I actually reached for the maternity shirt! Erin gave me 3 shirts for my birthday, and today I wore one that is a black sweater that looks like it has a white shirt coming out of the collar and cuffs. I still have a "waistline" if you look at me head-on, but not so much from the side.... I guess Monday is getting bigger -- and me along with him!!!

A weekend well spent but barely enjoyed.

48hrs and 30boxes later...Lina and I are roughly 2/3 of the way through packing up our place. We only left the house once this weekend and and that was to drop off some personal papers for mass shredding and pick up some boxes. Its ok - the weather was pretty rotten anyway.

We are completely out of the downstairs and are most of the way through the two rooms upstairs. All the delicate packing is done (breakables and valuables), the rest can just be tossed into an hollowed container for transporting.

We are doing the final walk through Monday around 3pm and plan to sign with the title company around 4pm. I believe it is then that we will get the rest of the keys (we have one now for discrete use - showing Ma & Pa Reeth and GrandMa Betty the interior a few weeks back.

Lina, as always, was a champ - wrapping and reminding me to wrap our belongings all weekend long. We were very productive as we finally had the excuse to toss so much junk away. While there is still more to go, we managed to reduce our bulk by a respectable percentage. At one point Lina screamed from the other room - I ran in to see what the problem was...she stood blankly staring at me and exclaimed "You have MORE socks?" We had just gone through a throw out session with what Lina will claim was a 100 pairs of my socks, only to find moments later a FULL draw full with more. I moved quickly to remove them from her sight so she could stop squeezing her cheeks in frustration.

We're excited to be this close to moving in and look forward to sharing our new home with our family and friends for years to come.

Its 9:25pm and Monday is on the move a little early. Gotta go - its our time.

atta boy!

Well Monday is growing and with that so is his strength. Our little Lou Ferrigno has become significantly more physical - his kicks, jabs and rolls are far more noticeable. Nightly Lina and I lay in bed reading with hands on her tummy waiting for Monday to move. Its become like clock work - a 10PM ritual. We now believe he is capable of responding to us. I'll give a few taps on Lina's stomach and within in a moment, Monday kicks or elbows. We alternate for about 10mins before either he or I get board. We're still not sure if his responses are that of "Hey out there, I can hear you." or if its "Hey out there, I can hear you and will you please STOP tapping!". Either way, its great to feel the connection and the joy of knowing our little guy is doing fine and is getting closer to the outside world. Can't wait.

Doctor Update

So we just got back from another doctor appointment this morning. Monday is growing as big as he should be. He had the hiccups (too cute!) while we were listening to his heart. It's crazy to think that this little man inside of me has a functioning little body complete with hiccups!

22 Week Update from BabyCenter

How your baby's growing: Your baby now looks like a miniature newborn, checking in at 10.9 inches (the length of a spaghetti squash) and almost 1 pound. His skin will continue to appear wrinkled until he gains enough weight to fill it out, and the fine hair (lanugo) that covers his head and body is now visible. His lips are becoming more distinct, and the first signs of teeth are appearing as buds beneath his gum line. His eyes are developed, though the iris (the colored part of the eye) still lacks pigment. Eyelids and eyebrows are in place, and his pancreas, essential for hormone production, is developing steadily.

Weekend recap

We went to a wedding this weekend in DC where Amity and Ed, good friends from college & San Francisco got married. The wedding was beautiful and Amity looked even prettier. While we carried the camera the whole time, it didn't seem to actually come out much to take photos. We're hoping that Witney and DZ, who sees life through a lens, will have gotten some good ones so I can post those.

After the wedding reception, the party continued down in the club's duck pin bowling alley. It was a perfect way to keep they party going, with a change of atmosphere, and a really fun activity. It was great to see the bride and groom in bowling shoes at midnight -- what great memories!


Throughout the wedding, several people commented on how they thought I looked great! Which was really nice to hear, even though I am feeling like a tank. There were several other preggers there with me, but I did manage to capture how I am seeing myself these days. And while people say I look good from the front or the profile, my view???

Not so pretty is it....

... Plus a farmer's market!!!!

We were at the house yesterday for a walk through with the inspectors (which went great) when we discovered just how much the house has to offer in terms of bounty! We now have:

• An apple tree -- yellow delicious or something like that. Super crunchy, sweet, don't brown easily
• A persimmon tree -- not the kind for persimmon pudding, but good all the same
• An apricot tree
• 2 cherry trees -- apparently they don't fruit if you don't have 2
• PLUS, our neighbor's trees hang into our yard and include a fig tree and a plum tree!!!

We may never need to go to the store for fruit again!!! It's funny to think that on the first go, we got our dream house... that also came with a dare-to-dream garden!