Our Sweet Bell Pepper

I'm am 18 weeks and 3 days pregnant. Our baby is the size of a bell pepper. Each week I get an email update from http://www.babycenter.com/ and they give a comparison to the size of the baby to a fruit or vegetable. So far our baby has been a fig, avacado, apple, turnip, and now a bell pepper.

I am feeling more movement which is very cool. I started feeling light flutters a few weeks ago but didn't notice much since then. The past few days he/she has started moving more. I can't wait until when I can feel it from the outside so Brian can enjoy this experience.

I have an appointment next week and also an ultrasound. As of now we (i.e. I) still don't plan on finding out the sex of the baby, which means I need to come up with a nickname for the baby so I don't have to say he/she all the time. I guess I can use the vegetable or fruit name.

And...yes, that is my belly button sticking out. Pretty bad huh? I was tempted not to post the picture, but I figured since the blog is meant as a journal for the kids as much as for my readers, you will just have to share in the horror of the belly button photos.

10 Months!

Allison celebrated her 10 month birthday on Memorial Day. She is getting so big. I think she weighs around 20 lbs. Yeah, I know I said that at nine months and I was wrong.

She is crawling like crazy and pulling herself up onto everything. Before it had to have a ledge like the couch or coffee table. Now she can pull herself up on table legs and walls. She is also cruising along on the furniture. She also gets from the couch to the coffee table, granted it is only a few inches away, but still not bad for 10 months.

She has six teeth total and two more should be coming in at anytime. It is funny because her first tooth popped without any noticable teething symptoms. Now for the past two weeks she has shown every teething symptom there is, but no new teeth. Hopefully these last two come through quickly and we get a little bit of a break before her 1 year molars come in.

She loves showing off her toothy grin and getting people's attention. When we are out and about and people don't pay attention to her, you can tell she is thinking "hey, why didn't you say hi to me", especially with waitresses. She got spoiled when we were on vacation.

Naps have been going much better. We haven't had too many meltdowns when I put her down.

We are looking forward to this summer. We have her baby pool ready to go as soon as it warms up. I'm sure we will be spending lots of time outdoors this summer.

A Visit from the Goupils

This weekend my sister Keri and her family came to GR for a visit. Allison was very excited to see her cousins and had a great time. We made popcorn and lemonade (Allison didn't get to share this experience), played outside, and took a walk to the ice cream shop. Before they came to our house, they stopped off at the mall so Abbey could get her ears pierced.

Thanks for the visit Goupils! We hope to see you again soon.

DAH!!!

Allison is starting to say Dog, although she doesn't quite say the "g". Needless to say Ozzie is her best buddy. Thank goodness he is so patient and kind with her.

Window Blinds Are Funny

Whenever I take Allison to her room for her nap, I draw the blinds shut. As I do that, she always gets a big cheesy grin on her face as she watches me. Evidently closing blinds is a funny thing. Go figure.

All the way from Texas

This Sunday we received a special visit from our friends Rick and Tina and their two boys, Zach and Colin. Rick was Brian's best man in our wedding and they used to work together at Rogers Department Store years ago.

This was Tina's first time seeing Allison. We were also able to share our good news with them (luckily they had left for Michigan before I posted that I was pregnant so they didn't see that entry).

Allison loved watching the boys play and was especially smitten with Zach. He was tossing around a plastic toy egg she has and evidently that was the funniest thing she has even seen. I have never heard her laugh so hard. It was that deep belly laugh you see on America's Funniest Videos. Of course by the time I got the video camera out, she stopped.

They must have worn her out because she took a two and a half hour nap that afternoon.

We are so happy that we were able to see them and hope to visit them in Austin next year.

Family Date Night

Brian and I have committed to a weekly Family Date Night. One night a week we are going to spend the evening together doing something fun and hopefully a few new things we haven't done before. No chores or errands can be involved on our date night. It got to the point that we were trying to do too much on the weekends and not enjoying them. Now we will have our "fun time" on a week night.

Last week we went to Lamar Park where Allison took her first swing ride. This week we will make our annual trek to Countryside Greenhouses in Allendale to pick out our flowers. This is a Memorial Day tradition we started a few years ago and I always look forward to.