Some of This and That

Last week I had a third ultrasound. The first one, four weeks ago, didn't show much of anything, and it was too soon to see the baby. As the ultrasound tech said, there was a condo and a kitchen but no occupant visible yet. Ha!

The second one was two weeks ago and was just to look for a heartbeat. That was pretty much all we saw! A little blob with a flicker that was the heart beating. Still, it was pretty cool to be able to see even that.

But yesterday ... I could see baby's head, and body, and even tiny little arm and leg buds. Yep, technology is amazing, but even more amazing is how quickly this tiny person is developing.

I'm still feeling remarkably well. I've hardly had any queasiness. I do get pretty tired and have to lay down and rest a couple of times a day. We've been discussing names already -- we've had a boy name for a long time, but girl names are hard! Don't get your hopes up, though, because we won't be sharing a name until baby is born. AND ... it looks like we are not going to find out the gender. I've always thought it would be fun to be surprised and I think I've talked Eric into it! However, the gender-reveal ultrasound is still many weeks away and it is a pregnant woman's prerogative to change her mind ... so we'll see how that goes.

We've been enjoying our summer. We had a couple of weeks with a lot of rain and thunderstorms. Lately it's been really hot and humid. That's July in New Jersey! I love all of the green: grass, trees, plants. I never get tired of looking at it. Cold gray and brown winter makes me appreciative of warm green summertime. One downside to the current weather, though, is less exercise. I just don't have it in me to walk early in the day, pushing a stroller in the heat and humidity, plus I worry about giving Mama Dog heatstroke or something. So I wait until after dinner when Eric is home ... but with all the afternoon/evening storms we've had, walking just hasn't happened much lately. Maybe this week will be better.

The girls have been spending a bit of time with their cousins. One stayed over last night and this morning I overheard him say, "Let's pretend we're stranded on an island, stranded on an island watching a movie."

We spent the Fourth of July with friends and family, attending a small-town parade then descending on someone's house for pizza and fun in the sprinkler.The sprinkler was for the kids, of course, but after all the moms got tired of sitting outside in the heat we went inside and very sweetly (haha) asked the dads to take their turn -- moms then played Pictionary while dads took kids to a nearby creek where they all happily built a dam and got completely covered in mud. It was a fun day! Our family headed home around dinnertime and ended the holiday in our traditional way -- showers for everyone, then watching fireworks in the mosquito-free comfort of our air-conditioned living room. We heard rumors of more fireworks somewhere local this weekend, so we'll probably take the girls to see them. It's about time that they experience fireworks first-hand.

I've hardly taken any pictures lately. I do have a couple of videos of Peabody. One of her cousins showed her how to turn a somersault:


I was impressed as the Boogie still can't turn one.

A couple of Fridays ago Eric decided that if the girls wanted more dinner or dessert they would have to say "bird is the word." Peabody was game but the Boogie was loathe to be so silly. She finally did say it. Then Eric decided that the next Friday the magic words would be "who put the bop in the bop shoo bop shoo bop." THEN of course we had to find that song on YouTube. We listened to it a couple of times and that was it ... well, several days later the girls were still singing it. Peabody especially finds it very catchy though she only remembers a couple of lines:


Eric and I have discovered the fun addictiveness that is GeoGuessr. I'm not going to tell you what it is. You have to check it out ... then you'll see why we've wasted loads of time playing it. We justify it by telling ourselves that it's educational! We're learning about geography! Even the Boogie loves it. She doesn't play but she hangs over our shoulders to watch.

We got to see our friends the R family last week as they passed through NJ on their way to their new duty station. It was fun to spend some time with them. Knowing Eric's love of wacky t-shirts, they brought him this one from Germany:

Nope ... I'm not going to tell you. You'll have to ask the all-knowing Google.

At the end of the month we are going to have more company. This time it will be the girls of the Specktacular family! I'm looking forward to that. Our girls are close in age and always get along great. Mrs. S and I will have fun catching up. We'll do some day trips, and spend some time at home letting kids play in the pool and run through the sprinkler. It will be the perfect way to finish up the month of July.

Then just as they leave, we'll be starting our VBS. As soon as I heard the announcement about it, I immediately volunteered to do crafts (so I don't have to teach. Shhhh.) It's shaping up to be a nice summer.