It's The Yittle Fings, Part Thirty-Three.

On the day I took Ali, AJ, and Tessa out to Gramamma's house, Tessa was in the back seat babbling on the way home.

Ali listened for a minute and then said, "Listen, Mommy!!! Tessa is trying to count in Spanish!!!"

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Apparently, Ali experienced the phenomenon of her ears popping for the first time. She said, shocked, "My yawns make things even louder!!!!"

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AJ and Tessa and family have been in the process of moving. This is a very bizarre concept to Ali, and she's been asking a lot of questions about it...

"What's wrong with AJ's old house?"

"Did they break their old house?"

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Ali stayed at my parents last weekend while we went to Atlanta for my birthday. Ali was getting impatient and quite excited to get out there, so she finally said, "Are you gonna take me to Gramamma's, or am I gonna take myself to Gramamma's???"

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(For reference, Ali calls her imaginary friends "party friends". I have NO idea why.)

Ali had been on her pretend phone all morning with her favorite Party Friend, Samuel. But even though both he and the phone were pretend, she was still whispering so that I couldn't hear their conversation. She's three and already practicing to be a teenager.

Then, after she FINALLY got off the phone with Samuel, she told me, "I have a new Party Friend!! His name is Gymboree - he's a boy. And Gymboree doesn't cry when he cuts onions!!"

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Sunday night, we had the following conversation:

Ali: "Mommy, someone is having a peanut allergy at Sunday School."

Me: "Well, Tessa has one, but she's not in your class..does someone in your class also have a peanut allergy?"

Ali: "I don't know. Next time I'm with God, I'll have to ask him about that."

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To add to Ali's song explanations, she taught me a new one the other day.

One of her CD's has more than one verse to "Jesus Loves the Little Children" on it. One of the verses is "Jesus Died for All the Children." I've always wondered what she thought of that verse...but now I know.

She started singing it the other day, and at first I didn't even realize she was singing it wrong, until she told me...

"Mommy, this is the Diaper verse. See?? Jesus diapered all the children...all the children of the world...."

Ali and AJ’s Introduction.

I was going through old pictures the other day, trying to find photos of me pregnant with Ali.

While they were mostly all quite too scary to share, I did find one that I thought was fun…

This is me, 6 months pregnant with Ali, holding AJ the day after she was born:

One day, when they’re each other’s Bridesmaids, I’ll have proof of how far back their friendship goes.

30 Weeks, 7 Months, and only 9 Weeks to Go!

Total Weight Gained: 19.6 Pounds. And feeling every ounce of it.

Cravings: I’m still liking my Edy’s Rocky Road Ice Cream. Which could explain the sudden increase in my hip size. Apparently Noah isn’t sucking up all the fat nutrients from it that he should be.

Contractions: I’ve been having contractions since very early on (15 weeks or so), but they’re getting more intense and often. Not really painful as much as suffocating. But hey – whatever helps him get here BEFORE December 20th, I’m good with.

Birth Plan: Speaking of which, I’m really hoping more and more for a VBAC, or at least an attempted VBAC. Not that I’m opposed to another C-Section at all – I found it much less invasive than I’d thought it would be – but I REALLY don’t want to have a baby the week of Christmas. Both for this Christmas’ sake, and for Noah’s Birthday’s sake for the rest of his life.

Or maybe for my sake. Planning a birthday party the week of Christmas just doesn’t sound very fun.

Plus, I’m feeling huger and huger these days, so the earlier (as long as it’s safe), the better.

Movements: He must be filling up his allotted space these days, because his movements have gotten a lot less kicky and a lot more stretchy. Thankfully, though, he’s much lower than Ali was, so his stretches don’t reach into my rib cage and yank on my lungs and heart.

My bladder, however, may not feel that this is quite as fortunate.

The Many Faces of Ali.

Ali was feeling rather photographically-friendly on Wednesday when we were at the pumpkin patch (an oddity for sure)…

And so she let me take some fun photos of her, all while showing me her endless expressions…

 

 

 

 

Fall Hair.

Now that Fall has FINALLY made it to Alabama (hopefully to stay for a very, very long time), Ali has gotten her Fall Hair.

As opposed to her (often frizzy) summertime curls,
The cold, dry air makes her hair much straighter and silkier.

….which makes her look MUCH older.

I seriously wish my hair had so many different ways of having a “good hair day”. Am I the only Mom that finds myself constantly jealous of my kid’s hair?

But the first thing I noticed when her hair fell straight was that she really does look like me.

People say it all the time, but I rarely see it so clearly…

Maybe she’s my kid after all.

We were at Aldridge Gardens, and Ali was being oddly cooperative with the camera, so I was also able to capture some of my favorite expressions…

And a couple “Pondering the Meaning of Life and my Chocolate Chip Cookie” shots..

And EVEN a few lucky smiles. I totally deserve a reward for that.

I adore the Fall.

28 Weeks: 11 Weeks to go!

Total Weight Gained: 16.2 Pounds. I’m steadily gaining 2 pounds a week right now, a trend I would desperately like to stop. Immediately.

Cravings: Nothing new really… still buffalo sauce and Milky Way Midnights. However, I was happy to find out that I still love my favorite kind of ice cream, Edy’s Rocky Road. Finally – something Noah and I can agree on.

Aversions: Movement. I’m starting to get seriously uncomfortable and finding it difficult to find a very comfortable position for very long, which is turning me into a lazy, non-productive slug. Which might explain the whole two pounds a week issue.

Doctor’s Visit: I had my glucose test last week, which I thankfully passed. But because of some major pains and issues I’d felt the day before, they gave me a (sixth!!) sonogram, just to make sure my fluid levels were okay, which they were. And WOW – Noah looked HUGE!! I was amazed at how chubby he looked. Poor guy – he definitely has mine and Ali’s chubby cheeks:

His legs and arms also looked pretty chubby already, which is so hard for me to comprehend, since I know that babies born at this point have absolutely no body fat and look very un-baby like. But for some reason, at least on the sonogram, he looked like a regular baby – just squooshed.

Movements: Another thing I found out from the sonogram is that he has managed to flip around and is currently breech – with his head up in my ribs and his feet in perfect position to repeatedly and constantly kick me in the cervix.

Which is probably what was causing my pain in the first place.

But because of that, his movements have gotten pretty painful at times. Also, though, he’s really starting to fill up my belly, so I can feel every stretch, shift, and wiggle – which is fun and yet quite consuming all at once.

Birth Plan: If you’re wondering why my weeks in my title add up to 39 weeks, that’s because since Ali ended up being a C-Section, the current birth plan is: if I go into labor before 39 weeks, I’m totally willing to try a VBAC. However, my doctor doesn’t necessarily want me to go past 39 weeks (and I’m sure I won’t want to go past it either), so I have a scheduled C-Section for December 20th if he hasn’t come before then.

I’m really fine either way – I’m totally willing to try a VBAC, even though it might not be successful and I might have to have a C-Section anyway. But I also don’t mind another C-Section – I didn’t find it that hard to recover from, and I know what to expect.

Personally, I’d prefer he decided to come out on his own around 38 weeks – I really don’t want to be in the hospital the week of Christmas. But Chris has this romantic, idealistic, Griswold-esque idea of how festive the hospital will be, and that they’ll send Noah home in a stocking, and it will be a perfectly amazing Christmas…

So we’ll see.