Snakes/Snails/Puppy Dog Tails

We found out this morning that we are going to have a boy! His umbilical cord was right in the way for most of the scan, so our nurse-midwife wants to double check the gender as well as some other things at the next appointment. However, I got a clear glimpse towards the end of the show and there isn't any doubt in my mind. We are going to have a son!

This news and the fact that I've been tending Pearl through a throwing-up bug has made it all kinds of an exciting and emotional day. Poor girl was clingy and tearful and unreasonable getting ready for the appointment, and on the way home she threw up in her car seat - a real 'aha, that's what's going on' moment. She is, thankfully, feeling much better now.

Ultrasounds are such neat things. It's so neat to see your little one wiggling away, putting an image to what you feel from the inside, to catch a glimpse of a little hand, an ear, toes...

September

September is a beautiful month where I live - cool air, blue skies, and warm, golden sunshine. Here at the end of the month the leaves are starting to blush and drop, and darkness falls early.

It's been a busy month. My little brother got married, and Pearl was a flower girl alongside her cousin. Belly dancing classes started up again so I've been enjoying an increase in exercise and girly time. My second-trimester belly is growing, rounding, poking out the bottom of regular-sized shirts - time to pack them away for awhile. That's not the only thing being packed... tomorrow we get the keys to a new place, and this weekend we move in. So our household has been a whirlwind of cleaning, purging, packing, and all the other things that need to be done before one moves.

I'm excited about the new place but so ready for moving to be over. Pearl will be moving into her own bedroom when we go so we've been preparing her for that change. She seems to be taking to the idea well, but we'll see how it goes in reality. She already falls asleep in the room alone and usually sleeps through the night until the early morning hours when she crawls to my bed and snuggles up with me, sometimes sleeping longer and sometimes not. I may very well have a harder time adjusting than she does.

Eleven Weeks

Ending my long absence here to say that we are expecting someone new in mid-March, 2009:



This morning we had a quick ultrasound with our CNM that showed this little baby, heart beating along strongly - wonderful sight to see. It makes it seem a lot more real and it is very reassuring to know that things are progressing well.

Thirty-Two Months Old

Thirty-two months old sounds awfully close to thirty-six months old - hard to believe I'll soon have a three-year-old on my hands!



The world is a big, fun place for Pearl right now! She loves pushing the little toddler-size shopping carts at the local natural foods coop, but is understanding and willing to ride in the cart when I need to get more than a few items. She enjoys walking to the park that is a few blocks away from this new house, though she hates the wind, and being winter there's a lot of cold gusts blowing. Every ride in the car is a study and report of traffic lights and vehicles, every visit with family a delight that should never end, every trip to the library a procession of wonderful books to read - still Pearl's favorite thing to do.



Her play is both more imaginative and more imitative. She feeds and bathes her toys and dolls, and acts out situations she remembers from stories and videos and real life. The corners of the piece of bread she's eating become kangaroos, and she hops them around her plate. I do not tell her not to play with her food.

Pearl enjoys working in the kitchen with me and playing alongside as I cook. This month she's been very into playing with jars and lids of various sizes, and shaking out spices at my direction. One of her aunts got us some kits of growing herbs indoors and Pearl helped me plant the seeds and check for sprouts every day. She was very excited to see the seedlings and prompts me to 'check the plants' each morning.

We set out a bird feeder this month too, and after telling her that we'd have to wait for the birds to find it, she was thrilled when they did and enjoys watching them when they visit it.



Because of the dry winter air, I've been putting lotion on Pearl's skin after she bathes. In doing so we have discovered that her toes are very ticklish, or, as she says, "Your toes are so tickly!" She will grab them herself then chortle and shriek.



Throughout the month, she has been roughly alternating between days where she takes a long nap in the afternoon and goes to bed late, and days where she is up from 8 until 8 with no nap. She went through a similar pattern when she switched from two naps to one, so I suspect that her napping days are coming to an end for real.

However, her father and I have noticed that she sleeps a lot more solidly through the night when she does have a nap, so in order to get her to bed at a reasonable time I've been waking her after a while. I would've tried this sooner, but she used to be a crying, whiny mess if I didn't let her nap as long as she wanted. She is far more receptive me waking her up lately though, so it is working out okay.

Something amazing happened this month concerning bedtime - two nights in a row, after I nursed her I told her to stay in her bed and go to sleep while I went in to the living room, and that I'd come to bed soon - and she did! Of course the third night this was a no-go as she was coming down with a cold, and then she was sick, and then I got sick... but it was still amazing. I always knew the day would come when I would be able to say "Goodnight," and leave the room and she'd fall asleep on her own, but I guess you can never really know how such an event will go down until it happens.

2007

Here is last year's list of resolutions and the like - let's see what I accomplished!

Green means the goal was accomplished, Orange means it's one I partially did or am still working on, and Reds are the ones I fell flat on my face over, and/or I'm abandoning.

* Create a mixed vegetable-herb-flower garden that is beautiful as well as functional: Perhaps it wasn't as beautiful and functional a garden as I would've liked, but it was a pretty good garden! A garden is a very rewarding project.
* Be kinder and more patient: worked on it. Still working on it.
* Eat less sweets: not even close on this one. Oops.
* Learn more about nutrition and put what I learn into practice: Yes! I read and experimented lots and while I still have more to learn, I feel I have done pretty well in coming up with a healthy, ethical, and somewhat frugal diet for my family.
* Add lunches to the meal plan so that Pearl and I always have something yummy and healthy to eat in the middle of the day: Nope. Really should do this.
* Be more diligent about reading nonfiction: I read a few books.
* Keep the house cleaner: Hmmmm... maybe? I guess not noticeably so.
* Breathe deeply: Some. Need to remember this more.
* Learn to felt: No.
* Go through my bazillion digital photographs and get rid of the cruddy ones: Did a bit, need to do more.
* Learn to knit: No.
* Get more bookshelves: Yes! Mr. Peach bartered his computer skills for someone 's carpentry skills, and we now have one handmade by friends.
* Frame and hang more pictures: Yes.
* Install a cat door: No, and there's no need anymore.
* Make a quilt for our bed: No. Would still like to.
* Set up Pearl's room: I want to say yes, as the second bedroom in this place has been somewhat set up as her playroom... but even it isn't complete, so no.
* Start moving Pearl into her own bed: Yes! She sleeps in her own bed right next to ours, but I still sleep in it with her half the time at least...
* Make my own greeting cards - enlist Pearl's help on some! Nope. I still hope to this year.
* Do yoga: no.
* Learn to batik: No, though I did buy the supplies.
* Start composting: Yes! Didn't get to enjoy the boost it gave my garden in the next season because we moved, but it was awesome to not just throw stuff out.
* Write more: Not as much as I'd like. In fact, I'm pretty sure I wrote less.
* Learn more about my camera and photography: some.
* Go camping: Yes! We went a few times and it was great.
* Take Pearl to a nearby big aquarium: Yes! That was fun.
* Bake my own bread: I made some banana bread a couple of times...
* Attend the UU church, at least once: No, but I still think about it from time to time.
* Finish Pearl's baby book and have it printed & bound: It's so close to being done it's not funny. I need to buckle down and do it.
* Get braces: Yes! Boy, are they a pain, but they've already been worth it.
* Visit my brother-in-law and do some fun stuff in the city he lives in: This one's a bummer as he and his girlfriend broke up and he moved back home before we got around to it! However, we did go there for a concert...
* Plant morning glories along the fence: Yes, and they were lovely.
* Have friends and family over for dinner more often: Not as much as I intended, but some.
* Get out of the house by myself more, and not on errands, just for fun! I took and LOVED belly dancing lessons! Can't wait for the next round.
* Buy only clothes that are comfortable, fit well, and are of good quality... this includes underwear! I hardly bought any clothes at all but I did okay with this one.
* Be more appreciative of my talents: This one's a maybe. It's definitely one worth still working on.
* Research vaccinations and decide what to do about them: Still working on this one.
* Brush up on my espanol. No.
* Find a good family doctor. No.
* Paint. Draw. Not much:(
* Do some volunteer work. No.
* Don't go so long between haircuts that I feel like a total frump: I actually decided to grow long hair for the first time since I was a child. In doing so I have ditched traditional shampoos and conditioners in favor of shampoo bars, cider vinegar, honey, oils.... and I have learned that my hair is not straight, as it used to be, but wavy and sometimes curly! I love it. I do, however, need a trim.
* Get dinner at least partially prepared during the day so I can spend more time in the evening with my husband and daughter: Did okay with this one... need to renew my efforts.
* Remember that all I'm assured of ever getting is this moment. This is a perpetual goal, surely.

Thirty-One Months Old

Pearl has been very physically active this month. She runs faster and steadier, and bravely jumps from one piece of furniture to another. Her jumping on the bed approaches acrobatics and all this combined with hard floors in the new house has led to several bumps and bruises.

She's also sustained several scratches from pushing our cats to their limit - but it is nice to see her with other people's kitties as she tries to be very gentle and nice with them.



She enjoys doing some household chores like putting the dishes away and sorting laundry. I can get her to help me pick up her toys if I entice her with a game of counting them as she puts them back in their place.

Pottying is great - I can only think of one time in the past few weeks that she's peed in her pants at home, I'm sure she's had wet diapers out and about but we've been taking the potty along with us to places and have had success getting her to go at other people's houses, so that is pretty neat! Still working on pooping...

Christmas with Pearl was a lot of fun this year as this is the first time she's gotten the whole presents thing. I didn't have a whole lot of seasonal spirit going on this year and didn't do much beyond hanging the stockings, buying a bouquet of local evergreens, and taking Pearl to see the lights on the town square - along with buying some nice presents for her and Mr. Peach, and sewing/embroidering a Christmas dress for Pearl and cooking glorious mountains of fudge and toffee for all our loved ones.



I told her all about presents as she went with us to buy and then wrap a gift for her cousin the day before Christmas Eve, and she found it very exciting and just couldn't wait so she got started with her cousin's present! We explained again that that one wasn't for her, but that she would get to open some presents very soon. She kept saying, "There will be presents for me, too!"



I made an effort not to go overboard with presents and thought I did quite well but between what everyone else got her, she was tired of opening presents on Christmas morning and refused to open the last two we'd gotten her, so she opened those at Grandma's later on. For a few days afterwards, she said, "Merry Christmas!" a lot and enjoyed playing with boxes as if opening presents.

One of the gifts we got her was a boxed set of classic Winnie the Pooh by A. A. Milne. It is one book broken up into little books by chapter. They are a bit much for her at this point but she sure loves taking them out of their box and putting them back in, quoting their titles, lining them up, etc.



Pearl still loves to read! She recites entire books, and every morning after we get out of bed (at the blissful time of around 8! I used to think she'd never sleep that late.) she sits in the big chair or on the couch with a quilt and a big stack of books while I wake up and start fixing our breakfast.




She is nursing less these days, and I say that with great relief. She's down to about three times a day, more if she's bored. Going to sleep and waking up still always include milkies and that's okay for now. She's eating a lot and must be growing like a weed - her arms and legs recently shot out of all her clothes and now we're buying (& soon making!) her some new 3t clothes.

She is generally easy going and cheerful, though there have definitely been some very two-and-a-half moments here and there. Even so I am so often amazed at how well she handles things, how quickly she learns, and in general how bright and beautiful she is.

I Hope Your Holidays Were *This* Merry!

Pearl, chasing quite merrily after her cousin on Christmas Eve: