Free Range on Fairview

So I officially started feeling the baby moving around this week, Tuesday to be exact, and now I feel dancing all the time. It's pretty weird because it has been so long since I've housed a fetus and I know no one else can feel it from the outside, but it's really real. The picture I took on the left shows me holding a photo of a 17week baby to scale. It's hard to imagine something that big is fitting inside of me already :) We had the "Mom" talk today inside the Dollar Store. Danielle asked me if it was ok if she could call me Mom. She says I treat her the way a mom should treat her daughter and that made me so proud. I am so glad that even though we have our daily and weekly ups and downs that our family unit is really coming together.

Yikes, this baby is growing fast, I think I just ballooned. It's sort of hard to tell in the photo but I'm getting a nice little belly. I will have definitely popped once my little brother Josh gets home. I miss him! On wednesday I will be 17 weeks and growing. The baby will measure between 4.5 and 4.75 inches from crown (head) to rump (bottom) and 3.5 ounces. That's double since 2 weeks ago! In a few weeks we will find out if our house will be invaded by little pink or blue baby things. This is when things really start to get exciting.

Today is my mom's birthday, Happy Birthday Mom. We got to visit with her Sunday and Monday and that was great! I hope today gets better! I hope it gets better because we found out that Josh, my little brother, has Malaria! Crazy I know. He's not in the hospital but still pretty sick. His friend who contracted it is already starting to get better, but it is still VERY scary, especially since he is so far away in Togo, Africa. Just a few days ago he was in a village where they had never seen a while person before. I am so proud he is doing God's work but I hope he can get better soon. On a funny note, while Dylan was doing a math worksheet today during school he started to write a number kind of funny and I was like what is that? With out pausing to think he replied, "It's a Mexican Four." I still laugh thinking about it! Who comes up with this stuff.

Danielle and her friend Deanna had a great time at her dance on Saturday. They got their hair done by Shane's cousin and then we had a pizza party at the house before they danced the night away. The dance went until 11:30 and I couldn't make it up that late!

I feel yucky today. I've had a sore throat since yesterday and that doesn't help with me not wanting to do anything but at least I got some things done. I made it to Dylan's swimming lessons on time, vacuumed the house, took in Danielle's Tolo dress with my new sewing machine and got all of the snacks ready that I am supposed to bring to Mops tomorrow. So I got some things done, but I have a feeling I am going to be going to be early tonight. poopy. I am at 15 weeks now so baby is like 4.5 inches long and an ounce and a half, crazy. Haven't gained any weight yet, actually lost another pound since last check up but the doctor isn't too worried. So I guess I shouldn't be too much either. Just trying to keep up a somewhat healthy diet through all this :)

Danielle has Tolo coming up on Saturday the 16th and I am learning what a drag our little town of Ellensburg can be for finding a dress. Most of Saturday we spent looking at every single clothing store (ok there are only like 6 but still it took a while) then today we decided to try Yakima. Since it's over a 1/2 hour drive and the truck is definitely not gas friendly, Shane drove the Kia so we all went together. After 4 stores there we finally found her perfect dress. Cute cute, I'll have pictures for that next week but for now I have to take it in a little bit. They only had size medium and she is so tiny, but it shouldn't be too difficult with my handy sewing machine I got for Christmas. Dylan behaved like a gentleman and we even got to have a nice early dinner at Appleby's. The baby loves Caesar salads :) I also got to run into Old Navy and buy 2 brand new shirts and a perfect undershirt so I am excited. Almost all of my other maternity clothes so far are borrowed w

Well here is Dylan singing a song to the baby. For some reason he thinks that the baby is going to be a boy so he song goes something like "It's me your brother. We are brothers." While wearing his footy dinosaur pajamas from Grandma Shirley :) It sounds like the kids are both convinced that it is going to be a boy even though Danielle wants a little sister. We've been thinking about names but it is too much work... Once we find out if it is a boy or a girl it will help narrow down the field a little bit but right now we just sort of joke around about it. If the baby is a girl Shane keeps saying that he wants to name her after some movie stars he thinks are attractive. I'm not going to let that happen any time soon!

Well Dylan woke up this morning to inform me that a bear has been sleeping in his bed for a few weeks now and he was finally ready to introduce me to him this morning. "Bear" is a brown bear the same size as Dylan and he likes to eat fish for breakfast. He also likes to jump off the top bunk bed and hurt himself. He learned his lesson and won't jump off the bed anymore. Luckily Dylan and I could "carry" him into the bathroom to take a bath to make him feel better. Dylan is already talking about taking Bear to school with him next year. This is his first imaginary friend so I doubt it will last too long, but man he's pretty creative with all of his explanations and ideas.

I think we are in a season of growing right now. Dylan has been sleeping in a lot which past 7:30 is late for him and it's already 9 today, slept in until 10:45 yesterday! I think he must be growing or something, no other real explanation for it. He went to bed about 7:30 pm last night so I know he's not staying up too crazy late. He did have a loooog week/weekend spending time at Grandma Cheryl's then the New Years Eve party and then staying over at the cousins house in Cle Elum so maybe his body is just trying to play catch up. Either way I guess I have to look at this sleeping in as a blessing that I can take it a little easier in the mornings. Also speaking of growing I think I am going to have to retire my first pair of maternity jeans already. The elastic wasn't too stretchy from the beginning but now it is starting to cut into my gut making them uncomfortable to wear for more than an hour, which isn't cutting it. But luckily that means that the baby is growin