Going Home!!!

God is SO good! I have been praying that by some MIRACLE I'd be able to go home early, but I wasn't getting my hopes up. Things out here in Washington have been hectic.

However, yesterday, I was at lunch with my boss and she mentioned to me that she had hoped to send me home early and that she knew I really missed my family (although everyone here does). Excited at the possibility, I didn't want to get my hopes up too much. Things here have been hectic and I wasn't sure how I'd be needed within the next week. However, yesterday afternoon I got a call and was told that I could go ahead and make reservations to go home... AND NOT HAVE TO COME BACK!!!!

I fly out tomorrow morning and I'm SOOOOOOO EXCITED!

Natalie has been doing new things by leaps and bounds since I've been gone (as I've found out by catching up on the phone). Her pronounciation has improved and a few days ago she went for a walk with Jody and pushed her baby doll in a stroller up and down the street. She's also eating new things and started nodding for "yes". *sigh* What two and a half weeks can do in the life of an 18 month old!

What I've Been Up To

A friend recently asked me what my days have been like since I've been gone. I thought I'd post here as I haven't said a peep in a few weeks. (You might see why when you see eHere's my response:

The days here are all the same. Get up, eat breakfast at the hotel, go to the office from about 8-11:30, go out to lunch, work from about 1-5ish, go out to eat, work/veg at the hotel, feel very pregnant and swollen, notice my cankles, take a shower, go to bed. Every. single. day.

If I'm being positive, I haven't had to clean up after myself for three weeks and I've had some time to go shopping without an impatient 18 month old along for the ride. I've also gotten to eat lots of good food and I've had time to work out (although so far I've only done that once =o). But I'm really ready to see my family again. I REALLY want to go home.

One more week. While only a third of my stay out here, seems like a lifetime.

Mr. Mom here...

Well as you may know, Lauren is in Washington state for several weeks and I'm here at home with the one and only Natterbug. We've been having quite the time and have had ups and downs and all arounds. We've been clowning around in the kitchen for a bit tonight while I work on balancing a helium balloon with just enough weight to make it hover, while Natalie busied herself in her bathtub without the bath. She finds it makes a great reading chair.....



I can't help but laugh at this picture. They haven't invented pictures with audio but if they had you'd also hear her babbling on endlessly as she's reading. She's reading Curious George goes from 1 to 10 and back again, and I think she's "counting" :)

Anyhow, time to put this munchkin to bed.

-Kevin

And the Verdict is in....

IT'S A BOY!!! (and you should have seen Kevin jumping up and down in the sonogram room). I'm thrilled but TOTALLY unsure of what to DO with a boy. Having grown up with only a sister, "girls" are all I know. I mean, the whole diaper changing bit with a boy??? I'm sure I'll figure it out soon!

Where I'll Be

I board a plane tomorrow at noon to head out to Tacoma, Washington for almost THREE AND A HALF WEEKS! It pains me to be gone from the family for so long, but it's one of the not-so-frequent demands of my job and it will probably go pretty fast as I'll be working non-stop while I'll be there.
Since I'm pregnant and so into food right now, I've been glued to this show and found out they just did a taping at a restaurant in Tacoma that I'm DEFINITELY checking out while I'm there. Yeah food!

18 Months

Happy Half Birthday, little girl! You are SUCH a light in my life and make me smile EVERY SINGLE DAY. I love you.

20 Weeks

The belly is GROWING!

I LOVE Spring!

I'm not sure what's up with the weather, but last week it was in the teens and this past weekend it was in the 70's. Hello, allergies! We took advantage of the warm weather and got out to the park as a family for the first time this year. There were lots of other kids at the park, but Natalie didn't seem to be phased. Kevin and I had fun laughing at an 8 year old and 6 year old boy playing "kill the [imaginary] princess". Then they were "off to another dimension". Seriously, when do we stop dreaming up stuff like this???

I'm thinking if kids are night-and-day different from one to the next that our next kid will be clingy and shy. Natalie is DEFINITELY no wallflower.

Snow Day

Monday we had a blizzard by Maryland approximations: 5 inches. Everything was closed and Kevin and I stayed bundled up in the house. It reminded me of some great Midwestern snows that I enjoyed growing up - the BEST! Nice powdery snow makes playing outside SO much fun.

But, Natalie doesn't much enjoy the snow. It's wet and cold and she is NOT interested in being pulled around in a sled AT ALL!

Not sure if you can tell, but she's not happy at all. In fact, I think she's mad!

We tried tasting the snow - and that was DEFINITELY out!

She was happiest when she was being held or under the cover of the garage.

This was only smile outside. Seriously. It's a wonder I caught it!

And it's time to go in. That's all folks!

Stay Tuned!

My husband has decided that he absolutely HAS TO KNOW if we're having a boy or a girl this time around so I've caved and we WILL be finding out at our next sonogram. Our sonogram is next Tuesday, March 10th (Natalie's 18 month birthday).

We've had a friend of ours predict what we're having. This might not be so interesting, save for the fact that she's been correct on guessing other people's offspring 11 out of 11 times. She says she has a dream or a "feeling" or what not. While I'm a little skeptical, who am I to judge? I mean it IS a good record - and she IS a good friend of mine. She has predicted we're having another girl. But Kevin is absolutely CONVINCED it's a boy. Now I have always thought "girl", but I was never sure if it was a desire for Natalie to have a sister or one of those maternal "gut feelings". So who's right this time? You'll just have to stay tuned!

Yum.... FOOD!

So lately I've been all about food. I'm really obsessed. I realized last night that the problem is that pregnancy causes me to rarely (if ever) feel "full". Normally I can eat a reasonable amount of food and be done. But lately I've had a bottomless pit of a stomach and while it makes for some adventures in the kitchen, it has not boded well for my relationship with my bathroom scale.

Prepare yourself for the wailing that will emanate from my doctors office tomorrow when I go for my 20 week visit.

We've been eating-in a lot for dinners lately - simply because its cheaper to eat something fancy at home, I'm a shopaholic when it comes to groceries and Natalie is completely a loose canon when we go out to eat. You never know HOW it's going to go if she's along at a restaurant. (Usually we end up shoving food in our face for fear an explosion of boredom and/or tired crankiness is impending.)

So tonight I'm experimenting with a new recipe (my favorite thing to do these days). I ended up buying more ricotta than I needed at the grocery store the other day (surprise, surprise) and, not being a fan of wasting food, I found this recipe that should use it up nicely. My plan is to use some of the ground venison we have thawing in the fridge to make these, a recipe I've tried before and really enjoy. And I'll be using up the rest of the super easy/good marinara sauce I made on Friday. Paired with the loaf of Italian bread I've got on top of the fridge, this should be a good blizzard meal that will *hopefully* fill me up and keep me from having to unearth the car from 5 inches of snow to run to the store.

I know, I know, I hear all of you from Missouri (and other WAY cooler states that actually get decent winters) saying, "5 inches? Pshawwww! That's NOTHING!". And, not so secretly, I'm extremely jealous.