Seattle

Remember when I talked about my head being somewhere else lately?  I'm so excited to be able to write about it now.

We're relocating temporarily to Seattle.  For five months.  Leaving in a matter of weeks.  As in, Daniel's leaving in two weeks, and Hollie and I will follow a week or so after that.

Yeah, we first heard of this great opportunity for Daniel's career only a few weeks ago.  We're feeling spontaneous, adventurous...  definitely more excited than stressed at this point (i.e.- it hasn't hit yet).  I'm expecting panic to arrive any minute now.  :)  If at all, really.  You might remember that we relocated about two months before Hollie was born, too...and that was a permanent move!  It's just how we do it.  When I get pregnant again, you can all start putting in your votes for where we go next!

We're so lucky that Daniel's company provides a nice relocation package for this kind of temporary move...flights (for all of us), furnished housing, a rental car, etc.  It would certainly not be possible without that kind of help.  The only part I'm kind of stressing about is finding a new OB.  They all want to see your medical records before they decide how soon they'll be able to get you in, and if they'll see you at all.  Already got the ball rolling on that though, so there's no reason that won't be squared away well before we arrive.

So...now there's forwarding addresses to provide, medical releases to sign, baby clothes and gear to pack up (nesting on a grand scale here!), utility turn-offs to schedule, yard work to hire out, and so on...

Speaking of yard work...

We have a new tree, and I'm proud to say it's doing beautifully!  A Shumard Oak, if you were wondering.

Also, we finally started our garden a few days ago.  Soon we will have onions, carrots and lettuce...we hope our neighbors thoroughly enjoy them while we're 1,800 miles away.  Yeeeeah, we didn't really think that one through, did we?

Today, I saw my OB here in Wichita for my 30 week check-up, and broke the sad news that I won't be delivering here.  He said I'm the second one this week to tell him that!  Everything looks normal and right on schedule.  I will see him again in two weeks...probably the last time.  :(  It figures...just when I find an OB I really like...!

I'm pretty sure baby's lying diagonally.  I'm feeling the kicks on the right side under my ribs, and around my left hip.  So silly.  Big kicks, too...holy moly, this baby's trying to break free!

Two new belly pictures up!  29 weeks and 30 weeks.

Updates might be few and far between for awhile...but you're used to that by now, huh?  I'll do my best.

Crazy dream...

Two, actually.  Pregnancy hormones are great.

I had another dream that the baby's a boy, but I think the idea was already in my head from that other dream.  It was pretty funny...long story short: I found myself going into labor all alone, in an empty room.  I sat down and after about three [painless] pushes, delivered a baby.  My first thought was that Daniel would be so disappointed that he had missed it, so without giving a second thought to my baby I jumped up and ran out.  When I found him, I told him "Guess what, I had the baby!  We have to get to the hospital."  Someone had taken the baby to the hospital, and by the time we got there my whole family was there, too.  My little brother actually brought the baby out to meet us, all swaddled up, and I asked,

"Is it a boy or a girl?!"

"Boy!"

What's his name?"

I can't tell you his answer, because it's actually a name we've talked about using!

Last night was the other really weird one.  Evidently, we were living somewhere that had bears, because I looked out our front window early one morning and saw an enormous bear walking down the street.  It was huge.  I turned to Daniel and said, "Wow, look at that bear!  Hey, we better call animal control or something."  Then I looked out again, and it had started attacking a woman!  Just tossing her around like a toy.  I yelled to Daniel to call 911 and saw that he was already on the phone.  I started putting on a jacket, knowing that it was stupid to try to do anything and I'd probably get killed myself, but I couldn't just stay inside and do nothing.  I ran to the door and stuck my head out, and was surprised to find that the bear had disappeared.  The woman was knocking on her neighbor's door, apparently unhurt, looking around nervously.  Her husband was with her.  These were NOT people I actually know, by the way.  It wasn't even our real street.  Anyways, I'm still almost in tears because I thought I just saw this woman being killed, so I ran over and said, "Get in my house!  Get inside!  Where did it go?  Are you okay?!"  Before she could say anything, this other woman pops up, and she's apparently some kind of bear expert.  She starts going on about how exciting this is, because, she says, that wasn't a normal grizzly.  It was a lehara, a really rare subspecies, or something like that.  Don't bother googling that; it's an entirely hormonal fabrication.  She's going on and on about the differences between it and a grizzly, and I had to interrupt her: "Where. Did. It. GO?!"

At that point I woke up in a cold sweat, my heart pounding, and absolutely terrified!  Took forever to get back to sleep.  I've had very few dreams that were as realistic as that one.

Other than that...well, we've been busy!  We bought a new tree for the front yard (the last ones didn't make it) and some damaged (but repairable) sections of fence that we found at a huge discount.  Also working on a veggie garden for the front yard, now that the weather's nice and we're not going below freezing at night anymore.

I turned 24 (yikes!) last week and my dad flew in for my birthday - a complete surprise!...for me (he and Daniel were in cahoots).  It was great.  He arrived not twenty-four hours after Uncle Chris left, so Hollie's adoration went seamlessly from one visitor to the next, and they hit it off immediately.  A trip to the zoo (for a friend's son's birthday, ironically!) and some gyros made it a perfect birthday weekend.  :)

Yesterday was the first day of my third trimester!  I'm feeling some biiiig kicks in there.  This baby's anxious to get out, I think!  New photo is up...  

Completely forgot...

Alternately titled: "She's going to hate me later for writing this"

We're using the potty!  By "we" I mean Hollie, obviously.  Daniel and I have been throwing the idea around for awhile, debating whether or not she was ready, and last Monday (like almost two weeks ago), I decided to just go for it.  I knew it was a bad idea, because Uncchris was arriving in a few days, and they say you're not supposed to start when you've any kind of additional circumstance (illness, remodeling the house, new baby, etc.)...but really, as in all things: if you wait for the "right time" it's never going to happen.  So I went for it.

Day one was a success!  When she woke up I gave her an hour or so to eat breakfast and wake up all the way, then took off her diaper, and didn't put another on another (which she didn't mind at all).  She enjoyed it for a while, but after about two hours she started doing "the dance" and going somewhat frantically from one activity to another.  I brought the potty out into the living room, and gently asked her occasionally if she wanted to sit down and use it.  For a few months now, we've been reading a book about using the potty, so she was already familiar with the "terminology" (haha).  She actually did sit down a few times, bringing a book or toy with her, but always got distracted and got up.  She asked for a diaper a few times, and so I would start to slowly get it ready, but each time she changed her mind and said "No! No diaper!"

Finally, around 12:30 in the afternoon, after roughly four hours sans diaper, she sat on the potty and used it.  Amazing.

I wanted to give you the story of the first day, but I'll spare you (and future Hollie) the rest of it - suffice it to say that our record after week #1 is 5 in the potty, 3 on the carpet.  Not too shabby.  Warning, I'm gonna brag a little -- At least two of those in the potty were unprompted, in other words: I heard tinkling, came running, and found her already on the potty!  Beyond impressed.

It kind of got put on hold for the most part while Chris was here, so I'm thinking we'll be starting from square one on Monday.  Our weekends are always pretty busy, so I think we're just going to be Monday-thru-Friday potty trainers around here.  If that makes the whole process end up taking longer as a result, I'm okay with it.  She seems to have gotten the idea, at least.

Another new belly picture is up!  Next week we start the third trimester.  Crap, we really need to deciding on some names...