Exploring

We've had an interesting first week in Mukilteo.  Haven't figured out how to convince spell-checker that "mukilteo" isn't misspelled.

Over the weekend Daniel's two older brothers, T and C, visited and taught Hollie all about bouncing tennis balls off the walls and tables.  I guess that's what uncles are for!

While they were here, Daniel and T decided to go out for a jog to see the coast.  Hours later it's getting dark and we get the phone call: "Help!  We're lost!"  A half-hour with Google maps later, C went out to pick them up.  Once they were back at home, slightly worse for the wear, we got to hear the whole story, which involved following a creek into the woods, crawling under a fence into a construction site (despite posted warnings of video surveillance) to try and find out where they were (unsuccessfully; no one was there), Daniel carrying T on his back over a gravel road (T had gone barefoot), and from there wandering residential streets for a main intersection to assist our Google maps search.

Crazy boys.

But wait, there's more.

A few nights later, after the uncles were gone, Daniel went out by himself to run errands at two stores.  He didn't take our GPS because he had been to both stores before.  Deja vu - it's getting dark and I get the phone call: "Help!  I'm lost!"  This time it only took about five minutes for me to figure out where he was, but by then his phone had very little battery life left so I had to give him turn-by-turn directions to the store and just hope that he knew his way from there to the second store, and from there, home.  Thankfully he did.  And when he got home we got a good laugh together when he looked at the map and saw how far off course he had gotten.  Waaaay out there!

To be fair, the same thing has happened to me more than once since we've been here.  Even though the GPS generally stays in my car, I tend not to trust it sometimes...

Anyway.

For Memorial Day, we visited a park on the coast where we had lunch with a few of Daniel's coworkers.  It was a chilly, overcast day (our new "normal", really), but it was gorgeous.  Check these out...

Hollie had a great time at the beach: 

walking into the icy water up to her ankles and throwing little rocks into the waves,

climbing over the driftwood,

collecting sticks and shells,

but the only part she's still talking about today is this train...

 

We walked across this little bridge while a train went underneath, loud and fast enough to made the bridge shake under our feet.  Daniel and I were both caught off guard by the effect and admitted to feeling inexplicably nervous despite how cool it was...but Hollie on the other hand absolutely loved it.  She alternated pressing her face into the chainlink fence to watch, and literally dancing around as if the roar was music to her ears.  

Now, at least once a day I hear,

"Wanna see more loud-loud train, Mommy!'

Pregnancy update time-

I feel huge.  And hungry all the time.  Having a few contractions a day.  Baby's still moving like crazy, trying to break out.

Hollie seems to really be getting used to the idea.  Every morning (and throughout the day) she demands to sit down with Mommy to see and hug and snuggle the belly.  Sometimes she tries to use it as a chair, but that doesn't work out.

We've started telling her that the baby is going to come out to see us soon.  She made it clear how well she had absorbed this idea when we were at our first appointment with the new OB yesterday.  When the nurse came to get us from the waiting room, Hollie stood right up and said "Get baby out!"  Daniel and I were speechless for a second (we hadn't even been talking about it at that particular moment), but this great nurse took it in stride and said, "Hmmm, maybe not today, but soon!"

The new doc is great.  It seems that this office consists of one doctor, one nurse, and one receptionist.  It seems very flexible and relaxed - they squeezed me into their schedule on very short notice, and it was evident  how far they had gone out of their way for me, but they made it work.  They took a quick ultrasound just to check on the heart and see that the baby's head is downward, and everything looked fine.  We'll have a longer, more detailed ultrasound when we go back next week.  :)

Later that afternoon we took a tour of the childbirth center at our new hospital.  Very different from the one in Wichita where Hollie was born!  Smaller rooms with some variation in the layout and amenities - some had showers and some had tubs, most had a couch for dad but one just had a recliner...and the whole place had an overall out-dated look.  "Cozy" is the word that came to mind.  But I honestly, I liked it and have no qualms about delivering there.

I'm going to cut myself off here...more later.

34 and 35 week belly pictures are up!