Is Gracie Having a Little Brother or Sister?

We are cheaters...for sure.  We don't wait any longer than we have to to find out what we are having, so when 16 weeks rolled around we were back to the wonderful and talented Cindy at Invision 3D in Folsom.  She is the greatest, and it is a wonderful, relaxing experience.  With Gracie, it took 3 separate scans, and Gracie still holds the record of being her most stubborn baby EVER!  Saturday morning we had our appointment, and were hoping for a more cooperative baby.  Within ten minutes she was telling us an answer, AND the baby gave some awesome profile pics:

Five fingers...yay!

My instinct with Gracie the whole time was girl, and this time it has been boy all along.  Well...mother's instinct is not always right because...it's a

We were able to tell our parents with cakes and little pink trinkets in a box, and EVERYONE was shocked.  My instinct had everyone convinced it was a boy.  We are thrilled to start collecting more cute little girl things, as we have given away most of Gracie's baby clothes...I know, not the smartest move...but oh well, I like to bargain shop!

A Perfect Park Afternoon

On the way back from the store, we decided to stop at the park since it was such a beautiful day!  Gracie hates swings, but she loves the slide!  She went down all by herself.

Then we found some blowing dandelions!  Gracie has never seen one before today, and tried to pop them like bubbles while they were in the air.

Then she was running and tripped and got a good bonk on the forehead.  I let her watch Barney and have juice to make up for the fact that I put frozen edamame strapped to her with a stretchy headband!

Horses, Chickens, and Dogs...oh MY!

Yesterday we had the priviledge of spending the afternoon and evening with close friends of Tim's family, Bob and Lori.  They have 10 gorgeous acres in Loomis, where they have Lippazaner horses.  They have recently started raising chickens to have fresh eggs, and we got to hang out with them as well.  When I was growing up, my family went to see my grandparents (who have the ranch I previously posted about).  A couple to a few times a year, we went to visit them and rode horses, helped feed sheep, rode on the hay truck and in the back of the pick-up, drove tractors, ran around, and had the time of our lives.  It is a dream that Gracie not only gets to still visit there, but she has Tim's grandparents in Loomis where she spends two mornings a week on their five acre property and gets to go feed the neighbors' goats and horses and run around with dogs.  On top of it all, we are blessed to have friends of the family who like to give her even more memories of outdoor fun like this:

She has no problem walking around like she owns the place...





Playing with Pepper

These were Lori's toy horses over 40 years ago!

Visiting Libby who was roaming free

She was fascinated by the chickens and didn't want them to go "home" to their pen

 Tim with Axel (he is 15 1/2!)

Lori pointing out the different chickens

Bob feeding more chickens

I get to pet one??!!

Taking charge of the feeding

Barely tall enough to reach

Happy little girl!

One more horse to give a carrot!

Our Very Capable Little Girl...and loving it!

Gracie is about to turn two, and I am loving this age!  She is so happy, is down to one GREAT nap a day, and is mommy's biggest helper!  I am not complaining at all, I am glad she is falling in to the helper role naturally.  Being pregnant and having a cold I can't seem to shake, it is nice when she comes to me telling me she needs a diaper and I can say, "can you get mommy a diaper and the wipes?"  She goes and gets me a diaper, goes back and gets me the wipes, and after I am done, puts the wipes back!  In the mornings lately, I will send her to her room to pick out her clothes.  She comes back and hands me pants and then goes back for a shirt...and most of the time she does a pretty good job! 

This was today:

Pink shirt and pink pants!  Not what I would have chosen, but hey, we are just playing at home and maybe going to the park...so no need for mommy to be fashion police :)

I am hoping my little helper continues to embrace her role after her brother or sister is born.  And my tall order also includes her wanting to be potty trained by then too!  We will see how it goes, but in the meantime, she can continue putting things away, closing doors behind us, throwing things in the trash, carrying things, and anything else she wants to help with!

Baby #2 and Belly Pic

We had our first appointment and untrasound for the little "jelly bean" this morning.  I was soooo nervous because of the miscarriage we had last spring, and I just wanted to see that everything was okay.  Sorry about the picture...it's the only one we got...you can barely see the head and eye sockets right in the middle.  My doctor is so compassionate and knew I didn't want to see the screen until he knew everything was fine.  A minute later he told me to look at the screen to our the baby wiggling and kicking all over the place!  I was still nervous and said "can you see the heart beat?"  to which he laughed and told me it wouldn't be moving all over the place without one!  We are very excited, and I am finally letting myself get attached to our new baby.  Our due date is July 13th, but since I will have another C-section, he will deliver at 39 weeks, which makes it right about the 4th of July! 

I am feeling good, just tired.  I have had nauseousness off and on, but it's never too bad.  I certainly can't complain.  I have noticed, however, how quickly your body knows what to do the second time around, and I have already outgrown a couple pairs of jeans!  I am actually a fan of maternity clothes, and I am excited to have a belly quicker this time around.  I was at that awkward stage for so long with Gracie and my students at school didn't even know until I was nearly 7 months pregnant!  This time, I made it a question on their final exam before Christmas, and it was fun when they came up to turn in their test and gave me smiles and whispers of "congratulations!" and hugs.  Some thought it was a trick question... "but you don't LOOK pregnant!?"  Kids are so funny. 

Because it was requested, here is a picture I took today... nearly 13 weeks