21 Weeks

(A just because photo. Here she is a few weeks ago in one of my favorite fall outfits she has.)

Things here are going smoothly, though it's been a rollercoaster since we found out we were having a boy last week. I had a super hectic week at work due to changes and announcements which kept me very busy. Then Thursday night I got hit hard with food poisoning or the flu. Which ever it was, it wasn't pretty. I obviously stayed home from work on Friday and tried to recuperate once my body was done doing its thing. Thankfully Jon came through in a big way and stayed up extra long to take Harper to Nana's house and pick me up some Gatorade. I had just started to be able to keep liquids down, so I wanted to make sure I got as many electrolytes and vitamins back into my body as possible. A very busy weekend, including a couple hours at work on Saturday to make up for lost time (hectic week, I tell ya) did not allow for much recuperation at all.

Thankfully I'm feeling much better now and even better -- neither Jon nor Harper got sick. woohoo!! I never got a high fever, so I didn't need to go to the Doctor. And when I spoke to the nurse on the phone, she said I was doing everything right, so as long as my temp stayed down, I should be fine. Plus side to it all: I lost almost 10 pounds. Tough way to do it, though. I haven't been sick like that since I was about 11 -- 20 years ago!!! I mean it when I say I never get sick.

Baby boy is quite the kicker. I feel him at periodic times throughout the day, usually after I've just eaten. Brings back all kinds of memories of being pregnant with Harper. Still such an odd feeling and one that I doubt I'll ever get used to.

Harper likes to touch my belly and say "baby". She even kisses and hugs it when asked. We're trying hard to teach her to say "brother" but it just kind of comes out "blauble", so we'll keep working on it.

I swear that if I didn't know better, I would think that Nana had been having Harper take Mandarin language classes during the days. She is such a babbler, and it really sounds like a distinct foreign language most times. It cracks us up!

It's hard to believe, but her hair is finally growing in!! Okay, so it's not really getting longer yet, but it's definitely getting thicker. At bathtime, it now takes a good 3 or 4 dunks from the cup to get her hair nice and wet. :) Speaking of bathtime, she still LOVES it. She and I have a new game where she dips her hand in the bubbles then puts it in my face to blow them off at her. We do this back and forth, then I scoop some up and blow a big pile into her face, which cracks us both up. She LOVES to watch it happen to herself in the reflection of the bathtub plug. Such a girl to stare at herself all the time! She's also obsessed with the faucet, and gets so excited when it's time to rinse, she gets under it and puts her cup at the ready to catch as much as she can then dunk it on herself.

She has the funniest laugh ever sometimes. Of course, I love all her laughs, but there's one distinct one that comes out occasionally. She makes it so there's barely a sound at all-- just a wheezing almost. Oh, that does it to me every time. I'll have to get it on tape to show everyone.

Of course we're battling a bit of her testing her boundaries with us, and I'm reminded all the time of how important patience is with her. We're trying to learn the balance of giving her adequate warning, then taking action to get her to do what we're asking. For instance, she just got new silverware and she thinks it's fabulous to scrape them on the table. This is not okay with me for so many reasons, but mostly because I don't want her to treat her silverware like toys. So I give her one warning then tell her I will take it away. Once she disobeys and it sits for a few bites, I'll give it back. Most times she'll do it again, but I try to be very consistent to take it away each time she does it so that she learns the consequence. But also the reward of getting it back. It sometimes can make for very long (and cranky) meals, but soon enough she'll get it and then we'll be on to the next challenge.

Such a learning process for all of us!