driftless happenings and it's a girl!

Just exhausting some thoughts here that have been ruminating in my brain lately, taking up space. 

"What can I live without for a month, or two, or three... or more?" 
We've finished painting the house (wohoo!) and are done with projects on our sweet little starter home, which means it's time to list it for sale.  Now we're just packing up everything considered "extra" in our casa that doesn't need to be there taking up space so we can show it. Oh and cleaning too.  

This is before we painted all the fascia and soffit... I still haven't snapped a final shot

"How can I keep up with Logan on the trail now?"
He learned how to ride his two-wheeler and is riding everywhere. And wants to go places just so he can hop on his bike and ride.  We got rid of our single jogger last summer. We got rid of our single-child bike seat. So for now I'm just pulling the trailer behind me with just Linc-o in it. That works for now. 

He just learned one night when he wanted to ride his bike to the park and I told him he had to pedal the whole way if he wanted to "ride" his bike (rather than just push with his feet on the ground... he never wanted to use his training wheels). So he tried and tried and it just clicked for him on the way back from the park! I was super excited for him and couldn't stop cheering him on. It was so sweet to see how proud he was!

 

"Is this baby really a girl?"
Being a boy's mom has become so engrained in me that I'm really quite nervous for the high expectations that come with a baby girl and what it takes to be a girl's mom.  I naturally gravitate now towards legos, super heroes, cars, trains, diggers, dinosaurs, cowboy boots, etc. 

Lincoln on a tractor at Hee Haws

 

Lincoln spends his days lately lining up his bigger cars.  Just like his dad.

I'm pretty sure my girl will walk around with ratty hair and smeared mustard (or ketchup if she takes after Logan) on her cheeks.  I think I have taken the past 5 years of low-maintenance for granted. It's been swell never having to think of tights, or hair bows, or putting pigtails back in after naptime bed head, or Tinkerbell nail polish, or tu-tus, or little tiny bracelets, or getting the cutest swim suit possible (because heaven knows girls' swimsuits are cuter than pie. Or wait... is it "sweeter than pie"? Whatev.)  Don't get me wrong, I love little girls. It's just a lot more to think about.

And for some reason, I'm still so fearful of something being wrong (?.. maybe I should just say different) with her. I don't know... like down syndrome, or cleft pallet, or some odd heart condition that will make me nervous each time the boys go to play with her.  A person can go crazy thinking of all the things that could possibly be different with their child.  I know it's normal for a mom to slightly worry about things like this during pregnancy, then breathe a big sigh of relief when we count all 20 fingers and toes, and when we see they're eating, sleeping, breathing and pooping like normal.  But for some reason I just can't shake this thought/fear that she's different.  It just feels like a dark cloud is looming, but I can't tell if it's just typical fears or legit instinct/intuition. We'll see. 

Oh, by the way... I never announced on the blog here that we're having a girl (if you haven't caught on yet)!  At least we're pretty sure it is. At 16 weeks, we were lucky to be able to see an ultrasound student at the hospital for free and she actually did a great job, but wasn't convinced regarding the gender either way, but told us she thought it was a boy.  But the technician came and checked during the scan and confirmed at the end that it was actually a girl.  I'll start shopping after it's confirmed at 20 weeks :)

Here she is curled up with a cool shot of her vertebrae

 

 And here she is sitting on the camera

 

This whole pregnancy I've felt like it was a girl, just from certain experiences here and there, but wasn't really sure. So going into the ultrasound I was excited, hoping I was right. Then when the student said we were having another boy, my heart dropped for a millisecond then rebounded with excitement at the thought of having 3 boys around.  Then the student came back and dropped the girl-bomb on us and now I don't know what to think! 

On a lighter note, I have been feeling her move so much. I first felt her at week 14, but now I can feel her squirming in there. And last night I actually felt her kick from the outside for the first time!

And also good news, I'm on track for a typical 25-30 lb. weight gain (my goal from the beginning) rather than the former 50 or 60 lbs. Woohoo!  And it has probably made most of the difference that I'm still running ( er... more like jogging) a bit these days; another one of my goals - to run until at least 20 weeks if I can.

Anyway that's the latest, and what a load of ramblings it is. Comping up next is Logan's 5th Birthday and preschool graduation!