At 32 weeks

I keep waiting for someone to take an impossibly cute picture of my pregnant belly and then I'd write a sweet and clever little post about the joys and discomforts of being less than 2 months away from our baby being outside!  However a picture of that nature has not surfaced to date, so we'll try this image-less strategy instead.

Do you know what surprises me the most about this pregnancy?  I feel great!  I mean sure I'm tired, low energy, having a hard time reaching things on the floor, outgrowing clothing daily, having horrible hormonal eczema on my hands and constantly chasing Cecilia, but really, I feel great.  I had this assumption that having a second child was going to wreck my body, because with Cecilia my body was a bit of casualty.  I had joint pain, tremendous weight gain, back ache, trouble sleeping... the whole nine!  However this time around?  It's feeling pretty great, I mean sure I'm uncomfortable, and sure I have some new achiness, but all in all I'm really pretty comfortable.  I'll be thanking the progression of my yoga practice for that, the activeness of a small child and the general increased integrity of my body.

Thank you body.  Thank you integrity.

This little one (gender still unknown) is a pusher!  Sure they like to squirm around, kicking here and there, but mostly it's these grand body stretches that I feel, as if they are trying to expand the walls of the womb.  I think all in all we have a pretty cozy dynamic the two of us though, I love feeling the hard lumps of my baby's little legs ans knees.  I love sharing that feeling, calling to whoever is nearby to feel a hard little baby mass!  Which inevitably shifts half of the time to be undiscernible to the timid hands poking at my belly.  Lately Raf's been laying his hands on my belly and that makes the baby stir quite a bit, so neat!

Cecilia is feeling pretty proud, often heard saying, "I have a baby in Mama's Belly."  She's been found kissing and hugging my belly recently.  We're starting little conversations about the birth now as our intention is to have her there, however always with the option of something else happening entirely!  One never knows with these little babies just what will happen at birth after all!  I'm happy to see Cecilia taking ownership of the little one however.  I feel as prepared as I possibly could ever be to be parenting 2 children, which is equal parts ready and terrified!

Fingers crossed for some good baby belly pictures soon everyone...

And The Decorating

Seems to be the funnest part of all.  Our little girl asks for bits of yarn daily to add to the tree.  She goes into our small box of ornaments and requests help in looping them over a branch she cannot reach.  There is often a chair next to the tree so she can get just the angle she needs in tree decorating.  It seems to me an object for Cecilia to create her daily installations on is just perfect for her developmentally.  I'm confident this tree will continue to morph it's decorations on through the holidays.

Hunting

Off we were on Saturday looking for our Christmas Tree.  We arrived at Race Point on a very cold afternoon, with a sleepy girl in tow.  We rambled through the woods us Hopkins 3(+) trying to find the very best tree.  Not one of the stinky conifers, not a spindly one, not one that's too tall, nor too short.  We were looking for the very best tree to fit into our home at 3 Brighton.

And then we saw her, in the middle of a clearing, all by her lonesome, fairly small, very full, round and lush Christmas Tree.  She had the perfect point for a star and plenty of branches for our little girl to decorate.  Perfectly manageable for our little hands to carry back to our little car.