Milestone!

MATT FELT THE BABY MOVE TONIGHT!


That is all.

My Favorite Belly Pic

Matt took this picture when we returned from a walk the day before Thanksgiving. It was snowy and windy and NASTY out in Iowa that day, so Matt's uncle, Steve suggested I wear some insulated coveralls.

The coveralls were a little tight over my belly, so I zipped the bottom part up (they're men's coveralls) and let my belly hang out. Then I put on my big warm coat and hood. Matt said I looked like a pregnant mechanic.

I obviously thought the whole thing was pretty funny.

My new haircut!

I am quite pleased with my new haircut. I have not washed it in....long enough. I won't tell you how long. It's so easy! I put a little effort into it when I want to straighten it, and I gave it a 2 minutes touch-up for these photos...but I love it!

Ok...a reminder of what it looked like before...

Or you can go look at our anniversary photos (with the t-shirts) for an idea of the length.

And now....

TA-DA!

Matt kept taking pics. I thought this was pretty typical "me."

Loving the Pie.

The Belly: 20 wks, 5 days

I think I finally look pregnant in a t-shirt!

Pie at 18 wks, 5 days

Pie is a little more than half-baked now! Here are some photos from our ultrasound...almost two weeks ago (I'm a horrible daughter/friend/daughter-in-law for keeping these from you, I know).
OK, don't get me wrong. I will (and already do) love my child unconditionally. But even a mom can't deny that the "I'm looking at you on ultrasound" thing is a bit creepy. This was attempt #1 at getting a profile. Pie looks kind of possessed, no?


Attempt #2 gave us a picture of King Tut! It's a bit of an oblique profile. Forgive our child. He or she was not in the mood to be photographed!

This, however, was worth the wait. They finally switched over to 3D and we got to see that the little one is actually looking pretty darn peaceful. It's head was sort of under my hip bone, so they couldn't get a good profile with the 2D stuff. That's ok. This is waaaaay cooler!

I have a mole?!?

This happened over a week ago, but I had to post it for everyone to read...

So, it was a Tuesday morning. Pepper whined to go out around 7AM, and I got up to take him out. He came back inside and sniffed a bit at the floorboards right by the back door, but I thought nothing of it and got him back to bed for an hour or so.

When Matt and I got up, both dogs got busy sniffing the floorboards around the door, and elsewhere in the living room (the room right off the back porch). Pepper then became focused on the small space between to tall bookshelves. He barked, he dug, he even knocked stuff off the shelves. We looked as best we could and could not see a THING between the shelves, or behind the shelves.

An hour or two later, Pepper relocated. He stood, barking and digging, in front of the door to the closet where our stackable washer and dryer is. He was FOCUSED. I tried to re-direct his attention to his favorite toy. I figured when someone came over (at 11AM), he would at least run to the door and greet her, and bring her his toy. He did not.

The visitor (Nealy) and I looked at the washer/dryer to figure out if there was some way to look behind it. At this point, I knew there had to be SOMETHING back in the closet, but I didn't hear anything (I figured it was a mouse...). When the washer/dryer was installed, they had to take the door frame off, so we couldn't even move it forward to look behind it...

So, Nealy and I chatted on the couch, wondering if at some point we would see/hear this mouse...

Around 11:30 there was a scuffle where Pepper was (still) sitting. Boomer ran over, and Nealy screamed "I saw it! I saw it! It's a mouse!" I ran over in time to see the dogs running back from the rear hallway area, a little gray rodent amidst the chaos. I watched Boomer pick it up in his mouth and fling it. It hit the floor, and as Pepper went to take his turn, this thing LEPT up in the air. It screeched all the while - I thought...this is NOT a mouse! It sounds like a bat!


I finally got the dogs out the back door and the rodent scurried between a shelf and a box. I moved the box aside to see the little thing laying on it's side, pressed against the shelf. It was not a mouse, it was a MOLE!

I was amazed to see that it wasn't bloodied - though it was certainly playing dead! I trapped it under a bucket and managed to get it on a piece of cardboard. I figured if I got it out into the yard it would figure out where it was and where it was supposed to be. So, I got it out to the front porch and it fell off the cardboard....I tried to get it back on, and it sort of opened its mouth at me while it tried to figure out if getting back on the cardboard was a good idea.

Then, suddenly, it made a run for it! It was facing my feet...so it basically ran straight at me, and toward the house behind me! I got it back on the cardboard quickly and dumped it in the leaves in the garden. Last I saw it, it was lying on its back, playing dead. 20 minutes later it was gone.

How a mole found its way into our house I don't know. I *think* it probably came in when I let Pepper out that morning - because Pepper did not indicate anything was amiss when he went out, but definitely detected the little bugger when he came back in.

What have I learned from this? Pepper is always right. If Pepper says there's something there...he is to be trusted!