22 weeks plus Thanks

I'm going to roll our Thanksgiving recap and my 22 week checkup into one post. Because I'm lazy like that.

We'll start with Thanksgiving. We had 2 this year. First we traveled down to Enid OK to visit James 95 year old grandmother. About a month ago James mom broke her arm in an apple related food pantry accident. Anyways the decision was made not to cook anything down in OK and it was a good thing too because Grandma's oven has stopped functioning. Anyways, we stayed in a recently renovated Ramada Inn which was pretty snazzy and ate Thanksgiving dinner at the Golden Coral with most of the rest of the town of Enid. They were crowded. Lily did good though, and ate her mac n'cheese, some taters and of course stole some chocolate of Grandma's plate. While we were only gone for about 36 hours, it was a nice trip. I won't be able to travel after Christmas, the whole stay within an hour of your hospital rule, so this was the last time we can go down there before baby M is born.
Friday morning I woke up at 4am and couldn't fall back asleep so I got up and went to Target with all the other crazies. It was a Christmas shopping WIN. I got there a few minutes before the doors opened, so I didn't have to stand in the cold very long. Target was super organized, handing out reusable shopping bags and maps of the store. They had their big SALE items already placed in carts around the store for easier '"grabbage" and I was able to get everything on my list, plus I scored an even better DVD player for the car for Lily that I originally thought I would get. All in all a great trip and I earned $30 worth of Target gift cards too!
The rest of the weekend was spent with my parents visiting, hanging up Christmas lights, decorating one of our trees and hosting a "fauxgiving" where James made a fabulous Turkey, and I made the creamiest mashed potatoes known to man.
My mom graciously loaned us her 4 foot pre-lit white Christmas tree which I decorated with bright colored ornaments and all my Hallmark Keepsakes, and my full intention is to buy a real tree next weekend and put in the dining room with our purple and gold ornaments, but right now I feel too tired to even think about doing it. So we'll see. Plus I'm very specific about what kind of tree I want. I want a noble fir, that's about 5 feet tall and skinnier than me. Good luck!

Baby M Update:
I had my 22 week checkup yesterday. Everything is still on track. Baby's heartbeat is still high, in the 150's like Lily's was. Baby M also has been moving around a lot! Which is actually very comforting. I had a sonogram about 3 weeks ago and my placenta is in the front so the tech told me not to worry if I don't feel a whole lot of strong movements. Add that to the fact that I went ahead and got an H1N1 vaccine even though I was on the fence about getting it, and I was relieved when I realized I was being kicked throughout the day. The day after my H1N1 shot I work up that morning and said "well it didn't kill me or the baby so that's good". We're still throwing around baby names. We've been saying Baby Max a lot for a boy, and I think we still like Morgan for a girl, but my aunt called me last weekend with the name Miles. Its really starting to grow on me. And of course Madison and Madelyn are still favorites of mine. I really think we need to wait to see the little bean before we give him/her a name. What if he doesn't look like a Max?

Fun with Leaves

A couple of weekends ago was a fabulous Indian Summer day, 70 degrees and sunny. I put Lily in one of her favorite dresses, probably for the last time and we took her to the park to play in the leaves. James took some good pictures and I thought I would share some of them here.

Doing the Itsy Bitsy Spider

Lily is growing bigger and bigger every day. She continues to amaze me with the things she knows and picks up just from observation. She is really into mimicking us right now. She tries to brush her hair with my brush, she likes to brush her teeth when we do, she even goes around our bedroom picking up stray socks and pajama's and throws them down the laundry chute. And I think her dad has taught her to find all the shoes I've left lying around, and bring them to me to put away.

Her baby sign skills are improving each week as well. For the longest time she was doing a sign, that I thought was her rubbing her belly. It wasn't until James did a baby shoot of Baby Aiden that we discovered she has been signing "please" this whole time. No wonder she would get mad at me when I repeatedly asked her to say "please" when she wanted something. Now, she is able to say "more, please" and "thank you" when she wants something. She can also verbalize those words, but sometimes she just not in a talking mood.

Today is her 18 month check up. Originally James was going to take her so I didn't have to leave work, but today has been slow and I realized I missed her last check up, so I really want to go.

Next week we are off to visit my family for Thanksgiving. Lily will get to spend 5 whole days with her Grammy, Papa Dude, Auntie Kim, Uncle Nick, Aunt Vicki, Naomi, Gigi and Papa. She will be loved and spoiled tons!

And Auntie Kim is going to do some wedding dress shopping for the first time!

Goldilocks and the Three Wears

Papa Wear:

Mama Wear:

Baby Wear: