23 Weeks and Trucking

I'm now 23 weeks pregnant--more than half way through! Olivia is growing and moving more and more. She likes to stretch out and poke my organs, already! According to baby center, she's about the size of a mango, and she can hear us now! (We had trouble getting good pictures this time--sister was hardcore teething and not happy to let Mommy be in a picture alone or smile for the camera. Oh well!)

Her sister certainly gives her something to hear--Elena talks, hollers and yells all day! She has toned it down a little, I think, but her inside voice is not yet a reality! She is learning more and more words, and she is getting better at copying sounds. She still uses her old standbys, ba and da, for just about everything, but she has been trying more complicated words like "peaches" and "itsy bitsy spider" (which comes out "is bis" or "isee bs pie") She can say "cheese" and "eyes" really distinctly, along with "dada." Some words she says backwards, like "hot"--it comes out "tah." We are STILL working on getting her to say "mama!" She calls me "baba," sadly, though if I ask her to say "mama" she can sometimes say it.

Elena loves to play outside, and now that it's not so freezing cold, we've been going on adventures every day. We enjoy walking behind the tennis courts to pick up seed pods to throw in the pond, and going to get the mail. She loves to zoom around and around the circular mailbox hub jingling the keys. I love to take her inside the tennis courts--it's like a giant playpen! I can sit down and let her run around without having to worry, unlike anywhere else within Elena's walking distance of our apartment. She loves to run and throw her tennis balls around--and this last time she also enjoyed taking a break to read Mommy's magazine. :)

Andrew just started playing in the church basketball league last week, and he's doing great! At least, better than he expected, so we are feeling good about it. :) He's enjoying getting out there and exercising, and I'm enjoying watching--though I don't catch too much of the game with Elena and the other spectators to distract me. :)

We are enjoying the calm before the storm right now--pretty soon we are going to have to start packing and getting ready for the move. The only thing found amiss in the the house inspection (the water pipe to the house) was fixed and the inspection was finished to our satisfaction, and we are moving forward with our loan. We are hoping to close early March and move March 20. We are pretty excited about it! I took these pictures of the front and back of the house since I didn't think the ones in the listing were that great. Mine didn't turn out great either, haha, due to the the time of day, but you can get a better picture of the back yard especially. :)

From the back of the back yard

Looking right


Looking left

Right side yard

Swimmy Girl

Baby Elena and I have gone to the pool a couple of days in a row now, and today, she amazed me--she blew bubbles in the water! She was putting her face in the water and drinking a lot of pool water, but I wasn't telling her no because I figured it was better for her to figure out that there was a difference between pool water and air--a fact which she had somehow missed in the past, resulting in lots of sputtering and coughing. Then, she took a big breath and stuck her face in and blew bubbles! Twice! Go, baby, go.

The turtle in the picture is a float I got for her so that I could go underwater, and so that I wouldn't feel guilty if I brought her out in the heat of the day. There is a sunshade on it, so she's out of the sun while she's in it. Of course, she prefers to hang out with me instead of being in the float, and when she is in it, she tries to crawl out of it! Which is funny, because she just ends up kicking her legs.

One downside to living in Florida (with constant near-100 degree days)--the pool water is more like bath water by the end of the day! So warm it's almost not refreshing. It's no wonder we were the only ones there! It wasn't too bad while we were playing on the stairs, though. She loved that--climbing, cruising and crawling, all in the water. Mommy doesn't let her do that in the bathtub. It's so much fun to take her to the pool--it's such a blessing that it's only a short walk away. :)

Bits of Life

Here are some funny pictures from when I was taking pictures for Valentine's Day. I did Andrew's first, then the family's. It was a good idea, I must say. :)


After missing church last week because baby and I were sick, (a cold, but not too serious. It is noteworthy though--Elena's first sickness.) I was excited to get back this Sunday. I always feel like I've missed out when I can't go. It's getting really fun to have Elena in the service. During the singing she just loves to look around at all the people, she gets surprised when everyone starts clapping, she gets to see other babies in the nursing moms room. She's so good when we're out. What a great baby. :) Here she is in her beautiful outfit from Sunday, given to her by her Mimi. :)
We're in our first full week by ourselves in the new place. Later this week I'll get it all picked up and take pictures of it for you. It's our homiest looking place to date, thanks to the overall better space and to Michelle's help setting it up. We are enjoying feeling a little more into the family stage of life, out of the dumpy little apartment stage. :) We really like our complex, with people who seem more established, and with a walking trail and two different parks really close by. And the people in the office already know us--Andrew keeps getting packages. :) It's a great place to live, and I'm thankful that it worked out for us to live here!

WARNING--if you have a weak stomach, don't read on. :)

So I know this is kinda gross, but I was so amazed. We just changed diaper sizes from 1-2s to 2s, so I was really exicted to not have to deal with poop explosions for awhile. She wasn't blowing out in the night, and all was well for a few days. Then, the night before Valentine's, the same day I took the Valentine pictures, she fell asleep early and stayed asleep, so I left her in her outfit for the night. Then, in the morning when she did her usual 6 or 6:30AM poop, this resulted--

As you can see, it went out the back and all the way up to her neck! I had to share--it was truly the most amazing poop explosion I have ever seen. And here's the happy pooper all cleaned up. :)