Baby update: 24 weeks

Here is my belly. 2 weeks shy of 6 months. I feel like I'm bigger than it looks in this picture. According to blogs, my uterus is the size of a soccer ball and baby is the size of an eggplant or bag of Oreos. Only 15 weeks to go!!! We will have a scheduled c-section on February 5 or 6.  I've been feeling good, minus some lupus joint pain. I took some prednisone and that helped but sleep is affecting it as well. Baby is unnamed as of yet and moving around like crazy. Jackson is so excited for his little brother. He talks about it all the time and loves to pat and kiss my belly. We're finally getting potty training under control and he earned a pair of roller skates after 5 poos. He loves it! 

I love this picture. He's so happy! 

We have a pickle! Or Gerbil! Or 2 snowballs! Or an avocado!

There are about five bazillion websites that will tell you anything and everything about having a baby. Even the size of the baby by weeks varies immensely. One website says avocado. 

My app (Ovia pregnancy) said I had an avocado last week. This week it says dill pickle. 

This one throws me the most. Pickles vary in size so much! I see the dill pickles in our fridge and I'm like they are way smaller than an avocado. Then you have the Pickle Barrel deli pickles which are about the size of your arm. Another website measures baby against junk food, rather than fruits and veggies. They said 16 weeks is a package of snowballs. 

Side note: snowballs will always remind me of cake decorating with Alli and Celeste. Bahaha!!! 

Another website said baby is the size of a small gerbil. 

So there you go. And I still don't have any idea about the size. Snowballs seem the biggest so I'll go for that. However, tomorrow I'm 17 weeks and that will be another new crazy example. 

Boy in a Box

Bun in the Oven!

We got a bun in the oven! Baby is due February 11. This is exciting and scary and bittersweet. We lost a baby a year ago. I was 13 weeks pregnant. It was heartbreaking. So this pregnancy is hard. I'm constantly worried. Our 2nd ultrasound was at 13 weeks and I cried when I found out all was well. We heard the heartbeat again last week at my OB appointment. We have an ultrasound in September where we will find out baby's gender. We didn't find out what Jackson was but since he is convinced this baby is a girl we want to have time to get him used to the idea of a brother. So keep praying for us and baby! 

This was from the first ultrasound. <3

Pre-school Day 1

I have never been one of those moms that was gung-ho for homeschooling. I respect the moms who choose to do that, but I believe that we train teachers for that specific purpose so I should let them do their job. Plus, I feel like I am not qualified to teach some upper subjects. And really, what about art and music and PE and school plays and dances? All things that should be encouraged. I had a great art teacher growing up and I know I could not come up with all the great lessons he did. I'd be like "lets do something with fabric!" or "heres a piece of paper and some markers!." And music? Umm, no thanks. Not musical. So, it is quite interesting that I am homeschooling my pre-schooler. I chose to do this for a number of reasons: 1) He refuses to be potty trained. seriously. Zero interest. 2) The cost (are you kidding me?) and the monthly toy cleaning nights. No thank you. and 3) We moved here late so a lot of good programs were already taken. But our biggest drawback is potty training. Im not too worried because Jackson used to go to day care and got some social interaction there and he goes to Sunday School at our church, so he gets the social/school situation still. And, as Luke likes to remind me, he didn't go to preschool and he turned out just fine. More than fine actually! Today was our first day of homeschool! More like me asking Jackson if he wanted to play school. I bought a Pre-K readiness book with reading prep, math, and writing workbooks that we are using. Our first lessons were drawing lines, which he tired of quite quickly. But, how can he learn to write letters if he can't draw lines? His favorite was the "up, down, up, down" motion. We also work on letters as they come up. "What letter makes the mmmmm sound?" He knows that Jackson starts with J and Mommy with M and Daddy with D. He also knows the first letters of all his Ninja Turtles. Very important, right? He can spell his name sometimes, but we are working on it.

Mom! Don't take my picture! "Up, down, up, down..." In other news, the bambino is the size of an avocado and doing well! We find out the sex in a few weeks.

In Canada, Hey!

Frazierville has relocated. To Edmonton, Alberta. In Canada. Yep. Crazy, huh? The first question I get asked is "Why Canada?" (ministry job at West Meadows Baptist Church) and the second question is "Are you or your husband from Canada?" (no). Then people give me really confused looks. We got here on May 31 and were able to drop off all the stuff we crammed into our car into our new place. And when I say crammed I mean crammed. I stuffed things in every possible nook and cranny. T shirts stuffed into the gap between the seats, diapers under the front seat, blankets shoved to the roof. I couldn't see out the back window at all. And every time I opened Jackson's door legos and toys fell onto the pavement. But we made it. Our new place is great. Its a 3 bedroom condo/townhouse with 1.5 baths and a laundry room. And the piece de resistance - a yard. A tiny yard. Like the grass is probably 6'x6'. It literally takes the yard guys about 30 seconds to mow. But Jackson loves it! And who needs a sandbox when you have a garden? Theres a school with a spectacular playground only about a block away though. Unfortunately though, our house would be a lot better if we actually had our furniture and the rest of our stuff. But its okay. We have a couple of borrowed chairs and a nice airbed and some kitchen stuff and toys and a TV. What more do you need, hey? In America we always think Canadians say eh, but actually a lot of them say hey. Everyone has been so nice (except for the lady from our complex who was mad when I accidentally parked in her parking spot) and lots have volunteered extra stuff for us while we wait.

Here are some things that are different, besides the eh/hey: Health Insurance - free from the government :) Needing to get referrals for appointments to specialists :( Having to put a coin in for buggy at certain grocery stores :( kilometers instead of miles. litres instead of gallons at the gas pump. Spellings: honour, neighbourhood,etc. Seeing things in french instead of spanish. In the states we are used to seeing a lot of things with spanish translations but here its always french. Parks and "green space" everywhere! :) In Alberta ALL the schools are public. So your money goes with your kid. Jackson could go to a french immersion school, mandarin immersion, hockey school, christian school, art school, music school, etc. Luke says hockey but Im not sure Jackson is going to be a natural athlete (even though Luke and I had great genes to pass on ;) All in all, life is good right now! Next week were off to California for Scott and Mariyas wedding.