Holy crap.
Technically slightly less than that. But still. If all goes as planned and this baby is here on the due date we originally received (and she could very well come out much earlier), we will be blessed with Miss Ava's presence in 10 WEEKS. That is nothing. And no matter how many different ways I try to envision it or reword it, it still sounds like hardly any time at all (and quite frankly, scares the living daylights out of me).
Obviously we have been incredibly busy, which explains my second lengthy absence from the blog. Ava, if you are reading these entries 15 years from now, understand that it's not because I don't care. In fact, it's more because I care WAY too much, and have been stressing about every minor detail when it comes to getting ready for your arrival. You will probably hold this against me somehow when you are a teenager and are angry at me about something, so I'm putting it in writing now that I DO love you and the fact that I'm not letting you go out with that college boy has absolutely no correlation to my poor blog updating habits. It also has nothing to do with his shaved head and earrings (I can't judge on that I guess, huh..).
Because so much has been going on lately, I'm going to abandon any attempt to make this into a coherent, flowing post and instead just post random thoughts from the past few weeks.
*Each week I get about 500 e-mails from different baby websites telling me what pregnancy is like in that given week and how the baby is progressing. In the latest one, I noticed a couple funny things:
"Your baby's about 15.7 inches long now, and she weighs almost 3 pounds(like a head of cabbage)."
Okay, I don't know why, but these e-mails have this tendency to compare the baby to various pieces of fruit and vegetables. Maybe this is the real explanation as to why pregnant women sometimes eat poorly; their subconscious is overloaded with guilt when they take a bite out of a small peach and realize that's what their baby's head was just compared to by www.howsmybabythisweek.com. All joking aside, it's pretty amazing comparing her size now to the beginning stages. I remember when we would hold up a closed fist and that's how big she was; now it seems like her fists are probably bigger than mine (I know my hands will have that growth spurt one day..), especially the way she hits inside Amanda's stomach some nights.
"Her eyesight continues to develop, though it's not very keen; even after she's born, she'll keep her eyes closed for a good part of the day. When she does open them, she'll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means she can only make out objects a few inches from her face. (Normal adult vision is 20/20.)"
Maybe I've been misguided in the past by movies like 'Look Who's Talking', but for some reason whenever I imagine Ava inside the womb, I envision her with her eyes open, making witty commentary on all of her surroundings, with some celebrity's voice narrating her thoughts. Yes, I know that this is very wrong, but I still get a kick out of picturing her as just a tiny little adult, with a sharp mind and a sense of humor already (which I think its pretty safe to say she will have). The fact is though, little notes like the one above remind me that she's still developing quite a bit in there. As big as she is now, and as far along as she has come, there's still plenty of growing left to do. This growing is already so exciting to watch and hear about, and Ava isn't even actually out here yet. It get's me so anxious for all the big (and little) moments that are going to occur throughout her life where we get to see things 'click' and watch her develop a personality, an intellect, and knowing my luck, plenty of attitude. What also makes me laugh about this is that as a newborn, Ava is going to have better natural vision than Amanda does right now. While I hope Ava gets her looks from Amanda, I do hope she gets her eyesight from me!
*It should be noted in here that after two baby showers (thank you to my mom/sisters and Little/Jen for being amazing hosts) and gifts from various people, Ava officially has more pairs of shoes than I have had over the past 5 years of my life. Granted, they are a variety of sizes but still; this little girl is spoiled beyond belief already.
*Somebody really needs to enter the maternity clothes market with clothing that is somewhat fashionable but also affordable (Preggers 21?). I never really understood Amanda's distaste for maternity shopping until I went with her one day to a few stores and realized how ridiculous the selections are for pregnant women. Either you can look like some weird trash bag clown (I don't even know what that means) or you can empty out your bank account for something that has a resemblance to normal clothing. Is this really fair? Plus, the maternity selection at places like Target is laughable at best. I was so worked up that day that I swore I was going to create a second-hand maternity store that would offer pregnant women a vast amount of maternity options without having to hand over their first born child (badum CHING) but then I found out there's a place in Lenexa that already does that. Dream=crushed. I guess I'll just have to go back to my dream of being on a game show.
*One of the 'issues' that we have been working on in preparation for the baby is trying to train the dogs a little better and get them to be more disciplined. As anyone who has met these dogs can attest, we are pretty much destined for failure. They are both overweight and have some sort of personality disorder. The black lab just got put on Xanax because of his anxiety but apparently he is immune to it because it has no effect on him whatsoever. The basset hound is an angry, bitter old dog at only 2 years old (maybe because we forgot his birthday) and still has issues with pissing on the carpet. So all in all, we have our work cut out for us, but we are determined to have these dogs behaving and not causing trouble when the baby is here. And I guess if they do cause trouble, I'll call up Cesar Millan to come take care of them, and walk them on his weird LandRoller skates.
*I have officially made the transition from young and spirited to old and crotchety; I am now the one making the noise complaints about my neighbors instead of the one receiving them.
*It's amazing how a $200 dresser can become a $700 dresser when you add the word 'baby' in front of it or add '/changing table' after it. It's also amazing how taking an old, low dresser and refinishing it ultimately gives us the same piece of furniture as a $200 dresser or a $700 dresser. BRILLIANT!
*I'm so pumped that I get to shop for toys again. This is like my dream come true. I can't wait for Christmas time to come, and to get the giant Toys R Us catalog in the mail, which I'll proceed to go through and circle all the things that I think Ava needs. I already look at toys online and have found myself thinking about how fun some of the things will be for both of us to play with. Woohoo!
Well that's all I've got for today; it's actually an incredibly important day..Amanda and I are getting married! We are just having a small ceremony tonight with our immediate families and Amanda's grandparents, but it should be very special and I'm so excited. It's a pretty amazing feeling knowing that I get to officially spend the rest of my life with my best friend. I love her so much and have thought about this day for a long time. It's funny looking back on the day we first met in Latin class and seeing where we've come since then. Between experiences both good and bad, exciting times and trying times, we've been through so much already and are going to have so much more ahead. I couldn't think of a better person to do it all with.
I'll be back again soon (I SWEAR)!
Technically slightly less than that. But still. If all goes as planned and this baby is here on the due date we originally received (and she could very well come out much earlier), we will be blessed with Miss Ava's presence in 10 WEEKS. That is nothing. And no matter how many different ways I try to envision it or reword it, it still sounds like hardly any time at all (and quite frankly, scares the living daylights out of me).
Obviously we have been incredibly busy, which explains my second lengthy absence from the blog. Ava, if you are reading these entries 15 years from now, understand that it's not because I don't care. In fact, it's more because I care WAY too much, and have been stressing about every minor detail when it comes to getting ready for your arrival. You will probably hold this against me somehow when you are a teenager and are angry at me about something, so I'm putting it in writing now that I DO love you and the fact that I'm not letting you go out with that college boy has absolutely no correlation to my poor blog updating habits. It also has nothing to do with his shaved head and earrings (I can't judge on that I guess, huh..).
Because so much has been going on lately, I'm going to abandon any attempt to make this into a coherent, flowing post and instead just post random thoughts from the past few weeks.
*Each week I get about 500 e-mails from different baby websites telling me what pregnancy is like in that given week and how the baby is progressing. In the latest one, I noticed a couple funny things:
"Your baby's about 15.7 inches long now, and she weighs almost 3 pounds(like a head of cabbage)."
Okay, I don't know why, but these e-mails have this tendency to compare the baby to various pieces of fruit and vegetables. Maybe this is the real explanation as to why pregnant women sometimes eat poorly; their subconscious is overloaded with guilt when they take a bite out of a small peach and realize that's what their baby's head was just compared to by www.howsmybabythisweek.com. All joking aside, it's pretty amazing comparing her size now to the beginning stages. I remember when we would hold up a closed fist and that's how big she was; now it seems like her fists are probably bigger than mine (I know my hands will have that growth spurt one day..), especially the way she hits inside Amanda's stomach some nights.
"Her eyesight continues to develop, though it's not very keen; even after she's born, she'll keep her eyes closed for a good part of the day. When she does open them, she'll respond to changes in light but will have 20/400 vision — which means she can only make out objects a few inches from her face. (Normal adult vision is 20/20.)"
Maybe I've been misguided in the past by movies like 'Look Who's Talking', but for some reason whenever I imagine Ava inside the womb, I envision her with her eyes open, making witty commentary on all of her surroundings, with some celebrity's voice narrating her thoughts. Yes, I know that this is very wrong, but I still get a kick out of picturing her as just a tiny little adult, with a sharp mind and a sense of humor already (which I think its pretty safe to say she will have). The fact is though, little notes like the one above remind me that she's still developing quite a bit in there. As big as she is now, and as far along as she has come, there's still plenty of growing left to do. This growing is already so exciting to watch and hear about, and Ava isn't even actually out here yet. It get's me so anxious for all the big (and little) moments that are going to occur throughout her life where we get to see things 'click' and watch her develop a personality, an intellect, and knowing my luck, plenty of attitude. What also makes me laugh about this is that as a newborn, Ava is going to have better natural vision than Amanda does right now. While I hope Ava gets her looks from Amanda, I do hope she gets her eyesight from me!
*It should be noted in here that after two baby showers (thank you to my mom/sisters and Little/Jen for being amazing hosts) and gifts from various people, Ava officially has more pairs of shoes than I have had over the past 5 years of my life. Granted, they are a variety of sizes but still; this little girl is spoiled beyond belief already.
*Somebody really needs to enter the maternity clothes market with clothing that is somewhat fashionable but also affordable (Preggers 21?). I never really understood Amanda's distaste for maternity shopping until I went with her one day to a few stores and realized how ridiculous the selections are for pregnant women. Either you can look like some weird trash bag clown (I don't even know what that means) or you can empty out your bank account for something that has a resemblance to normal clothing. Is this really fair? Plus, the maternity selection at places like Target is laughable at best. I was so worked up that day that I swore I was going to create a second-hand maternity store that would offer pregnant women a vast amount of maternity options without having to hand over their first born child (badum CHING) but then I found out there's a place in Lenexa that already does that. Dream=crushed. I guess I'll just have to go back to my dream of being on a game show.
*One of the 'issues' that we have been working on in preparation for the baby is trying to train the dogs a little better and get them to be more disciplined. As anyone who has met these dogs can attest, we are pretty much destined for failure. They are both overweight and have some sort of personality disorder. The black lab just got put on Xanax because of his anxiety but apparently he is immune to it because it has no effect on him whatsoever. The basset hound is an angry, bitter old dog at only 2 years old (maybe because we forgot his birthday) and still has issues with pissing on the carpet. So all in all, we have our work cut out for us, but we are determined to have these dogs behaving and not causing trouble when the baby is here. And I guess if they do cause trouble, I'll call up Cesar Millan to come take care of them, and walk them on his weird LandRoller skates.
*I have officially made the transition from young and spirited to old and crotchety; I am now the one making the noise complaints about my neighbors instead of the one receiving them.
*It's amazing how a $200 dresser can become a $700 dresser when you add the word 'baby' in front of it or add '/changing table' after it. It's also amazing how taking an old, low dresser and refinishing it ultimately gives us the same piece of furniture as a $200 dresser or a $700 dresser. BRILLIANT!
*I'm so pumped that I get to shop for toys again. This is like my dream come true. I can't wait for Christmas time to come, and to get the giant Toys R Us catalog in the mail, which I'll proceed to go through and circle all the things that I think Ava needs. I already look at toys online and have found myself thinking about how fun some of the things will be for both of us to play with. Woohoo!
Well that's all I've got for today; it's actually an incredibly important day..Amanda and I are getting married! We are just having a small ceremony tonight with our immediate families and Amanda's grandparents, but it should be very special and I'm so excited. It's a pretty amazing feeling knowing that I get to officially spend the rest of my life with my best friend. I love her so much and have thought about this day for a long time. It's funny looking back on the day we first met in Latin class and seeing where we've come since then. Between experiences both good and bad, exciting times and trying times, we've been through so much already and are going to have so much more ahead. I couldn't think of a better person to do it all with.
I'll be back again soon (I SWEAR)!
