It's a BOY!

These pictures of me were taken in November, I think. I am awful at remembering! I need Johnny to take some of me now, since I am much bigger! It's funny how many mixed comments I get about my size. I think I look like a totally normal pregnant girl, but some people have said I look small, and others act like I should be in labor!

A funny story about this: I was at the grocery store a couple of days before Christmas and the checker (who was a very friendly guy) asked if it was a holiday baby. I replied no, and he seemed surprised! Then he asked, "More like a Valentine's baby?" I just said, "ya..." I didn't want to tell him I was actually due in April. He would've died! I saved both of us the embarrassment. I swear, people should never guess when you are due, (especially men) or say anything that makes you feel even bigger! I feel big enough, I don't need the extra surprised faces that some people pull!!

Anyway, my due date is April 24th, and we are really excited!! We found out that it was a boy soon after Thanksgiving, but I am quite far behind on this blog, so this is the first I've really mentioned it, sadly.

I really felt like it was a boy pretty early on, so I wasn't shocked when I found out. I don't think Johnny was either. Gretel kept insisting it was a girl for a little while, but she doesn't anymore. She says she's excited to hug him and tuck him in blankets. (yeah right! I'm worried about suffocation)

The first trimester was super rough, as expected. Weeks 6-8 were full of awful pain on my right side because of a cyst I've had for a while. That caused me to hobble around, not able to stand up straight. Thankfully I didn't have to deal with that at the same time as feeling really nauseous. To me, there is nothing worse than that phase. That dreaded morning sickness was from 8-18 weeks. Since then, I have felt great, thankfully! I know I am very lucky-it would be just awful to be sick the whole time.

The foods I couldn't live without the first trimester were honeycrisp apples, scrambled eggs with ham and cheese, and good deli sandwiches-especially roast beef. For the past little while everything has tasted good, and I don't really crave anything in particular. I'm just glad that my appetite is normal this time. When I was pregnant with Gretel, I was starving all the time! It was especially out of control in the first trimester, and I had a serious doughnut craving the whole pregnancy, so that made for some heavy-duty working out after she was born!

We feel really lucky to be having a boy-it will be fun to have one of each!

"This Kitty...."

"This kitty" is the beginning of about every sentence that Gretel says, and it's been going on for months now. It started with the movie Oliver and Company, and after watching it she suddenly transformed into Oliver and I became Jenny. We've role played that to death, and then she started morphing into other kitties. Sometimes she is Figaro, while Gwen is Pluto, I'm Minnie and Johnny is Mickey. Other times she is Spunky, a kitty who gets lost in a tree and needs to be rescued in a Chip n' Dale episode. Her latest kitty character is one that we can't figure where it came from or who it is. It sounds like "Louis and the frog" but she says it like it's one word. Gwen is sometimes called Rovo the Kitty. She tells me the baby in my tummy is sometimes called Betsy, a little baby kitty. (That just reminded me how extremely behind I am on my blog!! I will have to do an entire post about my pregnancy since I have not even mentioned it until now....how horrible!)

Anyway, Gretel says lots of things like "this kitty is cold." "This kitty doesn't know how to say prayers," etc. She usually speaks in third person and loves to direct. She is in charge, and loves to role play everything.
She absolutely loves watching Tom and Jerry cartoons and wants to play it with me. I'm Tom and she's Jerry. (one of few non-kitty roles) She tells me, "Now-you lay down and sleep. Then I'll pull your whisker and your tail!" After she does this, I wake up and act angry, then shout "JERRY!" while chasing her around the house. She is a hoot and I'm always impressed with how creative she is, thinking up these games.




Most of her day is spent hiding in every pillow that goes on our bed. She pulls off the decorative and non-decorative pillows and hides in them for hours! She says "Cinderella found a kitty!" (lots of times she pretends to be various princess' kitties) Or "Tiana found a kitty!" That's when I come in and find her beneath everything.
I can't believe how long she's loved hiding in pillows and blankets now. It's been at least a year. She also has a deep obsession with hiding Gwen is her blankie that has been going on daily for probably a year and a half. Poor Gwen really puts up with a lot! My mom is not a fan of dogs at all, and after witnessing Gretel hiding Gwen in her blanket night after night while I was staying with them this summer, she said "I have gained a whole new respect for that dog!"


These are Gretel's favorite toys-she lives for her Petshops! She separates all the kitties from the other petshops and hides them in their blankies too.

This is a small nook that Gretel has turned into her kitty bed. She took a couple of tiny pillows out of my jewelry boxes and lays on them. She likes to be the naughty kitty, getting out of bed and says, "get mad at this kitty and send me back to my bed."

Anyway-she is obsessed with kitties and begs me for a real one all the time! She wishes Gwen had baby pups in her tummy, and wants her to be a mommy pup. She also told my mom last week, "Mimi-I wish people has tails.....I wish I had-ed a tail." (I like how she adds an e-d to the end of the word had)
It's not on the kitty subject, but there is another thing I just remembered that's kind of creepy that she told my mom last week. She says there is a lady in her room named Chancelaura (I don't know how to spell it, but she pronounces it "Chance-a-laura") with white hair that floats up to the ceiling and back down.

One more thing-
I can't believe this kitty is a sunbeam now!! I had to take a picture of her with her great nursery leaders. This is sister Rolland...


This is her absolute favorite, Sister Coltrin....


She really misses her-this morning while we were getting ready to go to church, she told me that Sister Coltrin wants cookies. I told her we should make her some, and asked if she misses her. She said, "Yes-I love her." She really does.
She helped me make Sister Coltrin cinnamon rolls which we took her on Christmas. Gretel adores her-I'm glad she had such awesome leaders in nursery, and she also has great sunbeam teachers now. I think she likes it so far!