Thanksgiving

Myles had lots to pay attention to at Aunt Olivia's. He saw this Rihanna-esque girl and was fascinated. He was especially fixated on her earrings. He saw another girl later and followed her around like a puppy until he met another little boy who was 3.

Little Todd wasn't that interesting until his dad turned on the flashing lights inside his sneakers. Then Myles chased him around (she's got a square, track shaped hallway) for the next hour or so, until they found the secret room with the big boys...

who were playing video games. They were suspiciously quiet, so I went to find my baby and voila, Myles and Todd were transfixed by the tv set while the teenagers played some violent fighting game. What a boy.

Here's an action shot of him rounding the corner in glee when he was still chasing Todd.

He loves seeing the pictures I've taken.

He likes to try on daddy's glasses. Uh oh!

He looks like Jonathan Lipnicki from Jerry Maguire!

Kicking up a storm

Mark just got home 20 minutes ago and brought me a ginger ale from the kitchen. Now, the baby in my stomach is kicking like crazy! Last night was the first kick I'd felt so far - I'd felt movement before, but not kicking. I felt a one-off after we got home from Thanksgiving dinner at Aunt Olivia's. But that was with my hand on my stomach. Today's strong enough for me to feel it outright. So I told Mark to put his hand on my stomach and I took a new swig and voila, a big old kick! I'm not sure if the carbonation gives him hiccups or what because he's kicking regularly and I haven't taken a new sip in 5 minutes at least.

We tried to let Myles feel him, but he didn't like being restrained and having to stand still to wait. He'll have plenty of time for that later on. It's cool when it becomes more real and present. If I remember correctly, from 5 months on, it's a roller coaster of changes and excitement.

Organ Relocation Project Part 2 - Animated

Remember how last pregnancy I asked where everything moved to accomodate the baby, and found a picture showing how your intestines and everything squished around to make space? Well, there's an interactive animation that shows the growth of the baby and how your body accomodates. Heartburn makes a lot more sense now, huh?

It's a boy for sure!

I went to our 18 week ultrasound and sure enough, it's indeed a 2nd boy. Mark's a boy maker for sure. Here's an ultrasound off our new lil' pumpkin. He was very active on the ultrsound, squirming and kicking up a storm, just like Myles. We're very excited!

Mark goes to Gymboree

Myles is obsessed with "knock, knock." That was last week. Now he's progressed to "Come in," chirped in a sing-song manner that you could recognize whatever the words. We're working on "Who is it," which is turning into "who are you" and something else unintelligible. He's also singing the ABCD song with replacement words since he's not up on the lyrics. He knows all his letters, yet not in song format. And he mixed up the phonics sounds for some letters, eg., S is "ssss", C is often "kuh," etc. He knows the phonetic sounds of all the letters as well. We got a Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD from the library which he adores. I've been trying to find one without the phonetic sounds so that we can disconnect those a bit.

In other tangled up things, he's started saying "thank you welcome." We'd say thank you all the time, so I started saying you're welcome, but now he thinks it's one long stream.

Our schedule was hectic this week so we couldn't do Gymboree on the normal day. I had the 18 week ultrasound on Monday. It's a boy! A healthy, beautiful, active little boy. But it blocked Gymboree, so we went on Saturday and Mark came along. Here are some shots.

Horses hats and Geese

3rd time on a horse. Still lovin' it.

Feeding the pigeons and geese at a park.

Halloween

Harvest festival at a pumpkin farm.

Boo at the zoo with friends.

Myles was DJ Lance Rock from Yo Gabba Gabba.

More 2

My aunt Bessie tickling Myles.

Myles playing with his Arkansas cousins.

My dad's first visit with Myles since he was a newborn.

Myles at the harvest festival.

2nd time on a horse. He loved it.

And then we rode the trains.

September/October in photos

Sharp dressed man.

Reading Goodnight Gorilla before going 'night night.'

My friend Charis visited Myles late this summer and turns out to be a pro baby wrangler, all on instinct.

Myles is already trying to fill his daddy's shoes.

Myles and Mark in the ultrasound room, seeing our new baby for the first time.