Adventures with viruses

So I have been getting sick A LOT lately. Elena picks up all kinds of lovely new fangled viruses from her daycare (she goes twice a week! that's it!) and gets a little bit sick and leaves me with weeks of misery. I am the sort of person who got awards in elementary school for not missing any days the entire year, and as an adult breezed through a couple colds a year... before the coop came into my life. Now I feel like it has been 3 weeks sick, one week off pattern for the last few months (yikes, since I got pregnant-- please don't mention the impressive amounts of cold meds I took in the first trimester. I am already terrified that my baby will be deformed!) In the last week, I have had sore throat, headache, stuffy runny nose, conjunctivitis, ear infection, cough, another sore throat, more coughing, and general malaise. Not to mention pregnancy-related hunger and heartburn, and being up several times a night with sick child. Oh, and no more cold meds for me! I also went to a conference in Vancouver with just me and the baby for three days... not fun at all. I had childcare for a few hours a day, but it was hard on everyone. I am really tired of us being sick!! Any tips on boosting the immune system?

My sweet little lemon

This week, baby #2 is the size of a lemon! Actually, I think he was a lemon last week, and an apple this week, but I only had a lemon in the house to appreciate. I think the size-equated-with produce analogies are really hilarious. There is even a slideshow on babycenter.com devoted to showing produce at each week of the fetus' life to show his/her size! http://www.babycenter.com/slideshow-baby-size
I am excited about 25 weeks when he will be the size of a rutabaga, or 32 weeks when he will be the equivalent in size to a large jicama (?!)
And here we all are in perspective... tiny baby, big huge crawling (almost walking) baby, and steadily growing mother. I am now officially at the dreaded "too big for my old jeans, but too small for maternity jeans" stage. There is definitely a belly there, but it is not too obvious.

Thank you for the sweet chick, Nola!!

Elena LOVES the chick Nola sent her for Easter. She carries around saying "chick! chick!" and takes in and out of its egg over and over again. What a wonderful surprise Easter present!

The parking spot project continues...

A few weeks ago, Kevin finally built some wonderful concrete steps from the parking spot up to the backyard. Now he is busy working on a gate and arbor in his spare time. Here he is putting in two huge cedar posts as the beginnings of the arbor with his friend, Chris. Stay tuned... it will look fantastic when it is done!

Swinging with Daddy

Favorite books

Elena's all-time favorite book these days is a wonderful out-of-print book called "When the Sun Rose" by Barbara Helen Berger. This book was given to us by Chandra, Aaron and Adelle and apparently was Adelle's favorite book, too! Ellie get really excited to see the big golden lion on every page. The illustrations are so beautiful and the story is lovely, if a bit strange.
Here she is pointing out that the dollies are playing ball ("bai!") while the girls paint rainbows all day and the lion purrs.
Here other favorite book is "Fast-Slow, High-Low" by Peter Spier, a garage sale find. It is an older book that has great pictures of opposites on each page. Of course Elena does not understand the opposites, but she loves to point out all the objects. She is learning to recognize all sort of unusual things like "ostrich" "blue heron," "ski-lift," "rocket" and "straw hut," not to mention all sorts of usual baby words (which she can actually say) like "fish," "brush," "car" and "hat." It is really a great book. She just sits in front of it and point to everything. Here she is pointing to the pig.

First day at the co-op

My baby started daycare today!!! She goes twice a week to a co-op down the street. After three weeks of visiting with me or Kevin, today was her first day going solo. She was there from 9-3 and really had a great day. I cried twice, but as far as I can tell, she only cried once (when I couldn't help myself and drove down to check on her at 11 am and she saw me and thought I was there to take her home. Bad, bad, mommy.) She took a 2 hour nap and ate crackers and fruit and did not spontaneioulsy combust OR cry pitiously for her neglectful mommy for 6 hours straight. As far as I can tell, she really had a good time!

So little, so big

Elena and Obie have a great relationship. She loves him to death-- announcing his presence whever possible by shouting "BEEEE!" But respectfully keeps her distance. She has learned very quickly (from merely two kitty swipes) that Obie does not like to be messed with. She will reach out and barely touch his fur, and he is okay with that. He will even rub up against her when feeling particularly affectionate. Mainly, they peacefully coexist. What a great baby. What a great cat.

Some of Elena's favorite things...

Grandma Linda got Ellie this hat for Christmas and she is truly enthralled by it. She puts her "t-t-t" on her baby, on the cat, on me, and on herself, over and over again. (Yes, I know my baby's nose is STILL orange. I cannot help this and would appreciate it if everyone tactfully ignores it.)
God, I love that hat.
Here she is posing as a WWII bomber pilot. The sunglasses are a big hit. Strangely, when she wears them, she gets all serious and starts bumping in to things.
Her aboslutely favorite thing is this shawl she got from my friend, Susan. Putting on the shawl means she get to go out and that is AWESOME. She get super excited everytime she sees it and if I hesitate at all putting it on her, she gets really angry. She calls it her "k-k-k" for "jacket." Here she is waiting patiently for me to put on my kkk and take her out of the house. Please, mama, get me out of this place already and give me some fresh air.

SURPRISE!!!!

I'm pregnant!!! And I'm not just a little bit pregnant... I'm 3 months pregnant! How did this happen? I mean, you all know HOW this happened, but how did I go three months without knowing I was pregnant? Well, I never got a period and was nursing night and day, so I just didn't think I was fertile. And I had such a hard time getting pregnant with Elena, I didn't think it would happen again without major interventions. Anyhow, I took a pregnancy test last weekend, and got an ultrasound today to date the pregnancy, and to our utter shock and amazement, we saw arms, legs, fingers, body... and low and behold, boy parts! The technician thinks it is most likely a boy! Woo-hoo! We are just blown away.

So here are the first pictures of baby boy Krentz-- if you look closely you can see his head and body in the first one and his head and a waving arm and hand in the second. We are just so happy! And freaked out!