Dear Lori,

I want to thank you for being my wife. You chose me and you continue to choose me despite my many faults. I need your love and you give it to me always. Thank you.

And yes, I chose you too. But, you make it an easy choice. You are beautiful, smart, and funny. You are a great wife, and an amazing mother.

Every day I’m married to you is a great day. But, today is even greater. It’s your birthday. So while I don’t normally take enough time to thank you for all you do and for all your love, today, I want to tell you that I’m grateful to you and I love you. You are my best friend.

PAMPERS Gifts to Grow Code:

• welcome2village (10 points)

HUGGIES Enjoy the Ride Codes: (here are some codes I’ve posted in the past)

Worth 5 Points Each:

• BDGTW XSQBJ TXPGB (expires 8/31/10)
• BCSQD DNXQF BBPGB (expires 2/28/10)

Worth 1 Point Each:

• BBRGX FHMMD HGPGB
• BCFRH SDWLP XFPGB
• BCJHP HBTLL KDPGB
• BCMJG GKLMJ KJPGB
• BCNTP WXTNL XKPGB

You can make a personalized video from Santa Claus to your child for FREE.

You fill out a short checklist about what your child’s name, what your child looks like, where he’s from, what he wants for Christmas, etc.

You can also upload a picture so that when Santa opens his “Naughty or Nice Book,” your child can see his photo.

To get an idea of what your video clip might look like, you can click here to see the video I made for my daughter.

And click here to make your own video.

So yesterday, Jonathan and I went to see our fetus again.  Here are some things we learned from the appointment:

1. Baby weighs about 15 oz.  The Perinatologist (sp?) predicted that Baby’s final weight could be 8 lb, 8 oz.                                                                                        
2. Baby has my toes (the second toes are longer than the firsts)
3. My placenta is low lying.  This isn’t a bad thing now, but it could be of a concern if it doesn’t move up later on.
4. Baby is breech now, which isn’t a bad thing now.
5. They didn’t see anything wrong with the kidneys, at this point.
6. I have another Sonogram scheduled for February, and I’ll probably get another one after that!

Here are some other pictures: Arm, Leg, Head & Chest

Last night, Jonathan felt Baby move several times for the first time!  Yea!

And, we’ve decided to refer to Baby as JoJo, as suggested by Jonathan’s sister.  I’m not sure of her reasoning, but here’s our reason: if Baby is a boy, his middle name will be Jonathan, and if Baby is a girl, her middle name will be Joy.  Hence Jo for Jonathan and Jo for Joy, so JoJo.

Here’s what I looked like last week:

Here are some things you did in your 20th Month:

• Besides talking about family members and friends, here are some cute, random things you have thanked God for in your prayers: Mr. Bear, the big ball, rabbit, humidifier, the turkey, Santa Claus, towel, bed . . .
• You love stairs, which you call “big steps.”  We can’t keep you away from them.
• You have your pronouns mixed up when you say things like, “Mommy, hold you please.” or “You want the big ball, please.”  We do correct you, but we do kinda like it.  Other than that, you’re still amazingly advanced with speech.  Strangers can understand you and carry on conversations with you.
• For the past two Sundays and a Wednesday night, you have cried when we left you in the nursery at church.  This is confusing to me because you love going to bible class, and they say that soon after we leave, you do great.  I guess you’re getting attached to Momma again.
• Also, two times during this past month, you have woken up early from your nap crying.  I’ve gone in there and done something I’ve never done before: gotten you out of bed, sat in the rocker with you, and you actually cuddled me and stayed still for more than 30 seconds.  I’m not sure how much of these times you were asleep, but you held onto me for about an hour each time, and I loved every second of it.
• Your canines on top have poked through, but they’re not fully grown yet.
• You have been fussier lately when we’re out in public.  You had never cried or pouted in public until a couple of weeks ago.  So, that hasn’t been much fun lately.
• You’ve been better with eating this last month.  Hopefully that will continue.

As always, we love you tremendously.  Here’s your 20th Month Video . . .

To update you on this post: my mom is going to watch Abigail while we go watch the Sonogram tomorrow.  Unfortunately, they told me it wouldn’t be a 3D/4D one.  Boo.  Also, we’re not allowed to videotape the monitor.  Boo.  And, they don’t give out a video of the movement.  Boo.  All we’ll be getting to show you are still images (2D).  Sorry; I tried!

We’ve also decided to let the gender be a surprise to 99% of everyone.  It has yet to be seen whether the remaining 1% of that group (the doctors, and Jonathan & I) will find out the gender.

Just yesterday, I was looking up paint colors in greens and blues (which is what we’ll be painting the room, regardless of whether Baby’s a boy or girl).  So I started thinking of decorations I could make, like paintings, picture frames, wall letters, and signs.  That really made me want to know the Baby’s gender!  Ahh.

Oh, has anyone attempted to make a diaper stacker??

We had planned on letting Baby use Abigail’s crib and on buying Abigail a twin bed.  But just a couple of weeks ago, Abigail’s crib was recalled.  It converts into a toddler bed, twin bed, and then full, so that is good because we can just convert the crib to a toddler bed for her.

So, we’ve been looking at cribs for Baby.  We’re really liking the Baby Mod Lily, which we’re told is the same exact crib as Da Vinci Emily.  Does anyone have either of these cribs?  If so, what do you think of it?  I’m concerned about it not having a drop side (even though it’s safer, I know) because I’m only 5 ft 3 in.  I haven’t been able to “test out” the crib in person.  Or do you have another crib that you’d recommend?

Sorry for being the worst blogger, again.  We were on Thanksgiving vacation from Wednesday-Saturday (pictures to come later).  And since we’ve been back home, I’ve had to catch up on laundry, do regular household things, and finish up my Christmas shopping.  I still have a few Christmas sewing/making jobs left, but at least I don’t have to shop!

About the pregnancy: I’m feeling Baby move a lot more for the past week or so.  In fact, Baby’s moving now.  Last week, I started feeling better with the nausea/vomiting.  Since I felt good for more than 3 days, I thought, ‘I’m better finally.’  And then, Monday happened.  UGH.  Definitely not over the all day sickness.  The past three days have not been fun.  Please, please God make me better!  Okay, sorry about the whining . . .

Picture of Baby #2 at 13 weeks

I am now 20 weeks along, and knowing how my previous pregnancy went, it probably means I’m more than half way done!  Yea!

So, next Tuesday is the big Sonogram.  The one where we could find out the gender.  We’re still debating about whether or not to find out.  What do you think- objectively?

My cousin Katie got me thinking that it’d be fun to wait until delivery day to find out.  If we already had babies of each gender, I would so wait until delivery day.  But, I’m not sure since we wouldn’t have boy stuff if Baby is a boy.  And then, I thought since this is probably going to be our last baby, it might be fun to be surprised.

Either way, I think surprises are fun, so we’re thinking we might not let anyone know regardless of whether or not we find out.  Is this rude?

How did you decide whether or not to find out Baby’s gender?  Specifically, to those of you who waited, are you glad you did?

Another question: We took Abigail to Baby #2’s first sonogram, but we’re not sure if we should take her to this one.  We want it to be special, and it was hard the first time, because we were constantly having to answer Abigail’s questions/comments.  Also, we were wanting Jonathan to video record Baby’s movement on the monitor.  So, did you take your older kid(s) to your new baby’s sonograms?

Abigail at 20 weeks