Our weekend, and a peek inside my uterus!

We went to Old Town Spring on Saturday to help get us in the festive Christmas spirit. I'm struggling this year, which is strange because I usually LOVE this season. Even though I felt terrible, I dragged my worthless tush out of the house, cranked up the Christmas music, and was determined to have some fun.  I hate that all this pregnancy sickness is dampening my spirits and tainting what would be otherwise great memories.

I say great memories. But I think I should exclude Harrison's experience with Santa, which might not have been so great for him. You be the judge:

What do I want for Christmas? I want for you to LET. ME. GO!!!!!



A little better, but desperately clinging to Daddy.



More distance = even better, but still not thrilled.

I should also point out that I think it's absolutely ridiculous that Rick is sitting next to Santa in shorts and flip flops. It's December and just wrong for the high to reach 79 degrees. I don't think I will every completely get used to the climate down here. Needless to say, Santa was pretty miserable considering that the photos were taken in what looked like a shed and had no a/c. He was really nice, though!

Then we hopped on the "carriage" ride. It wasn't exactly my idea of what a carriage ride should be (especially since the poor horse's poo bag had clearly not been emptied in a while and I had to carefully breathe through my mouth to keep from barfing over the side), but it was free and Harrison seemed to enjoy it.

Then we walked around and visited the local shops and boutiques. And of course made Harrison pose for a few pics along the way. :) 

I'm really excited because we finally bought our first thing for Chicklet. I knew I wanted a lamb and just couldn't find one anywhere. Then we walked into a baby boutique and found this:

Notice the chubby little hand who thinks this belongs to him...

And let me just say that it's a pretty good thing that we don't know Chicklet's gender yet. Because they had the CUTEST things in the store and I'm not sure I would have had enough self control to walk out empty handed!

Like this:

And this:

And omg, how adorable is this?!:

Of course they had 90% more girl stuff than boy. As much as I would LOVE to have a girl, my pocket book begs to differ. Ha! I honestly don't care one way or the other what private parts Chicklet is sporting. I think about both sexes and can see how much fun it would be either way. We will be finding out a few days before Christmas and I'm so excited!

After some shopping, it was time to grab a bite to eat. This picture just melts my heart. My baby is growing up!

our little toddler

You can tell he feels like such a big boy and loves it!

After about 30 seconds of sitting down at the restaurant, we were quickly reminded why we never go out to eat. The long day and lack of nap brewed the perfect storm and my child screamed bloody murder at the top of his lungs. He was not happy unless one of us was holding him and hand feeding him bread. Rick gave him the nickname "Sweet Angel" and we got a pretty good laugh out of that one.

If you would like to take lessons from me on how to train your parents, stop by my crib sometime.

Sunday we started (and didn't get very far) decorating the house. We got the tree up and the lights on it, but I'm giving it some time before I get brave and try the ornaments. For some reason I have visions of an 8 foot tree falling over on top of my son. Not that he would ever touch anything he's not supposed to. Not my Sweet Angel. Ha!

And now it's time to shift gears and talk about what I know everybody is just dying to hear about. My uterus!

I apparently have a party going on in there. We had an appointment this morning and got to see the baby on an ultrasound, and he/she is quite the wiggler. No wonder I've been feeling movement already, even this early. Chicklet was sucking on his/her thumb and it was the cutest thing ever. The technician said everything looked great and my due date is right on target. Right now the baby is measuring 3 inches from crown to rump and is roughly the size of a large peach.

Our little thumb sucker

When she measured the heartbeat, I had to smile. She said it was 156 bpm and I knew that's what Harrison's was, too. To be sure I came home and pulled out his 12-wk ultrasound, and saw that his measured at exactly 156.25 bpm. I looked at Chicklet's, which was....wait for it....156.25 bpm. They matched down to the exact decimal! If you believe the old wives' tale it would mean that we're having a girl. And clearly the old wives' tale was extremely accurate the first time...

And now I'll leave you with a short video of my babe in utero happily punching away at his mommy. Same heart rate as Harrison, and possibly the same temper? I'm a little worried.  :)