Meant to be...

At the baby shower two weeks ago, my sister Jodi had made up a collage of photos of Ben & me as babies. Two things were evident in looking at the pictures.

First, as my sister in law Carly stated, there really isn't any question on what Joshua will look like. He'll have dark hair, big, round eyes, and he'll rival the Michelin Man as far as fat rolls go. I'm personally of the opinion that if he looks anything like his daddy, he'll be unbearably cute.

The second thing that was plain to see is that Ben and I were destined to be together. Look at this picture...

I realize it's not the best picture...it was taken with my phone. Sorry! Anyway, these two pictures were taken when we were about the same age, 2500 miles apart...and yet we're wearing the same overalls. In the same walker. And the floor is almost the same even though you can't see it in my picture. Coincidence? I think not. :) There's no doubt we were meant to be.

The OPPOSITE of nesting...

Ben has been waiting for the "nesting instinct" to kick in. Frankly, I have too! It's not that I haven't wanted to nest or have things ready for the baby, it's just that I get so overwhelmed with it all that I haven't done anything to speak of. After our baby shower two weekends ago, I finally motivated myself enough to wash all his clothes & things, start organizing a little bit and really getting ready. We figured out where to hang pictures & things in his room & started to buy things we really needed but hadn't gotten yet. Then we got the email.

Sunday night, I opened my email to find a letter from our landlord. She told us that they have decided not to renew our lease as we had wanted and that they were planning on downsizing and moving into this townhouse. We were completely stunned. And while we completely understand and sympathize with our landlord's situation, the news was still devastating. We need to be out of our house by April 30. Great timing, huh? Either we have to pack & move now while I'm mostly useless (I have developed carpal tunnel in both wrists and can't grip anything and I'm pretty clumsy with this ever growing belly) or wait until we have a newborn who needs our constant attention and we're sleep deprived. We've started looking for a new home, and are confident that God will provide someplace even better than what we have now. Our goal is to move at the end of February/first of March so that we are somewhat settled before Joshua arrives. So now I'm going against everything I feel like I should be doing. Instead of hanging things in Joshua's room and putting away all his little clothes, we are going to be packing up our house. This is definitely the opposite of nesting.

That's what's going on in our life...what's new with you? :)

"Our car is filled with baby crap!"

First off, sorry for saying 'crap' mom, but it was a quote! That's what Ben said as we drove home from Babies'R'Us & Target today. The back seat was filled with a huge carseat box and a bag from Target with clearance baby items (cute socks, jammies, etc). In the trunk was the snap'n'go stroller frame that wouldn't fit in the back seat. Seriously though, the carseat looks like something you'd find in the front seat of a race car! It's a bright orange-red and looks so comfy that I'd like to sit in it. :) See?

This past weekend was our baby shower at home in New York. I was totally overwhelmed by all the generosity! So if you were there, thank you so much. Up until this point, I've been a little panicked. I felt like time is running out to get all those little things we need (or at least all those little things that Babies'R'Us tells us we need!). I'd wake up in the morning thinking, "oh my gosh...Joshua doesn't have any socks! We are so not ready for this baby!" So now we have socks and a bunch of other things that I've been worried about, so Joshua can come anytime he likes. As long as when he likes is in another 7-9 weeks. But no later. If it's more than 10 weeks, he's evicted. Mommy has spoken.

Let's end on a high note. :) Here are two of my favorite pictures that I've taken recently. Just because I like them. And because it'll be another 9 weeks or so until these posts are filled with Josh. :) Talk to you soon...

This is Ben testing the Baby Bjorn with our 7 week old neighbor, Savannah. We watch her once a week while her parents are at bible study. Ben's in love with her. :) She's pretty comfortable with him too.

Our nephew, Timothy!! Isn't he handsome?! I love those cheeks!!!

The thing I miss the most...

I miss my brain. I used to be somewhat intelligent. I could form and finish a sentance without uttering "um, what whas I just saying?". I could remember words like 'remote control'. I could do math. Now that I'm pregnant and my blood is no longer flowing north, I'm having trouble with just about all of that. I thought I'd share three of my favorite "pregnancy brain" moments with you so you can have a laugh at my expense. :)

1. I pre-registered with the hospital this past week so that *hopefully* when I'm in labor I don't have to fill out all sorts of paperwork before they can give me the happy drugs. I received a postcard from them telling me that they had received my registration and that there were a few things we needed to make sure we did prior to arriving. Bring our insurance card, know who our pediatrician would be, blah, blah, blah. We also have to have our carseat installed and inspected. Here's how the conversation went:

Ben: "Where do we get the carseat inspected?"
Me: "At the...uh...the...I can't remember the word! You know, it's the place with the trucks and the pole?"
Ben: "A fire department?"
Me: "Yep. That's the word I was looking for. That's the place."

2. I was making cookies and trying to cut the recipe in half. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what half of two-thirds was. I finally gave in and asked Ben if he could help me. After pausing to try to figure out if I was joking, he said, "Well, half of two thirds is one third, J". Then he laughed. Hard.

3. This one is my personal favorite. I was at the bank trying to cash a check for $75. The cashier asked me how I wanted my money and I started to reply that I wanted my money in twenty-fives. I quickly realized that couldn't be right and shut my mouth. Then I tried to figure out how else to split up $75. I then decided to ask for quarters. Quarters? Nope, that wouldn't work either. I finally just sat in my car, waiting for him to figure it out. The voice came over the speaker, "Are twenties ok, ma'am?". My first thought was that there was no way he was going to get $75 out of twenties but I just told him that would be fine. I mean, if he wanted to give me four twenties, I'd take it! Of course, when I got my envelope and saw the three twenties, a ten and a five, I laughed the whole way home.

I have high hopes that my brain will come back to me someday. Of course, after nine months of blood not flowing to that particular organ, I don't have a whole lot of hope. I mean, if you were given a nine month vacation would you willingly go back to work?! I didn't think so. :)

Joshua in 3D!!

We had scheduled a 3D/4D ultrasound as mom's Christmas gift (and because we really wanted to do it) and today was the big day! As Ben says, "this stuff never gets old". Seeing Joshua in 3D was unbelievable. We watched him open his mouth, stick out his tounge and chew on his umbilical cord. Yes, you read that correctly...he was chewing on his cord. He kept his left arm up over his head and his face right up against the placenta so it was hard to get a good picture of him, but it looks like he has his daddy's chin and jawline and possibly my nose. Regardless of who he resembles, he is perfect.

Joshua with his left arm over his head. Can you see all his perfect little fingers?!

Joshua's face. Look at those perfect lips!

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas, dear friends & family!! Ben and I hope that you are warm, happy, and surrounded by those you love. We are enjoying our first (and last!) Christmas by ourselves. While it's strange to have it be so quiet, it's nice.

Joshua celebrated his first Christmas with a dance number that would put the Rockettes to shame. He kept me up from 2am until 6am with high kicks, low kicks and all sorts of tumbling moves. He's never been that active for that long. While he may have his father's love of pizza, he most definitely already has his mother's love of Christmas! We will be quite the pair in years to come. I picture us racing each other down the stairs to see what Santa has brought. Poor Ben will be ripped out of a cozy slumber by Joshua's shouts and my jumping on the bed. He'll love it. :)

We hope that your Christmas and this last week of the year is a beautiful one! We send all of our love, kisses and hugs to our families who we are missing terribly.

"Someday soon we all will be together, if the fates allow.

Hang a shining star upon the highest bough,

and have yourself a merry little Christmas now!"

Oh. My. Goodness.

OK. Does it freak anyone else out that the ticker at the top of the page says that there are only 100 DAYS until Joshua is due to arrive?!?! Because it makes me panic just a little bit. One hundred days is not a long time. I feel like there are so many things to do and so little time. This is more stressful than planning our wedding!!!

On the bright side of things...somewhere around 100 days from now, I'll be holding my son in my arms. That makes it all better. :)

Timothy!

We did a whirlwind trip to visit friends and family this weekend. It was the weekend of the Nodine Men Annual Christmas "Shopping" Trip. I actually think they did really shop this year too! Impressive, huh? :) The ladies stayed at Kim's house and talked and fawned over the newest addition to our family - Timothy! He is a very happy baby, but does NOT like having his diaper changed! Brian are Carly are wonderfully proud parents (with good reason!) and were so nice to let me completely monopolize my nephew. Of course, I shared Timothy with Ben and both seemed to enjoy the experience.
Timothy is just beginning to smile as well and it was wonderful to see him give his Uncle Ben an example of his newly aquired skill.
We had such a great time this weekend seeing everyone. Thanks to Todd & Andrea, Tori & Jay, Matt & Rebecca (Matthew & Natalie too!) and the Birtwistles for taking the time to visit with us! We miss you all and can't wait to see you again once Joshua is here!!

Ahhhh.

We were given a wonderful gift from Grandma & Grandpa (aka Chiefy) Nodine. Here it is!

It rocks (well, it glides really) and swivels and is probably the most comfortable place to sit in the whole house. It fits both Ben and I perfectly...my feet even reach the ground! I'm sure there will be many nights spent rocking our little one to sleep in this chair. I have no doubt that it's up to the challenge. :)

Thank you so much, Grandma & Grandpa!! We love you.

So Thankful...

Happy Thanksgiving! Dinner here was a huge success and we are all sitting around in a turkey coma. My mom flew down from Rochester to be with us and my sister, Jodi, and her husband, Jay, drove up from North Carolina. We are so happy to have them here! The only thing that could've made it better would have been to have Gina and David with us. We miss you guys!!

Joshua has been quite active today and both Jodi and mom were able to feel him wiggle and kick! Today is also Jodi's birthday. She said all she wanted was to feel Bean kick. Thankfully, Joshua obliged. Happy Birthday, Aunt Jodi! :)

We have so much to be thankful for this year. We have been so blessed. We have a home that we love, Ben is happy in his job, the weather has been wonderful, we've had opportunities to see both sides of our families, we have a new nephew, a new brother in law, and we have Joshua. What more could we want?!

So tell us...what are you giving thanks for this year? :)