Country Livin' and Baby Growin'

Hi all!

I'm sorry for the delays between my blog updates - life's been busy! Many of you know that Chris and I recently made the move to Pine City! I never thought I'd see the day I'd be a "country girl" again, but here I am and I love it! OK let's face it, the title of "Country Girl" is a stretch. A more accurate description would be that I'm loving living closer to family & friends in a climate controlled, bug-free house that happens to be in the country, but on a tar road (thank God!) Ali & Nature just do not mix, no matter how hard my mother-in-law tries to make that happen (right, Vicki?!) I'm proud to say, however, that she recently put me in charge of watering her plants for 11 days and none of them died. Now if only I could remember to water the ONE plant I have at my house, we might call it a success.

Seriously, my lack of skills and general aversion to nature makes me feel like I don't even have the right to admit I grew up on a farm. Sorry, Mom & Dad! And how the heck did me and Chris (a.k.a. Grizzly Adams, Daniel Boone, any other nature dude) ever end up together?! He is completely in his element. He was tending to our new fire pit before we even had 2 boxes unpacked. I joined him for about 3 minutes before I got bit by no less than 7 mosquitoes. That is not an exaggeration. I've read in my "What To Expect When You're Expecting" book that pregnant women get bit by mosquitoes twice as much as non-pregnant women. Who knew? Evidently we're producing more carbon dioxide because we're breathing more, which my already good friends - mosquitoes - just love. Logically, then, my conclusion is that breathing less will keep the mosquitoes away. In that case, I should stay away from exercise, right? I'm just going by what the experts say....just kidding, but man, have I been slackin' in that area. Does creating and nurturing a human life count as exercise? I'd say its counts as pretty strenuous stuff........

Speaking of this little human life inside me.......:-) Today I'm 21 weeks, 4 days pregnant - already over the halfway point! We had our 20 week ultrasound last week - so fun! Here are some of the highlights and/or noteworthy items re: the ultrasound:

• Most importantly - Baby Piha is totally healthy and is developing perfectly so far! It's an absolute miracle - all the body parts, organs, etc. that are forming in this tiny little being. Amazing.
• We did not find out the sex. Not because Baby didn't cooperate but because we didn't want to know - we really want to keep it a surprise. We are not doing this to annoy you, and we're very sorry this makes your shopping experience more difficult (insert sarcasm here - you wouldn't believe how many people comment on how hard it is to shop when we tell them we're not finding out. Yes, I know there isn't as much gender neutral stuff but we'll all get through it somehow.)
• Baby Piha is downright creepy looking. Homeboy/girl better get cuter before birth. They did a forward face shot and he/she literally looked like Skeletor. We love them no matter what but right now, they have a face that only Mommy & Daddy could love, yikes!!! I will say, though, that from the side he/she is much cuter, so we're pretty confident they'll be presentable by the time they arrive. :-)
• The ultrasound tech said our baby is already very photogenic - they did all the "poses" she wanted them to at just the right times. I'm already picturing them turning to the side with hands on hips, just like Mommy. So is Chris, which really worries him if it turns out to be a boy, haha! 
• Baby is very active!! My placenta is in the front, so it's hard for me to feel movement yet but I'm pretty confident I've felt a couple little ripples in the past week. 
• WE'RE IN LOVE! We always have been but we're even more so after seeing our little guy/gal actually looking like a cute little baby (except from the front, refer to 3rd bullet point.) It was an amazing experience!
• P.S. Was I supposed to cry?? Several people have asked me if I cried and I immediately had the "oh no, I'm a bad mom" feeling because I didn't. We laughed! From what I hear from all you mom's out there, I will become quite familiar with that feeling; might as well get started now, huh?! Though, I'd rather have Baby hear me laughing all the time versus crying - I think we'll be just fine. :-) 

Other than that, we're just plugging along! Baby has been good to me and I really can't complain about pregnancy - it's been a breeze compared to the horror stories I hear from others! Yet, I can't say I love it. Does that make me a bad person? I love the fact that I'm pregnant and I love our baby, and I love that Chris and I are experiencing this together, especially given the fact that we didn't think we could. But I've had people tell me that they LOVED being pregnant and would be pregnant forever if they could - that they never felt better in their life. Um, no. I'm so grateful for the opportunity and experience, and I hope to be able to do it again, but I don't think I'm one of those people. Maybe if I didn't have teenage acne I'd feel differently. :-) 

Thanks for reading!! I promise to do better at keeping you all updated! Oh! And I'll leave you with one of the better pictures of Baby Piha. :-)