odds & ends

last week the little dude thought he'd show off his decorating skills in the living room:



tuesday the remainder of my valentine's day gift showed up in the mail. (the hubby didn't notice the 4-6 week shipping time when he ordered it) i love it. i've already tried it out twice. you can order one here.



and finally, here's the shirt i mentioned a few posts back. it's for the little dude to wear to easter next week. he will wear it to dinner and it will be how all of my aunts and uncles will find out about the "new" pregnancy. we did the same thing for the little dude. we announced it at a graduation party where my hubby wore a shirt that said on the front: "knock, knock. who's there? i'm a. I'm a who?" and on the back read: "i'm a gonna be a freakin' daddy!" everyone loved it, so we're continuing the tradition with this one. our only problem is that i'm already showing so they're going to have to notice the little dude's shirt before they notice my belly! anyway, here it is:





it's by no means perfect since i've never really done anything like this before. but, it's cute enough and will hopefully hold together well enough to wear to easter and then maybe the hospital when the little bean actually arrives.

oh, speaking of which, i had my 16 week appt. on monday. everything is still looking good. the little dude can now tell you what the baby sounds like. it's so cute. he does this: "swish, swish, swish" sound. he so excited every time he hears it.

seriously . . .

when most kids are busy actually playing with their toys, this is what my son does:


we were in my office this morning and he came running up to me saying "line up, line up, line up". so of course i have to go see what he's talking about. this is what we found at the other side of the office. not only were his toys lined up in a perfect little row, they were also arranged from largest to smallest, ending with his little bowl of cheerios. he was so proud of himself posing for the picture with his perfect little row.

i know people don't believe me when i say my kid has OCD, but seriously, every day is full of stuff like this. the hubby says "we should get him checked out", but i'm not so sure what they'd say. i picture them looking at me with that lady-your-crazy look in their eyes and saying: "you mean your kid organizes stuff, and your worried about this?" i mean really. there are worse things in life.

date night

the little dude and i had "date night" tonight. daddy was off doing a consulting gig for the second night this week, so i decided it was time for us to get out of the house instead of sitting around waiting for him to get home.

we went to two craft stores. one, to return something i previously purchased, and the second to pick out fabric for a t-shirt i'm making the little dude. (i'll post pictures of it when it's finished.)

after the craft stores, i thought it would be fun to do fast food at a place that has a playland. the little dude has never been exposed to "playland fun", so i thought it was about time since he's a big 2 year old now. i must say that he loved it. however, i knew from the moment we stepped in, i was doomed. the room was completely closed off to the rest of the joint and it had a nasty, nasty smell to it. i'm not sure if it was my pregnancy nose in action or what, but it was bad. the fact that the heating vents must have been turned up full blast in that room made it 100 times worse. nothing like bad smell multiplied by excessive heat. mmmmmmm. yummy. just the kind of place i want to eat my dinner.

just to add to my pain, it's now snowing here. yesterday was 70º and we were outside wearing t-shirts. today it's in the 30º's, and raining/sleeting/snowing. oh, lovely wisconsin weather.

ok, so this post kinda ended on a downer. i didn't really mean it to. it was supposed to be about spending time with my little dude. so i'll officially end it like this:

i love you little dude! thanks for going on a date with mommy tonight.

focus

i have completely lost my focus.

there is so much to do before the national stationery show in may, and i'm not accomplishing anything! i really don't remember it being this bad when i was pregnant with the little dude, but man, i can't concentrate on anything! i think i have pregnancy brain, or pregnancy ADD if there is such a thing. i have so many projects/new products/deadlines that are half finished that it's absurd. the littlest thing will break my focus and get me working on something completely unrelated (and often times not as important). usually when i feel like this, making a list helps me out. i've tried making one of those lists about 5 different times just this week and i can't even get anything down on paper because i'm so overwhelmed that i don't know where to start.

anyone else go through this? how did you break through and actually accomplish something? HELP!

heartbeat: 101

as of tomorrow i will officially be 12 week pregnant. it's a good feeling to have made it to this point as the risk for miscarriage drop dramatically.

on tuesday i had my 12 week check-up at which the little dude and i got to hear the heartbeat of the little bean. luckily my nurse was able to find it almost immediately upon setting the probe on my tummy. i remember with the little dude that every second that went by while they searched for it seemed like an hour. it was very reassuring.

i was able to get the heartbeat recorded on my cell phone so that the hubby could hear when he got home. it's very faint and hard to hear, but it was nice for him to be able to be a part of it.

i'm sure there's probably a way for me to get it off my phone and onto my blog for the world to hear, but honestly, i'm not that tech savvy, nor do i care to spend the time researching it. so, sorry about that. you'll all have to be ok with photos and stories.