(almost) 35 weeks

Tomorrow I will be at 35 weeks in my pregnancy. That means that today is the day in my pregnancy that Samantha was born...and no blood pressure issues so far, praise God!! One month from today is the day I am scheduled for my C-section. Any bets as to whether I make it that far or not?

So I thought I would use today's post to reflect a little bit, on the I will, I won't and I'll love.

Once we have the baby, things I will miss...
Having the baby with me at all times, even at work.
Feeling the baby move even when no one else knows that I do.
Being able to reach down and feel the baby anytime I want...no matter what.

Things I won't miss...
Leg cramps in the middle of the night.
Heartburn.
Having my ribs bruised from the inside as the baby practices his/her kickboxing skills.
Being too worn out to walk through Walmart.
Losing my breath so easily.
Constant backaches.
The baby using an already teaspoon sized bladder as a punching bag.
Getting up 15 million times a night becasue of the teaspoon sized bladder being used as a punching bag.
Needing pillows surrounding my body to sleep somewhat comfortably.
Being unable to sleep on my back or my stomach.

Things I will love...
Meeting the baby face to face.
Seeing Brent and Samantha meet the baby face to face.
Seeing Samantha give our baby kisses.
Holding the baby in my arms.
Seeing Brent snuggle with the little one...and the bigger one.
Having a baby fall asleep in my arms again.
Seeing God's grace in another sweet little face in our lives.

I'm not ready for the baby to come yet...but we are getting closer and I am looking forward to being at that point.

Halloween 2009

Aunt Kathy went to visit Uncle Jason in Korea and spent quite a bit of her time there looking for traditional clothes for Samantha. She came home with a beautiful hanbok and it arrived at our house about a week before Halloween. She did a great job of getting the right size, so Samantha was able to wear it for Halloween this year. Isn't she the cutest little blonde Korean girl you have ever seen? :)





(These are a few more of the picures by Stacey Collodi)

Helping out

Samantha LOVES to help out at home. When I garden, she must also garden. She loves to throw her diapers in the trash and even gets mad when we throw them away instead of letting her. She helps to put the dishes in the dishwasher and she helps when we do laundry. This day, I was getting clothes out of the big laundry hamper and putting them in the washer, so she started getting clothes out of her laundry hamper to be put in the wash. I coudn't resist taking a picture of my big helper.

One of the funny things about Samantha at this stage is htat she loves to have her picture taken. Anytime I take a candid picture, she looks up, smiles, says "again" while nodding her head and then says cheese when I put the camera back up to take the picture. That's actually what she was doing when I took the second picture.

What a bunch of clothes to sort! It's a good thing I have such a big helper! :)

Getting ready

It occurred to me yesterday that although Samantha knows there is a baby in Mommy's tummy...she has no idea that means that a baby will come to live at our house soon. And she has even less idea that Mommy will have to be away from home for several days. And since my C-section is scheduled for 5.5 weeks from now (Oh my goodness!! Is it really only 5.5 weeks 'til we get to meet our new little one?!), I decided I need to try to prepare her.



So I started telling her about it. I told her that I will have to go to the hospital for the baby to come out of my tummy and that I will have to stay there for several days. I told her that she will be able to come visit me, but then she will go home with Daddy until Mommy and the baby can leave the hospital. She had no reaction whatsoever. Not that I really expected her to understand, but I did think I might get at least a bit of a questioning look. I will keep telling her each day that this is what will happen in the hopes that she won't be too upset when I am not home with her, but I'm not too confident that this will actually work.


Does anyone have any idea of how to prepare a not quite 2 year old for her Mommy's several day absence? I would love to hear your ideas!



(pictures were taken by my friend Stacey Collodi of Collodi Photography in Frisco, and these are just a few of the wonderful pictures she took...be watching for more to come :))

"Cuck" (translation...stuck)

I know, I know...6 weeks is entirely too long to go without posting...sorry to all of you who are missing seeing updates on our sweetie pie. Since my mom AND my sister said that I am falling down on the job...I thought I would share a quick post that I have been hoping to do for a while...and I will get to more later.

For a while, Samantha was saying stuck ALL the time, so I decided to take a picture of what she was doing when she said it and share those pictures with you. Well, since I started doing that, she has stopped saying stuck so much, so I only have two pictures to show you.

Samantha has worked hard on trying to dress herself. This time she managed to get both legs into her pajama shorts all the way up to the top of her legs...then she tried to walk, and it wasn't until she fell down that she told me she was stuck.


This time she was playing with shorts again, but she decided to wear them on her head, the problem is that the leg of the shorts is a little too small to go over her head, so she came in to tell me that she was stuck again.

Besides these pictures, she also said stuck when...the yogurt melt was hidden under her cereal and she was working hard to get it out, Brent or I held her up and she wanted down, she was buckled into her car seat and wanted to be unbuckled, she got her leg stuck in the slats of the crib or the dining room chair...and a whole bunch of other times that I can't remember at the moment. She's so much fun! :)