Wednesday, December 22, 2010

What the?

Most of the time I can't believe I am pregnant. In fact, almost every morning I forget that I have a belly. It's quite the shocker when I look myself in the mirror. Doodle moves quite a bit though to remind me he's around and growing. I love that.
Why is it that I still don't feel that pregnant even though I am further along? Don't get me wrong, the baby kicks, acid reflux, and throwing up in my mouth never ceases, but the fact that I will have a baby in three months still seems out of this world.
Maybe I am just in a daze in my life... I still can't believe it's Christmas time and it's 3 days before the big day! I have baked well over 400 cookies in the past three weeks, read Christmas stories, spent nights decorating and doing Christmas crafts with Ryan, listened to hours of Christmas music, watched Christmas movies, gone to Christmas parties and plays and have been spending extra time on the people around me in various ways... and yet I still can't believe it's Christmas! Ryan has even been giving me the 12 days of Christmas this year! Maybe it's the swaying palm trees and the lack of decor around town that is throwing me off. Still, I am trying to absorb and think about Christ and Christmas, culturally, as much as I can. I love this time of year and I don't want it slipping by without a good fight!

Monday, December 13, 2010

A Moment of Kahn

For those of you who don't know this, there is a common family heritage among the female members of my Mother's side of the family. It's called ridiculously strong women... (emphasis can be put on ridiculous in certain situations). My Great Grandmother Kahn being the one who carries this trait strongest. When we went to Grandma Kahn's house as a girl we were expected to sit quietly on her couch listening to conversation or to go outside. Even though she can be a tough cookie, I never thought of her as mean, on the contrary, I absolutely adore this woman. BUT you could not pay me to cross her!
So the qualities of such a personality trait sometimes include the words, spitfire, sassy, stubborn/unbreakable, opinionated/sure, and most often loud. Though the trait can be a weakness it has also been a strength from past experiences. After all my Great Grandmother is in her 90s and I think the only thing that will break her is her own body not cooperating to her mind's demands.
This trait has definitely trickled down the bloodline and with a latin background (meet a latin woman to know what I am talking about here) on my fathers side and the Kahn trait on my Mother's, I am bound to have moments of being a ridiculously strong woman.
So now that you know what a "Kahn (maybe I should say Harde since that is my Great Grandmother's maiden name) Moment" is... I can tell you that I had a moment of it last week. Ryan and I went to the Nutcracker ballet here in Queretaro. The ballet was accompanied by a children's choir and the Orchestra Filarmonica. It was a fabulous show and exceeded my expectations. Their was a lot of talent and many many hours had obviously been put into the music, costumes, dance, and props. I always think it's a good sign when the orchestra starts playing and you have to make a double take to make sure the musicians are playing live and it is not a recording you hear.
Well, I loved the entire performance, but was very disappointed with the audience! In my defense, I really did try to ignore the heels going up and down the passageways during the show, the chatter during the scenes and the random scattered applause at mere music pauses... but the end was unacceptable in my opinion. At the end of the performance the dancers, choir and orchestra were given different spotlights, of course so that we could applaud them. You cannot imagine what happened... maybe only half of the people there applauded! No whistles, no standing, no woots .... there was hardly even an applause. In fact several groups of people got up and left prematurely, when they were supposed to be applauding. I felt so embarrassed! I couldn't believe it so of course I can't keep my mouth shut and start bursting out words of disappointment. I just couldn't stop going off on how horrible our audience was and I kept glaring at the young adolescents sitting in front of me that stared at the stage with crossed arms (I can understand this behavior a little better if their was disorganization and bad planning, but this performance was wonderful and the tickets were very inexpensive!). I was so upset and it wasn't until Ryan started telling me to keep it down and nudging me to let it go that I realized... ops I had a Kahn moment.
Yup, that's how it goes... you start getting loud, animated, passionate, and can't let it go. At least glaring was the most I did... but I got a pretty mean glare.
Just saying... sometimes I try to keep this Kahn trait in check... but sometimes it just can't mask itself! and sometimes I think people just need to hear it.
Am I ridiculous sometimes? Yes, very. Are some of the woman in my family ridiculous at times? Yes, they have their moments. But I do love how strong the women can be in my family, so here is a shout out to them!

Friday, December 3, 2010

Doodle

Okay, so I decided that it's about time I add photos of Doodle... (I need to do more shout-outs for this favorite tyke of mine!)
I can't find week 16 photos, which is a bummer cause those were the best ones. and our doc
only gave us the video and not the MP3 pics from this last visit, week 24:(
I will add the others as soon as I can!



Here is week 6 of our little bug



This is week 11, now more like an alien than a bug




I wish I had week 16! This is when he starts looking more like a baby!




This is week 20, of course I had to put a crotch shot up... finding out the sex was a highlight at this u/s


Another week 20, he was nuzzled down so we couldn't get a very good shot of his profile:(
Here is a pose of his meaty thigh though



So like I said, I don't have week 24 in picture form:( The little squirt took the same position as week 20s though, so again we haven't had a shot of his profile in a while!
Instead, here is a pic of the lovely stomach instead...
24 w 2 d



So Doodle still doesn't have an official name. But, he is full of personality and moves uncontrollably sometimes. Ryan has been feeling him a lot lately. I can feel his little hiccups, but my favorite is when he bounces on my bladder like a trampoline!
haha, I really have liked second trimester! Other than occasional nausea and maybe a little more emotional temperament, there have only been highlights the past couple of months!