Beautiful

Tickle Me Gwennan

There's nothing like the laugh of a little kid. We love making Gwennan laugh. Sometimes she gets this really big belly laugh and it just cracks us up.
And then sometimes she gets this fake laugh - a "social" laugh, if you will - like when she babbles something totally incoherent to us, but then laughs and laughs at her own wittiness. We have no idea what she just said, but it was evidently quite funny. Cracks us up.

By the way, in this video you hear her say something about "blurs". This is her word for slippers, which she is noticing and commenting on as I tickle her.
BTW, this video is from early February.

Hop! Hop! Hop!

God bless her, Granny tried to teach Gwennan hopscotch, but alas, all she got was the hop part. And the counting, "One, Two, Six, Nine ..."
Check out the cool pigtails.

Another Reason to Hate Wal-Mart

As if getting the creeps when I walk in the store isn't enough ...

Brain-damaged woman at center of Wal-Mart suit

Non-napper

Well, unfortunately I think Gwennan has reached that point in her life where she no longer sees a daily nap as a necessity. Unfortunately, it IS still a necessity for Mommy. So we're calling it "solitude time" and sticking her in her room for an hour anyway. She doesn't mind too much. She plays with her toys and talks to them and does who knows what else. How I'll survive as a sleep-deprived, nursing mom come July-ish, I have no idea. I think mainly Gwennan will be spending a lot of time with Granny and Paw Paw. At least until baby brother is sleeping through the night.

Cough Cough

Catri was here this past week. We had nine days with her, which was truly wonderful. We watched movies, played games, and in the middle of the week she and Mark went to Maggie Valley, North Carolina to do some snowboarding.
Unfortunately I started feeling bad and coughing before Catri even got here, and then when she and Mark got back from NC on Thursday, Mark started feeling bad and within 15 minutes or so had a fever of 102. So the last part of Catri's visit was spent around the house, with either Mark or me in bed trying to get rest, or nearly catatonic on the couch. Not much fun, but at least we were all together.
It's hard when Catri leaves. We all miss her, but at least Mark and I understand that she'll be back in 6 weeks, and hopefully living full-time in Marietta again by summertime. But for Gwennan, she just doesn't understand, and it breaks my heart. At the airport we said goodbye to Catri at the security line, and, as always, watched as she wound her way through it, waving to her until she was finally out of sight. Gwennan watched too, and she didn't cry, but when we got back to the car she started saying, "Find Catri? Find Catri. Find Catri?" That's when I broke down in tears. Mark tried telling her that Catri was in an airplane going home, but she still kept asking us to go find Catri.
This morning she asked me again, thinking Catri was in her room downstairs and we should go find her. It sucks, it really does. Gwennan loves her Catri, and Catri loves her Gwennan, and I hate that they're apart so much.

Anyway, in other news ...

I can feel Junior (his de facto name for now) kicking and flipping around in my belly now. I've started trying to explain to Gwennan that there's a baby boy in mommy's tummy, but she just looks at me weird. One time she pointed to her own belly and said, "Baby!" So, no, she doesn't get it just yet.

Also, my brother got married last weekend. I'll post pics of the bride and groom as soon as I get my act together. Which, in all honesty, may be never.

It's a ...

BOY!!
I knew it I knew it I knew it!!

Sorry it took me so long to post this, but Gwennan's been sick for the past two days, occupying most of my time and attention.