We have a name!

Mabuhay y'all! That's Tagalog for "hello y'all!" That's about the only word I have picked up from Noel and his Tagalog learning. Well, let's see I can say Hello (mabuhay), how are you? (kamustaka), and husband (asawa)... That's pretty good if you ask me! Noel is doing great in his language learning, by the way. He can form sentences now and sort of hold conversations- after only a little over 2 months. So proud of him!

25 weeks

26 weeks

So tomorrow Little Bubba is 26 weeks! Whoa baby! I wasn't feeling him kick much in the last few weeks, maybe because he moved? I, being one of those worry-wart first time moms, was like Baby are you ok in there?? Something must be wrong! But the last few days the kicks, or are they punches?, have returned! They get stronger everyday. I don't freak out and gasp every time I feel them like I used to. I just think they are pretty cool. I especially love when I can see them a little from the outside! It's like, "Oh my god! He's really in there! I can see the proof with my own eyes!" I can't believe in just a few short month we will be holding him in our arms.

We were watching videos of laboring women in our childbirth class last weekend and two things came to my mind. 1) Look how big their bellies are! My belly is gonna get so big! How on earth is my stomach going to stretch out that much?! and 2) What on earth is that like, to go from being very pregnant one minute to not being pregnant at all the next after you push your baby out? I mean, how does that feel, after 9 months of having this baby inside of you, and then all of a sudden it's not. I just can't imagine how that will feel. But how could it be anything but joyous and wonderful? I imagine that by the time we get to 9 months, I will be so ready to just have him here already. I will not mind at all not being hugely pregnant anymore. I will get to be like a normal person again! Well, except I will be a milk machine breastaurant. LoL.

Good thing is we actually had a good Bradley Class last week. Finally, we left feeling like we actually took something useful away from it. Previous classes were all so unfocused, and the teacher would spent time talking about stuff that didn't feel important. Like the good things about bananas and eggs. Or her own experiences with her babies. Well this time we got to practice different laboring positions that we can use, and it really helped me feel a little more confident about things. It was nice. 

Wonderful news! I can't keep it in and wait for it to be a surprise. We have a name! And I'm spillin' the beans... I'm doing it. Why not!? I fell in love with this name when I heard it and just started saying it and it felt good. I felt like, Yea! Amy & Noel totally would have a kid with that name. I could really imagine it. It felt right. And it's nothing fancy or super duper unique and original... but I love it. I feel like it's a good, strong, name. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it. Soooo... from here on Little Bubba shall be referred to as.....

<3!!!!

I recently saw a black squirrel. Did you know there are black squirrels!? It was so cute! Oh northern Virginia, you are full of beauty. I am also really enjoying the beautiful fall colors that paint the trees. It is getting colder though, something I was not prepared for, since my tiny winter pea coat no longer fits my pregnant self. Until I got the maternity coat I ordered online, I had to walk around in Noel's coat, lookin like this....

Uf... not cute! I felt like a pregnant football player with those huge shoulder pads.

The last few weeks have been rough. Whatever sickness I picked up a few weeks ago just isn't going away. I feel fine now for the most part, but I have this sore throat everyday... and keep losing my voice.  I wake up in the morning and have my voice and my throat feels ok but by the afternoon it's all scratchy again and I sound like Marge Simpson, until the night when it's so bad and my throat is so sore I just have to whisper. It's so weird. I've never had a sore throat this long in my life. What the heck is this? So I haven't worked all week after Monday. I can't go to sub a class if I don't have a voice. I think my body just needs to rest... I worked myself pretty hard there for a while. I can't wait to see what my paycheck is like on the 15th though!!!

Noel looked at me the other night and said, "Your belly is so BIG!" and you know what... I didn't get upset because I know it's true. He said this as I was making my banana froyo- a delicious dessert that my friend Gaby introduced to me. It is AWESOME! It's really saving me, and my ass, from my Ben & Jerry's problem. You just put freeze bananas, then throw them in the blender with some peanut butter or fruit. I added a little honey and milk to mine. But man oh man, what a good idea! I highly recommend this.

Making my banana froyo for the first time... Don't make the same mistake  I did though- Peel your bananas before you freeze them, or you will be cutting the peel off and numbing your hands like I did.

The finished product. So YUMMY!

This big belly makes for a great table to rest my phone on

Lina had a great American Halloween! "The best Halloween ever!" as she put it. Her school took all it's students trick or treating in the morning to the businesses in the neighborhood. She wore a spider princess costume that she made with her mom. Then at night she decided she wanted to be something else. She decided she wanted to be a vampire doctor and used her Doctor jacket she had in her closet already and I painted her face all scary.

Spooky!!!

Last weekend I was pretty tired in the afternoon after running around all morning. One of my favorite things to do when I want to rest is turn on the Relaxation radio station on Pandora on my iPod and hang out in my bed. Lina and the cars decided to join me for a little relaxation time, and she loved it. Something about the music maybe, but I've never seen her be so quiet or still while still being awake.

Relaxin!

Liberty is our weird cat. I thought cats don't like to get wet, but Liberty seems to love it. When we take showers, she waits outside the door and as soon as we are done she runs in to roll around in the tub. Little freak! I don't really mind her doing this, but it also means that squirting her with the water bottle when she's doing something bad does not at all phase her. She seems to enjoy it, unlike Mr. Jefferson that freaks out and runs when he gets squirted.

Libby in her favorite place. Don't worry Libby, I get shy and hide behind the curtain when I'm in the shower too.

Me and Libby practicing our pigeon yoga pose together

Lastly, if you know me well, you know I love spicy food. But these days I just don't quite have the tolerance for it that I used to. Maybe it's because baby Ben doesn't like spicy. I know that when I eat it he sure does dance around a lot. Noel brought me home some Korean food from a food truck this week, and this is what I looked like...

SOOOO HOTTTTT!!!!!
I still love spicy just as much as before, it just hurts more than it used to.
Sometimes it's not worth the pain.

Haha, and I leave you with that lovely picture of myself. Hope everyone is having a wonderful November so far! Until next time, folks.

Paz y Amor.... or in Tagalog (because I just asked...)
Kapayapaan at pagmamahal!!!