This Ain't No Beer Belly!: A New Year, Full of Things That Have Never Been

"And now let us believe in a long year that is given to us,

new, untouched, full of things that have never been."

-Rainer Maria Rilke

32 weeks

33 weeks

I'm 33 weeks today! Things have been a little different lately. I'm tired a little more easily and take naps more often. Sometimes I can nap for 2 hours+ in the afternoon and still be able to go to sleep that night. There have been some good laughs in the last weeks too... like the morning when I was talking to Noel and suddenly stopped to look down at my shirt and see two wet spots. I was leaking! Sorry, TMI? We thought it was hilarious. And I was happy to see my stuff is working and ready! Haha I'm sure if Ben ever reads this one day he'll really love me sharing these details.

I have been a little more absent minded as the weeks progress. I got a message from mom saying they got two packages for me at their house. I thought wait a minute, I've been waiting for that stuff from amazon.... and yep... I accidentally sent all my recent amazon.com purchases to Texas. Doh! Mom and Dad were like, "You don't live here anymore honey, did you forget?" I don't really know what I did. I'm no sure it was entirely my fault though. The website probably did something weird. At least I didn't send the stuff to El Salvador! My cats really need that laser toy I bought them!

Christmas was wonderful. We celebrated and exchanged presents on the Friday before Christmas while we still had Lina before she left with her mom for the vacation. She was very excited about her gifts- new dolls, silly putty, a sled. She even got a phone call from Santa Claus! Noel bought me a kindle fire- which is totally awesome!- and a beautiful heart necklace. And all I got him was a pair sweat pants! But he really seems to love them, so... I guess I did good!

Father-Daughter shot...
Lina loves her pink sled! She spent that whole night sliding off her bed down the ramp she made out of her stuffed animals.

With his fancy pants

For Christmas Eve I was planning on making Noel a nice big home cooked meal, like a pot roast or something. But he didn't seem too wild about it... he said, "I'll be eating pot roast for days" quite unenthusiastically. That's because I'm known for not being very good about eating leftovers. So I didn't end up going to the store for anything... and when dinner time came I just made my old family recipe of egg noodles with cottage cheese dumped on top. I've never met anyone outside of my family who eats this. Introducing it to Noel, he thought it was the greatest dish ever! He was way more excited about noodles and cheese than he would have ever been about a pot roast I worked hours on preparing. The man is easy to please I guess!

Christmas day it was just the two of us. We had an early breakfast and headed out to finally visit some of the monuments at the national mall. The Lincoln Memorial was #1 on our list. Abe is so much bigger in real life than I thought he would be! Then we did the Vietnam and the WWII Memorials. After seeing all that and several hours of walking I was tired and ready for lunch, so we headed over to get some Dim Sum. The place we went to was packed! I decided I am not into Dim Sum. All your food you get off carts they push around, and they mark on your paper what you take. It's kind of expensive for what it is. And all the food we got was cold- maybe because they were so busy and couldn't keep up- but the carts don't keep it warm. So it felt like we paid too much for cold Chinese food. Bah. I'd rather just go to a regular Chinese restaurant or even a buffet.

With Abraham! It was Noel's first time to visit him too!

At the WWII Memorial

Noel and I went to see the movie This is 40 this week too- the movie about the couple that's in denial about turning 40. There were some really funny parts. The funniest thing about going to see it though was the conversation I had with Noel beforehand:

He said something like, Well I still have a couple years to go before I hit 40.
Me: Ummm, no you don't honey. You are turning 39 next week!
We had a good laugh because he truly didn't realize that it's just around the corner for him. It's like he didn't see it coming at all. Since then he's made several comments about almost being 40... It suddenly seems like he's really preparing for it. But it's no big deal honey! You have a hot 26 year old wife! It's nice to not spend time dwelling on your age anyway. Maybe I shouldn't have corrected him and let him continue thinking he still had years to go before he made it over the hill. I love you! :)

A few days ago I started feeling Ben's kicks/punches in new places, up high above my belly button. I started psyching myself out that it was some Christmas miracle and he had flipped. Convincing myself this is what happened, I got all carried away thinking I had dumped my midwives too soon and I would have to suddenly start over on my home birth plans and find a new midwife. So I was really looking forward to my doctor appointment yesterday for him to tell me of this miracle.

Well that didn't happen. Yes I was feeling movement in new places.... but he still wasn't head down. The nurse said it felt like he just slid down a little and is kind of sideways now with his feet and arms in the perfect position to kick and jab at me up top. I guess you could say he's halfway there! And since he is getting bigger his movement is feeling different because of that too. I'll stop getting worked up about the possibility of this happening. I just would give anything for him to be in the perfect, normal position. I wish he could just do it... all my prego friends' babies are there. *sigh* Whatever will be, will be... I think I set myself back thinking he had turned. I just need to accept this c-section for good. Nothing I can do about it. And everything else still looked good at the appointment yesterday, so that's wonderful! We have an ultrasound on Wednesday just to check on him and his position. Oh, baby! I can't wait to see you!

The weather here is getting kind of cold and dreary. But was snowing today for a bit! Big big flakes! It was beautiful!

We bought Ben's car seat and pack n play last weekend! We've already got them set up and ready to go. This is gettin' real, y'all! Yesterday my neighbor upstairs gave me one of her old pack n plays for free. So now we have two! Haha, We could return the new one.... but I'm thinking it'd be handy to have a spare one we don't care about if we leave it behind after our travels or something. For now, we're just going to keep both.

Check out Ben's fancy new ride! Installed and ready to go :) Maybe it's a bit early, but it's one less thing to worry about. And we sure don't have space in the house for his big convertible car seat!

We are going to use the pack n play as his temporary crib until we move to Manila. It takes up a lot less space in our bedroom. I covered the inside with foil, hoping that would keep the cats from wanting to jump in there. I read somewhere that they would get scared of the noise when they jump in. It didn't work. But luckily they don't seem to like hanging out in it too much anyway.

Next time I write it will be 2013! Where did 2012 go!? It seems like just yesterday was January 20th and I was in San Salvador ringing the bell at the Peace Corps office marking the end of my service. What a wonderful year it was! It was full of change... of endings and beginnings... of marriage and moves. And 2013 will bring even more exciting changes! Of things that have never been....
5 more weeks until baby Ben!!!! Oooooooh I can't wait!

I leave you with these pictures :)
Paz y amor!