Explanations...

I've updated the clue pictures so you can see what my hints were about:

Clues #1, #2

Clues #3, #4

Clue #5

Last set of clues

At the beginning, I was worried about being too obvious and giving things away too soon. John and I were trying to wait and tell people around the 12 week mark. He did a pretty good job...and I tried not to tell more than one person per day. So, if you haven't had a call or e mail from me, that is why. I've been avoiding you because a) I'm really bad at keeping my own secrets and b) I've been totally exhausted.

So, now that we have cleared the twelve week mark, I'm free to share some more information with you. Baby #2 has a due date of 3/29/09 - which we all know is just an approximation of the arrival time. We don't know the gender of this baby and we aren't sure we are going to find out this time. After all the trouble we had naming William, we've started compiling a list of name possibilities. However, I don't think we're going to pick anything final until after the baby is born like we did with William. Just fair warning: you can ask me what I think we're going to name the baby and I'll give you the pick of the day/hour/minute/millisecond (John will probably say "ask Kelly"). But, don't run out and get anything monogrammed until after the baby comes.

Now that the fog I've been living in has started to lift, I can honestly say that this time 'round was harder for me than William's pregnancy. I've been terribly nauseous for at least the last 6 weeks. Nothing sounds remotely appetizing and about 89.7% of smells make me gag. Even more frustrating is when something sounds like it might be okay - things can change. For example, two weeks ago we went out to eat at Applebee's because we had a gift card. I had trouble finding anything that sounded okay, but finally settled on some soup and salad. By the time it got there, there wasn't any way I was going to be able to eat it. John willingly (read: not happily) agreed to trade with me until I noticed he had broccoli on his plate. Then, he just ate mine for lunch and brought his home with him for lunch the next day. I wouldn't let him heat up the broccoli in our house - I'm super nice like that. However, as with William, I have not actually thrown up. Just felt like I might at any minute for about 6 weeks.

John has been wonderful and amazing. He has come home early upon request to play with William while I nap. He is doing the majority of our cooking and cooks odd dinners with minimal smell without complaint. He has totally taken over the loading of the dishwasher and washing of our cloth diapers as I really struggle with the smells from both. He hasn't complained when everything around the house is sliding. Very little has been accomplished around here while John is at work. General cleanliness, personal hygiene, physical fitness activities, financial accuracy, blogging and fun William activities have all suffered greatly and in some cases been eliminated entirely. It is surprising how much parenting cannot be accomplished (well) from the couch. As William walked by the couch a few weeks ago, he reached out and patted my favorite spot and said "Mama, couch". Yes William, that is where Mama sits on the couch a lot these days.

To recap: We're pregnant and we're so very excited. We hope you're excited for us too. I think we've turned a corner in the total exhuastion and nauseua so hopefully things will be caught up to speed shortly. We'll see....

*Watch for the camping updates tomorrow during naptime....maybe!

Home...so tired

We're home from camping in the hottest, humidest, stickiest weather ever followed by a night in the middle of a tropical storm. Although I had big plans for a big picture post followed by some big explanations, they are going to have to wait. All three of us are pretty ragged around the edges after a trip with all kinds of adventures we weren't expecting.

On top of it all, I'm currently have a quite intense visit with my old friend Heartburn - so the pictures, stories and explanations will have to wait until naptime tomorrow (at least)!

It'll be worth the wait, I think...

Last Set of Clues

If you still can't figure it out, you'll have to wait until Sunday evening (or later) after we return from camping...here are the final clues:

Last Clue #1: This is the ultrasound picture we got at our 7 week appointment with our OB. We got to see a very strong little heartbeat and our new little baby. John and I agree this baby was much cuter during the first ultrasound than William. Probably because William's ultrasound was at 5 weeks and he looked like a blob. This one actually looked more like a baby.
Last Clue #2: Another ultrasound shot from our almost 12 week appointment. There are not any concerns about this pregnancy that require these ultrasounds. The 7 week ultrasound is standard for my OB. The 12 week one was a bonus - our OB told us most of the time she can't find the heartbeat before 14 weeks and asked if we'd rather have another quick ultrasound. We weren't about to turn her down! During this ultrasound, the baby was very active and wiggling. Every time she had a great picture of it, she would freeze the frame to print the picture. In that brief second, the baby would move to another area for a less clear picture. It was still fun for us to see though!
Last Clue #3: William is going to be a big brother!

The very last clue I'm having trouble getting uploaded. But, I think you'll get it from here...

One more Clue...

Clue #5: Here is a sampling of the foods I had craving for when I was pregnant with William: Chilli's, brownies, oranges/orange juice, lemons/lemon drops, root beer, and fruit.

Here is one more clue. I think I'll post my last set of clues on Friday afternoon before we leave for camping attempt #2. That is, provided I can find one more prop that seems to have gone missing....

Daddy's Boy

William has always liked hanging out with his daddy. It's different than hanging out with me (which we do every day) and they play different stuff. In the last month or so he has really made his preference known: when Daddy is available, that is where he wants to be. It is so so SO cute to watch, my feelings aren't hurt at all. He'll follow John around the house and sit next to him, copying his pose exactly. If John leans against the wall, William will attempt to stand leaning against the wall. He loves to sit in Daddy's chair at the table and every morning asks me "Dada?" I reply "Dada went to work, he'll be home soon." In the last two days, the question has become "Dada, soon?" I feel like it is stretching the truth a lot to agree with this statement because at 7am, it isn't at all soon when Dada will arrive home again. But, I don't have a better way to put it in a one and a half year old's vocabulary. So, I am forced to agree "Dada soon." and try to come up with a good distraction.

This is where John spends most of his free time. In the box. Both William and John would like to thank Grandma and Grandpa for bringing another box to our house.
Peeking out the top (John is still in the box)Tonight we were working on building some shelves to organize our basement storage area. William always likes to be in on the action. First he helped by handing John screws and then graduated to scribbling on the boards with his pencil.
Helping - there are a lot of these because it was C-U-T-E!Watching Dada drill. I am always astonished by how long William will watch John work on something quite happily. Way longer than he'll watch me make him a sandwich for his lunch, that's for sure.
Checking out the square.
Here is a picture that William drew today. I'm posting it because it is cool. The squiggly set of lines on the left side of the page is what he drew first. He drew the loop-de-loop and pronounced it a "bee". I thought it kind of looked like a bee and made a mental note crossing "art prodigy" off of my list of possibilities for him. Then he made the second set of squiggly lines on the right side of the page. Again, he declared this a "bee". Curious, I asked William what noise a bee said. Confused, he looked at me and said "B". When I looked back at the picture it does appear the letter B is on the page. Twice. Do I think it means anything. Nope. But it is kind of cool...

Night-Night....

Today William and I drove through the remnants of hurricane Gustav (honestly, it sounds cooler than it was, I promise) to pick up a piece of flooring we need to bridge the doorway between the playroom and the family room in the basement. Rain was pouring down and it there were a lot of puddles on the road. I was driving and didn't notice that William had fallen asleep in the backseat of the car. He couldn't have been sleeping for more than ten or fifteen minutes as we weren't in the car for that long. It probably wasn't the greatest way to wake up (cold rain falling on you), but what can you do?

I ran him hard before lunch and put him down for his nap as our usual routine goes and close to 45 minutes later he was still crying. First playing, then whining, then complaining, then crying which quickly morphed into the hysterical abandoned child alone in his room. When I went to get him he had a messy diaper and I changed him up. However, I could tell that there wasn't any way he was getting back in that crib for another try at a nap. So, we rested together on the couch for about .000342768 seconds until he was up and ready to play again. All was going [somewhat] well considering the conditions until dinner time. He was sooooooooooooo hungry, he couldn't get the food in fast enough. I wasn't paying very close attention because I was trying to shovel bites of my own dinner into my mouth between cutting up more food and reloading William's tray when John started laughing. I looked up to find this:

A tired boy*
It is hard to believe, but we left him there like this and he woke up only to comment on the dog next door barking outside and to shove a few more pears into his mouth. He chewed with his eyes shut. I was able to wipe off his tray, both his hands and his face and he stayed asleep. It was only when I tried to unbuckle him that he woke up.

In other total cuteness, William has been saying "nigh-nigh" to us for several months now before he goes to bed (when prompted - no prompting, no cute goodnight). However in the last week he has stopped "nigh-nigh"ing us when prompted and instead tells one of his favorite toys goodnight instead. Tonight, for example:

Me: Say good night to daddy
W: Bye bye choo-choos
Me: You're right, goodnight choo choo trains. Now, say good night to daddy.
W: Bye bye color crayons
Me: Okay, whatever 'night crayons. Now, say good night to daddy.
W: Nigh-nigh box

And here is where I gave up and took him into his room to finish the bedtime routine. Afterall, he does have a lot of toys to potentially say goodnight to. After I put him down and did a few chores, I walked past his room one night this week to hear a very sleepy "Bye bye cars..."

Still waitin' on that nigh night for daddy though.

*Note: William had been sitting in a booster seat with us at the table, which we all loved. However because of the construction of our kitchen table, there was a small rim on the underside of the table perfect for pushing little feet against. William was constantly leaning back in his chair AND tipping himself over during meal time. The battle was not going to be won at this stage of negotiations (there is very little negotiating as of yet) and so it was back to the high chair for now.

Labor Day Weekend = Hard Labor

After our camping disaster, we had to work to pull our spirits back up as Grandma and Grandpa were coming for the weekend. Really, they were coming to see us (read: William), but we were hoping for a little help in the basement. Usually when we're working on a project on a regular weekend, either John or I work in the basement while the other watches William. When Grandpa and Grandma are here, usually Grandma wrangles William. This means instead of one person working at a time, three people are getting work done. The difference is huge! So, here are some pictures of what was accomplished!

Evidence of progress made:

Bathtub caulked, vanity hardware installed. Shower rod/curtain purchased and vetoed by the installation team.
Floors cleaned, carpet remnant laid out, doors painted, doorknobs installed, bed assembled, windows cleans, ceiling fan installed

Doors/doorways painted. Doorknobs installed! Yes, this means potentially you can actually have some privacy in the bathroom!

Baseboard installed in playroom
More playroom baseboard
Office baseboards installed
More office baseboards The basement is a huge mess - however behind the mess you can see that the great room walls have now been painted! A huge job!
More paint pictures and Grandpa cleaning upThis is a little hard to explain because I don't have a great before picture handy. Basically, the walls to the left of the railing used to be white. There was much discussion and arguing about how to best apply paint to both of the walls to the left of the railing as they are quite challenging to reach. However, with the use of the neighbors ladder and assembly of a painting platform, both walls are now painted.
3 new coach lights installed
Shelves over freezer installed (finally). Now for the hard part of actually going through all the stuff sitting on the basement floor.
Materials for the next project: 1 door frame and several window ledges. The list is getting shorter.....