Wow, he's really big for his age!

We hear that all the time. And now we know why: our kid is 90% larger than your kid.

Two-year stats:

Weight: 32.2 pounds - 90th percentile

Height: 35 inches - 70-80th percentile

Head: don't remember, but in a normal size range - 50-60th percentile

Big boy. So much to love, sometimes his cloth diapers come flying off his substantial buttocks. I am not joking. That velcro wears out fast.

Also, My Pregnancy Boobs: A Limerick

My chest size is a'creeping

Even though they aren't yet leaking.

My boobs are a'growing;

Sometimes it's the only pregnant part showing.

Bra shopping it is as their size is leaping.

I know my meter is off, but at least I have the rhyme scheme. Seriously though, are these things going to KEEP GETTING BIGGER?!

Theo is a two-year-old, as evidenced by videos and pictures and other proofs that yes, he-is-two. We had a party on Saturday and try as we might to make it a simple affair, it never turns out this way. Behold the enormous bounce house we decided to rent for the occasion:

The house of bounce

Oh yes. Despite the incredible downpour (and I am by no means exaggerating here about this downpour), the kids loved it, all the slippery wet fun of it. You can imagine I did not partake, but did go in when there were no kids by my own to jump and chase after.

A choo-choo themed birthday yielded a choo-choo train cake made by S.'s mother (it was rocking awesome), and a million Thoma.s the Tank Engine toys and..the piece de resistance...a gorgeous handmade train table created by S.'s parents. It's gorgeous and Theo basically hasn't left its side since Saturday.

Cake eating

Cooling off in the drink bucket full of ice cold water (after most of the guests left!)

Train table

From above

We leave for vacation on Saturday and don't know what internet access will be like, so this may be it for us for a while. Oh yes, and I forgot to mention that I am OVER half-way through this pregnancy and starting to look and feel pregnant always. My hands and arms fall asleep all over the place when I sleep---did this happen to anyone else? Do I just deal? It's really annoying. Other than that, can't complain except for the occasional cranky uterus growing, growing, growing.

Guess Who's Two?

Approaching Two

Two years ago at this moment, S. was in labor - but the nurse and midwife had just caught on to that. Her pizza was long-gone, and labor was in full-swing. After that, things start to be blurry. In 7 hours, we would have our baby. In 7 hours, we will have our two-year-old. Whoa.

Baby

Two-year-old

Pool Belly

This is me at 19 weeks exactly, in S.'s aunt's pool, feeling much relieved from the heat and humidity. I think this is the first belly shot I've posted? So you really have no comparison, but I can assure you--I am bigger than when I started! (Try not to stare at my white-ass legs - you may be temporarily blinded. Though I am Italian in temperament, I am not in pigmentation.)

Cooling off

Swimming fool - you cannot keep this kid out of a pool

Well, that was a surprise...

So not expecting this, but this baby of mine? The one in my belly? A boy. A BOY! ANOTHER BOY! I say that like I don't want that, but I'm thrilled. We wanted another boy. But my gut instinct was screaming to me, girl, girl, girl. I'm glad we decided to find out at our ultrasound today, because I would have continued to insist I was having a girl and then be shaken to my core when he came out a he and not a she.

A little brother for Theo.

The irony in all of this? I now own the two and only male heirs to my family's last name. Sure, the boys' (ohmygod that sounds so weird) names are hyphenated with my last name and S.'s, but still. There is one, single boy cousin I have and guess what? He has three daughters. Oh me oh my. The lesbian saves the family legacy. Got to love it.

On to the medical part, the ultrasound was good. Everything looks normal except...kidneys. Jeez, this sounds familiar...if I took time and wasn't sweating my arse off as I sat here with the laptop on my lap, I'd go back and link you to some of the posts we wrote in the last two and a half years about Theo's ongoing kidney issues. Fortunately, they mostly resolved within his first year and a half of life, and this (where one kidney is larger than the other) is not so rare and 50% of the time clears up before birth. Theo fell into the other 50%, obviously, but at least we already have a pediatric urologist and a pediatrician who knows the deal. So, not great but not the worst news, and everything else is measuring perfectly and looking normal. Big sigh of relief all around.

And now to retreat into the air conditioning.

Meditating on Birth

Now that our ultrasound is mere hours away, I've started to read pregnancy books and think about birth. It's time, people---do you see that ticker? 18 weeks. That's almost half-way through. Oh wow!, as Theo would say.

I daresay we have a unique situation over here in babymaker town. On one hand, I have experienced birth in a first-hand way, but not in this first-hand way, and obviously vice-versa for S. What she likes and expects out of this pregnancy is a lot different from what she liked and expected from her own. And...vice-versa. So what may happen differently here? I am reading different books. I'm starting to investigate (and suggestions are wildly welcome here) more meditative-centering-hypnobirthing kind of methods of birth to help me attain it naturally. S. knew from the get-go she wanted a natural birth and, through her sheer tenacity (ahem, stubbornness), she would do it. I cave in much more easily and need a lot more resources and tools at my disposal to use to sustain myself through birth, and am in general not the kind of person who heavily depends on others, so I want to be able to withdraw into myself.

This sounds really weirdo, I know. But I know myself, and am trying to learn more and more about myself and what might work for me. I'm not a meditative person by nature, but I can sort of already anticipate me experiencing birth in this way. But, as I've also learned through Theo's birth and reading all of your wonderful birth stories, the unexpected needs to be, you know, expected.

Thus ends my pregnancy rant of the day.

How do you anticipate yourself birthing?

5-second Post

Oh lookie! I have like, 5 seconds to sit down and write something! But just 5 seconds, as we're getting reading to leave for a long weekend for the 4th.

To recap:

The wedding we so busily prepared for the last week and a half went off without a hitch. Everything looked beautiful, everyone had a great time, and the food was ridiculously yummy.

I am 17 1/2 weeks pregnant and in less than a week, we get our big ultrasound to, if we're doing it, find out the sex and see what's going on in there. I still haven't decided but am kind of leaning toward finding out to make life easier. Any bets?

Oh, and I think I finally look pregnant. Honestly, I've just looked kind of chubby for the past 17 weeks. S. has been bemoaning my lack of baby belly-ness. I have been incredibly negligent and un-insistent on having belly shots taken every week--honestly, I don't think I've taken a pic for like, 5 weeks. Bad, I know. I'll try to start being better and maybe actually post something.

Did I mention Theo isn't two but may as well be? Yeah. Any good suggestions for toddler books?

And some pictures, because though he grows more independent every day, he also grows cuter.

Theo helping his Auntie Stacey with pancake making

Dirty boy in the garden (he did this to himself, I swear)