22.5 weeks

I was able to see our girls again today (bill was in the OR). I just love seeing them and watching them move around. we continue to be overjoyed with healthy ultrasound results and give God the glory for blessing us with these two little ones. today the babies were laying next to each other. both babies weigh about 1 lb 1 oz and measure about 22 weeks 4/5 days.

baby A’s arm and back of her head.

baby A’s strong little legs. I loved seeing both of their legs today.

baby B’s profile.

baby B’s strong legs.

I will try to get a picture of me up soon.

the blizzard

last weekend rochester got blasted with snow. from friday night to sunday mid-day we were blessed with 16-18 inches of snow. bill worked until 2 am on friday night and then was up early to round on saturday. thankfully, he got home around 11am to start the first round of snow removal with me. charlie was ecstatic to hear that daddy was coming home to snow blow and he could ride in the backpack again. bill thought ski goggles would really help charlie stay warm and avoid snow blowing in his face. I thought it looked like child abuse…you be the judge.

charlie didn’t seem to mind. he was just pumped to get outside and hear that snowblower!

out they go!

this is just round 1….we did this 3 more times over the weekend. especially every time the plows went through we had another wall (up to bill’s shoulder) of snow to tear down.

bill was proud on his final run through on sunday. sadly it was freezing (-20) on sunday so charlie was only able to go in the backpack for brief stints and when he did we wrapped a blanket around the sides of his face.

it is hard to see how much snow this was but it is a ton!

oh and today we got another 6 inches of snow, which apparently puts us at 32 inches for december already! I love having a white Christmas!

charlie’s baby

meet charlie’s baby…his name is “baby” (that is what he told me when I asked him).

eating breakfast holding his baby.

I was hoping getting charlie a baby doll would help him start to process what is going to happen in T-13 weeks. overall, he is sort of interested in his baby. he loves that his baby has a “bap po” (pacifier). charlie is pretty gentle with his baby and then all of a sudden he waps the baby on the face and then realizes what he did and leans over and kisses the baby and says “nice” (what he always says when he knows he is doing something nice or kind). not sure how I will fix that issue.

as for real babies, charlie is really interested in them. I have lots of friends having babies and we just visited my friend julia and her 3 day old little boy zane. charlie loves seeing babies. he will approach them slowly and then once he warms up he wants to “help” a lot. zane was in his bouncy chair and it took both julia and me to keep the bouncy chair from sending zane across the room. his idea of a gentle rock is much different than mine. we also had to manage how much charlie wanted to kiss zane and point out his facial features. at one point I looked at julia and said “how do you protect 2 babies??”…hmmmm. thankfully, we have a couple more months to work on charlie’s baby etiquette.

let it snow!!!

finally, we had a big snowfall in rochester! I was itching to be able to show charlie snow again and see if he enjoyed playing in it. last friday we got quite a bit of snow (maybe 6 inches?). bill has to round on saturday mornings so I tried to hold off playing in the snow until he got back, but around 10am charlie could wait no longer. I gathered all his gear and started the task of putting it all on. talk about tiring! I felt like I ran a marathon before we even got out the door. here is a picture of charlie waiting to get outside. it was beautiful outside as you can tell by the sun shining in.

charlie LOVED the snow! however, it was quite difficult to get a good picture of him while trying to keep him from face planting in the snow. talk about a lower back challenge…especially pregnant!

face plant!

he loved trying to walk in it and was much better by the end of the weekend.

he spent a lot of time like this. thankfully, bill showed up 30 minutes after we were out there so he was able to take over the back breaking work!

he was delighted to find his radio flyer under the deck. but could not understand why I wouldn’t pull him around in the yard.

after playing in the snow, we came inside and decorated our gingerbread house.

charlie helped decorate the roof. as you can see by the picture below bill would put a dollop of frosting in a place and then show charlie where to put the candy. however, every time charlie would first place it in a different spot.

bill and I created a beautiful nativity scene.

the final product.

then it was time to clear the driveway. charlie and bill had a lot of fun clearing the driveway together.

on sunday, we brought charlie sledding. he again loved it. he kept saying “more” after each time.

heading to the hill…charlie hates when the sun is in his eyes.

ready to hike up the hill.

bill, charlie and lily coming down the hill (this is actually a pretty steep hill). after more than a handful of times going down the hill charlie was saying “brrrr” midway through the hill so bill and I decided to head home. charlie was not too happy about that.

it was such a joy to watch charlie play and laugh in the snow. we can’t wait to get him on skis now!

the timeout stance

this is charlie's timeout stance. he will stay exactly like this for 1 minute. i love it.

what a big boy

charlie is definitely at the stage where he wants to do what we do. he sets his sippy cups on the coasters and any chance he gets he will ask to drink from our glasses (which he is getting really good at). the past few weeks it is a chore to get him to sit in his high chair to eat any meal. so the other day I said do you want to sit on the stool and eat breakfast at the counter? he instantly responded yes! I warned him that if he fell he would really bonk his beezer so he had to be careful. I decided it was worth the risk to see if he fell because it would be easier than fighting him to go into his highchair. he did great and has been eating most of his meals at the island.

check out the big boy. he was so proud of himself.

also this week, charlie woke up from his nap and I was still in the middle of making a meal for a friend who just had a baby and finishing up cookies. he was not content just playing in the living room so I opted to see if he would like to “help” me. usually he can sit on the counter, but this time the counter was full and the stove was hot so those were not safe options. instead he helped me with dishes. at first the sink was full of dirty dishes and he had a fun flinging the soapy water around. once I cleaned out the sink he had a blast pouring the water between the too sinks and hanging out.

again, he loves being a part of what is going on and feeling like he is a big boy.

it is so fun to watch him grow up and take on new responsibilities. this morning he helped me unload the dishwasher piece by piece. granted it takes me triple the time and I have to be on my toes incase he decides to drop the glasses, etc, but I have decided to spend the time I have now before the girls arrive to show him how to help me and maybe, just maybe, it will pay off when they are here. I can hope, right?

20.5 weeks

it is so fun to see the girls! I had another ultrasound today and everything looked great! we are so thankful to our Lord for the girls health. trusting in Him for His plan for their lives is so comforting.

today they just checked fluid levels and made sure they were both looking good. during the ultrasound baby A flipped over so her head was by baby B’s head. it was sweet to see them face to face.

here are their feet together:

baby A’s face:

baby B’s face (it is almost funny to post these because they look identical, but I thought looking back they should each have their own picture):

my 20 week picture. I have "popped".