more snowblowing

bill and charlie went out snowblowing again last weekend. this picture was too cute. it captures his excitement.

here is a video before they went out:

23 weeks

me and the girls at 23 weeks. the girls are moving a ton and their movements have gone from feeling like an octopus to more like bumper cars. 2 moving babies inside is much different from having 1 (from what i remember). you really can't tell what part is poking you. i love having them move around.

seriously?!?!?!

bill was in the OR operating until 4 am! i paged once at 2 am to make sure he was still at the hospital and not in a ditch. i think he rolled into bed around 5 am and was back up at 6 to shower and get ready for clinic today. poor guy!

these past 2 weeks (probably more like the last 3 months, but i try not to keep track) have been crazy for bill. last week he didn't get home before 11 any night and this week hasn't been much better. he will switch services at the end of december and go to another head and neck service, but hopefully it won't mean so many late nights! we miss him! thankfully, bill is a wonderful dad and husband and has been able to catch up with us on saturday afternoons and sundays. thanks for all your hard work bill. we love you!

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!