Numero Due: 25 weeks (and Happy Thanksgiving!)

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! We had a great one. Aunt Susu flew in from Cambridge for the holiday weekend and we all got to spend some quality time in Santa Barbara. Thanksgiving dinner was delicious. As usual I brought pumpkin pie, rolls, and sugar cookies to dinner (this year Ellie helped make/decorate everything). Aunt Susu and Grandma Pam took care of the turkey, stuffing, green beans casserole, and mashed potatoes. And there were three kinds of cranberry sauce. Nick got his canned, jellied, stuff. There was a orange-cranberry relish that is a family recipe and traditional cranberry sauce. New this year...roasted carrots. Ellie is kinda in love with cooked carrots (aka squishy carrots) right now and requested them for "the feast". So there they were.

And we were having such a great time nobody took any pictures. None. None of the turkey. None of the happy family. None. Despite the 8+ cameras within arm's length of everyone at the dining table there were no pictures taken. But the important thing is we all had a great time.

The whole weekend Aunt Susu had a little shadow. Everywhere she went Ellie wanted to be. Everything she did Ellie wanted to figure out how to do it. Ellie wanted Susus to play with her every moment she was awake. We found plenty of fun things to do including riding a miniature train, shopping, visiting with family, lots of eating, relaxing...all sorts of fun things. It was great.

And here we are 25 weeks pregnant with Numero Due. The internet says the baby is the size of a rutabaga, which I couldn't find at the grocery store to show Ellie. I'm feeling great albeit getting a little uncomfortable with the growing belly. There is a little bit of backaches by the end of the day, but nothing too bad. The heartburn is really bad, but it has been since almost day 1. Getting used to waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom is a shock to the system...yeah, I know I better get used to it because once the baby comes, blah, blah, blah...this is the second time we've done this. Numero Due is very active. I do feel like he is moving all the time. Nick and Ellie have yet to feel him move, but it'll be any day now, as long as we are all sitting still long enough for them to feel him move. Ellie has been asking some interesting questions about the baby and pregnancy and was really interested in the ultrasound pictures we brought home. I really haven't had much of an appetite (despite all the food I ate over this past weekend). Its weird how with Barca I had an unending hunger and appetite, but with Numero Due I haven't had much of one. Again, just another difference between my first pregnancy and this one. They really do feel totally different. Work is going well and I haven't let the growing belly slow me down. I think people are always surprised to see me walk onto a construction site or do field work. At least one thing is the same between pregnancies...they aren't slowing me down and I'm still rocking the pregnant belly and hardhat on construction sites.

A few weeks till the 3rd trimester and only 15 short weeks till the baby's due date. And yet there is so much to do. I know the weeks will go fast with all the holidays, Ellie's birthday, being busy at work, and getting ready for the baby. Its starting to get really exciting in our household.