A Time for Change

Looking outside you can tell that its that time of year. The time when summer leaves us and changes into fall. The leaves on the trees are changing colours and the weather has started to cool off, making it easier to sleep at night. It's also the time to go back to school, but in our house we have a couple years before we have to worry about that. Despite our reprieve from the world of higher learning, we are going through some serious changes in our household as well. 

First off, after two years serving as a tri-ward cub akela (cub leader) and a primary teacher, Matt was released on Sunday. Many of the cubs' moms let him know how sad they are to see him go. On Sunday, he was called and sustained to be the ward Elder's Quorum president, which will be a big responsibility for him and one that Rory and I will support him in, however we can.

Rory is also going through a lot of changes. She is getting older and more grown up by the minute. Recently she has started saying funny phrases like "I do! I do!" instead of just "yes". She can go to the potty by herself (without needing my assistance.) She has technically been potty trained for months but recently she has started doing it all by herself! I even taught her to sing the ABCs while she washed her hands! (to make sure she does it for an adequate length of time). 

She had her first experience with face painting on Saturday at our realtor's family bbq. They had a bunch of pictures to chose from. I tried to convince Rory to get a nice little butterfly or flower but she wanted a tiger or "cat" as she called it. So she sat there, with me holding her head to keep it still, while the nice lady gave her a tiger face. At the end, she picked up a mirror and showed Rory her new face and Rory started crying. She quickly got used to it and spent the day saying to me, "Mommy, my happy face is a cat. I'm Rory da Kitty. Roar!" At bed time, after her face had been washed, she looked up at me and said "Mommy, my happy face is no cat. Kitty all gone." I told her she could get a kitty face another day. Sunday morning, she woke up and the first words out of her mouth were "Mommy, I get kitty face now?" I had to explain to her that kids with kitty faces couldn't go to nursery. Once she knew that she was fine to have a normal "Rory" face again. 

 Roar!

Rory just keeps getting bigger and bigger! It's so hard to believe she's not my little tiny baby anymore! It hurts my heart sometimes to see her grow. Fortunately, we are going to have a new baby in our family soon!! So I will be able to get all my baby snuggles again!! Rory is very excited about the baby and is understanding it more and more every day. Yesterday she asked me if the baby was feeling okay and then patted my tummy. In the past week, she has asked me if she can cuddle the baby and then hugs my tummy. She also regularly pats my tummy and says "Hi baby! I'm your big sister." I am so excited for her! She is going to be an awesome big sister!

These pictures aren't the greatest. The top one is the day we found out! And the bottom one is me at 16 weeks. The camera made a weird shadow, so we will work on figuring that out for future baby bump shots.

So I am 16 weeks pregnant! And am due on February 29th (It's a leap year baby!). I am just starting to feel better after months and months of sick! (but am too scared to go of my morning sickness meds. I tried a couple weeks ago and spent the morning with my head in the toilet!) 

We are thrilled to FINALLY be pregnant again! Conceiving this time was not as easy as we had expected it to be. After a year of trying, lots of prayers and a miscarriage, we are happy and healthy and can't believe our family of three will be growing so soon. (Technically its growing now, or at least I am!)

To cut you off before you ask, No, we are not finding out the gender of this one. We didn't with Rory and we won't this time either. I know most people tend to be very strongly opinionated one way or the other. I personally feel it wrecks the magic to know in advance. It starts with the gender and then the name slips out and when the baby is born all you can ask is how much did s/he weigh? I know people disagree with me and think its practical to know, that you can be better prepared. I also know people who can't stand the suspense. I like the surprise. I like spending the entire pregnancy guessing and bouncing back and forth between names. (And No, I won't tell you the names either. They are top secret classified until the final name is chosen and the birth certificate is signed!) Yes, I would be thrilled with a second girl and I would be equally thrilled to have a boy (I know Matt wants a boy at some point for sure). 

So with all these changes, we were happy to have some time together this weekend to enjoy our little family of three and the weather while it was still nice. We are looking forward to the fall and winter (though not the cold) and all the exciting changes they have in store for us!