29 weeks and OW!

Made it to 29 weeks! Hurrah! Now I have to make it another 7-8 weeks... I know I should be enjoying this pregnancy, it may be the last one I have... but I'm getting bigger and these babies are kicking harder! I am about ready to be done and have these babies already! When I was pregnant with Ellen I remember loving all of her kicks, they were so sweet and only slightly annoying at 2am. I don't know whether its because there are two of them, or because my stomach is more tender because its stretched a bit more, but OW do these babies kick hard! A lot of their kicks actually hurt and most of them just feel uncomfortable. And I have 8 more weeks of this! Oh boy.

Here is a pic of me looking pretty huge in a dress. I blame the dress:

(this is at 27 weeks btw... I've grown 2 weeks since then!)


Here is a picture of me and Ellen - I don't look as huge here!



And here is our happy family:



We had our 28 week appointment last week and everything went great - Anna (baby A, on the left side) is still head down, and weighs 2lbs 9oz. Lucy (baby B, on the right side) has flipped so she is now head up, and weighs 2lbs 8oz. They need to make it to 5-6lbs each, so they've still got a ways to go. We hope that we make it to 37-38 weeks! They will be Thanksgiving (or close) babies!

Here is Anna:

And here is Lucy!

One sad thing is going on in our lives this week, we have decided to give our dog up for adoption. We have had our dog Amara for about 3 1/2 years and she's been a wonderful dog. She has a few quirks, but we had learned to deal with them, until a few weeks ago when she started demonstrating aggressive / dominating behavior towards Ellen. She was wonderful with Ellen when she was a baby, but something about the transition to toddler changed everything. She didn't hurt Ellen, but she did scare her, and we a) don't want Ellen to get hurt if Amara ever tried to bite her and b) don't want Ellen growing up scared of a dog that is aggressive towards her.

So, two weeks ago we surrendered her to a local no-kill shelter but agreed to foster her until a home could be found. I wanted to use the shelter because they do weekly adoption events where people come to see dogs which is much more publicity than we could ever manage for Amara on craigslist or any classifieds. During Amara's first adoption event at the shelter two Sundays ago - someone decided they wanted to adopt her!! This past weekend he brought a friend's dog to see if they would get along outside, and Amara passed with flying colors, so she will be adopted this Saturday. We will really miss her, she has been a great dog and we love her dearly. Ellen is really going to miss her too - the other day she said to Matt: "I love Amara SO much!" :( It is the right thing to do for us and Amara. I think Amara will be happier in a home where she does not have to share attention with a toddler and two twins!! The guy who is going to adopt her is single, lives alone with no other pets, and wants a dog! He even lives kind of close to us so he will take her to the same park that we walk her in! Maybe we'll even run into them there, which might make me really sad, though it would be good to see her happy!

Here are a few pictures I took today. We will miss her.

First Day of Tiny Tots Preschool

Ellen had her first day of preschool last week, and I'm finally getting around to posting about it! We decided to start her in preschool a little earlier than usual (she is not quite 2 yrs) for a few reasons. One, our church offers an awesome not too expensive program that has a 1-2 yr old "Tiny Tots" room that is two mornings a week from 9-12. It was easy and familiar for us and for Ellen since her classroom is the same one as the church nursery that she's been going to for a while now. Two, Ellen is such a social little girl, and I thought that she'd do great and enjoy being in a social environment, especially once the twins come we will be home a lot more than we are now. I think she will appreciate getting out of the house for some major activities twice a week. And three - I get ~2 months of free time twice a week!!! This will all change once the twins arrive, but until then its been nice to have some time off! Today while Ellen was at school I met a friend for breakfast, went for a swim at the Y, and got my oil changed! It was a very productive morning! :)

Here are a few pictures of the first day:








All in all she did really well and has had minor separation issues. For anyone familiar with Ellen about a year ago... being separated from Mommy led to major screaming. I tried to leave her at the Y daycare for an hour last fall and she THREW UP on the daycare worker from screaming too hard. So yeah. Ellen had separation anxiety BAD. I'm happy to say that she seems to have gotten through the worst of it! She hasn't cried at all when I've left her at school, and today was day 3! Apparently she was a little fussier today and when I asked her why she had been crying, she said she was crying for Mommy... :( But I think actually her 2 yr old molars are coming in and they hurt.

They have a really structured routine in her classroom: They start off the morning with an art project, then they go play in the "big room" that has slides, balls, cars, etc. On Thursdays they go to music class instead of the big room. After the big room or music class, they come back to their room and have a snack, change diapers, and have some free-time play with the huge amount of toys that are in their room. And then its time to go home! So far Ellen has loved reading books and playing on the slide in the big room.

Her friends Emma and Jocelyn are also in the same class, which I think also helps with the separation! And picturing them doing activities together is just too cute. :)

Here is a picture of the three of them playing together on the first day. They were so excited to be there that no one would look at me to take a picture!