25 Weeks

Today I am 25 weeks - and it feels like a cruel joke I have played on myself. Every Tuesday is my pregna-versary: The day I turn one more week pregnant. However, around Saturday or Sunday I start rounding up and saying I am one more week pregnant than I really am... I get ahead of myself in my anticipation to be one more week closer to delivery and then am disappointed when Tuesday rolls around because it feels like time is moving so slowly, like I am backtracking. But then I think, why am I in such a hurry to have a newborn? They are much easier to take care of when on the inside.

So, back to 25 weeks - I am still seeing a specialist for my Grave's Disease, though the treatments seem to be going well and the baby is growing right on schedule. This week, BabyCenter.com compares the baby to the size of the average rutabaga. Um, what does a rutabaga even look like, let alone how big is an average sized specimen? Well it is about 1.5 lbs and 13.5 inches long - if you're curious, here ya go. I think there are cuter things to compare a baby to.

Here are some pics from my ultrasound on Friday - the umbilical cord was right near the face so the profile looks a little rounded out.

A foot

Nose and Lips

This time, Claire and Miles came with Betty (Matt was out of town) and got to be there for the ultrasound. Claire loved it, and was sitting there smiling through the whole thing. The doctor talked to her a lot and pointed out everything he was showing on the screen. He would say - do you see the nose? And she would say, yes I see her nose, or I see her head, etc. So, she is still confident we are having a girl.

I wish I could report that I know if she's right or wrong - but I can't. Baby Hiller is still a mystery. Boy or girl - we're excited!

You've Got a Friend in Me!

We made a video for our friend Becky Baird's birthday, which is today. She works at Disney World so decided to do a Disney tribute - the kids helped me sing "You've Got a Friend in Me." The kids are cute, my singing is mediocre, and we had fun!

The Face

This is Miles' favorite new face - you may have noticed him making it in almost all of our Disneyland pictures. I have heard that this "smile" stage may last for years... fabulous.

Here is Miles at Noah's soccer game on Saturday. He was cheering, "Go No-No!" It was pretty cute, and we had fun watching the all star game with Noah as goalie.

Euphemisms

I am getting a bit tired of hearing that I look tired... it's just a euphemism for "wow, you look really bad!"

There is a guy at work who is particularly tactless and uses this line on me on a weekly basis. Well guess what? I AM tired! I go to sleep tired and I wake up 8 hours later tired. I am 24 weeks pregnant and get up to pee every 2 hours, the hyper-thyroid stuff makes me feel worn down and my heart races for no good reason, and my 2-year old wakes up and cries for a few minutes and then goes back to sleep, but now I am awake again...better go pee, since I'm up... and it continues, round and round.

I wear makeup to work every day. Every day. I can't imagine what he would say if I didn't wear makeup. Then he would probably say, "Wow, are you feeling sick?" That's the usual comment I hear when I am sans makeup.

I need a good comeback line for the "you look tired" comment. Any ideas?

Kid Quotes

I took Miles back to the hotel for a nap one of our days at Disneyland, and Claire got to go on a bunch of rides that afternoon with the big kids (adults). When I met up with them later on I asked her what she did while I was gone. She said very matter-of-fact, "Well, I went on Splash Mountain, and then I cried for 15 minutes, and then I went on Peter Pan..." Matt said she did cry when their boat went down the huge drop but that she had stopped by the time they reached the end of the ride. Here's Claire and Leah after Splash Mountain:


Miles refuses to say his own name. We get him to say "Mi-" and then "-les" and then when we ask him to combine the two he says "Me!" We quiz him on repeating back family member names and he says them, and then we try to trick him and throw in - say Miles! He says "Me!" He has now started calling himself "Me Hiller" when Claire tells him to say his name, and when he talks to my stomach to tell the baby hello, he says, "Hi, it's Me Hiller." What a silly kid.


I was making toast for Claire one morning and she took in a big whiff and said, "It smells niiiice and toasty in there!"

We were reading a book at bedtime called Counting Kisses and Claire asked why I kissed dad when we got married. I guess she has seen our wedding pictures. I said, Well, that's when we exchange rings and then we get to kiss to show that we are married now. She said, "Oh, then did you get a trophy?" Wellll, I guess I could call my wedding rings a trophy of sorts :)

Cousin Time

Becky and Danny visited Las Vegas for their annual Becky's Birthday trip, and per usual, I did not get a single picture of us together. I did take some pics of the cousins playing though. They worked on the four "cars" around the kitchen table with a bunch of tools, played Dance Freeze (a game McKinley made up), and went swimming - yes, swimming. Well, it was in a huge hot tub at the timeshare, but it was still only 60 degrees outside.

We loved having them visit us - too bad they had to leave early on Saturday to avoid a snow storm coming into Utah. Claire and McKinley played especially well together, and they have a date scheduled on FaceTime for this week.

Silhouette Studio

This is one of my favorite Disneyland traditions - getting a hand-cut silhouette of the kids' profiles. I wonder if all the silhouette's end up looking somewhat similar, but I love them. The store is on main street, and is teeny tiny, but I highly recommend a stop.

Miles - 2 years old

Claire - 4 years old

Disneyland 2012

We had such a great trip to Disneyland recently - I think I will go in January from now on, even if our kids are in school. Crowds were small, hardly any lines to mention on the rides (some even let us ride two times in a row), and we got to see some of our favorite characters who we hadn't been able to see on previous trips, like Rapunzel, Jasmine and Aladdin, Tinker Bell and even The Beast, though we didn't get a picture with him.

This trip was to celebrate Matt's graduation last December and we invited the Hillers along with us. Betty, Phil and Leah came with us and it was so nice to have them there. Fair warning - this is a picture overload, but this is actually my very narrowed down list of photos to include.


We had a good mix of riders to non-riders, those who like the tea cups and other spinny rides, and those who aren't pregnant and can ride the bumper cars and roller coasters. Claire got to go on a few new rides this year, now that she is a bit taller - Splash Mountain being the main one, and then she rode the roller coaster in Toon Town, though I think she could have gone on it last year too.








Parts of Disneyland were still decorated for Christmas, like the castle and It's a Small World.




The Casey Jr. Train - Miles loved it, and we rode it three times in a row



Souvenirs - heaven help us...Miles was shooting all the animals on the Jungle Cruise

Disneyland - Cast of Characters

Our first of three days at Disneyland, it seemed we were always arriving just too late to get in line to see the characters. I decided that must be one of the worst jobs at Disneyland, the person who has to tell the kids they will have to wait to meet their favorite characters even though they can see them standing right there. But we soon made up for it, and got to take pics with many of the characters we don't often see plus our favorites. Miles of course was waiting and waiting to see Woody, which finally happened on our third day.

The Toy Story Crew - Miles was in heaven



Alice

Buzz! One of the highlights, for sure!


Goofy

On the Pier with Mickey

Minnie's House in Toon Town

Mickey's House

Tigger and Pooh - Can you tell Matt, Leah and Claire just went on Splash Mountain?

On our last trip to Disneyland, the wait to meet Rapunzel was usually over an hour, if not 1.5 hours. This time, even though most rides had 5 minute waits, the line to see her was still 30-45 minutes. So, we stalked her and found out when Rapunzel was scheduled to appear on Friday. Betty jumped right in line as soon as they set up the ropes, and she was first in line, holding the spot for Claire. Now that's a good MeMa!


Tink

Silvermist

Claire wasn't interested in Jasmine and Aladdin for some reason - so, why not? Betty and I jumped in for a photo.

Dancing with Phineas & Ferb