First Ultrasound for Baby #2

Can you see him/her at the bottom-left? The doctor got this shot at a good angle because it's from the front, so you can see the baby's whole body--especially the head and little arms! As we were looking at the screen, the baby moved and flailed its little nubbins :P
Our first ultrasound with Aislin was taken at 7 weeks because my family doc thought something was questionable with my urine sample and wanted to see things through an ultrasound, so that very first one had her looking like a piece of candy corn. This one, on the other hand, surprised Tim and me both because we actually saw a baby!
According to the doctor, everything is just peachy--blood tests, urine tests, blood pressure, etc. I've gained 3 pounds but I'll go ahead and blame that on the cold weather keeping us indoors and the fatty foods I've been craving. I've had more burgers in the last two weeks than in the last two years, meatloaf each of those two weeks, and Chinese food ;) I've got nothing against restaurant Chinese food; we've just been making most of our trips to Safeway for it! Fried rice is so easy to scarf down...but so hard to digest :(

Expecting a 2nd Sweet Baby

We found out earlier in the month after taking three First Response tests and one EPT test :P We just wanted to be sure ;) Actually, the day after I took the First Response tests, Tim said he had a dream that a bunch of home pregnancy boxes needed to be recalled because they created false positives, and the box I bought was one of them...so, naturally, I had him buy another box of a different brand!

For this pregnancy I've decided to go with a women's clinic instead of a medical center. I had heard a lot of good things about the one here in Mt. Vernon and wanted to try a smaller, more personal setting. My first appointment with an ob/gyn is on Nov. 4th, which is when I'll get my first ultrasound and get to hear the baby's heartbeat :)

So far, this pregnancy is noticeably different than the first. My morning sickness is worse, for one thing... I haven't puked yet but I come pretty close more often than not, and I gag violently. Poor Tim :( Poor Aislin! Well, I guess they'd have it worse if I was actually barfing in the bathroom or at their feet. I have no interest in doing any kind of exercise, in spite of having gone walking almost every day since we've moved here and also when I was pregnant with Aislin. Back then, I even walked in the wind and rain (with a massive umbrella over my head and my winter jacket on). Now I just want to eat everything I see on commercials and hibernate for the winter. Speaking of eating...I've been craving food in general but only at night! I won't eat more than a slice of toast for breakfast or have more than a cup of milk later on, and lunch has been a queasy time for me, but come dinner...I can't seem to stick with my usual portions and end up eating way too much. In fact, last night we had pork chops for dinner and, for dessert, we had...pizza. Yeah. We ordered pizza for dessert. That was a horrible idea because my blood sugar can't handle too many carbs (hence the need to stick to certain portions).
For all these reasons, I think I'm having a boy :P

The baby's expected due date is June 17, 2010 :)

A Procession of Elephants

Barnum and Bailey's was in Kent a couple of weeks ago to perform at the Showare Center...which is right down the street from my parents' house! When we found out that animals would be passing the house between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m., my brother, my mom, Aislin and I kept a close eye on the street for those whole two hours; but when noon came around and people were standing by the sidewalk or sitting in lawn chairs at the edge of their driveways and still no animals, my brother and I got impatient and decided to jog down the street in the direction they'd be coming from. We decided that, if we saw any animals coming, we'd book it back to the house to get my mom and Aislin ready. As we were crossing the street at the first intersection, we saw cop lights down the street and then big brown figures. We just stared and squinted, trying to figure out what we were seeing. And then an ear flapped and we heard a trumpet-like sound in the distance. We were like little kids seeing elephants for the first time...because, well, it was our first time seeing them on the street...near our house... So awesome.

Life in Mt. Vernon

(House on the right)

Yep, the Sweets have moved again! We left Kent for Quincy about this time last year when Tim got a job at the Microsoft Datacenter; and then last month, we moved here to Mt. Vernon for Tim's new job in Anacortes. He'd been working for Siemens for over two years now but he was offered a better job with a company called Integra (the software company, not the telecom company).
On Aislin's b-day we went driving around Mt. Vernon looking for a house to rent, and after a handful of heck-no's and one maybe, we found this one. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths, and a deck that overlooks mountains and trees.
Since we gave away most of our furniture before we left Quincy we decided to stop by Mor Furniture on our way to Mt. Vernon. We stayed the night at my parents' house in Kent, drove to Mor and picked out a nice sectional and then went back to my parents' house to get the moving truck. From the Mor loading area, we drove straight up to Mt. Vernon where the missionaries and members of our new ward were ready to help us move in.
The next day, we finally got a dining table! WHOO!
The walls are still pretty bare (in every room) but we're working our way up to buying wall frames for the rest of our pictures!
I love that door...

The master bedroom (with the dresser mirror still sitting in front of the window...*sigh*):
Aislin's bedroom isn't used as much as her last one... It just has her furniture in there because her bigger toys are in the spare bedroom and the smaller ones are in the living room.
She never played with that thing as an infant, but now she DIVES through the arcs like she's trying to hit all the dangly things at once...with her face.

We've adjusted to life in Mt. Vernon pretty well, and we're glad to see Aislin feel so at home in our new home! We've been exploring parks together, the trail to the local grocery store, the library, etc...and wherever we go, she's more than happy to wave and make new friends.
Here's Aislin with a little girl who lives in our cul-de-sac. When she saw us move in, she came over that evening and said, "Can I play with your baby?" We cracked up because our first visitor was for our daughter :P

This was taken at a park a few blocks from our house. It was quite a walk! She was standing at the top of a toddler jungle gym and watching the older kids play.


This was taken at another park. As soon as I took her out of her stroller and set her down, she immediately walked away from me and towards everyone else! She kept walking up to other people but she seemed to know that they were way too old to play with, so she'd turn around and entertain herself.

We've been meeting more people from church so I just recently met some moms who have kids about her age. In fact, Aislin met a little boy at church today who's almost exactly a month older than her (off by a day)! So maybe they'll be at playgroup and she won't just have to watch the older kids play!

In other news, we didn't take pictures of Tim at the airport but he just got back from his first business trip :) He went to Wisconsin for four days while Aislin and I stayed with my family. He said people in Wisconsin say "baa-cood" instead of "barcode," and that flying first class (which only happened on the way back because there were no seats left in coach) wasn't that great because everyone was drinking. Otherwise it was a good experience :)

Oh, and one last thing: it rained today!

Aislin's 1st Birthday

Aislin turned a year old on August 3rd :) Since it was a Monday, we celebrated her birthday (in Kent) with my family on Saturday the 1st. The next day, more family came over for BBQ (and so much more)! These pictures, however, are from Aislin's cake-day only...and the above pic shows what happened after we broke up a piece of cake for her and showed her that it was meant to be eaten--not poked :P

Aislin in her birthday dress (with the pink pants I was too lazy to take off)!

We promptly put her back in her okay-to-mess-up clothes ;)

There she goes...poking at her cake!

She wasn't sure about it, so she took a pinch of icing to taste.

Her first cake experience became a lot more enjoyable after a little help from her dad :)