18 weeks and BIG

18 weeks, we're ALMOST to gender ultrasound time. Mike and I are getting so so excited :) not so excited to keep a blindfold on the whole time, but excited to find out at our gender reveal party on Sept 7th if Baby will be a boy or a girl! Our moms will be coming with us to the ultrasound to find out for us what Baby will be, but have been sworn into secrecy until the party. It should be really fun, and we've had a fun time getting things together and not so much fun cleaning the house little by little. Hopefully it will be beautiful weather that day for us to hang out in the backyard and grill out and play yard games and just relax as the summer comes to an end. 

Probably the weirdest thing going on right now, is that I still weigh less than I did before I got pregnant. Some of you know, I lost over 10lbs at the beginning (for no reason, seriously, I never even got sick), and have been slowly gaining it back, but haven't reached my pre-pregnancy weight yet, which is bizarre with how much I eat. And still no cravings, no aversions, no pickles and ice cream like Mike was expecting :) just eating more often and more wholeful foods. For those that have been in our garden, you know we had an overload of kale, broccoli, and green leaf lettuce this year, and lets not even get started on the five million zucchinis (we had to get real creative with zucchini recipes this year), so luckily I've had a lot of easy access to fresh greens and veggies. And monster tomato plants. Which has been wonderful :) here's hoping next year is as awesome so we can make lots of home-made baby food! (We registered for a baby-food processor, which we're both super excited for)

On Monday, August 12th at 8:45ish in the morning, I felt baby for the first time! It wasn't much, but it was enough to make me jump as I was standing there doing the dishes in the kitchen, and Cooper jumped too (since he has this constant need to be right behind me at all times). I had no idea what it was at first, it felt like a poke from the inside out right by my belly button, and I haven't felt it like that since- its mostly been flutters and zings since that first one. But lo and behold, there really is a little one in there! :) I called Mike right away at work and of course the first thing he did when he came home was grab my belly and stand there waiting, but of course Baby isn't exactly a soccer athlete quite yet, so he didn't get to feel anything. Hopefully in these next few weeks, he'll get to feel baby kick and be just as weirded out and giddy as I was :) apparently we were both kickers, so I'll probably be a pretty big kicker.

Mike and I ALSO found out this week two of our cousins had their babies recently! Congratulations Megan & Matt on your beautiful baby boy, and Liz & Keith on your precious baby girl! In the next month or so, one of Mike's best friends Adam and his wife Staci are due to have their little baby boy too, and we can't wait to meet him! So many babies :) seriously, there's nothing better than baby overload (except for baby AND puppy overload!)