Last week when we hit 25 weeks the weekly fruit the boys resembled was a rutabaga-a fairly obscure produce item, I think we can all agree. This week tops rutabaga by far-the boys are now the lenght of English Hothouse cucumbers. Long, long cucumbers. I'm sure I've seen these before, I just never knew the name. But anyways, we're at 26 weeks, and the boys are about 14 inches long. Which means they're approaching half the height of the average Bothma male, right?
We spend much of this weekend getting the house Christmas-ready. That's right, that means we are about to hang as many white lights on the outside as our house can weight-bear. If you live in or near Avondale Estates and your power flickers in and out each night just after dark, that would be Keith plugging in our lights. The man loves him some outdoor lights. My territory is inside the house- and this year I decided if it doesn't move, it's getting decorated with garland, ribbon or both. 'Tis the season, baby!
Keith is also practicing pretending to be Santa, but has put in a request that Grady & Cole leave Santa cookies & beer (instead of cookies & milk) in the future. I predict at some point I'll have to explain this to the boys' teacher, but I'm OK with that.
Here we are. Notice how Keith is wearing the Santa hat to prepare for his future role as Santa. Practice, he says.
We are a week late for the proper Thanksgiving holiday, but Keith and I decided to post a few things we are thankful for this year.1. Pretty obvious-but you guessed, it, Karen and her family. I would have to think long and hard to find someone else who would be willing to give almost an entire year of her life to help another family expand theirs. Since I was almost 16 Karen has insisted that she wanted to carry a pregnancy for me, and despite the difficulties along the way, she has never, not even once, indicated that she has been inconvenienced in any way. Karen is doing this with no complaint or comments on how much trouble the experience has been for her. We know it has tough, though-from implantation, to the 10 weeks of daily inter-muscular shots (OUCH!), to carrying two 2 lbs babies (so far), Karen has never made us feel like we were placing a burden on her. We are eternally thankful that she is the giving person that she is! Other than my parents and in-laws, I will probably never meet a person who amazes me as much as she does. Altruistic beyond anything I've experienced, in layman's terms, she is just amazing. I should also note-her husband Scott has been doing a great job of teaching 6 yr. old Greg about being a good citizen (surely that gets absorbed through the womb to our two boys?), and Sara has been teaching both 2 yr. old Rhett and Cole and Grady the colors and counting 1-10. Their Aunt Janelle has also been very generous with her time when she watches Rhett and Sara when Karen goes to the doctor. Thank you Janelle! And thank you Karen, for being so generous in bringing our babies into this world in the healthiest way you can!2. Grandparents. From the Bothma parents to the Ellermans, we are thankful to have two sets of grandparents we know will be great for our kids! We hope our kids benefit from Nanny Estelle's kind, generous, and understanding spirit, Grandma GG's sassy attitude and loving heart, Grandpa Louren's tenderness and consideration of others' feelings and Grampie Ellerman's knowledge and affections.There are more people on list, but you'll have to check back tomorrow b/c I am going to bed! Before I forget though, a quick update: We've made it to 25 weeks! According to the doctors office, today is 25 weeks and 5 days, but I don't believe them for a second! Since we know the exact date of (petri dish) conception of Frick and Frac, we know they hit 25 weeks of development today. The doctor's office keeps marking their gestational age as 5 days ahead of our official count, so I say Poo on them for not properly keeping track. For our official records, we're exactly at 25 days today.And that means they are the size of a rutabaga! I know, you're thinking, "what the h*ll does a rutabaga look like? So, if you're vegetable-ly challenged, here you go: Head to heels, your baby now measures about 13 1/2 inches. His weight — a pound and a half (Note: our babies are 1.8 and 1.9 lbs apiece at this point)— isn't much more than an average rutabaga, but he's beginning to exchange his long, lean look for some baby fat. As he does, his wrinkled skin will begin to smooth out and he'll start to look more and more like a newborn. His hair is probably recognizable now (in color and texture), although both may change after he's born. (Second note: my hair didn't turn curly until about 9 months, but Keith's hair was copper-ish red right away)
Cuter than a random vegetable picture, of course, are actual pictures (ultrasound) of the boys, taken Nov 30. Here is Baby A (Grady).Cute frontal picture- he was not very willing to give up this shot, he kept turning and hiding from the ultrasound probe. Eventually he gave in and let us get this great picture! My apologies to those of you only able to view the picture online, it's much clearer in person.
The second picture is a profile shot of Cole. Look at his cute little button nose and mouth and little round noggin'. During the ultrasound we could see him swallow some fluid, very cute!
24 weeks today, and Grady and Cole are each approximately the length of an ear of corn. And one more week for me until I get to go along with Karen to another doctor's visit and ultrasound! Very exciting.
Update! I finally remembered to get a sideways shot of Karen & the boys. Here they are: the picture was taken at 24 weeks exactly.
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..that means Nana is throwing a shower! As I mentioned before, my mom Estelle, aka Nana, threw us a fabulous shower this past Saturday. As usual, she outdid herself with the food and decor, it was all excellent! It was so nice to be surrounded by many friends and family members as we celebrated the upcoming phase of our life. Enjoy a few pictures from the shower.First picture- the "pass the pacifier on the chopstick race" pictured here are my team's members Aunt Karen and Nanny (Keith's maternal grandmother), and their personal cheering squad consisting of Rhett. My team won the first round, but the other team consisted of a bunch of whiners, so we had a do-over. In the second picture you will see Grandma GG's cheating strategy, which allowed her team to win the second round. Third picture is of the cutest player in this game, Ms. Piper Anne, being held by our great friend Sara.
Next up are the three munchkins, Greg, Sara and Rhett. They checked in on all the ladies periodically to make sure we were all behaving ourselves. And we did, for the most part.
Of course, Aunt Karen was not the only pregnant woman present, here is Aunt Angela (right). She is due April 8 with Evan William. On the left are cousin Kalyn and Aunt Ava.
