Week 27

We had quite the fiesta at our new house on Saturday! People came from all over the southeast to party in the name of Bartok! Sam ran the show, with help from Judy and Morgan (long distance) and she threw an awesome party! We ate some very delicious food, played some fun games, and enjoyed chatting with friends. I put all of the shower pictures on our google pictures page - so check em out! We were smothered with love and generosity from all around and we're so blessed to have so many people who are excited to support us in our crazy endeavor to become Parents. So many people made the effort to drive up/down for the day and everyone was very generous in their giving. We are loved!! Thank you!!
I started volunteering at the literacy center here! I'm teaching English as a Second Language twice a week. I teach the lowest level class on Tuesday nights and the highest level class on Wednesday mornings. So far I've taught one day of English 4 and I love it! There are people from all over the world in my class and they are all so motivated to learn! Surprisingly enough, they even want to know the grammar jargon so I actually get to teach the difference between the past tense and the past participle!!! Yay!!! I LOVE it!! Next week I start with English 0. I should get to practice my Spanish a good bit in there!
Bartok is doing well - still moving around a lot in there! No one besides Shamus and I have felt the baby but I'm hoping he'll kick some of our friends and family soon! Bartok is still the size of an eggplant. Just a little larger than last week, but not enough gain to graduate to a new vegetable. His brain is growing and developing a lot this week and his eyes are opening for the first time! He's also developing the ability to see in color!
It's the end of the 2nd trimester!! We're 66.6666666666% finished with this race!!! Woo hoo!! I added some belly picture to the slideshow on the right sidebar! It's growing!

Week 26

We've been working like crazy to prepare for the baby shower this weekend!! It has actually been really fun and rewarding. Shamus spent some time each day cleaning out the garage (and putting the "I-don't-know-what's-in-these-boxes" in the white room). I did some directing and started discovering what's in those boxes.
Here's what we accomplished:
Parked both cars in the garage and organized the garage!









Recycled 3 boxes of high school and college papers!!
Donated 40+ binders to the local high school!
Organized the office!










Painted the shelves in the baby room!! Gracias, Ari!!

Bartok is now the size of an eggplant and he weighs around 2 lbs. I have stopped gaining weight and I honestly have no explanation as to how that happened. I'm not really exercising more or less than before - although I don't think I've written about the awesome 1985 Pregnancy Workout VHS I've been doing. More about that later. For now, I'll give you this teaser: the teacher and her assistants all wear brightly colored leotards over different colored leggings and wear scrunchy socks that may or may not match anything they're wearing. It's fun! It's the 80s!! Anyway... back to Bartok - he's got lungs and somehow he's practicing breathing with amniotic fluid. So he's got fluid in his lungs but he's supposed to. I think. Right now, our baby actually is transparent. But, contrary to popular belief, he will not be transparent when he's born even though his parents are incredibly pale. He also responds to sounds now. I don't know how true it is because sometimes I try to scare him a little by making a loud noise but then I think, "What kind of a mother are you, trying to frighten your baby??" And if there's a loud sudden noise, I get scared and jump so I can't feel him anyway. He does love to squirm around in there and that's a weird sensation!! I still make Shamus feel it every so often and I haven't injured his wrist yet so that's good!

Week 25

We're spending the week working on the house. Shamus goes to work everyday and then comes home and attacks our move-in mess. I've been spending the whole day attacking it most days. We have a few goals... especially with plans for company soon.
1. Paint the shelves in the baby room and fill them
2. Park both cars in the garage
3. Put away everything in the office

I know 3 goals doesn't seem like very many but check out where we're starting:
Garage:













Baby room:









Office:

Now add to that the fact that I can't paint or move heavy things. Looks like Shamus and I both have our work cut out for us! I've been working on the office A LOT! I'm starting to dislike the room because it feels like an abyss of papers to sort through. But it's easy to see the progress in the piles of paper to recycle. So there's hope. We will see the carpet someday soon!!!
We're having our first company this weekend - some friends are coming over to play board games! The pressure is on! (In a good way - it's nice to have a real deadline!)

Bartok is still busily rolling and kicking and such. His spine is starting to develop and he recently finished getting fingerprints. He's also starting his weight gain this week! He's going to fill in all that wrinkly skin by the time he's born! I can't wait to see him!!

Week 24

We moved!!! All in "one day". We already took random trips with carloads and, as you already saw, spent many hours painting with the Cronins and the Culpeppers. But we really got it done with the help of many friends and family members in ONE NIGHT!! Thursday, July 31st was PUMP night - Packing, Unpacking, Moving and Pizza!! Our Shepherding Group from church came with empty cars, trucks, vans and trailers and so did the Culpeppers and Ariadna. We had about 15 people total and we had about 10 car/truck/van/trailer loads. We started around 5 and "finished" around 9:30. So there is some more REAL evidence of God's abundant grace - He gives and gives and gives and fulfills all of our needs! What a blessing it is to have our family in Christ AND our biological families to help us!! I spent the evening identifying boxes and telling people where to take them. I'm glad the rooms were already painted because "Blue room" is way easier to say than "last bedroom on the left upstairs". I had also made a room map for each room that has the room drawn on it to scale and cut outs of the furniture (also to scale) so that people would know where to put each item. What was unbelievable was how well everyone took in the directions. I mean, imagine, you're carrying a large, heavy box and some pregnant lady tells you where to put it but she (almost) never lifts a finger to help move HER stuff. Now do this about 25 times. I don't think I'd be smiling unless I really loved that pregnant lady! So I guess they all do!!! :) Shamus didn't believe that we would be sleeping in the house Thursday night. But we did!! We had a few glitches to work out, though... 1 - We have a LARGE window in our bedroom and couldn't find the frost spray we bought for it so we used the hall bathroom and changed clothes in the closet (I'm glad there's a light in there!). 2 - We didn't have blinds in the bedroom so when the sun came out, I woke up and the room started to heat up! 3 - I spent the morning putting away all of the kitchen stuff and then had to tell Shamus (a few times) where each thing was. I'm sure he won't completely know his way around this kitchen for a while - there are SOOO many cupboards and drawers! So, as you can see, the move went very smoothly and since there were so many people, I don't think we had any injuries (no pulled muscles, disabled backs, etc.). We are SO excited to be in a house and we're slowly getting used to the idea that it is actually our home.
Bartok is in great condition as far as I can tell! He is constantly on the move! He's still the size of a papaya... but a large one now! The only trouble he's causing is leg cramps and I only get them once in a while in bed. And they're nothing compared to what I've seen Shamus go through when he gets leg cramps from soccer. Shamus tries to feel the baby every now and then but Bartok is not very consistent with his movements so he and his dad haven't really interacted much. Plus, as Shamus pointed out, it's not like Bartok is going to stop moving once he's started. There will be plenty of opportunities to feel the baby move and apparently see him move!
We're already at the end of the 5th month!! I can't believe it!! He's growing up so fast!! And I'm growing out so fast!!