October

October really was fast.


Pregnancy progresses.  Not so sick and starting to feel the baby move!  I'm always hungry and eat a turkey sandwich nearly every day.  I haven't had the aversion to junk food as much this pregnancy (not sure if that's a good or bad thing) and am overall, doing great.  At the 16 week appointment I got to have a quick peek at the baby, not enough to see gender but got to see baby's beautiful hands waving and a strong heartbeat.  The screen tests are all negative and everything looks good.  We find out gender soon!


L's schedule is particularly full with dance practices, piano lessons and additional rehearsals for the Nutcracker.  A bounces around, always begging for play dates and eagerly trying to read.  And E continues to be the every charming, precocious little imp monster.  She's my cuddle bug and I love all the one-on-one time I get with her before baby gets here.


L and A got hair cuts.  It's so much easier to manage their beautiful curls when their hair is short.  L was reluctant but after weeks of arguing, it wasn't up to her anymore.  after a few days, she decided she really loves it because she gets to wear her hair down more instead of a fuzzy ponytail every day.  Meanwhile, A has decided to grow her hair long, much more easily managed because her hair is as straight as her sisters' is curly.


We visited the dentist and all of us got a strong reminder to floss in addition to good brushing.  Poor L, despite her best efforts, has 4 small cavities and A has one.  E made it through her first official visit though, including xrays and did great.


We got to have a family dinner with all my siblings including my out of state sister and her new fiancee.  It was a short evening but the girls love to see their cousins and the adults had a great time chatting and making inappropriate jokes.


The girls and I had a great day out.  I took L and A with me to my cousin's baby shower.  They loved playing with the hostess' little boys and I loved getting to see my cousin and her adorably big-with-twins-belly.  After that we went to a baptism.  My daughter's friend (and one of L's good friends) was baptized, followed with a fun luncheon at the house.  It was a beautiful experience and L was particularly moved and excited and is eagerly looking forward to her own baptism next spring.


I ran the Haunted Half marathon with some friends.  I drove ridiculously early to meet them and get loaded onto the shuttle buses.  It was somewhat of a last minute decision to run.  I waited to register once I found out I was pregnant.  But after first trimester, I was able to build my mileage back up.  My training wasn't really sufficient for a half marathon distance but since it is a downhill race and there wasn't a 10K option, we decided to just take it easy.  So the buses dropped us off at the top of a canyon where we huddled under blankets for warmth until the starting time (they had to close the canyon for the race so we waited about an hour).  One of our little group, very fit and an experienced runner, took off with much more ambitious intentions.  But another friend and I hung back until the pack had thinned before our moderate start.  We ran the first five miles and then began alternating walking and running.  As expected, my hips got sore and my knees and bottom of my feet started to hurt.  But it really wasn't until 10 miles that I started to question my sanity.  So we walked the last 3 miles and managed a brief sprint across the finish line in about 3 hours total.  Happy to have met our goal, we devoured pizza, took pictures and hobbled back to our cars to return home.  The recovery took me longer than I thought but I'm really glad I got in one last half marathon before baby.