4 Pounds of Life and One Crazy Woman

My girl is a tropical fruit this week!  At 33 weeks she is now over 4 lbs and 17 inches long.  We are getting ready people!!  She is about the same weight as a pineapple :)  I love pineapple!  I did do a double take in the grocery store yesterday however, when I passed the pineapple display and stared intently at the size of each of them.  I have to remind myself to take a deep breath...somehow I will get that baby out like millions of other women...right??  I think it might be the prickly little things and the top of the pineapple that made me almost pass out.  Praise the Lord she won't be coming out prickly!!  

I had to pull out the skirts on Sunday this week...I no longer fit into any of my maternity pants, except for 2 pairs of jeans, which are also getting tight, especially to wear to church.  It's a sad day when your collection of clothes "for when I'm really huge" no longer fits.  How did I get there so quickly??  My outfit of choice these days is a stretchy cotton top and yoga pants.  I'd be in that all day everyday, that is if I actually get dressed!  Pj's are working just fine for me too :) We did have to make an emergency run to Target on Saturday night for some kind of nylons to wear (it's winter here people, bare skin is not going work).  They don't carry maternity nylons (0f course) so I had to do the next best thing...thigh highs.  Oh yeah, you can imagine how fun those were!  Let's just say they lost any kind of "appeal" after I put them on :) I could not bring myself to buy the xxl-queen plus size in regular control-top nylons.  It seemed to be a little too degrading to my very fragile self-esteem right now.  Speaking of self esteem, I'm not even going to mention the "stretching phenomena" that has NOT occurred on my stomach yet, for fear that if I do, I will certainly wake up with them tomorrow!  Let me just say that I am slathering my stomach with so much lotion lately, I am about as slippery as an eel :)  Please Lord, have mercy....

Here is a great look at my juicy little pineapple!  For the first time, I now see the "basketball" that I am carrying!  This particular outfit showed my profile quite well and both Travis and I got an ear full at Church about how big I am now getting.  Ava is definitely filling me out and taking  up every inch in my ever-expanding stomach.  My cousin Jenny's little guy Ryan, who is in 1st grade, told his Mom that it looked like I swallowed a beach ball!  I hear you Ryan, I hear you.  When, oh when, will this be over Lord Jesus??

******Disclaimer******* 

The following photo may cause shock to one's system due to the glaring paleness of the skin being shown and the sheer size of the girl in the photo.  I do now know why I am sharing this with you.  Proceed with caution.

Both Travis and I have a massive case of winter-itis and we are dying over the fact that we cannot escape this year to someplace warm.  So, like a woman who has lost her mind, I sucked up all my pride and decided to participate in our volunteer appreciation night on Sunday, at a local indoor water park.  We, along with 800 of our closest volunteers at Church, went to the Waterpark of America for 2 hours of "fun" in a fake tropical atmosphere, simply because we all need a break from reality!!  I thought a few months ago that I was going to escape this pregnancy without ever having to put on a maternity swimming suit...and then my husband came home and informed me about this night.  I had no intentions of going, but at the last minute decided I needed to escape too and trick my mind into believing we were someplace warm!  A couple of runs through the lazy river and a game of HORSE in the pool was all I needed :) It felt great to float my big stomach in that water and to feel semi-weightless for awhile.  Plus, I beat Travis at HORSE, which made this preggo feel good :) 

I don't think I've told you but I keep having these recurring dreams that I am back at my high school, 8 months pregnant, and trying to play with the varsity basketball and volleyball team.  No one will believe me when I tell them I can still play, so of course I'm on a mission to prove to everyone that I haven' t lost my skills, even though I'm pregnant!!  Can you spell P-R-I-D-E?? I know, something is wrong with me :) Anyway, it was a fun night and I've already asked God to erase any mental image that any person I know has of me in a bathing suit.  I believe He's going to do it....

On a totally different and much less scary note, I somehow forgot to mention that the family I nanny for got a new little puppy a few weeks ago...isn't she the cutest thing? Her name is Lola and she is just a little fluff of fur. She's a cross between a Bishon and Shit-zu (no idea how to spell that, I basically just sounded it out!), she's a Shishon :)

The boys just love her and so do the rest of us :) She's kind of like a little stuffed animal and she loves to cuddle and sleep...my kind of dog right now!  I pick her up and hold her like a baby...wonder why???  Until Ava gets here, Lola's my excuse for a little cuddle practice :)