7 weeks down!

Today marks seven (7!) weeks that I've been here.  I really can't believe it's been so long since I was home.  Not that it doens't feel like it's been that long, it does (and then some). But I've never been away from home so long, and I think maybe I thought I'd self destruct by now.  I'll be 32 weeks on Friday, and it wasn't long ago that I was thinking, "There's no way I can make it past 32 weeks.  After that I'm done."  But now that I'm almost there, I guess I can handle another two weeks.  The difference to the baby will be huge.  I'm not anticipating any emergencies before then, because everything has been so quiet all along, and even now, they are saying that everything is looking very good.

This baby moves like crazy, way more than Ollie ever did.  He moved plenty, but this girl is having a dance party in there or something.  I'm really hoping she'll get all her energy out while she's in there, so once she's born she can just relax, sleep, and be the calm happy baby that Ollie wasn't until later.

But I'm not getting my hopes up.

I can't really imagine having a baby more active than Ollie.  He's always been so busy.  He still is (and I don't think it will change anytime soon).  He's so good on the days he's here to visit me, but sometimes he starts bouncing a ball, jumping, or running around in circles, and I can just tell he must have so much going on in that little body that he gets to a point where he can't contain it any longer!  He MUST JUMP! or SCREAM!  But it's always happy screams.  Ollie is nothing if not pleasant and happy.

He says a few new funny things that I think should be documented:

SURE! (always overy emphatic, sometimes it's, "ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......  yeah! SHORE!)

Yeah, you're right! (I need him to remember this one when he's a teenager.)  We'll say, "Ollie, do you want oatmeal for breakfast?" (or whatever)  and he'll say, "YEAH!  You're RIGHT!"

Racing is a big deal, and it seems like you can get him to do most things if it involves racing to wherever you're going.

He knows a few colors and letters reliably, and a few other unreliably.  Actually most of his colors he has a decent grasp of, but he can always pick out blue and orange, and the others sometimes.  He can draw O's, and points out E's regularly, as well as triangles.

Since living with Gran he's acquired a substantial collection of toy animals, and at least one or two, if not the entire lot of them, go with him most places.  He knows what they all are, what sounds they make, and we're starting to learn which babies are called what (i.e. foals are baby horses).  He probably has over 20 of them, and they all talk to each other, play, have baths with him or in the sink, and eat his food (we found a dinosaur with a mouth full of peanut butter this weekend).

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So anyway, we're just counting down the days.  I will be in the hospital for 3 or 4 days afterwards, and we're really hoping the baby won't have to stay longer than 2 weeks.  We of course have no way of knowing though, until she gets here.  Once she does get home, we're probably going to be really reluctant to have many visitors, because it being Fall, and she being so tiny, I'm really not willing to risk any of us getting sick and giving it to her, or her just getting sick in general.   

But we'll start getting out eventually, and BOY!  I am excited for that!  
17 days!!!