Gender Excitement

Jason and I are excited to find out our baby's gender, and now we have a date for the ultrasound! February 7th at 8:30 a.m. Woohoo!

We know a few people who claim to have magical gender-telling powers. One person can read body energy, one person can tell based on your pulse points, and one person simply holds a needle and thread in front of the belly and can tell the gender based on how the needle swings. With my first pregnancy, I discarded all this kind of stuff as hogwash, but I don't know. This time I'm more open to it for some reason. Anyway I think its interesting to tell you what they've all said so far.

My body energy reader said the gender kept bouncing back and forth, but if she had to guess, she thought it was a girl. This was actually about a week BEFORE conception, which is pretty amazing. She saw that the baby was already there waiting in my womb and was trying to figure out the gender. If there's any truth to her ability, that's freaking amazing. I imagine she would have a much stronger feeling about the baby's gender now that the baby is actually forming inside me, but I may not see her before the ultrasound in February to confirm.

My pulse point reader was surprised that she couldn't identify the gender. Apparently if the pulse point is stronger in one wrist, it signifies boy and in the other wrist, girl. She said it kept changing, which is apparently unsual and wondered if I had two babies inside me. Ultrasound on Monday definitely confirmed there is only one baby in there, whatever the gender.

My needle swaying friend held the needle up to my belly and instantly proclaimed, "You're having another girl!" It's adorable the confidence with which she has in this technique. She did accurately predict Halle's gender using this method, and all three of her own children's gender (two girls and a boy). Although I had absolutely no faith in her technique with my last pregnancy, I'm starting to believe her a bit and have spent the past 24 hours falling in love with the idea of having a little girl inside me. Which is something, because so far I've really been hoping for a boy and kind of expecting a boy. And now I'm kind of expecting a girl. So we'll see. Anyway, thanks Carla for shaking things up!

Jason and I even started throwing around girl names yesterday. Which again is something because up until yesterday he hasn't given any consideration to this baby being anything but Matthew. But now we're both kinda falling in love with the name Chloe. Chloe Konicki.. how cute is that? Halle and Chloe. Sounds so cute together. :) It's not Elena, which I always wanted and may still use (as either the first or middle name), but Jason thinks Elena is too formal for our family, and I can kinda see that. Nikki, Halle, and Jason's sisters' names, Tracey and Jamie, are all kind of cute informal names. And they all end in the "ee" sound, which probably has a lot to do with the informality. I also like short full names as opposed to nicknames (since I was about 25 years old before anyone called me Nicole). So we'll see. We may have a little Chloe in our future. Or we may change our minds fifteen times. Yet to be seen.

And, of course, we're not ruling out the possibility that there may be a little Matthew in there. :)

My Little Jigsaw Puzzler

Halle mastered the basic toddler puzzles (where each piece is an independent shape, or animal or whatever) awhile ago. She has a bunch of them now, and still loves to do them. Which is great because, in addition to the hand-eye coordination and problem-solving skills, she's learned shapes, letters, numbers and animals from these puzzles. What a great toy for a toddler.

A couple of months ago she received a 9-piece Dora jigsaw puzzle. We've done the puzzle together several times, but I didn't expect her to actually master this type of puzzle for some time. Well, she mastered it this morning.

She started off with the puzzle intact. She carefully removed each piece of the puzzle, one-by one. With each piece, as soon as she removed it, she studied the orientation of the piece, put it right back into the puzzle to make sure she understood how it fit, then removed it from the board and went on to the next piece. It blows my mind that her brain is working like this already! Once the board was empty, she put each and every piece back all by herself... with NO help from me!!

I am so proud of her! :)

Shout Outs

Some random things I love..

1. The song "If you want to be a grump that's ok, but could you be a grumpy kinda further away?" I don't know the name of the artist, but they play it on Noggin. Very cute.
   
   
2. Magic erasers. Big props to the creators of this sponge that actually uses magic to clean everything and anything. Definitely on my short list of best products ever.
   
   
3. Laurie's blog. With its frequent updates, plenty of adorable photos, and witty dialog, I always look forward to the incredible Ian and Chase adventures. :)
   
   
4. Everyone else's blogs. Don't get me wrong, I love each and every blog I keep up with. :)
   
   
5. Sam's chocolate chip cookies. I finally gave in and bought some today. I should not have done that.
   
   
6. The way Halle says, "shoe-ies". So much cuter than the way she says "ju-na" for juice, "kit-na" for kitty, and my least favorite, "pooh-na" for Pooh bear. I don't know where she got the "na" suffix from, but I look forward to hearing the real words again soon. Except shoe-ies. She can keep that one around a little longer. :)
   
   
7. Tim Tebow. I know, I know. This is either the most obvious thing ever, or you're not a Gator fan and are sick and tired of hearing about Tim Tebow. But he is the man. Good luck on Saturday, Tebow!
   

Ok that completes my totally random list of things I love.

Four More Days

Can you believe on Monday I'll be in my second trimester already? As always, I'm amazed how fast time flies, but I absolutely can't wait to enter my second trimester. Here are some reasons:

1. This week has been the absolute worst for both morning/evening sickness and exhaustion. The sickness is annoying, but the exhaustion is horrible. Nothing worse than feeling like you can't lift up your head, but still having to carry on your daily tasks regardless.
   
   
2. The first trimester is considered the highest risk time for miscarriages, so it's always good to know you've made it past that hump.
   
   
3. I don't look pregnant yet. I feel like shouting from the roof tops to everyone I see, "I'm pregnant! I'm pregnant!" Nothing accomplishes this quite as well as that telltale gigantic bump. (Although it is nice that I can still wear my normal clothes a little longer).
   
   
4. My absolutely obnoxious roots can be dyed soon.
   
   
5. Every week that passes is a week closer to hearing the heartbeat, finding out the gender, and meeting the little peanut!