brothers and sisters and silly kitties

so yeah. i'm kinda depressed. my brother peter and his way cool wife erin just left my house this morning on the last leg of their almost cross-country journey to kansas city. they got here sunday evening and we had a great two full days of uninterrupted hangout time...so wonderful! i forgot how funny my brother really is. quite the silly boy. we had lots of great laughs reminising about our childhood memories. mostly we were laughing at memories that involved our youngest brother luke...laughing at someone else's expense when they're not there to defend themselves is a rather good time. :D but yeah...they left me this morning...to venture off into the unknown land of the MIDWEST. i'm not so sure about that. hopefully they'll make it there in one piece...with no major mishaps and without going too crazy. nani (their very cute kitty) might be scarred for life...but i hope they're not. ha! poor nani doesn't like car travel very much. but...she LOVED the stairs in our house. she'd never seen them before venturing into our house...but once she got over her initial apprehension...she had a great time running up and down and getting her paws all tangled up together. who knew a cat was such cheap entertainment? too bad john has no tolerance for the cuddly creatures. *sigh* oh well...maybe i can get a fish. it's just not quite the same.
well...hopefully i'll get some pics of p&e's slightly silly visit posted soon. until then...YAY for brothers and sisters!
here's some pics...

cool song of the mo...

Live
(Nichole Nordeman, Jay Joyce)

Did you come that we might just survive?
Did you come so we could just get by?
Did you walk among us
So we might merely limp along beside?

I was bound, I have been set free
But I have settled for apathy
Did you come to make me new
And know Id crawl right back into the skin you found me in?

Its where I am, not where Ive been

You make me want to live
You make me want to live
You came to shake us
And to wake us up to something more
Than wed always settled for
And you make me want to live

Weve all been up on the mountain top
A golden glow thats bound to soon wear off
Then its back to the mundane telling tales of glory days
When we were hopeful that this change was here to stay

So why would a young man
Live in a waste land
When the castle of his dreams is standing by?
Why would a princess
Put on an old dress
To dance with her beloved and a chance to catch his eye?

bellybuttons, little boys and big bellys...

i made a startling discovery today. i have a little mole/skin tag in my bellybutton! after twenty-five years of not knowing what the depths of my endless pit of an "innie" actually contained (kinda gross thought...i know...) i finally know! it took being pregnant to stretch it out enough so i could actually see inside. my pregnant friend (who's due in september) says i'd better enjoy it since i'm not gonna be able to see it much longer...which is ok by me...cuz really...i don't need to know what's in my bellybutton.

we found out last week that i have a little boy growing inside me! little elijah jonathon. i was actually a little surprized...i really was expecting a it to be a girl!...almost to the point of betting on it. not that i have anything against boys...i just felt like the little flutters inside me were coming from a girl. my pregnancy's been so different from everyone else's that's expecting a boy...that and i'm still barely showing and it seems like everyone else got super huge super fast! just goes to show that those old wives tales really are just that...fiction!

it's so funny how many people are pregnant with boys! me, my friends shannon and wendy and two of john's cousins...there's probably more that i'm forgetting. our little elijah certainly won't be lacking in the friends department! i pray that our little guy will be a strong spiritual leader of all his little buddies.

now that i know we're having a boy...i find myself thinking about what he'll be like. i suppose that's only natural and that every parent wonders about things like that but i can't help wondering whether he'll be like his dad: strong and independent but with a hidden soft and cuddly side or if he'll be more like me: slightly introverted and shy but with a hidden kooky and silly side or will he be a mixture of the two? a most of all...what on earth is he gonna look like? some couples you can just look at them and predict what their kids will look like down to the dimples but when you start off with parents that are so completely different to begin with like me and john...who knows what you'll end up with! he could have dark skin like john or super light skin like me or have a permanent tan...he could have brown eyes like john or blue eyes like mine...his hair could come out light or dark, straight or curly, thick or thin. most likely he'll be short and his hair won't grow in for a while but just because john and i both share those characteristics doesn't mean our children will. what a fun surprize it will be to see him for the first time! especially to examine him from head to toe figuring out which specific character trait or facial feature came from which parent.

i'm definitely starting to feel more pregnant these days. most of my "normal" shirts aren't long enough to cover my belly (or the lovely elastic of my maternity pants) any more. i'm already tired of my limited selection of maternity shirts so i'm having to get pretty creative with my clothes. i suppose it could be worse though...i could have to wear those awful maternity clothes my mother was forced to wear! i'm still pretty ok when it comes to sleeping...thankfully (i'm trying to enjoy it while i can!)...i only get truly uncomfortable when my uterus is stretching out to accomodate my rapidly growing child. i swear my belly gets bigger every day! he's moving around a lot more too...or at least i can feel his movements a lot more. john still can't feel them very well since they're more like ticklings and flutters than actual kicks. he always seems to wake up around bedtime...maybe because he knows it's storytime! i'm reading the chronicles of narnia to him every night...

my mom just sent me a box of baby clothes and books last week. YAY for fun packages from my super fun mummy! and as i was taking the tags off and getting ready to wash them (they're so little and cute!)...i started thinking about holding little elijah in my arms...him all cuddled up in the yellow ducky shirt i was holding in my hands and i dunno...i almost couldn't believe that it was actually happening. me...having a baby? a little son? it seems so impossible. so surreal. that the little flutters and touches inside me are really coming from a human being that will soon come into the world so fresh and new completely blows my mind.

we finally have some baby furniture in the nursery...the changing table is here! it looks so good in there...i can't wait to get the rest of the pieces to go with it. now that we know a little boy is gonna be living in that room i'm getting really excited to start decorating. i've already decided on a theme (moons and stars "winken, blinken and nod" style) so i've already got plenty of ideas...probably more than i can actually do. i registered at pottery barn kids for some of the things i want in there...but most of the other stuff i'm hoping to find at antique stores and re-finish. hopefully i can convince luke to do some artwork to hang on the walls. i've picked out some pages from "winken, blinken and nod" that i'd love to see what he could do with...but i suppose i should ask him first before i too excited about it. (so luke...whatd'ya think?) i heard a kendall payne song the other day and thought some of the lyrics would be cool to write out and hang on the nursery wall but now i'm thinking that they're a bit too heavy for a baby's room. maybe i'll hang them in the guest room (since it desperately needs something on the walls) or maybe up in the master bedroom. here's the lyrics in their entirety...the song's called "ups and downs"...

all that i've found through the ups and downs
is that i'd have it no other way
life in the raw is both fragile and strong
it's both lovely and ugly the same
who can attest that when they're at their best
their worst is still crouching close behind
it's coming to peace with the darkness in me
that allows the true light inside to shine

*so let it go for we are still far from home
though you try and you try to escape
to live and to love will always be dangerous
but it's better than playing it safe*

we are all composed of a symphony of notes
every life is as music to His ears
i'll play my melody be it haunting, be it sweet
unashamed of what anyone might hear

*so when the load breaks your back and your will
you must still keep your heart in the game
to live and to love will always be dangerous
but it's better than playing it safe*

*so let it got when you don't feel like home
when inside is your only escape
to live and to love will always be dangerous
but would you want it any other way?*

the second line of the choruses (the *-ed ones) and the second verse are the parts i really like. i think i just liked the idea of our lives being like music to God and that each life is a separate symphony written specifically to glorify Him. maybe i can still work that into something i end up hanging on the nursery walls.

going back to the prevelence of my belly...it really is starting to make itself known by getting in the way. someone even said at church yesterday that i'm starting to have the "pregnant lady waddle". lovely. i thought that didn't come til the end! and my belly really seems to get in the way when i'm in the kitchen trying to reach something up on the higher shelves. either i'm gonna have to continually climb on the counter to get what i need or to put the dishes away (which i'm sure will get progressively harder as i get bigger) or i'll havta go out and buy a little step-stool that i can leave out and not trip over all the time. anyone who's actually been in our kitchen probably wonders how we've lastest this long without a little stool since the cabinets are so tall but john doesn't want one in there cuz he's afraid of stubbing his toe when he's too lazy to turn on the lights. silly boy...

i'm going with my friend shannon to register at babies r us tomorrow. i'm really getting overwhlemed at the sheer amount of stuff we need to get to properly outfit this baby! who knew something so small needed such a large amount of stuff? i've been given an assignment for tonight...i need to figure out the bigger stuff (ie stroller, play-pen, etc.) that we'll need and then i have to go online and read reviews of the different products so i have a better idea which ones i want to register for. shannon says it'll make the registering process go a lot faster. she should know since she just did it a couple months ago. should be interesting anyways...and since i've got nothing better to do right now...i might as well get started on that.