Big birthday weekend! + 15 weeks

We celebrated 2 birthdays this weekend...Jason turned 33, and Kenley turned 2! To celebrate Jason, on Saturday we opened some great gifts (thanks, fam!) and headed out for mini-golf!
Here we are golfing at Interbay, where the heated rivalry between Michael and mom continued, Jason snuck in 2 holes-in-one to beat all of us, and Nan and Ron admitted they played a lot of mini-golf when they were dating.
Then we all piled in the car, shoved in some delicious cupcakes and Cupcake champagne, and headed to the waterfront to catch the Argosy boat to Tillicum Village! We've been having great weather, and it was a stunning day for a boat ride across Elliott Bay to Blake Island for dinner.

We were greeted by mugs of clams and baking salmon.

Nan and Jason checking out the salmon baking over an alder fire.
We make a pretty cute totem pole, don't you think?

Photo evidence of visiting PVA members!

Today we threw Kenley's big 2 party!! I'm sure Rachel will post more pictures soon at Kenley's Blog. :)

We celebrated another landmark recently...Baby's 1st trimester is complete! We did an all low-impact kickboxing this week (gotta keep the midwife happy!). Baby and I worked full-time last week, and lead 10 sessions of professional development for my fellow Bellevue teachers! Everyone is getting all geared up for the first day of school on September 6th! Jason has an official placement...he is going to be a 2nd Grade teacher this year! He had his first work day at his new school on Friday, where he unpacked tons of books and met lots of his fellow teachers. "September Experience" starts now, and then he will continue to spend a few days a week at the school leading up to his full-time student teaching in the spring. Very exciting! Our next baby appointment is on Friday, and we are looking forward to "checking in."

13 Weeks!

Things are going along swimmingly here! According to my books, Baby should be about the size of a peach...

or a medium shrimp...

...???

I'm busting out the maternity clothes lately, since the belly doesn't seem to fit in much anymore. Mom and I scored a pair of my favorite jeans at our local consignment store. I've never been so happy to have jeans!!

Meanwhile, outside the womb, we are both up to our eyeballs in school! Jason is deep in finals week, with only this week to go of the quarter! We just got great news that Jason will start his student teaching this month in the same district as me, in the next closest school! It should be a great experience for him, and a carpool buddy for me on some days. I'm trying to get a bunch of district and building projects done...when I'm not napping! Next week I'm leading professional development full time all week. Hopefully Baby will cooperate!

We took a break this weekend to go see our fabulous friends, Geoff and Kim, get married. It was a beautiful sunny wedding with a gorgeous bride and tons of band friends! We all got rooms at the Tulalip Resort where we were spoiled with late night friends, a fabulous shower, and an awesome pool (where we were joined by Rachel, Michael, and Kenley...that family does not pass up a chance to hit up a pool!). Our friend, Susan of Whimsical Photo was the photographer, and was sweet enough to take this shot of us at the wedding.

We also went to a Mariner's game with the fam! Did you know Jason joined the team?

We girls are big fans of the snacks. Kenley ate peanuts, popcorn, and milkshake non-stop before passing out on Rachel's lap!

I've spilled the beans now to my principal. She is super supportive and a great resource since she is in her 3rd pregnancy, and delivering at the same hospital as we are! She gave me all kinds of advice, including how to tell parents (via letter, with no room for input or personal-life digging) and when (she suggested before I start to show....I'll be 16 weeks by the time school starts and not sure that I'm going to be able to hide the belly for long!), as well as great new baby-wearing wraps and childcare options. I met with HR and got the scoop on Maternity Leave...sounds like we will be taking 6 weeks of maternity leave (paid since I can use my sick days) and 6 weeks of FMLA (unpaid, but I keep benefits for all 3 of us!) and then back to school in mid-May to wrap up the year.

We're also starting to think about childcare for the Fall. We'll definitely be applying to the district options (infant care at our local high school, then on campus with me at 1 yr old! I could visit at lunch!). We also toured a fancy local school. We liked that it is close to Bebe and Papa. We learned all about the "curriculum" for the infants (for example, the infants learn one new yoga position each week! And practice their colors! ???), and toured the beautiful building. We really liked the infant teacher, but we're not sure if the school (or the tuition) are for us. We're jealous of Kenley's Berry Patch, and wish we could drive to Ballard to take our baby there, too!

Our next job is to find a pediatrician...any recommendations???

We hear a heartbeat! - 12 weeks

On Friday, we had our second midwife appointment. We heard Baby's fast, strong little heartbeat! All our tests were clear, and everybody looks healthy, which was great news! We met a new midwife, who we liked just as much as the first. We feel like we are definitely on the same page as these women. Though she did say I may have to cut back on my kickboxing addiction...luckily pregnancy is temporary! According to my books, the baby is about 2 inches long, about the size of a lime. The baby is starting to look like a baby, move around, and develop reflexes like opening and and closing fingers.

We've been busy over the last 3 weeks. We got to work spreading the word about baby, and have had fun revealing our news to family and close friends. Jason announced the baby to his entire cohort at school! I've been feeling better and have more energy, which is nice. I feel like I can actually get stuff done without having to take a nap! Just in time for things to start ramping up at school. One highlight was last weekend at the Oregon Coast with the Friesen family. Here's a picture from the top of Neahkahnie Mountain, where we hiked with Nan and Ron. We lucked out with beautiful weather and an awesome view!

7/29/11 - 11 Weeks