Busy Being Blessed

our year, as told in our Christmas letter:
The year 2004 has been the most eventful year for our family to date. We have had emotional ups and downs galore.
First, we welcomed our sweet son Jeremiah into our hearts and lives in January. Jerry began working at Fed-Ex in June. Then Jenn’s Grampa came to know the Lord and then went to be with Him in July. In September, Jenn’s sister left her parents’ house to live with her birth mother, we bought our own house, in October we moved in, and in December, on Jenn’s Birthday no less, we found out we are expecting our second miracle, due in August! The Lord has done so much for our little family…From the five of us to all of you – we hope your new year is full of miracles and wonders of God’s love and kindness. (the five being Jerry, Jenn, Jeremiah, Baby Bean & KC.)

yes, it’s been quite the year.

jeremiah is the cutest thing. do you think he’ll get a complex by hearing how cute he is all the time? i hope not…i don’t think i could stop telling him. ;D
today he said “DONE” loud and clear along with signing all done (his version is a bit over the top – the normal all done punctuated with waving both arms around in circles!) when he was finished with lunch. it was so cute!
guess who got his diaper off through his jammies last night? yup and he takes his diaper off all the time now – and i’m over it. he takes it off as soon as i put it on! sigh.
he is feeling much better now. no more vomiting and no more diarrhea! yay! he’s been eating normally today as well. i’m so thankful he’s feeling better.
as for me, i vomited yesterday morning, and have felt really nauseaus since, but i think i’m getting better. i really don’t think it’s morning sickness, but i don’t think i had the full-blown thing jeremiah did either. thank the Lord!

just so you know, i put up an expectnet game. game name is baby-bean. i am also going to be adding stuff to bean’s website soon. maybe a preggo pic? also i’m trying to adopt some graphic adoptions for it, so if you know of any places that have pregnancy adoptions, lemme know!

are you doing anything special tonight? we aren’t doing anything. but we usually don’t. jerry works until about 10:30, but we’ll probably still just go right to bed tonight. i think the new year is cool and all, but i’ve never been into staying up until midnight. i guess since i need my sleep more than the next person.

happy new year everyone! God bless you and yours!

i love white Christmases, but i hate it when i still need to finish up shopping and get snowed in! even if jerry didn’t have to take the van, i still would not have ventured out today. sigh. tomorrow, when my fam will be celebrating together, some people will be without their gifts, because jenn is such a procrastinator!
anyway, this is going on where i am. wasn’t it last week it still seemed like fall??

for those of you expecting our Christmas card, hold tight. i haven’t sent it out yet, but it might get there by new years. but here is the picture that will accompany the letter, to brighten your day today:

i don’t want to jinx myself, but i am feeling great. except for feeling exceptionally tired (jeremiah and i took a nearly 3 hour nap together!) and a little nauseaus/queasy, i am feeling great. i also have a headache now and then, and get really winded quickly. no major cravings yet either, except for dark chocolate (thankfully i have a lot around hehe) and ice water. oh and mexican, a lot more than usual. but not like with jeremiah – i HAD to have whatever i was craving with him, and this time i’m dealing. with jeremiah i was always craving burgers and icees. sometimes taco bell. mainly lots of meat things.

jeremiah has been doing some pretty cool things. yesterday, he sang a scale. i’m not kidding. i was rocking him to sleep and he started singing the scale, from bottom to top, perfectly on key, ‘ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah’. i was shocked. i have a musical genius on my hands! of course i sing to him all the time – have since he was in the womb, and we have music playing all the time. he loves music and i couldn’t be happier about it! i hope he wants to sing with me in church some day!!
today, while watching sesame street, big bird was counting. and jeremiah wagged his finger along with him ‘one, two…’ just like he does when we count together. he is SO CUTE!
he is going to be SUCH a great big brother. he is the sweetest, most fun boy ever, and he’ll have such fun with his little sibling. we still keep telling him he’s gonna be a big brother, and he still looks at us like we’re nuts. LOL. i am putting his hand on my belly already. he doesn’t know what to think of that.
i’m thinking about sleeping arrangements now. if a boy or a girl, bean will be sleeping in our room in the bassinette for at least the first few months. but after that is where the trouble comes in. if a girl, she’ll be in her room. if a boy, he’ll be in jeremiah’s (the boys’) room. but in what? jeremiah’s crib? is he old enough for a toddler bed yet, or should we be hunting thrift stores for a second crib? any suggestions?

My Baby/My Body, about 7 weeks along:
My Baby:
Baby’s crown to rump measurement is about 0.56 to 0.8 inches (14 to 20mm).
Baby’s face has a recognizable shape with eyelids and the tip of a nose with formed nostrils, though his head is still very large compared to the rest of his body.
All major organs are now formed and in place, though they still need to mature.
A tongue has already formed. The ears are forming both internally and externally.
The arms and legs extend forward and shoulders, elbows, hips and knees are detectable. Knees and elbows have begun to form on the limbs. Tiny fingers and toes are starting to appear at the tips of your baby’s developing limbs and the arms may be slightly flexed at the elbows and wrists. All major organs are in place.
Baby is moving around a lot, moving his legs and flexing his spine, but you are unable to feel it at this point.
Baby’s genitals have begun development, though they are still difficult to identify.
My Body:
You may feel some cramping as your uterus expands. You are still not showing, but you may have noticed that some of your clothes are beginning to feel tight.
Due to the hormones associated with pregnancy, the follicles in the ovaries stop maturing. Your uterus has begun to swell and its lining has thickened considerably.
You may have cravings for certain foods and find others completely unappealing. The smell of cigarette smoke and the taste of alcohol may make you nauseous.
Some women experience sciatic nerve pain which is an occasional severe pain in the buttocks, back or side of the legs. If you experience sciatic nerve pain, lying on your opposite side may relieve the pressure on the nerve.

well i need to get the boy a bottle and rock him – he is very tired. i wonder if my tiredness is rubbing off on him?
love to all! and merry Christmas!