So I know it's been forever. I'm sorry. I really am. I would say that I've been busy. Which is true. But I've also just chosen to do some different things with my free time lately. I'll get back to regular posting. I promise!

I've been feeling big lately. My belly's starting to get in the way of shaving, doing my toenails, etc. Lol. But I just LOVE feeling her kick and punch and jump around inside! I freaked out last weekend because I hadn't felt her moving much, but then I realized that on the weekend our routine is completely different from the weekdays, and I just wasn't paying attention at the right times. It's so reassuring to feel her going crazy inside there! Dan has felt her move several times, and last night she was so crazy it made me catch my breath a few times! As for a name, if we can't come up with anything stunning rather quickly, we'll probably just stick with the name Dan likes. It's not really all that bad, and I will love it if we name her it. That just means that I get full power over the next baby name! Lol.

Today we got invited to H's 3rd birthday party (the oldest of the kids I watch). When I asked Marissa later if she wants to go, she said "What should I wear?" I told her she'd wear a pretty dress, then she asked "What should I wear on my head?" I guess she remembers birthday hats, so I told her H might have birthday hats for everyone to wear at his party. Lol. It's good to know I'm raising a girly girl worried about what to wear - just like me!

Tonight we are dressing Marissa up as a princess and going to our church's small group Halloween gathering. I'm worried that I won't be able to dress Marissa warm enough, and still have her look like a princess! She'll have tights + leggings + a possibility of 2 turtlenecks under the actual princess costume. But her head and her feet are the problems! I will be wearing 2 shirts in layers, partly because I want to be warm, but mostly because my warmest sweater doesn't cover my belly very well!

Well, I think Marissa finally fell asleep for her nap. Today she was almost asleep in the car on the way home from work. So when I put her in her bed, I expected a nap soon. So I got in the shower. Once I got out, however, I heard some music playing from her room. Music from one of her toys on the floor that she could never reach from her bed. So I went to her room. Her light was on, she was sitting in her Elmo chair, and playing her little piano! I said "Marissa Lynn, what are you doing?" and she just looked at me like "Duh, Mom, I'm playing the piano!" Lol. It's great that she gets out of bed and plays in the mornings (especially weekends!) but she knows she needs to sleep first! After I put her back in bed, she talked and babbled for a while, and I think she finally stopped! It's really cool that she learned how to turn her light on too. She pulls one of her chairs over to the light switch and can just barely reach it when she's standing on the chair. She usually forgets to move the chair back, so when I open her door it crashes into the chair. But this afternoon, it was back in place on the other side of her room. Funny girl!

I think I'm going to go eat some sugar, lay down on the couch with some good tv, and wait for my baby girl to jump around inside me!

HELP!!!

With less than 18 weeks to go, Dan and I are starting to worry if we'll ever agree on a girl's name! So I thought I'd ask for some help! Here are some of our guidelines/problems:

1. First daughter is Marissa so...nothing that rhymes (Alyssa, etc.) and nothing that starts with an "M" (Don't want to name all our future kids with an "M" and I would feel like we needed to if we started the first two that way)
2. I don't really want a "girly" name (Hailey, Kylie, etc. - It just doesn't fit our family right now)
3. We would like something somewhat unique, but not crazy/odd
4. I love simple names
5. Dan only likes one name, and one name only - Arianna (I like it also, it just doesn't seem to fit for this baby, and it's kinda "girly")*
6. We've gone through entire alphabetized lists of names, and Dan doesn't like any of the ones I suggest

So get your brains moving, and start listing any and all girl names! Please!!!


*This is the biggest problem. Lol.

Ketchup

So I know it's been a while. I will try to be brief, but you know me

Baby shower weekend:

• Two weekends ago, I drove to IN to spend the weekend with my best friends from college. Nicole is due with her first, a girl, around Thanksgiving, and her family in IN was hosting a baby shower. So I spent the night with Laureann (who was also kid-free!) and then we drove two hours to the shower and met Nicole and Rachel J. there. Another girl from our original unit/co-unit freshman year, Natalie, was also there with her beautiful 5-month old daughter. We were a little late for the shower (big surprise - lol) but after the shower, we all went out together, all kid-free! We went to a really nice Italian restaurant, then to a fancy "fine chocolates" place and just talked for hours! It was so much fun, with waaaay too much pregnancy/baby/etc. talk! It was sooo good to catch up with everyone, and enjoy girl talk for a while with no interruptions. We drove back to L's house that night, and I drove back home Sunday morning.
• The weirdest part about the whole weekend was leaving Marissa. The longest I'd ever been away from her was 11 hours when I went to a Josh Groban concert when she was 11 months old, and most of that was during her nighttime sleeping hours. I missed her tons, but it was so freeing and easy to travel for a weekend without her. I hardly had to pack anything, compared to packing all her stuff too. I only carried a small purse wherever I went - no diapers/wipes/sippy/snack. Probably the last time in a LOOOONG time that I will be able to do that. She and Daddy had a blast, and when they came home from church on Sunday and she saw me in the living room, I got the biggest run-to-hug ever. It was soo cute, and she talked about "seeing Mommy after church" for about 24 hours after I got home!
  

Weekend in WV/VA/PA:

• Last weekend, we both took Friday off and left Thursday afternoon to drive to Dan's parents' house in WV. We got there around 11pm and crashed. We woke up early Friday morning and drove to meet my sister, Rach, who Marissa hasn't seen in a few months (and Rach was dying without her I think) because she was visiting our Aunt Kathy in VA. Then we all drove up to PA to visit my brother Jeff at his college. It was a lot of driving, but we had so much fun. We got to spend all day with Jeff and his girlfriend Jenna. Dan and Jeff played raquetball, Rissa and Jenna played bouncy-ball, and we all chatted lots. After Rissa got a quick nap in the car, we went out to eat at a Thai place nearby, and met two of Dan's friends from high school (I think?) there. That was fun, and the food was amazing! After dinner, we got ice cream, and Marissa got a free baby cone because she was under 40 inches or something like that. That was a huge hit with her, as we don't usually give her dessert at home very often at all. But all weekend, we ate out a lot, and she got LOTS of desserts! After ice cream, we said goodbye to Jeff and Jenna, and drove back to Rach's car in VA. Then we drove back to Dan's parents' house in WV.

• Saturday morning we just relaxed, and played around Dan's parents' house. Rissa managed to force both Granny and Pop-pop to play bouncy-ball with her for hours again, and we ate a yummy home-cooked lunch. After a nice long nap for Rissa, we all piled into one car and drove to see my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Paul's new house. They had just moved in that week, but it's huge and pretty neat. Then we raced to make it to our dinner reservations. After dinner, we all went to downtown DC because Rach hadn't ever been there. It was really cool to see everything lit up in the dark. Then we drove back to Dan's parents' house in WV.

• Sunday morning we got up early and went to church with Dan's parents, and Rach met us there too. After a yummy lunch out, where Rach got hit on by a random drunk guy, we packed up all our stuff and headed home to OH.

• It was quite a weekend, with tons of driving, but it was soooo much fun to see everybody! Marissa did not have a normal bedtime the entire time we were there, and only one normal naptime. But she did so amazing. I could tell she wasn't quite herself, and she was a little more "misbehaved" than normal, but none of it was awful, and compared to most kids her age, you couldn't even tell she was acting up.

Power outage this morning:
If you recall, less than a month ago we lost power for 8 days. This morning, Marissa woke up around 7:30am, and we were just letting her play for a bit while we slowly woke up. However, at 7:45, our fan went off, our phones beeped, and the clock went out. I just laid there, trying to breathe slowly, trying not to scream. Marissa started crying because "it's really dark in my room" and "my fan isn't working" so Dan went to open her shades. I put some socks on my cold feet, and then Dan called the power company. They did not give a reason for the outage, but said they expected it to be back on by 12:30pm. So after eating some cereal for breakfast (and I had my heart set on cinnamon rolls!) we threw some clothes on (remember, NO hot water!) and went outside in the cold fall morning to entertain ourselves. Around 9:30, I heard some neighbors yelling excitedly, then heard someone say the power was back on, so I ran inside and shouted for joy! I cannot explain to you how grateful I was for the power outage only being 2 hours long. I am NOT prepared for another power outage for a LONG time! (DO YOU HEAR ME POWER COMPANY??? IT WASN'T EVEN STORMING OR WINDY TODAY!!!)

This afternoon, after nap, Rissa and I are going shopping. She needs some long sleeve shirts, and well, so do I! I actually need some maternity shirts though. And I have some stuff to return. I guess that's all. I'll leave you with my latest belly pic at 21 weeks: