Our Little "It"

A picture and short video from my 20-ish week ultrasound this week. I'd never had the 3D images done before, so that was pretty cool (they did the shadowy kind too):

We did not find out the gender as planned, and this time I didn't see anything to tip me off. With My Boy, the technician told us when we should look away, but I peeked through my fingers and thought I saw boy evidence. This time she never told me when to look away, and I usually had no idea what she was scanning.

Baby looks good. The only issue is the placenta is too low right now and would come out first in a normal delivery, which is bad news. My Ob-Gyn said there's a 90% chance it'll move up out of the way as things stretch and grow, but if not I'll have a c-section a week before my due date. I really don't want that, but of course I'd do it for the safety of the baby. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Festivities

I am not an arts and crafts-type mom. I don't have a lot of skills in this area and the chaos and mess that often accompanies kid projects can make me feel crazy and mean in no time. One reason I'm slightly afraid of having a daughter is that girls seem to require more craftiness, but I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it if I have to.

My very capable friend (who has a 1-month-old and 22-month-old!) stepped up and hosted us for gingerbread house fun last week. My Boy mostly ate candy but did help a little with our graham cracker house. Look how cute they turned out! Maybe I could handle doing this myself? But if a friend provides everything and wants to have the mess at her house, I'll go for that (I even stole the picture from her blog--I'm really something!).

I took My Boy to see Mall Santa on Friday, which I've done every year since his birth to help document how he changes. This year there was no pooping through his outfit in line as with the first picture at 4 months (he was in a little Santa suit but ended up bare foot wearing the extra onesie and pants I luckily had in my bag):

The 16-month picture was uneventful, although he looks a bit reluctant:

Last year he had to be bribed with a lollipop to even sit on Santa's lap then promptly burst into heart-breaking tears:

This year he suddenly looked and acted like a kindergartener, walking calmly up to Santa, answering his questions, then giving this ecstatic grin for the picture:

He told Santa he wanted a "musical Leo baton" (a Little Einsteins toy that can be waved around and plays music), and I think he believed he'd get it right away because he kept asking me where it was. It's lots of fun that he can understand the holidays more this year, but we're still trying to get the details down.

Christmas Tunes

According to me, these are the best Christmas albums, in order of greatness:

1) Charlie Brown Christmas

2) Elvis Presley, It's Christmas Time

3) Carpenters Christmas Portrait

Apparently Best Buy and Target don't like the Carpenters because I haven't been able to find their Christmas album at either place. What?! Grrrrr! What are your favorites? I promise not to ridicule you as long as you don't suggest something hideous.

Fairyland

Although the name makes me giggle, Oakland's Fairyland is one of my favorite places. It's basically a storybook theme park with play areas, rides, and shows based on fairy tales or other children's stories. I love the quirky, vintage feel of everything (the park opened in 1950), the reasonable admission price, and the fun My Boy can have there - I think we stayed for 5 hours last time with our playgroup. I owe an official thanks to my friend for the pictures below. She captures my child's memories when I don't bring a camera, which is almost always.

As the "house of sticks" pig:

Making exactly the same face as the Snow White dwarf he's standing over (I don't think this was intentional, just a funny shot):

On an Alice in Wonderland carousel:

Before visiting Sacramento last weekend, I found out they have something similar, Fairytale Town. It's smaller than Fairyland and doesn't have mechanical rides but was still lots of fun. I was especially amused to hear them play a song over the loudspeaker with a chorus that said, "Poop in the potty, poop goes in the potty; poop in the potty, poop goes in the potty."

Going down the "there was an old woman who lived in a shoe" slide:

In Cinderella's carriage:

Going through the "crooked mile," my personal favorite: