.:Meet the Ritchies:.

Happy Halloween

photos by Elena

Baby is the size of an eggplant, weighing a little over a pound and a half.  He sometimes makes me feel like I am growing an octopus in my belly, rather than a tiny human when he gets to wiggling around like a maniac.  But it’s great because then the girls and Mark get to feel it too.  We can see him moving around too, which  it seems a little soon for that, but I have a feeling he’s going to be a big sized baby by the end of this.   I am sleeping a little better than I was a couple weeks ago, I’ve gotten lots of advice from other Moms on how to get comfortable.  I’ve found the best thing that works for me is to prop the body pillow behind me and lay back on it so that I am not completely on my side, but also not flat on my back either.  This seems to keep the pressure off my hips.

We did not have our girls this holiday weekend, as it was their regularly scheduled weekend with their other parental units.  So Mark and I attended a costume party hosted by our friends Mike & Sascha last night.  It was really fun, and there were some very creative costumes… such as…

Our gracious hosts, The Royal Tenanbaums (Mike & Sascha, and seriously, can you believe she just had a baby 6 months ago?!? She looks fantastic!!)

Catholic Priest and the Mama Cat...

A rescued Chilean Miner (Tony) and his beautiful wife & son (Julie & Evan)

A Chicken (Constance) and a Gnome (Scott)

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And of course, we were thrilled to get to see all the little ones in attendance…

little mister Evan...

and sweet baby Anika, who has now mastered the art of getting on her hands and feet and pushing back into a sitting position! Already!

Mark has a soccer game this afternoon and they are sitting #2 in their division.  The team they play today is currently undefeated and sitting at #1 so this is going to be an exciting one.  And so far the sun is shining!  Yay!  Wish him luck!

We hope you have a wonderful and safe Halloween!  We didn’t get any trick-or-treaters at our house last year, so we’re hoping this year will be different.  And since we have no kiddos, I think we are going to just watch a scary movie and snuggle on the couch this evening.  Sounds great to me!

xoxo

23 weeks, or day 165 to be exact… And baby is doing good and kicking constantly!  He is so much more active than I remember Claire being, which I guess makes sense since they say that boys have more energy than girls. I’m definitely not complaining, it’s one of my favorite parts of pregnancy. One of my not-so-favorite parts of pregnancy though is the fact that my boobs are HUGE and getting bigger by the minute. Which prompted a shopping trip to our neighborhood Target this evening (that, and we were out of toilet paper). Now, I have already purchased larger sized bras since I got pregnant, since that area was the first to double in size. But apparently I jumped the gun, because I have already outgrown those. I guess I just think it’s hilarious that I am purchasing size 36D bras, ME, haha… am I the only one laughing? Well, maybe that was too personal of a subject to blog publicly about but we just got home from Target so it was on my mind.

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This weekend we went up to Lacey, Washington for a Tai Kwon Do tournament that my nephew Wyatt was entered in. He is 6 and taking TKD for the first time. This was his very first competition and I am so proud of him for not getting stage fright! He did great and I am pretty sure, judging by the huge toothless grin on his face, that he had a ton of fun doing it! Great job Wyatt!!

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And then we drove slightly southeast to Brandee & Michael’s to do some pumpkin carving with Silas! I was too busy enjoying the great pumpkin art happening, and holding the sweet Taylor, (who has the most beautiful baby eyes) to get very many pictures. I am really bummed that I didn’t get any pictures of our wonderful hosts, so I will make up for that next time we see them.

Veda enjoying the pumpking guts...

Veda's is on the left, and Claire's is on the right...

It was a really great weekend and even though we still didn’t make any progress on the nursery setup, we did add to our collection of stuff. Our friend Sascha, with her beautiful baby girl Anika, dropped by for a visit this afternoon and brought us her swing! I think the baby is going to be very happy with this, since I can remember Claire enjoying her swing when she was first born. I’m sure it will buy us some extra sleep time here and there, at least, that’s what I’m hoping! Thanks Mike & Sascha!

I hope that you’ve all had a great weekend, did you do anything fun to celebrate the fall season?

xoxo

Wow, it’s starting to go by quickly now… which is a little scary since we have not done a thing to our nursery room yet.

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Headband:  Forever 21

Sweater:  thrifted

Dress:  Target

Belt:  Forever 21

Leggings: Forever 21

Socks:  Target

Boots:  hand-me-downs from stepmom

photo by Elena

21 weeks and counting…

When we found out it was a boy, we weren’t really that surprised.   All of us had already had a feeling that it was going to be a boy.  But we are very excited to meet him.  He is an active little guy, constantly moving and kicking.  He woke up pretty early this weekend, at 7am to be exact.  Mark said it was because he knew football was going to be on and he was excited.  Maybe.  I notice a lot of movement right after I eat, and especially if what I just ate has a high sugar content.  But of course, that makes sense.

We haven’t started on the nursery yet, but we are slowly collecting items.  We have a crib (thanks to my cousin Chet and his wife Natalie!), a changing table (thanks to my in-laws!), and 2 big boxes of little boy clothes graciously given to us by a friend of my sister-in-law’s (Thanks Dawn and baby Noah!).

I’m so happy it’s fall, I love this season and watching the colors change as I drive to work each morning.  I am also looking forward to having the ‘built-in” heater that everyone tells me happens when you are in your third trimester.  It was almost summer when I was in my third trimester with Claire, so I probably just assumed the heat was from the weather.  I am usually cold though, so having some extra warmth will be nice.

photo by Elena

I am doing good on my weight gain, I haven’t gone overboard like I did the first time.  I literally gained more than half my starting weight when I was pregnant with Claire, which resulted in horrible stretch marks and a long time to get back to my pre-baby weight after she was born.  At least it felt like a long time to me, I think it was about 9 months.  I was much younger then and I don’t remember having any of the aches and pains that I’ve experienced so far this time.  My hips are really painful at night when I am sleeping, I switch sides frequently throughout the night, along with my body pillow that is between my knees.  Our queen sized bed seems pretty small right now with all that going on.  And sitting at my desk during the day really takes a toll on my tailbone.  I guess I’m going to have to figure out a remedy for that since I’ve got about four months left of sitting at my desk, and it’s only going to worsen as I get bigger.

But really, those are my only negatives so far, I am doing great otherwise.  I feel good, I have the same amount of energy as before.  I LOVE food.  And I enjoy feeling him moving about, it lets me know that he’s happy and having fun.  Mark thinks he’s going to be an athlete since he’s so busy.  That would be okay with me, as long as it’s not football.  Haha…

Hope this blog entry finds everyone well.  I’m sorry for my absence, but I promise to start blogging again on a regular basis.

xoxo