Tick Magnet and "So Big"

Rodney recently went on a 2 day backpacking excursion with Che and returned with one extremely exhausted dog and HUNDREDS of tick bites. Yes, you read that correctly. He counted over one hundred tiny bites just on one foot. It's pretty nasty looking not to mention very uncomfortable, although it's starting to heal now. We took some photos just for documentation purposes, but I will not share them and gross most of you out in the process ;). Michael thinks he's cursed because each and every time he goes hiking he comes back with several tick bites while others on the same trip get little to none. We're trying to figure out how this is possible, but for now I think he will not go hiking for awhile (atleast not this summer).

Yesterday I had my monthly OB visit and things are looking/sounding great. Dr. Turner hooked up the doppler and we heard Eva's tiny little beating heart. She was really active while I was laying there and at one point she kicked the device while it was on my belly. After asking whether or not I was experiencing any soreness or pain (and responding my that tailbone and sciatic nerve hurt sometimes) Dr. T told me about a free study that Wash U is doing regarding chiropractic work on pregnant women and back pain. You have to be at least 24 weeks pregnant, but she encouraged me to look into it now because by the time I make the appt. and get in to see them I may be at 24 weeks. I am very interested in this study because I did have quite a bit of back and hip soreness with my first pregnancy in the later months. I would love to be more comfortable this time.

I have gotten a few comments from people I know that I'm looking "big" with a certain amount of surprise in their voices. This has been very discouraging to say the least. I'm not sure about you all, but I am self conscious enough about my body and comments like this do not add to any kind of positive self-image (pregnant or not). I decided to ask my OB about it since, heck maybe I am abnormally large or something. She responded with some wonderful words of affirmation. The first thing she said was "don't you know by now to ignore what people say?" She then proceeded to tell me that I'm measuring 21 cm at 21 weeks and that I've gained 11 pounds and I'm halfway through my pregnancy. She said these numbers are perfect and everything is quite normal. We then talked about how there should be books written for people about what not to say to pregnant women such as "Are you having twins?" or "Wow, you've still got 6 weeks left??" We discussed the fact that other women are mostly responsible for such comments and how people shouldn't say anything at all unless it's positive or complimentary. I completely agree. In the meantime if anyone has suggestions for polite responses that would be great, as I'm sure it's just the beginning.

Thinking Girly Thoughts

Throughout this pregnancy when asked which I wanted, boy or girl, I enthusiastically replied "girl." As my friend Sarah puts it, we have enough testosterone in this house (Sarah's a very girly girl). And let's face it, girl clothes are WAY cuter. How is it that I've been blessed with my preference for the second time: IT'S A GIRL!!!

We couldn't be happier. Of course I've always said that another boy would be wonderful and absolutely no less loved, but hey it's true about that testosterone thing. So, we spent the day on Friday in a cloud of excitement and had many conversations about what it will be like to parent her. When we told Nancy and Jerry about it I was amused at Nancy's mild disbelief, as if to say "how could our boy-dominated family produce two girls out of three?" Guess those Malone boys have it in them afterall.

Now it's time to "think pink" and spend gobs of time drooling over girl racks while shopping. I forsee a source of marital frustration =).

Rodney was just as excited as I was when we learned we were having a girl. Some of his remarks were that boy competition won't be an issue and that he doesn't have to worry that he will love or relate to this child with any less gusto as it's a completely different entity. He did say that he was a bit nervous because he's been around boys all his life. I took this to mean that parenting a boy seemed way more natural because it had been modelled to him by his father. Girls are brand new territory.

Rodney and I are not ones to hide name choices, so I might as well share it now. Early in our marriage we decided to come up with names for our future children, one boy and one girl, and these names have stuck. William Paul was the boy name and the girl name was (is) Eva Sophia. Eva is my maternal grandmother's name and we also just think it's beautiful (Will is named after Rod's maternal grandfather). We're toying with the idea of lenghthening it to Evelyn or Evangeline but haven't decided on that one. If any of you have ideas on how else to lengthen the name please share.

Lost Camera, Haircut, New Diapers and Moving

We are safely back from our trip and getting back into non-vacationing life. Overall, the trip was good. But after spending so much time living out of a suitcase, it is very good to be home. We've been spending lots of time organizing things around the house and taking care of projects set aside until now. It's nice to be in a "get things done" mode and to actually check those things off the list.

The title of the blog mentions four events that are worth talking about. The first is the fact that I lost our camera this week. I am very upset about this for obvious reasons but mostly because our financial state right now doesn't really allow for me to run out and replace the thing even though it's something very valued (atleast to me). The one silver lining is that my parents gave us their fairly new digital camcorder that they hardly used, so atleast we can get video.

Needless to say, I was not able to capture photos of Will's first haircut last night. His hair had been getting pretty crazy so this cut was long overdue. I have to report that I thought I'd be more emotional about this, but I really wasn't. I was just relieved that our boy didn't look like a sloppy mess anymore. This morning I had to do a double take. He's so cute and grown up looking now that I can imagine him as a toddler (even though he's pretty much a toddler now- hanging on to babydom perhaps?).

If you've been keeping up with Marisa's blog you've read that they made the switch to cloth diapers. We've decided to do the same for the obvious benefits and have been pretty happy so far. Each day we've had to figure out new solutions for little "issues" that arise, but it's mostly because like anything new it's taken some adjustment. Overall, we are happy and mostly really looking forward to the decrease in our diaper spending. Basically this means I have more money to spend at Target and we all know what that can lead to =).

Our tenant, Connie informed us the other night that she's buying a house and will be moving out in September. This doesn't come as a huge shock to us since she told us a few months back that she was interested in buying a house, but originally she told us that she wouldn't be moving for a couple of years. At first we were disappointed because Connie has been the perfect tenant. But now we're kind of excited becuase after discussing it we've decided to move into her unit. It needs some fixing up, mostly the floors and ceiling, but we're looking at it as an opportunity to do so instead of putting it off for some future date. I am looking forward to not having to climb so many stairs with two kids in tow AND doing laundry will be tons easier (especially considering the switch to cloth diapers). It looks like we will make the move by the first of October.

I'll close with a video of Will and my dad. My dad was sick with a pretty bad cold for most of our visit to Florida but he had a few good days when we first got there. He and Will hit it off and I told Rodney that it was fun watching them play together because it reminded me of my childhood.

17 Weeks

Tomorrow will begin week 17 of my pregnancy. Where has the time gone? Now that the nausea is pretty much gone I'm not counting down the weeks like I did during that time. This, and the busy-ness of the past couple of weeks, brought me here rather rapidly I must say. In three weeks we will have the ultrasound to determine the sex and I'm really excited. According to my pregnancy book the baby is pretty much fully formed (just cooking now) and can hear sounds outside my belly. How amazing that a life can "become" so quickly.

One or two you of have asked to see belly pictures, so here are a couple (taken Tuesday).

I have a LONG list of things to do today before 2 pm (and blogging is not on it), so gotta run.

Whirlwind

This is definitely an apt word to describe how things have felt these past few weeks. And since we have officially entered the "travel" portion of our summer, it will continue on this path for the next few weeks.

It started with the news of Phil's death, sending us on an emotional rollercoaster of grief, mourning, and laughter (in reminiscing) and continued with saying goodbye to both Rodney's childhood home and hometown. The physical aspect of long road trips has served to add an extra element to the "ride" (sticking with the rollercoaster analogy) indeed. We look forward to another even longer road trip on Thursday which will take us from St. Louis to Northern Michigan to Columbus Ohio onto Greenville South Carolina then to Florida and, finally, home. We brace ourselves for gas prices and frequent stops while looking forward to spending time with cherished family and friends.

We just returned from the second trip to McPherson in as many weeks and most likely our last for some time. This particular trip was for Phil's memorial service. We got back last night and are "picking up the pieces" only to turn around and (as mentioned above) leave for 2 1/2 more weeks. Phil's service was amazing. I think there were atleast 800 people there (I admit I'm bad with judging crowd numbers, but there were loads of people there) and the stories and tributes offered were so incredible I began to wonder whether or not Phil was a real person. He of course was, and it's evident that to many he was one of the best they knew. What a privelege to share in something so big as was his impact on those around him. We got a chance to talk to Esther a little after the service and watch Anna run around laughing and playing. Esther is incredibly strong and showed such a peace that made me marvel. Certainly much of this was due to the fact that she had already been through two services and one can only grieve publically so much. Once again, we will be praying for them and the Penner family.

In other news, Will is walking. About 4 or 5 days ago he decided that he'd rather spend more time on his feet than his knees and his wobbly waddle is so cute to watch. Here's a video taken last week:



Hopefully our travels won't keep me from posting atleast once while we're gone, but knowing my record I can't promise much. In the meantime, here's to summer travel and the continued whirlwind.

Remembering Phil Penner

Yesterday we received a very tragic phone call informing us that one of Rodney's best friends, Phil had passed away. He was living in Indonesia and had contracted Dengue Fever which ended his life. When we heard the news we were crushed. Phil and Rodney had been friends since high school and remained close until he passed. He left a wife and a 3 year-old daughter behind and we couldn't grieve more for their loss.

I met Phil even before Rodney and I started dating because he would come to visit him (and their other mutual good friend, Dave) at Greenville. I remember my first impressions of him were that he was a cute, funny, and incredibly nice guy. He turned out to be one of the most loving people I knew and Rodney keeps referring to him as a saint. The individual that he worked with in Indonesia told his parents back in Kansas that Phil was one of the most godly men he had ever met. What a loss. Rodney was torn up all day yesterday and even came home from work early. He regeretted having to return today, but decided that he would wait to hear when the memorial service would be held in Kansas so he could take time off for that. From what we know, they will be having the funeral in Chicago (where he lived and met Esther before moving to Indonesia) in the next few days and then a memorial service in McPherson, KS towards the end of the week.

We are very sad about this and are going to miss Phil so much. Rodney said he would miss being able to learn from Phil the most. He informed me that he loved being able to ask him questions and even though they may not always agree, Phil would always teach Rodney something. I think Phil's life was a great lesson in how to be a loving person and a catalyst for God's will in the world. We offer prayers for Esther and Anna and his family in Kansas.

We will miss you dearly, Phil.

(P.S. The picture above of Phil, Rodney and I was taken Chicago O'Hare Airport in 2003 right before we left the country for Paraguay. This is a special memory for me since he was the last person we saw before we moved out of the country.)

Baseball and Busted Shoes

On Saturday the three of us went to the Cardinals v. Phillies game as a birthday/father's day gift for Rodney. It was also Will's first pro baseball game, not that he'll remember it. It was a warm day (84) and hot in the sun, but it was pleasant in the shade. Luckily our seats ended up being in the shade and it turned out to be a really comfortable and relaxing way to pass the afternoon/early evening. Will didn't seem to care too much about the game (surprise) but cared more about the people in the stands. For the first few minutes after we arrived he stood on Rodney's lap and stared over his shoulder at the people in the stands. Then, as the game went on it became apparent that the only way we'd make it through the game was to give him (very slowly and steadily) snacks and drinks due to the fact that every time he saw someone around him eating their peanuts and hotdogs he'd start whinning. Other than this, he was a very good boy and we enjoyed ourselves so much.

Enjoying the Crowd

Where did all these people come from?

A funny thing happened on the way to the game. We decided to take the bus and metro to the game and ended up doing a lot of walking. I was not really smart about my footwear choice and wore a cheap pair of flipflops. Just as we got off the metro at the stadium my left shoe broke and I had to walk half barefoot into the stadium. It was a little embarrassing. We went straight into the Cardinals store when we got in and bought these hot little numbers:

Notice the blinged-out "Cardinals" written on the straps. Ha!

Well, the other bit if news I should share before signing off is the fact that Will is walking more and more. He will stand up, take several steps, then collapse to the floor, crawl a bit, then get up and do it again. I think the most steps he's taken at a time is about 10. He seems to have moments when he cares about "practicing" his walking during the day and then the rest of the time he crawls. It is so cool seeing him walk. And funny, too. Sometimes he'll take a step or too and then teeter on his legs like he's drunk. Sometimes it seems like his head is just to heavy for him to carry (97th percentile, folks). Both grandmas will get to see him walk the next time we visit! Yay!! I haven't gotten it on video yet, but when I do I will post it.