Our first ultrasound

We had our first ultrasound today. We're almost 19 weeks along; almost halfway! It was so sweet to see this baby. With Cedric, I don't think I fully comprehended everything this early in the pregnancy. This time I am a lot more emotional seeing the baby and having these pictures to cherish. I am so thankful to see that the baby is doing well and developing normally as far as we can tell. This first 3D pictures is my favorite:

Week after Easter

I started feeling the baby kick the day after Easter. :) Not much yet, but definitely feeling it. This one is sitting differently in my tummy than Cedric was. Cedric's heartbeat was always very easy to find and very loud, but this one is quiet and takes the doctor a while to find it. I love noticing the differences between this child and Cedric.

Cedric and I caught that cold going around. Cedric has only had 1 bad night and is pretty much over it, but I'm still suffering from stuffy nose, sore throat, and headache. My nausea is much worse as well. Colds just don't go well with my bout of morning sickness. 8-/

Last night we went out to dinner with Aaron and Leann (our friends and youth pastor at church) at Hometown Pizza in Oroville. It was a lot of fun. I was feeling a lot better than I expected to, but on our way home I started to get nauseous. By the time we got home, I went straight from the car to the toilet and threw up all my delicious (well, formerly delicious :) dinner. At least I don't have to worry about the calories from the cheesecake slice Leann and I shared. :)

After we got Cedric in bed, Aaron came over to watch I Am Legend with Tim. Leann didn't want to see it, and I was planning on going to bed on time anyway, but I ended staying up and watching it with the guys. It's a good movie though they could have done so much more with it! Fun to fill in the blanks though.

Tim's first day at his new position starts tonight at 10pm. He's trying to sleep right now (4:30) and I think he's succeeding. He's looking forward to starting and knows all his co-workers already. Well, he basically knows everybody who works at Wal-Mart. I'm glad that this job change won't be as stressful as job changes usually are when switching to a whole new environment.

I am so excited for Josh and Amber and the new little one on the way! What a wonderful surprise! Surprises are so great. :D It's so neat to think that all 3 junior "Hollenbeck" families are having babies this year. Holy smokes!

Here is a series of pictures I took of Cedric the other day. You can see remnants of a nasty "bonk" he got on his forhead last week.






Cedric is officially attached to "baby". She must sleep in the crib with him, ride in the car, and cuddle under his arm while he nurses. It's rather cute he's chosen a baby doll, and in pink at that. "Baby" may need stay in the car when we go in public as he gets older. :)




Cedric has a little corner of the yard for a dirt pit. Here's a view of it from the front porch. See him back there behind the shed?

He digs with his little shovel filling up his Tonka truck, plays with his matchbox cars, and sits in the dirt for hours. I am so thankful that we have this space for him. He looks so happy when he's dirty. :)

Tim's new position

Next Friday Tim is going to be switching departments at Wal-Mart. He has tried many times to transfer out of Produce, even being willing to transfer to a lower level, but at one point he was straight up told that he would not be allowed to transfer because he was too valuable in Produce. Finally, however, he was offerred an overnight position (10pm - 7am, same days off) on the GM (general merchandise) side of the store. He'll be unloading trucks and stocking shelves, which is very similar to what he did at Target (a job that he really enjoyed). He won't be getting a large raise, but it is a raise. That combined with less stress (besides the deli, Produce has the next highest expectations and pressures due to the perishables); fewer "bosses"; getting out of the produce rut, which means he will likely be able to transfer to departments and shifts that he prefers much easier; and just changing scenery, I think will make the night shifts worth it.

Tim is still going to be looking for another job in Spokane or here and plans to stick with night shifts for no longer than 6 months. I am a bit nervous about the changes this will bring to our schedules, but Cedric and I are really pretty flexible. A change needed to be made for Tim's sake, and therefore I'm sure it will benefit the rest of us as well. It's just never fun making changes at first. :)

We had a water scare last week. I had thought I noticed the tap water was a bit yellow/brown but wasn't sure if it was just my eyes, so I had Tim bring home a bottle purified water to compare it with and our tap water was indeed not right. I kept a couple samples and at one point it was so murky that by the next day the sludge had settled on the bottom of the cup. It thoroughly freaked me out. I still don't know if it was just good clean dirt or if there were any toxins in it. I left a message with the landlord but they have not returned our call. Luckily the water has been clear since those 2 days, but I refuse to drink it straight again so we now have a brand new Brita water pitcher. Both Tim and I can really taste the difference in flavor. I just really hope that murky water was not harmful.

My birthday day randomness

The other night Cedric had the best night he's ever had. He slept 10 hour straight before nursing and then fell asleep again to sleep 45 minutes beyond his normal rising time. And I slept well too. It was heavenly. I think he was extra tired from playing hard at Papa and Nammy's house the 3 days and 2 nights before. :)

We had Hemi neutered yesterday. Tim is picking him up this afternoon. We had noticed that Hemi had weird teeth, apparently having 2 fangs instead 1 at each of the 4 points. The vet noticed and said that it was a bad case of his baby teeth not falling and and his adult teeth coming through anyway. I guess THAT could explain why his breath smells so bad despite our best efforts. Double the tartar and yucky stuff, so we had them also remove his extra baby teeth. I really hope that helps the bad breath. Poor Hemi must be so sore today!

The neighbor-dog drama has petered out. We did need to call Brenna, the landlord, again several days later because there were 3 new piles of poo on our back patio and porch. We never see the dog out, so thought perhaps they were letting him out early in the morning, which doesn't bother us because we're never out that early, but they DO need to clean up his poo. Anyway, Brenna said that they claimed that ever since the first phone call from her that they have been walking him on a leash in the alley to go to the bathroom. They and Brenna thought perhaps it was a cat.... Quite a odd cat to choose to poo on cement and lumber as opposed to the many gardens just feet away.... but anyway, we talked about using my BB gun on the psychotic cat if we ever cought it in the act. :) Luckily, since that day there hasn't been any more poo. So either it was indeed Rowdy, the neighbor dog, or the cat heard the BB gun talk and decided to move along somewhere else. :) No pun intended.

Baby Names

To help in your name-choosing decision, here are the meanings of the names or at least as close as I could come with similar names.

The boy's middle name will be Dean, which means "Valley" or 'Presiding official'.

Corbin - 'Raven'
Elijah - 'Priceless friend'
Banner - 'God's soldier'
Willam - 'Resolute protector' [That's not a typo, it's 'Willam' not 'William' :)]

Here are the girls names:

Chelan Lael - 'Deep Waters' and 'of God'. [Lael is pronounced lay-EL]
Calisi Kaye - 'Most beautiful' and 'Rejoice'. [Calisi is pronounced khal-EE-see]
Jaili Carolin - 'Bird of light' and 'Joy'. [Jaili is pronounced JAY-lee]

Mid March Update

We cut Cedric's hair for the first time last week. I kept a lock for his baby book, of course. :) It took Tim about 2 hours of coaxing before Cedric allowed us to use the hair clippers on him. When he was ready, he sat on my lap and played with some Q-tips and didn't squirm or fuss at all while Daddy buzzed it all off. Here are the before-and-after pictures:

Here is another picture of Kadin sharing his cake and ice cream with Cedric this last weekend. Kadin is such a patient and loving oldest cousin.

The next two videos are of Papa wrestling with the boys. They both had such cute moments in them that I had to share them both. :)

Drama update

Well, after seeking advice from Mom, we decided to go ahead and contact the landlord lastnight and to not go over to the neighbor's again without the landlord or police as witnesses since the daughter is obviously into making up stories. Brenna (our landlord) was very nice when I called her and said that she'd call them right away and seemed to empathize, agreeing that we shouldn't have to put up with that from the dog and that it was "bull****". Brenna doesn't usually swear so I think she's onboard. Once off the phone we prayed again, especially about what story Brenna was likely to hear when she called them. I think I'll call her tonight to make sure she got a hold of them and if it's safe for us to go play in the communal backyard again. Luckily, Brenna said that the daughter and son-in-law (and dog) are supposed to move out April 1st. So we shouldn't have to be worrying about this all summer.

Drama

I had an interesting episode with our neighbor on the far end. It's a really nice elderly lady who has her daughter and son-in-law from Texas living with her. The daughter is not so nice as I found out today. She has a Pomeranian dog named "Rowdy" (approprately names) who loves to bark. They let him run free almost every day in the big shared back yard. Anyway, last week the weather was warm enough for Cedric and I to play in our private yard, and Rowdy had taken to barking at us through the fence. Oh yeah, and we also realized he had been pooping on our back patio all winter but that's another story. Anyway, the barking was upsetting Cedric, sometimes making him cry, not to mention totally disrupting the peace and scaring all the birds away. I had tried yelling at the dog and even carefully (so as not to hit him) throwing sticks at him but the dog would hardly flinch. So one afternoon I noticed that their back door was open so I walked over to let them know there was a problem. The dog was barking at me the whole way over and the whole time I was talking to the older lady. She was really nice though.. So was I. I just let her know what was happening and if they could keep him on this side of the yard if he's going to bark. So I tried walking back home but the dog kept rushing me every time I turned my back. It was totally freaking me out! The dog was being very aggressive but the lady (Linda) kept telling me that "he won't bite you!" Yeah right. Prove it. There's always a first time. I finally inch my way back to my door. And that's that until today.

Same thing happened. We were playing in our private yard and the dog came barking. Tim was home this time but I went ahead and trucked over there myself with the dog barking all the way. Linda wasn't home this time so the daughter met me at the door. She had heard us coming because the back door was open. Well, I explained to her what the dog has a habit of doing and that it makes my 18-month-old cry. I asked if they'd thought of getting something like a baby-gate fence thing to put the dog in when he's out going potty, and she explained that the landlord said that the dog could run free in the yard. I said that I understand and that I really wouldn't mind the dog running free if the dog was friendlier and didn't bark at us but that Cedric and I come out to play in the communal backyard every day in the summer and that it was not okay for the dog to be free while we're out there. She did not concede or agree or apologize. I was really proud of myself because I wasn't even flustered when I spoke with her and, of course, I always try to be polite and diplomatic. So anyway, I tried walking back home and the dog kept rushing me again so I stopped and told her with a laugh that I'm just going to wait here until you come and get him. After a minute of standing there she finally admits that if she comes out there the dog is going to run from her. So she can't control her aggressive dog. That reason alone says that the dog should not be running free. She assures me again that he has never bitten anybody even when he's barking at them like this. Well, since she can't come and get him, I venture to turn my back. The dog barks, rushes and jumps at me. About half way back to my door he rushes, barking, within 6 inches of my heals and I've had enough so I turn around and kick at him, yelling and scowling. He immediately backed off about 2 feet and stayed at that distance, though still barking relentlessly, until I was safely in my back door.

Now the funny part. About an hour later, I was sitting in my car in the parking lot trying to do devotions. My window was open and apparently she didn't know I was in there. Linda comes home and while the door to the house is still open the daughter starts loudly telling the "story" of what happened. I didn't get to hear all of it, but of what I did hear apparently, I came raging over "pounding on the back door" (remember, the back door was open and she met me there, I never touched her door). She told Linda that I said Cedric was crying (which of course was true) but that he was actually laughing and squealing (how would she know when she couldn't even tell her dog was barking at us?). She ranted about how "I was like, oh my gosh, your son is behind a fence!" (As if that makes it okay for your dog to bark at him endlessly.) I think she conveniently left out the important point I made that we play every day in the back communal yard when the weather is nice. It faded at that point until she loudly accused me of having "kicked the crap out of my dog!!!" *sigh* I kicked at her dog, yes. Made contact? NO, though the dog would have deserved it completely. So according to the gal I'm an animal-abusing bitch.

Oh, goodness, I just hope that Linda knows that her daughter lies and exagerates and takes the story with a grain of salt. If this happens again when Tim is home, he's going over and including the fact that we're going to be talking with our landlord. If he's not home.... *sigh* I guess I'll have to go be a "bitch" again. I'm really tempted to take my broom with me next time and warning her that unless she gets her dog in the house, I might just hit him on my way back to my door. *sigh* I didn't ask for this, and I was extremely nice about it! We just can not be harassed in our own yard or communal backyard by a dog who's owner admittedly can not control him. If she won't control her dog, I will. Cedric and I were out in the communal backyard today for an hour and a half. I'm really concerned that they might not notice us out there next time and let the dog out. That will really piss me off. Don't mess with the mother-bear, things are liable to get ugly. :)

Pictures

I have been feeling much better this past week. I really hope that my severe morning sickness is at an end. I have finally been able to eat again.

Here are some random pictures that have been taken over the last couple months. I don't have any more of my tummy. Those will come later, I promise. :)




I thought this was cute. Cedric trying to squeeze into a tiny box.



This is a picture of Tim with all his brothers at a wedding the end of January.

Daddy showing Cedric how to strum.

He looks so serious. :)

Cedric pushing his baby doll in a stroller.

Hugging "baby" doll.

Cedric finally fell asleep for a nap when Daddy set him up with a cartoon.

This is a video of Cedric playing in the yard with "Baby" and Hemi.

I like this one. He's dancing and then at the end he realizes he has to go potty so runs for the bathroom. He almost made it to the toilet! :)