Roxanne photos!

I'm way way way behind on photo sharing. So please bear with me. I am starting with the oldest photos first. We've been so busy lately, and I've been spending a TON of time on schoolwork. We're still doing fun stuff on the weekends, I just haven't had time to blog about it! And about half of our events have gone un-photographed (for various reasons I won't bore you with explanations of). We have no Easter photos, or photos from our mini-family reunion with some of my Dad's side of the family. But they were both fun!
Pony ride at Little Creek Farm in Decatur. Sorry about the blurry photos. It was super dark in the barn, and our camera just isn't fancy enough to compensate. Roxanne LOVES pony rides though. Oh, and this is not really a pony. It's a horse. A big one. But Roxanne didn't mind. Grandpa Jim was here for this, too. Roxanne had a good time waving to him and me and Justin as she went around.
Look how little she is on that horse! After she rode around, we walked around the farm, which is very pretty, and pet and fed some of the other horses. She still remembers you "feed them with your hand flat so they don't eat your fingers." See, I still remember a few useful things from my almost 10 years of riding horses.
I think the Mardi Gras beads are extremely appropriate in this equestrian setting. Right?
Here's Roxanne at the Dogwood Festival at Piedmont. This was the Sunday after the pony rides, and Grandpa Jim was here for this, too. She had a BLAST on this scary jumpy thing. She kept saying she was flying like Tinkerbell. The guys operating the ride were super nice, and she kept asking them to make her go higher. They would grab her by the ankles and pull her down, and then she'd bounce super high. Terrifyingly awesome.
Just like Tinkerbell...
Ready to go!
On an awesome old carousel with Justin at the Dogwood Festival. Justin's face is highly accurate, because this thing was going FAST. It made the Zoo carousel look like a baby ride. Roxanne rode it once with Grandpa Jim and once with Justin. I passed...
Roxanne and Grandpa Jim running to the ferris wheel. She was SO disappointed that she was too short for it. But the carousel was a pretty good consolation prize.
You have no idea how long it took me to convince her that she could wear a skirt and shirt (as opposed to a dress, as she was begging for). I normally don't bother trying to fight about it, but she had no dresses clean. Even though she finally put this outfit on, she told me about five times that she was going to put a dress back on as soon as we got home. Sigh.
Justin, Grandpa Jim, Roxanne, and Roxanne's belly.
Here's from yesterday at the Strawberry Festival at Washington Farms in Watkinsville. We had so much fun!
Roxanne and Chloe feeding the goats.
The cousins staring at the baby cows. They were pretty standoffish and not interested in being pet or fed like the goats. But holy cow they were cute.
Roxanne and Chloe jammed into the same cow car on the cow train. Best recycling I've ever seen!
Picking strawberries!
Justin trying to help Roxanne pick good ones. She was basically only looking for the flowers...
"I'll pick it, Daddy!"
We weren't supposed to eat these as they were being picked, but I admit, a few were consumed. Oops.
Roxanne dressed up all of her "babies." Don't they look cozy?
Dressing up herself. Doesn't she look so so so old here???

A very delayed Bumblebee update

Sorry, this photo is so blurry! This is the baby bump when Roxanne and I were at the beach. So, in a cheesy way, it represents Baby Bumblebee's first beach trip!

These ultrasound images are Baby Bumblebee's face profile. They were taken when I was 20 weeks, 4 days, and Bumblebee measured 20 weeks 1 day. I'm still hoping that I can continue not gaining weight (I still haven't gained any!) and keep the baby's weight at a good, healthy place. The Friday that I had these ultrasounds, Justin was able to come with me to the ultrasound part. That appointment was in the morning. My midwife appointment was later in the afternoon. I found out at the later appointment that even though I passed the early Gestational Diabetes screening, my blood tests were VERY close to the cut-off. So now I'm trying to follow the Gestational Diabetes diet. It's not easy but if it helps me avoid a C-section, I'm willing to do my best.
More Bumblebee pictures! The baby looks great on the ultrasounds. He or she was 15 ounces at the time of the appointment. Everything seems to be developing normally. The baby kept pulling his or her feet and hands all up together in front of his or her face. And waving one finger in the air. Oh, and for posterity, the baby's heartbeat was 154 at the ultrasound, and 159 at the midwife appointment. These rates are MUCH higher than Roxanne's were. And higher is supposed to mean girl. Of course, you can't totally rely on that, but it definitely points to girl! Justin says he'd love a boy, but that he doesn't think it's likely. :)


Here's a 21 week belly photo. Classy basement bathroom photo...
Here's from today. I'll be 22 weeks tomorrow. I know my face is sun-burned and a mess here. We went to the Dogwood Festival today with Justin's dad (much to Roxanne's delight!) and I got too much sun; in that charming way that happens when you wear sunglasses and no sunscreen. Oops.

The Beach! Photos first...

So, the Friday before last, Roxanne and I drove to St. Simons Island for a four day vacation. We were very sad that Justin couldn't come (pregnant lady hormones=an actual tearful departure... sigh) but he is currently having the busiest month ever at work. And since I'll be taking maternity leave from work in August, I knew that I couldn't do a summer vacation unless it was when my bosses were out of town already. When they told me they were going out of town last Friday and the following Monday, I decided to just take Roxanne to the beach. Did that sentence make sense? I'm tired... Baby Bumblebee is kicking and kicking in a way that makes it hard to sleep. So I'm delirious blogging. Dangerous!
Back to the beach... We had a great time. There were definitely some stressful parts, since herding a 3 year old for that many days all by yourself can get old, and even more so when said 3 year old is an extremely stubborn little thing. Still, it was very very worth it. Our routine basically consisted of waking up, me letting Roxanne watch some cartoons while I tried to sleep in a little, eating some snacks for breakfast on our way to the beach, spending a few hours on the beach, heading to a restaurant for lunch, then going back to the beach until dinner. We added in some shopping and walking around the Village at St. Simons here and there, but I tried to keep the beach the main focus. Roxanne LOVES the beach. She loves playing in the sand and splashing in the water. While it was way too cold for me to swim, she had a good time splashing in the water and occasionally laying down in it.
On Friday, she was content to play with me and/or amuse herself, but by Saturday, she told me she was going to find a friend on the beach to play with. And sure enough, each time we went back to the beach, she would find a "friend" to play with for at least part of the time we were there. They were all little girls, and most were around her age or just a bit older. It was amazing to see her be so incredibly social (not that she isn't always pretty social) and to see how well kids can get along at the beach. It's like they are all in this state of happiness that makes it impossible for them to be mean to each other. Of course, at one point, she ran back to me from being down at the water with lots of other kids (including some wild boys) and said something along the lines of "all of those jellyfish are dead. They all got killed." Sigh. There were a ton of jellyfish washed up on the sand for some weird reason, but I had been telling her they were resting. Oh well. In any case, ever since we've been home, Roxanne has been begging me to take her back to the beach. She says she wants to live in the hotel. Forever. And never come home. A girl can dream.
On Monday morning, I took Roxanne to the beach for about an hour before we headed to nearby Jekyll Island to visit the Georgia Sea Turtle Center. I had been asking her for days if she wanted to go to the "turtle hospital" in the hopes that if I made it sound awesome enough, it would distract her from the fact that we were going home afterward. It actually was a lot of fun, and her favorite part was asking me all of the sea turtles' names. They all had very fancy names, and we got there in time to hear a short explanation about each "patient" and see them swimming in their pools. We even got to see some tiny tiny ones that had just recently hatched. They were Roxanne's favorites. Painfully adorable... The museum part was also really fun. Lots of interactive exhibits about different aspects of sea turtle protection and life in general. I'd recommend a visit if you are in the area!