Oden Adventures

Over the past several weeks, Vianne has become a huge fan of Doc McStuffins (a Disney show about a little girl who is a doctor to toys - awfully cute) so has been using her doll mirror & hairbrush to give (and receive) a lot of checkups (or "che-puts" as she calls them).

Patrick was gone to the Wesleyan Theological Conference for the first weekend of March so Vianne & I tried to fill the void with some fun...park trips, walks, and Starbucks (coffee for Mama, scone for Little V)...

 We had gorgeous weather!

 That's my girl, Harry Potter was her pick off the shelf :-).

During Patrick's spring break, we went for a morning stroll at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden.

 Vianne enjoyed dancing on this wooden stage.

 We have to remember to take pictures of us, too, on these outings!

 Our Princess of Quite-A-Lot...she went in the house to see Daddy, who helped her assemble this fine ensemble before coming back out again.

 Granma & Moishe were invited in to the playhouse.

 Sharing giggles with the boys!

 We celebrated Granma's birthday with a lovely lunch outing.  Vianne spent the first 10 minutes hugging her :-).

 Then, ice cream cake back at our place...

Why use the fork? :-)

 I snagged this cute series of her "reading" - definitely Daddy's girl!

Yep, we're having a son!  And we are beyond delighted!!

Truth be told, we found out at about 13 weeks along, thanks to a new chromosome test that's been used in the last couple years, and that's especially recommended for pregnant women over 35, which can detect 3 different chromosomal disorders...and since they're looking at your chromosomes, they can also predict the gender of the baby!

It's 99.1% accurate for male gender so we've been pretty sure for several weeks now, but still wanted to see some "anatomical evidence" on the 18-20 week ultrasound.

The first one (at 19 weeks) was indeterminate as Mr. O. was curled up and sleeping, face down, for most of it, and the technician couldn't get all the measurements & pictures she needed.  He's definitely got a spine, though...

So, oh darnit!, we had to have another one at 21 weeks (if I could have it my way, I'd have one every week!)...and he was more cooperative this time and showed off all his various angles.  And, we finally have our visual anatomical confirmation:  he's definitely a boy!  We also got to take home more pictures and especially enjoyed this one of such a detailed profile (love his little legs!).

Little O. bump at 20.5 weeks

Like with Vianne, I'm not terribly obviously pregnant.  I just kinda thicken all over (blech!) and so the belly's not so noticeable.  But I'm hopeful that - again, like with Vianne - this prevents the random grocery store belly feels because people don't know if I'm pregnant or just carrying 25 unneeded pounds :-).

I confess, this was my weakest attempt at a monthiversary shoot yet...but a) I don't suppose I can keep this up forever and b) this was the last of three days that Patrick was gone at a conference, and I just didn't have the energy to wrestle her for photos.  Especially since we'd walked a 2.5 mile round trip to the park that morning.  So, I'm counting the park photos :-).

She still loves to dance and to sing.  Her favorite song is still Jesus Loves Me ("Jeez Me"), but she often requests "Mama's Songs" (the Homespun CD) and "Donald Farm Cow Song" (Old McDonald) and we've been enjoying the Slugs & Bugs CDs she got from Rebekah for Christmas. 

We are especially entertained by Vianne's ever-growing, ever-surprising vocabulary.  There are a lot of word pronunciations & phrases I will miss when her English improves.  She says "darburge" for garbage; a zipper is a "yipper"; Look! is "Yoot!" (double o sounds like look); remember is "memmer" and yawn is still "yarn"; and a personal favorite, a heartbeat is a "heartbeep".  She also often mixes up "heavy" and "hard" - so, for example, if she can't do something hard, she'll say, "It's heavy" and I try not to giggle.  She hasn't caught on to the subtle words "not" and "don't" or "shouldn't" in negative phrases, so she will say things like "It's working" if something's not working, or "You touch it"/"You have it" when she means "don't touch it" or "you don't have it".

We talk a lot about the baby ("Baby Awver" ;-) ) in Mama's tummy, who sometimes - according to Vianne - is in her tummy, too!  Sometimes he is sleeping, sometimes he is crying, sometimes he's silly. She enjoys watching a video from BabyCenter.com of an illustrated baby at 15 to 20 weeks, who we say is ours.

She loves playing "The Owl Game" and others on Daddy's tablet (since kids using technology is such a huge debate right now, let me stoke the fire...heh heh) to which we give much credit for her early grasp of numbers, letters, shapes and colors.

She's still into everything, definitely showing a new side of her strong will, and most days completely wears us out...but my goodness, we love her more than we can even fathom.

We're all about love, but we don't really celebrate Valentine's Day so much; even still it was a different one even for that, with Patrick gone all day at a conference on hope in Claremont, featuring keynote speaker Jurgen Moltmann (the German theologian that Patrick wrote his dissertation on and whom he studied with over a week while in Tubingen in 2011). 

But Vianne & I had a sweet day hanging out together.  Some gifts from Mama & Daddy in the morning...

...then some gifts Grandma G. sent us later in the day.

First Hershey's Kiss - she loved it (Mama's girl!) and wanted more

A bit of video...

And more gifts from Granma & Grandpa O. on the weekend!

The Odens are expanding!  Well, mostly just me at this point :-D.

We are in eager anticipation of Baby O.'s expected arrival in early August (or late July...or mid-August...as these things go...)  I took my first test (at about 4 weeks) on Thanksgiving morning right when I woke up, and then crawled back into bed and told Patrick, "We might have one more thing to be thankful for today!" :-)  It was fun having a little secret to smile about all day, as we went about cooking & entertaining our guests, and a reason to eat all I wanted, knowing the nausea was coming any day.

This pregnancy has been very similar to Vianne's so far, except that the sickness (nausea & vomiting, morning, noon, & night) started a week earlier (at 5 weeks - so unfair!) and lasted a couple weeks longer, and this time I had a little cutie V to pat my head and say, "Sorry, Mama!" when I was feeling sick :-).  I feel like I have had a lot more specific (and rarely healthy) cravings this time around and am trying not to indulge every single one (I did not withstand the Cadbury Mini Eggs tidal wave...although, to be fair, that one I can never resist, regardless of pregnancy...).

I also started feeling Baby O. move about 17 weeks (which I love!!) and don't remember feeling Vianne 'til about 20 weeks.  So reassuring every time I feel those little jolts!

We are delighted so far with my care through Kaiser and have two sets of pictures to show off:  the first is from our first visit at about 11 weeks, and the second from the nuchal translucency screening, at 12 weeks.