Christmas Eve - 29 weeks

One week until Christmas

We are excited!

Here is Ana checking out our first snow fall. It was not even an inch, but she was excited and wanted to catch some on her tongue and make snowballs.
I was expecting we'd be buried in snow by this time of year, but nothing so far. It has been damn cold though. Surprisingly James is loving the weather. He just commented that he thinks he was cut out for this weather! He even was out cooking steaks in the 20's. Miracles never cease! I definately prefer it to the oppressive heat, so all in all we are pretty happy with our move!

Finally, this is just a bad picture of Ana trying to attack me with a snowball. Nothing remarkable except that I look frighteningly like my Mum! If I didn't know who was in the picture I'd think it was her! Ha ha!

28 weeks

I thought I was 29 weeks. Ughhh! That being said, this past 2 weeks have been the best I've felt all pregnancy! I'm tired and achy from being massive, but otherwise feeling good. No more nausea or headaches! Yay! Of course the fun didn't last all that long because now I've started getting heartburn. Still not as bad as I had it with Ana, but it is awful at night when I try to sleep. It wakes me up and I have to sleep propped upright. Pah!

p.s. I just commented to James that I don't feel this picture actually does justice to how huge I am. He agreed and said no picture could do it justice, it needs to be seen up close and personal. I'm not sure how to take that :)

Is it time for parental controls on the TV already??

Well I got to sleep in this morning, that's a bonus! But guess what sweet little Ana did? She snuck downstairs without waking us up (not easy in this creaky house), put on the TV herself and watched South Park!! Mr Hankey the Christmas Poo to be specific!!! Uh-oh! Parenting fail!

Here's the thing, she saw Mr Hankey in our Netflix queue earlier in the week and thought (rightly I suppose) it was a cartoon. We told her it was NOT for kids and she was not to watch it, so this was a totally premeditated move on her part. She must have woken up plotting and decided she was going to watch this "forbidden" show. Of course, she eventually came and woke me up, grinning like the cat that got the cream, and confessed. She continued to grin like that all morning! Little Stinker!!

She's also been singing "Mr Hankey the Christmas Poo" all day. She is under strict instructions NOT to mention this at school. I will die!

Reading at Ana's School

Yesterday I volunteered to read a Christmas book at Ana's school. I casually told her the day before I would be doing it, and when I got there that night she had told every teacher and kid in the school, multiple times! She was so excited. So on Thursday I went in to school with her; I watched her in gym class and sat with her class for snack time, then read Twas The Night Before Christmas and talked about Christmas in England. I was there about an hour and a half and Ana beamed the whole time. She could not have been more proud! She saved me the seat closest to her at the snack table and made sure she was right next to me for storytime too. It was one of the best things I've ever done. Thinking ahead only a few years I'm sure she'll be mortified to have me around and probably pretend she doesn't know me. It was a good reminder that while these are tough demanding times with kids they are also absolutely the best times too. It was a day to remember for both of us!

Look who is ready for Juilliard!!

Grandad taught Ana to play this in about 5 minutes! Awesome :)

Untitled from jasmin hutchinson on Vimeo.

Thanksgiving and other stuff

Nana and Grandad have been visiting for the past 2 weeks. We have all loved having them here, especially Ana of course! We spent thanksgiving day with our family in Connecticut. We also got to catch up with Judgey and his family. Ana and William got along really well, although I think Ana is still smarting from the thrashing she recieved in the great 20m mall dash. We visited Bright Nights, which was great. Of course Ana's favourite part was the dinosaurs. She is majorly into dinosaurs! We also visited the Springfield Science Museum, where once again the dinosaurs were a huge hit!

Ana inside a dinosaur footprint

Fun with mirrors



Ana and William



Grilling Santa to make sure he got her letter!

The temperatures are dipping here, but Ana still prefers to be naked most of the time. I'm not sure what it will take to get this kid to want to wear clothes, but apparently it's less than 30 degrees!

Clearly none of us are used to the dry air up here. We all have chapped lips and noses, especially Ana! Poor kid!

I have finally started to feel better. The nausea is gone and the headaches are not as constant as they were. However, since I can apparently never have a moment of symptom free pregnancy I'm now suffering with lower back pain. I am permanently attached to my hot water bottle. James has been great (as always) about helping me out. I am just trying to remind myself I'll NEVER have to do this nonsense again! Ana has been great too. She's in a really lovely phase where she is super kind and affectionate and obedient. I'm not sure who's child she is. She even cleans her own playroom and bedroom every day!

Ana is predictably excited about Christmas. I am equally excited. It is pretty cool to enjoy Christmas with a 4 year old. They are the perfect age for all the magic. Yay!

25 weeks

School Picture 2010

Boyfriends?

Ana has a scratch and I've been trying to figure out how she got it. She came up with all kinds of tales about how she fell over in ballet and did it. Eventually she admitted "Maybe James scratched me when I broke up with him"

Huh???? I asked her if she even knew what 'breaking up' meant. Oh yes she does.

She said "James was my boyfriend for 2 days but I broke up with him. Now Malachi is my boyfriend. I'm never breaking up with Malachi."

More Amazing Artwork

Mummy and Ana in the bath

A turtle
(don't know why these pics are showing up sideways - grrr)

Grandma trapped in a cage and a witch's tower

A cowboy and a penguin

Princess Ana being chased by a witch

The witch has been captured!

23 weeks (almost)

Heading off to school on pyjama day

Happy Halloween!

This year Ana has been very excited for Halloween. No more forcing her crying into costumes :) She's been doing activities at school all week, like decorating pumpkins and making a witch's brew, and counting down to the main event.

Pumpkin Carving

The spooky snacks I've been making Ana this week!

Playing silly games - so much fun!

Trick or Treat!!

My peeps

Out and about with Ana!

Chomping on ice lollies with McKenzie

This Batgirl is fierce :)

Meeting the Springfield College mascot

At school

21 weeks

How to get pregnant in 656 easy steps

Try the old fashioned way for a few months
Go for tests and discover you have a multitude of problems
Consult a fertility specialist and try drugs and IUI procedure with no success
Discover the odds of you getting pregnant without IVF are slim to none
Decide not to sit around waiting for a baby and land your dream job 3000 miles away
Quit your easy job across the street from your beautiful home. Ditto for James.
Collapse while running a triathlon
Discover you are pregnant!!!!!!
Pack your possessions in 104 degree heat and humidity (ok so James did most of this)
Fail to sell your house, despite working on it like crazy and the stress of multiple showings
Travel 3000 miles while feeling sick and tired
Move into shithole of a house where nothing works and everything smells of pee
Have hubby land a job 45 min from home, as opposed to the one he had that was 45 seconds away, also meaning we have to spend all our savings on a second car
Send Ana to pre-K that costs $7000 a year as opposed to the FREE one she was enrolled in in GA
Discover you are one of the lucky few who are ill all day every day of your pregnancy
Find out that teaching advanced exercise science courses is a little more time consuming than teaching kids to run around a field

Just had to get that out there so I know I’m not crazy for feeling a little stressed and overwhelmed these days.

Reasons all the above will be worth it eventually…

We are having a baby boy :)
We live in New England :)
We have much better jobs
I won’t be pregnant forever (or ever again!)

Ana's art work

Ana is quite the budding artist these days!! :)

This is a "monster masher" about to mash Mum

And here is Ana coming to rescue her...

This is Ana in Mum's bed

And a very gay fire truck

This is a witch and she has Ana's brother locked in her tower

And my favourite!! A family portrait!