Is this for the dog, or the parents?

Over the weekend I went garage sale-ing (or sailing??) with my sister-in-law and mother-in-law for baby stuff. I was super excited to find a gently used changing table for only $25! Unfortunately I think that getting up at 6am, and then running around on (literally) the hottest day of the year was too much for me. I went home early sick. But Jo and Patty were awesome and they kept on sailing.

Amongst many awesome gifts (bathtub, portable bassinet, clothes, etc) was this CD.

It is a soundtrack of various baby noises from cooing to screaming that you play for your dog as background noise, so that they get used to the sounds the baby will make. Experts say that noise can often be a stress trigger for animals.

From babysitting to having friends over with babies/young kids, we are pretty sure that Belle will be cool when the baby arrives. She may sulk a little bit, but that is to be expected. So when Johanna gave me the CD, I told her that it would be fun to see what Belle would do, but my money was on her not reacting at all. And I was right.

I put the CD on our surround-sound system and her ears didn't even twitch. When it got to the track when the baby is blood-curdling screaming, she opened one eye...and then went back to sleep. I, on the other hand, had to leave the room because it was sooooooooo annoying! This CD may work better for US getting used to all that noise!

I'm sure that once there is an actual living, breathing, baby in the house Belle will be curious. She gets the first sniff when we bring stuff home. But I think she is going to be a great "Big Sister". :)

Thankful for friends, not thankful for fake blood.

Today a couple of Robbie's best friends came over and helped Robbie paint our house. One friend has already come over and helped trim our trees and bushes. You can't ask for better friends! I am so thankful for their help, I don't even know how to express it!

The boys accomplished more today with priming and painting than I have gotten done in months. I guess it doesn't help now that I'm preggo. They wouldn't even let me stay and watch because of all the fumes. It was so wonderful to come home to a house that was half-way painted! It was like being on the show "Extreme Home Makeover". It looks amazing guys, thank you!!

Even though there is still much to do, to have this much done is an enormous relief. To be able to see the progress of remodeling is beyond wonderful!

Do you know what is not beyond wonderful? When your husband comes down the hallway with dark red blood pouring from his hand, and streaming down his arm--and asking for a band-aid! I said, "Ooohh what did you do?!! Holy crap!! That cut looks really deep, you might need stitches!"

I scurried to the hall closet and tossed everything out to find gauze and bandages, yelling at Robbie to clean his hand off. When I looked up he was standing there with this ridiculous smirk on his face, biting his lip to prevent laughing, when he said, "But if I clean it off all the fake blood will wash off!"

I threw the first aid box at him really hard and told him that he's gonna need bandages if he doesn't move out of my line of sight. It was a good thing he was on his way out for Wednesday night youth group!! :)

What's in a name?

Okay, so I don't think it's time to post any "preggo pics" yet, but I did buy my first pair of maternity pants today. Until now, I've been wearing my regular pants unbuttoned--but tied together with a rubber band for extra room. I will be 16 weeks along in a few days. It's not the first article of maternity clothing I've purchased, I broke down and bought a maternity swimsuit last weekend. I loooooooooooove to swim, so I figured that I may as well invest in one since I plan on swimming a ton this summer. Swimming is the most relaxing and wonderful thing ever! Water in general is soothing. I'm pretty sure I might have been a fish in a past life. :)

Our most recent visit to the doctor was last week, and everything seems to be going okay. Nice strong heartbeat at 156 BPM. (my mom is now fully convinced we are having a girl because of the "higher" heart rate) No ultrasound yet, which at first really freaked me out because all of my friends had their first ultrasounds as early as 6 weeks. But all my friends also have insurance. We will be going back in a couple of weeks for sure to get an ultrasound, but my doctor feels that he doesn't want to burden us with the cost until its necessary. We will probably be able to find out by then if we are having a Ruby Mae, or a Maverick.

Robbie and I actually decided on our children's names a really long time ago. (probably some random conversation at Starbucks) Even before we were married we've always pictured ourselves with a Ruby and a Maverick. Everyone says that you end up changing your mind, but we love these names more than ever now. If it's a girl, we decided on Ruby Mae because the name is wonderfully old-fashioned. Ruby means precious gem, and we're thinking if we ever have a little girl she will be just that. It is also the middle name of my Grandma Logan, whom I've never met but I heard she was really rad. Quite the "looker" too from what I've seen of her young photos. Mae came from our love of the 1940s culture--the hairstyles, clothing, life in general.

If it's a boy, we love the name Maverick. It means wildly independent. Which is awesome, and will most likely be a strong genetic trait from Robbie. Of course we gotta throw in that this name has influence from one of the greatest movies of all time, "Top Gun". We haven't fully decided on Maverick's middle name because we can't decide between a couple. We like Russell or William. My personal favorite is Maverick Russell, but Robbie likes Maverick William. Both of which give an "old west outlaw" vibe so I think either way he will be pretty set.