Happy Holidays!

I haven't blogged since we made our major announcement, so in case you don't know, The Wood family is expecting a new member in July 2011! We are NOT finding out the gender until the baby is born, so until then, we will affectionately refer to him/her as Baby Bean. My pregnancy has been quite different from the last one so far. The morning sickness was vicious at first, but it leveled out and has been far more predictable since. So long as I keep the baby fed, it doesn't bother me much. I also am surprised that with as much as I have been eating, and as big as my stomach is already swelling, I haven't gained much weight. I have basically gained back what I lost when I started Weight Watchers a few weeks prior to getting pregnant. I am aiming for a lower weight gain this time, but we will see where Baby Bean takes me!

That was the major news from November, although we did have a lovely holiday season all around.

Winter came early to Ohio, which I love. Though my dear friend Kim isn't too fond of the white stuff, I enjoy the 3-4 months a year where I can bundle up and see the beautiful snow on the ground out there. I am by no means a hot weather person. It will be interesting to see how I do with this pregnancy, which goes much farther into summer than I did with Rachel.

Rachel actually began to understand Christmas this year, though I had a difficult time explaining the difference between Santa and Jesus. The two seemed to intermingle in my Christmas talk. She loves the lights and the decorations, and she now requests Christmas songs with her normal lullabies (which include Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star; the Alphabet Song; the OSU fight song; and Carmen Ohio). She had a great Christmas overall. Santa brought her a lot of learning games, a new Toy Story pull-out couch/bed, a motorized Quad (that goes a whopping 2 mph), and some dress-up clothes. She also got a lot of stuff for her new room, which I am happy to say is almost finished. We have her bed in there now, and she has been sleeping in there the last couple of nights, with no major episodes. The coolest "decoration" she received for her room was a new aquarium with two goldfish, which she decided to name "Dora" and "Boots."

Duane and I both have been off this week with Rachel, and we have really enjoyed the extra time with her. Duane especially enjoyed being able to take her to the doctor with me on Tuesday for her 6-month check-up. She went from the 10th percentile in weight to the 50th! She now weighs 29 pounds and is 34 inches tall. The doctor was really impressed that she knows all her letters and colors. In the car yesterday, I was amazed to hear her counting from 1 to 9...in SPANISH!

For NYE, we decided to stay in and relax. We had the hooplah last year, and although it was fun, it seemed more appropriate this year to kick back and be lazy without all the fuss. Next year we are trying to organize something kid-friendly, since most of our friends will have two kids by that time!

Happy 2011 to everyone! I am really looking forward to a new year!