You know it's really bad when you put off procrastinating..

Where to begin?

My last post was in November, about half way through the last patrol, so I'll start there.

Dave made it home before Christmas, which was a hoped for but unexpected blessing. I was seriously lacking the Christmas spirit & didn't even have a tree. It didn't seem like a big deal until Christmas Eve, & then I decided to draw a Christmas tree on the wall with chalk, but Dave put a stop to that very quickly. Lesson learned. Christmas just isn't Christmas without a tree. We even lucked out & Dave didn't have duty on Christmas Eve or Christmas, which was a first.

Right after Christmas Dave got to go with me to a prenatal appointment, which was the first one he'd gone to. My doctor is the best & gave us a freebie ultrasound just so Dave could see the little one since he'd missed my first couple ultrasounds. I'd just hit the second trimester the week he came home, so we finally felt comfortable enough to start telling people that we're expecting. He was a bit nervous about the whole MTHFR situation (I'll explain that later), but that's to be expected. I think he was secretly relieved to have missed the morning sickness phase (or so he thought). I had my first appointment at the perinatologist in Jacksonville at the end of January. Dave went with me, & we found out that we're expecting another little boy! The boys will be 22-23 months apart. Lord help us. We haven't decided on a name just yet, so we've nicknamed him Baby 'Zilla, because I'm sure he'll be just as rambunctious as Chop (a.k.a. Chopzilla). That was also the visit when they decided I needed to be on blood thinners (related to the MTHFR that I'll explain later). I'm on Lovenox injections once a day until 36 weeks, when they'll change it to Heparin injections twice a day. This pregnancy has been one thing after another, but we're no less thankful.

Baby Zilla at 17 weeks

Frontal shot of his face

Zilla sucking his thumb

I see my OB every four weeks & the perinatologist every three to four weeks. They are keeping a very close eye on me & Zilla. I'm lucky to see the most awesome doctors ever, so that helps put my mind at ease. Plus we get to see Zilla way more often than someone with a "normal" pregnancy would.

Zilla at 21ish weeks

Yes, that is just his foot!

Showing us he's still a boy

Thumb sucker

Another picture of his face - Skeletor looking thing, isn't he?

He's a big boy! He weighed in at a hefty pound at 17 weeks.

Me & Zilla at 24 weeks

I don't know why I looked so grumpy in this one

Shelbye is doing great, as usual. She's made A/B Honor Roll on every report card. She's still struggling a little in math, but we're working on it. She had the Friday before & Monday of President's Day off & Dave was still on stand down, so we made a trip to Atlanta, which she was stoked about. She saw snow for the very first time & of course took the golden opportunity to throw a snowball at Dave. Her birthday is coming up pretty soon & she's really excited to be turning "double digits". We gave her her big present early - the Band Hero bundle for the Wii that included the game, the drums, the microphone, & the guitar. Even though it's Shelbye's birthday present, the whole family has had a blast playing it. I'm really glad we finally found a game that we can all play together & it entertains all of us. Even Chop gets in on the action & loves playing the drums. She was hoping we would get to spend Spring Break & her birthday in Atlanta with the family, but it seems that Dave's parents have other plans for that week that include coming here.

(Turtle's been a little camera shy lately, so I don't have any new photos of her. Hopefully she gets out of this stage soon.)

Chop started walking shortly before Dave came home. He was a bit wobbly at first, but he caught on quickly. It's awesome how they go from barely being able to walk to running at the speed of light within days! I can hardly keep up with him. His favorite thing to do is play outside while Dave is doing yard stuff. We're going to get him a slide/swing/climb on thing for the yard pretty soon. His vocabulary is growing by the hour it seems, although people that aren't around him constantly sometimes have no clue what he's saying. He's almost thirty pounds & a little over two feet tall.

Oh the trouble that usually follow that mischievous smile!

Dave reenlisted while he was underway. This leaves him in the Navy until '14 & on the boat until March of '12. A few weeks ago we thought we might have the opportunity to PCS to Guam, but it doesn't seem to be panning out. We were stoked about possibly going & are more than a little bummed that it doesn't seem like it's going to happen. 

He's enjoying this offcrew & has done loads of stuff around the house. We finally painted the bedroom! He also fixed the toilet that's been out of commission since a week after he left. Turns out Chop threw his alligator bath toy in it. Fixing it entailed taking the toilet outside & removing the toy with a screwdriver. It was a lot more difficult than it sounds, trust me.

I'm finally getting to work on my photography. I've been slacking for a while now, but no more. I ordered a nifty little Canon beauty the other night & have been ever so impatiently waiting its arrival ever since. I haven't done anything else with my sewing, but that's to be expected with Chop running around.  I'm just taking everything day by day & focusing on growing our Baby Zilla.