Happy Independence Day!

And Happy 23 weeks to Butterball! He should be weighing in at just over a pound now and I think this is becoming obvious on my belly. I am feeling lots of movement these days, which is very exciting, but it is still too sporadic for Sean to get to feel. There have been a couple of strong kicks that I have felt from the outside, but they aren't repetitive enough for Sean to follow up on. I was just reading that Butterball's ears are very developed now and any loud sounds he gets used to hearing now (like Lily's barking when someone comes to a door) will be pretty normal to him by the time he arrives. I think that is pretty cool. He is also developing a good sense of movement and will appreciate my moving around. Guess I will have to start dancing to pass on my inherent groove.

I can't believe how quickly time seems to be passing now. The minute we hit the halfway mark I think time sped up and it is becoming more and more real that in four months Sean and I will have a newborn! We are quickly realizing that we need to prepare ourselves a bit for this and have started to research all of the accouterments that go along with a baby. We have been really excited about researching cloth diapering and we are both on the same page for our strategy there. We also have begun to research cribs, car seats, etc. It can all be very overwhelming. We got a book called Baby Bargains that has been beyond useful and I think this weekend we are going to go to Babies R Us for a test drive to see what we like, etc. I am looking forward to it.

This past week was kind of a doozy for me. I so enjoyed our trip to NH and then having my mom here. When all that excitement ended I felt very overwhelmed returning to school and thinking about the house buying and preparing for Butterball. I am feeling a lot better about it today having slept in and taken a nap today (man, I think my second tri energy is waning)! On the school front, I finished ALL of my data collection this past week! Now I just have to finish the analysis and write the darn dissertation. That is still a whole lot, but progress is being made and I just need to stay optimistic and take it one step at a time. On the house buying front, we got all of the inspections done (well, the water test will be done by Monday) and we are just in waiting mode now to get the approval of the seller's bank. We have been told this can take between 1-2 weeks, which is a little frustrating given our time scale, but it is apparently pretty standard in the short sale business. Regardless of what happens, we still plan to move to NH sometime in August and we are trying to figure out the best way to get all of our stuff out there. Yes, we have a lot on our plate right now!

Today, we are not doing much to celebrate the 4th. We had a really nice long walk with Lily this morning and tonight we are going to BBQ some veggie bratwurst (seriously good if you are in doubt...try the Boca brand), munch on some homemade guacamole, and satisfy my s'mores craving (yum). It really is all about the food these days with me :) We may be able to see the downtown fireworks from our front porch, but we decided not to battle the crowds. I hope you all have a fantastic holiday weekend!