josh + kati + marion

Our lives were changed in a way we never saw coming and consequently, in ways we never imagined.

We became statistics.

We became part of the 3% of couples who have twins.

We became part of the anywhere from 10% to 20% to have a pregnancy end in a miscarriage.

So on this day, we try not to go back and remember what it was like. We try not to play the “what if” game. We try to look ahead at all the joy our lives do hold. We try to look for the supposed good that comes from every situation. We try not to think about how much we miss our babies. But mainly, we look at each other and say, “There’s no one I’d rather have gone through this past year with than you.”

Well, there are a lot of updates as we’ve been quite busy lately, but we’re still pretty deep in mourning around here. We’ve had some good, fun things going on, but I don’t think I can give them the proper recap right now, so they’ll just have to wait for a bit.

There’s just so much that sucks about losing a pet, especially one as cool and unique as Thomas.

We get uninterrupted late morning sleep now.. He used to, about 8:00 a.m., come jump on our bed, get right in Josh’s face, and just flat out yell at us. Then he’s spring off the bed, sprint out of the room and make wild and crazy (and loud!) laps around the house for about five minutes, before settling down. We’d rather have our alarm clock back.

I can leave my yarn out now without fear of him eating an entire skein of it. I’d rather have to put it up though.

We can open the windows without fear of him seeing the neighborhood cats and trying to make a break for it through the screens. We’d rather have to close the windows now.

We saw two roaches yesterday. ::shudder:: We had no idea he was such an industrious little kitty. We’d like to be roach free again (even if we did have to clean up roach induced puke.)

We don’t have little snags on our new couches from him making biscuits while he sat in our lap. We’d rather have to buy new slipcovers now.

I was unpacking baby stuff yesterday and left the Boppy sitting on the ground. It was so odd to come back into the room two hours later and not see that Thomas had made it his personal property. Lord knows I made that cat so many beds trying to lure him into being a sweetly dozing kitty, but he turned up his nose at those! He preferred things like shoes to sleep on, not hand knit beds. He like towels we let drop on the floor, boxes we left open, apparently anything but what I made him.

We just miss him so much, and every morning we wake up, we can’t believe he’s not here with us.

passed away this afternoon

His daddy and I miss him very, very much

We had our thirty week appointment today – we’re on visits every two weeks now!

Poppy and I are both doing fine – she’s measuring right on target and I’ve only gained 11.5lbs – yay for both of us!

It can sometimes seem annoying to go to these visits where nothing “big” happens, but I have to say, I love hearing her heartbeat so much!

Only ten/eleven more weeks until she’s here – that’s kind of unbelievable!

There aren’t any pictures of me standing up from the shower, so here’s one from twenty-eight weeks

Which, by the way, I look so much like my mom, it’s kind of scary!

I still can’t actually get Josh to blog, but this is the second best thing. It also demonstrates what happens when men come to baby showers and you give the camera to your brother-in-law to take pictures. Expect lots of pictures of things guys don’t really know a lot about (i.e. bumbos and boppys) and lots of pictures of me with my neck veins popping out and manic smiles on my face. Sincere, very happy smiles, but somehow they translate into manic on camera. (Thanks for the sweet photos Chris!)

Morgan explains the pictures she drew in our card. According to her, we live in a circus tent, which we could totally get on board with, minus the clowns.

Josh’s job – hold the gift and smile big.

Boys don’t really take baby presents seriously

This was not posed at all

We both appear confused by baby towels

Josh is thrilled by Granny H’s gift!

I’m pretty sure this is an inappropriate picture

Abby does a fabulous job – soon she’ll learn to be a slacker like the rest of us so we don’t actually have to “work”

We’ve perfected the eternal smile

He really approves of this outfit, despite the fact he’s holding it backwards. In his defense, he says that all his buttons go to the front of his clothes. He’ll soon learn there’s no rhyme or reason for girl clothes.

I don’t think this needs explanation.

I’m explaining to him what the front of the dress should look like and that in this case, the buttons go to the back

Sorry Mrs Gail – but Josh is not amused by this gift

Bob clearly has estrogen overload

Look – a photo album – something he can actually identify!

Wrong idea

Right idea (although a little frightening)

Sometimes excited about a present = crazy pregnant woman look

Asleep

AWAKE!

Despite the pictures, we had a very, very lovely time at the shower and visiting with family. Poppy got a ridiculous amount of clothes – all adorable – and we can’t wait for her to be here to start using everything!

click here for the rest of the Atlanta shower album.

Most girls (and a few guys) have their own visions of shoe heaven.

Thomas has found his.

Click here for The Thomas’ album

Look what I did this weekend

Something that’s not knitting!

I bought two sewing patterns this week and I tried this one out today. It’s so cute and so simple. When I showed mom the pattern, guess what she did? Cried. Imagine that! But she said she made me countless dresses just like that one.

The pattern is so easy, the next time I break out the machine, I think I’ll cut three or four at a time. The cutting really is the hardest part of it.

I made a 6-9 month size. It’s been harder than I thought to buy seasonally appropriate clothes – Houston really doesn’t have much of a winter, so I’ve been doing mostly lightweight, summer things. The only winter (and it’s not even really heavy winter) things I’ve been buying at 3-6 months. Assuming a fairly normal growth pattern for Poppy, she’ll be in that size December through February. I’m trying not to make too many things though – I fear I’ve misjudged her size and the seasons and I’ll end up with a wardrobe full of handmade clothes she’ll never wear!

It was a long weekend, so of course I did do some knitting.

Poppy’s pants are finished and I’m so pleased with them!

They’re so cute and it was so much fun to knit – I’m sure she’ll have several pairs.

Plus, how can you resist the little bell bottoms? I’m already planning on ruffles for the next pair.

Look, a weekend knitting post without a single pair of socks!

Full details of knitting on my Ravelry page

Click here for my sewing album