Boy, can he walk!

So, I realize that we (Sarah and I) have been a bit laid back about this... but... Theo can walk! All on his own and without too much injury!
In reality, we don't really know when his exact first steps were, but it was sometime in the last week (or maybe the last 10 days, we're not sure). He's gotten much better now and takes the opportunity to walk from thing to thing more often. He's still pretty cautious and makes sure to have his balance before letting go. This makes it tough to document on video, but I worked all morning and here's a pretty good clip of him showing his stuff!

Tall ships... small ships?

We went down to the marina where the Lady Washington was in for the week (here's some video from the Herald). It's a big boat, 67 feet on the deck, but it doesn't really seem that big when you are on it. It's the same ship that was one of the British ships in Pirates of the Caribbean (which the current crew members are constantly asked about, and they have various wise guy responses to deal with the question).
Seeing the boat in pictures, on the movie screen, and in my imagination I could envision hundreds of crew members and a huge deck. Once you get on it the size of the masts and riggings are still impressive, but the boat doesn't really feel all that huge. One of the current crew said that when the original Lady Washington was in use they probably only had a crew of 8! That seems a bit slim for keeping up with all the tasks, but I can see why they would have so few if they were trying to move cargo and have enough room for supplies... you can't have extra people.
Anyhow, here are some pictures. It was pretty fun, and a beautiful day. And Theo played with some flowers.

Our new baby

Yesterday was our 1st appt. with our midwife, Ann. She is the same person who delivered Theo and we are very excited to be having her care for us again. She is a very calm, even-keeled person who always puts me at ease. At our appt., she used the fetal doppler to find the baby's heartbeat (this was the 1st time we'd done this during this pregnancy) and couldn't find the heartbeat. We were, of course, very concerned, but tried to keep our emotions in check until we had more information. She drew my blood for some lab work, referred us to the ultrasound place here in town, and gave me a big hug.

Once we were home, I called the ultrasound center to schedule an appt. They listened to my story and then said they'd get us in "as quickly as they could".....that meant next Tuesday! That was 6 days away!! We called Ann and she suggested calling the drop-in pregnancy center downtown. They were wonderful and had an appt. for us within a couple of hours.

We went for a walk with Theo and Todd (our dog) and talked about all of the possibilities of what this could mean for our growing family. I felt numb, but was trying to keep myself calm until I had all of the facts. We came home and had lunch. Theo went down for a nap, so I napped myself until it was time to leave for the appt.

The nurse got us in immediately and started the ultrasound. Right away, a cute, wiggly little baby popped up on the screen. Its arms and legs were kicking and squirming, its mouth was opening and closing, and its little heart was beating wildly. This child is very much alive. It was such a thrill for all of us (well, we don't really think Theo noticed. He was just upset that I couldn't hold him) and gave us lots of hope.

So, that's the long and short of it. We're having a baby an something's really happening in there. Now that I've seen this little person, I can't wait to meet them!

House paint

We went to Sherwin Williams and chose house paint colors today. The plan is to paint the house and garage in the next couple of weeks. I am very excited. We chose Afterglow (a medium yellow color) as the main color of the house, Cherry Tomato (a cheerful red) for the trim, shutters and doors, and Curry for the tiny trims around the windows and other little places. You can go to Sherwin Williams and check them out if you'd like. We bought a quart of the main color to try out and see how many coats we'll need to do. I'll take a picture when we test it.

Home from the beach

We're home! Our beach vacaton was great. We did more resting than any person should, but it was very rejuvenating and we came home refreshed. Here are a few pictures from our week of family fun!

Theo's 1st Haircut

We are leaving next Saturday to go to the ocean for a week, so we thought Theo should have a haircut before we go. I hadn't really realized how long his hair was, but we cut off lots and it still looks sortof the same. The hardest part to cut was the back. Don't look too closely. You'll notice that the left side is a little shorter than the right. A friend took her son to Supercuts for his 1st haircut and it cost $11, so we are very proud of our free (and fast too...it only took about 5 minutes) haircut. Here are some before and after pictures.

Fun, fun, fun

We had a very busy week last week, so I didn't have any time to post. Andy and I were doing all of the music for our church's Vacation Bible School program from Monday through Thursday. It was lots of fun and the kids really seemed to have a good time. Theo stayed with a babysitter at the church for the 2 1/2 hours each day and did really well. He must've eaten 1,000 Cheerios since that's what the sitter did to keep him occupied with he wasn't happy. We spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday in Port Orchard visiting our families and took Theo to a Tacoma Rainiers game. All in all, a busy, fun week.