Our happy little family is currently: Mary (me, Mommy), 30, stay-at-home-mom, my husband Rob (Daddy), 33, programmer, and our daughter Natalie, a week shy of 18 months old. I am about a month away from my due date with our second baby. We decided not to find out the gender this time, so I'll be posting shortly after the birth to let everyone know whether Natalie has a brother or a sister.
Since the beginning, I've felt like it's another girl. So does Rob, lately. I even dreamed about giving birth to another girl. We would be happy with either a girl or a boy. We're just praying for a healthy baby and a smooth delivery.
Natalie has hit her stride with language lately, picking up new words all the time and repeating things she hears from not only Rob and me but other people, TV and the radio. She's great at well-timed repeats of expressions like, "aw, man!"
She also sings "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" (sounds like dee-tu, dee-tu, ditto tar) and the Birthday Song (apee dirtday to you!)
She does the normal toddler things. She runs around the house, pushes her stroller, dances whenever music comes on (even commercials), giggles, makes funny faces, changes emotional states in seconds, delivers mysterious linguistic tirades and generally melts her parents' hearts and tickles our souls on a regular basis.
I look forward to seeing how she copes with the intrusion of a new sibling. She gets along great with other kids, for the most part, but she's never had to share her whole world with someone else. I don't expect it to be easy. I'm hopeful that we'll be able to make the transition as smooth as possible for her.
We plan to keep Natalie in her room, in her bed, and put the new baby in our room in a bassinet or co-sleeper for at least the first four months. Daddy will be on call for Natalie at night; I'll be on call for the newborn. I don't think there's any use in planning further out than that until we meet the new little one and can reevaluate everyone's needs.
I have a tendency to ramble on too long, so I'm going to cut myself off here. Below are a couple of recent photos of Natalie with her parents. The one of me was taken on Christmas Day 2010, when I was at the beginning of my 8th month of pregnancy.
