200 Days Down

Well since today is officially my 200th day of being pregnant, I figured it deserved a post. Not too much has been happening lately so I haven't been posting much.
We still haven't had much success in the baby name category. I think we have a top name (Jackson) but I really hate abbreviated names such as Jack (which I believe to be a completely different name from Jackson) but Tyler keeps telling me he would call the baby Jack, which I do not approve of, or even remotely like. So, I'm thinking we're going to have to come up with another name ASAP.
The little guy is definitely getting stronger. His kicks or punches (still can't really tell them apart) are getting to be painful and not nearly as amusing. He still likes to stretch out and make himself comfortable, or just dance around but mostly while I'm trying to fall asleep. During the day he doesn't seem to be having as much fun.
Tyler and I both decided that my belly looks smaller than it did a couple of weeks ago, but I think he must have changed positions and is now lower than he was before so it just looks smaller? Well that's what I'm going with because I am still gaining weight and my belly definitely looks different to me.
I have my next doctor's appointment one week from today. But sadly I won't be having an ultrasound, so it's kind of a bummer. Doctor's appointments without ultrasounds are really boring and seem to be a waste of time. I wait in the office an hour for my appointment, then they call me back and I wait some more in the room for the doctor. Then he shows up and asks if the baby has been moving and measures my belly with a tape measure then listens for a heartbeat. And that's about it. I would measure my belly and send him a note saying the baby's moving around if they would let me do it that way. And most nights I can feel his heartbeat inside me. It's kind of a weird feeling, and it always makes me wonder how he's positioned that I can feel his heartbeat.
Whenever I go out in public by myself I feel like everyone who looks at me does a double take from my belly to my face and they always seem to have a condescending look on their face. I know it doesn't matter what anyone thinks, but sometimes I just want to say, "I'm graduated from college, married, and almost 25, I can have a baby if I want to." One of my Young Women even asked me how old I was. She thought I was 18-19 (and she's 16). But she did also say that I should be a model, so I forgave her for thinking I'm so young.
On Sunday we had the missionaries over and invited one of the couples in our building. We did taco salads and I was fairly confused when one of the missionaries filled his plate with chips and lettuce, then proceeded to eat all the lettuce, then put meat on his empty chips and then ate the meat with the chips. I was so confused I almost asked him if he had ever had tacos or taco salad before, but decided that with 5 other people at the table with reasonable looking taco salads, he could have figured it out if he wanted the other toppings. Mine was delicious.
After dinner we went to one of my girl's piano recital. She's super cute and extremely friendly and is always asking how my baby's doing. She started taking piano lessons in December and recently started playing the hymns from the simplified hymn book for Young Women's. If she sticks with it she's going to be playing the real ones pretty soon. When I see her playing the piano I sometimes wonder why I stopped playing and hope she doesn't get lazy like me.
On Sunday I'm teaching the Mia Maids about temple marriage. This was always my favorite lesson in Young Women's when I was younger and I remember my leaders always made the cutest handouts and gave us sweet gifts. I remember one year my leader gave us each a white satin hanger with a poem about 3 white dresses (baby blessing, baptism, and wedding). I tried to find satin hangers but found out they're fairly expensive and wouldn't get here in time for this Sunday's lesson. I guess not having 12 Mia Maids would make cute/memorable handouts a little easier. Another year a leader gave us these little white boxes to put our future wedding rings inside, and another leader had us write down all the qualities we want in our future husband and we sealed the envelopes and were supposed to open them on our wedding days. I have no idea where any of those gifts are, but at least I remember them.
So I decided I had to do something memorable for my girls and searched the "blogosphere" for cute ideas that I could do for them. I may have gone a little overboard, but there are so many cute ideas I just had to do them all! Plus, I love going to Joann's, so that didn't help. There's a cute story about how a YW compared the qualities she wanted in her future spouse to a cupcake: the essential qualities (priesthood holder, respectful, honest) make the actual cupcake, and all the extras (tall, dark, handsome) were the frosting. So I made them all a handout where they can list the cupcake ingredients and the frosting ingredients. I'm also going to make cupcakes for a treat at the end of class.

Daisy Pens

And, since they had to write something down, (and Joann's was selling their fake flowers at 70% off) I made them all daisy pens.

Wedding Announcement

I also made them a future temple wedding announcement to remind them all that being married in the temple is the most important decision they'll ever make so they need to make it now.