Nearly half way!

Wow, can't believe I'm nearly half way through my pregnancy. With Preston, every week seemed to drag on forever and I couldn't wait, but now that I know what I'm in for it's less 'exciting' and more practical, plus I'm usually too busy with Preston to be thinking about much else! On Friday when I am officially 20 weeks, I'll post a picture of my growing tummy - I'm sure it's bigger at this point than with Preston (I'm probably saggier I guess).

Here is the latest developmental news from Babycenter.com:

Your baby's sensory development is exploding! Her brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that she may be able to hear your voice now, so don't be shy about reading aloud, talking to her, or singing a happy tune if the mood strikes you. Your baby weighs about 8 1/2 ounces and measures 6 inches, head to bottom — about the size of a large heirloom tomato. Her arms and legs are in the right proportions to each other and the rest of her body now. Her kidneys continue to make urine and the hair on her scalp is sprouting. A waxy protective coating called the vernix caseosa is forming on her skin to prevent it from pickling in the amniotic fluid.

And this is what Preston should be able to do at the moment:


Names one color - well he knows pretty much all the colours
Count to 3 - er, we taught him up to 20 ages ago, and he counts backwards from 10
• Names one friend - he knows the names of EVERYONE
• Carries on a simple conversation - at great length, and often quite complex conversations!
• Alternates feet going up and down stairs - yes
• Uses prepositions (e.g., on, in, over) - yes, he thinks it's hilarious when we purposely get it wrong and he corrects us
• Speaks clearly most of the time (75 percent can be understood) - that's about right, maybe a little more
• Stacks eight blocks - block stacking is soooo last year, but he likes to build towers with his Duplo and Lego
• Is toilet trained during the day - pretty much
• Wiggles thumb - i'm sure he could do this when he was a baby as he would have done that for his baby sign language
• Expresses a wide range of emotions - most definitely!
• Draws a stick figure - the drawing has kind of been put to the side a bit (although he does a lot of art at daycare), and instead of drawing at home, he's become the master of technology. His precision with the stylus on the Nintendo is amazing and he is really good at lots of games. He also loves his computer and plays fun educational games and likes to type his name whenever possible. I'm sure he'll get to drawing stick figures eventually - it's just the computer literacy came first!