Over halfway there

We are over the halfway mark of the pregnancy. Almost 24 weeks down and a little over 14 weeks to go! Since we are having twins, our expected delivery date is Oct 6th (at 38 weeks). We won't be allowed to go past 38 weeks, even if we make it that long, according to my doctor. We have a lot to do in the next couple of months to get ready! I'm hoping that nesting instinct kicks in soon, so I can start tackling all of our to-do's!

One thing I've noticed about being pregnant is how people will just start talking to me as if we know each other. They'll ask me when I'm due, what we're having, etc. I don't mind a few quick questions, but I'm surprised at what some complete strangers will ask.

Case in point...At the grocery store this past weekend, I was buying Matt and I sandwiches for lunch (so I was standing around for a good 10 minutes while they made them). Some girl in line behind me who was probably in her early thirties who I have never seen in my life starts asking me all sorts of questions. The typical ones like "when are you due?", "what are you having?", "how are you feeling?" and then she starts a full-on interview session - "are these your first?", "are you going to have more after this?", "have you picked out any names?", "what are they?" and so on. I tried to answer the names question by saying "oh, we can't agree on any names yet" and she asks me "well, what ones do you like?" I think I even said we were trying to incorporate our grandmas' names in somehow and she asked me what their names were. I don't remember it all. I was so happy when the sandwiches were finally done and I could get away from her. I felt like everyone in line behind us was tuning into this whole Q&A session.

So far only a few people have felt my belly. No strangers (thank goodness!), mostly friends. But one was a lady I work with. She was asking me a work-related question in her office and out of the blue just turned and felt my belly. She's a hoot! She's also the same one that asked me a few weeks ago how much weight I had gained. I really didn't know how to take that.

I've had a few weird pregnancy dreams so far that I can actually remember. One dream I had recently was sort of Harry Potter-ish. I was having my tarot cards read in some dark gloomy place and the pictures on the cards were moving (like the paintings in the Harry Potter movies). One of the cards was two-sided and had a picture of a professional looking woman on one side and sort of a gypsy on the other. I say to the lady, "we're having twin girls" and then she says "oh, one of them is going to be a doctor and the other will be a belly dancer". Um, ok. In another dream I had, everyone else knew my babies' names except me. I just kept referring to each of them as "that baby". I was so upset in this dream. And then there was the dream where I got attacked by a tiger at a public swimming pool. Nobody else was phased that there was a huge tiger roaming around the pool. It kept following me everywhere. I woke up just as the tiger was going to pounce on me. That was just plain strange.

Party weekend!

This past weekend, we went back to Rochester for a weekend of parties.

We got into town on Friday night and decided to let Matt try out the famous Darcy's horseshoe. Horseshoes are made up of a piece of Texas toast, your choice of meat, french fries piled on top, all covered in a cheese sauce. It's definitely not healthy, but it tastes good!

He loved the horseshoe!

Since we were at a bar, I asked if they had any non-alcoholic beer options...

This is what they had... never seen this before!

On Saturday, we celebrated my parents and their friends 40th wedding anniversary. There was a party with plenty of yummy food, lots of drinks, cupcakes AND cake, and dancing! We had a great turnout and surprisingly not as many leftovers as we expected. Matt was in charge of the bar, so he had an excuse to be hanging out near the alcohol all night. : )

My mom and Barb's wedding dresses

Half lemon/half white = so good!

Cupcake stand

Red velvet and chocolate cupcakes

Mom, Erin and Dad line dancing

Mom and Dad sporting similar fabric to my mom's bridesmaids dresses - gotta love the 70's!

On Sunday, we had a double wedding shower brunch for my brother and Sandi and for my cousin Brian and his fiance' Sarah. My dad's side of the family all came over for the festivities. My aunt Lucy had them play the Newlywed Game. Brett and Sandi won in the end with a bonus question - who would you cast in a movie to play yourself and your fiance'. They got it half right - Brett = Nicolas Cage.

After the shower, we changed gears and had a college graduation party cookout for my cousin Chris. This was my mom's side of the family. So, out went one family, in came the other. Of course, this is what happens when you have more than one party on the same day...

Wedding shower table cloth, graduation cake

It was a busy weekend, but so much fun to catch up with family and celebrate! Congrats to my Mom and Dad on 40 years! Congrats to Brett and Sandi and Brian and Sarah on their engagements and upcoming weddings! Congrats to Chris on graduating college!

Vacay

We spent the past week at a house in New Buffalo, MI with Ross, Erin and Sofie (their dog). Brett and Sandi were able to join us for the first weekend. We could not have asked for better weather - sunny and warm all week! We spent most days relaxing by the pool and the nights on the back porch while the guys grilled up some awesome dinners. The guys got to gamble and play golf. Sofie got to run like mad at the dog park. Erin and I got to do some outlet shopping in Michigan City. And we all fell in love with the ice cream at Oink's!

Legendary burger joint in New Buffalo

Lots of fried foods! Matt got the Sloppy Joe cheese fries - YUM!

We were regulars at Oink's!

Yellow cake batter ice cream - SO GOOD!

The Stray Dog - we ate lunch on the rooftop here twice

Typical afternoon - reading by the pool

Grilling out on the back porch

Sofie loves corn on the cob!

My first purchase for the babies - couldn't pass these up at the Carter outlet!

It's a girl... and a girl!!!

Come October, Matt is going to be outnumbered! We are expecting twin girls October 20th! We found out this week that both babies are healthy and doing great! I actually was really surprised that they were both girls - I thought for sure one of them was a boy. Matt kept saying we were having two boys (mainly just to rile me), so I kind of half expected that to be the outcome, too.

Baby A - looks like she is blowing bubbles!

Baby B - she's waving "hi"

We had an almost 2 hour ultrasound on Monday, where the u/s tech went through and checked out all the arms, legs, hearts, etc. Baby A was being stubborn and would not move into the right position for some of the checks (I think she gets the stubbornness from her dad - ha!). Baby B was very chill and moved right into position. We have TONS of pictures from the u/s. Matt was getting pretty good at calling out what we were looking at on the screen.

We are both so excited and can't wait to meet the little ones!

Birthday at the races

We celebrated Tony's 40th b-day at Arlington Race Track over Memorial Day. Matt and I didn't have much luck with the horses, but the weather was beautiful. We had the whole Miller Lite Party deck to ourselves. It was a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon!