To Infinity and Beyond!

Gavin had a lot of fun as Buzz Lightyear ( buzz "lightbeer", as gavin calls him) for Halloween this year, as you can see. As he was exploring his costume, he found the button for the laser and asked me to push it. When I did, he looked up in alarm and exclaimed, "Be careful! That's dangerous!" (paraphrasing buzz from the movie, for those of you who haven't seen the movie 18 times in the past month).

We went trick or treating, going to just a few houses up and down our street. i was surprised at the number of houses that weren't participating. I'd say more had their lights off than had them on. It was definitely a slow trick or treat night, possibly because of the rain all day. But it wasn't raining once ToT started, and it wasn't even cold.

There are more pictures from tonight on flickr.

just like this

Gavin started using a particular phrase when telling us how something happened. He'll say, for example, "it went boom, just like this: BOOM", usually accompanied by a hand motion to further illustrate his point. He'll run all the words together really fast, too, so it sounds more like "it went boom, justlikethisBOOM". He uses this structure all the time, for everything. Jason and I have been amused by this, but tonight he used it in a way I just have to share.

We stopped for Taco Bell and were talking to gavin about Spanish and saying hello in Spanish. There is an episode of Blue's Clues that he likes and watches fairly often where one of the characters has a friend who speaks Spanish visit. The friend's name is Plum.

me: How does Plum say hello?
G: (silence)
me: Plum speaks Spanish. How does Plum say hello in Spanish?
G: (silence)
J: Plum says "hola" to say hello
G: (think a moment then says) Plum says hello in Spanish just like this: Hello in Spanish.
me and J: (stifling raucous giggles) um... yes, you are right.....(sniff snort guffaw)

In other news... since I haven't updated in forever, I might as well tack in on here, eh? So anyway, in other news, everything with the baby is going great. I'm feeling awesome, or I was until last week when my back and pubic bone started aching terribly all overnight. I grew 8 cm in five weeks at my last visit with the midwives. Typical growth is a cm a week, although how the baby is positioned inside can affect the fundal height at any given time. Baby is moving all the time, and is so incredibly active. I just don't remember Gavin being this active. Should I be frightened by that? Might this baby be even more active than he is?

Tonight baby and I played a game, of sorts. He (or she) kicked really hard and I pushed back on the spot. No less than two seconds later, baby kicked again in teh same spot. I pushed back. kick. Push. Kick. Push. Kick. Push. Until finally the baby tired of the game and stopped kicking back. It made me happy. Odd as it sounds, it made the baby seem like a real person to me, in a way even the ultrasound pictures didn't do.

I'm 28.5 weeks and starting to think about getting things ready for the birth. There isn't much to do, just a few supplies to buy, and the midwives have a birth kit that has most of that in it. I've started looking at labor/birth pools and am weighing my options. I have no idea how much I'll actually use it, and hate to spend a bundle on one that I barely use. On the other hand, I don't want to skimp in case I use it a lot. The good thing is that no matter how much I do or don't use it this time, it can be saved for the next baby (if there is one) and eventually used as a summertime swimming pool, so really it won't go to waste no matter what.

There isn't much to do to prepare for the baby either. With gavin I felt like there was all this stuff to do and buy, but this time, not so much. Pretty soon i'll pull down all the newborn clothes and sort through them and wash them. Not that i have anywhere to store them after washing, as we have no dresser for this child's things... ok so there's one more thing we need to do. Ooo, a list. I can make a list! 1) sort and wash clothes; 2) sort and wash newborn and small size diapers; 3) buy dresser. A whole three things. I'm so busy. Ha.