Last Friday, while Jim and I were attending the Weekend to Remember marriage conference in Bellevue, JT was busy throwing up at his grandparents’ house. By Saturday, he had thrown up five times and the diarrhea had kicked in. “Keep him hydrated!” we said. “Poor guy!”

Little did we know what he had… and how it would spread…

By Monday, JT was on the mend but twelve other people (including Jim) were infected with this nasty bug, called norovirus. It’s highly contagious and can be really nasty to get. The kicker is that an infected person is contagious for three days following the end of symptoms, and the virus lives on hard surfaces and in carpet for days. Basically, get out the bleach and put everyone in quarantine until it’s over!

How did I avoid this awful thing, you might wonder, when Jim spent a week home from work? I’d like to think it’s my amazing immune system, or vigorous handwashing skills, or sheer will… but it may come down to genetics. It turns out, some people may contract the virus but won’t get any symptoms. My dad and I, it seems, might be these people… because neither of us have been sick with a stomach bug since 1990. But it’s impossible to tell, so we’ve gone through a lot of bleach and I’ve spent the last week in the guest bedroom. It will be nice to move back into my freshly bleached bedroom with my recovered husband tonight. 🙂

We’re not sure what happened, but my cousin Elizabeth is due two weeks before me, and my cousin’s wife Marissa is due four weeks after me… all with our second child. Elizabeth lives in southern Idaho and Marissa lives in Alaska, so when we were all going to be within driving distance of each other my mom decided to throw a triple baby shower for us. It was so much fun! Best of all, this was the first time in quite a while that all of our aunts have been able to come to one event (and most of the girl cousins, too!).

The Baby Mommas

One of the fun things about our triple shower was opening identical presents. Elizabeth is having a boy, and I’m having a girl, and Marissa doesn’t know yet, so there were blue, pink, and green bows all over everything. We did get some things that didn’t match, which was great too… like when I opened the most adorable Mary Jane Robeez I’ve ever seen from Aunt Merrie and a gorgeous blue and brown floral baby blanket with soft, soft white on the other side from Cassie.

Fleece blankets from Aunt Linda

Books from Aunt Omma

More pictures of family… including lots of mother-daughter pictures…

Rebecca keeps the children occupied (including her daughter, Savannah)

Aunt Omma and daughter Alyssa

Aunt Sara holds Afton, Marissa’s daughter, and Aunt Linda

I went to the local consignment shop and found, oh, 10 non-pink items in the entire infant girls’ section. I bought a few things just to get a pile going. These three are my favorites. I think she might wear a lot of white. 🙂

Then, after a whole week of wondering what I would decorate with, without having to paint the walls or succomb to the pepto-bismol, there it was… on Pottery Barn Kids… Daisy Garden Green. Ah, so pretty. I love that it is feminine and lovely and colorful. So I started a PBK registry with the quilt, valance, sheets, crib skirt, and sham for this beautiful bedding set.

For Mother’s Day, we went to church and then headed straight to Lake Samammish for a nice afternoon of lunch and floating on the lake, just like last year.

Jim packed our lunches and I got to read my book and relax while the boys took care of everything. It was gorgeous and the lake was pretty empty. It was wonderful!

You can compare our Mother’s Day 2010 picture to last year’s picture… what a big guy I have now.

JT finally conked out while we were driving around the lake. I felt his little arms go limp, and then he started snoring. 🙂

He woke up in time to drive the boat back to the boat launch so we could head home for a yummy steak dinner.

Meanwhile, JT did an art project for me while I was at work on Thursday. When I came home, he ran over to me (“Mom, mom, mom!”) with this card. He was so proud of his card… and he told us all about how Grandma Cole painted his hand, and then how he pressed it on the card. He also decorated the pot. It sits on the deck table now and I smile at it every morning!

You may have heard about the big crib recall. Ours was included. So Jim and JT disassembled his crib and we hauled it back to Target for our hefty store credit. They don’t have any cribs we like or that match the dresser right now, but we really don’t need a new crib until September. So we used part of the gift card to buy JT his new toddler bed for his new room, two months early.

JT napped in his pack-n-play while we were gone, and then Jim had his new bed ready for bedtime. He even got a new sports sheet to match his quilt, which was an exciting find.

Words do not express how we felt as we watched our baby on the screen at our ultrasound today. Our baby girl is perfect and healthy and beautiful. She weighs 15 oz now and was “talking” to us by opening and closing her mouth for most of the ultrasound. We can’t wait to welcome Haley Lynn into our family in September.

On the way home, we updated our baby registries… but not much. We found ourselves staring at whole sections of pink and butterflies, wondering what to do with ourselves. Neither of us like a lot of pink… who knows what we will end up with!

This is my twenty-week belly picture (taken last week; I’m 21 weeks now). I feel our little girl every day. Jim even saw my belly bounce last night!

If you didn’t already notice, JT loves playing football with Dad. They practice hiking, receiving, and recovering fumbles. JT is very good at hiking but not so great at receiving. The other day the ball hit him in the face. 🙂

We took advantage of Jim’s days off by inviting some friends and family out on the water with us. Lake Samammish with Zack and Sarah was a little too rainy and I didn’t even get the camera out… but the other two days on Long Lake were great!

Waiting out a passing rain cloud

We stayed overnight at the Keenes’ and had a great time relaxing. JT found a large exercise ball and pushed it around for awhile. Notice Slider’s obvious excitement over a giant ball. It’s like giant ice cream cones, I guess.

JT’s favorite toy at the Keenes’ continues to be the tractor. I keep waiting for the batteries to run out so we can all have some peace and quiet, but I think the grandparents would swiftly replace them. I’m glad JT has grandparents that love him, and I’m glad the tractor stays at their house!

JT tried corn on the cob for the first time and loved it. After a couple of up close demo bites from Mom, he was off. He ate his whole cob and had to be reminded that he was only trying to eat kernels, not the cob itself. No more sawing it off the cob for us… yum!

We got our boat back from some seasonal maintenance just in time for our “staycation.” Jim and JT got the boat stocked and ready to go for our three days on the water. JT was enjoying driving the boat until he noticed something cooler… helping Dad. He grabbed a rag and started wiping away. Jim was glad to have the help.

Last night… we headed upstairs to do some chores, and JT decided to read me his book. Keep in mind that he says apple “aaaaaa” and it’s repeated on every page so it gets a little repetitive. Maybe he feels like it’s repetitive when we read it, too. Notice showing the audience the pictures… he gets that from me. 🙂

Then while I was folding laundry, JT pulled out his puzzles and did some shape sorting. He also scooted around in the basket, which is getting too small by the week. 🙂

While I was putting away his clothes, JT gave me a little heads up that he was ready for bath and bedtime. Can you tell he’s ready for bed?

He always has tons of fun in the bath. Here’s his “I’m thinking about splashing you” face.

No, he’s not drowning… he’s blowing bubbles! In fact, if you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see them.

Contemplating a toy to choose…

Swimming…