On the move.....

Yes, you read that right... lots of moving is happening in this family.

First, Baby Maksim is quite the mover and kicker! His daddy is convinced he's going to be a soccer player... or a black belt in Karate. Every night we've been doing our kick counts and he completes all 10 in about 5-15 minutes (they want him to kick 10 times in at least 2 hours). Lately its begun to be a little less kicking and some more moving, I can feel him rolling and rotating all over. He's also apparently really likes to sleep under my ribcage - not my most favorite time. We love feeling him kick and move... makes us smile everytime. When we went to the doctor on January 13th we were able to see another sonogram of our little boy. Well I guess I shouldn't say little... apparently he's in the 63rd percentile for weight! at that stage the average baby is about 2 lbs and Maks was about 2 lbs 14 oz.... a growing boy! He also is still a boy.. confirmed! He decided he still didn't want a pic taken of his face so, we'll have to wait a little longer to see our little man. Ok so I guess its Baby Bump photo time... here's a 30 week photo shoot and proof of our little (big) boy's size....

As you can see, I've (we've) been doing some growing... getting off the couch has become a difficult task, bending over to pick things up is next to impossible and reaching my toes is a long lost dream. At least I'm lucky enough to have a fantastic Husband who helps me off the couch, to pick things up, and....paints my toenails. :) I'm a lucky girl!! We're in the final stretch... 31 weeks this friday, less than 10 weeks to go! Although we're thinking Baby Maks will be an early delivery, but we'll wait and see!!

In anticipation for Baby Huss's arrival we've been refinishing a dresser that was Mark's when he was little for our little man's room. We finally finished it today and we are very proud! Keep in mind that Mark and I are not handy and this is really our first successful project! we have one more dresser to refinish for his room, we'll start working on that this weekend.

So....what's the second move you ask? well, that's us. I've taken a new position in my companies Home Office in Hartford, Connecticut... so we're moving north! Although we will miss the fantastic North Carolina weather, we are so excited to be only 4-6 hours from our family and friends. Some family is even closer - my Aunt Bev, Uncle John and Rachel only will be about 1 hour away! We went up to CT last week and did 3 days of house hunting, and just like we did on our 3 day NC house hunt, we bought a house!! its in a little town called Bloomfield - which is only about 10 mins from West Hartford Center which is an area we loved!! We are really excited and should be moving up there and closing on our house on March 12th. We've enjoyed our time in North Carolina but are looking forward to our new adventures in Connecticut... with our little man Maks.

2012 - The year of Baby Huss

Happy New Year!!

Although 2011 was a great year for us, we are so excited that it is 2012!! This is the year that our lives will change forever after the birth of our little Maksim. It's crazy to think that we are only a few months away... feels like we have so much to do still! 

We had a great Christmas, just relaxed at home... basically had our last quiet Christmas as a family of 2 (well 4 including our furry children). We did attempt a 2011 Christmas pic...

However as you can see it didn't go so well, which is why it didn't make it to the Christmas card! The furry children were not cooperative. I did however do an excellent job hiding the baby bump! Alright... I'll show you my Christmas baby bump.

Yes.... I'm definitely growing... and feeling quite large lately! Its getting tougher to get up from the couch, to pick up things on the floor, and squeeze through tight places.  However, I do enjoy people saying I look great and am not big :) So feel free to send some compliments my way! 

The other morning I all of the sudden realized we were already 26 weeks into our pregnancy - only 14 more to go! When I mentioned this to Mark, I could see some fear in his eyes.... the birth of baby Maks is right around the corner and we are sooooo not prepared!! ahhhhh!! Of course that means that I immediately was like "we need to register, we need to re-finish his dresser/changing table, we need to do his room, we need to this, we need to that".... deep breaths..... Since Mark was now also feeling the crunch we were able to finally make the time to go and register (check 1 thing off our list!). So today we went to Buy Buy Baby, Target, and Babies R Us and registered and let me tell you... that is not only tiring, but overwhelming too! Wow!!! There are sooooo many things that you need for a baby, who knew!? (ok probably most of you did). Thankfully Buy Buy Baby gave us a personal shopper who was an expert that was able to give us advice and help us not go insane.... they were great! This store is so fantastic... and since they are owned by Bed Bath and Beyond, you can get 20% off coupons too... SCORE! Unfortunately the other 2 stores where not quite as helpful but at this point we had it pretty much down. (side note: I've inclued links to our registries on the right side of this blog, as a convenience to anyone who wants to see them.)  It definitely feels great to have the registry done... next step... re-finish the dresser. We are using a dresser that Mark had when he was a child and we are re-finishing it to match our crib and also plan to make it into a changing table. Now if only we could find a weekend to start.. and finish... this project. 

On to Maks... he's doing great. Kicking a ton! He's finally kicking strong enough the Mark is able to feel him. Its an incredible feeling and I get a little smile on my face every time I feel him kick me and remind me he's in there. We had our last doctors appointment on December 27th and everything looked great! he's a healthy growing boy. At our next appointment in January we get to have another sonogram (mainly because he was such a mover and shaker at our 20 week appointment that they couldn't get all the needed pics!). As far as how Maks is growing.... apparently the network of nerves in his ears are better developed and more sensitive than before and he may be able to hear our voices now - so we make sure to talk to him more. He also seems to kick a lot when I get in the car and turn the music on and start singing... so I'm convinced he's dancing! He's also a growing boy.... weighing almost 2 lbs and about 14 inches long - about the length of an english cucumber. (I love the vegetable and fruit references!). Overall... he's doing great and growing quickly! We can't wait to meet our lil man in 14 weeks (or less... or more!). I'm definitely carrying Maks very low though, which makes me think he's ready to pop out at any time... we've had talks with him about staying in until he's fully cooked - so he better listen! Since I'm sure you can't get enough of your baby bump pics... here are 2 taken today.

Overall, life is good... and we are looking forward to an extremely happy and healthy 2012!