It's a............

Well, we had our ultrasound today. I thought that at 24 weeks, there would be NO question on what gender this baby would be. Guess I was wrong! The first shot we were able to see when we started the ultrasound was a bum shot. I thought "Great! Let's get this figured out!" Well, things weren't very clear... The ultrasound machine isn't that new and up-to-date, but I still thought we would be able to tell quickly. After lots of shaking and poking around, our little one started moving around more. The baby is healthy and everything looks wonderful. So, Dr. Fillerup went back again to see if we could determine if this is a He or a She. After lots of wondering, she said, "Well, I can give you a 70% positive answer.... This baby is a GIRL." I feel so bad for Olivia who was DETERMINED that her little brother was in my tummy. I also feel bad for Brad who is going to be completely and totally out numbered... still. But, I am really happy to have a healthy baby who is growing right on schedule. We are going to do another ultrasound in 4 weeks to see if she is any less shy and to determine if "she" really is a she or if she turns out to be a "He!" But, in the meantime.... at least I have lots of girl clothes already and I know that Brad and I make dang cute girls!!!!

Fire Station Tour

Last week, Olivia's preschool class had the opportunity to visit the Fire Station. I think I've been looking forward to this more than she has. It was different being on the "other side" of the tour. I'm only used to giving the tour, not receiving it. Olivia was sure to make sure the firefighters knew her mom was also a firefighter. She had lots of "stories" she would share with the firefighters. Things like... "When we had a fire at one house, we had to put lots and lots of water on it." It was pretty funny to hear her tell the stories like she had actually been there.

The class watching the firefighters explain about the Fire Truck.

Little Miss Tagen along for the tour.

I love this picture.

The kids were watching to see how fast

a firefighter can get dressed in his turnout gear.

All the kids got to take a turn sitting in the Engineer's seat of the Truck.

Here's her preschool class. They are a bunch of cute kids!

Once Bitten, Twice Shy....

Almost two weeks ago, Olivia came home from preschool with a nasty bite just on the inside of her knee. I was surprised at how quickly it got red and raised. I drew a line with pen around the initial redness to see if the redness would spread through out the week. Olivia never complained of any pain or itchiness from the bite. But by that night the redness had already spread beyond the drawn circle, and had doubled in size by the next morning. So... we were off to see our favorite pediatrician. I'm pretty sure that I'm paying Dr. Judd's yearly salary with all our visits this year, but at least it was for a different patient this time. He took one look and felt the warmth coming off the bite and immediately prescribed an antibiotic for Olivia with the warning it might be worse before it gets better. We have no idea what bit her, but if you ask Olivia and her friend, Emma, "it was a spider that's really a snake."

The second day.

You can see where I drew the circle around the original redness.

This was the third day of the bite.

I was really concerned when the redness started streaking down her leg. This picture doesn't show it very well, but the original circle of redness had turned a nasty brown/black and the middle lump was extremely hard to the touch.

Thank goodness by the fourth day, it looked like one massive bruise and has gotten better every day since. In fact, you can't even tell anything was wrong now, but Olivia is very concerned about the bite coming back. She was really good to take all her medicine and has been heard in many prayers asking Heavenly Father to "make sure the bite doesn't come back EVER!"

It was just another crazy day in our life. I'm glad this turned out as well as it did and that no hospital visits, surgeries, or even IV therapy was needed. Now I just need to watch out for those "spiders that are really a snake."