All in the family

When my Grandma Dallenbach was alive we use to go on winter family vacations with the whole clan. Since then our families have broken up a little as grand kids were being born and people were getting married. My mom has tried to carry on the tradition with little success. This weekend we went to Des Moines. My immediate family of 8 were all that came. We still had a really good time. We stayed at Dustin and Vahidas, tried to go to a Lego convention, but seeing 30 some cars in the ditch turned around, and ended up spending a lot of time at Jordan Creek Mall. Amber and I scavenged the sales rack at Torrid and mom made all the purchases. We all went to see Gran Torino, which was good for everyone in our family. The tough guys liked Clint Eastwood, the jokesters liked the racial slurs, and all of liked the message and plot of the movie.
This morning we went to church. A lot of eating, sleeping, and conversation made the trip a great time. Now that I am back I am sifting through my first bag of baby clothes. Vahida received them second hand, did the first run through as they know their little girl in coming soon and I did the second. I have about 25 pieces right now.
If we have a boy about 15 may work. I am not opposed to dressing a boy in pink. I hate color stereotyping a whole lot, however, I also understand the embarrassment it may cause to others to call our little boy a girl if he is all in pink frills.
I have now thrown out my "What to expect book" after another positive referral and four more disapprovals of the book since the last post. I knew I would have to decide for myself and I finally came across a couple of things that made the decision. First I became convinced from the book that I probably should get an episiotomy, only to find in my two favorite books a whole slew of things that can enhance stretchiness and the fact that 90% of hospital births have episitomys while 10% midwife births do and very few tear. So to replace the book I bought Ina May's Guide and Holy Cow do I love it. Not only is it so positive about birthing I learned a bunch of new things. Such as kissing helps you to dialate. And to think of contractions as rushes rather than constricting contractions.
Here is something I did not expect from any book. I am in second trimester and feeling better and I have to pee about 70x times more than I did in my first trimester. Every book I read says this is the time when you pee less because the uterus moves itself up into the belly and off the bladder. Well, not so in the Shannon garden.
Oh, Bryce and I started to do the art of birthing art. We used pastels the other day. I will totally put them on when we have a camera again. Both of our cameras died in the same week before Christmas. Hence the photo-less posts. I am really hoping we get another one or get one fixed before our trip at the end of February and really before the baby comes.