This week of my pregnancy has been my favorite thus far.  At 17 weeks I started to feel what other pregnant people call “flutters”.  Almost as soon as I hit 18 weeks I started to feel sharper and more pronounced movements.  Everyone I talk to tell me it feels like a fish flopping around.  I am not sure if my child is just wild and crazy like her mother, or if she is surprisingly strong, but these movements feel more like actual kicks to me.  Tuesday morning I was sitting at my desk working and I felt another pronounced “kick”.  I decided to put my hand on the exact spot she moved to see if I could feel her again.  Almost instantly she kicked again in the exact same spot, moving my hand.  It surprised me so much that I gasped out loud!  Since then I have been feeling her every single day.  Zach hasn’t felt her yet, but I suspect in the next couple of weeks it won’t be hard for him to recognize these movements.

Feeling her makes it seem more real to me.  After getting all my work projects done each day, I work on a projects for her.  Sometimes it is just serging a silly fleece blanket.  Yes, girls wear camo too, of course…

This week I cleaned 6 black trash bags of clothes out of my closet.  I saved a few soft t-shirts to make into headbands.  Having a serger has made sewing projects much more obtainable for me.  And if I can make a baby headwrap, anyone can make a baby headwrap.  Is this what they call nesting?  Because if so, I think it is hitting me a bit too early…

I have tried to keep the more private details of my pregnancy to myself, but have decided to document them for my posterity by making a baby timeline of each week.  I record things we did that week, any special milestones [like this week’s movements], ultrasounds, weight gain, and the like.  My mom documented certain details so well that it was important to me to do the same.  I loved reading about what she craved, how she dealt with certain symptoms, and other general details.  And even more special to me is how I can see so many similarities between us.  I have never seen any traits of myself in my mom.  We don’t look alike at all and our personalities are polar opposites.  But I will say that we have more similar in our pregnancies than anything else in our lives.  It’s meant a lot to me to read about hers – it has helped me thus far through mine.  Not like I have had a difficult time at all, just that I can relate to her in so many ways.

Non-bambino related things have been that Zach is back at playing ice hockey steadily two times a week.  I love when he has games at the Oval in West Valley because I can run around the track while he warms up and then relax and watch his game afterwards.

Also this week I made a print for a client and liked the phrase so much, I made one for myself.  It will reside in our upstairs hallway when I get the chance to hang the thing up.

As for our summer list of things to do:  we checked off one item on the list.  We tried Pago, a restaurant I have been dying to dine at for months.  It was really good.  I liked Zach’s meal more than my own, but we are definitely going to go back again.  Besides, it won 2014’s most favorite Utah restaurant.  So that was enough to convince us both to try it out!

And because we hadn’t indulged enough – I made Zach drive to Smart Cookie to get a red velvet number.  Swig still has bester sugar cookies, if you ask me, but it was the perfect indulgent treat.

Lastly, after an eventful Sunday with family, I started a new parenting book which I adore thus far.  It is my third pregnancy related book since getting knocked up.  I had read previously from reviewers on this book that Americans don’t really love it.  I can totally see why.  When Zach and I visited Paris for our four year anniversary I constantly gawked at French children.  They were always in stores, restaurants, and public places – and always so well behaved.  I have been trying to figure out how French parents get their children to act so mature and polite – and this book is an entertaining clue into their posh parenting tactics.

Or maybe it’s because I secretly would move to France tomorrow if Zach would come with me.  Regardless, I love it so far…