If you know Jocey and I at all, you know that we love to find good deals. So you can imagine our excitement when we found a $300 JC Penney crib on Ebay with a mattress for only $65.00!

Now there was a catch to this deal. The little boy who previously resided in this 4-in-1 convertible baby bed was related to beavers! Any part of the crib accessible to his teeth had turned into a tasty, paint chip treat for this little rascal. This, however, did not stop us from snatching up the bargain find. After a little patchwork with wood putty and a few coats of paint, our son’s bed is now ready to be used and is currently sporting a beautiful baby blanket hand knit by his grandmother.

The nursery has turned into an opportunity for me to exercise my woodworking skills or lack there of. Other projects are currently in the works and will hopefully be done by his arrival.

I found this quote the other day and wanted to post it:

“There is no way to truly prepare for the birth of a child, except to expect the unexpected. Expect your heart to explode with emotion in ways you have never anticipated; expect to be more tired than you ever thought humanly possible; expect times of genuine sadness even in the midst of this greatest joy, as one life chapter ends and another begins. Expect to grow and change and be willing to do things for your child you would never do for yourself. Expect it to change every day, every minute, and remember what a huge responsibility and blessing it is all at once.”

Laurel Fay, a licensed clinical marriage and family therapist in Washington, DC, and mom to twin girls

Oh — and here’s a photo of me at 21 weeks. I update “The Belly Book” page every other week. You can click on the link or find it in the navigation under “pages.”

Definitely wearing maternity clothes now at 21 weeks. At least on my bottom half. If I wear my pants too tight at the waist, especially if I’m sitting, the baby kicks and it makes me even more uncomfortable! But now, thanks to my sister, my mom, Marcia and Colleen, I have a maternity wardrobe!

A lot of my pre-LA-Weight-Loss clothes have come in handy the last couple months. Especially the long over-sized shirts. They have been mistaken as actual maternity wear, so that works for me. Its been great for the in-between stage.

My last day working at the grocery store was Monday. Everyone assumed I was quitting “because of Tim.” It was my first opportunity to announce it was not because of Tim, but because I was going to be a mom! (And standing in the seafood sink is not healthy for me or baby.) It was fun sharing our good news.

As a last note, I noticed yesterday that my belly sticks out a little more on the right side than the left. Hm. And its still that way today. As far as I can tell, he’s still breeched because I felt 6 or more times yesterday very low kicking. He’s going to be a swimmer.

As of today the votes were 11 for girl and 8 for boy. We had an ultrasound today and saw our very energetic baby BOY!

Yes, its definitely a boy. I have 5 ultrasound photos of the “boy parts” (as the doctor referred to them) to prove it. (You can click on the thumbnails to see larger images.) He started the photo shoot with his legs crossed and his head up by my belly button facing outward. He stretched out his legs and started to move around a bunch - waving his arms every where and kicking his feet. It was just amazing being able to see all the movement. When the doctor tried to get a view of the face he turned around.

It was really neat to see the baby again - oh how he’s grown! And he looks less like a lima bean and more like a human being now! He weighs between 10 and 11 oz and dances on my bladder about 40 minutes after I eat.