2011

Working today at packing up Christmas around the house. It's probably time to get moving on to the next big thing as suddenly the days seem to be passing very quickly. We've been saying "after the holidays" and "when the new year begins" about quite a few things here in the Merritt household, and suddenly, the holidays are over, and we are 4 days into the new year. Thursday we will hit 26 weeks with only 14 (give or take) to go! Usually a new year is coupled with resolutions, goals, and plans. However, this year, I'm taking a break from all that. Its quite unimaginable to know or even try to think of where this next year will take us. I'm going to fly by the seat of my pants and embrace the changes and adventures this year will bring. We know we'll be having a new addition to our family, hopefully some travel opportunities, new work experience, classes, possibly deployment. Life is up in the air and that will be just fine for us.
We've got our fingers crossed that this month we will find out the sex of the Merritt baby, if not at the hospital then in Cambridge or someplace else for a 4D Ultrasound. This baby is getting more expensive by the day...we're missing all the big sales =) We have begun a little baby stockpile in our Pack N Play upstairs though, a few gender neutral (of course) outfits from family, a couple stuffed animals, bibs, and a few just-in-case-its-a-girl items Jonny picked up over the holidays. Jonny has also cleared out one of our storage areas so we can begin breaking down our spare room to start the nursery transformation. I even ordered a few clearance diapers from www.cottonbabies.com. My good friend Jena has been guiding me through the vast world of cloth diapering and after a month or two of trying to organize and figure it all out, I finally felt I understood enough to order a few. The cloth diaper adventures began when I felt compelled to ask Jena why on earth they would use cloth diapers with giant safety pins. The whole ordeal sounded very unpractical and frankly, old to me. She laughed and reminded me that we don't live in stone ages anymore. Like everything else, the cloth diaper industry has progressed. Cloth diapers are very similar to disposables, only without the waste and $$ involved. I'm up for trying anything out once, especially when it seems to be not only financially beneficial, but better for baby as well. And, well, they're really cute! Let me say, Jonny LOVES it when "cuteness" is a reason for me =)
Speaking of cuteness, the puppies are doing well! They get excited when we show them things for baby, and Bailey has developed this new desire to follow me everywhere and sit right next to me all the time. After we looked into it a bit, we found that turns out, a lot of dogs pick up on the new baby long before they arrive! Apparently it is fairly common for them to stick closer to pregnant mom as a protective nature. www.thebump.com said "your dogs are probably already on to you, they're baby makers as well!" We always knew we had sweet puppies and they'd do wonderful with babies and kids. But we always seem to drop our jaws when they continue to amaze us in different ways! We had about 13 or so people over for dinner Christmas Eve, one of which was a 14 month old little girl who had never been around dogs of any kind. Oh how she loved Bailey and Aspen! When it was time to eat, we gave the dogs some Christmas rawhide bones so they'd go off and chew while we ate. Now Aspen, she loves her snacks and food. This little girl walked up and literally sat on her back, petting her head and reaching to pet her paws as she chewed away. Aspen of course didn't move an inch. If Jonny or I tried that, she'd jump and run away with her treat in an instant. Needless to say, we've enjoyed watching the dogs interact with infants and toddlers over the past few months. Makes us excited for them to meet the new family addition!