Final countdown....3 weeks to go

We are officially full term but I get a sense that this little Pipp of ours isn't making plans to move out any time soon. We had a sonogram and doctors appointment on Tuesday and found out that she is 6 1/2 lbs, has a full head of hair (it's amazing that you can see that on a sonogram), is definitely a girl, and that her head is down low in my pelvis, so low in fact, that all the pictures the sonogram technician attempted to take looked like a kid smooshing her face against a pane of glass. We saw her making kissy faces and practicing breathing. She looked squished in there and not very comfortable. Her movements are becoming less frequent and are usually her whole body moving from my left side to my right side. She seems to prefer my left side and stays over there most of the time. She seems to sleep a lot. Let's hope that continues for years to come.
My cervix is 1 cm dilated and 50% effaced. We go in next Thursday for another sonogram and check up. I'm having some contractions but nothing regular or notable. I was thinking last night, as I lie in bed awake for hours, that it would be really wonderful if she came on November 16th. That was my Aunt Cindy's birthday, she was one of my favorite people.
But we've had a ton of other stuff going on the past two weeks. I'm sure that I will forget some of it. Another reason to make these "weekly" updates actual weekly updates.
The last week of October we had parent teacher conferences. Henry's teacher greeted us at the door by saying, "Thank you so much for bringing your child to me." I don't know if she was telling all the parents that, but boy it felt nice to hear it. She described Henry as sensitive and positive and helpful and upbeat. She told us this story,
"Last week I was feeling under the weather and I told the kids that I wasn't feeling very well. We decided that it was a good time to work on math worksheets. Henry has finished all the single digit math worksheets so I decided to introduce him to double digit math. I showed him how to do it and he completed his worksheet, brought it to the front of the classroom, came over to me, put his hand on my arm and said, "Look at that Ms. Fewins. You didn't feel well and you still taught me something new. Good job. " It made me feel so good. "
She mentioned that sometimes Henry's friend Julia gets her feelings hurt when he wants to play with other kids. "It happened a couple times last week" she said, "and Henry came over to me with Julia and said, Ms. Fewins Julia is upset, can you help us talk it out?""
He also got his first report card. He got all S's (satisfactory). They do not start handing out letter grades until 2nd grade and we found out from a friend with a third grader that the grading scale they use is more difficult than the public schools. An A is 94% or higher. I'm sure glad they don't have those standards at KU. :)
Over the weekend we went to the pumpkin patch and carved pumpkins. I promised patch pictures and didn't deliver. We actually went straight from work and I forgot my camera. Sorry. But I did get a pic of the boys carving their pumpkins. Henry and I made lots of Halloween cookies. His favorites, of course, were the ones that came over from Gigi's house. He loves Gigi's cooking. He had to work the candy corn in on the side of his mouth though because on October 28th he lost his first tooth! The tooth coming in is a big one, it looks like he might have Wade's teeth, but it's hard to tell just yet. The tooth next door is getting wiggly too, so we might have 2 missing teeth here pretty soon. When he lost his tooth I ran into the guest room and threw together a tooth fairy pillow. Henry did not use it though, he is feeling a little shy about giving his tooth to the tooth fairy and is sentimental about giving away his first tooth.
Henry had a Halloween party at school. He had a great time! He got to wear his costume to school, which was a big deal considering that every other day he has to wear his uniform. They decorated cookies and Papa got to come to school and party with him. He did not wear a costume. Here he is with his "girlfriend" Elsa. We also attended family fun night at school. Henry had a great time doing the book scavenger hunt and playing the games. It's fun to see the difference in how he feels about his school now. They had a family fun night orientation in August and he held our hands the whole time and wouldn't talk to anyone. This time he was roaming the halls like he owned the place.
Then, of course, there was Halloween. We got started a little late because we had several very cute visitors before we left for trick or treating but that was actually okay because Henry got the feel of trick or treating with out the gigantic bag of candy. Don't get me wrong, there was still plenty of candy, but much less than last year. The first two houses he really wanted me to be up on the porch with him, but by the third house he ran back and yelled, "This is fun. I am feeling super confident." He even did a "trick" for one of the houses, his attempt that the thumb trick. It was pretty funny. Henry was Optimus Prime.
Yesterday he had his first birthday party with his school friends and his first birthday party where Mama and Papa got to leave him there by himself. I could handle one of those every weekend. He played at the Gymnasium, ate cake and ran around like a maniac. He slept well last night. Today we are going to do some cleaning and try to finish up the million pre-baby projects we have left to do. We cleaned the car yesterday and put in the baby seat. I've also done 5 loads of laundry. My sweet friend Amanda gave us 3 huge trash bags full of baby clothes. This little girl has more clothes than Wade and I combined. It's a good thing that they are all so small, otherwise I think we would have run out of closet space. Well, I think I'll close this one out. We've got some coupons for breakfast bagels and free coffee (for Papa) so we're going to walk to the bagel shop on this beautiful, sunshine-filled morning. Have a great week friends.