yeah mon

Apparently in Jamaica, they actually do say "yeah mon!" to each other. Part of me wondered if it was all for the benefit of tourists, but everywhere you went, you'd hear it.

Andy and I just got back from a four-day, three-night trip to the all-inclusive Sandals Royal Caribbean resort in Jamaica. It was the first time we've both left Levi overnight (with my parents), and we all were reunited in one piece. Here's my running list of all the wonderful things we encountered:

1. The flight. A 3.5 hour flight without a toddler! What a luxury. For the first time ever, I was able to watch a movie on my own device (Kindle Fire) during the flight. Before Levi, I didn't have an iPad or Kindle Fire. I was able to stretch out the 2-hour "Water for Elephants" that I rented for $4 throughout the whole flight. I also ordered hot tea as my drink, the most un-toddler-friendly thing I could think of.

2. The weather. About 82 during the day, 72 at night. It was never too hot, never too cold. The breeze was friendly and constant. I just loved being outside so much, even if it did result in a few Jamaican mosquito bites including three on my forehead.

3. The trees and birds. Again, I loved being outside the whole time. The huge almond trees on the beach had the most amazing leaves. There was a bird that I never saw, but I thought at first that it was a person yelling "help! help!" I also spotted the Jamaican hummingbird with its long tail feathers. I love hummingbirds.

4. The room and the butler. We were in a butler-serviced suite! That meant we had two butlers (one we only saw a couple times, the other was our main guy). Joshayne and Orlando. Every time Joshayne would ring our bell, he'd call out "It's Joshayne... the but-lerrrrrr." He would set up our beach chairs and towels, bring me nice virgin drinks, make our dinner reservations, bring us snacks... My favorite was when we returned to our room after a long day at the beach (tough life) and he had drawn a rose-petal scented bubble bath and put flowers and candles all over the room! Loved that. The room itself was beautiful and luxurious. If it had rained "liquid sunshine" and we were stuck inside all day, I wouldn't have minded.

5. Getting to know my baby. The early baby movements are easy to miss when you are running around and going about your daily life, but on the first day of vacation, I felt like I got to spend so much time with my little girl. All those fruity cold drinks and time just relaxing... she would move all over the place. The best was when we went to the drum show and she kicked up a little storm while the drums were playing! I loved knowing she could feel and hear some of this world that she'll soon be a part of.

6. Seeing Andy. Vacation is only vacation if my hubby is with me. Just having him by my side was the best part.

7. The baby name game. We went through every single girl name in the 60,000 baby names book we bought for Levi. That's approximately 30,000 names. Unbelievable. We wrote down every name that we didn't have an immediate "no" for. So far, still no official name but we also won't really decide until the birthday anyways.

8. Tie-dye. The resort had a daily schedule of little activities throughout the day and each evening. Aqua aerobics, anyone? They had a tie-dying session! I stole one of Andy's undershirts (thank goodness I bought him new ones for Christmas) and we bought a little t-shirt for our baby girl. They are pink and yellow tie-dyed to match. It'll be a few years until she's big enough for her shirt, but I still think it's pretty awesome. (Don't worry, Levi isn't left out. He got a hand-painted Jamaican egg shaker.)

9. The music and dancing. Dang, but they can dance!! The drummers and dance group was absolutely crazy to watch.

10. Reminiscing about our honeymoon. This resort was totally different than our honeymoon resort in Mexico. This was much more compact (very good for a short trip and made it so much easier to get around quickly) among other things, but we kept coming up with things that are different now than 7 years ago. No Facebook photo posting yet! No Facebook statuses! No iPad or iPhone! I didn't have a job. We didn't have a house, car payment, dog, kid...

11. Wearing a bikini and totally not caring. No pictures, enough said.

12. The lack of schedule. The latest I slept in was 9:00, but it was still a sleep in! We didn't have to eat lunch at noon and dinner at 6:00. We weren't confined to our rooms after 7:30. It was nice to have a little freedom.

13. Missing Levi. I found myself missing the funniest things about Levi. In particular, his little squishy baby armpits. I realized it had been four days since I had picked up a baby (must start saying toddler) under those sweet little arms. Four days since I pulled his arm up while getting him dressed and tickled his little arm pit. Grown up armpits are gross, but baby armpits are sweet. ;)

This list more than makes up for the fact that I didn't get a drop of Jamaican rum in my frozen fruity drinks. Totally worth it!

it's a...

GIRL!

The ultrasound tech wasn't as sure because the baby was in a very modest position, but after I walked around a bit and then the doctor checked, the position was much better. He said definitely girl.

Wow is all I can say. I think I'm a little nervous for what is ahead of me. With Levi, I felt completely unprepared to care for and raise a little boy. But as life progressed and we found our way, I discovered more and more joys of what it means to be a mother to a little boy. It's like unwrapping a whole bunch of presents that you didn't expect. Things like how adorable it is to see a little boy with his daddy, or to see him holding onto his doggie's leash. Advantages like being able to say things like "oh, you're such a boy" when he does something gross that I'm sure both girl and boy babies do.

But with a girl, I've always wanted a girl and saw myself with a teenage daughter, shopping at the mall with her, baking cookies together, and doing all the mother-daughter bonding that my own mother and I have done. Now that it's almost a reality, I wonder how reality will measure up to my expectations. Does that make sense? I feel like I have pictured a reality for her that I didn't picture for Levi, which could potentially set myself up for disappointment. Isn't it crazy the ways we find things to worry about!?

Silly worries aside, I'm thrilled to find out this baby girl is growing and healthy. Already I feel like she's different than her brother. She doesn't demand that I eat an entire house worth of food each day. She doesn't kick me when I draw my legs up. Rather, she waits until I'm stretched out and quiet, laying still. Oh, and I think she requires more, eh hm, maternal fat stores as they call them since my weight gain has been a lot steadier than with Levi.

I don't know what she'll look like. If she'll have my brown eyes or Andy's blue. Will she be bald as a cue ball for her first year, or come out looking like I did with a mass of dark brown hair? Will she be more of a snuggler than Levi was? I don't know yet, but I do know I already love her.

the countdowns

I've had several countdowns running, and I'm very happy to say they are nearing an end.

• Just 25 hours until my mom's flight lands and 50 hours until my dad drives in
• Less than 2 days until The Big Ultrasound. The office called me today to confirm and remind me of my appointment. Pssh. As if I'd forget!
• Four days until Andy and I take our babymoon trip to Jamaica! This will be a huge first for us, as it's the first time we've both left Levi overnight. He'll be in good hands with my parents, and the many many lists I've left.
• One week until Chloe is off of cage rest after her spinal surgery. I'd like to think that our diligence and her cooperation is going to be very good in the long run, even though none of us have liked having her in the cage all day resting.
• Two weeks until our house goes back on the market and we begin the house hunt again in earnest.

And my fantasy... three weeks until we get an amazing offer on our home and put down an offer on our dream home, all on the same day. Hah, dream on.