joel almost 11 months, and me 20 weeks along

well its been about 4 months since my last post. we have been staying busy and all is well. joel is almost 11 months old which doesn't seem near as crazy as next month turning 1!!!!! having his birthday... that blows my mind to think about. seems like yesterday was his actual birth-day! which i have been thinking about more and more now that i get farther along with #2! i am 20 weeks today, the halfway mark! about 4 1/2 months. i have been blessed again with no morning sickness, and have enjoyed every day! it has gone by really fast already, and to think in a few months we get to relive the whole labor to birth to sweetest baby in my arms all over again! i get so excited thinking about it! i am actually excited for labor! not the pain of course, but the process and the end results of Lord willing a healthy new baby to join our happy little family! when i was pregnant with joel, we both expected boy. half the fun to us in not knowing the sex of the baby. and up until a couple weeks ago we didn't have a feeling one way or the other. and when people asked if i was eager to get a girl, i said not really. i already know boy, boys seem pretty easy so far, and i have all the boy clothes. but as of late, we both have a hunch that it is a girl. out of instinct, or whatever you wanna call it, i naturally called joel a boy al throughout, and now i catch myself saying 'she is moving', 'garret wanna feel your daughter?' so its fun and we would be so happy with a girl. and boy. no biggie either way to us! but she, i mean the baby has been kicking up a storm! i got to feel her, i mean it, move a few weeks earlier than i did with the first. and like last time, i got really big really fast, so i am already getting the "IS IT TWINS?" which i hate hearing, because if you have ever seen anybody with twins..you would know. i am really short, and its my second time around, and it wasn't that long ago that my belly stretched out, so odds are for me and my body type i am gonna carry it all out front! so anyway, we are very happy and looking forward to meeting this new little one and teaching joel all about being a good big brother! he has been such a joy to us! getting smarter and stronger every day! his progress in the last 4 months is of course he started crawling, like right after he learned how to use his knees to stand up by the couch. and then he started standing up all by himself. he still says dada and mama and hi and today he said ball. but he mostly likes to point at things and let me do the talking. and he loves to play catch with daddy. joel will sit at the top of the steps while daddy throws balls up to him, and joel will fetch them all and throw them all back down! and oh yes, joel finally mastered how to come back down the stairs! he learned really fast how to go up them, and after a few harmless but scary tumbles down he figured out how to come backwards! you can tell he thinks he is real big, and of course loves it when we cheer him on. and of course he goes through stages of everything, like lately he will every once in a while not want to eat. i thought it was me feeding him that bothered him, but sometimes he just doesn't want anything. but luckily he gets distracted and entertained some way that i can sneak some bites, or as many as possible of all the goodness he needs, fruit, meat, veggies, cheese, crackers. and of course he always wants to eat what is on our plates! talk about the biggest mooch i have ever seen! :) and joel and i still attend our baby play dates just about every thursday at 3 with a few of the moms and kids his age from our birthing classes. we have a lot of fun there, taking turns hosting every week. its sweet to watch the kids all grow together but at all different but similar paces! but anyway, thats about all i can think about for now, or all i have energy to type! hope everyone is doing great out there in the blogger world! xoxo