Roman has been talking up a storm lately... Well, not quite "talking," but he is definitely being more verbal. And it's really pretty funny to hear him try to mimic the sounds that we make during the day. For instance, while we were playing fetch with Brock, I told Roman to tell Brock to "leave it." And his little voice said, "lee ih." Marc walked out of the bedroom looking a little surprised because it really sounded very similar, even if it wasn't exactly the same. It's so cute to watch Rome trying to figure this whole communication thing out. I will sometimes hear him making all kinds of sounds in his car seat, or he will have a mini-conversation with himself while he's playing with his toys. I have no clue what he is saying, but he is pretty serious about it most of the time. But in addition to his gobbledygook, Roman is also starting to say a few real words. He has had "mama" and "banana" (or rather, "anana") down for quite a bit, but he is also saying "car," "ball," "bye-bye," "dada," and, my personal favorite, "uh-oh." When Marc was at a conference in Del Mar last week, Roman and I went to visit him at the hotel, and as we were waiting for our car at the valet stand this car pulled up, and Roman shouted, "CAR!" and he was pointing and so excited about all of the cars driving in. Marc and I, and I think the driver of the car and the valet people, were all a bit startled because it was so loud. I think Rome is just really proud of his new abilities. What's really interesting to me is that some of the words he used to say all the time, Rome has stopped saying for the most part. It is almost as if he figures that he has mastered a few words, so on to the next few. He will only rarely say "that" when he's pointing at something, and it looks as though buses have become just other cars. I must say that part of me is not only excited that he's starting to use real words, but also a bit relieved. We have friends whose son is four months older than Roman, so I am constantly questioning her about what the next doctor's appointments will be like. Rome's 18 month appointment is at the end of this month, and at Finn's 18 month appointment, his doctor was really concerned with the fact that Finn was only saying one, maybe two words. So now the doctor would like Finn to go to speech therapy. It's free, so they figure why not, but I was starting to get a bit anxious as the big 18 month check up began to round the corner. So hopefully this means that our doctor will be happy with Roman's progress. I guess we will just have to wait until the 29th to find out.
OH!! And I I must also mention that Marc built Roman a super-rad swing-set! I am so, so grateful that he got it finished last weekend, because Marc had another conference in New York this week, and that swing-set is already proving to be a lifesaver. It still needs a little bit of finishing work, but it's functional, and Roman loves it. We have to go out there at least once, if not twice, a day so that he can swing. We are going to add a little swimming pool and a little sand box in the new play area eventually, but I am just so happy that we have expanded the useable space in the backyard for Romey and me to play in during the day. There are some pretty cute pictures of Roman "helping" Marc put it together, but they're on my big camera, and I cannot find my card reader. I will have to post them later.
And this is totally random and unrelated, but I was going through my phone to grab some pictures for this post, when I came across the pictures of Roman and his fireman-badge sticker. A couple of firemen gave Roman that badge sticker while we were out at the Farmers Market last week. They were grabbing pizza from Filippi's while we were downtown, and Roman was so excited about getting to see the truck up close. And then he got a little gift, so that made his day even better.
In other news, holy crap is this pregnancy just absolutely flying by. I had to go in for my Rhogam shot (I am Rh negative, so, just in case the baby is Rh positive, I have to get a special shot which keeps my body from attacking her blood cells... isn't that fascinating? It's not actually for this pregnancy, but the next pregnancy. The one I had with Romey is the one that is protecting Liv now.), and both my nurse (whose name is Emily) and I said that it seemed way too soon for that. And she gave me the strangest compliment. While she was trying to administer the shot, she asked if I was really tense, and I said a little because I wasn't looking forward to what was about to happen, and she told me that I had to relax my butt. I took a couple deep breaths and relaxed and told her I was ready to go, and she says, "Oh. You just have a really muscular butt." And we both laughed, which really helped me. Oh, how I hate that shot, and am so glad that if all goes well, I will never have to get it again. I am actually doing much better with needles now that I have been poked so many times during this and my last pregnancy, but the Rhogam shot burns for a while, and I still have a sizable bruise at the injection site. Not fun. As of tomorrow, I will be 29 weeks along. Livia and I are both doing really well. I have started doing my kick counts, and, just like Roman, she is an active little bugger. She's also doing this super cool trick in which she sees just how far she can push against the upper left side of my belly. Roman used to push pretty hard right against my belly button, but the other day I nearly had to pull the car over because she was pushing so hard that I was in a ridiculous amount of pain. I kept trying to push her into a new spot, but for whatever reason, she loves that one spot, and she would not move. So when things like that happen, I think, yeah, it is about time for this baby to come one out. She is doing it right now in fact, but not too hard this time. Only 11 weeks left go! I will see my doctor again at 30 weeks to schedule my c-section. If Liv decides to come out early, then I get a chance to labor again, but my doctor will not let me go past my due date; she just doesn't think my body does what it needs to do for a large baby to fit. So I have just come to accept that I will be having a c-section. After all, I believe that Erin and Erica were both late babies, and all of Erica's girls were late, so it looks like there's a late-baby trend in our family. But at this point I know what to expect, and I am not that worried about it. I figure that I will get my hypnobirthing stuff out and start listening to it and start doing my breathing exercises again just in case, but I also think that it will be easier for us to plan out our helpers if we know exactly when this little one is going to arrive. As long as she's healthy, that's all that matter. And so far, so good.
And why not end a post with a cute little picture of my Romey in the tub? He was having a ton of fun in there tonight, so I sent this picture to Marc in New York.