7 Quick Takes Friday (Vol. 49)

1) Today is going to be a whirlwind of a day. It starts with a doctor's appointment (that hopefully shows labor is imminent) immediately followed by me hosting mom's group (most likely my last mom's group before the arrival of #2). Then this afternoon I head to a 3-day silent retreat. Hopefully Joseph will get a nap in there somewhere so I have a chance to get ready for the retreat.

2) I'm super excited about this retreat. First of all, it's a silent retreat. I've only been on one other silent retreat, and I loved it. It should be a good, relaxing, spiritually engaging time. Although I am a little worried about being away from Joseph for two nights. It will be my first time being away from him for even one night let alone two. But that's part of the reason we're doing this - to prepare Joseph (and me) for my hospital stay.

3) I found this website that tells you your chances of going into labor on a given day this week. Being the math nerd that I am, and wanting this baby out means I pretty much love it and check it on the daily. Not that me checking some website is going to get the baby out, but I like to know my odds for going into labor on any particular day.

4) I think I've mentioned before that Joseph's vocabulary is taking off, and it's true. He mimics words like crazy now. He pretty much tries to say everything we say and does a fairly good job pronouncing words. It's so nice that he's (generally) able to communicate what he wants now. We don't always understand, but our communication seems to get better by the day, and that's really nice.

5) Joseph loves numbers and counting. I will often let him watch Sesame Street (usually once a day), but occasionally he gets a little bored (the fairy portion bores him most days) so he goes and plays with his toys during the "boring" parts, but as soon as someone starts counting he perks up and runs back to the TV. It's pretty cute to watch. He also tries to say the numbers back to the TV and will dance along with the characters when they're counting. I can tell he's really interested and that makes me so happy! He's taken a particular liking to the number 9. So, when we count with him he says "9" anytime he doesn't know the next number. He can also point out the number 9 in his counting books (although he frequently thinks the number 6 is 9). He will often flip to the page with the number 9 and say "nine!" in the most southern accent you can imagine - it really sounds more like "nahn!"

6) My Christmas post is coming soon (finally), but here's a picture that didn't make it into the post (or maybe it will make it in, who knows). This was taken as soon as we let Joseph out of the stroller at Disney's Magic Kingdom. Instead of going into the Monster's Inc. show he just sat down on this ledge of concrete. Go figure. He was in the most magical place on earth and he wanted to sit here. Don't worry - it didn't last too long before he moved on to bigger and better things.

7) Have a lovely weekend!!

Thanks to Jen for hosting. Now go check out some more Quick Takes!