Oh my hair.

All of my life, I have had wild, unruly hair. Part of my problem was that, as a teenager, I had NO idea what to do with it. My friends were all discovering makeup and hair product, and I was the little frizzy girl who only got attention from boys because I had personality. A friend introduced me to a hair straightener and things started to improve for me. Once I hit college, I realized that if I wasn't good at styling my hair, I could do other things to make it fun. I started cutting my hair in all sorts of funky, edgy styles and dyeing it fun colors to compensate for my lack of ability in making it pretty on my own. When I started dating my husband, I had short hair. I grew it out for our wedding, then cut it off. We moved to France, and then I cut it off again even shorter. And now, it's long again. I've started learning to embrace my natural semi-curly texture, especially since I've come to the realization that I can just pin it up the second day without having to wash it if I go curly the day before. (I am a lazy person. If I can get away with not washing my hair on day 2, I am ALL about that.) It's still a work in progress, but I'm starting to believe that there is hope for my crazy hair.

If you have curly/tightly waved hair, what do you do to keep it in control? What products/tools/hair pins/clips/whatever do you use? I'm always looking for new suggestions.

Pregnancy update time! -I am 19w1d today.

-Our anatomy scan is in FIVE days. I am so excited I can hardly stand it.

-I've been feeling little baby kicks every day since Sunday, and it is the most beautiful feeling. I never felt flutters or anything...just went straight to kicks.

-I'm feeling good except for the daily headaches. I switched to tea from soda to try and cut down my calorie count, and apparently tea does NOT have as much caffeine as I expected.

-My weight gain is somewhere around 6 or 7 lbs, according to my scale. It's CRAZY to see those numbers on the scale and not try to lose weight. I'm eating normally and trying to be healthy, so I guess it's just normal weight gain. At almost 20 weeks, I guess 7 lbs is not bad.

Obligatory bump photo - notice the unruly hair. (And my mirror is dirty again, even though I just washed it last Wednesday. I blame DH.)

ETA: What is up with this awful formatting? None of my line breaks are being included when I hit "publish". Sorry for the terrible, smooshed together text...I blame Blogger's "upgrading". Never had this problem before. Grump grump. ETA again: I think I fixed it. Someone let me know if it looks normal now.

But I don't wanna!

DH has given me the assignment of going and getting two new tires for one of our cars today. We already replaced the other two, so this will make it a full set of new tires. And let's be real...I don't want to do it. I really, really hate interacting with strangers. Especially strange men. I know, that's ridiculous and childish. But for some reason, it really stresses me out. I'll definitely be bringing the receipt from when DH got the tires in case someone tries to over-charge me or something.

I've always had some social anxiety about things like that. Even though I'm a SAHW, DH ends up doing most of the grocery shopping because it makes me feel so panicky to go to the store alone. I hate hate HATE making phone calls to companies. I have zero problem socializing in groups, but for some reason, striking out on my own just gives me a conniption fit.

I hit 18 weeks pregnant yesterday. We're 12 days away from finding out the sex of the baby (hopefully) and I cannot wait. It's almost making me ill, thinking about the moment the tech tells us whether we're having a son or daughter. I honestly don't care either way...I just want to KNOW.
Here's a bump pic from yesterday...hopefully my mirror is clean this time!

Side note: It looks like we might be facing an imminent move again soon. DH's job situation is...less than ideal. I hate moving, but it's a whole lot scarier now that I'm pregnant. So send us good vibes and prayers on that front!

"You're too big."

Yep...someone actually said that to me last night.

I don't get it. Why do people feel like they can say anything and everything to pregnant women? We still have feelings. We're still people. Just because we're growing someone doesn't mean that you can be critcal about our weight and we won't mind.

So, backstory. I have this really great maternity dress that I've waited a while to wear. Now that I have an actual bump, I decided it was time to go for it. I felt really confident and pretty dang attractive in that dress. I was milling around talking to people after church (visiting at my mom's congregation) and an old woman came up to me and informed me that I'm far too big for how far along I am. (Um, almost 5 months pregnant, and I've gained no more than 6 lbs at most. I think I'm fine.) I smiled and told her that I like my bump, but she insisted that I'm showing way too much and that I need to be careful. It really got under my skin. First of all, just because I'm pregnant, doesn't mean I'm not self-conscious about gaining weight. Secondly, I have virtually no control over how big the baby is right now. I'm eating fine and haven't gained a lot, so that belly is because the baby is growing. Urgh.

On a happy note, I have the prettiest wild roses growing in the hedge line at the back of my yard! They smell wonderful, and they're so tiny and delicate. My BIL is supposed to come spend the day/night with us tomorrow so I might cut a sprig of them and put them on the dining room table. (If I can get the table cleaned off. It tends to be our "pile junk here" spot.) I've been fairly busy today cleaning the front room, hanging some wall decorations, cleaning DH's desk (oy vey) but now I'm taking a break to ice my tailbone. Sacroiliac joint aches are a pain in the butt, hardy har.

Can you train a cat?

I'm starting to think that I'm going to have to just empty a room in my house and lock the cats in it. They are so destructive and to be honest, just stupid. I am so tired of being woken up at 4 in the morning by someone crying at the bedroom door. And it's not that they want to come in...they run away as soon as they hear me moving towards the door. They do it just because. I cannot keep my scrapbooking desk looking nice, because as soon as I tidy it up, someone gets on it in the night and tears it to pieces. Houseplants? Forget that. If it's green, it must be meant there for them to shred.

She looks so innocent...

I'm at my wits' end. One of the cats, I don't really like, but the other one is sweet when she's not being destructive and I would never get rid of her. I'm wondering how effective it would be to buy some cat treats and a clicker and try to train them. I've tried spritzing them with a spray bottle when they do "forbidden" things...doesn't phase them. I even tried mixing a little vinegar in the water so they'd be turned off...and they actually liked the vinegar. Something's got to give. I can't keep dealing with finding items on my desk in the floor when I wake up, or plant leaves ripped to shreds, or paper towel rolls from the kitchen counter ripped to bits.

And since I can't make a post without talking about my pregnancy, I'll slip that in here. I'm 17w1d pregnant, and we're now 19 days away from (hopefully) finding out the sex of the baby. I'm officially making the switch to maternity clothes. I stayed in my regular pants as long as I could, but it was really starting to put too much pressure on my belly. Maternity clothes are bliss. BLISS. It took me all of 3 seconds to fall in love with my full-panel jeans when I put them on last night. I may never go back.

Here's a 17 week bump pic. (It's really bump now! Not bloat!) And yes, my mirror is all spotty. I am not ashamed.