26 weeks

Elliot's "1st" Easter Basket from Mommy and Daddy:

Elliot: Air sacks are developing in Elliot's lungs, which means it just might be possible for him to take a breath at the end of this week. The air sacks (technically called alveoli) will continue to grow for the next nine years. The membrane that keeps the alveoli separate from the blood vessels is now thin enough to allow for that oxygen–carbon dioxide exchange we call breathing. Other highlights this week: The retina completes the development of its normal layers this week. So this means that his eyes are now fully developed. Brainwaves for the auditory and visual systems are detectable in Elliot's brain this week. That means his brain is registering things like sound and light. He can't understand what any of it means yet, but he's on track to comprehend when Daddy talks about Baseball (even though his Mommy will never understand, lol). As hearing continues to develop, Elliot will start to recognize my voice. He will also start to recognize Chris' voice. How aweome! He will also recognize other sounds like Peyton when she barks. Elliot has now completed two-thirds of his stay in my womb. He is about 1 2/3 pounds and is 14 inches long head-to-heel.

Mommy: I'm 26 weeks and feeling great minus the occasional ligament stretch and possibly braxton hick contraction-like that the Dr said I should expect around this time. I think they are more ligament related. That's probably because the word "contraction" sounds really scary right now. LOL. Chris and I went to Disney's Animal Kingdom last Saturday - it was a great time!! I started to have ligament stretching pains and since we wanted to see the whole park, Chris offered to wheel me around in a wheelchair. What a great husband I have!! We had a great time and loved seeing a Disney park we had never been to before.

Me at 26 weeks:

On Sunday Chris' mom, Aunt Mary and Aunt Karen met us at Buy Buy Baby to look around the store. Little did we know it would turn into a mini baby shower!!! Thank you to Chris' Mom for Elliot's pack-n-play and to his Aunts, cousin Mandy, and Grandma Donna for getting his highchair, jungle gym play station, and bath chair.

Picture of our goodies:

After a fun-filled baby shopping trip we had lunch at the Cheesecake factory (YUMMY) and headed back to our house to start on Elliot's wall art. It looks AMAZING!!!!!! Thanks for your patience and hard work ... I can take no credit for how awesome it looks because half the time I was afraid to be in there for fear I'd mess something up. The wall art looks awesome but takes a ton of patience. Thankfully they got it up and it looks perfect! Here are a couple pictures:

Switched side where the mobile will be:

This is what is above Elliot's crib. The lighting and picture quality is a bit off since I took with my cell phone.

Again, bad lighting but the tree is chocolate brown. Right underneath that is his toybox. I will post better pictures soon.

Chris: What a great Daddy he will be! He's getting so excited for him to be here ... but not too soon, just wanting the time to go by and it be July so we can meet our little boy! He has put so much hard work into Elliot's nursery and it is picture-perfect and everything I imagined it would be! I love it!! He was so excited to see everything together, on Sunday night he put together Elliot's pack-n-play and highchair. I know we won't need those for a while but it's so fun to see how excited Chris gets and its nice to make sure they all work properly. The pack-n-play has such awesome features and we got the matching highchair (both in sage green) - they look great!!

We're getting excited for next week because we start our birthing classes on the 8th. I think the "fear" will set in then ... lol.