Pictures! Pictures! Pictures!

16 Weeks Pregnant Belly- Yeah, I know.  I hardly look pregnant here.  I didn't feel like changing outfits/poses to make my stomach look as big as it usually does.  If I don't look very pregnant today, then so be it.  My uterus is actually about as high as my belly button and I have to bend over to see my toes!

I adore this hat!  The yarn is a beautiful striping yarn that hubby bought me at Hobby Lobby when we lived in Tennessee.  I think the purple makes it look sort of feminine, but we'll be using it even if we have a boy.  I wrote down the pattern for this hat on a previous post, but the hat really isn't anything fancy.  Just ribbing at the bottom and stockinette for the rest.  I tend to like using/making patterns for baby hats simply because it's hard to guess the size of a baby's head and even simple patterns are useful to someone.

I adore this hat even more than the one above.  It's the most beautiful shade of dark denim blue.  I had just a little in my stash.  I made up the pattern as I went with this one.  It's K1P1 ribbing at the bottom, a few rows of stockinette, a few more rows of K1P1 ribbing, and then stockinette for the top.  I could write down the pattern for it if anyone wants me to.

Here is Ricky's Snoopy modelling the Denim Blue hat.

 Here's another picture of the denim blue hat.  And what is it laying on?  Well... *drumroll please*  The fabric below it is actually part of the blanket I've been crocheting for Dip.  This is the first time it's ever been photographed.  I've used 3 colors so far for it (lime green, orange, red) and I have 3 1/2 more sections to do with the colors grey, lighter orange, and yellow.  I'm almost halfway done with it!  You can see all 3 colors in the last picture at the bottom of this post.

This is the snowman I've been talking about for a while now... I didn't use a pattern to make him.  I just made it up as I went.  Recognize the yarn I used for the body?  Recognize the yarn I used for the scarf/eyes/buttons?  =)  Dip will have 2 different hats that match his/her snowman!  They'll be twins!

And when Dip is not wearing his/her blue hat, Mr. Snowman will!  Doesn't he look handsome?  In case anyone is wondering, "Why a snowman instead of a traditional bear, doll, bunny, etc?"  Here's why:

Reason 1: I kind of suck at knitting.  I'm especially bad at attaching arms, legs, ears, or anything else extra.  I can make them decently, I suppose.  I can sort of attach them,  but they never feel very sturdy to me.  I always feel like an arm or leg will fall off if I yank on it hard enough.  I decided that I wanted Dip's stuffed animal to be STURDY.  Something that won't fall apart when it's hugged, cuddled, thrown around, and washed. It's not necessary to put arms, legs, and ears on a snowman.  So I did what I do best:  I started it off like a hat (if you were to start knitting a hat from the top and work your way down).  Then I kept going and going and going, then increased a little to make the body larger.  When the body was long enough I did the exact same type of "decrease" I would do to finish a hat if I was working from the bottom to the top.  I embroidered the eyes, buttons, and nose on so that there would be no small parts for Dip to pull off and choke on.  The only thing that could possibly come off of this stuffed animal is the scarf and hat, and it's fine if either of them does.

Reason 2:  Dip is due on February 14th.  If I don't attempt a VBAC (I'm undecided, but I honestly don't really want a VBAC) I will  probably schedule a c-section for around February 7th, and if Dip is as impatient as Big Brother, he/she will decide to come in January.  It will be cold outside, it will be winter outside, and a soft little snowman will be the perfect birthday present for him/her.

I hope I can come home from my ultrasound today with news about the baby's gender.  I'm tired of saying him/her.  He/she.  It.  My baby is not an it, and I'm ready to decide on a name and start using that name instead of him/her/he/she/it.  Unfortunately, this isn't a gender ultrasound.  It's an ultrasound to check on the baby, placenta, uterus, etc to see why I was spotting yesterday.  If the technician is grumpy they probably won't even try to look at the gender.  They might not even record the ultrasound or *gasp* print out a picture for me.  They BETTER at least give me a picture!  It's also a bit early to tell the gender with 100% accuracy, and usually if you do find out the gender "for sure" this early it's because the baby is a boy and has been flaunting his parts all over the screen.  If it's a girl, I might not know for sure until later on in the pregnancy.