from butterflies to sand crabs...

Jelly Bean is 30 weeks old! :) And wow, is he ever showing his healthy growth with all his kickin' around inside. He has so many different kinds of kicks, I've started naming them all. Here's a glimpse at some of his more frequent kicks & movements:

the butterfly: these were most frequent when I first started feeling J.B. move - just felt like a really slight movement inside, kind of like hiccups.

the acrobat kick: this is the one where I can feel him at the top right and bottom left, back & forth, back & forth...

the soccer goal kick: this one is just one great big BAM! sometimes he can really make my ribs hurt! even Steve can see this one in action!!

the snare drum: sometimes it feels like Jelly Bean is just pulsating in there - i really wonder what he's doing that makes it feels like this!!

the quarterback pass: i named this one for when it feels (and sometimes looks) like he is swiping his arm across the inside of me, like he's passing the football for a touchdown - one slow, solid movement.

the wrestling hold: still not sure how to best name this one - sometimes J.B. pushes up against the inside of my stomach and just holds for a few seconds.

the sand crab crawl: ahhh, this one is my favorite. when my brother tim and i were just little ones playing in the sand at cape cod, we used to go down right to the edge of the water and dig for "sand crabs"(I'm not sure if this is the proper name for them, it's just what we called them); we'd hold them in our hands to feel the slightest tickle as they crawled across our skin. sometimes i feel Jelly Bean just like that inside; i love that little tickle. :)

I know I mentioned a lot of sports in my kick titles, so I can't stop there without mentioning my favorite sport, cross country. This one ties in with the frequency and energizer bunny mode of J.B. & his kicks - he's building up quite the endurance, just like a long distance runner needs to do. See, I knew I could tie XC in there somewhere.... :)

From what I've been told by other moms, I have many more Jelly Bean movements to look forward to! I'm especially looking forward to the high-five (when supposedly we'll be able to see the shape of his tiny hand pushing against my stomach) and the butt-bump (when we'll see his little bottom slide from one side of my stomach to the other).

Steve & I have been trying to take a lot of day trips this summer (it didn't really make sense to do our usual Busch Gardens trip since I can't do the roller coasters). We ventured out to Gettysburg, Harper's Ferry, Washington, D.C. (the nat'l zoo - but I was disappointed when we couldn't find the otters!!), Inner Harbor, and we even went up to Penn State for a day to enjoy happy valley sans the game crowd. It's been fun!


And finally, here's some good news - Steve and I graduated from our Birth Class, we even got a little diploma. As much preparation as we try to do though, I know that Jelly Bean will be the best teacher we'll have. :) And we still have 67 days to learn more about his fancy footwork & drills before we even get to meet our very active little mr. sunshine....