9 + 3 + 2 + 6 = Two Miracles

In case you haven't heard, we are expecting Baby Voogt #2 next May!  Yesterday we had our 2nd ultrasound at 9 weeks, 3 days.  So far so good.  We saw our 2nd little miracle moving around and heard the heartbeat.  Rebecca loved being able to see the baby again.  After a year of fertility treatments we are truly amazed to see God's beautiful little creation.  And we feel so blessed.  We pray for God's continued blessing on this pregnancy and this baby.  We are already so excited to meet him or her.  And Rebecca is excited to be a big sister.  Mary is not feeling very good, but is doing her best to get through the last few weeks of the first trimester while keeping up with a toddler.

Here are a few pictures of the baby so far (3 days, 6w 3d, 9w 3d)

Our first little miracle is getting so big!  On Sunday Rebecca will be 2 1/2!! (2 years, 6 months).  She is very active these days.  She loves to run.  It doesn't matter if it's outside or inside.  Fast is her favorite speed.  She also loves to jump and dance.  Anything that keeps her moving.  We've been rotating through various classical music lately.  She loves dancing to it.  She has started doing her "ballerina dance" to The Nutcracker.  Which consists of a lot of jumping :)  Sometimes she'll put her arms up.  And at the end she tries to curtsy.

Rebecca is also getting pretty good at kicking the soccer ball.  She dribbles all over the yard.  We're hoping to make it to a Calvin soccer game today if the weather is ok and Mommy has enough energy :P

We've been spending a fair amount of time outside with the wonderful weather lately.  Rebecca is really enjoying her playset.  She has become quite proficient at climbing the ladder.  She is also finally getting good use out of her slide.  We can tell Rebecca has been outside a lot and is quite rambunctious...she's got a scraped knee and scrapes on the palms of both hands.  But it doesn't slow her down.

On the calmer side of things Rebecca is quite the busy girl with her dolls and animals.  She carries on full conversations with them/through them.  It's fun to listen to.  She feeds them, changes them, "makes them better."  They do everything she does.  They go to the circus, the orchard, church, school, parades, etc.  She loves pretending to be a mommy.

Rebecca is also making great progress with her letters/sounds.  Now she likes to look at words and name all the letters.  And sometimes (depending on the book/pictures) she can even figure out what they say.  We go through the alphabet often, and she knows what sound most letters make.  Which will be a great skill to help her when she starts reading.  Rebecca is also getting much better at drawing/writing.  Her movement is much more controlled now.  She always tells you what she's drawing.  We're working on writing some letters.  Just last night on her own she wrote a D on her chalkboard.  And right away said, "I made a D!"  She doesn't quite have the R down, but we're working on it.

Rebecca still LOVES to read and has a great imagination.  We just finished our first Boxcar Children book yesterday.  And she's anxious to get started on the next one.  We also got a huge nursery rhyme book last Friday.  She already has a good portion of them memorized.

Rebecca is becoming very independent these days.  She used to be shy and cling to Mommy.  Not anymore!  She will hardly even sit on Mommy's lap for 1 minute in Kindermusik now.  She's the girl that runs around the room and wants to do her own thing.  I think she's already trying to be teacher's pet.  She won't sit by Mommy, but she always wants to sit by Miss Lynette and show her what she's doing :)  We're glad she's outgrowing her shyness.  But sometimes she's a little too independent :P  It can be tough to get her to hold our hands sometimes.  And she definitely has her own opinion about everything.  No idea where she would get such a strong sense of independence :P

We're enjoying every day with our first little miracle and eagely anticipating our second miracle.  God is good.