Happy 2009!

Well, it was a whirlwind holiday season once again, but it was a bit more poignant this year as we looked ahead with excitement to the coming year and the changes our family is going to experience. We spent Christmas morning with Eric's family in Pittsburgh and received lots of great pregnancy and parenting books to read. I already read WAY ahead in "What To Expect When You're Expecting" on the car ride home to North Carolina. We also had the opportunity to celebrate Christmas with both Fred and Jeri's extended families. This was so wonderful since we haven't had the chance to catch up with all the aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents in quite a while. We drove to Eden, NC on the 27th to celebrate a late Christmas with my parents and my younger sister, Joy. They were spending the week at my oldest sister, Jessica's house. We even had the opportunity to visit with my cousin Paula, her husband and 5 kids. This was such an awesome blessing because it's been at least 5 years since I had seen them. In that time, they've adopted 3 beautiful girls from Colombia and I had the chance to meet all of them as they were driving from NY to Florida. Finally, the whole Schillinger clan treked to Mebane to celebrate the New Year at the Frueh house. WOW! What a week! It was a blessing to be able to see nearly ALL of our relatives in a one week span!

A few changes have occurred in "baby-land" over the last 10 days or so, the first of which is my ever-growing belly, which you'll see in the pictures. I believe two events are to blame for my rapid expansion: (1) The long-awaited and much celebrated departure of my constant "all-day sickness" (morning sickness is an extremely erroneous term!!) and (2) The abundance of amazing holiday food I've consumed over the course of 3 holiday dinners! My constant nausea has thankfully been reduced to the occasional icky feeling that I get when I eat too fast, smell strong coffee, or brush my teeth with too much toothpaste. This lovely turn of events came just in time for the Frueh family feasts of braciole, chicken cordon bleu, festive cheeses, and the all-time favorite peppermint ice cream cups. Baby Frueh couldn't be more thankful. I was beginning to think I was going to starve the little guy/girl.

In other news, Baby Frueh has officially graduated from "embryo" to "fetus" and, with the arrival of knees and elbows, he/she is dancing about. Unfortunately, we won't be able to feel the dance moves for another month or two because the baby is only the size of a kumquat inside of a cavernous grapefruit-sized womb. We're eagerly anticipating those first discernable movements as we trek toward the end of the first trimester...only 3 weeks to go! Time flies!