I promise I'm not a Debbie Downer!

But looking at the last few blogs I've written, it's hard to tell. It's easy to get bogged down in some of the little annoyances associated with pregnancy. But I'm so happy to be at this point in my life and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

So today's post is a happy one!

I'm so grateful for this baby in my tummy.

Baby Granstrand-

We hoped and prayed for you. We are so happy that you are joining our family. Right now, you are kind of a mystery to me. I'm constantly amazed by the sound of your heartbeat and the ultrasound photos we have.

I'm feeling pretty desperate to see you again on the ultrasound and find out if you are a boy or a girl. I'm trying to be patient and exercise self-control and wait for our anatomy scan which is now 19 days away.

I cannot wait to feel you move inside my tummy.

But ultimately, I'm just so grateful to be your mommy and have you there with me everyday. I'm trying to enjoy every step of the journey, to just enjoy being pregnant, but I can't help counting down the days until you are due. There is so much to look forward to! Our whole life will be shaped by your arrival, and I can't wait to meet you. I'm so excited when I think about the many years of adventures that we have to look forward to once you are born. If you show up on your due date, that's only 165 days from now!

I get so excited when I think about giving birth and seeing you for the first time and holding you in my arms. I can't wait to find out what your voice sounds like. I wonder if you will wiggle your toes when you are excited like I do.

I'm looking forward to so many things. Putting you in some of the sweet outfits we've already bought for you. Seeing you smile for the first time. Watching you learn to crawl, and then learn to walk. Teaching you how to dance.

I want to buy you your first bike and have you ride it around in our driveway. I want to give you a really awesome complicated toy for Christmas.

I can't wait to learn about new interests through you - maybe you will be into karate, or soccer, or maybe you will want to take art classes -any of these things would open up a whole new world to me!

I want to buy you a puppy or a kitten for Christmas when you are old enough. And I'm totally not above buying you a bunny for Easter.

I want to trick you by telling you that we are going to Mount Rushmore or the Grand Canyon and then get to the airport and tell you that we were just kidding, we are really taking you to Disney. I want to take multiple pictures of you with Mickey Mouse once we get there.

I want to be a room mom at your school who brings cupcakes and cookies for holiday parties. I want to be the annoying mom who chaperones the middle school dance. Okay, maybe I'll let that one slide since you'll probably never forgive me if I dance in front of your friends-- I won't chaperone if you promise to let me take lots of pictures of you all dressed up at home before you leave.

I'm up for the challenge of those rebellious teenage years, when you think I'm SO uncool and you listen to your music loud and roll your eyes at your parents' dorkiness at the dinner table. I'm sure you will hurt my feelings sometimes, but I also think it might make me giggle a bit. I just hope you eventually come out of that funk and embrace your inner Granstrand.

I want to help teach you how to drive and I want to buy you a car, and even if it is old and beat up I want to put a big red bow on it and have it waiting in the driveway for you one morning. I want to watch you graduate from high school and look over at Corey and beam with pride.

I hope you will want to go to college. There is a great little college just a few miles down the road on 40 acres of land (actually a lot more). That's where your mama went and I hope you will want to, too. If you have another dream for yourself that takes you farther away, I hope you will follow it. I'm sure that a lot of tears will be shed by moi, but I will be thrilled for you and I'll be as supportive as possible, even if you are many miles away. I just hope you come back and visit as much as possible.

I look forward to the relationship I will have with you as an adult. It will be so awesome to see you in your first grown up job. It will be amazing to watch you fall in love and get married and have babies of your own.

I hope you will have your Daddy's passion for life. I hope that like him, you will come up with amazing, crazy ideas all of the time.

I hope that you will have my sense of humor and love of the arts.

It's an amazing feeling to have a little someone inside my body who I know will change my whole world. I'm looking forward to meeting you and watching you grow up.

I love you,

Your Mommy