Dear Younger Self,

I was studying my changing pregnant body in the mirror recently and noticed a few things have changed. And I don't mean stretch marks or varicose veins. They were things my younger self chose to add. I began drafting a letter in my head;

Dearest 18 Year Old Cassie,

Do you remember when you got your belly button pierced? I do. Do you remember you thought you might have it forever, but if you ever chose to take it out, you were sure it'd close completely. It didn't.

And do you remember that tattoo you put on your hip when you were 19? I do, I see it daily. Do you remember you were pretty sure with the placement, that it probably wouldn't stretch IF you ever got pregnant? Mostly because you were sure you most likely would NEVER have children? Oh, it's stretching. Take a wild guess why. You're pregnant! And both are on the verge of looking a complete mess.

Thought I'd let you know you were wrong. Just sayin'.

Love,
27 year old (and much more mature) Cassie

My letter sounds bitter, but it's not. It's actually rather humorous when I say it out loud. I can't believe I chose to be so naive. But we all live and learn, right? I wouldn't change what I did then one bit. I wouldn't be who I am now and I'm a pretty darn happy person. One day my kids will face these decisions and just maybe they'll chose more wisely than I did. Or maybe not, and that's ok too.

25 Weeks

Well, there's the belly in all it's glory. It decided to grow a mile and drop while on an awesome visit to my mother-in-law's in Oregon last week.

I'm having some minor back pain just under my shoulder blades, but nothing that I can't tolerate. Otherwise I feel totally normal! Except for the rolling over in bed part, that's getting harder. I'm up 18lbs and I'm hoping it starts to lay off my face. It's already round as it is and I don't need it to fill out any more!

Baby boy moves a ton and responds to being poked at. He's really such a joy already. We met the main OB of our office and he's really nice and informative. We feel pretty confident about either one delivering when the time comes. He was also very sweet and let us take a good long look at our little guy last visit. I think he used the word perfect about four times when describing him and his anatomy scan results. Love that!

My motivation to blog has been minimal. I've been doing virtually no cooking or thrifting at this point. I find myself to be far too busy working and planning. I've been working hard on simplifying the house and ridding ourselves of unnecessary items that are just taking up space. My project lists are miles long and I only have 102 days until his due date to get them finished.

I haven't been able to comment on my reads for weeks. Google simply won't allow me to log in to leave comments and it's really frustrating. I'm not an anonymous commenter, so I just move on. It really disconnects me from the blogging world and those I really like keeping up with.

I'm not sure I'll continue blogging the way I used to when baby arrives. It may just become something more simple and as time allows it. Life has gotten far too busy for me and I've been making it a habit to spend less and less time on the internet knowing I won't have much time for it soon.

I do have a couple of projects I'm working on that I'll be sharing before our little one arrives and I'll get them up as I get finished. Hope all of my blog friends are well!