A school Psychologist's Christmas in a basement

Note to our dear readers: This posting is from about 3 weeks ago. It seems it never actually posted. So it really only makes sense if you read it as though it was December 20th or so.

Sounds so sinister and dark. Like the little space Harry Potter lives in under the stairs. But, alas, the basement is finished and now looks like the rest of our house! Drew's mom was here a few weekends ago for graduation and made a little video of the space. We liked it so much we wanted to put it on the blog. Beware of a bit of sea-sickness though, the camera turns frequently, so either flip your laptop or try to stick with it so you can see all we've done. See for yourself how our Christmas tree and basement turned out (and a small cameo appearance from my mom).

Isn't my husband handy? Its hard to believe we (and by we I mean he) did it all ourselves. I only did the tile, and the only thing we hired out was the carpet, because lets face it, who knows how to lay carpet?
In the video you can see our little Christmas tree. Our first real one. I'm very excited to share our new space with the little baby come May.

We're now in the 17th week, creeping up on the 5th month (20 weeks) and I'm finally starting to get a little belly. It seems our little baby Hollman likes to hang out on my left side and in the morning makes the most action as I often wake up to a bizarre sensation and my belly feeling rather hard, suggesting he, or she, is moving around in there. We haven't had an ultrasounds in quite a bit because our last visit was with an alternate doctor since Dr. Olson was on vacation (and the office forgot not to schedule her that day). On the 5th wee get to find out what the baby is, so if you're itching to see the little baby Hollman you'll have to wait at least until then. However, if you're interested in what happens at 17 weeks, here's a random sample via the magic of YouTube. Again, its NOT our baby, but it does make you wonder how ultrasound technicians can tell so much from these hard to decipher videos. Toward the end you can see the little guy, or girl really move around. Thank goodness I'm not feeling those kicks and punches just yet.

So on to the school psychology perspective. The kids at both my schools now know that I'm going to have a baby, although since I'm not showing some are a little skeptical. Because I work with many kids who don't have the verbal filter we all use so graciously, here are a few of the fun quotes I've heard about being pregnant and having the baby:
- After letting a small group of kids know I'm pregnant, one boys said,
"Well, who's the father?"
- After telling a student during a one on one session that I'll have a baby
before the end of the year, he said, "Well that's a bad idea. Summer break is
at the end of the year. You know you can't even go on summer vacation if you have a baby?"
- "You know, you still have to do your work even if you are going to have a baby. My mom used that once as an excuse to stay home and she said she had to do double the work!"
- After commenting on me not gaining weight for a few weeks, 2 students announced "hey, you're starting to have a baby belly. You're getting fat. I can tell."
As the days at work go on and kids become more aware of the baby their comments are more common and just crack me up. I can't wait to hear what they have to say when I'm near the end of the pregnancy. Oh, the joys of being a school psychologist.