Happy Gratitude Tuesday!

It's Gratitude Tuesday again! Today I'm grateful for:

Victory - hard not to be grateful for winning!

Vagina - I sure enjoy mine!

Virginity - this is an underrated possession. I'm happy to be able to say that I gave mine to Nick, 11 years ago on our wedding night.

Velocity - Mary Kay has a line of teen-oriented cosmetics called Velocity. At a friend's Mary Kay party I won a Velocity tinted lip gloss that was the most perfect shade ever for me. Unfortunately they quit carrying the shade, which seems to happen to lots of products I love. About a year ago I found one tube of it at a flea market where a lady was getting out of the business and selling her (new, unused) stock. Since then I've found some of it online, and I plan to order more as soon as I can!

Violets - a lovely little flower!

Visa - okay, I try to avoid putting things on the credit card, but my Visa Debit Card goes with me everywhere!

Veracity - there's something to be said for honesty!

Vacation - we just had the very best best vacation ever!

Things have been much better for me on the DD front since we got home. There's been no spanking, which is fine, but Nick has just been wonderful. He helped me get the house in pretty good shape on Sunday night. One thing I talked to him about on the way home from Texas is that I just needed to feel like he would hold me accountable, which he has been good about doing. He asked me to work on our bedroom yesterday when I got home, and when he got home he made sure that I remembered what he had asked me to do, and that I did it! I just feel more secure - it's amazing what a difference such a small change can make!

And this week's baby email:

Fetal Development This Week
Week 25 of Pregnancy: Baby's Lung Development
Your baby is about nine inches long and more than a pound and a half in weight this week. And don't look now (as if you could), but your baby's skin is turning pinker as small blood vessels form under the skin and fill with blood. Lungs and nostrils are also growing at this stage of fetal development.
At nine inches and more than a pound and a half in weight, your baby is taller than two juice boxes stacked one on top of the other, and almost as heavy as four of those little boxes (an analogy you'll find particularly apropos in a few years, when those juice boxes start taking over your refrigerator, your pantry, your car.…). Don't look now (as if you could), but your baby's skin is turning pinker. No, not because he or she's getting overheated (in fact, the amniotic fluid is perfectly climate controlled, keeping your baby at an always comfortable temperature), but because small blood vessels, called capillaries, are forming under the skin and filling with blood. Later this week, blood vessels will also develop in your baby's lungs, bringing them one step closer to full maturity — and one step closer to taking that first breath of fresh air. But at 25 weeks pregnant, those lungs are still very much works in progress. Though they are already beginning to develop surfactant, a substance that will help the lungs expand after the baby is born, the lungs are still too undeveloped to sufficiently send oxygen to the bloodstream and release carbon dioxide when he or she exhales.