$1.75

For a buck seventy-five, we've had 3 days of latex-fueled fun.









The only problem is that the kids wanted BIG balloons, so I blew them up big...there have been more than a few scares and tears as balloons spontaneously explode all over the house!  They've both been on shrapnel-recovery duty, getting all the scraps into the garbage bin.

Update

Oh, let's have an update, shall we!

I've officially passed two of my due dates, I believe.  I'm in this for the long haul, so I'm still expecting two more weeks and will be THRILLED if the little guy comes earlier.  I can't imagine having this many Braxton-Hicks contractions every day, for two more weeks.  I even have them laying down, in the middle of the night now!  Some of them are borderline real...just enough to make me wonder "What will happen in ten minutes?  Or an hour?  Is the next one BIGGER?"  It never is, though.  I can have minute-long contractions every 3 minutes for an hour, and it's not even real.  Just exhausting!

The last month of pregnancy is not my favorite- I don't like keeping everyone on the hook because I'm just so unreliable right now.  Can I bring a side dish for Sunday dinner?  Umm...sure, if I'm not at the hospital! 

This is why I have very, very, very few responsibilities right now.   (The few responsibilities I do have, I'm not doing very good at remembering!  Sorry Dad, I WILL get that paperwork to you that I promised before you leave!)  

People have been so very, very kind.  My sister comes every single stinking week to watch my kids while I'm at the doctor's, and vacuum the floors, clean the kitchen, and generally be an amazing house cleaning fairy.  How come she can get so much done with FOUR kids in the house??  A friend came and helped me cook up some double and triple batches of favorite freezer items-- gnocchi, potstickers, spanokopita, biscuits.  Friends have come with frozen soup for the freezer, bags of amazing take out from the local Korean market, and little tiny outfits for this little tiny man.  We have beautiful fuzzy blankets from friends and our talented Nana.  My parents have baby sat and baby sat and cleaned and helped and grocery shopped...even kept the girls overnight, just in case, so that would be one less thing to worry about if I happened to go into labor on a Friday night!  Oh, grocery shopping...I'm not sure there's a single member of my family who has not dropped off a bag of groceries at some point or another in the last few months, to save me a trip to the store.  My husband has taken on so many of the household chores, and Ernie has too.  I've been so very blessed.  We found out recently that Nana herself will be able to come and visit when this boy arrives, and I have so many offers of playdates and overnighters from friends and family I know my daughters will never feel left out in the first few weeks of adjusting and learning after the birth.

Oh, and a tiny little miracle...we've been anxious about when to move Mimi into Ernie's room.  She's apparently VERY attached to her crib- I made the mistake of cheerfully saying that she was going to get a BIG bed like sister's, and Baby Boy would sleep in the crib!  How fun!  No.  Not fun.  She put on her most pathetically sad face, wrapped her arms through the bars, and lamented "No!  MY cwib!"  Alrighty then.  Late last week, when we were all tucking Ernie into bed, Mimi crawled in too.  

"Would you like to sleep in sister's room tonight?"

"Yeah!"

We pulled the crib mattress in, tucked the girls in, and they slept soundly.  Three nights together, and so far so good!  Naps are a big 'ol fail so far, I have to drag the crib mattress back to Mimi's crib if I want her to sleep, but this is a great start!

39 Weeks

History indicates 3 more weeks, but every time I walk by a mirror, all I can think is "WHOA!"

Make New Friends

This song was on almost constant repeat this afternoon.  Missing a few words, but "Make new friends....the other one is gold!"  You know, in case you don't speak Toddler.

Making a Necklace

I want you to please notice what is going on here.  First off, she spent nearly an hour cutting apart old hair rubber bands, the kind that has a metal clip in the middle and a bead on either side of the resulting "8."  This is her 2nd necklace of the day.  The first one ended up being too short- it fit nicely on top of her head, and she decided it was a halo.  She needed ANOTHER necklace to dress up like an angel.

Please notice that she has sorted all the beads by type, and then strung them in pairs.  They were NOT in pairs when she started, it was a huge pile of beads on the floor.

What was Mimi doing while all this was happening?  Running around singing at the top of her lungs, playing with a string she found.  Happy as a lark.

My goodness.  I think we can end part of the nature vs. nurture discussion right there!

Today

Mimi showing off the Toy Story rings

Today I sent a letter to my husband.  He read it to his co-worker.  My morning made them tired.

"Just to complain...these kids are TESTING ME today.  Oh my gosh.  Ernie wouldn't eat her breakfast, asked me to save it for lunch.  Was crazy grumpy all morning because she wouldn't eat her dinner last night, either- had a on-the-floor meltdown because Mimi picked up her notebook. Still didn't eat her oatmeal for lunch, but had a glass of milk and a glass of water and maybe a 1/4 cup of her oatmeal.  Never fear, I'll serve it again at snack AND dinner. Mimi spilled her milk at lunch, probably because E was pulling her hair trying to "trade."  Ernie had a fit about M touching the book she was reading this morning, about the fact that Uncle Bear still has her Toy Story 3 movie so we couldn't watch it together in my bed like we did 2 weeks ago, about the fact that it took her an hour and a half to get through writing 20 lower and capital D's and E's and we never got to watch a movie (and besides- "Did Daddy SAY you could watch a movie today?")  Oh, and when will we go back to music class?  And Mom, what about baking day?  And today is painting day, remember?  And Mom, on Monday don't forget to give me a piano lesson.  Mom, I hope you don't forget to give me vitamins today!!

AHHHHHHHHHHHH.  I explained to her we don't keep those schedules any more, we do things when they work out and I teach what I think needs teaching that day.  She's totally missing the fact that school now involves schoolwork instead of learning to learn from Mom (which was the reason behind the baking, craft, cleaning, painting, and music days schedule.)  

But, she learned to count by 10's this morning, did very well on her D's and upper case E's (she never actually got to the lower case ones, in all that time), M and I read lots and lots of books waiting for E to finish, the girls strung beads to make necklaces...and they LOVE having everything organized so they can find things to play with.  Mimi is great at putting boxes back where they belong in our art cupboard up here, especially.  "

After all this, the girls had their naps.  Well, Mimi took a nap.  Ernie came out an hour later asking if she could be up....alright.  "Mom, can I make a doll now?"  Alright.  

We spent the rest of the afternoon reading, making necklaces, sorting hair doo-dads, and being TOGETHER.  In the school room.  We spent ALL DAY in the school room.  When I told them at 5:00 they needed to go somewhere else and play while I made dinner, Ernie burst into tears because she wanted to read in the school room.  So I guess the room is a hit?  I was a little claustrophobic at the end of the day, though!



Ernie, sorting hair doo-dads into little boxes.  She was thrilled.


Oh, and dinner made both girls cry.  That's happened almost every night this week!  Ernie perked up by the time I got there.  I said the prayer, and before anyone even lifted their heads I told them they MUST try their dinner.  If they don't like it, they can ask for a piece of bread and butter.  At this point, Ernie has not really eaten since a sandwich at lunch time yesterday, and she jumped into action.  Soup!  In Mouth!  You can see the wheels turning, next comes ASK FOR BREAD.  But...she loved the avgolemono soup.  She loved the garlic bread.  She told me 3 times that she loved me, 2 times that the soup was really good, and 4 times "Thanks for making dinner, Mom!"  Apparently the trick to introducing new, delicious, foods to Ernie is to...make her really, REALLY, hungry first.  She had 3 helpings of soup, and two pieces of garlic bread.  She was probably extra hungry, because I'm limiting the girls' milk right now; both of them will, before I realize it, substitute milk ENTIRELY for any meal they don't want to eat.  So everyone gets a nice full glass of milk with their meal, and then if they're still thirsty, I have a huge pitcher of water waiting.  And a bowl of ice.  And they are welcome to eat the food that I make if they're hungry!  (Oh, and dinner for Ernie: she sat down to a glass of milk, a 1/4 cup of soup, a 1/4 of a piece of garlic bread...and her oatmeal.  Tough choice what to try first, right?  Milk...then soup...then bread.  Oatmeal was conveniently forgotten, I was quite willing to give her a bowl full of soup!)


Now everyone is in bed, Dad is home, the kitchen is clean, and I have my feet up with the most impressive Braxton Hicks contractions yet!  My husband said in an awed tone "You've had more energy these last two days than you've had the entire pregnancy!"  Yes.  It's true.  I am finally experiencing that Nesting "burst of energy."  But you know...if I had the baby tomorrow, I know that my girls have had a fantastic day with mom.  Mimi and I read for hours.  Ernie and I did school and projects.  The playroom and the school room are organized and lovely.  The freezer is stocked FULL of things that everyone loves (who doesn't love biscuits or potstickers?)  The house, basically, is clean.  Baby's laundry is clean and ready.  I really didn't expect to be able to walk today after what I did yesterday, but after a few tense moments of trying to figure out which part of me was able to move enough to leverage myself out of bed, I've done OK today!  (It ended up being my arms- if I stuck my fists behind my back, I could push myself far enough off the bed to reach one leg over the side of the mattress.)  Being pregnant is ridiculous, you know that?

Curly Hair Sue

The post-bath hair do! (But MAN you should have seen it in the morning: like a lion mane! No curls, just standing straight out!)

One "Freak Out Day" Out of the Way

Yeah.  After receiving the report results from last week's check up, I was certain yesterday I had preeclampsia, and it was imperative to have the baby NOW before I had today's check up.  I was certain that at the check up the doctor would look at my terrible symptoms, cackle evilly, and say "Go to the hospital!  Lay in a bed hooked up to obscene amounts of Pitocin!  We are going to get this baby out in the most horrible way imaginable!  It will hurt a lot!"  

• My "+1" protein result didn't even make her blink.  Probably just an anomaly, and she really doesn't care until it hits +2 or +3.
• My "elevated" blood pressure of 120/60?  Oh please.
• My horrible swelling?  OK, so I can't wear my "size tiny" wedding ring right now.  

The good news is all the contractions I gave myself yesterday worrying actually DID do something, so Mom was right!  Braxton Hicks can be terribly annoying and pretty useful.  

I've used up another "Pregnant Female Freak Out Day," so let's hope this baby comes before I start going over my limit!

Baby Boy and Baby Girl

Baby Boy, 38 weeks, January 2011

Baby Girl, 38 Weeks, August 2008 (4 weeks prior to Mimi's arrival)

So...I think I can see just a few minor differences between these pregnancies... :0)

Sometimes you eat

We are seriously lucky to know these girls. We met J (the one the back with the quizzical brow) in middle school, and had practically all our classes together in 7th grade. (All academics and choir/drama/photography/after school choir at least!) K (the blonde, gorgeous one) we met in public high school, at the end of her tenure at the local Catholic school. We all kind of lost touch for a few years, with colleges and boy friends and families and moves, but managed to get our act together at least once a year for the annual caroling party. But the end of last year, we stepped it up a notch: monthly girls nights! SO MUCH FUN. We have dinner together and stay up way too late talking and eating way too much chocolate. This time, it was a chocolate double-layer cake made by the Queen of Chocolate, K. Wait, she served the chocolate last time too, with her lava cakes...yeah, she's the Queen alright!

I've been so blessed to make a few really good friends in the past 15 years, and I'm glad these girls are still in my life!

Sleepover

Remarkably, they DID sleep!

Blow Out the Candles!

Take a biiiig breath, and blow out all those candles Wonder Daddy!

Look behind him- you see a little girl who is about to be VERY disappointed she wasn't close enough to the brownie pan. She's ready!!

(Yes, we took the wailing two-year-old into the kitchen to blow out a candle- I never noticed what she was doing behind her dad until I saw the photo!)

(You were expecting cake?? Pizza and brownies were his dream birthday dinner this year. Easy man to please :)

She Says She's Pregnant

It was a pretty quick gestation, I found her like this after her nap!

What do you get the man who only wants brownies out of this life?

Brownies.

More brownies.

Another box of brownies.

Annnnd.....for good measure, if all other ideas fail....brownies.

We got to the point that Mimi was shrieking "CAKE!!" before the lid even came off the box.

We celebrated his birthday with donuts for breakfast, and took everyone to Red Robin for dinner. WOW, yummy!

Happy birthday to the best dad, the best husband, the best friend, and the best guy I've ever known. We love you!

Pretty, Pretty Princesses

Ernie was in charge of our FHE activity this week- doesn't it look like everyone had fun?? :)