Thinking Back, Looking Forward

As I type, the little man is moving around and boxing my tummy. It's sweet, although I could sometimes do without the blows to the bladder! In any case, my time is getting near, or nearer at least. I went over with Annelise, so I'm trying to prepare myself to be prego well past my due date of July 15 (well past as in as long as they will let me go past which I suppose will depend on a lot of things, but here's hoping he'll want to come at least somewhere near July 15).

We have had some road blocks to my wonderful summer plans. The first was that I began to have some bad contractions at the beginning of June. Not death contractions, but bad enough that I was monitored and checked a few times and ultimately told to chill out, put my feet up, and take some non-contraction meds until I hit 36 weeks. So glad that is over, but that jumped in on my ideas of hitting the zoo and other fun things with the girls. The second thing that has happened is we have had August in June. I don't know what is going on, but the temps have ben pushing 100 for the last 2 weeks and that spells misery for a prego. So, inside we will continue to stay until we start getting our 80 degree June weather. This has also caused (or I don't really know what has caused this, maybe just being prego in general) a lot of swelling in my feet and hands. Ugh! My bp is still great as always, 90/60, but I can no longer wear my rings and only my fli flops fit my feet (some of the time). Swelling actually hurts! My legs just ache with the pressure from the water. Oi!

But this isn't what I wanted to write about at all, so let's get more to some thoughts I've had lately. I'm excited and a bit scared to add this baby to our fam. I'm ultimately scared to be a mom. I hate the idea of possibly having 3 children meltdown in Target. YIKES! Tell me that is not terrifying. I feel nervous about what else I will not be able to get done. I've so enjoyed some freedom this last year with cooking and cleaning and I've enjoyed it and I hate for that to be put on the back burner, though of course it will because we can always eat pb for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I'm also nervous to see what kind of baby the little man is. Annelise was a very difficult baby, and of course these days she makes up for it with her sweet and sassy personality, but wow...you really cannot understand it unless you lived through it or watched us live through it. Both my mom and Dave's mom saw her in close action...and yea...their general comment is, yea...wow...that was hard.

One of the gals in my small group reminded me the other day about a time when she went to the grocery, overheard a baby screaming, and then overheard a couple workers talking about the baby screaming (speaking ill of my parenting, of course...if I would only just feed her, or put her to sleep...if only), and was sure they must be talking about me. So sure enough after wandering in the direction of the cries she found me and HC and Annelise trying to shop. I just cringed when I heard that story because it brought back so many memories. After so long of just staying at the house there comes a time when you must venture out with the kids...crying or not. So I would always say, here we are screaming through the grocery, screaming through the mall, screaming through the nieghborhood...and when people would make comments (which they ALWAYS did) I would correct them and say, actually she is just angry...ALL THE TIME.

So, obviously I'm nervous about this one.

At the same time, I feel really good about where we are as a fam. The girls are at such a great place. They will play together for hours on end, and it so fab...well worth having them so close together. I love hearing their little voices as they zoom their cars, or cook something in the kitchen, or play with their doll house. They are learning to share and take turns and give and take and lead and follow one another, and I LOVE that. It is SO fabulous. And they will sing while they play and it is the sweetest thing ever. I think that will be a great help to me while I deal with the baby.

They love to help me and at least at this point in time are super excited about the baby coming. They talk about reading to him and tickling his feet and singing him songs. And they also talk about him crying a LOT (because that is what babies do). SO when I think about these things I get excited about having another little one around.

It will all be an adjustment, but we'll all have to work out the transition together...just an adventure for our little fam to tackle together.

Ultimate Vaca

This winter we were trying to determine WHEN we would like to go on vacation, and WHERE we would like to go on vacation this year. It was a bit of a difficult situation. Do we go pre or post baby? And if we go pre-baby should we go big (as in fly somewhere and rent a car...while we still can fit in an economy size) or stick closer to home. And then of course there is the question, beach or mountains?

Come on who would not want to spend a week here?

We ultimately decided on the mountains (shocker...not really we will likely always choose mountains over beach), pre-baby, close to home. And then the search began. I knew exactly what I wanted, it just took me a while to find the right house, but I did! We rented a little house on a lake, in the mountains of North Carolina. Glorious! I wanted something with a big flat yard that was RIGHT ON the lake. Oh yea, and it couldn't cost a million bucks a week. =) But I'm so glad I snatched this gem up while I had the chance.

trip to the trout farm HC caught a 4 lb. trout and Annelise caught a 3.5 lb. trout

We learned while living in Europe that there is a HUGE difference between a trip, and a vacation. Like if you are living in the states and travel to Europe on "vacation", it is not a vacation, it is a trip. So while we were living over there we went on lots of trips, and a few real vacations (like our all-inclusive Turkish Resort...ahhh).

sweet hike up to the falls

Our time in NC was a real vacation. We were in the middle of NO WHERE. I mean, literally, no where. And it was gorgeous, the views of the mountains and the lake were awesome. We played outside with balls and horseshoes. We laid around in the hammock. We took rides in the canoe and pontoon boat. We did a huge 1,000 piece puzzle. I taught HC backgammon. Dave went fishing everyday, and yumm-o those fish tasted awesome! We hiked up to a waterfall one day, and one day we took the girls to a trout farm and let them catch some HUGE trout. It was so quiet and restful, and I loved just being with my family, we have a LOT of fun together. I could envision us going back again and again to this place, which was a fun feeling.

the girls ready to go out for an early morning canoe ride

We ended the trip by heading to Knoxvegas for Dave's nephew's high school graduation...yea Josh! And then back to the ATL.

A Day in the Life...

We are trying to figure out a normal schedule/routine for the summer, which has been difficult so far because we haven't had a normal week yet (the week following vaca is NOT normal), and then yesterday was a holiday, so this week is not normal either. And next week the AC dudes come, so...yea.

Anyway, we will still try to figure it out and probably get into a routine just about the time the little man appears, only to move us out of routine for the next year. Ah well. One day.

So, I thought I would write about my normal Monday, which this week is today. I actually like Mondays, in general, because I get a lot done and there is a sense of recovery from the weekend and accomplishment.

Get-up between 6 and 6.30 and get showered, eat breakfast, get the girls breakfast started, and have a chance to sit and be quiet.

7, get the girls up, dressed, sheets stripped and beds made up with clean sheets (both the girls and mine), they are great helpers with this (usually)

7.30 head downstairs to breakfast, yummy oatmeal with sweet potato raisins and milk, followed by a piece of pb toast.

8, clean up breakfast

8.30 circle time! we talked about the month of June and how we are getting close to the baby coming, because after June comes July. Today Annelise was able to answer her catechism questions and say her Bible verse and pick out the songs (The Lord Our God, and Father Long Before Creation) because HC was in a little bit of a mood and did not want to participate.

9, laundry begins in earnest, sometimes we will go outside and weed for a while, and water the countainer plants that need it. today we cleaned the playroom, vacuumed and mopped the kitchen and folded clothes as they emerged from the dryer. Read a couple books, had a snack time, broke up a couple squabbles between the girls, etc.

11.30 eat lunch. yummy pb sandwiches with blackberry jam (almost finished with it and we will get to start eating the strawberry jam that I made from scratch and canned last week), peach, and yogurt. I had leftover Ethiopian food from our dinner on Sunday, yummy tibs, LOVE it!

12, upstairs for naptime. Annelise is now sleeping in her room, and HC is sleeping/resting in my room, since the little man's room is being painted and rearranged. Now I clean up from lunch, and sit and catch-up on emails, watch last night's episode of the Bachelorette, and then get up and get things done. I would clean the bathrooms, but the downstairs ones are clean, and I need to wait until after naptime to clean upstairs.

3, HC will get up at 3, and we will have special Mama/HC time, reading a book, or drawing something cool. Actually today she has been asking to cut up pieces of paper, so we will likely do that.

4, Annelise will wake-up, or we will get her up. Normally we would go outside and play big wheels until Dada returns home, or go to the pool, except that Tuesday the pool closes at 4. So today we are going to run back over to the produce market because they were out of cherries yesterday and Dave is craving them. And then we will prep dinner (actually I'll prob do that in a minute once I get off the computer), which is either chicken fajitas...yumm-o, OR personal pizzas with a salad and some corn (which may I add is super yummy).

5, Dinner is served, and Dave will be home at some point during the 4-5 hour which I love. And then up for bath and jammies and ready for some good singing about God before turning off the light.

6.30, Dave and I will clean up from dinner and sit and relax for a moment. Then he will get to work on some project, like making a storage box for the patio furniture cushions, or we will play a game like yahtzee, or we will sit and talk about work/life/kids. And then we will watch, with great anticipation, WipeOut, which is our ultimate FAV show that only plays during the summer.

9, lights out for us, sometimes it is earlier, but because it is Wipe Out night, we will stay up a little later to catch it. Love it!