Some of my favorite photos from the last few weeks…

Our little dragon – he was so NOT interested in trick or treating. He just wanted to climb peoples porches :)

Papou and Santa Evan at Boo at the Zoo!! LOL!

Of course it’s too cold now to open windows, but we are going to have to re-evaluate what “baby-proofing” means at our house. How scary is that!? there is a flimsy screen there, by the way…

I wish I could get him smiling like that all the time. What a sweet face!

Look at handsome Tristan! He is so sweet and squeezable. Good job Mary and Jeff :)

I love the way Brad is gently holding him. Brings back nice memories of my little guy.

Now if only Allison was on my left shoulder (and Elijah wasn’t fussing – he doesn’t like sharing his books) it would be the best pic of all time!  I love all of my chill-rens :)

Is there a better word than ‘busy’

for when you are busier than busy??

I really don’t even have time to tell you my latest news since October 21st! Wow…I’ll try to fill in later about Elijah’s 15 month appt (great by the way), my doctor appts, basement news, etc.

For now I just want to put on record how uncomfortable I am, and how FREAKED out I am that I will have a baby in less than a month. I’m not ready. Between school, home and family time I’M NOT READY! – yet, I can’t wait to see her sweet little face--

• How far along? 36 weeks
• Total weight gain/loss: +2 – 3 (really it depends when I can poop or not – just sayin’)
• Maternity clothes? ha-HA! Nope because I found SUPER comfy clothes at Old Navy on a great sale. Fleece pants for $8!
• Stretch marks?  remarkably, no
• Sleep: I wish, but I wake up SO thirsty all the time, then of course I wake up an hour later having to pee
• Best moment this week: finding out that the little body part she keeps jabbing me with is her knee.
• Movement: aside from the knee jabs, the occasional feeling like she’s wiggling her fingers way down there…Food cravings:hot chocolate…haven’t been too hungry these days
• Gender: girl
• Labor Signs: either BH or mild contractions on Halloween….probably all of the walking
• Belly Button in or out? halfway out – that part that used to be pierced anyway
• What I miss: I’m trying not to ‘miss’ anything because I want to enjoy the last few weeks of pregnancy. We are seriously considering this the last baby, so I’ll have plenty of time to enjoy being un-pregnant
• .What I am looking forward to: to many things to list…read the rest of my blog, you’ll figure it out. Mostly, I am anticipating the ultrasound next Tuesday!
• Weekly Wisdom: Even superwoman needs a break sometimes, so don’t ignore the ones that love you and try to help you (even if you know you can do it all, doesn’t mean you have to)
• Milestones: entering the last month of pregnancy. bitter sweet at this moment for me.

I can’t wait to see her, I just wish everything was crossed off of my TO-DO list. But even I know it’s not practical that the screen door has to be fixed prior to her arrival…it would just be nice :)

I’ve got some fun pictures to share as soon as I can. I’ve been so busy with school (seriously, staying until 11 pm most nights). I don’t see a break in sight until the middle of November…but I promise to show you some pictures of my little dragon from Halloween very soon!

Hurry up, but wait….

That’s what I feel like right now! A friend of ours had her baby yesterday! She was 3 1/2 weeks further along than me, and she’s got her little baby already! – Both of them are doing great. I got to visit tonight (Mary, Jeff and their new son Tristan).

As soon as I heard that her water broke and labor was imminent, I really freaked out a bit. I am by NO means ready to have a baby yet. So Mary’s story has got my act in order. Here is what I have started to take care of:

1. start packing hospital bag
2. start looking for super-cute-homecoming outfit
3. find her a teddy bear not made in China
4. pester Brad  even worse than before about her name
5. start washing all of her sheets, clothes, etc
6. sanitize breast pump stuff
7. find a decent, used mattress that has been off-gassed
8. slip cover her nursery chair
9. finish painting furniture
10. buy newborn diapers
11. finish getting nursery decor
12. pull out bouncy seat, bathtub, swing, etc

I think that about covers it for her things. However that doesn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy even if it was all checked off. The puppies are slowly going to their new homes. One left last night, one will leave tomorrow night and the other I am debating on holding onto until Emma’s birthday, Nov 29th. Seriously, because my “nesting” list is getting longer and longer and trying to train a pup doesn’t even make the top 20. We’ll see…my dad and Brad have offered to help so the surprise is good for my Magoo (Emma).

What stinks is that I feel like I can’t move forward on a lot of these issues until the basement is complete. I know it is not necessary…she won’t even be in her nursery the first few months, but if you came over and saw her things piled in my dad’s room, Elijah’s room, the dining room (seriously, the crib is in the dining room) then you may understand my urgency a little more. Plus, if you know how anal I can be, you’d understand even better.

The good news is, is that progress in the basement is AWESOME! Ron will be finished hanging drywall tomorrow and over the weekend all of the mudding/taping/etc should be finished. So that means we can prime and paint next week and then lay down our floors. I would love to have all of this completed by Halloween, but I will settle for the first weekend in November. We gotta lot of work to do!

the super wide hallway (we decided to drywall over the future-bathroom door, and cut it out when it’s time)

the ‘office’. It’s actually a nice size room…just an inch or two bigger than the ones upstairs

the TV area

the future bar…see where the columns will go eventually? It will look great!

Oh and did I mention with all of the ‘lists’ I need to check off I have to keep up with this trouble maker :)

Good grief he is so cute and sweet! He goes to the doctor tomorrow for his 15 month check up. I’ve got a few concerns. Firstly, he is really bow-legged. I’m hoping he will outgrow it, but compared to his cousins, it’s pretty obvious. Second, I think he is still not very tolerant of milk (but I think I am making progress with that! Thanks to a friend of mine for telling me about non-homogenized milk, he has been more tolerant! – Thanks Sarah!) Lastly I want to re-evaluate his alternate vaccine schedule since we will be doing some foreign travel next summer.

So that’s my status…I want to hurry up and get all of these things done, but then again I want to wait and enjoy my ‘free’ time while I still have it – seeing Tristan tonight put it into perspective. I will have my wild toddler at home AND bring home another teeny person to care for…maybe going over 40 weeks isn’t a bad idea.

HA, yea right…!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Does this look like a serial killer to you?

I didn’t think so either.

Brad seems to think that he just needs a mask and butcher knife to look like Mike Myers from the Halloween movies. I’m too much of a scaredy cat to watch that crap, so I’m not sure of his exact reasoning…but common….he looks so sweet! Brad claims its the ‘onesie’ outfit. I happen to love this outfit. Thanks to whoever passed it down to us :)

He turned 15 months old last Friday. I have to admit that he is getting much more fun the older he gets (but still pretty darn clingy). I did discover that he has had both of his top two molars for at least a week or so! Maybe that was attributing to his moodiness – I hear the very back molars are the worst.

I also went to have a check up for #2 on Friday! So far so great per Dr. Chen. It was kind of funny because she was so active he had to keep moving the doppler to get a good listen to her heartbeat.

We also got all the baby cousins together Friday. It is getting way more fun to see them interact (and hit, and fight, and cry, and not share, and, and, and, and….)

Somehow Aubrey and Elijah managed to lose socks while trying to take possession of the push toy. (okay, wait…maybe Elijah looks a little strange and disgruntled in this pic…but still, by NO means serial-killer-ish)

Can you tell Evan got a hair cut!? He looks so sweet and toddler like already!

Saturday was really great! I got to go to the wineries pretty much ALL day with Steph, Becky and Jon. We went for someone’s birthday party but because of some confusion Steph and I ended up being solo for a while. It was so nice! The weather was perfect, Brad kept Elijah so I had a true day to relax (with really yummy non-alcoholic Raspberry Spumante from Montelle Winery). It was a much needed day too….really, take a look. I’m getting too huge. I needed that day to just sit and do NOTHING!

  How sweet of Becky and Jon!

So there is a bump picture for you….might as well attach my 33rd week survey along with it.

• How far along? 33 weeks 5 days
• Total weight gain/loss: +2
• Maternity clothes? either gauchos or a pair of maternity pants I abhor, but they fit…
• Stretch marks? no, but this could possibly be worse…a deep blue vein protruding out of an old stretch mark. Weird and gross. (let the mommy-make-over research continue…)
• Sleep: I wish I could have more of it but the stupid puppies scream at the top of their lungs until they are let out of the laundry room at ridiculous morning hours
•  Best moment this week: making Elijah have a big belly laugh because he thought it was so hilarious me trying to clumsily pull my pants on one morning
• Movement: it’s not so sweet these days. It’s mostly that ‘lightening crotch’ feeling. Like she’s trying to kick her way out down there
• Food cravings: junk; popcorn and tootsie rolls
• Gender: girl
• Labor Signs: nope
• Belly Button in or out? in
• What I miss: my boobs smelling nice. It seems like my cleavage smells like milk/colostrum all the time now. Not that I sniff them all the time, but the aroma drifts upwards :)
• What I am looking forward to: having a nursery for her! Not random piles of her things scattered ALL over the place
• Weekly Wisdom: As many complaints as I have lately, the good always outweighs the bad. It is imperative to remember that, no matter how overwhelming or exhausting life becomes
• Milestones: slowly started making a list and packing for the hospital

Which reminds me….I found my old hospital bag list.

Hehehehe….

I must have been mad at Brad while writing the list last summer :)

Elijah’s sick :(

He’s had a little bit of a cough the last few days, but tonight he officially had a fever around 100. Wasn’t I just blogging about dreading this??

He’s a little trooper though…still sleeping relatively well at night, but is a Moma-magnet during any waking hours. Yep, I even admit that he had to sit on my lap while I had to pee today. (That was interesting) Poor thing, it’s hard to tell him to go away because he doesn’t feel good…but then again, can I just pee in peace?

Hopefully he gets better by the weekend because he is a park addict, and I love to see him play. Since the weather has been so nice we go a lot lately. He loves it.

Oh yea, it was pretty much laundry day, so that’s why we had to break out the bright Elmo socks.

If we’re not at the parks he is craving to go outside. It actually brings up safety issue because he started turning the knob and the lock the other day….Anyway, he wants to go out and sneak to the neighbor’s porch and ride their little car.

My dad gave in and let him do it last Sunday.

Oh! I have to document that he says another word!! Flower…which in his vocabulary is actually “oww”. So sweet. He’s also been climbing up and down stairs by himself the last few weeks. He is becoming quite the adventurer!

So 48 more days until #2 is expected to be here! Time is flying, and I can’t keep up. I’ve been on overdrive trying to ‘nest’ but can’t because like I said, I can’t even pee alone anymore. So in two weeks the puppies will be gone (thank goodness…I already have a new mop, and tuned-up steam cleaner ready to use) so I can get the house in tip-top shape again.

I also have to finish the furniture…eek. I’ve made some progress during nap times, but I would still love a whole afternoon to dedicate and finish…unfortunately that time I could get during the weekend goes to Brad and the basement. Which is okay….because!!! We passed the city inspection on the 13th (yesterday) and started insulating tonight. We just have to be ready for Ron on Monday to begin the drywall.  Soooo excited. I’ve been waiting for visual progress for some time now, and it’s finally starting to take shape.

I just took these tonight. Tim came over to help, thanks Tim!

Hooray! I can soon begin a nursery! maybe then a name will come to us more clearly when she has her space designated here…

What a weekend!

We managed to make it to the pumpkin patch on Saturday (finally)! Although, I have to complain a little because it wasn’t the “fall” activity I was hoping – it was so hot everyone was sweating their butts off. A few of us even walked away with some sun!

But the best part was Sunday!!! Stephanie and Becky threw me a surprise baby shower! It was so exciting! I still can’t believe it! I knew they had been acting funny the past few weeks….well, I guess I mean I couldn’t figure it out. They would go out and I figured they wouldn’t call me because Elijah is so particular with his schedule sometimes and a pain in the butt if he is off his routine. Those sneaks!!

I got a little more confused when on Sunday Brad said we would go to lunch and didn’t go until after 2!! I hadn’t eaten all day, we kept procrastinating, Elijah was being SOOO clingy (he has a cough, and a cold). But it was worth it because the weather was so nice and we decided to eat outside on Main Street St. Charles. Even better when we went to Winery of the Little Hills (one of my favorite places – with really yummy raspberry wine). As we are walking up to get seated there are all these pink balloons and familiar faces!  What a great surprise! Stephanie has the pictures I’ll have to get from her and post.

I can’t thank everyone enough for the gifts, participation and for just thinking of me. I’ve been an emotional rollercoaster and it was perfect timing to “feel” that love from everyone – especially my sisters. Thank you guys!!!! I love you both soooo much. :)

Oh, well here is one pic I can share. The diaper cake! It looks great ( I love gerber daisies) even with the “brown” diapers I use :)

I’ll admit. I’m still overwhelmed by all of the pink. I’m having a girl….a girl without a name!! Even the cake at the shower said “Welcome Baby ???” I can’t help but laugh that my poor baby doesn’t even have an identity yet! I love her, nonetheless :)

In other good news! After much anger and frustration, Bob (who’s name I say very dryly and with contempt) is finished!! Hooray! He said that he would be finished Monday the 4th, which turned into no communication until Friday the 8th (which he didn’t show up AGAIN!) and finally he came on Sunday to work all day and finished up a few hours yesterday. Good Grief!! but the inspection is scheduled for tomorrow morning. Cross your fingers that we pass so we can start insulation and that Ron can come back on the 18th to start the drywall.   

 

Okay I jut tried to upload a slideshow of our pumpkin patch visit, but it didn’t work. With it being a Tuesday morning I have the girls here so I fear my “peaceful” time is limited…so here are some good ones from the day. (Again, I need some of yours schploof!)

 

He wasn’t feeling great (he hasn’t been all weekend) so he wanted mama…a lot…

Why did I put him in orange?

Logan wore those pretty much all day!

Batman holding Superman!

It was so funny seeing all of the dads sqeezing on the train with their kids :)

Evan is probably the world’s BEST baby. Probably one of the cutest too.

Logan was actually laughing most of the ride (I think)…you can see how well Elijah like it…look in the background. I eventually had to take him off because it was becoming too dangerous once I got stomped on! stupid pony…

Aubrey was in heaven, being the animal lover she is.

Look at all of those toofers!

Emma with a huge pumpkin!

We were all ready to go after a few hours….it was nearly 90 degrees!

Oh, and since we were out that way (at Rombach’s) we stopped for some chicken and a shake….Aubrey was happy about the shake :)

So there you have it! Perfect timing too…my sickly little guy just woke up from an unusual morning nap….so I gotta snuggle him a bit.

Uuuh – Oooh.

I think we hear this a hundred times a day now :)

We’re trying to limit our wild man’s behavior by telling him to not throw toys…only balls (maybe that’s too complicated for him to figure out at this point, but he’s smart, I have faith). So, now when he throws his LEGOs it’s “okay” to throw them because, Uuuh-ooh, it was an accident. It’s so stinking cute though when he says it, and gets this expression on his face like “how’d that happen?”

Along with that he is also expanding his vocabulary!

• nana = banana
• brrm brrm = balloon
• botum = bottle/hungry
• ot = hot
• hai hai = no (this is hilarious. He screams ‘hai hai’ and squats like a football player pointing to things that he knows are a ‘no no’ to touch)

That may be it….unless I’m forgetting something. Anyway, I am bad about pulling out the baby book and writing these kinds of things down, so my excuse is that I’ll blog about it and write it in later.

I guess  cold and flu season is upon us now. I am dreading it. Mostly because, like I mentioned before, I’ve never really had to deal with a sick child! I’ve been fortunate enough that Elijah has never really been sick on many occasions.

His cousin Logan is having a rough time staying well. He even had an ear infection that burst his ear drum! Oddly enough Aubrey is also going through something similar. She has an ear infection and the meds aren’t really working fast enough and she is a crying, fussy mess.

I’m so nervous that he may get sick. I think I am more nervous for me than him. Hopefully I’ll know what to do, and how to handle it. Luckily, I am not squeamish about sticking a thermometer up his bum. But I’m not really confident about anything else.

why do I feel like I am being completely neurotic and pregnancy minded? – I probably am.

Brad is off of work tomorrow so we can finish up some basement things (including track down a new HVAC guy…Bob is soooooo fired). Anyway, it’s late, I’m rambling and I think I can catch the last bit of Iron Chef before bed, so goodnight all.