38 Weeks Pregnant

5 weeks 38 weeks

My how my belly has changed!!! I am now 38 weeks pregnant. One more week to go. The induction date is scheduled for Monday January 5th. I am so ready to be done and hold my little boy. Shock has not worn off that in just 6 days I will have a toddler AND a newborn. Yowza!

I Forgot Too Easily

I am a firm believer that people should live together before getting married. I'm not saying you have to be intimate or "do the deed" with your significant other, but it is important (to me anyway) that you really know who you are marrying. Dave and I lived together for a few years and I learned pretty much every god awful annoying habit of his and learned how to either deal with them, change them, or complain about them without him wanting to leave me. Most annoying on the list are: chewing with his mouth open, snoring, tapping his feet, pacing... and the list goes on. But you get used to those sorts of things and eventually you get over them.

Well, after living without him for 5 months, I have apparently forgotten ALL of these annoying habits. And let me tell you, they came back full force this weekend. Maybe its because I am sick and 38 weeks pregnant, but man oh man, did these habits drive me bonkers. How horrible of a wife am I that I was a little glad he was leaving today so I could have the bed to myself??? No more snoring, no getting kicked, no one taking up my side of the bed, no one's elbows in my face, no one's breath on me (I HATE feeling someone breathe on me, especially when I am trying to sleep). Please do not get me wrong, I love my husband dearly and wouldn't trade him for anyone in the world. But at 3am when I haven't been sleeping for 3 hours, I really want him to be somewhere else.

Please send happy money thoughts our way so that we can afford a bigger bed when we move so these problems will be resolved! 2 adults and 2 cats should NOT be sharing a double bed. This should be illegal!

Feline Fridays - A day late

An oldie, but a cutie!! This is Alice at about 4 months old. She had only been in our house for a few weeks and already took over Dave's pillow. She was so TINY and delicate. Then I got her and fattened her up. Ha!

Merry Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Unfortunately I'm not thinking quite clearly and have yet to get a picture of Jordan, Dave, and I together since October, so hopefully I can get one before the weekend is over and Dave returns to Norfolk.

Anyway, we had a lovely Christmas. The day started out with me baking peanut butter cookies. I taught Jordan the valuable lesson of learning how to lick the spatula!


Then, after an unsuccessful attempt to nap, Grandpa came over and took us to the airport to pick up Daddy!!!


Then we opened presents at home. Jordan got lots of books and a cool Fisher Price Little People house from Mommy and Daddy. What does it say of Mommy that both her and Jordan's favorite noise it makes is the toilet flushing??? Seriously, its so cool!

After that, we headed on over to Grandma and Grandpa's house where Jordan got the coolest present of all... her first train set!!! This gift is probably the best thing she has ever gotten in her entire life. She is in love with the trains and has such a good time with them. Today she skipped breakfast (unheard of!) to play with her trains. Mommy is already looking on ebay to get more track pieces. Ha ha!

But the best present of all? Having Dave/Daddy home... no comparison. We're so blessed to have our family together for the holiday that presents, food, etc... nothing else matters to me. We're together, as we should be!

I hope everyone out there in blog world was able to experience a wonderful Christmas like I did.

Always around the holidays

Kids have an uncanny ability to get sick at times most inconvenient for us adults. Last month Jordan got pink eye right before Thanksgiving. Thankfully it showed up on Wednesday and I was able to get her a doctor's appointment and drops before the office closed. For Christmas, Jordan is developing quite the nasty cold. She has been hacking up her lungs since last night. Lots of Vics vaporrub got us through the night. She was in good spirits this morning so I reluctantly took her to daycare. She was fine, but still hacking her lung. Lets keep our fingers crossed that it is ONLY a cold and she doesn't develop something worse on Christmas or over the weekend.

I haven't been on the blog for a few days... it was a CRAZY weekend. Trip to triage at the hospital Friday late afternoon because of insane pain I was having. Dave coming home, thinking we were going to have Ben (who of course is quite content in his mansion and showing no signs of coming out in 2008). At my 37 week appointment today, the doctor said I was still only 1cm dilated and wasn't showing any signs of going into labor anytime soon, so no induction date has been set. Hopefully next week??? All the pain I was having this weekend was because of how Ben is being carried. Ie, out and LOW. All my muscles are shot at this point and are unable to handle the strain Ben is putting on me. Lovely. But Dave will be back for the weekend, so Jordan and I are quite thrilled to get to see him TWICE this month!

Sunday we helped my parents decorate their Christmas tree. It looks lovely. Jordan is quite impressed with the ornamental red trumpets that actually make noise when you blow through them. These were always my favorites growing up as I found the noise fun to produce and it also had an annoyance affect on my family. Seems Jordan has inherited this from me! I don't think she understands the concept of Christmas, so its probably a good thing we haven't really gone all out this year. Next year we'll probably do the whole Santa thing and a stocking, when she can appreciate it more.

Feline Fridays

I decided I need to start a weekly post about something and have picked the cats. Well, mostly, I mean Royboy. For a cat so fat and lazy, he can sure be entertaining!



Roy is an exceptionally tolerant cat when it comes to toddlers. Lately he's been letting Jordan pile things on him. Here he is from a few weeks ago with a magnadoodle, a sailor hat, under the sailor hat are about a dozen crayons, and construction paper. He stayed like this about fifteen minutes before getting up. Good kitty!!

And the winner is....

THE BOOKSHELF!!!





That's right... Jordan tripped at daycare over NOTHING and smashed her face into a bookshelf. Why does she have this habit of getting black eyes or a scraped up face near holidays?



I love this photo. This is a common occurrence lately. She loves to have her cars/doll on the tray when she's eating.

More Degrees Means Less Common Sense

A friend of mine was recently telling me about some "trouble" her boss was getting into. Her boss had 3 university degrees yet common sense seemed to have escaped her in this particular situation. After many emails back and forth I started to think about my dad.

I love my dad. I've always been a total daddy's girl and am proud of it. I also hold my dad in very high regards. In first grade we were supposed to do an interview of someone we admired, and I interviewed my dad. He's one of the smartest people I know. He is pretty important in his field (theoretical chemistry) and is quite sought out by many people for his expertise and knowledge. Yet for some reason, when my dad graduated from MIT with his Phd, he was required to swap the new title of Doctor for his common sense.

Here are some examples of my dad's lack of common sense:
- He has put his shorts on backwards and did not realize so (they were short shorts... could NOT have been comfortable even worn the correct way)
- He has had to pay full price on a turnpike because when he entered the turnpike he thought that the "ticket" lanes meant you had to have a ticket already, which he didn't because he was ENTERING the turnpike, so he took the "easy pass" lane.
- He once went through a stop sign on the way home from work (blamed me because I was talking to him... even though he drives home this way EVERY DAY since 1978) so he backed up to make the stop sign
- He put on my sister's purple coat once mistaking it for his green one... My dad is 6 feet tall and my sister is 5'1"
- He froze my lizard's crickets on the mile + walk home from the petstore in the dead of winter.
- After living in the same house with Dave since 2004, he still needed directions.
- When teaching me how to drive, he insisted I learn how to back up into a parking space. Keep in mind, this was the FIRST time I had ever been behind the wheel. So naturally I ran into the "Principal Parking Only" sign and dented the car.

Anyway, the list could go on and on.
None of these instances make me think any less of my dad. I just assume he's too busy working out some major science problem in his mind instead of thinking about anything else. Which is most likely true.

36 Weeks Pregnant

Front view Side view

I think Ben has dropped. Especially from the front view, my belly looks like its hanging much lower. And its harder down near the bottom than it ever has been. Oh and the other clue is the increase of pelvic and hip pain. Nothing unbearable though. It is those damn hormones that are making me want to scream "GET THIS KID OUT OF ME!" I am an emotional wreck 80% of the time, and poor Dave probably is damning the webcams we got because now he has to see me cry as well as hear me when we talk in the evenings.

I seriously cannot imagine getting any bigger in the next 4 weeks. Its just not possible. Besides, even my longest shirts are now getting a bit short, and I am NOT buying new maternity clothes a month before I have my baby. So I apologize world if I start showing skin, but get over it!

Here is a video I took the other day. I was debating whether or not I should put it on the blog, but it is just too weird NOT to share. I still think one of these days Ben is going just rip open my skin and start dancing like the alien at the end of the movie Spaceballs.

Success!!

I must be the ONLY parent who is TRYING to find a dessert type food that their child likes. Jordan ate chocolate cupcakes on her first birthday, but since then has not been a fan of any sort of cakes. She has taken a few bites of ice cream cake at a few birthday parties, but that's about it. Ice cream gets a lick or two then pushed away, except for the ONE time when I got her soft serve and she housed it. Lately (last few months) I have been baking a lot. Chocolate cookies were spit out and handed back to me. Pies at Thanksgiving were given a forceful NO when attempted to be tasted. Last week I made sugar cookies to bring into work. Jordan ate a few bites of dough... I gave her a little ball of dough to play with while I was rolling and cutting the rest, and she gobbled it up before I knew it, then asked for more. But go figure, the child would not eat the actual baked cookie.

Yesterday I decided to make my grandmother's recipe for peanut butter cookies. I LOVE this recipe. It is my favorite and it is not shared with anyone as it is the ONLY family recipe we seem to have that was passed down multiple generations. Jordan asked for some dough, so I gave her a little. She ate it again. I distracted her with bananas until the first batch was out of the oven. Once they cooled she ate 2 and kept asking for more! I can't believe it!! Success!

I'm thinking that for her birthday instead of getting or making a cake I will just bake a giant peanut butter cookie and decorate it. =)

This time last year

I thought since I posted a picture of Jordan next to the tree yesterday, that I should post one of her and the tree from last year. I can't believe how much my little girl has changed in a year. She's definitely outgrowing her title as Baby and moving onto Kid.

Her first....

Just some numbers for you

Today I am 35 weeks pregnant; 35 days until my estimated due date.

17 days until Christmas and Dave comes home for 2.5 days.

14 days until I am technically full term with this pregnancy.

5 more days to go to work over a 2 weeks span.

3 days without Facebook access (a whole other story... Lets just say pregnancy brain does not favor me)

Stay-Puff Marshamallow Toddler

I have fond memories of growing up in Pittsburgh in the winter time. I LOVE snow. I remember getting out our simple red plastic sleds and going down the front yard with my friends. In retrospect I'm shocked my parents let me since we lived on a busy street and there was a bit tree and often a car parked on the sidewalk in front of our yard. But they let me, and the double dip in our front yard made it even more fun. I remember snowball fights, and coming in with numb hands and drinking hot chocolate. I remember watching the snow pile up so high during a blizzard that the bushes in front of our house fell completely over. I remember our Spanish exchange student coming downstairs and asking my dad how the weather was outside and he said "nice" so she went out in a t-shirt and pants (in the same blizzard that bent our bushes back). Needless to say she was not as amused as dad and I were. But snow was something my friends and I looked forward to every winter. Not just because of the awesomeness of school being cancelled if there was too much snow, but because we gathered at each other's houses and enjoyed the beautiful white fluffy snow and created fond, lasting memories.

I am shocked that after living in Pittsburgh since 1997, Dave never went sledding. He never built a snowman with a carrot for a nose. He never enjoyed the fresh falling snow before it was turned so grayish slush by cars. I want my children to experience this snow. I want them to have fun with mother nature and not just sit inside because it is too cold to go outside, or just see it on TV because we live somewhere too warm. So here is my little snow bunny, nearing her second year of life, and enjoying freshly fallen snow.

Snow angels on the sidewalk?? Silly girl!

On a walk around the block.

New discoveries this week

Jordan and I have recently discovered new things this week. We both finally realized that Sesame Street is on at 6:30am, perfect time in the morning... Jordan can watch while I get ready for work. Jordan discovered she actually does like Sesame Street. I have discovered that the sound of Elmo's voice (especially when singing) makes me want to go on a homicidal rampage.

A friend pointed out last night that at least Jordan isn't watching Barney... at 6:30 in the morning I am not sure they are much different in my mind. But just in case, lets hope Jordan never discovers that incredibly creepy and annoying purple dinosaur.

Defending Our Territory

So I have debated putting these sorts of photos on my blog in fear that my mothering skills will be criticized. My daughter, like the cats, is in love with the windowsill. She would spend all day, every day perched up there with books and snacks if I let her. Once in awhile I do, when I am particularly tired, only to get her down to change diapers or for meals.

Occasionally Jordan will share her space with Royboy... but as a general rule the windowsill is Jordan Territory. Today we had friends over, and as a precaution, Jordan spent much of the playdate at ... you guessed it... the windowsill. To be fair, she did take a break to guard her books on the bookshelf and to eat lunch. The playdate went well, both toddlers played in opposite areas of the apartment until after lunch. Then blood got spilled. Unfortunately for the other toddler, Jordan felt her space was being invaded and "dropped" a book on the unsuspecting toddler. I would like to think this was an accident, but my better judgement says that Jordan did it on purpose. My deepest apologies to the bleeding toddler and the mom!!

34 Weeks Pregnant

Holy smokes I am having a baby next month!!! 3 more weeks until I am considered full term... where has the time gone??? A few people have said they think Ben will come early. Lets hope not. As much as I would love to not be pregnant anymore, I would love for Dave to be here for Ben's birth even more.

This pregnancy is going so fast, and surprisingly well considering I am working and taking care of a very active toddler by myself. Pain is pretty much diminished now, except for braxton hicks contractions every day or every other day. Last Friday I began to lose some of my mucus plug. Then quickly emailed my friends to tell them and gross them out. Ha ha!! Decided to spare my family that detail though, they were getting sick enough with all the turkey leftovers.

And if one more checkout lady at the grocery store makes a comment about how I look like I'm due much sooner, I will punch someone... Seriously.