Because I need to laugh

This week is eating my soul, I think. All I know is I work from sun up to sun down and then crash the second my head hits the pillow, only to wake up at about 2:30 am and unable to sleep well the rest of the night. We're headed to my parents' house this weekend and I think I will use that time to hide in the guest room with Mockingjay and frequent naps. Man, that sounds like heaven.

Anyway, here are five things that have made me laugh this week, just when I needed the laughter most.

1. Aaron was outside picking pears off of our tree, and got stung. The funny part is where he got stung - on his butt! Even he was laughing.

2. Gabbie has had a couple of potty accidents this week, but we can't get too upset about them, because most have been because she was too excited to get back to what she was doing and didn't finish going before she stood up. Oh, the things we have to learn in this life!

3. The Big Bang Theory last night. It was awesome.

4. Gabbie, though being annoying due to moving approximately the pace of molasses in January, singing "I'm a Little Teapot" and dancing to the car this morning.

5. Gabbie, again, bossing us around at dinner last night. Such authority from such a little person! She really does think she's the boss.

I thought weekends were for making you less exhausted

Oh, this past weekend is so on my list. Thank goodness it's over! It was a mix of not sleeping, toddlers refusing to eat, crabby adults, pregnancy aches, and a severe case of the pregnancy weepies. I really wish there was a do-over button, because I can think of a million ways to improve upon what just happened.

Can I rant on the toddlers refusing to eat for just a moment? We've been giving Gabbie the ability to choose what she wants to eat (within reason) for things like breakfast and weekend lunches. Yesterday we asked her what she would like to eat, and she said she wanted noodles and sauce. So we made her noodles and sauce. She ate one noodle, sans sauce, and then requested a treat. She is now grounded (what a milestone!) from treats until next Sunday, because she expects one for every piece of semi-healthy food she puts in her mouth and that's completely unacceptable. Aaron told Gabbie that she'd better eat up because I had threatened her with this and I don't make threats easily. I'm the more laid back parent, but when she does enough to make me upset? Watch out. I don't make idle threats. We even told her daycare teacher about the no sweets rule, and she totally agreed to make sure Gabbie got no treats this week. Consequences - she has to learn them, and this is the least painful way we can think of to teach that lesson.

I don't have too much to say about the pregnancy weepies other than they started out with a conversation about eclairs (seriously) and ended up with me wailing about how I can't handle a toddler that won't eat, a crabby husband (mostly about the not eating), AND a newborn, so they all have to shape up. Unreasonable, probably, but pregnancy hormones and reasonableness are not acquainted I don't think.

On Saturday we hosted my friend's husband and toddler for the day while she was in town for a couple of meetings. At the end of a (VERY LONG, mostly because it started at 4:45 am with a kicky baby) day we decided to all go out for dinner before they headed back home. That was a mistake, to say the very least. We realized at the end of the meal that the adults hadn't talked at all because we spent the entire time wrangling toddlers. Next time we're hiring a babysitter and doing an adults only dinner, because we totally deserve it.

The only redeeming thing about this weekend is that I didn't have to work and I got to spend quality time with my family. They're cute and all, so I think I'll keep them around, even if they do make me insane.

Friday Tidbits

I seem to have lost my mind (or at least my memory), so you get short bits and pieces today, because I'm afraid I'd get lost if I tried to write more than that and make a coherent point. Pregnancy brain, sleepless nights (HEARTBURN!), and finally wrapping up my huge work project are to blame, I'm sure.

• I had an OB appointment this morning and everything looks great with both me and the baby. Her heartbeat was strong and immediately present when the doppler hit my belly. I'm measuring perfectly and had the best blood pressure reading I've ever had when attending an OB appointment. I was already in a great mood this morning, and now I can't wipe the smile off my face. Such an excellent start to the day!
• I feel like I could do a whole, "Kids Say the Darndest Things" episode from the things Gabbie comes up with each week. She's so incredibly verbal (even if I am the only one that understands her half the time), and picks up on EVERYTHING that is said. Seriously everything. She has been sort of anti-bath lately, as she'd rather keep playing than get clean. We've tried everything to get her in there and have found that humor is our best weapon. So, when it's bath time we tell her it's time to go clean up because she has a stinky butt. Bathroom humor works with toddlers every time! Well, the other morning as I was getting ready to jump in the shower, Gabbie started softly giggling to herself. I asked her what was so funny, and she replied, "Mommy has a stinky butt!" Hilarious, Kid. Thanks.
• Is it sad that I've been looking forward to Saturday all week because I'm making meatball subs and I can't wait to eat them? I thought maybe.
• Also on the food related front, I think I'm giving up fast food again. I had been going strong eating at some fast food place about twice a week for the past couple months, but something happened recently that has made me cut it out cold turkey. This is really gross, so you may want to skip over this bullet if you're eating or have a weak stomach. So, at a local Mickey D's they were having problems with their frozen drink (frappe latte and smoothie) machine. It was sometimes working and sometimes not, and had been going on for a while, so finally someone decided to see what was up. Do you want to know what was up? Maggots were up. They were clogging the machine. Even worse? An employee said they were pressured to keep selling the products even though the cleanup was not successfully completed. Thankfully (very, very thankfully) this is not a branch of the establishment that I've ever visited. And now I most certainly never will. EWWWW!
• To change topics completely: I think I may be a geek. Today I told Aaron that instead of going to work today, I would prefer to stay home and watch Ghost Hunters and Destination Truth, along with a few other of my favorite SyFy shows. In fact, most of my favorite shows air on SyFy. It's a little sad how geeky I am. If only my sorority sisters could see me now.
• And, I'll wrap up on pregnancy related stuff too. Aren't you excited? Anyway, I haven't had too many consistent cravings during this pregnancy, just mostly fleeting, "You know what would be really excellent right now?" thoughts that I can usually ignore. Not bad, and helpful in the weight gain deparment (in the third trimester and only up 10 pounds!). However, the one thing I have been craving consistently is totally weird, because it's something I have never liked up until about 10 weeks ago. I really always want sliced black olives on everything. Pizza? Load it up. Nachos? Sounds fabulous. In fact, right now I think that some cheese fries topped with black olives would be excellent.

Big Girl Type Accomplishments

I haven't written about it much, other than to say that it might be the death of me, but we've been working hard on getting Gabbie potty trained. I really wanted a few months without diapers, and I don't want to jinx it, but it looks like we might have reached that goal! I have about three months left before our Littlest Miss gets here and Gabbie has been accident free for over a week now.

Potty training may be the hardest thing I ever did. Throw in a busy work schedule, a strong pregnancy gag reflex that caused my husband to have to be the only one who had to deal with the number two type accidents, and all kinds of evening and weekend plans, and you get one stressed out family. Gabbie was ready, though. I don't think we would be where we are without daycare, and their strong efforts in the potty training arena as well. The peer pressure from the other kids in her class, big girl underpants with "Melmo" (Elmo), "Ancy Ancy" (Fancy Nancy), and "Minnamuss" (Minnie Mouse) didn't hurt either.

I am not above bribery to get my way in certain situations, and so we bribed with treats, "big treats" (fancier candy when she did a number two), and small presents for entire days (or entire multiple days as she progressed) without accidents. Now that she has gone more than a week, I'm thinking we'll get her one more surprise and then call it quits with all the treats. We've been phasing them out anyway.

As our work stress levels have lessened a bit, we've been able to see more humor in the whole process. Aaron has taken a page out of Gabbie's book and run out of the bathroom announcing to the room, "I PEED!" (Then I about peed - he should know better than to make a pregnant lady laugh so hard.) She's so proud of herself, though, that she can't help but announce her success, and sometimes clap too, every time she goes to the potty.

The best humor came a few weeks ago when Gabbie came with me for a potty break in a fairly crowded department store restroom. As I was taking care of business, Gabbie busted out with the clapping and a "Yay Mommy" for my potty success. There was snickering from the rest of our audience in the room, and one mom reminisced with me about when she was going through the same thing. It was pretty awesome.

I'm so proud of my big girl. She is growing up so much every day, and I feel like every time I blink she's doing something new. Two may sometimes be terrible, but I have to admit I'm enjoying it quite a lot. Even more now that I don't have to change diapers!

Kids!

This one's a little photo-heavy. Sorry if it takes forever to load!

On Sunday when my parents were here, Gabbie was playing alone by herself in the family room for a short time. All of the sudden she started running back and forth between the toy box and the couch, yelling, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" I let her continue for a couple of minutes before I checked up on what she was doing (with camera in hand, of course). 

You can't really tell from the top picture as well as from this second one, so:

She was dressing up her baby with Mr. Potato Head parts. See the arms shoved in the baby's sleeves? And the nose in the baby's mouth? And my favorite, because she always tries to be just like me - the glasses shoved up on top of her head ("Glasses Hat!", or rather, "Gwasses Hat!")

I'm crying laughing right now because the whole thing was so hilarious. You may have had to be there for the full effect, but I just love how creative my girl is. She's full of imagination lately, and personality too. It's awesome.

Also awesome was getting to watch her interact with her second cousin once removed (? - Aaron's cousin's baby) a few weekends ago. I mean, I already knew she loved babies, but she was pretty darn adorable with this one.

She wanted to hold her the whole time we were there. She got to hold the baby a couple of times and was pleased as punch (until the baby pulled on her braid right after this picture was taken; then she was done).

And, just for fun, here's a picture of my other kid (!):

We have other, much better pictures of her from our most recent ultrasound experience, but our scanner isn't hooked up right now, and these were on a disc. You'll have to take my word on it, but she looks just like her sister. If this second kid is as cute, smart, and funny as Gabbie, we're in big trouble!

Feathering My Nest

I am in little doubt that the nesting phase of this pregnancy is in full swing. I didn't really go through this at all with Gabbie, so it's a new feeling to me, this wanting to have my house in perfect order, everything set up where it needs to be and ready to go for when the baby gets here. I think it might have been apartment living that squelched the nesting last time. I couldn't really do anything other than wash and fold her clothes and get them put away, and make sure we had the gear we needed. So nesting last time was more like shopping, and I wanted to do that all the time.

This time, I don't really have the urge to shop, but if I could take off work and paint the baby's room today, I would. I'd also sew or knit her up a blanket, have all of Gabbie's baby clothes sorted, washed, and put into dresser drawers, have a freezer full of meals ready to go, and have my house sparkling clean from top to bottom, end to end. This is so weird!

Another example of the weirdness? I have an overwhelming urge to clean out my refrigerator, freezer, and pantry, get them well stocked, and ready to go. I also told Aaron this morning that we're going to make a Google calendar filled up with when we need to do certain chores, when bills are due, and other goals and milestones ready to go, so we don't get too disorganized when Baby J arrives. I also put up a dry erase board on the back door so that I can make sure to look at a list and have everything I need for the day when leaving in the morning. This is not normal for me at all!

As of today, I have slightly less than 2 weeks left until I'm in the third trimester, and if I could accomplish my huge to do list before then I would.

Speaking of the huge to do list, here are the things I'd like to do before Baby J gets here in December:

1. Paint nursery
2. Get furniture assembled and in place
3. Get baby gear cleaned up and in place
4. Get clothing organized/purchased, washed, and in place
5. Buy new life insurance
6. Get those wills in order
7. Decorate my entire house
8. Freeze a bunch of meals (try to talk Aaron into buying a small deep freeze so I can freeze even more. It's a sickness.)
9. Get all Christmas Shopping done by November
10. Can a bunch of jams and other foods
11. Get Gabbie's baby book completed, order a bound book full of Gabbie's baby photos, and organize all that related stuff
12. Clean the carpets throughout the house
13. Buy some containers to properly organize pantry
14. Finish unpacking or at least put unpacked boxes on shelves so the basement is organized
15. Take a nap

I think that's everything. Probably not. I also have to fit in work and family togetherness, plus all of the baking and other holiday prep that I love to do every year. Oh, and I'm hosting Thanksgiving, less than a month before my due date. I'm clearly crazy.