Ways in Which my Weekend Sucked

1. Experiencing pregnancy hormones that make me weepy at the drop of a hat
2. Carrying a baby that likes to bounce on my bladder making running errands quite interesting.
3. Wanting to eat out on Saturday night but being thwarted by the large crowds brought into town by the MSU/Purdue game (GO STATE!) causing hour plus waits at every restaurant in town.
4. Dealing with the worst heartburn I've ever had.
5. Aaron having an issue that makes it hard for him to move/lift things and causes him a lot of pain, but also having him not listen to me and do three hours plus of yard work that just made things worse.
6. Gabbie not using her listening ears. At all.
7. Burning the batch of granola I made that I had been looking forward to all week.
8. Not having ingredients I needed to make dinner yesterday (I fudged the recipe and it still turned out pretty darn delicious)
9. Slicing through my fingernail (near the cuticle) with a sharp serrated knife while trying to slice bread. (OUCH!)
10. Having my back go out last night.

However, my weekend was spent hanging out with my family, engaging in lots of cuddling and smiling a lot despite all the suckage, and really, no amount of suckage outweighs those things.

Leaving babyhood behind, far too quickly for my taste

Intellectually I understand that Gabbie is not a "baby" anymore. However, every time we start to leave a babyish habit behind, I am a little bit sad. Currently she is without diapers, eats on our regular plates with our regular silverware, drinks out of a regular cup, and falls asleep by herself in her big girl bed. The only baby habit we had left was the binky, and it was far past time when the binky needed to go.

Gabbie, 5 months old, with The Bink

The Bink, as we called it, has been a fairly constant companion to Gabbie since we finally gave in and gave it to her when she was 10 weeks old (we are not planning to hold out this time). It has been easy to let her have it. We limited it to nights and naps (and in the car on long trips) only when she was about 18 months old, and that system has worked well for us, unless she's hurt and then it's hard not to give her something that helps comfort her so quickly. Sure, she got plenty of hugs and cuddles too, but The Bink has been our ace in the hole for all kinds of situations.

But she's closing in quickly on 2 1/2, and we are now fairly committed. The Bink has to go. Gabbie helped us along in this process last week at daycare. We had one Bink for daycare and one Bink for home. After her nap one day they couldn't find The Daycare Bink. Searching high and low yielded nothing, but they figured it would turn up when they cleaned the classroom at the end of the day. When it didn't, they gave her a loaner binky for nap the next day, and after nap they caught her about to put the loaner binky in the trash. When they asked if she had thrown away The Bink the day before, and she answered, "Yep!" before running off to play.

So, down to one Bink, we decided it was now or never. She didn't use The Bink for most of her naps at daycare last week, but I gave in a lot this weekend due to the whole single parenting gig while Aaron was at deer camp. Yesterday she went down for nap without The Bink with no problem, but then some noise by the school's maintenance crew woke her up and scared her, so they gave it to her. Last night, Aaron lied to her (and I told him it was all on him now if she caught him in the lie, which is something she's really good at) and told her that he left The Bink at school and so it would be a little while before he could go get it, and then he asked her to lay there and try to go to sleep in the meantime.

Five minutes later she was asleep and slept soundly all night with no Bink. Success! For one night at least.

This morning we sat her down for a little chat and told her that if she went all week without using The Bink, that the Binky Fairy would bring her a big present this weekend. She will do pretty much anything for even a little present, so we'll probably be heading out to the store soon to buy her the promised present. I'm so proud of my girl for being so big, but I'm still a little sad that yet another artifact from her babyhood is going away.

I'm also preparing for the battles that are likely to occur when or if she sees the baby using a bink.

She Sure is Cute!

I know you all know the saying, "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." Yeah. That's why you're getting these pictures today.

Updates of the Random Variety

Gabbie actually ate food last week! Real food! Without really any battles. It's amazing how much better my week goes when I don't have to fight with my child several times a day in order to get her to ingest a few calories. She even ate turkey pineapple chili and chicken spaghetti without a fight. It was amazing! Yesterday I was making pulled pork nachos for lunch (delicious!) and I knew she wouldn't eat those, but I gave her a plate with separate piles of chips, pork, cole slaw, and cheese sauce and she dug right in. There was a little bit of a battle to get her to try the cheese sauce, but once she did she loved it (who wouldn't?). Then she kept quoting Yo Gabba Gabba over and over again: "I tried it and I liked it!"

Of course, all of this eating doesn't come without consequence, and of course the pants that fit last week are flood pants this week.

As a reward for being so good last week, we took a family outing to local kids' science museum on Saturday morning, and she loved it. It was a blast, and we went early enough that we beat out the crowds, which were starting to get massive by the time we left. She, of course, loved it. (Especially the Bubble Room.)

Baby #2 provided all kinds of good news this morning at my OB appointment. My blood pressure was good, I didn't gain any weight since my last appointment (we've been eating healthy and avoiding take out as much as possible), Baby's heart rate was the same as always (it has been at 158 at every appointment), and the best news of all: she's head down! Now as long as she stays that way we're in business. I'm still not at the point where I'm uncomfortable all day (although I know that's not too far off), and I definitely have some limitations on what I can do, but I really can't complain all that much, which is awesome.

Lastly, I know it's only Monday, but I really can't wait until this weekend. Aaron is headed off to Beer Camp (aka Deer Camp, even though he doesn't hunt, he goes to hang out, eat fattening food, and drink good beer), and wanted to make sure someone was with me in case anything baby related went down, so my sister is spending the weekend with Gabbie and me. I'm especially excited, because I'm soaking in as much sister time as possible these days. Right now she lives with my parents (she works 60+ hours a week, and therefore would never see an apartment if she rented one) just 90 minutes away, but come March she's moving across the country to live with her boyfriend of five years (who is working on his PhD so is unable to move back here for another five years or so). I can't blame her, but I am going to miss her horribly. A girls' weekend with her sounds great right about now.

My Family is Nuts

This week all my whole family has wanted to do is stay in bed and cuddle all day. None of us has wanted to go to work or daycare, or spend time apart from one another.

Of course, now that the weekend is here, Aaron and I have made all kinds of plans that will keep us from doing that much, if at all. We're planning on breakfast out, a trip to a museum and local city market, a couple of shopping trips for things for the house, and various other items on our to-do list. I don't know what it is about the weekends, but we seem to fit in as much as humanly possible and then spend the days we need to be out of the house craving to do the opposite. We're obviously nuts.

Still, it has been a fantastic (if not quick enough) week, and it's nice when we're not all sick of each other. I mean, really, how could I ever be sick of spending time these two goofballs?

I can't wait until I have three of these nuts to deal with!

The Desire to Hibernate is Strong

I have to say, I am having a hard time thinking of anything to post about today. Despite two full-nights' sleep I am more tired today than normal. I blame being pregnant and the weather (it's supposed to snow tonight. Snow!). It's this time of year that I feel like doing nothing more than curling up on the couch with someone to cuddle, and alternately napping or watching a movie. Yep, that's about it.

Unfortunately I'm expected to do things, like work, parent, interact with my husband and others, cook, clean, etc. Don't people know it's hibernation time?

Fortunately I do get to hibernate for most of the winter. After the baby gets here, our only outings will likely be to daycare to drop Gabbie off or pick her up. I will be spending most of the winter cuddled up with the baby, watching movies or reading while she nurses or snoozes, and I kind of can't wait. Not kind of actually. I'm feeling ready for that to happen.

Now, off to do the million things I have to do before that happens, because, you know, feeling responsible and not wanting to leave extra work for others, and all that.

Updates On My Other Child

There are a couple of those pregnancy/baby week-by-week apps on my phone, and as of Sunday they both informed me that my baby could already be five pounds and 18 inches long. Those, my friends, are real baby kind of stats. Aaron and I both promptly freaked the heck out.

Then Monday came around, and the calendar turned to November, making us realize that next month we will have a baby! Not to mention I got to hold a newborn on Monday. It's starting to get really real up in here for us.

So. Updates.

So far we have sorted through clothes, and that's all the baby-related progress we have made. This weekend Aaron's honey-do list is very, very long. While I'm washing baby clothes, he'll be moving furniture around, assembling the crib in our room, and possibly painting the nursery (although she likely won't be in there for about 6 months after she's born, so that one isn't quite as urgent). Then he'll be hauling a few baby items out of the basement so I can clean them and store them in her room.

The nesting urge is still going strong, although I lack the energy to do most of what I want to get done, and spend the energy I do have nagging my family to clean up their stuff, or following around after them cleaning it up. Every time I get up to do something, Aaron tells me to sit down and relax, which is nice, but is not helping me accomplish anything.

Nesting extended to the outdoors this past weekend, when I woke up on Sunday morning and informed Aaron he would be taking down one of the bushes in our front yard. It was looking way too overgrown out there and there was one bush I thought was causing the majority of the overgrownedness (it is too a word). I was right, but now that it looks somewhat nicer, there's a few clumps of flowers (that I hate) whose days are numbered. Luckily for them it's getting (really, really) cold outside (it's supposed to snow this week!), and I'm kind of a wuss about the cold, so they may get a brief reprieve unless I can nag Aaron into taking them out.

It's obviously a blast to live with me these days!

In other news, I actually slept through the night in my own bed last night. This hasn't happened much lately, as the baby and I usually wake up sometime between 1 and 3 and head downstairs to the couch to watch TV since we'll both be up for a while anyway. She likes to party in the middle of the night, apparently. She is still a very kicky baby, although things have slowed just a little, probably because she's running out of room in there.



I can't figure out yet if she's head down, but hopefully the doctor will be able to tell at my next appointment. Starting Monday I go in for weekly appointments, which, while kind of an inconvenience, is also kind of awesome because I get to hear her heartbeat every week. I love hearing her heartbeat.

Finally, we have definitely settled on her name, and have even let it slip to family members. So, unless she really doesn't look like what we've picked, she has a name, and I love it! Although I keep calling her by her sister's name (already - this doesn't bode well for my children), or my sister's name. No one here or on Twitter has guessed it yet - but I can give a hint. There's a "p" somewhere in her name.

As for me, I'm physically feeling pretty good, although I do run out of breath easily, my hips ache, and sometimes her kicks actually hurt. I'm fairly comfortable most of the time, unless I do a little too much. Then I start aching all over and have had a few big contractions when I've really overdone it. It's great to be this far along, and I'm really getting impatient to meet the newest member of our family.

Some Gabbie-isms

This weekend was full of Gabbie-isms.

Gabbie-ism 1: She was mad at me on Saturday morning, so she pointed her finger at me accusingly, scowled, and declared, "You're not a princess!" I laughed which made her even more mad.

Gabbie-ism 2: Also on Saturday, I was upset in the morning. Gabbie grabbed my hand, rubbed it, and said, "It gonna be okay Mama." Cue the cute-induced melting right there.

Gabbie-ism 3: On Sunday we were lounging in bed watching a movie. Mid-movie, she looked at me and said, "I love you soooo much." And then I melted yet again.

Gabbie-ism 4: She has been asking "Why?" a lot lately, and it often gets to the point of the "because I said so" answer. We needed to clip her nails this weekend and she refused us several times (by throwing a fit). I finally asked her why she wouldn't let us cut her nails, and she answered, "Because I said so." I think that was the two-year-old version of getting lawyered.

Not quite a Gabbie-ism, but more a reminder to watch what I say: Gabbie said "Dammit" appropriately on three separate occasions this weekend. Thankfully they were all when we were alone.

Between these, the "Har Har Baby" pirating, and too many others to count, she definitely keeps us on our toes (and laughing heartily) these days.

Happy Halloween (with a side of NaBloPoMo)

Gabbie woke up at six yesterday morning, asking if it was time to go trick or treating yet. I think we may have overhyped that part of Halloween. I mean she obviously takes her candy very seriously:

And we had practiced the week before at Boo at the Zoo (which also gave us a chance for a dry run with the homemade Tinkerbell wings):

You might not be able to tell from the picture, but the wings are very sparkly. And very pink. When we walked into the zoo event, a 5 year old girl stopped in her tracks, pointed, and said, "Mom! She's beautiful!" (And then I melted.)

Since she was so anxious, we started the day off with a little playing dress-up:

Gabbie the Pirate says "Har Har, Baby!" (We tried to get her to say "Argh Matey" and this is her interpretation.)

Things geared up around 4, when we carved our pumpkins (being out of town the entire week before a holiday kind of sucks), ate dinner (Mummy dogs and sweet potato fries (because they're orange)), and then, finally, around 5:45 we got her into costume for a photoshoot on the front porch.

Soon after this she became "Winter Time Tinkerbell" with a hat and gloves (or according to Gabbie, gwubs) because it was pretty darn chilly.

We had played up trick or treating because we were worried about it scaring her a little. She is very shy these days, and we thought approaching and talking to strangers (or at least neighbors that she doesn't see regularly) might be a bit overwhelming for her. Not to worry though, she did great. She made it to eight houses nearby before coming home and refusing to go inside because seeing all the other kids in their costumes was her favorite part of the evening. She did such a great job!

(At least until this morning when she cried that she couldn't have candy for breakfast.)

We had a good turn-out of Trick or Treaters and ended the night watching Ghost Hunters Live and eating leftover candy. It was a pretty spectacular Halloween.

P.S. I decided to give myself a kick in the metaphorical blogging pants and join up to try NaBloPoMo again this year. Maybe this will be the year I make it all the way through! Although with the major case of pregnancy brain I have lately, it's likely I'll forget a day. I'm also NaBloPoMoing it over here.