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.

I totally suck at this

I forgot to post on Friday night, and chose to sleep instead. So, I'm out of the running for NaBloPoMo. I really do suck at remembering to post every day in November. Of course, it doesn't help that November is typically one of my busiest months.

This weekend was wonderful though; busy, but it also seemed to take it's time. It was a nice, long weekend full of fun things. Like my new shiny birthday present from Aaron - an iPhone. I love it, and it is distinctly possible that my thumbs ache from overuse of the phone this weekend.

In addition to the iPhone excitement, I went to see New Moon with a friend last night (SPOILERS AHEAD), and we both agreed that it was much better than the first Twilight movie, but also that people are way more into the Twilight thing than we are. People gasped the first time Jacob took off his shirt, cheered when Bella stopped Edward from stepping into the sun, and were in tears at the end when Edward proposed. When the Jacob-related gasping happened my friends and I burst out laughing, and may have gotten evil glares from a few Twi-hards around us. And, perhaps not surprisingly, there were as many middle-aged women as teenagers doing the gasping. Not that I can talk, I mean, I did pay cash money to go see the movie on opening weekend, and was really excited to do so.

Overall, it was a great weekend and a great start to my birthday week (yes, I get a week, what of it? I turn 30 this year!). Even though I'm hella busy this week, I'm happy that this particular week is finally here. It's going to be a lot of fun.

I'm having another one of those days where I need to think happy thoughts

Here are a few things I'm excited about that are happening in the very near future:
1) We're taking Gabbie to her very first movie this weekend. I think we're going to go to Planet 51, and we're going to the 11:10 show, since I'm guessing it will be a younger/smaller audience. We'll see how she does. Matinee prices also mean we won't be out as much if she decides the theatre experience is not yet for her.
2) Thanksgiving. I'm not cooking this year, but I am making pies. We're going to Aaron's cousin's house, and his aunt typically buys pies, but I figure once a year isn't too much to make a bunch of pies so I volunteered. I'm making pumpkin, apple crumb, and sweet potato. Yum!
3) A week from Sunday I turn 30. Aaron's taking me out to dinner at a new fancy restaurant in town that has been getting rave reviews. Then a week later he's throwing me a big bash at the house. I love a party, so I can't wait.
4) We're going on vacation, alone together, for our 5th anniversary the week before Christmas. It will be 4 days of togetherness. We're heading to a ski resort, and I'm guessing we'll try a little skiing (neither of us ever has before, but we're all for new experiences), but I'm also guessing we'll spend most of our time sleeping. What can I say; we're exciting vacationners.

Although this did make me think of one thing I'm not excited about - only about 4 weeks until Christmas and I have yet to buy a single gift. I'm going to have to get on that!

Uninspired (also sick)

I'm feeling the need to get my rear into bed right about now, so I thought I'd just share something that made me smile. Enjoy!

Baby's First Vlog

Currently Gabbie is trying to break into our den (a closed off room that is typically off limits to her anyway, but is really off limits right now because our replacement stovetop is currently housed there and I'll be darned if I'm going to break another one), but earlier she had some things to share:

(I'm not incredibly tech savvy, so it will be up here shortly, but I want to make sure I got the post up for the day.)

(Also, I love the bunny thing. It's my favorite. You'll see.)

ETA: Here's the video!

Baby's First Vlog from Jessie Ca on Vimeo.

Recent Discoveries

Today I discovered something: If you have to psych yourself up to go somewhere nearly every single day, maybe it's time to look for somewhere else to go, if you know what I mean. (It's possible you don't, but I'm being deliberately vague.)

I also discovered that the fastest way to give yourself a (probably) psychosomatic stomach ache all day is to eat your lunch, using water from the sink tap to make it, and then read on the news that there's a boil water alert for the very area in which you sit right now. Thankfully I microwaved the hell out of that water, so I don't think it will be a problem. Once the idea that you've just consumed tainted water gets planted in your head, though, it's hard to get it back out.

Finally, Gabbie just discovered something "fun" (from the sounds of it) - pouring a cup of water out of the tub, soaking her dad in the process. Glad I won that rock, paper, scissors tonight!

Reversal

I'm sure this has happened to everyone else too. You have a day that starts out okay, but very shortly devolves into a day when you hate everyone, their face, and their brother.

I had one of those days today. I'm still having one of those days today, although coming home to an itty bitty girl who wanted nothing more than cuddle and hug and kiss me. A husband who made a delicious dinner from scratch was also an awesome mood adjuster. Thank God for my family and their ability to make it all worth it, even when I spend most of the day wanting to throw everything away and just hide for a while.

I also love being able to say "my family". It's amazing to have created this small group of people who mean the world to me.

And just like that, I'm feeling even better. Counting my blessings never fails to put everything else in perspective.

You know what else helps? Listing out a few things I love right now.

1. Say Yes to Carrots C Through the Night Moisturizing Cream. I've been using this every night lately after cleaning my face with their makeup removing cream (which I also Love). The cream smells so good and is kind of a relaxing scent, which totally makes sense. I really enjoy being lulled to sleep with good smells.

2. The Bloggess' posts about her trip to Japan (including and especially the posts to her "sex column". She makes me laugh incredibly hard.

3. V on ABC. I'm actually missing the second episode right now, but no worries because I'm recording it. On a related note, I also LOVE my DVR. Anyway, I'm always looking for new shows to enjoy, and this one fits the bill. It had enough in the pilot to keep me intrigued while still answering some of the questions with which it started out.

Now I'm going to watch my husband work out. From behind. It's kind of a nice view. See? All kinds of things are happening to improve my mood tonight!

We're pretending my blog is Twitter today

Just watched Aaron do his first EA Active workout. He's not talking so tough any more!

The Bare Minimum

I'm posting for NaBloPoMo, but just this sentence, because it's sunny and 70 out, which is unheard of in November in Michigan, so we're going to go enjoy it!

Perfection

Aaron's college roommate and his wife came for a visit today. Not only was it a lot of fun, but it also pressed us to clean up, and we got one more room unpacked and put together. Now we just have the basement that's full of boxes and empty of furniture, and we'll finally be officially settled in!

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, and it makes me realize how much I miss having good friends that live nearby. We are definitely going to have to remedy that somehow.

So, yes. Fun day, clean house, and I've got a nice buzz going from some delicious margaritas we had with dinner. All in all it was a pretty perfect day. In addition, it's going to be sunny and warm tomorrow. I really couldn't ask for a better weekend.

Fun things were definitely needed today

Last night everyone in our house got approximately 3 hours of sleep. This was because a certain nearly-3-foot-tall person decided sleep was for chumps and was ready to party all night long (or she was hungry but we are trying not to reinforce the idea that it's okay to wake up for a mid-night snack). We finally gave in at about 3:30. She fell asleep at 4:00. Then she woke up for the day at 6:00.

In short, I'm exhausted, and the person that caused it is the only one who is expected to take a nap during the day.

Anyway, Aaron and I spent our lunch hour together and started to plan our anniversary. Our 5th anniversary is in December and we're going to a ski resort for about 4 days, or at least that's the current plan. We don't really ski, but there's a first time for everything, right? Plus, there's a spa, a winery, and lots of fancy restaurants.

And a bed, and no toddler, so it's pretty much perfection. I can't wait!

Day three and I'm already resorting to bullet points

I have been super motivated lately, which is super weird. What happened to my laziness? I kind of liked it even though I never got anything done. Case in point (of the missing laziness), take today:

1. By 7 a.m. today I had made breakfast (breakfast sandwiches) and dinner (pork roast in the crock pot).
2. I worked out last night and was a little sore, but I decided it might be fun to stop by our work gym at lunch today and did 30 minutes on the elliptical. And I can't wait to do my EA Active workout tonight again. What the hell is up with that? (Also, my ankle is doing so much better; I would say I'm at about 75% of normal)
3. I checked off more items on my work to-do list today than I normally do in 3 days.

Some other items worth sharing:

• I didn't think the time change had affected Gabbie too much - she's been going to bed at her normal time and waking up a little late even. I thought I had the Fall Back mastered! Then her teacher at daycare told me that Gabbie was so tired by lunch time today that she ate her entire lunch with her eyes closed, and then crashed immediately after. She ate all her food, including yogurt with a spoon. Color me impressed (and amused)!
• The constant whining - it is killing me! She is in a whining phase these days. Actually, it started on Sunday. Maybe the time change had more of an effect than I thought.
• I was scared to death of teething before it actually happened. Besides a night of crappy sleep every now and then, the only way we've noticed she's teething is when we look in her mouth and notice, Hey! Another Tooth! My daughter is made of awesomeness. Just sayin'.

And, to finish off this incredibly random post, here's a picture:

Gabbie at the Cider Mill/Pumpkin Patch - she LOVED that wagon and cried when we made her get out of it and leave. Guess who's probably getting a wagon for her birthday next spring! (p.s. she has a much cuter hat now)

Halloween v.2009

For Halloween this year, Gabbie dressed up as a pumpkin/ballerina/interpretive type costume/her parents are lazy. Plus she wasn't going trick-or-treating (she doesn't get to eat candy yet), so we just made her cute. See?

She has 3 tutus, and I felt the need to use at least one of them. She was going to wear a black onesie underneath, but guess who just had a growth spurt!

Also, I put her hair up in a ponytail, which was about the most adorable thing ever:

Sometimes she's so cute it hurts.

**********

For my fun thing yesterday I bought a bunch of new beauty products, including a "trendy" nail polish in a very dark purple color. After Gabbie went to sleep I painted my toenails while Aaron was cleaning up the disaster area into which I had made the kitchen. (I used almost every dish in the kitchen - I swear.)

When he came into the room, he asked why I painted my toenails black. I told him it's purple, but he refuses to agree. Whatever, I think it looks cool.

I don't know what my fun thing will be today, but I'm really looking forward to Thursday's fun thing. I signed Gabbie and I up for a Mommy and Me swim class. We'll be doing 6 weeks of swim class, and I think she will love it. I can't wait!

NaBloPoMo

I'm on for NaBloPoMo on both of my sites. Here's hoping I do better than last year, when I'm pretty sure I was out within the first few days. Then there was the year before when I forgot on the 3rd to last day. That sucked.

Anyway, this should be extra fun, because I have decided to do something fun every day (starting yesterday) for the 30 days leading up to my 30th birthday. Yesterday's fun thing was dressing up (just glittery makeup and a witch hat) for handing out candy. I have a few pictures of Gabbie too, which are adorable, and I'll post when I get a chance. I'm not sure what today's fun thing is yet, but just the thought of having to do something fun every day has put me in an excellent mood.

Happy NaBloPoMo and good luck to the other participants!

FAIL!

Five days in and I forget to post. At least it's better than last time when I forgot at around day 26 or something. Much less effort wasted this time. Since I sucked so much at posting, I'm going to try my hand at commenting  more, so my goal is five comments a day for the rest of the month. We'll see how I do with that.

In other news, I must say that I miss dirty diapers caused solely by breast milk. And that's all I have to say about that.

Just a quick observation tonight...

because I can't bear pulling myself away from the election coverage for too long.

The observation is this: people should not call other people who have small children after 8:00 p.m. While it is nice that people are finally RSVP'ing for the baby shower that is this coming Saturday, it would be nicer if they didn't wake up the baby I just spent an hour trying to get to sleep in her crib. Grrr....