No Baby Yet

The baby seems content inside me and I feel the same way. I have had a couple of fabulously enjoyable days lately. Given myself the gift of not being productive. Have a million things "to do" before this baby shows up-- mostly having to do with cooking and freezing food and cleaning and moving furniture.

Instead, I have had tea with friends, taken long baths, gone shopping for snow boots, gone out for 3 hour breakfasts. Yesterday, 3 of my best gals came over and did a belly cast! It is gorgeous and was SUCH a cool experience. It felt like a very necessary stepping stone to hang out with these other mamas, all raising 2 children and ask them questions and to hear their stories... all while I sat naked on a chair and they laid cool strips of wet plaster across my nipples!

Food for Baby Thoughts

Cravings:

• Dry Cheerios. That was my go-to food during those early weeks of nausea (definitely won't call it morning sickness as this is a serious misnomer). I have eaten hundreds of bowls of Cheerios during this pregnancy (no other brand can cut it-- not the crazy expensive organic "oat cereal" and not the Spartan brand).
• I have eaten 2-3 Arby's Roast Beef sandwiches (with original Arby sauce of course) during this pregnancy... this is more fast food than I have eaten since 2000 combined.
• I had a few weeks a month or so ago when I craved HARDCORE really horrible fatty food-- specifically Double-stuf Oreos and Ruffles potato chips generously dipped in Hidden Valley Ranch chip dip... it passed (mostly, although my weakness for Oreos is an on-going lifetime battle)... I decided that some serious brain development was happening that week and the baby needed all the fat it could get.
• Corned Beef. Yep! I cooked one on Sunday with cabbage and carrots and the works and it was so salty and gross and divine.
• I have just been SOOO hungry. On numerous occasions, I have gotten up in the night for a bowl of cereal and then gone back to bed. Even if I am not that hungry, I generally eat a bowl of cereal before bed just so I can avoid this midnight snacking. It's cold in our house at night!

Other than that, I think I have been eating healthier and taking better care of my body. I think this is due to the fact that we really try to model good eating in front of L. I would say that since she started eating with us, we all eat better. Even with all of the above infractions, Stephen and I eat better than we normally would on our own. We really only reserve our horrible habits for after she goes to bed. If she only knew what we did after 7pm!

Body Electric

Finally feeling like I can let this kid show up. I kept telling the Baby that it had to wait until after Luna's birthday. For all intents and purposes, her birthday celebrationSSSS were done at 1pm on Thursday (Thanksgiving) and since then , all I have wanted to do is clean closets and lie on the couch.

I have cleaned a few closets and managed a few minutes here and there on the couches. Luna and I had some good snuggle time while watching PBSKids after I broke the news that I was too tired to take her swimming. (Why do I even mention these things early in the day?) I am very tired. Not sure if I am more tired than usual or just allowing myself some space to rest.

Body update: Belly seems huge but nothing else is too exciting. I feel good, I really do. My hips ache any time I sit or lay or stand in one position for more than 5 minutes. No, seriously, I do miss sleep. Stephen and I stayed up late watching a movie last night (12:30 or so) and I was still hoping for a solid 7. Nope. I was awake (for the day, apparently) at 4am. I came downstairs, thinking that the back of the couch supporting my back would be good for the hips. It was very comfortable but sleep never came again. I decided to get up and be "productive" at 6:20am.

So far, productive has been to make a few lists, start the dishwasher, fill out some paperwork for the Historic District (we really need a handrail out front if I am going to keep this toddler and this new babe safe), ate some quiche, and am now blogging!

I did feel some strange heaviness when I was "trying to sleep" but it felt more like I ate magic mushrooms than anything related to labor.

Fall Days

Sweet candy... sweet dreams

She started off as a princess but then decided she didn't like her princess hat (which did not stay on her head). She wore simple ribbons to the school party on Thursday. Friday when it was time to get out there on the streets, I suggested her pink tennis shoes to go with her costume (she had taken a spill in her "princess shoes" the night before). She opted for the pink cowgirl boots instead and the tiara-embellished cowgirl hat... she became a "princess cowgirl". My never ending love for Dolly Parton continues! She has a sparkly cowgirl Polly Pocket doll that I call "Dolly Polly.

She really did have a good time (even though the pictures seem sober)... she was pretty overwhelmed by this idea of going door-to-door and getting CANDY! Not to worry! Mom and Dad tested a goodly amount of the candy! All safe! She has gotten to stay out past dark a few nights these weeks (a huge treat for the one who is in bed by 7:30 most nights... "I can see the stars!") but our little sleepyhead actually requested that we go home... we were sitting on the porch of some friends while the girls tormented their dog in the front yard and all of sudden, she said, "Mama, can we go home? Can Papa carry me so I can go to sleep?" That's my girl!

Princess Tirade

for halloween, luna is going to be a.... guess... a pink princess! of course! we were on a rare trip to the store (i generally avoid talking her for this reason) and found a pretty damn cute princess costume that is not all disney-ish and shitty... long-sleeved even!

i try to indulge her when i can so i don't get coerced into the barbie/disney shit... she sees so little of that in her life (t-shirts on kids at school and a few friends' houses) but she is obsessed! i am trying to find a balance so she doesn't totally rebel... ha!

trying to keep the grandparents in check is the hardest thing about it all! they see one pink sparkly thing and they think all bets are off... a slippery slope i tell you!

i can easily see the value in the pretend/play aspect of the fairy/princess crap, i just loathe all the disney marketing and skinny-waisted fakeness of it... if i can keep her on fairies in books and stuff from bookbug, we are doing OK...luna is (and has been for a while) really into dressing and undressing dolls... like every day, twice a day... she does this with the doll of the week... i really think that is her thing with barbie's... she loves dressing and undressing them.. my friend has pointed me toward "groovy girls" so i think that is where we are headed with all this... soft, cool, dolls with normal bodies and cute stuff instead of whore clothing...

Blogworthy Boy

I worked all day Saturday-- like 7am to midnight kind of day. I took 35 teenagers to Cleveland on a charter bus to see this super-cool museum exhibit called Race: Are We So Different? We are preparing for it to come here to Kalamazoo in 2010. At any rate, I was exhausted on Sunday-- achy and missing my little girl. It was a gorgeous Sunday here and so I was trying to get her to go outside with me and work in the yard. She was having none of it so the Mister (who I thought just wanted some alone time) suggested we go to the park near our house.

We ended up running into some friends there so we stayed longer than planned. I expected to come back to a napping Papa. Instead, we came home to a wonderfully clean-smelling house! He had been bitten by some kind of bug and had mopped and scoured the kitchen and downstairs bathroom! He had scrubbed out garbage cans and used all sorts of yummy smelling natural cleaning products!

I have to say that he is generally quite helpful but it is usually my idea. I bug him a bit and give him a few days notice and then we have a big (or little) cleaning bee--complete with Dolly Parton music blaring.

This time, though, he scrubbed and scoured all on his own and that, my friends, is what made it such an amazing gift to this exhausted pregnant Mama. Thank you, loverbutt!