Fall Break Fashion

Or...
On Holidays I Will Let You Wear Whatever You Want In Public So Long As We Don't Have to Discuss (Argue About) It.

25 weeks

More than halfway there!

All my jeans still fit fine, if I can just keep them on my hips where they belong. I'm considering suspenders. I'm starting to grow out of regular t-shirts though, which is really frustrating. A few years ago I loaned my maternity clothes to a few friends and every single piece of clothing got lost. Sheesh. I borrowed a few shirts from my sister-in-law that will last a while. At least I have lots of pajama pants that are still comfy.

I've been managing to get to the gym at least once a week and I've gained 17 pounds. The extra weight makes running harder and those stupid ligaments in my lower abdomen are starting to stretch and hurt.

Baby moves around a ton and everyone can feel him. He gets really excited when the kids talk to him.

The art of procrastination

I've been meaning to post pictures of the finished floors for several weeks, but something always gets in the way. First it took a while to get the carpet in... and then the furniture put back in place... then a few more weeks to get the nose of the stairs finished... then I had furniture ordered that wasn't here yet... pretty soon months have gone by and I never took pictures of the result.

BUT I FINALLY DID!

OK, remember the before?

The pictures never quite captured its stained, worn, 1991 pinkness and we took down all the hunter-green curtains that went with the color scheme. If you never saw the house in person, rest assured that it was awful.

Linoleum and wallpaper... I never want to see a scrap of it again.

Jessica had the oh-so-fabulous idea of doing crime-scene body-outlines on the floor but I read the comment AFTER most of the flooring was in. We had to settle for this under the carpet in the formal living room.

OK here we go!


Finally the wood trim looks like it's here on purpose and not just a leftover from the 70's. Wood trim is back in style, right? I'm still debating over that big black chair in the corner.

We got rid of the big white couch that was in the bay window and I really wanted an oversized story-time chair in its place. It took a long time to find what I wanted but I'm really really happy with this chair and ottoman. I haven't gotten Joe to put the legs on yet and I'm still trying to decide if I even want them, or if it's just another place to lose toys. Also, should I paint the front door?

So there you go. It's not 100% done because the laundry room still needs a closet ripped out and tile put in and the kitchen is not painted and the toy room is not done and the basement is still in its state of post-flood-disaster... no one tells you that owning a home is this much work! But this is huge progress and I'm so SO happy with it.

In denial

This pregnancy has gone by in weird chunks. There's the first bit, where you're convinced that you're going to be sick for the rest of eternity (because that's just how long the first trimester lasts). Then time lurched its way along to now - 24 weeks. Sprinkle/Baby Star Wars/Nameless Fetus is apparently the size of a Chicago dog... at least according to the last 'this week in your pregnancy' update I read with Minnie, who is obsessed with knowing how big the baby is. So there you go.

Mmmmm, Chicago dog...

Anyway, I'm more than halfway through this pregnancy and I'm still waiting to feel excited. Forget excited, I'm willing to settle for one day without intense baby-related stress. Where is the call-in show or helpful newspaper advice column for my questions?

Dear Addie - My oldest daughter had terrible colic and didn't sleep a full night until she was two years old. If we repeat this trend, how will I keep from throwing myself off the deck? And what will I do with the two sprained wrists that is all that will result from throwing myself off the deck?

Dear Addie - There is a juvenile Labrador retriever masquerading as my four-year-old son. How will I keep this oversized, energetic, slobbering animal from tackling a newborn baby?

And speaking of two older children, dear Addie, how will I keep them from feeling neglected, forgetting to do their homework, going to school dressed like street urchins, eating nothing but Pop Tarts and eventually sinking into a life of crime and door-to-door alarm sales?

Maybe this seems excessive, but these are the kinds of worries that keep me from sleeping at night and from doing absolutely anything to prepare for the baby during the day. I have a big box of boy clothes waiting to go through - it sits. People are asking if there are things that we need - I pretty much don't think about it. Eventually I need to move the two existing children into one room to get the other ready for baby - I don't. I can't figure out what is wrong with me.

I have issues. That's what blogs are for, right?

Bathtime

Bart has so many toys in the bathtub with him right now that, with little or no exaggeration, this is what the tub looks like.

More senior pictures

After editing this set of pictures, I wanted to tell Taylor that I was tired of looking at his face. But... that was a lie. Seriously, the kid is pretty dang handsome.







And apparently the good-looking genes run pretty strong in this family because he also has a completely beautiful sister.

It's not a puppy

Ahhh, the ultrasound. To be honest, I wasn't as anxious for it this time around. I was excited because Bart and Lisa would get to see if they were getting a brother or a sister. And I was dreading it because one of the two was going to be grievously and heart-wrenchingly disappointed and I didn't really want to deal with it. You know, because I'm a good mom like that.

Our ultrasound technician was f.a.b.u.l.o.u.s. When we went to Bart's ultrasound, the tech breezed through the whole thing as fast as she could, pointed out that it was a boy and slapped down some pictures that, as I look at them 5 years later, are totally unrecognizable as a baby or any of its adorable bits and pieces. Her attitude was an unmistakable 'I look at babies all day and this is totally not interesting - now will you please leave so I can enjoy a refreshing beverage?' The tech this time was totally enthusiastic, pointed out all the arms, legs, fingers and toes we could possibly want to see, explained everything she was measuring (and why) and even wrote happy little messages from the baby to Bart and Lisa that got printed on some of the pictures. She made it so wonderful and involved the entire family.

On to the good stuff.

Sweet, sweet little face. I'm taking a little poll here because I think the baby totally shares features with Bart and Lisa and looks like our family. And my dad insists that this baby is completely indistinguishable from any other baby on the entire surface of the earth. I have some silhouettes I've done of both children for objective comparison. Feel free to weigh in on either side of the debate.

Here's where baby gets uncooperative. The nice ultrasound lady tried and tried and tried to get a good face shot with the 4D camera. Baby covered its face with its arms and huddled up.

I'm sure none of you care about any of these and scrolled immediately to the bottom to find out. OK OK here you go - the money shot.

Yep. It's a boy. Lisa was devastated. She's starting to come around. And we have like... zero names for boys (and two totally beautiful girl names that someone else will have to use.) Name suggestions are welcome but I'm absolutely not naming a boy anything that ends in 'aden' or using any names that have at any time been used in the Twilight series of not-books.

Beating Beethoven

Since I got hurt last year, I've been trying to get healthy and start running again. Obviously being pregnant has done nothing to further these goals. I feel like I have a narrow window between morning sickness and being too big/heavy/round to run and I really really wanted to do at least one 5K in that time.

Our local rec center has an annual Beat Beethoven 5K where you try to run the race faster than Beethoven's Symphony #5 (it's about 32 minutes long.) Since I've logged less than 10 miles in the last 4 months, I knew there was almost no way I could run faster than Beethoven. Pushing myself way too hard seems unwise so I made an alternate goal. Last year I ran a 5K in 39 minutes - in two ankle braces (see pic below), pushing two kids in a jog stroller that had 2 flat tires (I barely make it to the start line and didn't have time to air them up.)

So instead of chasing Beethoven, I made it my goal to beat my 'injured' time.

Here we are at the starting line with adequately aired up stroller tires. These two bed-headed monkeys had about a gallon of hot chocolate, 5 cereal bars and a movie on the iPod to keep them happy. Nugget #3 was much more content and didn't do any complaining or demanding of snacks.

The race started with about a mile and a half of long, slow uphill climb. It was a killer with the stroller. Beethoven and his pace car passed us at the halfway aid station. The last half was more flat and I kept a better pace.

The result? 38:11. So yeah, I'm not setting any records or winning any races (or beating any 240-year-old composers) but I'm totally happy. This was really important to me. And I'm pretty sure that even though Beethoven wasted me, I placed high in both the Obviously Pregnant and Toting Over 100 Pounds of Children divisions.

Also, Minnie took this picture of me on her own. She's a skilled camera woman already!

Halfway there!

At this point I'm in that frustrating 'I have nothing to wear' phase. So I spend most days in pajama bottoms. Most of my regular pants still fit but I get really really really tired of hitching them back into place every 3 seconds. My 1 pair of maternity jeans is too big. I did get one of those belly bands that are supposed to hold your pants in place and it works really well, as long as you are only standing or walking. It doesn't hold up to activities of a sitting/bending/picking-up-of-4-year-olds nature. At some point I'll have to break down and buy new clothes, but I haven't worked myself up to it yet.

Senior pictures

Decreased mobility plus a definite upswing in laziness has really put a dent in the time and energy I can put into photography. However I've done a limited number of shoots and this is a recent set of senior pictures. Isn't she totally gorgeous?

Little faces

These little monkey faces, with their bed-head and sweet, tired eyes
Looking at me over the bar, with their bowl of morning cereal
They tell me all about their dreams at night and their plans for today

These are the things that make me remember how much I love being 'Mom'