Nesting

I'm running out of things to clean.

After an entire week of dragging my feet and sleeping for 12 hours a day, I got a huge burst of energy. My dishes still need to be done and my kitchen floor mopped (maybe I'll do it on my hands and knees to use up extra energy), but after that, I'm not sure what to do.

I'm considering sacrificing my toothbrush (don't worry, I have an extra in the cupboard) to use on the baseboards. I could polish the fake wood on my kitchen cabinets or organize my coat closet. I would like to move the furniture around, but I don't think that would be the wisest choice at 9 months pregnant. My windows need serious attention, but since it's freezing cold outside I don't think taking my windows out to wash them would be a wise decision either.

Please help! I need suggestions on how to use up all this nesting energy.

Oh wait! Isn't this supposed to be a sign that labor is quickly approaching? I sure hope so!

Caution: Oversized Load

Makayla and Ellie are getting excited for the arrival of this new little baby. I think they can sense that it's getting closer.

Over the past few days, they have both made hilarious references to my expanding midsection.

Makayla: Friday afternoon, she came up to me with a doll obviously stuffed up her shirt. Rubbing her tummy she said, "Look, Mom. I have a special tummy like you. Do you want to feel my baby kick? Come here. Feel right there." So I put my hand on her stuffed tummy. "Oh! Did you feel that? My baby just kicked your hand."

She also feels it necessary to state the obvious. Every day. "Whoa! Your tummy is getting really big!" Or one of my favorites, "Your tummy just hit me in the head."

Ellie: Today Ellie grunted as she walked up to me with her back arched and her hands rubbing her Buddha belly, "My baby is growing, growing big."

Christmas: The Recap

I got so wrapped up in watching my girls unwrap presents that I got exactly 4 photos the entire day: pictures of them in their new Christmas jammies. And right now I'm feeling a little too lazy to even upload them. So instead of the recap in pictures, which I had intended to do, I'll do a recap of my favorites from the day.

The meal: my 3-layer Christmas jello turned out awesome! Too bad my family didn't like it and I'm stuck with an entire 9x13 pan to devour by myself. I'm sure you can hear me crying about it, can't you?

Ellie: She opened her first present and started playing with it. Makayla kept bringing her more presents to open to which Ellie responded, "I got one." Her eyes got so wide with surprise and delight when we finally explained to her that she got to open more than one present. "More presents?!" It was adorable.

Makayla: Watching her look at all the tags to figure out which ones belonged to her. Seeing how excited she got when she opened her present with the Barbie--the one she's been asking for since October. She and Ellie played with their new Barbies literally all day. They even slept with them last night.

Up until Tuesday night, we didn't know if Kasey would get Christmas day off. Learning that he would get to spend the whole day with us was the best gift to me. We had a nice, relaxing day spent in our pajamas just enjoying being together.

Warm Cocoa Suprise

2 cups chopped Milky Way (3 bars)
3 cups milk

Simmer over medium heat until chocolate is melted.

Seriously easy.
Seriously delicious.
Seriously high in calories.

Seriously wish I had another mugful to drink right now.

Thanks To My Mom

I have a new-found appreciation for my mother after today.

This is the first year that Kasey and I will celebrate Christmas not surrounded by either my family or Kasey's. It's kind of a strange feeling. And not wanting to skimp on Christmas traditions just because we are at our own house, I decided to make a big Christmas dinner.

I planned out our menu and bought all the groceries. Early this week I thought I might want to get a little prep work done on Christmas Eve so that I wouldn't have to spend half of Christmas day in the kitchen.

Boy am I glad! I spent just over 4 hours this evening making a salad, putting together a potato dish, and baking dessert. Tomorrow I still need to bake the ham and the potatoes and rolls. Phew! I'm so exhausted.

And so here's where the appreciation comes in. I never realized how hard my mother worked all these years to get Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners together for us to enjoy. It's such a huge job!

Thanks Mom!

A Blessing and a Curse

Makayla has learned how to change the toilet paper. And while it's very nice when the roll needs to be changed, it's not so nice when I have several rolls of partially used toilet paper sitting around my bathroom. Or worse yet, when she throws away a roll because she thinks it's getting too low.

Spreading a Little Holiday Cheer

This is probably my all-time favorite Christmas commercial.

Pregnant and Feeling It

Only 1 month to go and oh how I am feeling it! I'm convinced that the last month of pregnancy has to be miserable; otherwise, no woman in her right mind would ever put her body through the riggers of labor and delivery. But seriously, at this point, I'm thinking, "Bring on the labor!" I'll gladly suffer through 6-8 hours of excruciating, forehead-splitting pain and 7 days of slow recovery just so that I don't have to be pregnant any more.

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Two days ago, I was slightly uncomfortable and found breathing with a baby in my ribs to be somewhat tricky. But I was managing. Then my baby dropped. Now my body hurts in every place possible. My bladder has become a punching bag. And my waddle has increased 10 fold. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do when Kasey goes back to work tomorrow and I have no one to put my socks on for me. I've given up all hope of reaching my feet, which have swelled almost beyond recognition, until after the baby arrives.

On a positive note, I can almost breathe again, and I no longer have a baby sticking her foot in my rib 50 times a day. Plus, Makayla doesn't go back to school until January 5. So I don't even have to leave my house for the next 15 days. (Which is a good thing since my car broke down and I couldn't leave even if I wanted to.)

I guess things aren't all bad.

Would You Like Fries With That?

Here's a sign that you've been going to the drive-thru a little too often:

4-year-old: I'm hungry!

2-year-old: You want chicken and fries?

Maybe we'll stay home for lunch today.

Ellie's Birthday

I finally loaded pictures from Ellie's birthday onto my computer. We celebrated her birthday over the Thanksgiving holiday while we were at Kasey's parents' house. It was really low-key, much like Makayla's 2nd birthday.

My friend Amanda lent me an awesome cake pan that makes one giant cupcake.

Sadly, these are the only 2 pictures I got before my camera died. I'm waiting patiently for my sis-in-law to send me copies from her camera. (hint, hint)

Ellie saw these pictures and had this to say, "It's my cupcake!" "Her give me a Powy doll." (Referring to her Polly Pocket doll that she got from grandma & grandpa.) "I want more presents!"

It was a nice, quiet celebration. Ellie loves all the movies, toys, and especially dresses that she got. Thanks everyone!

Baby Hungry

It's a good thing I'm 8 months pregnant and feeling ready to burst. Because when I opened the package that contained these teeny, tiny, little onesies,

I got really baby hungry.

Seriously! How adorable is that snowman?!?!

I can't wait for our little girl to get here so she can wear this little onesie. 42 days and counting.

My New Favorite Things

Makayla: Lately she has started hollering at me from the other room, "Mom! Come here quick! I need you!"

When I make it to the other room, she smiles sweetly and says, "I just love you." It's so sweet!

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Ellie: She has started adding "-ing" to all her verbs. So instead of saying, for example, "I have this doll," she says "I'm having this doll."

My other favorites:
"I'm wanting a treat."
"I'm be needing some apple juice." (This one cracks me up every time.)
"I'm loving you!"

5 Ways to Avoid Turning Up My Heater

I hate turning on the heater every winter. It's not because I enjoy being cold. It's because I hate opening the electric bill and seeing triple digits. It's almost physically painful for me to pay that bill every winter. So, when it comes to turning up the thermostat, I'm extremely stingy. It has to be really, and I mean really, cold outside first.

However, I realize that my family isn't as willing to stand the cold as I am. So I've come up with a few things that help keep our apartment marginally comfortable in the early parts of winter.

1. One of us showers at night, the other in the morning. Our water bill varies very little, so I don't mind taking an extra long, extra hot shower. Open the bathroom door, let the steamy bathroom heat up the apartment twice a day.

2. Dress warm. Long-sleeve shirts or sweaters and warm, fuzzy socks. We have the clothes. We might as well make good use of them.

3. Bake every day. We have to eat. Why not make every meal a meal that's cooked in the oven instead of on the stove top? Sure it may take a little bit longer. But when dinner is done cooking, I turn off the oven and leave the door open. I figure I've already paid to heat up the oven. Why not disperse it through the apartment. I just have to make sure to keep an extra close eye on the girls so they don't get burned.

*An extra bonus: if I do cook something on the stove top or in the crock pot, I usually try to bake a goody. Apartment gets heated and my family gets a yummy treat. It's a win-win situation.

4. Blankets over the windows. I only do this in the bedrooms. It encourages the girls to sleep in a little bit longer every morning and helps insulate their room from crappy windows that leak cold air inside.

5. If the girls tell me they are cold during the day, I first make sure they are wearing socks and a warm shirt. If they are still cold, I encourage them to make a fort out of their fleecy blankets. Either that or we all curl up under the covers on my bed and watch a movie together.

I realize that when the baby comes, I'll have to turn the heaters on. But until then, I'm going to save every penny that I can.

Life

This is how the last 23 minutes of my life just played out.

2:18
"Ellie, I'm going to switch the laundry. Stay right here and play with your dolls. Okay?"
"-K-"

2:18 - 2:23
The laundry has been switched, and I go back to my apartment. (small side note: although I do not have a washer and dryer in my apartment, the laundry room for the building is right outside my front door. Lest you think I'm a completely horrible mother and are picking up the phone to call CPS you should know that the laundry room is closer to my living room than my bathroom. And I go in there and close the door several times a day.)

I turn the door knob to find it locked. Oh crap!

2:23 - 2:26
Spend several minutes trying to explain to my 2-year-old how to unlock the door that she just locked.

2:27
Give up and start banging on all the neighbors doors. What!? How can no one be home at 2:30 in the afternoon? Oh right! They are all at work.

2:29
Try again to explain to Ellie how to unlock the door so mommy can get in. I hear my keys rattling and banging against the door. Realize that my efforts are futile and try to come up with a plan.

2:30
Remember that my neighbor down the street is also a stay at home mom. Cross my fingers and pray that she is home. Try not to think about having to climb in the window if she's not.
As I'm walking and shivering (I'm wearing a short-sleeve shirt with no jacket in 20 degree weather), I consider running. Quickly decide that's not an option and waddle faster, pausing for a really bad contraction. Ouch!
Try to remember exactly which apartment she lives in, hoping that I don't have to knock on all 12 doors to find hers.

2:33
Hooray! She's home. I use her phone and call the only phone number I can think of at the time--my friend Marni. Explain the situation, ask her to drive to another person's house, pick up my spare key, and bring it to my house. I would have asked my neighbor to do that, but she's new in town and didn't know how to get to the house where my key is kept.

2:37
Neighbor drives me home. She's super nice! It's cold and my contractions are picking up.

2:38
Talk to Ellie through the door. She's still trying to unlock the door from the inside with my keys.

2:40
Marni shows up with my spare house keys. I unlock my door and open it 5 inches before it stops. "Ellie, did you put something in front of the door?"
"Uh-huh."
"Can you move it please so mommy can get in?"
"No. Here your keys mama."
I reached my toe in and kicked something far enough to get the door open wide enough for me to squeeze in. And with this belly, there was a lot of squeezing going on!

2:41
Thank Marni a dozen times. Close the door and have a serious discussion with Ellie about not touching the lock on the door. She looks up at me and says, "I need some juice."

Sure glad that lesson sunk in.

Now I'm done typing this and I realize that my laundry is still in the laundry room, probably ready to rotate again, and it's nearly time to pick up Makayla from preschool.

I'm completely exhausted!!

Guilty Confession

I hate those woman who say they love being pregnant so they can eat whatever they want and suffer no guilt about the number of calories they ingest.

This morning I ate a whole plate of cookies for breakfast. I meant to stop at one (or two), but they were just so darn good! And believe me, there is guilt. It's crushing me.

Or at least it did until I got to my mom's house and saw her homemade carrot cake with cream cheese frosting sitting on the counter. The guilt definitely wasn't heavy enough to stop me from eating 2 pieces while I was there.

Tomorrow is definitely going to be one of those healthy-eating days. Because I plan on finishing off the last of the cookies tonight. I can't have that kind of temptation laying around.

Perhaps It's Time I Learned How To Enunciate

This afternoon Makayla brought a movie (Kung Fu Panda) to me. "Mom, I want to watch this movie."

Ellie was right on her tail saying, "No Panda Bear! I watch mermaids."

And the arguing commenced. I told them that we wouldn't watch any movie until they could agree on one.

Makayla's face twisted up in confusion. "Gree-on? What does that mean?"

"Agree on. It means you have to pick out a movie together that you both want to watch." So they both ran back to the movie cabinet and brought back 2 more movies.

Makayla asked me, "Is this gree-on?"

Ellie shouted, "No! This one gree-on."

"No, you girls need to choose a movie together."

This continued until I had a rather large stack of movies on my desk. They were finally able to pick a movie that both were happy with. As I was putting it in the DVD player, Makayla proudly told me, "Mom, we are big girls to gree-on this movie."

I would say that I need to start enunciating my words a little better, but then what would I blog about?

How Babies Are Born

This morning my girls hopped into bed with me. Makayla was examining my big ol' belly and talking sweetly to the baby. Then she turned her attention to me.

"Mom, your belly is growing really big."

"It sure is."

"It's going to get this big" as she holds her hand 10 inches above my stomach.

"I hope not. That would hurt!"

"When is your baby going to come out?"

"After Christmas." At this point I yawned.

"You have to practice to open your mouth really wide."

"Why is that?"

"Because you have to open your mouth really big so the dentist can reach in there and pull your baby out."

If that's the case, I've been paying the wrong doctor!

Somehow I Don't Think Tchaikovsky Would Be Impressed

Does this ever happen to you? Something funny happens, but you are the only one to witness it. But this event was so funny to you that it has you chuckling to yourself at random moments throughout the day. And people next to you wonder what in the world you are laughing at.

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Yesterday Ellie and I went to the store. Outside the grocery store stands a 7-foot nutcracker to announce the annual production of The Nutcracker, which is put on by the local college. Ellie looked at this huge thing towering over her and asked, "What's her name?"

"It's a boy, and it's called a nutcracker."

She looked up at me with the most quizzical expression and said, "Nutcrapper?"

I stifled a laugh as I repeated, more clearly this time, "Nut-crack-er."

It took her a few tries to get it right, but she eventually got it. Now whenever I think about it, I start laughing--out loud sometimes.

Let the Waddling Begin

So, we got back from our little vacation on Sunday morning at 4:30am. Needless to say, it was a long drive! We had tons of fun, and if I find my camera (I know it's around here somewhere) I'll post the 3 pictures that I took during the week.

Now to address the title of this post. I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later. After all, it happened with the first two. But it's always so depressing to me when I start the pregnant waddle. I'm not sure how Kasey can keep a straight face when we go places together. If I watched me walk, I would surely snicker or probably laugh out loud.

I have a sudden appreciation for ducks. Waddling is hard work!

Also, my 2-year-old is now faster than me. And a 2-year-old who can out-run her mother is never, ever a good thing!