Breakfast On Pluto

We went to Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party yesterday at the Magic Kingdom. The three of us had costumes - Rob was Boba Fett, I was Darth Vader, and Jordan was Princess Leia. It was a great idea for us to get the t-shirts because at the end of it all it was nice to just be comfortable. Jordan however had the full get up and she looked VERY cute! It was hiliarious to hear people talking around us about "Baby Princess Leia!" Go bean go.

I Watched a Week

I watched a week go by so slow
The school day never ended.
Five days marked time ‘till Saturday
My five year soul then mended.

I watched a week go by at length
The golden summer stretching.
The sun had never set so slow
As my tenth year was etching.

I watched a week go casually by
My friends, they kept me busy
At fifteen I had years to go
Before time left me dizzy.

I watched a week go sailing by
‘fore I walked down the aisle.
My lover true would say I do
On both our twentieth mile.

I watched a week go creeping by
My pregnant belly rocking
For weeks to stop so suddenly
Seemed time indeed was mocking.

I watched a week go flying by
As my sweet babe was sleeping.
She seemed to grow as minutes past
And I found myself weeping.

I watched a week go sprinting by
As did my youngest child.
Had thirty come? Had thirty gone?
It seems that time ran wild.

I watched a week pass as a year
And then that year as five.
My family grew and family shrank
And their own babes arrived.

I watched a week pass in a daze
As my own children found
Their children growing in a week
And joys and tears abound.

I watched a week so slow yet fast
It seemed my time was splitting
My own dear body slowed its pace
While others still was lifting.

I watched a week crawl by and yet
My face did change in time.
Till slowly, slowly, slower yet
My last breath ends this rhyme.

Hello folks!

They say God has a sense of humor. Based off my life experiences and the stories I hear around me, He must be laughing himself silly. Not just that what we do or say makes ridiculous situations for which provide endless amusement- oh no, I believe that one of His greatest pleasures is answering prayer in a way that makes you go, "whaaaa?"

Our first week is nearly over. Jordan's been a real champion, they all love her over at the baby house. She almost never cries, she plays games, has sung for them, impressed them with her standing skills and incredibly strong neck, and has (SHOCK) taken to drinking three bottles a day with no problem! I still feed her once before I drop her off and during my lunch break. Now that I have a better idea of how much she eats, its no wonder she's a chunk! I've been doing my best to stay focused at work and to not keep popping in. The first day I think I went over there 4 times, but the last few days I only go over to feed her.

First 4th of July!

Can't believe she is going to be three months tomorrow! And she is 13 weeks today. You don't realize how fast time goes really until you have a kid.


Even though I've been trumpeting on about living in the moment and trying not to look too far ahead or back with Jordan, to enjoy her as she is while I can, it was brought to my attention all the big first holidays are coming up. Jordan had her first fourth of July last month. She was just over a month old (can you believe how different she looks???) But as much as I love that holiday, it kind of faded since we didn't really do anything. Jordan was still too little to go out and we were terrified of doing anything with her. The next few holidays, Jordan is at least big enough to do things with, even though she won't have any idea what is going on. We'll have fun. And she will have fun because she loves being with us and being included.


Halloween: Really the next big holiday to look forward to. My goal is to dress Jordan up as



and to take her to Disneyworld for their Not So Scary Halloween party to trick or treat, take pictures with characters, and to give Rob an opportunity to get to Disney with less of a crowd and when its not burning hot outside. Plus we get to eat her candy. lol. I also want to find an enormous pumpkin, carve it into a sweet design, and put Jordan inside it. Halloween is definitely one of my favorite holidays.

Thanksgiving: Not on the top five holidays list but definitely a legitimate holiday, this one will be a lot better if we get to spend it with family or friends this year. Last Thanksgiving was technically Jordan's first holiday with us that we were really aware of her. I have pictures making the food, my belly getting bigger. She probably enjoyed the flavors of my delicious turkey :-) And of course, this year I have twice as much to be thankful for.

Christmas: This year of course, she won't be waking us up begging for presents, or eating candy canes off the tree. But she sure will enjoy our tradition of driving around looking at Christmas lights. I get to make her a

Soon there will be three...

and buy her a baby's first christmas ornament, and go through all the toys we were given to wrap up a few for her (LOL why not) and buy more presents. We get the fun of opening them for her and seeing if any make her excited. And she may even get her first experience with snow. 

This is the dot dot dot blog...I'm writing this quickly because Jordan Hanna is wailing in Rob's face in the bedroom and it's been too long since an update. I've been kept busy with family here which explains the lack of posting, and also because Beanie is in the process of teething which leaves little time for anything but baby comforting and having her gnaw on some part of my body...
 


She's now screaming in my ear while being held by Rob. We are blasting her favorite songs. To no avail. One moment please...

 Ok I'm back and typing one handed. Jordan is feeling out of sorts and I can tell. Her patterns are off, sometimes she cries for no reason (SO not like her) and I feel horrible that she isn't feeling well and there's nothing I can do. I love this stage but the day I can explain something and she can comprehend it will be a great one. This won't be the best time to introduce her to daycare AND try to force gently coerce her into using a bottle during the day, but that's the way it has to be...


Other than her crankiness she is great. Super smiley and she discovered that she can makes sounds come out of her mouth. She spends at least half the day holding conversations with anything she can get her eyes on- me, daddy, the dog, the cat, her mobile, the light, bugs, shadows on the wall...

She also, is HUGE. Overnight she grew out of all her newborn outfits and most of her 0-3 month clothes and I'm staring into a sea of 3-6 month clothing, thinking that even if she wears a new outfit every day we may not be able to have her wear them all before she grows too much. Definitely not a bad problem for us to have, but those poor neglected clothes that have been tucked away in a dark drawer just waiting to be taken out and put on her chubby little body...

I have a quick reprieve while Jordan Hanna fell asleep...I'm happy and excited and terrified and tentative about this continual march into motherhood, depressed that I'm sending her off, looking forward to possibly getting her used to new people and new feeding techniques that might provide a bit of a break for me, and bewildered as to where the last 3 months have gone. I don't dare blink in case I open my eyes and find Robert and I to be old and Jordan completely grown...

I can't believe my sweet babe is nearly 2 months old!  I also can't believe how much of my time is taken up by being a milk factory. My poor house is neglected, my poor animals are neglected, my poor self is neglected, because Jordan must feed around the clock. Jojo is getting bigger because she's awake more than she sleeps now. I'm lucky if I can get a solid 1-2 hours of time, but usually she naps in 20 minute chunks. She sleeps best on me, which makes it hard to get anything else done!



She is THE sweetest chunk though. She laughs (AKA joyous squeal) and babbles at us all day long, loves to watch Veggie Tales' "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything"- just that video- and is happiest when cuddling with Mommy and Daddy in their bed. She even sleeps through the whole night when she sleeps with us. I know I shouldn't let her and ought to keep her in her own bed but sometimes I can't say no to a full night of sleep. :-) She's going in for her shots on Monday and then I can finally show her off in public without worrying that she's going to die of a cold and I will be blamed. Of course, Rob and I can't help but think she is the smartest, most advanced child there ever was, but there are a few things that have amazed even our doctors.

• Jordan has been supporting her own head, consistently,since 4 weeks. 
• Jordan "talks" back and forth in answer to what we say.
• She has strong legs and can support her own weight for several seconds at a time.
• Jordan hums along with music, especially if Mommy is singing to her.
• Jordan has a specific sound for when she wants me, AKA to eat. She will say, wawa (which sounds eerily like mama) and if I don't come over right away, she will cry WAWAWA. Lol.

All in all, she's won our hearts and its so fun to have her around! I cannot wait till next week when my family comes in and I get to take her to Disneyworld! Even if we ride the Carousel, take a picture in front of the castle and get her a mickey hat and go home, it will be awesome. And now that naptime is over, I have to go feed the little miss before she screams.

(I'll try and keep this PG but if you never wanted to know anything at all about the birthing process, don't read ahead!)

Mid-contraction. Thanks Rob.

Rob and I knew Jordan was coming the night before she was born. At my last dr. appointment that Thursday, my doctor told me to go to the hospital if she wasn't born that night- I was about 5cm. So we laid in bed freaking out all night long, and at 5:30am went to the hospital. I considered not showing up but I knew this had to happen sometime and after all this waiting, postponing it another day or two would just be worse.

Once at the hospital, we checked in at triage and I had my temperature and blood pressure taken and answered a ton of questions. The admitting nurse was SO funny. She went on about how labor is just a pain the neck, and how you don't need any of the baby stuff they say you do. She went on and on and on.






So we got into the triage room and they hooked me up to a monitor.While hooked up I dilated to 6cm and then were officially admitted. We had to wait a while for a labor room, but one opened up around 8am. I had my first wheelchair ride up there!


They hooked me up again. I had an IV drip and a monitor so I couldn't move around like I wanted, but I wasn't in pain and was so tired that laying around was nice.

Our nurse, Lya, was SO awesome. She really helped calm us down. Rob's vesovagal started acting up so he kept laying on chairs- they eventually brought him a recliner so he didn't pass out! At 8:45am they broke my water and started me on a Pitocin drip to make my contractions regular. For awhile we hung out and joked around, waiting for stuff to start. Rob had joked at the beginning of all of this that I had until 10AM to have the baby, but since we didn't even get into our room until 8am he kindly extended the deadline until noon.

Around 10:30am my contractions had starting speeding up and began to get painful. I was already past 7cm but I decided to get pain relief because I figured I could be like this till 7 or 8pm and I'd die. The problem is, by the time I decided I needed an epidural, it took about 30 minutes for everything to get set up and another 20 minutes for it to begin to set in. Poor Rob had to go into the bathroom while they gave it to me, and the nurse tried to call him out while my back was still exposed. I yelled to warn him not to look but he still got a glance. By 11:30am, half my body was numb and the other half was still getting beaten by the contractions. I felt so bad for Rob, he was taking my pain worse than I was.




I went from 8 cm to 10 cm in 5 minutes, and after a few pushes we had to wait for the dr. After 20 total minutes of pushing out came Jordan, with a record time of a 3 hour labor! Once the doctors pronounced her healthy, we were amazed at how great she looked- not squished or deformed or bruised, not even a conehead :-)


Jordan Hanna, born May 27th at 12:18pm, weighing 6lb. 9oz. and 19 inches long. She's such a love! Rob is already an amazing dad, and hopefully my mothering instinct will come out from its 25 years of hiding so I can be a decent mother. 

Perhaps I need to explain why I really love the Fourth of July! Long weekends, cookouts, waterparks, fireworks, LOVE IT. My favorite memories involve a day out at a celebration of some kind, with lots of events, eating KFC picnic style, with a huge firework finale (the kind where they play music with the fireworks). My absolute favorite one to date was the year my friend and I went into downtown Boston and spent the day sightseeing before watching fireworks on the bridge. I've also had an awesome 4th at the Hollywood Bowl (oh California I miss you!).

This year was a little tricky. I hate when they put fireworks on the 3rd instead of the 4th. It doesn't feel real to me. But with a 5 week old baby in tow, we ended up not going to fireworks. We are still keeping her away from crowds until we get the 2 month shots as recommended, and in Orlando there are NO places without tons of crowds. I did my KFC, and a relaxing weekend with Rob and Jordan, and it was nice.

Jordan got all dressed up in honor of the holiday. I bought a dress from Gymboree courtesy of Noni, and while it was still a little big it was super cute! I know I wanted a boy, but I do have to say the perks of having a girl is that I get to play dress up all over again. And next year I get to look forward to dragging my one year old and husband to fireworks!

I had this super special mushy post in mind for June 27th, seeing as it was Jordan's one monthiversary and Rob and my 2 year "wedding" anniversary but of course the baby bean refused to stop eating and when I tried to stop so I could write, she cried. When I tried to juggle her nursing while I typed, she cried. So, two days late, I'm frantically writing this while she catnaps. Here we go.

First, let me say Happy Anniversary to Rob. I love you and I can't thank you enough for putting up with the last 9 (10ish?) months of grumpy preggo me. And now tired mommy me. Thanks for cleaning, for dealing with my cravings, for ignoring my insanity, and for keeping your mouth shut every time I wanted to argue. You really are the best husband.

It always boggles my mind how fast time can fly now that I'm not 7 years old, but this past month really has passed in an exceptionally quick way. It's so hard to believe a month ago, I was in the process finally not being really really pregnant anymore/having a baby. It took forever to get there and then suddenly it FLIES by and my baby is already a full month old. Its really terrifying how it happened and it makes me realize that even when I get frustrated, how I really need to enjoy and cherish every stage and day I have with her. I'll never have that first month back; and even though there are amazing months and stages to look forward to, its a little sad that the first bit passed by in the blink of an eye.

I was going to write down Jordan's birth story for everyone who was asking, but I think I'll have to write it in a separate post and let this one go for now.

I'll try and catch you all up with some of the key highlights of the last month and a half. So, first...
My dog got ran over by a car.
Don't worry, he's fine now.

This is how it started. I was in the baby's room, finishing up some last minute organization. I was 38 and something weeks along, huge and so over being pregnant. I heard a car squeal (you know, that infamous WE'RE GOING TO CRAAAAAAAAAASH noise that signals something exciting might happening) and in true Dane Cook style I looked to see what went down. With all cars and occupants appearing to be in tact, I lost interest.
**Quick side note- our road is perilous. People crash practically once a day on this road, semi-trucks drive on it at neck breaking speeds, and our landlord has lost no less than 5 pets to accidents on it.

A few minutes later, I went out back to retrieve the Pug Batman, and to my horror, found him to be nowhere. He's usually hooked up on a run, which I had put him on, but lately he had somehow found a way to escape his tether. On those occasions he'd be sitting by the back door waiting to be let in for a treat, but today he was absent from his normal spot. I went out, called for him by the woods, and nothing. So I went back through the house, thinking he might be int he front yard watching the cars, the idiot. I opened the door and...

Sad day, the poor little thing was laying on the mat. My heart broke. I brought him in and the first thing I noticed was that he was a little bloody from a scrape on his leg. My eyes watered in sympathy. Then I noticed he was favoring his back leg. My empathy raged on as I brought him his favorite treat, bed, and toy. Then I saw the leg dangle in a grotesque sort of way, and I began to fear for my life because I was pretty sure my husband would kill me when he saw what happened to his dog.

Sure enough, when he got the phone call that his precious doggy had been smashed on, Husband was UNhappy. Not at me, really, but the universe. Too bad the universe wasn't there in person to get the evil eye. After holding him for awhile and taking a long, sad look at our bank account, Sir Pug was escorted to the vet by me, lugging his 20 pound butt along with a 38.5 week huge stomach. Not an easy feat. After a $70 xray and $25 worth of pain pills, he came back with a sweet $90 splint on his leg, which at an extra $30 a pop, would need changing for the next 5 weeks. He is now officially more expensive than an Xbox 360. Batman, had you not been so stupid, we could have bought had Xbox. Not that we were going to buy one, but thats what kind of money we spent on you. Feel very special. (Can you tell this is a gaming family? Your worth is measured by systems and so forth.)

This is him, reveling in attention and couch privileges. For the first 3 weeks he had pain meds, which he ate wrapped up in a piece of cheese. Call me crazy but I think he'd do it again, seeing as the perks heavily outweighed that one moment of panic and pain he felt.

Now, 5 weeks later, he's still treating the leg gingerly but the splint is off and he is a healed, happy dog. Even though the left leg is now slightly better looking than the right. Oh well.

It's been a long time since I've blogged, sorry everyone! I have been busy! Consider this the formal birth announcement of our daughter, Jordan Hanna, born May 27th (day before the due date!) at 12:18pm. Weighing in a 6 lb. 9 oz. and 19 inches long, she is active and healthy and wonderful! My mom was there for almost a month, and shortly after she left Rob's parents and some of his sisters showed up to meet the new addition. I've been busy trying to recover while taking care of the baby and the dog who, a few weeks before, had gotten hit by a car and broken his leg. This is the first week I've been mostly home alone and I'm finding it very challenging trying to get anything done! Jordan has been in the middle of a growthspurt and spent the last 3 days eating every 15 minutes or so. Both of us got very little sleep and everything else around the house suffered too. Today however, she is back to her happy, eating, and SLEEPING self, which let me straighten the house, shower, and even get a little nap myself! I'll try to post more often now. I'll leave you all with a picture of Miss Jordan, 3 weeks old, taken by my talented sister in law.

Please excuse me for this post. I'd like to start out saying that I am in no way racist and the only reason race is even brought up is because the first thing I thought before my event occurred was that the woman about to ring up my gas in the gas station looked JUST like this. 

In fact, had she not opened her mouth and said what she said, this post would simply have been titled, The Day I Met Tyler Perry's Aunt in the Gas Station. And that would have been the end. 


This is what went down. I was down to 13 miles of gas left. I was forced to pull into a gas station, one I frequent regularly. Usually I just use my card but today I had $20 of cash on me that I thought would be best used to purchase gas, rather than sit in my purse tempting me to buy things I shouldn't. So I, a petite 37 weeks and 4 days pregnant woman, wandered unsuspectingly into the gas station to purchase my gas. Upon entering I found who I can only assume to be Aunt Madea behind the counter, and one of her friends who either worked there with her or enjoyed spending her spare time in gas stations. 


Before I could politely state my request, this lady busts out with a loud "OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH NO." "........?" my face said. "GIRL YOU ABOUT TO DROPPPPPPPPPPPP WE NEED TO GET YOU OUTA HERE WHAT DO YOU NEED??" "............?!" my face said. "$20 on pump one" my smiling mouth said. So I hand her my money and laugh a little, ready to accept the regular bout of hahaha teasing am I not funny how fat are you etc. that I put up with. She takes the cash and looks back at me. I look at her. She looks at me. I look at her. "YOU NEED ANYTHING ELSE? A RECEIPT?" "..............??!!" my face said. "Uh, no, no I'm good" my mouth said. Her face said this:




 "MMMKAY WELL YOU NEED TO GET OUT RIGHT NOW BECAUSE ALL I GOTS HERE'S A BANDAID AND I'M NOT TOUCHING THAT *%#$." I assume she meant afterbirth. "...........???!!!???!!!" my face said. "Ok, bye" my mouth said. And I turned around and walked out, both women staring at me like I had just walked in with the black plague, french kissed them both, and walked out again pumping my fists into the air victoriously. I got to my car, pumped my gas, all the while trying to keep a hold over myself. I felt like laughing, crying, and walking back in there to try and purposely give birth on her floor. Instead I got into the car and drove home, all the while trying to figure out why it bugged me more than the average comment.


Rob was pretty mad and told me to write a letter. Perhaps what most "grinds my gears" (family guy anyone?) about this scenario is that in the past you always get that awkward friendly grin that accompanies biting remarks. You are fat, stop eating donuts, hahaha I'm so funny aren't we like best friends now. Either this woman's sense of humor is so wack that she doesn't know how to impart the idea that she is in fact joking either on her victims or herself, or she was dead serious that I may drop a kid onto the floor at any moment. This was serious. This was sad. Maybe this was meant to be funny, maybe this was meant to be hurtful. Anyways, I hate to admit it but it bothered me all the way home and it bothered me as I told my husband the story. A day later after what I like to call "pregnant brain" has had a chance to simmer down and forget 90% of my goings on as usual, I can look back at this and laugh pretty hysterically over the situation. 

I have new, tangible proof of how much my husband loves me.

Granted, every day that he buys me food, puts up with my grumpy, preggo self, calls me beautiful amidst a bulging belly and means it, and a whole host of others things prove his love to me. However, he went above and beyond the husbandly call of duty yesterday.

I had spent the night before trying to be as pleasant as possible under the circumstances, and maybe amidst all the pleasant commentary I threw in a few gripes about how long it's been since I've played Mario Party. Now in order to understand my husband's act of pure selflessness, you have to understand two things about Mario Party. One is that whoever came up with the game thought it would be great fun to let the characters, in a sense, beat the crap out of you. By this I mean that no matter what you do, the computer characters will find ways to beat you in any unreasonable way possible. This includes but is not limited to: landing on spaces with secret stars and coins (which you never land on), receiving choice items that enable free or awesome things (which are never available to you, literally), getting the best rolls, the most amount of money, and lets not forget the games. Oh, the games, where you think a 9 year old should be able to play this and have fun. No, they make the computer characters (on Easy, mind you) perform unimaginable feats. Oh, they go to great lengths to beat you in this game. God forbid the human player wins. I guess they figured after so many times of winning the fun and challenge would be gone. Regardless, Mario in this game is pretty much the devil.

The second thing is this:  I don't mind this too much. Yes, its annoying. Yes, I have spent hours screaming at Yoshi because in my mind there was no possible way he could have finished the last level of the game in .3 seconds when I was over 50 feet ahead of him. But somehow it hasn't hindered my ability to enjoy the goofy game to the utmost.  Rob on the other hand...oh Rob. After about 5 times of playing this game within our first year of marriage in Chicago, the hatred was so fully formed that I didn't even have to say the words without his face turning bright red.

You can imagine my surprise then, when I received a text from Rob at work saying, "Will you have a mario party date with me tonight?"

I don't know what was sweeter to me, the idea that my husband asked me out on a date formally again or the idea that he was willing to play Mario Party with me. I am in true true love. :-)

**ps** we spent a lovely half hour playing mario party and eating Rob's famous popcorn. During which the game tried to make amends with Robert by providing him with over 320 coins while I managed to walk away with...about 6. Ah well, you can't play your Mario Party with a husband and win it too, I guess.

Today I'm playing the waiting game. After months of Rob insisting that the baby was coming today, I've been rather expectant. No sign yet but he's still got about 12 hours.

I've decided that there are a few things about being pregnant in society that need to change.
1) Just because I'm pregnant doesn't give you leave to talk to me and joke about my giant belly. Calling me fat and telling me to lay off the yogurt, while hilarious to you, is just annoying to me and only makes me want to stifle your laughter by taking said large belly and smacking you with it over and over until you pass out on the ground, where I end both our misery by crushing you with my newfound weight. Obviously I'm pregnant, you are a stranger, leave me alone to do what I need to do in peace. STRANGER DANGER!
2) When I complain how I sick I am of being pregnant, don't interrupt me by telling me that she needs to stay in there longer, how good it is for her, how bad it would be if she was born right now, etc. Just shut up. I didn't say. "Wouldn't it be funny if I could force the baby out and ensure that she stays in the hospital for 3 months just because I'm selfish enough to want to stop carrying a watermelon underneath my skin?" Shame on you all, because if you are a man or a woman who hasn't given birth you don't know what I'm going through, and if you are a mother then try and remember what the last bit felt like. OF COURSE I'm at liberty to complain.
3) Finally, and this is the big one, don't condole me by assuring me that she'll be here before I know it. Guess what? I know it! I've known it for weeks! Months! And she's not here. So though you are trying to make me feel better, please don't. If you really want to condole me, buy me chocolate or send me off for a massage or pedicure.

Once these few social faux pas get straightened out, pregnant women everywhere will become a little less grumpy, I promise you. Because although underneath the strained smiles, daggers of hate are being shot into the air, we really just want to laugh the whole thing off and enjoy the few moments in between the misery. Don't ruin my few moments with your idiocy. Thank you.

I'm just gonna say it: This week has been the week of snow cones. There's been nothing better. When I'm grumpy, sick, hot, not hungry, tired, you name it, the snow cone heals all. I've had 2. Today may be my third, depending on whether I decide to drag myself to the snow cone place.

Rob rolls his eyes the very minute I mention this tasty treat. Is it a craving? Possibly. Its definitely a cheap indulgence I have allowed myself and the more I think about them the more I want one! In hot Orlando there's nothing better than cold ice with a hint of delicious flavoring. My Snow Cone Place hosts no less than 50 different flavors, from typical cherry and grape to exotic mango and passion fruit. It even has flavors like Hurricane and Tiger's Blood, where you must venture out on a limb to try a tasty flavor concocted by the Snow Cone Man Himself. They'll even layer it with ice cream, add some sort of cream to make it a creamy icy slush, cherries, whip cream, chocolate. You name it, they'll do it.

Anyways, aside from the tasty tasty snowy treats, my days are getting longer and harder to get through, and I'm still working (although I may be done after next week). I say its time for Baby to get here! So far days we have as birth days are May 5th (Rob), May 13th (our friends who realized the thirteenth is a friday this month) and May 16th (me). Lets start taking bets!

Happy May! Its baby month!!!

Rob brought home a headboard for us, painted it, and it nicely matches our dresser! I'll take a picture of it later today and put it up in the post, promise :-) We are still on the lookout for some nightstands and another tall dresser, although we really won't fit the dresser into our room until baby's crib gets moved back into her room along with the rocker.

Its been hot here lately, and this weekend the weather was cooler (Funny how 82 can feel low!) with a nice cool breeze, and we celebrated by mowing the lawn and cleaning the house lol. Sunday was restful, we made a trip to Walmart to pick up the dresser (thank you Kaje's mom!) but didn't set it up because our Sunday afternoon nap left us feeling groggy and a little crappy. A snow cone run helped but didn't inspire the need to set up the dresser or get anything else done, and we spent the rest of the day enjoying doing nothing. We ended the night with a marathon of Mythbuster episodes. Sometime this week we'll get the rest of the baby stuff set up, hopefully, because if Rob's bold prediction is correct baby will be here Friday. Ha. Wishful thinking, if you ask me.

I can't recall any funny preggo antidotes, so today will just have to be a usual boring post. :-)

PS- Mommy Power to Ashley! I don't know how you did this 3 (going on 4) times in a row!

It has just occurred to me. Baby= Child. Child= Holiday fun. Holiday fun= Halloween. Halloween= Trick or Treat. Trick or Treat= Candy. Candy= For Child. Child= Baby. Baby= Too young for Candy. Too young for Candy= All the more for me.

Maybe this mommy thing won't be so bad after all!

I gave our blog a face lift because I figured it was time. Also I couldn't add anything new to the old template because it was some weird sort of css/html thing that I couldn't edit after a few years soooooo here's our new blog!

Well last night Rob and I took time out of our already oh so short night to go to the hospital for an infant care course. Now before you get all snarky, I'd like to point out that the main reason we signed up for this class was for the infant CPR. As little as I know about babies, Rob pointed out to me that the majority of my knowledge would come from common sense, instinct, or from the three motherly sources in my life: my mom, his mom, and ashley. Not to mention the countless amounts of cousins, aunts, grandmothers, great grandmothers, and the general public who would no doubt give me their opinions whether I asked for them or not.

Spare me the lectures. The first step to healing is admittance.

50 days until baby is due to grace us with her presence! I'm getting antsy and I'm also back to working full time at the church. They lost their office admin and asked me to step in while they figure out who they will hire. There are a lot of transitions going on there because its so small & has such an aged congregation they have had a hard time bringing in new members. They have just signed on to work as a co-op church with another large Methodist church in the area, which means that more likely than not they will just bring on one of the administrators from the other church. But that means they will need to go through a background check since we have a school here, and it all takes time, so while all this is getting figured out, I'm working 9-5 here. I'm so happy to be able to help out again financially but this time around its super draining and makes the days go by slower. The pregnancy is catching up with me, I'm sore most of the time in my hips and sometimes its agony to walk around, and other times its the sitting that kills my back. And I'm tired and have lost the little energy I have. Luckily its only for a month or two, and it will make me feel better to help while I can.

That's how I feel, too tired to keep up. I'm nearly 31 weeks along, and the idea that the baby could be here in less than 10 weeks is daunting to say the least. However I find it hard to concentrate on the long term effects of this pregnancy because I'm so caught up in the now. Right NOW I'm tired, right NOW I'm hungry (for nothing in the house, usually lol) right NOW I'm sore from being kicked all day long. Baby apparently inherited her father's prowess and enjoyment in fighting. That or she is trying to stretch out her ever shrinking place of residence...

Its hard to believe its already the end of March! With April comes hotter weather, Easter, and my church's baby shower - all the little old ladies decided to throw one for me, which is adorable. I'm so thankful we found a little home there, even if its not exactly what we are looking for in terms of a church.

I'm starting to look into options after the babe is born: will I go back to work? Can we afford for me not to? Can we afford me to? Daycare is insanely expensive; but who wants to trust their infant with some stranger? Will I be dying to stay longer with her instead of going back to work, or will I be dying to get out of the house and have a life again? I can't make decisions now, but I've heard there are months of waiting lists at most of these places that are halfway decent.

I'm also very large and very not large. My pictures are deceiving, there is a lot of belly on the side, but its still this little narrow bump that refuses to show itself from the front or back. It causes me confusion and grief, as people around me say I barely look pregnant, and sometimes I even barely FEEL pregnant, and then I'll take a picture and nearly faint from realization that, holy cow, yes I am very much so! Other times I feel enormous.

Enough about babies. Forgive us for the lack of information, but our lives aren't really interesting enough yet to post regularly, unless you want to hear about how I have cleaned the house today, or how Rob went to work another 14 hour day. We washed the car last weekend, went to church, ran some errands...very little separates the day-to-day routine. When the babe gets here I promise to update much more often, because after the initial period where she does the same boring things as well, I'm sure there will be much more to tell. Until then, I'll just post pictures of her all the time.

Our guest bedroom is up and running, its not winter here, and in 2 months there will be a baby that you can pretend is yours until you don't want it anymore. Come visit!

Today I am 26 weeks, 2 days. I think either my stomach shrinks and grows daily, or the camera adds weight and girth, or no one around me is aware of how large I am! Most of the time, people can barely tell I'm pregnant, or say how small I am for how far along I am. I have begun to think so too! But when we finally took a belly picture, both Rob and I were astonished and a little freaked out over how large that bump suddenly seemed. We are under a hundred days (God willing!) until Baby Girl Holthouse is here and I have my body all to myself again! If she goes a day over her due date I'm thinking about charging rent. ;-)

We got to have Ken around last week, it was good seeing him briefly and we got 3 dinners out in a row- THANK YOU!!! Its fun to be spoiled, I guess thats what happens when you live close enough to relatives! Maybe we better start thinking about a move...

The weather has been gorgeous down here finally. We waved goodbye to our 40/50 degree weather and the last week has been in the high 70s and sunny! We peaked at 81 yesterday and I thought about taking a trip to the beach, but Rob and I were enjoying our time relaxing at home. We did finally go out to our anniversary dinner at the Melting Pot, and had some awesome food (well, I love it. Rob just likes it.). We even got a card signed by all the servers which I think we left on the table.

More and more baby items are finding their way into our household. We are at a standstill right now, trying to decide whether or not Batman should give up his room for baby, whether we want to put her at the other end of the house, whether we ought to have the guest room combine with the baby room, etc. We still have some time but I'm getting anxious to start setting stuff up, especially since we have some heavy duty furniture now. We got our king sized bed home, and splurged for some nice sheets for it, and now its hard to get out of bed in the morning because we have soooooo much space! This means we have a guest bed finally!

I head out early tomorrow for NH and my baby shower, and the beginning of my third trimester will start on Saturday. Hopefully my energy will stay up for awhile longer!

How is it already the middle of February?

Our last few weeks in bullet points:

• We have been sick, sick, sick together, with horrendous colds that take away sleep and make you cough till you vomit.
• Baby is 25 weeks old today and continually grows and moves. She's about a pound and a half, and judging by her activity, is either planning on breaking out soon or is quickly taking after Rob with his fighting prowess. Their favorite game involved Rob putting his hand on my stomach and her kicking him, and then he moves and she kicks him again.
  
• I've been doing some extra work for a company that has been helping out with the doctor bills. Its wonderful to finally be able to contribute again, although its leaving me exhausted at the end of the day.
• I've got my baby shower in NH at the end of the month, and I wish I could take Rob so he could visit with my family a little more. We haven't really seen them since our wedding. I'm hoping my flight experience is better this time around than it was at Christmas.
• We had our 2 year anniversary. Its been incredibly amazing to see how fast time has gone, and at the same time, to realize its only been 2 years together. I feel like a lot has happened! 3 years ago right now, we were in the first and last "big" fight we ever had, and we had only known each other for two months. Little did I know 3 years ago that in just a few more months we'd fall in love and decide to live the rest of our lives together.
• Feel free to ignore the last bullet, that was fairly mushy. My emotions are on overdrive :-)
• Rob has taken great delight in the fact I finally acknowledge my cravings. Nothing too weird yet, but I have started craving sweets and especially chocolate. Normally I can't stand too much of that stuff and I'm more of a salty girl. Luckily he's lovely and will go get me things when I decide I can't wait any longer for a batch of cookies or a box of chocolates.
  
• Our car is dying, and we need to decide whether to spend our $ on getting it fixed (an engine/transmission thing) or just scrap it as a trade in and get a new car that, if nothing else, will be reliable for a few years. We are lucky the car lasted us as long as it did! I have such bad luck with vehicles.
  
• We got offered a free king sized mattress, which we jumped at, and now we just have to figure out how to transport it the 60 miles to our house. Soon I won't be pushing Rob out of bed and we'll have a real guest bed too. So, come on out and visit!
  

Well we had our first dr. visit yesterday morning. We saw baby on an ultrasound and everything is great so far- we are healthy and active and I was told, whatever I'm doing keep doing it. Big relief. Our biggest fear was that, now with all the kicking and we knew it was alive, that something was horribly wrong with it. But everything looked normal, and we are halfway there! Thank goodness, because while the morning sickness left, my "always tired" feeling has not. Of course I have gone the last three weeks or so waking up before 7AM and not getting my naps, which has something to do with it I think.
Some pictures of the ultrasound are up on both our facebooks.

And yes, for all of you who don't know, we did find out the gender. Boy or Girl? I'll leave it up to an old song my grandpa used to sing.
Boy or Girl?