Fairies are Attracted to Light

See! "I can turn the light on and off!" Oh, and she has figured out how to flush the potties. Our potties are *really* hard to flush. She's been flushing public potties for well over a year, but ours at home take her 2 hands! Ha! AND...she's turning on the bathtub. I just hope it's awhile before she masters the art of opening doors with door knob covers.
She asks to wear her Tinkerbell outfit. May as well let her while it fits!

"Oooh! Pretty!"

What a cute pregnant person!

Today someone said to me, "What a cute pregnant person!" I didn't know if I should slap them or say thank you?

I have been having a ton of Braxton Hicks. A TON TON! That means the end is indeed near. I had an OB appt. this week. Went normal! You know, try not to pee on your hand as you pee in a tiny cup...get your BP taken, etc. My BP has been measuring at 110/70 which they always say is low, but if you look on the charts, it's still normal. I think it's the fish oil I take...that and chasing around Claire.

Anyways, I have a "feeling" that he'll be early. I was always thinking with Claire that she would be late, and she was. I have a ticker at the top of my blog page if you want to see my due date and how close I am as the event approaches. If I fall off the face of the earth and the face of Facebook, you'll know what's up! I am hoping he stays in until Easter though! :) That is my goal...

Feeling Risky!

So I refuse to blog in-depth about potty-training or related issues generally because, um, nobody really wants to read that...but I don't want to say things are going great for fear of jinxing myself or whatever. Let's just say that this is day 2 of somebody napping with big girl panties on. Why does that feel risky? LOL! And I am like totally ready for a giant set-back in a few weeks with new baby-related regression...but here's to hoping!

Oh, and I thought we were done with naps for awhile, and maybe we were. Maybe she is having a growth spurt? I measured her. She is 42 inches. Good lord! She is so tall! I know she is also cutting all 4 of her 2 year old molars. She is the slowest teether ever. Does teething make them more tired or is that my imagination? She has been taking great long naps and still sleeping solidly at night. This is not bragging. This is just stating the facts because I am confused. Who knows. Nobody will ever figure out this sleep thing.

New Baby to-do List

To Do list:
Move dresser from master closet into kids’ playroom/clothing storage room
Wash, fold, put away baby boy clothes
Move Claire’s play kitchen from Living room into breakfast nook
Move dollhouse bookcase into Game room to make room for dresser
Order picture prints
Scrapbook!
Set up pack n play with bassinet feature
Get out swing, bouncer, check batteries
Pack hospital bag, new baby bag, snacks/gum/Gatorade!
Pack day-away bag for Claire, fav. Dry Snacks/juice/clothes/jammies/emergency phone list/guardian info
Update will with new baby info
Make a list of Claire’s favorite foods!
BIRTHPLAN!
Get out infant carseat, adjust straps, install
Move Claire’s carseat to side
Pick a freaking name

BUY:
Another hamper
Rubbing alcohol, peroxide
Size 1 & 2 diapers
Postpartum supplies

Stock up on household supplies:
TP, papertowels, laundry soap, baby wipes, etc

DO NOW:
Oil change

WHAT AM I MISSING?

Tumbling Tots Gymnastics

Jumping on the spongy mats with friends:
Waiting for directions...my belly at 33 weeks:

Jumping off the wedge that looks like a stick of butter:

Walking the balance beam with teacher:

Jumping downhill:

Flat Chloe Visits Claire

Click here to view this photo book larger

If you need a laugh...

When we say bye to people Claire's started to say, "See ya next time I see ya!" instead of bye!

Today Claire was holding her baby doll and using her shoulder to hold her yellow Barbie phone on the other side. Then she puts her fingers to her lips and shushes her baby. Then she said, "Baby, you needa stop talking now. Mommy's talking on the phone." Hmm. I wonder where she's heard that one? ;)

Frosty February

We had freezing fog recently one morning. This left the trees and everything coated with an absolutely beautiful white layer of frozen fog snow. This is my favorite tree. I planted it as the size of a stick!
Side yard with Weeping Willow:

Even the wreath on the door had gotten frozen fog on it!

I took these pictures the morning of February 12th.

Claire enjoying make snow castles and eating snow (click to make these full size):

If you've spend time in the Midwest, you know that sand toys are snow toys in the winter time!

She is also crazy about making snow angels every time we go out!

I promise she was facing the camera when I snapped this...

This is my new header photo if you haven't noticed:

Her snow angels look pretty good with the arms:

The snow froze really hard so it was easy for us to walk on without sinking in!

Aren't these trees great? Sadly, the white frosting on all the trees melted off by about 11 in the morning. We had gone out right after breakfast!

GLAMA LYNN!

Here is Claire with Josh's mom, "Glama" Lynn. Glama is not a typo...it's her version of Grandma...it means "Glamorous Grandma." Hehe.
The only pictures we managed to take of them together were at the airport when we dropped her off, and we got none with Josh and his mom. So much for me being on top of pictures! But hey...they could get things organized too!

Flat Chloe came with to the airport! It's like a paper doll for Claire to play with!

The Flat Stanley Project

We recently got a new thing to do! Some of our friends in Florida, mailed us a "Flat Chloe" which is a spinoff of the Flat Stanley Project. It is basically to promote literacy. We have Flat Chloe for 1 month, then mail her back to the real Chloe who is Claire's age and doing this project with preschool. We take Flat Chloe wherever we go and take lots pictures.

Here is Flat Chloe at the church nursery with Claire's favorite toy...the dollhouse! (Ignore the Valentine's Candy in her mouth...)

Claire has to wear her sunglasses like I do if it's sunny out! I will never complain about too much sun in February though!

30-30-30

So I recently turned 30. So unexciting. Josh turned 30 the next day. Also unexciting. But what was slightly exciting to a dork like me was that I was 30 weeks pregnant the day I turned 30 and Claire was 30 months old. WOW! Now what is the chance of that???!!!

I haven't blogged in some time. I promise I haven't been slacking on purpose. In fact, I am preparing you for me to go missing when the new baby arrives. LOL! Nah, I just have been busy. Josh's mom was here for a whole week. We managed to go out not once, but twice in her time here. We didn't do anything super fancy, but eating out at a sit-down place without a 2 year-old is a feat in itself. We went to Steak-and-Shake one night and I can't even remember where we went the other time, but it was someplace local and equally unexciting. I just was thrilled to order a milkshake for my drink. I didn't have to share it. And I didn't have to worry about Claire wanting to just eat a milkshake and no food. :)

Having back-t0-back birthdays kinds of sucks. LOL! That's why we got married in the summer so at least our anniversary is by itself. So we have both our birthdays and Valentine's Day all in a row. PLUS, Josh asked me to marry him on Valentine's Day, so that's sort of another "holiday" that is piled in there. We usually get one another an ice cream cake. Like one year I'll get Josh one, and the next year he'll get me one. Ritter's and DQ are favorites. I got him one from Culver's this year and, well, it kind of sucks, which surprised me. It'll probably be sitting in our freezer for awhile. :) If you come over, ask to try some!

Then, this past Friday morning I went with Claire to look at a Preschool. I'm totally for her going to preschool. I remember LOVING preschool and school and of course all my teachers all the way through. I'm just torn if I should start her NOW this fall or wait one more year. She will be a young 3, just turning 3 at the end of July. But I think that she'll be more than ready. I have to remind myself that's several months away, too!

Then after looking at the Preschool, we zipped up to Valpo for no reason at all, really. Well, I want her to continue seeing my parents a lot so if she is with my mom for a few days when the new baby is born, she'll be fine, but I think she would be anyways.

Well, anyways, it's back to our regular routine. I'm trying to limit our days out of the house to 3 per week. That leaves me 2 week days to catch up on laundry, grocery shopping, and nesting. Ack. It's hard because I'd like to take Claire somewhere everyday or have others here to play daily, but there are just not enough hours in the day to get it all done.

Perhaps for the first time ever, I'm back after 2 nights away and have actually unpacked everything and done the laundry...now it's just time to fold!

On my to-do list: WRITE A TO-DO before the new baby is born list!

In other exciting news Claire has started a "Tumbling Tots Gymnastics" class with a few little friends. Class size is limited to 8 with 3 teachers. Good ratio! It will run through the end of March, so my goal is to not have the baby any earlier than April 1st. :) I feel REALLY REALLY REALLY HUGE!

I think I said that before. I never ever felt this big with Claire. I feel like I did the day she was born. I like can't even sit how I'd like to. I have to sit forward or I can't breathe. :) Is this normal for 2nd pregnancies? Good lord.

Some funny things Claire has said lately:

I spilled milk/cereal down my shirt the other day. Claire scowled at me and goes, "What you getting on my baby brother?!?"

Eating lunch with my brother Rich in Valpo and talking about the advantages/disadvantages of preschool. During a lull, with perfect timing in the conversation, Claire chimes in with "BABY POWER!" It was hilarious.

We were shopping with my mom on Sunday, and my mom was asking me about some item. Claire scowled at her and stated, "Oma, you no need that. Put that back." That was hilarious because she's never said that to anyone before. But apparently she's heard me say that before! :)

Today, I watched 2 other little almost 2 year old girls. Claire was trying to "talk" to them, but they weren't responding to her liking. So she said, "Mommy, Catrece can't talk. I'll teach her to talk." I thought this was really cute. And Catrece can say more than plenty for her age, by the way!

Other Claire news... She was incredibly cranky yesterday. I was like, hmm, I wonder if she's getting her top two 2-year-old-molars. Sure enough...they are both peeking through her gums! Yay! I'm glad that all her teeth will be through before April!!!

She has been sleeping great lately...it only took her like, um, 30 months to sleep through the night. And I don't mean like the 4 hours stretch, I mean like, go to sleep at night and not wake up till morning. ;) I think God is giving me a little sleep-vacation before baby boy arrives. Well, I do have to get up and pee, like, um hourly, but at least I can go right back to sleep without soothing anyone. I've heard that is common though for kids who don't sleep through the night (despite extended nursing or not) to not sleep through the night until about 2 1/2 or until all their teeth have been cut. So does that mean...PERMANENT TEETH TOO??? That would explain 6 and 7 year olds still wanting to crawl into bed with parents!

And what's the big deal about turning 30 anyways? I hope to God that I'm getting older. I wouldn't want to be 21 with 2 kids. ;)

I'd rather...

After I gave Claire her bath today, she did not want to get dressed, as usual. She runs around naked, wearing just her hooded towel which she calls her "towel hat." I told her she needed to get dressed so she wouldn't be cold. Ever so mature-like she goes, "I'd rather be naked." Ahh joys. The naked-toddler-after-bath-chase. There needs to be a simpler word for this.

Ultrasound Check

I'm behind on blogging, as, well, everything else. And, as I mentioned, I fell on the ice and went in for a standard OB check. The ultrasound tech wasn't there, but they scheduled me to come in and have an ultrasound just to check everything. Apparently sudden falls can tear the placenta away from the uterine lining and/or cause leaks in the amniotic sac, causing low fluid. So I went in and had an ultrasound. Everything looked great, so that was a relief. I'm still sore, but I guess that's to be expected after hitting the driveway.

I turned 30 yesterday at 30 weeks pregnant. Today I'm 31 weeks according to my LMP. However, the baby is measuring a full 3 weeks early buy ultrasound. They measure the head, belly, and legs, and somehow average them together to determine how big baby is. They estimate him at 5 lbs already, which put me at 34 weeks and 3 days....so who knows when he'll come. He just might weigh in at 10.15 like I did. Oh, and my GD test was totally normal. Apparently baby boy just likes the Bradley/Brewer's diet I've been following, although I've only managed 2 baked potatoes with skins this week.

Today, Josh is 30. Why do people make a big deal about 30? Seriously...not a big deal, but I guess I could care less about age. They say there are no milestone birthdays after 21 until you turn 55 and can get senior discounts. Things to look forward to!

Josh's mom flew in last night from FL to be here for his 30th. So she'll be here a week. I plan on taking full advantage of free babysitting. I already was able to do several things today while they played!

Last Friday morning when we woke up, there was no snow on the ground. Then we got a big dumping from Fri.-Sat. Then more came on Monday. We've gotten a total of 10 inches! That is more snow than this town has had since 1977. Ha! That's before I was born. ;) It's not supposed to warm up in the 10 day forecast, either, so this snow is going to stick around for awhile.

Funny Sayings

Claire sat up in bed and said, "Bees don't have toes." Ok. That was random. What was she dreaming about? LOL!

Later, we were doing a dolphin puzzle. I was talking about how dolphins have fins and flippers. She said, "Dogs and cats have tails! People don't have tails. They have butts." She's very observant.

Late this afternoon, folding the third basket of laundry, she observed, "Mommy, why you doing laundry all the time???"

On a random note, I've noticed when she helps me make food, she tries it. Tonight I just had her help dump in ingredients for meat loaf. She was thrilled to help and excited to try what she had made! She ate almost an adult sized slice of meatloaf! :)

Slippity-Do-Dah!

Slippity-Yay! Ok, so late afternoon on Saturday I slipped on ice in the driveway while taking Claire out to play. Josh was shoveling the porch off since the Bobcat won't fit there to clear the snow. :) Don't know what the heck I'm talking about? Well, check out the pictures on facebook! Our neighbor clears the snow with his Bobcat in about 2 seconds. It's great.

Luckily Claire was in the grass so I didn't land on her/drop her while carrying her or something. BUT being you know, 30 weeks pregnant, falling is the last thing that is good.

So I got paranoid and ended up going to the OB after all. Everything checked out fine. I'd rather be safe than sorry! I am pretty sore though. I didn't catch myself. I couldn't. Ice is NASTY! It's not like when you trip or stumble on a toy or something out of place. Ice makes you move in ways you never knew possible. I was on the ground before I knew I had slipped. Yikes! I landed on my left side...leg/hip/arm. Not so fun.