Prep Time (Yes, more about my endless nesting going on)

Yesterday I was 36 weeks! This pregnancy has gone by so fast; although during the first 20 weeks when I was praying numerous times daily to the porcelain god, I thought it wouldn’t go by fast enough. But now here I am in the last few weeks. I had my regular appointment on Monday and was informed that at this time, my doctor would not stop labor. Oh goody, does that mean I can actually get back to my normal level of activity? Well, considering that I am now carrying a basketball and a few extra sacks of potatoes, I’m guessing that my activity level will still be quite a bit lower than normal.

We’ve been preparing for the arrival of this little alien living in my womb. Alien? With the other pregnancies, I remember more kicks and punches and an occasional body roll. But this little girl is much more active. She does full body rolls constantly and loves to jab her feet out the sides of my stomach. When sitting on the couch, my stomach often looks like an incredible magic show with all parts of my middle section moving, and not just subtle movements, but up and down and side to side like if riding on a rollercoaster. It is so fascinating to watch, although doesn’t often feel the best internally. I asked my doctor if it is possible to have a hyper child in-utero? She just smiled and laughed. I’m thinking we’ll be involved in a lot of sport activities in the years to come.

Her room is almost ready and really, what does she need besides some diapers and my milk? Honestly, as parents we go through so much work to “prepare” for the arrival of the baby, but they could care less. Do they really care what color the walls are or what kind of artwork is hanging on the walls? Do they appreciate the time it took to find “the right” window coverings or the amount of money that went into stocking up on supplies? Not one bit. In fact, I think we, parents, drive ourselves bonkers with our internal competition do have the nursery perfect. We’re not really competing against anyone else, but somehow we feel guilty if the baby’s room isn’t finished off perfectly when he/she arrives. By the way, I really don’t like that word: nursery. A nursery is a plant store. A baby is a baby and has a name…therefore, its Susie’s room or Johnny’s room.

Vanessa had plain white walls for over three years. She had a few random items hung on her walls and mixed-match sheets. Did she once complain? Never. But it bothered me every day. So after recently redecorating her room, which I now LOVE (think shades of purple with bright green highlights and a modern flare in the décor), we started on Baby G’s room. Yes, nesting is still in hyper-drive. For not being the most girly person in the world, this room is turning out to be quite girly. Her walls are bright pink, almost red, on the lower half, cream on the upper half and separated with a wood trim painted in a lighter pink. Other accessories are in brown and pink and her curtains have butterflies on them. Her room is bright and cheery, warm and inviting. My little gymnast is going to love it, and even if she doesn’t, too bad for her…it has taken a lot of hard work and time to get it to this point; she’s going to have to live with it for at least 10 years.

When did she learn how to draw this?

Vanessa amazes be everyday, but seldom do I actually realize it at the time. With the craziness of our daily life, I find that I do not appreciate the little developments she has made, until later when I see something that she has done and I wonder to myself, "when did she learn this?" or "I know that I haven't taught her that, so who did?" or simply, "wow, how quickly time goes by!"

Recently, the girls were making a birthday card for a friend. I was attaching the cards to the gift when I came across a cute happy face and told Katelyn how wonderful it looked. She informed me that the drawing was Vanessa's, not hers. Seriously? Just a few weeks ago, Vanessa started coming home from school with simple happy faces - a circle with two dot eyes, a dot nose and a straight line for a mouth. I thought that was truly impressive as she had never drawn anything before that I could actually identify. And then here she comes home from school one day with a happy face and I am speechless.

But notice anything on the drawing above? Yes, it has arms! I have no idea when she learned how to draw happy faces or that they have arms. I am very impressed by her latest drawing developments. It truly is the little things that amaze me.

Coming Soon...

We took some "tummy pictures" last week. I never did this before with my other pregnancies, but always wanted too. So when we were actually at the studio taking the pictures, I was rather happy. I think with my other pregnancies, I have perhaps one or two pictures of me pregnant. So it was important for me to capture this moment while I could.

I am 34 weeks in these pictures. Baby girl is extremely active and I often comment that I have a little alien living in there who likes to try to escape through my stomach walls. It is so much fun knowing that she is a "she". We are anxious to meet her, although I fully realize that life is much easier at the moment with her still cooking in there. However, we are having a lot of fun preparing for her arrival.

Happy Easter

It was so difficult to get a "normal" looking picture of the girls today. During the time while we were outside taking pictures, they kept tickling each other or making silly faces. In fact, you can see Vanessa's hand just under Katelyn's chin and the next several pictures are of Katelyn laughing hysterically. And what is truly amazing in this picture is that Vanessa has a smile on her face. She has been battling ear infections for almost a month now and this morning woke up screaming in pain. So we'll be headed back to the doctor's tomorrow because this second round of meds obviously isn't working. Between Vanessa and myself, we seem to be at the doctor's weekly lately...at least we're making sure they stay in business.