I Miss You

Last night Charlotte woke up at 2:30 AM to eat.



Then she woke up every hour after that.



Ever since this vacation started she hasn't really slept well, but last night my husband had gone home for his bsa camping trip. So I had to get up every time.

Mom Friends

Everyone (and by everyone I mean all the mom/parenting type of magazines) says that it's really important for me to get "mom friends." The good news about this is that my sister-in-law lives three blocks away from me and had her baby 7 weeks ahead of me. We are a perfect match so that whole, this-is-how-I-met-my-first-mommy-friend thing was already made the moment we moved into town. The bad news: we're moving in three weeks. We're moving to a place that I have never seen before and never really paid attention to until I found out its a place I might live.

My husband is totally stoked to be going because, well, this is his life's dream. Goal number one since the third grade (when he figured out he would not be big enough to ever be a pro football player) was to become a doctor. I am so excited for him and for us that we're on our way to the future! I feel like his cheerleader sometimes. "Way to go honey! I always knew you could do it! You are the best!" These remarks are all deserved on his part. He's a great husband, and one of the brightest men I have ever met.

Here's the thing, St. Louis doesn't have my mommy friend! I am so comfortable with my sister-in-law that I know I can go over to her house in the middle of the day and she wont feel inconvienced. In fact she worries when I don't show up for a few days! Medical school is a full time sort of thing. I know my husband, as great as he is, is only human. His time will be taken up much by his schooling (as I think it should. I don't want my doctor to have slacked off learning his profession when I go to get help!). Plus, he's not a mom, he's never been through what I'm going through. It feels so therapeutic to be able to talk to someone who knows exactly what I'm going through because she's going through it too.

I feel exactly like I did when we moved the summer between fourth and fifth grade. To be precise I feel like I did on the second day of school. I had no idea what I was jumping into then. Now I know how hard it can be to make new friends. Here's hoping it's easier at 23 than it is at 10. Maybe it'll be like freshman year in college. Everyone was friendless and looking for new friends and so it was pretty easy to make them. Yeah, it'll be like that. Right?

"Mom Clothes"

My brother is 10 years older than I am. He and his wife got married when I was somewhere in the 13 year-old range. Once after they were married my mom, sister, and I were with her and her baby girl and I said to her that she wears "mom clothes." I did not say this as an insult, just a statement of fact. I didn't realize how much it must have hurt her feelings, but with her reaction I knew I had said something wrong. It is only until now that I realize what a horrible thing I must have said to her!

Ever since having a baby I have felt just like I did at 12 when my body had changed shape and I didn't like the way it looked. I didn't know how to dress it, and I was sure it didn't look as good as the girls around me. Now I have that same feeling, but for different reasons. At three months post partem I was still in maternity (or once you've had the baby I like to call them fat-girl) clothing. Then my dad of all people said it really was time for me to get out of maternity wear. In my heart I knew he was right. He had been right for a good month. The reason I was still in maternity clothing was three fold:

1. I no longer fit into my old clothing. Everything was too tight or just didn't fit right.
2. I didn't want to spend the money to get new clothing.
3. I worried that becuase my old clothing made me look and feel fat, going shopping for new clothing would confirm that yes, I really was a fatty.

The thing is that I realized I was wearing the same oversized T-shirts and baggy jeans every week! YUCK!

Yesterday I went shopping with my mom and dad (my mom really is the best person for me to shop with! She tells me the truth and we can be silly in the dressing rooms). And do you want to know the truth? Once I gave up trying to be what I used to be and really trying on things that fit the new me I realized that I still look good! It felt good too. Clothing that fits is the best thing in the whole world! I feel so much better now! I know this might sound vain, like I shouldn't be worrying about all this because I have a new baby that is the most precious thing, but I do. Once I stopped feeling guilty about feeling ugly I was able to move forward to a new me. Plus, I'm only one size bigger than I was before the baby. That's pretty good I'd say.

Now my new clothing isn't what I used to wear. I don't think that it is "mom clothes" either. I'd like to think it's somewhere in between. Older, more grown up clothing, but that fits and looks good too.

10 Minutes and Counting

I'm at the library with only 10 minutes left on the computer so this post isn't going to be written well. There are just a few things I really needed to get out there.

• First, my sister's wedding was FABULOUS! Everything went really well, I think anyway, including the flowers. Katie got really mad when they showed up the wrong shade of blue. She threw the ribbon across the room and said that she hated them. Then the next morning she looked at them again and realized that they were beautiful and there was no need to freak out. (She should still get the extra money back because they weren't the color she ordered, but that's another issue.) The band at the reception was awesome! And the violinist was so good! It was great to see my sister's friend Kathy there. She has a beautiful little girl that's two and it's really great to be around other mommies and be able to talk about mommy stuff without feeling boring.
• If anyone noticed the recipe in the comments on the last post you might want to know it's for the most fabulous chip dip there ever was! My cousin Megan is awesome! Write it down, use it up and enjoy! Thanks Megs.
• Being a mom is exhausting! I feel like I'm trying to do about a billion things to improve myself, my family, and my child at once and succeeding and failing at them all! I don't know if that makes any sense, but I don't have time to get it right so there you go.
• We're going up to WA in the middle of July and I'm stoked.

Now my baby's crying in the middle of the library so I have to go.

Learning

Being a new mom is nothing if not an educating experience! I've already learned the basics of breast feeding, changing diapers, giving baths, getting baby dressed, and trying to get out of the door on time. (If I ever figure that one out I know I'll have become a success!) Well, I've recently learned two more things: torticollis and plagiocephaly. My baby has both. Kinda scary, kinda stressful. The good thing is that she doesn't really have a bad case and if we just do the stretches and exercises that the physical therapist showed us she'll be just fine. I just feel really overwhelmed and even though everyone keeps saying that I shouldn't feel bad about this I do. I've heard tons of times that its not my fault and I agree, but in the back of my head I keep thinking, what if I had started these sooner? What if I had caught it before now and then we wouldn't need the physical therapist. My baby is only two and a half months old and she has to go to physical therapy. Now that was a stressful day! All I could see in my baby girl that day was what the therapist told me about her neck, head, and back (the torticollis gave her a little bit of scoliosis). Then yesterday and today I played with my baby and saw all the fun stuff about how awesome she is. It'll be just fine in the end I know, but right now it's just a little hard.

Untitled

Did you ever wonder who broke the chain letters you sent out when you were younger? Well, I have a confession. It was probably me. I realized that this behavior hasn't changed since my friend Kim tagged me and I didn't do anything. I even said I'd fill it out and then I didn't. Now it seems like it's been too long so I'm not going to do it. Suffice it to say that we don't have TV right now so there aren't any shows that I regularly watch. Although the old favorites are New Yankee Workshop, The Joy of Painting, anything on HGTV (except design on a dime, that one's dumb) and I prefer anything with a plot over sports (that includes Maya and Miguel on PBS if worse comes to worst). We don't have the Internet so I don't have anything I go to daily although I do check my sister's blog EVERY time I get on the Internet and all the links that are on her sidebar. I can't remember the other ones right now so that's going to be the end of that. Sorry I'm so lame and also sorry to everyone that never got millions of letters back because I broke the chain.

In other news Baby Love got her baby photos taken at JCPenny's today! She is so cute and it was a lot of fun. She didn't smile often so I was worried we wouldn't have any cute ones, but the photographer was really good at catching cute faces of hers.

In the news of gorgeous women my sister shared her engagement photos with me today and they are great! My sister is so cosmopolitan! I figure that I'll probably never be like that, but I do admire that quality in her. She's just so....I can't really think of the right word for stylish, metropolitan, clever, beautiful, and the like. If you can think of it then let me know. Did you ever have someone like her in your life? Someone that has a quality that you really admire, but will never see in yourself? Man I love her! I can't wait to go to her wedding. It's going to be such an event!

Update

I'm sure you all loved the story of Charlotte's first climbing experience. As for those who thought I should go climbing with my husband, I used to and I will again, but as it hadn't been 6 weeks yet past my delivery the doctor really frowns on doing such things. You're not supposed to lift anything heavier than your baby and well, I'm a lot heaver than Charlotte. Now I can go climbing with him. On that note:

We're going a vacation! Dan wanted to take the opportunity to climb in Utah before we move again so we're going to spend a week in July down at Joe's Valley or seomthing like that. He just calls it Joe's. Anyway, I have to fill three days of the week with non-climbing activites. Any ideas? I am so excited! Dan gave me an awesome Dutch oven for mother's day since I had been saying I wanted one for this trip for a while now. I have one meal a week planned in the dutch oven from now to then so I can build my confidence.

Charlotte can now hold her head up when you sit her holding her tummy. Isn't she so strong?! Plus I've been trying to get a photo of her smiling for a week now, but she doesn't like the flash on the camera so I've only got one chance and she doesn't smile for extended periods of time. Also when she smiles she likes to move her head so that makes it a little more complicated. Today she's wearing an outfit that my friend Heather gave her and it is SO CUTE! It totally reminds me of Heather when she wears it too becuase it's exactly her style.

Now that summer is here I've decided that living in a big metal box isn't very much fun. It gets up to 87 in our trailer and that's as high as our thermometer goes so it might go higher, I'm just not sure. We really need to get the swamp cooler hooked up becuase the every window and door open so the house is a wind tunnel does't work as well as I'd like it to.

Speaking of living conditions we're looking at St. Louis! Aren't you all excited? Because I am. Not so much for the moving, as I really like living here, and I hate packing up all our stuff, but it will be an exciting new part to our lives. Plus (and I'm really excited about this one) my husband is finding a place for us to live. I don't have to look through all the stuff or contact anyone! Oh what joy!

Option B

Well, here's the photos of us on our adventure:Yes, I did chose Option B. But look at how awesome my husband looks climbing!

Last, but not least isn't my baby funny?! This is the face she makes when she's doesn't want to eat anymore!

Which would you chose?

Background:
As anyone that has read my blog before knows, my husband likes to climb. Specifically he likes to boulder. Bouldering means that you climb shorter, tougher routes and also that you don't use ropes. Instead you use a crash pad (little mattress looking thing) to fall on and spotters to make sure you don't, say crack your head open and die. When we moved here last July he purchased a membership to the local rock gym and has gone climbing twice a week pretty much every week since. Well, now that the weather is nice enough to climb outside and since Northern Utah has some good bouldering areas he's taken Saturday mornings to go bouldering. He goes alone and since he doesn't really like to talk to people once he's there, he tries to find problems where nobody else is.

Your Choices:
Option A
You spend your Saturday morning worrying about the fact that he's hiking and climbing someplace alone-ALONE. This means that if he falls wrong he could crack his head open and nobody around would know until the next climber happens upon him an hour or two later. By that time he may have lost too much blood from the gash in his skull with his brains exposed and Charlotte and I are left alone. He does take his cell phone, but he doesn't keep it on him so if he got his arm caught someplace he couldn't call for help. (Of course I would know he's out there and the general area where he climbs so he wouldn't have to cut his own arm off. He'd just be stuck there for a long time. I don't really like this idea either.) Or perhaps he could fall through the rocks or into the stream while he's hiking to the boulders. It's not a very fun morning for Charlotte and me. Charlotte is a worrier.

Option B
You decide that since it's good weather you'll just go with him and you and the baby can enjoy the outdoors. You wont be much good as a spotter because of the baby, but you'd at least be on hand in case of an emergency. Of course what could happen when you get there and get the one month old baby strapped into the snugly on your front is that he plans to take you right up the side of the mountain. Then he might think that, even though you can't see where your feet are landing because of the baby, you can hike with him through a talus field to get to the next spot further up the mountain. (For anyone that doesn't know what a talus field is, it's a big pile of huge rocks that have fallen off the mountain higher up and are just sitting there. These rocks are huge and so are the gaps below them.) At one point in the talus field you might look below you and see that if you place your foot wrong you and your precious baby could fall a good 10-15 feet onto sharp rocks below. Of course your caring and trusting husband has so much faith in your abilities that he knows all you will need is a hand to hold while you are angling your body across and around two huge rocks. And in the end he would be right. You would be able to do it. And you'd then have a good story to tell and the knowledge that you can do it. Plus, when you get home you can notice the nice tan you've developed over the few hours in the sun. Wait, you're a red-head so all you see is more freckles (even though you stinking put on SPF 50 before you went out). Of course, what could happen is that the boulders are in a big field and all you have to do is go on a small, well defined hike and relax in the shade of some trees while your husband climbs. You never know it could happen that way. It's a gamble.

Three weeks ago I chose option A. There will be a photo soon to show you which one I chose today.

Odds and Ends

Since I have so many Charlotte things on my mind the non-Charlotte tidbitts seem to be piling up so I thought I'd unload them now:

• You are so tricky Daddy! I didn't know you knew how to make a google account. Now you should start a blog so we know what you're up to and we can comment on yours.
• Isn't my husband the best?! He goes to work every morning before I wake up (well, it wouldn't be before I wake up if he didn't have to go in "early" every day. If you go in early every day can you still say you're going in early?) and comes home exhausted. On top of this he still has energy to cuddle, and play with our baby. Plus, he changes her diaper without being asked and he gets up to burp her in the night too! He really is an amazing daddy.
• Another "my husband's the greatest" fact is that he still makes it a point to tell me he loves me and do silly things to make me laugh. (Like putting on one of my maternity shirts to go play football in. He didn't really do it, but it was a funny sight nonetheless.)
• When my mother-in-law came for the baby she went shopping while we were in the hospital. It has been such a fun treasure hunt to see all the little things she got for us and the baby. I made a box of brownies yesterday and read Charlotte the three books she got us.
• The green chair that my dad got us has quickly become the favorite of all that are in our house. It is so comfortable and nice. Charlotte even likes to take naps on it.
• I'm so excited for my cousin's wedding/Charlotte's blessing weekend becuause everyone will see how awesome and beautiful our little one has become. (OK this one isn't non-Charlotte, but it crept into my list anyway.)
• My niece and nephews have added some new words to our vocabulary. The first one is a cubby. My sister-in-law calls wedgies snuggies instead. When her daughter heard this she mixed it up and thought she said cubby so now they're always called cubbies. My nephews are reading The Chronicles of Narnia series, but the younger one calls them The Cronciles of Narnia.
• When we go walking in the morning I notice all the gardens in town and you can really tell the gardners. One that I like particularly well runs right along the side of the creek that runs through town. The gardner has planted such an interesting flower along the stream and I'm so curious about the name of it. My mom has always said that I like Dr. Seuss plants and I'm sure she would put this one in that category too.
• I realized a few weeks ago that I really have become used to our little town. My husband and I were driving to my grandma's house in Salt Lake. I caught myself waving to the man mowing his lawn and the two little kids riding their bikes. The man waved back, but the kids looked confused. I realized then that we weren't in our little town anymore and had a good laugh at myself.
• Right now we're deciding between moving to Philidelphia and St. Louis. It'll probably be St. Louis. My husband has already started looking at places to rent in the area.

Well, this post probably wasn't very exciting, but I wanted to wrap up the odds and ends.

Mom to the Rescue

Well, my mom proposed such a great reward system when I asked her about it that I immediately knew I'd use it. What will make everyone laugh is that it involves both food and money. What will make those of you that know me well enough laugh is the actual reward. I go grocery shopping once every two weeks. So if I accomplish my goals for the whole two weeks when I go grocery shopping I can buy one box of any kind of cold cereal that I want, even if it is the most expensive kind. I don't have to get the cheapest because we (and when I say we I mean I) eat through it so quickly. So what if it is Lucky Charms instead of Marshmallow Maties? It's my treat! (Probably I'll buy Cracklin' Oat Bran as my first treat though. Mmmm.)

As another point on this topic thanks to all those that gave ideas for the "mental exercises." I liked all of them and mean to try one at a time.

Vacation's Over

This morning I was talking to my mom and she, in her wisdom, may have hinted that I've been taking a break long enough and need to get off my duff and start living my life again. She didn't say it like that, but I got the picture pretty clearly enough. My initial reaction was that my baby is only four weeks old and I still have plenty of "vacation time" left before I have to get back to a normal life. Well, I was thinking about it for the rest of the morning and I decided that my mom is right. It's high time I start getting into a productive routine. I decided to make a list of goals for myself to get back into a healthier life. Before making the goals I made some qualifications: they had to be only about my well being (the house can wait until later), they had to be achievable in my mind (so no mini triathlons). Here are the goals I've decided on so far:

• Do at least 30 minutes of physical activity daily (notice I did not say exercise, since I for sure wouldn't stick to it if that word was used)
• Get up for the day when my husband does
• Make the bed when I get up (this may seem like it's about doing housework, but really making the bed is a literal way for me to say to myself, "OK I'm starting my day productively")
• Find a sewing project to work on just for fun
• Do at least 20 minutes of scripture study/gospel reading daily
• Read the Sunday school lessons before class each week

The list isn't complete though. I decided that I need to add some mental exercising into it, but I'm not sure how to do that. Should it be that I need to read some non-fiction book? Should it be that I learn something about a new topic? I'm not sure how to proceed in that direction because my learning has been so structured from the outside up until this point in my life. I would love it if it had something to do with music, but lately I've just been so frustrated with self-directed learning in that area. I feel that I need a teacher to really be successful. I don't think that everyone needs a teacher, but I think that I definitely do.

Also what I need is a way to check my progress and reward myself. This may seem silly, but without a reward I'm pretty sure I wont stick to these goals (even if they do seem easy right now). My only problem is that I'm not sure how to reward myself. I don't want it to be food related since part of my goals is to be healthier and my food reward would be something like cinnamon rolls. It can't cost very much either so I can't say that I'll buy something for myself. Perhaps I'm just not creative enough, but I'm having a really difficult time coming up with a reward. Any ideas? I'll just have to think about it longer I guess.

Pictures!

Isn't she adorable?! Such a beautiful dreamer! When she is dreaming she makes the most animated faces! I can't wait until she smiles when she's awake and not just dreaming.

Daddy burping her just before church on Sunday! Isn't her dress adorable?

Update

Boy I sure do miss having the internet! That half hour drive in to town with a baby is pretty tricky. Although I shouldn't complain, I'm sure I'll get the hang of the situation soon enough. I only wish I had it because I would come on every day and tell you all stories of how awesome my baby is (becuase she is pretty awesome). Mostly I also miss not getting the news of my loved ones as quickly. Here are some highlights of the first three weeks of Charlotte's life (in a very condensed version since she wants to eat again):

• The football hold works great! Thanks for the advice.
• I have also decided to stop worrying about breastfeeding. My baby is growing and seems healthy and happy. She's the one that decides the length and frequency of feedings so I assume she's getting all she wants/needs.
• She's already grown out of her newborn sized clothing!
• She's super at sleeping through the night (unless of course she's cold in which case she wakes up every hour until silly mommy or daddy realize why she keeps waking up)
• Her little tongue is so precious! She can point it so skinny!
• She had an explosive poop when we went to a restaurant a while back. The explosion went right on to my shrit! GROSS! Luckily I had packed an extra shirt. It didn't match, but it was clean.

Photos will be coming. I promise, but I'm at my husband's work using the computer right now so I can't really do it.

I have three weddings to attend so far this summer so I'm hoping to be able to find a dress that makes me look good for the photos and also will be good for nursing. Any ideas or is it just a lost cause?

Charlotte Claire

SHE'S HERE! Sorry it's taken me so long, but the half hour drive just to post on my blog is a bit of a challenge when you have a new little one. I know that every mommy thinks this, but I still have to say that my baby is perfect! She came out looking just like my dad. Her little nose and cheeks were perfect replicas of him. Thirteen days later she's starting to take on more of her daddy's features. Plus, and I'm really excited about this one, I think she has her daddy's skin pigmentation! I went to the park with her the other day and I was so paranoid about her getting a sunburn, but she didn't! (Granted she spent most of the time under a blanket because mommy was too nervous about that.) I think her hair might be curly, but it's really still too early to know that for sure. It's a light golden brown today, but again that seems to change daily. Her eyes have been changing daily too. Mostly they're blue, but some days they turn olive green. She's perfectly healthy and her pediatrician said she's just great. The only big hurdle we need to still overcome is in nursing. She doesn't like one side and gets really mad when she has to eat off that side. Very frustrating for mommy and baby, but we are trying persistence and patience. Everyone says that eventually she'll calm down about it. Now she wants to eat again, so I'd better go!

Pregnancy Update

Well, ever since I started my weekly doctor's appointments I have decided that this baby will NEVER get here. Last week I was at 1 cm dilated and 60% effaced. Then through the whole week my body decided to try and kill me. I would be walking happily along and suddenly this horrible sharp pain would hit my abdomen and I would have to stop walking until it passed. I tried to keep a positive attitude about the whole thing since that meant I was getting closer to my baby making her entrance into the world. Then this morning I went to the doctor and you know what he said? 1 cm dilated and 60% effaced! You have got to be kidding me! I finally asked what happens when I go over and he said he'd induce me after 41 weeks. That could mean that my baby isn't born until APRIL! Now I'm trying to be positive about this. At least it would mean that my birthday is sufficiently away from hers as to be my own still. The whole March 19th birthday and March 23rd due date has really been worrying me lately. I want her now and yet I don't so I guess it's a good thing that she isn't here yet.

In other news my husband is my hero! Lately I have been completely unable to lay down. It doesn't matter how I position myself it still hurts. I had a body pillow to hold between my legs and hold up my bellie, but it had recently stopped working. Then about a week ago my husband (aka the genius) came up with this pillow wedge thing that takes 4 pillows to prop me up just enough to make laying down comfortable. So now I can sleep. Isn't he amazing?!

Speaking of sleeping I had the weirdest dream last night. I dreamt that my husband and I were living in the times of Braveheart and we had somewhere around 7 babies. Then the king said that they had to go to war. Yes, I did say they. My husband HAD to take the 7 babies with him to war. The war was over, get this, Phil the ferret who had been stolen from the king. I was so mad that they had to go to war over a ferret and thought the king should just buy a new one. Every time a battle would start in my dream the theme song to Rocky would start playing and everything went into slow motion. It ended in a culminating fight in which Martin (I have no idea who Martin was or why I knew him in the dream) was almost killed by a traitor that he thought was his friend. Weird.

Part of the Family

Well, I'm sure you all know this but my sister is dating an audiologist, well, he's not an audiologist yet, but he will be soon. Anyway, you can really tell when people make it into our family by how we accept you as an expert in whatever field you study (even if it's not really your field of study sometimes). My sister, for example knows all about aerospace engineering and if you have any question that involves any mechanical anything in any way you ask her. She'll probably know the answer, that or she'll look it up and get back to you, or she's really good at making things up. If people in my family have questions about food (why is garlic sticky? Why do potatoes get discolored after being cut? How do you avoid this?) they ask me. Anyway, I knew my husband was really "in" when my dad made a comment to him about fixing his shoulders, and knees. Now I really know that my sister's boyfriend has made it "in" to our family because of the following story:

My husband was at one of his med school interviews and they toured the campus. One lady on the faculty was showing off their clinical stuff and was looking into ears with an instrument that was connected to a monitor so everyone could see the ear. Well one girl volunteered to have her ears looked in and then nobody else would volunteer. My husband obligingly volunteered after her. When the faculty lady stuck it in his first ear there was a little bit of wax in the ear. Someone in the audience made a joke about how it looked like a huge boulder in his ear. The faculty lady, thinking that maybe Dan would be embarrassed by this (which he totally wasn't) said that it looked big only because it was on the screen. It probably was just a little flake. Then he turned away from the monitor for to check the other ear. When she put the instrument into the other ear she remarked, "Whoa! I don't think we're getting around that boulder!"

When Dan was telling me this story he remarked, "My audiologist says that ear wax is healthy and not to use Q-tips!" Now we have in our family an audiologist! How exciting!

Another way I know that he's in is that my dad wouldn't let anybody else check his hearing loss for hearing aids but him. Nobody else was good enough apparently.

Last Day

Well, today is my last day at work! Woohoo! I'm excited to start the new phase of being mommy, but I'm not really sure what I'll do this next month to keep myself busy until she comes. We'll have to see what happens. Anyway, I just thought I'd let everyone know that I probably wont be posting for a while because my trailer has no Internet access. With all my extra time though maybe I'll make it to the library and use theirs. We'll have to see.

And More Nesting

This morning before work I got in a little more sewing. I started to make the dust ruffle for the crib today. I will probably finish it tonight or tomorrow depending on what my Sweetie wants to do tonight. I'm so happy with it so far! It looks great and I'm really glad that I was able to get it done without hitch (after the laundry bags I wasn't so sure).

In other exciting getting-ready-for-baby news we got Aunt Katie's week 34 and 35 presents yesterday! I absolutely gushed over the week 35 present all day and wouldn't let Dan know what it was until he got home. He liked it too. Our little one has her first snap shirt! It's pink corduroy with little horses on it. I love it! And I'm sure my Sweetie likes that his little girl has a snap shirt.

A few weeks ago Dan and I were chatting to each other and I was saying how much I like my mirror (which he made me for Christmas). He is so good with making things and he loves to do it too! I am amazed at what he gets done. Anyway, I mentioned to him that once we have a baby that pulls up on things and whatnot we might want to think about getting something more sturdy to put our TV on. (At the moment it's on a Rubbermaid box sitting on food storage cans which is covered with fabric. It actually looks nice I think, but it's not the most stable of set-ups.) I figured he has so many projects for building on his plate right now that he probably wouldn't be getting to this project any time soon. Well, last night he surprised me during dinner with drawings that he had made for different styles of stands. His planning for projects goes a little something like this. Step one: Think about the project for a while. Step two: do rough sketches of different ideas for the project. Step three: Spend a few days deciding which one you like best and ask others for their opinions about your sketches. Step four: do a detailed drawing to scale of what you expect to make. Step five: take several trips to the hardware store/lumber store to look or scope out supplies. Step six: purchase supplies and start to build. After that he just builds the project and I don't really know if there are different steps to that. So he was already on step three of the project when he showed me his sketches last night. I was blown away! They all look great to me! I still think he needs to get some of his other projects done before this one, but I think he was excited to have something to do to get ready for the baby. I guess we're both just as excited as can be.

In the Mood

Well, it certainly has been nesting central over at my place! On Monday I decided to tackle the bassinet so that it would be completely ready for our little one. This included sanding and painting it and sewing the sheets to cover the mattress pad that I already finished. So I sanded it Monday and Tuesday.

Only after finishing the whole thing did I call and tell my mom about it who asked, "Did you make sure not to inhale any of the paint?" Of course I didn't. I'm an idiot. My baby is going to be brain dead because I probably inhaled lead paint and now we're both going to get cancer and die! But then I told Dan about how nervous I was. He reminded me of the story of the cradle. His aunt had it completely stripped a while back. She even took off the original milk paint (this cradle is now in it's sixth generation of use) and thus infuriated her entire family and her mother took the cradle back from her. So the paint is new. Although I probably shouldn't have sanded it without a mask or something at least it for sure wasn't lead paint. He then said he was surprised that I even did it since he was planning on doing it later that night when he got home. If I had known that I wouldn't have started the project in the first place! How was I supposed to know that? Oh well, there's nothing I can do about it now! Curse my over-eager self!

Then yesterday I painted the cradle with the can of paint that has been sitting on our coffee table for a few weeks now (well probably only just one, but my sense of time is awful right now). When picking out the paint I took my Sweetie with me. I was just going to get white or maybe a creamy white but he said that was too plain. He chose a blue/green white color. It was still from the white category in the store, but when I look at it I think it looks pale blue. I really like it, even though our baby is a girl. I think it's very neutral and pretty looking. What I didn't count on was that I was going to kill my body by spending the day painting the cradle (which I did do in a well ventilated area in our trailer). All the rolling around on the ground, all the up and down lunges to get to the right spots and all the craning my body around was really a work-out and I didn't even realize it! After dinner (which my husband made special for me!) I started to feel not so very good in my back and legs. So then we watched a movie and I really didn't feel good so I took a Tylenol. Then I fell promptly asleep. When I woke up this morning my butt hurt. Every step I took was excruciating pain! What was I thinking?! Lifting the 8 1/2 month pregnant body of mine around up and down all day long really took it's toll on my butt muscles and now I can't walk. Picture it, a woman that is larger than she's ever been in her life. Sort of waddling down the hall wincing in pain with each step. Yeah, I look great right now. I'm at work today and I'm trying my best not to have to walk anywhere. Yes, I admit that this makes me a horrible employee, but moving is really out of the question at this point.

Before work today I sewed both the sheets for the cradle. I had to sew then because the cradle isn't any standard size. I used very gender neutral Winnie-the-Pooh fabric that is too cute for words and now the cradle is complete! Finished! Check that off the list! I sort of want to put it in our bedroom, where it will be once the baby is home. This is so that if she cries in the night she's still close to us. I don't think I'll put it in there yet though because we still have a while to go before the baby gets here. My husband might think I'm crazy. I mentioned last week that he could put the base of the car seat into the car (mostly so it is out of the way, but partly because I'm excited about it) and he reminded me that we do have a month still to go. You can't fight that logic.