General

So I read the whole Twilight series of books, and for the most part enjoyed it. I went to see the movie last night, and it was…underwhelming? For example, I loved the adaptations of both the Harry Potter series (well, the ones I’ve seen so far) and the Lord of the Rings books to screen, but this one didn’t work as well for me.

Of course, that won’t stop me from wanting to see the sequels if they’re made into movies…I just might not run right out to the theater to see them. To be fair, I hardly ever go to the movie theater – this year I’ve seen four movies: Indiana Jones, Twilight, and two free kids movies over the summer. Last year I don’t even think I went to the movies at all!

OK, so I realize that we live in a snowy part of the world, but while it’s usually cold in November, we don’t usually get snow – at least not the kind that accumulates – quite so early.

Luckily, I had gone out while Carrie was in school yesterday and gotten her new coat, since her coat from last year has sleeves that are an inch too short this year. And even more luckily, we got a pair of hand-me-down boots from Carrie’s friend Simone. Otherwise, we’d have missed swim class due to insufficient weather-appropriate clothing. We almost missed it anyway because Anna had the biggest diaper blow-out ever, requiring a load laundry, carpet cleaner and half a tub of wipes to get under control…

I hate winter – well, at least in November. And leaky diapers? I hate those all the time.

I just feel blah today. I thought I was feeling better yesterday, but I still have an awful head cold, and can’t take much while I’m nursing Anna. (Though I have to say, straight up honey really is a miracle cure for coughs and irritated throats, and works way better than most medicines ever did for me.) And Anna’s been sniffling and sneezing, but hopefully it won’t get worse than that for her – especially as she really can’t take anything at her age.

Yesterday Denis took Carrie to his office family picnic, where there was a large corn maze. She had a great time going through the maze (it took them an hour and a half) and apparently also got her first bloody nose when she fell while jumping on a giant inflated bouncy thing. Meanwhile, Anna and I hung out at the shop, trying not to spread our germs everywhere. We probably should have stayed home, but I really thought I was feeling better!

And then. This morning I woke up and realized that Anna had slept a full 12 hours. In her crib. And was in fact still sleeping. In fact, we’ve discovered that if we put Anna in her crib at 7:30, in a cozy sleep sack, with a fully tummy and a clean diaper, she’ll just go to sleep on her own. I had heard tales of babies that did this, but I always thought they were mythical creatures.

Now I just have to kick this cold so I can properly take advantage of all this uninterrupted sleep I could be getting!

Denis did me a huge favor this afternoon and went to help set up for the wool festival the shop is participating in this weekend. So I had the kids by myself all day and all evening, and since Denis normally deals with dinner and does most of the bedtime routine, this is a big deal. (Yes, I know, I count my blessings over this!)

I thought I was doing a decent job: Anna only screamed for half the time I spent getting dinner on the table, and I managed to nurse her while eating one-handed, then even got “dessert” (sliced apples) for Carrie and cleaned the kitchen while she finished up eating.

Then I thought, well, it’s been a few days since either girl had a bath, and the weekend’s going to be super busy, and we have the nifty mesh baby seat that goes right in the tub, so I can give them a bath together, they’ll both wind down and sleep really well… Big. Mistake.

After getting baby oil everywhere (I was trying to comb out some of Anna’s cradle cap) and – get this – dropping the phone in the tub when Denis called to say goodnight, Carrie helpfully tried to rinse the shampoo out of Anna’s hair by dumping a bucket of water on her head. The baby started screaming, Carrie started screaming because the baby was screaming, and I wanted to start screaming. It all went downhill from there.

Although, I suppose, since Carrie is in bed (theoretically – she’s been staying up until 10:30 or 11 reading lately) and Anna screamed herself to sleep after I got her in pajamas, I should count myself successful, right? The kids are fed, clean and asleep, the dogs have been fed and taken out, the kitchen is cleaner than it was when I started (I can’t quite truthfully say it’s “clean”) and I have a few free minutes to actually type two-handed!

Last night we went upstairs to go to sleep and realized that the latest load of laundry was still (unfolded) on the bed. Seeing as all of the laundry baskets in the house were already full (of more clean, unfolded clothes), I did the only thing I could do.

I dumped it all in the co-sleeper.

The baby doesn’t use it (much), so it may as well do something other than take up floor space, right?

(But no worries. I folded everything (wrinkles? what wrinkles?) and put it all away earlier this evening. Of course, the load that’s currently in the washer is going to live in one of those newly empty laundry baskets for the next several days, I’m sure…)

Anna has already seen her first movie-theater movie: The Pirates Who Don’t Do Anything. It was a bit scarier than I expected, but Carrie says she enjoyed it, even with the scary parts.

And then at my six-week checkup, I discovered that Anna weighs 11 pounds. (Granted, that was fully clothed and with an impending diaper blowout, plus I was holding her and subtracted my weight from the total, so it might not have been 100% accurate.) No wonder some of her 0-3 month clothes are already starting to seem snug!

Nana and Poppy arrived today, and we took the girls out to dinner at Friday’s. Anna slept the whole time (yay for eating an entire hot meal!) and Carrie thoroughly enjoyed her chocolate caramel ice cream sundae.

And when we left, we saw this amazing double rainbow – the pictures don’t do it justice at all! Oh, and from where we were standing, the pot of gold was definitely on our front step at home…someone must have moved it before we got there. ;)

I took both girls to the farmer’s market and the library this afternoon. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be, but I am pretty tired. I decided to wear Anna instead of snap her seat into a stroller, and for a baby who weighs little more than a bag of flour she sure gets heavy after a while! Also, I think I might have sold at least two Hotslings based on the number of comments I got from people who loved my pouch and wanted to know where I got it.

Technically I’m not supposed to drive until Saturday, but this was literally five minutes down the hill from our house, and if I had to spend one more minute in the house I was going to go insane!

Any time from today on is considered full-term for this baby, so we’ve been trying to get the big things done enough to feel ready. Big things like: digging the infant carseat out of the basement…check, doing some baby laundry…maybe tomorrow, packing the bag for the hospital…uh, yeah, better do that soon… And, of course, trying to get the baby’s room to a point where it’s not completely under construction anymore. Denis got the painting done this weekend, and he and my youngest brother got the furniture mostly sorted out. Carrie has a “new” (my old) dresser in her room (with a mirror!), and the changing table/dresser is all set to be filled in the baby’s room. Once we get the closet organizer in, the window treatments up, and assemble the crib, the room will be as done as it needs to be for now. I’m not assembling the crib until everything else is done, though, because I went into labor with Carrie the night we put her crib up, so I’m feeling a little superstitious about that…of course, by the end of this predicted hot and humid week, I might just be begging to get that crib ready…

Oh, and happy birthday, Lisa – sorry I couldn’t go strawberry picking with you today!

With the gradual rise of my blood pressure, I’ve been getting to do weekly blood work (fun!), non-stress tests (actually, those are pretty relaxing), and yesterday I even got to have another ultrasound, just to make sure everything was still looking good. Of course, I wanted to be sure baby was fine, but I also asked the tech if she’d be willing to just double-check for me that there is still a baby sister in there. Although it would be a pain to have to repaint the pink wall in the baby’s room, my bigger concern was that Carrie has been talking about her new baby sister for four months now, and I’d been getting more and more worried that we’d wind up with a surprise in the delivery room and come home with a baby brother instead. (How exactly would I be able to explain that?!?)

But, she is definitely still a girl. No doubt in the tech’s mind, so that’s one less thing for me to worry about. Oh, and she looks perfect in all other ways as well, so now we just get to play the waiting game while she decides what her birthday will be! And possibly try a little harder to pick a name…