Summer?!

Where to begin? I had big plans for this summer now that the boys were "older" and could do more things. We did do a lot but didn't get to the beach quite as many times as I thought I might. I guess I really just don't like the beach. Labor day is fast approaching and that's what I call the "end of summer" although I know it's really not. I'm 38 weeks now and baby could really come any day. I've been 1 cm dilated and 75% effaced for a week and a half now so who knows. I'm still in no hurry to have him arrive.

The craziness is finally winding down and the end is sight for all of our purchases, installations, and fixes. People tend to "show up" and do things when you leave messages like, "I'd REALLY like to get this down before the baby comes which is any day now". They don't like to mess with a 9 1/2 month pregnant lady. Above is a pic of the boys in our newly carpeted playroom which I just absolutely love! I'm so excited we decided to do this little spruce up. We also recarpeted all the bedrooms and Eric's favorite - the stairs going up to the bedrooms. It was previously a horrendous red oriental rug and it just bugged the crap out of him...hehe....All bedrooms are now a nice brown and Ben's room is green since his walls are painted brown. It's nice and new and lovely. Carpeting the house though is like MOVING DAY all over again. We didn't have to move the furniture but we had to get all the stuff off the floor and in the playroom that meant every toy out! If anyone's seen our playroom, you know what a freakin' chore that is. It was kind of a blessing in disguise for the bedrooms though. It meant having to clean out the closets and I decided that nothing was being put back that we didn't need and everything had to be put back CLEAN. So a lot of dusting was done and boxes which I had finally just gave up on and stored away back when we first moved into the house got a proper look-through. The house is still a semi-disaster but we're getting there.

Now that the carpet is in I can rest easy since furniture for Cal's room and our new bedroom set should be delivered in the next 6-8 weeks! Eric's fun purchase was a flat-screen TV for the living room which is ironically scheduled to be installed on September 12th - my due date! In the meantime, we needed the electrician to come to put an outlet up in the wall and move the cable to be prepared for the TV and I decided to have him just finish up anything else that was on the list. He's been here since 8am today - no signs of leaving anytime soon. Also, our plumbing went haywire in the interim and I think I've had that guy here at least 5 times in the last month...in addition to the fixing of the toilet, kitchen sink, and bathtub he was also working on another secret project we've got going on :)

I also went from being not even close to prepared for baby to VERY ready. Not only do I have all the essentials but I've gone planning crazy and now have everything from bris preparations and labels for baby announcements to Halloween costumes for all boys and birthday planning for Ben. I'm TOTALLY insane, I know.

SO - I've got a few last minute finish ups...getting the house in order still and doing some cleaning (still haven't washed those pesky floors!) I'm looking forward to fall and the already cooler weather. It's been absolutely beautiful out lately. I finally got to be pregnant during a not-so-hot summer and it's been great! Cal goes back to school on September 22nd and summer camp just ended this week. Although I'm half-dreading the 3 week lapse, I'm really trying not to. It's been so hectic lately with all the house projects and baby preparations that I feel like I've mostly left the boys to fend for themselves. I'd like to actually relax a little though and enjoy spending some QT with them before the baby comes and we get back into the regular routine of school and activities.

I'll keep everyone posted when baby boy #3 arrives!!!

Baby Wars!!!

Last week baby wars started between Cal and Ben. As we all know, Cal is very attached to Ana who has been his baby since he was 14 months old (when I first knew I was pregnant with Ben). So Ben's pleas for "Ana! Ana! Ana!" fell on deaf ears since I had to side with Cal on this one, she was HIS baby. But I did NOT want to miss the opportunity of Ben being interested in a baby and taking care of one so I ran right out to Toys R Us and got not one, but two new babies - twins! I promptly named one Abby since Cal tries to get Ben to say the name Abby all the time anyways for some strange reason that escapes adult interpretation. And Cal at first wanted to call the other baby Ella but changed his mind to Gabriella. So now we have twins Abby and Gabby, what could be better? We even got another stroller and new bottles for them. They LOVE them. They stroll them around the house half the day, feed them, and now Cal has started requesting to sleep with them...sometimes it's Ana, lately it's been Abby.





Here are my strange children with fluorescent orange spots on them! Cal asks for these stickers at the grocery store and then proceeds to ask for the clerk to draw smiley faces on them. He put all five of them on his face (there's one on his neck you can't see) before we even left the check-out line and wore them all the way home. Ben copies most things Cal does so he put his sticker on his cheek too! So silly.

Less than 35 days to go!

35 weeks, 2 days

Ok, just a quick note on this picture here. It makes me look HUGE! My shirt is just falling weird and by no means do I look that big! However, you can sort of get a glimpse of my new haircut. Ashamedly, it's been 17 months since I last got a haircut - Ben was 3 months old!! How crazy is that? Nothing dramatic this time (usually I chop it all off), just cut off all the dead ends and added some layers to change it up a bit.

Anyways, NUTSO FACTO, that's what I'm calling my day today. I don't even know what that means but it sounds good. By 9am I was almost having my own 29-year-old meltdown to go with Ben's. That kid drives me nuts some times. He woke up too early was his problem and then he just couldn't hack it by 8:30am. So this entails lots of "mommy, mommy, mommy" and clinging to me like a third leg. Sometimes I just want to shake him off like he was a rabid dog, I swear!!! Daddy picked up on the near-mommy meltdown and offered to take the kids off on an adventure which was great because I had envisioned a Sunday of getting things done and not sitting around trying to tame my fussy child with Doodlebops.

Some weeks ago I had a reached the height of overwhelm-dom about getting stuff ready for the baby. There just seemed like way too many things that needed to get found, pulled out, cleaned, etc and so instead of beginning I just kept putting it off and putting it off. So now, with something like 32 days to go (if he even stays in there that long) I was reaching hysteria! Once Eric and the kids left I decided to tackle some of my to-do list (some baby related, some not). We're also in the process of our trying - emphasis on trying - to make our house into a home. We feel like we're running out of time on a bunch of stuff since I obviously don't want major things happening in the house when the baby is born. I'm already deathly afraid I'll go into labor while people are here installing, deliverings, or fixing x, y, or z.

Anyways, I roared into pyscho-schitzo mode this morning and started all sorts of tasks before actually finishing any one of them. I hopped, skipped, and jumped from here to there, back to here, in a totally lunatic fashion. Really, I have no idea why I did this - must be a pregnancy thing. As I'm sure I've mentioned before, I come from a long line of pack rats and there is a primitive instinct that rebels against this in me. I try to keep nothing I don't need. Now, of course, "not needing" something is all relative, but I do honestly try to give away, throw away, ebay, whatever it is I haven't used in over a year :) I have a harder time getting rid of some things but I sometimes get those rare occasions when everything MUST go and I don't hesitate to get rid of anything!! Love those days.

So I accomplished a great deal. The baby now has a sparkling clean bassinet, baby tub, car seat, bouncy chair, sheets, clothes, blankets, and burp clothes. I could actually HAVE a baby now and feel prepared (except diapers - those are easy though). I also cleaned the bathrooms, some bath toys and the little potty and rearranged/cleaned out the downstairs hallway closet since I'm reinventing it as a "utility closet" now that we have the mudroom closet for coats and shoes. The little potty is for Ben. It was kind of ickily put away before so I felt the need to scrub it with bleach and set it out for him to observe. But let's not be fooled here, I'm not an idiot. This is my second child and I'm under no silly illusions this time - I'm not even going to attempt to potty train Ben until next summer - LATE summer. Moving on...

My proudest accomplishment of the day was getting rid of the ant farm. Yes, folks, I've had dead ants sitting in a farm on top a bookcase in my family room for the past 3+ months. It was a good idea that little farm but the little buggers didn't last long. This should be a LARGE red flag for the dog we want to get one day since I can't even keep ants alive. Yet the dog will come, mark my words. Anyways, in the ant's farm place I finally dusted off a collage of frames that have our wedding pictures in it. I've had this frame for a good 5 years at least and never once have I had the opportunity to display it!

Ok, it's getting late and I need to try and get some sleep in case my kids wake up whiney again tomorrow. Until next time, fellow readers...