Is This Normal???

Too Many Due Dates!!

So if you're anything like me, Christmas is creeping up waaaay too fast. The irony of that is that the birth date is creeping up waaaay too slow. Well that's not entirely true. I'm not sure i'm ready for a new born just yet. I keep telling him to just let me get through Christmas and then he can come any time he likes... well preferably early...

Esther update: She pooped in the potty for the first time today!! Yippie. I'm sure she'll hate me some day for announcing this over the internet. But firsts are just so darned exciting... especially if it means i will be changing one less diaper...
Kirstin stopped by on her way north for the holidays. It was wonderful to see her even though we were both a little off kilter...
This guy is the new mascot for VOCC - Veterans of Christmas Chaos.
And this beautiful woman is my Aunt Mary. She was my Yaya (nanny) when i was a wee babe. I was Yaya to her oldest wee babe and said, though no longer wee, babe is now Yaya to my wee babe... ahhh the circle of life. So we had a little party at our house the other day. Mary got to see our new addition and the girls got to play together (her youngest is a year older than Esther). And I got to eat the extremities off of gingerbread men.

So here's hoping you all get your holiday stuff done and don't feel as much of a nutbar as i do.

How Loved I Am!!!

Okay, so regardless of the fact that this happened almost a week ago and i'm a real slacker in terms of keeping up with this blog - Jessie threw me a surprise baby shower!!!

My Jessie sure loves me!

We had set it up ages ago to work on Christmas projects together at her house on Saturday. But when i got there her house was set up for a party, which she denied at first but finally broke down and told me about the baby shower after talking to my mom on the phone about needing more paper plates while i was eaves dropping.

Anyhow, it was glorious fun complete with gruesome birth stories, tons of food, and lots of laughter. Thank you to all those who made it and to all those who couldn't we missed you!!!

I also got a few "wish i could be there" shower gifts in the mail a few days after the shower - Kit, thank you for our sleepy wrap, if this babe is anything like Esther was we will get a lot of miles out of it!! Jodi, thanks for all the hand-me-down baby boy stuff!!! It's all perfect! Esther helped me go through it all and even attempted to put on a few outfits...

Update

So we're all moved in to our addition. We have been sleeping down here (in a separate room from Esther for the first time ever) for the last 5 days or so. The first 4 went pretty well but last night she was up 5 or 6 times at least.

On Wednesday Ben and I dropped Esther off with her Tita j and went on a shopping splurge to Ikea and Target. We spent a small fortune on things to make our house more comfy and organized and then spent the rest of the day putting them all up, in, on, etc... It makes me so unnaturally happy when everything is in it's proper place. Also our house seems huge now by comparison.

We're still doing some little things like finding new places for all our pictures and putting together the kids' room. We're waiting to get rid of our bed frame and next week we hope to get the crib in place for still-without-a-name-fetus. But it's all coming together nicely and it makes me super happy.

I began packing my birth bag today. Getting all the stuff that we'll need together in the event of an early labor (yeah right!). And making lists of things i need to buy, make, etc. (Last week i made a half dozen pee pee teepees.)

And christmas is looming... i'm hoping to not be a giant raw nerve of stress and bitchy-ness this holiday season. We've made pacts with several friends and family members to not get each other anything and we're skipping out on the massive family get-togethers that tend to leave me with an eye twitch (although still hoping someone will load up with left overs and be kind enough to give us some!! **hint hint nudge nudge**).

Still lots of stuff to do (like make a ton of Christmas presents and put together a baby crib) but feeling a lot less under-the-gun than just a couple weeks ago.

I will post pictures of our addition when i can get some of it looking clean and organized. But if you're that anxious to see it, feel free to come by for a visit. Lordy knows we won't be seeing too much of anyone after the birth so now's the time to get our visits in.

Hope to see you all soon-ish...