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...

MOVING IN!!!!!

Yay! We're moving in to the addition.

Yesterday we did a big loft to loft transplant of our storage stuff. We don't have closets or a garage or an attic or basement but we have three lofts. On is full of baby crap. One is pretty much empty now and one we just filled with our permanent storage stuff... files, old love letters, all my expedition gear, some other junk...

We're already into making big messes in our new room. Makes it... home-ier.
We just moved our futon down to our new bed this morning and have been watching movies, napping, cuddling, etc all day. good day for it too, nice and rainy...







and the Trumpet... have I mentioned that the phone is no longer the best way to reach us due to my recent deafness?

And Esther has decided that if Daddy gets to make that much noise so does she... that's a Kazoo she's playing... I'm hoping for ear plugs for christmas... and maybe some lavender bath salts...

Pictures of the Addition and other things

This is Ben's new torture device.


These are my baskets of Christmas-gift makings... we're making all our gifts this year... well mostly i am...

This is Esther reading magazines.


Yay the addition!! This is a picture of the loft-to-be. Ben's picking up lumber for the loft floor as we speak. To the right and in pictures below you will see my loft ladder and my cute little shanty-closet.

Thar-she-blows!!
This is the far wall. The thing the fan and materials are sitting on is our bed. That's not a good picture of it but you'll no doubt get to see it after we move in and it looks more like a bed.
This is the office corner-to-be.
My big bookshelf (that's slightly relative, it's big for our house but not huge as far as shelves go). And the back door.

We hope to be in moving-in mode by the weekend. Keep your fingers crossed for me!!

The Real Me...

I'm a wreck... I hate waiting. I am the most impatient person in the universe. I keep trying to get better, distract myself... come up with small projects... I've even taken to sweeping all the rugs instead of vacuuming them because it takes more time and is somehow more physically satisfying...

I need to move into the addition NOW!!! I know a week and a half is not long to wait but as Stephen so tactfully pointed out it really could be ANY DAY NOW!!! unlikely... chances are, due to my inability to be patient this kid will take his sweet old time and just like Esther i will be in labor for THREE FREAKIN DAYS!!!! AGAIN!!!!

Esther has a stinkin' cold yet again! She spent the first two years of her life not getting sick at all and then BAM she turns two and instant germ fest. What's with that?? I don't even know where she picks up these germs it's not like she goes to the petri-dish that everyone calls day care.

And it's cold... i usually like the cold... but it's just making me feel more isolated and trapped right now. I have to bundle the dickens out of Esther before we go anywhere and it's just now worth putting up with the whining.

I want an island. A nice little island all to myself so i can go crazy in the warm sun by the ocean. Or else, i want to stay in my pajamas all day, eat nothing but mac n' cheese, and watch bad sitcoms about trite people who get themselves into stupid situations...

Oh yeah and I want out of this FAT SUIT!

Close but no Ciggie

I got an e-mail from Stephen the other day saying "it should be any day now, huh?" or something along those lines which made me think that for those of you that i'm oh-so-rotten about keeping in touch with you're probably wondering the same thing.

We are getting close to the wire but we're not quite down to it yet. We had a birth center appointment yesterday. As of today I am 33 weeks (for those of you who don't know pregnancy is a 40 week long event give or take a few). All is going well. The babe is growing nicely. Constantly wiggling, kicking, punching, and headbutting my bladder. I'm feeling great for the most part. A little achy at the end of the day, a little crankier than usual, a little hungrier than most... but nonetheless probably better than your average 33 week gestating mother.

We're about a week and a half from moving into the addition. It's absolutely beautiful and I will post pictures as soon as i think to do it...

That's pretty much it for us. Just working and waiting and trying not to watch our savings dwindle...

Hope you are all doing well!

Esther's Birthday Pics!

Start at the bottom of the post.

More Wizard of Oz...


Her very first taste of ice cream. I made my Dad wait until she was 2 years old. She took about 6 bites and then had enough. She also didn't want to try any flavor but vanilla. All the others she didn't even want to touch let alone taste...
this must be a particularly scary part like when the trees are throwing apples...


And here is the Dorothy Doll that Lolly made. Esther and Dorothy are actually watching the Wizard of Oz here. Her absolutely most favorite movie. If you put it on you get a whole 113 minutes or however long it is to do whatever you want...

I'm not sure what Ben is doing here but Esther doesn't seem to even notice let alone be entertained...
I like how Ben's expression is the polar opposite of Miah and Dad's
Making Breakfast with Manang Miah.

Climbing off the bed to go wake up Lolly and Granddad
Esther watching Charlotte's Web with Granddad early one morning before Mom and Dad were awake.
Dad and I taking a load off

Playing in the tent with Cessy
That Elmo is possessed and was a present from her Opa!

Whooooo HOoooo!!!

Before 7am I snuck away from my over-crowded bed to check and see who won...

Then i came back to bed and held hands with Ben excited to think about our country's future.

Unfortunately Esther did not get to trapse about town in her halloween costume lastnight as we spent the better part of the evening/night in the ER. Esther's been sick the last few days with a very high fever. Since it didn't go down we decided to take her into the ER. She's fine though. Some kind of viral thing that she ought to get over on her own. Some kids are just prone to higher fevers it would seem. Poor thing has been absolutely miserable (and doped up on tylenol/motrin) for three days now. She only wants to be held and when she's not crying she's whimpering... I haven't been able to get a thing done and my shoulder is sore from holding her non-stop. She hasn't even been able to sleep until today. She's finally getting a good rest. She's been asleep for over 3 hours now. I gave her a hot salt bath, suctioned her nose, gave her baby motrin, hot tea, and garlic oil in her ears... 

quick update

Just a quick update while waiting to get pictures off my mom's camera (and because Mel specifically requested it).

Esther's 2nd birthday was yesterday. We celebrated by spending a few days at White Oak Campground which is where i spent several days while in labor with her. It's right around the corner from the Birth Center (which is like 2 hrs from our house). My parents drove Esther up in the Camper (or "Bus" as Esther calls it) Miah and Ces met us there. We ate pumpkin muffins with cream cheese icing, sang happy birthday, gave her lots of presents (including a Dorothy doll that my mother stitched by hand and her very first train set!!), snuggles, and attention. We bought lots of things at the Amish markets (food mostly). And then we came home thoroughly exhausted and not particularly happy about an end to our little family vacation.

We had our 30 wk check up with the Birth Center. All is well with baby #2.

Ben and I have removed the TV to storage and have decided to go on a TV/movie-free diet for a couple months.

The addition is coming along nicely. We hope to be moving in around Thanksgiving time. If anyone has any leads on cheap/free building materials or a not-so-ugly rug let me know.

And a little Esther story to finish off the post:
She's bouncing around on the bed a couple weeks ago watching me get dressed. As i'm changing my shirt she stops bouncing, looks at me and says "I like your nickles ma."

Pictures From Casey's Wedding

My sister, Casey and her husband, Andrew.
Ain't she so cute?

My adorable brother and my adorable daughter .
My some-day soon sister-in-law, Cecilia, my brother, Jeremiah, Sister Casey, New Brother-in-Law, Andrew.

Oh Boy, Oh Boy!!

Pilgrims' progress

Our trip to Prescott, Az was good. Esther is such a good traveler. She is so good on the plane and something about take off makes her conk out for about an hour. So that's nice for all of us.  She was pretty good during our stay.  Normal tantrums, that is to say not more and definitely not less, and sleep patterns (or lack thereof). We got to see all those we desperately miss (Hi Mel & Ted, Uncle Mikey, Uncle Steve, Sarah, Corbin, Mason, Aunt Heidi, Tele, and Aurora!!!! We miss you!!!!) .  We got to stuff ourselves silly with mexican food (and yet it was still somehow not enough, what i wouldn't give for some Hugo's right now).  I got to go to our old hang out bar and feel awkward about being pregnant in a bar even though I was only drinking gingerale (I loudly anounced it several times just to make sure that I didn't seem like such a dead beat). And we got to reminice about how much we loved it there... I think in many ways Prescott was Ben and my 3 year honeymoon...

It's very weird how much Prescott still feels like home to me. Lots has changed since we've been away but also hardly anything. I miss it so much. It's feels like the same homesickness I get when I go to brush my hair after cutting it all off and end up brushing my neck... I hope that some day this place will feed me the same way that Prescott did. It'll be three years since we moved here this December. We spent a total of three years on Prescott... when will this place start feeling like home home and not some home left a life time ago.  Why is it so hard to come back?

In true slacker fashion, we failed to take any pictures of our trip at all whatsoever. I know, we suck.  I have attached a few pictures with this post though for those of you who can't do without. Hopefully, these pictures adequately depict our progress on the house, the belly/baby, and our growing munchkin (who says to me the other day in the sweetest possible voice, "Mom, eat my butt." I think she's been hanging out with my mother too much). 

getting better...

Thanks for all the love and sympathy!  I'm slowly getting better. Still on crutches but not in so much pain. My knees are all bashed up and covered in oozing rug burn from the fall.  Esther says, "Aww mama! your poor legs!!" and kisses them.  It's super hard to follow around and play with a toddler while on crutches... whodathunk??

Anyhow, tonight is Wicked Wednesday Dinner with j&i. We've decided to order Indian food rather than make something (at the request of the fetus). 

Other than being gimpy things are ok.  My godfather died last week.  We were pretty close for a long while but lost touch in recent years each doing our own thing. He became pretty ill the last two years and i never made it down to see him... though we chatted once in a while.  I think he was pretty ready to go... no sense in hanging around on this planet while in emense pain and varying states of conscousness.  So lastnight, rather than a funeral we had a big bonfire at our house and a lot of his old friends came, my parents' old hippy crew. It was neat seeing everyone again. These are the folks my parents hung out with when i was a wee one.  I do miss John though. I always thought I'd see him again before he died. It's just weird not being able to remember the last time you saw someone you'll never see again. 

I have to take more pics of the addition. Ben has two of the three walls up. It actually looks like a room.  He's working so hard and fast. That man is sooooo my hero.  He took some time off so i could rest and not but up and about on my ankle and i think that was hard on him because he didn't feel like he was getting anything done.  But he's back at the grindstone today.  

With everything in varying states of upheaval and incompletion it takes a lot of patience and "ho-hum"ness to get through days of things not feeling like they're getting done but really they are just super slowly... 

Fell Down the Stairs

I fell down the stairs yesterday morning at 5am while holding a screaming Esther. My ankle is severely sprained/possible hairline fracture. I'm on crutches for the next few days or so... hopefully back on my feet in time to got to Arizona (Hi Heidi!!). 

Exhausted... feeling stupid... 

My Manly Man

Poor Ben. He's been working upwards of 12 hours a day, half the day with my Dad rebuilding a log cabin and half the day here on the addition.


Which explains his appetite...

The "Man Taco"

Venison burger, chicken breast, portabello mushroom, and no that's not a pigeon heart on top, it's a beet.