I had to laugh

38 1/2 weeksJust compare this to the previous belly picture in this shirt. I don't think I will be able to wear this again! (My clothing choices are dwindling, needless to say.)

P.S. Anyone else freaking out that my blog ticker says 8 days until my due date? Don't worry, I think I'm nervous enough for all of us!

This also made me laugh

"I wish your hair would hurry up and grow out"...."Thirty-five bucks for a haircut??"

It's going to be all too true in our world

Snowy weekend flashback

My apologies again- I meant to post these and then forgot (imagine that!). These are from our snowy weekend two weeks ago. It literally shut everything down. Friday brought a few inches and then overnight Saturday we got dumped on. I heard it was the most snow in 24 hours that we had ever received. It may not look like much to you Northerners, but even Erik was impressed, so it must have been a fair amount.

This was her first attempt at braving the snow. At first, she wouldn't even touch what Dixie brought in from outside. So I suggested we put some in a bowl and plate and let her play with it like play dough. This kept her occupied for over an hour, with constant refills by mom.

Day two brought more courage (and more snow!). Poor Grace didn't have a snowsuit, but her great-grandmother had given her some heavy gloves, so we did our part to contribute to global warming and let her play with the snow through the open back door as long as she and I could stand it.

On Saturday we were under a snow emergency, and we later found out you could get a ticket for being on the roads. No matter, Erik and his buddy decided to go skiing in Indiana, about a 40 minute drive away. It took Erik three tries to get up one of the hills on the way to pick his friend up (Erik was the one with the SUV) and I was pretty sure his next phone call was going to be from him walking home from an abandoned car. Erik's were the first car tracks on our un-plowed roads for hours and hours; no wonder our neighbor followed him down the driveway to see if he was really going out! But the guys made it and had ideal skiing conditions (well, except for high peaks, but come on, this is the Midwest after all!).

"Don't make fun of my awesome sun glasses!"

Erik had the bright idea to shovel off a section of our patio so Grace could play "in" the snow. Don't worry, I have already bought her a snow suit on clearance for next year so she can really go to town (now that she's not scared of snow). And no, my child did not throw that snowball at me. Miss Cautious came and placed it at my feet after I took the picture. :)

Me and my basketball

30 weeks: 33 weeks:

36 weeks:

And as a final note for the curious: at my 36 week appointment (eek! I'm on the weekly visits now!) I was between 1-2 cm dilated and 50% effaced. That's pretty much farther than I ever got with Grace, even with her being overdue! And all you have to do is look at those pictures and you can see the baby is low!

Also, we had our hospital tour after our appointment (what a trouper Grace was, and Erik for that matter since it was a work day!). It was good to actually find out where the hospital was located :) and what floor the Maternity Ward was on. We got to ask a lot of questions since it was a personal tour (there was a bright spot to that snow storm drama). Erik's reaction: "Wow, don't you feel so much better after seeing everything?". My reaction: (insert panicked eyes and furrowed brow) "Wow, I changed my mind. Can I 'poof' this baby out?". It made the pending birth all very real to see the hospital room, the triage, find out answers to all the things we were wondering about. Oh, I bet you want Grace's reaction to the hospital tour. "A step for me!" After seeing the step into the jacuzzi tub. Never mind any of the other odd or curious things she saw in a hospital room, that's what stands out to my 2 year old!

My Goofnut

Enjoy my silly child...

This was all Grace's doing. I seem to remember a children's book about a bear who pretends to be an astronut with a box as his helmet. Well, this was Grace's cape and box hat. Seriously, if you had told me a two year old had such an imagination, I would have said "yeah, right". If you had also told me that kids get more enjoyment out of the things that come in the mail (a box and a VETS donations bag) than any toy, I would have laughed. It was a tragedy when trash day came and we threw these out. It might be cold outside, but as a special treat we can still have an "ic-ic" or picnic. (P.S. Kids never forget anything, so beware of being asking constantly to have another carpet picnic for lunch.)

Before we continue...

Hello, remember me? At least you guys are used to this by now.

A brief recap:

• We started potty training in January. After two weeks of not getting it, suddenly it clicked for Miss Grace. Recently, she has even gone so far as to be waking up dry from her naps and going poopy on the potty regularly! (Sorry, but most of you are mom's so "poop talk" shouldn't be too far from your daily vocabulary.) I highly recommend "ipstick" or chapstick as a reward for pooping on the potty. It is what finally got her to do it! Even chocolate didn't do it for the kid.
• February was a crazy month. I started my doctor visits every other week. We had a steady stream of company, with only five days out of the month "just us". We had a huge snow storm that prevented us from having our hospital tour (don't panic, Mom, we are scheduled to have a private one tomorrow and the forecast is for the 50's!).
• Now it is March and I still have my head in the sand. We are still reading the birthing book, we don't have a name picked out, and the only person packed for the hospital is my husband (even Grace's travel bag is not packed). I think that shrieking I hear coming from Albuquerque is my Mom freaking out again... :)