Seven Quick Takes

It has been kind of a blah week. I have been anxious and tired and and and AND but that's all boring and I am starting to pull out of it, so.

1.) Okay so I've been craving Red Lobster. Not just craving seafood, or even good seafood, but craving the particular brand of junk food trying to be classy that only Red Lobster can provide me. So Mark, because he is a good and kind and indulgent soul (who secretly likes it too) (LOOK MARKY I TOLD THE INTERNET YOUR SECRET SHAME), took me on Monday night for a date. With a babysitter and everything. To Red Lobster. And we ordered heaps of shrimp and fish and traded our plates around and both got exactly what we wanted and we aren't sorry. And it was sleety and gross outside which means we had the whole place basically to ourselves which makes it either way better or way, way worse.

2.) Speaking of the sleet, Nathan got out of school early on Monday because of winter weather (winter! weather! No, March. Just no.) so I took advantage of the free hours to take him for a haircut. (And Starbucks. Because there is no event in my life that doesn't go well with Starbucks.)

And I took this picture, which I can't stop looking at, because he looks so! grown! up! yet also exactly, exactly like he did the day he was born. That little profile. I cannot.

3.) On Tuesday there was no school at all. Total snow day. "Snow day." It was also the first day of spring tee ball. That's good math, right?

(Yes, Anneliese is doing a little tee ball this year too! She asked a thousand times when Nathan played  last year, so we are letting her try it just for a one-month session. She is very excited to be included.)

4.) Through a not-that-long-but-also-not-that-interesting turn of events, I ended up taking the kids to Dunkin Donuts on Tuesday, the last day before Lent, and this is the cup they gave me my coffee in, and I  laughed and laughed and laughed.

5.) At our Ash Wednesday worship yesterday, Nathan got suddenly nervous that the ashes would be hot, so he didn't want them on his forehead, so the pastor put them on his hand instead. This has nothing to do with anything, except it struck me as so very Nathan.

6.) My phone has been very wonky and freezy of late, so I went to Verizon to see about getting a new one or getting it reset or something. They were perfectly willing to let me get a new one (even though I am not eligible for an upgrade til May) but it turns out they aren't honoring old phone plans anymore, for anyone, period, and I guess I am the last one in America to know this because I seem to be the only one outraged. As soon as Mark or I gets a new phone (which will inevitably happen! this is not a special case! everyone needs new phones at some point! it is a part of the Natural Order of Things!) our plan will be significantly more expensive, for significantly less data usage. Y'all. I do not like paying more to get less. So here is where I am: I can't get a working phone with Verizon without our bill going waaaaaay up, but I also can't quit Verizon til May. (Oh and they have cornered the market on secondhand and hand-me-down phones by requiring people to physically trade in their old ones to get reasonable prices on new ones, so craigslist and ebay and imploring friends and family doesn't help either.) Basically my phone doesn't work and I have to live with it. Am super frustrated.

7.) I made these two sets of burp cloths last week for Merritt and Elsha, and they have both been delivered and unwrapped so I can post pics now.

These are my favorite baby gifts to give. Old-school prefold cloth diapers make the best burp cloths (I had a stack that served as my loveys when I was a toddler, I called them nannies) (my nephew Liam does this too, a holdover from what Ashley remembered from our own childhood, and I very much love it), but since everyone in the world has a stack of these white things, we loved our decorated, ribboned, colorful ones best -- easy to stick in a diaper bag for outings and the church nursery, and you know which ones are yours at a glance. We had a few with the big kids that we loved, and then Ashley gave us a big stack of tye-died ones when Charlotte was born which were (are) awesome. I love making them for new baby presents.

Sea Otters in a Box

Our very fancy next door neighbors are moving out of their big fancy house back to a fancy flat in England next week.  The sad news is they are kind and warm and are good neighbors, and they are leaving (although we aren't, like, close or anything). The good news is that they have two tween daughters with lots of childhood leftovers that apparently (understandably) aren't worth hauling back over the Atlantic.

Which means we get them: clothes and movies and books and art supplies and shoes. Normally I resist extra stuff, but this is all useful! And I only take what I want! So, bring it on. Stuff by the boxful.

ALL THAT TO SAY, the kids are glad for hand-me-down gifts, but they are also pretty geeked about big boxes because... well, obviously.

So. Here are my three kids. In a big box. Classic childhood moment?

Oh excuse me, apparently they are not kids, but a special delivery of sea otters. (Yeah I don't know either.)

Things to Smile About: Snowy Sick Week Edition

Well after Thursday's discouragement  the healthy thing to do is rack my brain and find a few things to be happy about right? (Hey, I'm nothing if not predictable.)

1.) My painful ribs are feeling better every day. Except for a few really sore hours yesterday, and some trouble getting comfortable enough to sleep, and when I change positions or cough -- okay suddenly that seems not so great -- but really my ribs are doing better. Really. (Likewise, Mark is also doing just fine after whatever he reacted to on Wednesday.)

2.) Last weekend I got to go to a baby shower for my Furman friend Katie, and our friend Betsy was also there and also pregnant, and it made me happy to hang out with sweet friends about to embark on the whole mommy thing.

(Also this is the only time in our lives that I have ever or will ever had a smaller tummy than these two, so there's that.)

3.) I dyed some burp cloths and I felt very crafty. (You know those white Gerber-type prefold cloth diapers? Those are the best burp cloths. I mean, they make others, but they suck. These old-school cloth diapers are the only way to go. I don't know any parent who doesn't love them. Not any. But since everyone uses them, they get lost or mixed up easily in places like church nurseries, so some in different colors or with different fabric or ribbon or embroidery touches make it easier to spot in a crowd whose are whose -- the stack of bright tie-dyed ones Ashley and John made for Charlotte are still awesome. Anyway it's become my go-to useful baby present.)

4.) Mark found me this coffee I had searched for everywhere online, to no avail, because apparently the company had changed names. But he found it! And I woke up to it on Valentine's Day and it was just one of those perfectly thoughtful things that keeps making me smile. (Way better than a picture of flowers, right?) (Yep, gotta mention it every year.)

5.) Nathan has been reading his Uncle Brad's favorite childhood book and loving it. So many sweet memories every time I read it with him. I do the animal noises just like my mom did, in case you were curious. Her way was and is the right way. Not negotiable. I'm just sayin'...

6.) We made valentiney sprinkle bagels. The bagel place Anneliese and I went to on Thursday in the hopes of pink bagels was out of said pink bagels. But later at home, I put some sprinkles on a regular bagel for her.

It was amusing how shocked and delighted she was that I would be so silly and naughty. (Note to self: stop being such a hardass. Your kids like it when you relax.)

7.) Yesterday it was springy and warm enough to wear shorts. Yay southern weather in February.

8.) Then today it snowed all day. Which for some reason... also makes me happy? It's pretty and didn't stick, so I kind of liked it. (Sunday morning update: it stuck! Look at our pretty snowy house!)

(The roads are still clear, so it's still a win.)

9.) Three new episodes of Daniel Tiger this week! Even Charlotte will sit and snuggle with me while we watch. Or, be distracted by self-pics on the phone. Either way, it's a happy smiley thing.

10.) I swear I will write a post about St Croix and get pictures posted soon, because what's a better mood boost than that?

We Are No Longer a Bucket Seat Family

Look who's riding forward in the car like a big girl these days!

Yes, Charlotte is finally old enough and heavy enough to turn around and ride in a toddler seat. While it's true that we probably could have squeezed another month or two out of the infant bucket seat, we turned her around anyway, for a whole litany of reasons mostly involving the big kids' ability to easily scoot past her and exit the van on the non-busy-street side of school dropoff but those details are boring (just ask Mark who pretty much dozed off every time I brought it up with him). 

The unexpected detriment to this seating arrangement is that Nathan can't see Charlotte's face from the back row of the van anymore, and he's sad (and vocally so) about it.

The unexpected perk to this seating arrangement is that I can see Charlotte's face, which means I can see all three baby faces, and once in a while I glance in the mirror and see three tilted heads, three thumbs in mouths, three sets of fingers curled over noses, and I could just about burst from the sweetness.

And then I remember I'm driving a MINIVAN full of MY THREE CHILDREN and I'm all WHAT IN THE WORLD WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN???

Anyway Charlotte. Riding forward. New thing.

Nathan Pics, Another Round

Been sorting through pics all afternoon, and the shots Nathan takes on his camera (or ours) continue to make me smile. Oh, the things he is moved to capture on film.

Anneliese, his favorite subject.

Other favorites: James, Finn McMissile and Francesco Bernouli

A jumperoo non-fail (yes, it has been replaced).

Proof that we do iron. Sometimes.

A puppy-baby nap on the bonus room floor.

And of course, the requisite self-pic.

A portrait of the artist as a young man? Hmmm.

Jumperoo Fail

Hey remember that time Charlotte fell through and out of her jumperoo?

Your daily Charlotte

So sad.

If by sad, I mean hilarious, while feeling guilty for finding it hilarious, because it's sad.

Which, obviously, I do.

Real Life with Three Kids... Day One

Today is Mark's first day back at work after a month off.  Which means real life with three kiddies just smacked me in the face when I woke up today.

But... it didn't smack too hard, actually.  Charlotte went right back to sleep after both her 5am and 7am nursings. Nathan ate breakfast and then played quietly by himself until close to 8.  And Anneliese slept past 9.  (I know.)  Definitely a good start.

And it stayed okay from there.  We all got dressed.  We played a little.  I got lots of stuff done around the house, and my life feels like it's taking on some sort of order again.  Both big-kid poops landed in the potty.  The three children co-existed (mostly) peacefully while I prepared three meals.  (Full disclosure: I didn't have to cook anything, just heat stuff up and whatnot.)  We all ate when we were supposed to and napped when we were supposed to and besides a few spells when Charlotte got fussy, when Anneliese tried fix it by feeding her friend cars (yes, we knew it would happen and it finally did), and when Mommy's internet temporarily broke, there weren't even any tears.

Thanks in no small part to our baby swing.  Which Charlotte has been all about (finally!) in the last week or so. Whoever first invented these things is my new favorite person in the history of babies and pendulation.

Comfy, Charlotte?

Yeah. We're definitely calling today a win.

July: Nesting... Or Planning to, Anyway

So apparently, it's July!  How did that happen already?  Where did June go?  And how is it possible that I'm having a baby next month???

All of a sudden I have a strong urge to get things done.  Which, um, hello -- is an urge that's been running about a two-month delay (seriously?  where have these nesting instincts been? I was out of control in my third trimester with both Nathan and Anneliese, but this time? I just can't get it up for baby preparation), and is also frustrating because I had a tiny little procedure this week that has left me too sore and exhausted to be productive.  Of course.  Timing fail.

So I am doing what any normal eight-months-pregnant mommy would be doing: devouring the internet, one facebook status and blog post at a time.  But here's what I probably should be doing:

* Cleaning my house.  Which has only been spot-cleaned, one room at a time, since we moved in.  Two months ago.  Don't judge.

* Unpacking boxes.  Yep, every time I think I'm done, I find a couple more.  Right now it's the front hall closet nagging me the most.  It's probably mostly coats, right?  That can totally wait til fall, right?

* Hanging baby clothes, in order of size, in Sprout's closet.  Ahhh, the happy waiting-for-baby tasks.  :)

* Sorting through the multiple bins of outgrown kiddie clothes: a stack for Liam, a stack for Sprout, a stack for donation, a stack for consignment.

* Finding the cookbooks that have been packed and stored for more than six months, and re-inspiring myself on some new (old) recipes.  We're in a dinner rut.

* Buying another boppy.  And boppy cover.  And changing pad.  And changing pad cover.  (All of which I have procrastinating purchasing because I have them on offer for free... from friends who live far away.  So I don't know how to get them.)

* Finally, once and for all, figuring out how to put three car seats into either of our cars, and doing it.  Seriously.  This has been nagging at me since we started trying to get pregnant, and I still haven't made it happen. 

* Sorting through the stack of papers on the desk and try to figure out why I thought I needed to keep them all.

* Finding that hospital registration form and fill it out and mailing it in already.  Yep, it was definitely supposed to be sent before my second trimester.  (Read: six months ago.)  But as best I can tell, having done this twice already, I'm going to have to give them all the information in person again anyway when I show up in labor, which will make me irate.  Maybe "forgetting" to pre-register this time will make me less irate?

* Finish working on the photo album I haven't finished since... our honeymoon.

* Convincing Mark that I totally feel well enough for a day trip to the beach on Monday.  I really really want to be at the beach.

* Throwing away the expired stuff in the fridge and cleaning off the shelves.  Or at least wiping them down. 

* Going through the calendar and the list of people who have offered to help with Nathan and Anneliese when Sprout comes, and officially charting out who is on call when, and oh I don't know, crazy notion, communicating with them about that.

* Sorting through my emails and figuring out what stuff I still need to do for Ashley's baby shower next weekend.  And then doing said stuff.

* Going upstairs and getting Anneliese; I can hear her reading books in her room, wide awake post-nap.  But Nathan (and Daddy) are still sleeping, so... eh. She's fine.

* Picking up the magnet whiteboard that fell off the fridge this morning and is still lying in the middle of the kitchen floor.  I can see it from where I'm sitting.  It's taunting me.  But not enough to make me care.

* Packing a hospital bag.  Or at least making a list for the hospital bag.

* Finding a movie to watch with Mark tonight, because I don't think either of us can take another episode of house hunters international this week. We do love it, but... enough already.

* Emailing Barbara and try to sweet-talk her into window valences for the bedroom of her second niece, because the ones for her first niece were so danged awesome and I'm secretly hoping she's dying to share her mad skillz again.

* Finding the electric cord for the breast pump.  And the breast pump itself.  And making sure I have bags to store the milk that will spring forth thanks to said breast pump.

* Filling out the seller's checklist for the closing attorney on the old house.

* Washing and organizing the bottles and nipples that arrived yesterday for Sprout.  Because yes, I am an optimist and she is going to be the baby who reliably takes a bottle whenever we want or need her to.  She is.

* Getting up to go pee for the hundredth time today.  Okay, this one can't wait.  I have a month still to do the other stuff, right?  Right?

Anneliese's Theme "Color"

In Nathan's infancy, I was really attracted to brown clothes and brown things for his room. (I still kind of am.) So many brown things caught my eye that I started thinking of brown as some sort of theme color for Nathan himself. Is that weird? (I have heard other moms say there are certain colors they associate with each of their children, so even if it's weird, I know I'm not alone.)

So I have been waiting and watching for a pattern to emerge in the things I'm drawn to for Anneliese. At first I was thinking yellow, or maybe a darker pink (oh how I love those two colors together!)... but then I started getting excited about some of her purple things... and even navy blue, which reminds me of her dark eyes, and turquise, which makes her eyes stand out. So basically she's almost four months old and she doesn't have a theme color yet.

[Aside: When you're not gainfully employed and you're at home all day child-rearing, things like (gasp!) my child doesn't have a theme color! can consume a lot of your thinking. Take my word for it. Oh yeah my life is glamorous.]

But I did notice one pattern emerging. Not a color, but... elephants. That's right, elephants.

Because why wouldn't a large, mostly bald, somewhat dirty, trumpeting, and very cute pachyderm remind me of my child? I mean, it sounds and awful lot like Anneliese, if we're being honest.

I think maybe the pattern started with the oh-so-pretty elephant lamp I got at my baby shower, which has always been one of my favorite parts of Anneliese's room. And she has a ton of clothes and PJs with elephants too. Most of them were gifts, several were hand-me-downs, and a couple of things I bought myself (like her Indian tunic top, which came from the glamorous South Asian region known as Baby Gap).

So I have therefore decided, in the absence of a real color pattern, that her theme "color" is probably going to be a nice shade of elephant.

Snowbound!

Normally I am not a huge fan of snow, but our family has been snowed in all weekend and it's actually been kind of fun. We've been snowbound! (Incidentally, does anyone else remember that Baby-Sitters Club book called Snowbound!...? No? Just me then? Ok... [Insert awkward turtle here.] Don't understand awkward turtle? Yeah me neither. Leave a comment and maybe Ashley can explain it to us. What was I talking about? Oh yeah, snowed in.)

So the North Carolina version of snowbound means that it snowed like four inches (FOUR! That means it STUCK!) and then the top layer melted the next day when it got above freezing, and then refroze again the next night. Which means now we have a lovely layer of ice over our snow, so we can't drive anywhere.

And for any yankees/midwesterners who are reading this... yes -- I just admitted we southerners can't drive in snow. But here's the thing: you can't either. And you don't. You have snowplows. So you drive on cold but clear roads, near snow. And that's not the same thing. Also, no one can drive on ice, I don't care where you're from. So quit complaining about living down here where no one can drive in the snow. If you want to live with people who know how to drive in the snow, move back where it snows. Please excuse me if you've heard this speech before; I feel the need to give it at least once a year.

Wow. Tangent. Again.

ANYWAY we have been snowed in, and since Mark didn't need to work and we didn't really need to go anywhere (except the grocery story; we are scraping bottom in our pantry this week but I wasn't going to shop until I get a new grocery budget in our spreadsheet on Monday anyway), then it was actually ok. We just got bundled up and enjoyed ourselves. Nathan owns ski bibs (yes, it's true -- a Christmas present from Marmie). He calls them his snow pants and it took some convincing for him to take them off, even after we were back inside in front of the fire.

We played outside and went for a walk through the neighborhood and we (mostly Mark) got together with the neighbors and shoveled a bunch of driveways on our street. Which apparently requires beer. Even before 11am. (No, I am not judging, because all the driveways are clear and I don't care how they got it done.)

Nathan had a plastic shovel that (as a Carolinian) he normally uses for sand at the beach, but he had fun "helping" daddy in the snow with it too! And of course he loved driving his trucks outside and filling them with snow and dumping them out.

And this was Anneliese's first snow! Funny how Nathan had to wait a year and half for his first snow, but Anneliese's came before she was four months old. I'd say she liked it better than Nathan liked his, but better isn't really the right word. She just didn't seem to care much either way. And Nathan liked the snow a lot better now than he did last time!

For more pictures of our weekend, click below on our snowy house (can you see Anneliese in her bumbo?)...

by mgoetts

So... I Won a Shopping Spree

I won something! Which is weird because I rarely win anything. But I won something! I entered a giveaway with my

bloggity friend Jill, and I won! (She owed me; this is the very same Jill whose challenge gets the blame credit for getting me pregnant unexpectedly earlier this year.)

What did I win?

An Old Navy shopping spree! Well, kind of. I won a voucher good for half off of $100 worth of stuff. Which means a lot of loot for fifty bucks, so it totally counts a shopping spree.

So I went yesterday, and I loaded up! Tons of stuff was on sale already, plus I hit up the clearance racks. Sadly the outerwear I was hoping for seemed to be mostly gone, but I still made out like a bandit.)

Here's what I got:

- 2 nice-ish tops for myself (one green, one black, both can be dressed up or dressed down)

- 3 (THREE) pairs of pants for Mark (khakis, brown casual pants, and grey cords)

- 1 waffle-weave shirt for Nathan for next winter (orange and grey striped)

- 1 waffle-weave onesie for Anneliese for this winter (pink and grey striped)

- 1 waffle-weave henley for me in navy (yes, I am all about the waffle-weave)

- 2 pairs of jeans for Anneliese (one fleece-lined, one with embroidery)

- 3 underwears for Mark (you don't need the specs on those, right?)

- yes, underwears is totally a word

- a metal water bottle (green and safe!) for a big boy who wants to be done with sippy cups

- 2 long-sleeved polo shirts for Anneliese for her toddler years

I'd say I did pretty well. Actually, I'd say I am officially a rock star sale/coupon shopper. :)

For the Love of Thumb

It's official: we have another thumb-sucker in our family.

I was really hoping for this not to happen, actually. I know some people will preach against the evils of a pacifier, but we've been encouraging her to take one anyway. Because here's the thing about a paci: It soothes in an orthodontically-appropriate way, it's easier to keep clean than baby fingers, and the parent gets to choose when to end the habit (even if it's miserable for a few weeks when it ends!)...

Not so with the thumb. Yes, it's always available when the child needs some soothing. But also -- it's always available. Even when they're ten. Let's hope it doesn't come to that with either of my kids. Nathan is a thumb addict, but not a terrible one (mostly just when he's sleeping, in the car, or watching the little bit of tv he tolerates). But Anneliese has already shown a need for more non-nutritive sucking than Nathan ever did. And she has found her thumb way earlier! (Ok, let's be honest: she's doing everything physical way earlier!) We've caught her sucking away several times over the last few days.

And now that she's found it, there's no going back. Instead of dreading the thumb-wean (which is years away anyway), I am just going to focus on the positive. I'm planning to leave her arms out of the swaddle at night to give her full thumb access, in the hopes that it will buy even longer sleeping periods. And I'm going to be happy that her addiction to my fingers might be coming to a close. :)

Anneliese has left very little doubt about how she feels about her pacifiers. I'd say she's officially made her choice. Thumb it is.

Baby Straightjacket

Swaddling. It's weird, huh? Apparently babies like to be all snug and burrito-like when they sleep, since it's similar to the close quarters of the womb. And apparently not being able to move your arms and legs while you rest is a good thing.

But we never really swaddled Nathan. I mean, they showed us how to do it at the hospital, and we did it there a few times. But either his phototherapy blanket (for jaundice), or the warm July weather when he was a newborn, or just the fact that he liked to sleep with his arms flung all over the place... some combination of those things kept Nathan from being a swaddled baby.

Anneliese has been a different story. She needs it to sleep more than a few hours. And since I am a swaddling dunce (seriously, I am a smart person, why can't I swaddle well?) we have been all over those little blankets that have velcro tabs to make it easier. (Our friend Betsy gave us the one below -- a SwaddleMe -- before Anneliese was born, since it was such a godsend with her first child.)

Well, somehow my dad seemed a little bit (not a lot, but a little) horrified at this system. He thinks is looks like a baby straightjacket. He was all, she can't move her arms! Um yeah dad, that's kind of the point. I had mentioned before that we were swaddling Anneliese to get her to sleep, but I don't think he was expecting it to look quite like this:So then I googled the SwaddleMe, and found out that Dad isn't the only one who thinks it's like a straightjacket. I found several sites making fun of swaddle blankets, including this hilarious post at Best Week Ever.

Is this one of those things that seems totally normal to our generation of parents (like taping a pool noodle to your kid's mattress) but makes the rest of the world look at us like we're crazy? Maybe, but if it gets my newborn to sleep through the night, I call it GENIUS.

Pockets and Overalls

Nathan has been very into his pockets of late. When we're outside, he works very hard to get (and keep!) his hands in his jacket pockets. He looks so old standing around like this!
And he loves to put small toys (racecars, mostly) in his pockets. I think these overalls are confusing to him, though -- he's still learning which openings are actually pockets!

He seems to have just as much fun dropping the cars through and finding them near his shoes as he would using the real pocket, though. And this over-and-over again entertainment is just one more reason to add to the ever-growing list of why I adore overalls -- the cutest kid clothes ever.

For more pictures of what we've been up to over the last month, click below on Anneliese's birth announcement.

by mgoetts

(Sort of) Swinging

Anneliese doesn't love the swing the way Nathan did, but she will tolerate it (and sometimes even doze off) if we resort to it when she's fussy and we finally have to give up and use our hands for something other than rocking and soothing her.

I think one of the reasons it's "not her favorite" (as we say around here) is that she would rather be on her front than her back. That also could be the reason she still likes to fall asleep in our arms instead of the crib. And she loves mashing her face up into my shoulder... I think it's her own strange brand of cuddling. :)

You can see here how that desire manifests in the swing. (We've had to become religious about using the shoulder straps so she doesn't roll out, which happened once already.) I had to take a picture, though, since it does look awfully funny!But she does look so sweet wrapped up in the blanket my Grandma B made for me when I was born almost thirty years ago. I think Grandma would be pleased to know it's still in use and still beautiful.
And yes, her swing is on a pool table. This is what parenthood does to an otherwise adult home.

Maybe-Blue Eyes and Other Girlishness

I thought, since my last few posts have been pretty Nathan-centered, that it was time for an Anneliese update. We have fallen into that second-child pattern of not taking nearly as many pictures, so this is another of the portraits from when she was a week old.

For Mark and me, her most distinguishing facial features are those big round cheeks and her dark blue eyes. We have no idea where she got them. Nathan told us they were maybe blue. Which is his way of saying navy. (He also thinks his skunk costume is maybe blue; he gets it confused with black!) I don't know if they're quite that dark, but they are certainly darker than most other caucasian babies we've seen! But oh so pretty. :)

Anneliese had a two-week checkup on Tuesday, and she is up to 9 1/2 pounds! So... yeah she's getting enough to eat. :) I have totally healed from my injury, and I'm glad to be done with the bottles for now. My life is so much simpler this way. Don't get me wrong, though, we'll be glad to reintroduce them when we're ready to leave her alone, though!

Also at her appointment, we realized that her umbilical cord stump had gotten kind of stinky and was oozing something green and gross, so (against conventional wisdom and what "the books" say) our doctor went ahead and pulled it off, since he was pretty confident it wouldn't bleed (he was right). It was a little infected but he didn't want to put her on an antibiotic at this age (and cause thrush/yeast infections, etc) so he thought we could kill it with... air. And he was right again; it's much better now and not stinky at all. And soon it will be totally healed and she can have a real bath. (And by real bath, I mean any bath, since we have not only been slack with picture-taking but also with baby-cleaning.) I'm kind of glad that cord stump is gone, Nathan's took almost a month and this one was looking that way too!

Our church had a rosebud in honor of Anneliese's birth last Sunday. Since then, some friends have been bringing us dinners. Since Mark and I are both still exhausted (yes, still), and since the evening hours are the hardest for us (both our children are fussiest between 4 and 8, it seems), we're very grateful for the support!

She is getting much better at using her waking hours for things other than fussing, and she is actually turning into a champion sleeper! (At night anyway, and that's when it counts.) She has been going 5-7 hours in a stretch, which means she only gets up for one feeding per night. Awesome. It's totally worth it to have her eat every hour and a half during the day, and not nap well. I promise.

Anneliese has almost outgrown many of the newborn-sized clothes we had on hand for her, so I'm enjoying dressing her in some of the slightly-bigger (up to 3 month) stuff. This is why having a daughter is fun, right? :) And my multi-talented friend Kristy made her these gorgeous burp cloths (amongst a box of other great gifts), in her spare time from being a doctor, apparently. At first I thought they were too pretty to get spit-up on them, but then I realized I wanted to make all the other moms green with envy when I pulled them out of her bag. (Yes, the awesome bag.) So we will definitely be using them, pretty as they are. They need to be shown off.

We have one more week with Mark before he goes back to work. He's easing back into it, though, so it won't be too sudden. I'm still a little concerned about what I'm going to do with Nathan while I'm nursing Anneliese, to keep him from destroying the house or hurting himself. I know zillions of moms do it, though. Anyone have any hints?

Overwhelmed

Two things overwhelmed me this week:

1.) We took a tour of the maternity wing at the hospital -- just as a refresher on where to park, where to go, etc, when I'm in labor. And we saw babies. We saw nurses. We saw doctors. We saw beds and iv poles and birthing balls and big deep labor tubs. And it reminded me that this is really happening. How are we doing this again? Already?? The part of me that had mostly made peace with the coming of a daughter got really overwhelmed again, and I found myself crying in the hospital parking deck. Not sure if it's just hormones, or if I'm really truly still having trouble with this pregnancy, or if I'm a little scared of labor, or if I just remembered that I don't love hospitals (even though I stand by my decision to deliver there, both for the nicu and the epidural -- assuming I get it in time, that is). Maybe it's all of the above, actually. I'm still looking forward to meeting her, even though the reality of the hospital visit was unexpectedly harsh and hit me unexpectedly hard.

2.) Mark put our new tandem stroller together, and we loaded Nathan up in it to "drive" in the big brother seat. And then, after we had loaded our kid into the stroller, there was still an empty space where a child should be sitting. Another crazy reality.

Yep, this is really happening. In a little less than three weeks (or so). Wow.

A Shoeless Road Trip and Some Storms

I had an extremely long day yesterday. I think I got a little carried away with the idea of all the free time I have now to schedule my days however I want... and I scheduled a bit too much -- and early morning wakeup, a road trip, evening plans at church (back in Raleigh), and all of this without ever going back home for a break.

5am - wake up to take my friend Jenny to the airport. If you know Nathan, you know he doesn't handle it well when he wakes up on anyone's terms but his own. If he gets me up at 5:30, he doesn't seem to mind, but somehow the reverse isn't true. (I need to talk to that kid about double standards.) But miraculously he seemed in ok spirits yesterday, so before he started crying I went ahead and played the airport-Lucas-Grandpa cards all at once. That's right, I just laid it all out there. Probably shouldn't have shown my whole hand at once, in hindsight. (Someone needs to talk to me about maintaining a poker face.)

6:45am - after a traffic jam, a mild adventure on back roads with the GPS, a slightly-too-close-for-comfort terminal dropoff, and a tantrum when Nathan realized that we weren't stopping at the airport to watch the planes, I am headed west on I-40, just outside the triangle, when I realized I hadn't brought any shoes for Nathan. (He goes barefoot in the car for long trips, helps him curl up his legs to sleep better, and normally I just throw his shoes in my purse or the backseat.) That's right -- I took my kid on a road trip... barefoot. Not my best SAHM moment.

9am - arrival into Millers Creek (on the other side of the state) at the home of the Church family. Nathan had not slept a wink. Good thing he was barefoot so he could curl his legs up for napping well. [shakes head]

11:30am - after sorting through several huge bags of clothes and other hand-me-downs worn by both Nathan and Lucas over the last few years, it's fun to see the boys actually playing together (not just near each other) for the first time. They are exactly six months apart, which seemed huge when they were infants... but now it's becoming more and more obvious that they really are peers. It was fun to see them wrestle and run around in the sunshine and talk to each other (or at each other, I should say... it was mostly a bunch of saying each other's names in excited voices, and naming the toys). And now I'm even more excited for our beach trip next week with Lucas & family, and one other family with kids their age as well. It's also kind of sad that there won't be many more hand-me-downs, since they wear the same size now. Lucas is still a little bigger, but not by much. Before the era of hand-me-downs ended, though, LeAnn hooked us up with a pair of sneakers for Nathan so he didn't have to go the rest of the day barefoot. Because what else are friends for, if they can't clothe your children when you have a big FAIL MOMMY day? Nathan called them his "Lucas shoes" for the rest of the day, and he seemed very happy that his friend shared with him.

12:30pm - We arrived at my Grandpa's house for a visit with him and my dad, who was also in town. Nathan and dad went down to Grandpa's pasture and barn to ride the tractors (thanks again for those shoes!), and we learned once again that Nathan really likes them best when they're not on. I think the loud noise is too much for him. Then I ate two feet of Igloo hot dogs for lunch. Even though they are the best hot dogs on the planet (don't question me on this, people), it might have been a bit much. Especially with fries. And soda. And cookies. Beanie wasn't real happy with me, I'll just say that.

1:45pm - We left Grandpa's in plenty of time to get back to Raleigh for dinner and church stuff, but despite the fact that Nathan had been up since 5:30am and hadn't napped, he was still very wide awake. We saw lots of cows leaving town (go to Wilkes County, you'll understand) and instead of dozing off like I had hoped, I was just getting a chorus of it's a cow! it's another cow, I see it! that's a cow right there. ooooh, it's a big cow! from the backseat.

1:50pm - Never mind about the wide awake thing, Nathan sleeping soundly. Cows must have worn him out.

3pm - Of course I didn't remember to get gas while he was awake, so driving back across the state, I nervously watched the gauge fall lower and lower, until it was an inch below E and the gas light had been on for fifty miles. Then I stopped for refueling, which woke Nathan up, and even with milk and a snack from the gas station, he was not happy to get back in the car. Uh-oh.

4:30pm - We opted to go directly to church and get there half an hour early to play on the playground (Nathan, not me, of course) instead of trying to get back to the house before dinner. Again, thank God (and LeAnn and Lucas) for tennis shoes.

5pm - We met friends for dinner at church... and Nathan didn't eat any spaghetti. Which is kind of the weirdest thing ever. He loves spaghetti; I would actually consider it his favorite food. (It was an omen of the evening to come.) I got to have an adult conversation with Mark and some other friends while Nathan ran around with our buddy Hayes, who is eleven and is probably the closest thing Nathan has to a big brother. I know Hayes is probably exhausted today, but he was a rock star with Nathan and I was so grateful for the help keeping him distracted and happy last night!

8:30pm - I emerge from my weekly Russian class (a blog post for another day) frazzled by my exhaustion, frustrated by the cyrillic alphabet (and frankly feeling kind of downright dumb), fairly worried about Nathan and the state he must be in, way past his bedtime, still at church with the Chamblees -- Hayes, sister Mary, and mom Lois. Now I have mentioned before how much I love this family, but last night they really outdid themselves. They had driven him home to my house, given him a bath, put him in PJs, read him some books, brushed his teeth, tucked him in, and he was sleeping soundly. (In his toddler bed that used to belong to Hayes, for the record.) Can you think of anything better to come home to after a long day, especially when you were anticipating more tears and crankiness? Because frankly, I can't. I counted my lucky stars, returned some emails, and crashed in bed around 11.

But.

BUT.

God had other plans for our evening.

12:00am - a thunderstorm rolled in. Nathan has recently decided that he's not a fan of thunder, so I held my breath and prayed for it to pass before it woke him up. No such luck. Tears and terror ensued, and I found myself huddled on the floor of Nathan's room, with a toddler sobbing into my chest and Bowden cowering as far under his bed as she could get (she's a little clingy during thunderstorms as well). Eventually we moved upstairs to my bed so that I could doze while keeping up my hugging duties, and by 1:30 Nathan was back in his room and sleeping.

2:45am - more thunder in the distance. How is this day still not over??? Predictably, Nathan woke up when the storm was right over our house, and sobbed some more: thunder all done, too loud, fireworks too scary (that's what he calls lightning). Poor baby. But we got through it and he was back in bed by 3:30 or so.

And we all slept past 8 this morning. Except Mark, who returned from night shift and stayed awake until I left to take Nathan to church this morning. That way if Nathan woke up early, I could still sleep.

Because the Chamblees aren't the only rock stars around here.

For pictures of the better part of our day (the part in Millers Creek), click here.