an open letter to my unborn child

Your nursery is done. Your clothes are washed and put away. The brand new car seat is installed in the brand new minivan purchased to accommodate you. My hospital bag is pretty much packed. Swings and bouncy seats are cleaned, new batteried and stand at the ready.

In a nutshell? We're ready for you.

So, I mean this in the nicest possible way...

GET THE HELL OUT OF MY BELLY!

Love,
Mommy

love letters

One of the biggest things that are so different with this preganancy is how I think the girls are going to handle a new baby sister. When A was born, E was a smidge over 2 years old. She was the only grandchild on both sides of the family, and therefore the star of the show. I remember worrying how she was going to react to a new brother or sister. Would she understand? Would she want to share the spotlight? Are we somehow doing something wrong by giving her a sibling?

But this time? Those thoughts have never crossed my mind. The girls have been begging for a sibling for a while, which helps. They've been excited every step of the way. There's not a doubt in my mind that these two are going to love their baby sister with all of their hearts and souls.

 

Of course, stumbling upon letters like these in E's backpack certainly makes me feel good, too.

To: New baby
From: E
I love you so much. I wish you would come out. I can't wait to come out.

Dear A,
I love you so much. You are so cute. Congragulations on being a big sister.

the girls' rooms

Rather than bore you with a post about how ready I am to have this kid, I thought I'd show you the girls' rooms. We had E's and A's repainted when we did the nursery.

As you can see, I'm no Martha Stewart. And none of the girls' rooms are finished. E needs curtains. A needs a headboard. Baby needs curtains and some sort of table next to the glider. But, overall, I like how they turned out.

 

The cross-stitch wall hangings above the crib used to be in my room when I was a kid. My mom had them reframed and they hung in E's room. When we repainted they looked odd, so I convinced E to let me hang them in the baby's room. I thought she was okay with it, but she told my mom,

"Yeah, mommy forced me to give them to the baby."

Oh well.

an arrival almost as exciting as a baby sister

I'm still here...and still pregnant. But, that doesn't mean that life in the the Slacker house was uneventful this weekend. Au contraire. In fact, we welcomed something into our house that might be more exciting for A and E than getting a new little sister.

After months and months of living in utter denial saying that we would just fit three across in seats in our current cards, the Slackers got ourselves a minivan.

As the time to make the purchase grew near, I had accepted my fate. I mean, I'm 36, live in the far reaches of the suburbs, and will soon have 3 kids. There's really not much about my life that doesn't say "Minivan Driver." John took a little more convincing. There was begging to give the Pilot one last chance. But, alas, the minivan it was.

The girls, however, were over.the.moon. They have been begging for a "car with slide-y open doors" for months! One of the highlights of our trip to San Jose was renting a mini-van. And, they love it! We've had to impose a limit on the number of times they can open and shut their doors. They pull up the sunscreen on every single trip. And they beg to use DVD player for the shortest of trips. They gasped with wonder when I folded down the rear seats.

We asked them point blank if this was more exciting than getting a little sister. To be fair, they said No. But, in reality, Baby Girl Slacker better come up with some cool trick soon, or she'll be out shined by the sunroof once the good weather hits.

38 weeks

This week would have been a good week to have a baby. There's National Pi Day, the Ides of March and St. Patty's Day. It's like a week chock full of holidays that would be fun to be born on. But, alas, still pregnant.

 

Not sure what I was thinking when I made my maternity clothes purchases, but I bought numerous items with horizontal stripes.

I've been working from home this week, which has been nice. I'll be working from home until I have this baby. It was definitely exhausting with my commute (45 minutes or so), but my big fear was that I was going to go into labor while at the office or stuck in traffic. Now, I can focus on worrying about John being in the office or stuck in traffic when I go into labor. So, that's helpful.

In other fun news, our neighbors own one of those moonbounce places, and decided to set up two moonbounces today on our street. The girls were out there for an hour and a half with the other kids. They had a blast.

I did consider taking a bounce or two to see if I could get labor started. But then I thought, if my water broke, that would be *awkward.*

they're called sight words for a reason

A's school has really been ramping up the Kindergarten preparedness lately. Her teacher, Miss Karen, told me that they were doing patterns in Math the other day and A was kicking ass. She followed that up with "A is so ready for Kindergarten." Unfortunately, A overheard this and was quite devestated when she did not get to go to Kindergarten the very next day.

Last night, A showed me her sight words that she had worked on that day. She had taken the time to carefully write each letter. On the way to pick up E, she read each one to me.

 

A: Fat...Mat...Cat...Sat...Hat
Me: That's wonderful, A!
A: I can read! It's so easy!
Me: You're doing great!
A: Yes, mama! I can even read them with my eyes closed.

So, maybe I shouldn't break out War and Peace for her to tackle, just yet.

the advantages of raising daughters

I've always been one of those people who didn't have a preference in whether we had boys or girls. If anything, I would have said I hoped we had a boy because John is such a sports fanatic/guy's guy whereas I'm not really all that girly.

But, now...I see that there are some distinct advantages to having girls.

First of all, with this pregnancy, the girls are soooooooooo excited. And, not just about getting a new little sister. They are excited about everything that comes with a new baby -- putting together the nursery, looking at the little clothes and toys and tchokes that we receive as gifts -- stuff that John would humor me on, but really couldn't' have cared less about.

The girls spent time with me scrolling through crib sheet options for their new little sister, debating the merits of paisley versus polka dots versus flowers. When they arrived in the mail a few days later, they shrieked with joy and demanded that we opened the package RIGHT THEN. When I told John that the sheets had arrived, I got "Cool" as a response, but he didn't even ask to see them. I'm pretty sure he couldn't tell you what they looked like.

And E, who has always talked in a way that has sounded mature beyond her years, has been cracking me up with her commentary at it all. She will be a PRO at baby showers, because she has the baby shower remarks down pat. As we put away baby clothes last weekend (a task she *begged* to help with), she chattered on:

"Well, isn't this a-DOR-able!"
"How pre-SHUS is that onesie?"
"Can you believe they are ever that small?!?"

I was dying of laughter from it all.

But, it's not just baby-related stuff that is handy with the girls. Case in point, we all in the car the other day when A started talking.

A: Daddy, I need to talk to you about somethin'.
John: What is it, A?
A: After you go potty, you need to put the seat down. 'Cause when I go potty, it's up and then I have to put it down.
John: Well, what's wrong with that?
A: I'm tired of putting it down! You need to put it down yourself. I'm not putting it down for you anymore!

It's like she read my mind.

36 weeks

I'm 36 weeks! I think that most women who have been pregnant will agree that 36 weeks would be the ideal length of pregnancy. Because it's all uncomfortable from here. I'm big, I'm bloated, and my ankles have transformed into cankles. I feel like my belly is growing at an alarming rate. See for yourself.

This week has been pretty stressful work-wise 'round these parts. I've been dealing with some yucky office politics. I'm also trying to tie up some loose ends and get thing smoothly transitioned prior to my maternity leave. But, it ended on a sweet note, literally. My co-workers were kind enough to have a little shower for me this afternoon.

This weekend, we don't have much on the docket. I hope to get some baby clothes washed and put away and finish getting room together. If I do, maybe I'll post pictures this week!