what we've been up to...

Jeez...I can't believe that I haven't posted anything since Baby C turned two months old! We've been busy 'round these parts, and add to that there's a certain member of our house who refuses to nap for longer than 30 minutes at a time...and there's not much time for blogging. Alas, I am going to make an effort to post more regularly.

So here's the Instagram version what we've been up to!

 

A learned how to ride a two-wheeler. She basically taught herself while she was at home and E was in school. She's crashed a couple of times, including one pretty bad fall where she busted her lip and gums...but gets right back on the bike. She stopped going to daycare in early June (we had kept her going a few days a week) and is super psyched for K next year.

 

E finished up first grade in high style. She ended up getting awards for Top Wildcat of the Quarter and for the Year as well. So, she was 4 for 4 at awards assembly this year! Quite impressive!

 

C turned 12 weeks on Friday! She is so awesome...just a happy, adorable baby. Well, except for the lack of napping. The whole family adores her. Last night, I got her to giggle by zerberting her belly and giggling at her. Soon all four of us were standing around her changing table listening to her giggle. It was so cute. We haven't recreated the giggles again...but not for lack of trying.

 

As for me, I'm officially a stay at home mom. No, really. I got laid off from my job in early June. Over the phone. While on maternity leave. Yeah, it kind of sucks...but I was unhappy there anyway. I've been sending out some resumes and had an interview or two...so hopefully I'll have news to report soon. But, until then, I'm hanging out with these three cuties. Not too shabby.

two months!

 

Baby C turned 2 months old yesterday! She is such a fantastic baby. You know how they say that God will give you what you can handle? Well, he obviously knew that I can't handle much and gave me a dream baby. She is such a smiler...and the cooing! So cute. We had a couple of fantastic nights of sleeping (9PM to 4AM and then to 7AM)...but of course, I *told* people about it last night...and so she got up twice because I had jinxed it.

My friend, Autumn, sent these awesome stickers that you are supposed to put on the baby's onesie each month. However, we don't have plain white onesies...so A and I decided to use the chair. They are so cute...I'm bummed we didn't get a chance to do 1 month with them.

Speaking of one month...here's a side-by-side shot of the first two months. The difference is mind boggling.

 

And, just for kicks...here are pictures of the girls at about 7 weeks.

E...C...A

I think she definitely has E's nose, but A's eyes (except for the color). And, it cracks me up because compared to the other two, she's so bald!

eight weeks

Baby C turned 8 weeks old yesterday. She really is a great, easy baby. If you are friends with me on Facebook, then you probably already saw this picture of her smiling.

 

I remember being kind of disappointed when E started smiling...because really? The smiles weren't so big. But, Baby C is a big smiler already. She's also a coo-er which is really cute.

The girls also wanted to get a picture with C. It would have been better if E decided not to go horizontal.

 

Then the girls tried to get her to smile. I got a bunch of those..but this is my favorite.

 

You see, A is a bit rough with C. She loves her soooooo much, so there are a lot of reminders to be gentle and stop touching her head. So, this picture cracks me up because the expression on C's face is like, "OH NO! IT'S THE BLONDE ONE! SOMEONE SAVE ME!"

what we've been up to...

A, Pop Pop, Baby M, Kiki, AJ, Nonna, Baby C, Me, E, John
Not pictured: Uncle Steve

The last week and a half have been so much fun...but so busy. My sister and her family were in town for 10 days or so, so we spent half our time at our house and the other half going down to my parents house (about 40 minutes away). I have discovered that, while Baby C is not an all out hater of the car seat, she is also not the kind of baby that conks out and stays conked out in the car seat. There is some crying and pacifier cramming that must go on before she will sleep...and 90% of the time, her eyes will pop open once we have reached our destination.

So, now we try to get into some sort of routine. Hopefully that routine will involve Baby C napping while not in my arms for more than 20 minutes. Ah, a girl can dream...

one month

It's hard to believe, but yesterday Baby C turned one month old! On the one hand, I can't believe it's already been a month. On the other hand, I can't believe it's only been a month. But such is life with a newborn.

 

For me, at least, parenting a newborn is just not fun. The sleepless nights...the fussiness and crying...the fact that they can't just tell you what the hell they want or need...the lack of smiles despite your best efforts. Add to that I've been hit with PPD again (I had it with A and E, as well...but this time it is worse). Luckily, I got help early, so things are definitely better for me (after a rough week or two), which is great.

All in all, we're hanging in there. The whole family just adores her. As you can see, it'd be hard not to. So I think we'll keep her!

 

I can see a bit of both A and E in her face...I think her nose is very much E's, while her eyes are remniscent of A's (except in color...I think we have another brown-eyed girl on our hands). But there are parts of her that are uniquely and distinctly hers.

I can't wait to find out more about what she is going to be like!

three sisters

my own little squeaky toy

While she snoozed on my lap yesterday, Baby C got the hiccups. So.damn.cute. She's a week old today. Crazy how time flies.

holding out for diamonds

The March birthstone is aquamarine. April's is diamond. SlackerBaby decided to stick around for one more day so she would have the better birthstone. Even if that means being called an April's Fool forever.

Baby C
Arrived 4/1/2011 at 11:42 AM
9 lb 2 oz
21 1/4 inches

We're all so in love with her. Especially her two big sisters.

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!

34 weeks

I'm 34 weeks today...which means we've got six weeks to go! (Do you like my delusion that I'll give birth to this baby on her due date, despite the fact that only 5% of babies are born on their actual due date? Yeah, me too.)

I've gotten a couple of comments on how big I look, so I trolled back through the photo archives to do a side-by-side comparison with my previous pregnancies. Of course, there is nothing from A's pregnancy, but I did find one with E.

Honestly, I feel like I'm slightly smaller than I was with E. And carrying a little lower. Which makes me feel marginally better. And I think we can all agree that my hair should never be cut in the 2004 style again.

We've made progress on getting ready for baby. Her room is coming together. I purchased an Ergo Baby Carrier from BabySteals yesterday for a bargain. And, this weekend, I'm headed to Babys-R-Us this weekend to trade in our old infant seat (which expired) and getting a new one.

It kind of cracks me up, because even though my kids aren't *that* old, but it seems like so much has changed! The car seat expired! The bottles are poison (BPA)! The crib is a death trap! I swear, it makes my head spin how different things are in just a few years!

kicking some you-know-what

We had one of those weekends where we kicked some @$$ and took some names, if you know what I mean.

First of all, it was the end of the 2nd quarter for E's school. She got an award this quarter, for Computation Queen. Although she won that award a couple of times last year, earlier this year she won the Top Wildcat Writer. So, with the mad writing AND math skills, I guess she's a Renaissance woman of sorts.


She also got her report card. Again, she did great! She even made some improvements in a couple of areas (including Listening...though you could've fooled me). But, the best part about it was the note from the teacher. It was quite possibly the best teacher's note ever.

E is progressing well academically this quarter. Way to go! E is energetic and loves participating in class. I could easily picture her as a movie star one day. For example, a while back, E was pulled out of the room for testing. When she came back, she opened the door and raised her hands to the air and said "I'm back!" She definitely has a big personality. Also, I wanted to share that E is very "word smart" and "math smart"!

John and I were cracking up at the image of E walking into the room like that. Totally her.

Secondly, the girls made their Valentines. After last year's Valentine's Day FAIL, I knew we needed to step it up a bit. So, we filled goodie bags and added a little tag to each. A gave her friends a bouncy ball and Hershey's kisses, with a tag that said "I have a ball with you!". E gave her friends a pencil and eraser with "You've got the 'write' stuff!" They turned out adorable, if I do say so myself!


Finally, this weekend, we made big progress on SlackerBaby's room (and the rest of the house)! On Saturday (after an exciting, barn-burner of a basketball game where E's team beat a previously undefeated team 22-20), we headed to IKEA. We got a new dresser and bookcase for A's room, so we could move the dresser/changing table and bookcase into the baby's room. (We also got some other furniture for the basement and living room. Part of me hates it that I'm in my mid-thirties and still shop at IKEA. And, yet, it's reasonbly priced, looks good, and if my kids take a Sharpie to it and ruin it, no bigs. IKEA, I just can't quit you!)

On Sunday, we got the furniture delivered and assembled it all, and moved the furniture into place in the baby's room. We also lined up the painters to come and do the girls' rooms this week. Then, we had a fantastic Valentine's Day dinner and dessert. Before we knew it, it was time for bed! And man, did we need it.

Being productive is hard work, yo!

it's (still) a girl

There are a couple of exciting baby updates round these parts!

• We put together the crib! Of course, we still need to get a new crib mattress and the crib currently holds bags of baby stuff that I've acquired this pregnancy...but still! A crib!
  
• My friend, Kelly, took some pictures of our family for an online photographer course she was taking. The theme was waiting...and we certainly fit the bill. Check out the photos here at her web site.
  
• I had a doctor's appointment yesterday. They performed an ultrasound to check the baby's size, and I made her confirm that she is, in fact, still a she. She is! And, a big one at that! She's measuring a week ahead, which isn't a concern. But the doctor did mention that having a 10-pounder isn't out of the realm of possibility.
  

Well, I'm off to E's second quarter Awards Ceremony. I'm not sure what she's getting, but she's 2 for 2 this year. Woo hoo!

now posting on a bi-weekly basis

Apparently, I can only muster up the energy to post every other week these days...just so you guys will lie through your teeth tell me how great I look in my belly shots. Truth of the matter is that I'm just so freaking tired of late. I swear, I feel like I've shot way past Advanced Maternal Age and am Advanced Geriatric Age at this point.

All in all, we're hanging in there. We had some snow storms in the last few weeks, which enabled me to enjoy The Commute from Hell. My normally 45 minute to an hour commute? Took me 6 hours. Awesome. E lost her third tooth on the bottom, but I'm convinced that she will be in braces before the year is out because the two adult teeth that are growing in the space where these 3 baby teeth were? Occupy about 90% of it. But, seeing as John had braces, and I single handedly funded at least one of my othodontist's Mercedes back in the day, I'm really not suprised.

Anyway, here is the growth progression of the belly. In a nutshell, I'm huge. I'm pretty sure I waddle now. Small objects, such as crumbs, cannot escape it's gravitational pull. And, for the first time ever, the OB told me I was measuring ahead. Which is a little off-putting, since I measured normal for both E and A...and they were 8 lb 12 oz and 9 lb 6 oz. If this one breaks the 10 lb mark, I'm going to be pissed.

 

 

On the bright side, I go on Tuesday for an ultrasound to determine size. I'm also hoping for one more confirmation of gender before we select paint colors and buy crib sheets. Because, yeah, we have 8 weeks to go and still haven't done anything! Ack!