Picutres! Nesting!

We finally hung some stuff on the wall in the baby's room! And plugged in his cute little night light. Above the crib, Ben is going to hang his name. Someday.





I am also done with his teeny closet. Clothes from 0-6 months are hanging up and are folded in his dresser. 6-9 months and 12-18 months is folded on the top of the closet. Lots of clothes for a little guy.


Speaking of. I am 35 weeks and 5 days pregnant. I have gained 28 pounds, and my belly button has popped out, so I'd say I am pretty much done.


Jack was looking at me like I was nuts while I took those pictures

I had so much fun today!

I saw Harry Potter 7.2 in 3-D by myself, and no one judged how fast I ate my candy or that I totally sobbed my way through the movie.

Then I went to the mall to buy some more back-to-school clothes for Harry, who has gone from a boys' size 4 to a size 6 (which is going to screw up our clothes system because you know Jack is going to need size 5). On my way to Gap Kids, I happened to walk through a department store and found these awesome, awesome shoes:

Which I plan to wear out for our anniversary this weekend. I know last year I was all, Oh, I am always going to wear my wedding shoes on our anniversary. But they are stilettos. And I am fat. And while my new shoes are very, very high, they are wedges and much more supportive.

I am glossing over the back-to-school thing, I know. Kindergarten. Oh Em Gee. Another post for another day.

Big kid bike!

It is totally our fault because of where we used to live and our lack of good outdoor play space, but Harry has been riding a big wheel all this time. Today, though, he got a big kid bike. The occasion? None. Just a trip to Toys R Us for bug catching supplies and a huge bike sale.


He's a little timid on it, but really, he's doing great.

The kids had the kind of day today that we moved out of our condo for them to have. They were outside from the minute they woke up until just a couple minutes ago when we came in from going to the park and riding bikes to take a bath. Harry is actually in the tub right now. It's a deep tub, and the water is hitting him at the shoulders right now because he requested a deep bath, and he's swimming a little. I am sitting in the hall outside the bathroom, one eye on him and the other on my screen. Jack and Ben are upstairs bathing Jack, and the laundry room is strewn with mud and tire pieces from the playground. They boys caught grasshoppers at the park (and reluctantly released them) and got filthy-- way dirtier than they ever did in our other house-- and we walked home the long way through restored prairie on a hilly path. Harry ran over his own legs once when he fell off his bike, but he didn't mind. A huge cloud blocked the sun our whole walk, and it turned purple around the edges and was so big that even the breeze couldn't blow it away. We saw a hot air balloon high above us and spent our walk talking about all the things the people inside could see.

Jack did not get a new bike because he claimed to only want Harry's big wheel and a bug catching kit on a belt.

Random update

Jack had a totally adorable soccer game the other day. All of his teammates were reluctant to play, and they were playing an older team and got CREAMED. Most of the parents on our team were on the field sort of holding their kids and playing human foosball.

I have pretty much lost my mind from hormones and the stress of being so damn fat in triple digit heat.

I have channeled my energy into packing my hospital bag. But first, I had to go buy a ton of yoga pants, stretchy cotton skirts, and t-shirts to wear after I have the baby. I also added in 4 pairs of new pajamas, some giant underwear, a couple of nursing bras and one of every nursing tank I could find at Target. Clearly I am not expecting to have to go many places, although I will have to drag my fat ass across the street to take Harry to kindergarten. Also toiletries.

It was kind of exhausting.

Here's my list of things that still need to go in the bag:


Kind of tech heavy.

I packed 3 outfits for the baby.

This tiny little ensemble:

This one

And then also this tiny little Gymbo sleeper that Jack wore in but not home from the hospital:

I felt all nostalgic and tossed in the Zutano hat that Harry wore home

And more hats and footwear options.

Luckily his stuff doesn't take up much room.

We took the boys to the hospital tonight for a sibling tour. They liked the fake babies they could diaper in a very Of Mice and Men sort of way.

Cranky and fat

I am so cranky and fat. That's why I haven't been blogging. No one wants to hear me bitch. Especially Ben. Who can just go relax in his own damn bedroom if my huge body and giant body pillow ARE TAKING UP TOO MUCH ROOM. He can't sleep because of all my tossing and turning, and neither can I.

Did I mention how bad my back hurts? Oh, but only when I stand or sit. So I have been lounging a lot.

The kids are driving me NUTS. Oddly the only thing I have patience for is playing board games, so we have been enjoying lots of Zingo, Trouble, and my personal favorite Headbandz. I am so crabby that I don't even think they're cute anymore.

Even when they ARE





My nurse practitioner told me today that I will likely have the baby in the next 3 weeks, since H and J were both 37 and 38 week babies. She thinks I am an early ovulator. I hope she's right, but I have a sneaking suspicion that this guy is going to be my 42-weeker. Think how crabby I'll be by THEN. Really, I'd just love to have him by September 1, so he can go to kindergarten when he turns 5.

SO crabby. Going to eat soft garlic cheddar cheese and TJ's everything crackers and take my awesome breath to bed.

Birth plans

Last night, I woke up at 2:30 (also 12:30, 3:46, 4:11, and 6:19) in a total panic about childbirth. The other times I was just rolling over and/or getting up to pee.

I remembered Jack's birth and compared it to Harry's and hoped that I'd be able to go quickly and med-free again this time.

I was not wild about my epidural experience, even though it worked great-- a little too great since I couldn't even feel anything to push. But my baby was so, so, so sleepy and hard to wake to feed, and my recovery was tons harder.

The thing is, I have never been a fan of birth plans because I just didn't want to end up feeling somehow disappointed and less than if my ideal situation didn't work out. So I don't want to pressure myself to be med-free, especially if that's just not in the cards this time. With Harry, I didn't care-- I wanted to try it without the drugs and see if I could handle it Couldn't. With Jack, I didn't realize a med-free birth was possible until I walked into the hospital at 7 centimeters. This time? I really don't want an epidural, but I also don't wan to ruin this experience for myself with unrealistic expectations.

There was something so awesome about walking from my delivery room to my recovery suite carrying my own baby and feeling like my old self less than an hour after birth-- which is when I was able to enjoy a shower. I really want that again, you know?

At least I was up worrying about something legit last night, instead of just being up. Sleep sucks at 34.5 weeks, by the way.

Operation Baby Clothes

I always get slightly huffy when people talk about nesting because I think it is less of a biological phenomenon and more a way to define women by our reproductive capacity and also more than a little patronizing/infantilizing. And then there are days like yesterday when all I want to do is bake cupcakes and buy tiny baby clothes.

I did bake cupcakes, but instead of buying baby clothes, I went through the 7 giant tubs of baby and toddler clothes in our guest room closet (it's a big closet). I decided anything 12 months or smaller (and in this I included the 12-18 month size from Gap and Old Navy, but that was my absolute limit) would come to live upstairs regardless of whether it looked seasonably plausible for a September baby. Anything 18 months-2T would continue to live in the basement. All the 3T stuff resides in Jack's closet, and the 4T stuff is hanging up in the guest closet waiting for him. I finally have a system!

Or I will when Ben cleans out his dresser in the baby's room and I buy about 100 more teeny hangers and do 40 loads of little laundry.

Right now, I have this:


I was hoping it would look less Hoarder-like as a Hipstaprint.

Ben and I are painting the old condo. We are done with the bathrooms and the downstairs. We even finally painted our garish bedroom a lovely buttery yellow: something we should have done while we actually lived there.


The biggest PITA has been the kids' room. We were just going to touch up random scratches, crayon marks, and places where pictures used to hang, but our (my-- I was so proud of myself for spending a day getting paint stirred at Menards and covering some damage- painting a room or two is very zen. Beyond that and it just sucks) touch ups dried terrible, and you could see where the 2 layers of paint were. Instead of just touching up some more, we decided to paint the room a blue that is NOT the color of painter's tape. Let;s just say, this will be a multi-coat job and has already involved some ugly crying.

And we have been spending lots of time at the park. Barefoot.







From now on when I feel like buying baby clothes, I am going to buy stuff for Harry instead. Trickle-down theory may have ruined the economy and destroyed social programs since the Reagan era, but it definitely powers our clothing system here at home.

The key to a house that always looks clean?

Choose all your finishes in dust color.

Seriously. Our floor:

Our blinds:

Our bedroom furniture:


All the color of dust. Score!

Also helpful?

A countertop that always looks dirty anyway.

I found a Subway sandwich black olive tinged with mustard on the island the other day, and we haven't had Subway since before we officially moved in.

When we chose our cooktop oven, a lot of people (parents, friends, realtor, appliance salesman, home builder) seemed shocked that we didn't go with gas. I know that gas cooks better. BUT, you can get a cooktop pristine clean every time you use it. With any other kind of stove, there is AWLAYS some gunk around the burners somewhere. Not a ceramic cooktop though. I love it. And it also has some speckles, making it look already dusty, so there's no point in dusting it! Yes!


Maybe I should only serve Jack pale beige smoothies so Id never have to wipe his face.


Definitely should have painted the house gray like the color of smudgy little fingerprints. Oh well. There's always next time.