36 Weeks

 A couple of pictures from Drew's and my birthday yesterday:

Only two or three more weeks to go!  Last Friday I was dilated 2cm at my 35 week checkup, and I'm going later today to see if there's been any more progress.  As of Friday I've gained 35 pounds (but I have a feeling I'll add a couple to that today).  



How I'm feeling: I still feel comfortable, for the most part.  I wake up a lot at night to flip from one side to another, but overall I'm sleeping fine.  My belly is feeling BIG, though!  You can always tell when you're getting close when you feel the baby kicking at the top, bottom and side of your belly all at the same time.  My doctor told me last week that her head is down, but sometimes it feels like she's laying sideways in there.....I'm always feeling feet or knees (or elbows, maybe?) poking out on the sides.  Sometimes it hurts quite a bit.   I wish so badly that I knew what all of those body parts are.....I love pushing on my belly, trying to figure it out. 



Drew has a hard time sitting on my lap when I'm reading to him before bed.  And it's hard to bend down to pick things up off the floor (I'm constantly doing this because toys end up everywhere and it drives me crazy!).  And it's funny......our cat Scooter loves to come lay on our laps after the boys go to bed at night.  She'll climb up and lay right on top of my belly.....it's a perfect little shelf for her! 


What people say:  It totally depends on what I'm wearing.  Some of my shirts are very minimizing, and people can't believe I'm so close to the end.  But last week after dropping the boys off at school, I made a mad dash to get a ton of errands done.  I was wearing a t-shirt that I normally don't wear, and all of these strangers kept asking when I was due, assuming I was about to have the baby any day.


Are we ready?  I came home on Tuesday while the boys were at school and did a lot of organizing in the baby's room.  So yes, I feel like I'm getting there.  I still don't have anything hung up on the walls, but on Tuesday I filled a few frames with some cute scrapbook paper.  Now we just need to hang them.  I'm making progress on my photo albums (although I probably won't completely finish before she's here) and I've been sorting through the boys' clothes, trying to box up things for goodwill (although I think I'll wait to give them away until the baby's born, just in case it happens to be a boy!). 


I still need to find some kind of swing (anyone in our area who's reading this and has one you're not using and wouldn't mind loaning, let me know!!) and I probably need to pick up a few newborn-sized clothes (both of my boys were over 8 lbs but they wore newborn clothes for a few weeks).  And I'm sure there are a bunch of other things I haven't even thought about yet.


Names??  I've narrowed down my list, and I think I'm back to my original favorites of Lauren and Molly, plus maybe one or two more.  I feel like I'm kind of stuck, though.....I don't think I'll be able to fully agree on one until I see the baby (hopefully that will help sway us one way or another).


Celebrations: I am so blessed with so many sweet friends.  Two weekends ago, I had plans to meet my friend Kristin for lunch up in town (she lives in Dallas but said she'd be in Houston that weekend).  So I got to the restaurant to meet her, and six of my blogger girl friends (a bunch of us Bryan High girls who all happen to have blogs and have reconnected through them over the past couple of years) were there to surprise me!!  It was so much fun.....I was totally shocked.  They pampered me so generously with a spa gift card, a Gimme a Break gift card (since they read my blog and know that I'm about to go crazy with my boys!), plus a lot of adorable baby stuff.  None of them live in Houston, so they all drove into town just for that.  I couldn't believe it.

Then last weekend, I met with some of my close friends down here at for lunch at LaMadeleine.  I didn't want any kind of formal shower at all, but a couple of friends insisted on at least a few of us getting together to celebrate the baby before she comes.  It was perfect because it was very low-key and informal.....and again, they gave me some super cute girly things. 

Whew!  This was long!  Check in hopefully later this week for a 2-year update on Drew.....

Drew and his ah-yahs

 Well, Brownie #1 ("ah-yah," as Drew has always called it) has seen better days.  We love those Little Giraffe blankets, and Drew couldn't live without his.....but at $30 a piece they don't seem to hold up very well.  He's only been using Brownie #1 since January.  And about a month ago I ordered Brownie #2, as a replacement in case we ever lose #1.

Well, the original Brownie had a terrible accident at school last week.....it somehow ripped straight across the middle (it had started tearing and falling apart anyway), so now it has a huge hole right in the middle of it.  Drew really has no preference between the two, but he'll gladly take both of them if he sees them.  The other day, he picked up Brownie #1 and put it around his head like a necklace.  Then he grabbed #2 and put it on top of his head (like he often does).  He looked like a poor little homeless boy in rags!

I love this face.

I took some pictures of Drew the other morning while the boys were watching TV.  I'm no professional, and I'm sure a real pro could make this picture look much better.  But I just picked one of my favorites and tweaked it up a little bit on Picasa.  I've also been playing around with Photoshop (which I bought just before Drew was born but never learned how to use it properly); I've downloaded a few "actions" (for example, "Faded Daydreams," which automatically gives a picture that vintage-hazy look), and I'm trying to play around with them.  Ideally, I'll take some good pictures of the baby, and I'll be able to do my own editing to give them a pseudo-professional look.....

I cannot say enough how much I'm in love with this little guy (definitely my easier one right now of the two!).  I love his soft brown hair, big brown eyes and little button nose.  He just does the cutest things right now (when he's not picking fights with his brother):   

Again, I just adjusted this picture on Picasa, not Photoshop.  But if I get a chance, I'll upload before-and-after pictures that I've been practicing with on Photoshop.  It's not nearly as hard as I'd expected!
 
Today was a better day; I went to a doctor's appointment (podiatrist, not my OB) while the boys were in school and then did some birthday shopping for Drew (can't believe he'll be two in less than two weeks).  Drew hasn't napped at school this week (and Grant never naps at school.....they don't build naps into the older kids' schedules), so the afternoon was a little rough.  Especially for Grant.  He ended up going to bed at around 6:30, but Drew stayed up a little later with Dean and me (he'd taken a short nap on my lap this afternoon).  This rarely happens, where we spend time with just one boy and not the other.  It was so nice, though, not having to deal with any fights!  Drew and I made fudge together (he always loves bringing his stool over to help make desserts), and he had a great time being silly and getting all the attention for himself.  He gave Dean a big hug and kiss before I took him upstairs to bed, and he said, "nigh nigh Daddy" as we were walking away.  I'm so smitten....

A day in my life....

I thought I'd share this; a PERFECT example of what my life is like on a daily basis.  And as a warning, this just happened, so I'm very frustrated right at this moment (but I can't settle my mind down enough to do anything productive, so I might as well record for prosperity a story that might make me look back five years from now and give thanks to God that this stage is OVER!).

So today was the first day of my Bible study, up at the same church where the boys go to school.  They were in different classrooms than their normal rooms for school, but they handled it fairly well.  And it was so great for me to see all of those girls again; so now I'll have some separation from the boys on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday (which again, I know will be good for all of us).  I am still considering finding somewhere for Grant to go on Monday and Friday too.  By the way, are there any daycare centers open on Saturdays?

On the first day of each new semester, all of the leaders bring breakfast goodies, and we do a lot of basic introductory stuff.  When it was over and I was heading down to pick up the boys, I picked up a styrofoam cup and put a few muffins and sausage balls in it for the boys to share on the way home (apparently I need to stop doing nice things like this for them, because it almost always ends in disaster).  I went to Drew's room first, and he was actually playing and having a good time (at least we're making progress in that regard).  So he ran over to me and immediately noticed and grabbed the cup full of goodies.  He followed me to Grant's room (cup in hand), and of course Grant immediately noticed the cup of goodies too.  He asked if he could have a cup like Drew's, which was out of the question because all of the food would now be gone anyway, and I was NOT going to go back up to the third floor just to appease him.  I was trying to just get out the door and deal with the situation once we got away from the mass of people surrounding us at the moment (this was 12pm, when all of the normal preschool kids are getting picked up too).

But no, Grant kept freaking out about wanting to have a cup like Drew's.   And after all, I got the snacks for both of them, right?  So I grabbed the cup from Drew, took out a muffin and handed it to Grant, hoping to just get out the door and away from everyone before a fit ensued.  There was still plenty of food in the cup when I handed it back to Drew.  But it wasn't good enough.....Drew threw the cup across the hallway, laid down on the floor and started screaming.  Then he stood up and tried grabbing the muffin back from Grant, which led to a lot of hitting and screaming between the two of them.  It was embarrassing and even more frustrating, because this is the kind of thing I deal with ALL THE TIME at home.  So I just never get a break from it.  I'd just had a three-hour break from them, and all I wanted to do was march them right back to their classrooms and leave them there until sometime in December.


Today has been especially hard anyway because I have a cold and I'm just not feeling great, plus the boys were both up at 6:15am, playing in the bathroom while Dean was in the shower.  Grant responded disrespectfully when Dean told him he couldn't plug in the space heater (he claimed he was cold, even though it was 77 or 78 degrees upstairs).  With Grant, we're at our wit's end because we cannot correct him AT ALL (no matter what tone we use) without him going berserk.  He is just not one of those kids you can pull aside, tell him what he's doing wrong and stick him in time-out for a few minutes.  No matter how patient and friendly a tone we take with him, he just loses it almost every time.  And if we immediately react with a harsh tone, his reaction is even worse.  So we have no idea what to do.  But I have warned him that he's not going to be able to stay at our house during the day if he keeps acting like this.  There's no way I'm going to be able to handle a new baby when he's acting this way.

So there.  I don't think I've ranted about my kids (at least spent an entire post on it) for a few months, so I guess it was about time!  Anybody out there who has raised an extremely strong-willed child (or two little ones who seem to fight over everything), I would be glad to hear advice! 

First few days of school

 The boys started school last Tuesday!  Hallelujah!  Last week they only stayed from 9am to noon each day, but today they're staying until 2pm.  Grant has done wonderfully; he wasn't very excited about going to a different classroom with different teachers this year (especially when he found out that his friend Josh wasn't in his class), but every day he walks right in and doesn't even look back. 

Drew, on the other hand, is having a hard time, which I expected.  Last Tuesday and Thursday he just screamed when I took him to his room (most of the other kids are also screaming, which doesn't help!).  His teachers said on Thursday that he did much better than Tuesday (he especially did well on the buggy ride, which is weird because he's always hated buggy rides).  So this morning, I kept talking to him about school, telling him that there's no reason to cry because he knows that I'm coming back.  And his teachers love him, and he has so many fun friends to play with, etc.   And when I'd ask if he was going to cry, he'd shake his head or say "no."   So it broke my heart when I took him to his room (of the five kids in there, four were screaming), and I could tell he wanted to cry but was trying to be a big boy and hold back the tears.  He reached his arms out for Ms. Lynne when she came to the door (still not crying).  But as she took a couple of steps back into the room, I was about to walk away when I could see him looking at all the other kids, and I'm pretty sure he was starting to cry too.  So I must say that it was a little bit difficult walking away from there, knowing that he was trying to be brave but was just not sure about being there!

But I must say, it has been SO NICE coming home today and having all morning to get things done at the house all by myself!  I'm still trying to finish up some projects before the baby's born.  Having some separation from each other for ten hours a week will be good for all three of us, I think.

Some pictures from the first day of school: