Just Hold On, I Wanna Go To The Movies First

I am officially 34 weeks. I'm in no hurry to be done being pregnant, cause 2 kids is kind of easy, especially when they are both potty trained and sleep through the night. Regardless of my patience the clock is ticking.

Forty weeks is a goal I probably won't reach because of some random annoying low platelet thing. The magic number for platelets and an epidural is 100, and my last count was 99. Without that magical little bit an epidural is out of the question. Insert sad face emoticon here, if I was the type to use emoticons. Instead my doctor won't let me go the full 40 weeks, instead shooting for 38 1/2.

I can deal with that, but the only thing on my pre-baby summer bucket list is going to see Brave. What can I say? I love Pixar. That movie comes out June 22, so if we could just wait till the following Monday, like the 25th?, I'd really appreciate that. So would my kids, cause they wanna see the movie too, probably as much as I do. And if I had to sit through the stupid Avengers I better get to see a movie that I wanna see, even if its a cartoon.

Showered

Saturday was my baby shower and while I wasn't exactly looking forward to it because well opening presents in front of an audience is my least favorite thing it went well and it was fun. Because we are finally having a boy David wanted to go, so when I say shower it was really more of a co-ed casual party that happened to be in celebration of a baby. If someone had tried to wrap toilet paper around me they would've been in trouble.

We got lots of boy stuff with monkeys and sports equipment on it, a pack and play, clothes and blankets, and some of my favorite things: cash and gift cards. I have to thank my sister for making lots of cute baseball sugar cookies, my friend Allie for transporting me and enough balloons to fly the house from Up because seriously I didn't think you could fit that many balloons in a Honda, and everyone who came and gave us plenty of generous gifts and helped clean up. Even the gift opening wasn't too torturous because a good half of it was gift cards, and who doesn't love those.

Now I'm 34 weeks, with just 6 left till my due date. That time is gonna fly by, I know from experience. We have tons of baby stuff but I can always think of something else we need. If I could manage to stay away from Target whenever we go to Tucson I would buy fewer things, but there is no fun in that. In less than six weeks I will have a little man to use all of the baby stuff that is piling up in all of my closets.

Recapturing Her Lost Youth

Ava feels her baby hood slipping away, so her solution is to use her brother's stuff before he is even born.

The "Shower" Part is Not Literal

Whenever I think of a baby shower I am reminded of my nephew inquiring about who was going to bring the towels before we attended one a few years ago. In his mind we were going to actually shower, he just wanted to know if they provided the towels. Ava had similar concerns about our baby shower. They were in the nature of How is everyone going to fit in our bathtub? I assured her there was no actual shower and its not at our house, so space is not an issue.

The thing about baby showers is that I have mixed feelings about them. Even if it is my own, I don't particularly want to attend. I'll go, but I'm not wrapping toilet paper around anyone's belly.

I'm the kind of person that baby registries were invented for. I'm not picky, I'm particular. If you are wise you will buy something off of the list, unless you really know me well enough to get something I like. I made that list for a reason, even if it was David scanning every blanket in Target with that little gun. We are gonna have like 50 blankets for a summer baby. He will definitely be warm and it will be because of David and his obsessive blanket scanning.

Seriously though, the idea of a registry is great, but it is kind of like a list to Santa Claus. Its a suggestion. Santa is gonna bring whatever he wants to bring, even if you just want a bicycle or a Bumbo seat. At the end of the shower if you don't have what you want you better hope someone gave you a giftcard like one of my awesome friends does every time or you are buying that crap yourself.

My baby shower for this little guy is tomorrow and while I'm sort of excited, I'm also sort of dreadful because I hate opening presents in front of an audience. That's why I'm bringing my husband, he can serve a purpose. The purpose of opening presents and bending over to pick up stuff I've dropped and gifts on the floor. We won't tell anyone that the party is co-ed because he wanted it like that so he could go. And that all of the Dallas Cowboys balloons were his idea. I think they'll figure that part out themselves. They should make it more like weddings, where you open the gifts after everyone has left. Although there would be significantly less utterings of the word cute and precious and adorable I think that I could make that sacrifice.

Either way I can't get out of going to my own baby shower. The only excuse I can come up with is going into labor, and that would probably be more work than attending a party. Plus I don't think all of the Eegee's and cookies will get eaten by me if I'm in the hospital. So I'll just keep everything the way it is, attend my own baby shower, have my baby closer to his due date, and suffer through opening presents in front of people. But I draw the line at games where people wrap toilet paper around my belly and inevitably overestimate cause they assume I'm huge. That is a no-win situation.


****Post edit: My baby shower was actually fun, no one tried to wrap toilet paper around me, and we got lots of useful things and lots of gift cards, which could be my favorite thing ever because they are like a free invitation to Target. So baby showers aren't so bad, mostly.

You Know What They Say About People With Big Feet? They Wear Big Shoes

You can deny that your kids are growing up all you want, but once you look down you have to admit: they're growing. As much as the growing out of clothes and long hair serve to remind me, little things like growing an inch are harder to notice.

Maybe it happens overnight or something, but one day they are just taller. Clothes that fit them yesterday don't fit today. That is never more evident than with shoes, because a shoe that's too small is not going on. They just don't stretch.

When I look down at my girls feet, especially Ava's cause she has some big feet, I know they have grown. Babies don't have feet that size. They are officially kids when they wear flip flops and chipped toenail polish. There is no getting around it.

I only have one more pair of tiny baby feet left in my future, and right now they are kicking me and counting down the 7 weeks until they make an appearance. No matter how many pairs of little baby shoes and socks I accumulate, my babies still end up barefoot most of the time. You can only do that with a summer baby. Winter babies would have some cold little toes.

I'm not impatient to be done being pregnant, since this is my last baby. But I do want to see his little toes, cause they're my last pair of tiny baby feet and the only ones that will be without nail polish. Can't really do that with a boy, the pink would clash with all of his blue clothes.

My Mother's Day Request

This is what I wanted for Mother's day, not flowers or candy but a clean car that was washed by someone else. Not pictured: David washing the car too. That alone was nice cause I'm always the one who does it and he claims that technically he doesn't have to give me a gift cause I'm not his mom.

Flattery Will Get You Nowhere

It is possible that this is the least flattering picture ever taken of Alana. But its hilarious. And that is what matters to me.

So I don't care how dumb the face she is making looks. We all probably look that stupid when we spray ourselves in the face with the hose, even if its only on the mist setting.

Oddities

Sometimes I find the weirdest things around my house. I know that they are the work of two little ladies. Without those ladies things wouldn't be quite as interesting here.

It wasn't me, it was the one armed princess.

These flowers are from a broken lei, they are now scattered around even though I said to throw them away.

This must have been one wild party.

I hope frog legs aren't on the menu tonight, I love that Kermit too much to eat him.

Deep in the hundred acre wood...

More flowers

Clearly this car needs a backseat so Chang can pick up more chicks.

Alana carries these around in her purse. I'm unsure why, but they may serve a purpose someday. Not pictured: various Disneyland tickets and a hotel room keycard from Best Western Anaheim.

A delicious sandwich. The secret ingredient is putting real food in with the fake.

This picture is upside down, but its just more flowers.

Growing Belly, Fading Memory

Now I'm 32 weeks, so I'm in the home stretch. The weirdest part of this pregnancy is that its my last one, so everything I do is with this weird feeling knowing I never have/get to do it again. Drinking that nasty sugar drink for a glucose test was still crappy, but when I did it I managed to choke it down with the thought that I will never have to do it again. Yay! I feel like that drink is extra nasty to me because I don't drink soda or sugary drinks EVER, so its just extra disgusting.

Every time I go to the doctor and get weighed, which lets face it no one cares to do, I think that this is the last time I'm gonna gain weight and wear stretchy belly panel pants because there's a little person in there keeping my out of my regular American Eagle jeggings. By the way, I'm high-fiving myself for not gaining any weight in the last two weeks since I went to the doctor. Still holding on at 144, which is probably only because I did not make large amounts of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies (for the fiber, duh) or eat a 12 pack of mini Snickers ice cream bars) since my last visit.

We all know that all the crappy parts of pregnancy fade into a distant memory, cause at the end its totally worth it. And the weirdest part of not being pregnant anymore is that the memory of being pregnant, having that little person with the hiccups and the kicking, the giant rock hard belly that has a mine of its own, all of that kind of fades too. After you're not pregnant anymore its kind of hard to recall exactly how you felt when you were pregnant. You vaguely remember some nausea and heartburn, or even swollen ankles (for some people) or the not so temporary stretch marks, but the excitement and anticipation and heart full of love for someone you haven't met, those feelings are hard to pinpoint.

I can look at my belly right now and see the faded stretch marks from when I had Alana, leftovers from 6 years ago when my skinny flat stomach was like What are you doing to me lady? but its hard to recall exactly how I felt carrying her around. I didn't have the foresight to really take any belly pictures, just a couple of cheesy shots at Sears, but those were at 32 weeks so plenty of growing was done after that. I took pretty regular pictures when I was having Ava, but I still can't remember what it was like to just have that one kid, waiting on the next, cause now my reality is two girls who are wild and crazy and the thought of just one kid is completely foreign.

Now every day is filled with anticipation of a third kid. A boy. A new frontier for me. No more hairbows and pink, just lots of navy blue and stripes and must they put tiny numbers on every outfit like they are on a sports team already. My girls are filled with excitement, Ava talks about how she's going to hold his hand and keep him from being scared of the Easter bunny which I'm not sure is possible cause she is scared of it. When he is finally here and crawling over to destroy their elaborate games of La La Loopsies I'm sure they will have no recollection of what it was like when they couldn't wait to meet him.

Overall, big picture, I like being pregnant. There is no baby sharing. Only I can hold him, feel him move around, have sole ownership of this growing person. That changes after babies are born. The world grabs on and steals moments from you. Grandparents want to hold your precious cargo that you aren't used to sharing, sibling want to give them kisses, they will someday abandon you and go to kindergarten. The baby fades and turns into a five year old who changes their clothes in the middle of the day because their mood has changed and they think you enjoy doing laundry.

Its not even possible to remember holding a five year old when they were a baby. I look at Alana with her long hair, writing her name on stuff and getting a container of berries out of the fridge, by herself, no help from me, and I see a kid. I don't see a chubby baby who at one point caused these stretch marks on my belly, who crawled around on the floor intentionally knocking toys over, who slept on my chest in the middle of the night. My mind cannot process that concept, and my heart doesn't want to. I look at Ava and see a toddler, who talks way too much and makes a very serious mean face when she doesn't get her way. It hasn't even been that long since she was a baby. A chubby baby with a crazy mohawk who never cried, she was so laidback and lovable. She was a crazy little baby who followed Alana around everywhere, but then it never involved any fighting over a Bubble Guppies coloring book. She stills looks little to me, but when you compare 30ish pounds with 7 or 8, they suddenly look huge. Bringing home a newborn changes an almost 3 year old from a little tiny girl to godzilla.

With 8 weeks left all I want to do is sit on the couch with my girls and try to freeze every moment of just having two kids that I possible can. Three will alter the dynamic. It will make our current pretty easy routine slightly more time consuming, although with a boy baby I won't spend nearly as much time accessorizing. These girls take as much time to get ready as me, with their earrings and fancy braids and changing outfits.

My belly will continue to grow and I will continue to watch it move around, trying to make a mental note or maybe something more permanent like a mental tattoo and soon this phase of my life will be over. I won't just be expecting a third baby, I will have a third baby. Whole different ballgame. I probably won't remember what this phase was like though. I probably won't even remember writing this.

Surprise Double Feature

Yesterday we all went to the movies, but split in half. Alana and David went to see the Avengers, Ava and I went to see Pirates Band of Misfits. Tickets were bought, popcorn and large amounts of Icees were consumed. This part was expected. What David wasn't expecting was the large amount of time you must invest taking a five year old to the bathroom. Like missing half of your movie amount of time.

After a couple of trips while he waited for Alana to do her business he had missed about half of his movie. So he decided to throw in the towel. Ava and I were pretty much done, and by that I mean she was asleep and I was watching the movie by myself, so we left the theater.

Understatement of the year: David was disappointed that he didn't get to see his movie.

So today, to make up for time lost waiting for Alana to pee out the 32 ounce Icee she drank, David and I went back to the movies. To see the Avengers, a movie that I was purposely trying to avoid seeing by watching a cartoon about pirates.

The movie was long, but at least when we left he was happy. The 13 year old that lives inside of my husband and probably every grown man who loves video games and super hero movies was beyond happy. And I ended my weekend with Dairy Queen, having seen 2 movies. At least I got Dairy Queen.