4 more weeks until "vacation"

Wow...it's been almost a week since my last blog? What's wrong with me? Work is what's wrong. I'm looking forward to being on maternity leave...as a VACATION from work. I'm trying to control the stress level so I don't end up with a premie baby (though I'm thinking baby probably already weighs about 6.5 lbs, so probably wouldn't be all that premie at this point).

4 weeks until my due date and the weeks are still flying by and the month of May doesn't appear to be a much slower month. Still have done practically nothing to prepare for baby. I did buy some Dreft, so I'm now prepared to wash the clothes I haven't gotten out so I can start to pack the bag I haven't packed. But I am now going to the doctor every week and this past week he checked and baby hasn't dropped at all, so appears I have a ways to go.

So anyway, other than work, work, and more work, this week has been fairly uneventful. For the first time ever as a family of 4, we actually all played a board game the other night. Okay, so actually Ethan "helped" Daddy. We played "Sequence for Kids". Fun game, but apparently I was the one who needed help since Blythe won the first game and Braden and Ethan won the next 2 games. Good thing I'm not a sore loser, even though I'm NEVER PLAYING AGAIN!

Anyways, Gommy and Poppa are coming to visit today so they can check out Blythe's t-ball "skills" at her 9am game tomorrow. Should have some nice, warm weather so will be a fun weekend.

And the polls are now open

So I've now entered my 36th week of pregnancy, which means if I were to go into labor now, the doctors would not try to stop it. This means it's a good time to start the guessing.

To follow in the footsteps of my cousin Sarah, I have created a poll. Just click on the link below and enter your guesses. Winner gets bragging rights.



Of course, I know I also have a lot of blog stalkers who don't want to admit they read my blog and therefore probably don't want to enter guesses for bragging rights. So for you guys (and anyone else who wants to), I'll also keep the polls to the right open until baby is born. Not to worry - voting on these is completely confidential. You can go right on stalking me and I'll never know. But just make sure you vote!

So that you all have an equal playing field, I will give you information about my last 2 deliveries:
Blythe - I was induced 1 day early (pretty much because I was sick of being pregnant). She was 8 lbs 10 oz and 21.5 inches long.
Ethan - I was induced 8 days early (because Braden had to head to NCAA's and I preferred he be home with me and baby for at least a week before he left). He was 8 lbs 8 oz and 21.25 inches long.

So anyway, both were pretty similar which means this one this one might not be (or maybe it could be similar too). Happy guessing!

Accident Report

I'm happy to report Ethan has gone 4 days with NO accidents! Of course now that I type that, he'll probably start having a few.

Blythe, on the other hand, has had at least one every day. Not at school (she hasn't done that in probably a year), but at home. I'm not sure what's going on. I personally think it's a cry for attention, maybe because Ethan has been getting more attention since he's been potty training. If that's the case, I hate to see what happens after this baby is born. Maybe instead she'll step up and want to be more of a big sister helper. Guess we shall see. In the meantime, she can continue to work on her dancing skills.

And nesting has begun

I think the nesting urge may have finally started. Barely. Up to this point I have felt no need to really clean, more to just keep up with the everyday clutter. But yesterday Braden and I both cleaned our cars...vacuumed and Windex and everything. Maybe subconciously I'm starting with the first place new baby will go (other than hospital room).

And I even got started in the nursery a bit going through some stuff. I didn't think I'd have time, but then yesterday afternoon my 12 year neighbor called and said she was bored and wanted to know if I needed any help with Ethan or Blythe. Ethan was napping so she came over and played games with Blythe (games like "Cooties" which I have no interest in playing with Blythe) and played in the sandbox with her. So while she was doing that, I managed to go through a few drawers in the nursery and some of the closet.

Later she thanked me for "letting her come over and play with Blythe". Um. Anytime. For real.

At some point during the day Blythe watched a Dora the Explorer show that was about riddles. So this is a new concept to her. Right before she fell asleep last night, she says, "Mom, what has 2 tails, 8 legs, and says "Ee-aw"?" So I say, "Um..2 donkeys?". She said, "No, a donkey with 2 tails". Hmmm..

Another thing she's very into these days is numbers. She's always asking me if I can count to 130 or one hundred thousand. She likes doing addition too and can do it pretty well and doesn't even have to use her fingers every time. She's also asking me to do it all the time...."Mom, what's 5 plus 5 plus 5 plus 4?"

First t-ball game

Blythe had her first t-ball game yesterday. Honestly I had zero expectations going in and didn't even know how 4/5 t-ball works. So here's the scoop - no score is kept, so I guess no one wins. We play 2 innings (though maybe sometimes they will play 3...not sure). Everyone bats and everyone gets on base (even in the very rare instance where the ball makes it to first base before the runner). Everyone gets a single (though I guess if they wanted to keep running, no one would really stop them). Then the last batter gets a grand slam.

Surprisingly, everyone on Blythe's team hit the ball within 2 tries. And I was shocked that Blythe actually hit it pretty far. She liked running the bases too. All players also play the outfield, so there are no benched players. Braden said they should change their name to the Bees because it's like a swarm of bees everytime someone hits the ball. Except Blythe wouldn't be on that team. She's the only one who just stands there when the ball comes with no attempt to retrieve the ball or throw it. So it's clear she got her t-ball "athletic ability" from me. So I'm going to guess she won't be a great tennis player, or volleyball, or basketball, or soccer. Because, like me, she doesn't like to hustle. Always seemed to me a waste of my energy to run after a ball. But of course she could prove me wrong.

I missed Blythe's second time at bat because Ethan said he needed to go potty, so we headed to the car where I was prepared this time with a little potty I brought from home. I haven't blogged about his potty progress in a while. I think today we might have turned the last corner. For the last 3 weeks he has done quite well with peeing in the potty. And in the last week has even started telling us when he needs to go. The problem has been #2 in the potty. He most definitely preferred to do it in his pants, and would only go in the potty if his only alternative was the floor (i.e. if he had no pants on). But of course he can't go pantless all the time, so we've had lots of accidents. Yesterday he actually went on the potty instead of in his pants and then today he actually told us he had to go and then went on the potty. So hoping that's it and that milestone has been crossed. Guess time will tell.

T-ball

Blythe had her first T-ball practice this evening. Pretty sure she had no idea what T-ball was. I just signed her up without asking her if she wanted to play, probably more for my own entertainment. She was being a pain in the butt before we left the house for practice, so I threatened that we weren't going to go and she said, "but I do want to go to Tennis Ball".

Anyway, she's in the 4/5 T-ball league and her team is the Cardinals (which in real world baseball are the arch rivals of the only team I halfway like...the Cubs). Though I guess White Sox are also rivals. Her friend Ginsey who lives next door is also on her team. Here they are looking like they might be able to play t-ball.

Blythe has some definite room for improvement in the catching department. And in hitting. And throwing. But so does the rest of the team.

Ethan, meanwhile, played with Ginsey's brother Frank. I hope Frank makes it to every practice and every game.

So the season has officially started. Play ball!

Hold on Baby

My cousin Sarah is due with her first baby just 6 days before I am due. I saw on her Facebook status that this past weekend she was washing baby clothes and getting the nursery ready. Made me think back to when I was pregnant with Blythe and how the last month was about the slowest month of my entire life because everything was ready and all set for the baby. Flashforward to now where I am so NOT ready for baby to come!

I mean, don't get me wrong...I'm pretty sick of being pregnant. But have I washed baby clothes? No. Have I even gotten any out? No. Have I put the new swing we got together? No. Have I moved the crib back to the level it should be for a newborn? No. Have I even really gone in the nursery recently? No. Have I bought any baby toiletries? No. Have I gotten out any bottles (to probably determine I need to buy all new ones)? No.

What HAVE I done? I did remember to email my HR rep at work to let her know I'd be out sometime in the near future so she could send me the paperwork. Feel pretty proud about remembering to do that.

This weekend it hit me that there is the (slightest) possibility that I could have this baby early. That I'll be considered full term (at 37 weeks) in just over 3 weeks. YIKES! That means I have to have a bag at least somewhat packed in about 2-ish weeks. How did this creep up on me so quickly? You wouldn't think it would if you've been counting your life in weeks since September.

But I've just been enjoying this time when I have just 2 kids. And the youngest one isn't SO dependent on me anymore. And the weather has been nice so we can play outside. We can play in the sandbox. We can play on the swing we hung up this weekend (actually Braden hung it up). We can go to the Hokie baseball game and actually watch the game (at least until the 3rd inning when Ethan asked if we could go home). Braden and I can go on a date and leave the kids at home with a new babysitter and not have to do anything to prepare for it.

Don't get me wrong - I really want this baby and am so excited for his/her arrival. I'm just hoping it's not coming in the next 3-4 weeks because I'm not ready yet!

Easter

Yeesh...it's been over a week since I posted! Probably had something to do with me being out of town for 6 nights. And now I'm home for a REALLY LONG TIME. Anyway, last Friday we headed to Gommy and Poppa's for our Easter celebrations. Such awesome weather we had, so we really had a good time. On Saturday morning we headed out to Dan Nicholas Park for an extremely over-crowded Easter egg hunt and then to enjoy the park. Blythe got no eggs in that hunt and Ethan ended up with 2 eggs (not sure how that happened actually). The park is a really cool park (would highly recommend it to anyone thinking of going) and you could spend more than an entire day doing everything it has to offer. But we went for the massive playground, train ride, carousel ride, and petting zoo. Had a picnic lunch, then headed back to the house.

While Ethan napped (or actually just played in his room for a really long time before falling asleep), Blythe headed to another Easter Egg hunt in my parents neighborhood. This one had much less kids, so Blythe ended up with 41 eggs (the most), but did not find the gold or silver egg, which would have won her a big prize and the $5 that was inside each of those! Anyway, she had a good time and racked up on some candy.

Because 2 egg hunts (actually 3 if you count the one we did here in Blacksburg before we left) isn't quite enough, we had one more on Sunday. This one we did as our traditional family egg hunt where we save egg shells, dye them, fill them with confetti, then cover with crepe paper. It's quite a long process, but the reward is getting to crack them on people's heads after you're done hunting them. Blythe hasn't quite figured out how to crack them without hurting her victim, so I think we all had minor headaches after she was through with us. But anyway, it was a lot of fun.

Grams (Braden's mom) had sent the kids some really cute Easter clothes, but we didn't make it to church on Sunday, so I asked Lynette to get some shots of the kids in their stylin clothes. It was hard to pick just a few to post, but here are some of my favorites.

Thanks Lynette for taking such awesome pictures!

Later on Sunday, the guys headed out so they could attend the practice round at the Masters on Monday. Sounds like they had a really great time. I need to check out the pics Braden took and then I'll post some. While they were there, I had to fly out to Oklahoma for work. Was supposed to get back Wednesday night, but got in to Charlotte too late to drive home, so I drove back to my parents, stayed the night, then drove home yesterday morning. And boy am I glad to be home!

The Sandbox

If we were smart when we built our house, we would have had them level our backyard instead of keeping it on the downward slope it has. But we didn't have kids, just dogs, and so those types of things just never crossed our minds. So anyway, we're left with a sloping yard (and we also put in a fence, so it wouldn't be worth it to fix it now). And that means no playground in the yard without some serious dirt hauling and retention wall building. The good news is that we have a playground in the neighborhood, so that is very nice. But I've been thinking with this new baby on the way that it might be nice for Blythe and Ethan to be able to play in the backyard.

So the next best thing...a makeshift playground. We already have a porch swing hanging under the deck. There is room to hang one kid swing (we have the stuff, just need to get that hung). We also already had a plastic slide in the yard. One more necessity - a sandbox. We had a little tiny crappy plastic one, but wanted a bigger one to fit some of Ethan's trucks. So Braden made a plan, we went to Home Depot, and he knocked it out in just a couple of days. And the kids LOVE it!

Nice job Braden!

And the kids are still enjoying the slide we've had for a few years.

In other news, I had a regular visit to the OB yesterday. All looked good with baby. No more protein in my urine. Blood pressure was good. Size of uterus is now measuring in the normal range. Weight gain...eh. Making up for the last time which was a bit low. Heart rate was about 135-140, so those of you who believe old wives tales will think it's a boy.