9

• So my last post was a little... hmmm... harsh... Sorry about that. I guess it's just the motherly rage that sets in when someone's not being nice to your baby.
• Hubby is watching District 9 right now. I started watching it with him, but it sucks! So here I am.
• Both E's birthday and Christmas were wonderful days. I just truly enjoyed watching E experience it all. I feel like I should be writing so much about it, but I don't really know what to write, it's more of just this really nice feeling about how well things went and how much I love my little family that's still bubbling inside of me. No words for that I guess.
• I started packing my bag for the hospital today. I never got to do that the last time. I realized that I can't pack it all b/c I still need some of the stuff. Hopefully I'll have time to just throw it in there when the time comes. Otherwise C can bring it later.
• My belly feels like it's about to explode! It's so tight.
• Oh, my word did I make a lot of Christmas candy this year. I am definitely sending a bunch of it to C's work Monday. We have to get it out of the house!
• I can't wait to start taking down the Christmas decorations. Normally I want to wait until 20 days after Christmas (Jan. 13th). It's a Swedish tradition to "dance out" Christmas that day. But this year, even though it looks so beautiful, I just want to get everything ready for the baby.
• E has been doing a little better at bedtime with her big girl bed. She still gets up once or twice, but then she falls asleep. It doesn't take an hour anymore. But maybe that's b/c she no longer gets real naps. I let her sleep if she falls asleep in the car, but for the past few days I haven't tried to put her down for naptime. Now I just got to figure out what to do with her in the middle of the day, b/c we both still need that time of peace and quiet even if she doesn't sleep.
• It's getting late so I'm going to get something to drink, get ready for bed and snuggle a little with my hubby on the couch, even if it means watching the end of a very weird movie.

you suck!!!!!!!!!!! Grow up!!!!!!!!!!!!

So you're still mad at me, fine. But what did she ever do to you? You can't wish her a happy birthday just b/c you don't want anything to do with me? Immature jerk!

(Sorry everyone else, just needed to vent.)

Happy Birthday E!

I couldn't go back to sleep after C's alarm went off this morning so instead of tossing and turning I decided to get up and enjoy the peace and quiet. It's Christmas eve today and back home everyone is celebrating Christmas. We will be celebrating E's birthday today. She's turning three. Such a big girl. I love her so much! C is working until lunch today and then he'll be home and she gets to open up her gifts. I doubt there will be a nap today. "Here are your gifts, now go to sleep." Somehow I don't think that's going to fly. I finished her cake yesterday. It's a toffee ice-cream cake. I hope she'll like it.

Lately, when E picks out her bedtime story it's the same book every night. "Flip and Flop". They play this game called Boomba and she really likes it. But yesterday she picked a book called "I know it's autumn". Not the book for this season, but it was what she wanted me to read and anything but Boomba sounded great to me =). The book talked about different things that happens during fall and when we got to the apple picking page she started describing exactly what she wore this year when we went. How does she remember? Well, I guess she's seen the pics from it a few times. I still thought it was pretty funny.

Oh, shoot, I just remembered one gift I forgot to wrap... got to go!!!!!!

miscellaneous dots again

• The big girl bed thing is definitely a battle every day. E keeps climbing out. It takes about an hour for her to settle in and go to sleep, both at naptime and at bedtime. Some nights she sleeps in her bed all night without waking up, some nights we wake up from her trying to squeeze in between us.
  
• It's Monday today, the only day of the week when I actually feel like cleaning. So except for the counter top in the kitchen my house is sparkling clean.
• E and I made some gingerbread cookies today. Yum! And a lot of fun!
• My lower back is killing me from scrubbing the tub.
• I found some Christmas cards in my purse today that I thought I had put in the mail. Oops! They might show up a little late.
• It's my brother's birthday today. Happy birthday!
  
• Tomorrows plans include grocery shopping and making Swedish meatballs.
  
• Wednesday we'll make some Christmas candy.
• Thursday is E's birthday.
• Friday is CHRISTmas!
  

Big girl bed - round 3

Last night went so much better than the night before. She didn't fight it at all. She stayed in her bed (except for one time when she came up and needed us to change a stinky diaper) until she fell asleep. It's now 7:15am and she is still sleeping. She woke up once at 5:20am, but went right back to sleep after I went in and tucked her in again. Hopefully this is it and she's accepted her big girl bed.

As far as the crib goes it's in the nursery and she loves to climb in and out of it all day long. We'll have to put an end to that when baby H comes!

I have another NST today before my regular check up. But C is home from work today so I get to go alone. It's pretty hard to keep an eye on E while being strapped in so I'm thankful she won't be there.

I just heard a door open... time to go!

Big girl bed - round 2

So who was right, realistic me or hopeful me?
It took her about half an hour to fall asleep. Which isn't too bad. That's normally what it takes her to go down for a nap. She always fights it a bit. I told her I would take away her Teddy if she got up one more time. So, still laying down, I could see her inching her way down the bed. She was staying down... Darn smart kid! Anyways, she slept for little less than an hour, then she woke up crying, all freaked out, just like in the middle of the night. She would not lay back down, so I brought her out on the couch with me where she fell asleep in my arms and slept for another hour until I woke her up. I didn't get much done, but it was cozy to hold my sleeping "baby" in my arms. (And to be honest a bit uncomfortable too. I kept falling asleep and didn't have any support for my head so it kept falling to the side. But mostly cozy.)

Well, I'm not looking forward to round 3, but it's coming in about 3 hours. Now it's time for dinner. I'm just frying up leftover Kielbasa stew tonight. Easy and yummy!

Big girl bed - round 1

The first night in the big girl bed is over. Not that she spent too much time actually IN it. She was so excited when C put it together. She kept bringing him all these tools that he didn't need and was constantly in the way trying to help. Then she got to pick what bedding she wanted. She climbed up in her bed and said over and over again "I like it. I like it, mamma!" We even found her just sitting in her bed reading her Bible at one point. But I guess that's where the cute part ends. When bedtime came along she had a really hard time going to sleep. She stayed in the crib, except for when she had to use the bathroom. But towards the end she "had to" use the bathroom a lot! She has always had a hard time going to sleep anywhere but in her crib so I guess I shouldn't be surprised that it was 11:15pm when she finally passed out. A couple of hours later I woke up to a crying kid. I laid down with her for a little bit until she went back to sleep. Then I went back to bed. The second time she woke up crying I was in too much pain to crawl down between her and the safety railing so I just told her to go back to sleep and went back to the bedroom. Not what she wanted to hear. She came into our room, crawled up and over me and then she proceeded to the bottom of the bed and I remember my last thought being something like "Maybe she's going back to her bed again..." The next thing I remember was not being able to stretch my legs out because she was sleeping down by our feet. So I carried her in to her bed, she woke up and flipped out. C woke up and we were so tired that we brought her back with us. At 4am she kicked C out of bed and I didn't have much room either because she was laying sideways. I turned her around and we went back to sleep. At 7am I heard a wide awake kid saying that daddy is gone! 7am!!! That's earlier than after a good nights sleep. I'm so tired right now. The TV is babysitting her. I'm dreading naptime! My only hope right now though is that maybe she will fall asleep since she barely slept last night. But I seriously doubt it. Realistic me says she'll fight it and win, hopeful me says she might go to sleep. I'll keep you updated on the progress. Right now I need to go splash some cold water on my face, grab a couple of Tylenol and pray I will stay patient enough not to hurt her today! (No worries, I wouldn't actually hurt her.)

four

• I'm on a roll. Third day in a row that I'm blogging. E is sleeping in her crib for the last time. Tonight we're putting the big girl bed together. It's very exciting, but also a bit nerve wrecking. I wonder what it will be like putting her down for the night and for naptime. If you have any tricks up your sleeve please share. I have a feeling that we'll be hearing a lot of little feet on the floor past night time /naptime from now on.
• C just got home. He got out early b/c he had a dr's appointment today with his allergist. He had to stop to pick up a prescription too so he bought me a york. Yum!
• I sent out the gifts for Sweden today. They will most likely not make it there before Christmas. I am so bad at getting things in the mail on time. Seriously, I can't remember the last time I sent something on time. I am the same way when it comes to RSVPing for something. Today I RSVP'd for a party that is tomorrow. I was supposed to get back to them by the 13th I think. *sigh*
• Well, my York is in my tummy and I have a couple of phone calls to make so I should probably sign off. Not that that means I will make the phone calls. I'm thinking that since C is home that makes for a pretty good excuse to put it off until tomorrow. Oh, my twisted mind... Can someone say Procrastinator!

Progress

Yesterday C finished the patching/painting in E's room and the nursery. He also bought a bed rail for E. Tonight he will be picking up her mattress, but depending on how late he gets home I don't know if we'll get the bed assembled tonight or tomorrow. I washed all of E's bedding yesterday so that's all done.

Like I mentioned yesterday... I am more pregnant today than I have ever been! And I'm in pain! No contractions or anything. It reminds me more of the cramp you get in your side when you're running. (Well, I get it anyways since I rarely run.) So that + backpain made for a funny story earlier today. I was sitting on the floor, doing a puzzle with E. When we were done I tried to explain to her that I had to get up b/c my side and back were hurting. She walks over to me, kisses my side and back, looks at me and says: "Kiss and make it better. Now you can stay down." So, still in pain, I stayed on the floor. I didn't have the heart to tell her that kisses aren't really enough.

35!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm 35 weeks pregnant today. That's exactly how far along I was when I had E. Which means tomorrow I'll be more pregnant than I'd ever been before. We are working hard to get the nursery done. Well, right now C is working hard to get it done. I can't do my part until he is done with his. Here are the things we need to get done...

• Finish fixing the ceiling in E's room so that we can put her big girl bed in. We had to remove a pipe (that did nothing) because it was placed in the only corner where a bed would fit. That left us with a hole in the ceiling and the floor.
  
• Finish patching up the holes in the nursery. C put in a ceiling fan and ran into some problems.
• Move the futon out of the nursery and finding a spot for it.
  
• Move the crib and changing table from E's room to the nursery.
• Assemble E's big girl bed, buy a safety railing and put that on, wash her bedding (in progress right now, I guess I'm doing something too).
• Wash the crib bedding.
  
• Buy and assemble a wardrobe for H.
• Go through and wash E's baby clothes and put them away.

I think that is pretty much it as far as getting the girls rooms done. We also have to find all of the baby gear, clean that off and set it up and pack my hospital bag and E's bag for wherever she'll be going. What do you put in those bags?
You'd think we'd be done with this already considering E was early so we'd want to be prepared. We do want to be prepared, but being landlords you can't always take care of your own stuff first (it often has to be put aside) plus there are birthdays and Christmas to plan for too. After all it is a pretty busy season. But I'm not stressing out about it. God is in control. He was last time and made us realize all you need for a baby in the beginning are diapers, some clothes and a pack n play. And we got that covered! =)

Seven

• We had a birthday party for E two days ago. She was so excited and she had so much fun. I didn't want to do a Christmas themed birthday. I figured just b/c she is a Christmas kid doesn't mean she can't have a backyard party. So we decorated the church café with flowers, butterflies and other bugs and brought in backyard equipment (houses, slides and a climber) for the kids to play on. We also had a craft corner and dad did some face painting.
  As we were leaving it had started to snow and E ran around trying to catch snow flakes on her tongue. A perfect ending! Well, E crashing in her crib when we got home was pretty perfect too. =)
• All the preparing and the party itself made me really sore. I didn't get to take as many breaks during the day as my body requires right now and so I was in a lot of pain all Saturday night. But it was all worth is, seeing E have so much fun. And the pain is mostly gone by now.
• Yesterday we got to see baby BAM. Congrats to the M's! E got to hold him. Well, I helped her hold him while she was sitting down. When we got home she kept bringing me baby dolls to hold, but she had to help me hold them. I think she will be quite possessive of baby H when she arrives.
• Today is cleaning day and the vacuuming, sweeping and mopping is done. I will dust later. Yes, I know, dusting should be done before vacuuming and mopping, but I didn't feel like it. Cleaning is a lot more fun when you don't have rules to follow.
  
• C went away on a business trip yesterday. I don't like it when he's away. First of all I miss him. And so does E. It also means less breaks for me. And harder to leave the couch to go to bed. And harder to fall asleep. But we're blessed that he has a job and this means some overtime, which is great right before Christmas.
  
• I'm 34 weeks pregnant right now. I had E at 35 weeks. Hopefully baby H will let us celebrate Christmas before she shows up. I would really like to make it to January and then she can come whenever she wants to. C is hoping for end of December. Tax return, ya know!
• It's time for lunch. There is plenty of leftover pizza from the party so that's what we'll have today.
  

holidays and birthdays

What did you do with your leftovers from Thanksgiving? We got three dinners out of it, which all had leftovers:

• Mashed potato soup with rolls and salad (see pic)
• Stuffed pork chops with sweet potato casserole
• Turkey pot pie (using the turkey, of course, and the gravy)
  

I also found a recipe for butternut squash muffins.

Well, that holiday came and went and now we're preparing for Christmas. But first we're getting ready for E's birthday. She has her party for her little friends this weekend. She is really looking forward to it, asking about it several times a day. She keeps saying "party on 5". She is counting down the days using her advent calendar.