The Return of the King - and my Advent "Wreath"

Hi everyone! I'm back!

::looks around at empty room::

That's ok, I expected that. After all, I'm really just talking to myself, like always, with this blog. I haven't been rememberwriting as much as I really should though - especially if I want to actually preserve any memories. And there's always my daily phone pictures.

But I digress.

I've been pinning shit like maaaaaad lately, and finding I can actually accomplish things whilst ignoring dishes and laundry. Oops. Well, at least I have fun stuff to show for it!
The onset of colder weather has been harsh, with colds (me) and croup (B) and ear infections (S), oh my. We've also been staying inside while having our bedroom and bathroom ceilings fixed and painted, and it's just about on the level with waterboarding for two small excitable children.
So, crafting.

I didn't get to church to make my annual Advent wreath this year, so I wanted to try something a little different. I found this on Pinterest: click me, I'm a link to an awesome bread pan Advent "wreath" from Homespun Living!

And it was my inspiration - er, pinspiration (which always makes me think of perspiration) for my very own:

(Please excuse my semi-used candles...)

Some of the ladies on my crafty group were talking about something called chalk paint, and I just happened to run into some at the Crafty Store #3 the other day, so I decided to take one of our old bread pans and give it a whirl.

Bread pan, halfway through:

And then I glued some taper holders into the pan, added some pine snippings from the branches we cut off of our spider-less tree:

Et voila. We lit the first one today - I let B practice. He blew it out mid-prayer. Ah well.

The one where I buy a box of Magnum.

No, not those kind of Magnums. The kind in the frozen section of the store which contain chocolate. Wonderful, wonderful chocolate.

So this morning while I was on the phone with my mom about the stray cat my sister picked up and tried to save which bit her and could possibly have rabies (they sent it to get tested), the Burrito decides to wake up and play in the toilet.

There was pee in the toilet. And tp. Apparently it was his new game.

SO, things I did this morning/afternoon?

• bathed toddler
• wiped every surface in bathroom with bleach
• took sheets off of beds just in case he tried to climb up them
• threw out his paci
• went to Target for new bathroom rug
• bought bag of fun-size Milky Ways and box of Magnum dark chocolate ice cream bars
• craved copious amounts of alcohol
• said "eff this" and went to Wendy's for lunch
• left said toddler in the car with a/c on while I took everything into the house and only thought about someone taking him and car for two seconds before The Ransom of Red Chief popped into my head.

It didn't help that this morning was also hitting day, spill your watermelon on the floor day, throw a ball at the end table which has a lamp and glass of water on it day, and run into every wall you can day.

But we did snag some spectacular finds at tarjay, thanks Leslie for this idea:

I told him to hold the box of choc-pb pop tarts (yes, they exist!!) but apparently what he heard was "clutch them like they will stop the apocalypse"

Milestones - they make me *tear*

So here are the milestones that have been making me cry lately:

1) we moved the crib mattress to the lowest setting.
here's our crib, btdubs:

Several reasons for this: two weeks ago, he figured out how to sit up from a kneeling position. he hasn't yet figured out how to move forward, only backward, but he can roll over onto his tummy, push up, and move one leg so that if he pushes himself back, he's sitting up. I'd hear babbling in the morning and walk in to find him on the opposite end of the crib, pac in mouth, hands folded, watching for me as if to say "oh, you're up too? I'll take some milk."
This past weekend, I was ironing next to his crib, and he decided to see what was going on. He pushed into a sitting position, put his hands over the crib rail, and pulled himself up until he was in a straddle - not quite standing up, but close enough that I decided it was TIME.

2) He's saying dada. Not in any recognizable way, in that when hubs walks into the room he says it; just baby babbling. But it's enough.

3) He can now sit up on his own, and play with toys on his own, and at the beginning of the month we got him a Pooh stand-up-easel-looking thing that has wheels. And when I stand him up and he holds on to the handle? He takes steps with it. STEPS. Granted, the thing has to slide out so far that he is almost horizontal before he actually thinks "hmm, I should move a leg..." but still.

(obvs not the burrito)



4) He ate bananas the other day. Like, actual bananas. I cut up a semi-ripe one, and he was smushing it onto his fists, and then putting his fists in his mouth. It totally counts. Ish.
Of course, this past weekend, I had some melon on my plate and he was bored, so my plate was his target of choice. So, I let him suck on the melon (note to self: wear drop cloth). When I pulled the melon out of his mouth, a chunk was gone. WTG burrito, you actually gummed a piece of food off and down your little throat!


Soooooo, I will be taking a vacation day sometime soon in order to babyproof my first floor...he should be crawling any minute now, closely followed by high school.

Contemplating buying this for my baby.

Will I get beat up? lol.

Christmas pics! & a Meltdown story.

We went to a local pic place to get some ordinary, generic Christmas pics done at Hubs' request - he had an Austin Powers sharks w/ frickin laser beams moment last week; "all I want is a regular Christmas photo card like everyone else!" so I scheduled an appointment.

We timed everything perfectly, he'd be fed, burped, clean, and we'd put his reindeer shirt on at the picture place. It was working out great, except for having to wait when we got there. Which, of course, solicited a grunt from hubs - "they make you get an appointment, but they make you wait?" I held in my toldyousos.

By the time we got up and ready, we got a couple good shots in and then burrito started to fuss. Ok, maybe he's just gassy, or peed and might need a diaper soon. Continued with the shots. He was fine on his belly, fine sitting with us, but then they got out this present box, and we tried to put him in that...his immediate reaction was "ohHELLno" followed by a little light screaming. Off to the restroom for a diaper change.

Got in the women's room, was bouncing him around to calm him down before I laid him on the cold, cold plastic changing thing - all of a sudden, he starts letting out cries the likes of which I have NEVER heard before. I held him up and turned him around to see if he was bleeding from anywhere, maybe I'd scratched him with my ring (a constant and unfounded fear of mine), maybe he hit a body part on something, maybe his foot was stuck in a strap; nope, nothing. I tried bouncing even harder, patting and rubbing the back to elicit some burps, whatever normally works - no dice. It was literally screaming.bloody.murder. Finally I just decided to go on with the show and laid him down on the changing station.

It was a poo-splosion of epic magnitude. So epic, in fact, that it went up the front of his diaper (not the back), soaked through the onesie, and onto the jeans and back of his nice reindeer shirt. Ok, so apparently he REALLY doesn't like being dirty. Poor kid. Once I got him out of the onesie and diaper and got him wiped up, he went back to his normal happy baby self. When we got out of the bathroom (I put him back in his shirt and jeans for the sake of the pictures), hubs said "was that him screaming? the photo lady said it was, but I said no, he never screams like that, he's happy." Yup, that's your kid with that set of pipes. I told him how I was on the verge of tears and holding him up and looking for blood because I didn't know what was wrong.

After that, the night was pretty much over - anytime we tried to pose burrito, he just wasn't having it. So we had her save the pics on their computer and went back last night to finish them. They titled the folder "meltdown."

Here are some of the finished product:




So cute.

I did it.

I bought more baby stuff. I'm not allowed, Christmas is coming up...but I couldn't resist these.

so, nursing wear.

thou art my conundrum. How much to buy? and When? it's almost like the baby clothes dilemma - will he come out and be in newborn, or in 0-3? how much of each do I need? when do I start stocking up on 3-6? the clothes that I have will be answered in another post - time to pick out things for me now.

So far, I have bought:

Gilligan & O'Malley nursing tank from Tar-jay
I picked up a navy number with lace trim the other day when I was out, just to try it. I'm usually a M in items like this (it's loverly being two different sizes - M on top, L on bottom), but I figured since my bazoombas are gigantic now and will be milkified for a while, L would do it. It fit fine, obviously not around the stomach area because I'm still with melon, but I have to say, it did make me feel a bit like I needed to strap on some leather chaps, get my cat o' nine tails out and work on my dominatrix name. Modern-day torture instrument? No, nursing tank. But it'll serve its purpose, I'm sure. And it looks pretty.

Glamourmom nursing tank
This one was on sale at one of the sites, zulily I think? I took a chance. It looks pretty, again, I'm sure this is my main motivating factor in life - but is it pretty?
I was interested in trying one of the online brands, and this is the first I came to.






Next up: I'll have to go back to tar-jay of course. What I'm aiming for will be 2 sleep nursing bras and 2 regular nursing bras. Will this be enough? Help me, interwebz.

Just placed my CD order!

I'm finally jumping off of that cliff into the sea of CD's (cloth diapers). I ordered 20 prefolds, 3 different covers including a newborn one with umbilical scoop, 1 all-in-one set to see how they do, 1 wet bag, and 2 diaper snaps. Granted, I will still probably have a few boxes of diapers on hand for the hubs, who is not CD-friendly. So we'll see how it goes.

Now, my list of things to be done RIGHTHISMOMENTIFNOTYESTERDAY includes:
- ask insurance if they cover the pump
- contact daycare providers (I know, I know, needed to be done last month)
- clean car, get car seat base, have it installed & inspected
- get shelf for clothes that need to be hung up
- pay for your dang etsy hat woman! do it! now!
- put together stroller
- put together swing
- find a place for the p'n'p
- set up the p'n'p
- put all of his clothes away in his shelving unit
- look for a dresser, if need be
- return/buy the rest of the needed stuff at BRU
- return extra stuff to tar-jay, buy online-only items there too
- put together FLOR - this one may require some extra outside help, lol
- either move dvd holder or buy a new shelf for them
- make room in bedroom for co-sleeper (this requires actually cleaning it)
- vacuum, dust, and disinfect the entire house - that shouldn't be too tough, should it?...

Bedding Poll results - love it.

Well, the Tall Tales bedding won! I was happy. It was my favorite, lol.

And then we went to register, and hubs fell in love with the Ahoy bedding at BRU. *sigh* That's just the way this stuff works, I guess. I gave him that one, as it was basically me who picked out everything else. And who probably will continue to pick things out!

So, I will keep my eye on the Tall Tales bedding anyway, just in case we don't get the BRU bedding. AND, I just bought 2 organic crib sheets from TheGap, so I'll be covered there just in case as well.

ho-hum, 2nd tri.

Is it usually this uneventful?

So far, I've been unable to distinguish between what is a small fry movement and what may be gas. I have had a couple times where it feels like he's trying to escape though, and it's all I can do to say out loud "stop trying to escape through my lady bits dude!" They might think I was deranged or something.

I haven't really had any other "symptoms" that are normal, except the lack of pooping on a regular basis, but I am a little frustrated with my lack of weight gain. I'm going to chalk this one up to being overweight prior to getting knocked up. I'll bring it up with the doc next week, though I'm thinking it will be fine - as long as I start gaining sometime soon, I should be ok. I guess it depends on what I'm measuring too, although last appt that was perfectly normal. And you can tell I'm pg by looking at me now (I hope) - unless, of course, you're just predisposed to my odd-shaped stomach, which looks like the side of a peanut shell now, with two bumps. Since my uterus is past my belly button now (thanks WTE) that should be evening out soon.

I am pretty much done buying mat clothes now, especially since my bell-y-a-whatever band is coming in handy nowadays. I just think I need a few more shirts, since my prior wardrobe was all fitted and shorter and small fry's all poking out and such. But I really dread buying all of those tent-looking things. ON sale, here I come ::holds breath for longer shirts::

I guess it's time for me to update!

Everything's been going well so far, I had my 10-yr high school reunion, which was awesome! I loved seeing the girls again, and two of them brought their babies so I got to ooh and aah over them. Of course, they were girls : ).

I had my big u/s on May 4th, in a very very tiny room with a big machine with the sonogram tech, hubs, myself, one of the drs at the practice (it was my first appt with him, I'll alternate from now on) and a resident or trainee or something or other. The tech did all the measuring first, moving the gel around and pointing out body parts (femur, heart...penis!) and we found out it's a boy. Hubs actually saw it first, because he's been staring at ultrasounds for longer than I have, haha. He was disappointed at first, but told me he had an underlying feeling all along that it was a boy. I have to say...I did too! Even though I like the idea of a girl, I welcome something different - I watched my little brother grow up, and it was great. I just constantly wonder what he'll look like!

I started to feel movement the weekend before the appt too, it was like a muscle twinge. It's been happening quite a lot, and sometimes it worries me, because I can't tell the difference between an actual muscle twinge around my abdomen and small fry moving yet. And the RLP is insane! It's not every time I sneeze, but certain times, it kills. It's not every time I cough, but occasionally it drives me nuts! I hate it!

So, that's about it for now! Oh, of course, I bought some more maternity clothes yesterday from gap.com, and what did I get in my inbox today? A 'mystery' coupon from Gap. You suck, timing.

My loot so far:
1 pair jean capris, full panel
2 pairs jeans, 1 full panel, 1 demi panel
1 pair capri khakis, full panel
1 pair black pants, demi panel
1 pair black pants, weird elastic changeable band with buttons
1 hot pink mat tee
2 mat work shirts
1 mat white button shirt, empire waist with a tie

What I ordered yesterday:
1 pair khakis, full panel
1 pair khakis, demi panel
4 camis (apparently, lol - can't believe I didn't catch that one!)
2 mat shirts
1 trench coat (whee, my first one!)

So, I think I'm about done now. I got a couple extra-long tanks at tarjay, and those under some cards will do just fine for some different work looks. Although, I do think I looked like a blueberry today. I still have a 'fat roll' above my 'baby roll,' so it just looks odd! And my belly button has stopped its coming-out party, adding to the 'just fat' look I'm rockin'. I'll have to get up the energy to PIP one of these days.

Listaciousness:
How far along? 20w3d

Total weight gain/loss: Holding steady around 178, so 1 lb up as of Monday.
Maternity clothes? (see list above, hehe)
Stretch marks? everywhere but my belly
Sleep: same, normal.
Best moment this week: seeing small fry on the big screen! I got a cute lil picture too, with a baby fist pump right in it.
Movement: muscle twinges, wierd ones
Food cravings: vanilla ice cream
Gender: team penis!
Labor Signs: N/A
Belly Button in or out? its journey has stalled.
What I miss: putting my socks on by bringing my knee/leg up
What I am looking forward to: feeling actual baby movements and not just twinges
Weekly Wisdom: veggies are your friends!
Milestones: finding out it's a boy, feeling the first movements