Out Like a Lamb...

You know the saying--"March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb." Well, they got it half correct this year. The beginning of March was another major snow storm, and now, a month later, instead of snowing it's raining non-stop. Not quite gentle and lamb-like, but nevertheless to say that April is tomorrow feels really good. We finally have some little daffodils and tulips poking their heads out of the cold, cold ground, but some icebergs remain in our yard, some part not quite sunny enough, and the air not quite warm enough, to melt. But ah, spring! I wish I could say I felt it right around the corner, but not with this weather.

Yesterday was awesome, however. We attended the Holyoke St. Patrick's Day Parade. Fun was had by all. The baby loved it, as evidences by the many flips and kicks he/she was doing inside the belly. And, speaking of which..I've FINALLY felt the baby on the outside. Finally!!! It's wondrous. My next milestone is to actually see the baby kick from the outside. Haven't seen that yet, though S. says it's happening once in a while.

We also purchased our crib and nursery chair (with a white cushion) from Ike@ this weekend. Hopefully it will be of the "wicked easy and joyful" Ike@ assemblies and not the "holy shit why did I buy this cheap piece of crap" assemblies. We've had experiences with both. We also sort of settled on some decor--it is not a theme, people. You know what others do when they sense you have a theme--they go insane with the theme and then it becomes kitschy and lame. So, we have decor and that's all we're sticking to! We purchased the "Farm Wall Graphics" and some black and white 5x7 cards to frame. We were originally painting the walls orange but may now switch to this nice shade of green from the picture, because when have you seen sheep grazing in an orange meadow?!

Anyway, things are getting exciting around here, for sure!

Memes Galore!

We have been very kindly tagged for the following 2 meme's. And trying not to be the party-poopers that sometimes we can be, here we go. It's only fair...two meme's, two people.

First, tagged by the fabulous Forever Reaching,

What’s On Your Nightstand?

Rules, rules, rules: post what you’ve got on the table (chair, nightstand, whatever) beside your bed. Leave nothing out. Nothing. Heh. Link back to the kind person who tagged you and then tag 3 other folks. Really tag them - none of this “whoever hasn’t done this meme yet” tagging.

We have two tall stools to the sides of our bed. On mine, there are two books, The Big Rumpus by Ayun Halliday and the Pregnancy Countdown Book, yes I like to read one entry each night. There is also a lamp and the control for our electric blanket. Don't yell, we turn it off before I get in...do you know how much a 250 gallon tank of oil costs? $730!

C's bedside stool has a lamp, used tissue, vaseline (she's addicted), tums (for me), the alarm clock and a bbt thermometer (yes, we starting to track her cycles so we can contemplate #2 when the time is right).

Nothing too exciting, I'm kind of a neat nick and pick up pretty often, plus they're small. What this meme has done is gotten me thinking about finding some proper night stands.

And now I put C. at the helm...I did just make her a to-do list so it shouldn't be that hard ;) And maybe it will get her to do it.

We were tagged by the mommies extraordinaire at The Family O.

Here are the rules:

Step 1. Reference back to the blog that sent you.
Step 2. Make a list of 5 things that you have to get done this week, no matter how small.
Step 3. Get 2 other people off their asses to get their shit in order.

Ugh. I hate lists. I know I need them because I always forget the things I have to do, but there's something about someone else writing the list for me (ahem, honey) that irks me. But I know it's for my own good because I don't write my own lists except for groceries (sometimes). So, here it goes, thanks to S. who wrote me a list of things to accomplish this week:

1. Make a copy of our Pontiac Vibe key. It only came with one and that's just tempting fate, especially since the clumsy one of the duo drives it (that would be me).

2. Go to the Depot and make 5 copies of our new door keys. We got new knobs for Valentine's Day from S.'s parents to match the others in our home.

3. Call about car insurance--the rates are finally deregulated in MA so we get to choose from more than just a handful of carriers. Plus we may get a discount for being teacher union members. Whoopie!

4. Call about flood insurance. I won't even get into this one. We live on a brook. We need it. It's an ordeal. Enough said.

5. Get 7 9-volt batteries for smoke detectors so we don't burn the baby down.

Soooooo unexciting. I wish my list had things like "pack for vacation" or "go for a manicure." But no. We are homeowners and this is our sad reality...


Both meme's are being sent to the following:
Two Mom's are Better than One - because they are NOT busy enough ;)

My dear Moho friends - let's send it out of the lesbo-ttc/pregnancy sphere to shake it up! -Not an Ambulance Chaser and this is it

Easter Belly!

Happy belated Easter, everyone. As you can see, S. fixed my big oops with the blog. I swore I would never again touch any of the template settings under pains and penalty of death. But that doesn't mean I can't post, and she'll probably be mad at me for this, but here's a very cute Easter belly shot of my baby at 23 weeks! We're feeling under the gun already, by the way--our nursery is in a state of utter disrepair. There are wood shavings on the rug and clothes strewn about and..oh..it's just bad. Bad bad bad..but the belly is looking good good good!

Big Oops!

Yeah, so...I was trying to update some links and somehow all of the links disappeared and everything translated into HTML, which I don't really understand. Oops. So now I need to run around the blogosphere like a crazy lady trying to find all of your links again. If I don't have you down, please forgive me and please let me know so I can put you back (which I have to figure out how to do). Yikes! When S. wakes up from her nap, she's going to be soooo mad at me!!

Baby Racket

I have had a lot on my mind lately, from the Elliot Spitzer scandal to the 5th anniversary of the Iraq War's start, to the baby, of course. At week 24 in this pregnancy, S. is finally starting to get sick of me in the bed. (Okay, in all honestly she's probably been sick of me in the bed for like, 6 years, but now with the addition of the Snoogle, she's really ready for me to get out.)

Also, we took the plunge and registered. It was, shall we say...overwhelming? But I think we had a good tactic. We started a registry on Am@zon, printed it out, and brought it to BR'U to find comparable, if not exact, items. We did pretty well, I think, but this is definitely not something you go and do once. So, we're going back tomorrow to comb over our selections. Friends with babies already told us we registered for too little, but much of what we really, truly want (the baby bath products, the pack n' play, our high chair, organic bedding and onesies, etc.) just were not sold at BR'U, so looks like our registry will just have to be split. I rationalize it by thinking that most couples register in at least two places when they get married, and we never registered for our wedding so it's all fair (right?!). We're just worried some of our "older" relatives won't bother with the on-line stuff, and then who's going to buy? We'll see what happens at our non-existent shower, of which it seems we will have two since my family's females and S.'s family's females cannot fit in one house and we do not want to go out to a restaurant and make a big to-do. S. has a thing about opening presents in front of people (I know, she's a freak), and in front of people in a public place is even worse.

I think we really freaked my mother out while registering. I don't think she's really stepped into this monstrosity of a store, so she was really overwhelmed and amazed at all of the choices families now have. She claims it was "eye-opening" and kept saying how none of this stuff existed when she was pregnant with me 28 years ago. Yes, it's quite the racket!

news

I felt the baby on the outside for the first time yesterday. I had my hand on my belly - which is a very convenient place to rest it - while sitting at my desk (something I rarely did before becoming so...round) and POP! My hand moved a little. So amazing. The kicks are becoming stronger and stronger each day. Poor C. has yet to feel the rough and tumble pumpkin, but she's been feeling me up non-stop over the last two days. I think it's just a matter of being in the right place at the right time.

In other news, a wonderful thing happened to us this week. A huge dilemma to be solved will never even need addressing. We have childcare!! A woman whose kids are in my school is looking for a "job". Her last girl will be in Kindergarten next year and her husband urged her to look for something. She doesn't want to be tied down by a job that will make her lose vacation time, summers, or after school with her kids. So...she is going to be our provider. She lives RIGHT across the street - I can breastfeed during lunch. We will trade off kids before/after school. She has a gorgeous home and is setting a bedroom up for our kid - crib, changing table...Our baby will never want to come home :) She already has a background check and tons of recommendations, as well as a background in education. I mean really...how lucky. And she's going to do this at the rate we would pay for a normal daycare situation. Plus, I like her, she's knows I'm queer and she's not afraid of cloth diapers! It's soo good in fact, I may go back to first grade before January. Unbelievable, how things work out...

I've been a sad sack of sickness the past week. Sick, sick, sick. I actually called in sick to work on Friday--for the first time since I began teaching. In five years! Not that I haven't used any sick days--just that I used them for other things besides being sick (all teachers will tell you this is the most common use of sick days during the school year). So yeah--that really means I'm sick. Coughing, runny nose, sore throat, blah blah blah...I even went to the doctor because I thought I had viral conjunctivitis (which I did-sorta/kinda). I never go to the doctor except for routine check-ups. Really. I guess five years of a kick-ass immune system has broken me down for one last winter wallop. Pile a flooded basement on all of that with the crazy heavy rains we had this weekend and it all adds up to one cranky mama. I don't do sick very well, let's just say...

Other than that, we're just biding our time waiting for our midwife appointment on Wednesday, which we're as ever excited for. The babe must be going through a growth spurt because S. is hungry every five minutes. The belly's looking good. S. was not satisfied with my photographic skills at taking belly shots at 20 weeks, so we're going to try again soon for another photo shoot. Other than that, we can see some grass on other people's yards, see past the snow banks at the end of our driveway, and not turn our indoor lights on until much later in the afternoon. All this means one thing--spring is (fingers crossed) around the bend. Yippee!!!!!

Diaper Rampage

Newest Internet addiction: Diaper Swappers. S. has gone on a diaper-buying rampage this week. I think we're almost done. After we lost all those diapers to the rude Cr@igslist seller, we thought we were doomed. But it's seemed to pick up. I sure hope we like using cloth, because we have a whoooole lot of them now!

Sorry for the delay and no belly shot. The first week back at school from vacation was insanely hectic, as we imagined it would be, then we got about five million snow storms. Usually winter doesn't bother us, but there is just a ridiculous amount of snow right now. I'm glad the baby is being born in July when we won't have to worry about slipping and sliding all over the place!