I've seen this on a few other blogs lately and thought it was fun, so here goes.
Age: 36
Bed size: Currently full-size but my bed that's in storage is a queen-size and I'm longing for a king-size once we buy a house.
Chore I hate: Anything in the kitchen.
Dogs: None.
Essential start to my day: Getting out of bed.
Favorite color: Green.
Gold or silver: Definitely silver.
Height: 5'6".
Instruments I play: None currently but in my youth I played piano, violin, and ukulele.
Job title: Mommy.
Kids: Two - Julian, 2.5 and Matilda, 2 months.
Live: Tacoma, WA (previous addresses: Sarasota, FL; Bellingham, WA; Arlington, VA; New York City; Pusan, South Korea; El Paso, TX)
Mother's name: Susan
Nicknames: Beth, Bethy.
Overnight hospital stays: After giving birth to my babies (and also a few days before in Julian's case).
Pet Peeve: Hand towels that are damp so you can't really dry your hands on them.
Quote from a movie: "I feel like I'm babysitting, except I'm not getting paid."
Right or left handed: Right.
Siblings: One younger sister.
Time I wake up: Whenever Julian starts yelling in my ear or sticking toys in my face, normally much earlier than I'd like to be awake.
Underwear: Always.
Vegetable I hate: Celery.
What makes me run late: A toddler who argues about everything.
X-rays I've had: My hand when I was in 4th grade. A gazillion dental x-rays plus some of my back and probably a few others I don't remember.
Yummy food I make: Borscht (but only I think it's yummy). I really hate to cook.
Zoo animal: Elephants.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Monday, November 7, 2011
House Hunting
I thought that it would be fun to look for a house. It's really not so much fun.
Here are some gems that I've seen:
1. Neon green basement and the exterior of the house covered with graffiti
2. Huge indoor pool but the rest of the house was completely gutted
3. Two huge bathrooms but three teeny-tiny bedrooms
4. Little old lady house
5. Master bedroom was actually a hair salon and the hallway was covered in scenic tropical wallpaper
6. Stairwell painted to look like an aquarium
7. Cedar shingles and faux brick on interior walls plus wallpaper borders stapled up in the bathroom
8. Cat pee house
9. Crazy layout with small rooms but a twisty slide connected to a shed in the backyard (My realtor actually went down the slide just for fun.)
10. A place that should have been on Hoarders
11. Cigarette smell and a weird room over the garage
Out of all the houses I've seen so far, there were only two that I sort of liked. One definitely has more space but only one bathroom and no garage. The second house had 1.5 baths and a garage but much less square footage.
I don't have a large wish list for a house. This is it:
One bedroom large enough for a king-size bed (we don't have one yet but we want one in our new house), 2-3 other bedrooms, a decent-sized bathroom and kitchen, a large living area, and a fenced yard.
I just want space for the kids to run around and space for me to relax. The house doesn't have to be updated and modern but it has to have the potential to look good with not a lot of work.
I keep searching the listings hoping for something new that looks promising. I'm sure our house is out there just waiting for us to find it.
Here are some gems that I've seen:
1. Neon green basement and the exterior of the house covered with graffiti
2. Huge indoor pool but the rest of the house was completely gutted
3. Two huge bathrooms but three teeny-tiny bedrooms
4. Little old lady house
5. Master bedroom was actually a hair salon and the hallway was covered in scenic tropical wallpaper
6. Stairwell painted to look like an aquarium
7. Cedar shingles and faux brick on interior walls plus wallpaper borders stapled up in the bathroom
8. Cat pee house
9. Crazy layout with small rooms but a twisty slide connected to a shed in the backyard (My realtor actually went down the slide just for fun.)
10. A place that should have been on Hoarders
11. Cigarette smell and a weird room over the garage
Out of all the houses I've seen so far, there were only two that I sort of liked. One definitely has more space but only one bathroom and no garage. The second house had 1.5 baths and a garage but much less square footage.
I don't have a large wish list for a house. This is it:
One bedroom large enough for a king-size bed (we don't have one yet but we want one in our new house), 2-3 other bedrooms, a decent-sized bathroom and kitchen, a large living area, and a fenced yard.
I just want space for the kids to run around and space for me to relax. The house doesn't have to be updated and modern but it has to have the potential to look good with not a lot of work.
I keep searching the listings hoping for something new that looks promising. I'm sure our house is out there just waiting for us to find it.
NaBloPoMo vs NaNoWriMo (and the art of letter writing)
NaBloPoMo stands for National Blog Posting Month and I didn't read the details of it until tonight. It started November 1st and involves blogging about a specific theme every day for the month of November.
Since I got in on it a little late, I'm not exactly going to follow the rules. Instead, I am just going to try and blog every day in November. Since I missed a few days, I will write some extra posts so that I eventually have 30 posts, one for each day of the month.
NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. It also occurs every November. The rules are that you must write a 50,000 word novel between midnight November 1st and midnight November 30. No one ever reads your novel unless you want them to. To get counted as a participant who completes a novel, you just upload your writing to the website and if it's 50,000 words or more, you get a little certificate. I participated in 2002 and 2004. I doubt that anyone will ever be allowed to read either of my novels. I'm not sure that I ever want to reread them. They were both completely awful. But I'm proud of myself for having participated and I'll probably do it again someday.
So writing 30 blog posts in a month is a piece of cake compared to putting out 50,000 words.
Blogging and writing novels is something I never imagined doing when I was younger. I hated writing. I actually chose my college major, mathematics, because I figured it would have the least amount of writing assignments. Seriously. I did actually like math but I disliked writing more. My university did require a writing class specific to every major so I had to write several papers about math but I'm still pretty sure that I wrote less than most other majors.
Somehow as I got older, I found that I liked writing. It's a way for me to vent my feelings when I'm mad or frustrated but also for me to express when I'm happy and grateful.
Right after Brian and I started dating, I came back to the States while he was in Korea. Each week that I was gone, I wrote him a long letter. After we got married and he left for his first deployment, I wrote to him every day for the first several months. On weekdays, I would just write a postcard (I had hundreds collected and so I'd just pick one at random each day). Then on weekends, I would write a two-page letter each day on some funky Korean stationery that I had been given as a gift. I learned to write letters from my mom who wrote me once a week while I was in college and then every day for over a year while I lived in New York. My mom's letters got me through a very hard time when I first started teaching and I hope my letters to Brian helped him while he was in Iraq.
On his second deployment, my letters to Brian were very scarce. I had a new baby and rarely found the time but I managed to send a few. This time, I didn't send a single one and I feel horrible but with two kids, things were crazy right after he left. I have time to write now but they have no more mail service so I can't send him anything. Hopefully he knows that I still love him anyway.
Someday when my kids go off to college or move away to a different city, I'll write them letters occasionally to let them know that I'm thinking of them. If I'm lucky, they might write back.
Since I got in on it a little late, I'm not exactly going to follow the rules. Instead, I am just going to try and blog every day in November. Since I missed a few days, I will write some extra posts so that I eventually have 30 posts, one for each day of the month.
NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. It also occurs every November. The rules are that you must write a 50,000 word novel between midnight November 1st and midnight November 30. No one ever reads your novel unless you want them to. To get counted as a participant who completes a novel, you just upload your writing to the website and if it's 50,000 words or more, you get a little certificate. I participated in 2002 and 2004. I doubt that anyone will ever be allowed to read either of my novels. I'm not sure that I ever want to reread them. They were both completely awful. But I'm proud of myself for having participated and I'll probably do it again someday.
So writing 30 blog posts in a month is a piece of cake compared to putting out 50,000 words.
Blogging and writing novels is something I never imagined doing when I was younger. I hated writing. I actually chose my college major, mathematics, because I figured it would have the least amount of writing assignments. Seriously. I did actually like math but I disliked writing more. My university did require a writing class specific to every major so I had to write several papers about math but I'm still pretty sure that I wrote less than most other majors.
Somehow as I got older, I found that I liked writing. It's a way for me to vent my feelings when I'm mad or frustrated but also for me to express when I'm happy and grateful.
Right after Brian and I started dating, I came back to the States while he was in Korea. Each week that I was gone, I wrote him a long letter. After we got married and he left for his first deployment, I wrote to him every day for the first several months. On weekdays, I would just write a postcard (I had hundreds collected and so I'd just pick one at random each day). Then on weekends, I would write a two-page letter each day on some funky Korean stationery that I had been given as a gift. I learned to write letters from my mom who wrote me once a week while I was in college and then every day for over a year while I lived in New York. My mom's letters got me through a very hard time when I first started teaching and I hope my letters to Brian helped him while he was in Iraq.
On his second deployment, my letters to Brian were very scarce. I had a new baby and rarely found the time but I managed to send a few. This time, I didn't send a single one and I feel horrible but with two kids, things were crazy right after he left. I have time to write now but they have no more mail service so I can't send him anything. Hopefully he knows that I still love him anyway.
Someday when my kids go off to college or move away to a different city, I'll write them letters occasionally to let them know that I'm thinking of them. If I'm lucky, they might write back.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
9 Weeks
I can't believe that it has been nine weeks since I gave birth to Matilda. It seems like just yesterday and yet at the same time, I feel like she's been with me forever. My life is so much better (and more difficult) with her in it.
September 4th started out like every other day. I really didn't think that it was going to be "The Day." At 9:07 am, I felt a contraction. I had been having contractions for weeks, so no big deal. For some reason, I took note of that one though. I started to keep track and they were coming about every 15 minutes. They weren't painful or even uncomfortable. After a couple of hours, I realized that the contractions were the real thing. I called my sister, Amanda, to give her the heads up since she would be the one going to the hospital with me. I wanted to labor at home for as long as possible before we left so I finished packing my hospital bag and spent some time playing with Julian. Then I took a shower and even shaved my legs. I decided to braid my hair in two braids to make sure it wasn't in my face during labor (I hate my hair getting in my face). My contractions were getting closer together, about 8 minutes apart, and they were getting uncomfortable. I was sitting on my bed talking to Amanda when a contraction hit. I felt like getting on the floor and kneeling while leaning on the bed to try and get more comfortable.
All of a sudden, I felt a pop and I realized that my water broke. A few days before, I had told someone else that they shouldn't worry about their water breaking at home because it happens to less than 10% of women. Well, it definitely happened to me. At that point, the contractions came quicker and harder. I told Amanda we needed to leave for the hospital. It was right about 2 pm. The ride to the hospital was painful. I felt every bump in the road and my contractions were coming every 4 minutes. When we got to the hospital, Amanda parked near the ER and ran in to have someone come get me with a wheelchair. It took several minutes for me to manage to get out of the car and into the wheelchair. The elevators are on the other side of the hospital so it was a long ride and very uncomfortable.
When I got up to Labor and Delivery, they put me in a triage room where I stayed forever. They had several people asking me the same dumb questions over and over again. I was so frustrated and the triage nurse kept moving the monitors on my stomach and it was driving me crazy. I was 5 cm dilated when I got there and by the time they moved me into a delivery room, I was 8 cm dilated. The only reason that they finally moved me out of triage was because I said I felt like I had to push. I would've said it earlier if I knew they would move me. There was a shortage of L & D nurses so the Triage nurse stayed with me the entire time. They let me have my way with most things (I wore my own clothes, had only a Hep-Lock, delayed cord cutting, and no Pitocin ever) but they kept those flippin' monitors on me constantly and the nurse kept moving them trying to find the baby's heartbeat. I know I yelled a few times in frustration but I really wanted to cuss her out and rip those monitors off.
For most of the time I was in labor, I just kept my eyes closed and squeezed my stress balls and tried to manage the pain however I could. I wanted to get through it without drugs and I knew it was almost over but it was so intense. Finally the nurse thought I should get up to go to the bathroom. I didn't think it was a good idea but she and the doctor said that I needed to get up. After several minutes, I managed to sit up and get my legs to the edge of the bed. At that time, another nurse walked in and asked what was going on. They told her and she said I would have the baby in the toilet if they made me go to the bathroom. That's when they all realized that I was already pushing so they swung my legs back up on the bed and about a minute later, Matilda was born at 5:20 pm.
I felt like I had just run a marathon and won a medal. It was exhilarating. Matilda was placed on my stomach and I just couldn't believe that I had given birth to her so quickly and without any pain medication. I wanted them to wait to clamp the umbilical cord but the cord was kind of short so for the first minute or so, I just looked at her lying there and touched her head. Once the cord was cut, she was put on my chest and I wanted to cry at how beautiful she was.
The pediatric nurse was impressed at her size and asked me to guess how much she weighed. I think I said 8 lbs 12 oz. She said that was probably close. It was actually 8 lbs 15 oz (1.5 lbs more than Julian when he was born). I knew she was going to be big but it was still surprising.
In these last 9 weeks, she has grown so much (in fact, she has outgrown two sizes of clothing already). She is amazing and when she smiles at me, it makes my whole day brighter. I can't imagine my life without her.
September 4th started out like every other day. I really didn't think that it was going to be "The Day." At 9:07 am, I felt a contraction. I had been having contractions for weeks, so no big deal. For some reason, I took note of that one though. I started to keep track and they were coming about every 15 minutes. They weren't painful or even uncomfortable. After a couple of hours, I realized that the contractions were the real thing. I called my sister, Amanda, to give her the heads up since she would be the one going to the hospital with me. I wanted to labor at home for as long as possible before we left so I finished packing my hospital bag and spent some time playing with Julian. Then I took a shower and even shaved my legs. I decided to braid my hair in two braids to make sure it wasn't in my face during labor (I hate my hair getting in my face). My contractions were getting closer together, about 8 minutes apart, and they were getting uncomfortable. I was sitting on my bed talking to Amanda when a contraction hit. I felt like getting on the floor and kneeling while leaning on the bed to try and get more comfortable.
All of a sudden, I felt a pop and I realized that my water broke. A few days before, I had told someone else that they shouldn't worry about their water breaking at home because it happens to less than 10% of women. Well, it definitely happened to me. At that point, the contractions came quicker and harder. I told Amanda we needed to leave for the hospital. It was right about 2 pm. The ride to the hospital was painful. I felt every bump in the road and my contractions were coming every 4 minutes. When we got to the hospital, Amanda parked near the ER and ran in to have someone come get me with a wheelchair. It took several minutes for me to manage to get out of the car and into the wheelchair. The elevators are on the other side of the hospital so it was a long ride and very uncomfortable.
When I got up to Labor and Delivery, they put me in a triage room where I stayed forever. They had several people asking me the same dumb questions over and over again. I was so frustrated and the triage nurse kept moving the monitors on my stomach and it was driving me crazy. I was 5 cm dilated when I got there and by the time they moved me into a delivery room, I was 8 cm dilated. The only reason that they finally moved me out of triage was because I said I felt like I had to push. I would've said it earlier if I knew they would move me. There was a shortage of L & D nurses so the Triage nurse stayed with me the entire time. They let me have my way with most things (I wore my own clothes, had only a Hep-Lock, delayed cord cutting, and no Pitocin ever) but they kept those flippin' monitors on me constantly and the nurse kept moving them trying to find the baby's heartbeat. I know I yelled a few times in frustration but I really wanted to cuss her out and rip those monitors off.
For most of the time I was in labor, I just kept my eyes closed and squeezed my stress balls and tried to manage the pain however I could. I wanted to get through it without drugs and I knew it was almost over but it was so intense. Finally the nurse thought I should get up to go to the bathroom. I didn't think it was a good idea but she and the doctor said that I needed to get up. After several minutes, I managed to sit up and get my legs to the edge of the bed. At that time, another nurse walked in and asked what was going on. They told her and she said I would have the baby in the toilet if they made me go to the bathroom. That's when they all realized that I was already pushing so they swung my legs back up on the bed and about a minute later, Matilda was born at 5:20 pm.
I felt like I had just run a marathon and won a medal. It was exhilarating. Matilda was placed on my stomach and I just couldn't believe that I had given birth to her so quickly and without any pain medication. I wanted them to wait to clamp the umbilical cord but the cord was kind of short so for the first minute or so, I just looked at her lying there and touched her head. Once the cord was cut, she was put on my chest and I wanted to cry at how beautiful she was.
The pediatric nurse was impressed at her size and asked me to guess how much she weighed. I think I said 8 lbs 12 oz. She said that was probably close. It was actually 8 lbs 15 oz (1.5 lbs more than Julian when he was born). I knew she was going to be big but it was still surprising.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
My Bucket List
I finished writing this list a few months ago and have been meaning to post it ever since. I finally got around to it today. The items in bold are things that I've already done. Not sure what I'll finish next.
1. See penguins in New Zealand.
2. Walk on the Great Wall of China before I turn 30.
3. Ride an elephant in Thailand.
4. Take a photography class.
5. Get a master’s degree.
6. Become a mom.
7. Visit the Egyptian pyramids.
8. Learn to sketch.
9. Have high tea and take the waters in the Pump Room in Bath, England.
10. See the Grand Canyon.
11. Watch at least 10 Broadway shows.
12. Live in another country for a year.
13. Rent an apartment in Venice for a month and learn to live like the locals.
14. Kiss the Blarney Stone.
15. Learn to ski.
16. Take a Hebrew class in Israel.
17. Stand on the shores of Loch Ness.
18. Relax on a beach in Hawaii.
19. Take my kids to Disney World.
20. Visit at least 15 National Parks.
21. Go on a Caribbean cruise.
22. Learn to drive on the “wrong” side of the road.
23. Ride the Orient Express.
24. Stay in a yurt in Mongolia.
25. Spend a night in a treehouse.
26. Visit the Statue of Liberty.
27. Ride a double-decker bus in London.
28. See Stonehenge.
29. Visit the home of Jane Austen.
30. Eat a baguette in Paris.
31. Stay overnight on a boat in Halong Bay.
32. Read 100 books in a year.
33. Gamble in Las Vegas.
34. Stay in a Tuscan villa.
35. See the Parthenon and the Colosseum.
36. Ride the subway in New York City, London, and Tokyo.
37. Visit all 50 states.
38. Travel through India by train and bus.
39. Grow my own vegetables.
40. Walk the Coast to Coast walkway in Auckland, NZ.
41. Live with my family in an RV for a summer.
42. Go camping for a week.
43. See Niagara Falls.
44. Attend a music festival.
45. Take a volunteer vacation.
46. Go on a round-the-world trip.
47. Ride a camel in Morocco.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
5 Years (and counting)
Today is my 5th wedding anniversary. Some days it's hard to believe that it's been 5 years, it seems like it's just been a few months. Other times, it seems like we've been married forever and I can't really remember what my life was like without Brian. This will be only the second time that Brian and I have been together on our anniversary and hopefully we won't have to spend any future anniversaries apart from each other.These past 5 years have been crazy and amazing all at once. Our wedding was fantastic, a small affair with just family and a few close friends. We got married at the Tacoma Nature Center in Tacoma, WA which happens to be right across the street from my high school. A good friend of ours performed the ceremony. My sister was the matron of honor and my 11 year old stepson was the best man. During our reception, we had a great time just hanging out with everyone. Brian and I left to spend our wedding night in a lovely hotel on the waterfront then the next morning we picked up my stepsons (aged 8 and 11) from my parents' house and set off down the Oregon coast. We played on the beach, dressed in jeans and hoodies since it was cold. We flew balsa wood airplanes from the Astoria Column. We checked out all the exhibits at OMSI. It definitely wasn't your typical honeymoon but we had fun.
Fast forward to October. I had a teaching job at at local high school and Brian was leaving on his first deployment to Iraq less than 4 months after we got married. Communication was difficult because I would go weeks without getting any phone calls or emails, then we'd get to talk for a few minutes and only get to discuss something about our finances or family, etc. It was very hard on our relationship. Brian came home in April 2007 for his R and R leave. While he was home, we found out from the news that his tour would be extended for 3 months. Fortunately part of his leave coincided with my spring break and we got to spend a little time together. He went back to Iraq. Since he was deployed, I decided to spend my summer vacation traveling in the UK and Ireland for a month. It was a fantastic trip and I was joined by a couple of friends at different points. On my first wedding anniversary, I happened to be in Ireland in a hostel with no electricity and my rental car got stuck in the mud on the way there. I had a pay-as-you-go cell phone for the trip but for some reason, the calling cards that Brian was able to get wouldn't let him call my international number. So we emailed each other but ended up not talking on the phone for 6 weeks.
Now on our 5th anniversary, we are preparing for our second child and Brian's third deployment to Iraq followed by his retirement from the Army. We're also packing up everything to move to WA. Ideally this will be our last move since we'll be buying a house later this year.
No matter what, it has all been worth it. I have a wonderful husband that I love dearly and I wouldn't trade him for anything. I hope to have at least 50 years with him.
Thursday, June 23, 2011
Garage Sale and Road Trip
So I've been decluttering for a few months in preparation for our move and we finally had our garage sale last weekend. My friend had told me what it would be like but I was still totally shocked. People started arriving at 4:30 am and we were done by 9:00 am. At one point, there were so many people there at once that we couldn't pay attention to them all and some stuff walked off. Fortunately it wasn't anything worth much. We never even got to unpack all of the boxes and bags, people just rummaged through them in the middle of the driveway.
We ended up making $422 from the garage sale, then $85 later in the day from Craigslist and the pawn shop for a total of $507. Yay for us. Right after the sale, we took a bunch of stuff to the women's shelter and other stuff to Goodwill. We still have almost all of the books left since they're all in English and everyone who came to the sale spoke Spanish. I'm just going to Freecycle them this weekend. We also have the CDs and DVDs to deal with. No one was interested in them at the sale. I'm going to try them on Craigslist but if I don't get any hits in a couple of weeks, then I'll just Freecycle them. I basically just want to be rid of them at this point. The only other thing left is some costume jewelry. I never got a chance to put it out at the sale since things were so crazy and I didn't want it to get lost in the midst of everything. My goal is to have everything out of here by the time I leave for Montana in July.
Yesterday, we got back from our road trip to San Antonio and Killeen. It was fun but exhausting. We got to visit with family and friends plus go to some fun places like the zoo and the Children's Museum. We also went to the San Marcos outlets. It wasn't in our original plan but my friend told me about them and even though we didn't actually need anything, we went anyway. Our baby will be showered with plenty of hand-me-downs but I did want her to have some new clothes all her own when she joins our family. So I bought her a few outfits in each size through 18 months. Then of course I worried that I bought all these girly clothes and somehow it would turn out to be a boy but I had another ultrasound today and the tech agreed that it was a girl so I felt better. I was planning not to buy anything for the new baby but I was having such a hard time preparing for her since I can't decorate a nursery or anything like that so buying her some clothes was my only way of getting ready for her and now I think I got it all out of my system. I know that Brian really wanted her to have some things of her own too because he has a thing about hand-me-downs. I made sure that several of the outfits had something about Daddy on them since he won't be around those first few months but I can take pictures of her and email them to him everyday.
It was good to get rid of all our excess stuff to make room for our little girl. I'm still not sure Julian what Julian thinks when we talk about the baby but he realizes that something is going on and he sees that my stomach is getting huge. He pokes my stomach and says baby but we'll see what he thinks when there's a a real baby. I see him making all these connections lately with his 2 year old mind and it's awesome but I still don't know how much he understands when we tell him things.
After traveling so much this last week, I'm glad that Julian and I will be flying to Washington instead of driving. Ten hours in a car is a long time when you're pregnant and have an active toddler. Fortunately, Brian did most of the driving and I could rest a little or catch up on blog-reading with my phone (or feed Julian snacks constantly).
I'm happy to be home again and even happy to get back to packing and my to-do list. I just want to get everything finished and be finally done with it all so I can relax and get ready to meet my baby.
We ended up making $422 from the garage sale, then $85 later in the day from Craigslist and the pawn shop for a total of $507. Yay for us. Right after the sale, we took a bunch of stuff to the women's shelter and other stuff to Goodwill. We still have almost all of the books left since they're all in English and everyone who came to the sale spoke Spanish. I'm just going to Freecycle them this weekend. We also have the CDs and DVDs to deal with. No one was interested in them at the sale. I'm going to try them on Craigslist but if I don't get any hits in a couple of weeks, then I'll just Freecycle them. I basically just want to be rid of them at this point. The only other thing left is some costume jewelry. I never got a chance to put it out at the sale since things were so crazy and I didn't want it to get lost in the midst of everything. My goal is to have everything out of here by the time I leave for Montana in July.
Yesterday, we got back from our road trip to San Antonio and Killeen. It was fun but exhausting. We got to visit with family and friends plus go to some fun places like the zoo and the Children's Museum. We also went to the San Marcos outlets. It wasn't in our original plan but my friend told me about them and even though we didn't actually need anything, we went anyway. Our baby will be showered with plenty of hand-me-downs but I did want her to have some new clothes all her own when she joins our family. So I bought her a few outfits in each size through 18 months. Then of course I worried that I bought all these girly clothes and somehow it would turn out to be a boy but I had another ultrasound today and the tech agreed that it was a girl so I felt better. I was planning not to buy anything for the new baby but I was having such a hard time preparing for her since I can't decorate a nursery or anything like that so buying her some clothes was my only way of getting ready for her and now I think I got it all out of my system. I know that Brian really wanted her to have some things of her own too because he has a thing about hand-me-downs. I made sure that several of the outfits had something about Daddy on them since he won't be around those first few months but I can take pictures of her and email them to him everyday.
It was good to get rid of all our excess stuff to make room for our little girl. I'm still not sure Julian what Julian thinks when we talk about the baby but he realizes that something is going on and he sees that my stomach is getting huge. He pokes my stomach and says baby but we'll see what he thinks when there's a a real baby. I see him making all these connections lately with his 2 year old mind and it's awesome but I still don't know how much he understands when we tell him things.
After traveling so much this last week, I'm glad that Julian and I will be flying to Washington instead of driving. Ten hours in a car is a long time when you're pregnant and have an active toddler. Fortunately, Brian did most of the driving and I could rest a little or catch up on blog-reading with my phone (or feed Julian snacks constantly).
I'm happy to be home again and even happy to get back to packing and my to-do list. I just want to get everything finished and be finally done with it all so I can relax and get ready to meet my baby.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)