Off to the Hospital...

This is the last belly shot you get. We should be losing the belly pretty soon.
the stats: water broke at 4-ish (surprise!), we started running around like crazies doing everything we thought we had at least a week more to do, and are getting ready to leave for the hospital now (8-ish) b/c for some odd reason the H doesn't want to have to shampoo his car tomorrow. more updates to come...

Birthday Greetings to all

At least your birthday card didn't look like mine:

Perhaps the only thing that could salvage this situation is, oh, I don't know, perhaps having a grandchild on my birthday?

happy anniversary, sweetheart.

(the above is an excerpt from a conversation that took place over the course of several days around Feb. of this year).

I love you. You are a spectacular husband. Thanks for 4 great years, and here's to at least 56 more ;-)

OH, and happy birthday too! I promise, I'll make a cake at some point in the near future and try to save at least 2 pieces of it for you.

what to do when you're 9 months pregnant:

go camping, of course! There are SO many pictures we woulda/coulda/shoulda taken, but of the 3 days we were there, the camera only came out once. oops. In a nutshell, we went with a group of about 7 families from the chapel, there was running water, toilets, a makeshift kitchen (I brought the cast iron), plentiful food, an air mattress in the tent at night (woke up on the ground every morning...), s'mores, and sweat. And yes, I did scope out the perfect rock right next to the water, "just in case". tee hee.

one for me, one for you

In every "must-have" list I've ever seen for life with a newborn, receiving blankets are mentioned. New mothers are told to have a generous supply of them and to expect to use them for everything from swaddling to nursing covers and beyond. Last time around, I dutifully followed the rules (I am, after all, a firstborn daughter), and acquired at least 25 of them, either from hand-me-down bags, the thrift store, or the hospital. I might even have received a few brand-new ones as gifts.
Anyway, since I had my baby in MISSISSIPPI in JULY and was furthermore coerced into using a bili bed for lp's first couple of nights home from the hospital, and apparently have no sense of propriety, I ended up using about 6 of the blankets for about a week. From there, the stash was packed up, shipped to Sicily, stacked in the linen closet, and forgotten about.
And then I got pregnant again. Got the nesting bug. Decided sewing was a better outlet for my energy than scrubbing mold off walls (thank you mr. waaz, the bathroom looks great), and made a dent in my blanket stash while growing my shower/hospital bag stash. Did you know that one receiving blanket will make 2 newborn-sized pocket prefolds? Or that the same blanket could alternately make two fitted diapers and 2 wipes?
I plan on keeping one of each and gifting the other, along with the matching wipes. Anyone want dibs?PS: to tell the truth, the camo fitteds are actually not from blankets, but were reconstructed from their former life as contours. microsuede interiors, how cushy :) It's too bad you can't really see the print in the pic. to further tell the truth, a couple of those wipes aren't from receiving blankets either. oops.

twenty minutes ago:

while assembling the ingredients for Abuela's Dr. Cuz's famous key lime pie,

"lp, are you ready for a nap?"
"eh."
"as soon as I finish this, it's time to lay down, ok?"
"mm-kay"

exactly three minutes after that:

the question is, nature or nurture?

ETA: 2 hours after the last shot (and this one totally counts as a belly shot):

toddler nursing

6 weeks old and already have new homes lined up (just waiting for them to be 100% with the litter and dry cat food). They will be missed, at least by the other toddlers in the house.
ETA: 2 minutes after the pic was taken, they were wrestling with each other and being (unceremoniously) dumped from the stool to the ground. Five minutes after the pic was taken, 2 of the kitties were in the closet eating dry food. Yup, definitely toddlers.

OH YEAH, and Happy Mother's Day to all the moms reading this right now :)