A Day in the Life of....

...38 weeks pregnant.

written yesterday evening and then forgot to hit publish


1. Seed milk time!  Every 5 days or so I whip up some seed milk for little Chuckles.  In addition to our normal seeds and dates, the one this morning had a splash of vanilla, some unsweetened coconut and a little bit of chia.  Fun times.

2.  Green smoothie time!  One of the few pictures Charlie actually posed willingly for - with a smile - and for more than nano second.  We love our green smoothies and love starting out our days with a healthy dose of greens, fruit and seeds.

3.  Yesterday I was 38 weeks on the dot.  But we frequently forget to take my weekly pictures on the real day, and actually, due to a melt down during breakfast and Daddy rushing out the door to work, we forgot it yet again today.  So I snapped this quick, just to make sure we have something for this week, should I continue to forget to take it.  I feel so. big.  And so. ready.  And this baby is so. low. I can barely bend over anymore.  Any day now little dude.

4. I think I should get props for trying out a new hairstyle at 38 weeks.  I haven't tried a new hairstyle in months!!  What possessed me I'm not sure.  I've been wanting to try it for a while, and maybe I was secretly hoping it would be easy enough to do that, when labor threatened, I could quickly do my hair and might have shot at a better "first picture with baby after birth" picture.  You should see my first picture with Charlie.  It's awful.  But I'm glad I have it nonetheless.  It's all about memories peeps, not beauty.  But if I can get a labor friendly hairstyle in, I'm not complaining. ;-)

 5.  My sister and I are gung-ho hard lotion bars right now.  In fact we are in experimental mode.  The bar on the left is one that I've had for a while and love.  The middle is one I just received from Made On, and the one on the right is a homemade one that Carrie made.  We are trying to get the consistency just how we like it so that we can successfully make homemade bars for ourselves.  SOO much cheaper.  But if you you have really dry hands and don't have a hankering to try making yourself, I seriously recommend purchasing a bar to try - especially a Made On bar.  My hands are in love.

6.  I have discovered a love for crowder peas.  My husband has always loved them, but just this summer I've hopped on the band wagon and joined in his enthusiasm.  I managed to make it to Farmer's Market this morning and bought a 1/2 bushel of crowder peas to freeze for later use.  I actually weighed it out and finally figured out that a 1/2 bushel of peas is roughly 12 cups or 4lbs.  A far cry from a 1/2 bushel of apples which is about 20lbs.  Dinner later?  Yum!

7.  My mom, dad, sister and niece came over today to help me do some last minute cleaning before baby.  So, So, SO appreciated!  DJ actually had to finish her school while she was here and then set about creating a nice train track set up for Charlie for when he gets home from Grammy's.

8.  Some cleaning supplies hanging about.  We (and by that I mean mostly my family) managed to get most surfaces dusted, some windows vacuumed out, carpets vacuumed, my car cleaned out, some clutter picked up and floors cleaned.  My bathroom floor is so clean and slick now thanks to Cathy, and my kitchen floor is Ah-Mazing!  Thanks to mom for bringing her crazy floor scrubbing machine pictured below and taking care of all that built up grime on my kitchen floor that my regular mop wouldn't get up.

9.  If it weren't amazing enough to have family come and help you clean your house, having a friend then come and bring you dinner so you don't have to worry about feeding yourself after a long afternoon of work just tops it off tremendously.  My good friend Karoline popped over to drop off some very delicious kale and white bean soup, sweet potato and apple casserole and blueberry oat muffins.  I had to snap the picture very quickly because I was so hungry I immediately dug in.  So good.  Luckily she gave me a large pot of the soup, so I have leftovers for tomorrow. :-)

10.  Poor Lully got peed on this morning, so he finally made it into the wash this evening.   I am making a rather insane attempt at [at least] potty awareness if not an attempt at potty training.  Yes I know I'm 38 weeks.  It just sort of happened.  And he seems much less reluctant this time.  So it may fizzle out into nothingness again like our other attempts, or maybe this time we'll be blessed to have a mostly potty trained kid by the time baby brother shows up.  Either way, at least this time has been much less mentally tedious on me (in spite of being in pain and barely able to move), and shown me that potty training might not always have to be the bane of my existence.

11.  Things I wish I'd remembered to snap pics of?

A before and after of my kitchen floor - Dude!  Some in action shots of the cleaning going on - peeps were busy.  Dad snoozing in the living room chair during cleaning breaks - :-).  Charlie picking out his cucumber at Farmer's Market - love!  And Charlie Lego-ing it up at Grammy's house with Uncle David.  (Charlie's not obsessed with Legos....or Uncle David....riiiight.... )

So that was my day at 38 weeks and a day.  More varied and unusual than my normal days these days.

Good times. :)

Come any day baby bro!

Are you a Dr. Seuss Character?

So Charlie loves reading books.  He's really enjoying some of the simpler Dr. Seuss books right now.  More specifically he loves There's a Wocket in My Pocket.  I can't really blame him - it's one of my faves too.  Don't you get your kicks from saying, "Sometimes I'm quite CERTAIN there's a JERTAIN in the CURTAIN"?

But my absolute favorite part of the book is when we get to this page.  Why?

Because Charlie always, without fail, points to the Bofa and shrieks out, "Sahhmeee!  Uncko Saahmeee!!  Dah-deee!!"

You people who know Uncle Sam and his glasses, and the crazy resemblance to William - you know exactly what I'm talking about.

And seriously, I totally got it the first time Charlie said "Uncko Saahmee!"  I knew immediately.

So how does it feel, Uncle Sammy, to resemble a Dr. Seuss character in the eyes of your two year old nephew?

Gratituesday: Nana and Grandbobby

I forgot to mention in my beach posts that we stopped at Nana and Grandbobby's house (William's maternal grandparents) on our way to the beach.  We are very lucky that they are about half way between home and the beach so it makes a perfect breaking point in the trip for the Charlie man to run around and let off steam.  And I FINALLY remembered to get some good shots (posted below) of just Charlie and Nana and Grandbobby, something I have been meaning to do.  Yay!

Charlie is so blessed to have 3 of his great-grandparents living, and 2 of them within easy driving distance.  I never had the chance to know any of my great-grandparents, and because we lived a good 12 hours away from all of our extended relatives, I never got to see my grandparents more than about once a year.  I loved them and appreciated them, don't get me wrong, but I wanted so badly to have a relationship with them and see them more than once a year.  I couldn't be more thrilled that (at least for the time being) Charlie has his grandparents and 2 great-grandparents all close enough to see on a regular basis.  Charlie loves spending time and Grandma and Grandpa's house, Grammy's house, and Nana and Grandbobby's house.

I'm a little surprised that he has such vivid memories of N&G's house actually.  To this day, 2 months later, he still talks about going to see "Naaahh and Bah-beee".  He even talks about seeing "Djeaanie" a lady who was there that day helping them around the house, and talks about the little lion they had there as part of a Noah's Ark toy.  He loves to talk about Nana and Grandbobby.  Sometimes he will just walk around the house saying, "Bah-bee, Bah-BEE!"  When he picked up my hair clip the other day and I told him it was a Bobby Pin, he got this gleam in his eye like, "Bobby!!  This is Grandbobby's?!?"  I just knew that's what was running through his head. :)

I love this series of shots because it shows him interacting with Nana and Grandbobby.  Sometimes small children have reservations about being around elderly people, but Charlie has no qualms about running right up and hugging Grandbobby and sitting on Nana's lap.  That indeed makes my heart glad.

Do you still have a great-grandparent that you can hug and tell how grateful you are to have them in your life?

Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

Gratituesday: Baaa and Maaa

I love reading the Heavenly Homemakers blog, especially her Gratituesday posts.  I like the idea of taking the time to purposefully write about something you are thankful for and sharing it with others.  I'm so often tempted to feel ungrateful for so many things or to take for granted the things I should be so grateful for.  So I am going to do my best to join in the Gratituesday fun and share things that I'm thankful for.  Hopefully I'll start living in a little more constant state of gratefulness and realize just how many blessings I do have.

So here goes....

Just this fall my parents ("Baaa" and "Maaa" as Charlie calls Grandpa and Grandma) have started keeping Charlie, and two of his (close in age) cousins on Tuesdays for most of the day.  I am certainly grateful for the time that gives me away from my toddler, to breathe, to not be "mommy mommy mommmy" on call all day, and to zip around running errands at lightening speed while taking on projects in the house that are no fun to take on with a toddler underfoot.

But more than that I am so grateful that my parents get a chance to spend time with Charlie and watch him grow up.  I'm thankful that they are at a point in their lives and live close enough where they feel like that can make a weekly commitment like that to enjoy their grandsons.  All of my grandparents (and extended family of any kind) lived up in Ohio growing up, and so making the 12 hour trip once a year to visit people didn't provide for the kind of relationship building that weekly visits to Baaa and Maaa's house will for Charlie.  And Charlie LOVES getting to go over to see them and play at their house.  "Baaa" is particular favorite of Charlie's.  :)

And I'm grateful not just for grandparent relationships, but also cousin relationships.  Charlie has no siblings as of yet, so I'm grateful that every Tuesday he gets the sibling experience in the form of his cousins, who he enjoys playing with.  I'm grateful that he will know his cousins better than I ever knew any of my cousins, and hopefully will be great friends with them.

So there's my first Gratituesday post.


What are you thankful for?


Join us for Gratituesday at Heavenly Homemakers!

More fun beach times! Part 1

This past weekend, just our little family of 3 was able to get away for a nice little beach weekend.  After we the hubby and I had had our nice relaxing beach weekend in July, we really did want to come back with Charlie.  We knew he would have a blast (which I think was an understatement!) and we didn't want to miss the fun times with our son.  And I have to say that it was one of the best weekends ever, just the three of us at the beach.

As a side note, I think part of the reason this vacation was so relaxing (even with a toddler involved), was because William and I had already had our really truly relaxing weekend beach trip in July.  We knew that this weekend was not about us getting to relax and do exactly what we wanted to do on our time, but it was about making memories for our son - running in and out of the ocean as many times as he wanted, and trudging back and forth with pails full of water, just so he could dump them out on the sand and get a kick out of it.  I mean I think it would have been a good weekend anyway, but I think it was awesome because we weren't trying to squeeze a grown up vacation in with a family vacation.  Make sense?  I know it won't always be like that, but it sure was nice this year. :)


William's mom/grandparents have a little trailer just right across the road from the beach, which made things super easy.  (Which I hear did weather out Hurricane Irene okay, thankfully.) We didn't stay out all day due to naps, sun and actually because Charlie would get cold as well.  It's pretty funny that my little heat box son actually would start shivering and shaking if we stayed out in the water too long.  I wish I'd had a camera out that far into the ocean to document the shivers (which are rare - except on the very freezing winter night right after hopping out of the bathtub).

Enough chatter and on to some pictures!

Playing in the sand.

He loved the sand.

Really loved it.

Love. Grins.  Giggles.

No really.

Except here.  He didn't love the sand after a face plant.

He also loved his little spot in the living room.  Perfect for eating, watching TV and playing with Uncle David's Legos.

Intense Lego concentration going on here.

He was so methodical about his Lego maneuvers.

Until he got sidetracked by the movie.

"Ohhhhh!"

"Who YOU callin' crabby?"

Now he's just cheezin for the camera.

So far so good in the picture department, so I'm going to leave well enough alone and call it quits on Part 1 of the beach trip.  Be back later with Part 2 pictures. :-)

Spider Boys

I went over to my sister's house again today for the morning (the sister who just had a baby).  My job was to keep an eye on the boys - the youngest in particular who has an uncanny knack doing the most outrageous and terrifying things (oh yea, he's two) .  I took advantage of that time to snap some fun pictures!  Turns out that Charlie and Conal both had on spider man shirts, and Liam obliged by putting one on too, just so that I could snap some spider boy pictures.  :)

Usually the boys look a lot like twins.  I think Conal's longer hair was throwing it off.

Conal cheezin' it up for the camera. :)

LOVE IT!  I love that Charlie and Liam match.  I love that Liam decided on his own to put his arm around Charlie.  I love their expressions. 

Hehehe!  Those boys are awesome!

Bros!

Aiden, the older brother not pictured, had the bright idea to have them all lay down under his spider man bedspread.  I was skeptical the boys would pose again, but I think it worked out pretty well.

Conal catching a sideways glance to make sure the others are behaving.

So hard to get all 3 smiling at once.

Where'd Liam go?

"HERE I AM!!"  Conal does not look impressed.

I had a blast taking pictures of these boys.  Cindy got a shower.  And no one got in any trouble that morning. (At least not serious.)  ;-)

Baby Rory is here!

Here is me and my (almost) little birthday niece!  One day late.  Too bad.  But she was born on my Grandma Allion's birthday, so that's cool too. :)

How I spent my birthday

So my birthday was last week.  The big 2-7.  I did not spend it going out for lunch, getting a pedi, or generally being child free.  In fact, I gained 3 kiddos!  My sister was 3 days past her due date at that point, and was in desperate need of a kiddo break.  So I volunteered to get them out of her house for the day so she could rest or you know, go into labor.

So I piled the 4 kids and car seats into the van, drove to my parents house to see Grandpa for a little bit and jump on the trampoline.  All well so far.

I had planned to take them to a park, so we headed out after jumping for a while and got to the park about 30 minutes before lunch time.  I figured we could still do it, since we had snacks packed, so I hauled them all out of the car, fought with the new stroller I didn't know how to work, and got them all to the picnic tables to eat snack before playing.  We skipped over two picnic tables due to yellow jackets and went for a third which I thought was bee free.

I thought.

We were all happily munching on snack when a yellow jacket started whizzing around our heads.  We all held still like statues and thought we were in the clear, when it made one last pass between Conal and Liam's heads, and apparently conducted a drive by sting to Conal's ear.  Oh, that was the end of that.  And pretty much the end of the world and everything.  Conal was madder than a hornet (ha.ha.ha.) and the poor thing kept clutching his ear.  No amount of snacks or holding or distracting was going to work.   We spent about 10 minutes wondering around the park trying to calm him before I decided No. Can. Do.

We packed up and headed home promptly.  After only 10 minutes at the park.  Oh well.

We got home and I started fixing lunch and THANKFULLY all of the new/different toys distracted Conal to the point where he apparently forgot his stung ear and happily started flinging toys about.

Whew.  Crisis averted.

While I was lunching about the kitchen, Liam the 5 year old, wondered in...

L: Did you hear what I was playing, Aunt Jamie?
Me: I did.  It was very nice.
L: I was playing music for you cause it's your birthday.
Me: Aw, really?
L: Yes and I was playing the hardest I could and concentrating really hard to do my best work cause it's your birthday.
Me: <melts>
L: Did you like it?
Me:  I loved it. :-D  Will you go play me some more music while I finish lunch?
L: YES!

So I snuck in and snapped this.

My birthday serenade. :)

Then we all sat down for lunch.  Wouldn't you want to sit down to lunch with these faces?

And yes, that is macaroni and cheese from a box.  I wanted so badly to be the cool aunt who fed them something super healthy and plant based, but I had little time, little food options, and little money.  So rather than feed them something I wasn't sure if they were going to eat and then be stuck if it turned out bad, I opted  for something I knew they would eat.   There's always next time....

Then the littles went down for a nap while the big kids watched X-Men 3 and played Legos.

And I know you are all wondering if my past-due sister had her baby on my birthday.  No.  We all were hoping and waiting and wishing.  I wanted a little birthday niece, but it didn't happen.  (Happened the next day actually after 2 more false labor attempts.)

But it was still a good birthday, filled with lots of chasing little kids and diapers. ;-)