Just like to let you know, I posted this question on Odeedoh on Apartment Therapy. And it has 30 people trying to answer it. Feeling pretty proud of myself. I can provoke quite a response sometimes.

Small Children Listen to Crazy Lady

Chris inspired this post about words:)

While tutoring today, I was trying to explain to a 10 year old the amazing versatility and specificity of words. Yep, to a 10 year old. We've practiced reading and understanding words like trudge, frolic, and dart. You know, your various run of the mill verbs describing how you are moving. She wondered why a person couldn't just say "skip and run happily" instead of "frolic". I told her that every word has a certain feeling and you have to fit the right word in a sentence, much like doing a jigsaw puzzle. Think of it, 10 year old! Think of making a marvelous sentence with specific words to describe the perfect emotion, action, and scene! Just by using a specific word, small child!! Her eyes started to glaze over and she nodded a lot. 

Reminds me of another tutoring session with a 9 year old girl. A character in a book we were reading didn't like tomatoes and I asked small girl if she liked tomatoes (no, she didn't). This led to a long rant from Crazy Lady on the growth practices of giant farms and grocery stores, chemicals to ripen fruit and veggies, and watery gross produce. She nodded a lot. While staring. Eventually I shut up. 

Poor child in my womb.

Updato on Bambino

I would just like to say: 

1. The lungs are getting squished.
2. The stomach is jammed up pretty high so it's smaller.
3. Heartburn is starting. Never had this before in my life.
4. The legs and arms are wiggly.
5. I leak. J would think it inappropriate to say where. 
6. My tummy is perdy big and I can't roll over well. 
7. And various other things. 

But all day, I smile cause he wiggles and moves and kicks and slides. Totally freaking worth it:) Only 12 more weeks until he's 42 weeks old and should be out:)

My Monday

Yesterday I:

1. Went for a funky rain walk/run.
2. Researched stuff/ideas for Baby's room.
3. Paid bills, balanced the budget, and made all the various calls that went with that.
4. Figured out/called about insurance and leave stuff for the birth.
5. Called and scheduled another realtor visit.
6. Did the dishes 1.5 times...... dishes flood on the counter was averted. Mounting again though.
7. Finished the laundry. Put it away. 
8. Scrubbed out the new-t0-us deep freezer that had mold growing on/in it.
9. Listed some stuff on Craigslist.
10. Did Hypnobabies very well:)
11. Wrote my sister a letter.
12. Set out the recycling bins, put away the bin and trash cans.
13. Spent an hour on the phone getting new insurance quotes for cars and house. Will save $800 when we switch!!!!
14. Cleaned the closet.
15. Made the bed, cleaned the house.
16. Various other things that I did not have on the list. Including eating about 5 small meals.

Then I stopped to eat dinner and get ready to leave the house around 4:45. We went to our childbirth class from 6:30 until 10:15. Went home and slept through more storms with Sadie and J. 

Sometimes I just like to keep a list of what I did during the day so I feel accomplished. 

J and Sadie

I've got a list of 20 something things to do today and I'm posting to my blog. REAL focused. I'm eating lunch though, and multitasking greatly aids digestion. Plus my list is getting accomplished at a good rate!

The 2 creatures in my life that I deal with/love the most day to day are: J and Sadie. Similarities: Both share the irrational need to protect me. Here's how.

J has INSANE nightmares sometimes. Often he'll wake me from a deep sleep, shouting that there are spiders on my head/monster in the door/snakes crawling on me/and such. Since I've been married SOOOOOO LONG and am thusly patient, I merely scream at him to be quiet and go back to sleep. NOW!!! (While shaking him awake and sometimes kicking him or throwing things at him, depending on the distance.) In the morning, he's often upset that I was so mean to him when he was just trying to protect me. BY TERRIFYING ME AWAKE, IN THE DARK, AT 2:33 AM. Yep.

Sadie, my other beloved companion, is intent on keeping ALLLLLLLL forms of life at least 500 feet from the house. This includes cats, dogs, people, birds, and flies. Lately she's been doing a SUPER job at this. Not sure if it is due to my pregnancy and her need to protect or the fact that I'm home a lot more now.  And when I get on her case to be quiet and go back to sleep, her face and world droops. Apparently I need to let her chase my monsters away too.

Hubby and Doggy both imagine threats everywhere and try to shield me from them. And all I do is scream at them. Sigh. Horrible me.

Yes, it's late but at least I know where my kid is.....

After amazing nightmares (some including building cribs with sugar canes that were actually my arms that came alive and really long and unwieldy when I tried to chop them off), being kicked repeatedly in the bladder, and hunger gnawing at me, I've decided to just not sleep tonight. I'll catch up on it tomorrow if I need to.

It's 2:27 and I'm awake and Interneting. After ordering some kick ass calcium/magnesium supplements to make sure this doesn't continue happening. Nothing like restless legs AND arms to make me disrupt poor baby's schedule and stay awake all night. At least typing gives my arms something to do! You ever had the undeniable urge to move your arms and legs every 23 seconds? No?? GOOOD!!!!

Soooooo. What have I been up to lately? Not much. Picked up my in-laws at the airport last night and realized to what extent my nice little life has been "not much" lately. Can't very well entertain people with "Oh, I found some great, cheap baby clothes at a garage sale!" or "I stood outside for 30 minutes at the farmers' market today and thought I'd die in the heat!" or "Yes, my house is very clean and organized! Let me tell you all the steps I took to get it that way!". That kind of stuff doesn't float anyone's boat but mine.

So you just listen to people talk about their GIANT interesting things in life and feel a little pathetic for all the tiny interesting things that inundate your own life. They pale in comparison to driving through a sandstorm, visiting the Grand Canyon, moving to a new state, or fighting off raccoons in an attic. 

But I like my little life. I'm so happy and content with it. It's entertaining to watch thunderstorms from my porch, talk to my hubby for hours, read books, eat breakfast with friends until it is time for lunch, sew happy things, look at my tummy squirming, or rearrange the cramped garage for the trillionth time (cause we're moving and everything lives in the garage in a precarious balance now, not cause I'm OCD about my garage). 

Gotta be happy where you are, right? Good:) I'm happy. I live one of those quiet little lives filled with delight. What more could I ask for? The older I get, the more I realize not much!

Damn Spock

I would just like to reiterate that I WILL NEVER HAVE AN INDOOR CAT AGAIN. Ever. Dogs I can handle, cats NONONONONONONONONONONONONONONO.  

So in the process of putting the house up for sale, I've been cleaning, organizing, and simplifying like a MADWOMAN for a few weeks. Today was carpet cleaning day and BOY AM I ANNOYED WITH SPOCK. The house STILL has a lingering "I hate you so I'm peeing all over your house" smell from months ago. Can't even clean it with a Hoovernobodydoesitlikeyou Steam Vac. For the second time really, since I steam cleaned it a few months ago. Should have kicked the cat out last year, not this spring. 

Baby agrees cause he just moved and I looked down my my belly was RIDICULOUSLY crooked. He was getting mad with me, delightful child. WAY TO GO BABY. 

Beware Bekah!!!!

My sister Bekah hates anything to do with babies until they are about 1-2 years. Or at least that's what she SAYS. I know she secretly loves it when I rub my belly against her. Baby bellies make Bekah so happy!! 

BTW, anyone who hates baby talk like Bekah should stop reading.

I'm taking a Hynobabies class starting on Monday (yay!).  This is because I'm having an unmedicated birth and need something to keep me sane and from shrieking while birthing a 6-9 pound child. Hypnobabies will teach me to relax and love birth!! So my Hypnobabies teacher sent me a sampler CD of what I'll be learning in the class. This CD has 2 tracks and I've listened to each of them once, falling asleep each time. That's how relaxing this Hypnobabies stuff is!!! I'll fall asleep during my baby's birth!!! Pain free, deep, happy sleep:) With funny dreams.

Right.

Here's a video explaining Hypnobabies a bit more if you'd like to watch it:)

P.S.- Baby is having hiccups right now. This is the 8th time he's had them in 6 days! I'd be getting pretty annoyed if I were him. It's HIGH-LAR-EEEE-OUS to feel hiccups in my stomach and lower.... SOOOO weird....

Poison Ivy and Such

So I've got poison ivy splattered on my arms, knee, finger, and eyelid. And while it is tickly, itchy, and awful, it looks pretty cool. I'm really tempted to take pics of it and post it for other people to look at. But I won't because I know that would drive away my 2.3 readers.....

I've got the nephew and niece over today and its so nice. I'd much rather have them at the house with me all day than me at the house by myself all day. And they let me sleep until 9:30. Which was really responsible of the sole caretaker in the house: sleep while the chillens are running wild. But they played quietly and didn't wake me! Oops. 

Today we cleaned and packed lots, organized toys, they chalked on the driveway while I sanded a dresser, cleaned and organzied more, went to the grocery/meat market/pick up CSA food, made dinner, made ice cream, and now they are running a lot. Running in the front door, out the back door, through the gate, around the back of the fence, and around and around. I'm sitting on the front porch relaxing! Pretty sure I could handle doing this parenting thing. To a 9 and 5 year old. I'll let you know how it goes with a newborn in 3 months. 

Baby boy is kicking and twisting and turning. Must be the ice cream:) And now the kids are sitting in the driveway, listening to the ice cream truck, hoping he turns down our road. A good mom lets her kids make ice cream and then gives them money to buy even more! I'll be such a good mom!!!!