One step closer to being ready

Car seat base and mirror (no, it's not a TV) are installed in both cars!

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Latest bump

Well, this past weekend I nested like crazy: I baked oatmeal bread AND banana snack cake, and washed a bunch of baby clothes and my mom and sister M (and baby C--four months tomorrow!) helped me fold and organize. We now have drawers filled with clothes and blankets, and I figured out how to work the diaper genie (after pulling out too much of the bag at first), so I think I'm set. Oh wait...we need pacifiers. And I should probably figure out how the hell to actually use the swaddler stuff before I have an unhappy baby who desperately needs to be made into a baby mummy. We also got a chest freezer for the basement off Craig's List for the food we will be making and hopefully receiving that we can simply take out, thaw, and enjoy during the first few weeks with junior. Mom's already contributed lasagna.

I've also started packing a bag for the hospital and printed my study guides for my classes early. This way, Murphy's Law will hopefully ensure that I don't deliver early. Fingers crossed...I just need to get through the 10th, which will give me time to finish grading exams and interview AGAIN for my position for next year (again, it's like Survivor--will I get to stay on the island for another go-around? But hey--if it means a job and uninterrupted health care, I will jump through any hoop they want). So again, here's to hoping.

Anyway, with a little less than five weeks to go, I thought pictures were in order:

No, that's not a basketball.

Mothering

I had my first sort-of Mother's Day yesterday, and it got me thinking. With my own impending motherhood a scant six weeks away, it becomes more real every day. I (and T) will be fully responsible for this tiny little life, utterly dependent upon me for everything: food, clothing, evacuating, cleaning, warmth, light, you name it. I find this all both daunting and thrilling. He will change my entire life, and no matter how ready or unready I feel, he's on his way. Oh, I've had beautiful showers, I'm watching the videos, and I'm getting lots of advice, but in the end, he's ours to do our best with. And I think we'll do a good job, I really do.

I have had the good fortune of having various mother figures in my life from my own dear mother to friends who have acted as moms-away-from-home. I don't think I would be the person I am today without their guidance, advice, love, friendship, and occasional kicks in the butt.

Quick One...sort of

I know, I owe lots of pictures and stuff but I am on a mission to not be my usual, great-intention-crummy-follow-through self. Any of you who know me well know what I mean. You look at me fondly and shake your head and smile wryly because you know the Frau gets crazy excited about certain things, does them for a while, and then puts them in a corner to collect dust, either literally or figuratively.

I'm not this way about everything, but it's one of my least favorite qualities about myself, and I'm trying not to be that way because it frustrates me AND my husband and probably others. The rain barrel I bought? Fills up and overflows because I don't use it for the garden I never put together last summer...although I have hope that if we plant it closer to the house this year, I won't need 200ft of hose to even use the dumb rain barrel. Efforts to green up my life? Meh, some stayed, some didn't. Elliptical machine upstairs so I'd use it more? Classic clothes rack.

One of my other qualities is to dump all over myself about bad habits, so I won't go on; I wanted this to be more of a recognition of my faults in an attempt to heighten awareness. For example, I got half my thank-you notes from my beautiful baby shower done IMMEDIATELY and I'm almost done with the rest. But if I don't finish them this week, well.... But I KNOW this. So that helps.

Anyway, I really wanted to write this because I read an article about procrastination this morning in Real Simple and it suggested a great way to avoid the "I'll just surf the Net for ten minutes" joke that turns into hours of wasted time: A free add-on called LeechBlock for Firefox. It allows you to list the sites you waste the most time on them, and it literally blocks them for whatever amount of time you specify. For example, I blocked Blogger (and Facebook, Gmail, Slate.com....) this morning so I could get projects graded from 9-1pm. Even the sheer act of doing this caused me to focus better. There's also Rescue Time, a site that tracks what you actually do on the Internet and then graphs where and how you spend your time--an eye-opener that can show you just how long you spend and how often you go to certain sites.

On that note, I'm getting off Blogger and making myself a well-earned grilled cheese and tomato sandwich and then continuing to grade on the newly restored back porch, where no evil technology can lure me away. Hooray for spring!

Transitions

Hello! Hello from a place where spring has finally sprung and the Buffalo Sabres are in the playoffs and budgets mean possible job changes (more on that later) and I just had to get new garments for my endlessly changing body. LOTS of changes.

On the pregnancy front, I have suddenly become significantly more winded after climbing stairs. I look at this in two ways, depending on my mood: 1) Oh, dear, does this just mean it will get WORSE before June? and 2) This means the baby is healthy and growing, so it makes sense that he will fight for space with my lungs. I attempt to focus on #2. It makes me happier. Little man bops around like a jumping bean right now. Yesterday he had hiccups--I know this because I was lying down with the laptop just below my belly and he actually caused the computer to move with the force of his own self. Amazing. He also seemed to respond well to the kick-ass David Bowie station T made on Pandora.com--I feel this bodes well for his musical taste. And for those who asked, here are the latest pictures of us:

I know I have no face in these, but trust that I am smiling or looking serene. The ladder in the background marks T and various wonderful, helpful friends' attempts to paint both our dining room and the baby's room. T has done a wonderful job, especially considering that we've learned the hard way that spackle takes a lot longer to dry than we had assumed and ceiling water damage means paint will either not stick or will chip right off. My dad was in town last weekend for my grandma's 96th birthday (awesome) and helped paint the ceiling in the baby's room, which looks terrific. I'm so glad he got to be a part of it, even if it did mean manual labor for him:

I just like this one because it signifies what's to come:

And here's the beginning of the paint; doesn't it look nice?

Thus the rest of the house looks like a bomb hit it while furniture and glassware waits patiently to go back to its old (or new) home, but it all means something new and nicer is on its way. More to come!

How we roll

If you've never gone to www.cafepress.com, it's a site where you can buy and make your own t-shirts--and lots of other items-- for a very reasonable price. We made these two onesies for baby J because 1) we have great and slightly off-color senses of humor, and 2) T wants him to eventually join the Masons, so we've decided to start him out early ("Lewis" is a Masonic term for the son of a Mason. Don't ask me to explain it further, although T did and can tell you all about it):

Who better than Calvin?

That's the primary Masonic symbol of the square and compass

We found the pictures and chose the fonts; we had a lot of fun doing it. I don't always go in for personalizing clothing, but how could we resist when the site makes it this fun?

Springing up

Just reminding myself and others that teeny, tiny signs of spring have finally begun to arrive:

• I've seen shoots coming up in my neighbor's garden, and I'd probably see some in mine if I really looked. The trees have definite buds.
• The snow, while still occasionally coming down, is finally melting and there's more green and brown than white out there. To that end, I've dug out my galoshes and mucked around outside, and I've retired my big winter boots.
• Penny has joyfully discovered every damn mud patch she can find and looks as though she's wearing little dark brown shoes when she comes into the house.
• I haven't worn a wool sweater in almost a week. Considering Buffalo springs are temperamental at best, this is a huge improvement.
• Seniors have begun to pay a lot less attention in class. In a month, some will come to me and ask if there's "anything they can do to raise their grade" in order to graduate. I will tell them, again, to go back in time and do all the work they should've done up to this point.
• Runners have switched from leggings to shorts
• I have begun to consider stretching the budget to include a few more cheerful clothing pieces that will accommodate my own stretching tummy
• Cadbury Egg time has become more and more precious

In other, next generation news, Baby J has become significantly more wiggly and active, and my niece C gets cuter every blessed day. Growth happening everywhere, really!