It's hot!

Mid-90s here, it's been miserable without A/C in the cars. We went up to Bucyrus this weekend, Clay fixed the white car (cv axle?) and I helped take pics for the Little Theatre's production of Seussical. Beth was going to be the baby at the end for next week's shows (they had another baby for this week) but yesterday afternoon Horton (main character) asked "Can't we just use the same baby we've had since the other baby is so little and can't hold her head?" Reassured that she's been able to hold her head for MONTHS now, he still wants to use the other baby. Whatever. Here's a pic of the costume I made for the babies to wear - not identical, tho the same pattern, this is a pic from the pattern using the original design:


Kind of annoying, but at least we'll have a cute costume for Beth for Halloween!
Ok, needing to get started on housework, etc. for the day. I'm so glad we have central air!

More pictures - Thomas Tuesday and Beth Thursday #1

Hey, I'm getting good at this! Or not . . . I've got bunches of pics to post but I'm not doing it all right now. I do want to start posting pics of the kids every week, so consider this both Thomas Tuesday and Beth Thursday. Beth is shown grinning bunches and snacking with Daddy, Thomas is modeling his "Nemo pants" that I made him in one, and the results of a chocolate long john donut in the other.









Here are the results of my sewing for Beth lately:




And a "Special Treat":

A day!

Remember when you were little and the worst thing that could happen when you were sick was that you got sick on a weekend, or holiday, or summer vacation? Well, I have discovered that our moms had it even worse. Poor Thomas caught Clay's cold and has been miserable all day - and it's nearly 60 outside, sunny, and otherwise perfect. I would have loved to go for a walk with the kids or taken them to the park today, but alas . . .
Not much going on otherwise, I've got a couple pictures that need posting of the stuff I sewed in the last few days, I think I'm going to wait until tomorrow to start any other stuff. Somebody posted a bunch of baby girl's clothing on Freecycle, so I'm picking them up after playgroup (assuming we get to go to playgroup). Yea!
On a totally unrelated subject, I was looking on CNN.com and saw a story about a 4-year-old whose mom neglected him till he was only 10 pounds. How horrible! She told police that she just wasn't ready to be a mom, and when he was born with a severe disability she just got so overwhelmed. Which got me thinking about how the OBs and pediatricians are always saying "If you ever consider hurting your baby, get help right away!" Now, isn't a big part of the problem that these poor women feel like there isn't any help to turn to? Just food for thought . . .

Beautiful Day

It's gorgeously sunny here, low 50's, and you really couldn't ask for it to feel any nicer. March really is in like a lion, out like a lamb this year! The people who came to look at the house earlier seemed to like it pretty well and said they expected that we would hear from them soon. So, here's hoping.
I was up till 2 AM again - for some reason Beth's favorite time to eat is between midnight and 2 . . . I get totally deflated during those 2 hours every night. On top of that, Thomas woke up for some reason around 6:20, so I had to go put him back to sleep. Getting out of bed woke Beth up though, so then I had to feed her until a little after 7. This girl EATS! Thomas ate just fine, but Beth is amazing in her capacity to hold copious amounts of milk. I still haven't figured out which leg (both?) is the hollow one.
Now that the house is finished getting ready to sell and all I have to do is keep it that way, I can get some more sewing done. Yea! I want to get a few more dresses and some diaper covers for Beth, plus a few things for Thomas done. I think I'm going to go for a simple diaper cover for Beth first, then some Nemo pants for Thomas, then tackle some dresses. I've missed getting my sewing done, but have had so much to get ready for the house that I just haven't had time. I'm going to have to make sure that I keep sweeping the floor where I set my sewing machine up though, I don't want it to get all yucky looking!

Now that we've gotten that out of the way . . .

Apparently the talk about nightmares being just like stories or movies (in that they aren't real) worked last night. Thomas slept until 10:30 (he didn't fall asleep until 11, so that's not a major shock except that he wasn't sleeping past 9:30 the days before) and went down fine at nap time . . . I put him down at 2 and he was out by 2:05. Now I just need to get the rest of the housework done! Clay was supposed to get back early enough for us to all do lunch today, but his flight to Philly was delayed and he missed his connection to W'port. So poor Dave gets to cover Clay's lab for the second week in a row, and we got grilled cheese for lunch instead of whatever fabulous thing we might have eaten. Maybe I'll talk Clay into dinner tomorrow night to make up for it.
Got some ribbon at the store yesterday to finish making the boyish onesies into girlish onesies, I think they're going to look really cute. Will post pics once finished. Lots more to do on the rest of the house before Clay gets home and/or before Beth arrives and/or before putting the house on the market. I'm a bit nervous about it selling, but it's such a cute house that I don't imagine it will be too bad. I hope. Sigh.
Off to more dishes, laundry, cleaning bathrooms, and general randomness.

Pictures!

This is the newborn-size stuff I've made thus far, plus a couple Baby Belly pictures. The placements are being annoying with the picture versus the words, so a description of what you see:

Pants to girl-ify some of the NB onesies from Thomas.
A cute little lavender dress, I'm all proud of my decorative stitching at the bottom!
Me in my cute shirt from my mom!
A gray jumper I made - can be worn with any of the onesies (even the boy-ish ones!), though unfortunately thinner (more see-through) than I had hoped. Can't tell in regular lighting though.
A pink onesie I did today, very cute also under the jumper, as well as any of the pants.
A green sweater I crocheted ages ago in preparation, and finally get to use!

Day 3 and still running!

Wow, I am so impressed with me . . . how pathetic is that? Anyway, today was a LONG day . . . fun and good but REALLY LONG. Woke up starving at 5:30, got up and made a peanut butter sandwich, still couldn't sleep, got a sinus blowup with headache, took drugs, still couldn't sleep, drugs took effect, still couldn't sleep, alarm went off to get ready for Dr. visit, got up and felt like I had been run over by a truck. Still haven't slept any more all day. Went to the OB, a nice quick tummy check and out! The fastest appointment yet, aside from last night's ultrasound (15 minutes and GONE!) so I was happy. They're apparently trying to speed up the check-in process by having people seeing the doctors go to the first window, midwives and ultrasound guy to the second . . . maybe a good thought, but when you get a line at the second window and the first window lady is just busyworking, perhaps you ought to relax the "procedure" in face of reality. Not to mention that the first window lady was uber-cranky, and annoying. Sigh. Thankfully I was actually seeing a midwife so I didn't have to talk to the first window lady pretty much at all, but she was pretty rude to the woman in front of me (and the one who arrived behind me) so just her being there was getting on my nerves. Which probably says more about my nerves than the lady at the desk. Anyway, got out of there and stopped at the grocery store - while I wasn't sleeping I was craving Oreos to the point that I gave half a serious thought to putting on my coat and going to the store. I was able to control that particular urge by reminding myself that having not slept I probably wouldn't be a very safe person to be driving . . . we'll not think about that I never slept after that either and still drove to the Dr.'s office. Got home and hung out doing my crossword, etc., finally had to wake Thomas up at 10:15, Jenn and Henry were coming at 10:30 for our much-awaited trip to Joann Fabrics. Thomas was still eating when they got here, but just an oatmeal bar, so he just left it for later.
The trip to Joann's was fabulous, I got some really cute patterns and fabrics (knits! I needed knits! Walmart - the only store close to here that carries fabric - doesn't regularly carry knits!) I already cut out the fabric for one dress, hopefully I'll get the dress done tomorrow, plus a couple cute onesies from another pattern I got . . . pink cotton knit. Thomas and Henry were real troopers while we traipsed all over the store, though every time we mommies would go to separate parts of the store each of the boys would be asking "Where did Henry/Thomas go?" Jenn got some great fabric for a totally cute shirt that she's going to make for herself . . . I haven't even thought of making something for myself recently, I'm waiting for the time when I'm not pregnant and I have an actual need for more clothes to coincide. That sentence just took about 5 minutes to get grammatically correct - it's late! Anyway, then to the mall for awesome Chinese food, the lemon chicken I got was SO good that I didn't mind tasting it for heartburn over the next several hours. TMI, sorry. Stopped in a couple stores on the way out looking for a doll for Thomas (for when Beth is born - I think it might help him to have a baby to take care of while I take care of Beth) and socks from Old Navy. Alas, no luck on either. Home to try to get Thomas down for a nap at 3:30 . . . also unsuccessful. He sat up in his crib chattering away and dumping all of his stuffed animals and blankets out of bed for the next 2 hours (nearly). At least he was resting, right? Clay got home in the meantime, but had a wicked headache and has been asleep for longer than Thomas has now.
Last weekend I got a bunch of chicken on sale at the grocery store (it NEVER goes on good sale here, plus I really want to have stuff easy and ready for when Beth is here) so I spent all evening getting it all cooked, packaged, and frozen. We now have enough for 6 chicken quaesadilla meals, 1-2 of chicken squares, 3-4 of anything requiring chicken chunks (soup, chicken & broccoli toss, stir fry, etc.), plus 6 whole chicken breasts baked with different Italian herbs, with wine in the bottom of the dish . . . can be eaten whole or cut however I need for whatever I want to make. Not bad for a couple hours (dinner was in there too, more chicken squares using a couple of the chicken breasts) and like $14. All good stuff, but remember I haven't slept since 5:30 this morning . . . I am SO TIRED. Which means I should stop typing here, but it's kind of fun to have an outlet for whatever went on during the day . . . the computer can be a better audience than a sleeping husband! Good thing or bad?
Off. to. bed.

Part 2, Day 2!

Wow, 2 days in a row and I'm still on top of it! Maybe I shouldn't sound SO surprised, but considering how bad I am at keeping up with stuff like this . . .
Thomas is down for a much-needed nap, we were going to go shopping with friends today but we had enough freezing rain that the area schools all canceled, so we've rescheduled for tomorrow. Thankfully, Jenn and Henry were able to come over just to play anyway . . . the first thing Thomas said when I got him up this morning was "Is Henry downstairs?" He was pretty excited when I told him last night that we were going to the store with Henry, so it would have been a really rotten morning if they hadn't been able to play. Jenn and I had fun playing this ancient card game (well, not ancient exactly, but my mom said she and her siblings would play it when they were sick growing up!), so I might just have to get one for us. It's called Mille Bornes, and it's a lot of luck and some skill, so not as frustrating as some games that are all one or the other. I also got to show off the dresses that I've made for Beth, which I am very excited about. We're going to Joann Fabrics tomorrow, and I can't wait to get some more fabric to make some more outfits for her! It's a lot more fun sewing girls' stuff than boys' stuff, I guess because you can't tell as much that it's homemade . . . if I were to make some jeans for Thomas, you would be able to tell that they aren't from Baby Gap or whatever. Plus I get to use all the trim - ribbon and rickrack and so forth, plus the fancy stitching that would just look weird on a boy's shirt. Maybe I'll make her a little top with some of the fabric that matches the one dress I made . . . too much fun! And relaxing . . . I find that my patience is below zero at the end of this pregnancy, so doing something like sewing keeps the peace with Thomas better than my goofing off with him would.
Clay is back in town safely, in spite of a winter storm that blew in and delayed his final flight for over an hour . . . and it's only a 45-minute flight! The plane was coming from Williamsport airport and headed to Philly (where he was) - supposed to leave at 11:40ish and arrive at 12:22, he boarded the flight at 12:18. Thankfully he already had someone covering his lab until he got back, so it didn't matter so much that it was 1:30 when he called to tell me he was on the ground and in his car (lab starts at 1!) My mom is flying out to spend the week in St. Louis with her mom and sisters, and her flight is managing to leave on time from Columbus (Ohio), but the storm from Minneapolis isn't supposed to hit there until around 7 tonight, so I guess it makes sense. Really though, that means that Clay was in 2 different winter storms today . . . and we'll be seeing the one from MN again in a couple days! Traveling seems so weird when you think about the weather and all, you get out of one storm just in time and it catches up with you a couple days later. I'm a little bit nervous right now because Clay is interviewing again next Monday, so is gone Sun. - Tues. next week too, and my mom isn't getting back to OH until Monday . . . she's coming out to help with the kids so if I go into labor next weekend . . . ugh! I really don't want to face labor alone! On the other hand, Jenn said she'd come in with me if it were to happen that way, which is wonderful of her, but I would still be really upset if Clay was gone. Anyway, I need to lay down for a bit while Thomas is napping or I'll never be rested for heading to the ultrasound later this evening. Not that it should require much rest, but it always seems like I'm out of energy way before I get to the Dr.'s office. Here's hoping for some cool pictures from the ultrasound!