10 days

That’s how long I technically have until this baby’s due date.  Three more shifts at work, including Thanksgiving and the day after.  Ugh.  Poor Brandon was trying to ask me about plans for next week- because in all likelihood I will still be pregnant and working on Thanksgiving (read: sampling all the pies in the break room) and he and C will have to eat turkey somewhere.  But FOR THE LOVE I can’t even think about making plans for what feels so far away when all I really want is to be holding a newborn baby by then.  Part of the problem is that this baby keeps tricking me: almost every single evening for the last three weeks I’ve had contractions and at least twice I’ve thought “This is it!”.  But obviously… baby disagrees.  Even my midwife said at my appointment last week that she thought it would only be a couple of days.  When I went in for my appt THIS week, it was all “could be anytime” and “you never know”!  Blah.

{Cheer-me-up smoothies with the boys after my appointment this week}

But this whole having a baby thing is one that I’m only planning to do a few times in my life, and it really is amazing.  When I’m not all disgruntled about being tricked by the fetus, I can usually appreciate the small miracle.  So last night I was driving home and thinking of all the things I will miss about being pregnant or when the baby comes.  Here’s what I’ve got:

• The kicking, punching, jabbing, throwing elbows or whatever else he/she does in there.  What an incredible feeling.
• We’re always together.  And while that will continue for the next several months, it will involve all manor of juggling things and hooking up Baby Bjorns and slings and whatnot.  For now, its (relatively) easy, baby is always there.
• Charlie’s kisses to my belly at night time.  I melt.
• Ice cream- such a pregnancy cliche, but is there anything better than a hot fudge sundae?  Yes.  One that your husband sweetly offers to go pick up while you relax.
• One on one playtime with Charlie.  I’m sure he will get tons of attention after baby is here too, but I don’t imagine I’ll be sitting on the floor building towers with him for a little while.
• Talking about all of the possibilities with Brandon.  We still don’t have a middle name for this little one, so we’re always throwing out names and imagining who this little one will be… (boy or girl?? as it gets closer, the anticipation is fun)
• The belly.  My sister in law warned me of this one before I had Charlie, but I didn’t really get it- I couldn’t imagine missing this big cumbersome thing!  But so often I subconsciously rub my belly or rest my hand there- and then once baby comes there’s no more sweet baby in there… just pudge.  But I still reach down to rub my belly for weeks and its feels like phantom pregnancy syndrome or something.
• Sleeping.  Some preggos may disagree because third trimester sleeping isn’t know for being incredibly comfortable.  But I go for quantity on this one- right now I can go to bed early, take naps when Charlie naps… I may wake up a bunch of times in there, but at least I’m still counting sleep in hours not minutes!!!

That’s all I’ve got right now.  Little one, we’ve got our bags packed, the house is clean(ish) and I have some extra dinners in the freezer.  We all want to meet you!  Anytime now is good.  But while you’re still happily camped out in there I will try to stay busy and savor this time too.

preschool

Man, this feels like it was soo long ago, but here is Charlie on the first day of preschool (2.5 short months ago!)

Goofball.  Two pictures: that’s all you get Mom, they had better be good!

I wish I could say he loved preschool.  Most of the time I think he tolerates it ok, but he is never super exciting about going.  He talks about his teachers (he puts both of their names together, like they’re one person, so you never know exactly who he is referring to!) and he knows the names of the other kids in his class.  Last night at dinner he broke out in a random song Brandon and I had never heard before, and that was really cute!  But for the most part its hard to know what he does there and whether he likes it or not!  I’m grateful his teacher sends out emails every week and tells us what they’re up to!

They had school pictures taken about a month ago, and we got the proofs last week- Charlie’s could be mug shots!  He has the same stoic expression on his face in all three, they are just taken from slightly different distances.  Of course we ordered them anyway- they’re hilarious.  These are some that I took of him playing outside that same day.  He was all dressed up, and then he climbed on his “motorcycle” I couldn’t resist!

Halloween

Charlie was the cutest little Mickey Mouse ever for Halloween. When we first put the costume on him he was sort of whiny (especially about the ears), but we let him look at himself in the mirror and then he decided it was ok. So he must think he’s an adorable mouse too 🙂

He had preschool that day, and they did a little Halloween parade around the gym.  So cute!!

Yup, that’s his class (missing one I think).  Teachers, especially preschool teachers, do NOT get paid enough!  I guess there probably aren’t many days that are crazier than Halloween…

He and Mimi made the rounds.

 


The many faces of Mickey Mouse.

They actually walked around to a few neighbors’ houses this year.

Yay, candy!

happy Friday morning.

Pumpkin patch

Slowly but surely I’m getting caught up- we went to the pumpkin patch the weekend before Halloween, so this isn’t terribly late, right?

In case its too small to read and you think Brandon’s green hat is appropriately “John Deere”, it’s not. My dad said this might be the first time a Loyola hat has ever been on a John Deere tractor.

We made a valiant attempt at the family photo, we really did. This was the best of at least a dozen attempts.  There was just to much for Charlie to see from that vantage point…

I don’t know what this face was for; obviously Charlie didn’t either.

This makes me laugh- C is so trusting that someone will be there when he jumps!

This is my favorite: such concentration with that tongue sticking out.  He really wanted to be able to put the pumpkin in the wagon and pull it around.

And last is my pouting punkin 🙂 We really did have a fun morning at the pumpkin patch though!

October insta-style

October started with shorts and ice cream and ended with jackets, pumpkin patches and costumes!  There’s a little sneak peak of Charlie in his costume here but I have a bunch more photos to come.  I think we even succeeded in getting one of the three of us together!  Also in the last few weeks we (read: Brandon) spent a lot of time working on Charlie’s “big boy” room.  Now it just needs a few finishing touches.  And he needs to decide he wants to sleep in there!  We aren’t going to kick him out of his nursery any time soon though.  I don’t want to rush him: I like the security of knowing he is still semi-contained in his crib and even when new baby comes he/she will sleep in our room for a few months.  Right now, Charlie will tell you that both rooms are his!  We are still working on the whole “sharing” thing…