Birthdays and Thanksgiving

November is such a busy month for us. We have so many family birthdays, plus Thanksgiving, and this year, also Mike's leaving for Korea. We decided this year to just do one big celebration for all of these things and last weekend we did it!

Josh deep fried a turkey (his favorite!) and made a pumpkin cheesecake. I made nothing. I did clean the house though! That's something! Everyone else each brought a dish and we served it all up buffet style on paper plates. We keep it classy here in Manassas Park! We had turkey, honey baked ham, mac and cheese, green bean casserole, salad, mashed potatoes, arroz con gandules (Josh's rice), and cupcakes to finish us off. I am happy to say we got left with a lot of leftovers that basically fed us for the rest of the week. And we had enough turkey left over to make two turkey pot pies, and freeze one for after the baby comes. Yay!

So now on to my latest thing - freezer cooking. I am stocking up my freezer for after the baby comes. I kind of did this with Audrey, but I think the only thing I made was chili and froze it. This time I am being much more serious about it because I already know how hard it can be to get dinner on the table with one child clawing at my leg, add in another one that I can't throw cheerios at to keep them calm for a few minutes, and this could get ugly. So I want to have meals in the freezer that I can just grab and toss in the oven and move on with my day. Yesterday I made my list of meals and went shopping. I thought (naively) that I could get it all done yesterday since Josh would be home and could be with Audrey, but that didn't happen. In fact, by the time I got home from grocery shopping (walking around for an hour at Costco and Shoppers) it was 1pm so I got a bit of a late start. I started with the easiest things - breakfasts. Personally, I could eat cold cereal every single day of my life for the rest of forever, but I know that isn't nutritious for Audrey and it won't be good for breastfeeding either. It is just SO HARD to stand in front of the oven cooking breakfast before I've even had my coffee. So anyways, I made egg/cheese/sausage burritos, egg and sausage muffins (with onions and hash browns and mushrooms, yum), and banana oatmeal muffins. I also found a great recipe for banana/almond/oatmeal smoothies that I can make for mornings when I am too lazy to even heat something up. I tasted all - they all were good. Unfortunately, after I was done it was already 4:15 and my body was aching from standing that long and I decided to call it quits for the day. Josh still plans to make a bunch of pancakes for the freezer too, and today I am going to attempt to start on the easier big meals - soups and stews. It mostly depends on how Audrey feels today. If she feels like playing with her toys, we could be successful. If she feels like "helping" me, this could be a slow process.

38 weeks

Some other recent things - we took a trip to Clemyjontri Park a couple of weeks ago and met up with Ian and Gloria and Matthew, Cristina, and Lisa. It was a fun day! The park is huge and there is so much to do so the kids definitely had fun. The adults, however, were having a heck of a time keeping up with them! All children look the same when they're all running in circles, did you know that?? Luckily Audrey had her signature high ponytail that I could pick out among the crowds. I am not sure we'll go back there for a while - it was just too hard to follow the kids around when there were so many other kids.

I also got my new washer and dryer delivered over the weekend! It is marvelous. My clothes come out smelling like clean clothes. Fresh, no lingering odors or moldy stench...just clean. I did a deep clean on Audrey's cloth diapers so hopefully we can get her back in those for the remainder of the time she's in diapers. I also scored some Black Friday deals on cloth diapers for the new baby, so s/he should be set through the newborn stage (we're using old school pre-folds and covers, and trying out a new "fitted" diaper). I think I might be able to use most of Audrey's diapers on the baby as s/he gets bigger, but I am also thinking about buying some new ones so I can be sure they'll last me through the entire diapering period. Oh, and we were able to sell our old washer and dryer on Craigslist really quickly, so I am happy with the whole situation.

Finally, I'll leave you with a video of Audrey counting. Videos are hard to get now a days because she always wants to watch herself on the camera and won't just let me tape her. Since Josh was here I was able to get her counting, now I just have to get her singing her ABCs. It is the most precious thing with her tiny little voice.

Baby Sprinkle

On Sunday, I was surprised with a baby sprinkle to celebrate our new little baby. It was such an unexpected gift and I was so happy to have everyone together to celebrate!

Lauren and I had planned to hang out that day and do some shopping. She said she had to go to Reston Town Center to exchange a gift that Cheryle got for her new apartment, so I didn't think anything of it when we headed out there. But then we walked into a really fancy restaurant and I looked at her and said, "oh you're treating me to lunch?" and she was like, "ummm yeah!". I started to think something weird was up when the hostesses started acting odd and then Lauren had to step over and whisper to the manager. We walked to the back room of the restaurant and there was everyone! Grandma Gloria, Joy and Ian, Cheryle, Lisa and the kids, and my friend Brett and her daughter Ellie. Apparently more friends were invited but couldn't make it.

I was so surprised because I really didn't expect anyone to do anything for the new baby. I guess because there isn't anything I really need this time around, so I didn't give it much thought. I had actually planned on just getting a little cake for our family Thanksgiving/November birthday celebration that we're having next weekend and recognize it that way. So this was very special to me that everyone came together and did this. Josh and Audrey ended up coming up and eating with us too, so I could share my happiness with them. :)

We ate delicious food and deserts and opened a few presents. There isn't really anything else I need to get now. I have a gift card to Babies R Us so I can get a stroller, but I might just wait until the baby is here and then decide which kind I want.

Unfortunately I forgot to take ANY pictures, so these are all from Cheryle. And I didn't get hardly any pictures with the guests or the hosts of the party! Dang. But thank you so SO much to Grandma Gloria and Cheryle for throwing me this super fancy baby sprinkle for our new baby. I can't wait for him to be here so we can shower him with lots of love!

36 weeks already!

Tomorrow I will be 36 weeks pregnant. Already! And also finally. It feels like I've been pregnant forever, but it also feels like the past few weeks have flown by. I feel very prepared and ready, like if the baby comes tomorrow I'd be fine. Even though we don't have anything really done, haha. I have not set up the infant car seat in either car. I have not set up the cosleeper in our room. I have not packed a hospital bag, or a bag for Audrey while she stays with dad and Lisa when I'm in the hospital. I haven't arranged for the pets to be taken care of. I *have* washed all of the newborn clothes (the gender neutral ones) and blankets and burp cloths, so those are ready. I only bought my first box of diapers two days ago.

I'm sucking in.

Speaking of diapers, at this point, we are preparing to use disposables at least in the beginning because of our washer situation. It has somehow actually gotten worse. Our clothes all come out smelling moldy and gross, and now the whole drum smells like mildew no matter how much I clean it and leave it open to dry after each wash. I will never buy a front loader again!! The plan was to save up to buy a washer and dryer set (top loader, not 'high efficiency', just a good old fashioned washer), but at this point I think we might just go ahead buy one ASAP on the credit card so we can get Audrey back in cloth diapers and get the new baby in them when s/he is born. I swear every time I throw a dirty diaper in the trash I feel like I am throwing away money. After not having that expense for so long, it really came as a shock when I went in to buy diapers for Audrey and spent $40 just like that! Ouch!

How adorable is this baby bun? I LOVE HAVING A GIRL.

We made a few halfhearted efforts at potty training over the past couple of months, but last week we made a real dedicated effort to get Audrey potty trained. Unfortunately, we think she is just not ready. She LOVES sitting on the potty. She loves reading books about the potty, talking about the potty, watching us go (FUN.), and we even tried putting her baby alive doll on it since the doll "pees" when you put water in her mouth. Our potty training attempt was the 3 day naked training (we did it the days it stormed since we wouldn't be leaving home) where you just keep the baby naked from the bottom down all day long and keep encouraging them to use the potty. Audrey loved this. EXCEPT when it was actually time to go. When she had to pee or poop, she would get off the potty and just start walking around the house crying until eventually she had an accident. This happened every single time she had to go for 2 days. She begged us to put a diaper on her, she even pulled the diapers out and tried to put it on herself. Poor thing. At first we thought she was just nervous and it would get better throughout the day, but it never did and we didn't like hearing her cry, so we stopped. I am torn between trying again in a month, or just waiting 2 months so that she will have time to adjust to the baby and then get moving on it. I also don't want to have to go to the trouble of training her only to have her regress back once the baby is here.

Look at that hair!

Other things...I had an appointment yesterday and am now on weekly appointments. yay! I love getting to check in every week so know that everything is going well. As of yesterday, I've gained 22 pounds, which I'm happy with. Unfortunately, we still have a ton of Halloween candy sitting around so I am constantly popping chocolate and other junk throughout the day. I am *this close* to throwing it all away. Probably once I finish eating all the Butterfingers. :) The babies heartbeat was at 121, still on the low side. Last appointment it was higher at 145. Wives Tales say that low heartbeat means boy, higher means girl. The Chinese Gender Predictor says Girl. My mom dreamed it was a girl, but then yesterday said the belly looks like a boy. Josh thinks girl....I go back and forth daily still. I'm thinking boy now. Little Joshua. So sweet. Oh, the doctor also went ahead and did a quick ultrasound to make sure that the baby is head down, even though both he and I already were pretty sure it was head down. And we were right! Head down and ready to go. If I can keep the baby that way for another week, it'll probably stay that way since they don't usually flip after 37 weeks, plus I have a small torso and there isn't a whole lot of room to flip anyways. It was reassuring to have that ultrasound, though, just to confirm. I am still on for a VBAC. My doctor keeps saying I'm such an easy patient. The only thing I'm worried about now is that I won't go into labor on my own. I'm like, REALLY scared of that. Originally, I thought that my doctor wouldn't induce at all for VBACs, but he told me last week that as long as I dilate to 1cm on my own, he can induce using various different methods. With Audrey, I delivered at 40 weeks exactly and had not had any contractions and wasn't dilated at all, so I think my fear of that happening again is probably a legitimate fear. I am doing all of the things I know of to get ready, like going on long walks and bouncing on my yoga ball, but for now that's all I really can do. I just hope my body will not fail me since I can only go to a little after 41 weeks without another C-Section. I try not to worry and get ahead of myself, but well, I'm me and that's just what I do.

At Cox Farms

Girl has good balance!

so look...I've updated once a week for two weeks! I'm on a roll! Maybe again next week? We can hope!
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Halloween

Hello, November 1. Lets just pretend I'm not behind on blogging and that you are all up to date on everything! Just kidding, I'll update on as much as I can now before Audrey starts attacking the computer.

Last night was Audrey's third Halloween. Lauren suggested way back in August that we dress her as an Oompa Loompa and I said only if Josh and I can be Willy Wonka and Violet! Naturally, I procrastinated until one week before Halloween before I actually started thinking about how I'd make the costume. Josh's was easy - I just ordered it online. I wasn't sure what to do for my costume, and I am lame and ended up just wearing a blue shirt. Boooo. Josh did buy blue face paint and blue hair spray but I didn't feel like doing all that. He gave me a hard time about it, but whatever. So for the star of the show - here's her costume!

It was really easy to make. It would have been easier if my sewing machine wasn't broken, but that's another thing I've been putting off, so it still sits upstairs, not working, as it has for a year. Anyways, I bought some cream leggings (couldn't find white anywhere!) and painted stripes on the bottom of the legs with brown fabric paint. I was supposed to paint white stripes on the neck of the turtleneck but I never got around to it. Meh. I couldn't figure out what to do for the suspenders, so I ended up buying 2" elastic and using that. It worked perfectly! This is where it became a bit of a pain, though. I had to hand sew the elastic and the buttons onto the leggings. No biggie, except that once I had it all sewn on and I tried it on Audrey, it was like 4 inches too long! Not sure how that happened since I did measure her, but oh well. We had a party to go to on Sunday and I didn't have time to fix it, so I just had to safety pin the extra elastic. It looked good from the front, but in the back you could see the folded elastic. I fixed it in time for Halloween, but then I sewed the back too far apart (too close to her hips) and the straps kept slipping down her shoulders, so I had to safety pin them to her shirt. None of this really matters because she looked cute as hell anyways. We got SOOO many compliments on her costume.

We decided to go to the mall and trick or treat instead of the neighborhood since it was cold out and it would just be better overall for her age. I think it was a good choice! It was pretty packed and some stores had long lines (were they handing out free socks or something??) so we skipped those. Audrey was very good about waiting her turn when there was more than one kid in line, but she did get impatient when kids cut in front of her. At one store, there were like 5 girls that cut in front right when Audrey got to the front of the line so Audrey stood there holding out her bucket saying, "Audrey? Audrey? Audrey??". I felt so bad for her! But she got her treat and we moved on.

She's never really had candy before so this was mostly a new experience. Of course she loved it. Once she realized that she was getting something cool in her bucket, she just wanted to sit down in the middle of the mall and dig through it, so that was the end of trick or treating for us. We didn't let her have much last night because we wanted her to go to sleep without a fight, but I'll let her indulge a little bit today. See, I'm not ALWAYS a mean mama who deprives her child of goodies!

Ohh...we also did some trick or treating earlier in the day at Fairfax Corner. They had face painting (we didn't have the patience for that), pumpkin decoration, a train ride (big hit!), and the shops were giving out candy. We met up with a few friends and other toddlers and Audrey had a great time running wild, as usual. It was a fun and happy Halloween for us! Can't wait until next year!