Bacon!

Well, what do you know ... Bacon decided to make an appearance after all, without having to be served an eviction notice!

*Skip to the first baby pictures if you want to avoid reading the birth story. There aren't any gory details, though, I promise!*

The last week in January I had lots and lots of contractions. On Thursday the 30th I saw my doctor and he said that if I hadn't delivered by my next appointment on February 6th, we would make a plan for induction. I had February 12 in my mind -- a week past my due date, plenty of time to deliver and get home and settled before my mom flew out on the 19th and my MIL left on the 20th. Plus, if I was going to choose a birthday, 2-12-14 was pretty cool. 

I felt pretty well the first couple of days that first week in February, and the contractions I'd been having for the past week slowed considerably. I had a weekly to-do list as usual, but I added something:

Ha! It tickles me that it actually happened!

On Wednesday the 5th (my due date) I was very tired and felt like I was fighting a cold. By mid-afternoon we'd finished school and chores, and I sent Eric a text asking him to pick up something for dinner as the thought of cooking and cleaning up sounded particularly overwhelming. I let the girls watch t.v. in the living room and I set up the laptop in my room so I could lay on my bed and watch house-hunting shows online. After eating I felt a little better; however, I was still pretty tired and went to bed early (for me) at 9:00.

At 12:30 I woke up for the first of my nightly bathroom trips, and noticed that I was having some strong contractions. It wasn't unusual to have them throughout the night but I could usually sleep through them -- these were strong enough to keep me awake. Around 2:30 I gave up on sleep and decided to go sit on the pilates ball in the living room to see what might happen. First, though, the second bathroom break of the night ... and my water broke! Hurray!

I woke Eric who sent a text to his mom asking her to come over and then started moving car seats around and packing up the van. I showered and got ready to leave, called the hospital, and we left the house around 4:00 a.m. Once at the hospital I was admitted by the same nurse who taught our childbirth class when I was pregnant with the Boogie and who also admitted me when I was in labor with the Boogie! So that was neat. She got me settled into a L&D room and we waited for contractions to pick up. Because the baby's head wasn't far enough down they were concerned about the cord floating down by baby's head, so they told me I would have to stay reclined in bed.

By 9:00 a.m. my contractions, instead of increasing, actually slowed way down, so the doctor ordered pitocin. I had mixed emotions -- I didn't want to have to have it, but I wanted to get things going. So the pitocin started and so did real labor. After an hour or so the L&D nurse was concerned that the baby was not recovering as well as she'd like after each contraction, so she propped me up slightly first on one side and then the other which seemed to do the trick, and she also turned the pitocin dosage down to half of what it was. I watched (or closed my eyes and listened to) episode after episode of DIY shows on HGTV and though uncomfortable I was able to get through the contractions on my own.

At 1:00 p.m. the doctor came to check on me again, and I requested some pain medication. The doctor asked if I wanted an epidural -- I'd never had one before, and hadn't planned on one this time, but I also hadn't planned on drug-induced contractions and being stuck on my back in bed through them! Since it seemed like labor was probably going to continue quite a bit longer I hesitated initially then agreed. It took a while for the anesthesiologist to arrive and when he did the L&D nurse assured me that he gave the best epidurals. By that time I could tell that labor was progressing much more quickly but I didn't say anything to anyone -- I figured I might as well get the epidural to help get through the worst of it.

Well, that epidural did next to nothing for me. The pain decreased a little for a few contractions but then increased again and got even worse. It just figured that I would be sensitive to pitocin but immune to an epidural! Soon, though, the room filled with doctor and intern and more nurses and it was finally time to meet Bacon. Delivery was easy and Bacon came out crying and I cried and Eric cried (only a little because he's a man, you know) and everyone was telling me what a good job I did and then I thought I heard someone say "he" and I finally asked, "Is it a boy?" And the answer was yes!

When the girls were born they were both whisked away immediately and I didn't get to hold them for about 45 minutes, for one reason or another. I remember sending Eric over to the warmer to take a picture of Peabody with his phone so that I could at least see what she looked like. But this time I got to hold my baby right away. I held him skin-to-skin under a warmed blanket for well over an hour before the nurse weighed and measured him. He was 7 lbs, 12 oz, and 21 inches.

Of course as soon as he was born Eric sent texts to everyone announcing the birth, but he didn't send any statistics ... including name or gender. We wanted the girls to be the first to know whether they had a brother or a sister. I think it made everyone crazy not to know. It took longer than expected for the girls to arrive, and I found out later that the long delay started to worry a few people as well. (Sorry about that, everyone!)

We were eventually transferred to a regular room and baby had a bath which he did not like at all.

Finally the girls showed up! They were ecstatic to learn that they had a brother. As the Boogie told the nurse, "Honey said we have a brother and poof! I was just so happy!" Eric's mom had brought them so she was the next to know, and we had the girls call my parents, and we sent texts to the rest of the family and updated Facebook.

It's a boy!

We stayed one night and by repeatedly telling all the staff that we wanted to leave as soon as possible we were released early Friday evening. We came home and watched the opening ceremony of the Olympics and finally got some decent rest in our own bed.

 

The girls stayed at 52 Thursday and Friday nights, came home for several hours on Saturday, then went back to 52 for that night so they could go to Sunday school the next morning. Unfortunately Peabody threw up in the night so MIL kept her home with her and the Boogie spent Sunday afternoon at 52 as well, to try to avoid bringing germs home. Peabody was fine all day so both girls came home Sunday night, and the next morning Eric went back to work for half a day.

On Monday afternoon we took baby for his first check-up with the pediatrician. The doctor noticed that he was just slightly jaundiced but said it wasn't anything to worry about. At release from the hospital he was down to 7 lbs. 6 oz., and at his check-up he was up 2 oz., so that was good.

Aside from the trip to the doctor and a quick stop at Target for a few boy clothes, we have just been hanging out at home all week. Eric has been working mostly regular hours (except for another half day yesterday when they closed down the whole plant during a winter storm so that everyone could get home) and even went to the Philly Auto Show after work one evening.

The girls adore their brother and are so good with him. We weren't able to avoid that tummy bug after all -- the Boogie came down with it yesterday afternoon. Thankfully Eric was home and was able to take on puking kid duty so I could remain uncontaminated. The Boogie seems much better today but will remain in quarantine for a while, and we are praying hard that no one else gets sick. My mom comes next week and we're so excited! Peabody has accused me several times, "You said after Bacon is born Lela will be here, and she's not here." So we are counting sleeps until Lela arrives, and we want to all be well when she gets here so we don't risk passing any nasty germs to her.

Bubby is such a good baby. He sleeps and sleeps, wakes to eat and get a clean diaper, eats again then goes back to sleep. He does that around the clock so for right now I'm sleeping pretty well at night, too, waking only 2 or 3 times.  He only cries when he's hungry, and when he's tired he just goes to sleep without any fussing. I'll take it for as long as it lasts! He has nice dark hair and ... I think his eyes are going to be brown! They are very dark. I'm so excited about brown eyes, I've always wanted a brown-eyed baby. I think he would be the first grandchild on either side to have them.

Peabody gave him one of her favorite blankies. What a sweet girl.

 

We are so thankful to the Lord for our beautiful boy. I just stare at him in amazement sometimes -- it seems unreal that we are so blessed!

Still Here. Still Pregnant.

Well, the month started out pretty well for blogging but I fizzled out quickly. So much for that.

January has passed fairly quickly which has been nice. It's one of my least favorite months so it's good to get it behind me. I don't love February either but at least it's shorter, and if Bacon can hold out for a few more days we'll have a February birthday to look forward to from now on. (There are other February birthdays in the family but they belong to Washington peeps so we don't get to help celebrate them. In other words: no cake for us.)

And when I refer to Bacon holding out for a few more days I'm being sarcastic because actually I think he or she is going to follow in the footsteps of the blonde child and refuse to be born at all and have to be evicted. Honestly I can't say I blame him/her as I wouldn't want to come out of a cozy uterus in the middle of winter, either.

It has been insanely cold all month, and has snowed several times. As I'm sure you know, snow is my favorite thing ever (insert more sarcasm.) The girls have gone out to play in it a couple of times,

Aren't they cute all bundled up?

and I did a repeat of last year's experiment and brought some inside for them to play with. I have, however, largely avoided having to go out in it myself, aside from trips to and from the car. Pregnancy makes for a great excuse. Next I'll have a newborn, which is also a great excuse.

A couple of really neat things have happened this month:

First of all, Eric was unexpectedly promoted to acting lead man of his department a few weeks ago. This was an opportunity that we figured to come up sometime in the future, but never so soon. He has been learning the ins and outs of his new job and so far so good. At the same time as his promotion, hours were cut from fifty a week to forty which is a mixed blessing -- it means smaller paychecks, but it also means things are quieter in the department while he is learning. It also means that he will be around here more after Bacon is born which will be really nice. When he's working 55 hours a week I worry about the amount and quality of sleep he is getting and it will only get worse with a newborn. This way I won't feel so badly when he is awakened by a crying baby every night. In any case, we are so thankful for this job opportunity and the fact that he was chosen to take it!

Secondly, one day last week Eric came into the kitchen and asked, "Do we have plans on Saturday?" I gestured to the empty calendar and said, "Nope!" and he said, "Well, we do now. Everything is all worked out." I was excited to have a date all planned out by him, including childcare. But when we arrived at the house where I thought we were leaving the girls, I realized that there was something else going on. Sure enough, the house was full of ladies from church: a surprise Bacon shower! I was truly surprised, I hadn't expected anything. I got a generous gift card that everyone must have gone in together on, as well as a few individual gifts, like this shirt:

What are the odds of grandparents finding a baby bacon shirt? I ask you!

And these lovely burp cloths made by a friend:

Aren't they pretty? I love the fabrics she chose! (Pardon the poor photo quality; this picture does not do them justice.) I can attest to how difficult it is to find gender-neutral anything that isn't yellow ducks or gray elephants or the like. I can't wait to use these -- I immediately put one into my hospital bag.

We played games and ate amazing food. One of the best parts was that my dear friend Reenie was there. She gave a devotional comparing bacon with aspects of Christianity -- it was so clever and well done. (Well done! Punny!) It was SO sweet of everyone. Unfortunately since I wasn't expecting it I didn't have my camera, and I didn't think to take pictures with my phone. But it was really, really nice!

My sewing machine is still in residence on the dining room table. I wanted to make some things for the baby, but only have the time plus energy once or twice a week so there the machine sits until I'm able to work on something. My first project was going to be burp cloths. I carefully chose fun coordinated fabrics, and it made me so happy to look at them all together that I decided to make a quilt.

The original fabrics

Oh, brother. My mother, who has quilted for many years, could have put this very simple quilt together in an afternoon (probably less.) It took me HOURS, people. Hours and hours spread out over many days. Actually it took a few weeks of working on it off and on. Of course I chose fabrics with designs that ran a certain direction, and none of the cuts I got from Joann's were quite straight so it took some doing to get straight blocks. I didn't have enough of the original fabric I bought, so had to go back for more, but they didn't have all of the prints so I had to find more that coordinated. I sewed blocks the wrong way together. I ripped out so many seams.

top pieced together

I wanted to back the quilt with minky -- goodness, that stuff is stretchy! I spent a LOT of time googling and reading tutorials about piecing blocks together and binding and turning and top-stitching and sewing with minky (tip: lots and lots and LOTS of pins.)  

I sent this picture to my mom asking, "Do you think there are enough pins in this?"

For almost every step I made with the quilt, I put together a burp-cloth-sized experiment one to make sure I was doing it right. This burpie, for example, was what helped me to make up my mind that I absolutely, positively did NOT want to spend several more hours binding the edges of my quilt.

Peabody immediately laid claim to this one. I only just sneaked it away from her today.

Finally, finally I finished it! At this point I don't know that I could say it was worth all of the time and effort. If I had known just how long the whole project would take I probably wouldn't have started it. But ... I do love how it turned out. I left it in the living room for days just so that I could look at it.

I did make a few burpies out of leftover fabric. Eric had the brilliant idea of sewing a loop onto each one so that it can be attached to a car seat or stroller harness, or have a toy or binky hooked onto it. They are only two layers of flannel sewn together, so I don't know how practical they will be as burp cloths, but the cheery fabrics were fun to work with and I gained some sewing experience.

In my multiple browsings through snuggly flannel at Joann Fabrics, I came across another print that just begged me to buy it ... so I made a couple of reversible blankets. Not that we NEED any more baby blankets. I just thought the print was fun and I love the colors.

Poor Bacon is probably going to be way over-stimulated with all this color going on!

And lastly, a 39-week picture. 

Things I've Learned Lately

Dark-soled slippers will leave black marks all over the inside of your dryer drum.

Magic Eraser will remove black marks from your dryer drum.

Scrubbing out a dryer drum at 36 weeks pregnant is not fun.

A wet rag on a Swiffer mop head works great for washing walls. 

Binding a blanket takes a long time if you make the binding yourself and have never done it before.

Minky stretches when you sew it.

Either sewing a straight line with a sewing machine is harder than it looks, or I am just really impaired in that area.

I need a walking foot for my sewing machine.


Memory foam mattress toppers are heavy.

A 2-inch-thick mattress topper will make your bed 2 inches taller.

It's hard to climb into a tall bed when you are short and 36 weeks pregnant.

Memory foam is really great to sleep on if you can manage to climb up into your bed.

You should go through the pictures on your phone every now and then because some of them will make you laugh.

"I'm gonna give you a knuckle sandwich!"

"Dena's face paint for 25 cents WOW"

Fun with dogs. She kept looking behind her to see what was jingling.

I have an awesome husband who, when I complained about the too-tall bed, went to Lowe's, bought lumber, had it cut, brought it home and built a custom support so we could eliminate the box spring. 

And voila! Our mattress is 6 inches lower -- I can now sit on the edge without clambering up first!

And okay ... I already knew the part about having an awesome husband. :)

Wait, What?

One whole week of January is gone.

On one hand, this is nice. It means we're one week closer to meeting Bacon.

On the other hand, it's kind of alarming because I'm not necessarily one week more ready to meet Bacon. I have projects I'm working on and I still need to order the car seat.
*sidenote: since starting this post I have ordered the car seat and continued to work on projects.

It also means that it's been two weeks since Christmas and how is that even possible? Seriously, I have got to take down the decorations. *sidenote: the decorations are down and the living room is semi-normal again. And Mama Dog is bewildered and confused because she just got used to it the other way and we changed it all up on her again.

On a totally unrelated note, it's 4 degrees outside. *sidenote: it was four degrees. Now it's ten. I plan to stay in my bathrobe all day.

Time to begin my annual countdown: only 71 70 days until spring!

We started back to school this week. I'm impressed with the Boogie -- she hasn't forgotten anything! We only had four-day weeks all through December before taking completely off for two whole weeks, and the last official week of school was really laid-back without lessons in everything. So, she is doing really well. Peabody, on the other hand, needs to be re-trained in not being a distraction. It's a good thing she is cute ...

... because sometimes she does awful things, like tell the very friendly lady at the cutting counter at Joann Fabrics, "You have a weird face." Oh, the mortification. I've never heard her tell anyone anything like that. I could not have anticipated that at all in order to prevent it. I felt my face turn twelve shades of red. So yes ... it's a good thing she is cute. Also it's a good thing I don't need anything from Joann Fabrics because I won't be going back there anytime soon.

Self-portrait I found on my memory card

I am 36 weeks pregnant today. In general I feel heavy and uncomfortable. Some days are better than others. Some nights I sleep better than others. Part of me wants Bacon to come in a couple of weeks, another part of me really wants him/her to have a February birthday. A couple of appointments ago Dr. S said that Bacon won't be small, but at the last one he guessed around 7 pounds. So who knows?

The girls are adamant that they want a baby brother. At every opportunity I encourage them that another sister would be nice, too. I tell them that God has chosen the perfect baby for our family, whether a girl or a boy. They reluctantly agree with me. The Boogie wisely doesn't say anything more, but Peabody can't help herself: "but if Bacon is a sister, I will just be really upset."

I just inadvertently deleted my blog background and had to start from scratch. That's more than an hour of my day gone forever.

And now my day is completely gone and I'm going to bed.

Christmas 2013

Another Christmas season come and gone. It was nice (it usually is) and I think everyone enjoyed it overall.

We had several family Christmas get-togethers: MIL's side of the family came to NJ the weekend before; we had our local family gift exchange on Christmas Eve; and we made the trip over to Delaware on January 4th to see FIL's side of the family. At church we had a banquet one night, complete with preaching, a game, and "gingerbread" house building.

On Christmas Day we always go out to breakfast at our favorite local diner. Last year we noticed another family with little girls, and the girls were in their pajamas. I commented on it and said that maybe one day our girls could do the same. Well, the Boogie latched onto that and remembered all year. As Christmas drew closer she often commented about being excited to go out for breakfast (she LOVES to eat out) and wear her pajamas. I gave it some thought and realized that neither girl owned any p.j.s that I'd care for them to wear in public! So, I made them some. They were so easy to make and turned out really cute, if I do say so myself. (I followed this tutorial.) I bought t-shirts and appliqued them to match the pants.

(I made pants for Eric as well, though not penguins, and now I'm jealous of everyone's new comfy flannel sleepwear -- I should have made some for myself, too!) Anyway, we let them open their p.j. gifts on Christmas Eve so that they could wear them to bed. The next morning I made them some chocolate milk ... and the first thing Peabody did was spill it all over her new pajamas. I made those for them to wear to breakfast, and by golly they were going to wear them to breakfast, so before we opened any gifts I started a load of laundry! 

It was a nice, laid-back day. Everyone got nice gifts and for once I didn't feel like we were completely overwhelmed with new toys. Each girl got something she'd been asking for for a while, so they were both really excited about those gifts.

My mom made them the cutest quilted tic-tac-toe mat with beanbag markers!

 We gave them an easel as well which has been used a lot. 

The Boogie woke up with a sore throat and by the end of the day we could tell she really was not feeling well, so we put her to bed early and had her take it easy the next day.

For the past several years we've done Christmas dinner for whatever local family didn't have any plans, but this year we cooked for Thanksgiving instead. I'm really glad we did it that way because I was definitely not up for hosting Christmas dinner.

I always try to make some gifts to give out. This year I did friendship soup mix in a jar, and some hot chocolate mix in a jar. Honestly I wasn't too impressed with either of them -- next year maybe I'll go back to some kind of dessert.

Other gifts I made this year were felt needle-books for my mom and Mamaw; silhouettes of the girls for both sets of grandparents as well as for Eric to take to work; and skirts for the girls and a couple of their friends. The needle-books were fun to make! I wanted to use nice wool felt in fun colors, but Joann Fabrics only had boring wool colors so I used craft felt instead.

I was anxious about doing the silhouettes, and some of them were easier to make than the others (the smart thing to do would have been to make templates of the first successful set!) I framed the ones for my parents separately, with each girl backed with her favorite color.

I framed the ones for the ILs together with the girls' names printed on the background paper (something I wish I'd thought to do for my parents.) Eric's I just framed with cardstock so that he could slip it under the plexiglass on top of his toolbox at work. I think the silhouettes were my favorite gifts to give this year -- they were the ones I was most excited to give, anyway!

A non-gift related project I did was for Eric's work Christmas dinner. It's hosted at a nice catering facility. I didn't have anything to wear so I ordered a maternity dress that I found on clearance online. When it arrived it was at least six inches too long! Okay, I know I'm a little on the short side, but is the average woman six inches taller than me? Anyway, in order to wear it I was going to have to hem it which made me really nervous because for one thing it meant actually cutting off the bottom instead of just turning up the existing hem, and for the second thing it was heavy stretchy jersey knit which is notoriously difficult to sew, and I am at best still a very novice seamstress. The dress hung on a curtain rod in our room for almost two weeks before I nerved myself up to do anything with it. I prayed a LOT and googled a lot and finally just went for it and it turned out great! Whew! (Praise the Lord for online tutorials and double needles.)

But ... I didn't have any shoes to wear with it. The only dressy shoes I owned went with the dress just fine, but the heels were way too high for me to manage in my current pregnant state. I reeeeeally didn't want to buy new shoes. Then I remembered that tucked away in my closet were my wedding shoes: white satin sandals, worn once.

Okay, they would be fine, but white? Not gonna work. If only I could dye them. I googled that and it seemed like an awful lot of bother. Then I had an inspiration: silver Sharpie. I tried a test patch on the inner part, and it worked!

It took some time, a trip to CVS, and two whole markers to do both sandals. The color was slightly uneven, and the silver did transfer itself to my feet a little (I might be able to spray them with something) but I knew no one would be closely inspecting my shoes so they worked just fine for their intended purpose! And I was very pleased with my cleverness.

Now, on to a new year!

A Little Holiday Gratefulness

Today I'm thankful for:

-a less-stressful-than-previous-years holiday season.

-great Christmas music on Pandora.

-lights on our Christmas tree.

-online shopping.

-free Christmas activities to do as a family, like this Living Nativity (if you live locally you should check it out) and a cute Christmas program at the cousins' school the other night. I especially appreciated the hilarious kindergarteners, though they were not intentionally hilarious. The Boogie kept looking over at me and whispering, "Why are you laughing?"

-all gifts mailed that need to be mailed.

-a good 33-week check-up this morning. Blood pressure is great and Baby Bacon is guesstimated to be around 4-4.25 lbs. Dr. S asked how big the girls were at birth, and said, "This one won't be small." Well. He was exactly right with the Boogie's birth-weight, and pretty close with Peabody's so I guess I have to believe him.

-2 little girls who behave themselves when we go to the doctor, as well as all of the other places I've been dragging them over the past 2-3 weeks.

-2 little girls who are big enough to walk everywhere and who don't require a bunch of gear. While I am more uncomfortable the bigger I get, I appreciate that a 4-lb. Bacon is (almost) all I have to carry around -- no infant seat, no diaper bag, no making sure the stroller is in the car, plus both hands are still free!

-Peabody's bravery yesterday at her first "real" haircut. Although I've cut her hair myself, she was nervous about having someone else do it, and she told us in so many words: "Well, I'm nervous."

-Peabody's vocabulary. She cracks me up.

-Peabody's exclamation of "Ella!" when she hears an Ella Fitzgerald song play. The first time it happened I thought it was a coincidence, but nope, she's correctly identified her several times. I am so proud.

-funny conversations between the girls, like the one overheard this morning:
Peabody: "I just want somebody to help me!"
The Boogie: "Well, it's certainly not going to be me."

-my sewing machine. It's been fun to come up with simple Christmas gift projects and then see them happen.

-my husband who, when I creep to bed long after midnight (because while it's been fun to learn how to use my sewing machine, I'm still very much a novice seamstress so even simple projects take about 3 times longer than they should), instead of shrinking away from the block of ice that is his wife, snuggles closer so that I'll warm up quickly.

-being a stay at home mom and the perks that come with that, like taking a nap at 10:30 in the morning after being up until 1:30 a.m. working on Christmas projects that take 3 times longer than they should.

-a backyard in which to let the dog out so that I don't have to actually take her for a walk to do her business in below-freezing temperatures.

-above-freezing temps today, and a forecast of 60 and 70 degrees for the weekend! Yippee! I'm dreaming of ... not wearing a winter coat.

O Christmas Tree

Every year we get a live Christmas tree. We know that it would be more financially responsible to purchase a fake one and use it for several years, but we like real ones. Besides, a real one will eventually return back to the earth from whence it came, so that makes it the greener choice, right? Gotta justify that decision somehow ...

We decided that we would go after church last Sunday. The forecast called for snow flurries -- no big deal, and the girls would get a big kick out of tree hunting in the snow (and by tree hunting, I mean searching through the stacks of them at Lowe's. We've tried to do our part supporting local businesses in the past, but let's face it -- those trees are way more expensive.) The flurries started during the morning service. Soon it became apparent that it was more than just flurries. I asked Eric, "Are you sure you want to do this?" We hadn't told the girls so they wouldn't be disappointed, and he was the one who would have to haul the tree around and tie it to the top of the van. He said he still wanted to, so off we went after the service. The roads weren't too bad. We stopped for something to eat, which was probably a mistake because while we were eating the snow came down fast and furious. By the time we left there was considerably more on the ground. Eric still wanted to go, though, so we continued on to Lowe's.

At Lowe's I stood under an overhang out of the snow and pointed at different trees which Eric then stood up and shook off and spun around for my approval. We found one we liked pretty quickly -- I didn't want to be TOO picky, but then again I didn't want to be stuck with a Charlie Brown tree. Meanwhile the girls ran around in the snow while I repeatedly told Peabody to stop eating it.

Eric tied it to the top of the van and we slowly made our way home. By then the roads were pretty bad, and there were a lot of people out, but we didn't see many cars in ditches. Our little town has one hill right through the center of it, and we saw people stuck going up and going down the other side. The van did great, though! We made it safely home with no trouble, praise the Lord.

The snow-covered tree went into the garage, though after a while I realized that it was just as cold in the garage as outside so it would never dry off. So Eric brought it into the laundry room to drip-dry.

Not the first time we've had a tree in our laundry room! Mama Dog was NOT happy with that. She doesn't like it when things are strange or out of place. There were bins of Christmas decorations stacked up in the living room, and the next day we rearranged in order to set up the tree in front of the window, and she really did not like that at.all. She moped around for a couple of days until she got used to it. Weirdo dog.

On Monday night we put the lights on in what had to be the quickest light-stringing-experience ever. I think it literally took us less than ten minutes which was surely a record. On Tuesday night we watched a classic Christmas movie and drank egg nog while I sat on the couch and handed out ornaments for the girls to hang on the tree. That meant that multiple ornaments ended up on same branches, and hardly anything made it to the top, but overall they did a pretty good job and after they went to bed we cleaned it up a little.

We even convinced Peabody to put the penguin on top! Last year she was too scared.

 

We're pretty happy with our little tree this year, especially at night with the lights on.

 

Shopping

I don't like it. I can't fathom shopping for fun. It just makes me tired. The only kind of walking around a store that I like is when we go to Target because then I can get a mocha. And okay, people-watching is fun.

But I especially dislike grocery shopping. Do you know why? Other shoppers.

For example:

-Carts left in parking spaces. There are cart corrals everywhere. Why is it so inconvenient to walk an extra couple of parking spaces to put a cart into a corral? I mean, it's not like the shopper isn't capable of it. They just walked all over an entire store. But maybe that's why. They're simply too tired to take another step.

-Aisle blocking. I'm sure we can all relate. Really, it's not so hard to pull the cart over. Or, you know, stand just a liiiiittle closer to the shelves while perusing them.

-Never moving out of anyone's way. For some reason this is a confusing concept for the other shoppers to understand, so maybe I should wear a shirt that says, "It is much more difficult for this pregnant woman to maneuver my heavily loaded cart and two young children out of your way than it is for you and your small basket to step out of mine." Except they obviously haven't noticed me, my kids, or my cart, so why would I think they would read my shirt?

-Check-out line inconsideration.
The customer who leaves their cart in line to "hold" their place while they run back for something all the way over at the other end of the store.

The short conveyor belt and the customer who puts their groceries on it, then stands at the register in front of their (now empty) cart while all of their purchases are scanned and paid for, effectively blocking the (now empty) entire belt for the next customer (me.)

The long conveyor belt which I foolishly neglect to completely block while putting my own groceries on it, so that the person behind me decides to unload their own cart ... despite the fact that my cart is still piled high meaning OBVIOUSLY I'm going to need more than the two feet of belt they have left me.

-Parking lot inconsideration.
The person who sits in their car next to mine chatting on their phone until I open my door in order to buckle my kid into her seat, at which time they decide they need to open their own door.

The person who parks next to me while I'm loading my car and then, as soon as I'm finished, gets out of their vehicle, walks to the nearest corral, and gets a cart. Um, hello? Offer to take mine! It was RIGHT THERE! No, really, I'm happy to give it to you!

The person who sits in their vehicle in the aisle waiting for me to finish loading groceries in my car, return my cart to a corral, and buckle my kids. Never mind the fact that by the time I'm ready to leave, they could have parked somewhere else and been inside the store already. Heaven forbid that they have to walk an extra few feet by parking two or three spots away. They have to save all of their energy because believe me, it's exhausting dealing with all of those other inconsiderate shoppers.

And that is my rant for the day.

Peabody This and Peabody That

We were getting ready to leave the house for a walk.
"Your shoes are on the wrong feet," I told Peabody.
When she sat on the floor to fix them, she hit her back on the bookshelf and started crying. I comforted her and said, "You'll feel better when we go for our walk, but your shoes are still on the wrong feet."
Tearfully she replied, "So fix them."
"Me? I'm not going to fix them. You fix them!" I said.
"But, I have a hurt back ..." she said sadly.
 
I saw a picture of some friends on Facebook and showed them to Peabody.
"Dose are not your friends," she told me. "You are a grown-up. You don' have any friends."
Thanks a lot, kid.

She is super excited about it being Christmastime. The day after Thanksgiving she told us half a dozen times, "Now we can watch Christmas movies! And listen to Christmas music! And look at Christmas decorations!" She said she wanted to watch Rudolph the Rodent Reindeer.

We were trying to agree on a movie. The Boogie wanted White Christmas, but Peabody kept insisting on, "The one with the man, with two letters, in between." I finally figured out what she meant:

She explained to me about time passing:
"Honey, ri' now it's morning time. After morning time, it's night. After night, it's raining. After raining, it's snowing. And after Thanksgiving, it's Christmas!"

She told me seriously, "Well, Honey, I go'd to the store today."
"You did? Who did you go with?" I asked.
She thought about that for a minute, then said, "I drived myself."
"Oh really? What did you drive?"
"I drived the van."
"You did, huh? And what store did you go to?"
"Well, first I go'd to Walmart. An' then I go'd to Target. An' then I go'd to Petsmart. An' Walmart was all out of toys."
Tragedy.

She still prefaces action words with "un" unnecessarily: un-cut, un-glue, etc. "Honey, will you please un-zipper me?" means that she wants me to zip up her coat.

One of my favorite things she says is "hims" instead of "his." She observed a little boy repeatedly disobeying his mother, and told us later that "he was loud, and mean to hims mom."

If I refuse her something she tells me, "Well, Honey, I'm jus' really disappointed." I know she means angry, but I play along. "Why are you disappointed?"
"Because you telled me no," she says.

She and the Boogie still disagree about what 101 Dalmations is really called. Peabody calls it 7 Dalmations, upon which the Boogie corrects her, "No, you mean Ten Thousand Dalmations."

Her favorite article of clothing is this Toy Story shirt that her cousins gave her.

She asks to wear it almost every single day. One day in the car she said, "Honey, when you pack my shirt away up in the attic, I will be so sad." I told her that she can wear it until it gets too small, and then we will save it for Bacon, so that cheered her up a bit. But really I doubt that it will survive her. If it does I think I'll sew all of the openings closed and stuff it to make a pillow!