Ice Cream Memories

Today, the weather was amazingly perfect. It hit about 66 degrees and stayed sunny with little wind. After D woke up from his afternoon nap and B got home from work, we all headed outside to enjoy this blessing. C rode her bike and D drove his little "Power Quad"- its like a tiny motorized 4-wheeler for toddlers.

The kids thought it was awesome. D cruised up and down our walking path in the neighborhood at a snail's pace. C sped up ahead and then waited for us to catch up. I waddled around just hoping the contractions all the walking was causing wasn't actually putting me into labor. My hubby just stayed back with D to make sure he didn't run off the paved path and down into the lake.

I wished I had brought along my camera to capture C flying up ahead and D sputtering behind me on his Toy Story 4-wheeler with his tiny Cars helmet. It was all SO cute!

As if that wasn't awesome enough, the ice cream man was making rounds in the neighborhood. B had to run an errand, so he took D with him and handed me a few bucks to get an ice cream for our oldest.

She was overjoyed to choose a Dora ice cream and then tear into it on our front sidewalk. This time, I did run inside to grab my camera.

Just seeing my big girl enjoying the warmth, eating her ice cream, watching the boys across the street build a fort made me feel so blessed. She was incredibly happy. I wish every evening could be so peaceful and calm.

But alas, according to The Weather Channel, the weather will turn chilly again soon. The baby will be born and life will get a little more hectic. My husband inevitably returned home from the dry cleaners with little D in tow. All good things must come to an end.

I'm just happy I have the pictures to remember this fleeting moment.

The Last Few Items

After going through all my old baby things and pulling out the cute little outfits and blankies, I have made a short list of items I would still like to acquire for the new baby. None of these items are obviously, "must have" items since I have had 2 babies and haven't had them yet, but nonetheless, I'd love to try them with Baby No. 3.

Since I am constantly learning more about parenting from other mommies, I have learned the benefits of some of these newer products and like most people, I'd love to try them out. Anything that has given other mommies more rest and happier babies is a winner in my book!

So, sit back and take a look at some of these cool baby products. Maybe you'll want to add one or two to your baby wish list as well :-)

First up is the Woombie Swaddle wrap. I am a huge swaddling fan and I love to see new products out there that keep babies happy and content and all snuggled up in a safe way. The Woombie seems pretty cool to me. I have read that many moms rate this as their No. 1 baby product. I can see why babies would love it. Its very stretchy and soft. Its lightweight and allows baby to move his arms around within the wrap. It does pretty much look like it would feel in the womb, haha. I'd love to give one of these a try!

Next is the Beco Butterfly 2 baby carrier. It is both a front and a back carrier and it holds babies from the newborn stage all the way up to an older toddler age (45lbs)! From the reviews I've read, it is very comfortable and distributes the baby's weight very well across the parent's body. You can even transfer it from mommy to daddy without removing the baby. Pretty cool feature in my opinion! It is expensive, but I think it will be money very well spent....once I find the money, that is, haha.

Next on my wish list would be a nursing cover. I've never had one of these nice ones with the stay put opening on the neckline. I love the fact that you can see the baby while you're nursing. I love that you can adjust the baby on the breast without having to hide under under the cover yourself. Plus, I love all the beautiful fabrics available for these. The one I have been looking at is the Hooter Hiders nursing cover. I think it looks pretty awesome to be able to nurse in public (and even just around extended family) without anyone feeling embarrassed or exposed :-) I would LOVE to have one of these!

The last thing that I'd love is a new diaper bag. I have a couple bags that I've bought over the years and although I do like them and plan to use them, I'd love a new one that is special for this baby. I have settled on the Do-it-all Diaper Bag from Land's End. I can't seem to grab a picture of it, but if you click on the words, it will link you to it. It opens like a "doctor's bag" and it is incredibly roomy. I think it will hold my cloth diapers, pacis, extra outfits, nursing cover (haha!) and wallet with room to spare. I would also love to have it embroidered with N's initials. I just think that would make it look so special :-) Ahhh, I can dream, right?

I hope you enjoyed my wish list. I am not having a baby shower with this third baby, so I can't be certain if/when I will be able to acquire these few items. When and if I do though, I will be sure to blog about them and let you know how they worked for me! I'd love to share the success of these baby products with you.

Oh, and on that note, the Bio-Oil I've been using on my belly to keep stretch marks at bay is STILL WORKING WONDERS! I am now almost 34 weeks along and haven't gotten a single one. This is so incredibly exciting since I got so many stretch marks with my previous pregnancies. I am also not suffering from the horribly itchy belly that I suffered with in the past. The Bio-Oil is awesome!! I highly recommend it to you pregnant women out there in blogger land!

(You can faintly see the sheen of the "old stretch marks" on my belly, but overall, the results are remarkable! By this stage in my previous pregnancies, I looks like I had a purple road map from my pubic bone up to above my belly button.)

The Shoe Closet

When you look like this...

You can see why cleaning out this closet seemed like an overwhelming task.

At least C had some fun playing in all the shoes :-)

Can you believe ALL those shoes came out of here?

Keeping up with my hubby

I feel like I can't keep up with our housework. Not even a little bit.

Its starting to have me really worried about how things will go once this baby comes. I keep telling myself that its easier right now with him still all tucked away in my belly, but that just seems to make me feel worse.

The problem is not keeping up with the day to day tasks, its keeping up with the mounding of tasks that build slowly over time. For instance, my front coat/shoe closet is a DISASTER. Seriously, it has shoes in it that the kids outgrew last Fall. It needs an extreme overhaul, but when is this 8 months pregnant woman going to make time to spend an hour on her hands and knees sorting through shoes of 4 people that are either no longer being worn or that just plain don't fit? Then, where are the ones that don't fit going to go? Shoved in a bag in another closet somewhere? This is why I haven't even attempted this task yet.

Another monumental task would be cleaning my laundry room. If you knew where my laundry room is in my house (tucked in the corner of my kitchen), you could see why it is the "dumping ground" for everything in my house. Everything from a bin of winter clothes, coats that don't fit in the hall closet, the dog's food, a stack of cloth diapers, ALL C's crafting supplies, and most of my seasonal decor house themselves in this average sized laundry room. It needs a huge cleaning.

I did start this task today, but I only accomplished clearing off one small area. I'm happy with it for now - maybe I will attempt another small area tomorrow.

The laundry piled up in different sections of my house is driving me crazy too. I love to do laundry but I've always hated putting it away. Now that our house has two floors, I hate it even more. How am I ever supposed to get caught up once the baby comes?

I feel like I should be doing better at these tasks. Like I shouldn't be resting on the couch when D takes his nap. I SHOULD be using that time for productivity. Its just that by 1pm, I am nearly exhausted already. I need to rest. I tell myself that once the baby comes, I don't think I'll be getting any naps or rest time anytime soon. So, is it right to rest on the couch now when I could be cleaning out that goofy closet? Please tell me that it is...

Okay, back to the title of this post - keeping up with my husband. I feel like as B trots around the globe, I should be able to keep up with the tasks in our 1800 square feet. Maybe its not fair to compare my daily life with his, but really, how does my day stack up when I am fretting about laundry, a shoe closest, and running out of toilet paper when he is out experiencing things like these?

I do need to point out that in this picture, B is standing on a frozen sea....this will make the irony of the next picture pretty funny.

(I probably shouldn't disclose the location of where he was or exactly what he was doing, but if you follow the recent activities of our executive branch of government, you'd be able to find out.)

My days hardly compare to the awesomeness of B's recent days. I hope he can overlook the craziness of our home and find the beauty in the everyday things right here at home too. Sometimes I see it and sometimes I don't. It creeps up when I least expect it and then dashes away just as quickly, haha.

I am just thankful for the amazing souvenirs he brought back for me and the kids. After being gone for a while, I am sure B is just glad to be home - even with the messy shoe closet and exploding laundry room. I know we are thrilled to have him!

Deployment Mode

When my hubby was deployed, it stunk. There really isn't a nice way of putting it. It was hard. I hated it. I missed him. I was tired. I needed help. The kids missed him. I worried about him. Etc, etc...

With that out of the way, I will say that I did at some-point "adjust" to being without him for an extended amount of time. I am not going to say that I "got used to it," because I don't think any wife ever gets used to her hubby being gone for 8 months in one stretch of time. I did however kinda get in a groove with the kids, with my friends, with my church, and with my schedule.

After each of his deployments finally ended, I was THRILLED to have him back home with us. It was truly a huge relief on so many levels to have him around again.

When we moved here to the DC area, we knew that B wouldn't be deploying for at least 4 years. We knew he would be traveling frequently on shorter trips but that he wouldn't be deploying. We were both relieved about this! Big time.

Now that we're here and he has completed all his initial training, he is in full "travel" mode. And they weren't kidding! He has been on the road a lot these days. The 2-4 days trips aren't so bad, but right now he's on a 10 day trip. These 10 days have felt forever long. While my daughter understands how long 10 days is, little D has no concept of time. He asks several times a day about daddy. I just keep telling him, "just a few more days..." He just doesn't get it at all.

Its been a hard 10 days because 10 days really isn't THAT long. Its not a deployment by any stretch of the imagination, but its not a normal "overnighter" either. Its not quite long enough to get in "deployment mode" in my brain where the kids and I adjust to being alone. We just miss him and count the days until he comes home.

Unfortunately, counting the days isn't really all that helpful because as soon as B come home from this trip, he gets sent back on the road for 3 back-to-back trips. He will be gone a total of 3 weeks on that stretch of trip-hopping.

Again, I totally realize that its nothing compared to a deployment, but still, its a long time. Its a long time for him to be away and its a long time for me to not have him home. Especially when he will be gone from weeks 34-37 in this pregnancy...

Haha, I kind of have to laugh about it, since if I don't chuckle some, I may (*do*) cry about it. I am exhausted from waddling around. Bending over to pick things up off the floor is a challenge. Hiking up the stairs to our second floor has become a form of "exercise," and I can't help but to be slightly nervous that I may actually go into labor or have my water break while he's gone!

He and I talked today, and I now know that I can call his work cell phone at any time no matter where in the world he is traveling. It doesn't actually mean that he can "poof" himself back here, but at least I can reach him and notify him should our youngest decide to enter this world a few weeks early.

Please just pray for me over this next month. I'm tired. The kids miss their daddy. Pray that I can snap in and out of "deployment mode" in my brain with the kids as he heads out of town each time. Please pray for B too. He is currently in his first semester of online classes and he is definitely overwhelmed with writing papers, answering discussion questions, and keeping up with two very reading intensive classes while on the road living out of hotels.

Oh yeah, and pray that our baby stays put in my belly. And that he flips head down.

Thanks in advance to all the prayer warriors out there!

Me and the boys

My 2-year-old may as well be called, "my shadow" because he seems pretty incapable of playing solo these days. He is glued to my side every waking minute of his day. Its not that I really MIND him loving me and wanting me to be his source of comfort, love, entertainment, and transportation, its just that, I have this huge belly in the way.

Sitting down on the floor to play is more difficult than it used to be. Or is it the getting back up off the floor? Haha!

I have had to limit how much I carry him around. Many moms would just say "make him walk...put him down!" (In fact, sometimes I try and tell myself this.)

But, they haven't felt the little scrawny legs and arms of my 28lb monkey around their torso. I love holding him. He doesn't weight THAT much and he clings to me like one of those stuffed monkey toys with the velcro-together hands and feet.

I love it.

Especially when he is fresh out the bath or shower (with me of course) and he is just in his undies. A sweet smelling, soft skinned toddler is just the best thing ever :-)

Right up there with fresh and clean newborns. Something about that innocent and perfect skin makes snuggling come naturally to mamas.

So, with that being said, he remains "my shadow..."

Anyway, as usual, D was playing within about 18 inches of me when I decided I'd take a picture of my growing belly on the computer. I am now 32 1/2 weeks and since no member of my family lives anywhere near me to see me during this pregnancy, I like to photograph my changing shape as much as possible. They love to see the pictures and I love to document this final (*insert tears*) pregnancy.

Of course...I had to have an assistant for this round of pics.

Here are a few of the "good" shots of me and my boys :-)

Greener Grass

Is the grass greener on the other side? I like to think its not.

But, sometimes I still like to take a look.

Tonight after bathing the kids, wrestling PJs onto them, reading to them, tucking them in...retucking...retucking...over and over again (Okay, just D does this. C stays in bed properly most nights), I got to thinking about what it would be like if I didn't bear the full 100% load of "caregiving" to my children.

It came to me 45 minutes after I first tucked D in as he sat on the toilet because he told me he needed to "poo-poo."

At first I thought, "No. This is just an excuse to get out of bed again." But then I thought, "Who am I to tell a potty training toddler that he can't try and poo-poo on the potty 45 minutes after going to bed?"

So, I carried him in and sat him on the toilet. As he did indeed go poo-poo and proceed to report MANY times that he was going a "lot a poo-poo, " all I could do was sit on the edge of the tub and think.

If I worked full-time and my children stayed with either an at-home caregiver such as a grandparent or friend or in a day-care style facility, how would things be different?

My immediate thought was that I wouldn't have to be the ONLY person potty training D. Someone else would cheer when he pees and poo-poos during the day. Someone else could show him how to pull his pants up and down and how to wash and dry his hands.

When my kids were younger, probably the day-care provider would have been the one to get them in a schedule/routine during the day. Maybe they could even get them to take better naps!

My children probably would eat a better variety of foods because day-care facilities/providers probably don't cater to picky children. They probably just make one thing (truthfully, I do this too, but I tend to make PB&Js or cheese and crackers WAY too frequently for lunch). I think my kids would have learned to eat a better variety of foods at an earlier age.

I got to thinking that if I worked full-time, I would still have to do all our laundry, all our grocery shopping, all our "fun time shopping," cook/plan all our meals, and still clean my house. This sounds like A LOT of work on top of a full-time job.

Sometimes I just wish I wasn't the only care-giver raising my children. My husband helps when he's home of course, but the daily grind is 100% mine. I know what D is saying when nobody else does...but if he stayed home with my mom during the day, she may know too. I always feel bad when D tries to say something and I answer him with the correct answer to his question or statement and my husband has to ask me, "what is he trying to say?" Its time like those that I realize I do a BIG job.

I hold a huge responsibility in my family.

Its a big load to carry, but I think its an honorable load, nonetheless.

I don't write this to say that being a stay-at-home-mom is "harder" or "better" than being a working mom. I just realize thats its different. I think those differences can be both good and bad. I think that what works for some moms would drive others nuts and vice versa.

There are many days that I wish I could go to work. I miss working. I miss having adult friends and co-workers that I see on a regular basis. I miss the extra income. I miss having a real reason to shower and put on nice clothes. I miss feeling important and having a great sense of accomplishment after doing something and seeing it through to completion. I miss being recognized for my efforts...I think this is what I miss most of all.

But then I see my friends who work have to rearrange their whole day/week because their child got sick and needed to go to the doctor. And I think about how hard it must be to work a full day and then come home to a house where the laundry still piles up and the fridge still needs filled. That must be exhausting! I really can't imagine having to take care of my house only between the house of 6-10pm each night or on the weekends.

I guess if the trade off is that I, as a stay-at-home-mom, have to do 100% of the child rearing, booty wiping, nose blowing, encouraging, disciplining, car pooling, cooking, nap enforcing, sight-word teaching, grocery shopping, language interpreting (and teaching!), and creativity building, then I guess I'll take it.

I don't think the grass is greener on the other side in this case. I can see a lot of upsides to to being a working mom. But, for me and my kids, staying at home has been the best choice. :-)

Now let me go check and make sure my little guy is actually STAYING in the bed this time...