No Baby Yet, Officially in Lazy Mode

Baby is low, I'm slightly dilated and DR thinks it will be any day now. I can't sit with my legs closed or open at this point. I'm still sleeping like a log, thank God. Not for long, I know. We all have colds - nothing major but enough so that I really want it to clear for me for pushing and for the kids so that I'm not so anxious about them being around the baby and holding her.

Nothing like sitting and waiting...and waiting...and waiting...It's taking all my strength not to just schedule induction again, but I really want to let things happen naturally for once. Anyone that knows me is shocked by this decision and amazed that I haven't buckled yet. I so want to meet her and see what she looks like and see my kids faces when we present a new baby sister to them. I think it's been so long now for them that they have no concept that an actual baby will come out and that Mommys belly will not stay like this forever (although it feels like it). I probably should have waited longer to tell them, but it was hard to keep it in :)

We have done absolutely nothing today and will continue on this path. No need to be a hero. Shelagh has dance tomorrow and a birthday party so I'll try to do those things. My parents are coming up tomorrow night which will be great. Rory has a birthday party on Sunday. I'm officially done with work and Monday is the last Kindergarten tour for the public schools (we have school choice in my town and of course tours and registration are now) and another school. I hope I make it to those so I can settle my mind about where she will be going.

The kids are watching The Wiggles, which I swore I would never introduce. Of course, they LOVE the Wiggles and keep borrowing CDs from the library and love the DVD handed down from their cousins that they spotted before I could siphon it out. I'm cruel, I know. I guess they aren't as annoying as I thought. It's worth it to see Rory rock out and sing along.

A New Level of Nesting

I have seriously accomplished so much in the last few weeks...I'm pretty proud of myself!

1) Attended the Kindergarten Orientation for Shelagh and organized all her registration paperwork. Hopefully I'll make it to the tours before I deliver. Our town has school choice so we have to pick 1 of 5 elementary schools for her.

2) Organized all our 2008 paperwork for taxes

3) Organized all paperwork for a refi (what a pain in the ass)

4) Everything for baby is washed and ready. The crib is ready, bassinet and pack n plays are out and supplies are stocked! Nursing stuff is ready and my bag is packed!

5) I did a last house cleaning this weekend which is taking me about 3 different days to do nowadays.

6) Bills are mostly paid for this month since I'm due on the 2nd.

7) Getting last haircut, successfully have cleared out most of my freezer to make room for my mom coming up and re-stocking it :), added TiVO software to my cable companies DVR (this is possibly the best thing EVER. I LOVE TIVO and am so happy I can have it again!), and booked our 1st vacation to Disney for the end of my maternity leave with another family (house, airfare and princess lunch).

Yeah, me!

No, I've Not Gone into Labor...

Just been hustling to get stuff done before baby arrives...Here's what has been going on:

1. I'm 1-2 cm dilated and baby is low, but she has a little further to go. Dr doesn't think I'll go early, and I haven't gone early before, but he thinks I'm on target for around due date, which is 2/2. I'm SO ready to meet her, start my maternity leave, and welcome this change into our family!!
2. Work is wrapping up and while I was going to work all 3 days this coming week, I think I'll bag Thursday and try to finish Monday and Tuesday.
3. Rory has been in preschool for 2 weeks now and is doing great! He loves that Shelaghs school is his school now too. Despite having some weepy drop offs, he has adjusted so well and his teachers are happy he came into the room before the other new kids from the younger class move up next week. He is the only one new to the school so he was able to get some special attention.
4. I'm hoping his friends in class using the potty will rub off on him and his teachers will really help him. I'm being VERY lazy on potty training since baby is about to arrive and he is just 3 anyway. I know boys and girls are very different about this but I have much less drive to get him trained. While it would be nice to stop diapers for him, I just don't have it in me right now to have him try every 1/2 hour like we did with Shelagh. Besides, he stands there for like 20 mins b/c he thinks now he'll get new cars when he pees REGARDLESS of whether he has to go or not. My fault :)
5. Shelagh is so hooked on drawing and art right now. It's great on several fronts...mostly b/c she really focuses on it and spends time thinking about colors and designs and also b/c it lets her work independently on something and frees up some time for me to do stuff while Rory naps.

I have some cooking stuff to post too...

What I've Been Cooking Lately

I don't know how I've mustered up the energy to keep cooking in these last weeks before baby, but I have. I've had medium results. I picked up the new Cooks Illustrated Soups & Stews special issue and it had a ton of interesting recipes in it. Unfortunately, you can't get much for free online. I love this magazine, but it's really expensive to subscribe to and not all issues have enough in it to justify it. Plus, they have a show on TV that covers some of the same stuff. Here are some of the things I've done lately:

Slow Cooker Beef Burgundy
(Cooks Illustrated Soups & Stews 2009)

The interesting thing about this recipe is the use of instant Tapioca as a thickener instead of flour or cornstarch. The sauce and general flavor was great, but the chuck parts weren't marbled enough and it came out a little dry. Next time, I'll pick a fattier roast and cut it up myself.

Pan-Roasted Chicken with Shallot and Vermouth Sauce
(Cooks Illustrated Sept/Oct 2002)

Found this in my files...basically I had a whole chicken that I had to cook, but I got home late and didn't have the hour to roast it whole. This was really yummy...I cut up the chicken into 8 parts and browned it stovetop in oil about 5-7 minutes per side. Then I put the whole pan in the oven at 450 for about 10 more minutes.

When it came out, I moved the chicken and made the sauce in the same pan.

1) Pour off most, but not all of the fat

2) Saute 1 large minced shallot for about 2 minutes

3) Add 3/4 cup chicken broth, 1/2 cup vermouth, a tsp of dried thyme, turn to high heat and simmer rapidly scraping up bottom bits.

4) Simmer about 5 minutes, add chicken and juices back in along with 3 Tbl butter. Warm for a minute or 2 and serve.

Garlic-Potato Soup

(Cooks Illustrated Soups & Stews 2009)

This was really good, but I would add some bacon next time.

3 Tbl unsalted butter

1 medium leek, halved lengthwise, washed and white/light green parts chopped small (1 cup)

3 medium garlic cloves, crushed

2 whole heads garlic, rinsed, outer skins removed and top 3rd cut off and discarded

6 cups chicken broth

2 bay leaves

1 1/2 lbs russet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 in cubes (about 4 cups)

1 lb red skin potatoes, unpeeled and cut into 1/2 in cubes (about 3 cups)

1/2 cup heavy cream

1 1/2 tsp minced fresh thyme

1/4 minced fresh chives

1) Melt butter in Dutch oven over medium heat. Add leeks and cook to soft (not brown) for 5-8 minutes. Stir in crushed garlic and cook for 1 minute.

2) Add garlic heads, broth, boay leaves, and 3/4 tsp salt. Partially cover pot and simmer over medium high heat. Reduce heat and simmer until garlic is tender, 30-40 minutes.

3) Add potatoes and continue to simmer, partially cover, until potatoes tender, 15-20 minutes more.

4) Discard bay leaves. Remove garlic heads and squeeze garlic into bowl to mash.

5) Stir cream, thyme and mashed garlic into soup. Heat until hot, about 2 minutes. Taste and add salt to taste. Use an immersion blender to process until soup is creamy and thick, but there are still some chunks remaining.

6) Serve with chives on top.

I would cook some chopped bacon before step 1 in the Dutch Oven and then add it in with the cream in Step 5 probably.

I also made a Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting for my sisters in law and brother in laws bdays in January that we celebrated, along with Rorys and 3 other boy nephews bdays all at one family party. I love my carrot cake recipes - one for the cake and one for the frosting. Warning: do not lick the frosting bowl at night before bed. It will keep you up all night since it is made with 4 cups of confectioners sugar.

Robes & Tushies

My parents got the kids these really cute bathrobes and they decided to wear them tonight and pose for me. Then, I got Rory when he least expected it! I just couldn't resist...

Guess Who Peed All Over the Potty?????

For a few weeks now Rory has been trying to pee before getting into the shower. We've been pretty casual about it since we knew this would happen around the time of the baby and didn't want to break backs to get him trained only to have him potentially revert back when the baby arrived. Nor did I want to be cleaning out accident underwear while juggling a brand new infant. In the last couple of weeks I've told Rory I had a new Tex Dinoco and Dinoco McQueen (CARS Movie, of course) for him if he could pee in the potty. The best he could muster, after a good 15 minutes each night of standing there, was to then jump in the shower and pee immediately. There is some mental block with the toilet I think.

Anyway, this morning Joe and naked Rory came running in and announced that Rory needed to poop and he wanted to do it on the potty. After a quick hustle, some flyaway squirts of pee on the floor, he DID IT!!! Joe and Shelagh and I were all hooting and hollering. The kid was so proud of himself and hasn't put down his new cars yet. He's now rooting for some of the 2nd string cars like Nitroade, Bling Bling McQueen, etc. Out comes the sticker chart!!

At which point I wondered why they don't make some kind of cone device to surround the toilet, somewhat like the cones they put on a Dogs head when they aren't supposed to lick or scratch a wound. I think this might be my calling...I could produce the boy potty-training splatter guard and be like that chick that invented the Baby Einsteins videos. You'll see me on Oprah talking about how I just bought some posterboard and laminated it and secured it with duct tape around the seat all crafty-like. And, how the rest of us had to hover for weeks until Rory learned to aim. Then, I'll revise my design to pop on/off the seat with a flip of the wrist or something. Then, I will be a millionaire.

Is it really necessary???

Need I say more?????
I mean, seriously. Was there suddenly a major spike in toy small part theft that caused an industry-wide panic to tie down every nook and cranny of every new toy in its already excessive packaging?

Or, did a toy factory in China decide that they were going to offer this new packaging strategy to and it caught on and spread like wildfire?

Or, did some annoying, and obviously child-less, mother-f'er decide to stick it to us parents and cause what used to be an exciting present opening experience into a barrage of grabbing and verbal torture?

Just wondering...

Daddy & Daughter

There are so many things I love about this picture...

1. There is nothing more touching and intimate then seeing your husband worship your daughter and vice versa. Shelagh and Joe have grown really close in the last 6 months that I've noticed. She lets him do so much more than she used to and even prefers him in some cases, which might be normal in some families, but was a change (SO for the better) for ours.
2. Shelagh looks so grown up to me in this shot. Maybe it's because she's heading towards 5 or b/c we're figuring out where she'll go to Kindergarden, or b/c there is a new infant coming. Maybe it's b/c she sometimes says things that are old beyond her years. I don't know, but she is such a little pal these days. And funny as hell...
3. She let me put clips in her hair to pin down her ponytail and it looked so precious. I asked her to take a picture with her dad and she scrambled over to him so fast and snuggled right in.

I could go on and on...

Happy Birthday, Little Man

I cannot believe that Rory is 3. He was so excited it was his birthday and kept announcing it all day ("IT'S MY BIRTHDAY TODAY!! I'M THREE!! Goodbye 2 1/2"). After a visit with his cousins in the morning, we had a little friend party in the afternoon - CARS themed, of course.

Other than free play and pizza/cake, I did a little arts & crafts table from some ideas I had gotten searching online. First and foremost, I am NOT crafty. I have good intentions (collecting pine cones, shells, etc for "projects"), but alas no follow through. I can manage to color and glue with Shelagh on a regular basis and even taught Rory how to use scissors the other day (yeah me & him!). I have VERY LITTLE artistic ability. I'm really more of a math person. Joe is the artist in the family. I found some easy stuff though and felt as Martha Stewart as I could from a craft-sense...1) make your own license plates with foam letters/numbers/cutouts, 2) color a Piston cup, 3) glue a traffic light together, and 4) color a CARS or Princess (so as not to torture the girls attending too much) mini-poster. They all seemed to like it.

Rory had a great day...I don't know how we keep getting new CARS movie stuff that he doesn't already have, but we do and it's like winning the lottery. It's seriously been a good 2 years and he loves this movie even more, if that is possible. In the last week we've accidentally seen 2 new CARS shorts (Tokyo Mater, Spanish Mater-dor) and I thought the poor kid would explode. Even when he gets duplicate cars he's just as happy as the first time. It was terrible tearing him away from his new Little Mack truck this morning.

Here's the birthday boy...


With his new instrument...

Dipping Cruisin' McQueen into his Hoodsie cup and talking to him about liking ice cream...