Princess or Diva?!

In all my closet cleaning and organizing, I recently came across a container full of dress-up jewelry. Ava has taken to wearing as much of the jewelry at once as she can. She thinks she is a princess! She also had some sparkly dress-up shoes on but I didn't get them in the picture.

As you can see, we are making some progress with the clothing issue. I can generally get each child into a shirt for the day. I have a feeling I will finally have them convinced to wear pants and then it will get warm out. While Carter is not in this picture, those are his pants right next to Ava. I can't figure out why we can't all get and stay dressed during the day! But at least they are slowly making progess and wearing tops.

Now I know why....

I've never gone to get a pedicure before.

It's heavenly. Pure bliss. The greatest 45 minutes I've experienced in a while.

I always figured a pedicure was more or less a glorified nail painting. They charge you twice the price of a manicure, rub your feet a little, and paint your nails. So I've never had one. Why would I pay someone to paint my nails when I can do it myself for free?

However, Holly had my name for Christmas and decided to give me a gift certificate for a pedicure. She figured that would be a nice treat for right before the baby was born. And was she ever right!

They don't just rub your feet, they massage. And not just your feet, all the way up to the knees. For like 10 minutes a leg. Aaaaahhhhhh! Plus your feet sit in a tub with hot, bubbly water. The chair is a massaging chair. With multiple massage settings and options. I even had it massaging my butt.

The lady doing my pedicure looked at me in concern a few times. I imagine it was because I was sitting there with my mouth hanging open and drool pouring out. It was that fantastic! I had to keep my hands half on my lap and half on my legs to keep myself from sliding right out of the chair and onto the floor.

So now I'm a convert. Pedicures are one of God's gift to women. He punished us by creating man first, fixed his mistake by creating woman, and then thought up the pedicure to give women something to relax with after dealing with man.

The only problem is that while I'm a convert, I'm still cheap. I have a hard time justifying the cost of the pedi once a year, much less on a regular basis. So my next project is to teach my children how to rub my feet just so. I'll stick my feet in their bath, they can blow bubbles around my feet, and then they can massage my legs. Perfect!

On another note, the baby appears to be in no hurry to come. Nothing has really changed from last week, which hadn't changed from the week before. This little bugger is going to hang out in there until its due date! Which is why I went for the pedi. Several people have told me that pedis can induce labor. Something to do with the most nerve endings in the body, blah blah blah. Of course, Addie, my nurse practitioner, said that this is all myth or they'd be sending every woman in her 39th/40th week to get one. Which is unfortunate as that was the main reason I'd saved the gift certificate until now. So now I'm off to find other ways I can encourage this baby to come out. I wonder if I bundled up enough, if I would just look fat and they'd let me go tubing at Buck Hill? You'd think a couple trips down the tubing hill would do the trick......

Ellie's Concert

Last Thursday night, we had the privilege to be serendaded by the Crystal Lake 2nd graders. It was a fun concert. Ava and Carter enjoyed listening to Ellie sing and watching all the older children.

Ellie is the little pipsqueak in the first row, three in from the right in the green shirt. Her favorite of the 10-12 songs they sang was "The Star Spangled Banner". Not sure why she says that is her favorite when some of the other songs they sang were far more fun sounding, but she likes the national anthem. She's going to grow up to be a very patriotic Republican!

Tidbits

*One of Carter's new phrases is "Mom (or whoever he is speaking to), look me in the eyes." Guess he wants to make sure he has our undivided attention. However, he is starting to say it every time he talks to me and it is not quite so cute anymore!

*Carter also quotes from movies and shows he likes. He grabs the stuffed Nemo we have and can say the whole scene from Finding Nemo where Nemo and his friends are swimming out to touch the boat and Nemo's dad is yelling at him. His favorite line is "Look at me, I'm going to touch the butt!"

*Ava has decided that a baby brother is a better choice. I mentioned once that a baby sister might take her Barbies and now she is adamant that she wants a baby brother. Anytime you ask her what the baby is, her response is "A baby brother. A baby sister will take my Barbies from me."

*The other night we were laying in bed talking before sleep. We were discussing the baby again and what they thought it would be. Both Ava & Carter said it would be a brother. I tried to explain that it could be a sister too and that it was a surprise. Carter shouted "No! We need a brother!"

*If it is a brother, Ava wants to name it Carter. She would like two Carters.

*Ava has started randomly calling me "dude". Example: "Can you wash me an apple dude?"

*Ellie is rocking all her spelling tests lately. I quiz her every Friday morning until she is blue in the face from spelling the same words over and over. However, she's been getting all the regular words right and most of the bonus words so I'd say it's working!

*Baby is still hanging in there. Nothing changed from last week, which was one of the most disappointing things I've heard in a long time! I was hoping to leave my appointment on Wednesday being told to head right over to the hospital to deliver. Wishful thinking! Doctor says that everything at this point is developed though so it can come whenever. I'm thinking tomorrow sounds great.....

*Ava and Carter also have babies in their tummies. They let me feel their babies kick. They are both having baby brothers. Ava has started using her baby as an excuse for things though. "I can't eat that, my baby doesn't like it." "My baby is hurting my tummy so I can't do that."

*Carter has finally started pooping on the potty! Just in the nick of time! We still diaper at night because they both go a lot at night even with limited evening liquids and going right before bed, but to not need pull-ups for his twice daily poops is great! He just one day decided to hop on the toilet and go and hasn't stopped since! It was much easier than when we had to bribe Ellie at over 3.5 to poop on the potty. At least one child picked up the peeing and pooping at the same time and easily. Still not sure why two of my children preferred the pull-up for so long....

*We are currently all going stir-crazy. At -11 at the moment and a high of 1 degree for the day, we find ourselves spending a lot of time inside our house. It takes too long for me to waddle and herd two 3 year olds anywhere so we just stay home. Plus, every time I've been to the gym the last couple weeks, I get a lot of looks. I think many fellow gym patrons are worried I will go into labor while on the treadmill. As if my slow plod could really cause this baby to come!

*Here's hoping I will have an update with a baby face in the next week. I've thrown the towel in mentally but the baby still isn't getting the message. Hopefully a full house scrub down this weekend will encourage it that now is the time. I was going to clean the van today too but I like having 10 fingers so I will wait until a warmer day ;) We are all definitely looking forward to spring, warmer weather, and being able to be outside without so many layers.

Daddy's Pants

He wears the pants in this family!

Ready or Not

It's the final countdown!

Doo doo doooo dodododoo, Doo doo doooo dodododoo

(For the record, you are only cool if after you read "the final countdown", the song started to play in your head. I know this to be a fact because I said to Jake the other day that we were in the final countdown and he started to hum the song. This proved that I am not a total geek.)

We are in the final countdown. 3.5 weeks or less. I had my 36 week appointment today and everything is looking good. Baby is head down and its little head couldn't be any lower, something I've known but was glad to have confirmed. I am dilated to one cm but that means very little as there are some women who can walk around at 3-4 cm for a month. But everything is starting to feel ready and the nurse practioner does not think I will make it until my due date (thank goodness!).

And I think we are finally ready around the house. I have been busy cleaning everything from kitchen cupboards and walls to setting up the glider and baby equipment. Laugh at me all you want for washing all the cabinetry, woodwork, and walls in the house but I challenge you to go do it to your own house. Yeah, not so funny once you dump your dirty water out now is it?! I didn't think our house was that gross but was proved wrong.

Our living room looks like Babies 'R Us puked in the corner. I will have to do some rearranging to find better places for the bouncy seat and such but for now just want it out in the open so I know where it is. Especially the car seat. If Jake has to bring it to pick us up from the hospital, it better be out in the open where he can find it or we'll never be able to come home!

The changing table is ready and stocked. We have at least a month's worth of diapers piled up underneath the crib. I also sterilized all the bottles today so they are ready to go as well.

That green and white yarn has been turned into a hat. I wish I could take the credit for this but you will recall that I said I had a back-up plan. The wonderful Grandma Mary whipped this beauty up for me in no time. I took her the yarn and pattern and she had this in the mail to me within a week. She even made the flowers that came included in the pattern so if it's a girl, I can just sew them on the hat. Don't despair though, my crocheting aspirations are not over. I found an easier pattern to attempt and will be making the brown yarn into a pompom hat. I have purple or blue yarn to create the pompoms after Finito arrives and makes known its gender.

The only thing that isn't ready for the baby is its name. Jake and I couldn't find ourselves more at odds with what to name the babe. What he likes, I despise and vice versa. At one time, we had agreed on a boy name but Jake has been trying to renege on that agreement. He likes a certain devilish name from a scary movie that I absolutely refuse to name my child. We have no clue for a girl. So while everything else is ready for little Finito, his/her name will be a game time decision. Otherwise, we are ready for the final installment to make his/her appearance. Let the clock run down and quickly!

Royal Dinner

The night that royalty joined me for dinner. Two princesses and a ballerina.

Yes, Carter is wearing a pink dress. Yes, Carter needs a brother. Here's hoping we are that lucky!

Monkey Wrenches

Life does so love to throw us a monkey wrench every now and then. (monkey wrench - where did this term come from?) This week, we've had two already.

The first was when Jake and I didn't win the MegaMillions. Not only did we not win, but two lucky mongrels did. We had already outlined the rest of our lives with that jackpot and it's so crushing to know that some other person gets to live my dream. Aside from a dream mansion, an Escalade (the only luxury car I can think of that would fit all 6 of us), and numerous condos in warm locations, we were also planning on having a live-in nanny. These kids have been trying my patience the last few weeks and that was really the biggest perk I was looking forward to in winning. My only consolation is that the stupid lottery pot only got $3 from us. Neither of us like to carry around dirty cash and since that is all I had in my wallet, 3 tickets is all we got. $3 for a couple nights of dreaming big and the crushing blow of reality, I guess it was probably better spent than on renting some crappy movie. I've heard your odds of suffocating in a vending machine are greater than your odds of winning the lottery so I'm going to start reading the papers for vending machine deaths.

The other monkey wrench is of the more serious side. My plans for school this spring have fallen through. Normandale won't give me any more finanical aid since I now have over 150 undergraduate credits and I don't intend to finish my program through their school. If I was getting an Associate's that they offer, then they'd help me out but since I was just taking the general education classes that were necessary for MSU's Education program, Normy won't help me out. The lady said I can still take classes at Normandale but I'd have to pay for it myself or put it on a credit card. She actually suggested a credit card. Sure woman, I'll pay 15% interest to attend your wack-a$$ school (wack-a$$- a "gangsta" phrase Jake and I like to use for anything that doesn't make sense).

My original plan was to take the 3 semesters or so of generals that I lacked and then transferring the credits to MSU for their Education program. Since all my other undergrad work was done at MSU, I figured it would be the easiest place to get this major done as well since all my credits will count. MSU recently created a Twin Cities campus in Edina but only offers the classes for the actual Education track there. They don't have history, science, or health classes up here yet but those classes are required before a person can start the block system for teaching. A major catch-22.

Sometimes I want to hit myself over the head for being so darn efficient. The reason I need almost 3 semesters of generals is because the first time around, I was able to avoid many of those classes. By the end of my freshman year, I knew business was the route I was going to take. I also studied the general education requirement sheet until I had the thing memorized. MSU had certain areas that needed to be filled and specific classes that would meet those areas. Rather than take a class that met Goal 3, a class that met Goal 5, a class that met Goal 8, and a class that met Goal 9, I found a class that met Goals 3 and 9 and another class that met Goals 5 and 8. So I kept my generals to a minimum while still meeting the requirements. While I was so proud of myself at the time for my efficient use of time and credits, I didn't realize it would come back to bite me in the behind someday. I should have known that graduating in 3.5 years with a double major was too good to be true.

While this new hurdle certainly doesn't mean that education is completely out for me, it does mean that I can't finish up those missing generals at Normandale and transfer them to MSU. Any other community college is out as well for the same reason. The biggest downer is that the Normandale/MSU plan was the least expensive. The U and Augsburg have education programs I've looked at. Both actually offer a Master's program for those that already have a Bachelor's in something else and just need licensure in education. However, both programs would probably take me 3-4 years since I'll still need some generals before starting the ed program and then at least another semester or two to finish up the Master's work after student teaching. Also, while MSU was $, the U is $$, and Augsburg is $$$. I haven't yet decided if a career in teaching is worth paying big bucks for the degree when I already have two majors to fall back on.

So I'm back to square one where I was this past summer when Jake started asking me what I plan to do with myself career-wise. To be honest, I really don't know what I want to be when I grow up. It's a hard decision. Teaching is a good career in that there are summers off with the kids and the actual teaching schedule is set each day. The downside is that there is a lot more prep work and behind-the-scenes things that teachers deal with that you don't think about. While they only work 9 months of the year, they cram about 11 months of working into those 9 months. I'm not sure I really want to come home every night and still have lesson plans to prepare and papers to look over.

I'm looking again at pursuing my MBA. Business really does interest me and there is so much more to it than just "business". Some schools even offer MBA programs with a specialty area so I could concentrate my MBA on something in particular. Jake thinks Accounting is the way to go. Which ironically was one of my original majors until Habib, the scariest professor at MSU, turned me off of it with his guerilla teaching tactics. There are also a lot of schools that offer MBA programs entirely online so I could complete this without ever setting foot in a classroom. Which of course is appealing when the contrast is that many of the generals and methods classes for the education plan involve actual class time, meaning babysitters and inconvenient meeting times.

Growing up is such a hard thing. Just when I had finally made up my mind to take one path, the road has to fork and I have to decide again which path I want to take. Not to mention that now that I've finally rediscovered my OCD organizing tendencies, I'm bored out of my mind with no school work to do. There is only so much cleaning and organizing a house can take.

The only people who seem to be upset by this monkey wrench are Jake and I. My mom has taken the philosophical stance that maybe this is a sign that I need some time to focus on just having the baby around. If I didn't know better, I'd be convinced she's wishing a fussy, colicky baby on me. My father-in-law has said that taking a semester off with a new baby is probably a wise decision. I think he's relieved to not have to watch 4 terrors every Monday night when I was supposed to have class. Jake and I are not fans of speed bumps in our road which is why we are quickly coming up with Plan B's. So while I now have the next month or two off, depending which route I take (either the education or MBA route), I will be starting something up later this spring again. I'd hate to fall back into my old pattern of sitting around doing nothing and so I must keep this going while I'm in school mode.

Now I just have to decide what I really want to be when I grow up.........

Dr. Carter

Ava and Carter had their three year check up in early December. Shortly after, playing Doctor became the new game of choice. The two took turns being the doctor and patient. Jake, Ellie, and I also had to play patient many times. Finally, we suggested that they use the baby dolls as patients as there were only so many shots and blood pressure checks that we could take!

So Carter became the doctor and Ava became the concerned mother bringing her baby in.

Carter knew all the steps to follow for the check-up. Both kids did get a little excited when it was time to give us our shots. Sadistic little beasts!
As far as their appointment goes, since I don't think I ever posted the results, both are growing great.

Ava was 31 lbs and 37 inches tall, both of which place her in the 50%ile for her age.

Carter was 41 lbs and 40 inches tall. His height had him in the 95%ile and his weight is basically off the charts!

I can't get over the fact that there is now a 10 pound difference between the two! And poor Ellie only weighs about 5 pounds more than Carter and is only about 6 inches taller. It won't be long until he surpasses her! Carter can already take Ellie down and pin her down so it will only get more interesting from here!

Conversation with Ava

Ava and I were cuddling on the couch the other day. I asked her what we should name the baby. We went through a whole list of possible names: Ava, Carter, Ellie, Mommy, Daddy, Aladdin, Dopey, Snow White, etc. She shot all the choices down until she finally decided that Sleeping Beauty would be a great name for a baby sister.

I asked her what we should name the baby if it is a baby brother instead. She has been adamant from the start that this is a baby sister.

Ava told me that we don't need a name for a baby brother because this is a baby sister.

Me: "But what if it's a baby brother?"

Ava: "I don't want a baby brother. Baby brothers are yucky. If it's a baby brother, I'm going to puke on it!"

I guess we know how she really feels!