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!