There's a rumor floating around....

So yesterday was quite the day.  Starting at 2:30 a.m. I woke up with contractions.  I've been through this three times before and both of the last two started with irregular contractions lasting for several hours before turning into delivery.  Historically (the last 2 deliveries) once my contractions are hard and regular I have less than 2 hours before I'm holding my new baby.  So waiting for regular contractions is not typically prudent.  Especially since we live across town from the hospital.  Roy's not really interested in delivering this baby in the car.  (Although he did mention something about a home delivery the other day.  Different reasons though. *read: cheap*)
After waiting until afternoon, Roy and I headed down to the hospital.  We spent 5 hours there monitoring, walking, checking and waiting.  Then we came home.  This has never happened to me before.  Within an hour of coming home my contractions, which had gotten pretty regular and increasing in intensity, stopped entirely.  Good times.
All the signs were there.  It was just like my previous 2 labors.  Expect I still don't have a baby.  Apparently, the rumor that I had the baby isn't the only thing floating around.  Please send heavy gravity thoughts my way.  If this baby would drop he would deliver.  End of story.

Gettin' cleaned up

Today I had my house professionally cleaned.  WOW.  Even Roy commented on how awesome it would be if we had someone come even once every 3 months just to deep clean like they did today.  So awesome.
My shower floor, which has been scrubbed and cleaned with more vigor and chemicals that any other part of my house, is finally finally white again.  I'd figured it would never be better than it was but it looks almost brandsparklingnew.
They cleaned my blinds and windows (two things I hate and avoid cleaning).  The mopped the floors and vacuumed with something far superior to my craptastic machine.  Everything seems so much nicer in here.  It just feels so good in here.
Too bad my kids can't come inside anymore.  Hope they like sleeping in the garage like the dirty little sweetpeas they are.
I'm kidding.
They are sleeping in their beds.  But really, the hardest part of having my house clean like this is allowing my children - love them as I do - to walk through the door.
I was able to have this amazing opportunity because my visiting teacher owns her own cleaning business.  I was asking her advice about some cleaning things and she decided that she would have some of her girls come clean my house before the baby is born.  LOVE IT!  Who can say no to an offer like that.  I'm so grateful for friends who are so generous.  It makes me want to be more generous.  Thus the cycle continues.

In other news, we had pack meeting tonight.  It was the Blue and Gold Banquet and we had fun.  D finally received his Bobcat award.  He earned it two months ago but due to circumstances being as they were, he just got it tonight.
Tuesday night D and Roy went to a Blazer game.  It was D's first professional sporting event and apparently he had a great time.  Roy said he was singing and cheering along with the crowd.  He got to know some of the player's names and cheered for them personally.  D's really been getting into basketball lately.  I'm so glad.  I love that he's a reader and thinker but I'm glad he's starting to be more willing physically active.  It was getting so bad that I finally had to make "30 minutes of outside play time" part of his daily chores.  But for the last 2 weeks, he's been happy to take his 30 minutes.  Even asking if he can have his 30 minutes of outside time.  Sometimes, he even stays out longer than 30 minutes.  I know.  It is pretty darn close to a miracle.  The best part? He's having fun!

Oh yes, one more thing.  Only 5 days until my due date.  Still hoping he'll come early.....

Valentine's Day!!

We've been looking forward to Valentine's day for some time because I promised A a Valentine's day party.  Today was my chance to deliver.  And deliver I did.  Not to brag or anything but after surviving 90 minutes with 12 kids the oldest of whom was 6 I think I should be able to brag a little.  

So the kids arrived at 1 after hours of A waiting and anticipating.  Other mothers told me their girls were doing the same thing.  All day.  It is so hard to wait for a party when you're 3 or 4!  The kids started in the playroom dumping out all the toys until we called them up to decorate their Valentine bags to put their Valentine's in.  I had moved the couch and chair and rolled up the rug so there would be a large open space for them to use the floor.  It worked out great.  Except for the 9 months pregnant part.  We worked through it alright though.  I had a couple of mothers who stayed and they were invaluable.  There's no way I could have done it all myself.  Heather was especially helpful.  She got right down on the floor with the kids to help them stamp and color and cut hearts and so forth.  

After decorating bags we made little headbands with pipe cleaners going up and attached eyes on hearts to the pipe cleaners.  They made cute little Valentine aliens.  We were going to dance but it really wasn't necessary with all the running around that was happening.  Plus we needed to move into snack or we were going to run out of time!

Snack was fun.  I remembered an idea to put frosting in little cups so kids can have their own frosting - thus eliminating the frost-lick-dip-frost-lick-dip cycle in the communal frosting bowl.  I also saw an idea on Pinterest to cut apple discs and decorate them like cookies.  So we did.  We had apple discs and peanut butter cookies.  Each kid got three little cups.  One had frosting, one had peanut butter and one had sprinkles.  The sprinkles were a hit, and a mess.  It was genius to only give them each their own little cup with a limited supply of sprinkles.  This way I still have sprinkles left in my container and there was no squabbling about someone hogging the sprinkles.

After snack we had a very chaotic passing out of Valentines.  Only 12 kids but it seemed very difficult for some of them to get the one in each bag idea.  A had it down though!  She climbed up on the table in the middle of the bags and checked each bag before dropping her Valentine in.  It was so adorable.  If only I'd taken pictures.....

We finished out the party by playing Valentine Bingo.  The kids were a riot.  After every card I called out they would shout, "I have it!"  Since every card had every picture on it...... yeah.  But they had fun.  Some of the younger kids weren't quite sure about the Bingo aspect of the game and just put candy on their cards.  Oh well.  No one was crying or upset so I count that as a win!  

In fact the whole party was full of smiles and laughter.  It  really was a super fun party.  I'm glad we did it.  I'm also glad it is over.  By the time we got done with party clean up I could barely walk - my hips were so tired.  Doesn't seem like it stimulated any labor though.  Darn.

I'm trying out something new.  If you want to see the Valentine Bingo game I created try clicking here.  Let's see if this works!

I got the idea for K's Valentine from here.  But I made my own variation that uses less ink.  If you want to see/print it click here.  (We glued Starburst candies in the center of the star.)

The idea and printable for A's Valentines is from here.

And the baby's not even born yet!

Last night I was so tired, I fell asleep at 9:30.  Then again at 10:30..... then 11:30......  and then 1:30am.... 3:00am. ... . . . 5:00am..... after Roy woke me up at 7:00am ...  .. and finally woke up to stay at 8:30.  I'm thinking night feedings will actually allow me more rest!

A few fun items

I thought it might be time to update you on my pregnancy progress.  Basically, we have progress.  I remember thinking I looked big in that first picture.  Eh.  It's all relative.

 Today marked an exciting day in the life of K.  She has been playing with a loose tooth for a few days now. Today, she pulled it out herself!  She kept telling Roy and I, "Don't pull it!"  She came home from school today with the tooth hanging at a nearly 90 degree angle in her mouth.  Still she wouldn't let me pull it.  But when I got out of the shower she was jumping around with her tooth in a bag.  "I did it myself!"

The first one to go!!

 This girl really likes Barney.  And her brother got her a Barney doll that she also loves.  And it sings at the slightest provocation.  We like that.

 At preschool today I was feeling brave.  Or just too tired to really consider what a bad idea it might be to hand three 3-4 year old girls acrylic paint to paint their noodles with.

 It got even better when we mixed the paint with sand and finger painted a 'mud hut'.

D and I went to Target tonight without the girls.  He started asking me about the Declaration of Independence and Constitution.  I told him what I knew and recommended he talk to Roy as that is more of his area of interest.  So tonight he asked Roy to tell him the story of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.  An American history bedtime story.  I'm so proud.

Also, a few weeks ago the news reported on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade (which says abortions are legal).  D was watching the news with me so I decided to ask his thoughts about abortion.

Me: "Do you know what abortion means?"

D: "No"

Me: "It is when a woman gets pregnant but she doesn't want a baby so the doctor takes the baby out.  What do you think about that?"

D: (I wish you could have seen his face) "That's not right!"

Me: "Well, some people feel like a woman has a right to choose whether or not to have a baby grow in her body."

D: "Couldn't she just not have sex?"  (Uh, he's had the talk recently.  He's way to inquisitive to let a little thing like pregnancy go unnoticed.)

I was quite pleased with his deductive reasoning.  I really tried not to bias him with my opinion while we were talking about it until the end.  I do think it is important for him to form his own opinion but I also think it is important for him to know where his parents stand on things.

K and Roy went out on a date Friday night.  She came home from her friend's house a few weeks ago and wanted to know why Carly gets to go on dates with her daddy but she (K) doesn't go on dates with Roy.  That sealed it.  They went out for over priced frozen yogurt and priceless memories.  K liked it so much she has plans for making it a regular (as in daily or at least weekly) occurrence.  I think we'll hope for monthly.  Roy and D have plans later this month so now it is just A who needs a date.  Oh, and me too!

We got free tickets to go see a local children's theater production of Suessical.  It was so much fun!  Even Roy was able to go and enjoyed it.  The girls were so excited-- mostly because daddy was going too!  But we really did have a good time.  I love my neighbor who hooks me up with these opportunities.  I love taking my kids to plays and seeing their excitement and pure enjoyment.