WIP Wednesday

We are still recovering from the big birthday weekend and so the birthday blog post will have to wait. Instead, today Guthrie and I had a very nice lowkey day of doing not much. I like it when I get an actual Wednesday off.

Guthrie's birthday kind of marks the beginning of the holiday season for our family. The birthday, three weeks later Thanksgiving, three weeks later John's birthday, 10 days later Christmas and then, if we've made it this far then we should just go ahead and celebrate New Years, after which it'll be about 6 or so weeks until our new addition arrives. To be on the safe side let's say 4 - 8 weeks. I can tell people are so frustrated when I say I'm due in 'February' when they're looking for an actual date, but really I'm not so worried about the date so it takes a minute for me to remember. On a busy day 'mid-February' is the best they're going to get.

So, we've got a doosie of a Season here this year. I think I'm gearing you up for the blogging being spotty for awhile. I can feel myself starting to slow down and after Guthrie's birthday I noticed was tired in a way I haven't been for quite awhile. And even though I'm exhausted I've gotten to that point in pregnancy where my hands are just itching to be busy with small projects. Good thing it's the Season :)


So one of the things that has been on my list for awhile is labeling Guthrie's winter stuff so she doesn't come home with random gloves or loses a hat. I got a roll of twill tape from the fabric store and a permanent fabric marker and wrote her last name 8,000 times on it. I'll sew the labels on the backs or insides of her stuff. As a bonus it'll create a little tag for her to use when she's hanging up stuff on hooks as apparently manufacturers of children's coats don't often think of such things. Except Hanna Anderson. We heart you Hanna Anderson - with your pre-made name label and sturdy coat hanger on the collar!!

Picked up some new yarn when I needed a break from work the other day. It'll turn into some Christmas presents for three little girls soon I think.


And always more yarn - a promised 'before the first snow, well, real snow' hat for John.

While I was taking pictures of this stuff our newest little photographer got on the bandwagon. She's so serious and has become quite the documentarian - demanding pictures of dinner before it gets eaten, coats before they are put on, lots and lots of daily life shots of mom and dad.

And finally my belly as a work in progress. It's growing folks. By leaps and bounds. The girls at work are eyeing me with that, man she is going to get BIG look. And I eye them back and think, duh. So I'm about 25 weeks and at this point last time I was still looking like a toss up between being pregnant or having eaten a large pizza and an entire 6 pack for lunch.
I'm thinking it's pretty clear this time it's not pizza. I'm pretty thrilled that I'm still wearing my wedding rings with no problem- I think that has a lot to do with the weather though too. And really, overall I feel really good. I'm trying to relish this relatively comfortable phase of pregnancy. Some days it's easier than others. I'm frequently heard saying, 'ugh I need to stretch my hips, they're so sore' and John's frequently heard singing a stellar rendition of Shakira's My Hips Don't Lie.

Good times at our house :)

the sweet spot

The sweet spot is that time in every parent's life when they realize they don't have to haul as much crap around with them. They don't have to take an entire duffel bag with them just to go to the market. All those extra clothes, diapers, wipes, pacifiers, a shirt for you if you're going someplace important, slings, blankets. All that crap. I forget when it happened with us. It was definitely post-blowout risk, so maybe around the time she started solid food? I just remember thinking oh my goodness, I could just carry a purse! Albeit a fairly large purse.

Fast forward oh a year and a half and we're back at the beginning.
The culprit?
Potty training. And winter.
Or rather potty training in winter.

We're back to the diaper bag. It's not that Guthrie has many accidents - in fact she's had surprisingly few since we got serious about the potty a few weeks ago. It's the possibility of accidents. The possibility of being caught without a pair- or two- or warm, dry pants in wicked cold weather. Her clothes have gotten kind of big too. Much bigger than the requisite few diapers and wipes. So, I'm going to drag out the old bag because my purse really doesn't need some pee soaked jeans in it - wet bag or not.

With this potty training business I think we've closed the door on our cloth diapers - at least until the next one (sorry John). Gus is only wearing a diaper at night and one diaper a day doesn't warrant a full load of laundry, but saving them until we do have a full load? Well, that's an ammonia nightmare you would not believe. Well, maybe you would.

We've always tried to keep an emergency pack of disposables around. Until we moved to Davenport we'd mostly used Seventh Generation brand, but it's surprisingly hard to find here. And they get a little expensive, so it's been Luvs for awhile now. Yesterday I bought what I hope to maybe be one of our last packs of diapers and finally found some Seventh Generation ones. I know, right at the end. So bedtime last night Guthrie is shocked and appalled that they don't have a dog on them. That they're just khaki. I explain that khaki is good. Neutral, goes with all your pjs, etc. And I ended up drawing a puppy on them just to get her to go to bed.

That's what I get for being environmentally savvy isn't it?

why, hello sisyphus.

See this? It's my bedroom. Do you see a bed? Do you see a green loveseat where I can sit and read and drink tea?

Me either.
I see 10 loads of laundry.
TEN.

and what am I doing about it? Why blogging of course. I got Gus all set up with a snack and some Super Why on the part of the bed you can actually see and then folded 2 things and came in here to check my email.
I know Guthrie will help me fold socks, and believe me there are a lot of socks in there, but, just UGH.

I do this about 3 times a year. Let my laundry get the absolute best of me. I've been working on this pile since probably Thanksgiving. It's crossed over to art. An installation piece of course.

We just take the stuff we can see and want to wear out of the pile.
This morning I was mortified as John left to go to work. He looked like he had slept in his clothes. I actually had to spray him down with Wrinkle Releaser. Yikes. That's pretty bad.
So. . . here I go to fold laundry. . . and you know it's not like we go places naked so hopefully this experience will be treacherous enough that I'll stay on top of the folding for a few more months.

wish me luck.
i think i need some tea first though. . .

coat time

Dear Diary-

My parents made me put on a COAT today.
Can you imagine my horror?
Me who hates sleeves beyond measure.

Long corduroy sleeves are THE worst ever.

I don't care if everyone said I was super cute in it and that the lady at the pet store wanted to buy one in a big person size.
I bet the big person version is sleeveless.
And I don't care that it kept me warm this morning when it was a chilly 50 degrees out.




It had sleeves.

I was SO sad.

love,




Guthrie