Waking up is hard to do

Last night my parents celebrated the garage sale that they had by making a really good dinner. BBQ Steak, potatoes, asparagus, and salad. My brother was in town from college visiting, so it was a full house with 8 people. Needless to say, it ended up being a late night and Mike and I made it later by watching an episode of Carrier. Joshua also stayed up past his bedtime and yesterday for him was a sugar fest. I thought it would be a good treat on a Saturday to give him a sugary cereal, so for breakfast he got to have some Cocoa Puffs. A few hours later we went over to my parents old house to help them with a garage sale. They had doughnuts there, so of course Grammy gave him a doughnut. After we finished up with the garage sale there was a small break between sugar binges. I gave him turkey pepperoni, cheese and some olives for a lunch/heavy snack. Evening set in and my sister decided she was going to make cookies. Guess who helped her clean the beaters? After dinner he was treated to gummy worms and M&M's for dessert. SHEESH!

I was hoping for sure that since he stayed up late, we would be able to sleep in. Unfortunately, I was wrong on that assumption. Around 6:00am he started tossing and turning. When we are all sleeping in the same room, it's hard to just ignore even tossing and turning. Then the smacking noise starts and his exaggerated yawning sounds coming into play. That's also when he starts picking his nose in a very noisy fashion. I thought that I might be able to ignore this. However, a few minutes earlier I got up to use the restroom (in typical pregnant lady fashion) and it gave Samuel just enough room to start doing somersaults in my belly and kicking my ribs. With distractions like this, I just decided to surrender and get up. Playhouse Disney is my best friend on mornings like this.

The crazy part is, it won't get better any time soon. I will be getting up in the middle of the night soon for more than just a potty break. I better appreciate it now!

Yesterday, we also took a trip to the Goodwill. Joshua needed jeans and even at Target, they were selling for about $20. That's almost the same price that they were selling men's jeans. I couldn't bring myself to pay that much for something that he would most likely grow out of or tear up 6 months down the road. It's not just Goodwill near my parents store but the Goodwill Superstore. Sweet! We found 3 pairs of jeans for him. The best part of going to a Goodwill in California is that we could find barely used snowsuits. In this part of California, most folks go to the snow a few times during the season (Lake Tahoe) and they are done, so I was thrilled when I found a snowsuit for Joshua. I know that we'll be going to see the snow more when we go home (Mt. Fuji here we come!). I also found him some great snow boots and Mike found a nice pair of shorts. I also found a still-in-the-package meal/eating set for the baby. Playtex brand, with Baby Einstein characters. All for the grand total of $29.00. Only $9.00 more than one pair of jeans at Target. I figure at this point in Joshua's childhood, he doesn't care about name brands. Sure, I splurge and get him shirts at Gymboree & Gap (on sale!) and I spent a small fortune on his school shoes because we found out he'll need inserts for his flat feet, but I'm still OK going to get him previously owned clothes as well. I'll worry about going into debt over the name brand crud when he gets older, but for now give me all the hand me downs I can get!

Belly

I'm huge.....still getting comments from folks. Such is the life of a 37 weeker but I'm not complaining. I'm glad I've been able to blog about this since I might not remember this on my own and it may be the last time I'll be pregnant so, I must relish every little bit of it. Here are a couple more pictures that Mike took. One of our regrets when I was pregnant with Joshua was that we didn't get enough pictures.

My childhood friend (who just had her second baby too) put on a great baby shower for me last weekend. Great food, family, and friends. Husbands and kids welcome. We played some great games and the men played one as well. (Dress the baby doll while they were being timed) After this shower, I know that Samuel will be the best dressed baby on the block!

Other than that, we've been taking it very easy. We can't go anywhere because well, Samuel could come any day. So, it's been low key. The baby announcements are almost all put together and the thank you notes are prepared. We are as ready as we'll ever be. Just started to predict a date.

What's your guess?

Expectant and New Dad Website

Shhhh...

Don't tell Nicki, but I'm hijacking her side blog to let you guy readers know about a site that we found for the "silent" half of the pregnancy game... the soon-to-be dads and the new dads. We all know that during a pregnancy, the momma bear gets the attention as her belly swells and her walking becomes more of a waddle. Sometimes the soon-to-be dads feel like they're a little on the sidelines just watching the process in the shadows. Let's face it, our partners deserve the recognition for all that they go through. I wouldn't want to trade places with Nicki during this pregnancy for anything... even if it came with an open invitation to Fort Knox, a skeleton key, and a 15 minute shopping spree to grab what I could.

Anyway, for all of you expectant fathers and brand spankin' new dads out there, I highly recommend this site:

The Funky Stork dot com

Look How Far We've Come

Yes, still pregnant. My doctors appointment went well today. Yesterday, I thought I had some contractions but nothing too serious. Today the nurse practitioner checked me just to make sure. Baby is still high and nothing unusual. The good news is I don't have to check my blood 4 times a day only twice which is nice. Good news too.....I'm actually down a pound from my last check up. I suppose it depends if that's good or bad but for me-who's feeling like a small planet, it's good news.

At this point I've surpassed the time that I was pregnant with Joshua which is pretty exciting. I'm also feeling the little kicker much more. Samuel is more into doing slow rolls (maybe because he has to use more strength to get his big body turned over in there). I've gotten to the point where I can feel lumps in my tummy and try and guess what body part it is. (Is that a foot in my ribs?) I've also been able to get anxious this time around. I really can't wait to see that face of his and count his fingers and toes. We do have an updated belly shot and it should be showing soon! Stay tuned.

Announcing.....

No, no baby yet. We are working on baby announcements A LOT. Something that we didn't do with Joshua. Well, we have our excuses but the main one was.... we were stressed out. There was a lot going on during that time in our lives. Hopefully our son won't hold it against us all his life. Now that we have a little more time and resources we are doing some things with the second one that we weren't able to do with the first. Namely baby announcements. Mike is here in California now which has been nice. Despite him not working... we've had no problem finding things to do.

Joshua will be starting kindergarten next week with the threat that in 3 weeks he will be relocated to another school. Yes, like many public schools throughout the region, his school is facing overcrowding. What California has done is set up a bussing system to another school close by for children who have been "cut off". I'm hoping that it doesn't happen seeing as his first year of school might be filled with going to 3 schools but unfortunately, it's out of my hands.

Joshua had his Buzz Lightyear birthday party last week and we were fortunate enough to have a lot of friends join us, including some special ones from Japan. Well, now they are in Monterey. He is so into Buzz Lightyear right now and unfortunately it's a hard toy to come by. I had to order his party supplies on line. As Mike has told me... Disney owns us! We are suckers when it comes to Buzz Lightyear. We were fortunate enough to find a Buzz Lightyear Halloween costume at the Disney store for Joshua this year - complete with a flashing light button.

For a gift, Mike sent me this very very cute pajama set for the hospital. It includes a matching gown for the baby. Which reminds me, I've got to fill up that "going to the hospital" bag! I'd have to say with this one, we are planning much better. The same weekend that Joshua was born, we were planning on buying the nursery furniture and the weekend prior, I think I had just returned from my baby shower. Our family is pretty notorious for having early babies. My cousin's water broke at her baby shower. I'm hoping that I can keep this one in longer!

Travel with Baby Showers

OK, I thought I would blend the title together. I woke up at 5:00AM this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. Either this has to do with my pregnancy or, I'm super anxious about my flight tomorrow. Probably a little bit of both.

Last night some close friends of mine held a baby shower for me. The decorations were so cute (surfboards, lanterns, and swim trunks) and the food was great (Make you own ice cream sandwiches). There were some great ladies there a mix of on and off basers which made for fun conversation. We played a game of hanging clothes on the line while holding a baby doll and talking on the phone. (All the while creating a fake conversation on the phone). Then I opened all the gifts. So many baby clothes and fun things! Which I really needed. I've been able to get most of the gear it's just the clothes and little things that I was needing.

I will post pictures when I can. Mike and I went to together and bought me a camera that I could have during my travels. A little Canon Power Shot SD1100 IS Digital Elph. I wanted something that was made in Japan and not China which the Japanese Salesman at the NEX was very happy about. The Canon Rebel is just too big for me to take and, Mike wouldn't give that up for 2 whole months! I am now under obligation to take a lot of pictures and post them. Something that has been Mike's domain in the past. (no pressure!) I'm super anxious about leaving for such a long time. I will really miss my friends here. I've made so many close ones. I'm looking forward to seeing my family and I hope they are happy about seeing me but it's a long time to be away from my husband and friends and house and life! Stay tuned. This Summer should be interesting as I deal with pregnancy, childbirth, reverse culture shock, and family drama!

Just recently, I made a new dessert called Chocolate Sludge a dessert fit for 2 soon to be 3 boys in the house.

6 More Days

So Mike has come home from being away in Singapore and Diego Garcia for 2 weeks and in 6 days it will be my turn to leave. During his time away, I stayed really busy with my great group of friends but it was still hard at times. I have to say I'm not really looking forward to leaving. I do love my family but it will be hard being away from home and Mike for all that time. Believe it or not, we get a long pretty well. Plus, now that he's home I feel this overwhelming pressure to nest in one weeks time. So, I'm going just a tad loony. At the same time, I've spent so much time out of the "baby loop" I've sorta forgotten what a baby needs or, what I should have for a baby. That thought came to a reality when my girlfriend said:

Girlfriend: "So, do you basically have everything that you need?"
Me: : "Sure, I think so. I mean, babies don't need much."
Girlfriend: "So you have like burpcloths.....?"
Me: "Uh, no not yet"

I didn't even really think about that. So, I looked up a little list online of things that babies need and I'll probably go by that. I'm planning to get most things like layette and little things when I'm back in the states. It's less expensive than out in town and I'll buy it at the location rather than buying it all now and then mailing it.

Of course the second time around, there are things that I know I probably won't need. We never had a changing table for Joshua. In the beginning we just changed him in the crib and later on we just changed him wherever. I remember for Joshua's baby shower, poeple made me a ton of blankets that were never used because, well, we lived in San Diego and the apartment usually never dipped below 65 degrees even in the winter and during the Spring, Summer & Fall with no AC it was 80+ in there. This time around I know we'll need more cold weather equipment.

The winters are a lot cooler here and Summer usually doesn't come into full swing until around late June so, I'll need snowsuits and such. I think I'll have to invest in snowsuits for both Joshua and the baby. Since, Joshua is getting more and more into the snow and I'm hoping that we get out more during the winter.