And to think

I spent all that time on Claire's panda bear cupcakes for her birthday party, when I could have just done bunnies. The cake wrecks blog has become one of my favorites in recent weeks. I do not know how people come up with some of these ideas, but they are accidentally hysterical, which makes them even better.

The 32 week OB appointment went well. We will attempt to schedule my delivery for the week of April 6th at my next appointment. Kate helped the doc with the heartbeat monitor, and my OB is convinced she has a calling. Also, Kate is absolutely positive that she is having a baby brother, except when she occasionally says it's a baby sister. Mostly it's a baby brother, though.

The unintentional house remodel is almost complete. The tile guy is re-tiling the bathroom (score!) today and will grout tomorrow. Kate's carpet is re-tacked and clean. Pretty much all that is left is the painting, which will hopefully take place next week. Which is good, because I think we're getting close to being within one month of meeting a certain new baby.

Tease

Our friend Melissa took us up to Red Rock Canyon on Saturday for Claire's 2-year pictures. She is still working on editing them, but this is one of my favorites so far. More as soon as I get them. Thank you, Melissa!

Saving my bank account, one pre-schooler at a time

My sister got me a gift card to Pottery Barn for my birthday late last year...and I finally made it to the store to wander around in bliss, breathing the smells and basking in the glow of their soft leather arm chairs and floral prints. These hopes were dashed, as I had Claire with me. Instead, my morning went something like this:

Claire, come over here. Come over here come over here come over here. Don't touch that. No, that's glass, don't touch the glass bunny, yes he's cute, don't touch him. Please don't lean against that mirror, OMG it costs over $300, DO NOT TOUCH that mirror. Do you want me to pick you up? I'm going to pick you up if you don't stay by me. Why did I not bring the stroller? Next time I'm bringing the stroller. You are so heavy. Okay, you can get down if you don't touch anything. No, you can't have those apples. Or the pears. Yes, they're pretty. Come here. Come here now. [Store clerk: Can I help you find something? Me: yes, do you have daycare?] Claire, don't go over there. That is not a toy. No glasses, yes they're pretty, no glasses no no, put it down. Get off the bed. No shoes on the bed, that's a white bedspread, do you see? Yes, those are shoe prints on the white bedspread. It's time to get down. Oh, pretty vase. No, you can't play with it. Put the flowers back. Come this way this way this way, I want to look at the clocks. See the pretty clocks? Come THIS WAY. No, don't go out the front door. Why is the front door wide open? Don't they realize that's a parking lot with cars out there? Stay inside. No, not in the display window. Get out of there, please. Be good, or no Mary Poppins on the way home.

And here I was, thinking it was a good thing we live so far away from Pottery Barn. Really, my checking account is saved by pre-schoolers.

Anti-nesting phase

Has anyone else gone through something like this during their pregnancies? I don't feel like doing anything, even though I have so many things to do before the baby is born that I could be busy every minute of the day for the next 60 days until I'm due. Maybe I am just overwhelmed. I have a tendency to get that way when the house is a disaster, which it most certainly is. I'm still not entirely unpacked from our vacation, and we've been home for 6 days... Must snap out of funk asap. The dishes and laundry are piling up and more projects are going onto my list than coming off of it. Okay, done whining. HAHAHAHA!

Kate's first day of school last week. Note how cute she looks in her navy and white color-coordinating outfit, which are two of the colors that the kids are allowed to wear. Except they can't wear polka dots. Or shirts without collars. And apparently a teacher also commented in a non-favorable way about her shoes, which I am choosing to ignore. And I bought this outfit specifically for her to wear to school! Argh.

We went to breakfast for Valentine's Day. The Original Pancake House. YUM. It was totally not romantic, and most of our time was spent corralling the children and telling them not to touch things, or wander off with strangers, and to please stop coloring on the silverware, but it was fun anyway.

Afterwards, we went to Home Depot. Claire thoroughly enjoyed the flower section. And the puddles.

This van keeps roaming our neighborhood, playing lullabies. I have never seen anyone buying anything from the person inside. Would you buy ice cream from this vehicle?

Today I had another ultrasound. I am technically about 31 1/2 weeks along, but am measuring more like 33 1/2 weeks (I think? Pregnancy brain has officially set in)...and the baby is already 5lb4oz. Um, hello. The doctor said I would likely have a 9+lb baby, if I didn't give birth early. I will be discussing this with my regular OB as soon as possible. I'm thinking late March sounds fab. You?

More design questions

Since the upstairs is a mess (not to mention the kitchen), I am making it into an opportunity to get some more painting done. Several months ago we had the majority of the interior painted:

Here you can see the 2 main colors we've chosen for the living spaces: the darker shade on the left wall and the lighter shade in the TV cove. Pay no attention to the hole in the ceiling, or the hideous vertical blinds on the sliding glass door.

We didn't paint the bedrooms or the girls' bathroom, in hopes that we could save up and get it done at a later date. It's later, and now that Kate's room and the bathroom are semi-destructed, I want to get the rest of the house done. Here's my dilemma: I have no idea how long we will be here and therefore it's probably best to paint in tones that will maximize our resale potential. Kate has a red bed and will hopefully be getting some new black-brown dressers soon. More on that in a moment. Claire will be permanently sharing Kate's room with her as soon as the mess is cleaned up, and the baby will have its own room.

Question 1: what color do I paint Kate's room? I am leaning towards the lighter shade that is in the TV cove because she already has some bright colored furniture, and also her room is on the northish side of the house and I don't want to go too dark.

Question 2: what color do I paint the nursery? I have never been a fan of baby blue, so I won't do that unless one of you can come up with an extremely compelling reason to do so. We don't know the gender of the baby, so I also don't want to go with pink (this would potentially create resale issues later, anyway). Do I go with the same light color?

Our room is above the family room, and I am pretty sure I am going with the darker color in there, since we get a lot of sun, and I want some variety upstairs. I think we'll do a darker brown accent wall (suede if the painters can create the look without significant cost to our retirement fund) in Fawn's Leap, on the wall where our headboard is.

Isn't this a nice picture? Lots going on.

Question 3: has anyone recently purchased furniture from Ikea? I found some decent looking furniture that I think will go with Kate's room, and the price is good. My other option is Target furniture and I think they have a crap selection right now. I just can't justify spending a gazillion dollars on dressers and such for pre-schoolers. I am leaning towards 2 dressers and a nightstand, since each child likely needs a dresser and Claire will be losing hers to the baby soon. There is no Ikea near us, so I have to buy sight-unseen. Please help!

Home again

It was a long trip, in terms of the amount of driving and whining we experienced. But it felt like a short trip in terms of family time, especially since a good portion of time was devoted to car stuff.

The girls did okay on the way up to Oregon. We got up early and were actually on the road just after 8am: a record for us, and possibly anyone with small children. It still took us more than 2 days to get to our destination, but we survived, and didn't even encounter any bad weather. Kate and Claire decided it would be fun to not nap in the car on the way north, and they also apparently thought it a good idea to not go to sleep until approximately 10pm each night, so they were good and crabby by the time we reached Oregon.

A rare nap.

Surrounded by princesses.

Not a new look for Kate, but an old favorite: underwear on the head. At least it's clean.

A short run-down on events, to be expanded upon later: we bought the Mazda CX-9. LOVE. Love love love. Even after (gah) 1200 miles of driving it. Super comfortable, super luxurious, super pretty, super super super.

We spent almost all of our free time with family, soaking up every minute. The girls had so much fun with their cousins. We all had so much fun with everyone. We had a family birthday party for Claire and Aunt Donna, and a baptism ceremony afterwards for Claire. And we sadly drove away the next day to return to Las Vegas. We are glad to be home, but we miss everyone!

Update!

Drove approx. 1500 miles with 2 pre-schoolers through CA and OR. Finally reached destination. Bought new car. Been spending time with family. Enjoying rain. Kids beginning to nap more regularly, but still going to bed at ridiculous time. Kids also sharing air mattress on floor, so should be happy they are sleeping at all. Organizing Claire's baptism/birthday party. Hoping for actual family/relaxation time now that car stuff is done. Not ready to leave on Monday.