Another due date comes...and goes...

We're ready.  This baby's ready.  It's only a matter of time.

That's been the soundtrack in my head lately!

Still having contractions, mostly in the afternoons and evenings.  Pretty good ones, too.  They're worse if I've been walking, and go away if I lay down.  I think next time that happens, I'm just going to keep walking.

Well, we made a point of enjoying the due date.  Abuelita and Hollie and I went to the YMCA in the morning to swim, and we went for a nice lunch at a place right on the beach.  Then in the afternoon, Daniel and I went by ourselves to an NST appointment with the nurse at the doctor's office (doc is still out of town), and then we went to the movies and saw Super 8.  Not typically my kind of movie, but I have to say it was really well done!  It's always refreshing to me to see a really good movie without any big name actors.

Here are the pictures from our boat ride through Deception Pass...

We didn't get to drive it.  :(

Captain Mark took us out.

We could not have asked for better weather or smoother water!  Perfect day.

Deception Pass

Don't know if you can tell here, but the shores were packed.  So glad we didn't decide to fight that!

Our little boat girl.  She surprised us all with how at ease she was.  She loved it when we went fast!

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I have been determined to fill our days with little adventures to A) enjoy the beautiful weather we've been having, B) make the most of my last opportunities to leave the house at all (for a while) and C) just keep active in an effort to bring this pregnancy to an end.

Yesterday morning, Abuelita and Hollie and I went strawberry picking!

More GORGEOUS Pacific NW summer weather!

Someone needed a little guidance...

...but oh my goodness this dirt is SO COOL!!!

The little yellow ones, too.

Sampling.  Shhhh...

Hands covered in dirt and strawberry juice!  

That's how you know it's been a good day.

That giant belly in the white shirt is me.

Thank you again to Abuelita for letting me wander away and completely zone out in my strawberry-picking!

40 weeks, 1 day, and counting.

Went overboard.  A little.  Maybe.

About fifteen pounds here.

Whew!  All done - three bags for the freezer and four big bowls for the fridge.

Worth it.

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Another little excursion in the plans for today!  

Happy weekend, everyone.  :)

Settling in

One of the first things that I could not wait to do when we arrived here in Mukilteo is unpack all the baby clothes.  I had to go through all of them in Wichita, to decide what we were taking, but I knew it was pointless to wash and organize it all (though I really wanted to) because I knew I would have to wash them again after they sat in a box on a truck for a week anyway.

So after we got here that Monday night [over] two weeks ago, literally the first thing I did on Tuesday morning after Hollie and I had breakfast was set up the bassinet.  Then I waited anxiously for Friday, when the boxes of clothes that we shipped showed up at the door.  Within two minutes the clothes were spread out over the floor, and Hollie and I just sat down and looked through them and talked about the new baby.  

So then they sat and sat and sat in a pile in the bassinet because for some reason I could not ever remember to pick up baby detergent at the store!  Unbelievable.  My nesting urge was being completely thwarted by my scatterbrained-ness.

Finally got my hands on some detergent and yesterday got all the neutral colored clothes washed, folded, and put away...with help...

Look at this little monkey.  She wanted to try on all the clothes, but figured out pretty quickly that wasn't going to work.  She settled for this swaddling blanket with velcro tabs...it just barely fit around her shoulders!

Gotta make sure the swing still works, too.

Daniel and I just had our third anniversary (cue: awww) and we hadn't really planned on doing anything, but at the last minute Daniel got one of his coworkers (who has kids...but they're back in KS) to watch Hollie for the evening so that we could see a movie.  The movie (Bridesmaids) wasn't great, but it's always nice to get somewhat dressed up and have some fun.

Hollie had some fun too, apparently.  She told her babysitter all about how Daddy had built her little table (a recent purchase from Ikea), and when she ripped her doll a little bit she reassured him that Mommy would fix it.    

New belly picture - 36-ish weeks.  I forgot to mention - at my first appointment with the new doc, he decided to push my due date back a few days based on that first trimester ultrasound.  At my next ultrasound (tomorrow!) we will come up with a new official due date.

I still have stories and pictures of our long drive, and also from our weekend trip down to Portland, to post...but that's enough for today.  More tomorrow!

Finally

Travel plans.  We have 'em.

Earlier this week they told Daniel they wanted him to start in Seattle next Monday.

First, we thought it might be possible for all of us to fly out together this weekend.  Then we thought Daniel might fly out first, and Hollie and I would follow a few days afterward.  Then we thought Daniel might fly out this weekend, work a few days, then fly back here and make the drive with me...
It went on and on - juggling what the relocation people could make happen, and what was actually going to work for us.

Finally, two days ago, we figured, why don't we just drive all together this weekend?  Get it over with.  

Ran it by the managers yesterday and got the go-ahead.  Daniel won't be starting on Monday...more like Wednesday, but they're okay with that.  Airline tickets on such short notice are craaaazy expensive, so we're saving them a chunk of change.  It will be a long drive, and a busy few days getting ready to go, but I am so-so-so happy that this is finally happening.

Fortunately, while we were waiting for all these things to fall into place, we were mentally preparing, so now the actual preparing and packing is off to a great start and hopefully will continue to go smoothly.

We tried to have some fun while we waited, too.

 

Yes, painting with q-tips.  Yes, shoes are on the wrong feet.  She's a tough one to argue with about that.

This girl is funny.  Here are a few of the new and crazy things we've heard from her lately:

"Oh my josh"

"Stay here.  I be right back."

One morning she woke up after Daniel had left, and when she asked for him I said, "Oh, Daddy went bye-bye."  She shook her head and insisted "Daddy hello!"

When we're out walking and we look for cars before crossing the street, she's got the script down pat: "No cars? No trucks?  Okay, go!"  No prompting necessary.  There have been a few times that she's run away even after we've yelled for her to stop, which we've let her know is unacceptable, but she's never run into the street.  I think she has, what I like to call, a "healthy fear" of moving vehicles.

There's more, but it's late and my head's full of packing checklists and things to do tomorrow - our last full day to get ready.  I have new belly pictures accumulated, so next time I have a minute (ha) I'll get that updated.

Next time you hear from me, it will probably be from Washington!

Who needs chairs?

I just came across these photos today.  They were taken back in November and I just never got around to posting them!  Anyway, we're snowed in (yeah, again), and these reminded me of warmer weather (because Hollie's not wearing pants).  Enjoy!

To distract her from the [obvious] fact that I had the camera out, I asked her a few questions...

               Hollie, where is your nose?                                     and Momma's nose?

                        Ears?                                                                   Teeth?

                        Eyes?                                                               Belly button?

What a cutie.

Very last Christmas photos!!!

I did it!

Merry Christmas.

Waiting patiently

Another new Christmas tradition:

Pepere reads "The Gas We Pass"

The girls and their Abuelita

<3

(and their Parmesan??)

Yay!  Perfect.

(too bad it took 10 minutes to get one with Hollie's thumb out of her mouth!)

...and by that point they were leeeeaning!

So after all that, gift-opening commenced, and the camera was set down somewhere and forgotten about.  You can imagine.  Hollie had to play with each gift before opening another, so it would have taken all day had we not helped her along!  And we really didn't have all day, because that same afternoon we hopped a plane for...

...Phoenix!  Quite a change of scenery.  As we stepped off the plane, I think all three of us took a simultaneous deep breath of the cool, dry air, and our lungs cleared as the allergies we'd been battling the past five days just disappeared.

But not really.  While we were there, we would occasionally have a good cough, and say, "Sorry, I'm still getting Portland out of my chest!"  We loved Oregon, but we're just not used to all that green-ness.  

PHX kept us pretty busy, as usual.  It's still home to us in many ways, so over our four-day stay, there were a million restaurants to revisit (a few, twice - In N Out!), thousand friends to catch up with, and beautiful warm weather to enjoy, not to mention Christmas dinner, which was postponed a day just for us (thanks again Mom!) and Daniel's birthday (24 - holy moly!).  Poor guy had to make his own cake: tres leches (yummmm)! 

Okay, no more parentheses (I promise).

Unfortunately, the camera got taken out a grand total of ONE time while we were there.  I took what would have been a beautiful photo of my dad and Hollie lying outside in the hammock, but it just didn't turn out.  Sorry, Dad.  :(

So, by the end, we were ready to be home.  Hollie did great on all the flights, even, I might add, on the way home when Mr. Grinch's nasty-wastier twin sister happened to be sitting in the row in front of us.  I'm not gonna give you the whole story here.  Got a little bruise on my mama heart, and someday when I can stop kicking myself for not giving that woman a piece of my mind, then we'll be able to laugh about it.  And maybe wonder if she regrets what she said - who knows?

Sorry to end on that note!  Really, we brushed it off and we're okay :)

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In other news...we did Hollie's FIRST HAIRCUT last night and it was a beautiful success!  There are pictures, but I hear little lady waking up from her nap, so watch for those...later.

Snow baby (or not)

One morning, a few weeks ago, we woke up to this:

It was so darn awesome, we ate breakfast at the window...

Ready or not, here we go!

Helping Mommy shovel the driveway...

Nah, Hollie want big shovel!

So, being out in the cold was fun for about ten minutes, and then someone (not me) was at the door begging to go back in.  

We spent the rest of the day staying warm and taking silly pictures...

...and being silly in general.  Look at these two goofs...

I love that last one.  And yes, that's Hollie's hair in a little ponytail.  She needs that first haircut, and I'm leaning toward doing it myself.  If it happens, there'll be pictures, I promise.