the girl who is cheering!

ok, enough already. Let's call a moritorium on Paris stories!

the girl who overheard

This is the conversation I recently overheard between my eldest and my youngest.

Matthew: "these are my boobies!"

Zachary: "Those aren't boobies, those are nibbles. Boys have nibbles and girls have boobies. Mommy has boobies. You have nibbles. I have nibbles. Ian has nibbles. Daddy has nibbles. Even Parker has nibbles! Maceo has nibbles too, but they're hard to see because of the fur. I've seen them though."

the girl who got crafty

So this was my project this weekend! I had fun with tie dye and iron-ons and fabric paint. You should see my hands! lol! I might add some more stuff like some hand stitching...or maybe not. Not all of them turned out as I envisioned, but my faves are the dragon, the gnome, the cycle and the skull. Right now, I know Eli has some rockin' new duds and this was just size 0-3 months...he'll grow and need more! Plus all the other boys loved watching me play and the results, so maybe I'll make some matching tees too.

the girl who is doing a recap

So quite the eventful week I've had! On Tuesday I got a phone call bright and early telling me that Judy had a kidney waiting for her at the hospital. So I leapt out of bed, threw on some clothes and sped off to play chauffeur. This was at a quarter to 5 in the morning, mind you. Only for something of this magnitude would I WAKE UP that early. Go to bed that late, yes, more than probable, esp. if I'm on a scrappy high, but WAKE UP??

Anyway, this pic was taken on the way to the hospital. Who knew that the sun was up at 5:30? The good news is that Judy got the kidney! The weird news is that it took until about 9 pm for the surgery to actually take place. The even better news is that after one week recovering, Judy is scheduled to come home today! She had orange juice for breakfast for the first time in years! The kidney is doing well (as is Judy) so I hope everything continues well for her!




So while I was in the area last Tuesday, I went ahead and hopped over to the Winnie Palmer Hospital for Women and babies. Previously, I had delivered at the Arnold Palmer Hospital for Women and Children, but Winnie has been built next door since then and Arnie is just a kids hospital now with Winnie being for delivery and babies.


Oh. My. Goodness! Let me tell you, this hospital is worth being pregnant again! In fact, if I wasn't already knocked up and found out about this, I'd seriously consider getting pregnant just to deliver here! It's gorgeous! The rooms are about as close to hotel-like as you can get for a hospital room. There are Murphy beds for guests and the showers are full-sized (not the dinky little tiled slits in the wall that Arnie Palmer had. The vanity counter tops are granite for goodness sake! They have a concierge service! You can upgrade for extra comforts (paid separately from Insurance, naturally) and even have a post-delivery, gourmet, 4-course meal. It's just beautiful! This picture is of the atrium at the entrance. The only thing that bugs me though is that the parking garage is next to Arnie Palmer and even though Winnie is across the street and not too far a distance (although ANY distance is too far when you're waddling over in labor) there is no crosswalk between the two! I guess that's why they offer valet parking!

This cutie picture is Matthew in the morning in all of his bed-head glory. After I took this I realized how long his hair really was! (Ok, maybe the fact the sitter keeps putting it up in a pony tail should have given me a hint.) Anyway, I decided to take care of that this weekend too and all three boys got haircuts. Zachary even got a "faux-hawk" BUT his hair has a mind of its own and the world's most dangerous cowlicks. Even with a TON of professional product in his hair it just would quite go into full "hawk" mode. It's cute, in any case. Maybe I'll go old-school 80's punk mohawk on him and use Elmers. (Yes, that is what was used.) Then again, I don't want the other kiddos putting it in their hair--which they totally would--so I guess I'll just stick with trying to find some styling wax and see if that will work.

Faux "faux-hawk" See what I mean? No points at all! Poor guy, he really wanted to be "cool."

On Saturday we went to a birthday party for my sitter's eldest son. He and Zacky are good friends so it was a no-brainer to go. I learned something though. When you are invited to a party given by Puerto Rican's, add 2 to 3 hours to the start time listed on the invitation. Silly white girl that I am, I showed up at 3 (the time listed on the invite) and my sitter said "Oh, you're early!" lol! Now I can say this and not be politically incorrect because my sitter kept telling eevryone how I showed up on time like it was a huge joke. That will teach me!

The bright side is that the kiddos had the bouncey house to themselves for a long time. Note that Matthew's underwear is on backwards. There is a simple explanation for this. Kids character underwear usually has the picture printed on the butt. Long ago Zachary decided that he wanted to see the picture, not sit on it and his brothers picked up his habit. Zack has since outgrown it, but somedays it isn't a battle I really care about fighting, lol.

I love this picture right here. This is something that I would expect of Mr. OCD, Ian. But no, it's Matthew. All the sandals were higgledy-piggedly all over the place outside of the bouncy house. Matthew matched them up and then arranged them from smallest to largest. lol! I love my kiddos quirks!

Another favorite picture from the party. Poor little guy, he sometimes doesn't feel very social and doesn't particularly want to be included in all the fun and games. This is typical Ian. Mommy is trying to love on him and take a picture of the two of us and he doesn't want to look at the camera. At the same time he looks sorta thoughtful. Out of all of them, he'll probably go goth when he hits his teens. He is the one who looks the most like me, but he has definately inherited his Daddy's anti-social tendancies.

This is more like it! This is my sweet boy when he bothers to give me a natural smile for the camera. His cheesy smiles always looks like he's looking into a really bright light and it hurts somewhat. lol!

So that was Saturday. Sunday was Father's Day and I gave my DH the best present...I let him sleep in until noon! Of course, I was frantically trying to clean the house because our landlord was coming over to sign the new lease, but he got to sleep in! We didn't "do" anything for Father's Day because that's the way he likes it. We just chilled at home and I kept the kiddos under control so he could play WoW all day. Then I made us some nice steaks for dinner (droool!) and the boys and I made brownies for dessert. One kid got the beater, one got the spatula, and one got the bowl. (Yes, Mom...I know...salamonella. But I figure that I survived so they will too!)

And I end this lengthy post with a picture of my furry son, Maceo. Sometimes you take a picture of an animal and you can see the human in them. This is such a picture.

Can't you just see that he's thinking he's about to shove that camera down my throat if I don't stop taking his picture? LOL!

the girl who had fun with da Jens!

So I also may have gone overboard with the slideshow extras, but lets pretend I'm in jr. high and this is cool, ok? lol!

These girls are so much fun to hang out with! This weekend was my baby shower. Unfortunately, the guests seem to have forgotten that and nobody showed up except for someone who was working anyway. So that kind of sucked. (I'm trying not to be bitter.) Anyway, instead of tasting baby food and measuring my massive belly, I ended up gorging on fruit and dip and cupcakes and doing a wacky photo shoot. With the Jens around, I really don't need anyone else there to have fun! Plus, they got me the most gorgeous diaper bag from Wendy Belissimo! I had been coveting a real, trendy diaper bag--I've always just used the hospital freebie. But this is my last baby and I deserve to go out in style!

Then we went scrappy shopping and I picked up some Love, Elsie and we ended up at Panera Bread for "real food." Princess had to leave at that point, but I dragged Island Jen off to the mall to check out Lush and get some Buffy the Backside Slayer soap. Seriously, this is the best stuff evah for those bumpy backsides and I needed something to make me feel pretty. I tried to turn Jen onto it, but I think she balked at paying $10 for a bar of soap. Her loss! It is sooooo worth it!

So, my baby shower may not have gone off as originally planned, but I think the day itself was perfect! Look at these pics, can't you see the fun we have when we are together?

the girl who asks...

Seriously...have you ever seen a cuter belly shot?

So I am 28 weeks tomorrow--which means that I am 7 months along. Which would seem somewhat "on the homestretch" encouraging until you take into account that pregnancies are 40 weeks which really is 10 months, not 9. I suppose people just never count that first month because you really don't know, but for goodness sakes! It's just depressing when you finally hit your third trimester and figure out how much further you have!

Anyway...tomorrow is my birthday. 33--I guess that I should consider it a "lucky" b'day since good things come in threes and that's double threes. I continue to remain optimistic about this year. I know this is OUR YEAR, the YEAR OF NOW. I'm just impatient and want to get this pregnancy over with, I feel like its holding me back in the sense that I just want to go do things and I keep having to say "when the baby is born" and that was so NOT part of my word for this year. It isn't WHEN, it's NOW.

And NOW I must get back to work, lol!