tis the season

Ho ho ho! Now that we've survived Halloween, Nate's birthday, and Thanksgiving, and since our baby doesn't seem to be rushing out to join us, it's time to move ahead to our next holiday hurdle - Christmas! We don't usually like getting our tree and decorations out in November, but because of the impending baby, we decided to get everything ready early so could enjoy the festivities (and be awake for them, too!)

For Nate, the highlights of our tree shopping trip were:
-the fountain/birdbath inside the garden shop (no picture, sorry)
-sliding down the poles that hold up the trees
-a forklift
-riding on the freight shopping cart

Oh, did I mention they had Christmas trees there? I'm not sure Nate noticed either. He did enjoy hanging ornaments on the tree (which took us a couple of days) and seems to like the overall holiday theme. He is very confused about when Christmas will actually take place, and a month must seem like a lifetime for him. Let's hope that both he and the pine needles on our tree last until the 25th!

turkey turkey turkey

Happy Thanksgiving! Here's a (very) brief quiz to bolster your holiday spirit.

What weighed more:
a) Nate
b) my baby belly
c ) our turkey

If you answered c, you are correct! Since we weren't sure if we'd be at Thanksgiving dinner or not, we were off the hook for cooking this year, but instead we provided the turkey. We got one from our meat CSA farm, Chestnut Farms. In the hope of having leftovers we asked for a pretty big bird, and they obliged, plus some. This year's turkey tilted the scales at a whopping 32 pounds! We had a brief concern that it wouldn't fit into the oven, but everything ended up working out (although I'm not sure the turkey would agree). And, of course, Nate's favorite part of dinner was dessert: pies!

on hormones and such

I sometimes forget how out of whack my hormones are until I'm faced with a perfectly dull situation that results in an uncontrollable emotional fit. For instance, I'm reading a wonderfully funny book, Waiting for Birdie by Catherine Newman, about a mother of a three-year-old who is expecting her second child (sound familiar?) Anyway, I was reading the part where she is about to deliver her new baby and is reminiscing about her first delivery:

"When Ben was born, Michael, in a clueless fit of optimism, had brought his guitar to the hospital - you know, in case we felt like singing during the birth..."

While this is surely an amusing image for most people, it completely pushed me over the edge. I started laughing out loud, something I rarely do, and morphed into an all out sobbing fit. I think the humor of that situation combined with my own musings on Nate's delivery and the impending one just made me go completely bonkers. Thad was looking at me with this concerned, baffled look, not knowing what to do with me. Poor guy, it's hard enough to know what's going on inside my head on a typical day, I must be a complete mystery right now.

One baby-related theme that keeps coming up - in this book, in conversations with friends, in those unhelpful weekly emails I get about the baby's progress - is that things with the second child are usually less stressful because the parents are more laid back.For instance, numerous people have said that the second time, they were far less concerned that their baby was breathing and wouldn't repeatedly check to make sure everything was okay while the baby was sleeping. While the idea of this next stage being easier than Nate's earliest days, I'm also a little disconcerted. I don't think I've ever felt the urge to check to make sure Nate's still alive while sleeping. The only time I can remember checking on Nate while he slept was the night after he fell on his head. Other than that I can't think of any possible reason I would want to enter his room while he's asleep, unless I wanted to wake him. All the stories about how people are more relaxed with the second kid seem to fit with how we reacted (mostly) with Nate. Does this mean that we're going to unintentionally neglect our new baby? I mean, could we be too laid back? I'm sure she'll survive, and perhaps I've blocked out the baby-induced manic behavior. All I know is that I'm not planning on double-checking on the baby's breathing status unless she has some sort of respiratory problem!

three year stats

Nate had his three year check-up last week. He is tipping the scales at a whopping 30.25 pounds, putting him in the 34th percentile for weight. He also has a BMI (who knew they charted that?!) of 14.5, placing him in the 8th percentile. So he's a pretty skinny kid. He's also a beanpole, because his towering 38.25-inch puts him in the 71st percentile for height. Who would have thought I'd have a tall kid? Must be Carlson genes at work.

gotta have more jackhammer!

the ninth month

I'm now officially in the home stretch of this pregnancy. If the baby is born while I'm typing or any time after (my money's on this latter option) she will be considered "on time." This last month is humorously cruel and although I'd like the kids to have their birthdays a couple of weeks apart, I'm more than ready to not be pregnant.

There's nothing more I want to do emotionally than to spend as much quality time with Nate and Thad as possible before we add a new personality into the mix. But there's nothing more that I physically want to do than lay still and be pathetic. It gets more and more difficult to find a comfortable position for sleeping and rolling over is about as graceful as I imagine it is for a beached whale. Nate told me the other day that he, "grunted just like you, Mommy!" Walking around is fine in short spurts, but all my joints are loosening up for the big day, which makes them sore on the not-so-big days. When I sleep I've also started getting leg cramps, another common pregnancy side effect, which makes not only my joints sore but my muscles as well. The recommendation to help with the cramping is to stay hydrated (for those of you unfamiliar with my drinking habits, I'm a huge water fan. I definitely drink more than the recommended eight glasses a day). But here's the rub! If I drink even more than my typical gallon-a-day, then I'll wear a track into the floor between the couch and the bathroom. And I might have a lower risk of leg cramps at night, but I have to get up a bazillion times to use the bathroom because the baby is leaning right on my bladder. I'm not sure which is the lesser evil - sleeping longer but being awoken by a sharp pain in your leg, or spending the night doing laps to the toilet.

Although it's a drag, I have to say I think it's rather amusing, and I know it'll all be a distant memory soon enough. I also realize I'm in a better position than a lot of other pregnant women. For instance, I can still eat. Bonus!

out of the mouths of babes

"I'm coming down whether you like it or not! Do you like it?"

resting

For (hopefully) obvious reasons, I've been trying to rest more recently, which often involves putting up my feet. Nate wanted to join in, so we now like to both hang out on the couch with our feet up. We just need to get Thad some palm fronds and grapes, and we'll be all set!

we're alive!

We did it. We survived Nate's party! One thing that's both a benefit and a downfall of a three-year-old's party is that all the kids come with parents in tow. So not only do we have to think about what to do with nine kids, but we also have to accommodate fifteen adults. We tried to be pretty laid back about things and didn't schedule much, largely because I can't move all that well (we did have my sister come to take over where I couldn't, which was a big help!) I think the kids had a good time and Nate seemed to really enjoyed having his friends over. Pizza, cake, playdough... overall, a great afternoon!

After the party we attempted to take a family portrait. Clearly, that went over well with the birthday boy. Maybe some other time.

three today!

Nate is three! I can't believe it. It seems like just yesterday that he was born, and yet it also feels like he's been in our lives forever. I'm not sure Nate knows he's three (despite our incessant reminders) but he definitely knows that it's his birthday and that means he gets presents.

Thanks to you, dear readers (and impressive online shoppers), we were able to track down a number of his gift "suggestions." We decided to go with the shopping cart and jackhammer, because these were the two he brought up most frequently. I did have to talk with him about the non-existence of pink and orange shopping carts - I mean, could there be a WORSE color combination? If only Dunkin Doughnuts sold toys - and he switched his request to a green one (after I purchased a plain old pink one, of course). And then there's the jackhammer. Who knew they actually made these?! My very favorite thing about the jackhammer (oh, but how could I pick just one, you may ask?) is that it came with safety equipment - work gloves and earmuffs. And if my kid is going to play with power tools, he definitely needs to do so with safety in mind.

Another thing that comes with multiple birthday celebrations is a marathon of baking (or runs to your local bakery, depending on your personal cooking habits). In our case we made the cherry pie and pear tart last weekend, carrot (cup)cakes for Nate's class and our household celebration, and then a chocolate mint one for tomorrow's party with his friends. I'm glad that unlike when I was pregnant with Nate, this baby likes to eat dessert!

let the celebrations begin

Since our house really isn't big enough to accommodate forty or so of Nate's admirers, we had our first birthday celebration this past weekend with family. We had a nice brunch with all of Nate's grandparents, Aunt Holly, Aunt Jean, Lucia and Albie. I was a fabulous photographer and took no photos of the entire group together, and virtually no pictures of the adults. I'm blaming the oversight on hormones. Since Nate isn't a typical kid, he requested a not-so-typical celebration. He insisted that he absolutely did not want a cake, but wanted a birthday cherry pie. Thad The Pie Man obliged, and also made an accompanying upside down pear tart. Isn't that every three-year-old's dream come true? After eating, Nate wanted to go outside and rake the yard. This was the best birthday entertainment I could ask for! Next weekend we will be having his kid friends over for another celebration and we are hoping they will finish painting and decorating the nursery. Ha!

Nate has been enjoying his new gifts. He is quite fond of his newest truck, a crane he has named Chucky Pucky. We played a rousing game of Candy Land. Nate came up with some new rules, which mostly consisted of him always choosing a green card and Chuky Pucky randomly picking up the gingerbread cookie pawns and dropping them randomly around the board. Thad calls it "Demolition Candy Land."

the nursery

We have three bedrooms in our house, one of which had a drop ceiling and old wallpaper. We have been here for a little over a year and have been fixing it up in stages. Our "fixing" has turned into a small construction site that is not really what we had in mind for our nursery decor. Since I'm carrying around a mid-sized pumpkin and Thad is working (for the time being) we caved and decided to have someone come finish the ceiling and paint the room. Here are some "before" shots. Hopefully the "after" will come soon!

autumn

Nate is really into yardwork. And since I'm feeling like a whale these days, I'm more than happy to let him do my share of the raking. He has also started picking out his own clothes, hence this crazy outfit. I think the boots really tie it all together.