The World's Biggest Chair

We have a chair that I purchased from IKEA when I first moved to Philadelphia upon graduating from Penn State. Ironically, I bought the chair in an attempt to make my little apartment look nicer for the first time Jon visited me there. We have moved a lot since then…7 times to be exact…and somehow the chair is still with us. There is nothing special about the chair – I think it cost $60, it doesn’t match our furniture, its kind of dirty. But, it does bounce, is very comfortable, and is well loved! I am sentimental about it because of the circumstances surrounding its purchase, and because it is the chair that we used in our bedroom when we had Hailey for nighttime feedings. I am not sure why Jon likes the chair so much, but he does, and it has something to do with it being the “perfect” video game chair.

Our house has issues. It is just not big enough and the space we do have is not useful. We use the dining room as a playroom – mostly because we don’t own dining room furniture and we do own way too many toys. Roxy’s kennel also resides in there, along with a spiffy table that we use as a laptop desk. Decorating this room has been a challenge. Jon and I tend to be slightly bad judges of color, especially in regards to paint. There are many rooms in many houses that have had multiple paint iterations before we get it right.
Sometime after Christmas Jon decided that the dining room needed painted (this was the beginning of his mission to paint every wall in our house) and proceeded to paint it a very dark blue. I knew right away that the color was bad, but he kept hoping it would look better and painted the whole room. It already had the ugliest rug ever (but it was cheap and free shipping form target!) Needless to say, the room was an eyesore.

I finally decided on a rug that wasn’t obscenely expensive and that we both liked. We bought it and put away some of the toys that don’t get used, and the room looked better. Then we decided that it needed painted – and we deliberated over colors. We went with a very safe brown, and it actually looks very nice.


Munchkin was VERY excited about painting. Even though it had disaster written all over it, Jon said he COULDN'T not let her help....

This picture is from earlier in the day - little helper is helping make muffins, which has nothing to do with the particular story... BUT you CAN see the new rug in the background:)


Sometime Saturday evening, Jon relocated the Ikea chair to the garage. I have been using that chair in there, and it worked well, but I really want a big comfy chair for in there, so I was ok with moving the precious chair to the video gaming area -aka mancave - aka the place where I used to park my car.
The room is small though, so nothing too big is going to work. I had picked out a certain kind of chair that I really wanted, and on Sunday night I saw one on craigslist for $75. I was so excited – as the chairs I had been researching were approximately $400. I called right away, and the next evening I went to get the chair by myself, because you-know-who had to work late of course. When I got there and saw the chair I knew immediately that it was way too big, and that I should not buy it. However, I did not walk away and instead I became the owner of the worlds biggest chair. To add to my misery, when I got it home and it was sitting in the truck in the driveway, it got rained on, so now it was the biggest soaking wet chair ever.

Jon just laughed at me when he got home. Then we carried the giant wet chair inside on our heads.
Hailey and the dogs love the chair. Hailey said “ Wow! Can we sleep on it?” and then, “I think we can all sit on it together!”. Which we can, all three of us, the unborn child, and the dogs.
I listed the chair on craigslist last night, after trying every combination possible to make it work. I have 4 people interested in it, so hopefully it will leave tonight. It upsets me to look at it!

No, We are not READY!

This is what the Baby's Room looked like BEFORE we started cleaning up for Nana and Papa's visit. The much too big TV now resides in the garage - where Captain Works-Too-Much thinks he needs a "man-cave". The rarely used Bowflex that you can only barely see was re-homed.

A common question I am asked is if we are ready for the baby. The second most common question is if I am due soon…which I am sure is because of my circumference, and the astonished looks I get when I tell them I have 10-11 weeks to go can be comical. I don’t always feeeel comical, but I try to be understanding that some people are just stupid, and apparently have no idea what to say to pregnant ladies.

But back to being “ready” for the baby. First of all, given this is my second child, I am not driven to have everything ready, because I know she doesn’t need a perfectly decorated room and every little baby item to be in its place. She is going to sleep in a bassinet (that I don’t own yet) in my room for awhile. Secondly, my house is just not big enough, and I don’t know where we are going to fit this little baby. I sold some stuff on craigslist on Friday, and we had the beginning of a yard sale on Saturday. It certainly helped, but we still have a ways to go. The crib and changing table are stored on our trailer, along with the rest of the yard sale stuff we have been setting aside for several years, but beloved husband can’t remember the combination to the gate to get the trailer, not to mention he works a bazillion hours a week so he doesn’t really have time to get it anyway.

As mentioned in a previous post, we were forced to organize what will be the baby’s room because it is also our guest room, and Nana and Papa were visiting. We made some real progress, but then Jon embarked on a painting mission yesterday. He has decided that every wall in our house has to be painted, and the guest room is one of the rooms that has not been painted since we moved in. We got everything in that room moved to the center, its all taped up and ready to go, and then he decided that he needed to paint the two-story wall in our foyer first. That took a lot longer than expected, even with the new very tall ladder we "needed" to buy for the project. Now the room is in shambles again, and who knows when we will get back to painting it. He has an IPUG ride today, needs to finish his masters classwork by May 15th, is going TDY for a week starting Saturday, and has a big inspection at his “other” work the week after that. And then we have our big St Thomas trip the week after that!

So, I can definitely say that we are NOT ready – not in the way we were for Hailey. Everything is not organized and in its place, nor do I have a plan on how we are going to get ready. However, I think I have a much better concept of what its going to be like this time, so from that point, sure, I’m ready! Gimme a baby!
This is how the room looks now. Pretty!

My baby is 3!

Hailey is a big girl – heaven forbid we use the word “little” to describe anything in relation to her…she gets very offended because she is BIG! However, she will still snuggle, and tells me that she will be my baby “forebber”. I absolutely adore her at this age, and hope she doesn’t get any older. I realize that this is impossible, and think that I will probably feel the same way when she turns 4,5, 6 and so on (maybe not the teenage years, but I really don’t see how that can be so bad) but she has recently turned into a very fun, agreeable, and easy child who is friendly, helpful, and has nice manners. I can’t wait to see her in the morning and rush to get her after work. She talks constantly and amazes us daily with the things she knows. I attribute much of the recent changes in her behavior to her new sitter, Mrs. Jen. Jen does a lot of things the same way that we do, and the consistency between her day time care and us is working. Hailey helps pick up her toys, often volunteers to do it, she says “please” and “thank you”, often without being prompted. Instead of “Gimme that” she now says “May can you please get me…or May can I please have…” We all think the “May-can-I” is cute, so we don’t try to correct her grammar. She is still a terrible eater and the queen of snacking, and regardless of how big she thinks she is, in reality she is quite small. We weighed her with all her clothes on at the pool and she weighed 27 lbs and is about 34 inches tall.

Here are some pictures from her birthday!

Hailey and Andrea on the swing Getting ready to open her presents Her "big" present from Mommy and Daddy

Hopefully she won't harm herself on this latest fabulous craigslist purchase!

Preggo Update

Today I am 28 weeks pregnant. I can’t say that I remember being this uncomfortable at this point with Hailey, but that may be because the whole episode of being pregnant is way more exciting the first time. I am excited to get a baby at the end, but pretty much being pregnant is just annoying. It could also be because I have successfully managed to gain all of the 30 pounds I intended to gain over the course of the 40 weeks…and I still have 12 weeks to go…
While I DO think being pregnant is amazing, and love feeling the baby move, I HATE being fat, and chasing a 3 yr old around in this condition is tough.
People always says that every pregnancy is different, and that is one of those sayings I did not believe until I got to experience it. This pregnancy is very different. I felt great right up till the end with Hailey, and currently I have started finding ways to do normal household chores sitting down. I have been having weird and slightly painful contractions for the past few days, but they tend to stop if I rest a lot and drink a lot of water, so I try to do that…except then I have to go the restroom even more. Its not so bad when I am at work, because I sit at my desk for the most part and drink water continuously, but weekends are exhausting. We have so much to do to get ready, plus its spring so we have cleaning and yard work, not to mention the very active little girl who thinks her Mommy should jump on the trampoline with her.
As Hailey’s birthday was Saturday April 17th, we were forced to start the process of getting the baby’s room together…mostly because it is what is currently the guest room and we couldn’t even walk in there. Jon’s parents visited for Hailey’s birthday weekend, so we needed to get started in order for them to have a place to sleep. It was much needed motivation. I will post before and after pictures when – and if- we ever finish it. I feel better that it is started, but we still have a long way to go, and really not that much time, between work, TDY’s, and our upcoming St Thomas vacation. At least we can walk in that room now, although now we can barely move in the garage, and my car resides in the driveway.
Hailey is very excited about the baby, and gives my belly lots of hugs and kisses. She has felt the baby move, and asks all the time if her baby is awake. Many of her sentences start with “When my baby gets out of your belly…..”. I am pretty sure she thinks she is going to get a full grown “baby” sister to play with. If you ask her, she will tell you that her baby sisters’ name is Aubrey, which we are pretty sure it will be, however I still really like Kayla.
My last check up at the fabulous Langley Women’s Health clinic was uneventful. They have still not been able to get my operation report from Mountain Home, and therefore we still do not know for sure that I am allowed to try to have a VBAC. I desperately want to have a VBAC, and do not understand why they can’t get the report, but at the same time, I am not surprised. I am hoping that as I get closer to my due date the clinic will try a little harder, I guess, but again, not holding my breath.
I tried to make my next appointment with a specific doctor because I am going to need a note from her to travel to St Thomas with ( I am going to be 33 weeks when we go – I am hoping to start a whole new trend of beach sexy). I was told that I am not allowed to see a “doctor” for my appointments, because I am not having a complicated pregnancy. My appointments have to be with the nurse practitioners or midwifes, which is fine, except the doctor I wanted to see already knew about the trip and was ok with it. I asked the desk person what I could do and she said “ Well, you could get a complicated pregnancy, but I don’t think you want that.” Sooo helpful. Its almost amusing to see what kind of obstacle will be implemented at each appointment.

The Bee Will Make Me STINK??

Hailey has always been the perfect combination of girly-girl and little tomboy. She can be very girly – would prefer to wear a dress or night gown over anything else, loves her baby dolls and anything to do with THE Princesses (especially Ariel, who is her favorite) but pays equally as much attention to her Handy Manny Tool Box and likes to help her Daddy with whatever he is doing outside or around the house. Bugs, dirt, and the dead small animals that tend to show up in our yard were some of her favorite things, and she is forever bringing them to me…yay.
And then…the toddler nightmares started, which for some reason tend to involve bugs, spiders, crocodiles and snakes. I hate for her to be so scared, but am happy that she is developing a bit of fear of the gross things that Mommy is terrified of…in my opinion its much safer than her fearless fascination and investigation of nature.
The other day we went to Farm Fresh to pick up a few things after work. When we got out of the car in the parking lot, there was a half dead bumblebee right by our car. She was very curious about it, so we looked at it and I explained that we don’t touch bees because they will sting you, and then we went inside the store. When we came back out, the half-dead bee was still there (and if I wasn’t so terrified of all bugs I might have put the thing out of its misery, but even stepping on it scares me) so we looked at it again and then I put her in her carseat, where she said to me “If I touch the bee it will make me stink?” I realized she didn’t understand what a “sting” was so I showed her that a sting is like a pinch. She understood that, and I could tell she was thinking about the bee. On the way home she said “ I wish there were bee’s at my house, not just at the store.” We have holly bushes so we have tons of bees – the big kind – but I didn’t tell her that, and just agreed.
The next day she went to the playground with Mrs. Jen and the babies, and told Mrs Jen all about how bees will pinch you and you don’t touch them. For about a week afterwards she showed me everywhere she saw a bee and made sure that I know not to touch them.

Some Pics from our Trip!

Here are some pictures from our trip to Erie to visit my family

Ok, well, this one is at our house in VA, I just thought it was funny. Rolo still thinks he is a lap dog and that he should sit on top of Jon whenever possible.

The tricycle built for two that I got on craigslist. Its really cute, but Benjamin had trouble pedaling when either of the girls were in the back.

As always, we went to Build A Bear. Hailey made a very cute bunny that she named Mumpy.

The flowered bunny is Mumpy - the big bunny is the Easter Bunny that we visited while we were at the mall. This picture was taken before the series of disasters that happened that day started. I won't go into details, but it involved a lemonade geyser, food all over the food court (which a child was not responsible for - it was me) crazy Grandma Maryann pushing a stroller full of build-a-bears thru the mall, and a little run in between Jon's truck and the cart return at Toys R Us. Jon wasn't with us, so I wonder who was driving...

Hailey on Easter morning. We were at my sisters house, so she got a basket from the Aunt Casa bunny AND from the mommy/daddy bunny. We left right after this to drive back to VA, and many times on the way home Hailey asked if the Easter Bunny had left her something at her house too.

While in Erie, my family thought we should have a birthday party for Hailey. Her birthday isn't till April 17th, but the kids like parties and its nice that everyone gets to celebrate with Hailey. Hailey didn't want to go to sleep because she didn't want her birthday to be over, so she was relieved when I explained to her that it was actually her pretend birthday, and that she was going to have her real birthday in a few weeks at our house.

Me and my sister and our daughters. I love this picture even if I am looking quite pregnant.

Busy Busy

So, we are at my sisters house currently, which is in Erie, PA. In general, the weather sucks here, and therefore when I read the weather report that was calling for 75 and sunny this weekend, I did not believe it. When we visited last JULY it was about 60 for the week we were here. I refused to believe the forecast to the extreme measure that I did not pack shorts for Hailey or really any appropriate maternity wear for myself, and now of course, we are here, and its not only 75 and sunny, its supposed to be 80 tomorrow. I could just borrow some of my sisters summer maternity clothing, except we share all of our clothes and all of hers are at MY HOUSE!!

In addition, my sister has a husky who is full up shedding her winter coat, so there is hair everywhere and my sister just walked by and vacuummed me with her dyson.

We drove the whole way here yesterday and arrived around 11PM. Hailey was great in the car and the dirve was uneventful. We had to get here last night, which is a day earlier than planned because I wanted to get my hair colored by my favorite hairdresser and this morning was her only available time. It was worth it, and my hair is much better and much darker - pretty much black and no highlights! yay! She also trimmed and thinned my hair - which I desperately needed because pregnant people do not lose hair like normal people, and I have enough hair that I almost wish I could shed like my sisters crazy husky.

Unfortunately my sister had to work this morning, which meant Jon had to be in charge of all three toddlers while I had my hair appointment. My niece is 18 months, and my nephew is almost 4. He survived, but was a bit disgruntled when I got back. I think that may have had more to do with checking his work email account while on leave. When I got back we decided to take the kids to McDonalds Playplace for lunch. Three kids is a lot of kids to keep track of. As we were walking in to McDonalds, I was carrying Rowan, holding Ben's hand - and he was holding Hailey's hand. Keep in mind, I am six months pregnant and my sisters children and HAiley look very much alike.

When a person pointed at me and laughed from the window I realized that Jon and I looked like we had been very busy.