Only 60 days until we meet the newest member of our family...if all goes as planned. Holy cow! That's not a lot of time! Right now the nursery is full of boxes and the closet needs to be cleaned out. But thanks to my mom, it's a beautiful, buttery shade of yellow and I like to go in there and take a nap when I get a chance. (We left a full-sized bed in there for company.) I'll take pictures when we get it looking more presentable. :) Wonder how Easton's going to feel sharing mom and dad with a new little one?

I've been doing a LOT of research lately into double strollers. Most of the places I go are REALLY hard to get in and out of (ex: old historic buildings that have been converted into offices) so I'm thinking we might need a double stroller. I have found some that are just your typical 2 seater strollers where both kids have to sit down. But then I found some styles where the older kiddo has the option of either sitting on a bench (and being buckled in) or standing up on a platform while holding onto handles. I thought "Boy, wouldn't this be a versatile option for those of us with kids close in age?!" Plus, some of them can even accommodate infant carriers so that's extra convenience for me. Just unbuckle the infant carrier from the car and pop it into the stroller. Nice.

• While I was out running errands today, I ran into a mom there who had one of these type double strollers and asked her if she liked it. She went on and on about how great this stroller is and how easy it is to use and she just loves it so much she has TWO of them and it's just the best thing since sliced bread. She even had me try pushing it with her kids in it to show me how easy it was to manuever. She had an 11 month old boy and a girl who's 3 1/2 and it WAS easy to push around.
  
  I got home and looked it up online to see how much it was...HOLY COW!!! $269.99!!! It's the Joovy Ultralight Caboose Stand-On stroller and man oh man I wish I didn't love that stroller so much. She did say that she had bought and tried out several other strollers that were cheaper and they were so heavy she could not push them around with her kids and the diaper bag in them. So now do I fork out this huge amount of money for the Cadillac of double strollers? Could I do just as well with our current stroller and a baby carrier until Easton is able to walk on his own? Do I even need a double when I've got a perfectly good stroller already? I love my Eddie Bauer stroller when we go somewhere we'll be doing a lot of walking. Plus, we've got a great little umbrella stroller we use for quick trips in and out of places because it's smaller and takes up less space in our trunk. Hmmm....what to do, what to do.

Pros:

• Probably makes it easier for me to get both kids in and out of places by myself.
• Wouldn't take up more room in the trunk than our current big stroller does. (I asked.)
• Easton could sit or stand depending on his mood and level of ability when baby 2 comes along.
• Could probably get at least some of my money back at a consignment shop when we outgrow this stroller because they're in high demand.

Cons:

• COST!!! Holy cow! I could buy a month's worth (or more) of groceries for that money!
• Everybody with 2 kids must want one because I'm not having any luck finding a used one.
• Why buy another stroller when we've got 2 perfectly good ones already, right?

Any suggestions?

Spring cleaning time continues at our house. I took in a huge tote of Easton's old baby clothes to the consignment shop, 2 huge boxes of books to donate to the library and 2 huge trash bags of clothes to donate to the Salvation Army. And the best part? All I had to do was call at the library and the Salvation Army and someone came out to my car to pick them up. Boy was I grateful for that! These days just lifting Easton makes my back ache and by the end of the day I'm usually hunting for the Tylenol and the heating pad. It feels good to be able to get rid of some of the extra "stuff" at my house and put it to good use somewhere else. All this cleaning just in time to have Baby 2 and get even MORE stuff! :) Guess that's the way it works though, right?

It's a GIRL!!!! :) Yippee!!! Time to buy some pink and purple. Not that we wouldn't have been excited about a boy because hey, we've already got boy stuff, right? But it will be nice to have one of each.

Happy first day of spring! Too bad it's 45 w/a wind chill of 38! Too cold! Bring on the 50s and 60s at least!

Jason might actually get to stop working Saturdays for a while. Woohoo! It's about time! Now we (ok Jason really) can have time to finish up a few little projects around the house AND still have another whole day to relax. Wow! 2 days off at the end of the week? What's that feel like? Hmmm...you say most of the rest of the world has this every single weekend? No way! We're getting gypped! :) Just kidding...Jason's job actually goes through this sometimes. Long stretches of time working lots of long hours. And then right as the weather's looking beautiful the work slows down and he sometimes works 4 day work weeks. Pretty sweet deal, really but those busy stretches are the pits!

This week has been somewhat uneventful around here. Just homework for me, a little housework (as always), story time with Easton yesterday at the library and that's about it. Nothing too exciting to blog about. Baby 2 is doing well it seems. Very active. Sometimes it feel like just one little baby couldn't possibly be moving around that much...he or she moves around enough for two but thankfully several doctors have said there's only one in there.

Monday is (hopefully) the big day. We can't wait to find out if Easton is having a brother or a sister. I've already washed the yellow and green and gender neutral clothes that E has outgrown. We'll see if I need to wash the rest of them or box them all up to go to the consignment shop here in town. Hmmm...I'd love either one but I'm feeling the need to buy a little pink these days. We'll see. Look for a post some time on Monday. My appt is at 9:30 and then I've got some errands to run after that so it might be late afternoon or evening before I get to post but I promise I will if we get to find out. If Monday comes and goes with no post here, you'll know that Baby 2 is in for a spanking from Aunt Leslie when he or she makes their debut because they were shy and didn't want to show off. :)

It's gonna be THAT kind of day! Easton is into everything these days. I totally get that he's trying to figure out how things work and that everything is fascinating for him and he's not doing any of this to get on my nerves or cause trouble. I get that. I promise! But when you've cleaned up raspberry preserves out of the carpet, vacuumed up crushed Kix cereal off of the floor, scrubbed the carpet where someone has watched the milk drip out of their (supposedly leakproof) sippy cup, changed the sheets in the crib because someone decided to throw a poopy diaper in his bed before I could get it rolled up and into the trashcan (GROSS!), picked up the papers that needed to be filed because someone pulled them off in of the table, stepped on squished bananas on the linoleum, put the alarm system sensor back on the window where little hands pulled it off for the millionth time, cleaned up the basket of books someone dumped all over the floor and didn't put away and all of this is before 9:00 am...you know it's gonna be THAT kind of day! This is the kind of day when I'd usually put E in the car and go run errands just to get out of the house. Unfortunately, Jason's got the car today and I've got to finish up my final paper for one of my classes so no running around for us!

Gonna have to turn on comment moderation for a while because I keep getting weird stuff instead of actual comments. Please feel free to leave me a comment just like usual though. The only changes will be that the comments don't show up right away like they used to. Thanks! :)

While my mom was here, she bought me the book Twilight. Now I don't know that I normally would have read this book because it's about vampires but since my mom and Jason's mom really loved it AND my mom bought it for me, I decided why not. Oh, it's so good! I read the first one in only a few days and bought the second at Costco and devoured it too. Now I'm waiting for the next one to come out at Costco or Walmart (where they're cheaper) or for a copy to become available at my libary. I normally do NOT like books about weird stuff like vampires and werewolves but these also have a really interesting plot aside from that. Besides, I don't usually like books about magic but LOVED the Harry Potter books simply because the writing just really draws you in and grabs your attention, so I thought maybe the same would hold true for this series. Yep. I'm addicted. Thanks, mom! :)

I'm so glad that Easton got to spend a lot of time with his Nana before she comes out when the baby is born. After this visit, she'll already be familiar with Easton's routine and know where things are and how things work in our house. I think this will really make Easton feel a lot less freaked out (hopefully) when the baby's born.

Easton and his Nana

(not to be confused with his Nanny, which is Jason's mom.)

Easton,

You are saying more and more words every day. While Nana was here you were really fascinated with the words car and snow. Every day you woke up and had to check if there was snow on the ground or see if you could see any cars out your bedroom window. You and Nana would have been thrilled to see some snow but I agree most folks around here...we're ready for spring!

Some other new words you can say now: fish (fuh), truck, (kuck), fan (fa), poop, shoe, socks, cracker, kitty-kitty, bird, tweet tweet (teet teet), pig, hat, bye-bye, hot, bath and drink (gink) and no.

During the time Nana was here, you went from mostly crawling everywhere to walking all of the time. Your wobbly, waddle-y walk is so cute to watch. You're able to catch your balance about half the time instead of falling but you still fall a lot. After one particularly brutal day of falls, head bumps and one busted lip, I threatened to get you a helmet. You're into everything now. You can open cabinets (even some of the ones with the cabinet locks!), open drawers and sliding closet doors, climb up on the couch sometimes by yourself and empty a drawer faster than you can say No No.

I'm hoping that before the baby comes we can work with you on being more gentle. I was holding you the other day and talking to Daddy. I wasn't looking at you and you hauled off and smacked my face so hard it left me a little stunned. I don't think you meant to hurt me, just get my attention. That was the first time you'd ever done anything like that and I think maybe you were just as shocked as I was so . You didn't get in trouble this time but we are going to have to figure out another way for you to get my attention...and quick! Not gonna let that become a habit, let me tell you!

You love story time at the library on Thursdays but I'm not too crazy about it. It's only about 15 minutes long and that is a LOT of hassle and driving for just 15 minutes of story time. Heck, you get WAY more than that here at home with us. Maybe I'll see if there's a better story time program at another libary closer to home. I do enjoy getting out of the house but boy, it's a lot of work for such a short time! Plus, the libarian who does story time is slightly annoying.

You also love the bath and ask to take one after every meal or snack. (Every time you sit in your highchair.) Mostly you just love to splash a lot. Sometimes you splash so much water in your face that I think you'll drown your silly little self but you just take a second to catch your breath and go after it some more. You sure are funny!

Sweetie boy, I hope you know I love being your mama. Every day you do something to amaze me and I am so thankful to have had this special time with just you.

I love you, my sweet little crumb cruncher!

Love,

Mama

Boy, have we been busy around here! My mom left today and we got more done in the time she was here than Jason and I could have done in a month! We got the office moved to one end of our living room, painted the baby's room (mom did the painting), organized my scrapbook stuff, sorted through lots of books and got a big box ready to donate to the library and some to send home with my mom, shopped for baby stuff, put together the nursery (crib, changing table and storage cube organizer). We also did some organizing in the kitchen, put up a shelf above our new office area, added some storage above the washer and dryer and in the attic above the garage (Jason did that). We finally got our master bathroom cleaned (thanks, Mom!), moved a bookshelf into some of the extra room in our walk-in closet, cleaned out our coat closet, and vacuumed and steam-cleaned some of the carpets. We also got lots of little projects done that had been on my "to do" list for months. Boy, that feels great!

Thanks Mom! You just left today but I already miss you! I know you're ready
to get back to your own house and routine and work but we sure miss you here!
Glad you're coming back in 2 months. We can't wait!

P.S. Thanks so much for the new bread machine!!! I'll use that baby more than any other kitchen gadget I have and you know that's saying a lot! :)

I cooked a lot of my favorite recipes while mom was here. I figured it was a good chance to do one of my favorite things...cook for someone I love. Over the course of her visit I made:

the Tyler Florence chicken enchiladas w/rice and beans

a glazed lemon cake

several loaves of country style white bread

BBQ ribs in the crockpot, mashed potatoes and veggies

quiche

pancakes

meatloaf, mashed potatoes and veggies

artichoke chicken pasta

my favorite cake - Yellow cake with milk chocolate icing

grilled chicken

BBQ chicken pizza and pepperoni pizza w/mushrooms and olives

Club ranch paninis with ranch dip and veggies

spicy broiled shrimp, spinach salad with warm bacon dressing and parmesan bowls

It might sound like all we did was work and eat while she was here and that's partly true. By the end of the day we were all so tired from all that work that it was a struggle to stay awake to a respectable bedtime. By the time 9:00 rolled around, we were all thinking "Good. Now's not too early to go to bed. I'm exhausted!"

I had so hoped to get to take mom to D.C. while she was here. I am very disappointed that we didn't get to go. The first part of her visit we were so busy getting stuff checked off our list of things to do that we didn't do much of anything else. By the second part of her visit, I was having lots of back pain and some Braxton-Hicks contractions and was kinda afraid to get that far from home and do that much walking. I didn't do any heavy lifting or climbing ladders or anything like that. (Well, OK except for that one brief minute I climbed the ladder with Jason right behind me so I could peek at all his hard work in the attic. But that was only for a split second to admire the flooring he put up there...I was very safe I promise and I won't do it again, OK?) I'm still having a lot of back pain but I am taking it easy and sitting down a whole lot more than before and the Braxton-Hicks have stopped for now.

Only 9 more days until we find out if Baby2 is a boy or a girl. We've got boxes of Easton's outgrown clothes stacked up in the newly painted yellow room all ready to be washed and hung up if we're having a boy. Or we'll wash much less of them (just the yellow and green unisex stuff) if it's a girl. Either way, we'll be thrilled. I just really want to know who's in there!!!

I forgot about a really annoying pregnancy symptom I had last time. Insomnia! Yesterday I was up at 5:00. Today it was 4:00 am. For no apparent reason! It is driving me crazy! I am a "needs her sleep" kinda gal so this really really stinks. Usually it starts out with (of course) having to get up and pee (which I do about every 1 1/2 to 2 hours...annoying!). But then my nose is stuffy and I can't sleep (another annoying side effect) or Jason is snoring or I start thinking about all the things I have to do when I get up and why I should be SLEEPING! Or sometimes just for no apparent reason, I just flat out can't go to sleep. I hate it!

But in other news, my mom is here for a visit and man, have we got a lot accomplished already! She's only been here one full day and we've already got the office almost all the way emptied out and half of the stuff on our to-do list done! Later today we're taking E to story time at the library, going to lunch with Jason, then going to Walmart for groceries and then Lowe's for shelving. One of the thing still left to do on our list is put up shelves in several places throughout the house. I love all this organization! Now if only it could stay that way!

And tragically, I have killed yet another bread machine. I think this is bread machine number 4? The others have all been well-used before their demise, so I guess I get my money's worth out of them. But if I don't spend too much on groceries and shelves and baby stuff, maybe I can get a new one today. When I have a working one, I use it at least once a week, sometimes more. We love hot, fresh bread here at our house and I also make a mean pizza dough. I wish it was garage sale time, I could probably score one for cheap if I got lucky. But I'm too impatient to wait till then so let's hope I can find it in our budget to replace this bread machine soon.