A Happy Ending

{all that hard work makes a man tired}

Jeff will wrap up 12 semesters of one heck of a grueling major this week.  You could never convince me that there's a harder undergrad than Electrical Engineering.  It's really been nothing but long, hard work full of lab hours, project hours, hours and hours and hours and hours of homework, class hours, hours and hours in the testing center...and on top of that he's been a supportive husband to a cancer-stricken, pregnant (twice), over-achieving, and loving wife who has selfish desires for all his non-school hours and then some.  Oh and I have mentioned he's not only worked to support himself the entire time, but also his family. He's stinking amazing.

There are some important pieces of information regarding the student experience that a transcript can't show. If they could, he'd be the stand-out student.  

Though some aspects and advantages of our current lifestyle we're going to miss, we're excited to move on from this stage of life and try out some of that great, big world.  Thankfully, Jeff will have a week or two of hard-earned Christmas-show watching and napping on the couch to recover before we venture into the wild yonder of America's workforce.

38 weeks

I was hoping to take a picture in the hospital this week....but someone isn't listening to my nearly incessant urging to come out, come out so I can hold you. I have a pretty wild imagination, but even I can't dream that womb into a cozy cottage for her right now- it is remarkably tight and roomless- I have no idea why she insists on hanging in there longing than her brother did.  Who ever heard of a second baby coming later than a first? All this extra waiting and anticipation is driving me bonkers (read: making me a tad crabby). Technically she still has 2 weeks to go before she's late and absolutely has to come, so I haven't resorted to any reckless, get-this-baby-out schemes, and I don't want to be too pushy, but little darling, won't you please come out soon?
Like, very much as soon as possible and not a second later.

There it is, That Magic of Christmas

  

I pulled out my nativity set and no sooner had I set it up and walked away than my Mr. Inquisitive swooped in to investigate.  He picked up each piece, eyed it carefully, greeted it with a hello, then set it aside as he selected the next manger scene participant to share some light conversation with him.  After his short interview process, he decided he liked the bear and bunnies and baby Jesus best, and everyone else got a whole heap of bear to the face.  He broke some pieces with eager ferocity.  Others were knocked and whacked aside by the more aggressive manger creatures, and even Mary and Joseph were mauled and chased by the bear, but never the baby.  That was encouraging :).  All of the animals ended up being good friends by the end of the night, exchanging all the niceties that an almost 2-year-old can dream up (something like: buffalo to horse, "Hi." Horse to buffalo, "Hi." Bear to eagle, [whack] "Saw-ee bird. Aiiight?" Bear to bunnies, "'Mon, bunny, run."). It was fabulous. My mama heart is going to cradle his first moments with that little nativity and relive them every year I pack and unpack them, and every year it will usher in some of that sweet, innocent, magic of Christmas.

37 weeks

A collections of things from 37 weeks:

Mmmm....cereal.  I would eat it all day every day if it covered all my food groups.

Peanut butter-delish. Peanut butter cereal......oh yes! Great way to start the day. And end it.

I'm nesting once again. Cleaning, making lists, finalizing baby crafts, setting up for the holidays, and getting ready to pack those hospital bags.

Jeff, on the other hand, is anti-nesting.  He doesn't want to do any baby raindancing until my mom gets here next week so he's refusing to pack his bag, won't set the bassinet up next to the bed, and definitely will not put the car seat in the car.

I'd do all these things for him, but I feel huge and lumber a bit when I walk. Little baby girl likes to ride low these days, right around my bladder-which is her favorite pillow or punching bag, depending.  Beyond that, I'm already dilated to 3 cm and 70% effaced, so combine that with my daily red raspberry tea drinking and birth ball bouncing and I should probably just take it easy myself.

We'll just be staying close to home from now on, enjoying the comfort of our normal routine as a family of three and counting the days until we embark on our journey as a family of four.

Christmas Must Be Coming

A fresh snowfall and busy, grinding snowplows greeted us this morning. Just yesterday we were at the park wearing jackets and playing in leaves, and now we're covered in 8 inches of pure white snow.  We couldn't leave it untouched for long, though, so Sawyer, Bear and I bundled in whatever winter clothes we could find that would fit (it seems everyone has had a growth spurt lately, well, except Bear...he could still fit in Sawyer's old socks) and headed out to brave the winter precipitation.

One of my favorite things about snow is how it dampens all sounds as it falls, creating a blanketed world and making it all feel calm and peaceful. It's cozy in a cold, but snug, kind of way. Another favorite aspect- it means Christmas is on its way. With that in mind, I took it upon myself to break the quiet and hum and mumble along to "It Snowed" by Meaghan Smith as it played in my head over and over.

Lucky Boy's First Christmas Tree

I must confess, I thought our excursion to find Sawyer's first real Christmas tree would go a little differently. Something like the wonder-filled, awed-by-merely-the-atmosphere-of-Christmas, illuminated-face-lit-by-the-magic-of-Christmas image that you'd find on a Hallmark card. But we lost Sawyer as we drove past Petsmart and he cried out "Shishi," thinking we were going to look at the fishies, and after we brought him back to earth from that notion, he ran right past the rows of trees to the snow shovels, then through two sliding doors to the lawn mowers, heck he even bee-lined it for the fertilizer.  I realize that Lowe's is not the most magical, Christmas-y place to search out a tree, but I had hoped for at least some kind of acknowledgement that there were trees in the building.

Finally, we rounded up all the scattered bits of his attention with a wheely cart that he could push the tree on and really fired up the Christmas spirit when we hoisted him high enough to watch the trunk get trimmed with a chainsaw. But the real magic of the trip? That was when we loaded our 6-ft plus Christmas into the back of our car, bungeed the top down, and walked over to Petsmart to see all the fish.

For the record, Jeff and I are in love with the fabulous, most evenly-shaped tree that we picked out ourselves. It's pretty grand.