still pregnant!

Ha! I figured it's been a good while since I last updated, some of y'all might be beginning to think I'd delivered or something was wrong. Nope. Just averaging a week+ for blog posts these days... [Once the little lady finally decides to come out I'll share on Twitter!]

I'm still VERY much pregnant, but I've got a lot to catch up on all around so I'll save all "baby" updates for last. In the mean time, the rest of this is gonna be a bit random (and kinda loooong) but I want to start off with a good "Knox Update" since he's such a funny little thing right now...



See what I mean? I went upstairs to check on him in the playroom a few weeks ago and upon peering over the banister I called his name and when he turned around he had on Mr. Potato Head's classes and one of Hadley's pacies he had somehow gotten a hold and just looked at me like this was the most normal thing and he'd been sporting them for hours. Of course, we had a little talk about how Pacies are for babies and we're never suppossed to put Sissy's pacies in our mouth... Right after I had a good laugh and marched him downstairs for a picture, that is!

Some of his favorite sayings lately...
- Okaaaaaay!
- Your welcome. (Even after he says Please!)
- Oh - sorry! He says this mainly after he trips or bumps in to something. He needs to stop before he goes to school and they think we punish him every time he falls!
- Sssshhhh! Mommy's seepin... He gets on to Daddy for being too loud when I'm trying to nap for work. As he's poking me in the face repeatedly.
- I got you!!! or I see you!!!
- Es boken. (It's broken.) To which 99% of the time I answer with, No baby, it's not broken. And then he looks back at me in sheer disappointment. Seriously???- I did it! With his arms thrown in the air!
And he's figured that if he pushes hard enough on the baby gate installed outside his bedroom door it will pop right open. We found this out a few nights ago when he freaked us both out at 3am by busting into our room announcing he was hungry and wanted to Eat! Kid did not even make a sound over the monitor so there's no telling how long he'd been up or what type of mischief he'd gotten in to on the way downstairs from his room to ours.

He's been doing that alot lately though. Waking up in the middle of the night or nap time, playing quietly and going right back down. Or playing before he goes to sleep. Heck I have no problem with it as long as he's quiet. It just usually makes for some good laughs when he gets up or when we go check on him...



This is how I found him during nap time the other day. That HUGE dog has sat in the corner of his room ever since before he was born and he's never given it much attention until now. He loves dragging it in to bed with him and I swear I wish I had a video monitor set up just so I could see him trying to lug a stuffed animal 4 times the size of him! Ha! He's so ridiculous...



Apparently he fell asleep in the middle of a conversation with Woody. Narcolepsy, anyone???

I've also found toys neatly lined up on his nightstand/armoire, his lamp on, his closet "reorganized", and him asleep in his bed in the middle of every stuffed animal he owns... Funny, crazy little boy. I love him :)

We also recently switched him to soy milk. For a while at least. About 2 months ago he started waking up 2-3 times a night with inconsoleable stomach pains. It was wearing us all out, so I decided to cut his daily 24oz of 2% milk down to 18oz. Well he started eating a whole lot better, but was still waking up hurting 1-2 times a night. And all the lack of sleep was throwing off his daytime naps and making him downright cranky. So I decided to try him out on soy, and 2 weeks later he's sleeping MUCH better, and almost back to his normal napping schedule. PRAISE THE LORD!

Eventually I will try to wean him back on to cow's milk but I feel for right now his little tummy just needs the break. Especially with all the transition that will be going on in our house over the next month or so. No rush!

Speaking of - I've been trying my best to soak up every last second of Knox being my only baby. As much as I love and am anxious/beyond ready to meet Hadley, it's also bittersweet that this little 'chapter' of our family of three is coming to an end. We've been doing lots of special playtime, everytime we're at the grocery store he cons me in to Cakes! and Cookies!, and over the summer we've been spending the Tuesdays that I don't work up at First Baptist for their little Music in Motion program. Basically just an hour long Mommy-&-Me time full of singing and dancing to silly songs. Knox LOVES it, especially since many of our friends are usually there as well. I love watching him and it's a sure fire way to gurantee a good nap. We both win :)

However I think we are both SOOO ready for MDO to start back again. (September 7th!) He misses the social interaction and I miss - yes the Mommy time - but mainly the SCHEDULE! He's still only going to go 2 days a week, but it's amazing the structure those 10 hours provide us. Not to mention it will be perfect timing for Hadley being so new.

I've been SOOO very behind on getting him ready though. I had to throw his old nap mat away after last year because it had seen better days, so I knew I'd be needing to make him a new one but I've been putting it off all summer with all the baby and "other" projects that have been on my plate (more on that later)... I had no idea what I wanted to do for it this year, so I spent the other day at Joanne's just strolling around until inspiration came to me...



Gator fleece it is! And I had some cute navy and white polka cotton on hand to accent it...

I knew this was one of those HAS TO BE DONE projects so I buckled down and got it all put together yesterday. My design is a little different from last year's though - due to the fact I now know more of what I want and this was NOT my first ever sewing project (at least in years) so the quality is much better than the first.



It's still removeble and I still use the KinderMat as an insert, but this one rolls instead of folds. The teachers seem to be very partial to that, considering Knox's came home every day rolled and since the strap wasn't made to velcro that way it always ended up just getting tied. So intead of fighting it anymore, I'm just rolling with it... (SORRY! I couldn't resist ;) I also made the velcro tabs fasten straight to the mat (no 2ft long straps) and added a shoulder strap for carrying.

Forewent the attached blanket this time because it made the "folding up" process a little more complicated. Ok - really it's not that hard to figure out but it always came home just kind of bunched in there and I can't blame the teachers for not wanting to deal with it. I mean that's probably the last thing they're worried about when they're trying to juggle rolling 12 mats while keeping an eye on 12 two year olds! (Bless them.) Knox isn't a huge 'blankie' kid anyway, so if anything I may just throw a lightweight one in to his backpack, or make one out of the extra fleece.

I ordered him a "big boy" backpack and lunchbox from L.L. Bean (meaning the Jr. size, of course) in light blue, so once that gets here he will be set! Besides the fact that I still need to embroider his name on the napmat. Details, details... ;)

Have I mentioned our 2 year old has quite the little green thumb???



He brought home those flowers from VBS one day when they were just a little sprout in a solo cup. I stuck them in one of these window boxes on our counter without giving it a second thought and they just exploded! I quickly had to transfer them to a pot, and we have new blooms popping up everyday. Knox is so proud. (Even though truthfully it's Daddy and I doing the grunt work!) And then in Lowe's last week he picked up a packet of seeds for Giant Pumpkins. He was enthralled with the 800lb pumpkin in the picture, so how could I resist? Again, we planted 3 seeds in solo cups and were suprised to find one sprouting 2 days later. And at not even a week later I've had to transfer it to a bigger pot as well (the one on the left). The other 2 are about to sprout any day now... No clue on how to raise pumpkins or how far we'll get with them, but it will be fun to watch anyway.
Other little projects I've managed to knock off the never-ending list...



Made a minky sheet for the pack-n-play. I like to keep it set up in the living room. In fact, it stayed out with Knox until he was over 18 months old just because it was a good place for me to put him to play when I needed to get something done or shower. (That was pre-playroom days!) After spending 2.5 hours cleaning and scrubbing the thing to look brand new again, I wanted to make SURE to have a sheet for it this time around!

I also FINALLY finshed the cradle bedding. (I've posted pics before.) It's been SO very close to being complete for a while now. Just a combination of Joann's getting in the last 1/2 yard of ball fringe I needed and me actually sitting down to finish it out.

On the nursery... Still trucking along. Last week I went to Home Goods (LOVE) because I knew they had a piggy bank I was wanting for Hadley. And what do you know...



I came out with something to set it on! Haha - that place will be the death of me ;) The piece was actually originally black, but I fell in love with the girlie scrolls so I scooped it up for a deal and had James spray it to match her furniture. It's just PERFECT for this spot in her room and I can't wait to get more put together in there so I can start "placing" pretties on it :)

Now for the baby business...



I had my 37+ week appointment last Monday, at which I was dilated to a 3 (up from 2.5 at 36 weeks) and 50% effaced. However my doc sent me off saying I'd probably still be pregnant in a week and it looks like he's right. (Dangit!) I have my 38+ week check-up tomorrow and fingers-crossed that we'll have a little more progress. My guess is I'll probably end up scheduling an induction for closer to my due date, but still hope for her to come a little earlier. After all, Dr. D has also stated that he didn't think I'd be pregnant on my due date, so maybe he's on to something???

But until the big day gets here, I'll continue to try to tie up all the loose ends. I swear it seems as if I've been going 90-to-nothing these past nine months! In fact I wrote an entire post - mainly just for personal venting - about how exhausted and anxious I've been lately, but I'll spare y'all. In a nutshell... I'm worn out with feeling obligated to make everyone else's agenda my top priority while sacrificing mine/my family's agenda. And I know it's all totally my fault. I just can't say NO. I think I can do it all and please everyone, and normally I love to and I bust my butt and can get it done, but these past few months have just been crazy. Traveling, work, parties, projects, work... It never stops! And I've just gotten to the point where I resent all the time I've obigated myself to spend on all these 'extras' when there's still so much needing to be done for my own family.

So anyways - I've had to 'step-back' from a lot of commitments lately and that has made me feel like such a self-centered, selfish person. I hate it. But when I really think about it, is it so wrong to want to put your family first? Or to just not want any more stress to add to that of being 9 months pregnant??? I know I will continue to stress and beat myself up over Hadley's unfinished nursery until the day she gets here and that's why a huge part of me just wishes she'd come tomorrow and all of those details would be irrelevant.

Bottom line - I'm ready for my baby to be here. I'm ready for 10 beautiful weeks of not having to spend 3 days of catching up on sleep just to recover from one night shift. And I have GOT to learn how to tactfully say NO. Queen of biting-off-more-than-I-can-chew, right here.

So for the two of you who actually made it this far in to this never-ending post - Sorry to sound so negative. I'm just too tired and TOO pregnant! On the bright side - it feels good to be caught up in the blogging world and to have all of Knox's latest little happenings documented for my Mommy purposes. Good night :)