Tale As Old As Time

Every kid does it eventually... you all know what I'm talking about. The endless watching of a single movie, over and over and over. Up until today our movie was Monsters, Inc. We watched it at least once a day everyday for the last week. So today I decided we'd buy Beauty and the Beast when I found it at the local children's consignment shop. Bad move mom...

Beauty and the Beast is apparently our over and over and over movie. We've watched it two times since noon (plus took a nap and went out on a mom and Abby date). Basically every minute we've been in our house we've been watching Beauty and the Beast. And Abby is crying at this very minute for me to put it in again. Not happening.

Steve is in Dearborn tonight and all day tomorrow for a dental conference, so I'll be flying solo with Abby tonight. I'm hoping she cooperates well. This is really the first night I've been totally alone with her. All the other nights he's had conferences I've been downstate visiting family, so I've had some assistance. And to further complicate things around here my friends, the Braxton-Hicks contractions decided that yesterday and today would be a great time to start making their grand appearance, so I've had a few minutes during each day when it's all I can do to stand up, let alone chase Abby all by myself. She already tumbled down two steps trying to do a stompy dance and chase Maize. This could be a long 11 or so weeks until the c-section.

Oh... and tomorrow is Abby's first swim class in this sememster's "Aqua Tots". It should be fun. I loaned my maternity bathing suit to our friend Tara who is bringing one of Abby's best friends, Maddie. It was to the point where my belly was hanging out the bottom anyway, so I didn't see the difference between wearing a tank top over my maternity suit and wearing one over my regular bikini. So I may be representing the less classy (read white trash) version of the bathing suit tomorrow, but I promise that's not how we live on a regular basis now that we live in the U.P.

Dear Miss Manners...

Abby has been working hard on her table manners. Sometimes they work and sometimes an entire animal cracker gets jammed into her mouth (and then hangs out of her mouth while she gums it). She is, unfortunately for Maize, getting much better about not sharing her food with her dog. That is a very big step!

We are still home alone until 10 or 11 tonight, so Abby and I are headed off to bible study by ourselves. We also have to remember to bring the bacon and sausage for our weekly potluck dinner, which is breakfast foods tonight. And the birthday present for Abby's friend Madison who turned 1 year old today! Wow... I am going to be making several trips to the car. And we are going to start that car early - it is less than 10 degrees outside today. Brr....

Home (Almost) Alone

Abby and I are hanging by ourselves tonight while Steve is down in Lansing for a dental conference. But do not fear, we have an extra guard dog tonight to help keep us safe. Actually... we are dog sitting for a friend, so Maize and Jessie are having a dog slumber party and Abby and I are chaperoning them. And since Abby enjoys dogs it works out well for everyone, except maybe me who has extra dogs to watch and no one to help entertain Abby so I can wash dishes and such tonight... That must mean we need to go out for dinner and Abby would especially enjoy watching kids at the McDonald's play land.

Anyway, Abby has one Christmas outfit that is not a beautiful dress, so she wore that the other day and we took some Christmas tree pictures. She is mostly trying to figure out how to get the candy canes off the Christmas tree and then how to get the candy cane taste into her mouth. Luckily for us she can't get the wrappers off, yet. Today Abby was working really hard on crawling on her hands and knees and I was working really hard on taping her, but she is a ham and quit trying as soon as I turned the camera on. She also pulled herself into a standing position all by herself, but then she let go and took a nose dive right into the side of the couch. Ouch... I guess it's a good thing that we have hard skulls - Abby's seems to get a lot of use lately.

Hopefully by tomorrow we have some great crawling footage. If not you can just imagine this... Abby on her hands and knees, followed by Abby extending her legs straight up (think triangle, since that is what she looked like), followed by a second attempt to get on her hands and knees, then bouncing up and down on her hands and knees, but all with no forward or backward movement...

Home Alone Day 2 - The Afghan is Almost Done

Maize and I have just about wrapped up day two of being home alone. I didn't sleep well last night (mostly because a very odd basset hound is having her own pregnancy problems, including frequent use of the outdoor facilities and throwing up and restless sleeping). So... because Maize didn't let me get very comfortable last night and because I never sleep well alone anymore, I am basically wiped out. I spent most of today working on Sparky's afghan - I am so close to being done. All I have left to do is 1/4 of the edge, which I am making scalloped. Steve told me I am not allowed to finish it tonight, just in case finishing the afghan results in eviction of the baby.

Steve's conference went well today and he is relaxing and getting ready to fly home tomorrow. He had a few questions about his poster and research and was able to sit through some presentations. And, luckily Sparky and I gave him nothing major to worry about.

So tomorrow... Steve will be home around 3 or 4 pm. By then Maize and I should have the afghan done and ready to wash before the big day. So we've survived (basically) our home alone stints. Now we just have to figure out when and/or how to evict this big baby.

Being Home Alone - Day 1

Steve left for Dallas today at 1 pm, so I am home alone until Friday afternoon and hoping that it continues to be just Maize and I here at home until Steve is back. Today I spent the afternoon with Grandma and Grandpa Hodges, who just got back from Florida and are on their way to Israel and Jordan tomorrow. We had a good time visiting and watching the Tigers lose another baseball game.

So far so good... we will see how tonight and tomorrow go, but I am planning on keeping pretty quiet so that I don't do anything that may assist Sparky in making her appearance.

All of the laundry is done (again)

I finished washing all of the baby things. I was "done" with the baby laundry three weeks ago, but then we got more things, which required more laundry. And after Saturday's shower I will probably have more things and need to do more laundry. And there isn't even a baby here yet...

Maize, Sparky, and I are starting the first of our two days of being home alone by watching t.v. and cleaning up the kitchen counters. I made two little jobs for myself to do each day so that I can feel productive without getting too tired or overworked. Our other job today is to clean the master bathroom. That shouldn't be too bad either - just a little sweeping, mopping, and counter cleaning - I am going to leave the scrubbing in the shower for Steve to do when he gets home. Not that he will be home long. We will have him for Sunday and Monday and then on Tuesday he is off to Dallas until Friday.

Sparky is cooperating so far and keeping quiet. We are keeping our fingers crossed that she will wait at least the next 10 days before making her appearance so that our doctor can deliver her when he is back from vacation.