Thursday, May 20, 2010

Like Sands through the Hourglass

Eric and I bought a new car on Monday. It literally took 4 hours, even though we went in knowing the exact car on the lot we wanted to buy. I still can't figure out why it took so long. At one point while we were in the financing office declining all the 4016 extra coverages we could get, I heard the theme song from Days of Our Lives in the waiting room. I think that's what it was anyway. It's been a long time since I watched daytime television. That's a good thing, but I do have sort of fond memories of maternity leave just after Liam was born watching Perry Mason and Eight Is Enough on Me TV. That was a totally different life 1,000 years away from now. For one thing, Eric works from home now. For someone who grew up in a house with not less than 27 other people around at any one time, this is blissful for me. I am not a person who likes "alone time." At all. Also when baby 3.0 comes along I will not just be hanging out nursing in the back room watching television. Because 2 other little people will be needing me too. It's definitely a different ride and it will be interesting to see what it's like if this baby ever decides he wants to be born. At this point I'm pretty sure he's at least 25 pounds, and this is a troubling thought.

Oh, so the new car is pretty cool. It's a dark gray Chevy Traverse with 7 seats and two sun roofs. (We wanted black or blue but we are destined to always live in yellow bricks and have gray cars.) We had a Saturn Vue and we liked it a lot but it couldn't hold 3 car seats so we had to chuck it. At the dealership people kept asking "which of you will be driving this car?" Somehow it blows people's minds that we will both be driving it. We have an old Corolla that we use as a spare, but as it turns out even though we live in the burbs we can pretty much get around walking. Eric doesn't commute and I work 6 blocks away. We live a few blocks from the train and purposely picked our location based on the fact that we can walk to almost anything we want except Trader Joes. (I did suggest to the Village that we get a TJs or Whole Foods as part of the downtown shopping district but so far they have not taken up my brilliant idea.) When we go places we usually go together or one of us is home with the kids. So there you have it. Liam was a little disappointed because he wanted a Saturn Outlook, but since they don't make those anymore we couldn't get one. I have no idea why he cares except that he got his dad's genes and actually notices cars. Brendan does too for that matter. I am mostly clueless about cars and am just happy when I can find my own car in the parking lot. Oh and Liam's ok with the Traverse now and likes it, because it can't be denied that it is pretty dang cool. I'm looking forward to taking it on a road trip this summer if the new baby is good with driving. Time will tell.

Liam will be done with his first year of preschool next week. Wow. I can't really think about that or I will cry and my mind will be totally blown, but wow.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

10 AM and All Is Well

No baby yet. It's a weird thing because I know he's got to come SOMETIME in the Very Near Future, but still about 95% of the time it doesn't seem real and I can't actually fathom having this new person in our house. That being said we've been having a lot of fun these last few weeks and I am definitely appreciating how easy we have it right now with two pretty self sufficient kids. On Friday we went to the parade for Lee DeWyze, who's from our town, and it started late and required me to hold Brendan for longer than I'm used to, so I was pretty much expecting that to coerce the baby to come out yesterday, but no.

Oh, and I'm not trying to brag but I think this baby could be a good omen for the Cubs, because Liam was born the year the White Sox won the World Series, and Brendan was born when the Red Sox won (for the 2nd time in a couple years, but you know they hadn't won before that for like 65000 years either and I was actually watching either the game when they won or the one before when my water broke) so anyway I like our chances.

Maybe he's waiting to be born until we have a car he'll be able to fit in. We sold our Vue because it can't hold 3 car seats, and now we just have a corolla which REALLY can't hold 3 car seats. So the kid's no fool. We were car shopping yesterday and found two cars we like (Chevy Traverses) but the stupid car places are closed on Sundays and we weren't sure which one we wanted so now it's all up to fate on Monday. Someone else had the audacity to be looking at the one I liked better, so we'll see if he snags it first. I'm pretty sure you should be able to pay your mortgage for the price of a monthly payment on this car. Weren't car companies in trouble or something? You definitely cannot tell from the cost of cars. I guess we won't be installing a backyard patio this year.

I'm pretty sure I was going to write something of some interest, but I forgot. Today is my 2nd to last day of work - yay! And I am officially done with this semester. I think I screwed up my 4.0 but I'm basically too tired to care and at this point there's nothing I can do anyway.

Ok, hopefully I can squeeze in a nap here before work. So excited about there being real sunshine today. This is really cool to have a baby just before summer, versus winter. I'm happy to have had my time burrowing in with Liam and Brendan, but now that they are bigger I am SO happy to be able to go outside with them and have them be able to play instead of bouncing off the walls inside for 6 months. Oh yes, and in other good news I can officially no longer even see the scale. Ignorance is bliss.

Monday, May 3, 2010

For the Record

As of yesterday, Brendan no longer calls bananas band-aids.

Liam putting Brendan's sandals on Brendan is the cutest and funniest thing ever.

Fatherhood has really changed Eric. He actually said, "I think black is too dark for a baby's room," in response to me asking him about some curtains.

I have officially made it to the time when I will be in the new maternity wing of my hospital. Eric and I took a tour tonight and it is pretty damn cool.

I have one presentation and one huge paper left for the semester. Also I start a new movie discussion at the library next Monday and run a book discussion on the 17th, but after that my calendar's free.

Zoey and Lucky are suuuuper lovey dovey these days.

I don't know if it's because it's my 3rd pregnancy or what but my weight gain this pregnancy is just crazy (though the doctors don't think so because they don't realize I came in 13 pounds above my normal weight to start with) so I'd really like the baby to decide to be born sooner rather than later just so I can stop going in for checkups and seeing ow much more weight I've gained.

Eric found Brendan in the naughty corner today while I was at the doctor, and it turned out Liam had sent him there. Brendan said it was because he threw a car but Liam said it was because Brendan licked him. Liam puts up with a lot from Brendan but I'm happy he still is in charge when all is said and done.

Eric and I have to decide if we want a swingset from the house my sister is buying. It's not the one I want (which costs $1,000 so we wouldn't be getting anyway) and it's sort of cool but also needs new paint and stuff. We also have to decide if it would take up too much space in the backyard. And I think we have to decide by tomorrow. Hmm.

I have to go to bed much earlier than I used to. Not that I actually go to bed when I have to though, and I can't explain why not. I'm not lying when I say I'm actually looking forward to going to the hospital to have this baby just so I can hopefully get some rest while I'm drugged up. This time I think I will actually send the bay to the nursery sometimes.

We got to swim lessons a little late on Sunday but I am so happy I didn't have a water birth in front of all the toddlers and I also can't believe that soon Liam will go to swim lessons on his own, and not with me or Eric holding him. As many millions of times that you've heard it said, kids really do grow up very fast. I do not like this.

Tonight when we got home from the hospital tour Liam and Brendan and their babysitter gave me my very first flower bouquet from my kids, which they had gone around the neighborhood to create. There were some tulips in it, but they came from the garden of a lady who cut them for them when she heard about their plan, so it was ok. It's actually beautiful and I'll have to post a picture of it. They also gave me the first mother's day card I ever got from my kids. Is that not the coolest thing or what?!