38 Weeks and Waiting

You will all have to wait for pictures, our charger for our other laptop is broken and I do all of my pictures on that computer, so...here we all wait!

I wish I had extraordinarily exciting news to share, but it has been so routine and mundane around here, I myself am almost bored out of my skull, haha!  So, here are a few minor updates to tide you over until I have pictures or some other exciting news to share:

*Marin is slowly progressing with potty training.  I've just resorted to doing as much as I can when I have the opportunity on my days off.  She will wear just her pants and can go most of the day without an accident!  All of her poo poo's make it in the potty, but we are working on the pee pee.  I can't, however, put underwear on her and have her stay dry, she still thinks she has a diaper on.  But she always goes #2 on the potty, which is progress!

*I have one more week of work, next Monday and Wednesday and then it's maternity leave!  Crazy, we'll see if I make it that long though, eh?

*38 week checkup today: 1-2 cm dilated, soft, moving anterior, 50% effaced, head down.  Sorry if it's too much info, I tried to keep the description as....non descriptive as possible.

*Having lot's of Braxton-Hicks, but keeping myself very "Zen" about any progress.  After all, with Marin, I walked around for 3 weeks at 3cm and she was still 5 days late...so I am trying hard not to anticipate ANYTHING!

*Had my baby shower on Tuesday thanks to some wonderful friends.  I received baby clothes and burp clothes and blankets and shoes...all of the things I was hoping to get, plus a wonderful time out with happy smiling faces.  I am very lucky to have some wonderful, caring people around me!

*And, as a side note, I have an incredible husband.  I love him so much.  I was thinking the other morning, as I stared at my very swollen, just woke-up, very disheveled self in the mirror, how much my hubby loves me.  He is always telling me how beautiful I am and how lucky he is to be married to such a wonderful, sweet, thoughtful, caring wife.  I realized, in my self-disgust moment that morning in front of the mirror, that he has always made me feel like a 10 Cow Wife...if you have no idea what I am talking about:  Johnny Lingo.  Watch it, Love it, Cherish it.  The world has a terrible way of empowering women to feel awful about themselves.  They tell you that true beauty can be attained through simple makeup techniques and how to wear the most flattering style clothing for your body type, while they contnue to advertise women who have sat in the makeup chair for hours and wear little to NO clothing...such hippocrites!  My husband from before we married has laways treated me with such respect and reverie, that I have always felt like the most valuable woman on the face of this planet.  I am a very lucky woman indeed to have found GOOD MAN, who honors his role as husband and father and supports and encourages me to embrace my role as wife and mother.  No makeup technique or boot-cut jean could ever make me feel the way he does. 

Pregnancy, Painting and Progress!

(Trumpets blaring) *Dhoo, dhoo, dhoooooooo!!!*  Guess who's FULL TERM today!  That's right, 37 weeks today baby, oh yeah!  This means that baby can come anytime he wants.  Of course, I still have 3 weeks until my due date, but due dates can be pretty meaningless anyway, as they usually are.  So...here is a belly update at 37 weeks, and it's accompanying swelling, my poor face :(  And...*sigh*, 48 pounds.  I know I know.  I honestly have no idea why it's soooo blasted much!

 AND......I can scarce contain my excitement...my KITCHEN TABLE!!!  What an ordeal it has been!  I had finished the painting and black stripe, and Kris put the polyurethane on for me the weekend it was sooo cold here.  This little fact made the poly bubble and crack and turn yellow, so my poor hubby sanded everything down and started over again.  Poor fellow.  He did an even better job than I did, I think.  It looks GREAT and I am so happy to have my kitchen table back.

 And, my drapes!  They used to be my favorite tablecloth, but now, here they are, hanging and lovely!

 Over the kitchen sink.

 My kitchen shelves.  We bought this scrap wood at Home Depot and I painted and hung them, and finally put some pretty things on them, I LOVE the pink flowers!

 All together now!  I'm planning on framing some small poster we bought in Paris and hanging them on the adjacent wall to the left of the shelves.  I think my kitchen is looking DYNAMITE considering what we had to work with.  Just in time for all of the family we have coming very soon.

On the menu today, a doctors appt for myself, we'll see if my body has made any progress with these Braxton Hicks, eh?

Growing up and Outgrowing

As I slowly incorporate our baby gear into the house, my mind is flooded with memories of when our little Marin first used them.  She, of course is curious about all this baby gear too, and as she babbled on to me today about how the "tiny baby sleep in there mama, when he comes out!", she crawled into the bouncy chair and laughed.  I smiled....and remembered.

Marin at 2 months in her bouncy chair:

Marin at 2&1/2 in the same bouncy chair, a little outgrown, I'd say!

I can't believe how big she has grown in such a short period of time!  As a first time going on second time mom, I'm just in awe of the miracle of life and growth.  Kristoffer and I have been so blessed to have Marin in our lives.  She has brought so much joy to our days and months and now...years.  She makes us so happy!  We are very excited to bring her a little brother and spread the love ;)

Imitation

They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery.  How true this is with a 2 1/2 year old!  Kris and I often use these little phrases around our house, mostly courtesy of Kris, I just use them to get a reaction ;)

When I ask Kris if he's done something (that I've asked him to), instead of saying "no", he will say "Not yet!", so now, of course, Marin's response to questions is "no, not yet!".  Oh dear, it makes me chuckle!

When Kris and I are teasing each other at home, often you will hear the phrase "Oh, I see how it is!" (jokingly).  Last night in the car, Marin was asking me where we were going, and I responded we were going to meet daddy at work.  Her response?  "Ohhhh, I see how it is!".  I started laughing out loud in the car, it was too funny!

Of course, this also means I have to watch my tongue, I cringed when I heard Marin, in response to something falling on the floor, say "Dangit!".  Oh dear...parenting certainly makes you aware of your faults!

Bowling it Down

Third time's a charm apparently!  We attempted to go bowling twice before we finally succeeded the other night, and good thing too.  Marin was almost upset when we told her we were going bowling (for the third time)...she didn't want to be disappointed again!  We had so much fun, but I think we'll pare it down to just one game next time...Marin had lost interest and I had irritated my sciatic nerve, so it was a lousy second game.  Not that I'm a very good bowler anyway, but enough to impress my husband...I'm not sure if that's something to be proud of...*cough cough*.

They had special ramps for the little one's to use, you set the ball on top and push it down, of course Marin had bumpers, it was just so cute ;)

 Watch the ball, Marin! 

 Knocking down the pins!

 Whoa, where did my ball go?!  Marin was fascinated that her ball disappeared at the end and came back up the ball 'drop' (?).  It was hard to keep her head out of there!

 Playing with the vents on the side.

 And wouldn't you know, our little Marin monkey scored herself a STRIKE!!!  Good job little girl!  At a whopping 2.4 miles an hour too, now THAT'S impressive, haha!

It was a good opportunity to teach Marin about taking turns and being patient, she had a hard time waiting for her turn, as most 2 year old's would, I'm sure.

Cool Foodie Mama: Chicken Alfredo Pizza

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Happy New Year!

Can I really believe it's a new year already?!  I KNOW!!!  I have all of my pictures organized in the computer under year and month, and starting from 2005, we are already to 2011, which, I realize seems a very short period of time, but to me it is positively FLYING by, incredible!  We had a fabulous year in 2010 as Kris and I were doing a recap the other night.  We had our amazing trip to Europe for my 26th birthday, we flew to Portland for a visit, Kris graduated with his MBA, found our we were expecting our little guy, we moved to Portland (and everything that goes with it), celebrated Kris's 30th b-day, Marin's 2nd b-day and our 4th anniversary, started a new job and have barely had time for all the little stuff in between, phew!  What a ride, but we have had laughs and tears and fun and misery, and wouldn't change it for the world.

So, how exactly did the Lyman family ring in the New Year?  Marin started with a little light reading...she loves looking through the Bed, Bath and Beyond magazines that come in the mail.  We actually save them for her so she can look through them, it's really so cute to watch her sit on the floor pages.

 Then we had some ice cream, Marin was thrilled of course!

 And some cupcakes...yeah, I didn't have the motivation to make any, so these sufficed ;)

 Oh, our Cookies N Cream ice cream.

 Then we all played Hungry Hungry Hippo's.  Santa brought this game for Marin for Christmas and we finally busted it out just for New Years the other night.  Marin had a BLAST, she requests daily to play the hippo game.

 Of course Marin always won...haha!  Oh, and if you see the black and white fabric on the back of the sofa, those are my new drapes that I made with the sewing machine my mummy and daddy bought me for Christmas!!  It's been a challenge to learn with an intimidating machine, but fun nonetheless!

 And this is how Kris and I celebrated after Marin went to bed.  Two very full glasses of Martinelli's, a fire and a movie (not pictured), I laughed when I realized there was a kids tent in the picture, haha, story of our lives!  The tent was another of Marin's gifts.

While we may not have partied it up NYC style, we celebrated what was most important in life, our wonderful little family.  We are very excited for what this new year holds also.  Of course our little guy is coming in February, but we are also hoping Kris will find a new job to keep him motivated and challenged, and in August, we celebrate 5 years of marriage (!!!), crazy!!!  And we hope many other wonderful things will be in store for us.  As for me, my wonderful hubby bought me an incredible Christmas present, a Julia Child French cooking class and it starts next Thursday!  I am so excited!  It's every Thursday for three weeks, 2 1/2 hours each class, so it runs through to the end of January, I hope this baby waits that long to come!