Catching up...while we still can

October has been a super busy month for us.  Besides the obvious tasks - mudroom and getting ready for baby, of course - Genevieve has been up to lots of pre-school fun, including her first ever field trip.  Which I volunteered to chaperone.  At 37 weeks pregnant.  Even her teachers looked at me and said, "are you SURE you want to do this?".  It all ended up being totally fine and very fun, minus the 45 minute bus ride there and back (well, minus that for me.  For the kids, it was about the coolest thing they've ever done) and the sudden burst of icy cold weather. 

my little group of charges waiting for - scream it with me now - THE BUS!

 

Once we got there I realized that the pumpkin farm was way more farm than pumpkin.  Fun for the kids, perhaps not so great for my allergies.  There was no time to dwell on things like allergic reactions though, as the kids were ready to run wild and go check everything out.  They all rode a pony, went on a hayride, fed goats, caught chickens (yes, caught them), milked a cow, and we were accompanied the entire time by Tom the Turkey.  I knew G would be slightly less than enthusiastic about hopping on the pony so I stood back and let her just file through with the other kids.  She also was not wild about catching a chicken although some of the rowdy boys in her class caught them like they were candy falling from the sky.  She did hold a chicken though which seemed to be enough feathered action for this tot.  She also chose not to milk the cow.  Can't say I blame her, Polly the cow looked pretty pissed having had dozens of tiny, freezing hands on her udders all morning.  Loud and clear, Polly.  Loud and clear.

dear grandma heidi: this may not be the face of a professional equestrienne.  more lessons may be required.

hello strange man and strange animal, taking me round and round...

coming down the home stretch

this dude was about eye-to-eye with the kids and i could have lived without him.  i had visions of having to explain to the moms of my other kids "well, i just turned around for one second and tom the turkey just ran up on your kid and pecked his face".

much happier on a bumpy hayride of labor inducing proportions

chicken success!

The rest of the month involved a birthday party for Great Grandma, G's first ever ballet class (so cute I damn near fell over), pumpkin carving and OF COURSE trick-or-treating.  When I examined her bag upon return (clearly to verify there were no sharp objects, certainly not to check out the stash) I noticed that she had several whole candy bars in there.  I LOVE Elm Grove!!

notice who thinks the cake and the singing are for her

birthday smooches

time to carve the great pumpkin - this one was the happy one, the scary one was reserved for the next night

so maybe 'brain surgeon' isn't in her future...

but perhaps engineer is.  check out the dual concentration

my little carving artistes

 

 

here's the face that most people get to see from my little cupcake

and here's the face that i often get to see from my little cupcake baked by the devil

one happy jack-o-lantern, check

saturday morning - time for ballet!

showing off a few moves after class

saturday night - ready to this giraffe is ready to rock the streets of the grove

And last but not least, yesterday I hit 39 weeks with Mr. Maio so of course last-minute belly shots were required.  Fortunately I have been feeling really, really good the second half of this pregnancy - polar opposite of the first 20 weeks.  It's pretty convenient to have a c-section on the calendar, but there is definitely a fair amount of stress that comes with knowing when your baby is going to come.  It might seem counter-intuitive but it's like I'm Captain Hook and all I hear is the "tick tock" of the big day following me everywhere.  I know there's stuff yet undone but with mere hours to go before his arrival I'm going to file it all under who cares and just focus on having a successful delivery and a healthy baby.  The surgery is set for 10:15 tomorrow morning so hopefully we'll have news out to everyone by late afternoon/evening tomorrow.  Here's our kiddo at 39 weeks cooked!

oh black tank top, i am forever yours

oops, wrong belly

i think g is the biggest fan of belly shots

an outtie since about day 1.  not my best look

 

Reno A Go-Go Chapters 2-57

When last we met, dear readers, the weather was hot, the days were long, and the mudroom was still a shell.  We were well on our way to having the room done in October, but then a little thing happened that I like to call the muther-lovin Brewers.  Their success in advancing to the NLCS was awesome and had the city all atwitter.  Unfortunately for many a wife and many a reno throughout the land, it also meant losing our husbands for dozens of hours to tailgating, game-watching, and traffic congestion.  It was bittersweet when they lost to the Cardinals.  We had come SO close to the World Series...::sigh:::

But if you're looking for the silver lining, it's that I finally had my handy husband back to get crackin' on the room.  Yahoo!

The first task was to get the contractors back to button up the exterior and install the window.  This happened weeks ago and then just this week our BFF Mike came out to finish installation of the exterior lights (all new, from post to mudroom to garage to backyard).  Hey, the outside looks done!  Neighbors, you may now get off our case.  Then came the tile installation.  We chose a slate tile for its durability and variety of color to hide all manner of sand, dirt, salt, snow and general muck.  I am really not a big fan of slate but it made the most sense for the space.  After two coats of sealer though I have to admit it looks pretty sharp.  In order to save a few bucks our contractors agreed to lay the floor with Matt's assistance - a ringing endorsement of their confidence in "the homeowner" if I've ever seen one. 

We got to see the floor for about two days before it was covered up with cardboard so as not to ruin it during the installation of drywall (and subsequent taping, mudding, two rounds of sanding and priming), installation of the bead board ceiling (ever seen a 9 month pregnant woman assist at a table saw?  It can be done.  Plus only 500 nail holes to fill!), installation of the arch (looks ridiculously good, but required more mud and sanding than the whole rest of the room combined), installation of the bead board backing where the yet-to-be-identified bench will one day live, and installation of the crown moulding to make the closets look more like furniture and less like lame closets.  We had a big moment the other day when the plastic which divided the reno from the kitchen was removed for good.  Sure the house remains covered in dust despite all of our vacuuming and swiffering, but this is major progress as far as we're concerned. 

Tomorrow we'll go choose closet doors and our actual wall color can go up shortly after that.  I am starting to lose my mind (insert joke here) seeking out the right furniture, lighting, and closet systems to make sure this room looks like it belongs in this house while holding 10x its actual capacity.  And with all of five days to go until Mr. Maio arrives, the timeline on this one room has probably just been pushed back to, oh I don't know, Christmas? 

My thoughts exactly. 

It's Officially Fall

While Matt has been keeping incredibly busy this fall with Brewers playoff games and continued mudroom reno work (tape, mud, sand, repeat.  Dust. Everywhere.), G and I have been keeping busy ourselves. 

NLDS Game...something

We spent an unseasonably warm afternoon playing in the leaves last week.  The night before we got 'Boo'd' by our neighbors, and their 2 and 6 year old daughters, dropping off a bag-o-goodies and running off.  The bag was chock full of candy (gone in about 20 minutes) but also super cute Halloween stuff that could only have been picked out by another girl - socks, pencils, and the bright bow headband you see below.  G freaked out when she saw it and wore that headband all day.   We also created a few little ghosts to put throughout the house to spruce the joint up.  Two garbage bags + one Sharpie + a few handfulls of leaves = free fun.  Excellent.

crunching in

Bubs joins the fun, until he gets a mouth full of leaves and spends the next 30 minutes flapping his tongue in and out

"hiding"

Fortunately we also got to drag Matt away from his two life-focuses for a trip to the pumpkin patch.  This is the first year we've taken Genevieve.  I KNOW.  Unheard of for the preschool set.  But this time last year we were deep cleaning the Tosa house and putting it on the market so there was little time for weekend jaunts.  It was worth the wait though and she had an awesome time.  Again we had ridiculous weather and although it was slightly cool when we left the house, it was a full on summer day by the time we got there.  Hottest hayride I'll probably ever take. 

spooky!

she got on all the animals you could ride but settled on one her own size

just over 3 pumpkins tall

mommy's already doing her fair share of heavy lifting

bend with your knees!

her hand-picked winners.  notice the bright red "mom why the heck did you put me in corduroy pants" cheeks

This weekend was spent on more mudroom work (we are installing an arch and one day it will be awesome) and also getting the baby's room ready.  Since we're not getting Mr. Maio a huge dresser like his sister (which still has the title of most expensive piece of furniture in the house.  how wrong is that??) we did get him a super cute rug that finally arrived.  So that went down, the crib went up (Matt is getting pretty good at putting that thing together) and we realized that we have too much furniture.  So after *much* debate we ended up moving the queen-sized bed into G's room.  Yeah, we were 26 before either of us had a queen bed.  Our kid is 3.  But we had to keep it out somewhere for guests to use so it was either that or dump it in the middle of the living room, which might create a nice ambiance with the fireplace going in winter but then what we do with the few still-packed boxes?  Put them away?  Ridiculous.

Right now the twin is in the baby's room but even that is feeling claustrophobic so I think the twin will live in the basement until he's ready for a big boy bed.  I'm feeling incredibly defeated that I now have to buy all new little girl bedding for the queen (not readily available, btw) and all new boy bedding in a couple of years for the twin, but poo happens and that's what we get for buying an ancient 3-bedroom house.  More pics to update on the reno and the baby's room to come, along with belly shots at 37 weeks (Tuesday!). 

Wat'cha Smuggling?

Dear complete strangers, curious bystanders, and colleagues with whom my normal conversational exchange is limited to "hi": Yes, I am fully aware that I do in fact appear to be hiding a basketball under my shirt.  Believe me, no one is MORE aware of that than I.  I think you're trying to be complimentary when you follow up with "but you don't even look pregnant from behind!" but most of the time that just makes me more uncomfortable to know that you were looking (this is especially true for you, coworkers).

Although I'm carrying very much the same as G - which is to say low and straight out - it's obvious that this second-child business is in full effect and I'm bigger now than I was at this point with the first.  Awe.Some.  Here are a couple 33 week shots which are now two weeks old.  The basketball groweth. 

Rubbin' bellies.

33 weeks with GG.  Much foxier!