Third Person: 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!