The Haps....

It's been awhile since I wrote on here and gave a good update on the excitement that is our life! The truth is nothing really exciting has happened in the last few weeks, but I'll do my best to pick out a few of the most entertaining incidents!
You might remember my post awhile back about Isabel and I making her 100th Day of School shirt. Well, 100's Day came on March 31 and I got to spend the whole day at school with her! The teacher devoted the whole day to everything 100!!! The kids all wore the shirts they had made and they got to do a parade through some of the classes and the office. Isabel, of course, cried during the parade because parading requires that strangers stare at her, but her teacher is so kind and attentive that she swooped in and made her feel more comfortable so that she would finish the parade with the rest of the kids. Other than that, the day was a big success and I had a great time being at school with her for a whole day!!

The crying portion of the program.

Also you might remember my post regarding our unwelcome visitor. Well, a couple of weeks after he was disposed of, I had to wrap a birthday present. I very carefully and VERY QUICKLY got into the crawl space to get some wrapping paper out. The next day I asked Joel if he wouldn't mind putting the wrapping paper back in the crawl space for me and he said he would do it. He took the paper, went downstairs and opened the crawl space door and then calmly announced that there was another snake right inside the door and this one was twice the size of the last one. He debated for a few minutes on whether to kill it or remove it or just watch where it came from so we would have a clue as to how to stop this infestation. It didn't take long for the snake to slither back to his hole so Joel set a glue trap in front of the opening and called the landlord! Thankfully, she is a great landlord and is even more creeped out about the snake thing than we are so she got right to work finding an exterminator/snake catcher. Two days later he was here attempting to rid us of these pests! He sealed several holes in the foundation of the house and set several traps in the crawl space. He told Joel that we might have one or two more (most likely in the traps) but after that it should be taken care of. Well, this last Sunday we were doing yard work and found another snake outside near our back deck. The exterminator man also told Joel that if we saw any snakes going in or out of the space below the deck then he'd have to come back and rip up some boards. So, we've contacted the landlord again and the snake man will have to make a return visit. Stay tuned as the snake saga continues.............

And now for a baby update!!! We have been slowly getting things set up and ready for our little boy to arrive! I am slower about it this time than I was with the other two. Of course, I have more to do this time around and at this point, I am completely out of energy by 10 am. Joel usually works Saturdays so we have one day a week to work together to get things set up. We have the crib up and all the bedding washed and in place. I have all of the baby linens washed and put away! I even got all of his clothes washed and put away. This was a small challenge at first because Gabe was a very "spitty" baby. He had a bit of indigestion as an infant and thanks to the excellent creamy quality of my milk ;) his spit up was very yellow and very STAINING! I began to notice, as I pulled clothes out of the box, that a lot of his best outfits were ruined by spit up stains. I tried bleach on the whites, I tried oxy clean, I soaked things several times and still the clothes came out stained. My wonderful friend, Alexis (whom I steal all of my best ideas from) told me that she uses the sun to remove tough stains. I was getting ready to buy this baby a whole new wardrobe and decided I had nothing to lose. We took a trip to Home Depot for clothesline and I had Joel hang it out back last weekend. On Monday I washed a load of baby clothes and then hung them out in the sun to dry for the day. Guess what????? When I went back to take them down that afternoon, they were stain-free!!!!! Thanks, Alexis, for sharing your brilliance once again :)

As you can see from the handy ticker at the top of our page I am now almost 31 weeks pregnant!!!

I feel as though I've crested a hill now that I am into the 30's! I am now seeing Merrie every two weeks. Things are going very well. I don't seem to be as big with this baby (knock on wood) so I'm not overly uncomfortable. I am finding that I am more physically tired these last couple of weeks and I have a small amount of back pain when I'm doing my house work, but all things considered I am feeling well. The baby is growing right on schedule and his heartbeat is strong whenever I go to my appointments. If I had to make assumptions based on his movements I'd say that this little guy is pretty mellow. He is not a big mover. He spends a good portion of the day just chillin' out in there and I usually don't feel him move much until I lay down at night. He doesn't seem to be bothered by poking or prodding or by the Doppler as the other kids were. He seems to be a pretty cool cat. :) At my last appointment Merrie was feeling around pretty aggressively to see if she could tell what position he was in ... he slept through the whole thing!!!!! His heartbeat was very steady and calm and he never moved ... I hope he's just as unaffected when he comes out! We have our birth supply list now too so we can begin to purchase our necessities for the big day!

We have also settled on a name!!!!! Don't ask me what it is because we have decided to torture you all and make you wait until he's born, but it is a good one and if he looks like I imagine he will, it will fit him perfectly!!!!!!

Also in preparation for the baby and for summer I have cut my hair!!!! It was getting long and heavy and after an unfortunate blow-dryer incident I decided that I would just cut it off! I missed my bob from a couple of years ago so I went back to it. This cut is a little bit longer than my last bob (I don't want to go too short in case my face gets even rounder than it already is), but it is cute and stylish and light and I love it!!!

This weekend is Joel's last Saturday at work for awhile (his schedule is changing due to some training) so after this holiday weekend I'm going to start cracking the baby whip on him!! I need to prepare for a yard sale and get the rest of the baby stuff out so that I can rest!!!!!