The mysterious case of the appearing coffee maker part.

I know absolutely nothing about coffee.  Seriously.  I have no idea how to make a pot of coffee.

Apparently, N has been making coffee in our coffee pot without a very important piece that fits inside the top thing and helps keep the paper thingy in place that catches the grounds.

I guess this piece is not completely necessary, but without it a big mess is made.  Seeing as how I do not drink the coffee or even look at the pot, I had no idea that this was even happening.

Before my mom came in town, N said that we needed to replace it.  We went to Target to find it and couldn't.  After refusing to let him steal the one form the display, we left figuring that we would probably find one online.

N didn't find one online, and when my mom, who also loves to drink coffee, came in town, she figured that we could pick a cheap maker up from Walmart since we were going there anyway.

I have to interrupt this story to say that I almost never shop at Walmart.  I'm not really a snob about it or anything, but I prefer to have a positive experience when shopping and that seems to never happen at our local Walmart.  This day was no exception as I was told by an employee that I was "breaking his balls" by asking him to call around to a few stores for me to check on a big ticket item.  Yes that really happened.  I'll tell the full story another time...

So anyway, we bought the $16 coffee pot and headed home.  We were contemplating whether or not to keep the old one and even though I am a proud member of the reuse-it website in my city, I really didn't want to be bothered with it and reluctantly threw it away.  It was pretty gross.

Let's see, that was Monday.  So today is Wednesday and I let Miss Delilah outside around lunchtime.  She apparently didn't want to come in for a while because I kept checking the door and she wasn't there.  I decided to make sure she didn't wonder out of our yard, so I walked around the carport, in front of the trashcan on my way to the back yard and I saw this...

See it?  That black thing right there?  Can you tell what it is?  Look closer...

Closer...

Holy crap!  It's the missing coffee pot piece!  What the heck??  This phenomenon poses many questions:

Is this some kind of joke?
Where the heck did this come from?
How the heck did it end up outside?
Why did it appear today after months of it missing?
Did I really pass by this spot a million times and miss it?
Did it seriously just appear right here?

Do you see how close it is to the trashcans and my car?  I walk by this spot at least 2 times a day and didn't see it.  This is so crazy to me.  What are the freakin' odds?  I guess it would have been better to find it before we bought a new one but, whatever.

To add to the randomness today, my mom and my nephew collect quarters and needed just one more to finalize their collection.  Well, she found it today!  And the funny part is the quarter she needed was one from her home state, and she had to travel 13 hours to find it.  Crazy stuff.

So a perfect ending to this story would be to go into labor and have this baby right as August turns to September, wouldn't you say?  Three for three??

I'm off work, LBZ's still cookin', I might as well blog!

Well, my due date is literally right around the corner.  Tomorrow to be exact.  And in all honesty, I still can't believe how good I feel!  Sure there are uncomfortable times and aches and some pains, but overall, I really do feel pretty great.

I have also noticed that when I relax, take a deep breath, and become ok with possibly being pregnant for another week, I feel much better.  I had some pretty serious practice contractions over the weekend that made me think I was perhaps closer than I was.  Sunday was a super hard day for me.  I think I really convinced myself that he was coming and was really let down when he didn't.

I am back to realizing that this baby will likely be born in September, which is something I really want anyway.  My birthday is in September, BBZ's is too.  It is probably my favorite month of the year, followed closely by December.  It is a fabulous month for a birthday.

Plus, I am delivering LBZ in the same hospital where I was born!  My birthday is 9/5, so how cool would it be for LBZ to be born in the same place I was exactly 32 years later?!  What would be even cooler is if he is born on 9/3 and I am home by 9/5, but since I cannot choose when he will arrive, I will just sit back, enjoy my vacation, and wait.

That's another mind trick that has helped me.  I was struggling with being on "maternity leave" already and "wasting" it by being home without a baby, but I decided to look at this week as vacation since I technically took vacation time and save the "maternity leave" talk until after the baby comes.  The mind is a very powerful thing.

My mom is in town, which is awesome company!  We have been bumming around town and taking it easy.  She watched "The Business of Being Born" with me yesterday and I think she really grasped the reason I want to have a different experience this time around.  I am so glad that I watched it again so close to the birth.  I am so ready to experience this again.

I'm behind a bit in picture taking, but here is the most recent one I took...

(39 Weeks, 1 Day)

I still feel like I am smaller than I was with BBZ.  I am running about 10 pounds or so lighter, which is quite nice.  I am not swollen at all, which seriously blows my mind.  My hands are and I haven't been able to comfortably wear my rings in months, but with BBZ my feet were huge and I always felt swollen and uncomfortable.  Not this time!

BBZ had a fund raiser at our local children's museum last Sunday night and we had a blast!  They rented the place out, so it wasn't too crowded and all of the money went back into the school.  We bit in a silent auction on artwork that the kids in his class did and won a huge basket of baby toys in the raffle!  See!



Everyone thought it was pretty cool timing to win this right before the baby comes.  We really didn't need new toys, as our home is overflowing with them already, but it sure is nice to have some new things just for LBZ.  He doesn't have to have all hand-me-downs after all.

Today we have some walking planned and I see my doctor this afternoon.  I am wondering if he will want me to do a non-stress test like I had to do when BBZ went past his due date.  I have decided not to have pelvic checks with this pregnancy.  I asked a few weeks back if it was medically necessary and he said it was not.  He said that most women are curious if anything is happening (dilation, effacement, etc) but medically there really isn't a reason, so I declined.

I remember being dilated and effaced with BBZ and still waiting a week for him to come.  Plus, what if I am 4 cm dilated now and don't know it, then when I am in active labor I labor at home for as long as I can, go to the hospital and am dilated to 5cm.  If I didn't know I was 4 already I would htink that is awesome!  I was 5 cm when I got to the hospital with BBZ and thought that was pretty awesome.  I don't want to know too much, ya know?

So that's what's up with me.  No baby yet, but he will be here soon!

What I know and what I hope.

I know that babies are born when they are ready.
I hope that our sweet LBZ is ready very soon.

I know that second births can be as long as or longer than first births.
I hope that this one is shorter and faster.

I know that many first children have a hard time adjusting to a new baby.
I hope that BBZ has an easy time with his new role.

I know that most babies are born healthy, but some have health problems.
I hope that our sweet LBZ is healthy.

I know that I went 7 days past my due date with BBZ.
I hope LBZ comes before that date, which is 9/8/11.

I know that being off work for 12 weeks is exactly what I need.
I hope I can separate myself from work completely and NOT check my email and phone from home.

I know that some babies have a hard time breastfeeding.
I hope that after 2+ years of nursing, things for us will go off without a hitch.

*****

We welcome you, sweet LBZ.  Things are ready for you.  I am ready for you.  BBZ talks each day to you and tells you he is ready to meet you.  You are all I think about from morning until night.  You will soon bless our family with newborn coos and sounds and smells that we just can't wait for.  While I am anxious about your birth, I am not afraid.  I get excited with each practice contraction that I have knowing that it is one tiny step closer to having you here in our lives and in our arms.  I cannot wait to nurse you and snuggle with you and hold you close to me.  I can't wait to see BBZ as your big brother.  I already love you, and I can't wait to show you how much.

We welcome you to our world, Little Brother Z.  We hope to see you very soon!

I love my girlfriends.

I have the most amazing friends in the whole world.  Shortly after I found out I was pregnant, my very best friend, Laura, said she wanted to throw me a shower.  I was a little uneasy about it, but since I was convinced that the baby was a girl, I thought it would be fun to have a baby girl clothes shower or something like that to help celebrate her arrival.  Who doesn't love buying baby girl clothes anyway??

Fast forward a few months and we found out that we are having a little boy!  We thought about a diaper shower, but I have BBZ's cloth ones that I plan to use right away this time.  We talked about a shower at her house, but I was really against gift giving mostly because I don't need any stuff and also because people don't typically have a shower for the second baby.

So as we got closer, we decided to have a dinner at a restaurant to celebrate the future birth of our sweet LBZ.  We chose a cute little place in one of the oldest parts of town that we had been to for Laura's birthday a few years back.  Little did we know that the place closed down!  We found out when we showed up on Saturday, but some quick thinking landed us at another nice place in the town where I grew up.  Coincidentally, N and my parents met for the first time at this restaurant nearly 8 years ago.

Here are a few of us waiting for the others so we could caravan to the next restaurant.

Here is the group of us.  Some of my favorite women in the whole world.  I am so happy that they came out to celebrate LBZ!

My very best girlfriend, Laura.  Man I love her!

It was such a lovely dinner.  Laura cooked up a plan to gather some awesome coupons for me that included  things like free meals, free babysitting of BBZ so N and I could have some time with the baby, a work of art from my friend Brooke, who is a very talented artist, some delicious home-made meals for the freezer, and a massage!  I also got some yummy smelling bath soap and lotion that is safe for mama and baby.  One friend who couldn't make it gave me a Pizza Hut gift card!  Apparently I wasn't specific enough when I said no gifts as it was interpreted as no gifts for LBZ, but ones for me were ok.  Miss Laura is so sneaky :)

Another sneaky surprise was some collaborating between my mom and Laura.  My mom made a beautiful quilt for BBZ when I was pregnant...see!

She is so amazing!  It's like a work of art on fabric.  She even found this perfect tye-dye type material for the back of the blanket.  It went perfectly in his little room, which was decked out with N's collection of Grateful Dead bears.

So I asked my mom to make one for LBZ so he would have something special just for him.  His room doesn't really have a theme, but I liked the idea of a lake or pond scene with objects of nature.  She and I looked over some sketches she made when she was last in town and she said that there was no way she could get it done before LBZ's arrival.  That didn't make a bit of difference to me, as I knew that it was going to be beautiful and worth the wait.  Well, she and Laura cooked up this plan for her to give it to me at my dinner shower.  They are super sneaky!

Isn't it absolutely gorgeous?!

She even found this perfect fishy material for the back.

 She did an amazing job, and the party was so much fun!  I wanted to drink a glass of wine, but I was too embarrassed to order it at the restaurant.  Laura took one for the team and ordered herself 2 glasses of 2 different red wines.  One for me and one for her.  She took some strange looks from the waiter, but I think he eventually figured out what we were up to.

I just can't believe how awesome my girlfriends are.  It took me a long time to realize the importance of having girlfriends.  It wasn't until well after college that I really began to appreciate how important those relationships are.  I wish I had learned that earlier, but I do know now, and moments like these can only be appreciated and celebrated with the most important women in my life.  If only my mom and sister could have been here!  They were in spirit though, that's for sure :)

BBZ and The Bobs

You know the Bobs, right?  No not these guys...

"Naga- ,Naga-, notta gonna work here anymore..."

Nope, I'm talking about these Bobs...

Many of you who know me or have been reading this blog for any length of time know how much music plays a part in my life with N.  We met while following Widespread Panic to Memphis.  We traveled all across the country following our very favorite bands.  Chicago, Portland, Reno, Atlanta, Indianapolis, San Francisco, KC, you name the city, we have probably seen music there.

So it shouldn't come as any surprise that our offspring would also have a love of music.  What is a surprise is his choice in music.  For a while it was Keller Williams' Kidz album, which is incredibly awesome if you are looking for good kid-friendly music.  There is even a song called "Mama Tooted", which makes me giggle.

That was his album of choice for a while, and when I say album of choice I mean the album he obsessed over and had to hear during every single car trip, to school and home from school are with me, by the way.  So I pretty much knew what to expect each morning...and it was nice.

Then he went through a Bob Dylan phase.  I played Mr. Tambourine Man once and told him that I used to sing it to him when he was a baby.  I actually also sang it to him when I was pregnant and always enjoyed singing that song in the car with him.  He loved that fact, so we listened to Bob D quite often.

Then one day we heard a Bob Marley song while in N's car.  I don't remember which one it was, but BBZ kept calling him Bob Dylan.  The next time he was in my car I showed him the cover of the Africa Unite album by Bob Marley and explained who Bob Marley was.  Then I did it.  I played Three Little Birds.  If you don't know that song 1) Shame on you, and 2) Listen to it here right now!

He was hooked.  He had to hear it again.  It was a Monday morning and I got to work feeling so light and happy and wonderful.  I have listened to that song almost every single morning since with his sweet little voice singing along.  What a great way to start the day!

And as if that wasn't enough cuteness, he now has me sing it and Mr. Tambourine Man as he is falling asleep.  It is so awesome.  What a nice way for him to drift off to dream land.  "Don't worry, about a thing.  'Cause every little thing, is gonna be alright."

So now he is learning some of the other songs on that album.  The next song is "Buffalo Soldier", which he thinks is awesome.  He also thinks it's hilarious to say "Buffalo Chicken" instead.  He is so funny!  We were at Pizza Hut yesterday and they had a picture of a buffalo and he started singing "Buffalo Soldia...dred lock rasta" right there in the restaurant.  Man I love this kid.

So music sure is making an impact on his life already, and it's just an added bonus that he likes the same music we do.  It's much better than "I've been working on the Railroad" over and over again!





37 Weeks!

Holy moly, this pregnancy is flying by!  I can't believe we are 3-4 weeks away from meeting this little man.  My heart is so full of love and I can't wait to pour it all over our littlest baby boy!

In true end-of-pregnancy fun, I took some pictures of the belly...

Well, N took that one.  He also took the one below.  I was feeling smaller than I remember being with BBZ, then I found these photos which made me realize something....

 (36 Weeks with BBZ)



(38 Weeks with BBZ) 

I am actually BIGGER than I was with him.  Bummer.  Oh well, I still feel great considering I am this far along.  Monday and Tuesday of this week were especially hard for some reason.  Maybe it was because it was Monday.  Or maybe it was because BBZ's school was closed and he and N got 3 whole vacation days together to play while I had to go to "stinkin' work" as BBZ has recently quoted me saying.  Maybe it was my mental exhaustion from having to clean up three, that's right, THREE bowel accidents from our otherwise potty-trained little man.  He's on antibiotics though and tomorrow is his last day, so hopefully that will stop when the medicine does.

Another cheerful surprise was a lovely little shower that my co-workers threw for me!  They really surprised me.  I had a meeting from 9-12 yesterday and then my boss had re-scheduled a "meeting" at 12:30pm.  I grabbed some food and rushed back to work, scarfed down my food and then ran off to the meeting.  Sure enough, the meting was my shower!  They are so sneaky :)

They are also so generous!  They gather some cash for me and some even gave gifts.  This little man got some awesome camo, a few toys and some other really cute clothes.  I know girl clothes are cute and frilly, but there is just something about a good boyish camo outfit.

My boss got me a magic bullet baby food making system!  I made all of BBZ's food, but it was a little challenging with ice cube trays and defrosting and all that went into it.  I planned to do it all again, but this is going to be so much easier!  I can't wait to use it :)

Speaking of boy stuff, BBZ is in the cutest superhero phase right now.  He wants to watch "The Vengengers" (aka The Avengers" or Spiderman now, which is so much more fun than Blue's Clues or Wonder Pets.

He and N were running around the house playing superhero and taking each other out and rolling on the floor and just being boys.  I sat back and watched them and really got excited about having another boy in this house.  It is just the way I picture my little family and I can't wait for it to be a reality!

My official last day of work is 2 weeks from tomorrow!  I must admit, I am super excited about this fact.  I love my job, but I am so ready to focus on only my family.  The bad part is that the earlier I take off work the younger LBZ will be when he starts daycare.

The reason I decided to take work off before my due date is that it will put me back at work the week of Thanksgiving.  I figure it will be kind of quiet that week and plus it's a short one.  N will be home and I will get paid for those 2 days off rather than not.  It seemed to work out great.  That is as long as he is born before 9/8 or so...I'd hate for him to be less than 11 weeks when I have to leave him!  He won't be at daycare then though.  He doesn't start daycare until December 12th, unless he is really early.

So anyhow, things are starting to look very baby-fied around here...

The boots are from a resale shop and were $1!

Hello, my name is Anna, and I am addicted to buying cloth diapers.  Seriously.  I have all the diapers I need, but I got on a prefold and wool cover kick and just couldn't help myself.  I bought some Flip covers from Cotton Babies a while back during a super seconds sale, so that's where the blue cover came from, but check out these wool covers! 

The recycle one is about the cutest thing I have ever seen!  We did not cloth diaper BBZ at night time having never found a cloth one that would hold his 12-hour/night pee.  (Don't be jealous of 12-hour nights sleep, it DID NOT last).  I seriously cannot wait to see LBZ's cute little bum in these covers!

And his bag is packed and ready to go!  My bag, on the other hand, doesn't even exist yet.

So things around here are ready, we just need him to come!  Not yet though...at least let me be off work!