Correction

Correction - Les Mis is not a Musical. It is an Opera. Thank the Lord for my sister. Good to learn something new every day.

Les Miserables

Just saw Les Mis with some friends. Best movie I have ever seen. I don't know if it is because I am pregnant but it was the most intense emotions throughout an entire movie I have ever experienced. WOW! Now only to convince my husband that it is not what he thinks when he thinks of Musical. He brought up "Sound of Music" when I mentioned this and was totally uninterested. Not what he thinks and I wouldn't ask him to watch it unless I know he would love it. Farthest from a chick musical there could be.

Also, husband brought me on a sweet day date for my birthday which was a few days ago, thanks to him for being so sweet with me today and to my in-laws for watching Matthew. 

The Help

Tonight I watched "The Help" with a friend. Those maids made for such sweet caregivers to children. So sweet. It reminded me of something my friend with teenagers told me not too long ago.

"The best parenting advice I can give you Denise. Well. I was perfectionist with my children. I expected too much of them, and I am really starting to see the negative effects of it now. So really, all you have to worry about is being the sweetest mother you can possibly be"

Ah! I never want to forget that advice.

I Love You Husband!

Wuv

Today I was napping and a little while later I hear my door open up and little feet running to my bed with my husband carrying hot chocolate to me. He picks Matthew up and Matthew crawls his way across my bed and on his way over says "Ma?....Ma?" 

"Yes Matthew?"

He then gives me a big hug and cuddles up to me saying "I wuv"

That was his first time he told me he loved me without him just repeating us.
I never really thought about the moment coming, and it was one of the best moments of my life.

Flexible

The one thing I am hoping to remember with this baby is flexibility. After a year of trying to figure Matthew out, I learned how fast they change things up all the time. And I am learning that you can't always stick with what you say you will do with a child, because sometimes you just have to go with the flow of that child. I was all set to potty train Matthew this month and I was all talk about it. This month has ended up being an extremely emotional month for Matthew. I no for a fact that adding potty training on top of all that will only frustrate myself and him and it is not worth it. He is going through a little phase and I can't even leave the room to go to the bathroom without tears, and he seems to be having separation anxiety a bit with Mike. ( he sure loves his dad) Anyways, my huge pregnant belly is more than happy not to rush him to the potty anyways and so I believe my beginning nursing days with this next guy might be more relaxed too. Anyways, instead of potty training, this is what we focus on lately. Cars. I am telling you. it was like a switch went on in his little brain how fun cars are and it is what we do for hours. It is cute. And there is lots of crashing involved.

And can we all just notice how amazing those thighs are? And how he lines up his cars before he pushes them across his little city there. 

Practice

these silly practice contractions have been keeping me up for over an hour so far in the middle of the night. NO. not the really thing which im thankful for cuz you should see all the laundry i have to wash and i dont have my bag packed. and i need some of that laundry that is not washed for my bag. and my sister REALLY needs me to watch one of her kiddos the next few days for a wedding AND my mom is sick. but you better believe i didnt wake my husband to tell him i cant sleep cuz of them. that man would be up and about, shoveling snow, packing a bag, calling off work, doing laundry, etc. i cant quite convince him that these could last for a few weeks. he gets really ahead of himself when it comes to this kind of thing.  or on the other hand, laundry does need to get done!!! hmmmmm......

Let It Snow

Thankful for a little bit of snow right now. I know. I am crazy for saying that. But really. It is so important for our economy that we get a cold winter and some snow this year. I know Im not the one out shoveling, and I have a husband that really isn't all for me driving either with being so late in my pregnancy, but we NEED this so bad. The farmers need this to kill off the bugs. With such a mild winter last year, it would be really bad if we didn't get cold and snow this year. And for anyone around here who hates the snow, be thankful it is South East Michigan and we really don't get tons. I don't remember many heavy years of snow in the almost 10 years I have lived here. I guess it is all relative though from where you grow up.

THANKS husband for working so hard out there while I sit in here and right a blog about how much we need this. And for getting up even before your normal 4:30 am to shovel again. You sure are awesome!

The Third Year

This is the third year in a row that my darling friend, Stefanie, and I have had Christmas Eve breakfast together. I think I'm allowed to call it a tradition now. Matthew joined us this year. It is one of my favorite parts of the Christmas season now. I am so thankful for her in tons of ways.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Christmas

 I have honestly been so majorly focused on baby coming that Christmas has just crept up on me and I don't feel quite ready or festive enough. But the beautiful thing is that Christmas isn't about anything other than celebrating the fact the God would come into this world so humbly, as a baby in a manger.  The most simple way you could probably make your entrance. So I guess going off of that, it will be a simple Christmas for us and that is ok. Remembering to focus on what is really important.

Matthew came up to me today and said....

" God.........Jesus"

I then asked him to tell me about Jesus.....he looked at me and said.. "Cheeeeese"

One day he will add "Holy Spirit" to the trinity....but for now... God, Jesus, and cheese are related somehow.

Merry Almost Christmas. 

The Chiropractor

I had my friend and her kiddos over today. Little Aiden (2.5 yrs) wanted to pray at lunch.

Aiden: "God. Thank you for the Chiropractor"

hahaha. so cute.

When I Came Home

Matthew and I spent three days in Ohio with my parents. When I came home I walked into a very clean house, organized closets, a set up nursery. What a man I have, he did so much nesting for me. Then he played super hard with Matthew and let me take a 3 hour nap. Wow. When I woke up he took us out to dinner. When we came home he gave Matthew his bath as usual, we put him to bed, cuddled and watched some TV, and then he massaged my neck and shoulders. Not a bad day! I'm more than thankful over here. I really needed this restful day. I haven't been feeling too great lately and am just really warn out. So I'm glad I have a man like him.

Rooted Love

The other night I was in bed, trying to sleep, and all I could think about was what happened in CT and then my mind went crazy. I mean, I was there crying just thinking about losing a child. If my heart could hurt that bad just imagining it, I couldn't even fathom how I would care about living on if it actually happened. Then I just thought of all those families that actually did lose their children, and who do every day. I felt little comfort, and frankly, I just needed a miracle from God to show me that he is stronger and bigger than all this death and tragedy  THEN, I saw this man give a speech, the day after his daughter was killed in the shootings. I was completely humbled. The words and love coming out of this man are literally impossible on a human level. ONLY by the deep rooted love of God could he do this. I have seen miracles. I have seen the lame walk, broken bones healed on the spot, scoliosis corrected beneath my hand with just a word of prayer, but THIS, THIS, is more than a miracle to me. This mans roots are deep and he just let God do supernatural things through him. Please listen to him speak. While anger is such a normal emotion right now, and not bad to have. Love is what will overcome evil. It's the only way.

Those Babies

Ah! Those kids, those babies, in Connecticut. Those little kids in just elementary school are still such babies. My heart hurts. And while it's easy to focus on the bad guys, cause we are all about giving attention to the bad guys, Oh dear Lord those Moms and Dads and those scared teachers and kids. I want to hug them so tight I can squeeze the pain and memory out. Which just won't happen. I cannot imagine losing a child.

Google Family

Thank you Google and the ability to video chat with more than one person. For being part of a super close family who likes to talk to each other all the time, this is awesome. We are geographically seperated but we all like to be together at one time, so we got to be today minus a few members. The little hands are Zechariah showing us ladies how his toys were wrestling each other. I got to do this for an hour and a half. Great boost to my day for sure.

Home Birth

The other night it crossed my mind to have a home birth. We totally are not going to. It isn't quite our thing, yet. =)  I honestly think I will be more relaxed in a hospital for some strange reason. I dunno why, it might be the Turkey Sandwiches there. Anyways, it crossed my mind because the other night Matthew woke up in the middle of the night. I went in and he was sitting in the corner of his crib, clenching his bear so tight, with tears streaming down his face, crying "mama mama". Needless to say, I would have held him all night if he would have let me and killed whatever scared him with my mama bear hands. So, I do NOT want to leave him overnight. I know we have to, but I can't handle the thought of that happening while I am gone. I know he will be ok, but I sure will be happy when our family is all home together after the hospital stay. Gosh, do I love my little Matthew!

And 3.5 weeks or so. Little newborn smells and lip pursing and cuddles and sleeper outfits are gonna be all over this house. =) eeeee!

They Won

Not only did they win in their category but Katie and MoreThanMe won the $1 million Grand Prize on the Chase American Giving Awards on NBC. So proud of that girl. I remember her sitting on my bathroom sink in my tiny Royal Oak apartment telling me she wanted to start a non-profit but she was too scared. And now this! It is amazing what a person can do to change the world. So inspired right now. I would have been happy for whoever one, but it's cool to see it with someones story you know and the love and passion behind it. So many little girls are going to get off the streets now and have an education. That is what it is all about!

MoreThanMe

Ah. My friend, Katie Meyler, is on NBC's American Giving Awards right now hoping for an award for her Non Profit called More Than Me.
So proud of her that she got picked to be a nominee.

This Week

A few favorites this week. Ummm, our mom's group kids pancake christmas pajama party. YES PLEASE. So cute and fun. we all brought our kids over to my friends in their PJ's and had pancakes, donuts, juice, fruit, and on and on. then we did a little gift exchange. it was darling to see all the kiddos in their pjs sitting around a table and eating great food and loving it.
i went to the soccer game today with my dad. very special day. wambach and morgan. great to see them live. you know its good soccer when you have no advice to throw out to them during the game and you notice even the tiniest mistake because not many mistakes happen.

FOUR WEEKS! 4 weeks and I am a mom of two. I cannot wait to meet him. I'm honestly going through a lot right now, remembering labor and the lack of sleep and trying to get past my fears of it all. But I believe that this time around will be different and I will be much more relaxed, I hope. I cannot wait till our first week together as a family when Mike will be off work. But my great husband has been so awesome. I'm really running low on energy, not keeping my dinner down at night, and really doing NOTHING around the house in the evening. I don't remember my wrists hurting at the end of a pregnant day. But Michael just keeps telling me not to worry about it and to just get on the couch and rest, even when he knows I have the time to get stuff done, he doesn't care that I rest instead. So sweet of him. I really don't take it for granted. I have a really hard time near the end of pregnancy since I really like to be active. And it feels especially hard since I can tell Matthew is frustrated sometimes with my lack of energy to tackle, and run around with him like I used to have. I am so thankful for this time I get to have the little boy in my womb, but it will be good to be able to have my mobility back for Matthew again. I miss playing hard with him.

All that to say, this time in life is crazy to me and I cannot believe it is all happening. It honestly feels like just yesterday I thought Matthew was never going to come out of me during labor, and now I am doing it another time around but with a different boy. WOW! WHAT? Two of them! wow.

Just so thankful!

Birth

I started watching "More Business of Being Born" yesterday. I really like being informed about the process of birth and all the reasons for the interventions that they do. They were interviewing these famous midwives that work on a farm that woman come to to give natural births. I know it sounds all hippie. But my gosh, they have a 1.7% C-section rate and the one midwife has not had a woman need an episiotomy in 25 years. Hospitals have about a 30% C-section rate. I also learned that since 1982 Maternal death rates have doubled in the USA. DOUBLED? WOW. What crazy statistics.

Trading Trades

My sister and I have been realizing that we enjoy different things and are good at different things, and well, we are using it to both of our advantages. So while I am crafting a bunch of her Christmas decorations, she has painted a dresser for us. I HATE painting furniture, and she does not prefer to craft really, or never has really loved it. When I had a craft night at my house with her she ended up drinking wine while I sewed everything. And well, I painted one dresser a year ago and never want to do that again. It's great. Well, we are taking a big step. It may not work. But I LOVE organizing and I LOVE cleaning over cooking. I'm not terrible at cooking, it is just not my passion. I like clean, and cooking makes a mess. And cooking and grocery shopping stress me out to the max. My sister on the other hand is overwhelmed with keeping her house up with 3 little little kids and has a huge passion for cooking. She is great at it. Well, we are going to attempt to trade trades. I give her money for dinners, and she preps and cooks my dinners, while Mike and I spend a morning with Matthew at her house when her and her kids are gone and get things off her cleaning and organizing to do list, and Ill probably take her clean laundry to fold at my house once a week or so. I'm telling you, Mike and I are so excited. We both love to clean and organize, and we both get so frustrated with cooking, and it is totally opposite with my sister and her husband. We all can't wait. This may not work, but we are going to try it. No one can resist my sisters cooking, it's healthy and she knows good deals, and I get super excited when I get to organize. SO! Trading Trades. Ill keep my blog updated on how it actually goes.

Also, I'm 35 weeks. Just about the time my baby feels like he has built an addition to his little home inside of me. And he built the extra room in my lungs. There is a baby in there for sure.