Sleeping Bean

Well, okay, one more photo. Irina woke up too early this morning so she fell asleep early as well. As usual, she needed to be touching me in order to keep sleeping soundly.

Engaged.

Okay, I think I'm done with my photo a day. Obviously, I lost steam toward the end. I always feel a bit of a failure when I come up with a little blog challenge/goal and then don't live up to whatever it was I said I was going to do. Part of this is living with Pat, who says he is going to do something on his blog and then sticks to it religiously. Last year he said he was going to write every other day and he did. On the other hand, he had a few lackluster entries because he was pushing himself to write when he didn't want to. And I'm not saying that critically, just that it's an illustration of his... erm, blog personality? And mine is not really like that. So maybe a solution is shorter challenges/goals (like a week or so) or just don't lay those obligations on myself. I don't know.

My main reason for wanting to post a picture a day was because I had been looking through some old photos and felt like I wasn't taking very many pictures lately and wanted to be taking more. And I did, so that's good.

Moving on, I wanted to write about baby question mark. Here is how I am marking time now. Today I am 34 weeks. Next Saturday I will be 35 weeks and the girls will be having a sleepover. The weekend after that is the family Valley of Fire Easter trip and Easter itself. I will be 36 weeks at that point. And one week after that I will be 37 weeks and even though I know better I will probably start thinking that the baby could come "any day now!!!!"

Lately I've been feeling the area above my pubic bone to see if there were any head-shaped masses there and there hadn't been. The baby was pretty much all over the place, totally impossible to interpret. Yesterday I took a shower, checked for a baby head, didn't find one and then went about my day. I took a little nap when Pat got home and when I got up from that I walked into the bathroom thinking to myself, wow I sure am feeling a lot of pressure in my pelvic area. So I checked that little area above my pubic bone again and lo, and behold! There is something there! A little melon in my pelvis. I've never felt it so distinctly. It was just kind of bizarre and awesome to feel such an obvious change in a matter of a few hours.

I asked the family if it looked like my belly was lower, but they couldn't really tell. I can't really tell. But that little head is still in position today. And it still feels odd and there's still a lot more pressure in my nether regions than there had been. This is the home stretch.

Strike a Pose

This is from yesterday at Park Day. Irina always tries to climb up the gigantic fake rock. When I said, "pssst" to get her to look at me, she posed like a model.

(Winner of poll: Buffy and Kal-el. I have two more poll ideas, but we'll just have to see if I actually get around to making them.)

P.S. Thank you for the birthday wishes. :)

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today I am 35. In this picture, I was considerably younger than that.

Irina writes CAT

...and draws a few. Plus a baby. That was crying. And then it wasn't!

And here she is not writing ZOMBIE, despite Saren wanting her to.

White Rose for my Birthday

How Irina Plays Jenga

This is from a few weeks ago. I did not like my photos from today.

Building Stuff With Pattern Blocks

Eldest and Youngest (For Now)

Hit a wall.

I missed three days of my photo a day challenge to myself. I am okay with that. I'm not going to post a photo today either, but hope to get back to it tomorrow.

Over the weekend, we went out to do what used to be simple errands. On Saturday I intended to get it all done and then spend Sunday at home all day. But before we were finished I knew I wasn't going to be able to handle the rest of the stuff we had planned. What we did on Saturday amounted to one stop to get something to eat, one stop to Target to pick up camera batteries and cat necessities, and one stop at the mall to buy a very few maternity clothes for warmer weather and my now bigger body and some decent sandals for Irina and Saren. So, one circuit of Target and one back and forth trek across the mall. And at the end of it I was exhausted and my back felt almost as bad as it did the weekend before after hiking at Red Rock.

So we ended up out of the house doing errands on Sunday too. I was so desperate to not have to go too many places that I ended up consenting to buying the groceries from Walmart (the only place we've ever been able to find the correct size of air filter for the air conditioner) even though I really do not like to Walmart. To rub salt in the wound, it really did seem a lot cheaper for the amount that we got and now I'm considering going there again for groceries.

I'm only 32 and a half weeks here and I'm just done. If I let myself ponder too long on the fact that I have 7 or 8 or even 9 or 10 weeks left, I feel like weeping.

This morning I woke up with contractions, which isn't uncommon for me as I had several bouts of early morning/late night menstrual-like contractions when pregnant with Irina, so I've got more of that to look forward to as well.

It's difficult to walk, it's difficult to move myself around, it's difficult to get all the things done that I want to get done before the baby comes, I can't sleep through the whole night without getting up to pee and laboriously turning from one side to another, my legs and back are always achy, blah blah blah.

Today I had to spend at least a half an hour convincing myself that there really isn't any chance that I'm farther along than I think I am.

So there's my vent. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get back to pictures without words for at least the rest of the month. And at that point, I'll be just that much closer.

Peeking

The battery in my camera died so this is from a few days ago.

Catching a Bubble

Lunchy Love

This cat likes to hug the couch.

Steps

This picture is actually from yesterday because I was too tired to worry about taking a photo today. These are some steps on the Lost Creek trail at Red Rock.

Reflections

Today we went to Red Rock. We ate, went on a little hike, enjoyed the fresh air and the awesome weather, saw the seasonal waterfall, and then drove home. About one quarter of the way there, we got a flat tire. The thing was mangled. Pat did an admirable job changing it, with non-physical help from me, considering we are both morons when it comes to things that normal people can do, like changing tires. The spare was almost flat. We drove slowly/carefully to a gas station to fill it up.

Red Rock was great, even if there were too many people (I wish Pat had non-weekend days off again), changing the tire was an adventure, and Pat and I were both so exhausted when we got home that we both had a huge laughing fit over something not terribly funny while we were watching America's Funniest Videos. Here's a bonus picture, which fits well with the other one because they both have reflections in them.



Oh! And I will include two more bonus pictures, just because I can. Before we went into Red Rock, we stopped at the visitor center and on our way out we saw a tiny little baby bat roosting upside down on the wall between the men's and women's rooms. Pat calls the second picture "Where's the batroom?"

Partial Family Photo

This picture was totally inspired by this one.



Differences: My picture is missing two family members (it just wouldn't work out framing-wise). Sunglasses vs. regular glasses. My picture has a girl child instead of a boy child. On our way to the grocery store instead of the farmer's market. Otherwise, exactly the same!

Bonus picture: 31 weeks

Hand on Hand on Belly

Radio Flyer

Harper Working on her Book

Another 'Nother Brother's Birthday

This is my brother, Brett (about 21 to 22 years ago). Today is his birthday. Happy Birthday, Brett!



****Also. Making a new poll: superhero edition. Winners of previous round: Vecepia (why????), Ethan, and Danni. Category of previous round: winners of Survivor (made in celebration of the return of said show).****

Makin' Faces

A Photo a Day in March

I've decided to blog a photo every day in March, with a few or no words going along with it. I was looking at my archives from last year and how I attempted to do a photo a day for the full year and didn't get very far. I did enjoy it, but perhaps a full year was too much? Can I stick with this small commitment for one month? Mystery abounds. I will also attempt to make sure that I actually take the photo on the day that I post it, but I can't make any promises in that regard. If it's not on the day of, it'll be close to it and I'll make a note of it. Oh, I was also thinking of scanning old photos on some of the days as well. We'll see.

Today's photo: I discovered that one of our windows has a strange circular indentation in it.