The 3rd Trimester Is Laborious (Pun Intended)

Aaron helping his dad paint the fence.

Well, here I am 29 weeks pregnant and just into my third trimester.  Though this pregnancy has been tons easier on me than I remember Aaron's being (*knocking on wood, crossing fingers and making wishes*) the beginning of this third trimester is bringing on all the wariness and awkwardness of pregnancy that I remember toward the end of Aaron's.  Back aches, sore muscles, swelling, heaviness, sleeplessness..... you name it.  

Pregnancy in the third trimester is me saying "I'm too uncomfortable right now.  I think I'm going to go lay down" and 20 minutes later..... "I was too uncomfortable laying down.  I think I'm going to walk around a bit".  If I ever find a truly comfortable place, I am SO not leaving it.  Work and food be damned!

We have been slowly making upgrades to the house when we can afford to and have the time.  With the help of my parents we finally (OMG NO SERIOUSLY..... FINALLY) got a new bed.  YESSSSSSSS!  A wonderful, memory foam hybrid -- KING size and with a frame to match our dressers.  I, am sleeping SO much better since the new mattress.  Even with the waking and peeing and tossing and turning.  Seriously, the bed is awesome.

A few weeks ago we got someone to come and haul away this yucky, old deck that was in our backyard for free (yes, thank you people of Craigslist) which is totally awesome because I felt it was super unsafe for Aaron to play on it.  Rusty nails, rotting wood, splinters.... you get the idea.  Of course, this means we have a backyard that is half icky grass (more like weeds and different kinds of grass) and half dirt and holes.  Now we just have to figure out how to easily and cheaply put sod/grass back there.  That's a project for the next month or so.

This weekend Josh was able to finish up fixing & painting the gate at our front yard.  The wooden trim was rotted and so the iron gate was just hanging there all loose and squeaky like.  So he went to Home Depot and bought new wood for the trim and replaced it.  This weekend he finished it up by painting the wood to match the existing fence and remounting the iron gate.  Aaron is always wanting to help his daddy out with these projects so I figured this would be a good one to help out with.  I put him in some old clothes and sent him outside to help Josh paint the trim.  Of course, here in Sacramento it was like..... OH 107 DEGREES outside on that day so the paint dried as quickly as it was being put down.  Aaron, fair child of mine that he is, can't really be in the sun too long (just like his momma) so I let him be out there for about 10 minutes before I told him what a good job he did helping daddy out and then offered him an Otter Pop if he came inside.  After the Otter Pop we had a shower!  Man, it was HOT.  

But Josh toughed it out and finished the gate.  Then he went out back and did some cleaning up back there by removing a bunch of unwanted rocks and debris from what was under the deck.  Also, those ugly brown rocks that people use for landscaping which I find hideous are all around our house in the yard so I told him I want them all gone.  He got up a lot of them, but not all before the garbage can was almost full.  After he knew the heat was too much he came inside and worked on the bathroom faucet, replacing and fixing the filter in our sink.  It had a super low flow filter that basically gave us drops of water.  Literally, drops.  We bought a better one and Josh replaced it.  Now I can actually brush my teeth!

In the next 2 weekends we'd like to get the baby nursery finally painted and get the crib up.  Luckily, I've saved Aaron's crib so we already have that.  I also saved all his clothes so I finally went through and saved a few that were unisex for Baby Girl and the rest I guess are going to have to be sold or given away.  

At the end of this month my bestie Stephanie is going to throw me a baby shower at her house.  It looks like a might have a visitor or two this month also so that's going to be wonderful!  Next month I only have one thing planned...........

Let's all pray to the gods (and God) now that it be about 25 degrees cooler and that I be about 25 percent more comfortable for this.....

Dave Matthews Band in Mountain View!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, I know, you think I'm cray.  But I haven't missed a year and Aaron went in my belly, so I think Baby Girl can too.  Of course, I wasn't 8 months pregnant at the time.....  But who's counting?

SO, that's the update folks.  Who is ready for Baby Girl besides me?  


   

Brought to you by your future graffiti artist

Today it was hot in the Northwest.  Like, 95 degrees in some spots.  And for those of you who say that 95 isn't that bad -- Seattleites do not have air conditioning so SHUT IT!  Moving on.....

Since I knew this week was going to be warm I had been thinking of activities Aaron and I could do outside - even if it was on our little "stoop".  I had been actually thinking of sidewalk chalk for awhile and yesterday I went to Safeway and lo and behold -- there was sidewalk chalk for sale right in the front of the store in a summer display.  So today I swept our stairs and little entrance area, put the baby gate up at the end of the stairs and introduced Aaron to sidewalk chalk!  Hooray!!!  

Aaron loved it.  Ulrich loved keeping Aaron company.  And I loved being outside for a change without having to restrain Aaron in one way or another (hand holding, stroller, babe in arms).  He spent a little over an hour outside coloring on the walls and ground.  It's like he's a baby Picasso.  I sent a photo to my mom's phone and she said "He is going to become a graffiti person now!".  Yeah, I'm pretty sure sidewalk chalk does not lead to a life of crime, but I guess you never know.  Of course she thought it was totally adorable anyway.

Recently Aaron, Josh and I went to The Hi-Life (for their awesome $5 breakfast) and Aaron dropped his cup on the floor when a nice woman who was waiting for a table picked it up for him.  I said thank you to the lady and Aaron turned around and looked at her and said "thank you!" and the woman just started cracking up.  She thought it was the cutest thing.  And it was.  Score one for teaching baby good manners!

We're also trying to get Aaron to say "help" when he needs it instead of screaming (loudly) in frustration.  When Aaron can't get a toy out of his toy box he screams.  When he's sitting on something and doesn't realize it and can't pull it out from under him, he screams.  When he traps himself behind a piece of furniture and the wall, he screams.  So we tell him that it's inappropriate to scream and then we ask him to ask for help.  So far he still yells at first mostly, but when I look at him and say "Aaron, what do we say when we need help?" he says "heeelp".  On rare occasion he uses it all on his own.  Like when he's screaming his head off because I'm changing his diaper and he hates it and is trying to roll over and yelling "HEEEELLP" at the same time.  Yeah.  Awesome.  I'm just picturing having to change his diaper in public when he starts that up.  Score one for baby on this one.  (sigh)  You win one, you lose one I guess.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go stick my head in the refrigerator.  And if you happen to see some sidewalk chalk tags in your neighborhood, I swear -- it's not my boy!