Final Preparations

Well, I think we're ready. At least...as ready as you can ever be to bring a new little human being into the world. I felt rushed getting ready for the arrival of our little man; it was an entirely different experience this time around. With Andra, we had all the time in the world to organize, reorganize and get the house ready to bring a baby home. With this little man, the only time I could get anything done was during naptime or bedtime! But we managed...and by golly...I feel--for the most part!--prepared to bring our little guy home. At least I think so.

Now that his arrival is likely only days away, we took Andra to Build a Bear to make a stuffed animal for her baby brother (I totally stole this clever idea from a friend!). She chose a dog (not suprisingly), and had a blast making him. Her favorite part was giving him a "bath," and here she is cleaning his ears.

Since she has a Colts shirt, Andra decided her baby brother's doggie needed a Colts shirt too. She picked out an entire outfit for him, and sealed it with a kiss. :)

She's really attached to "Doggie" (she chose his name too)...and PROMISES she'll give him to her baby brother when he's born. We'll see. :) In the meantime, she sure is taking good care of him. I have a feeling "Doggie" is going to be a little broken in already by the time baby brother gets him. She did seem proud to have something special to bring to the hospital for him.

One of our final preparations was pulling all the baby "gadgets" out of the attic. We got down the pack 'n play, baby swing, bouncey seat, and infant tub. It's amazing what a little person requires! Andra LOVES having all these new gadgets to play with, and "bouncey seat" has officially entered her vocabuarly. She spent the entire day today taking "Doggie" from one gadget to another...his two favorite seem to be the swing and bouncey seat. At least that's what Andra says. I have a feeling we may be replacing the batteries before the little guy even makes it home! Here she is giving him a bath (the towel is over Doggie's eyes, because that's how we wash her hair). I'm thrilled that she's so nurturing and seems really excited to bring her baby brother home...I hope it lasts!

So here we are...likely about a week or so away from meeting our new little miracle. It still seems surreal to me. It likely won't sink in until he's put in my arms. It's so amazing to me that this little creature we're about to bring into the world will eventually grow into a little person just like Andra has...I know that will be an incredible and fun journey...so that's what I'm trying to focus on. But I'd be lieing if I didn't say I'm scared too. :) Until next time...

Andra's 3 ! Sort of. Ok, not really.

This was a big weekend in our little household...we celebrated Andra's third birthday! I say "celebrated" because, technically, she's really not 3 years old yet. Her birthday (Sept. 12) is exactly two days after her baby brother's due date (Sept. 10). Rather than try to have a birthday party with a newborn to care for, we decided to have her birthday party a few weeks early this year. She too young to know the difference. :)

This year, it had to be Thomas the Tank Engine-themed, of course. She LOVES all things Thomas and still is nuts about her Thomas train table...so, not surprisingly, she asked for a Thomas birthday party.

So...I felt compelled this year to make Andra's birthday cake myself. My mom made some of the cutest cakes for us when we were young, so I feel like it's my motherly duty to make her cake. I found a really cute engine-shaped Thomas cake decorating kit online, and the pictures made it look really simple to assemble and ice...nevermind that I'm a complete cake rookie. I'll figure it out, I told myself.

So about $40 later in cake gadgets that I had NO idea how to use, I decided to do a practice run of this Thomas cake about a month before the party. Welllll...if you want all the gory details, you can talk to Dave (who witnessed my mental and emotional breakdown) or call my mom (who cleaned up the emotional mess).

Let's just say the practice run went miserably and I ended up in tears. Lots and lots of tears. There's even one particularly nasty rumor of a spatula being thrown across the kitchen in frustration...I deny all such accusations. And if such a thing WERE to happen, I'd blame it entirely on raging pregnancy hormones. This cake was nearly the death of me. Anyway, I called my mom in tears...beyond tears really...having an emotional breakdown over a stupid cake...then decided to call in the professionals to make my little gal's cake. Her name is Donna Bricker, and she's a miracle worker. Also happened to make our wedding cake. And here is the beautiful result or her incredible talent!! Needles to say, Andra LOVED it and it physically pained me to cut into it. It really brought to life the saying "you can't have your cake and eat it too."

She made me laugh (as usual)...when everybody was singing Happy Birthday to her, she sang too. It was so funny...I don't know why, it just cracked me up. Then she blew out her candles like a big girl (with a little help from Mom, since she kept blowing through her two front teeth)

My little gal. (Almost) three years old. How does that happen? It makes me teary to just think of it. THREE sounds so old. She's becoming such a little person...we can have conversations, she can tell me what's on her mind, and when she disagrees with me. :) I love the little girl she's becoming...so sweet, so smart, and so unconventional with her love of trains and all things mechanical (a future engineer, I've decided). When I get sad about how fast she's growing, I always try to remind myself how incredibly blessed I am to have a healthy and growing little girl. She's my angel. :) (Now let's just hope she's got a baby brother to celebrate with in a few weeks on her REAL birthday!)

A Special Photo Shoot

Andra and I had a special mommy & me date a few weeks ago, but I wanted to wait to blog about it until I could include the pictures!

It had been over a year-and-a-half since we'd had any professional photos taken of her, so I decided to have her "three year" photos taken a little early...since her actual birthday in mid-September is also her little brother's due date. I was afraid if we didn't do them now, we'd never get around to it.

So Andra and I spent the morning at the JC Penney photo studio and had a lot of fun. She was in a great mood, so she gave us lots of smiles. Here's a few of my favorites... (this is her Easter dress that, so far, she's only worn on Easter Sunday. I LOVE this dress and was tickled to pull it back out of her closet!)

The photographer told us to bring something that she loves to have some photos taken with. Well, duh. Her blankie. She hardly goes anywhere without it, and NEVER sleeps without it. Her Great Aunt Carolyn made it for her before she was even born, and it has become THE blankie.

I also wanted to have a few maternity photos taken with Andra for posterity's sake. I love the one of Andra checking out her belly! Earlier in my pregnancy, she used to always tell me SHE had a baby in her belly too. (If you click on the photos, you can see a much larger image of them)

We had a great morning together, and she was so well behaved, I wanted to treat us to a special lunch (ok, ok...I really just wanted to treat MYSELF to a nice lunch!). So we headed to Cheesecake Factory for a "fancy lunch" just the two of us and had a blast. She amazes me...I really feel like she's a dining companion now...we can sit there and have a conversation. I love it. I hope she'll always want to go to lunch with her Mom. And it took every ounce of willpower I had to get our cheesecake to go so I could share it with Dad that night. :)