Thanksgiving 2014

I’m sitting here, just finished folding laundry, and feeling a little sad. I just realized that some of the clothes I’m folding will only be worn for two more weeks. Some of the shirts are going to be donated or given to friends within the next month because I will have no more use for them. In the computer screen I could see my reflection and realized that I will only look this way for two more weeks and likely never again. And it makes me a little bit sad. I really liked those clothes. They were not expensive, but they were nice and fit well. I liked wearing them. I felt good wearing them. I was comfortable but also felt somewhat stylish.

We accomplished a lot in this weekend, so far, and in the last few weeks. We cleaned out a lot of Fiona’s stuff that she didn’t need or play with anymore, we re-organized her closet to make room, we did lots of laundry and sorting, labeling, putting away, preparing. We have very little left to do. Fiona’s been very helpful.

This Thanksgiving, I am so thankful to have made it this far.

This month has been a whirlwind. Work was so busy on its own in addition to preparing for a lengthy leave, and my first two days of Thanksgiving break were spent running errands, going to the doctor (for routine check-up), going to Fiona’s school for Harvest Festival (finally got to meet Stewart, the cutest alpaca ever), going to a birthday party. And that was just on Monday and Tuesday. The last couple of weekends were spent organizing the house for Baby’s imminent arrival. We got rid of a whole lot of stuff that was either basically garbage (bits of paper, little plastic things), or toys Fiona no longer plays with (went in a bin in the garage). We organized her closet and dresser to make room for bins of baby clothes and other baby things, did many loads of laundry that then had to be sorted and folded. Fiona made labels for the bins and put them on so we know what’s in them. We set up the car seat in my car and will soon do it in John’s car.

I also had a baby shower and it was surreal. Fiona was two weeks old when I had the baby shower for her, so it was a new experience to have a baby actually in the tummy this time around. I’m waiting for my friend Nicole to send me the photos. We also bought a new car. It’s the same type of car as the old car, just four doors instead of two. It’s even the same trim line, but a different color. Now John no longer has to get into the car to strap Fiona into her car seat. The old car was my first new car, so I am a little sad, but it was almost 12 years old and 99.999% of the time I drive the Subaru anyway. Now John doesn’t have switch cars with me if he has a day off and is taking Fiona somewhere, and we don’t have to worry about what car to take when we go somewhere on the weekend, because we will all be able to easily get into the new car. We have been talking about getting a new car for John for several years now, and we finally did it. Now we just need to set up the car seats.

So, we all pretty much all ready to go. Diaper pail just needs to move into the house, changing pad needs to be put in its place, bassinette needs to be assembled (just a Pack-n-Play, so assembly takes about two minutes), and we are set. Now, I hope nothing happens between now and two weeks from now.

For Thanksgiving, we went to my mom’s and it was delicious as always. Some things may have been even better than ever. I overate and sort of regretted it later, but man was it a good meal. And the desserts! I feel like all I eat lately is dessert. So much chocolate and cookies and pie and the amazing baby shower cake! I think I will give birth to a ball of sugar. With Fiona, I ate really well because the majority of my pregnancy was during winter, after the holiday season, so not much in the way of sweets, plus sugary things made me feel ill, so I avoided them. I also wasn’t worried about when to eat dinner or what to eat because I was not cooking for a little person with ever changing tastes. I was not as tired because I wasn’t as far along and the weather wasn’t as warm. This fall was warmer than any summer I’ve experienced here so I ate a lot of ice cream. Also, I crave chocolate and sugar this time around.

Here are some photos from this month:

Fiona suddenly decided she wasn’t going to sit still or eat dinner at the table, so we gave her the option of eating at her own table (because we thought it was because the seat is uncomfortable, she is too big to sit on a pillow, not big enough to sit without one):

 

It turned out she just didn’t like the food, so I changed it up and she now eats with us again as she did in the past.

Fiona posing with a Cabbage Patch doll:

The zip line:

 

Helping with the sorting and folding:

Sorry I’m just laying there. I do that a lot these days. Fiona would take an item out of the bin, read the size to me, and hand it over for me to put in the appropriate box.

Now I just have to pick a diaper bag. I’m deciding between several backpacks. They are not diaper bags exactly because I want a backpack that will baby stuff, Fiona stuff, and my stuff. I’m very indecisive and wanted to try out bags with my things in them before making a decision.

We took family photos in October. I have many favorites. I am including a link to the gallery because otherwise, I would probably post almost all of them.

Our Family Photos

Harvest Festival photos:

   

That’s about all for now. Here is one last photo, taken two weeks ago, of me and my big belly:

It’s much larger than that now. I don’t feel really big, but people keep asking me if Baby is due right now. I smile and try to explain that I am short and have no torso, and therefore I look larger because there is nowhere for Baby to grow but out. I tire more easily too. I keep forgetting, then I do something that shouldn’t use that much energy and I have to sit down for a long time and drink lots of water.

Cross your fingers for the next two weeks to be completely uneventful!

October 2014

October was a long and busy month. I feel like I want to write things, but then there is no time. Even now, I am procrastinating on writing a test or two and two letters of recommendation, plus some long overdue emails. I also really need a nice long nap, but I digress. What did we do this month?

To say the weather was warm would be an understatement. The first weekend of October saw record breaking highs. It was 100 degrees here at least one day, and in the mid to high 90’s the rest. Keep in mind we do not have air conditioning, only ceiling fans. When it’s 85 degrees in the house with no wind outside, things can get very uncomfortable. So, we went to the beach almost every weekend.

First, we had a visit from Matt and Anastasia, whom Fiona LOVED. We went to the Getty Villa in Malibu. It was Fiona’s first adult/art museum experience and she really enjoyed it. She didn’t even spend much time in the children’s room, and was fascinated by the video of how a mummy was made in one of the exhibits.

Fiona making her own art by drawing on pottery:

   

I remember this statue from last time I visited this museum, almost 20 years ago:

 

It used to be outside on the way into the museum, in a sort of open air room (the entire museum was closed for about 10 years while undergoing massive renovations and expansion). Even though I am the same size as I was 20 years ago, it seemed so much bigger then. There are a few other pieces I wanted to find, but did not. The Getty Villa used to be my favorite museum in the world.

Fiona liked the koi pond:

   

Among other things, I saw one of my current students at the museum. At this point, I feel like I can’t go anywhere without running into someone I know. John saw a co-worker of his who volunteers at the Getty Villa.

The following day, after a tasty brunch, we went to the beach, where we saw a friend of mine, Matt was stung by a wasp, and we watched my friend and a lifeguard save a man’s life. A couple of weeks later we saw the same friend at the same beach and I asked what happened. Let’s just say that drinking and swimming do not mix well.

Fiona was tired and lay down in the sand:

She later complained of sand in her ears and on her face.

This month we learned that Fiona can do the monkey bars. She brought home a certificate from school. The following weekend, she demonstrated:

 

Here is a video:

 

We took family photos on a very pleasant evening. We decided to stay out late and have dinner. The sunset was beautiful and Fiona was very well behaved. She tried a brownie with ice cream for the first time. Her comment was “It’s soooooo good!”

One of our Sunday school classes was at a community garden. Fi had a blast:

Another visit to the dentist:

Her teeth look great. She loves going to the dentist. I wish John loved going to the dentist as much as Fi and I do. Sigh.

Fiona’s school was closed for a week. She spent a couple of days playing my friend Nicole’s sons:

 

She spent a day with her grandparents and went to the zoo with John. All in all, she had a great week!

Fiona helped me with a beach clean-up, then came home and we played beach clean-up at home:

 

The game consisted of Fiona spreading out all sorts of toys and junk on the floor, and then the three of us (Fiona, John, and I) took turns picking it all up and putting it in a bag.

Fiona graduated from medical school and immediately started practicing on her dolls:

There was a school field trip to a farm:

And a preschool barbecue. Fiona was ready:

Fiona read to me while I was making dinner, then read to her imaginary class:

Fiona likes to play hair salon when she takes a bath. She washes, cuts, and styles John’s hair:

  

He loves it.

Fiona discovered playing princess with John. This is as princess-y as she gets, and John as Prince Charming:

 

Making popsicles out of lemonade:

 

It was so hot earlier in the month that we bought some popsicle molds and put lemonade in them, then froze them. We ate them every day.

Fiona does all sorts of “enrichment” activities after school. She takes a dance class and informed us that she can now do a passe (pronounced pau-say) with a twirl. I had to have her demonstrate because I had no idea what a passe is. She also takes an art class and the teacher focuses on a different artist every week. One week, Fiona came home and explained to us who Piet Mondrian is, the next it was Jasper Johns. They did self portraits like Van Gogh, and last week it was Georgia O’Keefe.

She takes a cooking class and loves it, and every week comes home with a paper bag that she writes her own name on. The photo on the left is from the beginning of October and the photo on the right is from today (November 2). I can’t believe how much her writing has improved. She is in a class that is mostly self-directed, so no one is pushing this on her. We certainly aren’t.

  

Still putting her dolls in her old baby clothes and shoes. I came home to this one day:

Fiona drawing herself and me in chalk on the sidewalk:

We celebrated Halloween. Fiona was a bunny. We decorated pumpkins using Sharpies because I didn’t feel like carving.  Fiona’s pumpkin is first, mine is second, John’s is third:

  

Fiona took the photo of John’s pumpkin.

She arranged the pumpkins on the wall and called them “A family of pumpkins”:

We got her ears and a tail, and I painted a nose and whiskers on her:

         

We went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. We started out fairly early, after an early dinner. After what seemed like a fairly short period of time (an hour maybe), Fiona decided she wanted to go home to hand out candy. She also wanted to eat some of her candy. She did not collect a lot of it, but she was very happy with what she got. Here is the only photo I have of her handing out candy because I’m slow with the camera. We turned on lots of lights, so even though it looks like she is sitting in the dark, she really isn’t:

My friend Nicole and her family joined us for dinner last night. It was a blast. Fiona took the first group picture and Nicole’s son Caz took the second:

Speaking of taking photos, all of the following photos were taken by Fiona in the last few days:

I’m sure there is a lot I am forgetting. Like I said, it’s been a long month. We started a reward chart to help reinforce good behavior with Fiona and so far, she loves it. We call it her Star Chart. It’s laminated and has Velcro stars so we can reuse it every week.

Fiona still loves to paint:

Fiona’s robot:

Fiona is starting to give up her nap. She still has to have quiet time in her room even if she doesn’t sleep. She reads to her dolls and does other things: This is what happens:

 

She was teaching her dolls how to swim. We knocked on the door and Fiona answered, telling us that there was a big mess in the room. She wasn’t kidding. Luckily she cleaned the mess up fairly quickly with only a little bit of help.

October was a very hot month. Hoping November is much cooler!