tuckered out

Mark and I were a bit surprised to see Little Ms. Sunshine come running out of her bedroom after only napping for an hour this afternoon. Not 20 minutes later, she was passed out on the couch. And slept for 2 more hours. She's had a very busy and active weekend - I will post more about that later.

No baby2 news to report. Any contractions I was having late last week have stopped. We'll have to see what the doctor says on Wednesday. I know she isn't keen on just letting me go much past the 2nd. But, Aunt Kristin is back home. She has given him the 'all clear' so we will just have to see if it works. She is pretty damn persuasive.

I got the swing

Mark and I took Morgan to Shiawassee Park for a picnic and playing on Sunday. She's loved swings ever since we took her there last year. And would much rather play on the equipment for 5-15 year olds than the slides and ramps that are just her size. The girl has no fear climbing two flights of stairs to go up to the high twisty slide. By.her.self.

baby2 update: I am 39 weeks today and the contractions are real now, but they are coming and going. Sometimes I have several an hour, sometimes nothing at all. Tomorrow I see the doctor that was on call when I was in labor with Morgan and inadvertently broke my water. I'm looking for a repeat performance. The only thing is my sister is way far away out of town through the weekend. :( Calling her to tell her I'm in labor while she is gone is going to be like telling her we weren't able to find out the sex of baby wait and see. Not cool. It's only a matter of time to see if baby2 is going to hold out for her.

The Big Girl Room: After

Well, since it looks like I'm not going to have this baby this weekend how about an after to this before?
We are keeping Morgan on a twin mattress on the floor for now. Until she is really good about not rolling out when she is sleeping and can climb in and out of a bed on a frame on her own. We found her on the floor quite often the first couple weeks but so far so good since she's been in her new room. Her comforter is from Target. The butterfly sheet set is Dwell for Target. The dresser and hot pink lamp are from Ikea.Morgan's Eames shell rocker will probably find a home in baby2's room soon since I haven't found a rocker I love (or can afford) for his room yet.
A-Z print from Blue Art Studio The Ikea curtains in her closet opening are already nicely wrinkled (and longer from her pulling on them). She likes to run in and out saying "where's Morgan?"Pink vinyl bird wall decals were made by my mom on her Silhouette.
The pink and purple canvas painting has been waiting for a permanent home for a long time. Morgan painted it at school when she was 4 months old.
Black bird hooks from Urban Outfitters
I used Ikea Ribba picture ledges to made a perfect front facing bookcase for Morgan. And she loves sitting and having a book read to her. I will probably rotate out these books from the rest of her collection because I feel like I've read these over and over already. :) The pillows in the reading nook are from Urban Outfitters, Ikea and Target. Polka dot piggy bank from Pottery Barn Kids. 3-dimensional white wall flowers: UmbraShelf is from Ikea. Letterpress print by Elise Blaha. The lion and giraffe are from my baby shower for Morgan.Oh sweet girl print by Kal Barteski. The Ugly doll was the first thing Mark and I bought for baby wait and see.

I'm so happy Morgan's room is finally complete (and I'm sure she is too). Other than a few little personal items I'm sure I'll add and take away as time goes on, I can now say it's done.

still kickin'

yup, yup, I'm still here. And still pregnant. Last week was crazy busy.

We got Morgan moved into her permanent bedroom. No more room hopping for her. Until we pack up and leave the house completely. I'm hoping to take some nice bright pics this weekend.

We threw Morgan a small second birthday party. That will be a post all in itself. It went very well after our guests arrived but I learned I should never throw a party when I'm pregnant. I was a ditz about many things - not reading directions, buying too much of this and that. And I learned not to attempt to make my first layer cake before anything important. Thank goodness for Plum Market.

I ran enough errands to make my head spin. All very productive though. House plants, lightbulbs, party food and supplies, gifts for the birthday girl, a much needed haircut and my favorite stop, cloth diapers for our he's-going-to-be-here-before-you-know-it little boy. Those bags above are full of some adorable goodies. And I'm just getting started with an adorable diaper stash. Again, worthy of a post all it's own.

This week: lots of laundry - diapers, clothes and bedding. Assembling baby2's dresser and setting up his room. An ultrasound and doctor's appointment (let's hope for some dilation!). Stocking up on food and household supplies. Charging my iPod for the hospital (even though I didn't even touch it last time). Installing the car seat. Packing hospital bags. And Friday...ahh, Friday...Kristin and I are getting our nails did, shopping and she's going to walk my tail off and get some labor started. Word on the street is I'm having this baby this weekend. No sooner, no later.

Happy Mother's Day

to my mommy,
and all of my mommy friends,
love you,
and hope you have a fantastic day!

progress + the to-do list from hell

So, I made a weekend to-do list yesterday and about had a panic attack with how long it is. I sure do have high hopes for the next three days.

On the agenda:

• groceries, Carters, Babies R Us and Ikea
• closing on our refinancing this afternoon (ching ching ching)
• party prep and more lists for Morgan's birthday party next weekend
• 30 loads of laundry
• move our patio furniture outside if it stops raining
  
• and of course, Morgan's room

Her room is completely painted. Even that pain in the ass closet that we so wisely decided to keep intact. Ha. I have received all of the fun mail I've ordered in the last two weeks. We'll likely receive word on the carpet installation some time next week (Mark got a call Wednesday that it is in stock and ready to ship) but until then I need to move this mess:Back to Morgan's closet:Plus I will probably start hanging stuff on the walls. Stuff I've been collecting for over 2 years. Fun stuff - which I'll gladly take over all the painting and long nights this past week. It's such a relief to see this room pulling together and having a permanent bedroom for our sweet little peanut to grow and play and get her beauty sleep in. Let's hope it looks as cool as I envisioned it.

P.S. I'll take more pics as I go but right now it's a bit of a dungeon in there because the sun won't come out.

Happy weekend to you.

that's HOT!

the color is on!

will take a better photo tomorrow in natural light.
think I'm actually going to sit in front of the boob tube tonight and veg for a bit.
as long as my restless legs can handle it.
how 'bout them Red Wings?

*g'night*

Morgan: 23 months

• sings, sings, sings. Ring Around the Rosie and 10 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed are this months favorites.
• rocks the ABC's - minus E-K
• moved out of her crib to a big girl bed (mattress on the floor for now).
• won't sleep much past 7am. Birds start chirping at 6am and she seems to wake up shortly after - despite her blinds and windows being closed. I think it's funny that she still calls for us when she's awake, even though she is perfectly capable of getting out and coming over to our room. Like she needs permission to leave her bed.
• understands the context of 'okay' and uses it often. Has suddenly become very agreeable. :)
• although she has been quite whiny after school during the week. She doesn't always transition well from school to home.
• quickly moved on from 2 word phrases to full blown sentences. Much of which I've noticed are things we've said to her. Last Friday when Mark picked her up at school and they pulled into the driveway, she saw that his car was in the garage. She said "Daddy's already home!", something I've said when I see that Mark has beat us home after work. Mark reminded her that daddy was right there with her...pretty funny! On Monday, she passed by the laundry room, came in and said "Mommy, what are you doing? Laundry?"
• constantly wants to 'nack' (snack). Especially fruit and graham bunnies. She's a finicky eater again - thinks she will get a snack after dinner if she doesn't eat anything. No ah ah, kiddo. Eating 2 meals out of 3 is usually the best we can get.
• loves to rub mommy's belly and kiss her little brother. I can't believe she is going to be a big sister in the next 4 weeks. Or two years old for that matter.
• and the heartbreaker of the month: Yesterday while we were in the car on our way home from Lowe's, she said out of the blue, "Daddy, I love you" "Mommy, I love you"

The Big Girl Room: Before

In case you didn't remember what Morgan's bedroom looked like when we moved in, here is a refresher: Last week we prepped Morgan's room for primer. The space which used to be the home to bunkbeds now has smooth walls.We spent Morgan's weekend naps priming all of the walls, both in her new room and the guest room. Buh bye blue walls! They are just white now, but believe it or not, there will be a color on a few of those walls by the end of the week. And by color, I don't mean gray.

It seems like every day for the last two weeks we've had some kind of package waiting for us at the door. I love fun mail! Morgan's comforter, her sheets, baby2's sheets, storage bins and this week I should be getting all of the accessories I had my eye on back in January. I've also warned Mark that I'm going to need to make one last IKEA run on Saturday.

The closet is empty and the doors are gone, but the shelves and rods are going to stay for now and receive a fresh coat of paint and some fabric curtains as doors. We had the room measured for carpet on Saturday and ordered it tonight.

I'm hoping to accomplish every possible little thing by Morgan's birthday party in two weeks. At that point, the only thing we should be waiting for (maybe?) is carpet. Cramps and sore muscles be damned. This is last minute project planning at its finest.

Play on, player

On Saturday we got the kids new play area set up. It's still in the same area of the house - in the sunroom at the back of the house, but now the toys are a little more organized and with lots of room to grow. Here's what it looked like before we started.Mark helped me turn my Expedit bookshelf on it's side and he removed the legs from one of the short sides to a long side so the shelf can lay the long way horizontally. After pulling all of the bins and toys away from the wall, we put the shelf in place and Morgan and I started sorting and organizing. Legos, alphabet blocks, balls, stuffed animals and so on.I even pulled out Morgan's old infant toys and activity play mat for baby2 so Morgan can start getting used to the fact that she is going to have to start sharing her space. I have to find a couple more bins for the rest of her toys and fill those last two cubbies - one for her coloring and activity books, one for her dolls and one for her playsilks and still lots of room to rearrange, consolidate and grow. Morgan is getting a kick out of everything being at eye level, I think it looks a lot better than it did and I'm happy Mark thinks so too!

May to-do's

It's crunch time! Baby2 is due in plus or minus 33 days and we haven't slowed down in the project department. Lots of little 'get ready for the baby' to-do's too, like laundry and packing our hospital bags.

The big must do this month is getting Morgan's new room in order. She's done really well this last week with getting used to her big girl bed (and has only rolled out a couple times without even waking herself) and now that we are all moved over into the 'new' side of the house, it's high time I start cranking on her permanent room, hopefully without too much confusion on her part. After the room gets measured for carpet this morning, I'm going in, paint roller in hand.

I've also started collecting storage boxes and bins for the kids toys and hope to get that set up soon - probably this weekend. I've already temporarily moved my scrapbook supplies to one of the cabinets in our new mudroom, so the bookshelf I want to use is ready to go. This will be a fun and easy 'sit on the floor and let Morgan help me organize her stuff' project.

Other things going on this month:

• Morgan's second birthday party
• manicures, pedicures and birthday shopping with my little almost 30 sis
• work on my Week in the Life album
• a long overdue haircut
• stock this place up with food and household essentials
• visit No Pins Required for cloth diapers for my kiddo's

That sounds manageable, right? I better get moving...

P.S. Thank you for all of the nice anniversary wishes. Mark and I had a wonderful dinner, just the two of us, at Cafe Cortina. Lots of laughing and talking and smiling. It was a perfect night. Huge thank you to Kristin for watching Morgan while we were out. And, you can expect some more (and far better quality) videos on the blog in the future. Mark got me a Flip MinoHD video camera for our anniversary. It's so bloody cute. I'm already driving Morgan nuts recording her - she just screams "no no no no" :)