Schoool's...out...for....ever!

Yippeeeee!  It is such a wonderful feeling to be done.  I don’t think it’s completely sunk in yet, I still have a teeny nagging guilty feeling, like “what paper am I supposed to be working on?”  But it’s all done.  Done.  Complete.  Sweet!  I was laying in bed this morning staring out the window and Eric came in and said “guess what you don’t have to worry about anymore?”  I said “School, yay!  But now I’m just laying here thinking how much there is to do to get our house ready for baby and it’s only 20 weeks away!!!”  There’s so many things I know I need to do, and probably SO many more that I haven’t even thought of!  Complicated by the fact that our water heater is NOT working right now, so that is first priority.  Luckily, Eric’s mom and dad are on vacation right now in Glacier, so we have been able to stay at their house all week.  Anyway, we have a guy coming out tomorrow to give us a quote on a new water heater as well as AIR CONDITIONING!  I’m pretty excited about that.  Probably not a whole lot will get done at our house for awhile after that because…

We have so much other excitement coming up soon…  Next weekend Eric and I are going to a charity golf tournament in Sunnyside, WA to represent INHS, and we are staying in a … Bed and Breakfast!!  That will be so fun!  I’ve never stayed in a B&B before but I can’t wait.  Our room has it’s own entrance, own bathroom (phew!) AND a jacuzzi tub!  Eric almost died when I told him we were staying in a bed and breakfast, I’m sure he can’t even bring himself to tell his friends about it or even utter the words “bed and breakfast” – but I think secretly he’s excited too.

After that, we have our ultrasound on the 27^th, YAY!  And on the 30^th we are heading to Seaside for a week, during which we will be celebrating our 5 year anniversary!  Then Saturday the 5^th will be baby’s first concert – Dave Matthews Band at the Gorge.  Then after Labor Day it will definitely be time to really get down to business in the baby’s room.  Here’s my to-do list for that undertaking:

Move every stick of furniture from upstairs (both rooms) to the basement

Move living room furniture… somewhere, probably to the kitchen

Empty closet in baby’s room (upstairs)

PAINT baby’s room

Have carpets cleaned upstairs and on the main floor

Start filling up the baby’s room with baby stuff!!

Then there is a whole other project that has to happen too.  Eric and I are currently sleeping in the basement but we’re moving back upstairs to the master bedroom.  So we have to move all of our stuff upstairs and try to find a way to fit all of our clothes in the one closet in there that currently is FULL of only my clothes.  And of course rearrange the basement so we have a semi-functional guest room, office, playroom, etc.  And possibly get the carpets cleaned down there too, although I’m not sure how badly they need it.

It’s going to be a busy fall in the Haynes house.

BUT FIRST… now that I’m done with textbooks for good, I need something nice and frivolous to read before I get down to studying about parenting, newborns, breastfeeding, childbirth, etc.  Any thoughts?

Strollers follow up

Yowsers!  Lots of comments and advice on that one, I LOVE it!  Ultimately, for our purposes and budget, Eric and I have pretty much decided on the Chicco Cortina Keyfit 30 travel system, hopefully in “Adventure” which is a teal/green & gray fabric.  We have a few main reasons for this (not that I need to justify my choice, but for documentation): one – the car seat is the #1 rated by Consumer Reports, two – I like the idea of the larger “capacity” because of my previously mentioned fear of having freakishly large children, three – any color we get is pretty gender neutral, and four – I’ve read several reviews in which people mention how well the car seat fits into their smaller cars (Jetta, Civic, etc) without making the front passenger seat unusable.  I like my little Subaru – it’s paid for – and I want to keep it for a few more years at least.  I still do need to make sure the stroller fits in my trunk though I guess.  Anyway, the Chicco is a little more $$ than some but I’m not too upset about that.

I spent some time looking at the Uppababy Vista last night online and drooling over it – wow, that thing is cool.  Funny story – a couple weeks ago I sent Eric to Babies R Us to get a shower gift for my friend’s daughter.  I guess in the parking lot he saw this lady folding up an awesome stroller practically down to nothing and he thought that was pretty cool.  So he was trying to describe it to the people in the store to see if that had something like that (they didn’t).  So last night I showed it to him online and he was like “that’s totally it!”  But I think it’s a little more than what we need – and as much as I love him, Eric is way too cheap to spend that much on a stroller.  I’m not sure I really see myself doing a lot of running with it anyway, and definitely not in the rain or anywhere there are a lot of mosquitos, hehe.  When the kiddos get bigger though I definitely might look at the Uppababy G-Luxe or G-Lite for running around with.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I had some fun messing with someone this weekend.  Eric and I were out on a walk and these two guys came out of their house and one of them asked me if there was something in the water.  I asked why and he was rambling on about how he kept seeing couples around who were either pregnant or had kids with them.  So I said, “what do you mean, I’m not pregnant!?”  I could tell he got really worried at first but Eric laughed and said “yes she is!”

ONE MORE DAY AND I AM DONE WITH SCHOOL!  AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

Strollers!

Yesterday Eric and I went to Babies R Us and grilled the sales person about strollers and car seats.  I had no idea there was so much to consider!  Here’s what we learned:

-       Graco and Chicco are generally the best quality, and their plastic doesn’t break or wear down as quickly as some others

-       The other cheaper brands have patented the triangle and zig zag car seat handles (hence why you can’t get a Graco or Chicco with one, sad)

-       The Chicco carseats are only good for babies up to 22lbs (which seems like a lot considering little Emma, but I have a nagging feeling Eric and I are going to have a freakishly large child)… although…

-       I can’t imaging lugging around a 10lb car seat with a 22lb child in it, dang!  The empty car seat was plenty for me to do some bicep curls with in the store and get a decent workout.

-       Chiccos collapse and lock nicely, and the car seat sits more securely in the stroller (as opposed to “on” the stroller), but they don’t have much “flair”

-       Graco has these horrible cheap flimsy pieces of plastic that hold the stroller together when it is collapsed, and they can pop off and easily get lost

-       A “travel system” is easily the most bang for your buck, especially if you don’t have a stroller already

-       The extra pedestals can be up to $80 alone!

-       Next test … will it fit in the trunk of my car?

Anything else we should know?  What do you guys have?

Another pregnant moment

So today my sister and her roommate had their first annual "Women and Wine" party. I was the first to arrive so I thought I would jump in and help out. Natalie was making a crab dip so I started to put it together for her. When I got to the part where I was to add the crab boil seasoning, the baby translated "teaspoon" into "cup" for me which resulted in such an insanely salty dip that no one could possibly eat it. Then Natalie was teasing me a little bit and I pretty much started crying, it was awesome. I got over it and we managed to salvage it by adding an entire additional container of cream cheese, more crab, and more mayonnaise. Everyone said it was great, thankfully. But I felt like a total idiot. I totally knew better, too, as I was adding the crab seasoning I thought to myself, this is way too much. Oops.

19 weeks and kickin'

I realized the other day that based on my December 31st due date that today I am actually 19 weeks and 1 day. But I like having my week change over on Fridays for some reason, I look forward to it all week! So I'm sticking with it. Baby Haynes has been moving all around and I love it! I can tell HE is getting stronger, every once in awhile I feel a good thump in there. Still most often about 20 minutes after I eat but also when I lay down at night I get a few squirms and bumps. Almost halfway there (or maybe more than halfway, who knows??)! Oh, and today the baby is supposedly the size of a large heirloom tomato. 6 inches long and 8 ounces or so.

I have been really emotional lately. Everything I watch on TV or read makes my eyes fill with tears, especially if it has anything to do with kids or families or babies. I watch the occasional Baby Story and I cry every time. I have been following this other couple's pregnancy blog and I cry reading all of the posts on there (but have learned a few things too!) lately. I read Mandy's blog today and cried over that as well. I have always been a crier but this is ridiculous!

Next Friday I will be 20 weeks, PLUS I will be done, done, done with my MBA. Actually I will be done on Wednesday, so just 5 more days. Holy cow that is so exciting! This weekend I have some homework and studying to do to get ready for two presentations I'm doing but oddly I am not stressed about it at all. Now that I'm at the very end it seems so insignificant in the big picture of all that I've been doing for the last 3 years. What's really funny though is that this morning I was walking by McDonald's on my way to my building and thought how I wouldn't really mind going back to work there! Haha, can you imagine?

Attack of the baby brain

So, I just went thru the Starbucks drive thru, paid for my drink and drove away. Without my drink. Doh! What next?

18 week pictures

Well, these are 18 weeks and 2 days I guess.  I had Eric take a couple on Friday night but I didn't really like them, even though they featured my spiffy new hair cut.  The lighting wasn't too good, and there was no way to crop out all of my extremely messy room in the background.  So you'll just have to wait.  Maybe when it cools off a little one of these days I'll have the patience to blow dry my hair on a weekend so you can see it.