Midwestern Suburbia -- here we come!


Well, it's official, I'm about to be a Midwestern mama. The proof is in the car I now drive :). We picked up our new mini-van on Friday night, there's no looking back now! Scott and I both like the car though and think it is going to be exactly what we need for our expanding family. My favorite feature of the Sienna -- and what pushed it ahead of all other mini-vans -- is that it has an optional third seat in the middle row. Plenty of room for two cars seats and me (even at 9 months pregnant!). This is going to be a very convenient thing when we are driving from CT to St.L. I was a little distressed about driving that long way in the Infiniti and not being able to be in the back with the baby and Millie. I always sat in the back with Millie when she was an infant and wanted to be able to do the same for the new baby, and Millie will do much better with someone back there to keep her company. She loves to chat in the car and it's hard to hear her and have a good exchange from the front seat. Plus she likes to "drop" her toys and have us reach for them -- much easier to do if I'm right there!


Where I will be spending 16+ hours of my life in late July/early August :).

I'm still getting used to being high up in the car again and the sight lines of the mini-van, but it's all coming back to me pretty quickly. Good thing I had all that practice driving my mom's old mini-van before I even had kids!! This one looks and feels very similar :).

Getting Reacquainted

Millie had a chance to get reacquainted with "Mr. Froggy" this weekend. She was about as thrilled with him this summer as she was last summer. She was okay splashing from the outside for a bit and eventually agreed to get in and play. Hopefully we can keep this nice weather for a bit and she can continue to get to know "Mr. Froggy"!

Good Signs

Well, I can't say when, but this baby is definitely coming. We had another Dr.'s visit on Wednesday and in addition to the usual measuring she did an exam. I was almost 1 cm dilated and about 75% effaced. Nothing to get too excited about -- that can all mean days or weeks until the baby is here -- but it's nice to know that my body has started the pre-labor process. Other good signs (I apologize to any men out there reading this...): WAY more need to use the bathroom, which is an indication that baby has moved down a bit and is pressing on my bladder; lots more swelling in my ankles (which I hate) and crampy feelings (also indications that baby is lower down); an increase in Braxton-Hicks contractions; and this last one is definitely WAY too much information, I'm sure ... but I just lost my mucus plug -- again, though this could mean baby in a few days or not for two more weeks (which would be when we're expecting baby...). No pre-labor pains at the moment so that is good. I'd kinda like this baby to wait for my parents to get here next weekend!! Just in case though, I'm going to go pack the hospital bags :D.

Happy Birthday to YOU!

Well, today is Shannon's birthday and we seemed to have used up the cake pictures and all of Millie's Happy Birthdays yesterday for my birthday. Not really fair, but that seems to be the way it goes (I don't think Shannon likes having a big deal made for her anyway, even though she is the best and deserves it!). Anyway, we had a nice quiet night at home and that seemed to suffice. We'll make up for it next year for sure.

Seems like a good time to bring up that we have been getting some comments from people that Millie looks like a little Shannon. I think they are right! Look at these 2 cuties!!

Happy Birthday!


Happy Birthday Scott! We love you!! I think Millie says it best :). As always, sorry for my singing...



Scott's traditional birthday cookie cake :). We somehow lost our pizza pan that I usually bake it in, so it's free-form. Still tastes good!

Millie was asleep for the candles and cookie, but that's probably okay. I'm thinking sugar right before bed would not have been a good thing! Wonder what he wished for ;)!

Random Bits

Last weekend it was finally warm enough to bring out Millie's water table again. She had a lot of fun playing with her boats and splashing around. This summer she's even tall enough to actually reach everything! She's lookin' like quite the little surfer girl with that messy 'do! :D

Things kind of went downhill around here after Sunday. I had been fighting some kind of cold for about 2 weeks already, but on Monday things seemed to get worse. I went to work, but probably shouldn't have. Scott was starting to feel bad too so we decided to take a family trip to the Dr.'s to get checked out. I was hoping we would get flu tests just so we could rule it out, but turned out the office we went to wasn't administering the test any more because they were all coming back positive. Okay... So, they declared that I had a sinus infection and gave me some pregnancy-friendly prescriptions and gave Scott a bunch of medication too. Millie checked out fine, until the next morning of course when she started running a fever. So, Tuesday and Wednesday Scott and Millie stayed home with fevers and I went to work. This is how she entertained herself for at least part of the day: This girl really likes to accessorize :).

I took Millie in to the pediatrician on Wednesday and they DID swab her for the flu when they heard that we were all sick (largely for my benefit so I would be able to pass the information on to my OB, since if Millie had it then we probably all did). Of course, the labs are so backed up with flu tests that we still haven't gotten the results back yet... Scott was feeling better by Thursday, but Millie was still running a fever, so I stayed home with her Thursday and Friday. I'm happy to say she's been fever free since Thursday night and that Scott and I are finally feeling better too. We had about three weeks of coughing and runny noses around here, so we're glad to see whatever it was we had go.

We spent most of this weekend relaxing, though we did manage to go out and lease a new minivan -- our one last big purchase before the baby gets here. We don't have the mini-van yet as the dealer didn't have any on the lot, but we will have it soon. Now we just have to sell our other car -- no need for 2 of them around here with both Scott and I staying home once we move to St. Louis. We've really enjoyed being a one-car family this past year since we got rid of the Buick in the fall. Makes things much easier. We also made it to a party at a co-worker's house which was nice since we'd all been cooped up in the house for so long. All that activity on Saturday really wore Millie out -- so much so that she slept until 8:30 this morning! That never happens! She's usually up at 5:30 like clockwork (6:00 at the latest!) -- she got my morning genes :).

Now it's back to reality for everyone tomorrow -- work for both Scott and me and daycare for Millie. I'm pretty sure she'll be happy to be back at Stephie's with all her friends.

5 years...

(almost) 2 kids, (almost) 2 houses -- plus several rental homes thrown in there, (almost) 2 cross-country moves, countless hours of laughter and love. Not a bad foundation for this little life we are building :).