The Neatowhites

We are getting closer and closer to the birth of baby Juliet -- a little more than 2 weeks until my due date. My doctor seems to think, in his 'medical opinion' (ha!) that she'll come early. I laugh because a)there is NO WAY he can make a prediction like that and b) because I think he secretly is wishing she'll come early because his vacation starts that day after my due date! He keeps trying to talk me into an induction . . . but I've been there and done that and will try to avoid it this time if at all possible (no matter if it does run into his vacation!) This time I am trying to go for a drug-free birth. I figure if I'm going to try it, it might as well be with the fourth! Plus, the epidural didn't work last time. So I essentially DID go drug-free, only with pitocin added -- which produces very strong and painful contractions (thus, no induction this time!)

It's always amazed me how God puts instinct into his creatures -- like how the birds know to fly south for the winter (how do they know which way south is when the sky is cloudy?!) And what's equally amazing is how he's given women closing in on giving birth the 'nesting' instinct. The last couple of weeks I've seemed to shaken off the intense fatigue I'd been experiencing and suddenly have new energy. Projects that I've been putting off for months and months now look appealing. The half-finished nursery and unwashed blankets suddenly need to be done NOW. It comes and goes . . . but here are a couple of things I've been working on:

I've been hanging family pictures in the stairway. I've probably gone through every picture we own of us. It's been fun to look at baby/toddler pics of the kids and Rick and I and imagine what new baby will look like. Not only that -- but what kind of personality is she going to have? With the other ones, it showed up the day we brought them home from the hospital!

Putting the nursery together. Although, I've run into a few snags. This picture shows the mobile that Rick is trying to fix -- it won't turn for some reason! (Not very 'mobile' at all. sigh)

So what have the kids been doing while Mommy is in project mode?

For one -- Raegan has been teaching AnnaBeth to play chess. Amazingly AB has actually won a couple of times (I secretly think it's because Rae isn't always monitoring her to make sure she's following the rules!)

Aidan meanwhile, has been 'playing' in his room. Or more like -- DESTROYING it!

(Yes . . . he IS holding a purse. But doesn't it sort of cancel out if he's also holding a batman mask?)

Once he even made his own 'snack.' That is, he opened a jar of peanut butter, inserted his entire arm, and proceeded to lick the PB that clung to him from his fingers to his elbow. Oh my! Rick was the one that caught him and was much more upset at him than I was -- I think it's because my sweet husband was the one that cleaned him up!

And finally . . . Rick has taken up a tradition that was formally done by me -- reading to the kids at night. So we are taking a pause in the Little House series (not really Rick's style!) He's chosen a book that his second grade teacher read to his class that he loved as a kid. It's called The Great Brain, by John Fitzgerald. It's a look into the mind of a little boy -- ha! The kids are loving it!