39 Weeks

 

The hay is in the barn. The goose is cooked. Dishes are done. All the other fun sayings to imply that something has reached its full course. And for the record, my bump looks much smaller from the top, than it does from the side. That's probably for the best.

 

 

Dear John,

You will be born within a week. About five days, give or take, depending on how eager or stubborn you end up being. We have a scheduled induction set for Sunday (12/15) at 9:30. As it is with so many things, I find myself getting all nostalgic about this pregnancy as I am shuffling through my last days. My mommy mind is already pushing out the thoughts of swollen feet, aching backs, numb hands, plugged ears, stuffed noses, squashed bladders and general malaise and getting weepy over the baby that will be here so soon. Crazy how that happens. I posted once about running my second half marathon and how I couldn't understand how, after going through the pain of childbirth once, how someone could endure that again. I actually wrote it as I was 9 weeks pregnant with your sister (though I wasn't out of the closet at that point).

 

I get it now.

 

After your sister, I was convinced we wouldn't have another, just as I swore I would never run another 13.1 miles after my first half marathon. But once you are at the end, and you know how wonderful you feel having accomplished so much, and how that event has etched something on your person that changed you in a little (half marathon) or HUGE way (Annie), and the aches and pains seem to fade away. You know that the end reward is so much greater than the strain of the journey. It all ends up being so, so worth it.  

 

So here we are. A few days left. Yes, there are a few hurdles remaining, but we will get over them, and memories of the discomfort will fade with each new baby snuggle. And I am sure in a year or so, Rick will have to play back for me the video I forced him to record of me, all bloated and pregnant, talking to my future self, reminding her that we don't want to be pregnant again.

 

We can't wait to meet you. We've carved a spot for you in our lives and can't wait for you to fill it in. You are already so loved and I hope on some level you feel that already. We just have a little bit further to go.

 

See you at the finish line.

 

Love,

Mom

 



Conference-2.5 years old

As I have mentioned, Annie is currently sampling several of the local preschools Webster Groves has to offer. And one of them actually has Parent/Teacher conferences! I guess it's good to know ahead of time if your tot is a social deviant.

 

Annie's was last week.

 

I couldn't wait to hear a relative outsider's perspective on my child. She seems to love school and they seem happy to see her when she gets there. I mean, they don't shut the door in our faces or say things like "oh it's HER again", so I figured things were going well. I mean, I figured if they weren't, someone would have said something. And since Annie rats herself out for getting in trouble at her other school/parent's day out, where she is placed in the "time out chair" on the regular for not listening, I figured she must be on her best behavior at Webster Hills.

 

Mostly, I wanted to see if my child behaved differently at home than she did at school. Was she as funny, bossy, loud and opinionated at school as she is at home?

 

Yes.

 

Unequivocally yes, it would seem.

 

Mrs. Molly informed me that Annie is a very social child, loves her friends and her friends love her (even mentioned that there are a few that will wait for her to get there each day, which warmed my heart) and said that her smile was "magnetic". She's not awesome at listening or sitting still or sharing or taking turns, but they don't expect too much from the 2 year old set there at Webster Hills, which is understandable. They are "working on it" though. She loves to "clean up" and really enjoys cooperative play.

 

When I asked about the "cooperative play" business, I was basically informed that Annie makes up games for her and the class to play and then bosses everyone around. Sounds very similar to every waking hour on the weekends at Casa de Erwin.

 

I then went on to ask about ideas for indoor play/activities since it's freaking cold outside and we are about one big sneeze from having a newborn on our hands.

 

Mrs.Molly mentioned Annie's love of dressing up and asked if she liked to dress up/accessorize at home? 

 

 

Yes, Mrs. Molly, there's a little of that going on.

 

 

And then Mrs. Molly mentioned that Annie has a favorite dress that she wears every day at school. I should mention that we have been limiting the access to the full-blown princess dresses to the weekends because I could tell that we were on a slippery slope when it came to the line between every day clothes and play/princess clothes, and I wasn't ready to fight when Annie wanted to wear her Sofia dress to school. Because I knew that's where all of this was headed. But Annie seemed to accept that "pretty dresses" were for weekends and we wore normal clothes to school. I was so impressed with her acceptance of this fact. I patted myself on the back on a parenting job well done and that was that.

 

I didn't know she was getting her "pretty dress" fix at school.

 

And then, out of curiosity, I asked to see the "Annie's dress".

 

Mrs. Molly went and moved the wall mirror aside in the dress up area, explaining that Annie squirrels her dress away in this spot each day so no one else can find it. Because that's totally normal. And then I got a full view of this dress and all its glory. To say that it didn't seem really toddler appropriate would be an understatement. It was hot pink and black leopard print with black lace ruffles on the arms and around the bottom. I would have snapped a picture of it but I was kind of dumbstruck.

 

So basically Annie dresses like a toddler drag queen every day at school.

But she's happy and has friends and her teachers love her, in all her tacky drag queen glory. I am choosing to focus on that.