Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Three is Around the Corner

Here I am in the final countdown of this pregnancy, and although everything has been going well and I'm sleeping well, the last trimester has been long and uncomfortable. I'm huge, it's been hot enough days to make me uncomfortable, my feet and hands are very swollen, and my allergies are so out of control that I have hives. Well it's either the allergies or I'm allergic to being pregnant. I've never been this pregnant during the warmer months. I really feel for women who have late summer babies. If May is this uncomfortable, the whole summer must be pretty brutal.

I also have gotten some really classic unsolicited comments. There was the guy pushing the young girl in a stroller at the grocery store this weekend who offered this gem, "You must be having twins or something. None of my baby mamas have ever looked like you do now." After passing and reflecting on his comment, he offered, "You know you are going to have a really healthy baby." I had nothing that I could say in response. I think I just stood there with my mouth slightly agape.

Oh well, I'm not going to be pregnant forever. I think I'm setting myself up for disappointment because I'm mentally prepared to have the baby sometime before next Tuesday, preferably Thursday or Friday, which would coincide well with the holiday; however, this is something I have very little control over. If it goes according to my wish, we can call it a mother's intuition. If it doesn't, we can call it wishful thinking. 

Alright, I'm off to spend the day with the boys. Not sure what's on the agenda, but I'm sure we will have fun.

Monday, May 6, 2013

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Recently the boys and I have been reading The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore at bedtime.

 
The book is a wonderful story about a man who loves books and how they become his family. There is a great line that talks about him writing in his own book and how he would write of "his joys and sorrows, of all that he knew and everything he hoped for." I'm not a very good journaler. This blog is probably the closest thing I have to a journal, but for it to truely be a journal, it would need to include a lot more. I don't really delve into the sorrows or hopes too much here.

As I near the end of this pregnancy, I'm full of emotions. Certainly there is the excitement to meet this new person growing inside of me. There is the anxiety about what life is going to be like with three kids. Crazy, I'm sure. I wonder what this little person is going to be like, is it going to be a boy or a girl, will he or she be like their siblings? I didn't think about things this much with the first two. I think I was so overwhelmed by the pregnancy itself with Daniel that I wasn't able to think too far in the future, and with Christopher, I was more comfortable being pregnant, but very busy being the mother of a 1-year-old, that there was no room left in my head for such silly thoughts. Now here I am with two slightly older children who can play with each other for portions of hours at a time without much involvement or supervision, so I get to think because the level of supervision necessary isn't exactly one that allows me to find something else to do yet. So I let them do their thing while I pretend to not be involved, but am secretly hovering close enough to prevent massive disaster. (Minor disasters are just fine.) It's just a time where I have little bits of extra time on my hands. I kind of like it, so maybe when I start wishing I'm not pregnant anymore, I'll just think about those bits of time that have suddenly appeared and hope it's not going to be 3.5 years before they reappear.

When I think about the time when this baby arrives, my mind quickly jumps ahead to our big trip this summer. I'm still trying to decide if I'm crazy or not, but I'm taking the three kids up to the cottage for a month. Matt's not joining us until the last couple weeks, so I'll be on my own for a little while. On my own surrounded by my family and extended family in a place that's great for kids otherwise there is no way I would be doing this. It will be an adventure to say the least. I can only hope that it is the most wonderful kind of adventure.

 
Here's a picture of the boys from Sunday enjoying the glorious weather. Christopher took a nasty fall as he was running back to the car after mass. He decided to make a shortcut between a group of more senior adults. Since then he's been holding his shorts up to keep them off the bandaids. He looks like he's walking through mud.

Daniel has been trying to be more independent, since he is five now. This leads to occasional differences of opinion between him and his parents. On the other hand, I love listening to his stories and watching him play tennis and baseball because he finally is coordinated enough to hit the ball some. I guess that's just what five is like.

The boys are best buddies. It's wonderful to see them enjoy each other so much. Daniel has learned to leverage his position as the older child into things like getting pushed instead of doing the pushing and employing his little brother to do him favors like putting the shovels away; however, I feel pretty certain that Christohper's fiestyness will not allow him to be too taken advantage of. I guess time will tell.

Hope you enjoyed my Morris Lessmore post, and if you are ever in search of a great children's book, I hope you give it a look.