thankful

Hey y'all.  I wrote this last Sunday but didn't get a chance to finish and post it.  Many of you know why.  I promise to post what you really want to know soon, soon, soon...but in the meantime....

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Sunday, November 20, 2011

Hi.  Still pregnant.
We are officially accepting name suggestions, especially boy's names.  Have at it, please.  We tend to prefer names like, for example, Juniper.  If you can come up with a boy's name that's earthy and simple, has only one spelling and won't land him a black eye in middle school, you are a genius and we will forever be indebted.  We'll also take girl's name suggestions, but we're doing much better in that camp.  Boys names are just hard.    

:: A couple weeks ago, I had a sudden, irrepressible urge...

^I couldn't find a pattern I liked (they all required some weird origami sewing...and why oh why would you sew booties when you can knit them in the round?  Duh...) and so I went freestyle.  I even wrote down what I did (amazing).^  

With Juniper, I filled out every detail of "My Pregnancy Journal"; I glued in photos and wrote in the margins.  This time, I never cracked the spine.  I feel pretty bad about that.  As a second child myself, I really didn't want to fall into the second-child-neglectful-mother pattern, but I did.
Then all of a sudden I felt like this baby needed some attention.  And so instead of doing the million other tasks on my list while Juniper napped, I sat on the couch and knitted, resting my hands on the big, hard, pumpkin that takes up my midsection.  With every stitch I thought about the little human that is, incredibly, living in my belly.  I tried to visualize what he or she will look like; what his cry will sound like; wondered if she will be mellow or high-strung; pictured these tiny booties on tiny feet.

I never allowed myself to knit baby clothes while pregnant with Juniper.  (Why take the time to knit something they're going to spit up on, poop on and will only fit for 3 months?  That said, I did sew a small load of diapers.)
I've often regretted that decision.  We only get to be 8 pounds once in our lifetime.  There is only one time that we will be so small and helpless that we don't need leather-bottomed slippers.  When a good friend of mine had her first baby I told her to let the dishes go and revel in her newborn.  I am not a religious person per say, but I told her holding a newborn is like holding God.
And so, this time my baby will have cashmere, merino and silk engulfing those divine feet...poop stains and all.  

Oh.  And I didn't stop with the booties.

  
My friend made this hat for our second-born, remembering that I had always wanted one for our October girl:

^Modeled here by one of my step-dad's gorgeous sculptures.^

:: Ever since we brought home the I'm a Big Sister books and started talking about the baby in mama's belly, Juniper has been into it.  Right now, we're thinking the biggest issue with Juniper and the new baby will be her wanting to feed the baby peanuts and cover its head with a blanket during naps.  

At our 36 week ultrasound to check placental location and get the all-clear for a VBAC.  


:: Lately, Juniper has been digging into my bellybutton which is now pretty much an outie and a wee bit sensitive.

:: In other news, we planted garlic just in time...

...because the next day brought us this...

:: My dad and step-mom arrived a few days ago, so now we really have the all-clear to go ahead and meet this little bean in my belly.  In the meantime, we've been celebrating belated birthdays.

And helping grandma cook...

And preparing for the change that will rock our house.

I am getting antsy but my man has been a superhero, diligently working on the Honey-Do list while taking care of both me and bugs.  His coworkers keep asking how he stays so svelte..."Try working on a house with a pregnant wife," he says.  But we have both been breathing lightly since my parents arrived.  Anything that seemed urgent before has been set aside.  We're as ready as we're going to be.      
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That's as far as I got.

Then Monday came and we went for a wild ride.

And we are thankful.  Birth story to follow....

monster love

I sure love my little monster.

I'm not getting as Oh my god, you're not going to be our only child anymore as I thought I would.  Juniper loves people and babies so much that I'm swelling (literally) with pride that we'll be adding one more human to our little clan.  Sure, I'm expecting some pouting, some hurt, confused looks and some ramped-up clinginess, but still....  In the end, I think she'll be over the moon about having a sibling.  Mostly, any anxiety I have is being funneled into an overwhelming need to record The Essence of Juniper.  So sorry if I start getting bogged down in mundane details.  It's just where I am right now.    

:: Halloween.  Juniper really got it this year.  She had a hand-me-down monster costume, but I didn't think she knew what a monster was, so we checked out some books the week before Halloween.  It worked.  She was totally into her costume and has since worn it nearly everyday.    

:: We finally carved the big pumptin that had been sitting on our kitchen floor for a month.  Juniper especially loved pulling out the slimy pumpkin seeds.

:: The friday before Halloween our local library hosted a party complete with treats, crafts and costume contests.  Juniper was a bit overwhelmed being surrounded by so many small, painted, unrecognizable humans.  But a craft table cleared and she joined her story time buddy for some candy-bag decorating (the chocolate cookie also helped release her inhibitions).

The party was a good warm-up for the crazy, town-square trick-or-treating we did Halloween evening.  The boardwalk was sardine-like, packed with costumed kids and parents trying to keep track of them.  If my man took Juniper to a store for candy, she'd ask, Where'd mommy doe?  And if I took her she'd ask, Where'd daddy doe?  She really didn't want to lose us amongst all the freaky short people.     

:: J bug didn't know what was being dropped into her pumpkin until this moment, then oh, look out.  We were eating most of her candy, but had to be sneaky about it after she tasted a Whopper.  

Bugs went trick-or-treating with her friends the owl and the puppy (not shown), to the degree that we could keep track of each other.  


:: On the home front: we're still working on the house (shocking, I know) and I'm 38 weeks pregnant.  I have what my man calls a "Honey Do List" and he's been taking time off work, methodically checking off each item as I focus on retaining my sanity in the face of super hyped-up, mega-nesting, get-shit-done-NOW late-pregnancy instincts.  So far it's working out.  But also, I'm THIRTY EIGHT WEEKS PREGNANT.  Dude, that's out of 40 for those who aren't in the know.  

Here I am staining trim with linseed oil.  Thankfully, it is now almost all nailed to our walls.  Bathrooms should be done by tomorrow.  


:: J bug is helping us cook more and more.  We have to be careful, because it can backfire.  Here she is helping with the cornbread, but she didn't help with the stew.  She loves to eat where her investment lies, which meant all cornbread and no stew.  Noted.  

:: I love outdoor chores, but I especially love outdoor chores with my kid.  She wants to help, loves to help, and eats snow along the way, feeding some to me saying,  Brrrr.  It's told.  

:: I've mentioned before that our grass is much taller than Juniper and she's not really excited about that.  Well, my man rented a weed-wacker, knocked out a little yard for us (and for me to plant garlic), then made Juniper a maze through the field.  She loves it.

:: Here's what 37.5 weeks preggo looks like:

:: And our lovey, happy, three-headed monster:

:: At least once a day, Juniper says, I doe trick-or-treating.  And, Where'd pumptin patch doe?  She refers to both the real pumpkin and the plastic bucket as pumptin patch.  And yes, they're still around, but asking, Where'd _______ doe? happens to be her question of the week.  Also, I still get coerced into singing Happy Birthday Juniper at both nap and night time.  My man thinks bugs will be wearing the monster costume at Christmas.  I love that.  Really, kids are so much fun.  I had no idea my "terrible two" year old would be such a joy.  I try to enjoy every stage for what it is and not get too nostalgic over a past stage, or too anxious for a future stage.  But I can tell already that I'll really miss early toddlerhood with all its freedom and lack of self-consciousness.  

  

all about a junebug

Or rather, an Octoberbug.

It seems we've been celebrating Juniper's two-year birthday since early September as relatives bearing gifts trickled through our home.

^Juniper has learned the art of exhausting relatives by insisting on "more airplane". ^

But the real shebang was a few days after her birthday when we hosted her first small, but true party.  Between the balloons and the older girls and younger boys, Juniper was nearly beside herself with glee.  I made chocolate pumpkin cupcakes with orange pumpkin frosting and my famous squash soup.  For the first time, we noticed the difference between boys and girls.  The girls curled up in Juniper's bed, read books to each other and ate lunch together.  The boys honed-in their radars for wheels, found the ridable toys, hopped on and didn't get off, not even to eat.  And...aside from the 49 seconds of video while singing Happy Birthday, I didn't get a single photo.  Not one.  Sometimes it's nice to walk around without a camera smooshed to my face.  But this time, afterwards, I felt like an asshole for failing to capture J bug's first party.  Doh!
    
The whole party whooptie-do in her honor really made an impression.  She name requests the song, Happy Birt-day Ju-per at least eleven times a day and it took a week for her to stop insisting on cupcakes (or rather, tuptakes, since she can't say "k" sounds yet) for snack.  And anytime I reach for the top of the pantry she asks, Presents?  Oh my.

:: But Juniper's growth in the last six months, and especially the last two, is what really *blows* our minds.  Not just her hair and her long, thinning, legs...but her mind.  And especially, her language.  She throws out multiple new sentences on a daily basis (today, off the top of my head: I get cheese grater.  And, Let's go get him!), she holds us to our promises, and boy is she getting finicky about how she thinks the world should be arranged.  I love watching her little independent personality blossom.  

:: She chooses her own clothes.

Often vacillating between wanting to wear three shirts and two pants, or putting up a fight to get a single shirt on.

:: She hates having her hair brushed or washed or dried (resulting in the extremely short bob seen in some of these photos).  

:: She is especially particular with her mothering skills.  Everyone gets a diaper and clothes and laid down for sleepytime.

They get fed milk and water and leftover oatmeal.  They get swaddled and burped.

^Under that green shirt is her "hiking suit" which I have learned to hide, otherwise, she'd never wear anything else.^    

They go outside.

They splash in the mud.  (When I tried to keep the doll inside she whined, Baby Sam outside tooooooo.)

:: She insists on reading her favorite books to herself saying, I read it.

:: And sometimes, requests that we take her picture:  Sorry, sorry.  Excuse me Ju-per.  Picture?

^Here she hams it up for the camera, but drops nothing in the toilet.  (So far, she has peed once on the potty, entirely on her own while no one was in the room or even paying attention.)^


::  She loves to be helpful.

^Moving.^

Doing finishing work on the tile.

Helping unpack the chocolate sprinkles.

 And the refrigerator baking soda.

She supervises her dad with the interior trim.

And her mom with packaging meat.

:: She likes our new house, but isn't crazy about the taller-than-she-is grass.  (Establishing a YARD is our top springtime priority.)

:: She gets crazy over autumn leaves, confirming our choice for her middle name.  

:: She is still goofy and giggly and loves to play peepaboo.

:: She prefers variety in her meals.  And whether it's hot sauce or beer, if she sees us eating something she doesn't have it's, Try some too?  Ju-per try some too?  

Still, she especially loves spaghetti, fish, tomatoes, blueberries and beets (because they stain her hands red).

:: And oh how she lives for singing and dancing.  Favorite singing songs are: Ring around the rosie, Skip to ma woo ma dar-yen, London bridges, Happy Birtday Ju-per and John Denver's "Country Roads".  

:: Favorite dancing songs are: "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" (which she requests with a rare, entirely unrecognizable name) and "The Safety Dance".  We are head-over-heels with her hillbilly stomp, which is actually extremely difficult to mimic.  It involves a little foot-stomping shuffle and your butt stuck out to one side.  We do try.

:: Her favorite phrases change by the week.  Last week it was, I did it!  Yeah!  This week it's been, Where'd car go?  Ah!  I find it.  Or, Where'd dog go?  There he is!  And while my man was gone hunting it was, Where'd daa-y go? in a sad, lost voice. 


:: Her low, bullfrog voice (she got that from her father) is getting sweeter and higher pitched, but for some things, she still busts out the bullfrog.  If she's really excited about something (say, you pull a tangerine from the fridge and she hasn't had one for a few days) she says in a very deep voice, Oh, ho ho ho!  Whoah!   


:: She is an accomplished parrot.  We learned the hard way to control our own swearing.  We've learned to say things like "shoot-dangit" after several weeks of Juniper dropping Baby Sam in the grocery store followed by an, Uh-oh.  SHIT!  

:: After an entire summer of training her to hold my hand, she now does it willingly.  Thank god.  Just in time for the new baby.  Maybe I won't lose my toddler in the grocery store parking lot after all.    

:: And yet, for all her independent spirit, we have been working for over a month on getting her out of our bed, with mixed results.  But that's another story.

:: (And seriously, I'm *trying* to post more frequently so we can avoid these War & Peace photo posts.  Thanks for making it to the end!)