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Hi all.
I guess it may not SEEM like I'm spending less time here than I used to, or posting less, but the truth is I am-- I'm just skimming the FRiends Page, and then I might have thought about posting something before then, but by that time I CANNOT POSSIBLY SIT IN THIS CHAIR ANY LONGER even though I am sitting in a cushy work stool chair that J brought up from the basement instead of a metal folding chair now. Doing anything for any length of time has become very uncomfortable, so I have found myself jumping from place to place and activity to activity just to change position. And yes, that even includes lying down! Who ever thought SLEEP could be uncomfortable?! Plus, my brain is completely fried now on top of that. I cannot concentrate on ANYTHING, and god forbid I have to MAKE ANY DECISIONS. I really feel bad that my efforts at freelance writing-- even writing a two-page synopsis of Ian for submission (seriously, a story I know and love so well, you'd think I'd be able to just WRITE WHAT IT'S ABOUT, no?)-- have gone on hiatus, but the only things I can remotely think about right now have to do with getting baby stuff together. And even then, my brain is pretty hazy.
Today, if we use the generic average due date of Easter that I've been telling people, Baby is officially Full-Term. He could come at any time. But probably not, because I don't think he's engaged yet even. He keeps bobbing up and down-- a LOT of the time he's riding so low I can barely stand up and feel like I need to never leave the bathroom, but then other times he'd rather bob up and do bicycles on my ribs. I figured out his position-- he's head down and his back is MOSTLY front, but he's turned slightly right so he can kick my right ribs as much as he likes. (This is a good position, labor-wise, he can easily slide into a perfect position during labor, assuming he doesn't decide to get out of THIS position before then). Mom W says Jason was in the exact same position, and also had the exact same movement habits-- even STRETCHING WAY OUT as far as possible in all directions (I was watching Jason sleep yesterday morning and noticed he hasn't outgrown that, even though he's already tall). He popped out pretty quickly, so that's a good sign, but he was also, like most first borns including me, late, and I'd really prefer Baby not be late. I hope he waits until April, but after that, any time the first week of April is good. I don't know how much longer I can take this Being Basically Useless! I understand why women in olden-times had a "confinement" period now-- who really wants to be out in the world at this point? You're a hazard to yourself and others (and they didn't even have cars to drive back then) and are ALSO pretty cranky, so I don't know, I'D rather hide in my room sewing baby linens (assuming my eyes don't go out, and I'm allowed to change positions every half-hour) than have to deal with Everything Else!
Yesterday was the shower at my parents' house, which was pretty awesome. My mom made this children's literature theme and decorated accordingly. This is how we were supposed to be able to get through the front door:
When my sister was little she had an Alice party where we actually put up a big sheet of cardboard and cut a LITTLE door in it that all the guests had to crawl through to get to the party, but since almost everyone coming here was grown-up and no longer that skilled (especially me), mom settled for putting a PICTURE of a small door on the real one.
Anyway, there were little stations set up all over like that. I really loved this one:
For some reason it was just really cool to say you were raiding Mr. McGregor's garden every time you wanted some vegetables. They also served green eggs and ham as well as other less-specific goodies like mini-muffins and scones and nuts and...
CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIES
and this cake:
You had to go around the house guessing the books that each of the little set-ups around were based on, and there was also a list of twenty more characters, concepts, and phrases where you had to identify the books it came from. Bunny, who was passing out the games, told me I wasn't allowed to play, but I played anyway and just didn't score it. I got all of them except Babar (on the list of 20-- I would have recognized a stuffed animal of Babar!). I just never got into Babar as much as my mom did! Everyone was encouraged to include a book with their present:
Bunny was also a bit silly with these, and insisted on collecting them all to look at as I opened them, which resulted in them all being gathered like so.
As is typical of a get-together at my parents', part of the fun is in the VARIETY of people that are invited-- relatives from all sides, old friends, new friends, folks of all walks of life. Denisa came with us, which was cool because she'd never been to a baby shower, since they're bad luck in Romania (which I can understand... I feel weird about actually OPENING a lot of these gifts yet!), and she hasn't really had any opportunities to do Group Female Things since she's been here-- she ended up having a really good time. It helps of course by how open and friendly all my family is (WHERE did I come from again?). The other guests included LiveJournal's Own![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gloworm59 all the way from Baltimore, punterschlagen, and rockonliz127: 
And here is a picture of Baby's same-age second cousin on MOMMY'S side, Reese, who was born two days before Christmas:
(with their other second cousin Courtney). Surely they will be buddies at least until they are about seven years old, when they decide boys/girls are icky, and then they will pick on each other, until they get to high school and become friends again (at least that's how it was with MY male same-aged second cousin, Herbie!)
And of course you cannot talk about cute little girls without posting the mandatory picture of Zoe:
Zoe is still brilliant, but I've noticed she's getting shyer. When they left she told me, "Goodbye Amy, and good luck!" very maturely, which caused all the adults around to burst out laughing, and I felt rather bad for her that they all started laughing, because she of course meant it seriously! It reminded me of myself. I hope she has more of the Blankenship spunk than I had so she doesn't learn to be afraid to speak up!
We got a real treasure trove of presents! I really wasn't expecting the amount of Stuff there! Of course people still couldn't help giving clothes, but enough other useful STUFF made it in to make up for that, and besides, the clothes were of course adorable and sometimes homemade, as in the case of a beautiful and soft hand-knit bywonderingmind's mom cardigan with Beatrix Potter buttons. (My dad had a picture of that one in his Snapfish album too, but I didn't feel like stealing any more pictures at that point. There's a billion Opening Presents pictures, and most of them look the same-- me holding something up and smiling!) My godmother did inexplicably send a box of beautiful Clearly Girls clothes though, which could be handy in the offchance we were all seeing things in the ultrasound-- and I might find out later this week if I can regift them in August ;). Now the only thing we Absolutely Need As Soon As Possible is a car seat, which was really the Only Thing We Absolutely Needed As Soon As Possible before the shower, too, since Baby can't get out of the hospital otherwise! And we'll need safety gates (galore) and a few other safety junk stuff (we got lots of cabinet/drawer latches and outlet covers though), but I suppose that can wait a few more months. At which point it will become the world's biggest necessity, because this is Jason's kid. And mine, for that matter. We need things to prevent both against countless accidental mishaps AND mishaps of insatiable curiosity! Luckily, we got gift cards at both showers, too!
That's all I can think of about the shower. And I might as well get up now while my back is only SLIGHTLY sore, before it gets any worse!
I guess it may not SEEM like I'm spending less time here than I used to, or posting less, but the truth is I am-- I'm just skimming the FRiends Page, and then I might have thought about posting something before then, but by that time I CANNOT POSSIBLY SIT IN THIS CHAIR ANY LONGER even though I am sitting in a cushy work stool chair that J brought up from the basement instead of a metal folding chair now. Doing anything for any length of time has become very uncomfortable, so I have found myself jumping from place to place and activity to activity just to change position. And yes, that even includes lying down! Who ever thought SLEEP could be uncomfortable?! Plus, my brain is completely fried now on top of that. I cannot concentrate on ANYTHING, and god forbid I have to MAKE ANY DECISIONS. I really feel bad that my efforts at freelance writing-- even writing a two-page synopsis of Ian for submission (seriously, a story I know and love so well, you'd think I'd be able to just WRITE WHAT IT'S ABOUT, no?)-- have gone on hiatus, but the only things I can remotely think about right now have to do with getting baby stuff together. And even then, my brain is pretty hazy.
Today, if we use the generic average due date of Easter that I've been telling people, Baby is officially Full-Term. He could come at any time. But probably not, because I don't think he's engaged yet even. He keeps bobbing up and down-- a LOT of the time he's riding so low I can barely stand up and feel like I need to never leave the bathroom, but then other times he'd rather bob up and do bicycles on my ribs. I figured out his position-- he's head down and his back is MOSTLY front, but he's turned slightly right so he can kick my right ribs as much as he likes. (This is a good position, labor-wise, he can easily slide into a perfect position during labor, assuming he doesn't decide to get out of THIS position before then). Mom W says Jason was in the exact same position, and also had the exact same movement habits-- even STRETCHING WAY OUT as far as possible in all directions (I was watching Jason sleep yesterday morning and noticed he hasn't outgrown that, even though he's already tall). He popped out pretty quickly, so that's a good sign, but he was also, like most first borns including me, late, and I'd really prefer Baby not be late. I hope he waits until April, but after that, any time the first week of April is good. I don't know how much longer I can take this Being Basically Useless! I understand why women in olden-times had a "confinement" period now-- who really wants to be out in the world at this point? You're a hazard to yourself and others (and they didn't even have cars to drive back then) and are ALSO pretty cranky, so I don't know, I'D rather hide in my room sewing baby linens (assuming my eyes don't go out, and I'm allowed to change positions every half-hour) than have to deal with Everything Else!
Yesterday was the shower at my parents' house, which was pretty awesome. My mom made this children's literature theme and decorated accordingly. This is how we were supposed to be able to get through the front door:
When my sister was little she had an Alice party where we actually put up a big sheet of cardboard and cut a LITTLE door in it that all the guests had to crawl through to get to the party, but since almost everyone coming here was grown-up and no longer that skilled (especially me), mom settled for putting a PICTURE of a small door on the real one.
Anyway, there were little stations set up all over like that. I really loved this one:
For some reason it was just really cool to say you were raiding Mr. McGregor's garden every time you wanted some vegetables. They also served green eggs and ham as well as other less-specific goodies like mini-muffins and scones and nuts and...CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIES
and this cake:
You had to go around the house guessing the books that each of the little set-ups around were based on, and there was also a list of twenty more characters, concepts, and phrases where you had to identify the books it came from. Bunny, who was passing out the games, told me I wasn't allowed to play, but I played anyway and just didn't score it. I got all of them except Babar (on the list of 20-- I would have recognized a stuffed animal of Babar!). I just never got into Babar as much as my mom did! Everyone was encouraged to include a book with their present:
Bunny was also a bit silly with these, and insisted on collecting them all to look at as I opened them, which resulted in them all being gathered like so.As is typical of a get-together at my parents', part of the fun is in the VARIETY of people that are invited-- relatives from all sides, old friends, new friends, folks of all walks of life. Denisa came with us, which was cool because she'd never been to a baby shower, since they're bad luck in Romania (which I can understand... I feel weird about actually OPENING a lot of these gifts yet!), and she hasn't really had any opportunities to do Group Female Things since she's been here-- she ended up having a really good time. It helps of course by how open and friendly all my family is (WHERE did I come from again?). The other guests included LiveJournal's Own
gloworm59 all the way from Baltimore, punterschlagen, and rockonliz127: And here is a picture of Baby's same-age second cousin on MOMMY'S side, Reese, who was born two days before Christmas:
(with their other second cousin Courtney). Surely they will be buddies at least until they are about seven years old, when they decide boys/girls are icky, and then they will pick on each other, until they get to high school and become friends again (at least that's how it was with MY male same-aged second cousin, Herbie!) And of course you cannot talk about cute little girls without posting the mandatory picture of Zoe:
Zoe is still brilliant, but I've noticed she's getting shyer. When they left she told me, "Goodbye Amy, and good luck!" very maturely, which caused all the adults around to burst out laughing, and I felt rather bad for her that they all started laughing, because she of course meant it seriously! It reminded me of myself. I hope she has more of the Blankenship spunk than I had so she doesn't learn to be afraid to speak up! We got a real treasure trove of presents! I really wasn't expecting the amount of Stuff there! Of course people still couldn't help giving clothes, but enough other useful STUFF made it in to make up for that, and besides, the clothes were of course adorable and sometimes homemade, as in the case of a beautiful and soft hand-knit by
wonderingmind's mom cardigan with Beatrix Potter buttons. (My dad had a picture of that one in his Snapfish album too, but I didn't feel like stealing any more pictures at that point. There's a billion Opening Presents pictures, and most of them look the same-- me holding something up and smiling!) My godmother did inexplicably send a box of beautiful Clearly Girls clothes though, which could be handy in the offchance we were all seeing things in the ultrasound-- and I might find out later this week if I can regift them in August ;). Now the only thing we Absolutely Need As Soon As Possible is a car seat, which was really the Only Thing We Absolutely Needed As Soon As Possible before the shower, too, since Baby can't get out of the hospital otherwise! And we'll need safety gates (galore) and a few other safety junk stuff (we got lots of cabinet/drawer latches and outlet covers though), but I suppose that can wait a few more months. At which point it will become the world's biggest necessity, because this is Jason's kid. And mine, for that matter. We need things to prevent both against countless accidental mishaps AND mishaps of insatiable curiosity! Luckily, we got gift cards at both showers, too!That's all I can think of about the shower. And I might as well get up now while my back is only SLIGHTLY sore, before it gets any worse!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
For once
Date: 2007-03-18 06:34 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2007-03-18 09:48 pm (UTC)From:I'm sorry that you're so uncomfortable, but you'll get there. Tell that baby to get a move on though, because we're coming home from Easter and I want to see his face, darn it!
I do have stuff for you, but rather than pay to ship it and all, you're just gonna have to wait. And no, we didn't buy you a car seat, otherwise I WOULD mail it ASAP.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-18 11:13 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2007-03-19 01:53 am (UTC)From:Yay!
Date: 2007-03-19 04:40 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2007-03-19 01:29 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2007-03-19 07:52 pm (UTC)From:Yeah, both Jason and I were supposedly really colicky, so every little bit helps!
no subject
Date: 2007-03-20 12:45 pm (UTC)From:(I knew your shower would be the cutest thing around)
All the books look fantastic! Part of me wants a baby to have a shower so I can have more children's books.