This is 30

I still have a few months to hang on to the glory of my '20s, but Grace over at Camp Patton blogged about it today and it sparked a small flicker of blogging motivation so I'm going with it.

I like the idea of titling of bunch of posts about my random life 'This is 30' and the going back to read them in 10 years and cracking up.  We'll see.

So today I took the kids to the zoo by myself.  When I say 'by myself', I mean without meeting friends + more kids.  We almost always meet people there {adult conversation while the kids are all occupied by animals!}, so this was new.  And actually fun.  I was surprised at how much they slowed down and looked at some of the non-animal stuff.  We did see some friends, but Henry was too distracted by the prospect of the train jungle-gym {not sure that it was intended to be a jungle gym, but whatever} to do more than a quick sprint-walk to say hi.

Then this afternoon we were found livin' it up at Meijer since we literally only had brown rice and 1 banana left in the house.  Aside from having to wait in the 6-child line to ride the penny horse, we made it out alive and kept it under 100 bucks.  Win-win.

During dinner, Henry took a flying leap off of the chair and chipped a tooth.  Not sure what that means, but it isn't lose, so here's hoping it's not black in the morning.  And here's hoping there's no expensive/sedation dentistry involved.

In other news, I started watching the entire Gilmore Girls series again.  It's bittersweet because I know in a few months when I finish I'll spend a whole month having Logan Huntzberger withdrawal.

So this is 30.  I'll take it.

Make My Decision

So here's my rule of thumb whilst growing a person:  choose one thing per day to be absurdly and inappropriately obsessed with and/or stressed about.  Last night's theme seems to be carrying into this morning, so let's see what ya'll think.

We're talking bassinets.  Some background pointers:

• our babes are in our room for at least 4-6 months.  i do my best not to co-sleep, so a safe place to sleep is a must.
• i'm a crazy nut about safe sleep places.  no bumpers or extra fabric.
• our room is small, and we now have a king bed in there.  there is room next to our bed for a bassinet, but something that's fairly easy to move around would be awesome.
• the way something looks is seriously important to me.
• we're not rich.

Option One:

The bassinet stand we made when Ella was a bun in the oven.  It rocks and moves easily, and looks really nice.  We've used it with both kids, and never had a problem.  The only bad thing is that after 2 kids, the basket was trashed and we got rid of it.  Now I can't find a moses basket for under $40 {Hobby Lobby no longer carries them}.  One bad thing is that we probably shouldn't use it past 3 months.  Another upside to this one is that it would give me a project to work on.

Option Two:

This Fisher Price contraption.  It gets good reviews, and we've had several friends who have used it and liked it.  It's on sale until the 22nd for $50, plus I get 5% off with my Target card.  It rocks, and is super easy to fold down and move.  It also has a 3-point harness so it's probably a little safer.  The main thing I'm worried about is that it sleeps at an incline.  I'm afraid that if we have babe sleeping at an incline for 6 months, we'll have created a habit that is tough to break.  The biggest downfall?  It looks like stupid baby stuff.

Option Three:

This pretty thing from Overstock.  This is by far my favorite, but the only thing that is keeping me from buying it is the price.  It's $100, which isn't bad, but I'm not sure if we'll have more kiddos after this or not.  We haven't decided, so I hate to spend that kind of money on something that might only be used for about 6 months.  Aside from that, I feel like it's the safest, best-looking, and the one that would definitely work until the babe is moved into the crib.

You'd think that after two kids I'd have a better idea of what I want, but not so much.

What would you do?

20 Weeks

I'm 22.5, so time to get this thang posted.  Worst picture ever {bad time of day, rookie photog}, but I was having a good outfit + hair day.  Never pass that up.

Hank is 2!

This sweet guy turned 2 today:

Sorry for the photo drop.  I just love him.  He is sweet and so funny.  He has the most tender heart, and will surely be the class comedian.  He loves Ella more than anything, and I'm so thankful for the relationship they have.

Here are some things about Henry that I don't want to forget:

• he refuses to eat sitting down...must be standing.
• he loves to watch the washing machine turn.
• he loves tools, specifically tape measures and flashlights.
• he loves to put his hand between my shirtsleeve and my arm.
• he says nearly every word correctly, except milk.  every single liquid is 'nuk'.
• he loves pizza so much that he does a little dance of excitement when he sees a pizza box, complete with flapping arms and shouts of gibberish.
• when Henry wants something, he shouts, 'i do!'. over and over.
• if the rating scale was sleep alone he'd be my favorite...he sleeps 14 hours at night, and takes a 2-3 hour nap.
• he must, at all times, have something in each hand.  it's usually a train engine, a car, or a bobby pin.

We had a great day...we went to Starbucks for breakfast in party hats {family tradition}, played on the trampoline {our gift to Hank}, and took Ella to dance class.

Please excuse my lovely singing voice, and watch this ad. or. a. ble. video of Henry blowing out his candles.

We love you, Henry Ronan, and are so glad you're here!

Up to My Eyeballs

Update!  Because I know you're all so captivated by my landscaping progress, I'll just go ahead and cross things off as a get them done.  How's that for super exciting?

I'm feeling super overwhelmed, so I'm making a list and blogging it.  Isn't that what everyone does?  Mmmmmkay.

I don't know if it's some type of strange manifestation of nesting {I nest even when not pregnant}, or spring fever, or just my crazy self, but I've started landscaping our house myself.  Nic has been working crazy long days {20 hours...not even kidding...wish I was}, so it's pretty much up to me.  So far, though, it's been going well:

With a great weather forecast this weekend and a husband who swears he's not working, here are some items on our to-do list:

• finish lining the driveway with brick
• finish lining the sidewalk with brick
• buy more brick!
• trim greenery in front yard
• extend flower beds down the side of the house and line with brick
• figure out how to breath new life into my transplanted peony {I did move two, and one is doing great, so that's a win}
• find some super helpers to finish assembling the swingset in our backyard {a gift for the kids for birthdays from a slew of grandparents...so exciting!}.  the age of 4 is not known for patience, and Ella has been trying so hard wait patiently for this to get built
• move the large logs out of our yard from getting the tree cut down {we're using some for stools around the fire pit}
• figure out what on earth to do with the large amount of ghetto mulch/dirt from the tree stump
• cross my fingers/toes/arms/legs/eyes that my in-laws' rv is moved tomorrow so that I can figure out what to do with that side of the driveway

Ok!  Feeling better already.  Here's to a sweaty weekend!

Five Favorites

This is part of a link-up, but I'm too lazy.  But I liked the idea.  So here are 5 of my favorite things.

1. Open windows.  I love this time of year.  Fresh air in the house, windows open all day and night.  Our house has the magic combination of floor plan + window placement + direction to the sun that allows us to keep the house comfortable without the stupid ac until it's about 85 degrees.  It's lovely, really.
2. Garage sales.  This town is garage-sale crazy.  I usually pack up the kids + snacks and head out on Thursday morning.  If you're not out at 8 on Thursday, the good stuff is gone.  It's madness.  And terribly fun.
3. Parenthood.  I recently watched the whole series on Netflix, and now I'm catching up on this season.  It's a fantastic show.
4. Mac Prep + Prime.  As I'm winding up my 20s, I found I was needing some attention under the eyes.  I bought a random moisturizer with retinol {apparently the magic ingredient} and then some of this prep + prime.  I love it!  It's a great, lightweight wrinkle filler for daytime.
5. Jet's!  And OH MY GOSH my brother-in-law just informed me a new one opened up HERE IN TOWN.  I might die of happiness.  And of course they don't deliver to our house, so you can bet I'm packing up my troop to grab takeout tonight.  Nic's out of town again, so it's only reasonable that we survive on pizza for the next three days.

At Least I'll Have My Arms

As this pregnancy progresses, it has become quite clear that it will be next-to-impossible for me to keep my weight gain in check.  That was expected; I've never gained less than 90 pounds.  Granted, a good deal of it is water weight {I swell terribly in the last weeks...months...}, but a good deal of it is not.

Honestly, with both Henry's pregnancy and this one, I've been so careful about what I'm eating.  I don't really even want sweets this time around, which is uncharted territory.  I think a suuuuuuper slow metabolism is to blame.  Anyway.

One thing I loved about Henry's pregnancy was that since most of it progressed during the winter {born May 28th, and that spring was really cold}, I rarely needed to bare my arms.  This time around, though {October due date}, I'll be wearing as little clothes as possible in those hot summer months.

I found this workout on Pinterest, and it seemed doable.  I've been using 6-pound weights and doing three sets of 10 reps each every morning.  I'm not convinced you can actually see results yet, but I can sure feel it!  Give it a try!