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Nine and a half weeks.  To some, that’s the title of an adult-themed movie.

But at our house, it’s how old our little Sarah was when (1) she started drooling, and (2) rolled from her side to her tummy.

Yay, baby!

but Emma gave Sarah a time out today (after a conversation that involved many pleasantries, including Emma asking Sarah ‘How was your weekend?’). 

 

Baby Sarah has arrived!

We’re home now and all doing well.

More details soon!

After a record-breaking cold and snowy winter in Milwaukee, it’s now clear that Springtime has fully arrived!

The flowers are blooming, the days are warming, and the mammals are readying to give birth to their young.

Or, maybe most of the other mammals have already done it, and it’s just *me* who is readying….

Our new baby is promising to be on the larger side, and in light of that, and some other physical developments (nothing negative), my Dr. is planning to induce labor a few days ahead of the official due date, and less than one week from the time that I write this.

So we’ll be welcoming our new baby home within days.

It’s exciting.  I’m also just trying to rest as much as possible before then, and to spend some good quality time with my sweet, sweet daughter Emma.

Here are some recent pictures (taken, by the way, with our new digital camera - we have one again, yay!)

 

 

 

Ooooh…. three weeks since I posted anything here.

And last night, I had three big contractions that made me sure that we would be having a baby imminently.

But then they stopped - the contractions, I mean.

But I got a little reminder of what all that feels like.  (And it’s not really that good).

And a little (well, a lot) of inspiration to finish up a lot of projects at work today, since I now feel like I could ‘go’ at, really, any time. 

Luckily, I got up at 1:30 last night and mosty finished packing my hospital bag and Emma’s overnight bag, and when the time comes, we’ll all be ready to react accordingly.

With updates - and I suspect a healthy number of baby pictures - here, too, of course.

(We finally replaced our dear camera that was recently lost [let’s hear it for great deals on e-bay!], and I’ll soon be able to post real digitally-made photos to Flickr, again, and to blog them here!)

Clearly, Paul and I have taken on too much, of late…

Moving to a new house, trying to get the old (duplex) house ready for new tenants, looking for new tenants, helping one (family relation) set of tenants to get a new apartment and leave our place because they’ve gotten behind in rent (and owe us money, which is stressful and upsetting), starting Emma at a new daycare, taking care of Emma every day, both of us working full-time, Paul doing his last semester of law school and hunting for a job, AND trying to get ready for a new baby on the way….

We’ve pretty much been stressed out of our gourds.

But finally and importantly, despite all else, we’re starting to make real progress on setting up the new nursery in preparation for our new arrival.

Last weekend, Paul finished painting the baby’s room (of course, it happened to be the ONE room of the new house that needed painting - it had previously been a crazy midnight blue color with an irremovable Bob Marley sticker on the wall - not baby friendly).

Also, during this week, Paul managed to find where, in those mystery moving boxes in the basement, our newborn baby clothes and nursing gear have been hiding! (Now, I’m just a few laundry loads - and a shopping trip for tiny diapers - away from stocking the baby’s dresser with her first clothes and supplies).

And finally, today, after an increasingly frenzied search, he has located the baggie of hardware required to reassemble our crib so that our little one will have a bed of her own when she’s ready for it!!  (Not knowing where that was had started to be a real concern).

So, whew! 

Forty-Seven days to go (if that many) to get ready for her, and now I’m actually feeling more optimistic that we will actually, indeed, be as prepared as we can be.   

And on other fronts, as my belly gets bigger and bigger, my walk (OK, waddle) slower and slower, and my general energy levels lower and lower, I’m being forced to accept that I can only do so much, and that clients and coworkers and fellow board members, the unpacking in the new house, and everything else will just have to do without as much of me for awhile. 

And that that’s OK.  Because I have a wonderful, other, part of life on the near horizion, and my attention has to be more and more focused there. 

It’s all starting to seem very real, and I’m getting very excited about being able to meet our new little one very soon!

Well, Emma’s been making some new friends, and she likes her teachers at the new pre-school daycare.

But not all is sunshine and roses, now that we’re past the novelty of the first few days. 

I’ve been trying hard to prompt Emma with just the right questions to elicit from her some information about her days there, and sometimes, I get good information results.  (The daily teacher’s notes on what she did that day are also a much appreciated source of information and comfort).

But, after a general lack of response last evening, I realized that maybe I’ve been asking too much about what is “fun” and wonderful at school.  It occurred to me that, as is true about anyplace that we spend so much time, there must be some not so good things, too. 

So I’ve started asking about that, too.  Last night, I asked about what is “yucky” at school.  Turns out, “the table is yucky” because one of her little girl friends got “stuck” under there, apparently right when her dad came to pick her up.  According to Emma’s telling, the girl must have been under the table when her father arrived, and, when she couldn’t get out from under it quickly, “she cried for her dad.”  From what I can piece together, Emma imparted some blame for this situation on the table itself (although the girl’s dad helped his daughter to get out right away).  At some point during this melee, Emma ”ran away from that.”  (”That” being the suspicious table, I presume).

Also, we had a lot of crying in the car this morning on the way to school.  Emma REALLY wanted to stay home to watch a particular Disney DVD.  She did NOT want to be in her car seat, and did NOT want to go to her new school.

When we arrived and parked at school, I sat in the back seat with her to discuss just why she didn’t want to go in.

Among our topics of discussion was my question, again, about what might be yucky at the school.  And the answer I got was that “Aiden is yucky.”  He has pushed her, she says, and “the teacher scolded him for that.” 

(I don’t doubt that this is true.  Paul once saw a little boy named Nathaniel there push Emma during a play-time right when he arrived to pick her up.)   

We talked about it being a good thing that the teacher was talking to Aiden about not pushing, and about how the teachers like Emma very much and take good care of her.

At that point, I said we should go inside together and just see if there might not also be some fun and nice things about school, too.

Sure enough, as soon as we got to her room, she found a small stack of blocks to keep her attention.  When a teacher asked how Emma was doing today, I said that she had cried quite a bit in the car, but that I thought she was feeling better now.  The teacher then noted Emma’s interest in the blocks and took her for some one on one play time to a corner that houses a “whole bucket of blocks.” 

I thought it was nice that the teacher gave her some special attention and stayed with her for a while getting her focused on something interesting.  (I saw them still there together several minutes later as I passed by again on my way out after checking on some other things).

I also passed the baby room today, and saw a crazy baby feeding table shaped like a kidney bean with slots for like six babies to sit in, all propped up.  There was a lot of rice cereal on their faces.  They were all content and being fed their baby breakfasts together at the table.  Very cute. 

It’s a really good place there.  (Yucky tables, pushy little boys, and all). 

The reason she knows the word “Giraffe”

Originally uploaded by Koog Family.

Just a ‘little’ something from Grandma K. for Emma’s birthday.

We call her Gina.

Big Girl Bath!, originally uploaded by Koog Family.

No more blue baby bathtub for our growing girl!  She took her first bath in just the regular bathtub tonight! She enjoyed it, like she enjoys all her baths. The only challenge was to keep her from standing up and crawling around in all the new (and slippery) space.

That’s a big change from those early days over the kitchen sink!

Bath over the Sink,
originally uploaded by Koog Family.

Walking!, originally uploaded by Koog Family.

Well, REALLY walking, with the help of her new Step Start Walk n’ Ride gizmo. She took right to it, and walked all around the living room with it tonight.

Walking with Daddy’s Help

Originally uploaded by Koog Family.

The last few times we’ve practiced walking holding her hands, we could tell that she was almost ready to go independent.

Using the Step Start Walk n’ Ride!

Originally uploaded by Koog Family.

And now she’s moving around of her own power, with the help of the walker.

(I feel so proud!) 

Way to go, sweetheart!!!