Daily Archives: December 19, 2008

What I’ve Learned

With 11 days left until the “due date”… I am feeling:

  • anxious
  • nervous
  • excited
  • hopeful
  • happy
  • impatient

and almost all other emotions about the impending birth of our daughter. It is amazing how productive this “nesting” thing can make you though.

I have cleaned, washed, scoured and organized more in my house in the past couple of weeks than I believe I’ve ever done in any given year. And I don’t feel like I am finished. This whole “don’t over do it” thing keeps getting in my way… because my body reminds me quickly when I am over doing it.

This week, my last sonogram didn’t come with a nice picture (sadly). The reason is because her head is in position to deliver and hard to see with a sonogram. Out of all the reasons in the world, I guess that is a pretty good one that I won’t argue with. However, I did learn that with 11 days to go she is:

  • 8 POUNDS 6 ounces
  • Her body is in the 70+ percentile
  • Her head is very round and in teh 90th percentile.
  • Is doing very well in general.

All this is fine and dandy… especially the healthy part… but I was REALLY  hoping for a tiny little baby to give birth to. I will begin hoping for a very short labor with very powerful drugs. Please… help me visualize this :)

The “popper” has finally popped all the way out. Hubby thinks it could go a little further out (we will see if it does), but it looks like it sticks pretty far out to me.

The swelling has continued and I am still getting up about every two hours to go to the bathroom  at night.

I did get a new car. A Pontiac Vibe (very cute, even though it is TECHNICALLY a wagon). Hubby took over my truck since his is in DESPERATE need of TLC.

A few things at work (not quite blogworthy yet) have worked out in my favor, which I am relieved by.

Overall I cannot complain. Things are going really well and I feel very grounded and happy. I do love it when things work out this way.

In re-reading this entry, it sounds very “Hallmark”… I do apologize for that.  I’ll post something dark, quirky or perverted soon… I promise. In the mean time, just refer back to the pornaments.

Our Holiday Traditions

Everyone has some kind of traditions around the holidays. With each generation, the old traditions are either continued, modified or abandoned. Also with each new family, new traditions are begun.

I’ve talked about my family traditions that have been continued (cooking coogily for “big dinners”, the Santa box, etc.). The traditions we’ve adopted on our own are:
– Nothing fancy for Christmas: For many many years, Christmas Day was the one day out of the entire year that I could almost guarantee that hubby and I would be off together. The first year we were off together, we made a huge batch of green chili burritos and watched movies all day. When we had a pool table, we invited friends over for the annual “pool tournament”, where everyone shared in the burritos, we ate, drank, were merry…. all in pajamas. Nothing Fancy. It was a great escape from the pressures of family obligations and stresses of the season.

– Pictures by the National Christmas Tree: Since moving to the DC area, we have gone to the National tree to take group pictures in front of it. Every year, this picture is among my favorites.

– New ornaments for our Christmas tree: Every year we get the White House ornament (since 2001) and a new Star Wars ornament (since 1996, I think). Our tree is very eclectic with no rhyme or reason to the theme. It has homemade ornaments, next to antique ornaments, next to nightmare before Christmas ornaments, all with the mayor of Halloweentown as a tree topper. I guess I’d say the “theme” is all our holiday memories stuck on a tree”. We like it.

– Fancy New Years: Ricki came up with this one, I believe. We all wanted to dress up and go to a formal New Year’s party, but they tend to be expensive, lame or just too far away from where we wanted to go. So we host our own “Fancy new year’s party”. Everyone dresses up in their finest clothes, we have a formal dinner (complete with china) and celebrate the changing of the year in style. It is always a lot of fun.

What traditions have you begun with your generation?