NOPE, NO BABY YET!!!!

Sorry, it just occurred to me that people seeing that picture would think that's baby Abby. Sorry to disappoint, but she refuses to comply with my repeated requests to be born already!

We've been having weekly doctor's visits where they just sigh and say "Nope, not yet." It was the same with Shay...I don't know why my body holds on to babies for so long, but I guess it could be worse. The longer a baby stays in in the womb the healthier he is: stronger immune system, higher birth weight, more developed internal organs--especially the lungs, less chance of asthma and digestive problems. Seamus is hardly ever sick and he's very strong even though he's small. And he was more than a week late.

Things on the mommy front are getting more and more uncomfortable. My hips hurt all the time and any time I "use the facilities" I have a contraction. And yet there's no action below, or so says my doctor. I guess I'll just have to tough it out for another week or so.

Shay is taking everything in stride. He doesn't mind the weekly doctor's visits and sits quietly for the hour or more that we have to wait. He's great at entertaining himself, especially when we can play outside on the porch. He's got lots of toys out there, like a bike and a chalkboard easel and lots of balls and tools. All I have to do is sit on a chair and make sure he doesn't have too much fun. I'm so glad we waited until he was this old to have another one. There's a lady in my ward with three children under the age of three. She's tired all of the time and hardly gets a second for herself. It's all she can do to survive one day to the next. I may be exhausted, but at least my little guy still takes 3 hour naps every day and will play by himself quietly when I need him to. It makes life so much easier.

Ok, got to take my bi-hourly potty break. It seems like my bladder can't hold more than 3 Tablespoons of liquid anymore. I swear I get up more times a night than an octogenarian...

Yesterday was our 4th wedding anniversary and it was one of the best ones we've had so far, in my opinion.

Our first one I was 4 months pregnant and not feeling well. I think we did dinner and a movie, but I can't remember.

Our second one Shay was 6 months old and, in looking back at my blog, it sounds like we did dinner and a movie again. I'm shocked that we managed to find a babysitter. I was super-overprotective of Shay at first and I hated leaving him with anyone. We still have yet to "hire" a babysitter, mostly relying on my awesome mom or brother to babysit for us. My stomach still gets jumpy when we leave him with anyone else. I need to get out more...

Our third anniversary was last year and we moved into this house that day. I completely forgot our anniversary. I only remembered when Dylan whispered "Happy Anniversary" as we fell asleep. I guess he forgot, too. We celebrated that weekend but I couldn't believe I'd forgotten. I'd spent the last 3 weeks packing up our house and moving the boxes over here at night, mostly by myself, and then unpacking them. Dylan had so much work to do between his full time job and his consulting at night that the bulk of the moving (everything but the furniture) fell to me. Needless to say I was swamped and did not have romantical thoughts on my mind.

This anniversary was awesome, though. Dylan decided to play hookey from work (which he never, ever does) and spend the whole day with me and Shay. We took the little guy to the Nickelcade in Orem. That's an arcade where all of the games cost a nickel. They're mostly old school games and skee-ball and the like. They're really fun. I thought Shay's eyes were going to pop out of his head. He's started "playing" Twilight Princess, a Zelda video game for the Wii. He mostly just walks around to find the trolls and then smites them with his sword, but he loves it. When we go to Fuddruckers for dinner Shay spends most of his time on the 5-6 arcade games they have lined up against the wall.

So, needless to say, the Nickelcade was Mecca for him. He couldn't get enough of the racing games, even though he can't reach the pedals. He loved the shooting games, which he played with his dad. Then he found a game that spits out tickets. You put in a nickel and aim a trebuchet at a castle with a dragon, then you launch the nickel at the moving dragon and try to get it into his mouth. Shay was surprisingly good at this and singlehandedly won 300 tickets. He must have spent 20 minutes at this machine. It was the perfect height and difficulty for him. He loved it! We spent his tickets on a collapsible light saber that is his new favorite toy. He'll snap his wrist to extend it and whisper "Fire!!" while turning on the included flashlight. It's adorable.

Last night Dylan and I went out to a romantical sushi dinner and then to a cute new gellato place on Center Street in Provo. Delicious gellato which we sat outside and ate while we chatted. Oh, and our present to ourselves was a top-of-the-line breadmaker that arrived yesterday. I've never had one so I'm excited to use it! Happy 4th anniversary to us. I can't believe it's been that long and that we're almost a family of 4. What an awesome life I have!!!

So, only 16 days left. Doc says I'm not dilated or anything, but that anything could happen. We'll just have to see.

I know, I know, it's been awhile since I've posted. It's not like I don't have things to write about or that I don't like to post, it's just the effort of actually getting online and writing a blog sometimes seems like too much. I think of great topics all the time and usually write the post in my head, but then I never get around to actually typing it up. If this time is anything like last time we're coming up on a Musings of Mynamyn dry spell, too. Well, just bear with me

I wrote this whole post and then went to my camera to find a few pictures. Turns out I had a lot more pictures than I remembered, so I decided to put a couple of them on here for your enjoyment. They don't really have anything to do with this post, but I had to put them on here somewhere, right?

A few weeks ago, inspired by my mother-in-law's awesome jam she brought to us, we decided to put up Strawberry Freezer Jam. My little helper couldn't have been more excited. I put him in charge of the food processor (just pushing the button, don't worry) and he had a fabulous time shredding the strawberries. We turned out with more jelly-like jam than I'm used to, mostly because he wanted to push the button so much that the berries came out more liquid than solid.


Sometimes Shay gets his hands on the camera and takes pictures. It's funny to see what he comes up with.

Here he caught me napping on the couch.



Here's a shot of Dylan and me. It's weird for both of us to be in the shot...usually it's one of us taking the picture.



Here's a great shot of his little legs that he took himself. My little photographer...Ansel Adams, watch out!



Here's a cute one of Shay playing in the rain. It's been so hot here (over 100 most of the time) that any rain storm is a blessed relief and we can't help but go out and play in it.


We got our (actually, my mom's) piano tuned and fixed today. A few of the keys had fallen and we thought Shay had stuck a penny under one of the keys. Turns out he hadn't but it really needed to be tuned anyway. Shay loved watching the guy take almost the whole piano apart to fix it. Seriously, he took all of the keys completely off and removed most of the panels to get to the right place. It was pretty cool.


This really belongs on the last post, but I went to Ikea for the first time and found a great bookshelf that I just had to have. Dylan's parents were in town for the weekend and I took advantage of the great engineer's brain of Dylan's dad to help put this thing together. As it was it took the better part of an hour and a few "oops, got to redo that part"s to get it right. Thank goodness for fix-it men! They even let Shay help and hammer in the pegs on the bottom of the bookshelf. He was thrilled!


Ok, that's it on the pictures. Here's the rest of the post:

Things are actually going really well. I have spurts of energy where I clean the house. Then I have hours of low energy where Shay and I watch a movie. I guess that's the way to go. I only have about 3 weeks left (come Saturday) and I'm both excited and apprehensive. I've been having lots of Braxton-Hicks contractions, that's false labor for all those uninitiated in the world of pregnancy. These contractions help get me loosened up, though, and are supposed to make labor easier. Right now they just serve to remind me of the kind of pain I'm in for. Thank goodness for epidurals!

Shay is becoming more of a 3 year old all of the time. The other day he decided he wanted popcorn, so he pushed a chair up to the cabinet where we keep the microwave popcorn, got down the box, got out a bag, put it in the microwave and pushed Start. When I heard the microwave go on I ran into the kitchen, thinking some hapless toy was about to get cooked. Imagine my surprise when I found popcorn cooking. The only thing he messed up on was forgetting to take the plastic off of the bag first. After that was taken care of we had a nice snack of popcorn and juice. And a nice little talk about not putting things in the microwave and asking mommy for help when we want a snack.

Shay-Daddy showers have become a regular thing, now, with Shay demanding time under the water as well. Dylan is a really good sport and is patient with his son's antics in the shower. Most of the time Shay likes to wash the walls with his washcloth, but when he gets soap in his eyes or wants equal time under the water Dylan is right there helping.

That's it for now. Watch for more baby updates as we get closer to D-day!