presents and sprinkles

I had a coupon to Babies R Us that expired today (which I could combine with another coupon I had), and was determined to get there today to pick out something fun for the baby.  I've only bought her one other thing (an outfit for next winter...on clearance) so far, and am so tempted every time I go in a store, but until I get Rachel's stuff out of storage in the crawl space, I really don't know what she needs, so I refrain myself every time.  So I was excited to go find something and use my coupons.

We also had to pick out a birthday present for Rachel's cousin's birthday party this weekend and her friend's birthday party, which is next weekend.  Our Babies R Us and Toys R Us stores are right next to each other, so it worked perfectly to get it all done in one trip.  Rachel was so excited--not only did she get to look at toys, her very favorite thing to do at a store, but she got to choose what to buy! 

First we looked at baby clothes. She saw all kinds of things she wanted to buy her sister, but then told me that she needed a pink blanket like her own purple blanket. Rachel's purple blanket is her most prized possession, so I thought it was so sweet that she wanted to buy one just like it for her little sister. So we went over to the blankets and she immediately found the one she wanted. It's exactly like hers, but pink--super soft and cuddly.

I showed her all of the other ones and made sure she didn't see any she liked better, but she was sure that this was the right one.

For her friend, she decided right away that we should get her a puzzle. I didn't really know what to get her friend, since she's a friend from school and I don't really know her or what she likes, so I thought a puzzle sounded like a good idea. Puzzles at this age are hard to come by, though. The 24 piece puzzles are for ages 3 and up, and Rachel's been whipping through those for over a year. I didn't want to get one that was too easy. The next size you normally see is usually 100 pieces, for ages 5 and up. Too hard. Sometimes you can find 60 pieces, but they're not as easy to find. Rachel settled on a Melissa and Doug 48 piece puzzle that she has and loves. Since it said ages 4 and up, I decided it would be a good fit.  I hope I'm right.

Then it was over to the boy side of the store to find something for my soon-to-be-five year old nephew.  Rachel immediately said, "Maybe we should get him Power Rangers.  Boys like Power Rangers" (I didn't even know she knew what a Power Ranger was!). My sister in law had told me he loves Power Rangers, so we went to that aisle.  And I realized that I really have no clue when it comes to action figures!  I don't know a thing about Power Rangers!  I live in a world of princesses, dress up, puzzles, and arts and crafts.  I ended up calling my sister in law on the phone from the store to figure out what to get.  Come to find out, the first set Rachel picked out for him, before I had even called her, was what we ended up buying.

After we made all of our decisions Rachel got to look at the things she wanted to look at....the train table, princess dresses and dolls, and bikes.  I had her ride a bike around for a little while, since it's the main present we're getting her for her birthday and I wanted to see what size she needed and how she did on it (she did pretty well!).  She picked out the helmet she liked best, too (without knowing why I was asking).  She liked the princess helmet, of course.

It was a fun morning for both of us.  It was so nice to see her thinking about what other people would like, as opposed to just what she would like.

**Just a couple of fun asides: 

Last night when I was reading her a story before bed, she started patting my belly.  "Is it okay to pat the baby, Mommy?" she asked me.  I told her yes, that it was okay.  I asked her if she wanted to say hi to her baby sister, so she started talking to my tummy:  "Hi Baby Sister.  I'm your big sister Rachel.  But I can't know what your name is yet."  (It's not that she can't...it's just that we haven't decided yet!)

Then we started talking about what we should name her.  Rachel originally wanted to name her "Rachel."  When we told her we couldn't have two Rachels in the house, she started making up silly names.  Last night she started choosing princess names (Belle was the one she decided she liked the best).  And finally she decided we should name her "Sprinkles," just like in Blue's Clues (Blue has a baby brother named Sprinkles--we've had the book out of the library for a few weeks and have read it several times).  So for now, I guess I'm carrying Baby Sprinkles.

This morning when she woke up Rachel asked me if "the girl baby" was out of my tummy yet. When I told her no, that we had to wait until springtime, she let out an exasperated sigh....kind of like, "C'mon already!" It made me laugh.  I can relate to her impatience, though....I'm more than ready to have her out of my tummy, too.  I talked to a friend last weekend who told me, "I just loved being pregnant.  I could be a surrogate for someone, I think."  Oh, how I wish I enjoyed it like that, but that simply isn't me.  Pregnancy is definitely not an easy or fun thing for me, though I couldn't be more thrilled for the prize at the end!

Rachel went into her "new" room this morning (which my husband has slowly been emptying, to get ready to paint it to get ready for her, so it's looking bigger and bigger as it gets more and more empty) and said, "Look, Mom! This is going to be my room!" I told her what a big girl she was for getting such a big room and she said, "But I just want a small room. No, I just want a middle sized room." But then I told her that we'd get to put lots of her toys in her room since it was so big (she only has a couple of her toys in her room now, because it's really small) and she got excited, telling me what toys we should put in there.  If she'd have her way it sounds like everything would be in her room and nothing left in the play room downstairs!

the long winter

This is the winter that never ends....

Remember this?

Now it looks like this, thanks to 10 more inches yesterday. (Sorry, it was taken through my screen because I can't get the back door open in the snow to take a better picture!)

I'm done with this snow!  I think I want to move to Arizona.  Or the Bahamas.  Or at the very least go there until I can see the grass again.

And if the snow isn't frustrating enough (and the resulting stuck-in-the-house feeling), Rachel is sick.  We had to go out in the horrible weather (the roads were terrible!) and take her to the doctor.  He said it could be RSV, which isn't a huge deal unless you're an infant, but the resulting cough could last 5-8 weeks, he told us!  The cough is why we went, because she's been up at night coughing...and coughing...and coughing some more.  Last night she and I spent the 3:15-5:15 AM hours together with her coughing constantly.  The poor thing.  Thankfully, though she has a fever and the cough, she seems to be acting fine otherwise.  She would've missed school today because of it, but it was a snow day, so I guess there's a little silver lining in all of this.  She would've been sad to have missed out on a day at school when her friends were all there.

I thought these were to be my last 15 weeks of a whole night of sleep, but I'm spending them up with my little coughing machine.  I guess I'm being prepared for sleep deprivation a couple of months early....

impatience

I mentioned that Rachel got a new clock for Christmas--an Okay to Wake clock.

It's worked like a charm, and I'm loving the benefits of an extra hour of sleep it affords, since she's not allowed to call Mommy until the clock turns green at 7:00 AM, instead of the 6:00 or 6:15 it used to be. 

But sometimes she wakes well before the 7:00 clock-turning-green time (you can set it to turn green at any time....I've just chosen 7:00 as the time I'll allow her to get up).  This morning my husband's alarm went off (very loudly) at 6:00 and he fumbled with it for quite awhile until he was able to get it turned off.  Rachel heard it from her room next to ours and within seconds she was calling me, which she usually doesn't do, so I was surprised to hear her.  I went in and she asked me to cover her up because she couldn't reach the covers.  She told me she was having good dreams and was going back to sleep.  Sounded good to me!

She settled back down, I got back in bed, and my poor husband started getting ready for his day. 

However, Rachel didn't go back to sleep.  She was quiet, which was great, but she was coughing every 30 seconds or so, which is how I knew she was awake (she's been fighting a cold for a little over a week). 

So at 6:47, she apparently had had quite enough of lying in bed, coughing, and waiting for her clock to turn green (47 minutes must seem like an eternity to a three year old, when it's spent lying in bed, waiting!).  My husband and I both burst out laughing when we heard her call out, at 6:48, "C'mon, clock!" in complete exasperation.

snow fort and 24 weeks

Rachel's been asking since Friday to make a snow family.  Daddy told her that today they could.  But it got so cold last night that when they went outside to make them, the snow was too hard to roll into snowmen. 

Instead, they got out the snow block maker and made a snow fort. 

Rachel said she had fun, but she didn't like the fort because it didn't have a roof or a door.  She obviously hasn't had any snowball fights yet to know that those things wouldn't really come in handy in a snow fort.

Oh, and can you see the cheesy smile? That's what I get when I tell her to smile.  If I want a real smile I have to tell her to say something, like "I made a snow fort!" and then it's more natural.  I didn't do that this time.

In other news, I'm 24 weeks along today.  This weekend's momentous event is that my husband finally felt the baby move.  I don't know how he can miss it, since she's now moving my entire belly with her gymnastics.  Tonight instead of watching the Super Bowl halftime show, I was watching my belly move. (I could care less about The Who, but she seemed to enjoy the music, because she was moving around like crazy!)

And Adrianne, you asked for belly pictures....sadly, this is only the second set we've taken, and they're horrible, but here you go. My husband says it looks bigger in this picture than in real life. He knows just what to say.... :)

sledding for the first time

Heading up the hill for the first time (Daddy offered to pull her in the sled, but she insisted on walking.)

Here's what happened just seconds later.

At the bottom of the hill after the first time down--she liked it!

Next time she let Daddy pull her up the hill.

Ready to head down again

Coming down!

She had trouble getting out of the sled...

With Mommy--I didn't sled (at six months pregnant, I didn't think it was wise).  I was the official photographer.

Ready to head down one last time.

oh the weather outside is frightful...

I can't believe the size of the snowflakes we're getting.  They started around 10:30 or 11 this morning and it hasn't let up since.  We went from no snow on the ground this morning to 5-6 inches in a matter of a couple of hours, and it's still going.  I've heard different predictions from different places, but they're saying anywhere between 8-12 inches of snow for us.

Rachel's excited about making Frosty and a snowman family. 

And I think she and Daddy may go sledding tomorrow.  I'll keep you posted.