TOMORROW!!!!

I wanted to let you know that although the next week is going to be INSANE at the bebehblog residence (my folks come Thursday to start new nursery/master bedroom renovations) and here on the blog (giveaways every day) I’m going to keep up posting regular Little Evan and Baby Sandy type updates too. So even if you’re not interested in giveaways please don’t delete me from your reader just yet.

Because, trust me, you’re going to want to see if we can make THIS…

…into livable space.

Also, if you’re local and have any need for:
1. End table shaped like a dock piling with burn mark on top
2. Giant Stonehenge style speakers
3. Former radio console with all the speakers and doors ripped off
4. Size 5 black satin pants covered in sparkly black mirrors
5. 400 square feet of orange carpet that may be soaked in cat pee

LET ME KNOW! IT’S ALL YOURS! I CAN DELIVER!!

Little Evan had his 18 months check-up yesterday, and since this blog is my baby book I should probably record his stats here, rather than lying to myself and pretending I’m going to hold onto this “Baby’s Health and Growth Record” they gave me at his first visit and I shove in my purse before each appointment.

Height: 32 inches
Weight: 24 lbs 3 oz
Head circumference: 47.6 cm

All of that puts him somewhere between the 25th and the 50th percentiles and back on the kind of “healthy curve” the doctor is happy with and doesn’t require coming in every freaking month to make sure I’m not starving him to death. They made me schedule his next appointment on the way out, which is his 2 YEAR CHECK-UP. I was not only mentally unprepared to think of him as being 2, I am incapable of picking a “good” time and day for an appointment in April, when I will have 2 babies. My day planner doesn’t even go past December, because that’s when I figure my whole life will just turn into chaos and won’t ever leave the house anyway.

In “things that make my life easier news”, we also went to Best Buy and bought this:

HUGE. But useful.

Our current TV stand (which, if you REALLY need to see it, is the in background of 85% of my pictures) has solid wood doors, which means when you close them you can’t control anything with the remote. Design FAIL. We took one of the doors off a long time ago and that was a workable solution for a while…until we had a kid. A kid who likes buttons. And knows which button turns the TV on and off. And thihks pushing it is HILARIOUS. Our new stand will prevent the button-pushing and cord-pulling, as well as give us a lot more storage for E’s giant electronics collection and free up space on our bookshelves for, you know, those things with the pages and the words. Oh yeah, BOOKS.

We also ordered this:

Nursery Glider

It’s the Newco Serenity Classic Glider to go in the new nursery/playroom. You can’t see the fabric closely in the picture, but it’s a chenille corduroy that is very soft AND very stain resistant. I was torn between buying the chocolate brown and ordering it in the green version, but when the sales guy said the green was “special order”, which meant it would take 10-12 weeks AND I couldn’t use my BRU 20% off coupon, the brown won. Easily. It will work just fine with beige and orange and if I end up hating the color I’ll just throw a blanket over it.

Also, if you read all the reviews of the chair they’re split between people who love it and people who hate it because it squeaks, and although squeaking is annoying the cheap Target glider we have already is INCREDIBLY squeaky and it never ever bothered Baby Evan. Comfortable is really my only concern.

Next weekend starts our new master bedroom renovations and also the start of fourteen bazillion posts featuring MORE crap I want to buy. I know you’re already excited.

I am totally stealing this idea from Emmie Bee. I might make it a weekly thing, except for those weeks where we don’t actually DO anything and all my photos would be of a screaming toddler throwing things at my face.

Monday:

We went to E's hockey practice

And watched Daddy play

Tuesday:

We went to Strolller Strides at Mohegan Park

I went to my OB check-up

Wednesday:

I rescued this chair from someone's trash (not sure it can be saved - it reeks of smoke)

And we all had couscous for dinner

Thursday:

We went to the SUPER awesome playground in Groton

Mommy took a little rest in the grass

And then while Little Evan practiced getting naked...

...I went to Goodwill. Where I did NOT buy this.

Friday:

And today we're hanging out at home

And happy it's Friday!

Sorry, I know I’ve talked about names about a zillion times already, but E came home last night and declared we HAVE to know what we’re calling her before she’s born. So this is basically just me telling him what names he gets to pick from. Because we have a super nice healthy relationship where most communication is done via blog posts and text messages. We are…an American family. (TEN POINTS to the first person who names the movie! Mom, you can’t play!)

Definitely one of these:
Caroline
Corinne
Louisa
Merin/Marin
Eloise

Probably not but still in my brain and you never know what I’ll do after labor and/or possible middle names:
Piper
Persephone (Penny)
Violet
Layla
Hazel
Claire
Mae
Natalie (if she’s born on Christmas)(Because it means “born on Christmas”)

And per Swistle’s suggestion on my first baby name post, if she’s born on Christmas Eve I’m totally using Eve as a middle name. I would use it as a first name but it’s WAAAY too close to “Evan”.

(I put Persephone on the list after I heard it somewhere months ago and totally forgot about it until I was re-reading the draft of this post. I sort of love it an abnormal amount, despite the fact that I simply cannot imagine calling my relatives and announcing “We named her Persephone!!”)

This post may contain TMI. You’ve been warned.

I’m already at the point where I have OB check-ups every 2 weeks instead of once a month and oh my GOD does it make time go by faster. Between vet visits and Little Evan’s check-ups and trying to keep the laundry piles to a reasonable level and making sure there’s at least some sort of toddler- appropriate food in the house I can barely remember to SHOWER every 2 weeks, let alone show up for appointments at predetermined times. Especially when I can hardly walk from the kicked-in-the-crotch pain combined with the horrible-strained-muscle-in-my-leg pain and now for extra fun throw in what-I’m-pretty-sure-is-a-raging-UTI pain.

I WARNED YOU.

Yesterday I was so proud of myself for making it to Stroller Strides, only to discover not only can I barely walk around the park I definitely can’t jump up a flight of stairs or stand on one leg while doing chest presses with an elastic band. I guess the good news is I showed up and plan to go again Wednesday and maybe even Thursday if I can still walk. Which is doubtful, because at my OB appointment today I was all “Oh hai, I have a UTI” and the doctor was like “Ok, you need to go down to the lab for a test and we should have the results by Friday.” And then I died dead. Because if you’ve ever HAD a UTI you know how long 48 hours can be if you feel like you have to pee constantly while at the same time feel like you’re being stabbed in the crotch with a super pointy knitting needle. (Not to be confused with my already constant KICKED in the crotch pain.)

Luckily, E was more sympathetic than the doctor and took Little Evan to the store for giant amounts of cranberry juice while I lay on the couch only moving enough to hit “next” on my Google Reader. Hopefully some rest and a ton of fluids does enough to keep me from ending up bed-ridden. Because if there’s one thing worse than being in so much pain you can’t get out of bed it’s being in so much pain you can’t get out of bed while a toddler jumps on your stomach and hits you in the face and screams that he wants milk and a new diaper.

In other 30 week check-up news, my doctor said that although Braxton-Hicks contractions are mostly normal, if I have more than 6 strong ones in an hour I need to come in. I’ve been having them pretty regularly, although my regularly I mean I can count on having them when I walk long distances and/or haven’t been drinking enough water but they never fall into a pattern. And they don’t hurt, they just make my belly really really tight. She also implied I may not make it to 40 weeks if my body is already preparing itself for labor like that.

The rest of the appointment was uneventful but kind of awesome. I actually LOST half a pound since last time, although my belly is bigger and measuring right on target. My blood pressure is excellent, as usual, and the doctor (who I hadn’t seen since before I had Evan) was extremely pleased to hear my first birth had gone well. Also, for the first time in two pregnancies, the receptionist remembered my name and said “Hi Suzanne, I have your chart here” when I checked in. Guys, I’M A REGULAR. Just like I used to be at that one bar, where a guy named Billy worked the door and would let us in free. Only at this bar there’s no alcohol and you’re much more likely to see someone experience the consequences of a drunk hook-up than the hook-up itself.

Now I have 2 more very busy weeks to  go before my 32 week check up when I again think OMG THIS IS ALL HAPPENING TOO FAST.