Progress

Ah, it's Friday! I love Friday's because this is the day my weekend starts! I'm soooo lucky to live close enough to some of Allison's Grandparents, and they bless us every week. On Wednesday, Allison spends part of her day with her Grandma (my mom), and on Friday she is picked up at 9am by her Mimi (Frank's mom) and she usually spends the rest of the day at her house, and Frank stops by to pick her up on his way home from work. The implications for me here are HUGE, but I also love that Allison gets some time away from our house, and away from me. Most importantly, I know she's well loved, cared for, and taught when she's with her grandparents.

Today was only a half day with Mimi because Mimi had somewhere to be this afternoon, but it still gave me the entire morning to myself. I had time to do some laundry, clean the kitchen and the master bathroom, get myself showered and dressed, do all the prep work for dinner, and eat lunch! Now my pregnant body is tired from the non-stop running around, but I feel great about the day. Allison is sleeping peacefully in her toddler bed, and I can most likely expect another couple of hours to myself till she wakes up.

Speaking of her sleeping, now would be a good time to note that she is making strides in her '5 step program' to her big girl room. Turns out, this has not been as big of a battle as I had expected it to be. Maybe she was more ready than I thought! For some reason, she has very little interest in getting out of her bed. I truly believed that once the choice was hers she would stop napping and run circles in her room, pound on the door, pull everything out of her drawers, and cry. I'll admit that she did a little of all of that during her first nap time in her toddler bed, but that only lasted about 30 minutes. Since then, I've gotten smart and hidden the few things in her room that really peaked her interest and tempted her to stay up. Now, I put her down and she stays in her bed till I come and get her - even if she's been awake for 30 minutes!

She was doing so well that I discussed with Frank that we should attempt to take away her bumper this weekend (eek!). I had intentionally settled on starting it the days I knew he'd be home with me for support! Well, I was doing her laundry on Wednesday and part of that involved stripping the fitted sheet off of her bed to include in the wash, and I got a good up close look at her bumper. I noticed that some of the white parts had started to yellow, and it had a few stains. After all, it had been attached to her bed for almost two years! Gross, I know. There is probably a solid mixture of spit-up, drool, sweat, and maybe the occasional wet leaky diaper. That mental image was enough for me, so I took it off and planned to wash it for her. However, I quickly found that not even half of it would fit in my washer - and I worked at it! It's a Pottery Barn bumper which I had insisted on having - not for the name brand - but because their bumpers are a good inch or more thicker than any others. I felt like they offered the most as far as comfort and protection. Anyway - this thing is a beast, and I didn't feel like taking it to be dry cleaned ($$!). My only other option was to hand wash it, and the only place big enough for that was my bath tub! So I piled it in there (where it still barely fit), and filled the tub with hot water and plenty of Dreft. I also pretreated all the really yellowed places that had emerged. I'll just skip to the end and say that this process ended up taking me most of a day! At some point between, washing, rinsing, and drying I decided that I would never do it again, so Allison wasn't getting it back. It is going to stay clean and ready-to-go for my next little girl.

So Allison napped that day for the first time without her precious bumper, and only lasted an hour. But since then it's been no problem! Yay! I will say that I'm still a little sad for her though, because she now piles her stuffed animals around her head to substitute. How adorable!

The only thing stopping me from moving her to her new room now, is that it's not finished. I still need to buy her a toddler bedding set, paint, and hang curtains and a ceiling fan. After all that, I'd like to add some nice things to decorate the walls, too. I thought we had tons of time, so I had put all of those things off for a while. I guess it's better to get it done before I'm huge!

As for being huge, I finally have a baby belly, and have the need for maternity shirts. I can still get away with my normal jeans, but some days it's nice to pull out the maternity ones just for extra room and comfort. Other than that, this pregnancy is uneventful. I wish I was the type of person who savored every moment, but I just don't. I love feeling the baby move, and I miss that when it's gone - but everything else can go! I've told Frank many times that pregnancy just makes me feel very 'unpretty'. From the weight gain, the teenager-ish breakouts, and the exhaustion, I just don't feel like myself. Some women make pregnancy look adorable, but I'm not one of them!

I haven't taken many pictures lately, but here are few cute ones of Allison eating chocolate pudding for the first time yesterday. I picked it up at the store on a whim thinking it would be a fun treat from time to time. I hit the bulls-eye on this one! She dug right in, and did all but lick the bowl clean!







This is (obviously) from Valentines Day. I thought her hair was adorable, but it didn't last long.









These are just random pics from a few days ago. I had some music playing and she danced along the whole time, oblivious to my snapping pictures.







Finally, this picture was taken last month, but I forgot to put in my last post. I love my family!