Five on Friday

1. My mom is visiting!  She arrived on Wednesday, and it's bliss!  And she'll be back SOON--whenever Anna Reaghan is born. :)  With her help, the house/ironing pile are totally being whipped into shape! :)  THANK YOU, Mom! Asa is ecstatic that she is here and asks, "Where Mine-uh?" whenever I get him up from a nap or in the morning... he has to make sure she hasn't snuck off somewhere (Sunday morning ought to be fun when she won't be downstairs waiting for him to get up). He is also occasionally calling her G-Ma! And he's finally referring to my dad as G-Pa! :) It is so fun to see Asa and my mom enjoying each other SO much. Love, love, love.

2. Our new couch for the basement was delivered yesterday... except it was too long to fit into the basement doorway!  It was too tall for a straight shot, and there's a corner near the basement door that prevented any angled maneuvers. We figured any couch (it's not an extra long couch or anything) would give us similar problems, so the store took it back and is delivering a love seat from the same collection instead--tomorrow! The basement will be so homey then as we put down our carpet piece last weekend... but that's a post in and of itself. Let's just say it's a comedy of errors to try to put carpet down when the scenario involves a huge thunderstorm complete with tornado sirens, a lady who's 9 months pregnant, a 15 ft. long roll of 18 ft. of carpet, and the corner that prevented the couch from going down to the basement.... among other things. Everyone survived, we laughed a lot (A LOT), and we all love the cushy carpet under our feet downstairs now.

3.  This week I worked to set out larger baby gear items for Asa to get used to. The big swing is now set up (I put it in our room so Anna Reaghan can nap in there with some sound separation from Asa if he's playing in the living room or we're eating a meal while she rests, etc.). The bouncy seat is currently also in our room, but only because Asa is ENAMORED with playing music on all the baby gear and we're trying to spare the fresh batteries we put in things. :) The travel swing is upstairs so there's a place to put her besides on the floor if we're up playing in the kids' rooms or the loft (or eventually sewing?  Someday?  I know I'll have to take a hiatus, but I also remember how refreshing it was to sew again when I got around to it after Asa was born). Asa seems mostly to have quenched his investigative desires to try pushing the swing really hard, sit on the bouncy seat, etc. the first day they were set up. Now he likes to put Anna Reaghan's stuffed hippo into them, turn the music on, and cover hippo with a "cozy" blanket. What a sweet big brother he is already! :)

4.  Matt was supposed to be traveling to California this weekend--I'm pretty sure I mentioned how that wasn't my favorite since it's so close to our due date ;)--but this trip was canceled!  He still has to go next week, so please keep praying Anna Reaghan stays put. I'm thankful we eliminated one of the times Matt would be gone though.  We're down to a 36 hour window next weekend.

5.  I'm feeling well for being almost 37 weeks pregnant! I take it easy getting up off the floor when I've been playing with Asa, and I ask for Matt's help with little things I *could* do but it's easier to ask for help on (picking something I've dropped it, etc.), I'm tired but not exhausted (don't worry, I know that's coming ;))... the biggest change I've noted is that I have reached the stage where I am hungry at meals, etc. but Anna Reaghan is too big to allow me to eat very much. I eat about half of my meal and just can't take another bite I'm so stuffed. So I stop and if I get hungry later I have a snack.  I vaguely remember this with Asa, but not as strongly.  Then again, they think she might be up to 1/2 lb. bigger and I think I'm carrying her higher... she must be squishing my stomach  more than he was!

That about catches you up on us!  Stay tuned--the official "place your bets" invitation is coming very, very soon.  Start thinking---what day will Anna Reaghan arrive, how much will she weigh, how long will she be, and if you want bonus points you can follow Brad's lead from Asa's guess collection and even include an estimated TIME of birth! I won the weight/length guess last time--I was SPOT ON!  We were all off by daaaays with Asa's birth date of course (today is the anniversary of his due date, by the way). ;) It will be fun to see who's closest this time!