Silently we sat on the couch soaking in the Sunday football game when the familiar voice broke the silence, “Start having contractions. Let’s get this baby.”

– we’re ready.-

Welp friends. I have dropped. Not the ball. But the baby. Breathing a bit better today, which is nice because I haven’t been able to experience the joys of dropping with this wonderful cold I’ve had for almost a week. The good thing is that the puking only lasted for one day (last Saturday), but I really have been missing my left nostril. It’s nice that it’s back for at least a visit today.

Christmas was wonderful. It was such a blessing to get to wake up at your own house and just stay there. That’s right, my wonderful family came to us this year – in light of current circumstances. It was nice to get the early afternoon to just hang out with Mom and Dad. Jes and Nayt showed up around 3 and we ate at 4pm. Overall, it was a really relaxing day of no-shoes, dog petting and laughing. Such wonderful memories. “Everywhere you turn there’s some kind of baby toy,” mom commented as she happened upon the newest set of baby bathtub toys given us by a sweet lady at church. Tis true, friends, Matt and I are baby-ready. Matt said in the car on the way home from a quick visit to his family last night, “We’re ready for the baby. Well, ready as not ready can be ready.” He’s got a point there. We’re as ready as unready can be!

Got to hold John last night at the in-law‘s as I watched the family open the gifts from Matt and me. John was crying in Matt’s arms. “John doesn’t like me,” he announced to the family. Matt handed him to me and he instantly calmed down. “That’s not even fair!” said Matt. “He knows she’s a mom,” piped in Ellen to relieve Matt’s conscience. I kinda felt bad. I didn’t do anything he wasn’t doing. John just got quiet for me. The poor little gass-y fellow was trying to “work it all out” last night. According to Ellen this is a daily occurrence for him. He and I enjoyed some good snuggle time on the couch. He’s a good snuggler that sweet little one. It was nice to have a snuggle friend after a long, but good day. – Looking forward to meeting our little one. –

I’m just taking a quick break here at work so I better get back to things here. I get to make up my own hours for today as I finish paperwork. So far I’m one of one here at the building, but afterall it’s 7:30am. I got here at 5:30am after waking up at 4:30am and feeling as rested as usual. I just headed on in with hopes of getting home around the time that Matt wakes up and just in time for lunch. With a quick after-lunch nap I’ll be good for the rest of the day. I thought this sounded like a good alternative to taking a vacation day that I could have otherwise taken when our baby chooses to bless us with their in-arms presence.

Alrighty, so have a good morning friends and I’m back to the “grind” here at the dead, but productive office. – Oooo, signs of life are heard down the hallway. –

You know, I just think it’s a bit funny how angle is everything. For example, compare the 9 month picture to the Christmas ones. Those pictures were taken on the same day, but it looks like the nine months picture contains much more baby. Again, angle is everything. And no one can really describe what the angle’s like looking downward at your own belly – especially as it forms differing shapes throughout the day. There’s the hour-glass figure, the straight pointing out, the best described as looking like a “butt” figure, the lopping to one side figure, the rounded figure and then the side-to-side figure. And it’s entertaining because sometimes I wonder if there are two in there by how much space appears to be occupied by two huge bumps. My brain gets baffled at what that second huge bump is when the doctors have declared the baby to be head-down for the past 3 weeks. Maybe it’s knees all crushed in there. That could explain some painful ribbed experiences. But anyway, the shapes are fun. And despite the discomfort, I do have to say that the unpredictability of the belly angle is quite fun too. Today this shirt looks like it fits, but in 20 minutes it looks like I’m cramming myself into the very shirt I plan on dressing baby in upon delivery. – Anyway, just finding small joys in the midst of this otherwise trying last countdown.

in front of our tree.

Dakota wanted some holiday cheer.

And let’s not forget her favorite toy!

“Can you get her to sit in front of you?”
“Of course, but not facing the camera.”

=)

A semi-Dakota -facing-the-camera pic.

“Four weeks” to go friends. Today marks nine months. And n one week our little one could show up at any time and be considered full term. Kinda neat, huh?

Last night Matt and I played Mary and Joseph in the live nativity. Matt dressed in about everything he could find and freezing to death – me in two shirts and a couple pair of pants with no gloves and warm as usual. Sometimes the inferno within is beneficial.

Had lunch yesterday with a few old and one current co-worker. Kinda funny how that helps classify me as being old. The career-jobs are the ones where the co-workers do things outside of the office for the sake of having a social life. Outside of college social lives revolve around co-workers, churches and families. And to prove myself old I was the first to show up and the only one to show up unfashionably late. I was hungry. We don’t mess around with the lunch times here. =)

Today marks another obedience training class – second to last – and soon the rush from service to dog social time will be complete. I think Matt and I both are ready for it to be done. Dakota’s done well and we’ve been given tools that we can use. We’ve found some united lingo and learned some of the basics that we were messing up on. But really I think we’ve come to a point where we’re not interested in having a dog-show trained dog and the classes are leaning a bit more toward refining skills that we find unnecessary for our daily lives with our doggie. We just wanted basic training and basic training helps. And those we have received. So now obedience training is becoming a bit more of an obligation than a help. But we only have two more weeks including today so we’ll be good. Never thought 8 weeks could feel so long though. Matt and I look forward to the days of non-2pm commitments on Sundays.

“Are you ready for the baby to come?” I feel like everyone I pass is asking these days and I’m sure it won’t stop until I pop. I’m not exactly sure what to respond. It depends on the person I guess. Afterall, who is defining “ready?” According to the baby magazines Matt and I read in the baby Dr. waiting room to kill the time my house is far from baby-proof and sterile enough. According to other generations we have WELL more than we could ever need. (I agree with them). And yet Matt and I still have a few more things we would like to get before baby comes – a few more spoilers. If baby came home tomorrow, we would have more than enough to survive for a couple of days. But as for the nursery, we would like to get the crib up at some point and some of the odds and ends put in appropriate places prior to the greatest distraction of our attention moving in. So technically we’re good. Non-technically, we’ll get there. And magazine technically, we’ll never be there… EVER (and we don’t want to be). My house will never be a Lysol wiped fortress. Instead, a family will live here. And coffee table corners will still sting and our baby will not grow up wrapped in bubble wrap. =)

Okay, off to church. have a great Sunday all!