TIme off for bad behavior, please?

Its time.

or at least I really want it to be time.

The midwife says that the baby is as low as the baby can possibly go, but that doesn't mean things are going to happen any time soon.

So I'm taking matters into my own hands.

Ever heard that energy drinks could start labor? Well I'm having Juice Stop put energy supplements in my morning smoothie (please hold your gasps of astonishment and criticisms)

And how about taking the stairs? Yep, I did my first set of hustling (not to be confused with running) up and down four flights of stairs at work. I'll probably do this 3-4 times a day.

And lots and lots of bouncing, plies, jumping anything that I can think of.

And it doesn't help that I have this insane craving to go running.

Seriously, all I want to do is strap on some running shoes and just move!!!

Its not that I'm sick of being pregnant, although I'm ready to feel a lot cooler during the day, but work has just taken a big dive and I don't want to be here anymore.

Heaven help me go into labor today!

Birthday!

Happy Birthday Alaina!

It seems just like yesterday I was obsessing over your first birthday party.

I've let the obsessing go this year and have already had much more fun!

I'm looking forward to another year of
"Oh, mommy, its sooooo beautiful."
"That'd be just great if you could do that for me mommy!"

And lots of hugs and kisses!

You had so much fun staying home with Daddy yesterday. You got to play princess all day and eat your birthday cookie, too!
I'm impressed that the first present you got to open was Mater. I'm so excited to have a big girl who likes to play with all kinds of toys, not just dolls and makeup.

And today is the big party day! I can still remember the little thrills from last year as you attempted to open your presents by yourself, this year is going to be even more fun!

I'm just sorry that I couldn't give you the present you really wanted.

"Mommy, I'm going to have my birthday and a barbie cake and I'm going to share it with my baby sister."

As close as I could get was the barbie cake.

Thanks for the Barbie aunt Stacey! She worked perfect! Jeff thinks I should compete with HyVee for making barbie cakes.

They charge about $50 for a barbie cake. I think I came in at under $10 and about 3 hours (excluding baking time).

Now I just need to wrap all those presents I've been hoarding all year.

Did you know that barbies have patterned underwear 'built in' now? I'm so silly I can't wait to hold her up to one of my old dolls and see how matel has revamped the vamp!

Recovery time

Its time for shots!

Nope not the nasty needle kind, but the fun colored ones! When Alaina was vomiting, I couldn't get her to drink gatorade, so I devised this system.

Every 15 minutes, she got to pick another 'color' to drink.

It worked okay, but she doesn't really like to drink anything but milk or water so this was a bit of a chore.

She really liked to 'nurse' her drink rather than drink it down. I'm betting she'll master the guzzle well before her 21st b-day at this rate.

Alaina was feeling pretty perky on Sunday, so we headed up to Omaha to visit the Denver Danglers. Here's Mimi horsing around with her grand daughters. Or should I say Alaina was the horse. And because she was feeling better, Alaina got to open her b-day present the DenDangs brought for her. It was a wonderful 'green' tea set. Alaina hasn't stopped serving Jeff and I yet.

Mommy do you want some tea?

Coffee?

Chocolate milk?

Pink?

Check out the fake cookies. She made me wait to take the picture until she had all the cookies arranged so that they were facing the camera at the same angle.

OCD girl strikes again!

Alaina is convinced that her sister will be here on Saturday to have cake with her for her birthday. I get a little misty when she talks about it. I hope this fascination with having a sister lasts for a while.

And after an intense debate last night, the baby still remains nameless. We've even tried making deals.

"if you let me pick this one's first name . . .I get to pick the next one."

Bad ideas all around.

Oh, Vomit!

Again
and Again , ,
And again . . .

Poor Alaina,

Its teh stomach flu again and she already vomitted six times since 7pm yesterday.
I have no idea what to do!

She gets so scared and just wants to drink water which comes right back up.

Poor thing.

I get to stay home with her tomorrow and hopefully the vomiting slows down, but with my luck probably not.

Hopefully we don't get into an accident this time in the van.

Now where did I put that sleep? I seem to have lost it somewhere here in the last two weeks and haven't found it yet!

Maybe I'llfind a little more after the baby is born,

Or not.

Happy Birthday Sis!

Not to be outdone . . .I miss you sis! Too bad I can't bring the whole family down for a disney birthday party. One of these years we'll do that with the best host around!

See you in a few weeks!

Big weekend!

Big weekend for the Brenneman family!

First off, happy birthday to Jeff! Yesterday Jeff turned 32 and we celebrated by going out and eating with friends at Shoguns. They have a little birthday treat you can buy, but we've never been excited about getting the $5 pineapple slice that comes with a song and a Polaroid photo, so we get sushi for our birthday splurge.

This was Alaina's first trip to Shoguns and she had a lot of fun watching the chef cook our food. (Of course I don't have any pictures, even though I brought the camera.) Her eyes were as big as saucers the entire time!

Jeff's parents were up for the weekend because they wanted to bring Alaina her birthday surprise early. But before we could even think about giving it to her . . .we had to go to the Children's zoo for a train ride, so we loaded up on Saturday (which was cold and wet) and went for a very cold ride.

When we got back, Alaina got to go downstairs to see her new present. Her very own train.

Kitty even joined in the fun.

We also took a bed buying trip for Alaina to Nebraska Furniture Mart.

Jeff and I debated quite a bit on what to get for a bed for Alaina:
Bunk or regular?

Twin or Full?

We ended up with this behemoth of a bunk bed, but Alaina would have preferred the one with the slide attached.
Each bed is a full size mattress and the total cost ended up being $3 less that the check we got for my little accident two weeks ago. Yay insurance money!

We could have spent all day in the store it was so much fun! Even Alaina loved 'trying' out the furniture.

Every time she sat down she would say . . .

"This is so comfortable!"

I told Jeff that I can't wait to go shopping for new couches there. We'll need a whole weekend. Do you think the sales people would let us order in lunch while we browse?

One problem we didn't foresee was buying sheets. Did you know that licensed character sheets aren't usually found in Full size?

Neither did we.

But the evil empire of Wal-Mart had them so for the first time in two years . . .Jeff went to a Wal-Mart. (I've been in one on road trips, but he usually stays in the vehicle with Alaina, so for me it was only about two months)

I try to console myself with the knowledge that the money we spent was from Jeff's company party in Feb and from the baby shower his co-workers threw for him . . . so we didn't spend any of our money.

Stupid Wal-Mart.

Happy Earth Day!

Yes I agree that it is a commercial effort to make us all feel good about saving the earth for one day . . .but how else do you get the stragglers on board?

By 2 big things this year for going green are:

1) recycling or donating all of our old clothes. No more pounds of nasty clothes for the landfill from my house, Good Will will take anything and recycle it for insulation or carpet padding or something else useful.

2) Green cleaning: I'm going to try to make my own cleaners after I get rid of all the chemicals in my house. But its mostly for the reason that buying a bottle of vinegar and having baking soda on hand is much cheaper that a bathroom scrub, windex, a multipurpose spray and other things.

Cheap I tell you! Cheap!

Now if only I could figure out how to make my own makeup I'd be set.

Today is also administrative professionals day which means . . . free lunch for me!!!

To bad they don't have the option to order maternity plate sizes because they think that all women pick at their plates like birds.