I'm a-leavin' on a jet plane...

Our bags are packed, I've downloaded 20 books onto my kindle, and removed every single children's song from my MP3 player, guess it's time for vacation!

Now we just have to say goodbye to our little guy. I know he'll be fine, and we'll enjoy the break from parental responsibility, but we're going to miss that guy. He, meanwhile, will have a great time with Grandma and Grandpa.

We're taking the tablet, and I have grand plans of blogging from there (so Parker can see what we're doing while we're gone), but we'll see how that goes. I know that it CAN be done, it remains to be seen if it WILL. Besides, we might be too busy sleeping by the pool.

Parker's first Krispy Kreme

We had to get new tires for my car a few weeks ago.  So, with nothing to do for an hour, Parker & I wandered over to Krispy Kreme for coffee & a doughnut.

He was a fan, this little guy ate the entire doughnut, and as soon as he put the last bite in his mouth, he started signing for "more" and rooting around in the bag for another.

My Old Camera

Every once-in-a-while, Parker finds my old camera hidden away somewhere and we get a few random photos taken of that day.  Even less frequently, I actually download those photos onto the computer.  So, here are a few random photos from the past five months.

As a side note, these are probably the only photos taken at all during my first trimester, so make the most of them.

Office re-do...or, how Keith spent the past two weekends

We're starting to get ready for Baby Sister's arrival.  I've been planning the nursery for a while, but it is a multiple-step process.  Last week, we started to tackle the first step:

Step 1: Move the office

Before:

We have an unused room in the basement that we're moving the office to.  I was originally going to call this an "empty" room, but that would be over-stating things, it was full, just not with anything useful or needed.  So, we moved onto Step 1a: Clear out the "pink room"

Yes, we called it the "pink room", and here is the reason for

Step 1b: Paint the new office:

Lovely paint job, no?  If you really love it, let me know, we have a matching comforter.

So, while Parker & I were outside all weekend playing/working in the yard, Keith was stuck in the basement painting.

This weekend, Keith's amazingly helpful Parents came up to help Keith move the built-in office down from upstairs to our new office space.

After: 

It took Keith & his Dad (and sometimes his Mom) all afternoon and a good portion of the evening to get everything moved & installed, but the final project is amazing.

Keith's folks were a huge lifesaver, there is no way we could have done this on our own.  Especially since I couldn't do any of the heavy lifting.  As it was, Keith's Mom watched Parker while I painted the baby's dresser and worked on one other project, and by the end of the day I was exhausted and sore all over.  Pregnant Mamas aren't all that helpful in the home-improvement arena, sorry!

We've got almost everything put back together downstairs.

Now on to the baby's room...

...oh dear.

Baking, Part II

As promised, I let Parker help me put together the cinnamon-raisin swirl "Daddy" bread (Mama doesn't do raisins).

He helped with the rolling, spreading the sugar, cinnamon, and raisins.

Pay no attention to his cinnamon sugar goatee.  I think that about half the raisins went in the bread, and the other half in Parker's tummy.

Baking

I have been having massive cravings for baked goods lately.  Since I'm not really supposed to be eating bread (or sweets), I've been trying to resist.  However, seeing how my next OB appointment is four days after we get back from vacation, I think we can just assume the "weight gain lecture" as a given, so maybe I can live it up for a few days.

So, after "Family Yoga" this morning (hilarious: Imagine Parker running around while Mama pretends she can stand on one foot), Parker & I came home and got baking.  Parker's first step was to pour the bottle of balsamic vinegar into the mixing bowl.  I really need to be better about looking at what he can reach!  But it should combine nicely with the grape juice concentrate I spilled a few days ago.

Parker helped me make the dough for cinnamon raisin bread, and Walnut Pumpkin Chocolate Chip bread.  Parker loves baking, but it is not a tidy process.  By the time we were done, we were both ready for a shower & a change of clothing.

Believe it or not, the kitchen was spotless when Keith left for work this morning.

After Parker went down for his nap, I cleaned the kitchen and made the crust, chicken, and veggies for tomorrow's dinner...and cleaned the kitchen again.  I'm tempted to throw together the cinnamon swirl bread now while he's still sleeping (and then clean the kitchen again), but I did promise him that after nap time he could help me make the bread for Daddy.  (and we could use an activity to distract him from the fact that we're not going outside in the pouring rain)

Guess I'll just have to sit & eat my bread!

And I'm pretty sure we'll be having take-out for dinner tonight.

Parker's silly morning

I'm taking a non-photo baby-book moment, indulge me...

Most mornings (and by that I mean EVERY morning), Parker is up before me, so when I finally go in to let him out, his binky, blanky, and all his stuffed animals are thrown hither & yon within his bedroom (yesterday he threw his binky so hard we still haven't found it).  Today, Parker took pity on his tired, pregnant Mama and actually slept in.  I was able to get up (and shower) before he was awake.  So, when I went in to get him, he hadn't even had a chance to throw anything out of the crib.  However, he refused to get out of the crib until he'd thrown each and every one of them on the floor.  "Hang on just a second Mama, I have to do my morning chores."

We're still working on weaning Parker from the binky, the past few weeks have been far less successful than others.  So, this morning, I had to feed Parker his breakfast, because he had his binky in one hand and his blanky in the other, and no hand free to hold the spoon.