The Best Early Birthday Present!

I had an entirely new entry written but I think I'll save it for later given a lot of new and exciting things have happened this week.  This entry will be short but hopefully you will enjoy!

I think I'll start with my 30 week picture.  Now, you have to forgive me here.  We almost forgot to take the picture yet again so by this time at night, I was in my Pooh maternity pajamas looking extra fine.  Looking at pictures like these, I find it hard to believe my husband would be even remotely excited to see me in "that" way.  There is zero sexy going on here!

30 Weeks and I'm ready for bed!!

Starting this week we will be extremely busy from day to day, week to week.  It began with Robin and our friend, Chris, hanging drywall in our basement.  I feel like this project has been going on for YEARS rather than months.  Robin has been doing almost all of the work himself so it's no wonder it is taking some time.  I have to admit I was somewhat nervous when he said he could surely finish this basement himself but he has once again proven just how handy he can be!  We now have framing, electrical (by a professional), lighting (same said professional), and insulation done, not to mention plumbing for the new half bath (another professional job).  Soon enough the boys will have the drywall up and that's where our budget stops for a while.  We'll have to do some saving to really finish it off.

We also started birthing prep classes which we'll have for the next 3 weeks.  I don't know if I've mentioned it or not but I'm pretty nervous about giving birth.  I've told some people I pretend it doesn't even have to happen, except that I only have 10 weeks left and little time to prepare now.  Our class was great and I think it's going to help put me at ease.  I really like our instructor, Karmen, and we were lucky enough to sit with a group of fun couples too.  We spent a lot of the time laughing and as usual, Robin was class clown.  The part I hope to remember to tell my daughter is that when we were to try relaxation breathing (not the hee, hee, ho stuff...more visualization), Daddy decided it would be funny to breathe like Darth Vader.  This made me laugh extremely hard while everyone else attempted to be serious.  I don't know that Robin has much of a serious bone in his body!

Friday night Robin prepared the nursery for paint and I prepared the baseboards.  Basically all I had to do was fill holes while he did the rough stuff like priming the trim in the room.  Saturday morning, Leah dropped Kevin off and he helped Robin paint the nursery.  It is a beautiful purple/lilac color.  It's not light like you might think, more of a deep, cheery color during the day that fades to dark and soothing at night.  I'll share a picture with you as soon as we have all the trim and furniture in its place.  However, this also began some real excitement.

While the boys painted, I spent the morning downstairs cleaning and organizing.  I've mentioned before that the nesting instinct has come on strong for me and I took full advantage on Saturday.  I cleaned out two closets, reorganized them, cleaned and disinfected the kitchen, dusted the entire living room, and even cleaned our oven.  As soon as the projects upstairs are complete, I'll move on to working on those.  Leah came back over around 2 in the afternoon and said something seemed different.  I won't go into details; those aren't mine to share!  But I will tell you that I encouraged her to call the hospital who then told her she should come in to determine if she was in labor.  By now the boys were working on a second coat of paint in the nursery and each had cracked one beer.  Kevin's reaction was to know if he had time to finish his beer and the second coat or if they should go.  After a bit of chatting, I finally told them both they needed to go, Kevin could shower, Leah could get her suitcases, and they'd both be on their way to the hospital.  A couple of hours later, we got a text from Kevin that Leah was in fact admitted and in labor.  I cannot explain how excited we were!

Yesterday was baby Monroe's birthday!  She was born just after midnight and is completely adorable.  We went to the hospital to visit yesterday and I have to say she is probably one of the cutest newborns I have ever seen!  I could be biased.  Leah and I agree that our girls will likely be great friends since they'll only be a few months apart and we all spend a lot of time together.  Plus, Monroe was born a day before my birthday.  Who wouldn't want such a great birthday present!?  Robin took some great pictures and I'll post a few here so you can see just what I mean by how cute she is!

Me meeting Baby Sol's bestie for the first time!  1/23/11

Itty bitty feet!  I love how wrinkly they are and Robin is getting really good with the camera!

Off in dream land on day one of her life!

So that brings me to today, 1/24/11, my birthday.  I think a pleasant feeling I have today is I don't feel old.  I still feel fairly young even though I'm 30 weeks pregnant, many pounds heavier than usual, and pretty tired most of the time.  I think most people think about their lives more when their birthdays roll around and I have very little to complain about, if anything at all.  I have a great husband who I feel extremely lucky to have found, I have a great house, the best family, and lots of friends.  There's nothing I really need right now which is a good feeling to have as well.  I have a baby to look forward to, too!  This year has been a full one but I'm thankful that I made it through mostly on the positive side rather than the other way around!  My mom even reminded me that next year on my birthday, I'll get hugs and kisses from my daughter and that that will be a better gift than anyone could ever give me.  I really look forward to things like that!

I received three cards in the mail today, one from each Grandma and my Grandpa, and one from my Mom and Dad.  I still love getting cards.  It just makes the day seem different somehow.  My Dad called sometime during the day but I must've missed it.  He left me a special message...him signing Happy Birthday!  It was so funny, I can't bring myself to delete it!  Robin gave me a new phone which is extremely newfangled and fancy.  Having internet and things on the phone seems frivolous...which is probably why it's special to me.  I don't do frivolous very often!  And speaking of that topic, we had a fabulously expensive dinner at Plaza III in my honor too.  We had great conversation and excellent food!  I really appreciate having the chance to do things like this from time to time and I especially loved that it really felt like a date.  I still love sitting at a table for two with my husband.  I am so lucky to have him!  Anywho, I'm finally another year older and looking forward to the next couple months of my pregnancy.  Stay tuned!