We Love you Ms. Hannigan

Little cheeks
Little teeth
Everything around me is little
If I wring little necks
Surely I will get an acquittal

Some women are dripping with diamonds
Some women are dripping with pearls
Lucky me! Lucky me!
Look at what I'm dripping with
LITTLE GIRLS

A little unknown piece of trivia about me is that I LOVE Annie (the original Annie, not the Disney remake that doesn't include Punjab). I can sing every song frontward, backwards and sideways - and if you catch me when I don't know you're looking, you would notice that I also dabble in the choreography.

Lately I've been cleaning, A LOT. All the books (truth, the one book I skimmed) mention this "nesting" behavior, but I thought it wasn't supposed to take hold until right at the very end. At the rate I'm going, I'll have singlehandedly built a new house and installed a swimming pool by the time this babe gets here. Yesterday I spent over 8 hours cleaning without even realizing it. At one point I nearly tripped over a dog because I was shuffling my feet around, too tired to even pick them up anymore. When I looked at the clock wondering why in the world I was so exhausted, I shocked to see it was 9PM - I had been in some type of trance since noon. I had reorganized our entire kitchen, cleaned every dish, stored things we don't use anymore, organized our pantry by the time of day you would eat that particular food, and - here's the kicker - made homemade mashed potatos somewhere in the middle of doing all this. I don't cook, nor do I "homemake" anything besides cocktails, and I have little recollection of doing any of these things.

In another one of these recent cleaning trances, I was going through some drawers and found the VHS of Annie. It was the first time I looked at something and thought, "I can't wait to watch this with my little girl." That was quite a relief to me, as most of my thoughts up until that moment had been a bit more selfish, along the lines of "well, theres one more thing I'll probably never get to do again..." I thought it the opportune time to begin thinking about all the things I am looking forward to doing with my little girl, that wouldn't be quite the same with a little boy, to begin a post natal bucket list if you will...

-Watching, singing and acting out Annie, I will play Ms. Hannigan of course - complete with gin bath. I'm not sure if she will get the lead role of Annie right away, that will have to be earned, she'll start out with a small role like Pepper, Molly or Duffy.

-Craft projects, sewing - my basement sweatshop could use some more labor, the neighborhood kids are getting too old and starting to complain too loudly! (I'll send pics soon of my most recent creations)

-Getting dressed up and going to Bloomingdales or Neiman Marcus and strolling around, trying on clothes and shoes that aren't on sale, asking the sales people to show us jewelry out of the cases, like we have enough money to shop there. This is fun enough by myself, I can't imagine the reaction when I tell the sales associate my baby wants to see the diamond brooch. Then of course getting a cinnabon as we exit the mall with our JC Penney purchases.

-When I was little and my parents used to have parties, I remember me and my girl cousins putting on "shows" of lip syncing... I'm sure Chris will enjoy baby Morganti helping me relive my youth with our duet of "Let's Hear it for the Boy."

-Reading Ramona the Brave!

I think those sound like some pretty good times....I'm sure I'll think of more things as I progress, but I thought I'd share those with you since it probably seems to most readers like I've been a bit pessimistic about this whole process.

Have a good week, remember: You're never fully dressed without a smile...

Heaven

My husband had these as a welcome home present for me.
http://www.candywarehouse.com/candycornkiss.html

I forgot to bring them to work today, but I'm sitting here dreaming about them. So much so that I thought I would look them up online just so I could see them...thought I'd share them with you. If anyone likes candy corn half as much as I do, then you should try these.

Home is where the help is

I recently got back to Philadelphia after spending almost a week at home visiting my family. One thing that has amazed me as I'm getting more accustomed to the idea of being pregnant is how homesick I have become. While I've always missed my family, and talked about moving home, I've never necessarily felt homesick. I feel sorry for my husband because my feelings about our too small, too old, too fixer upper house have changed drastically from "we can make it work" to me crying when I walk in the front door on some days. I was in desperate need of some mommy TLC and I got it in the form of homemade ice tea, sleeping all day, shopping and my favorite green bean casserole.

Some other highlights of my trip:

-Reconnecting with an old friend Mandy that I haven't seen or spoken to in 13 years...we picked up right where we left off and laughed for hours. I've come to realize that the people you can laugh with for hours (especially without alcohol) are few and far between, I'm glad to have Mandy back in my life!

-Eating at Chuys with my little bro and his super cute gal pal Jessica - how did I live in Houston until I was 18 and not know about this place?! Or am I so old that this "Houston tradition" didn't open until I had left?

-A surprise dinner from all my aunts and cousins! Lots of super cute baby presents and even better was the chance to visit with my family, whom I don't see often enough. My family is hilarious, here are some funny excepts... Aunt Cathy making fun of new moms that justify putting their babies on the floor as "tummy time" and reminding us that the vintage version of the boppy is ARMS...Uncle Jim, the expert on diaper rash, recommending butt paste as a registry must have...Aunt Geraldine reminding my mom that she will need to learn the art of smiling and saying nothing (ha ha, good luck!) - as a side note my mom said "whatever floats your boat" to me the other day and I about DIED - we agreed that what she meant was "whatever floats your boat, but I will create enough waves to push said boat in the direction of my choice..." LOVE YOU MOM...My cousin in-law (?) Dee Dee and her daughter Molly recommending a video baby monitor and us all joking about the range of the monitor (I'll be at the bar)...My Aunt Carol, Aunt Susan and Aunt Cecilia telling me I looked LITTLE, you made my decade, as no one has ever referred to me as little! For once in my life, I'm below average size! My cousin Sarah laughing with me at the fact that I have no idea what I'm going to do when this baby gets here and gently reminding that she herself was a ballerina so I should shut my fat mouth about not wanting a ballerina princess type daughter, cousin Jennifer giving me swaddle blankets and me saying "oh such pretty burb cloths..." and cousin Jill knowing me too well and recommending that booze is the one thing I won't be able to live without when baby gets here...

Which reminds me, I thought of an idea while I was home that I was certain would make me millions, I was all prepared to start my own business during my three month "vacation" starting in January - I mean, I won't be that busy, right?! I was so confident in my genius idea that I had my retirement plans already made. Regrettably, someone has beaten me to the punch:
http://www.milkscreen-moms.com/

Thanks again to everyone for making my trip home perfect. Love you!

Baby needs this, baby needs that...what about my needs?!

In the past few months I've had several baby showers to attend, which has been good preparation for getting familiar with the things that apparently we as new parents will need to purchase for our home. For instance, had I not made recent trips to Babies R Us, I would have never known such a horror of a place existed and would have foolishly limited myself to the paltry selection of baby items at Target for our own registry.

In all honestly, I thought babies only needed something to catch the pee/poop, something to sleep in, something to catch the throw up, something to eat and perhaps something to wear. I did not know that there were 5000 varieties of each of these essentials, not to mention the complimentary items that accompany each of them.

Until recently, I naively believed that when the time comes, we'll just buy a bottle or two (or how ever many you're supposed to have on hand). After a trip to Babies R Us, so many questions that I never previously consider start popping up. What type of nipple thingy goes on the bottle? How will I warm the bottle? If I'm breast feeding (don't even get me started on this dilemma), I'll need a different type of bottle. There are also 200 ways you can wash the bottle, I must choose my preferred method. Is it a comfort grip bottle? Is the bottle toxin free? Will the baby be able to suckle comfortably with the tilt of the bottle, will this type of bottle cause more burping, is the bottle environmentally friendly, will my friends/family/parents judge me on the ultimate bottle choices I make? Will the bottle I chose define my child? AAAAGGGHHH!

And what's up with the "BPA Free" section? I mean I know what BPA free means - but are they really still selling "BPA Laden, Full of BPA, or Xtra Toxic" bottles and pacifiers? It was my understanding that all baby products (particularly those sold at Babies R Us) would be BPA Free...and if they're not - isn't that something we as a society should be concerned about? Who is going to Babies R Us requesting the products with BPA? Why is "BPA Free" even a valid marketing/selling point for manufacturers? I probably still don't know enough about all of this stuff (since I've made no effort to know more), but it still doesn't make sense to me.

Next it was the car seat aisles...this is really an unfair section of the store. The price of car seats range from $89 to $400. What in the hell can account for that huge variance of something that serves one purpose - to protect your child in the car? I would assume both car seats meet the same safety requirements AND that the safety requirements are the absolute saftest way possible to protect a baby in a car. Are my assumptions wrong here? Am I really supposed to want to go and research all of this crap? I mean I've spent some time researching the really important things: names, how to hold baby, how to introduce baby to dogs, how to administer the right amount of nyquil to sedate but not harm baby.... I have no interest in reading about consumer ratings for car seats, strollers, swings, bouncies, bungies.... I just want someone to tell me what to buy.

So friends and family with children, this is where you come in...I need everyone to send me their one recommendation of the product that I cannot live without. Whether you had a kid 20 years ago, or have one fresh out of the oven, what's the one thing you used/needed/relied on most?

And please no smart asses, I know some of you who couldn't live without your au pair or housekeeper - I'm talking reasonable suggestions only please.

Picture perfect

I'm starting to get all kinds of things in the mail about my pregnancy- advertisements, magazines, coupons, etc... Also my friends are giving me info and I usually pick up all the literature at my Dr office. Why, oh WHY, are all the pregnant women portrayed in commercial pictures like this lady?? In everything I read that is related to my pregnancy, whether they are trying to sell me something, or just provide useful information, the pregnant women look nothing like me (or any of my pregnant friends for that matter).

You want to know where this picture is from? A friend at work had to visit her lady Dr yesterday and picked up some literature for me on "A Simple Guide to Understanding Glucose Testing" and this was the picture included in the pamphlet. We won't even get into the not so subtle implications of receiving something like this from a co-worker. Good thing she is a friend of mine and not a skinny mini herself, or we would have taken it outside this AM.

This picture makes me MAD. Bitch looks better than I did pre-preggers. She is probably a size 2 even with her little poochie of a tummy, and she is wearing a WHITE HALTER TOP WITH NO BRA , delicately nibbling fruit while she stares lovingly at her bountiful plate of nutrition. I hate her and the ViaCord Company that created the "helpful" handout.

The top alone with no bra is so unrealistic - my boobs hurt so bad I've considered duct taping a permanent bra on myself for the amount of support I need. And I don't need to tell any pregnant woman that wearing a fitted white shirt without a bra is impossible unless you want the world to see your now nearly black and saucer sized nips. (yeah, they change colors & sizes, who knew??) It's not sexy. I understand that in general the media and fashion industry have unrealistic expectations for non-pregnant women...and I'm not really all that up in arms with that issue. However, this is a medical pamphlet from a Dr. office for pregnant women - WTF?? I haven't seen one person in the waiting room at my Dr. office that looks anything remotely close to this woman. I already feel bad enough about myself, and I think I'm doing about average in regards to weight gain (touch wood) - to me this picture is just another piece of propaganda in what I consider to be one of the most undiscussed but blatantly obvious conspiracy's of all time: to hide the real stories, the real pictures, the real emotions of pregnancy.

So of course I was compelled to take a quick picture of myself and what I've been eating all day. That's candy corn in case you can't read the label. Notice the deathlike grip on the nearly empty package. I don't know why my co-worker would worry about gestational diabetes.