Kate Middleton is pregnant! (and other random baby bits)

The first thing I did when my co-worker and friend Stacey yelled out in the office, "New York Times reports: The Duchess of Cambridge is knocked up!" was not go to the NYT to read up about it.
No, the first thing I did was go STRAIGHT to Suri's Burn Book to see her reaction.

It was priceless! Hands down the best part of this announcement.

In other baby news, on Day 2 of the Big Boy Beds, it took Cary and Dean 45 minutes to settle down last night while I was giving Clair her end-of-the-night bottle. So after I finally got her down, I went in to tell them to "Go to sleep!" Cary was in Dean's bed. And four of the slats in the blinds near Dean's bed had been pulled out. Great.

The thing that baffles me is that those blinds were always there. Nothing has changed about his proximity to them or his ability to reach them. So who knows why now he decided to destroy them. Toddlers are inexplicable.

The good news is it only took that one time to get them settled and they were conked out after that.

So while Lester was at the Redskins/Giants game having a blast, I got all the kids asleep by 8:30, and the dinner dishes and bathroom cleaned up and their next-day snacks made by 9.  Which meant I got to watch two full episodes of Teen Mom 2, in the bed all to myself, no kids, no remote-control-hogging husband and no noise!! Hooray!

In other baby news, Cary and Dean are smart as whips. We played with Play-Doh together this weekend and I was amazed at their creativity. They're also doing so great recognizing all their letters. Cary can recognize them all, and Dean is not too far behind him. And they're becoming slightly more purposeful about their drawing/coloring adventures, which makes for some interesting "Mommy, look what I made!" mysteries. (Most of the time, I'm like, "Uhhh....ummmm....errrr....a squiggly line?? A big mess? Some sort of Rorschach test that will explain your future life choices?")

But sometimes, they surprise me:

Um, Kate Middleton -- let me see your Royal Baby do that at 2-and-a-half! HOLLA!

Showered with love!

Yesterday, my Mom and two of my good friends threw me (and Curve Ball) a little baby shower.

I had hoped to post some of the great pictures I took at the shower (using my actual camera, and not my phone, for once) but of course, I left my camera at my Mom's and who knows when I'll see it again. Sigh.

So this is the only picture I have, sent to me by my sister from her iPhone:



She's 6 weeks behind me, but you could never tell that by looking at us. She's huge!! (And I mean that in a good way!) I have the feeling her son and my daughter are going to be best of friends. They're probably in there in this picture, talking to one another, plotting to take over the world (and our hearts).

It was soooo nice to be around good friends and family and to open up the most adorable little dresses and sleepers for my soon-to-be-here daughter. I had SUCH a good time, I can't even tell you. And I truly, truly am blessed because you have no idea how many lovely things Curve Ball got. I was expecting a "sprinkle" and got a full-fledged shower!!

Everything was just beautiful, but a couple things just really touched my heart:

My friend Kelly bought me this book, which she said always makes her cry when she reads it to her daughter -- a sweetiepie who is exactly a month younger than Cary and Dean.


I read it today, when I had time to really sort through her things, and got all choked up. I mean, with lines like this, how could I not?

Words can be worrisome,
people complex,
motives and manner unclear,
grant her the wisdom to choose her path right,
free from unkindness and fear.

UGH!! Talk about tear-jerker verses. I love it.

Then, my friend Stacey gave me four soft-as-can-be onesies that she personally embroidered, with sayings like, "Sweet" and "Darling." Look at this oh-so-sweet gray one, which says "Love"! Oh, yes, more tears ensued when I opened these.


And THEN, my sister hand-painted wooden letters to spell out my lovebug's name! The letters are adorably whimsical and made-with-love and are absolutely perfect. This is the last letter in Curve Ball's name -- R -- and on it, Tahira (my sister) wrote her a little personal note. Isn't that the sweetest???


I'm going to put the letters up on the wall in Curve Ball's room, in the empty space you see here, between the crib and the changing table-dresser-thingy. I'm thinking vertical. Anyone have thoughts on that?


And here are a couple other photos of Curve Ball's room, which is, finally, basically done. Yay!
It's hard to get a good angle of the whole room, because it's small and configured in a way that is not photo-friendly. But you get the gist.


Here's the reading/rocking nook. The frame on the wall holds two of her sonogram photos, and has space for three of her newborn photos, when we eventually get those done.


I'm going to order a dust ruffle for the crib and obviously we're going to put sheets on the crib mattress, and a Boppy cover, and put the hot pink changing pad cover back on, after they're all washed. But other than that, this is pretty much it. I'm pretty happy with it. I hope she will be too. :-)


P.S. Speaking of washing, this is just ONE of the baskets of Curve Ball-related stuff I have to wash, fold and put away before she gets here. I think I need to take a week off from work!

OK -- gotta go. The Super Bowl is over and my husband is demanding the laptop. And I need a snack!

G'night!