Nesting

When I nest, it's nothing helpful. I don't cook a bunch of meals. I don't pack my hospital bag. I don't clean the bathrooms. No. I choose completely inconsequential tasks to take on. With Oliver I cleaned my parents' piano. Dusted and scrubbed all the pollen off of the keys. With Lily I reorganized the linen closet. Something no one will ever see. But, boy howdy it looks great now! I was really proud of myself when I was done. I refolded every single bath towel, hand towel, face cloth, sheet, and blanket in there. I love just going and looking at it. What is great is that Oliver can't get to it so it STAYS clean. I guess thats why I love it. I vacuum the house everyday, but by the next morning, you can't tell! I do the dishes everyday, but by dinner, the sink is full again! The stove never stays clean for more than 5 minutes. The bathroom is perpetually messy. And then there's Oliver's room. Don't even get me started. So to see something that I cleaned that STAYS that way is nice.

Today I have my 39 week appointment. And then I have no more plans for the day, which is nice because I had a VERY full day yesterday. I picked pears, dropped some off to a friend, had lunch with friends at the beach, visited other friends up from New York, dropped by my parents' house to pick up a bathrobe for the hospital, made brownies, had friends over to watch Wipeout (and eat banana splits!), and finally got Oliver to bed at TEN THIRTY!! So today it will be nice to go for a loooooong walk with Oliver and enjoy the gorgeous weather.

Does anyone know how to preserve pears? Is it okay to freeze them before they're ripened? They're a lot easier to peel before they're ripe, but I don't know how they'll taste when I want use them. The last time I froze pears, I cut them up into small cubes, but they came out pretty mushy. I think this time I will just peel, halve, and core them and then freeze them. Also, does anyone have any killer pear recipes? I have a great pear bread recipe, but I have probably 2.5 dozen pears, so I'm going to need LOTS of recipes:)

Potty Time!

Oliver peed on the potty on his own for the first time today!! He's peed on the potty a few times when I have placed him on it after he has already begun the act, but this time was different. He was running around, playing naked. He stopped, pointed at his willy, and said "Pee Pee". I asked if he needed to use the potty and he said yes, so I got it out, he sat on it, and he peed!! How exciting!
In other news, the weather has been terrible here for the past week or more. The humidity has been ridiculous but we survived somehow. Today is a tiny bit better, and tomorrow is supposed to be even drier. By the end of the week it is supposed to be in the low 70's with moderate/low humidity so that is something to look forward to. I'm not a huge fan of summer. I need a few days of sun and pools and beaches, but really a week of summer would be good for me. I love the fall and the spring, both have a great feeling of anticipation and the weather is so pleasant. I can't wait for this autumn, mostly of course because I get to welcome a beautiful baby girl into the world! I'm also excited to take Oliver apple picking and go for walks in the nice crisp air.

Scrap-tastic!

This weekend, from Friday evening to late Saturday night I attended a scrapbooking party and busted out 13 pages! My mom's friend has an annual scrapbooking weekend when everyone can share their tools, ideas, and lots of food! She also lives on the beach, so we took advantage of that, too:) I was hoping to completely catch up with Oliver's scrapbook, but I came close enough to feel accomplished. Once I get batteries for the camera I will take pictures of the pages. It was my first time away from Oliver for a whole night. I think we both handled it well. When I went to take a shower Sunday morning, though, it was too much for Oliver and he'd had enough of being apart and screamed the whole time I was in there! Luckily he went into nursery with no problems. In fact he has learned his teachers names and whenever we talk about nursery he excitedly says "Jone-Jones!" Adorable!

37 weeks

The countdown is on. I am now considered full term. This means that if I were to go into labor today, they would "let" me have the baby. Of course, I don't think that will happen. I'm hoping for a week past my due date this time around. If anyone wants to put their guesses in for the due date, feel free! Your prize will be the satisfaction of knowing you were right:) My guess is September 9. My due date is September 2. Happy guessing!

Haircut and visit with friends

On Wednesday we took Oliver for his first real haircut at the barber. The barber we took him to was so great. He was so patient and really catered to Oliver. Of course, we forgot the camera so we don't have any action shots of the haircut. Shane took some on his phone, but we don't know how to get them off!
Later in the day Oliver and I drove up to Laconia to hang out in the pool with our Boob Group friends. After we played in the pool, we locked them all in the tennis court and they had a great time playing together and chasing after balls! We got a really sweet picture of all of them holding hands. We miss hanging out with our friends. We're still having a hard time finding friends down on the Seacoast, so we head up to the Lakes Region whenever we can.

On Thursday we took a trip over to Hampton Beach with our friends Shauna, Carter, and Hamilton. Shauna and I had to keep track of 3 kids under 2...at the ocean! It was a challenge, but worth it to see how much they loved to dig in the sand, play in the wave pools, and chase the waves (okay, that was mostly Oliver...he LOVED running straight into the waves and getting knocked over by them!)
Friday we went to Portsmouth to play with Amy and the two little girls she watches; Shaye and Molly. Molly LOVES Oliver and follows him everywhere. When they were eating lunch, she kept feeding him her mac and cheese. It was so cute! It was a hot day, so we filled up the kiddie pool and the three kids splashed around in the pool. Adorable!

While we were having all of these visits, Shane was in Boston at an Intern Conference for Liberty Mutual. He got to meet the CEO of the company, learn more about the benefits of working for Liberty, ate a ton of food, went on a Duck Tour, built a bike for charity, and played trivia. I'm glad he got to have that experience.

Boston

Last week we went to Boston with Shane's parents. We had a great time just walking around the city. We ate at an Irish pub called Solas and it was DELISH! Everyone really enjoyed what they had. Shane had decadent macaroni and cheese with ham, Irene had a grilled chicken sandwich with goat cheese, Tom had meatloaf and mashed potatoes, and I had chicken curry. I thought mine was the best, but noone else would try it (because it had raisins in it)! Oliver's favorite part of the day was a splash park we happened upon. We stripped him down and let him loose. It was a nice hot day and I think he needed the cool off to get through the rest of the day. We wanted to go to Mike's Pastries but the line was a good 30 minutes long and it was over 80 degrees out, so we decided to keep on moving :( We finished the day off with Cold Stone. A perfect end to a wonderful day!

Sickie

I have so much to catch up on. Last weekend we went to Boston, Tuesday I took Marisa through the Temple for the first time, this weekend Oliver and I went to Connecticut, and yesterday marked one more month until my due date! I will get to all of those in future posts, though. Today is dedicated to my poor sick baby.
We all know how hot it was last week. 80's and high high humidity. On Monday Oliver woke up ROASTING. We thought it might have just been the temperature outside, but after Shane left for work Oliver slept for 2 hours and woke up blurry eyed and crying. He was burning up. I took him in for a cold shower, but I could tell that the pressure of the water was bothering his sensitive skin, so we sat in the tub for a while. When we got out he downed a bottle of water and slept for another couple of hours. Oliver usually takes 1 45 minute nap in the morning, so to have 2 2 hour naps before 1pm was very unusual. I took him out to Target to get diapers and some ibuprofin. I had to carry him through the store he felt so rotten. Every time I gave him his medicine it was like pulling teeth. He just did not want it. When we got home he slept some more and even ate some dinner. Before Shane went to school he noticed that Oliver was developing a rash on his feet. We know some people who had recently had Hand Foot and Mouth Disease, so that is what it was looking like.
He fell asleep fine, but woke up at 11 and cried/screamed for an hour and a half before we decided to take him to the ER. Earlier in the day I had made a doctors appointment for him, and they said if he got worse to take him to the ER. We arrived at 1 am. Oliver was incredibly well behaved. The ER Doc ordered his blood to be drawn. Shane and I assumed the usual positions for this situation. I stay with Oliver, Shane leaves. Shane is very sensitive to Oliver's pain and can't hide his own discomfort when Oliver is in pain, which we both know doesn't help Shane, Oliver, or the people doing the blood draw. The nurses who drew his blood said that he was the best pediatric blood draw they had ever done. They also said that I handled it the best of any mom they've seen. While they got the needle in, I held Olivers face and sang him a lullaby (Mary's Lullaby from the Children's Songbook) and he drank a bottle. They didn't find anything unusual with his blood, but administered a one time dose of antibiotic "just in case." (I don't usually approve of antibiotics, but he said because it is a one time dose, there is no risk of building resistance, so I allowed it...plust he played the "bacterial menengitis" card which had Shane convinced). We got home at 4am and Oliver didn't get to sleep until 5.
Tuesday was a bit of a blur. Oliver was very crabby, very sick. When we went to his appointment, his doctor said that it was NOT HFM Disease because he didn't have the tell-tale sores in his mouth. The rash that was on his feet also had spread up his legs, through his diaper region and covered his torso. The rash looked like little tiny pin pricks. I kept meaning to take a picture, but I had other things on my mind:) With HFM Disease the rash only presents on the hands and feet (hence the name). The doctor said that the disease would probably peak on Thursday and that she wanted to see him again to see if he was doing any better. That evening Shane gave him a father's blessing.
Oliver slept in bed with me because he refused to sleep in his own bed. He didn't get to sleep until 11pm. When he woke up his rash had gone way down and he was acting much better. I drove up to my parents house and took him in the pool. He wasn't a huge fan, but was obviously feeling much better. His strange sleeping pattern continued and he slept in bed with me, but once he was asleep, he stayed asleep instead of waking up for a bottle constantly.
His follow up appointment at the doctors confirmed that he was cured and had gotten better faster than expected. Of course Shane and I knew why.
Last night was the first night that he went to bed in his own bed at 730 and actually stayed in bed for the night. He didn't wake up until 730am! I think he was sleeping off any last ill effects of the illness and I am happy to say that he woke up happy and giggly and ready to read kitty books.

Below are some pictures of us in the pool on Wednesday. He wore his new floaty bathing suit top, but was not a big fan. I think next time I will just take him in without it. It kept riding up around his neck and he may have felt claustrophobic. It was nice to get in the water, though.