My Lame List

-I'm a day shy of 36 weeks, which means I was ready to have this baby a month ago. Exhausted, obnoxiously huge, and especially love it when people just yell at me "you haven't popped yet?!? (as if I'm holding the baby hostage). If I'm out and about with Chase more than 6 hours/day, I get real strong painful contractions all night. Her movements are becoming very creepy to whomever that is talking to me, because it really does look like she's trying to bust out. I have pregnant friends who say that their husbands never get to feel the babies, so I should be thankful that both Chase and Wren keep Wil up all hours of the night kicking and punching him showing their father their personalities. Thankfully, I don't think he's going to be sent across the pond again anytime soon until we leave (although he did come home this week starting a sentence with "next week one of my soldiers has to be escorted..." He has enough wits about him to immediately tell me that another coworker would take over that gig. 3 trips in 3 months is enough).

-Spent all of last weekend sorting through ALL of the kids' clothes we had all over the house, cleaned and repacked them according to sizes in those huge RubberMaid tubs. So far I've got 7 plus a few in smaller containers. Now onto packing my own clothes. It's awfully tricky to pack when we have to live out of suitcases for 2 months (and for me in the ever changing post-baby body, no less). Thankfully, this WILL be the last time I'm pcsing across the ocean with a newborn. Crazy husband seems to think that I might want #3 down the road when I start sending Little Mutt #1 to school. Clearly the man is insane. We're only having as many as we can afford to send to college. Post 9/11 GI bill is sponsoring one and we're the other. That's enough for momma.

-The weather sucks. Overnight lows are already way below the freezing point and it's been dreary for days. Snow is in the forecast 3 nights this week. Tears. This, coupling with having sent off all of my besties back to the States, actually makes saying goodbye to Germany much easier to deal with.

-My Wonder Kid finished potty training herself about a month ago, and she would have done it sooner if I just let her do what she wanted. Momma wasn't jazzed about kneeling in front of public toilets during the first trimester, sorry Chaster. Some of my friends' asked what our secret to super quick and painless potty training was, and to be honest I had very little to do with it. She was ready, and I followed her lead. We never used pull-ups like it was intended though. The whole idea seemed a little crazy to me--"you can pee in this big-girl panties but not the others." Pull ups were only for entertainment, but once we were serious about it, we just stuck with her real little undies. I'm telling you, this kid will go far in life if I just stay out of her way. She's my constant source of amusement and we're thoroughly enjoying the last of our alone time together.

-In the Husband news: Wil's work replacement is here (yay!), although his department is still sadly under staffed (boo!), which continues to make for occasional long days and weekend work but it hasn't been nearly as bad as before the Damn Bike Trip. Speaking of the trip, although I was mighty bitchy about it, I have to admit that I am also very proud that he was able to complete 450 miles on his own in 7 days without any kind of training, getting up and biking on after numerous falls and crashes, and keeping his cool when the rich CA people in their Ferrari's and Bentley's gave him the fingers for being in their lanes. Ride 2 Recovery is such a fantastic program, and if I weren't hugely pregnant and pretty much alone away from friends and families, I would have let him go on all the rides around the country. He got to keep his brand-new and expensive 5-lb road bike and is now contemplating the Soldier Ride once we get situated in our new home stateside.

I gotta go get ready for our Saturday Doughnut run and farmer's market visit. Hope your weekend is equally fattening and blissful!