Skill Building

Last week, Reilly surprised us by learning how to snap. Interestingly, she first learned how to snap on her left hand, then a couple of days later, mastered the trick with her right hand.

We consider Reilly to be right-handed, but she has tended to learn how to to do new things with her left hand first before turning the skill over to her right hand.

I have to say, I was pretty amazed at her ability to learn how to snap so quickly, so imagine my surprise today when I came home from work and Reilly proceeded to demonstrate her newest skill: whistling.

To be fair, 75% of her effort is blowing air, but the 25% she gets right is really cool.

In other news, today we had our 39 week appointment, with no news or movement from BabyO2. I'm really surprised that the baby hasn't come by now. Somehow I had convinced myself that since Reilly was 8 days early, BabyO2 would be the same. Now I'm realizing that for all we know, it could be another three weeks!

Hang in there, Shawn!

It's never good timing, but...

...we've got a sick kid.

The line-up of remedies:

The nursery

Looking back, it is hard to even remember what this room initially looked like. It seemed an impossible task--to take our office/junk room and turn it into something that would suit our new baby, but we did it (with the help of Home Depot in-house blind installation and a GREAT painter).

I see a pig...

More reading:

There's no stopping her now.

List #2

In an effort to streamline our bedtime ritual with Reilly, Shawn recently developed a sticker chart that outlined Reilly's evening tasks which included but was not limited to: brush your teeth, brush your hair, go potty, and get on your PJ's. A bonus sticker could be earned by Reilly sleeping in her bed all night. Bonus stickers earned toys.

Positive reinforcement at its finest.

Two weeks later, Reilly was moving through her bedtime ritual with only a few pauses, and her nights of crawling into mom and dad's bed were over.

Shawn was voted in as mother of the year by the discerning panel of judge (me) and we celebrated with a long nights' sleep.

Spurred on by the success of her first list, Shawn moved on to tackle an even more difficult task: the morning routine. Eschewing the sticker chart, she instead opted to use our refrigerator to scratch out Reilly's new checklist:

So far, the list has produced positive and immediate results, shortening the quantity and frequency of such comments as: "Reilly, have you brushed your teeth yet?"

And yet, the process is not perfect, as our daughter tends to dilly-dally over her breakfast for up to thirty minutes. We have considered re-ordering the list to put breakfast last. After all, that is what the 10 minute drive to school is for, right?

Week 38...where has the time gone?

From guest blogger, Shawn:

Lately, the question that has been thrown my way the most frequently is "are you ready?"

There are many different inflections given to this question. There's "Are you ready?" as in "Is the nursery set up? Your bags packed? Crib put together? Laundry done?" And then there's "Are you ready?" as in "Are you tired of all the aches, pains, and discomfort that come along with being 38 weeks pregnant?"

My answer is always different, depending on my frame of mind. Last weekend we were finally motivated to pack my bag, Reilly's bag and LaLa's bag, charge the cameras, and spend a fortune at Babies R Us on the "essentials." As for the other, “Are you ready,” I alternate between feeling total excitement about meeting our new addition and seeing how Reilly will interact with her, and then feeling anxiety about the birthing process and wondering if I'll be able to do it!

New This Time: I don't have any of the 3rd trimester pains that I recall from the first time around (being pregnant in the middle of a heat wave in NYC). My ankles are not swollen, my back is doing ok, I haven't been stricken with too much fatigue, and the baby doesn't feel as heavy as Reilly did. (The Beatles song, "She's so Heavy," was Reilly's song when I was carrying her.)

LaLa does feel bigger though, like she's taking up more space. Indigestion and heartburn continues to plague me! I'm up to sleeping on 3 pillows while I watch Brian sleep down below at my side. And I'm still not able to eat as much as I or my docs would like me to. I'm measuring small, but then I measured small with Rei, too.

At my doctor appointment last week, we found that I am 1cm dilated and 50% effaced, which means she can come any time between now and the next 4 weeks. Funny how that works, isn't it? Our friends in the medical community have been sharing stories of delivering babies in cars. When I reminded my doctor of my fast labor and high pain tolerance (read: sheer denial that I was in labor!), she offered to schedule an induction for me on April 2. I declined, as I want this baby to come on her own terms in her own time.

And I know the question on everyone's mind is have we named her? To be honest, we've become very comfortable calling her LaLa (or as Reilly would have you know, LaLa Isabella Overcast). We do have a list of a few other names, but we're keeping them as options until she presents herself. Stay tuned...any day now.

Bedtime stories

The nighttime ritual for the past few years has been to bathe, brush, and then settle Reilly into bed. Like in the book Olivia, Shawn and I typically have to debate the number of stories we will read to Reilly, and more often than not, we settle on three.

Tonight was a little different.

Tonight, instead of reading a bedtime story to Reilly, Reilly read one to me.

The book is titled, "Biscuit."

It has 24 pages illustrated pages with 132 words, and I am happy to say that Reilly read every one of them.

To me.

Photo time

Our most recent slew of Reilly photos. Click here for more!

The Census says:

I decided to fill out our census form today, but didn't get very far. Question #1 asks: "How many people were living or staying in your house, apartment, or mobile home on April 1, 2010?"

Well, that all depends.

Will BabyO2 get counted or not? Stay tuned...

Cinderella's Birthday Party

Scene 1: Cinderella waits for her gifts to be presented upon her:

Scene 2: "Peanut Butter" and "Swannie" present their gifts to Cinderella:

Scene 2: The guests have cake:

Scene 4: The party rages on:

Still the best gift on earth...

Can't imagine the postage on this one:

Junny's travels

Today on the way to school, Reilly brought up her imaginary friend Junny, whom I hadn't heard of (or from) for about a month now.

When I asked Reilly where Junny had been, she answered, "Junny is living at school now."

Oh. I guess when you have an imaginary friend, you get to make the rules, right?

Photo moto

More cuteness for your day is here.

Photos as excuses...

Shawn's getting bigger, Reilly is getting cuter, and I'm putting on some sympathy weight!

Click here for more photos.