False Alarm 36weeks 6days

Here's how last night went down... 
9:00pm Ry and I headed to bed early. I was zonked.
9-11pm Heartburn over took me (even after zantac) and I spent most of the night trying not to throw up. No rest was had.
11pm Scarlet woke up crying for Daddy. She came down with cold and was having trouble staying asleep through her stuffy nose.
11-3am Scarlet is up and down about once an hour. Every time she wakes up I use the restroom.  In between Scarlet's cries I woke on and off with round ligament pain and my arms falling asleep.
3am-4am S came into our bed for the remainder of the night. I woke every time I have to turn or adjust my position.
4am I roll over and 30 seconds later feel a small gush.
4:05am I googled "How to tell if your water broke."  After reading a bit I called the on call nurse who suggests I come in to get checked.  While I wasn't convinced it was my water, I know that it's better to be safe than sorry.  
5am  My mother in law arrives and Ryan and I headed into L&D.  The clips you see in the video are from the triage/check in area at the birthing center.  The actual delivery room are much more luxurious to labor in.  They monitored the baby and my pulse a while due to my heart issues.  My nurse at L&D is one of the parents at the preschool I used to work for.  She updated me on how her little boy is doing and then assisted the doctor with my nether bits.   Verdict is that my cervix is soft but aside from that there aren't any other labor signs.  The amniotic sack was still intact.  The doctor said that the baby can move and release the mechanism that triggers your bladder without the mom feeling any desire to go to the bathroom.  Apparently I have joined the masses of pregnant moms who have wee'd themselves.  I'd like a badge or something please.
8am  We made it back home.  I was really moving slowly and feeling a lot of cramping from the speculum.   
10:30am till now - I'm a walking, pregnant zombie and mother of a 2 year old giggling, snot machine. That's the news!

All in all I'm very happy that today wasn't The Day.  I have plenty to get done beforehand and now I get a second chance.  Oh and if I had gone into labor then I wouldn't have gotten this shot.

A Joint Baby Sprinkle in Pictures

In my circle of friends, there are a lot of Sarahs, all with H's of course.  Years ago we assigned each of them a nickname and now it strikes me as odd if I hear one of them actually referred to as Sarah.  Well a few weeks ago, one Sarah (Bee) threw me and another Sarah (Tea) a joint baby shower.
We are both expecting our second babies and didn't register so this was more of a sprinkle than a shower.  I could have just uploaded the pictures onto facebook but I didn't want them to get lost in the ever scrolling feed.  The party was so special to me!  I left feeling filled up and refreshed instead of socially exhausted as per the norm after most events.  Everything was just cozy.

Bee decorated the entire house with these bits of fabric hanging on twine.
Every few feet there was a Bible verse about motherhood and children.  

In lieu of typical shower games we each made goodies to pamper ourselves with.  Everyone chatted as they mixed together the organic body potions.  The party smelled like pumpkin, cider and warm sugar, ya know, comfort incarnate.

Here we are, Tea and I.  The girls at the party gifted us each with piggybanks stuffed to the brim full of cash!  It was so thoughtful and a great thing to do for second time moms.  We each were able to purchase one big item that we still needed for baby using the money in the owl banks.

Scarlet and Anna, Tea's daughter, thoroughly enjoyed the time they had together at the party. They're tiny besties but we don't get to see them as much as we'd like, so they stayed attached at the hip throughout the party.  The girls harvested Auntie Bee's balcony garden (two tomatoes and some parsley) and read through all her diaries.  We found the girls upstairs in Auntie Bee's bedroom with all of her journals splayed about around them.  Little mischief makers.  ;)

Baby Reid was the only boy allowed.  

He kept up the boy antics as best he could.  

 Diddle diddle dumplin' my son John style.  (Note the toesies)

The whole party was so lovely and it was so great to spend time with my favorite people. 

  Thank you Bee for putting it all together for us!

Lovely Pocket Diaper WINNER!!!

I took all 23 applicable comments on the Lovely Pocket Diaper Giveaway and plugged the numbers into 
Random.org to choose a winner!  

The 9th comment came from Maria who writes a blog 

called The Rios Family!  

Congrats Maria!   You have 24 hours to contact me with your shipping information at bitsandclips@gmail.com 

to claim this lovely package!  

Thanks to all who participated!  

A Lovely Surprise! **GIVEAWAY CLOSED**

At the end of my last pregnancy vlog I mentioned that Melissa Frank, the founder of Lovely Pocket Diapers had sent me an A M A Z I N G surprise package filled to the brim with cloth diapering goodies.  Not only did she send me bundles of fluff but also some wet wipe cubes for making your own wet wipe solution, snappis, bamboobies, cloth safe laundry detergent and much more!  It was so unexpected incredibly generous for her to do!  If you're not familiar with Lovely Pocket Diapers I did an extensive review for the company when Scarlet was about 6 months old.  You can get a very in depth look at the ins-&-outs of the fluff there.  I've since referred every cloth diapering mama I know their direction.  They are a great affordable option and after over a year of use, we still love our LPDs!

Like I said in the video, I wanted to pay forward the generosity shown toward me.  I've donated two diapers from the package to a mother in need (that I heard about through the youtube community) and set one aside to give away to you!   

This is the One-Size Classic Pocket Diaper in the Groovy Spots print.

If you notice the waist on LPDs gets teeeny tiny with over lapping snaps, making so this a great diaper for those slim little ones and for younger cloth bums as well. The fit grows from infant to toddler with ease.  

The give away is open to US and CANADA.  

All you have to do is tell me why you'd like to try a lovely pocket diaper in the comments.   The winner will be drawn at random on Monday and announced here on the blog on Wednesday.  

This is not a sponsored give away, just sharing the love that was shown to me!  Good Luck!

psssst - Thank you for waiting on this!  Growing babies isn't for ninnies, that's fo sho!

Oi Vey

I thought if I waited until Scarlet went to bed to put my Lovely Pocket Diaper blog up then I would have uninterrupted brain time to write out the details.  I forgot that my nausea ramps up in the evening on days that I've over done it.  Today is one of those days and it's taking everything in me not to be sick.  I have the photos taken and the logistics figured out.  I just need to be well enough to write the blog.

I've erased everything on my to do list for tomorrow accept getting that blog live.  So cross your eyes, toes and nostrils that I have a manageable health day tomorrow please!  After all, it is my birthday.   That must be what's going on.  Bitty bean is just partying way too hard in there.  bleurgh.

Thanks for understanding and I'll see you tomorrow!

"Hello, this is Marie the Mac Owner"

...is how I answered the phone yesterday.  It's here and now this is what my dining table currently looks like! A MacBook Pro and a Wacom Bamboo drawing tablet.  How hipster-swish-designer-pants am I?  I need giant black rimmed glasses that over take my face and the facade will be complete.   Nevermind the fact that I don't know how to use either piece of equipment yet.

The table only stayed like that for a moment before Scarlet brought in her own design tablets:  

 No more time to blog, the Beeble and I must create! 

Bustling About Like it's Christmas Eve

Today has been of sweet tea, sunshine, biscuits and rasberry jam (both made from scratch and tasting of heaven from a local cafe), a calm tummy, a nearly tidied house, sweet beeble and anticipation of the most exciting package I've ever received in the mail, arriving tomorrow! :)    

Such excitement requires extremely long sentences ;)

omgomgommgomgomgomggogmogomgmogogogogogomgmmgmmmmomg  eep!

Beware the Mutilating Bunny Muncher!

So, this pregnancy hasn't been great on Scarlet's diet.  She's been eating a lot of pantry foods because I haven't felt well enough to prepare fresh meats, fish and produce before they've gone bad.  I keep trying but as the wilted kale, iffy looking cauliflower and random floppy English cucumber will tell you, I'm failing miserably.  Yes I should freeze things, I know.  Chalk that up to the fail too.   

When it's meal time for Scarlet, her plate ends up filled with randoms like today's lunch feast of tater tots, cheese, crackers, a handful of frozen peas and popcorn.  I tried to tell myself it was ok, they were organic tots as was the popcorn (which tastes like lightly flavored paper drizzled in olive oil).  She did eat an apple, so that's something right?  Scarlet wasn't thrilled with the rest of it.  

After naptime I felt really guilty about her recent meals and decided the fresh air might curb my nausea so we headed to the market for some fresh produce.  My poor nutrient deprived Beebs grabbed and chomped on whatever she could get her hands on.  We left with a fresh fruit and veggie haul that looked like the rabbits got to it before it ever hit the bag.  She devoured a (washed) nectarine, so we paid for the pit, took a big ole' bite out of a head of broccoli and nibbled a little nibble on each carrot in the bunch.  I took them from her and tried to explain that we had to wash them first.  Thus began a very persistent protest and chant "cahwutt, cahwutt, cahwutt!"  Within an hour of washing there's only one carrot left!

The state of our carrots as we left the market.

Bottom left is the last bite, greens and all, headed down her gullet

Pic-Me-Up!

Hello, you poor neglected little thing.  Sorry I've been away but my blogging time has been replaced with dry heaving and a general warlbeldy feeling.  Don't feel down.  I promise I'll visit more often!  Here's a happy little Scarlet goon.  A little "pic" me up to tide you till next time.

Worth it

A little story:

Muuuahahah!  Ryan and I are at his mother's house once again. We've got the run of the house while she's out at her clogging class.  Ry is taking a shower in the guest bath, which has clear, etched, sliding glass shower doors .  He's listening to Adele loudly so he didn't hear me when I snuck in and stood about an inch away from the glass doors.  It should be noted that I'm wearing a dark hoodie and yoga pants, you know, sexy style.  He carried on singing loudly and dancing his little nekkid tooshie off (and clapping, who claps in the shower??) while facing the opposite direction. It took him a good 5-10 seconds before he realized I was there.  When he saw me he flipped the frack out. 

  "Oh my God!  Oh my God!  I'm dead.  I've had a heart attack and I'm dead.  You've killed me.  I'm dead.  You're on your own now. Go on without me."  

Heh.  Worth it.  :)

p.s. Spell check wants me to change snuck to snick.  Snick?  Really?  What's a snick?  I understand maybe suggesting "sneaked" but who says sneaked?  Besides you, Natalie. ;)

Scarlet's Easter Basket

Cute no?

I bought the robins egg blue basket at Goodwill last October for $2

Inside:

Foam Alphabet Bath Letters - $4.99 at Target

Owl Wash Cloth - $3.99 at Target

Bird Sippy Cup and Bowl Set - $7 at Target

Hair Bows - $3.49 at Target

Hello Kitty Necklace - $1 at Target

Pink Bunny Ears - $1 at Target

 Pink Feather Bird Pen - $1 at Dollar Store

Chocolate Bunny Pop - $2.39 at Safeway

Reeses Pieces Carrot Treat Bag - $1 at Dollar Store

Pastel Plastic Eggs - $7 at Safeway

Annie's Bunnies Fruit Snacks - $3.49 at Local Natural Food Market

The eggs will be filled with fruit snacks and cheddar crackers and hidden in the garden.

 And the giant cherry on top?  A big ole monkey.

Scarlet is so so so SOOO obsessed with balloons.  It's too the point that Ryan and I avoid floral and gift departments at stores that we frequent because we just can't handle the incessent 'bawoon' jibber jabber.  If she has one then every other word out of her mouth is about the bawoon.  She yammers on about how everyone should all look at it, hold it, see it, look at it, see it see it! Bawooooooooon!  She wont eat if there is a balloon in sight because that's takes away from time that could be spent talking about the balloon.  The first time she was given a balloon to take home after church she talked about it nonstop for 4 days before Ryan and decided the deflated balloon needed to go live on a farm somewhere.  THREE MONTHS LATER the girls still asks after that dang thing!  And that was just a regular old red rubber balloon!  So, we decided to be the best parents on the planet and suffer the aftermath by topping her basket with this guy.
 She is going to flip the frick out.

Betcha by next Friday Ry and I will be kicking ourselves for bringing the monkey into our beeble girl's life. ;)

Conversational Back and Forth with My 2 Year Old (25 months)

It's 10:15pm and Scarlet just woke up in her room and called me in there with a slight pout to her voice.

Me:  What's the matter?

Scarlet:  *using her saddest voice for best effect*  I bonka head on na cwib.

Me:  Uh oh!  Do you have owies?  

Scarlet:  Yea *rubs her head* I cwyin' Mama.

Me: You're crying?

Scarlet: Yea.  I habba owies and I sad.  Make a Scahyet happy Mama.  

Me: Oh, I don't want you to be sad honey.  Kisses will make it better and then you can be happy.

Scarlet:  Ummm, okay Mama.

Me:  *smothers in kisses and loves*  Allll better.

Scarlet:  It's okay mama.  Scahyet okay.

Me:  Are you happy too?  Will you have happy dreams now?

Scarlet:  Yea, a Cuwious George happy.

Me:  You're going to have dreams about curious George?  

Scarlet:  Yea Mama.  *puts head back down and hugs her blankie*

Where'd my baby go?

The Beach

3/13/13 Goodbye

Ryan's grandparents are amazing people.  They traveled the world together, taught ballroom dance on cruise ships, visited tribes in Africa and Grandma Loretta even taught Hula classes.  On Wednesday, around 1am, Loretta passed away in her sleep after a year long battle with pain.
Rudy and Loretta are without a doubt the most amazing people I've ever met in my life and I often regret that I didn't get to meet them sooner.  Rudy sang to his wife each morning as he brought her a cup of coffee (often accompanied by his uke) and they were as in love on the day she died as they were over SEVENTY years ago when they wed.  He adored his wife and sparkles every time he speaks of her.  Grandpa Rudy was one of Ryan's groomsmen and he and Loretta danced at our wedding as the longest married couple there.  Grandma wore a candy necklace from our reception candy shop in all of the professional shots we have and I sooo love that!  She was something to be admired.  She even modeled in a runway show for a big name company when she was in her eighties!  She wrote an essay about keeping a youthful heart and mentality that caught the judges eye.
My mother and I only knew them for the past six years but fell in love with them right out of the gate.  From the moment we met them they loved us as if were were always there, always apart of their family.  It's been an honor and an immense blessing.

 The whole family is doing okay, relieved that she will no longer endure the pain of her broken body.  It's hard to know she's not in our world anymore and even harder to think of Rudy and Loretta apart.  But the family has all come together and the love for them and each other is palatable.    Ryan has been reliving some of his favorite stories from his childhood with me over the past few days. Her life will always be cherished, remembered and definitely celebrated by everyone that had the privilege to know her.  Goodbye Grandma Loretta, there isn't a soul alive that isn't better off for having you in their lives. 

I'll be taking one week off from the blog.  See you all very soon.

A Royal Offense

The other day I was cleaning up Scarlet's room and found this picture that Ryan drew on the MagnaDoodle.  At first I thought it must be me and decided that in place of taking offense to the monster lady depiction, I would instead pity my poor husband's drawing skills.  

But then as I tidied more I found an old magazine and realized who the illustration was of.
 Any guesses?  

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Needless to say, I don't think Ryan will be hired to paint portraits of the royal family any time soon.

International Play Date of the Future!

Scarlet and Nolan danced and giggled with Darcy this morning.  

Our kids are the Jetson Generation!

Me and my girl

Flooring and Fixtures - Potty Talk #2

Yea yea, "number two" and "potty", I gets it.  Moving on.

Today we narrowed down the field with fixtures and flooring.  The easiest decision was the tub.
This one is a deep soaking tub that's so comfortable I could have napped in the display.  It doesn't have the greatest reviews online but Ryan thinks that's due to poor installation   The Lowes man assured us that it's the tub he sees returned the least.  We shall see I suppose.  It's nearly 20" deep!  That's practically double what our dinky little puddle tub holds now.

Sterling Ensemble Soaking Tub 60 x 32

Then we headed to flooring and grabbed two samples.  

A woodlook vinyl flooring that would give this effect:  

picture property of the internet home alliance

Or light cement tiles to open up the space (seen on left).

The next decision to be made was a bit harder. Do we stick with the free chrome faucet that was given to us?  The faucet is perfect with the style of room I'm envisioning but it's polished chrome and I was hoping for brushed nickle.  Not only would the brushed be easier to keep clean but it would be a bit more understated in our small space.  If we stick with the chrome then I need to find a matching bath faucet set, hand towel bar, vanity lighting and toilet handle.  That's a lot of shiny metal in yo' face.  For kicks, I wandered into the faucet area and picked out my favorite brushed nickle sink faucet (top right) and realized it's the exact design as the chrome one we were given for free.  So then I toyed with what other chrome fixtures I would choose if I stuck with the freebie.  Pictured below the faucet is an inexpensive bath faucet set that I don't mind in chrome as well as a light fixture.   What do you think?  Keep the chrome and purchase more of it or sell the chrome freebie faucet and go for the brushed look?

Here's what our flooring samples looked like at home.  While I adore the look of the wood in the washroom I think we may go with the cement tiles instead. They're a better fit for a damp terrain and the light color will open up the space rather than closing it in like a dark wood might. 

We're not totally sold there but I think I'm leaning away from the wood look.  In order to match the real hard woods we have in the rest of the house (under our soon to be ripped the hell up carpet), it has to be quite dark like this.   I'd much prefer something warm toned.

Opinions?  I'd love to hear them on both the fixtures and the flooring please!