I really am happy!

 With my due date fast approaching I have time to think about things. You will usually find me complaining about the discomforts of late term pregnancy, but in all reality I am very happy. Actually I feel more blessed than just happy. Happy is when you find 20 dollars on a road, or your favorite pair of jeans is on sale, or the sunset is extra beautiful. Happy, although very nice, is ordinary. It doesn't take much for everyone to find something they could be happy about. Even a person lacking something in their life could find one thing to be happy about. State of being blessed is different. It's beyond "happy" in many ways. Blessed means that you have received gifts beyond ordinary. It means that you, and only you have been given something that is extraordinary. Of course there are many things that people could be blessed with. Some people are blessed with winning a lottery, some are blessed with peace in their life, some a blessed with good health. I have been blessed with my husband and my kids.

Money-Wise Mondays - Costco

   To save money, one must know not only what to buy, but also where to shop for cheaper items. By cheaper items I don't mean Kraft dinner (or other over-processed, over-salted, and nutritionally lacking foods) but good quality food for less. Sales are always a good option, but unless you have tons of time on your hands to look through millions of flyers and then have the time to drive to millions of stores within the days that the sale is on, then you need another option. Enter Costco!

Sunday Snapshots - better days.

   I hope that everyone had a wonderful weekend and got a chance to spend some quality time with friends and family. This weekend was super busy for us. Since baby boy is not here yet, I took that opportunity to do majority of my Christmas shopping. I say that I am about 80% done. The kids also got a chance to finish purchasing gifts for each other using money they have saved and earned from doing chores. I happy that for the first time since I had kids I might be ready for Christmas ahead of the game.
   On the good note, we are all feeling better now, so today was the first time in a month that we have gone to Girly Monkey's game. It was nice to get out of the house and watch her game. The weather was cold but sunny, so we all got some vitamin D today. Here are couple of snapshots from the game today. Enjoy, while I go and rest my very sore body (walking for hours at 39 weeks pregnant is going to give you a really sore and swollen leg!)

39 weeks and .......... NOTHING.

   I am 39 weeks today. I thought that this baby would have showed up by now, but nothing is happning. Two weeks ago I was convinced that this little boy would have come in early November. I was really worried that he would arrive too early and I wouldn't have all the things ready yet. Boy, was I wrong. He never came really early. Now, since I am a mom, I will be worried that he is going to arrive late. I really don't want for him to be late since that would put a damper on our Christmas plans. With this awful flu that we all had I am very hesitant on taking a newborn into a restaurant on Christmas Eve or big family dinner on Christmas day. Since he can arrive up to 2 weeks past his due date, that would make his latest arrival on December 13th! That would make him less than 2 weeks at Christmas time. And I don't think that taking a 2 week old into a place where they can catch flu or cold virus is very wise. As a matter of fact, taking a less than a month old into any large gathering of people would be unwise. Especially since we have all just finished being really sick for a whole month! A newborn would not do so well with it. So that would mean no to our annual Christmas Eve dinner at the Boathouse, and no to extended family dinner on Christmas Day. I would hate to miss out on any of these but I have to look out for the best interest of our family.
   Daddy and I decided that if Monkey In-Waiting is going to arrive after the 29th, then we will forgo all the Christmas gatherings this year, but if he comes before then we will still take him. Since today is the 22nd, that leaves him a week to make his appearance and for all of us to still be able to enjoy all our Christmas festivities. The problem is that I am not feeling like he is about to make his entrance any time soon. Starting at 30 weeks I was getting tons of Braxton Hicks contractions daily. Since I got sick I have not gotten many at all. I now get maybe 3 a day. I think that it's time to start doing all the natural ways of inducing labor.

The good, the bad, and the ugly ... part 2 - Bath time

   Last time I wrote about baby clothing and all the inns and outs of it. Today I would like to get to baby gear. By baby gear, I mean the equipment used every day with the exclusion of big ticket items. I will write about big ticket items (like cribs, car seats, and strollers) another time. So what are some of the equipment that I want to mention. I will divide them into "Bath", "change time", "play time", "out and about". So here it goes:

Money-Wise Mondays - shopping for used baby gear.

   Having a new baby doesn't have to break the bank. The trick is to know what items to purchase brand new and high quality and what items can be acquired used. A lot of people are hesitant to purchase anything used for their precious children in fear that it won't be "nice" enough. But for the most part, babies and little kids don't wear out many of the items that they use. Because of that, many big ticket items can be acquired used for fraction of the original cost. The trick is knowing where to shop for these items, how to shop for them and which items you should buy new.

Sunday Snapshots - nesting instinct.

   Hello everyone. I have been trying to post more this week, but it's just not happening. Girly Monkey finally got better (she had this illness for 19 days!), but unfortunately Daddy brought some more from work last week and it has been a disaster. He got really sick at the beginning of the week and couldn't get out of bed. He NEVER gets sick, so that was very unusual for him. And then when he does get sick he goes through it so very quickly, but not this time. Only today, after well over 10 days he is starting to feel better.
   Little Monkey got it next, but it never really hit him hard. He run a fever for one day and then he has a cough, but nothing too bad. Funky Money was making fun of everyone by saying that he is not going to get it. He boasted that he was too healthy and strong. Well, by Tuesday night he was running really high fever and had major body aches and headache. By Thursday he couldn't get out of bed. He is still not well enough, and has lost so much weight since he doesn't have any appetite and just nibbles at the food.
   I was not lucky enough to escape their fate and Wednesday night I run a major fever and had worse body chills ever. It had got a bit better (except for this dry cough that hurts so bad), but tonight I went downhill again and started running fever. I really have to watch the fever since high fever is bad for the baby. On three occasions I had to take Tylenol just to bring down my temperature. So far Monkey In-Waiting is tolerating it all well enough, but I do hope that this bug leaves my house before his arrival.
   Since I felt so much better today I decided to go ahead and go through the whole living room and change things around. With the new baby on the way I had to make room for all the baby equipment, plus Christmas is just around the corner and we will need room for the Christmas Tree. So I started doing all these things only to discover that in the evening my fever came back and I felt awful. Unfortunately, I was stuck with the project until it was done since I can't leave my living room in such condition. It would not be very nice if the midwives had to jump over things to get to me. And since I am over 38 weeks now I could go into labor at any time. So here is a picture of my remodel in progress. Enjoy! I am going to sleep it off.