The Due Date

Here we are, June 30, Evelyn's due date, and poor Sebastian is lying in bed with a fever. I am praying both Patrick and I stay healthy, as the thought of going into labor, and having a fever sounds pretty miserable. I wish that I could naturally go into labor but also know what day that would be. "Ahh, today I shall begin having contractions at 2:30pm, what do I need to get done before that?" Or something like that. Alas, that is not the way things work. One of the hard parts of the end of pregnancy is the waiting and uncertainty. Meanwhile, I am continuing to try and get things done around here without getting too apathetic. For example, I need to vacuum today, whether I want to or not. Okay kid, anytime now, I'm ready.

What Does One Do?

What does one do when they are only two days away from their due date? They make toy weapons for their children, of course!Now, obviously, I didn't make the sword, but yesterday I spent most of my time "making crafts" for Sebastian. First let me just say that there is a reason why this is not a blog about all the creative crafts that I make. In fact, you will rarely see a "project" post that has anything to do with my own creativity. I decorate our home, and that is about it. I am not a very creative person. I am definitely not a "crafty" person. Therefore, I don't do things like this because I am really not very good at it. The question then arises, should a non-crafty person be picking up from the library a book about how to make crafts? DEFINITELY NOT! Especially not when your child is only three years old and he will be wanting you to make everything in the book as he is incapable of doing so. However, being the softy that I am, yesterday I made Sebastian a lion mask, (not pictured for a reason, it was not very well done.) a shield, an ax, and a pseudo-helmet. Fortunately, my child loves me know matter how good I am at this stuff. Here is a pictures of a few of my creations.
Happily, Sebastian loved it all. I had to finally tell him "no more" when he also wanted an elephant mask. (that one will not be easy) But, because I love him so much, I continue to make him these things. I'm looking forward to the day when I can do simple tasks like hide things, make treasures maps, and sit and enjoy my coffee while he tries to find the treasure.

A Completed Project: The Sandbox

Back when we decided to build a raised bed for our garden, we also decided to purchase extra timbers in order to build Sebastian a sandbox. We were not quite certain where to put the sandbox until, unbeknownst to each other, Patrick and I both thought of this spot. It is close to the house, and right outside the screened in porch, perfect for a sandbox.

In his "spare time" from working on windows and digging the garden, Patrick worked on this sandbox. Sebastian was very excited about this project and he continually looked forward to having it completed.
As of last night, I am happy to say, the sandbox is done. Patrick finished digging out the space for the timbers on Thursday night, and on Friday he picked up the sand. My parents were over for dinner and Sebastian even said that he would stay outside and play by himself while we went in to play Pinochle (a first for him).
This morning, right after breakfast, he immediately wanted to go out and play some more. He was especially excited to learn that some of his big, plastic trucks are perfect for use within the sandbox. Patrick, on the other hand, is quite pleased to have completed at least one project around here.

Pretty Great

Sebastian was just listening to a song called, “All I Have to Do is Pray”. Afterward, he came to find me in the other room and said, “Mommy, will you pray with me?” Of course, I said yes, and he told me that he wanted to say the words as he wanted to pray for Mr. Kidd. So, we prayed together and he prayed, “God Bless Mr. Kidd and Mrs. Kidd keep them healthy, God bless baby, and Uncle Patrick and Aunt Lori and God bless Mommy and baby.” After the prayer I asked him what had made him want to pray and he replied, “Jesus”.

The Bow, Sans Arrows

In an attempt to get Sebastian a little interested in a story other than Beauty and the Beast, we allowed Sebastian to watch Robin Hood. To encourage interest in this story, Patrick decided to make Sebastian a bow, which has been a hit. He has yet to make him some arrows, but those should, hopefully, follow before too long. Sebastian loves having his store of weapons (his bow and his sword). When Patrick first made this, Sebastian would pretend to shoot it, and then run to me and say "Maid Marianne, I won the contest, I need a kiss", and I would kiss him. I of course thought that this game was pretty great.

However, Sebastian has recently reverted back, and he now tends to pretend that the bow belongs to Gaston as he goes off to "Kill the Beast."

Childhood Excursions

The other day Patrick and I were talking about some of the Fun Adventures that we went on as children. For him, there was a railroad track behind their neighborhood and not much else besides. He was able to ride his bike on the dirt and ride down to the creek and explore. For me, we lived in the middle of the city, so there was not as much of this. My cousins lived on three acres of land, out in the boonies, and we enjoyed exploring in the dessert, building forts, avoiding cacti, and generally, having a wonderful time. Also, our family vacations tended to be camping trips to the mountains, which meant that we got to spend lots of time fishing and running around in the mountains. Patrick’s extended family lives in Minnesota and during his summers he usually enjoyed spending time on the family farm. For both of us, we have many wonderful childhood memories that evolve around the outdoors. The world we live in today is different than that world that we grew up in. (Obvious statement of the year.) Where we live is more developed and we have to go further in order to escape "the city." We don’t live in Arizona or Colorado, we live in North Carolina and things are different, but hopefully, our kids can still form some of their own great childhood memories. We need to just make certain that we take the time and effort to allow them similar opportunities that we had as children. I guess that means, for starters, we need to start collecting camping supplies.

Time Flies

Today I was going through old pictures and I found some videos of Sebastian from 2009. It was lots of fun to watch these and remember what he was like two years ago. The amazing thing is how much he has changed in what seems like such a short time. It is also really good for me to be reminded that time certainly flies and he is growing up in the blink of an eye. I need to be reminded of this more often as it makes me cherish, all the more, the time that I do have with him. Every single day he seems more and more like a little boy, but I miss those "baby" days. It is good to, once in a while, have reminders like this as it is very easy to just let the days slip by and not focus enough on spending time with one's children. I don't want to look back on this time and think "I wish that I had played more with the kids and spent less time doing _______."

Two Weeks and Counting

As of today, I am exactly two weeks away from my due date, June 30. If this were my first pregnancy all over again, I would be four weeks away from my actual delivery date. One hard thing about the last few weeks of a pregnancy is the waiting. Here I am feeling huge; having a hard time moving around, sleeping, and just getting things done in general; enjoying constant heartburn and clumsiness; and yet, I don't know if I will be this way for another couple days, a week, weeks, or a month. So, all that I can do is go on with my daily life, and wait patiently for this young lady to decide to come see us in person. Today my mom came over and helped me cook a few meals to put in the freezer and then I put the infant car seat in the car (Sebastian even tested it out by putting his teddy bear, Aloysius, in it) which means that, once I vacuum the house and mop the kitchen floor, I am ready for this baby to come. I have never thought that she would come early, I have always expected her to be late. But after my last doctor's appointment--where they told me that they don't let people be nearly as late as two weeks but would sooner induce--I started to be nervous about whether I will go into labor at all. I was two weeks late and induced with Sebastian, and this is not what I want to happen with Evelyn. I would, after all, like to know what it is like to Actually go into labor. But then, I just remind myself that before you know it, the baby will be here, and this will, once again, just be part of the past. (I am, of course, referring specifically to the pains of childbirth.) And, I might add, a part of the past that just gets dimmer and dimmer as time moves on until eventually, I hardly remember anything about it. In the meantime, please pray that this baby is on-time, or early, and I will shortly start walking marathons.

He Makes Me Laugh

Cogsworth

Attempting to see from under the hat.

Trying on daddy's glasses, along with a few other things.

Unfortunately, my pictures loaded in reverse order. These are Sebastian figuring out, on his own, a Cogsworth costume. The first photo is his final result.

Lovely Weather

Today has been lovely, dry, breezy, low eighties. After many weeks of humid and low to high nineties, it seems heavenly. One of the best parts about today's weather is that tonight is supposed to be dry and 61, perfect Window-Open-While-Sleeping weather. We need days like this to remind us why we live in the South, or at least, to not make Patrick Hate the South as opposed to Colorado. However, I digress. When we have lovely weather like this, it inspires me to be productive. I will rarely, if ever again, do this, but I am proud of my day thus far. I mowed the lawn; did three loads of laundry (and I didn't have to use the dryer once as the weather was so nice it dried the clothing very quickly); cleaned both bathrooms; vacuumed half of the house (I would like to finish the other half but I'm getting rather tired); and changed the sheets on my bed. To some, this may not seem like that much, but let me remind you, I am nine months pregnant and I don't move so fast anymore. I tackled today with the thought that, as I was behind on things (such as cleaning the bathroom) if I didn't do them today they might not get done until after the baby is born. I want Patrick to go to clean the bathroom and think, "I really appreciate my wife who normally does this." Not, "This is revolting! Does my wife just sit on the couch all day eating bon bons?" It is nice to occasionally have days where I am motivated to get things done as 99% of the time, I would much rather just sit down and read a book.

Spray Park

The other day Sebastian and I went to a Spray Park with a few of his cousins. It was a really neat park (unfortunately, many other people thought so too), and the only downside is that it is thirty minutes away from our house. I wish that I could find something really fun, free, and preferably wet, for us to do in the summer, that is quite close to our house.This is what the park looks like. Water drops down form those tall things and sprays up from the ground as well.

Filling up the buckets.

This was lots of fun.

38 Weeks

I went to the doctor this morning and I learned that they won't let me go much past one week late. This means that once I am one week late, they have been come in so that they can check the size of the baby and such, and then talk to me about scheduling an induction. The good news is that in a little over three weeks, Lord willing, we will have a baby girl. The bad news is, I really don't want to be induced. We are praying that I will go into labor before this as I don't want to be induced AGAIN. It was not a happy experience with Sebastian and I would like to know what it is actually like to go into labor on my own. The flip side of all of this is that I don't have much time to get lots of stuff done. This week my goal is to get the house REALLY clean and cook lots of extra meals to freeze. Also, Patrick's grandfather (his mom's dad) is not doing well and it is suspected that he does not have too much longer to live. We are praying that, if something does happen to him, this baby will cooperate so that Patrick will be able to fly to MN.

Beauty and the Beast

For the past few months Sebastian has been on a Beauty and the Beast kick. My dad's school put it on as their Spring play, and Sebastian got to go and see it. Before going, I had him listen to the music (I have the CDs for both the play version and the animated version) and read the book, so that he would know the store. Well he now listens to the CD every single day, multiple times each day, and he will pretend to be the different characters. So, on Tuesday, I made him a Lumiere costume. He has different "costumes" for each character. When he is Gaston, he wears a pair of high boots of mine and carries a sword. When he is the Beast, he puts on this cheetah outfit.
If Mrs. Potts is singing, he picks up a toy tea pot (that was mine when I was little) that has a face on it, and he pretends that is her. He makes certain that he is appropriately equipped for whichever song is playing. Yesterday, at my parent's house, he sat at the table for a couple of hours singing the songs (which he knows quite well by heart) and pretending that different Lego men were the characters. His favorite song switches between "Be Our Guest" and "Kill the Beast", and he loves to "play at" the fight between the villagers and the castle servants. Here is a video of him listening to "Be Our Guest."

Fun at the Pool

One of the things that I love about the summer, and there really aren't very many things, is getting to go swimming in a real swimming pool.

On Saturday we went swimming with my parents. (My parents have a membership to the pool that my dad's school owns.) While Sebastian and I have been able to swim a lot there--both last summer and a couple of times already this summer--Patrick got to go swimming for the first time since we moved here, a year ago. He and Sebastian had lots of fun together. They worked on Sebastian learning how to dunk, swim a bit, and of course, there was lots of jumping off of the side into the pool.

Here is a little video of Sebastian trying to swim with just the little floaties on. He seemed to enjoy that a lot, even when he dunked a bit. Thanks to Patrick, he isn't as scared of the water as he use to be.

Freezer Meals

With the baby due in only three weeks, I have started (perhaps a bit late) seriously thinking about freezing some meals for after the birth. I have never been a person who cooks and freezes meals, though, maybe this is something that should change in the future, so I have needed to come up with some recipes. I know that there are cookbooks with lots of recipes for this, but I do not have one, and I don't really have time to go and get one. So, I have been searching a lot online. What I did find was that Martha Stewart has some freezer recipes. Her recipes are ones where you make a meal, serve one portion for dinner that night and then freeze the other portion. My plan is to make some of those throughout the next few weeks, thereby killing two birds with one stone, and also have a day or two where I just cook some meals to freeze. While neither of these prospects sounds very appealing to me at this point, I know that, later on, I will be glad I took the time. Here is my favorite (at least from how it sounds, I haven't tasted any of them yet) Martha Stewart freezer recipe, it is:

Baked Penne with Chicken and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

• 

Each baking dish serves four; bake one tonight, and freeze the other for a ready-made dinner later on. When ready to cook, bake it straight from the freezer.

• Prep Time 35 minutes
• Total Time 1 hour
• Yield Serves 8

Ingredients

• 6 tablespoons butter, plus more for baking dishes
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 pound penne rigate
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (8 ounces each), halved horizontally
• 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled)
• 4 garlic cloves, minced
• 6 cups whole milk
• 10 ounces white mushrooms, trimmed and thinly sliced
• 1/2 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and thinly sliced
• 1 1/2 cups shredded provolone (6 ounces)
• 1 cup finely grated Parmesan (4 ounces)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400. Butter two shallow 2-quart baking dishes. In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook pasta 3 minutes short of al dente; drain pasta, and return to pot.

2. In a large nonstick skillet, heat oil over medium-high. Season chicken with salt and pepper; cook until opaque throughout, 3 to 5 minutes per side. Halve each piece lengthwise, then thinly slice crosswise.

3. In a 5-quart Dutch oven or heavy pot, melt butter over medium. Add flour and garlic; cook, whisking, 1 minute. While whisking, gradually add milk; bring to a simmer, whisking frequently. Add mushrooms and tomatoes; cook 1 minute. Off heat, gradually stir in provolone and 1/2 cup Parmesan.

4. Add chicken and pasta to pot; season with salt and pepper. Divide pasta mixture between baking dishes; sprinkle each with cup Parmesan.

5. Bake, uncovered, until top is golden and bubbling, about 25 minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving. (The recipe is from marthastewart.com)

The Wedding

(The wedding party coming up the hill at ISI after taking some pictures. We particularly liked how, in the photo, Judy is reaching back for Rob.)

As most of you know, we were all recently in Wilmington, DE for the wedding of our dear friends Rob and Judy. Sebastian was very excited to attend the wedding and get to "eat cake and dance". The wedding itself was very lovely, and we had a wonderful time. We hadn't been back to Wilmington since we moved, a year ago, so it was nice to see people get the opportunity to catch up in person. Also, the reception was at ISI, where Patrick and I both worked, so it was fun to see those beautiful grounds again. Sebastian was a trooper on this trip. The wedding took place at 2:30 in the afternoon, and we did not end up leaving the reception until almost 10:00pm. There were a couple of almost meltdowns, but overall, it was a lovely day.The Bride and Groom!

Patrick and I at the end of the evening.


Sebastian was enjoying the food, though, he liked the cake best (and I must say, so did I, it was delicious!).


With dear friends, Erika and Maggie.


Sebastian got to dance with the bride.

Iced Coffee and Mint Simple Syrup

My mom recently found an article that gave instructions on how to make really good iced coffee and a mint simple syrup. As my garden is overrun by mint (mint supposedly keeps snakes away, so I planted two plants and it has taken over) I needed something to make with the mint. Of course, Mint Simple Syrup! You just take 1 cup water, 1 cup sugar, heat them so as to dissolve the sugar, take it off of the heat, add 1 cup mint, and then, once it reaches room temperature, strain out the mint and store in the refrigerator. This can be used to flavor all sorts of drinks, such as iced tea or Mojitos. As for the iced coffee: instructions said to take 3/4 cup coffee grinds, mix it with 3 cups water, and let it sit overnight. In the morning, strain out the grinds, and pour equal parts coffee mixture and water over ice. I of course then added cream and sugar and yumm! I love coffee but when it is so hot out, I don't drink hot coffee very much, but when I brew coffee and then pour it over water it doesn't taste wonderful, but this is the best that I have yet had. So those are my most recent experiments and they were both quite successful.

Swimming

Having grown up in the heat of Arizona summers, it always seemed extremely logical (and nice) to have a swimming pool. Now that I live in the South, it doesn't seem that pools are nearly as common. Yet, to my mind, they are just as necessary as they were in Arizona. However, as I am now one of the two adults in the house and I no longer live in the same house as my mother (she was always the individual in our home who did all of the "pool work") the responsibility of a pool doesn't sound so great. But yet, we still miss the enjoyment of a pool. So how does one get around this without paying almost $300 in order to belong to the neighborhood pool? A KIDDY POOL! =) Just kidding. But, it has been a great solution for Sebastian. The day we were moving in, a year ago, one of our neighbors was having a yard sale and they were selling a kiddy pool. My mom walked over, bought it, and Sebastian and I have been enjoying it ever since. It is nice for me to sit in a chair next to the pool, with my feet dangling in the water, as Sebastian gets me nice and wet. Last summer, there was even a day where I put on a bathing suit and got in with him. Well, we just make due with what we have.

Projects

Poor Patrick! Every time that there is a project around here it always seems to turn into a much bigger job than originally anticipated. It all began back when we first moved in and he went to change out the faucet in our bathroom. He then quickly discovered that he had to replace a bunch of pipes and the sink as well. When the wax ring on the toilet needed to be replaced, he ended up also having to replace other parts that were rusted and broken, so a ten minute job turned into a two day job. The garden, which should have taken a month to build, has turned into a six month project. Well, the latest occurrence is the replacement of Sebastian's window. Patrick was hoping to knock this project out in a few hours. Here is what the window looked like before:However, as soon as Patrick removed the shutters he found a problem.

The people who originally installed the window never caulked it. This means that there was the chance of water damage and, sure enough, the bottom left hand corner of siding and wood underneath was rotted. Patrick now needs to remove and replace all of the rotted wood before he can even start to deal with the window. Once again we have a project on our hands that is taking a lot more time than it should have (and by "we" I of course mean Patrick as there isn't really that much that I can do to help besides offer moral support). Meanwhile, we are still working on figuring out what to do with all of the excess clay in our garden so that we can replace it with good dirt. I am amazed that we actually get anything done around here.