Just a few Confessions:

Whenever I hear the song "Empire State of Mind" by JayZ and Alicia Keys... I want to move to New York City. I have always kind of thought that I would live there someday. Whenever I have pictured it though, I have kid(s) that are a little older- like 5.

I haven't done dishes since Caleb left on Saturday. I will have to crack and wash them tonight though... I'm out of clean drinking glasses and I have to make a salad for a work potluck for tomorrow.

I'm excited for the baby to come but I think being excited for my 5 month maternity leave to start is a VERY close second. She is due 4 weeks from Saturday! This pregnancy has flown by and I really don't see it slowing down anytime soon.

My tolerance must be down...

Day 1 of Caleb's mini-tour and I already miss him...

Guess I've been pretty spoiled having him home for the last 2 months!

At least it is a short one- only a week this time.

I think my melancholy is also due to not getting enough sleep last night.

I'm sure I'll feel much better tomorrow.

He played at an Indian reservation tonight. I hope he finds a cool pair of moccassins for the baby!

Genius Shopper Part 2

Today I stumbled upon a great deal! I had received an email from B.R.us saying they were offering free shipping today only and thought... we should really take advantage of this to buy our dresser for the baby. I went online and even though I'd picked one out in the past from there, nothing today was catching my eye. Still, free shipping is a good deal on something as heavy as a dresser, so I didn't quite want to give it up yet. We had talked about looking at the unpainted furniture store down the street from our place, so I decided that I'd run check there really quick to make sure there wasn't something better, before settling on one online. The unpainted furniture store is right next door to a baby store that I'd already looked at and written off as way too expensive. But as I passed by there today, I noticed that they had some discounted pieces on the sidewalk out front. LO AND BEHOLD- the most perfect dresser was right there, marked 50% off. It was everything I wanted for her dresser: dark colored wood, drawers on the left/door with shelves on the right, flat top where we can put a changer AND it was some things I didn't know that I wanted: silver knobs, smooth sloping lines (rather than a box with drawers), 2 small top drawers instead of a 3rd bigger one and SOLID WOOD. With the discount, it ended up being the same price as the lower quality model I'd nearly bought online from Target a week or so ago since tax and shipping was factored into that. CB loaded it up in the van, drove it home, his friends that are visiting helped carry it up the stairs and I filled it with her things this afternoon.

I'm just slightly jealous of her fancy dresser (CB and I have the Ikea style that look like boxes with drawers), but I'm glad she has such a nice piece of furniture (and I'm going to make her use it forever). Here's a picture of the dresser I took from the website. There is a matching crib but we're probably not going to get that until we move to a bigger place.

Which style dresser and which car seat/stroller have been 2 of the biggest decisions we've had to make with picking out "her gear". I've been looking online and changing my mind back and forth since October. It is such a relief to have those decisions made and carried out... not to mention 2 big checkmarks on our 3 page to-do list (typed!).

PS- And good thing about the genius shopper part... because we spent A LOT of money this weekend! Oh well... doing our part for the economy right?

I am pretty much a genius shopper...

That is what I came up with earlier.

A week ago, we got an ad in the mail from Babies R Us saying that if you bring in your used baby items (car seat, stroller, playpen, high chair or bassinet), you can get 25% off a new item (in certain categories/brands). Here I am thinking... I don't have any used big ticket type baby items. How can I take part in this great deal? So yesterday, I started looking at Craigslist- thinking if I could get a cheap something I could trade it in for our travel system. I didn't see anything super cheap on craigslist or not convenient enough to go get. I drove "the long way" to babies r us this morning to pass by as many yard sales as possible to see what I could find. I thought I hit the motherload when I saw a yard sale with 2 car seats and a bassinet. But they were in pretty good shape and nice brands and priced at $50 and $60~ not going to work for my $55 discount. I run into the thrift store and there it is~ a pink dingy car seat priced at $10.99. Woohoo! Standing in line for the cash register I see that Saturday is 30% off used item day!!!! Meaning I got the car seat for $7.70! Sweet! So for my 15 minutes of searching and my $7.70 investment, I saved $55!!

Here it is in all it's glory, our new travel system...

Since the box was kind of heavy and bulky, I got it up the stairs (Caleb was out of town for the day) by opening the box and taking it up the stairs piece by piece. I'm sure I looked hilarious. Once I got it up the stairs, I put it all back in the box- haha. Not quite ready to have it out and about yet, but it does feel responsible to have it. Maybe because having a car seat means we would be allowed to take her home from the hospital.

6 weeks from today is her due date. It's still going really fast.

FYI- Pregnancy = baby

Tonight we had our maternity tour and pre-registration at the hospital. Right before we left, we walked by the postpartum nursery and saw a few of the new babes in their bassinets... and it hit us right then- Wow. We're going to go to the hospital some time in the next 6 weeks and when we leave, it will be with a baby. Funny that we reacted the exact same way in the same moment. It's getting very real.

The more items we check off our to-do list (it's 3 pages long- TYPED!) the more excited I get for her arrival. We did our 8 hour long all in 1 day birthing class on Sunday. I feel just a teensy bit more prepared for that part, I guess. My biggest job right now is to keep her in. Caleb is doing a mini tour from February 21- March 1st and she is NOT allowed out until he gets back. We have an ultrasound scheduled for a week from tomorrow, so hopefully that would indicate any complications that would throw a wrench in these plans before he leaves. (KNOCK ON WOOD) But I really feel like I have had a "by the book" pregnancy so far, so I figure I'll probably not have her until the week she's due.

I'll try to think of something else to write about for the next time... this is turning fast into a pregnancy blog... boring.