O happy day

This is a celebratory picture after finding out today that my contractions are actually doing something... I'm 2 cm dilated and 50% effaced! Although I know that I can hang out here for quite a while, it makes all the pain a little more bearable and welcomed. Hauling this almost 38 week belly around is quite a job, but news of the progress I've made since just last Monday (when I was not dilated at all) was the boost I needed to get through this last stretch. It also made me happy to see the number on the scale remain the same for the last 2 weeks. It gets a little scary at the end to grow a belly this large and think about all the work that will go into getting back in shape!

What nesting looks like... the last push to pack my hospital bag, while cleaning out my closet and nightstand and finding an abundance of missing lip glosses in the process (shocker).

Today was a really good day. In the span of just 14 hours I have all of this to be thankful for:

- both kids waking up happy (normally they start off a little crabby, like their mother)

- calling a favorite friend on the phone this morning to wish her a happy birthday, and thinking about how thankful I am for her friendship and place in our lives

- my mom coming over to help me with the kids for a few hours before my doctor's appointment

- quiet time alone in the car that allowed me to call and catch up with a dear friend who is also pregnant and just had a 20 week ultrasound showing a perfectly growing baby (praise God!) in what has been a complicated pregnancy

- all of the good news I received at my doctor's appointment (2 cm dilated, no weight gain, baby is still head down!)

- my sweet doctor telling me that she enjoys having me as her patient

- being told by my mom to stay out and run errands because she was doing fine at the house, and then returning home later to find that she had done my laundry, cleaned out the cabinet under the sink, loaded and unloaded the dishwasher, organized the coat closet and napped the kids!

- getting a pedicure (maybe the one that will see me through my time in the hospital?!)

- every place I went today, a stranger had something kind to say or do - either congratulating me on the pregnancy, asking about how I was feeling and did I need any help, chatting about baby names and even swapping labor/delivery stories which I always find fun

- the warm fuzzy feeling I always leave Whole Foods with. Their employees are seriously the sweetest people, and I have yet to have a negative experience with other shoppers. What is it about that place?

- Rob coming home early from work, unexpectedly

- sharing the joy and excitement of a friend who is recently engaged and planning her wedding

- watching Robbie and Ellie color together at the chalkboard easel on tiptoes, side by side

- making it over to the dry cleaners just minutes before they closed

- the sound of thunder and rain as I tuck into bed

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A few recent iPhone pictures from our quiet days at home...

Robbie and Ellie LOVE the VReader and usually fight over it, but lately they have figured out how to enjoy it together. I live for moments like this that warm my heart and remind me that having kids close together isn't all crazy!

We spent an afternoon outside when temperatures hit a balmy 45 degrees. I think the kids would have skipped dinner to stay out and play if I would have let them. Ellie loves finding airplanes in the sky, and her posture here cracks me up.

Hmmm... time to get out the real 'outside' toys. All we had in the garage to play with were shovels from snowier days. They had fun anyways, shoveling the grass and Robbie's toy trains.

This is the carnage from the sippy cup of milk I fumbled the other day.

Upper cabinets, covered in milk splatter.