’s no school today due to snow.  We had an inch or so on Saturday night that melted away by Monday noon (we had a one hour late start on Monday because of icy roads), but it started to snow again in the evening yesterday.  We woke up at 6:00 this morning to listen to the radio, and we only had to wait a minute for the long list of school closures.  It only snowed 3 or 4 inches, but there was the possibility of a few more inchs to come during the day, and because no one wants to be trapped in school with that many kids, school was called off. 

Peyton played for a good half hour in the backyard making snow angels, throwing snowballs at daddy and diving into snow mounds.  Of course he also did his fair share of eating it.

We also did lots of cleaning today and Peyton and I made some fresh sourdough rolls to go with the beef stew dinner in the crock pot.

Tonight we may get a bit more snow…as much as I love the surprise of a day off, I need to work so I can enjoy my days off AFTER baby comes!

(and that needs to be soon!  Would someone please inform the baby that she can come out now?)

We snapped a few shots this morning before heading to a birthday party for one of Peyton’s friends.  Since we had our camera out, Peyton wanted to use his camera, a birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa.  Here are his results:

The picture of James is pretty good, considering that a lot of Peyton’s pics are of walls, sky or carpet.

Daddy snapped a few pics too -

2 more weeks at the very most!  I don’t know if I can make it!  I usually feel pretty well, but lying down in bed is the most uncomfortable part of my day.  Hopefully this little girl will be ready to come see us soon!

Also, there’s a new build going up across the elementary school field in front of our house.  Every time we pass it (and the other houses near it that are being built), Peyton cheers at the progress, as he continues to talk about a suggestion I made months ago…Mom, Papa and Uncle Tyler should buy that house   He says “Then they won’t be far away and they can drive to see us all the time!”

The birthday party this morning was a blast – the mother served lunch and all kinds of fresh fruit and vegetables.  They had a better concept of the pinata – instead of hitting it with a baseball bat, the kids each picked one string and pulled.  When most of the strings were gone it was Peyton’s turn, and when he pulled, out popped all the candy!  A few minutes after that Giggles the Clown pulled up with her assistant.  She did a few tricks, including making a real bird appear long enough for lots of petting, and making a stuffed bunny turn into a real bunny.  After that, however, she also needed to make a pack of antibacterial wipes appear, as common comments while petting the bunny included “Wow, she’s sweaty…she’s really warm and sweaty and wet…”  The assistant bathed the bunny and wiped up the box she’d been in while the kids carefully washed their hands   Giggles also played a few games with the kids, and each time they won (and they won each time), they got to pick a prize.  She also made balloon figures…lots of swords and hats for the boys, and a few puppies or kitties for the girls.  She ended with face painting, from pirate moustaches to butterflies to dogs to cars.  She kept the kids’ attention the whole time she was there, which was fun because I got to talk with some of the other moms who bring their kids to Jen’s house each day.  I also got to know the hostess a bit more, which will be nice, as the family only lives a block away!

While Giggles was entertaining, we noticed it had started to snow.  It was very light at first, with thick, fluffy flakes, but by the time we got home it had started to really come down.  There’s about an inch of snow right now, covering all the grass and cement.

Or at least my ribs feel like they’re bruised.  I’m not sure if it’s just my gigantic uterus that tries to squeeze up into my rib cage or if it’s baby feet stretching, but ouch!  It usually isn’t too bad, but during the night, whichever side is “up” (pregnant women aren’t supposed to lie on their backs…it’s been 4 months since I slept that way!) always feels like it’s being pinched.  This also prevents me from leaning over, which means Peyton has been a big helper in moving my Sorry game pieces when we play together.

We’re getting down to the last few days/weeks now – at the very most, 2 weeks and 5 days left until we bring our little girl home.  Today at work one of James’ coworkers told him we’d go into labor this weekend…apparently a high-pressure system is coming in, causing labor to start.  High-pressure systems mean very low temperatures, so perhaps when women say it’s Murphey’s Law that they’ll go into labor once it starts snowing, maybe it’s really more about science and weather.  At this point, I’ll believe it – one of the other teachers had her baby the day it started snowing in December, and James’ coworker had to rush his wife to the hospital a year ago when her water broke the minute it got cold enough to snow.

Hopefully this theory is more accurate than the full moon theory (full moon last night.  Lots of contractions, but still no baby).  Or maybe since the moon is still mostly full, AND the pressure is going up, the two will combine to bring us our baby?

At any rate, if you want us to call you when baby arrives, you better make sure we have your number ASAP!  The pressure system is moving in!

I realized that we haven’t taken very many pictures of me since I gained 30 lbs (I’ve taken to calling her my 30 lb. bowling ball), so here are a few from tonight.  Yes, I do still have arms, and no, if I stop holding it up it won’t fall out. 

Here’s Peyton experimenting with his birthday present, an artist’s easel.  His favorite activity:  mixing the colors to “turn” primary into secondary colors.  We’ve placed the easel in the kitchen against the wall between the fridge and the pantry, so he often paints while I make dinner.

Speaking of Peyton’s birthday, here are a couple pictures from our miniature birthday celebration…just Mommy, Daddy & Peyton this year. 

I don’t think I posted any pictures from the bit of snow we enjoyed this winter.  I think we had two or three weekends of snow, but it all melted away within a day or two after it arrived, so we haven’t had to take any snow days (or cancel any holidays, thank goodness!).

We also tried biking in the snow.   

   It didn’t work out very well.

My platelets were up again when I did the blood test last week.  Again, normal is 150, mine were at 115, then they dropped to 105, but now they’re at 114.  At 100 they won’t do epidurals for fear of spinal bleeding, and at 20 they give transfusions, so we’re well above any worries.

Well, we’re in the clear…and now I’m sure we’ll still be waiting until February comes along.  I had a doctor’s appointment today and we spent the time talking about when to go to the hospital and our birth plan and delivery and such.  We didn’t do an exam – I don’t think I want to know what’s really going on in there since it doesn’t really indicate a delivery date anyway.  One lady was dilated to 4 and her doctor said she’d deliver soon…instead she made it to 3 more weeks of appointments and glared at him at each one.  Other women don’t dilate at all, but they have the baby the next day.  If I find out I’m dilating, I’ll be excited and probably end up a little more upset with every day that goes by.  If I’m not dilating, I’ll be frustrated that these stupid contractions aren’t doing anything but annoying me!  So I’ll just not find out and eventually we’ll really be in labor and go to the hospital.  At the very most we’ve got 4 weeks left, but she’s welcome to come any time.  I’ll be considered full-term on Friday, and I’d love for her to show up as soon as my grades are in (probably Friday), but most women carry to a day or two beyond the due date.  Can I make it?

We’ve had lots of friends offering to take Peyton when the baby comes…even if it’s in the middle of the night   We’re planning that he go to Gordon’s, but if we can’t get a hold of Gordon we’ll start calling the runners-up on our list.  It just reminds us that we are so blessed to be in such a great community.  We don’t have much family around, but our friends have stepped up to fill the role for us.

And now Peyton and I are going to play another few rounds of Uno, as we’ve been doing for the last couple weeks.  At Uncle Gordon’s on New Year’s Day we played Uno and discovered that Peyton could understand it, so we bought ourselves a deck and have been playing almost every day.  Peyton does win sometimes, and that’s often without any help from Mom or Dad!  Granted we can see all of his cards, but even when we ignore them he can still beat us!

Peyton had a difficult birthday.  We had lunch together at Red Robin on Sunday to celebrate, and they gave us a balloon to take home.  We stopped at Costco to pick up snacks to treat his pre-school class, and I thought I checked that it was safely tied to his wrist before we got out of the car, but as soon as the balloon came out the door, the wind grabbed it and it was gone.  I felt SO bad!  Poor little guy, he was so sad!  We decided to skip Costco and go straight home so Peyton could take his nap, and I promised him I’d get him a new balloon.

Sunday night he got into bed a bit late because we stayed too long at small group.  When James and I went to bed at 10:30, I was having a hard time getting comfortable when I looked over and WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING AWAKE???? 

So Monday morning, on his birthday, he seemed to grow ten years instead of one!  He responded to my sweet happy birthday song with “Leave me alone, I want to sleep.”  What kind of 4 year old does that???

At the babysitter, he didn’t want to nap, then I showed up a bit early because I thought he’d enjoy coming home a bit earlier than usual.  Instead, he was still sleeping after falling asleep late, so I woke him up from a much-needed but much-too-short nap.  All evening he was grouchy and tired and cranky and whiney.  Instead of a nice birthday evening, we tucked him in early and were glad for the quiet time.

He awoke in better spirits today – he really did like his presents and he really was thankful to those who called…he just didn’t know it.

And as for his sister: she’s still in there, though I thought she might have been hoping to make an entrance on her brother’s birthday.  Maybe she’s just more interested in tormenting me with the on-again-off-again cramping contractions that seem to start up and grow, then quit, only to repeat at inconvenient times…like 1:30 to 4 this morning.