My Christmas List is a To-Do List

Maybe I'll feel differently next year when I have a 10-month-old, but...I am totally not interested in getting a photo of my kid on Santa's lap. Unless one of my friends or relatives dresses up as Santa for a party, I just don't see myself getting that picture. At least not until she's old enough to request a visit to Santa, at which point I suppose if we were there anyway, I'd probably get a picture.

But speaking of Christmas pictures, for Christmas cards next year? I am so looking forward to setting up something fun and silly and snapping a bunch of pics to DIY our own photo cards (and for a much cooler keep-sake than the Santa picture). I'm thinking Baby Girl in nothing but a red diaper and santa hat, playing with a string of white Christmas lights, with some neutral fabric in the background and maybe a couple other non-breakable accessories. Or! Maybe a big pot fashioned to look like a mug, and stick her in there along with a few bags of big marshmallows like she's bathing in hot chocolate! Can a 10-month-old munch on marshmallows (with adult supervision)?

Anyhoo, that's all to come a year from now. This year, I have a huge to-do list of a different sort: this is the last time I'll have multiple days off of work in a row before D Day, so in addition to all the usual Christmas stuff, there's a TON of baby-related stuff I really want to get done between now and January 2nd! And I am SO GLAD I saved up my vacation days so I could have off for 13 days in a row, starting this Wednesday, December 21st! Here's what's on the ol' list:

Monday 12/19 Evening:

• Coat of paint on the dresser


• Lots of laundry, including all the old clothes I plan to make into cloth diapers & cover

Tuesday 12/20 Evening:

• More laundry (see above)


• Clean up & decorate Dining Room table


• Finish decorating tree (just need to hang ornaments)


• Vacuum/sweep/dust once all decorating is done

Wednesday 12/21:

• Tidy/reorganize 2nd bedroom in prep for more storage needs


• Clear out office except for small desk, computer, & printer


• All extra non-baby stuff from 2nd bedroom & office goes to the basement


• Finish up anything still pending from above (more laundry? fold laundry?)

Thursday 12/22:

• Wrapping & other prep for Christmas gifts (this is 5 bullets on my personal list, but I don't want to give anything away!


• Shop for any necessary supplies for baking Christmas cookies tomorrow

Friday 12/23:

• Bake Christmas cookies with Hannah!


• Two more Christmas gift prep items

Christmas Eve 12/24:

• Askey Family Christmas!


• Cooking in the morning?


• Knitting

Christmas Day 12/25:

• Killian Family Christmas!


• More knitting

Monday 12/26:

• Lebanon Christmas Brunch & Pregnant Cousins Pow-Wow!


• More knitting!! (I really need to knit every day to get anywhere near all my knitting done, so just assume this bullet is included in all future days!)


• PREP Christmas Dinner!

Tuesday 12/27:

• Paint the Office Nursery!

Wednesday 12/28:

• Sewing Day - hem curtains, make cloth diapers & diaper covers

Thursdasy 12/29:

• Finish painting nursery (trim, wall stripes?)

Friday 12/30:

• More of whatever still needs to be done (painting? sewing?)


• Finish painting dresser & bookcases in basement

Saturday 12/31:

• More finishing what still needs to be done from previous days


• KNITTING

Sunday 1/1/2012:

• Freak out because it's 2012 already, and because I'm going to have a BABY this year


• Start un-decorating


• More sewing? Start to assemble the nursery?

Monday 1/2/2012:

• Finish un-decorating


• Get house tidy & ready for organized storage of baby stuff

If I can come reasonably close to actually following this list, I will be feeling LOADS better about the prospect of bringing a baby home to our house in (less than?) 2 months. WAY, way better.

Brain Dump

Growing a new human is still going well. I'm starting to have to work harder to roll over in bed, and some...um...gastronomic discomforts, but on the whole I really can't complain. Still feeling blessed to have an easy pregnancy.

At the doctor's on Wednesday morning, I was told to keep doing whatever I'm doing, because everything is great! I still have great blood pressure, my thyroid is still staying stable like a champ, my weight is good, and I even got confirmation that I was right about the orientation of Baby Girl: her butt is on the top right, her head is all the way at the bottom just above my pelvis, and she's facing slightly to my left and back.

But today I'm more in the mood for a brain dump of things that no one really wants to listen to me talk about:

Last night on WITF radio, the host introduced an NPR story by saying that the EPA had "implicated a connection" between fracking and contaminated drinking water. That is...not correct. You can't implicate a connection. He should have said either that the EPA had implicated fracking in connection with contaminated drinking water, or the EPA had found a connection between fracking and contaminated drinking water. I know it's a minor misuse, but it bugged me. I may have ranted aloud about it to myself as I drove to choir rehearsal.

Abrupt topic change:

If you work at a desk at a computer all day, let me tell you, it is the perfect place to paint your nails. The smell really isn't an issue because it dissipates quickly (especially since I have a big air vent right above my head), and as long as you plan a bit, it is a very low-risk environment for messing up your fresh paint. I make sure my water bottle is filled, my bladder is empty, and my cell phone is sitting on my desk and not in my pocket or purse, and then I go to town. I do one coat at a time while I'm working and waiting for a report to run or a page to load. Then I straight up work for a while while that coat dries. So far today I've done a base coat and one coat of color, which is now pretty much totally dry, but I'll wait to do color coat #2 and top coat until after lunch. Then by the time I'm ready to go home, everything will be dry and safe. I am telling you, it is great. Plus, with my actually strong, thick pregnancy nails, they'll keep looking great for up to 2 weeks, at which point I will take off all the polish before bed and then re-paint them the next day at work! I sit near 2 smokers who definitely spend more time on smoking breaks than I do on my nails, so I figure it's a parallel activity.

I started painting my nails again about a month ago, and I've decided I'll keep up with it through Baby Arrival Day, after which I will want to have clean, bare, short nails for a while. Probably a long while. So for now, I'm treating myself!

Speaking of treating myself, I think this is a symptom of another thing I love about being pregnant: I feel better and more comfortable with my body now than I probably ever have! I was hoping I'd get the "cute, round belly" type of pregnant body and not the "fat everywhere" type, and my wish came true! I love not having to worry about sucking in my belly, love handles, etc. and it makes me enjoy doing my hair and wearing eye makeup and painting my nails that much more.

Now my next hope is that breastfeeding and babywearing and baby playing are effective at getting my body into better shape than it was pre-pregnancy...a girl can dream!