bouncing around the room

Today we discovered that a local rec center offers play time for toddlers with mats, balls, and ....a BLOW UP CASTLE.  And well, as sensory overloaded as it sounds and is...it was a great excuse to get out of the house and jump.  Isabelle was her normal observing self for about a half an hour until she decided that, yes, bouncing in a huge blow up castle might just be fun...and so when for a split second that blow up castle was empty of rosy cheeked stir crazy kids she made her move...

prancing, dancing and jumping

flopping, flailing and lots of giggles

And after a few times of scurrying out of the bounce house every time there was an intruder she decided that it was ok to bounce around with some other kids....as long as it was just one or two.

And now I appropriately can't get Phish's Bouncing Around the Room song out of my head...

"Then before and now once more I’m bouncing round the room
That time and once again I'm bouncing around the room"

Less is more?

I'm all about less is more as a general rule of thumb (for anything)...  However, I have been really tired lately and having a hard time feeling like I am actually accomplishing anything.  But then I look around a little closer and I accept that I am getting some things done....just not at my usual pace.

a baby bonnet started last night and finished this morning

taking the time to admire a handmade gift and other goodies sent from Idaho

~thank you Rebekka!

making banana bread with my little helper

playing midwife with isabelle

even though my little midwife has extra cold hands

I've also managed two loads of laundry, washed dishes, ignored unmade beds and posted a blog update - no pictures needed for that... so when I look a little closer I suppose I can be ok with doing less.... for now.

Happy Halloween!

For Halloween we dressed in our finest purple kitty attire and headed to down town Lebanon for a little Halloween fest put on by the town.  It was just right for Isabelle - some storytelling, apples & cheese, a horse drawn wagon ride, and even a few sweet treats!

listening to some "scary" stories

coloring a pumpkin with markers, check out those teeth!

waiting for the wagon ride

a cute purple kitten

yay, we finally got on!

and off we go!

loosing our ears...

a happy kitty and daddy

I would say it was a Halloween success!  I am officially 35 weeks pregnant today and feeling great.  I am (I think) experiencing braxton hicks contractions lately, something I don't remember with Isabelle....so that is new... and baby had hiccups for the first time a few days ago.  And well I can go about 15 minutes before I need a bathroom in a bad way.... we are so close now and I am definitely having baby fever!  I can't wait for this little baby to come out!

but for now I am just relishing in the peculiar and erratic movements in my belly that look like an alien might pop out at any moment... 

a white weekend

A weekend in good company - grammy and grampy came up for some good old fashion weekend fun.  Saturday we went to the Harpoon brewery for some lunch and while the boys went on a tour my mom, Isabelle, and I headed over to visit the cows at Billing's Farm.  Isabelle braved the milking and actually watched this time (very brave).  Aaron and my dad also somehow made it over to Long Trail for some beer tasting as well- how convenient to take a long way home!  And as predicted the first Nor' Eastah came through and dumped a pile of snow on us Saturday night - I would say a good 5 or 6 inches in our neck of the woods.  And it was perfect weather for a big breakfast followed by romping in the snow and building a snow family building.

playing a little cowboy and horses

johnny cakes

blueberry pancakes

beginning the layering for snow play

layering complete

sledding

making snowmen

our snow family

(you likely can't see but my snow woman has a baby bump too)

Isabelle posing with the snow family

And while I was truly tempted to put on some classy holiday music (I know I know way too early for holiday music).... instead we finished up isabelle's halloween costume for tomorrow.  She wanted to be a purple kitten with pink ears....so all I had to do was make a tail and ears...she has plenty of purple clothing... and voila....a purple kitten with pink ears!

purple kitten complete....

pumpkins!

Wednesday Isabelle and I did a little crafting with apples - instead of making apple star prints we decided to cut the apple the other way to get a pumpkin look.  There are so many things you can do with apples...good thing because they are in bounty!

first make some orange paint

cut the apple and start stampin!

add some stems..

take a break and eat the other half of that apple...

and of course sign our masterpiece

And later that day daddy brought home two pumpkins for Isabelle to carve, we haven't had an opportunity to get to a pumpkin patch..... i know i know.....excuse after excuse....

exciting stuff!

picking out the seeds...

isabelle picked out the faces she wanted from one of her favorite Halloween books

thank goodness they were simple!

And as some of you may have heard yesterday we got a little snow, there was barely any accumulation last night...but sure enough this morning the ground was white!  Isabelle woke up so excited to wear her new snow boots....me, not so excited.  Yikes...this is early....even for NH...I think...

I'm pretty sure Bing Crosby never sang, "I'm dreaming of a white Halloween"...

taking it easy

Taking it easy... that has been the motto for the past week.  For the past few days I have been feeling a bit under the weather and thus monopolizing the couch, drinking lots of water, and gurgling salt water (all the while trying to minimally entertain Isabelle).  I have managed to capture a few pictures of the past few days....although nothing that will likely "wow" anyone - just us.... taking it easy...

receiving blankets, burp cloths, bibs, booties, oh my!

I had one productive day last week where I finished sewing receiving blankets, burp cloths and bibs for some special babies out there.  I started this project with my mom in RI and brought the last few things to finish up here.  It has been nice breaking out the sewing machine...I can only imagine it will collect dust for a while after baby is born...

a little fuzzy but here is mr. furio snuggled up in the lamb skin

the beginnings of some delicious french onion soup

a new book

A few months ago one of my favorite blogs author (soulemama) was preparing for her 5th home birth and she shared this book "Welcome With Love", by Jenni Overend, that she used to prepare her little ones for the coming of their new baby.  I made a mental note that I would need to get that for Isabelle when the time was right...and with 6 weeks to go...the time is now.  This is a beautifully illustrated book about a family who has a home birth, it is both honest and real about what happens and is told through the eyes of the youngest brother.  It has really opened up our discussions with Isabelle about what to expect - mommy will have pains in her belly and she might will yell and scream - but that is what happens when you have a baby.  We have read the book over and over and each time she has new questions and is quite impressed with her word of the day: placenta!

isabelle visits and re-visits the actual birth pages with intrigue

We are still slightly unsure of how things will go, there isn't exactly a place to hide and seek quiet if I am screaming... but Grammy will be here just for Isabelle and who knows....Isabelle might just wake up to a new baby in the morning...only time will tell.

Saturday and Sunday were spent in Maine, where we visited with Grampy Weed, and Great Grampy & Great Grammy Weed.  We had the pleasure of visiting with great grammy's sister-in-law, Norma, who has some beautiful 26 acres in Union, ME right on a lake.  It was quite lovely to roam around their property, weave through the apple orchards, play hide and seek by the lake, and enjoy the chesnut trees (Norma and her late husband Austin were dedicated to growing and reintroducing the American Chesnut - a tree that has been totally devistated by Asian Chestnut blight).  Unfortunately I don't have any photos to show for it, Aaron took a few and now are on a remote hard drive (so we may never see them).

Either way things have been going pretty well around here (not the part with me having a cold...) and we continue to just take it easy and enjoy the three of us for the remaining few weeks until number four comes along.

be my baby bumble bee

Be my little baby bumble bee 
(Buzz around, buzz around, keep a-buzzin' 'round) 
Bring home all the honey, love, to me
(Little bee, little bee, little bee) 
Let me spend the happy hours 
Roving with you 'mongst the flow'rs 
And when we get where no one else can see 
(Cuddle up, cuddle up, cuddle up) 
Be my little baby bumble bee 
(Buzz around, buzz around, keep a-buzzin' 'round)

my baby bumble bee...

me, 5 years (sorry for the iphone reflection)

While spending some time at grammy and grampy's house we managed to stumble across a few old bags filled with old halloween costumes and dance costumes...and as you can imagine Isabelle's eyes lit up with the prospect of ballerina clothes.  We have been a little reluctant to bring "dress up clothes" into the mix as she has such a hard time with her regular clothes but I can tell she is so excited to finally have some real ballerina shoes and even a little outfit to prance around in.  We will see how it goes - I am hoping that we don't have any emotional breakdowns when we need to change back into day clothes to go to the store...only time will tell.  But for now I love that she loves her little baby bumble bee outfit.

Today we also had a check up with our new Midwives (yes plural).  We chose two gals who run a birthing center in Concord (Concord Birthing Center), we still plan to have a home birth but have to drive to concord for all of our prenatal visits.  It is a little less than ideal (it is an hour drive from our house) but really like them and are excited to have found our midwives.  Having been so busy over the last few months we have not had much time to think about impending addition to our family... but here we are... only 7 weeks to go!  My friend Kelly asked me this past weekend how I was feeling about the whole home birth experience, and honestly I think it was a "no-brainer" decision at 12 weeks....now at 33 weeks I am feeling... well a little bit of every emotion out there.... I suppose that is only natural....

 right?!