++She's Here!++

Claire Josephine Pacyna

arrived on Tuesday, February 24th at 1:38pm

6 lbs. 13 oz. 20 inches
All cute.

Everyone is doing great.

++Last Hurrah++

All signs point to this being our last weekend as a family of three. I asked Mark last night what we should do. I'm a little torn between making sure we attempt to check as many things off our to-do list as possible and just hanging out. I tell all my friends who are expecting first babies to go out to eat and go to movies as much as possible. That doesn't really apply to us anymore. We're used to having no freedom. This morning Mark took Wyatt to the Children's Museum so I can have some time alone at home. Ahhh...so nice. The problem is that once I finish this post I have about 15 tasks I want to accomplish before I go run a few errands.

It's amazing how much you forget in two-and-a-half years. I have been reading up in my breastfeeding book because honestly, I kind of forgot how it all works at the beginning. With Wyatt we went to all the classes so it was fresh. By the time he was done nursing it was second nature to both of us so I forgot about the positioning and all that stuff. Hopefully it will come back to me. I will say it is so different the second time around (and the baby isn't even here yet!) This time you know what to expect and that is both good and bad.

Hopefully it will be nice out this afternoon and I can play around with my new camera some more. It has been snugly packed in it's bag with a fully-charged battery ever since the last false alarm when I actually started packing. No photos for us=no photos for you!

I realized I sounded bitter in my last post. I'm not bitter. I'm just a planner. There is nothing more frustrating for me in life than not being able to anticipate what tomorrow will bring, especially when there are a lot of moving parts involved. Pregnancy sure gets the last laugh with people like me!

++Nada++

I kind of felt like my mom just then. For some reason she likes to type the word "nothing" in the subject line of her emails...I think it's funny. There must be SOMETHING that she is writing about (and there always is) I don't think she would do too well in advertising though.

Not too much to report. Way too many false alarms for my tolerance level. This will officially be the baby who cried wolf. I'm interested to hear what the doctor has to say tomorrow.

Not sure if I mentioned this here before or not but within 3 weeks of my due date there are five babies that we are expecting. What are the chances? Four of them are from my former (do I really have to call it former?) knitting group. I was supposed to be first. I knew that wouldn't happen though. I just don't want to be last. The first baby was born yesterday--a little girl named Charlotte--can't wait to see photos of her (but selfishly just want to TAKE photos of my baby).

Finally, it was 70+ degrees here yesterday. Weird. Perhaps that's what caused all those crazy contractions. This morning it was 30. We enjoyed it while it lasted though. Wyatt and his dad washed cars.

Back to the waiting game...

++Valentine Fun++

We have a tradition of keeping things pretty low-key on Valentine's Day around here. Mark and I have done Pizza and beer for probably eight years now (minus the two Valentine's Days where I was pregnant...no beer here). Mark took low-key to a whole new level this year...but that's ok. I am still celebrating the arrival of my new camera (note to Mark, you will no longer be able to have my camera count as a mother's day gift as well...but all holidays until then are fair game).

With that said, I am still learning a lot about the camera as well, and hoping this baby will hold out and let me get to my class on Tuesday.

So what did we do on Valentine's Day? We went to the circus of course!

Wyatt and Sydney at the Circus. Doesn't it look like they are nervous on a first date? Good thing Dad was there to chaperone.

Wyatt experiencing his first-ever bite of funnel cake. This was followed shortly by cotton candy. No wonder he couldn't sit still.

For Valentine's Day Wyatt got a new set of firetruck sheets for his bed (a sneaky trick which involves re-purposing something that he needs anyway and would have gotten anyway into a gift if a holiday is around. I think I learned this one from my mom).

The sheets doubled as wrapping paper for a M&M filled heart and Lightning McQueen.

Finally...here's my first show-and-tell. I took some photos with my new zoom lens. This photo was taken from pretty far away---and not cropped at all. This was mixed in with about 50 of the bottom of his feet and 20 blurred images. Taking pictures of kids on swings is not easy! It was fun to play though!

++My new baby++

No. Not THAT baby. She should be here sometime soon though. The doctor keeps telling me I won't go to my due date but I keep telling her not to say that (she said it at my first appointment too). Things have started though---which means I won't be pregnant forever! I'm doing my best to treasure these last moments with just my little guy and me. Yesterday we went to the park after school and came home to find this waiting for me:

Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday and all of that to me! Just in time for baby. I will have to say I'm super excited to have a subject that doesn't run away for a while. I was just playing around with it last night as the boys were engaging in their type of play. Notice the matching shirts. Mark pulled that one out after work and Wyatt was THRILLED.
My new lens (which was the catalyst that started this whole process in the first place since my existing camera wasn't compatible with that lens) should be arriving Monday. Tuesday, Mark has a big meeting at work and I have the second of two photography classes at the University of Memphis. So--the baby is welcome to arrive anytime after that.

++25 Things about ME++

I figured that this blog has been getting a little more traffic recently as people come to look for baby updates. Sorry, no updates yet. I got to see her again last week (or some really big blobs that sort of resemble baby parts---now I know why they do the ultrasound at 20 weeks). My belly isn't quite measuring as big as it should (a surprise to me) so they just wanted to check on her. She's fine, I'm fine, it's all good. They think she might just end up being small (with that said she'll end up big---as ultrasounds can be so unreliable). If she is, that will be a contrast. I guess Wyatt wasn't born big, he just got big really fast.
No photos to share. Wyatt has been a little out of sorts recently due to the addition of his molars. It's funny this time around because he tells us "my teeth hurt" and even that specific crunchy foods hurt his teeth---and points way to the back of his mouth so I kind of trust him. Right now he is still sleeping at 8am---a very rare occurrence (and a treat for me).
So, with the absence of anything else interesting to post, I thought I would share MY 25 things, which prompted Wyatt's list. I wonder how many of you will learn something you didn't know :)

1. Since getting married 6 1/2 years ago, Mark and I have had 6 addresses.
2. I love Jelly Belly jelly beans.
3. I have been in a Harley-Davidson catalog (or two or three).
4. I actually don't mind doing laundry.
5. I hate the smell of airplanes.
6. I never forget a face (names...that's another story).
7. I believe in ESP.
8. I don’t embrace change well (which makes #1 all the more ironic).
9. I have an irrational fear of thunderstorms after the apartment above us was struck by lightning and completely destroyed by fire.
10. I am the most easygoing person in my family growing up, but the least easygoing person most people know.
11. I love college basketball but hate the NBA.
12. I have lots of big ideas but I seem to run out of the time and energy to follow-through on them.
13. I am a sucker for reality TV.
14. I love a deal. I don’t buy cheap stuff…I like to find good stuff for cheap.
15. I look forward to getting the mail every day.
16. I almost always order fish when I eat out.
17. I am a stickler for details.
18. I love to travel but I hate getting there. Our baby adding phase has recently slowed us down a bit…
19. I am not a risk-taker. My husband calls me “Cautious Katie”.
20. My sister is my best friend and we talk on the phone almost daily…even though we really have very little in common.
21. My favorite color is blue.
22. I have too many pet peeves to list. The good thing is that Mark and I seem to agree on most of them.
23. I keep trying to turn myself into a runner. I’ve made some progress but I’m not where I’d like to be (this has not been helped by my nine-month hiatus).
24. I’m not that into being all made up, but I don’t think women’s toes should be seen without polish.
25. I over think everything…this list included.

++25 Things++

So this little "game" has been going on around Facebook where you are asked to think of 25 random things about yourself. I decided it might be fun to share 25 things about our little friend Wyatt.

1. He doesn't go anywhere without his trusted Lovey. He discovered long ago that more than one existed and now we have "Lovey one" and "Two Lovey". There are actually three until we misplaced one last weekend. I am sure we will find it somewhere in this house someday. He knows better than to ask to bring more than one into a public place so the second one waits at home or in the car.

2. He would eat as much fruit as I am willing to feed him. He even tried, and liked, grapefruit last week.

3. His favorite Sesame Street character is Bert. Too bad the new episodes don't feature Bert and Ernie much...I'm considering buying the retro DVDs.

4. He is very particular about his clothing with no specific rhyme or reason as to why. I'm thinking it has something to do with being two.

5. He frequently puts himself in time out and then decides when he is ready to be done. We decided we may have to find another punishment method in which WE are in charge.

6. He has befriended the lady at the Deli at Kroger because she talks to him and gives him free turkey. Last week when someone else attempted to help us he kept saying "I need my friend."

7. His alter-ego is "baby puma" (we think based on a character in Diego). Whenever he wants to snuggle or just be held, he tells us he is "baby puma".

8. He knows all the letters in the alphabet by sight and for most can give you a word that starts with that letter. He can also sing the song all the way through.

9. He can count to twenty but sometimes gets stuck in the teens and just repeats one over and over again.

10. He has a pretty mean jump shot from about 3 feet on his Little Tikes basketball hoop. If he misses he says "miss" or "almost" and if he makes it, "awesome!"

11. He has a baby sister in his belly too.

12. He found a metal cup that he got for his baptism and insists on drinking "coffee" out of it in the morning.

13. He goes to school twice a week and his class has eight girls and Wyatt. Lucky him.

14. He really likes shopping. When we go to the mall he keeps asking for one more store. I think he just likes to see new things.

15. Every day our car morphs into another type of vehicle depending on what he has been doing. It's often a firetruck or a taxi but it has also been known to be a garbage truck, gas truck or money truck (I wish...)

16. Every morning he directs Mark through his getting ready routine. Most days he tells him "no work, stay home" just enough times to make him feel really guilty.

17. He is really good at puzzles but sometimes the two-year-old in him causes him to lose focus halfway through making Mom and Dad really good at puzzles as well.

18. He is very particular about his toys. In his Little People bus the bus driver must always be driving, the pilot always flies the airplane, etc. This causes some problems when other kids come to play.

19. He still calls himself "ya ya" although if someone asks him his name he does tell them "Wyatt".

20. We have discovered that he can read some of his books verbatim to himself. The most surprising ones are the library books that we've only had for a week. Of course the books are always about trucks.

21. He loves to look at old pictures of himself (now that I finally have some albums filled---yea!). He looks at the pictures and then asks us "member that?"

22. He loves to be tickled. Mom is by far the best tickler.

23. He is a neat freak. Not when it comes to putting toys away, but he enjoys "washing" (which means wiping anything he can find with a wipe) and sweeping. Last week he discovered the Dustbuster and sucked up every crumb he could find on the floor until the battery died. No complaints here.

24. He can't go anywhere without getting comments about his blue eyes.

25. He has two parents who consider themselves pretty lucky to have such a happy and fun-loving kid who keeps them laughing all the time.

++Loose ends++

As hard as I try to stay up-to-date time has been flying recently and my blog seems to lag behind. While I'm tempted to just forget about some events and fast-forward to present, I kind of use this blog as my personal journal/scrapbook and I don't want to forget some events. Here's some more of what we have been up to:

Wyatt helped me make a cake for Daddy's birthday. Well...maybe it was the clean-up that he helped most with.

I think he forgot it was his Dad's birthday. We brought our cake (which was actually raspberry cheesecake bars) over to dinner at Olly's house.
On Dad's actual birthday, we went to the dollar store to get some balloons. Wyatt also picked out this great gift for his dad. He was super excited to give it to him.
We had a "snow day" here last week. Here was the snow. Minnesotans, please contain your laughter. It was great though. Wyatt and I went to Costco and Target and the stores were EMPTY.

We're doing our best to get out and experience Memphis. Last weekend we went to the Pink Palace museum. It's basically a natural history museum. It was pretty fun. Wyatt loved all the taxidermy animals. At one point he ran ahead and around a curve was a huge dinosaur. All we hear is his little voice saying "WOAHHHHH!" They also had this miniature circus from the 30s that was all hand carved from wood--it had all sorts of moving parts and music. It captivated Wyatt for a good twenty minutes.

There. Now I'm up to speed. As I said, time has been flying. We're now at t-minus 3 weeks until due date. It could have been 2 weeks had I signed up for one of the elective inductions that seem to be handed out like candy down here. It is super tempting (no worrying about Wyatt's care, one less week of pregnancy, etc.) but I just decided because lots of doctors in lots of places won't do them and there has to be a reason. I'll sign up for an induction on my due date, but no sooner. I'm sure when the 20th comes and goes I will be swearing at myself for that choice. To be honest, we remember how much work a newborn is and we are kind of enjoying our last days without one. Wyatt has been doing great sleeping in his bed and my bouts of wide-awakeness in the middle of the night have passed so we are relishing our last nights of sleeping all night long.

Now if I could just get that nesting instinct to kick-in so I can get off my butt and tackle my list of projects that I want to complete before the baby comes. I did make Mark a nice honey-do list though...