sing, sing a song

We are living in a musical over here these days. It's awesome! Jackson sings constantly and I really wouldn't mind if he never stopped. It's just the sweetest little sound. His favorite songs are ones that we sing at ECFE and Jingle Bells. He still loves Gwen Stefani and he has advanced just beyond the "woo hoo, yee-hoo" part of Sweet Escape and now sings the WHOLE THING. I was crying, I was laughing so hard the first time I heard that. Even now, he is singing at the top of his lungs from his lungs. "A ram-sam-sam. A ram-sam-sam."

So, Christmas. I think that's where I need to catch up my blogging. It was super fun and super exhausting. We started the holidays already overtired and didn't really catch up until after they were done. We went to Brian's mom and dad's on the 22nd. They have been working on a huge addition to their house for about 18 months and the family room finally has carpet and a working wood fireplace. Jackson pretty much put up camp there the entire time. There's no furniture in that room yet so he could just run and run and run. Christmas Eve was at Brian's brother's house. The kids were great and had such a good time. Jackson got several John Deere tractors and was in tractor heaven! On Christmas Day we went to my parents' house. We had our traditional lasagna dinner. My mom's lasagna used to be Jackson's favorite food but he has developed this texture issue and lasagna seems to be on the no-list lately. He starts gagging and has thrown up before so we don't push it. After a 15 minute (argh) nap we opened gifts where Jackson received the mother of all gifts: a riding John Deere tractor with a bucket in the front and a wagon in the back. It's a pedal tractor and about the size of our couch. It's awesome but stayed in Winona until we finish the basement. Jackson was completely crazy over it - and more than a little possessive. He didn't even want other people to look at it, let alone touch it. He calls it his "Don Neere."

We left Jackson at my parents' house on Wednesday afternoon and went back to St. Paul sans child and dog. It was a quiet ride home. My plan for Thursday was to clean and get our 0-3 month clothes washed. However, that was when I fell so accomplishing anything that day went out the window. On Thursday night Brian and I went to a movie. We saw National Treasure II. The first one is one of our favorite movies, and while the critics didn't look on the second one very favorably, we really liked it a lot. If you haven't seen the first one, rent it! On Friday I had to teach a lesson at home in the morning and didn't do much until Friday night. Peg and I went to see our friend Jen Burleigh Bentz in her show at the History Theatre. It was a good show and she was great, as always. We were out waaaay past our bedtime. I don't think I got home until 12:30 which is the latest I've been up in about a year. We had a nice night though. On Saturday Brian's sister and another friend from the U of M came over to help him with the basement. It was smelly so I had to leave. I went to the mall for a while and by the time I came home, we knew I wouldn't be able to sleep there. I called several people, but everyone I knew was either crowded, busy, or out of town. So, we did something totally out of character and out of budget and rented a hotel room. We slept on a sleep number bed that I might have enjoyed if I wasn't almost 37 weeks pregnant. There's no such thing as the "perfect number" for a woman this pregnant. On Sunday we met my parents in Rochester to get Jackson and Roxie. It was great to have the little guy back again. On Sunday night I had a whole mess of contractions. They were actually 10 minutes apart for a while. They did not hurt, just felt like braxton hicks, but my midwife said to be on the lookout for contractions since the fall. I called the baby-line and they told me to lay down, drink a bunch of water, and time them. That did the trick because the contractions stopped. Maybe, just maybe, this baby will come early.

That brings us to Monday - New Years Eve. We actually made it to midnight! Wow! We rented Knocked Up and watched that. I thought it was really good. Really crude, but really good. I don't care for that girl from Gray's Anatomy, but she was good in this. When she started having her labor contractions, I started sobbing. Crazy hormones. Today we had a lazy day. Unfortunately, I got on a scale and I seem to have gained about 5 pounds since my last appointment. What? Maybe it's water weight because a few days ago the scale said I lost 1.5 pounds since my last appointment. So, here I set watching Biggest Loser and feeling like a beached whale. :) And I'm really hungry...

Brian has to go out of town for work tomorrow. He'll be back on Saturday evening. Let's stay pregnant until after he gets back!!!