He's growing up

We've always jokingly made fun of Franklin and his 'simple ways'. He's not an especially bright dog, but he's a really good dog. Eleanor though, she's our college grad. 

Whenever someone comes to the door or a stranger gets too close to the house, it is always Eleanor sounding the alarm. Franklin will, on occasion, let out a woof but doesn't always bother to get up to see what the woof was for. This weekend, our little boy grew up! He found his inner guard dog finally. Lance was napping, and I was playing in the baby room...putzing around, organizing, etc. when all of a sudden Franklin let out a really big boy bark and went flying downstairs. Eleanor slowly came out of the bedroom a bit bewildered, not barking, but headed downstairs anyway to see what Franklin was doing. Honestly, I figured he was just having a moment and there was no reason for him to be barking. But I went downstairs, and I'll be darned if there wasn't someone at the front door! I didn't hear the doorbell, and Eleanor obviously didn't otherwise she would have been barking right away. 

Up until now, he was just "for looking at", but I think he's going to be a good guard dog after all! 

Ready ready!

I'm ready. Baby doesn't seem to be ready yet, but I certainly am. This whole business of sciatica is really getting old now. As the days go on, my pain gets worse. I can't lay down or get up without letting out a very genuine cry of pain. It's this shooting pain that goes down the inside of my right leg. Doc says, oh its just one of those pregnancy things, baby is pressing on your sciatic nerve. Well sure, why wouldn't she be?

I have this vision of her inside me with various pull cords: one for sciatic, one for bladder, one for squeezing my lungs, you get the picture. She's just in there randomly pulling the cords for fun :) The space inside is getting more constricted for her now and when she moves I can literally see my whole belly rumble with the quake. It's pretty freaky to watch and realize, that's a baby in there!

And the larger my belly gets, the more the gray kitty wants to be on it. Like it is his own personal shelf, lol. As soon as I lie down on the couch, he comes out of nowhere and gets all comfy on my belly. Oddly, that also signals to baby to wake up and start shimmying. These two, they have a strange relationship already...he will not budge from my belly no matter how violent she gets inside. We joke that all that movement is giving him a belly rub and he likes it. Especially lately, the movements have been really pronounced. Henry digs it.

Lance is working on fixing up a dresser he had as a kid. It is being donated to baby girl. He's painting it, made new feet for it, and attaching new hardware. I found some cute little pooh decals to go on the sides too. It already looks like a completely different dresser. I'm ready to start washing all her clothes and get them put away in her drawers. The crib gets delivered tomorrow so he'll have that to put together next. A nursery - its all about the putting together.

It's coming together

And by it, I mean the nursery. Lance had to do some patchy patch to the walls and then sandy sand and then more patchy patch...you know the routine. So after all that, he was finally able to put some paint on the walls - he did that this weekend. We chose a great color for that room. Initially I was a little worried about the fact we chose beige - no other room in the house is as boring as beige. But seeing it on the walls and knowing it will be filled with colorful cute pooh-bear items, makes beige the perfect color for our nursery.

He then put together the glider/rocking chair we picked up...looks great in there. I can't wait to rock our baby for the first time in it :) Last night Lance put together the "travel system", which is a stroller with a built in/removable car seat. Quite the contraption. Minutes later we were wheeling it around the living room like pros. I can see that we'll have to do some 'de-sensitizing' of it to the dogs though. Well, Eleanor anyway. While she would eat the arm off of any intruder that dare come in our home, she's a bit of a pussy when it comes to things that move. The stroller threw her for a loop, so we're going to have to work with her on that. We started to a little last night...giving her treats as she came up to sniff it and see that it is not going to attack her. Franklin though, he just laid on the couch watching the whole thing go down without a care in the world. We wheeled it over to him, he sniffed, accepted his treat, and laid his head back down. I think he's good with the stroller.

They've been invited into the nursery also to watch and sniff as things appear and happen in there. We're doing everything we can think of to make sure this big new change is as easy on them as possible. They've been our spoiled babies for so long, we have to make sure they know its OK.

Because Franklin is Franklin, I don't know that he realizes anything is different or that things are changing. (he is after all, just a boy) But, Eleanor is our brilliant dog and she totally understands what is going on. Just the other day, I was laying on the couch with my feet up and she came over to get some pets and love. I was talking to her about the baby and pointed to my belly. She sniffed my belly and then laid her chin across it. She knows there is a baby in there :)

The Change, it's coming!

Everybody else is blogging about our new President, so I'm going to too. Last night and a couple times today watching the news and just thinking about it, I got a little choked up. Again, probably has something to do with my raging hormones - but at the same time probably has something to do with how very important this election became to me. And how excited I am to see someone put us all back on course. 

I remember 4 years ago, voting and then seeing that Bush ended up winning...I was bummed, but didn't really think it'd matter THAT much. Uh, turns out it did. This go round, I was so involved in the election process. I spent time reading and researching and learning about the candidates, I took time to caucus for Obama, I donated to his campaign, I attended one of his campaign speeches, I even sent out emails on his behalf. When he was declared the Democratic nominee, it was exciting to think - wow, that's the one I picked out of the gate and actually caucused for. Then for him to win the presidency I couldn't help but feel a little proud that I did good and I did right.

For our country to choose a non-white president is Big. For Iowa to have chosen him, HUGE. I can't help but wonder what my grandparents would think of this. When I think of Nana and Gramps, I don't think of them as 'having it in them' to vote for somebody who isn't a white male. This election would have just thrown them for a loop....Obama, and Sarah Palin...what to do?? I'm really proud of our country for coming as far as they have, being able to see past the color barrier and choosing the right man for the job. I'm excited to see what this will mean and what will happen.

More crying

I had my first baby shower this weekend and I was fully prepared to bust into tears at the sight of any cute little baby thing. I was completely surprised that nothing sent me into a crying fit, happy about that, but still surprised. Made me think maybe the hormones had gone away and I had my emotions back under control. I say had because....

Sunday, Lance was doing some serious rooting around in the basement and moving things from 3rd bedroom to basement. In his rooting he found some more of my childhood books. I had already uncovered quite a few that Mom had saved and given to me - Lance has been reading them to my belly :) But Lance came upstairs with some more! I found Duck and His Friends in the newly discovered pile and just completely lost my shit. Bawling and sobbing and not being coherent about anything. Lance had just gone to the other side of the room to put something away and came flying back to me all, what's wrong, are you okay, what happened? All I could get out was, Duck....Duck....Friends..... He very gently took the book from me and was like, OK, lets put Duck back away for now, you can look at it later. 

Mom was always very good about writing on the inside of my books who they were from and what year I got them. This one was from my Dad and I can totally remember him reading it to me, it was one of my most favorite books. I wonder if this is just the normal first year of grieving when you loose a parent or if in my case it is amplified because of being pregnant. Probably a little of both. When we found out we were expecting and did the calendar counting back thing, I was just getting to be a week along when we went home for Dad's funeral...so it just makes this pregnancy all that more special.

I'm going to try and read Duck and His Friends tonight, see if I can make it any further than the front cover. It really is a good one if you can get it opened :)