overcompensating much?

when you have a child with a birthday close to christmas, you immediately begin to feel guilty that they won't feel special enough or get enough presents or feel like they truly got their day. at least that's how i feel. which is fantastic, because i'll soon have two children to make me feel guilty. to add to the original guilt, i felt terrible for finn, because i am exhausted. too exhausted to have an amazing party for him with all his little friends. so instead, we had many little mini parties and have sang happy birthday enough times that he just assumes it's his anthem. he also expects candles on everything. or just "FIRE" as he likes to refer to it, which is adorable in itself, because he expects the firetruck to come when the candles come out. oh sweet innocence!

first party was with nonny and hoppy, which included pizza and a cupcake covered in enough icing to, well, induce a major melt-down only 30 minutes later when the sugar hit his tired brain and overloaded all of his circuits. luckily, we were at the jumpy house place and most of the mono-saccharides were burned off quickly.

next up, on his actual birthday, he got cinnamon rolls for breakfast, which he now expects often. i crave them, so his expectations are met pretty often as well. that night, we had a mini pizza party with mim and papa, cousins, and aunts and uncles. he opened a few presents and relaxed a little. pretty low-key and fantastic!

the next day, we had the van vactor family christmas, highlighted with an intermission of finn's yo-gabba-gabbafied 2nd birthday party. this was probably the most birthday-party-like moment he got to experience. we had cake, a piñata, and a special visit from santa. okay, that was for the christmas party, but finn felt pretty special that santa came to his birthday party.

then, we were done. wait. remember that guilt? i bought more cupcakes with overwhelming amounts of icing, and finn and his friend joey exchanged gifts at chick-fil-a (joey is two weeks younger and has been a friend since birth).

needless to say, finn got his moments. i just can't believe he's already two. i just need to take a moment and soak it all in before all of our lives change drastically in a few days. my sweet little babe is going to be a big brother. ridiculous...

merry

i'm definitely in the christmas spirit. wrapping is one of my absolute favorite things to do. i wish i could make a profession out of it and get paid lots of money for wrapping other people's presents.

genetic curse

me: check out that butt crack
josh: that's the van vactor in him
me: well, at least my genes carried on

here's hoping the next one doesn't inherit this amazing trait of a ridiculously high butt crack. or have no earlobes like my dad and brother jeff. we're a strange people.

there's a few things you've missed

the last few weeks have been crazy and i feel like any free moment that i have is spent with me lying in bed sleeping or trying to sleep through contractions. that's right folks. contractions. all the time. it doesn't help when the doctor says, "you could go any day," because then any day feels like it could be the day. the one that i've been waiting for over 38 weeks for. but so far, the day has not arrived, so we keep filling the days with lots and lots of other things.

thanksgiving dinner

girls shopping weekend in schaumburg
(tenley was very excited!)

a purdue game with the allens
(with amazing free seats in the pit behind the team)

lots of fun moments and dinners out with finn

breakfast with santa
and both sets of grandparents

christmas show (we made it about 15 minutes
then went outside and played in the snow)

smartest kid i know

i told finn a couple minutes ago that he wasn't allowed to sit or stand on his lego table to play with his cars on the window sill and that he had to sit on his chair. ingenious little man that he is - he came up with a solution that he thought would appease us both. i have to give him credit.

oh boy!

i always knew finn would become a boy. a true little boy who digs in the dirt and climbs on top of everything to experience the rush of being two feet off the ground and carries sticks all over the park for no other reason than to always have a weapon in hand. just in case.

33 weeks

after a few crazy strangers told me this mystery-sex baby was definitely a girl, i was beginning to believe that there was no way this child could possibly be a boy. if you hadn't heard, there was a woman at the pharmacy who stood behind me to pat my love handles (never getting close to my belly) and was then very certain that it was a girl i was carrying. and she never gets these things wrong. never ever. then there was the lady at the park who wouldn't take the "maybe you're right" response i gave her and huffed off as if i truly offended her gender guessing skills.

but alas! i have finally found a crazy stranger who thinks that it is definitely a boy. she came up and proudly proclaimed within seconds that i was in fact carrying a boy. when i told her that i'd had a lot of girl predictions, she simply stated, "it's a boy. you don't got no booty." apparently, you have to have a little caboose to harbor the female gender. sorry tall skinny ladies of the world, we're strictly here to make boys. glad to get that lesson before i got my hopes up. and i have to trust this crazy stranger over all the rest, because didn't you know? she is never wrong.

giving thanks

i wrote a thanksgiving entry for our church's blog. check it out here if you feel the desire to know what i'm thankful for this year! it's basically a repetition of the words "thankful" and "grateful" for an extended amount of time. enjoy!

i'm hormonal and it's the holidays

there have been a few moments in the last couple days where i'm pretty sure people have run away fearing for their lives. by people, i mean my husband, my son, and anyone in the general vicinity when i suddenly realize that i'm only 7- weeks away from delivering a child. a person. another person. you want to know why i thought this was a good idea 8 months ago? because finn was easy and sweet and calm then. you want to know why i'm panicking a little now? because finn is not so easy and is still generally sweet and calm is not even a word i would pick 1,483rd to describe him. in fact, i would say that finn is the antonym to calm.

but here we are. 7 weeks from d-day. or less, depending on what the ultrasound says of the size of this child. judging from the fact that i sometimes lose my breath climbing stairs or picking up finn or god forbid just standing up, or the fact i feel full after eating a saltine and a slice of cheese (don't worry, the fullness doesn't stop me), i would say this baby nugget is big!

really though, i can't wait. but i also i want to be able to enjoy every last moment of finn being an only child. i want to relax over the holiday season and have a no-stress thanksgiving and christmas with all my amazing family members and friends. i am so looking forward to finn turning two and celebrating all gabba gabba-ed out. i am excited to wrap presents and give presents. it's one of my most favorite things of the year. i'm so happy that my family actually likes my cooking enough to request that i bring a particular dish. i cannot wait for the christmas music to blare throughout this house and lift my spirits and remind me that my Christ was born into this world.

i'm trying to remember these upcoming good things and what i can't wait for instead of stressing about the lack of time and the sickness invading our home and the fact that i can't sleep for 3 hours straight without waking up with leg cramps and an inability to breathe and needing to pee. i'm trying to remember that any stress that i have these next 7 weeks will lead up to the amazing experience of becoming a mom for a second time. i'm trying to remember that i have an awesome network of people who care and are going to take as much stress off me as they can (thanks kathy for the hired help for the yardwork and watching finn when i just need a break. thanks mom and alyssa for listening to me rant about how there is never enough time in the day). i'm trying to get into the holiday spirit. with a little help of course from pumpkin spice lattes and kenny g.

long overdue update

one night about two months ago, september 21st to be specific, finn told us that he was done with his crib and wanted to sleep in the big boy bed. and that. was. that. ever since, he has been sleeping well and staying in his bed/room all night long without any sadness or insecurity. okay, maybe i should scratch the part about sadness. he will sit and cry himself to sleep, but (and this is a very important but) he won't ever leave his bed. fantastic! i was expecting an all-out war, where we had to tie him down and put a lock on his door from the outside, but nope. this kid is just too easy when it comes to two things, eating and sleeping. hope baby number 2 takes after his/her big brother!