Russ and I are the greatest parents ever- too bad Josie didn't notice

Well folks, I am pregnant and cranky. Real pregnant. And REAL cranky. And I think I am driving everyone near me crazy with my bad attitude (read: Russ). So on Sunday, Russ decided he needed to get me out of the house. So, after reading the crapload of "preparing your child for the new baby" materials we got from the hospital, we decided to do an all out "Big Sister Extravaganza" for Josie.

We decided we would first take Josie to Target and let her pick out a new toy- anything she wanted. This is something we have never done before. Then we planned to take her to a totally kid-friendly restaurant and fill her up with amazing kid food. Maybe she'd even get dessert. I mean, this is big time.

We got Josie up from her nap and gave her an amazing speech. "Josie, we are so proud of you for being such a big girl! You are such a good girl, and now you are even going to be a big sister!!!" We poured it on thick. We told her about getting a new toy at Target. Then we paused and waited for the excitement and adoration to flow. Then Josie noticed a book had fallen off her book shelf and went to go straighten it. Then she asked Russ if he would read her one of her old Highlights magazines. Hmm.

So we left for Target. Josie was not thinking about new toys, but demanding we play Elvis CD's during the drive. Then she was demanding we play the CORRECT Elvis CD's during the drive. And at the correct volume. Serenity now!

We get to Target. Josie is now totally psyched, as are we. We never spoil her like this, and buying her a non-Christmas or Birthday present seemed like an awesome adventure. She had the pick of the store and lots of time to choose. New Barbie??? Sweet Disney Princess action set??? Fairy Costume??? The options are endless!!! But for what does Josie make a beeline? The odd wall of 3-inch plastic animals. Under the section that sells creepy Dragons, Lords, and Gargoyles. She is now literally lying on the floor of target playing with a creepy plastic swan-thing and frickin' loving it. After an hour, we left Target with a baby tiger, baby coyote, kangaroo, and horse. Wow.

Now was the next phase of our extravaganza-- dinner. As many of you know, Russ and I are ardent vegetarians, and have been for nearly a decade. And we are raising Josie vegetarian as well. However, we are conscious of giving Josie a well-rounded childhood and recognize that- to our disgust- this must include Happy Meals. So that's right folks-- we took her to McDonald's.

We ordered Josie a Happy Meal and let the fun begin. She did totally love it. She went all out on the fries and even ate half a hamburger (yikes). Yet again she baffled us, as instead of loving the other kids and the crappy food, she seemed more into the fact that there was a baseball game on tv in the corner. ("Look Daddy, Baseball players!!!!!" Baffling!)

All was redeemed at the end of the dinner when Russ bought her a sweet vanilla twist cone. It was the size of her head, and took a lot of help from Daddy to eat it all, but it was probably the most exciting moment of Josie's life. And Josie's total love of the random plastic animals did warm our hearts a bit. So while Josie may not have grasped the "special-ness" of the night, and the occasion, at least it was a great night for us.

Josie eats the greatest ice cream cone ever! (Note her plastic animals on the table...)

Victory! Day is finally confirmed as the greatest- thanks to a little ice cream!

Brace yourself for something high-tech

My friends Anna and Jill came to visit me last week to take pity on the poor pregnant lady with no access to the outside world. Jill brought her new-fangled digital camera that also takes video and made this little clip of Josie doing more sweet ballet moves. I am attempting to post it here, but seeing as I have very poor computer skills, we'll see if it works!

Boredom, nesting, and too much HGTV

I am officially 18 days from the induction date for ole baby Johnson. And as I have not been to work in three weeks, I have way too much time to sit around and generally panic about the fact that there will soon be another baby in this house!

The other night Russ and I sat down and really thought about how we were going to make our condo-- which used to seem big, hahahaha-- adapt to 2 kids and an enormous amount of kid STUFF. After talking about it, arguing about it, and trying to ignore it, we decided to try something crazy. We are turning our sun room into the baby's room!

Russ and I immediately went into mourning, because the sun room is our favorite part of the house. But after thinking about this a lot, I do think it makes sense. At least until I win the HGTV Dream Home Give-Away.

Please indulge me as I show some pictures of our new "renovation":

The first step was taking all baby stuff out of Josie's room and re-arranging everything. We put all the things (including the couch!) that used to be in the sun room in Josie's room and basically made this the coolest bedroom ever.

(Note the 35 stuffed animals on her bed that she sleeps with EVERY night! Also, yes... that's an Elvis poster by her bed. She LOVES Elvis, which is so gold.)

Without the baby stuff in here, there was a ridiculous amount of space, which is awesome! And who wouldn't want a kitchen in their room?

The second step was putting all the baby stuff in the sun room. Again, there was more space in here than we originally thought, too. We easily fit the crib, changing table, and a rocking chair.

Russ's Mom is coming this weekend to help me sew some thick curtains to keep out any drafts and hopefully some of the noise from the street. We will also make a curtain of some sort to separate this room from the living room when baby is sleeping. The final step is when I get to go shopping for a cute rug.

So there it is! Is it white trash to turn a sun room into a baby's room? I hope not. Is it a resourceful use of space? I hope so! If nothing else, its a great project that is keeping me from re-grouting the bathroom and generally driving Russ crazy with nesting related to-do lists. So I guess if that's all this accomplishes, that's still a good thing.

Ballet Your Brains Out

Finally, the moment I have been waiting for since I learned I was the mother of a girl.... the Ballerina stage!!!
When I was three I spent about 6 months in a Fairy Princess Costume- a glittery tutu and wand combo, complete with one of my Mom's beauty queen tiaras. Awesome!
Josie got a tutu for Christmas and wasn't paying much attention to it... until she saw some ballerinas on Sesame Street. Now its all tutu all the time! She even wears it to her play classes and the rec center, to Russ's mortification. She puts it on over her clothes, then breaks out her new pair of jellies (which she thinks make her a better dancer, and who am I to disagree?)
See below for the photo montage of her sweet ballet skills!

Josie practices a pirouette-- what grace!

Josie tries one of the fancy leg lifts she saw on Sesame Street--- no ballet pole in the Johnson house, but I guess anything to hold on to will do. That's what all the ballerina's say.

A little tip-toe action. Is it funnier that she looks a little drunk doing all this? Or weird?

Temporarily distracted by climbing into her new box/fort to hide. Oh well, all good things must come to an end.

36 weeks and counting

In case anyone wants to track progress... the baby is getting bigger!!! I am excited to have made it past the date they were originally going to induce. Now the doctor's say they will try and get me to 39 weeks... which is March 16. Stay tuned!

Queen Josephine of the Mountain

My favorite part about working from home (besides sweatpants and easy access to good coffee) is being a fly on the wall and watching Josie and Russ in their regular routine.

Today I was working and could hear Josie squealing and having fun outside in the snow. After watching out the window, I couldn't resist the cuteness, so I went outside to snap a few pictures.

The snow plows made a huge snow pile that Josie had a blast climbing on. Russ declared her "Queen Josephine of the Mountain" and she was loving it!

My two little snow bunnies!

Weird Science

I know I should be watching the Super Bowl right now, but I can't bring myself to care. The closest I have come to thinking about football today was reading about Jessica Simpson's amazing weight gain since dating Tony Romo. Now that's excitement!

So with that, I figured I would update everyone on the latest in my pregnancy saga. Things have gone from bad to worse. Or worse, to the most worst. But fear not! I am still being positive. More on that later.

Anyway, last Sunday night I had my worst sugar low yet. Russ and I were watching a movie when I suddenly started shaking. It took 24 oz. of juice (as opposed to the usual 4) and three hours of non-stop eating before the doctors where confident I would be fine. Then on my way home from work on Tuesday, my sugar dropped again and I almost crashed my car. Enough was enough!

Long story short, I spent most of this week having millions of tests done to figure out why I am so unbelievably sensitive to insulin. And here is the result of Chicago's finest in medical care: They don't know!

I am a case they have never seen before. When I don't take insulin, my blood sugar is way too high. When I take it, it gets better--- but then an hour or two later, it drops. They came up with the conclusion that something must be wrong with the baby- yikes! They took me off insulin completely, put me back on bed rest again, and did a million tests on the baby.

Here's the good news- results say the baby is totally fine. Better than fine! But here is the bad news- they still don't know what's up with my diabetes. So they are going to monitor me really closely, and as soon as it looks like the baby's lungs are developed they are going to induce me-- I could be having the baby in as little as three weeks!

Which brings me back to being positive. This ordeal is almost over, I can see the end of the road over the next hill. And with all the tests, I got to see the baby on all kinds of cool high-tech ultrasound machines, so I could see the stinkers sweet little face and see it moving around in there. And now I have even received a bonus by not having to wait the full 7 weeks to be done with this. Thinking about holding this baby so soon is helping me remember that I'm doing this to have a baby, not just because I'm a medical oddity and living in hell for the fun of it. So how's that for turning the frown upside down?

So next on the list- survive the next three weeks. Then its all babies and chocolate cake! Holla!