The Pierogie Babies: 40 weeks - where's my kid? & someone turns 2

Ruby

Well, here we are at full term and I am shocked - no baby. I had Penny at exactly 39 weeks and for this entire pregnancy I was positive that I'd have Ruby on the same week. Well, 39 came and went without anything to write home about. It feels so weird to wait on a baby, because as Penny's birth story went, we were caught by surprise when she was born. I was expecting to go over 40 weeks with Penny and so I never had that anticipation feeling. This time I set myself up and was expecting an early baby so I've been on watch since 38 weeks - I would have never imagined still being pregnant 2 weeks later! 

So this girl continues to bake away and although I'm just ready to hold her in my arms, I count my blessings. I'm not in any extraordinary amounts of discomfort. My hips ache but a good chiropractic adjustment this week did the trick. My stomach skin feels stretched and itchy; but no stretch marks and my regimen of organic coconut oil during the day and having hubby rub down the belly with Motherlove Pregnant Belly Salve in the evenings has kept my skin nice and soft. Penny got to keep her birthday as her own. Ruby's due date was 3/4 and Penny's birthday is 3/3 so there was a chance for them to share a birthday. It didn't happen and we got to celebrate in a small, special way. I feel pretty prepared for this baby to come. The cloth diaper laundry is kept up on, I have lots of extra food stored in the freezer, our birth bag is in the car and I have labor food at the ready in the fridge. The blessings keep pouring in but one little blessing in particular is taking her sweet time and I just have to be patient and let her come when she is ready! :)

Penny

My big girl turned 2 on Monday but we kept it pretty quiet. Her paternal grandparents came over for dinner and cake on Sunday. We are postponing her big, fun birthday party until mid April and piggybacking a "meet the baby" event along with it.

When I remind myself about where we were 2 weeks ago in my last Pierogie Babies update, I'm again impressed at just how quickly children grow and change. Penny seems to have a good grasp on the concept of "turns" (even though she doesn't always agree with them) and is transitioning to consistently saying "please" and "thank you" rather than signing them. She working on 3 and sometimes 4 word sentences and surprises me daily with things that she picks up on. We were visiting a cousin yesterday and she pulled out a Finding Nemo book and asks me to read the Nemo book...but I haven't introduced her to Nemo yet. How did she know this? She's also become much more social at library time and at the bouncy house that we visit; which was a struggle until lately because of her shyness. We haven't been going to our MOPS group regularly due to battles with the crud or avoiding the crud so I'm not sure how she would do when she's put into a situation where I leave her but overall if she knows I'm around she appears to be totally fine leaving me and playing independently. That wasn't anywhere close to being an option 2 months ago, so I'm proud of her burgeoning courage and curiosity to play with other children.  

How I am trying not to let our family be a bear family

The onset of fall makes me think about bear families.

Sort of a random thought, don't you think?

In the fall, parent-bears are busy scurrying around, doing their bear thing - getting fat for the winter. When the weather is right, they hole up into their den and hibernate. Some bear-parents have their bear-babies during the hibernation, and those bear-moms nurse and grow their babies and sleep (sometimes I wish I was a bear-mom). Eventually, things start to warm up, and the bear families emerge and they have insta-toddlers. The bear-babies are now ready to wreak havoc on the mountain side and there's no stopping them. 

C/O National Geographic

I kinda feel like that's what we're getting ready for here.

Fall in the Pacific Northwest is officially here (YAY!) and like many other families, ours is getting out there and enjoying the last few weeks (days?) of fairly decent and crisp weather while we can. We're fitting in our last walks, taking trips to the local cider mill and pumpkin patch, and cooking up some delicious apple sauce, chili and other meals that stick to your ribs (one of my favorite ways to describe food). We're getting ready for colder weather by putting away our summer clothes and reaching for those glorious sweat shirts and snuggling up to blankets. The fireplace is on in the morning. Daylight is getting shorter and pretty soon the only people you will see outside are the dog walkers. Yes, that was me last winter - faithfully walking Romeo and Squirt in all of my pregnant glory with galoshes.

Like those bear families, we're getting fat for the winter and cozy-ing up our den. And like those bear families, when spring comes, I too will have a rambunctious insta-toddler ready to wreak havoc on the mountain side.

To be completely truthful, although Adam and I dream about being homebodies and holing up for weeks on end, it never happens and probably will not any time soon. We're too connected with our families and we enjoy going out and doing new things. But Penny and I need to come up with fun stuff to do during the day-to-day so that she can be challenged and stimulated so that when spring does come, she'll be running with the rest of the pack. And I'll need a way to keep my sanity, of course.

We do a fair share of visits to my friends and their babes, but a only handful of babies are within a few months in age. Penny is blessed to have 3 cousins that are between 6-9 months older than her. But at this stage, 6 months is a big difference. Most of the time, we moms get to chat while managing our kids, but the kids don't really interact too much.  I feel like my social needs are being met, but Penny needs friends too!

So I've been thinking about what we can do about that. It's been sort of tough these last 7 months, Adam and I haven't made much effort to put down roots anywhere due to our temporary living situation. Now our house is sold and we're very intently working on getting the next one. Which means, relocating again. So to me, it didn't make too much sense becoming a part of a moms group, because I figured we could be out of here at any time. I'm not the most outgoing person, so making the effort to have connections with others when I know I won't be around for long just isn't my cup of tea.

I kind of decided to give up in and go for it anyways. At the suggestion of my sister in law, I checked out our local library and found that they have story telling time. They even have different age groups that keeps the kids really close in age. So this morning we ventured out and hung out with 6 other moms and their babes, all under 1 year old, but most of them between 6-9 months. Perfect for Penny!

We sang a few songs, read a book, and afterwards the moms got to chat while the babies crawled around and played with toys. Penny made me so proud today - while most of the other babies took a while to open up when released from mama's lap, Penny was already squirming away and doing her little army-man/inch-worm crawl to meet some new friends and check out some cool toys. There was no way I could have holed this social butterfly up all winter.  So I guess we'll be filling our social calendar after all.

What kinds of activities do you and your baby do when the weather isn't up to par?

Oh, and for your viewing pleasure... Penny dressed up as a bear-baby. Adorbs or what??

From 8 - 12 weeks