THE GREEN(wald) HOUSE … (growing rosemary & raising a little wolf)

I just keep getting bigger and bigger - and it feels like there is no more room to grow!

My friend S is going to take some belly photos of me soon - but in the meantime - I took these lovely self-portraits of my giant belly last week…

notice how Rosie decided to get in on the action - the girl loves the camera…

I have another midwife appt coming up this week - It feels like baby is still head down as most of the kicks and movement are up near my ribs…
I have been taking Floradix daily to up my iron - along with my prenatal vitamin - and some probiotics to (hopefully) ensure that my GBS test comes back negative. I have also been making a big pot of sun tea with Red Raspberry Leaf, Nettles, Red Clover, and Peppermint and trying to drink a glass a day…

I am going to try to remember to do my belly cast this week - I will post the pics as soon as I get it done!

I realize that I am starting to sound like a broken record, when every monthly update I talk about how quickly the previous month has gone by - but it seriously feels like I am living in some alternate universe where time goes by twice as fast as “regular” time…
Maybe this month it really feels like it since last month was so busy and I did Rosie’s update a bit late…

Regardless, another month is over - and Rosie is now just a blink of an eye away from being a 2 year old with a new little brother or sister… Speaking of the sex of the baby - the general population has not been shy about offering opinions - and it is about 75% thinking boy at this point…though I did have a dream last night that it was TWIN girls! Yikes!

We had a relaxing Mother’s Day last weekend - though Rosie decided to treat me with a 4am wake up call to celebrate Mother’s day - ugh - that was NOT fun… and she has been having trouble sleeping ever since. I think she had a nightmare or something and now she has been extra clingy at bedtime and waking a lot and needing Joe or I to come and cuddle her and comfort her several times in the middle of the night - so hopefully this will pass soon… Mommy needs her sleep before the new baby gets here…

Rosie finally got to wear her fancy dress - or as she calls it “pitty dress” on Mother’s Day - she is becoming a real girlie girl - wanting to wear a dress every day. I am not ready to start battling with her over clothes already… I have been trying to give her a choice between 2 outfits and let her pick which one she wants to wear - but then she usually wants to wear totally inappropriate shoes - and I have to steer her toward the ones I want her to wear - or just flat out say “no - you are wearing these”… Ugh - the mind of an independent (almost) 2 year old - already asserting her own opinions….

The weather here has been sunny and beautiful - mostly in the 70-80’s - with a few days of cooler weather and thunderstorms. We have been spending a lot of time outside, playing in the garden, in the sandbox, and just running around on the grass… (Rosie likes to narrate and say “I run around” as she runs around in the grass). Rosie helped me get the garden planted and we have tomatoes, herbs (including Rosemary, naturally), onions, beets, hot peppers, spinach, and a couple strawberry plants…not too much this year as we also joined our local organic CSA again and are expecting tons of fresh veggies from that every week…

I bought Rosie a little tricycle off craigslist for $5 - it was a great investment as she LOVES it - she always tries to ride the tricycles at her friend’s houses. I was going to wait to give it to her for her 2nd birthday - but I do not like to wait to get or give gifts, so I let her have it early…The seat lowers enough so her feet can reach the pedals all the way - and she has almost got the hang of how to actually pedal and steer… I think she will be flying around the house by the time her birthday gets here…

We have been having lots of fun on the playdates with our local mommy friends and their kids. We went to a small farm yesterday and had fun looking at all the animals…

Rosie has such a funny little personality and will frequently say “I’m funny” or “I’m silly” or “I’m goofy” when she makes me laugh - she loves to play “peetend” and will imitate all the animals - including flapping her arms as wings and saying “bock bock” to be a chicken - then she makes me “peetend” with her.

This is her “precious moments figurine” look…my big eyed girl….
She is such a sweet, smart girl, and she is so affectionate - she loves to kive hugs and kisses and my heart just swells with love when she climbs in my lap and says “cuddle mommy”. I love you my sweet girl - please start sleeping better for mommy - ok?

Yeah - I know I have been lagging on taking the belly photos - I am undeniably huge now… I am as big now as I was when I delivered Rosie…

I saw my midwife last week and she said the baby feels like it will be a good sized baby - and feels like it is already about 4 lbs! I am also a little anemic (I was last pregnancy too) and I am taking floridix to up my iron.

Everything else is going great - except I am achy all the time (especially my lower back) and can’t sleep due to the constant waking up to pee and change positions during the night. Hard to believe that I could be having this baby in 6 weeks (if I deliver at 37 weeks like with Rosie). This pregnancy has gone by SO fast! I am hoping this baby waits until after Rosie’s b-day to make it’s arrival… I need to remember to relax and stay hydrated through the beginning of the summer - and hopefully avoid going into labor TOO early.. though it would be cool to have a baby the week before Rosie’s bday on 7-7-07…
We’ll see - I guess it is out of my hands though and up to the baby to decide when he/she is ready to make an appearance…

We had an amazing family trip to Jamaica at the end of April. We figured it was our last big vacation for a while - one last trip before the baby gets here - and before we have to start paying for a plane seat for Rosie. We found a great place online recommended by tripadvisor. It was called Nirvana on the Beach - and it was truly a blissful, relaxing getaway… no phones, no TV, no internet access. It took Joe a couple days to get out of “work mode” - but we really enjoyed a lot of quiet family time.

Our place was a little cottage about 100 feet from the beach - the whole property only had 8 cottages on it - and they were only 1/2 full - so it was very quiet and secluded - we could see and hear the ocean from our veranda - but it was far enough away that we had privacy too…

We spent the majority of the time just hanging out on the beach - reading, swimming, playing with Rosie. We brought a little blow up pool so Rosie could play safely in the shade - and we could take a break from keeping our fearless daughter from running headfirst into the ocean…

There was also a little playhouse filled with toys that Rosie would go wander off and play in. It was so cute - she would just start to walk off and say “bye” and we would say “where are you going” and she would say “play toys” - and she would go play by herself for a while while we kept an eye on her…

Rosie was such a cutie all week - and her hair was a big mop of curls in the heat and humidity… she LOVED playing in the ocean and running in the waves and rolling around in the sand…

Most of the week we stayed salty and sandy and didn’t really bother showering- we did get cleaned up and went out to a couple nice dinners…

We hired a boat and drivers one day and took a glass bottomed boat out to a reef and did a bit of swimming and snorkling out in the middle of the ocean - it was a nice change of pace and a lot of fun…

Here is my huge 28 week pregnant belly in all its glory -

and Rosie loved looking at the fishies through the bottom of the boat.

There was a big family of stray cats living on our property - and they had 5 new baby kittens - Rosie loved chasing them around and petting them…

She would say cute things like “where kitties go?” and then as soon as she saw one she would run after it - saying “I pet kitty”

We ate a lot of good food in Jamaica, most of it from tiny roadside (or beachside) shacks - and we are literally talking shacks - with tin roofs and no kitchen- sometimes just an open grill. Some of it was REALLY good - some of it was just OK. We had Jerk chicken, pork, fish (of course)…

and the standard “rice and peas” which is rice with red beans - Rosie loved it…

Joe was a little freaked out by the fresh fish with the heads still attached… but he ate it anyway….

We did branch out and leave our little property one day and we ventured to the huge Beaches all inclusive resort. We mostly wanted a pool for Rosie for the day - and they have a whole kids program with Sesame Street characters - and we thought Rosie would like that…

The pool was great and Rosie actually swam on her own with only swimmies helping keep her afloat - she really got the hang of keeping her balance and kicking her legs, she was amazing…

She was a little freaked out by the Sesame Street characters - I think they were too big and scary in real life… It was a fun day - and a different experience - but we decided we are definitely NOT all-inclusive people. It was dirty and loud and the food was horrible - we are so glad we didn’t pay the $800 a night they were charging for rooms….

We had a really great relaxing week, it was a treat to get out of the normal day to day grind of things and relax, read, eat and play…

I don’t know if Jamaica is our ideal vacation spot - it was unquestionably beautiful, but there are so many places on this earth that we want to see - I am not sure if it warrants a second visit… but we are glad we did make this one visit - we will miss the beach, ocean and beautiful sunsets….

Another month has flown by and my little girl continues to alternately drive me crazy and melt my heart…

Her latest game is to climb into the large trunk/toy chest in the living room and throw ALL her toys out on the floor…fun! She is also obsessed with Dora the Explorer - she still likes Elmo - but Dora is her BFF now and she insists on “watch Dora TV” as soon as she wakes up… I sometimes regret the crutch of Dora on TiVo and our portable DVD player - but I don’t know if I could get through this pregnancy without the distraction and time off that watching Dora provides…
She is still getting up earlier than I would like - around 7am - it seems she is solar powered and gets up with the sun - I am thinking we need to get some heavy black curtains for her room to see if it will help her sleep longer… Other than that - she is a pretty good sleeper - usually in bed by 8-8:30 - and she has even been having better naps lately - I can get around an hour out of her before she wakes up usually - instead of just 1/2 hour or so…

We took our first trip to the zoo this past month and Rosie absolutely LOVED it! It was great exercise for the whole family - Rosie ran around non-stop and loved seeing all the animals - and mommy and daddy got some exercise walking around the whole zoo for 3 hours… We went on the weekend as a family with Wes, Vicki and Holly - and then Rosie and I went back the next day with our playgroup. Rosie really is making some good friends (me too) with our playgroups - and in a weird synchronistic phenomenon - out of the 10-15 kids in our small group - 3 other kids (all boys) were born the same day as Rosie!!! crazy huh?

This is Rosie’s friend Noah - one of the 3 who shares her b-day - they had fun holding hands and walking around the zoo together…

Rosie also loves hanging out with her cousins - especially her cousin Ari - they run around and chase each other and scream - and they fight over toys - and just sit and read in their jammies (rare quiet time) - Her big cousins Noah, Cory and Marisa are fun to play with too…

And she is a little shadow of cousin Ella - everytime we see her she just follows her around and tries to be like big girl Ella - looking at her with adoring eyes…

She also got to play with cousin Stephen when we were in Florida recently - he is such a cutie - check out these eyelashes!

seems like such a waste on a boy!

She still has no fear - climbing everything - running everywhere - exploring, she loves to swim in GiGi’s pool or the ocean - and actually swam by herself with only swimmies helping her (mommy and daddy hovering closeby) at GiGi’s pool this past month…

A major change in our daily routine was the end of nursing this past month - it was a really smooth transition and I was happy about that. My milk had pretty much dried up - so she wasn’t nursing for nutrition any more - it was more of a comfort thing - but I was sore and tired and cranky and she was NOT very gentle with her nursing sessions - so I got fed up one morning and went upstairs and put band-aids over my nipples and showed Rosie “mommy nursie hurty” and she said “mommy band-aid” and that was pretty much it… I left the band-aids on for a couple days - but even after that -she hasn’t asked to nurse at all - she occasionally says “mommy nursie hurtie” or “mommy band-aids” and points to my nipples - but she seems to have been ready to wean. And I am enjoying a few months of a break before the new baby gets here and is latched on to me 24/7. Plus, with the end of nursing - Rosie and I can now cuddle together without her always having to have my nipple in her mouth…

3 more months until she is a big sister and we keep talking about what a big help she is going to be. I will ask her how she is going to help mommy and she will say “bring baby diaper” and “play toys” and “sing baby”. Speaking of singing - she pretty much gets all the words to “twinkle twinkle” and “abcd” (as Rosie calls them) - usually she makes me sing with her - but sometimes she will cut me off and say “no sing mommy” and she wants to sing all by herself - her tune and timing is totally off - but it is so cute to hear…