I need a special tunnel to safely cross the highway.

I feel so incredibly pregnant today. I am moving at the speed of cooling asphalt. If I were to be found in the desert of the southwest, crawling along, or gasp, flipped over on my back, unable to right myself, I could halt the construction of a major retail distribution center (yes, that is a random reference to the majestic desert tortoise). At times like this it is so convenient to have a toddler by the hand and let people then think I am being a patient mom, allowing my little one to set our leisurely pace. But now you know, I'm slowing her down.

I just ate crackers and cheese and feel like I've left an all you can eat Chinese buffet after four trips back to the won ton table.

But when I write that I still think "mmmmm, Won Tons!" I can assure you that I am not one of those women who claim "When I was pregnant with little Shalaydon I only wanted fresh fruits and vegetables." Rather, when I am pregnant I want: fried food, creamy cheesy food, and/or fried cheese. And dairy. And chocolate. The only difference between this and not being pregnant is the increased urgency and the lack of (okay, the diminishment of) guilt. Thank you "What to Expect..." for the little blurb telling me I need cholestrol to build this little body.

Speaking of food, when is dinner? I better get moving now if I want to make it to the table in time...

Littlest Big Girl

Auntie took this picture, I'm pretty sure Tessa was inviting Alicia to " 'M on" (come on).

If I'd never met these two people before this picture would make me instantly fall in love with them.

Sweet girl. Happy Mom. Big Belly.
(Also, who knew Tessa was such a blondie? We have no where near the same hair color!)

It was a great day to be a dog at the beach. And a great day for a little girl who loves "dods" to be at the beach.

Tessa has just learned how to whisper "secrets" in our ears. She may have learned to whisper during the infamous pea-cupcake incident when Auntie and I were conspiring while Daddy was in the bathroom. When he came out we went silent but Tessa turned to him and said "Pss, sssppp, sp. Ssssppp, ppppsss, ssssppp," in exact replica of what we must have sounded like to her.

She feeds the kitty every day. The only thing I have to do is open the fridge so she can get the half a envelope of food out. Then she takes the clip off, opens the package, picks up Quincy's bowl, dumps the food in very thoroughly, puts the bowl on his tray, centers it with the bowl of dry food, picks up the stray kibble that has fallen out of that bowl...and usually dips her hands in his water to wash them off.

Tessa knows some complicated words. Applesauce, orange, purple (but not pink or blue, too easy), octopus, jacket, cocka doodle doo.

She "gets" webcaming in a scary way. She used it to get Grandma and Grandpa U** to rub their bellies and pat their heads over 2,500 miles away. And if you talk to her on speaker phone its a guarentee she'll try to show you her baby through the handset. Speaking of that, if she gets a hold of the cell phone she holds it with both hands and types with her thumbs saying (what sounds like) txt txt txt txt txt. Perhaps this is because someone who sent over 9,000 txt msgs a month lived here for a while.

The Other Sister

High on my list of priorities is posting about my sweetest girl Tessa and how big she is getting. However my life is so hard...you see, I tend to type on this laptop and my pictures are all saved on the desktop. And we all know that a post about a cute kid without pictures is like an Easter basket without chocolate - POINTLESS.

So, until I get off my lazy...well, side, I'd like to post about another form of support we are getting from the "other" sister.

Laura is walking in the March of Dimes on our behalf this year and if you'd like to support her click on the button to the side of this post, or visit her blog.

Thank you Laura - I am so glad you are helping to support the March of Dimes. Two years ago we strongly benefited from the in hospital support our MOD representative gave us, this year we are benefiting from research on how to prevent early labor/delivery.

The Blessing of a Sister

Its hard to deny what a blessing having Alicia stay with us the past two months have been. No doubt in my mind that if she hadn't been here I would have had this baby weeks, even months ago.

Alicia left Tuesday morning.* As she was packing her stuff I realized that what I valued most about her trip was not the incredible amount of dishes and meal prep she did, or all the hauling around of Tessa, it was that I got to know her so much better than I have in the past 10 years. She was eight when I moved away to college and has sort of existed in my mind as a mix between the eight year old I new and the snippets of a young adult I've seen in quick trips home. Now, after two months of living in fairly (ie very) close quarters I feel like I know (at least a little better) who she is and we are sisters in heart as well as in blood.


I've been really thinking about how Tessa will be as a big sister, but in the days before Alicia left I suddenly realized that not only will she BE a sister, she will HAVE a sister. When I finally thought of this my heart jumped around in excitement. I understand how lucky she will be because of the fabulous sisters I have.

*I couldn't post this on the day she left because we didn't tell our parents we'd bought tickets...he he he. Why? I don't know, it was just more fun this way. (ETA: I just realized that this is the second post in a row about silly pranks on people...what does that say about me and Alicia?)

Cupcakes are like snow

Just like you shouldn't eat yellow snow, you should also beware of yellow cupcakes. Someone might have pee'd in them. Or in the case of Aaron's cupcake last night - put peas (the green vegetable) in them. Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha.

It started out a bit more elaborate than that. Alicia and I (okay, just Alicia) was going to make cupcakes and then make one single meatloaf cupcake and frost it with mashed potatoes and give it to Aaron for desert. Turns out that was going to be complicated, for a number of reasons, so we decided to frost a regular cupcake with mashed potatoes.

At the last minute we also added green peas to the cupcake batter (just one cupcake) and it was a good thing we did. Because turns out the consistency of mashed potatoes and frosting aren't really the same, and I put too much food coloring in the potatoes so it just wasn't going to be believable. However Aaron had no doubt heard the incessant giggling between Alicia and I and would suspect something was up.

So we pretended to get "caught" putting the mashed potato frosting on a (non pea) cupcake and then feed him the pea cupcake with regular frosting. He "caught" us and our plan worked perfectly. "Oh dang" we said, "you are too fast for us." Then he proceeded to pick out three of the cupcakes - NONE OF WHICH WAS THE PEA CAKE that we had artfully displayed front and center. Grrrr...

So I did what any self respecting wife would do. I stole one of his cakes right in front of him and popped it in my mouth - then I feigned remorse and went to get him a new one. He He he. Ooooh, I am so sneaky.

Two bites in he sees the peas and Alicia and I snickered. THEN HE FINISHED THE CUPCAKE - which, after a day of anticipation was simply too much for us and we hit the ground laughing.

Poor Aaron, no one likes to be the brunt of a joke perpetuated by two other people. But hey, it was April Fools with Connell girls in the house so what was he expecting?