super bowl

In our living room, we just had this short conversation:

Me: When is the Super Bowl?

Brian: Uhhhh, I don’t know.

We are awesome.

winner winner chicken dinner

So, as you know, if you have a baby, people like to bring you food. It’s hard for me to accept things like this from people, but I have to say – IT IS AWESOME. The food people bring is so good!

guess what?

CORA IS HERE! Surprise!

I don’t really know what to say about it, but she is here, and she is super duper awesome.

She weighed 9 pounds 2 ounces and was 22 inches long. I knew she’d be big! I had her naturally, as well. It was a really awesome experience, and I would do it exactly the same again – after a while.

She’s already over 1 week old, and that makes me a little sad. I want her to stay tiny forever! But, I also can’t wait to see her grow. It’s weird, but I might as well not dwell on wishing she’d stay tiny like this because I know it’s impossible. 

Our time at home has flown by, and we are learning lots in addition to sometimes feeling like we haven’t learned a darn thing. We had 3 rough nights in the beginning, and now we’ve had 3 good nights in a row. It’s not like we’re sleeping all night, but getting 2 or 3 chunks of sleep is a good thing, even when they’re 2-4 hours each.

All in all, no matter what, having Cora is worth it all already. She’s beautiful! I wish everyone could see what all she does when I stare at her, but then again, I deserve to see those things for myself (and Brian, too).

walking

Walking is how I started exercising when we got a puppy that needed exercise. Brian started running, and I slowly gave up walking and joined him. Running is hard, fun, rewarding, and awesome. I know that way more now that I can’t do it. I’ve had many dreams while pregnant about running, and their exhilarating; they make me not be able to wait to get back into it. (On that note, I totally thought I’d keep running the whole time I was pregnant and be one of those people, but I quickly became lazy, hot during the summer, and realistic after about 3 pregnant runs.) Anyway, I basically haven’t done ANYTHING for exercise the rest of the time I’ve been pregnant, but everyone knows you can walk and try to get a baby to come. SO, for the last two evenings, that is what I’ve done. I’ve gone on really hard, hilly walks around the neighborhood.

The first night was great. I was proud of myself for doing it, first of all, and I felt like I walked much faster than I’d hoped I could. It hurt my back some, but it wasn’t that bad, and I had hopes that it was at least helping a little.

Tonight’s walk sucked! I literally cried some during the first section of it. After that, it started hurting my back pretty bad. I kept going and finished the whole thing, but I’m not counting on doing it again tomorrow evening. My back is tired of bending backwards, and I’m tired in general.

Just like after starting to run, I have re-determined that walking is lame. The only time it won’t be is when I’m walking Cora in a stroller for fun. I look forward to running one day when I can!

 

eek

This is the road in Bolivia we didn’t end up having to travel. This is one of the scariest things I’ve ever seen on video. By the way, I noticed there’s a bus behind this one. What the HECK did that driver do after witnessing this?!?!

eating

I am stuffed to the gills, and I can’t stop wanting to eat! It’s been that way for a while now. I hope it doesn’t stay that way!

By the way, you readers stink because you never, ever comment on my posts anymore even though I comment on yours!

I even started doing short posts for those of you (Casey) that won’t read more than a tiny paragraph.  You get a Google MINUS.

my face

For the past 2 or 3 days, my face keeps getting super duper hot, and I don’t like it. I hate feeling hot!

christmas 2

Today, my parents drove down for a 4 hour visit so we could exchange Christmas gifts and go to lunch. Our gift time was good and pretty simple, which is a nice change for us. My favorite part was getting a video camera! I’ve been wanting one, and they brought it just in time to capture Cora’s earliest moments!

We went to lunch at Mugshots because my dad loves burgers (and so do the rest of us). I just knew they’d like it, and my dad said it was the best burger he’d ever had. Success!

Christmas on New Year’s Eve isn’t so bad.

house stuff

I am pretty excited about fixing up my laundry area in the basement, and that feels a little odd. Either way, yay for me! I would post a picture, but it doesn’t look THAT good even though I used the term “fixed up.” That just means I threw away a ton of junk that had piled up in that area and washed the clothes that were specialty cases that had been sitting around too long. We also bought and put together a white storage cabinet with doors that I now have my detergents, laundry bags, stain stuff, etc. organized and put away in. Today, we bought a clothesline and clothespins for me to hang my diaper covers on (and anything else we want to hang dry), so that will go up soon when I figure out where it will work best. I like doing laundry so much better now because I can get to my dryer and detergent!

Since we keep getting gifts and shipments for Cora, the nursery keeps cycling through clean & ready and piled up with boxes, bags & stuff not put up. It’s getting there, though.

Our basement now has a legitimate guest area in it complete with a not-ignored full bath, so that is nice for my parents and anyone else that might stay over. I actually think it’s nicer for the guest room to be down there than on the main floor anyway because there’s way more privacy, a separate bathroom and a space heater so the guests can control their own temperature. It needs more organization in the other areas down there, but the bedroom part is good to go for the most part.

On top of all that, I am trying hard to get all our Christmas leftovers put away so our house will be clean again! I got it all up besides some boxes, but I need to take the tree down to get everything completely taken care of. I just can’t bear to do it yet.

GOOD THING: started reading a new book!
BAD THING: Choxie is really sad today every time Brian leaves.

positivity

The great thing about swollen legs and ankles is that is it EASY to shave my legs! With no bony knees or ankles, it’s a breeze with no missed spots! Woot.