Happy New Year!

I can hardly believe dad is already getting ready to leave. He just got here didn't he? It was too short, but he left his mark. Dominique wanted us to rearrange the table tonight so that she could sit beside grandpa. Both kids are playing a new game they got with him as we speak and they have been wearing out his arm as he pushes them everyday on their new swing set. Yes, pictures will be coming. The kids have been "helping" on it. So far it has a partially finished fort, a sandbox area, rock wall and two swings. Yet to come is the tire swing, the rest of the fort walls and slide, maybe a rope to climb too. It is looking really good and I hope will entertain the older two while mommy is a little occupied with our new baby coming soon.

Our baby is now officially full term. I am still dilated to a 1, but 60-70% effaced, so we are on our way. I still need to do many a project, but I started her clock today, so that felt good. An e-mail told me I should have my bags packed, so I guess I should have Brian go to the shed and drag out my overnight bag, the parts to make the crib a crib again, the baby bath and bassinet, the car seat... Oh we'll get there right? Funny how we are so laid back with #3. With Ivan we had all this done a month in advance and now we're not all that concerned. We live five minutes away from the hospital, so if I don't have my "stuff" I can send someone to get it and besides the hospital supplies fashionable lingerie and so forth, they also offer you a car seat, if we really needed one and it only takes 2 minutes to put up the playpen/bassinet, we've done it a hundred times.

Did you ever see the Cosby Show episode where the doctor (Bill Cosby) had 3 babies to deliver at the same time? There was newbie parents (with fainting dad), Spanish couple who didn't understand English and the 5 time parents who came in bearing zucchini cake, playing cards and cracking jokes between breathing through contractions, telling the doctor not to worry about a thing, they would be fine on their own if need be. I always thought it would be great to be that relaxed about the birth. I'm not sure if we're there yet, and I don't think we'll have 5 kids to see if we could be that cool about it, but it is nice to know a bit what to expect and not to have to sweat all the details.

Dad keeps trying to finagle the baby name out of us. Ivan actually knew it, and remembered it for a few minutes which scared us knowing the grands would try to draw it out of him, but we told him lots of other names and he quickly forgot it. Yeah for 4 year old attention spans!

Mom was humming Old langs eye (or whatever it's called) and cracking pecans... guess I should go be sociable. Happy New Year to all of you. May it bring goodness your way. We are looking forward to our life as a family of 5. We ate out at a chinese restaurant last night and my fortune said: The coming month shall bring winds of change in your life. (That will certainly be true!) Brian's said: The current year will bring you much happiness. (I take that as in the current year about to start and we'll take it ;)