9.28.11--Kind of a big day at our house

12:25 am: Greg and my mom finally get back from a long trip to the airport.  We chat for a while.

1:00 am: Greg and I decide to go to bed, but I couldn't sleep.  I was annoyed that my mom had finally arrived and I still did not have a baby for her.  She was to be my servant while I recovered but with no baby I had nothing to recover from.  Also my cousin who WAS due three weeks after me had just had her baby and I was overdue and still hadn't had mine.  So unfair.  And my stomach hurt.

1:40 am: I decide to heat up my rice pack to help my ailing tummy, find a giant cockroach in the kitchen, attempt to kill said cockroach, return to bed and eventually fall asleep.

4:18 am: I woke up to a little pop and slow trickle in the nether regions.  My water finally broke.  40 weeks and 3 days.  I got up, peed, changed my clothes and decided it would be a good idea to finish getting everything ready for the birth center.  I showered so I wouldn't feel too gross, put the camera in the bag, made Rex's lunch and morning chocolate milk, wrote out a schedule for Rex.  I was back in bed by 5:15 am.

5:30 am: I decided to not do what I did with Rex, which was wait until the contractions got bad to get my Hypnobirthing on, so I got out my Zune and started listening.  It was quite relaxing and I even remember thinking at one point--this is quite pleasant.  I decided not to time the contractions so I have no idea how long they were at this point or how far apart they were, but I was having contractions nonetheless.  They weren't terrible, nothing my Hypnobirthing couldn't handle.

6:30 am: I got bored and restless.  At this point I still hadn't woken Greg up because I wanted him to be fully rested for the long labor I was anticipating; I was also hoping to get back to sleep for at least a bit, but like I said I was getting restless.  So I got up and walked around a bit.  Before going to bed I had watched the first hour of Dancing with the Stars so decided I would watch the last twenty minutes, but then it took too long to load and I couldn't get comfortable so I went to the bathroom (again--I'd been going what felt like every 10 minutes) and went back to bed.

6:57 am: Greg rolls over, gets his phone in anticipation of his alarm going off and says something about not wanting to go to work.  I told him my water had broken at 4.  Greg, not fully conscious yet asks something about the contractions, but I was in the middle of one and couldn't really talk through them.  We lay in bed for a bit more.

7:14 am: Greg suggests we leave for the birth center, but I wasn't ready to go--I had just read the night before that most moms wish they hadn't left for the hospital as early as they had.  I didn't want to be at the birth center for hours.  Besides, in order to get to the birth center, we had to drive through downtown Charlotte, which is actually called Uptown here, and we guessed that traffic would be pretty sticky until 8 or so.  We decided to leave between 8 and 8:30 am, because I also didn't want to have Rex around while I was trying to relax.  Greg got up and got in the shower.  I also decided to get up and go to the bathroom yet again.  And then I looked at the shower and it looked like a nice place to be so I got in the shower again.  Then Greg came in (we have 3 showers in this house) and asked where Rex was.  Under his bed? Greg found him shortly thereafter in the orange room looking at pictures on Facebook.  Greg returns.  I'm still in the shower and starting to feel less than good but the water helps as does some yoga.  He asks what the doula's name is and the midwife so he can call and tell them our plans, but I spelled the midwife's name in the phone so that was a struggle because I was feeling less good all the time.  Greg leaves to call them and by the time he gets back I had decided we needed to leave then.  Greg leaves again to move Rex's car seat and make sure my mom is settled with Rex.  I meanwhile attempt to get dressed.  I get a shirt on and then really have to have to the bathroom so I go back to the bathroom and realize I don't actually have to go to the bathroom, I need to expel a baby, so I put a towel on the floor and get into a nice squat when Greg walks back in and says, "Oh, crap.  You are not having a baby right here."  And I said, "Yes, I am." So Greg leaves again to call the midwife and tell her we're not going to make it to the birth center, gets my mom and puts the midwife on speaker phone.  She then guided Greg through the delivery by saying things like, "Tell me what you see."

Greg: I see some hair:

Midwife: Good.  What position is Heather in?

Greg:  On her back.

Midwife: Get her on her side or hands and knees.

Greg: Ok.

Midwife: What's going on now?

Greg: She's pushing.  I see more hair.

Midwife: Ok, now just catch the baby.

And he did.

Baby Alice arrived in Greg's arms at 8:13 am, more or less.  Greg said she started pinking up as soon as her head was out, but she didn't start crying right away like all the babies on TV, so he asked if he should spank her or something.  She started to gurgle and then to cry.  Mom tried to find one of those little baby nose suckers but couldn't find one and I couldn't remember where I'd put all of mine--still can't.  I know Rex has one in his box of bath toys, but the others...Alice cleared herself out and started to cry.

In walks Rex.  He had been watching TV but had apparently noticed that he was all alone so came to look for every one.  He gives me this weird look as the floor is covered in baby after math and says, "Uh-oh."  I tell him to say hi to baby Alice, so he came in and looked at her a bit before Grandma Pattie took him back to watch more TV.  Good thing he's a bit of a TV junkie.

Meanwhile, the midwife's husband was on the phone with the doula trying to tell her not to go to the birth center but just to go back to our house.

Then we all sat on the floor and waited for the placenta to come, but it didn't.

About 15 to 20 minutes later the doula arrived and she also tried to get the placenta to come, but it still didn't want to come so we waited some more.  She also lamented that we didn't get any good pictures...not exactly what was on our mind at that point, to be quite honest.  Greg dragged an old mattress into our room and put some old sheets on it, then Mom, Greg and the doula helped me, still attached to Alice, onto the mattress, where we tried some more to get the placenta to come.  Still nothing.  Somebody called the midwife and she said we should just come to the birth center, since by this point it had been nearly an hour since Alice as born and the placenta should have come out by this point.  Greg, Mom, and the doula get the car ready--lined with towels and put our bags that I had so carefully packed  in the car.  Mom wraps me and Alice up in a robe as we are still attached to each other and very carefully helps us out to the car and we leave.

9:30 am ish: Greg drove very carefully to the birth center 30 minutes away, seeing as Alice was not in her car seat and I didn't have my seat belt on.

10:00 am ish: The midwife meets us at the car and helps us into a room at the birth center.  Greg meanwhile brings in our stuff.  The midwife cut the umbilical cord--Greg said he was good since he'd already delivered a baby that day.  Greg left to start calling his family and the midwife helped to finally deliver the placenta--nearly two hours after Alice was born.

Getting checked out by the midwife once we arrived.

And that was that.  I took a shower; the midwife checked out Alice (7 pounds 8 ounces; 19 3/4 inches); we snacked a bit, chatted a bit, got a few instructions, made an appointment for a return trip, Greg called for some take out and we left the birth center a little after 12:30.  We were home by 1:30.  It was nice.

An almost family picture at the birth center.  I'm looking super hot.

Want more details?  Ok.

My last appointment with my midwifes in Provo, I was told, as usual, that I was measuring small and might need to get an ultrasound, just to make sure.  So I jumped the gun and scheduled an ultrasound with the practice in Charlotte that I was planning to use.  Turns out Alice was measuring on the lower end of average, but because it's the generally accepted practice, the midwifes in Charlotte wanted us to go through the same song and dance we did with Rex--ultrasounds, non-stress tests, and an early induction.  We didn't think that sounded like a good idea.  Luckily, our doula is close friends with our midwife and was able to talk her into taking us on as clients.  So we switched from a group of Certified Nurse Midwives to a single Certified Professional Midwife.  Best decision ever.  She acknowledged that I was measuring small--still only 34 centimeters when I delivered--but said that baby felt nice and big and that the heart rate was fine so why not let her bake a bit longer?  So we did.  And we got a fast, not too unpleasant labor, with an average-sized baby.  Too bad I was expecting Alice to be small like Rex and bought a ton of newborn sized clothes.

You still want more?  Ok.

Reflecting on the whole experience, first has been a lesson in the Lord's timing.  I really, REALLY wanted to have Alice BEFORE my mom came, because in my infinite wisdom and knowledge that would be best and I was getting more than a little frustrated that I still didn't have a baby when my mom came.  But I think somebody knew that I wasn't going to make it to the birth center and that having my mom at the house to hold my hand while Greg caught would be best.  Good job Heavenly Father on, once again, knowing what you're doing.

Not that you can tell from this picture, but Rex loves his new little sister and asks to hold her all the time.   He gives her kisses and tells her to stop crying.

Second, a few people have mentioned/asked why we didn't call 9-1-1.  Because.  There wasn't a reason to.  Having a baby is not a medical emergency.  Besides the fact that it never even crossed my mind until someone else said it.  I didn't even think to call the midwife--that was Greg.  I'm really glad we didn't.  Not being hooked up to a million machines or poked or prodded in anyway has been great.  I have even really liked being home.  I thought that I would want to be in the hospital so I could rest, but I am resting just fine here at home--besides I'd rather be woken up/disturbed by my adorable two-year-old over a cranky nurse any day.

Will be do a planned home birth for our next baby?  Most likely not.  It was pleasant--much better than with Rex and Greg did a great job (just call him Dr. Greg) and he's quite proud of himself, but we decided that next time we'll just leave a bit earlier.  Having said that, I don't think I could do a hospital birth again.  I loved  getting to do whatever I wanted during labor, not being stuck to a machine, getting to hold baby Alice for as long as I wanted and not having doctors and nurses tell me what to do.  Then again, I guess it depends on where we're living when #3 comes.  And, no, we are not even thinking about #3 yet.  While the labor was only 4 hours and the birth wasn't too bad, it's not something I particularly look forward to doing again.

Looking cute on day 2 of life.

Now we just have to decide what we want to do about the birth certificate.  We can claim an unassisted home birth and have a North Carolina birth certificate, but that will be a bit of a pain and kind of tricky to obtain.  Or we can get a South Carolina one because the placenta was delivered at the birth center, which is in South Carolina.  This will be must easier because the midwife would fill out all the paper work for us.  Decisions, decisions.

9.27.11

Family night is seriously one of my favorite nights.  I think it's the teacher in me.  I just love thinking about a topic and preparing a little lesson complete with games and activities and worksheets.  I even just bought the nursery manual so am now using that, which everything so much easier and helps me better adjust my lessons to Rex's level--something I've always struggled with as a teacher--teaching too high for my students.

Greg had to work late last night so we did family night tonight.  We learned about sharing because hopeful very soon Rex will have to share a lot of things with his new baby sister--again assuming she every decides to show up.  (Here's the link to the lesson on the Church's website). I brought a bunch of toys to family night and we all got to pick a toy to share with someone else and practiced saying "I will share."  Then we looked at pictures of kids sharing and talked about how happy they looked with they shared.  Then we sang a song about sharing.  Then we rolled a dice with different things to share on it and practiced sharing the item that we rolled.  Then we sang our sharing song again and passed our toys around in a circles while we sang.  Then we colored.  Daddy and I shared one page and Rex colored his own.

And here's where the lesson fell apart.

Most of our crayons lack a pointy tip, making coloring with them very difficult, but we do have colored pencils that are still semi sharp.  When I opened the crayon box, Rex quickly gathered up all the colored pencils and put them just out of Daddy's reach.  Daddy asked Rex if he would share any of his pencils.

Rex, "No."

Mommy, "But Rex, remember the little kids in the pictures?  Sharing is fun.  It makes us happy."

Rex, "No."

Daddy, "Rex, you aren't even using that one.  Can I use it? Share, please."

Rex, "No."

And so it went for quite some time.  Greg ended up having to color his little boy green and orange because those were the only sharp crayons left.

By the end of the evening, Rex did concede to share his scissors with Daddy.  The two of them actually took turns quite nicely.

But sometimes I those two act more like siblings than parent-child.

The house, part 2

For your viewing pleasure, a few more highlights of the house--like I said, the house is enormous so we only live in a few of the rooms.  Tonight, we feature the bedrooms.  The bedrooms are to the left of the entryway and down a long, narrow hallway where the washer and dryer are...not that this matters to you or that you care.

First, Rex and baby's room.  I know we have enough bedrooms to have each kid have their own room, but there's something about sharing a room.  I just like the idea of my kids sharing a room.  Greg is skeptical that it will last very long and says that I will give in and move one of the kids to the spare bedroom, but Holly has all three of her kids in one room, why can't two of mine share?

Here we go:  we painted this room the second weekend we were in the house and I love it.  It's called Carolina Parakeet and is a super bright, but it's a toddler's room so why not?  Besides, Rex insists that he has a green room because his room in Provo was green--though a much more muted shade.  We based the paint on the bedspread we picked up at IKEA, which is less than 6 miles from our house.  Last week I bought letters that spell the kids' names out, but I need to paint them, but didn't buy paint because I thought I had some--turns out I don't.  I also need to make another throw pillow for Rex's bed.  And, in case you were wondering, he picked out the red pillow--twice.  The first time we went to IKEA he wanted it but I didn't get it so we when we went back this week to use our $25 off a $25 purchase and he asked for it again, I gave it.  The first picture is standing in the doorway.

 And this isn't even the whole room.  If you were to sit on Rex's bed and look straight ahead there's another little alcove with a little vanity--I think this was Grandma Libby's room in high school.  I've filled the space with boxes and will soon put a little curtain up to divide the space.  Why am I filling Rex's room with boxes when we have ample room elsewhere?  First, we don't plan to live here forever so I don't want to get too spread out.  And, second, the packer in me just wants to fill up every nook and cranny in one room before I even consider using a second room.  I blame my father.

Next we have the master.  This room is a bit more...neutral.  Notice that we finally got a real bed and aren't just sleeping on a frame anymore.  Rex likes to use the headboard as a jungle gym.  Also notice the built in bookshelf to the right of the bed.  There's a matching one on the other side.  I think Greg's grandparents had a double king or something to fill the space between the two bookshelves--something our tiny queen just does not do.  Also notice how baby Alice's pack-n-play is set up and ready to go whenever she feels like showing up.

 I threw this picture in to show the curtain boxes.  I love them.  I feel so royal with them.

As you can tell, like the other rooms in the house, this one is a little sparse by way of furniture.  Even with raiding the basement and the leftover furniture there that Greg's parents didn't sell/move to their new house, we just cannot fill the space.  More to vacuum but less to dust I guess.

And so ends the tour of the house...expect maybe the kitchen, which has a beautiful interior brick wall.  Maybe once I figure out how to hang pictures on the brick I'll post pictures of that.

9.24.11

Ok so Greg isn't much of a photographer either, but here's hello and good-bye to 40 weeks.  Well, I guess I have another few hours until I officially pass my due date, but let's be honest here, I'm not pregnant.  I'm just fat.  I've been using the whole pregnancy thing as an excuse to eat whatever I want (I had cookie dough for lunch 2 days last week) and to gain a ridiculous amount of weight.  And all those baby movements: really bad indigestion.

I did get the spare bedroom ready for my mom/dad's visit today.  My father-in-law talked me into moving furniture into the room, so Mom you can thank him for a somewhat hospitable welcome.  I was just going to blow up the air mattress and throw some sheets on it--not actually put sheets on the bed but literally just throw the sheets on the mattress for my mother to put on herself.  But seeing as I don't have a baby, I figured I don't really have an excuse to be that lazy so I put the sheets on.  I even went through my boxes of pictures and such that I haven't hung yet and put a few in the room.  And ta-da, done.  Well not completely.  Greg still has a few more things to move around and I'll put some towels in there too, but pretty much done.

I did see my midwife on Thursday.  I'm now measuring 34 cm, so only 6 cm behind what I should be.  I did gain 2.2 pounds though--probably just in my butt from all the cookie dough.  So it's not that I'm uncomfortable because I'm really not and I don't have much to complain about.  My good friend Holly measured at around 42 cm when she had her last baby.  I'm just being impatient.  Especially since I've been going by my original due date, which was last Saturday and have had everything ready for baby since 38 weeks.  I've just been waiting...and waiting.  My midwife did say that she thinks we'll have a baby before the end of next week and almost didn't schedule an appointment for us for next week.  She may have just been lying to make me feel better.  That was nice of her.

So there you have it.  40 weeks and counting.  Just two more and then the midwife turns care over to a doctor who forces baby to come...hopefully we'll have a baby before that.

The New House

Our new house is really Greg's old house.  Greg's grandparents built the house in the late '60s, so when they both died their only child (Greg's mom) inherited the house and Greg's family moved in.  (And I have put a few things in the "wrong" place--like the TV and the cups). After all their children left home, Greg's parents moved into a smaller home and now we live in the big house.  And it is big.  It's over 5000 square feet and sits on 7 acres.  To put that into perspective, our Provo house is about 2800 square feet, and we rented out a little less than half of that.  So we went from living in about 1400 square feet to 5000.  Needless to say, we don't have nearly enough furniture and I have a lot more to clean..  Not only are there more rooms, but all the rooms are much bigger than our Provo house.  I keep a lot of doors closed.  I closed the door to the basement.  We don't even bother with it.  I also closed to the door to one of the bedrooms and the dining room.    But just to give you a taste of the house, here's brief tour of some of my favorite things.  

First, we now have an official entry way, which would be nice if we ever wanted to contain any unwanted guests, but seeing as the house is not visible from the road, we don't get any guests--other than ones who know the house is here--namely Greg's parents.

Here's the entryway.  this is the first thing you see when you walk in.  I love the black man and my little orphans.  And did I mention, it has a stone floor and super vintage (original to the house) hanging lamps that add a touch of...Greg says Grandpa, but I think it's unique.

To the right of the table pictured above, is a double doorway and two steps down into the nice room, as my family would call it.  This is where we would receive guests, if we ever had any.

Here's a shot standing on the steps down.  

And here's the same room from a slightly different angle.  This is only about half of the room.   Behind me is enough room for a full-sized grand piano, a computer desk, and a hutch, which is what Greg's parents had there when they lived here.  We have a rug and a box of pictures I have yet to hang.  Oh, and the hutch because they didn't take it with them when they moved.  Like I said, we just ignore large portions of the house because it's just so big.  To my left is a sliding door out to a balcony, which has a slanted roof, so I always feel like I'm falling when I go out there, besides the fact that Rex can fit his head through the guardrail, so we just leave that door locked too.

Things I love about this room: The couches face each other.  I hate going to people's houses and having to crane my neck around the TV to see people.  I love just being able to look straight across at someone. And the fireplace.  It reminds me of the fireplace my cousins had at their house when I was a kid.  It's a full five-feet long and probably 2 feet wide, just big enough to be a stage--I can not wait to put on the best nativity scene ever on my little stage.  I also really like this arrangement of white ceramic containers.  It's a a bookshelf behind the couch.  It makes me really happy.

Our next room to highlight is the formal dining room (Greg's grandparents did a lot of entertaining).  It's up two steps and behind the fireplace in the nice room.  As mentioned, we don't have the furniture to fill this house.  Our kitchen table is now our entryway table and our dining room table is now in the kitchen so the dining room is empty.  And despite what you might think about living on 7 acres, we don't have anywhere suitable for Rex to ride his bike and there are a lot of bugs here and other critters, some of which are poisonous so Rex is only allowed outside when Dad takes him on adventures.  Most of the land is just covered with trees (did I mention that I'm not a huge fan of trees?), so I made the dining room into Rex's bike room.  He rarely stays in the dining room with his bike, but that's where we keep it.  Here he is riding his trike around this morning in his trike room--he quickly drove into the kitchen and then rode it down the hall to bed tonight.  And he's the one who insists on wearing his helmet even while riding indoors.  So the nice room is to the left in this picture and I'm standing in the doorway to the kitchen.  If you walk through the kitchen you get to my favorite room in the house.

 The chapel.  Seriously.  This room has orange shag carpet, vaulted ceilings, wood paneling and orange stained glass.  It's amazing.  It honestly looks like a chapel.  When I talk about the house with people that knew the house when Greg's parents/grandparents lived in it and I call this room the chapel, they know exactly what I'm talking about.

 So this is the door from the kitchen to the chapel.  It's hard to tell but the stained glass window is directly behind the TV.

  Just inside the door and to the left is this little corner--Rex's toys.  I love that I can see him playing while I make dinner.  I know exactly what he's doing and I can just watch him, which is creepy but he's so cute.

 Turning around is my craft corner and another huge fireplace.  Notice how messy it is.  I don't even have to clean up my crafts because there is so much room in this room.  I just leave them out.  I've always wanted a craft room.  To the left of the craft table is another sliding door that leads out to the front patio.  The house kind of makes a loop around itself in the front.  We also keep this door locked.

Lastly is the TV and computer, which were already featured in a previous picture, but here's a slightly better shot and you can see the stained-glass window and vaulted ceilings a little better.  To furnish this room, Greg raided the basement so all the stuff in here is on lone from his parents.

Things I love about this room: 1. It's like a chapel.  If we ever need any extra cash, we'll just start our own church.  2. It's huge.  We can do all our activities in here.  Rex plays; I craft; Greg plays his video games--and we're all still in the same room--with room to spare.  3. It's right off the kitchen so I don't feel so lonely when the boys are playing while I'm making dinner/doing dishes.

The rest of the house is a bit of a mess right now, but look forward to future highlights of my favorite things about this house.

9.16.11

In one hour and ten minutes, I will officially be 39 weeks...or 40 if we're going by my original due date.  As such I have a few thoughts.

First, we all know that I'm not a great photographer...

Second, I convinced myself that I'd have this little baby at 38 weeks, so last weekend.  Every night this week, I've put Rex down, and then sat on the couch and thought to myself, ok, let's go.  I'm ready for this.  And then nothing.  So I'd try to find something to do to productively occupy my evening.  And every morning I'd wake up and think, Oh crap, still no baby, what am I going to do today?  You see, because I have convinced myself that I'd have a baby, I had not made any plans to do anything--I thought I'd be too busy sleeping and feeding baby, and then I wasn't...

And then today, I was rudely awoken from a nap by a hurty tummy.  I couldn't decide what it was, and still can't for that matter.  It could have been contractions, only it was a constant feeling of ick.  More like a stomach ache or the flu than the surges of discomfort I remember contractions being.  But then again, with Rex, I didn't have the slow build up to hard labor.  I just had hard labor.  So what did I do?  I freaked out.  I've been waiting to have a baby.  Practicing my relaxation and then being very impatient for her to arrive.  I was ready to just get it over with.  Like a band-aide or a test that you've studied and studied for and you're just going to go to the testing center and take it even if you're not 100% ready but you just want to get it over with so you don't have to stress about it anymore.  But then I thought that maybe today would be the day and I freaked out.  I remember what having Rex was like.  I didn't really want to do that again.  So I went to the bathroom and had a little chat with myself.  I replayed the videos of Holly in labor and reminded myself that that's what my labor could be like--so serene and call--just like Holly's.  I just have to calm down first and then I felt much better and made the final preparations for baby--recharged all the camera batteries; dumped the memory cards; etc.  And I started feeling much better.

And now, how to do I feel?  Still a little like I have the flu.  I might want to throw up just a little bit.  I'm still not sure whether or not I was having contractions.  I guess we'll see in the morning.  If I have a baby, then they were contractions.  If not, then maybe I just ate something bad.  Either way, it would be best if baby could wait until at least Monday, when my doula will be back up from her surgery.  I am paying her a lot of money after all, it would be nice if she could attend the birth--that is what I'm paying her for.

9.11.11

 I've been a little busy lately.  And my internet access has been intermittent.  And when I get online I spend a lot of time catching up on other people's blogs.  And I haven't felt like blogging lately because I try to stay positive for my audience, but I haven't been feeling too positive lately.

But Hannah, who blocked me on Facebook, said she'd un-bookmark my blog if I didn't update soon.  And we can't have that.

But I also figured nobody wants a play-by-play of what I've been doing the last few weeks.  So, in the spirit of my good friend Holly, I'm going to just give the run down on each member of the family.

First, Rex.

Rex has been really into temples lately.  When he got the August issue of the Friend he was very excited to see the Salt Lake temple on the cover and told me all about how he was going to get married in the temple and that after he got married, I could have a turn, and then Daddy could.  When questioned who was he was going to marry, he at first said Daddy.  Sometimes he says himself, and once he even said Grandma Pattie.  Koodos to me that he knows what a temple is and that he ought to get married in one, but I think we need to work on the concept of marriage, especially since Greg and I aren't married and Rex is going to marry his grandmother.

Rex also requested that we go to the temple for family night (good for me that he knew what family night was--man I am an amazing mother).  So the Monday before we left Utah, we went to the temple and looked at the flowers.  This is the Mt. Timpanogos temple, where Greg and I got married (yes, we really are married).  Rex was pretty excited to see the blue temple and to be so close to it.  Luckily the temple was closed so we didn't have deal with keeping him outside.

Since we moved out of our old house, Rex has decided that he doesn't need naps.  But he does.  I find him like this a lot.  He's started just falling asleep in random places at really bad times--like 5 o'clock in the afternoon--and then not going to bed until 10 or so.  I am not ready to give up my naps.

Also before we left Provo, we went bowling with two of Greg's sisters.  Rex had a ton of fun for the first two rounds, before getting bored of having to take turns and going to the arcade instead.  Next time, we'll just let Rex bowl all the frames.

 I didn't think they'd make Rex wear bowling shoes, so didn't bring socks for him, so he wore my socks and he adorable shoes.

Otherwise Rex is adjusting to his new house and getting ready for baby.  He walks around the house asking which stuff is ours and getting really excited when he finds something that he knows is ours that he hasn't seen for a while.  He also really likes to show people his new room and his new big boy bed (he's in a regular twin now) and showing people baby Alice-y's crib.

He also really likes black people (is that ok to say?).  I think it's because whenever we go anywhere here in the South, we run into black people (imagine that) and so far all the older women have been super nice to Rex.  They shake his hand and ask him his name and how old he is.  He's taken to just walking up to people and saying, "Hi, I Rex."  It's adorable.  Today at church he saw an older black woman and waved to her as we were walking out of the chapel, but she didn't wave back--he is only 2 fee tall so I don't think she saw him.  So, Rex walked up to her and just stood there by her waiting for her to say hi.  Finally, I had to interrupt her conversation so she could shake Rex's hand and we could go to nursery.  Did I mention that Rex also introduces me--"I Rex.  Dat Header."  Sometimes he even calls me Heather instead of mom...not sure how I feel about that.  I could go on, but Hannah really only wanted pictures so I'll move onto..

Second, me.

I am trying.  Trying to make the best of things here.  I still miss Provo desperately.  I cry at least twice a week about it--usually when I'm lost or driving 45 minutes to get to the grocery store and am just missing the ease that was Provo.  I met a super nice lady at the library the other day and she said to give Charlotte a year--she said that's how long it took her to appreciate it.  So maybe in 11 1/2 months.

On the bright side, I have nearly the whole house unpacked--just a few more boxes that were waiting for new carpet.  I also have a pile of pictures to be hung, but am trying to decided if I should even bother because I need to paint most of the house.  We did paint Rex's room yesterday--bright green, I love it--so at least I can get some things on the walls in there.

I've also made a few friends and the Relief Society president calls me at least twice a week to see what I need--I haven't worked up the courage to say that I really need some help painting, yet.  Maybe when she calls me next week I'll do it.

I also have a new midwife.  We tried one practice here in Charlotte that wanted us to do the same thing we did with Rex--tests, tests, tests, early induction, NICU.  We decided we didn't want to do that again, so we transfer to a very small practice in South Carolina.  We see only one midwife and will deliver at a birth center in South Carolina.  I am excited to have a normal, natural birth.  I am not excited about being sent home two to four hours after the birth--but then again, hospitals don't really let you sleep anyway.

And last, Greg.

Greg loves it here, but knows that I don't.  He bends over backwards to make things easy for me.  He didn't complain when he had zero clothes to wear.  He painted Rex's room nearly by himself yesterday.  He gets on line when I call him when I'm lost to tell me where to go.  He takes Rex on adventures around the 7 acres we currently live on almost every day after work so I can do whatever.  He takes Rex on errands and watches him after work so I can rest.  He takes me a drives through actual neighborhoods and reminds me that one day I will once again have neighbors and sidewalks.

Greg still enjoys his job.  He has a few funny stories to share every day, but he seems to work a bit more at this job than he did at previous jobs, which I suppose is a good thing.

He has also been going on adventures around the basement/garage/shed here.  It's like living in an antique/pawn shop.  Two nights ago he found an old cradle that he's hoping to get painted before baby arrived and the high chair his grandpa used as a baby.  He's also found various computer parts and cables that I didn't think we'd need so left in Provo and a few other little treasures.

Once I get a few more things set up here, I'll post pictures of my favorite parts of the house.  We do have several interior brick walls, which I love; two huge fireplaces, which just scream talent show; and some very regal looking window boxes that make me feel...rich.

And so that's what we've been up to--in a very large nutshell.