catching up

Wow - i guess i haven't posted in a while, but i am going to fall back on the tired pregnant lady and incredibly busy at work (my usual posting time) lady excuses (not that being a pregnant lady is a tired excuse, but that I have been, indeed, quite tired).
And sore. A kind of odd uncomfortable soreness that never lets me forget that i am "with child." Apparently it's my pelvic girdle - who knew? And as I've said before it wasn't much of a girdle to begin with. Hello! What had i identified as my problem area for weight loss? Well just about where that girdle would be. Natural girdle, my ass.
So, Christmas (it's been that long) was fun and tiring. We traveled and hosted and traveled again. Olivia was a total trooper and she just continues to amaze me. She got loads of presents and some good time in with all her family. It just made me want to cry at how much people love this kid. Ok, she's a toddler and has her toddler moments - I'm not trying to hide that or anything, she can get the whines and whinges on pretty heavily, but overall? A very well-adjusted kid who prefers to laugh!
For new year's eve, Olivia, Alan and I headed to the Arthurs' for a nice dinner and playtime for the kids and adults. Olivia did not want to go to bed and was super clingy - which is abnormal, but once again instead of remembering that clinginess and poor sleep is generally a sign of "unwellness" in the girl, we were frustrated by this "toddler" behaviour. Oh, hello chicken pox (and a big thank you to the day care for letting us know pre-holidays that this disease had hit the school - that was sarcasm... it maybe didn't shine through, so i thought i better note that). Many emails and phone calls warning families we had been in contact with later, and all was well (we had her immunized, so the case was really light and literally we had one day of itchiness and two nights of poor sleep and she was fine. Given the cases i saw at day care, which seemed severe, I'm glad we immunized, even though we went back and forth on it a number of times before deciding).
As the new year began, so did the rush to get the house in order to put the For Sale sign on the lawn and get us the heck out of Dodge - or Upton (what you will). Many thanks to family that came over to lend a hand in painting, toting, fixing etc... House sold and finalized within two weeks and the new house was purchased at the same time (All's well that ends well).
So we move at the end of March, also the time i leave work for my maternity leave and the baby should arrive sometime in April - the 21st is d-day, so it will be no later than that day (doctor's orders...).
Olivia is getting excited about the new house and the new baby - as are Al and I. It's already so noticeably different than when Olivia was weeks away from making her grand entrance. I guess a lot of the second child stuff I'm hearing is true. Kid, if you are listening - and I'm typing so if you are listening you have no idea what I'm saying, so i will whisper it to you later when I'm not surrounded by people - we will take many pictures of you and maybe even print some of them off! And I'm sorry if we seem a liitle more laissez faire with you than we were with your sister, but it's actually a good thing!
I am positive more has happened in the interim between this post and the previous one, but that's the big picture - the one from 50,000 feet, so to speak...as you like it.
Take care,
V