One Crazy Weekend: Sunday

Sunday was just as crazy as Saturday had been, although for very different reasons.

To begin with , Matt had the America's Finest City Half Marathon again.  

He ran it last year of course, and it was pretty miserable (AUGUST much?) but this year he decided to try to complete the Triple Crown half marathon series.  For him this included the Carlsbad Full Marathon in January (you only have to do the Half for the series,) The La Jolla Half in April and then the AFC race again this August.  

Anyway, he did fine, despite not having gotten as may miles in these past few weeks as he would have liked due to that class he'd been taking.  He finished about 10 minutes over his PR time in 1:53 minutes.  His PR for a half is still 1:43:43 which he set at his first ever Half in June of 2012- the San Diego Rock and Roll Half. 

I never blogged about his La Jolla race last spring, but he finished that just behind his PR by about 25 seconds in April.  The key point there being that La Jolla is a TOUGH race.  It is full of some tough rolling hills, and includes an absolutely brutal, steep, several hundred foot climb up the, well, for lack of a better word, cliffs of Torrey Pines.  Without those hills he would have had a new PR for sure, but, well, then it wouldn't have been La Jolla.   I sort of thought he was going to go all out this time around and finally break his record, but, again, his training has been off due to work so it just wasn't meant to be this time.

And also, he really doesn't care.

He's the only person I know who enters every race with a complete and total nonchalant "I know I'll at least finish...." attitude.  He has goals about pacing and timing, but in no way seems to stress about missing them.  

I guess maybe when you consistently run at well under a 9 minute/mile pace, you don't really have to stress yourself out too much about getting better or faster.  (You know, like say... me.)

He also couldn't care less about the medals which sort of makes my head want to explode.  After every race he finishes I have to ask him to dig his medals out of his bag for a picture.  Me?  I frickin' wear those finisher's medals as long as I possibly can without seeming, well.... insane.  

I'm not even kidding, I just looked up his race photos.  There are several of him in the finish line area.  Everyone around him in the pictures is proudly wearing and admiring and flashing their medals.  Matt?  He looks like he doesn't even have them because he put them in his pocket.  

Anyway, I picked Matt after he was done and then I made him dig them out for my camera.
The AFC medal is on the left and the Triple Crown one is on the right.  

I'm still at a complete loss as to why he'd even go for the Triple Crown if he doesn't want the extra medal, but I guess, like any running event or series for him, it's just something to do.

In other news, since we'd already missed church for his race, we decided to head down to the beach for the rest of the day.  And before you ask yes, under normal circumstances I am perfectly capable of getting the kids to Sunday school or babysitting without him.  But there was no babysitting because it was the Parish Picnic later in the afternoon and I didn't feel like fighting with A.J. during mass.

Also, we haven't been able to get back down to the beach practically ALL summer and I really really wanted to go again.

It was cool, gray, (typical San Diego) overcast morning and it was absolutely lovely.  The water was flatter and calmer and clearer than I have ever seen it here and even as it's been a relatively cool summer, the water was "warm" enough to actually get in a little bit.

I saw this on Pinterest.  You bring a shower curtain or a plastic tarp and you line a hole in the sand with it and then fill it with water.  Then the little ones can play in the water without fear of the waves and having to run back and forth for more water 5 million times.  It was awesome.

Matt spent a good part of the morning doing this.  It was as if he'd gotten up at a
quarter til 4 that morning and already run over 13 miles or something!

Somewhere around noon the sun started to emerge from behind the clouds and we all headed down to the water.  Matt and I both basically got all the way in one at a time although only briefly.  The waves were small but the water was still very cold and every time a bigger one would come at me I'd get afraid that it would knock me off my balance and I'd go all the way under.  I really didn't want to go all the way under.  Because really, it was still (and is always) SO COLD.

As it was the bigger wave were trying awfully hard to steal the bottoms of my bathing suit.

So mostly the kids just played in the surf.  Peter started it.  He would go running back up the beach away from the white foam whenever it came his way.  The tide was heading out when we got there so for most of our day he could play safely in ankle deep water between the surges of surf.  A.J. took longer to warm up to it and stayed up in the safety of the warm sand longer.  Eventually Peter made friends with some random little girl about his size and then A.J. found another girl around her age to run around with.  It was cute actually.  

So Matt and I took turns chasing them when they'd run up or down the beach a bit too far while the other one of us stood in the waves and cooled off, at the same time making sure the kids didn't get themselves in trouble by getting out too deep.  

We were both just really really happy that for once they showed any interest in playing in the water.  That's big progress.  I mean, they're probably not going to be climbing on to boogy boards or attempting surf lessons any time soon (certainly not until they get some real swimming skills down) but it was still good to see them appreciating all the fun that can be had in the ocean surf.  

Or the "Sea Shore" as Peter kept insisting on calling it.

When we eventually decided to leave because A.J. was starting to get really sleepy Peter, naturally, didn't want to go.  When he finally got it that it was time I told him to say goodbye to his friend of the day.  He, being a typical boy, just turned to her and gave a half hearted little wave over his shoulder and said "bye."  I began to lead him back up the beach to gather our stuff and as I looked back the little girl looked as if she might cry.  

I don't know exactly what happened next, but a few moments later, she came running up from behind us. She tapped Peter on the shoulder and threw her arms out to him as he turned to look at her.  He looked baffled and so I explained that she wanted to give him a hug and say goodbye probably.  And so then they did.

It was so stinking sweet and so absolutely adorable my knees almost buckled underneath me.  

At only 4 years old and only having spent a couple of hours together, it seems my son had his first little summer romance at the beach.

Sing with me now... 

"Summer Lovin', Had me a Blast,

 Summer Lovin', Happened so fast....!"

:)

Also, while we were there, and since I was baring my big elephant seal body for all to see anyway, I had Matt take a couple more BIG ASS belly shots.  

These would be me with baby number 3 at 37 weeks plus 2 days.  

AKA... OMG she's gonna blow, possibly at any moment now.... run, run for your lives people!!!

YIKES.

There are so many things I want to say about that second one but if I do you will only look at the horror of it all longer so let me just mostly move on and say only that the worst part is I was making a really big conscious effort NOT to arch my back and let it stick out any further than usual and yet LOOK HOW FAR OUT IT GOES?!?!!

If you're wondering, I know that I am very very lucky in that we have a Cesarian scheduled and I know that at the very worst, this pregnancy is only going to go on for 15 more days.  

I know that with basically just 2 weeks to go I should just suck it up and settle down and try to enjoy this last bit.

Except.... seriously?

I literally look like my belly can not possibly get any bigger.  I live in fear that the scars from my previous 2 children might just tear open at any moment.  

So naturally, I spent the day typing "make this baby come out now!" into Google.

If you want some amusing results, I'd highly recommend that web search.  A few of my favorites can be found HERE, HERE, and last but certainly not least, HERE.  

Also, if you want a real, no holds barred glimpse into what it actually feels like to be in the final weeks of pregnancy (I mean, not the typical fluffy b.s. people with actually manners will try to sell you) well, these are just classic.  

Anyway, it was great to have had such an amazing day at the beach.  We hated to leave but we were all getting too much sun and were getting tired.

Especially A.J. who wanted so so badly to snuggle up in the car and sleep on the way home.  Except she didn't have her desired bunny, her blanket or her pacy.  So instead she made the most of of her stuffed animal's tale and a towel.  

She's sucking on the tail.  Which explains why she still even has a pacy, becuase any time I've tried to break her of it, she just finds something even worse to shove in her mouth.
Also, I snapped this photo as we went over the Coronado bridge and there
is a pretty spectacular view of San Diego bay and downtown happening out the window over her shoulder.

One Crazy Weekend: Saturday

This weekend was just... nuts.

Not only did I have plans to go out on Friday night, but our weekend was basically packed as well.  So packed actually, that for everyone's sanity we had to pick and choose which activities to actually do.  

I'm terrible at picking and choosing.  I always think we can fit everything in, but when you're 38 weeks pregnant, perhaps it can be better to simplify things where ever possible and then just hope everyone else when understand.  

So to begin with, Peter had a T Ball game at 9 am.  I took him by myself so that Matt could take A.J. to her 9:45 dance class make up.  (Her regular Wednesday morning class had been cancelled last week.)

Stealing home (again)

After the game I had all the kids gather around the banner with the coaches.  The idea was that I would get a good team photo to use on their coaches gifts for the end of the season.

Um... this is my best shot.

I particularly enjoy that one of the boys isn't even in the picture and that another child is inexplicably wearing swimming goggles.  (He wore them through out the whole game actually.)

Boys are so weird.

Anyway, so while we did that, Matt was at dance with A.J.  It was interesting because normally she's in an age 3-4 ballet/tap class.  For the make up the director suggested she try the age 4-6 jazz/tap class.

I don't know how much about the dance is actually all that different.  I mean, its still a lot of general introduction to dancing movements until the kids are all 6 or 7.  But she wanted to so how A.J. was able to keep up with the older girls and how she did following directions.  

Apparently she did fine.

Matt said he spent the whole class trying to gossip and pick fights with the other moms.  He wants to be a "Dance Mom" so so bad.  Lol.  

When everybody got home we all changed for a 12:00 birthday party.   There was actually another one that morning from 10-12 that we were sad to miss, but there was just no way to squeeze it in with Peter's game across town running until 10 and A.J.'s class not ending until 10:30.  

It's a shame because it was at one of the places with lots of bounce houses and things.  The kids would have had a blast.

The had plenty of fun at the other party though, so that was good.

Actually, all I can say for sure is that A.J. had fun.  I mostly sat in the kitchen and caught up with the other Mom's from school.  Peter disappeared with his friends and I barely saw him.  Matt kept running off to check on him while I ate way too much and kept right on chatting with my friends.  

Both kids did swing by me in the kitchen to eat briefly and then Peter flitted off again and A.J. went outside to play mostly with her Dad and the balloon animals, the corn hole game and the bubbles.

She also had her hand in the treasure box SEVERAL times.  

Which is where she got this eye patch.  "Arrrrrrr!"  

Finally everyone gathered for cake.  We sang, the birthday boy blew out the candles and then all the kids turned themselves slightly blue from the icing.

After the fun of the party, Peter suffered a massive meltdown when it was time to leave.  

So pretty much the rest of Saturday was spent letting him sleep it off (which he only did for about 30 minutes) and then just chilling out until bedtime.  

Sunday was going to be another busy day!  :)

Painting

On Thursday while I was at the doctor and my kids were in the little hourly childcare center, A.J. made a little painting.  It was no big deal really until Peter figured out that it was time to go and he hadn't had his turn yet.  I literally had to drag him out of there while he wailed "I want to paaaaaaaiiiiiiintttttt!"

Ugh.

I told him we had paint stuff at home and assumed he'd forget about it.

Silly, silly Mommy.  

Of course he did not.

And so on Friday, before lunch, I got out some painting stuff and let the kids go crazy for awhile.  

A.J. made a muddy brown blob and almost tore through the paper with the excess moisture.

Peter made a bunch of long swirling lines and declared them to be a bunch of roads.
No surprise there, he brought home plenty of roads and race tracks from preschool last year.
Boys will be boys I suppose.

That evening, as it turned out, one of my neighbor/friends had put together a Girl's Night Out for a bunch of us Mom's from the neighborhood.  (YEAH!)  And it was another one of the wine and painting classes.  I think I was the only one of our group who had already done one.  But whatever, I obviously didn't care much about the getting drunk part (unlike nearly everyone else in the room) and the while I wanted my painting to look nice hopefully, I'd gone for the friendship and night away from my kids (love them, but, well, you know) and in the end, I think my non-stress attitude did both me and my art work quite a bit of good.

Me and my friend Sarah.

Our whole group minus Kristin who was taking the picture.

Since I'd actually taken the opportunity to try to look presentable I felt it was as good a time as
any to get a good preggo belly picture.  Especially since there are only just over 2 weeks to go.
And I'm dressed like a watermelon.  

Anyway, he is the painting we were working on.

To be honest, I didn't love it.  I mean, I didn't pick the class so it was no big deal, but I really have no need of a yellow sky/green ocean picture.  Especially since I can never ever think of a time or a place where I've seen the ocean look green like that.  Lakes and rivers go green with algae.  The ocean?  Not in my experience.  And to be honest, I don't want to think about what would have to get into the water to turn it that color.  Ew.

But happily, when the teacher got started she said she had loads of folks complain about the green water and promised we could make the water (and the sky) any color we wanted.  She even tried to help us figure out how to mix the colors.

There's a couple of my neighbors working away.  That's the outing organizer, Kristin, drinking and
talking to them from behind their canvases.  I swear she drank and talked and wandered around the whole time and
I never saw her actually at her canvas, but yet, when we were all finished, hers was one of the best ones.

There's probably a lesson in there about not fussing too much over your art.

Anyway, since I didn't really care all that much, mine actually turned out pretty good.  The instructor actually gave me several compliments.  That was weird.

This is as everyone was finishing up.  Mine if the one in the front right bottom corner.

Here I am with my finished piece.
It came out, very.... stormy looking I think. 

Here it is up close.  

I know, I know.  Awesome right?

Or you know.... whatever.  :)

A lot of Really Random Photos and Stuff

I know a lot of people think I take too many pictures.  But also, I am pretty sure I don't care.  I have the cameras and the camera on my phone so WHY NOT capture as many moments to remember as I can?  

Also, maybe I'm just over compensating for the severe lack of pictures I have of myself as I child.  I mean, there are loads out there probably, just not many I have access too.  I think I have only like, 3 or 4 photos of myself under the age of 5 and that makes me really sad.  Some days my kids are going to want to know if they looked like me and I'm not really going to be able to tell them.  

I also always think, like... what if  I need a recent photo of my kid?  I mean, the most recent "portrait" I have of A.J. that is any good was taken almost a year ago and yet that is the one I am sending in for her teacher at preschool to use this year.  I take pictures ALL the time and I can barely come up with one of her that's good for much of anything.  

Or even worse, what if something happened and I didn't have the opportunity to take any more pictures of them?  That's terrible and morose and depressing, but that is also the way my brain works because I know people who are living with that reality.  I want as many pictures of them as I can get... to remember as much as possible.  They change so much, so fast, every single day.  They also do some funny or memorable things every single day.  My memory just can't keep up but thankfully that is why we now have the internet and a multi-taro bite external hard drive!  :)

So I take too many pictures.  

Sue me.

And then go ahead and giggle along with me at this lot of random (and mostly blurry) ones that I just pulled off of my phone and camera card.  

I was pretty impressed she got the blocks to stack that high.  They're really unstable.
And they crashed down just moments after I took this.  

* * * * *

One of Peter's favorite ways to annoy his Dad and I is to get our phones and take dozens of self portraits.  Both our phones lock, but you can get to the camera without knowing the code (I guess to allow easier access to the camera feature) and Peter has figured it out.  He then turns the camera around so he can see himself and takes zillions of pictures like this for us to find later.

Lovely right?

But then again, sometimes I do it to.  

I mean, I'm not one to waste my time trying to find a flattering angle to shoot myself (especially these days) but every now and again, when one of the kids is being particularly cuddly, I can't help but snap a few of us together.

* * * * * 

It's the time of year when I is generally hot and humid and dusty and gross around here.  And it never ever rains.  And this makes everybody's cars really really dirty and gross.  So eventually we just have to run the van through the automatic car wash at the gas station just so we could see out the windows again.

Trouble is, A.J. is TERRIFIED of the car wash.

The first time I went through with the kids was shortly after Christmas about 18 months ago when Matt was still deployed.  I thought the kids would think it was fun, but I was wrong.  They both shrieked in terror until the thing was over.  

I avoided the car wash for a long time after that.  

In the mean time, Peter mostly got over his fear.  

A.J. did not.

It seems as if every time we go through she is only more petrified than ever.

See?

And, I know this is terrible and mean of me... but this is also the most hilarious picture I've ever taken.

OMG the look on her little face.  I literally cracks up every time I look at this.

My poor girly.


* * * * *

In other news, she loves the dogs.  And with close supervision, they even tolerate her as well.

A.J. is just as obsessed with Brutus's big black licorice looking nose as I am....
also, please don't ask me why it makes me think of black licorice.  It just does
and I don't even like black licorice.

* * * * * 

The steady stream of weird and semi exotic animals in my back yard is continuing.

Not sure if I ever posted about the hawk.  My friend that knows about birds told me it was a red tail. That was a couple months back.  It was sitting on my fence behind the kids swing set being attacked by the other small bids.   When it had enough of the little birds it took refuge on my hill behind the retaining wall for a little while.  I think it was a baby or something, but it was really odd to see it on the ground.  Normally we only see them way up in the sky.  Finally it flew away when Molly went out.

So that was weird.

But then this past weekend when Matt was out mowing the lawn he noticed this barn owl up in one of our trees.

My reaction wavers between fascination and fear.

Owls are just... a wee bit scary.

Anyway she (I decided she was a she) stayed with us for a couple of days.  Matt says it's a good thing because she'd likely eat any rodents (that the dogs hadn't already killed up on the hill) or snakes.  

I would tend to agree because the other day my neighbor about 4 doors down had this picture to share, which she took down the street, about 4 more houses away:

Um, pardon me for over reacting maybe but....

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

I mean seriously.  I don't know if you can tell, but those are two large rattlesnakes.  You can tell they are large because they are on the sidewalk, and well, look how big they are.  And okay so they're not exactly enormous but they are WAY WAY bigger than the one we had in our yard. They are probably 8 doors down the street from my house and just around the corner, in BROAD DAYLIGHT.  Some of the local hoodlums older neighborhood boys spotted them.  The fire department was called and came out and killed one of them with a shovel but by then the other had gone away.  WHICH MEANS IT IS STILL POTENTIALLY OUT THERE somewhere.

Also, the firemen said from the picture they were probably mating.

So did they kill the male or the female because if the female finished getting mated on and now she has gone off, what is she going to do next except for off and birth a bunch more dangerous venomous snakes into my neighborhood?!?!

Except I looked on the internet and a lot of what I could  find seemed to indicate that these are 2 males competing to mate.  Maybe.  I'm not sure because why would they be competing with there was no female around?

So I don't know.

Does anybody know?

Also, I jut read that rattlesnakes bare LIVE young.  Eeeeeew.  I mean, I could have gone my whole life without knowing that (eggs are much less freaky) AND HOLY SH*T that picture I just accidentally looked at was DIS-GUST-ING.

And also may I just say that I surely do hope my little hawk friend and our lovely Owl Princess (whom Peter named Who-Knight) are still around some place near by to protect our yard.

I haven't seen Who-Knight in about 3 or 4 days though.  Last I heard there were some cute, soft little "who-whoing" noises being passed across the ridge behind my house at the top of our hill, but we haven't seen any more owls nor hawks (on the ground) to protect us.

Personally, no matter how much both the hawk and owl sort of freaked me out, I hope there is a whole freaking gaggle of them back there and they can take care of the snakes.


* * * * *

I don't remember what prompted this, but here is Matt doing push ups with the kids.

Peter needs a shift kick in the fanny maybe to remind him to get his butt down.
A.J. mostly just impressed me (again) with her strength and ability to copy her Dad's movement.

We skipped her napped that day and by dinner time she was just done.

She'll insist most days that she's not sleepy at nap time, but if she doesn't nap, she crashes out
on her own.

* * * * *

Peter is so cute.  And I know I'm the mom and I had a strong hand in making him so I shouldn't say such things but I just can't help it.  I mean... seriously?

He melts my heart.  

And also, he looks just like his Dad except minus the perpetual 5 o'clock shadow and with blond hair.   

Also, for the millionth time, stop asking me how I get his hair to do that in the front.  It's a cowlick.  I have no control over it.  I'm not even kidding when I say his teeny wisps of newborn baby hair were swooping back like that when he was born.   If you want his "bangs" to fall in his face then you have to let them get pretty long, and even then they are going to sort of curl forward rather than fall straight.  

I'm always amused when Matt takes him to get a hair cut.  The barber will always pour tons of gel into his hair and attempt to spike it or whatever, but always, after about 2 hours or so, no matter how much gel they used, his natural hair pattern will win out and it will be swooping back and to the left again, with the little part on the right.

It's super cute, if you ask me.  And nice because I basically don't need to comb his hair.  

Probably going to cause some real drama when he's older and starts wanting his hair to do anything different though....

* * * * *

The other night, right before dinner, A.J took her toy stethoscope out and did this:

I'm not sure what she heard but if I'm patient, I can usually find the baby's heartbeat..

* * * * *

This week, I took both the kids in for what will become their semi-annual trips to the dentist.

A.J. did HORRIBLE and didn't want to cooperate at all.  That figures because I'm pretty sure she has horrible teeth with soft enamel like me.  The dentist spotted at least one cavity and referred us to a pediatric dentist for more work.  Chances seem good she's going to have to be put under anesthesia to get any sort of proper cleaning or that filling.  Meanwhile, she noticed that the little piece of tissue that attaches her upper lip to her gums is sort of overgrown and is causing the space between her front teeth.  

Basically, if you peel back your top lip there should be this stringy bit that extends right in the middle down onto the top of your gums.  But hers comes all the way down her gums between her front two teeth.  It's likely going to need to be cut away at some point if we ever want her gap to go away.  

And we sort of need the gap to go away because it's got her two middle teeth stacked against the next teeth on either side.  And where ever teeth are stacked you get excellent spaces for food to get trapped and cause decay.  Awesome.  

The appointment with the children's specialist in another week or so.

But how nice that of all the things I could have passed on to her, she decided to inherit my absolutely terrible, rotten teeth.

And boy can't I wait to hear what this is all supposed to cost!  :)

Peter on the other hand was a pro.

They got most of his x-rays and completed a thorough exam and cleaning no problem.

The dentist asked me to take him to a specialty office as well for one of those 180 degree dental x-rays to get a complete picture since they couldn't get his molars, but I am holding off on that for now.  He's going to go back to her in 6 months and since his teeth looked perfectly healthy (minus the missing one and ignoring his bite issues) I am going to concentrate on his sister's mess for the time being.

* * * * *

I've often joked about how A.J. has Farrah Fawcett hair, what with the all the blond and the soft loose curls and the perfect side bang flip.

Then again, I've often gasped in horror at the state of that child's hair, particularly first thing in the morning when it seems the rats have attacked her and made their nests.

But recently, as it's gotten longer, it's been getting less tangled actually and sometimes she wake up looking fabulous and very much as if she's just come from her stylist.

Like for instance, this past Wednesday.

It's ridiculous really.

I do try not to make a big deal out of her looks.  She's cute and beautiful of course not only because she's mine but because all children are cute and beautiful in their own way.

But sometimes the attention she gets for her hair (usually when I haven't even tried to do anything with it) seems to go straight to her over-sized head.

And she's turning into a bit of a diva because of it.

Notice the way she posed when I asked her if I could take her picture.

Heaven help us all....

* * * * *

Every now and again, my children randomly play together on purpose, like they like each other.

Pretty much, I get weirded out every single time.

And then I usually take a picture to prove to myself that it even happened.  

* * * * * 

Yesterday I finally had another prenatal appointment.  The fact that I am 37 weeks along and I hadn't seen a doctor for just over month annoyed me to no end.  Everything in the military health care system will tell you that you get equal or better care than you would if you were in the civilian medical world but in this case I'm going to cry FOUL.

In Monterey, when seeing a civilian doctor, I started getting check ups every 2 weeks from 32 weeks on.  At 36 weeks this stepped up to weekly appointments.

However, in the military system, I get seen just over every 5 weeks, and for "extra good measure" they've squeezed me in again at 39 weeks.  

Grrrr.....

How nice of them to squeeze me in for a quick check before the long Labor Day weekend as I am then to report to the hospital bright and early for an 8 am c-section Tuesday after the long weekend. 

Anyway, yesterday I weighed in at 171.4 pounds.  (MOOOO!)  That puts me up just about 31-32 pounds for the pregnancy.  (Ew.)  My blood pressure was 114/63 which seems high to me, but is actually pretty good considering how crappy I'd felt all morning (vomitting, etc) and the massive anxiety attack I was fighting off.  When she measured my stomach confirmed that the baby has dropped as I only measured about 35 centimeters.

When she checked me she said I am about 75% effaced but only dilated between 1 and 2 cms.  On the one hand I find that a little dissappointing since I've been having SO many contractions and I am SO ready for this baby to come out, BUT, that is more progress than I made in either of my previous pregnancies ever.

If you remember, Peter was breech and we found out when he was born that he was tied up in the umbilical cord up at the top of my uterus.  Because of this he never really dropped and basically hung out way up under the right side of my rib cage until the doctors pried him out of there.

A.J. sure tried like the dickens to drop but her head was just too big to go anywhere.  When she was born her head was a bit dented in where it was pushing down but was just to big to really go anywhere.  

So, you know, at least I'm making progress.

And while I'll be doing everything I can think of to help things move along for the next couple of weeks, I can rest easy knowing that at the very longest, I have just over 2 weeks left.

That's both super exciting and abso-freaking-lutely terrifying.  :)

All that to lead me up to this last picture of my pooped out daughter:

My appointment was at 8:30 am yesterday which meant I had to drag the kids out of bed and basically be out of the house right after 7 in order to drive down there and find parking and drop them in childcare in time.

After it was all said and done and we got back home, A.J. was just.... tired.

And being that she's perfecting her diva attitude of late, when she get's tired it can get, *gasp* dramatic.  Ha.