Noellle counts Sissy's fingers

Back by popular demand...more Sydney pics.

Happy and content until...


Noelle displayed her vocal skills.

Sydney Rae Albertsen!

Here's Rachel happy that she didn't have to drink caster oil in order to get admitted into the hospital.

Can't tell who looks more like they just came out of the womb. It was a long night.

Very proud and excited big sister!

Anticipointment

The act of anticipation only to be disappointed.

That is the highlight of our most recent days. Note to self, when they say induction and you don't have high blood pressure or any other medical problems, you get to wait until the hospital has a bed for you. Apparently everyone else is having babies and we're not. So 36 hours of twiddling our thumbs and we'll just keep our fingers crossed that the hospital calls.

I am going to try not to be to hostile once I get there.

Its Always Fun When Grandma Comes

Grandma Nay came in May to help us pack up our house. While she was here she let Noelle put on her make-up, all by herself. Noelle thought it was great, however when it came time to show me what she had done, she knew that I wouldn't be as excited about it as Grandma was. I could tell she thought she was in trouble.

It took a lot to convince her that she was indeed not in trouble and that she should smile for a picture.

We later washed the mask portion off and just let her have the eyes done. I really hope she doesn't think she can play in my make-up the way she can play in Grandma's. (Note to Mom: If she does indeed get into my make-up, you're dead meat.)

The Guest Room

Really the only room that makes sense and looks cute. Come visit!

P.S. Look how soft my carpet looks in this picture. I love our new carpet.

Lunch Date with Noelle

Today Noelle and I ventured out for a not so fun and exciting eye appointment (you know, one of those last minute things you do before you have a baby?) I promised her that we could get a cookie afterwards at Paradise Bakery. Of course she had to go pee and making her hold it isn't as easy as we adults all think it should be. So yes after being so, so good (which she can also be so, so terrible) we headed over. Since it was lunch time I figured we might as well eat a sandwich while we at it and make a date of the day.
As usual the sandwich was good, we made it to the bathroom fine, cookies are always delightful, etc. Then all of a sudden I had that feeling, the one where you feel like you have tunnel vision (which I didn't really because the eye doc would have told me if I did) but that feeling when you look at your one and only child and think, this is not going to last much longer. Not even a week in our case. Then I thought this might be the last time we actually sit down and have a nice little lunch, eating cookies and not needing to talk, but just watch her be. She's big. She says funny things and she has a memory like Horton. I wish I could have preserved that moment. I was tempted to get the camera out of my purse and take her picture with sugar cookie all over her face. She was so content. Little does she know she's about to have her world rocked. I sure hope she loves her sister.

Car Seats

Nine or less days and "baby sister" can now officially come, because we now have a car seat in which to bring her home in.

I agonized over this stupid thing for so long that it seems ridiculous to me. I loved the one we had for Noelle and it served its purpose well. However thanks to one of the major airlines for hurling it through the air and snapping the handle in two. We compensated by duct taping it back together for the remaining months of use and then stored it wondering what we should do with our almost perfect car seat. When we finally moved I told Boo it was time to stop storing junk and we parted ways with our beloved car seat.

Fast forward three years and that car seat has been modified. Whaaa! No! Although it still has a decent consumer rating, it had been changed just enough to make it a little inefficient. Or if we found one that operated the same it came in a grotesquely pink motif or something with small animal type characters, neither of which I could imagine using. I must have looked at car seats for more than a life's worth of time, going back and forth, reading user ratings and even making Boo run around town looking for a store that carried enough car seats that we could compare them to each other. He became apathetic towards the whole thing and made me decide, since ultimately I'd be the one hauling it to and from the car. Oh the agony.

So we ended up with beauty. I hope I still love it in five months. I hope "baby sister" loves it too. I know Consumer Reports gives it two thumbs way up.

The Ten Day Count Down

This weekend has been loaded with all things nesting. Before Noelle was born I didn't do the cleaning kind of nesting. I quilted for friends mostly and then before I knew it she was here. This time however I feel I need to scrub the filth off of everything and have become much more persnickety with the clothes and the whole set up. It could also be that for once in our lives we are permanent. There is no looking to the future of getting out of a rental, or possibilities of having our lease be up and being asked to move. We're here for a long period of time. That being said I've been trying to make things a little more organized, because we can't live in chaos forever.
So for the next ten or less days we'll continue to get settled and be ready for "baby sister."

And for all of you just itching to come and see how hot it really is in Arizona during the summer, we now have a guest room ready for all things visitors. Boo says it looks like something from Palm Beach.

Life in the Slow Lane

I'd love to post something witty and exciting, but I've resorted to being a hermit on all days except Tuesdays. That is one day I'm committed to getting out. Its the day of the weekly doctor's appointment which we then tack ourselves on to playgroup in our old neighborhood since we're in that general area already. The rest of the week I sit around looking at things on the floor that will take too much energy to bend over and pick up. Noelle has started imitating the way I do this, which looks like she's getting down into a tackle position for football, legs spread apart, one arm down for balance. I'm sure its looks ridiculous to a three year old.
I'm also sure life feels like we're just moving along slowly because I sit around twiddling my thumbs waiting to get this baby out. It really not reassuring when the doctor says you could have this baby today or you might go until your induction date. Personally, I'm totally pulling for sooner rather than later. Life also might be in slow gear because its like we're living in the real life version of the movie Ground Hog's Day. The same thing over and over again. Starts with cereal, watch a few movies throughout the day, ends with Noelle in panties and tap shoes, clicking around on the tile in our house.
Maybe tomorrow I'll break up the monotony and be glad to have easy going days.

We Moved...

Well we sort of moved, into the garage. We officially live on the other side of town. But with a few things to do before we could put our furniture in we had to put EVERYTHING in the garage. But now we're slowly filtering through and trying to get it all put in its new place. I'd post some pictures but we don't have the office up and running and we're currently using our ghetto laptop that has limited abilities. Internet being one of its only.

Luckily reinforcement is coming in about an hour and will be here all weekend She'll do a good job making things look cute and making sense of the space I have. Plus, she can lift boxes and I can't.

If you didn't get our new address in an email and want it let me know. We'll get it to you without sharing with the entire world wide web.

Moving side note: The new post office wasn't as bad as it could have been today. Pros: it wasn't over run with old people shuffling through the parking lot and the workers were generally nice for a change. Cons: The customers, there were some interesting folks in there.