Two sweet snaps

Josie checking herself out in my Grandma Mimi's antique mirror that we just added to our bathroom.
(Thanks Mom & Dad for hanging on to stuff like this.)

Josie's new petticoat courtesy of www.kidsteals.com 

Friendly Neighbors

We have the most beautiful birds in our yard.  The cardinals are our favorites.  They are so bright and brilliant against the backdrop of all this snow. These two guys were in our giant catalpa tree. Josie loves watching them.  We have a feeder right outside the dining room window and we love to peek out the window and watch all the birds in town take a turn.

 (And the squirrels are pretty hysterical too.)

Quick Quote

Tonight Louie and I were reading Josephine bedtime stories. She didn't sleep well last night and was very over-tired so I was trying to get through the story quickly. I asked Lou to stop with the additional commentary a couple of times, but he kept it up (he couldn't see her heavy eyelids from his angle). After my third "Louie Shhhhhh," Josie says to him: "Yea Daddy. SHHHH! You should listen to your mother!"

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Blog Books!

When I recently posted on Facebook how excited I was about ordering the 2010 Blog Book for "Three Schneiders," I was surprised to hear how few people knew that such a thing was possible.

Don't get me wrong- I enjoy blogging. BUT...the main reason I blog is to create a record for our family. The blog is equal parts photo album, baby book and family journal. At the end of every year, we use this great service: www.blog2print.com to convert our blog into book form.  And, personally, they are even more fun in the book form than the blog.

Here are the 2007, 2008 & 2009 books. 2010 is on its way!

 Here's what the inside looks like. I turned to a random page - this is from a trip we took to NYC just before Josie's first birthday. (Wow Molly - haven't things changed a lot since then?!)

Single Digit Sledding

Yesterday, despite having a fever in the morning and complaining of her ears aching, Josie *insisted* that her daddy take her sledding. They played in the front yard for about a half an hour. I heard them coming inside and was so relieved because it was only 7 degrees outside. Oh - silly me. They were actually just coming in to get some sunglasses to help with the glare and make their way through the house and out the backdoor to the car so they could go sledding at the park near our house. Braving those temps was worth it. It's pretty obvious here that they had the time of their lives!
(And I still have no idea how Lou managed to sled and film this video all bundled up as well as he did!)


And - for what it's worth - we've spent a lot of time at Owl's Nest Park since we moved to this neighborhood. This particular hill is right by the little swings.  I can actually remember pushing Josie on the swing and thinking, too bad that hill is so steep and heads straight for the trees, otherwise it would be a pretty good sledding hill.  Suffice it to say, if Mama Schneider would've been with these two at Owl's Nest, ain't no way my baby girl would've headed down this hill.  Good thing her daddy is a little more daring!  And Josephine was beyond proud of herself!

A Snowy Week

Here are just a few shots from what has been a very snowy home-bound week for the Schneiders.

"Mom, Can we read some books?"

Cuddle Time on the Couch

Smiling in the glow of a very snowy day

Two Best Friends & One Big Bare Belly

One of the most memorable parts of my pregnancy with Josephine was my Mother Blessing Ceremony. My friend Kristen hosted many of my close girlfriends at her house and we all celebrated my entrance into motherhood by doing a bellycast and henna tattoos and sharing our stories/hopes/fears with one another. I knew I wouldn't be able to have another BlessingWay this time, due to the bedrest. And I was bummed.

Sooo...enter two very, very special people in my life. Kelly & Suzie.  Oddly enough, within just a few days of each other, both of them offered to come over and help to do the belly cast and have our own little blessing. I was touched when both of them used precious time off of work to come spend the afternoon with me to make this little dream a reality. (And as much as I know they would've gladly done it, I'm glad it wasn't Louie and my Daddy-O who had to make it happen.)

Here's how the belly cast turned out. Just PERFECT!

And here are two of the most wonderful friends a girl could have. I love you both more than you know!

And - just for fun - here are some pics from my BlessingWay with Josie.

My henna tattoo (and very round tummy)...

 Josie's Belly Cast (after being painted)...

And I'll leave you with a some more "Birth Art" courtesy of Josie.  Her explanations of her "masterpieces" are even more special than the artwork itself.  When I prompted "Tell me about this picture Josie," she answered: "This is you with Roly Poly in your big belly. Those are your legs. And there's your vagina."  Excellent Josie Excellent.

Quick Quote

This morning Josie had an hour snow delay from school. She gave me two kisses and headed for the door. Then, she turned around, looked at me and said: "Mommy, I'm going to keep your kisses forever. I'll put them in my heart."  
Seriously, she is the most amazing, perfect little girl and Lou & I are absolutely over-the-moon that we will soon have another amazing, perfect little girl just like her to love!

34 Week Update

We made it to 34 weeks! That's been our goal for the last month, and here we are! It feels good to be a little more out-of-the-woods in terms of the baby's development and safety, but we aren't completely there just yet. (A baby born before 37 weeks is considered premature.)

Our OBGYN was right to caution us away from thinking about bedrest as a long-term thing (it was 10 weeks from the original mandate until my due date). Instead, he advised us to think in small-term chunks.  I can't tell you how much more manageable this makes it feel. So, the first goal was to get to 34 weeks.  That was the long haul, and we survived (although we certainly had our moments).  The next goal is two more weeks. Get to 36!

Once I got to 36 weeks, our new goal will be 38 weeks. But, even if I went into labor today, they would not attempt to postpone the labor. At 36 weeks, I will be allowed to start to phase in some physical activity again. Although, because I want to get to 38 weeks to help delay the possibilities of learning disabilities and increased risks of health problems, I won't exactly be running any marathons so as not to move things along any faster than we'd like to.  It will be nice to be able to help Lou with the preparation for her arrival.  He's been busy sorting, washing, folding, organizing, etc, etc without much help from me.

In other news, while things have been pretty quiet in terms of the pre-term labor signs since the bedrest started, I did start to show more signs on Monday - including contractions. The good news is that when I had my appt yesterday, I am still at 1-2 cm & 50% effaced. There are some other "TMI" things going on that are more along the lines of what you'd see at 38 weeks and not 34, but labor doesn't appear to be imminent just yet.

Thanks for your continued kind words and happy thoughts. This little bun is still cooking! :)

Apparently...

Apparently big pregnant bellies work great as felt story boards for retelling "The Very Hungry Caterpillar..."

And apparently Josie is quite ready for her baby sister  (and has not let this baby doll leave her side since her Grandma bought it for her yesterday)...

"pregnant mommy"

Josie's drawing of me with her in my tummy that she did all by herself and couldn't wait to show me.

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