Workin' at Grandpa and Grandma's house

 Mowing the grass

 sweeping the floor (in Grandma's gardening shoes)

opps

Maternity Leave

Yesterday started my maternity leave.

First, Tawni and I walked the Moreno Valley mall for about an hour and a half. About 11, we stopped walking and let Sammy play in their play center and made faces with Nate. He loved the "equipment," especially this blue car.

Say "CHEESE"

We ate lunch at Chick-fil-A and chatted at home while the boys napped. After leaving Tawni's I went to Target pick up a few things for the hospital stay (snacks for Dave really).

Cooked dinner (shocker, I know) and organized some more of the house. I had a list for Dave to do when he got home, which he didn't really enjoy. We went back to Target for a few things I forgot and curtain rods for the dining room giant sliding door.

This morning I was up at 5:45 (sleeping in would be TOO nice) and started the day slowly. I finished a bit of the organizing, finished some laundry, did the dishes, but mainly prepared for the best thing since sliced bread--the cleaning lady!

I decided months ago that I would hire a company to come and clean my house before Andrew's arrival. I did some research, got some price quotes, and ended up hiring MaidPro. The lovely cleaning lady came at 9 am this morning.While she cleaned my house, I walked Reese around the neighborhood. I must have been a sight to see because no less than five of my elderly (over 80) neighbors came out and talked to me on my walk. They all know Dave and know what I look like, but I don't think I've ever talked to any of them before. It was nice. After my walk, I finished handwriting the envelopes for the baby announcements and messed around on the internet.

At 11 (while she is still cleaning), I made my way to the two childcare centers on my "top" list. Mother's intuition of not, I had an immediate feeling of relief/happiness when I went to the second place. Andrew can be here and I can feel 100% good about it. The Growing Place is about 1/4th of a mile from our house and will be Andrew's growing place in August when I have to go back to work. I love that they have structured play for infants and daily "outside" time (my two favorite parts of the program there versus the other places).

It's pricey, but I think it will be worth it.

After returning home from my childcare tours (while she is still cleaning), Dave came home for lunch with Bakers. Bakers is a bit of a pregnancy craving--I rarely ate it before and now want it all the time. We shared lunch and I told him about the childcare centers.

MaidPro finished about 45 minutes ago and my house sparkles! It's exciting.

I have two hours to kill before my doctor's appointment at 4, I'm going to try to take a nap... Melissa and Des are coming for dinner (maybe I should plan something to eat).

Tomorrow's agenda: pedicures and manicures in the morning with Melissa and Des and maybe a movie?

Cleaning

I think I've found my least favorite activity that involves having a house rather than an apartment.

Cleaning!

I'm not sure I ever really learned to clean. We did our chores when we were little and always had to have our rooms tidy if we wanted to go anywhere, but we didn't have to clean, clean. In my apartment I didn't have much space to keep clean, but it never felt spotless. Part of the joy of this house is that there is always dust. I'm rarely home during the week so I've done a pretty good job of ignoring it. My parents have been here and we've managed to tidy a bunch of stuff. My dad did a lot of little projects while I cleaned the kitchen counters and floor. Today I've been working on the living room.

Hopefully by the time the girls come over on Tuesday it won't be dirty again!