Since I have nothing better to do

You know, having a 40 week pregnancy really wouldn't be so bad if I hadn't been told that I was dilated and should expect the baby any day A MONTH AGO. Needless to say, I am still here. If I've calculated correctly, between the fifteen children my mother, my sister, and I have, this baby is the second latest according to its due date. Second only to me. I was two days late. Bless my mother's heart. I continue to have debilitating braxton hicks contractions, which are obviously not leading to any progression. My mom's flight arrives on Saturday night, so I called and set an appointment to be induced on Monday morning at 7:30am. My birthday is on Tuesday, and I just couldn't bear the thought of going through torture labor on my birthday. By the way, you know all those tricks to get women to go into labor? Completely bogus. This last Saturday I did every single one that I knew of (except castor oil - that is nasty). That list includes taking a 1 hour, brisk, hilly walk; swimming laps at the pool; and bouncing on an exercise ball for four hours. By the end of the day I could hardly walk. Samuel had to help me into bed, and that was still so awful that I sobbed for a good five minutes just out of sheer pain. Still, no hint of going into labor.

And while I'm at complaining, why is is that you can never nap in peace with children? I try to lay on the couch, and before I know it Seara is sitting on top of me, bouncing on my ribs, and Elijah is head-butting my face, chin, head, etc. Makes a nap so much more peaceful, don't you think? Anyway, since I won't be up to blogging about all of us after this little one is born (which may never happen - I'm pretty sure I'm going to go in to be induced only to find out that I have a large tumor that has heart-like tremors) here is the latest:

Okay, so you know all about me. The only other thing bothering me lately is that people here only know me with short hair. Is that weird to any one else? I mean, they think of me as a short hair person. I don't even think of myself as a short hair person. Weird.

Samuel is busy with school. It is cute to see how excited he is about his classes. I mean kindergarten type cute. He comes home and can't wait to show me his 'projects'. I love it because I want to know all about everything he does! He has three classes this term:

(1) Visual and Verbal Rhetoric (about the relationship between text and images. They write papers in this class.)

(2) Hypermedia (which is basically learning xhtml and css so he can make his own website. He actually is doing just that for his final project.)

(3) Book Design (where they take texts and books and design everything from the front cover to all those blank and boring sheets in the beginning and end of a book. This is his favorite class, mostly because he got to do illustrations for the front cover and section heads inside his latest project.)


Seara can still sleep anywhere, as shown in the only picture I've taken in the last few weeks (above). She is pretty much exactly the same as when she was born, just more verbal. When I ask her to do something she doesn't want to do (which is rare because she is really quite obedient) she has started responding to me, "Dream on!" She also has taken up calling me her "best friend". I'm not sure where it comes from because I've never told her she is mine (sorry, sweetheart, Samuel already took that position), but I can't help but melt when she does it. She is also becoming a typical obsessed with the mirror two year-old. She will spend hours in front of the mirror, brushing her hair or powdering her face with my makeup brush, all the while saying to her self "So pretty! So beautiful!" Actually, is that typical? I assumed it was because ... well, not because I remember napping below a huge mirror in my room, just so I could stare at my "beautiful" self until I fell asleep, or anything like that. Not because I would do that. I just had 'friends' who did. They are typical, right? :)

Elijah is going through one of those really fast grow-up phases. The other day I was doing some stuff on the computer and he brought me this little tea pot and tells me, "Medicine." "Oh, is that medicine, Lije?" "Yeah!" "Okay." Then he grabbed Seara's baby, laid her gently on the couch, and proceeded to administer the medicine. When he was done he picked up the doll, and told her (quite clearly), "Good girl, baby! Hug!" and gave the little doll a hug. I think my kids are a little too familiar with medicine! Ooooh, and last Thursday he said "I love you" to me for the first time. Moments like that make nap moments not seem as torturous. :) He also has started taken up this really annoying habit of doing something naughty, and then making this melt-you face and saying "Nice!" like "Okay, I'm going to be nice now!" The worst part is, it actually works on BOTH Samuel and I. We're such wimps. Ooops!!!