playing the waiting game

We totally got thrown for a loop two weeks ago when I went into my OB for an appointment at 36 weeks and she said I was already four centimeters dilated and 50% effaced. Now, I don't know much about giving birth (other than having done it once), but I know that 10 centimeters is the golden number for HAVING THAT BABY, so 4 cm already sounded pretty far along! The doctor was very non-committal about whether he was going to come early, but I of course panicked and spent the whole week being worried that I was going into labor or that the baby was going to just fall out of me before I could get to the hospital. But here we are, two weeks later, and no baby has come yet! So we're still just waiting, but I'm not so worried any more. It'll work out, however it happens, and I'm just glad that now we've made it to 38 weeks and that we've gotten a lot more done this past week than I thought we'd be able to finish before the baby came. Now I just need to make it to my class tomorrow night, and then I will really feel like I've made it. Let's make it to April!

One of the major things that we finally accomplished this week was... buying a car! We've only had one car ever since we left North Carolina (Tommy's good old trusty '98 Corolla died before we left) and I've been shuttling Tommy to work ever since, but it just doesn't seem like that's going to keep working with a newborn. We've been talking about how we need to do this--and trying to do it--for months now, but it just never worked out. We were so stressed about it, and couldn't find anything that worked for us, and felt like we needed to find the cheapest clunker car we could find, since we'd probably only need it for two or three years before upgrading to a larger car, so spending more than a few thousand on it felt wasteful. 

And after months of being stressed out by looking and talking about finding a car, we had a thought: why not buy a minivan now? It's totally not necessary, but we need a second car now, and we obviously hate car shopping so much that we're just punishing ourselves by knowing we have to do this process twice (now, and again in a few years). Immediately, once we started talking about it, we both just felt so, so much better about this whole thing and knew it was the right decision for us right now. So we spent a few days test driving and looking at some used minivans close to us. Dane was a champion minivan tester with us--we totally wore him out:

And we ended up finding "the one!" A nice blue Honda Odyssey with low mileage and a decent price tag.

I am thrilled about the convenience of it, and so happy that we found something--anything--that will work for us right now--and so soon before the baby comes too! It's a little earlier than we thought we needed it, but it will hopefully last us for a lot of years and we'll eventually be fitting into it a lot better than we do now (it feels silly for me to drive around with just Dane in the backseat). It will make road trips so much easier for us, with so much more storage space, and since we're tentatively planning on driving to Utah and California this summer, this will be a godsend for us come July.

We were joking about how we now have a house and a minivan and (almost) two kids--it's like I'm 36 instead of 26! My mom and sister were teasing us that we're doing just the total typical BYU grad thing, which I'd sworn in my teenage wisdom that I would never do--married super young, staying at home, having babies fast, living in suburbia (and driving a minivan!). And it's true! It sounds so boring and typical when you say it all like that, but it feels so much more important and interesting when it's your life and you're doing it yourself. Everything is so much more important and meaningful than it may appear when you're working with your money and your body and your family. And even though I wanted to be more adventurous and different when I was my wild teenage self (ha), I can't imagine a life I'd fit better in, or one that would be happier or better in. It may be a stereotypical life, but it's mine, and I'm glad I'm living it!

Keep Austin Weird

We finally got to accompany Tommy on a business trip! He had to go to Austin last week to go to South by Southwest, which is a famous music and film festival but it also apparently has a techie side to it, which is the part that Tommy was going to. When we found out that Tommy had to go, we decided it would be worth it to have Dane and I drive down with Tommy for a fun weekend trip and so that Dane and I weren't stuck at home by ourselves like we've been so much while Tommy's been gone lately. We drove down on Friday afternoon and came back Monday afternoon--and had a great time. It was really fun walking around and doing a little sightseeing. Tommy was going to the conference most of the time, so Dane and I would drop him off and then go do our own thing, usually stuff that two-year-olds are into.

Austin is a funny city--it was so different than Dallas, which seems so much more fancy and put-together. You could just tell the different crowd that goes around downtown Austin--and I loved it. Especially this week, with SxSW going on, there were tons and tons and TONS of live music events going on and a whole sort of artsy crowd wandering around. Austin's motto is "Keep Austin Weird"--so we definitely bought a few t-shirts saying that to send to Uncle Austin and one for Dane to wear to represent. 

Probably my favorite thing we did was the first night--we met up with Tommy's uncle Doug who lives in Austin and had dinner together. Doug brought us to Central Market, a Whole Foods-y type place that has a cafe attached to it--and outside, a patio with live music and a big park for kids to play at while you eat. It was the most beautiful weather and so fun to just sit and listen to the music and watch Dane running around on the playground. It was so simple and relaxed and fun. At least, until we tried to leave and Dane screamed "ONE MORE MINUTE! ONE MORE MINUTE!" the whole way out to the car. 

And of course, this was the only picture we got with Tommy in it from the whole weekend, since he was at meetings the whole rest of the time. 80% of the pictures are just of Dane at different places since it was just him and me wandering around. 

While Tommy was at the conference, Dane and I wandered around Austin. We visited the Texas State Capitol building, which several people mentioned to me is bigger than the US State Capitol (thank you Texas). They give free tours, but I didn't think that was a good idea with my little buddy. So we just walked around a little bit inside it and then played a little on the grass.

Oh yeah--I was 36 weeks pregnant this day too. So I probably shouldn't have walked 2+ miles that day--whoops! I was worn out by the end. Good thing Dane is still napping so we both got to lay down for a while in the middle of the day. 

We went to Zilker Park, the main central city park in Austin, and rode on the Zilker Zephyr, a little kids' train there. Dane was thrilled! (Notice him wearing his Thomas the Train shirt on the train.)

We went to the children's museum the next day, since I wanted to be mostly stationary all day and not walking around constantly like I had been the day before. 

We paid all this money to get in and spent half of our time at the train table. 

Just kidding--we spent most of our time at the water table. Dane could not get enough of it. So cute!

I loved him wearing the too-big crocs and apron they had to keep the kids from getting too wet. 

We also went to the Texas State History Museum with this giant LONE STAR in front of it. Oh, Texas. 

It was really just a quick weekend trip, but I was glad that we went. It was kind of our babymoon as a family--one last trip with just one kid in our hotel room and only one person's nap schedule to worry about. I honestly think it is so helpful to get out of town and out of your everyday normal life at least once every few months. I always come back rejuvenated and glad to be home, even if the trip itself is tiring and lots of work with little friend(s). And it was totally great because we ended up making money on this trip, the way that Tommy's expenses got paid for this "business" trip! Glad we all went--and also glad that we made it back without accidentally having the baby in Austin while we were there!

photo wall

So THIS is the most boring post in the world, but I have worked so hard and so long on this lately that I wanted to get some validation by sharing this with the world. We have a super long wall kind of near our kitchen that was the perfect place for a photo collage wall. I changed my mind a lot about what I wanted it to look like, but I ended up deciding on this design with two rows of pictures. I had to buy extra frames and did a LOT of prepping to decide how to put them up.

I spent FIVE HOURS hanging up these pictures on Saturday. Seriously, I have no idea how it took that long (I guess I did take a lunch break in the middle?). But it was HARD and took a lot of measuring to get them all exactly even--and of course, they're NOT exactly even because that's pretty much impossible when you're using a variety of different frames, etc. But I feel like they look pretty good and I'm happy with the result. I'm also very happy I didn't make Tommy hang up all the pictures, because he hates having to do this and it would have been a VERY long day for him. Usually I wait for him to do stuff like this, but I've gotten more confident in my ability to do this by myself, so this was good for me! It worked out great for both of us.

The finished product, from three different angles so you can see the pictures that are up there. I decided to just go with a variety of posed and not-posed pictures, and ones with all three of us and then different ones with Dane and us separately. I think it looks really good. 

Okay, and here are a couple of cute pictures for the end of the post. We had THREE snow days here last week--crazy! I thought we lived in Texas!--and Dane had fun playing out in the snow for very short periods of time. We brought his dump truck and digger out in the backyard and dug up snow together. And Dane and Tommy went in the back over the weekend and threw snowballs at each other, which was basically heaven for a little boy!

And finally, look! A pregnancy picture of me! I'm 34 weeks exactly in this picture, headed to an 80s-themed girls night (this was the best I could do with the few clothes I have that fit right now). I told Dane I was showing off my tummy and he did the same. 

our "baby"

Dane is really into pretending to be a baby right now. It's kind of annoying actually, because when he's a "baby" he just walks around saying "mama! mama!" in this fake high-pitched voice, and he won't stop or say anything else no matter how many times I ask him what he wants. He wants us to wrap him up in blankies and carry him around like this all the time. I don't have the heart to tell him that the very fact that he can pretend to be a baby proves that he is no longer a baby. He is a full-fledged child, with very little baby there any more. (Except when he has nightmares and needs to be cuddled and rocked back to sleep, which is so sad but oh so cute and sweet and I love getting to hold him as he falls back to sleep.)

My due date is five and a half weeks away now, and Dane was born a week early, so... we could have our baby here in a month. I am not ready for that, mentally, but I'd be happy to not be pregnant any more. The closer we get the faster time seems to be speeding up, which I know is different than most people's experiences and I'd rather things go fast instead of slow. But the closer the day comes, the more I want to snuggle Dane and the more I keep trying to help him understand what's going to happen. ("Dane, one day soon Mommy's going to go to the hospital and the baby is going to come out and then you will get to hold him!") He really seems to be warming up to the idea--he went from flat-out denial a few months ago ("No! I'm the baby!") to now talking about holding the baby and saying he's "fankful" for the baby in his prayers (which he's only really started saying this week and they KILL ME because of the cuteness!). I know it's all going to rock his world no matter what we do, but he will hopefully be okay. I hate hearing about big siblings who wouldn't touch their baby sibling for months and months because they hated them so much, and I hope Dane is a little happier about the baby than that... but I know there's not much you can do other than being really patient!

We sure do love this little guy. I'm pretty sure we're going to love his little brother (he who shall not be named, apparently, based on our inability to even have a conversation about picking his name yet) just as much too. I can't wait for that moment where I get to hold him--that's what I keep daydreaming about these days. We're in it for the long haul!

January and February around here

It's been a month since I posted last--whoops! I have noticed that I have not lately been on top of the things I usually like to do. I haven't read a book in three or four weeks (although I am working on one right now), I haven't been as interested in exercising (but I am doing it!), and I haven't blogged or wanted to at all. ALL I have been wanting to do is WORK ON THIS HOUSE and hang pictures on the walls and organize and update and get everything perfect before this baby comes. And watch HGTV to get more ideas about what we can and should do here (I've watched all of the Property Brothers and Buying and Selling and Love It or List It that are on Netflix... any other ideas?). I'm kind of blaming the whole nesting thing--I've never been that interested in decorating, but I think this looming and scary deadline of a newborn coming so soon (OH SO SOON!) has made me drop everything else I'm interested in for a few months to try and get this house together. However, the majority of the stuff I either can't do by myself or I just need some feedback from someone before I start banging holes in the walls, so I spend a lot of time frustrated and planning things I want to do when Tommy's home. I'm so much fun to be around these days, I know. 

The other reason we haven't made much progress is that Tommy has been gone a lot the last month and a half. He hasn't been home for a whole week since we got back from Christmas. This week he didn't have any trips, but he is at a scout campout right now--of course. I want to complain about this, but I know so many other people who have it much worse off, with their husbands gone much longer and more often, so I really can't. I dread every time he's gone, but it's always better than I expect, except for that dinner hour and bedtime hour--so hard to do by yourself after a long day. He still has a few more trips lined up, so we're not completely done yet, but I think we're over the really busy part. All I can say is, better to be doing these trips now than after April--get all of this traveling out of the way now!

Most of these trips have been for two- or three-day sessions of trainings for Tommy's new position within Capital One, in Richmond and Las Vegas. But he was also gone for five or so days to attend his brother's wedding in Denmark. This trip was so awesome for him for so many reasons: he was able to spend some excellent time with his siblings, to be there for Troy's wedding, and to revisit his mission land and see his old mission president. I wish I could have gone too, but oh man, I'm so glad I didn't have to spend two days of flying for three days of being in Denmark, and I'm so glad we didn't have to drag Dane around all of that too. It sounded like they had a fantastic time, even if they didn't do much sightseeing or exciting stuff--it was mostly wedding prep and getting to know Sarah's family. I'm really glad he was able to go, even if it wasn't at an ideal time with all of his other trips.

Tommy was still thinking about Dane and missing us in Denmark.

The big day--the groom with his brothers and dad.

The happy couple!

Three Leininger brothers and one brother-in-law.

Luckily, while Tommy was gallivanting around the world, I got some company. Camille had found some really cheap plane tickets to visit us in January, and I told her this would be a great week to come visit while Tommy was gone. And when my mom found out that Camille was coming, she decided to join in on the fun. After Tommy had been gone so much already the rest of the month, they were so welcome to help me and Dane from going crazy with boredom together all week. 

Two pregnant sisters--due only two weeks apart! Woop woop!

Dane really, really liked jumping on the trampoline with Grandma. He would spend all day out there if he could. 

I felt (still feel) a little guilty because we did absolutely zero fun stuff while they were here. They did help me a TON though with getting house stuff together! We hung up a ton of pictures on the walls, which felt so good, and we switched Dane's bedroom from one room to the other and painted a wall in his new room. It was really fun and I know it would have taken Tommy and me months to get that on our to-do list, so it felt great to do it so quickly with their help. Seriously, I am so grateful that they came to keep us company and helped so much! It made a very dreaded week so much better.

We spent a few days measuring and hammering and hanging things up... 

And Dane was watching closely and copying us. He dragged his chair and hammer over and was practicing hammering his little tool bench while I was hanging up other pictures. 

Here was a crazy day. Tommy got home from Denmark late Sunday night, and my mom and Camille flew out on Monday morning--and Tommy flew out to Richmond just an hour after them. He was literally home (or actually, in Texas) for twelve hours before having to fly out again. (He'd also just found out about having to take this trip on the way to the airport to fly to Denmark. I was so thrilled about this.) So after dropping Camille and my mom off at the airport, we spent our remaining half hour at the airport observation park before Tommy flew out again watching the planes take off and eating some doughnuts together.

It was so cold outside we ended up sitting in the car watching the planes (aka, letting Dane climb everywhere he wanted in the car and pushing all the buttons on the front). 

The thing that's weirdest about Tommy traveling is how out of sync it puts us. Even when we can talk on the phone at night, it's hard to know what the other person did that day or how everything's really going. Especially when he was in Denmark! (Again, so glad the traveling is almost done!) I feel like I need a few days to get us back to normal and being on the same page with everything every time he comes back into town. So we spent the Saturday after all this craziness just doing fun things together with the three of us and being together. We went to a nature preserve in Plano with some nice walking trails and a park and had a picnic there that morning. 

And then later in the afternoon, we brought Dane's little kite over to our neighborhood park and let him run around with it. I swear, there is nothing cuter than a two-year-old with a kite. He LOVES that thing (for at least five whole minutes before he wants to just run up and down the hills at the park). 

Such a cutie pie!

We've been working on other house-related projects lately too. (Nesting!) I made a semi-impulse thrift store purchase and bought this sleigh bed that needed a little bit of work. I've been thinking for months now that I'd love to get a real grown-up bed instead of just our frame we've used for the last few years--which works great still, but, you know. I was really regretting buying it after they delivered it, because I had no idea how much work it was going to take to refinish it and fix some of the flaws in the wood and whatnot... But Tommy has proven to be VERY handy and fixed some splintering pieces of wood and is re-attaching some wood pieces to hold up the bed slats. It's definitely not a super cheap project (once you add up the cost of the bed, the wood pieces we needed to fix it, and all the sanding and staining materials), but it's cheaper than buying it brand new and nicer than buying it at Ikea--and I'm really, really having fun doing it. I think it's going to look amazing when it's done!

Dane saw Daddy working with his drill on the bed, and ran in and got his toy drill and was "working" on the bed with him. 

Such a big helper... he was out here for a long time working with Daddy over the weekend!

And we are working to re-stain it as we speak. I put the second coat on tonight and it's looking really great! It's a bad picture from my cell phone, but I'm really looking forward to seeing how it looks when it's done. We found some tutorials (thank you pinterest!) about using a new type of gel stain that doesn't require you to completely strip all the old finish, which makes this project about a billion times easier than it would have been, and it's going to look super nice. 

I am also in the middle of a family photo wall in the hallway leading in from the front door. It's hopefully going to look great, but I definitely need Tommy's precise measuring skills to work on the actual hanging up stage of this project--he is so careful and will do a much better job than me (even though he doesn't love having to do it!). I'm planning to do two rows of pictures with a space between them; hopefully it looks great in the end.

Last house picture--we got our new couches delivered today! This was our first grown-up, non-Ikea and non-Craigslist, furniture purchase. It was agonizing to make such a huge financial decision and to feel sure that we LOVED these couches, but we managed to get a great deal over MLK weekend and I am really pleased with how they turned out. All I really want to do for this room now is get some pillows for the couches and to put something colorful on the mantle and then we will probably leave it exactly the way it is for the next four years. 

Dane claimed the recliner for his own, told me that I could use the loveseat, and labeled the sofa as "Daddy's couch." Someone's been reading too much of Goldilocks and the Three Bears or something. 

 And then, here are a couple of random pictures of us around the house lately:

Dane loves to help us work out. We've been just doing exercise videos in the mornings lately, and he'll do the workouts next to us, which is hilarious and cute. Here he is doing sit-ups next to Daddy.

Doing Dane-style push-ups.

He is so, so sweet when we go in and check on him sleeping in bed. With Tommy's fancy new iPhone, sometimes we can't resist taking a picture. He always has to sleep with his "friends" (literally what he calls them) in his bed--Sparky, monkeys, Polo the polar bear, two blankies, and his pillow. When did we become parents that allowed this sort of thing?

He likes to totally unbutton his Lightning McQueen jammies and sleep with his chest totally exposed. It's so funny to catch him sleeping like that. 

Such a big reader. He'd read 80% of the day if we didn't have to do other things, I swear.

Dane really likes to snuggle in bed with us in the mornings now. He used to climb in bed and immediately start jumping up and down all over us, but now he'll lay there for at least three or four minutes and talk to us before he gets bored. It's the cutest thing to have him laying there in between us.

Sorry, this is a giant conglomerate blog post with just a bunch of random, unorganized pictures. But once I started, I just thought I might as well include all of them! Life is really moving fast right now--I know that things usually start slowing down for women when their pregnancy is nearing the end, but I feel the opposite right now. Sure, lots of my days are slow with trying to entertain Dane and figure out what to do for the day, but between our house, my class, and the baby, I feel like the to-do list is never-ending and I'm super nervous about getting everything under control in the next seven weeks. YIKES... SEVEN WEEKS. Seems way too close... we'd better get cracking!