Yes It's Still Winter (Bonus ants, flowers, sheet music, and a chiropractic visit)

I vacuumed up ants today. They had apparently decided that they liked my subwoofer, despite the fact that we never eat anywhere near the thing, there's no water nearby, we have no ants anywhere else in the house (that I know about), and I can't see anything the least bit attractive about it. I vacuumed them up and then went and took a shower to stop the crawlies, but now I might have to shower again...it's almost as bad as when you start thinking about headlice and get all itchy (glad I could do that for you).

The weather continues to lie to me. Not quite as convincingly as it was a few weeks ago, but still. There are FLOWERS. Not the over-optimistic ones that you plant as bulbs only to watch die a short while later. Ones that usually don't bother until spring.

This has led to garden-bed-preparing on the kids' part:



No matter how many times I tell them it is still too early to plant anything, the girls don't seem to believe me. Girliness is just disdainful of my opinion (happily, or maybe semi-happily, since it means I will have to buy some later, I have none of the soil additives she needed to prepare her beds properly, so she was left with a "when it's TIME we'll get some" answer and half-prepared beds). BittyPrincess was moved to tears by my unwillingness to help her plant flowers.

Semi-dramatic subject shift: I can't tell you how happy I am to see music like this on the piano:



Even if it is a bit of a stretch for Girliness, and even if this particular piece is more than a tad played-out, I love that she's getting more and more capable at the piano. MIL still does the teaching and in my opinion her reluctance to push the kids at ALL past their comfort zone is making for a REALLY SLOW learning experience, but they ARE still learning.

That all still fell into the "lies" category because Girliness is for the most part still playing much simpler music, with this as her more extended work piece. Most of her sheet music isn't nearly so pretty. Yet.

Relevant to previous posts but not at all to this one, I saw a chiropractor yesterday (Wednesday) to highly pleasing effect. Fran made the appointment for me; I suppose he'd heard enough whining? Anyhow, I can put on pants again (whohooo for small victories!) without falling over, wincing in pain, or doing a three-step seated-then-standing operation. Oh, and it hurts WAY less.

Unsprung

It is dramatically not spring yet today.

After so much nice weather, I was really starting to get adjusted to warmer days and higher light levels, and not wallowing so much. Today it is 33 degrees and it has been snowing. The sudden shift leaves my brain confused and unhappy.

I did, however, sleep better last night after pulling our old memory foam topper from where it was stored (memory foam does have a lifespan, and that topper was well past it - we'd taken it off the bed and put it aside in case we wanted to cut it up for camping pads) and cutting it so that I could sleep on the not-so-used-up middle portion. I twice managed to sleep for 2 consecutive hours.

Prenatal sleep deprivation may indeed be an evolutionary advantage because if we are already sleep deprived when we actually give birth, we are less likely to suddenly slip into complete insanity when our babies wake us every 1-2 hours and resort to infanticide so that we can just.fucking.sleep. While we're pregnant, there's not really anyone to take it out on as our waking intervals come closer and closer together and it becomes harder and harder to get physically comfortable. I couldn't kill my husband and get a blissful uninterrupted nights' sleep. My kids have long since transitioned into their own sleep patterns that for the most part don't have anything to do with mine. It's all me and those lovely (not) pregnancy hormones.

Just another excuse for pregnancy space-cadet syndrome.

Continued Doings of Dubious Importance

But first, a little whining (I do that frequently don't I?)...I hate my mattress. This is bleary day #3 after waking up with hip pain at 3am that I just couldn't find a sleep position comfortable enough to alleviate. This despite the small pillow armada now inhabiting the bed with me, and the third-trimester rotisserie process (hourly turning) that I've been doing for quite a while now. I want a new mattress but can't justify it given that in another month it will probably no longer actually be hurting me, and given that even if we had enough money for a new mattress it would be better used paying down our credit cards. It does suck though (it is dipped/compressed into ruts where we sleep most often). /whining

Girliness' ear is much improved. No further high drama necessary, although greater than usual attention/cleaning/treatment continues.

Boyness continues to be a PITA and has had frequent outbursts this week. I think he's cycling. Hormonally, I mean. Like 'rhoid rage or something. Totally punting this to Fran, who says he was the same way as a kid and what I've been doing is not helping. The two of them can sit down and make a behavior/consequence plan and fill me in after. Of course, now that we're on the tail end of a week of this behavior, he'll probably be perfect for the remainder of the month (I really do think he's cycling, everybody has a hormonal cycle, some of us are just more affected than others).

I organized (well, the kids and I organized) our mess of swimming stuff (=stuff shoved under the bottom shelf of the hall closet that in some way relates to swimming). It was one of those 20 minute jobs that I'd put off for a year. Ridiculous.

Baby continues to wriggle about vigorously here on the shy side of 34 weeks. Head down all the time now, though.

I am newly enamored of a pair of shorts that Fran got as a Christmas present from his brother. Yes, I am stealing my husband's shorts. He'll live. It's a testament to how much weight Fran has lost that he and I can wear the same clothing (I wear it under the belly, not over), 'cause we never hit this point last time around (and I'm not bigger or heavier than I was at this point with BittyPrincess). I got a bleach stain on one of the three shirts that still make it all the way around my belly. Damnit.

We have still not decided on a name for this baby, although here in my blog it will probably be Newbie.