36 Weeks... and Lots of Rambling...

I had my 36 week checkup, and I'm still at 1cm. :) I feel pretty good about that, since it seems like every other preggie that I know of has been 1cm at 36 weeks and they aren't put on bedrest. I honestly have not been nearly as good about bedrest this time around, but I have been taking it easy. For the first couple of days, I did pretty good, and on Saturday I probably would've put myself on bedrest because I really felt crappy. As the week has gone on and I've felt better, I haven't been as good though. I have limited the number of times that I go up and down the stairs, try not to stand or walk too much, haven't left the house except for once when I let someone else drive me, and I've been pretty good about not lifting Annabelle. When people have been here to help me out, I've definitely taken advantage of it and I'm sure that helped a bunch too (Thank you Nikki, Nicole, Erica, Olivia, and Keith!)! I'm very glad to hear that I'm still at 1cm, despite not following the drs orders to a tee.

So, aside from Corgan's lungs needing another week to develop, we're pretty much ready for him. I'm all packed for the hospital (except for the last minute things), we've got the bassinet up in the bedroom, a changing table area is setup for him, his clothes and blankets and stuff are all washed and put away, and the car seat is all washed and ready to install. Last night when I was putting together the bassinet (no, I wasn't horizontal while I did this), Annabelle kept wanting to get in it. She sat in it for a while, and I tried to explain to her that it was for babies. I finally got her to bring me some of her "babies" to go nite-nite in it, and she loaded it up with them and gave them her blanket... but soon after she wanted her blanket back. I really wonder how she's going to react to having Corgan in there! It makes me nervous to think about her trying to pull up to see or get into the bassinet... we'll really have to watch her closely.

If all continues as planned, my sister should be having her baby next Tuesday! We're SO excited to see little Kelson! And unless she takes a while to arrive, Kelson should be an early 60th birthday present for my dad (and could even be an actual birthday present... but I won't wish that on Kelly)! Yea!

My cousin Olivia is here visiting for a few weeks. She was already planning to come visit, but it has been especially good timing since she's been a big help with Annabelle. Of course, Annabelle loves her to death and is having lots of fun getting all the attention. As a bonus, Olivia and her mom, Great Aunt Kim (aka "GAK"), sent a bunch of presents for Annabelle to open each day. Each gift is something that Olivia and Annabelle can do together. So far she's loved the gifts... especially the Crayola Water Coloring thingy (see the latest pictures). She LOVES water and LOVES coloring, so it's perfect!!

Annabelle updates:

• Of course, I haven't been out to buy any new movies, but Annabelle has a new interest in some of the videos that we already have. She's watched "Milo and Otis" a few times (she calls it "Kitty" movie... says "see Kitty"), and has a new interest in some of the Baby Einstein videos besides just "On the Farm".
• I finally got video of Annabelle "singing"! Her singing has graduated from just "La-la-la-la" (Arielle- LOVED the Smurfs comment btw) to other sounds with a swaying dance. It's SOOO adorable! When you watch the "singing" video, you'll have to excuse my singing... my sister definitely got the voice in the family!
  
• Annabelle has latched on to anything that involves dancing. She's got some killer moves and is learning more and more all of the time... hopefully she hasn't inherited her dancing skills from either of her parents. Very few people have ever seen me dance (since I turned 12 anyway) and Keith... well... you'll see his dancing skills in the video. :) Annabelle loves to imitate the crazy dance moves of Pinky Dinky Do and other crazy dancers. In this video, we were watching an old episode of Scrubs where they had a bunch of dance numbers from a variety of past episodes and she kept trying to copy whatever they were doing at the time. Toward the end, there's even a little singing number which we managed to catch on video just a few days before the "singing" video above. Enjoy (and don't laugh too much)!
  

On a totally unrealted note... Keith and I are SO hooked on Big Brother 8! We have Showtime for free for a trial period, and we've been watching the "Big Brother After Dark" live feed on Showtime! It's not good for us at all, but we're watching it anyway! The show is getting so good, but a few of the "houseguests" do drive me crazy! I HATE Amber's crying and poser-ness, Danielle's whinig and playing with her split ends, Dick's personality in general, and I REALLY couldn't stand Nick... such a typical "I'm so suave!" guy! There's actually so much that you see on the After Dark show that you don't see on the regular show... from conversations to real personalities and quirks. It's a bit of a spoiler because you know who is nominated, who has won what, how everyone is aligned and thinking about voting, etc., but that doesn't stop us from watching it! I'm definitely hooked, but I think Keith's even more obsessed than I am! :) Hopefully our trial subscription to Showtime doesn't run out before BB8 ends... if it does we might have to actually get a subscription, especially since I'm sure I'll have lots of late and/or sleepless nights coming up!