Mom's visit

My mom left today, after a week long visit. This was brilliantly planned to coincide with a 3 day out of town trip of my husband's, so I had help while he was gone. It unknowingly coincided with the end of my illness and me remembering that with my last pregnancy, about now was when I realized that I hadn't felt really good in quite some time and am not likely to really feel good until after the birth. The birth THREE MONTHS from now. Only this time, add in worries about money, jobs, and a very active 17 month old. Plus some female issues that are simply a result of having two babies so very close together. Even my doctor said that if I'd waited another year or two, my body wouldn't have this particular problem.

Mom is really great at the whole tag team thing. Especially with zero conversation involved. As in, "hmmm, I'm taking your horizontal/drooling state to mean that I should take the baby upstairs/downstairs and let you rest for a while."

We also got a whole lot done! Here's our super duper list:
We picked out cloth and a design for Rastus's baby quilt.
Mom made me three pretty pillow cases to replace our mismatched/hideous/20 year old spares.
We finished Quint's baby book.
We put the finishing touches on two maternity shirts Mom made for me.
Mom vacuumed the whole house twice during the week she was here.
We cleaned out my car
Mom made a tuna casserole to freeze
I added to our scrapbook (including the article that put my hubby on the front page of the local paper!)
We bought and put together an indoor slide which is a HUGE hit with Quint.
We cleaned out the garage which involved just as much child chasing as cleaning.
We cleaned out and reorgainzed some stuff in the loft to make way for clutter that needs to be stored until it matters so little that we can toss whole boxes at a time.

Commentary on pitchable stuff and reorganization: I finally threw away several items that we have had for several years, if not NINE years, and thought they would be useful one day. If it hasn't actually been useful in the last six to nine years AND has no sentimental value, then it got pitched. A few boxes of sentimental things were thinned or combined or both to take up half the space. The 17 year old computer monitor that had been taking up valuable climate controlled space in our loft got pitched. The accompanying 17 year old computer box was nearly recycled, until I realized that both of our ancient computer boxes could serve a useful weighty purpose with our food storage (long boring explanation). Many boxes in the valuable climate controlled space got demoted to the garage. The trash pile on Monday included the box the slide came in (filled with trash), the box the new pack and play came in (filled with trash), the full trashcan, and a huge extra empty box filled with trash. It was great! The huge pile of clutter in the middle of our garage was cut in HALF! Sooo satisfying.

Mom got enough face time with Quint that she would also get spontaneous leg-hugs on the fly. He would sometimes call her Nana (she prefers Nannie) but would sometimes revert to calling him Mama. Nannie bought several new toys or DVDs which will be enjoyed by boy and mom alike. She took him for walks, stroller rides, trips to the park, exploration of the yard, and one trip to the super-duper park near the library. She developed the "RRRRrrraaaaoooorrrrr!" game which was a huge hit. She figured out why he had suddenly stopped liking chicken nuggets and he now loves them again. She would change dirty diapers without complaint or even comment that it had happened! She bathed him and did all the heavy lifting when baby #2 was traumatizing my body. It was wonderful!

The whole week Mom was here, the weather was exceptionally warm for February in Tennessee! The day at the super-duper park near the library, I had on a sleeveless maternity top and I never reached for my sweater!!

The only downsides of that week involved losing my cell phone (the same day as the big garage clean up - argh) and my hours drying up at H&R Block. I knew all along that my hours would be severely reduced about mid-February, but it seems to have completely stopped. Which means I'm not really hitting my placement agencies for temp work.

So please pray my employment situation. Also please pray for a wonderful new friend to move into the empty house next door.