The Pregnant (and not lithe or delicate) Pixie and the Butterfly Ballerina

Gillian has decided she is a Ballerina. She likes to get inspiration from You Tube videos of Ballerinas, and reworks their choreography in the living room for her own adoring audience. She has a Tutu, Butterfly wings, a Magic Wand, and some $2.50 "Old Lady" (translation: Old Navy) ballerina slippers. She had a heart to heart with the baby in my stomach last night that went something like this:

"Addy, when you get bigger and bigger and bigger and get born out of Mama's 'gina, I'm gonna teach you to be a ballerina, like me, OK? We will buy you a pretty pink dress and ballet shoes and we can dance together!" (insert gentle pat and a kiss to The Belly)

The thing is, she really likes company when she does her ballet, and she likes unconventional ballet music. Well, at ~35 weeks pregnant, I am hardly agile or cute, but I'm a damn good sport. Nonni also donned the butterfly wings in our bonding dance time. And I can honestly say neither of us have ever danced to that Sesame Street song before, so we're branching out.




Nonni has been visiting since last Tuesday and we have been like little elves getting the house in order. It has been luxurious to have so much help. I originally wasn't going to take Thur-Fri off because I have so.much.to.do at work before going on maternity leave, but getting things together is so important too... So, I decluttered kitchen drawers, decluttered all other junk drawers (in guest room and otherwise), decluttered 3 closets and took 10 bags of clothing and linens to goodwill, posted 5 items on Craigslist for sale (selling three, including two pieces of furniture), edited 4 months of Gillian's videos, washed all our baby clothes and cloth diapers for a baby from newborn to 3 months old, folded them... we moved furniture around and put the change table in the guest room (now the change table is Addy's dresser)... we found a very 70s set of children's furniture for $100 on Craigslist and somehow saw potential in it (it really took some optimism). Suzi worked her tail off for three days priming, sanding, painting, and repairing the furniture and putting new knobs on it, and it turned out adorable. Gillian now has plenty of storage, and when the girls share a room later all their clothes will fit in the new dressers. We were up moving art around Gillian's room and cleaning up and finally sat down and relaxed at 10:30 last night, completely exhausted. The only projects left are reupholstering the glider, which we will do this afternoon, finishing the last of the video editing, and filing a pile of paperwork that has accumulated over the past year in a pile. It will feel amazing to know that when Nonni and Grandaddy leave tomorrow, we will be ready for the baby to come whenever she's ready.


Story of the afternoon:

(she was officially stalling me from tucking her in):

(Me kissing her freckles, one of which is on her wrist).
Her: "Mama, you can't kiss that freckle 'cause he is running away!"
Me: "Why?"
Her: "Because he's going to the grocery store!"
Me: "Why?"
Her: "Because he wants to buy some bananas and fruits and musics for you!"
Me: "When will he be home?"
Her: "When I wake up!"

Quote of the day:

Nonni: "Gilly, can you get in your stroller?"
Her: "I don't want to do that."
Nonni: "Well, Grandaddy can't bring you the surprise he was bringing, then..."
Her: "What kind of surprise?"
Nonni: "A Food surprise!"
Her: "OH....I figure Grandaddy is bringing me Cookies, then."