power naps and power tools: week 35

Hello all!
Wow. I'm a bad blogger. But really, not too much has changed since my last post. I had my Chicago baby shower a little over a week ago, and it was fantastic. My creative buddies played songs, made up interpretive dances, and painted watercolors for baby James and me! I got lots of neat stuff, including a hooded pirate towel (which says "Argh! Dry me booty!" on the tag), and a music curriculum for early childhood with all kinds of amazing ideas for sharing music with babies (also something I could use to teach classes to other young moms!)
Other than that, it's business as usual. Just waiting and watching as James pushes the limits of my patience and my epidermis! He keeps stretching his feet out along my side, and it can get pretty uncomfortable. It's getting harder to lug myself out of bed to go teach, but I've been getting a lot more music-sub days lately which helps me stay motivated. Jess seems to be holding up pretty well. As I write this he is finishing up the sanding of our beloved craigslist rocking chair. Both of us have worked pretty hard on refinishing it, so we're hoping it comes out well. (Regardless, I'm really proud of myself for learning to use a new power tool here in month eight!!!) Anyway, Jesse is doing a great job of continuing to go with the flow and navigating my mood swings. I bought him a book called "Pregnancy Sucks: For Men" which caught my eye at goodwill, and I think he's finding some comrodery there. Also, the book seems to have a lot of anticdotes about women who are significantly more horrific than I am, so I'm seeing him develop an appreciation for my finer points (like the part where I don't wake him up in the middle of the night to go to the store for product X and food item Y).

We are using some of our final baby-free days to explore our new hometown together. I decided not to work today so we could share a day off, and we went to "The Grumpy Troll Brew Pub" in Mt Horeb for some excellent cheesecurds and home-brewed rootbeer as well as to "Cave of the Mounds" on a stalactite-o-riffic tour of the underground treasures of Wisconsin. It was neat:)

So, I guess what is the most important new development for me since I last wrote, is that I actually feel ready. Sure, I could use a few more weeks to go to childbirth classes (last weekend in March, 1st in April), set up the nursery (currently covered in chair dust), work (so we don't run out of $$ in August!) and rest (sort of...).... but when it comes down to it, the last few days have left me feeling like if I went into labor immediately, we could handle it. Very cool stuff.
Love,
The empowered but exhausted Lady Bornselhoft and her ever-attentive family