All cooked, checking things off

As of today Critter will be considered a full-term baby any time he or she decides to arrive. I've been so fortunate to have carried all three kids to full term as I know so many parents that have dealt with the difficulties of premature newborns and the NICU. As a former 3 lb 2 oz premie born at 30 weeks myself, I can attest to the fact that many of us turn out just fine, but the stress of starting off with a newborn that potentially has severe issues must be so difficult for parents.

Even though I haven't yet had a work day at home on this maternity leave, we're already ahead of schedule on a few things I wanted to get done. I cleaned out my car today and we moved the boys' car seats to the "big-boy-backseat" of the van. We've also got the baby's car seat base in the middle seat of the van. We didn't want the boys to feel the baby was displacing them, so we decided to move them before the baby arrived, and to make sure that everything would work out logistically with the new arrangement. The boys think it's cool that they're in the cool new seat, all the way in the back. We even put in a toy carrier someone gave us a couple years ago since we won't just be able to reach back and hand them stuff, so they'll be quite self-sufficient, I'm sure. Hot Wheels could technically be in a booster seat now anyway because he's old enough and heavy enough, but the dr. said there's no harm in using the 5-point seat as long as we want. We'll leave him there until we need the convertible seat Superman's in for Critter, then everyone will move up.

I've got a lot more on my to-do list, some jobs small, some bigger. I've talked it over with Critter quite often, as long as he or she wait until the appropriate time to arrive (three weeks from today or more) we'll get off to a fine start. I've just got too much to do until then.

We had a great day yesterday, Super Dad's family reunion party at a country club about an hour from us. They had a great pool, almost like a beach with a gradual walk-in that doesn't get more than 4 feet deep- we were in there over 2 hours. There was a small pond with paddle boats- that was quite a good workout. The section the family had was in a pavilion at the top of a hill. That hill provided quite a workout, too, by the time we got home, I was beat. We've got parties the next two Saturdays which should also be fun for all of us. I'm waddling along as best as I can to keep up, and enjoying every minute of it.

I've been checking out IMUSA on line a couple times today. I've told Super Dad if I were ever to do an IM race, that's the one I'd shoot for. Not sure I could ever survive that bike course, the elevation profile looks killer, the run doesn't look like any picnic, either. But if I'm going to go for it, I'll go big. Some day.......