Hurricane day and family life and ALMOST 39 WEEKS!

The hurricane came and went and left us with some beautiful fall weather.  The gusts of wind during the storm were fantastically scary at times but they were never more than long gusts.  No sustained winds.  The power was out for only 12 hours, most of which while we were sleeping so we got away with no generator one more time.  Many of our friends in the county still don't have power.

Sean is getting much better at spelling.  This is the first time I've seen him write his whole name down.

Sean and I are still plugging away at our studies.  He LOVES handwriting.  We've had a hard time with subtraction but I think that's due to my forgetting to bring out the manipulatives.  Once he had those to see the equation with, he was fine.  He is going gangbusters on the violin.  I don't know if it's from having a new teacher or what, but he's been playing for hours each day.  We do a formal practice in the morning after school stuff but he picks it up countless times throughout the day.  Today was supposed to be the first day of public school but it was canceled due to the power outages many families are still experiencing and to give the clean-up crews more time to clear roads and parking lots.

Sean  has been learning how to fry an egg for himself and Pea. 

This little one like sardines!  

Hurricane day.  Adam goes into nesting mode and makes a full Mexican meal of pulled pork with achiote seasoning, homemade corn tortillas, guacamole, salsa and butterfinger ice cream.  We expected the power to go off much sooner than it did (10pm) so we/he got lucky!  Here, he's showing Sean how hinge joint of the piggy used to work.  

Our big hurricane meal.  Oh, yes, he made fried plantains too.  Delicious!

It was strange with all the green leaves downed after the storm.  We're used to yellow, red, orange and brown leaves all over but not green.  This was the next day.

Mr. Helper got out a broom and worked on cleaning up the deck.

Pea loves arts and crafts.  

Here she is using watercolor crayons (best thing ever for my kids) to draw an easter egg "with a mustache and black pupils so he can see."

38.75 weeks. One day, I won't have a wardrobe malfunction in one of my personal pics.

One of these pictures shows the belly better and one shows my new haircut better.  Not sure which is which.

If this baby were Sean, he/she would be born today. Funny how I thought that was an ideal birthing experience. Actually with each of my babies, I've learned a few things to do differently this time and will certainly will learn something else with this one. With Sean, I was sent to the hospital merely because the OB measured my dilation at 4cm. (After she stripped my membranes earlier in the week without my knowledge or consent.) That's why I was all smiles at the hospital...b/c I wasn't in labor! So, of course, she was going to have to do some sort of induction to get me going. Why on earth wouldn't she wait until I was in labor? People walk around at 4cm dilation for days/weeks. Anyway, she ended up breaking my bag of waters and Sean was born 4 1/2 hours later. Luckily, or I might have been on the Pitocin>"emergency" c-section nightmare that so many first time mothers go through. With Sweet Pea, I went into labor naturally 8 days early. After a short nap, my contractions had slowed down and I agreed to get them moving again by breaking my waters. This time, I plan on waiting as long as baby needs and not doing any interventions unless absolutely necessary. I've had lots of small contractions and cramping this past week but I still feel as if baby's not quite ready. My tiny bit of mother's intuition maybe. Watch, I'll have the baby tonight. Adam would like the baby to come soon, as in today b/c he's got a few concert band gigs that he'd rather not be a part of. :)