Waiting.

There is seriously nothing more boring/demoralizing than waiting for the arrival of your first baby. I get that things are probably a little more stressful when you already have a kid running around the house, and I'm well-aware of how lucky I am to be home from work... but good God, I'm bored.

The house is spotless, the baby's room is completely ready, we're all stocked up on dry goods and anything else we could possibly need (not that Amazon Prime with two-day shipping is going to stop existing after Junior gets here). I've been trying to walk three miles every day, but have officially destroyed my feet with blisters from the three pairs of shoes that fit right now, so that's on hold. I've been going swimming at my (sainted) in-laws' house frequently, but the weather is just a little too cool for that right now.

On the flip side, I feel too tired to bake cookies or walk around going shopping or doing anything else nonessential but still kind of productive, so.

Blergh, baby, get here.

So much [time] for activities!

So today I'm 36 weeks, 3 days pregnant, and hadn't anticipated starting my maternity leave until at least this Friday - if not next Friday. However, due to unforeseen circumstances at work (not worth getting into but only semi-having to do with my pregnancy) I found myself leaving early yesterday, and on my maternity leave.

So this is my first morning (of at least eight weeks total) where I'm not rushing off to work at 6:15am. I've been lucky enough to work half days most of my work days recently... but it's still different to have literally nothing to do. Since I wasn't put on bed rest or anything, I can technically go out and do stuff... but that just makes me feel lazy, since my brain thinks "if I can do stuff, I should be doing stuff that makes us money... like working."

But there's nothing I can do about it, so I'm trying to make the best of it and do stuff I'm not normally able to do in the summer -- grabbing weekday diner breakfasts with my teacher friends who are off, deep cleaning the house (it would have been FINE for the baby to come back to, but now it will be even MORE FINE), reading more books than I have in the past year combined. Baking more stuff, which I've been too tired to do after work.

I guess this might be nice.

Hi guys, guess what?

Hi guys! It's been a minute! I know, I took almost a whole year off just to make your hearts grow fonder. Maybe this summer I can manage to write more than three whole blog posts. And maybe even post some pictures. Maybe.

Here's the interesting news from the past year:

1. I still have the job that I had just started last summer. I know that's not so much news as it is a lack of another type of news, but I feel like it warrants mention. I like it, it doesn't feel as difficult as it did then, the end. Not much else to say.
2. We're getting a baby in three weeks.

I know! I know that a) there's not much on that list, really only one thing, and b) that's kind of a big thing and really did take up all our time this year.

My husband and I (and probably some other people) are pretty excited, though; we're at that place in the process where everything in the house/nursery is done (other than some minor cleaning), the hospital bag is packed, and my main concern is not suffocating or breaking a rib when trying to do something off-the-wall and crazy like fall asleep at night.

I'm only working half-days right now in an effort to stave off maternity leave a couple more weeks (the idea of working full eight hour days right now is truly hilarious to me), and trying to maximize the extra-ish free time I have (maybe an extra hour after you factor in my afternoon nap) by ticking items off the new summer bucket list. Here's what's left for summer, pre-baby and post-baby.

Pre-baby Summer Bucket List:

• Spend an entire day at my in-laws' pool, not-drinking margaritas (this year) and reading trashy magazines and library books. (Note: I'm not gonna lie, I've spent some afternoons doing this, but I want one whole day devoted to it.)
• Make ice cream.
• Have a date night with my husband (let's be real, though, we'll probably keep it local and not head into Nearby Big City.)
• Play mini-golf.
• Take a lot of pictures, do something with them / show some people.
• Plant an herb garden on our balcony (might be a little late in the game for that this year, but maybe we can get a pot of basil going or something.)
• Read 5 more books (preferably fiction and not baby-related.)

Post-baby Summer Bucket List (Before Labor Day):

• Have another date night with my husband.
• Make boozy popsicles.
• Spend a day down the shore. (This one feels a little ambitious but we'll let it be.)
• Take a lot of pictures, do something with them / show people.
• Read 2 more books (not baby-related.)
• Not-kill the three hanging plants I foolishly bought in May.

Oh God, these lists look so boring. But I can barely walk to the CVS a quarter-mile from my house to buy chocolate, let alone "go hiking locally." I can no longer bend over to tie my shoes, so "raspberry picking" is kind of off the table.

Well! We'll see how it goes.