One Month To Go

Exactly one month from today is Baby #2's official due date, February 28, 2012. Things are feeling very real all of the sudden. We have sort of settled on two boy names but are worlds apart when it comes to girl names. We're moving Charly to a different room, a bigger room, so the baby can have Charly's old, smaller room, yet we haven't begun to move a single piece of furniture or paint a single swatch on any wall. We have some newborn diapers and a few neutral newborn outfits but suffice it to say, one could argue whether or not we're as ready as we could be.

We often wonder about Charly, and the inability to keep her in the loop regarding how much her life is going to change. She is kind of the Queen of the Castle right now, strutting from room to room, bossing Elliot ("Eta") around, bossing us around, jabbering up a storm, getting out whatever books, or coloring books, or puzzles, or building blocks she feels like and leaving them strewn about the house. There are days, when we're being bossed around by her, that we think this baby couldn't come soon enough! Somedays Charly needs a wake up call! But then we feel sorry for her, thinking about how much of her world is going to change and she doesn't have the slightest clue.

We talk about the baby all the time with her and we both know that she knows that there is a baby inside her mom. She likes it when it kicks and moves. She acts excited and talks about "Baby" things all the time. She practices feeding her baby Mel gave her at Christmas and she's interested in the bottles that Kelli recently dusted off and replaced in our kitchen cupboards. She shakes her head at the mention of a "Girl" but repeatedly tells people she wants a "Boy". We're asking for her help in deciding upon names, but she's not much help.

A few weekends ago, I took some pictures of Kelli's bump. We had fun, but Charly wanted nothing to do with any pictures. She didn't make it into even one. Well, sort of one, but not really. It was more by accident. And once she realized I had a camera she was done. She doesn't like being photographed anymore, which I suppose is silver lining for our hard drive.