Keeping Busy

Maddie and I have been keeping ourselves really busy lately. At her age, she needs to do things in order to get tired for the nap; and since I so cherish the nap, we are pretty much out and about each morning by 9am at the latest. It's funny how just 6 months ago I couldn't leave the house at 9am because that's when she would take her morning nap. Now, I have to find things to do until at least 11:30am, but often more like 12 or 12:30pm before she'll be tired enough to stay asleep. See, around 10am, she shows signs of tiredness, but if I give in and let her rest, we won't be able to have that nice, long 3 hour nap in the afternoon. So, I make her stay up! Today we got up, went to a park I really like here and took a walk. We saw fish in a pond, geese and little geese (gosling, I think) and we walked over a bridge; very exciting to the 19 month old mind. Then we headed to a library near her preschool and listened to a story time and made 2 Mother's Day crafts for dear old me. Maddie was not interested in the coloring part of the craft (you have to catch her in the right mood for coloring) and she got highly irritated when we glued something down. She kept asking for help to get it off. Funny. When that was done, we went and got some lunch. We have lots of lunch dates lately. She's really good when we go somewhere to eat and since I know when I have 2 kids, I won't get to do that as much, I'm taking full advantage now. Plus, I'm STARVING all the time. Sophie doesn't even let me finish one meal, before she and I are thinking about the next thing we can eat. I remember getting really hungry when I was pregnant with Maddie right around this time too. I'm like a bottomless pit and even though I should be full after eating, I'm often not. The other day, I woke at 3am because Gabe was having an allergy attack. As I laid there trying to get back to sleep, I realized that I was thinking about food and my stomach was growling; loudly. I didn't have the energy to get up and make anything, so I didn't. But, come on. I can't even sleep through my hunger!? Craziness, this pregnancy thing. Though, I'm really trying to enjoy it. Since, I'm pretty sure this is the last time I'll be doing it, I don't want to count the days until it's over. I want to enjoy these days of just Maddie and I, of eating lots of food and not caring about gaining weight, and to be able to sleep 9 hours straight with no one waking me up. I decided today that while I'll be extremely hot and huge in the summer months to come, I'm glad the baby comes at the end of summer. It's easier to take care of two kids when one is living inside you :)