My children have been systematically trashing the house with their new Christmas toys. I had forgotten how bad it can get when you have two active kids home all day and it’s raining. At the same time, I am grateful that they are so well occupied and willing to clean up when that time comes. They have been very good in that regard, especially Jonas.

Jonas absolutely delighted me yesterday when he asked me to come away from what I was working on to see a puppet show. When I walked into the living room I found it completely transformed into a theater with every stuffed animal and doll in attendance.

I was then treated to quite a show about many kings and queens and villains with memorable dialogue including, “I’m going to kill you. . .because I’m mean!” And, “We’re the prince and princess! We love each other! And we fight! Take that! Wham! Wham!” Such delicate, peaceful souls. At any rate, they crack me up.

Yesterday I took our tree down. It is just as difficult to take a tree down at 31 weeks pregnant as it is to set one up at 27 weeks. Except you contract more. That will be my last major maneuver for this pregnancy; everything else will have to be mild, speaking of which, I have got to borrow somebody’s husband and have him come hang a few shelves and pictures.

I keep telling myself that I could just get up on a chair with the power drill and go to town, but the heckling hag of reason in the back of my head is telling me that this situation would only be good on an SNL skit, and would probably land me in the hospital in real life. No standing on chairs for me. Killian Family rule for at least five more weeks.

Part of the reason why the house has been getting so messy is because I have been spending chunks of time on a CHA Quickutz project. Six layouts and several cards just hit the post office today, and so I have a bit of a scrappy breather and then I get my hands on the new Cosmo Cricket goodies later this week! I have not seen actual photographs, but I’ve heard descriptions and I am really excited to play! Because of all this CHA madness, the scrappy additions of this blog might be a bit slow for the next week or two, but expect daily stuff the last few weeks of January, as I am stockpiling pics of stuff I can’t show you yet *sigh*. I want to, I really want to.

There. I did that. Big whoop, that die was released last month (ok, so it is a totally awesome label die, but still, no secret). . .it is what is to the right of that die that makes life all exciting and bubbly. . .so I’ll show you as soon as I am allowed.

Tonight I bought a baby blankie. This means that I can now diaper, dress and swaddle this baby, provided he doesn’t expect that to happen for more than about a 24 hour period. I really need to do a little shopping. Amazingly, buying the blankie made my entire outlook on baby prep brighter. I’m not a person who feels the need to have every baby contraption out there. Boobs, boppy, sling and a good swaddling blanket and I’m pretty content. While a lot of the things on the market are fun and useful for a short time, it seems to me that they just add a lot of expense and clutter. When it boiled down to it, my babies really just wanted to be held and fed, so shuffling them from the swing to the pack’n play to the mini swing to the bouncer to the bumbo chair- well, it just seems silly. And all the entertainment gadgetry in the world will not compete with the constant overstimulation of Jonas and Maggie, to be sure!

It is late here, and I should be in bed. School starts again on Monday and I really need to get back to bed a little earlier or those mornings will be painful. I find I’m needing extra time in bed these days. I think it has something to do with the five potty breaks a night.