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One of the preparations that we are going to have to make before the new baby arrives is to move Maddie to her new room. Considering that she only recently started sleeping through the night, we are not eager to move her out of her crib! The plan is to keep the nursery pretty much the same (all babies love dinosaurs) with the exception of changing the highlights if we find out we’re having a boy. We’ll be preparing one of the guest bedrooms as Maddie’s new room! We picked out her bedding, and I think that she likes it. Every time she sees it now, she points at it and says, “owl, owl, owl.” Now we’ll have to think about paint colors and other decorations. Fun!

When we returned from Cincinnati, I could have sworn I was going to write up the review for it almost immediately. Obviously, that didn’t happen and here we are over a month after the trip and I still haven’t written anything…or sorted the photos. The Cincinnati trip far exceeded my expectations. We had a wonderful time as a family, despite a few challenges.

Our trip started out bright and early on a Friday morning…or actually, NOT so bright but way too early. The sun was not up when the alarm went off, and we actually had to wake Maddie up far too early as well. We arrived at the airport with plenty of time and grabbed some very mediocre airport breakfast. Maddie had been diagnosed with a nasty ear infection just a day or two prior to our trip, so we were very nervous about the flight. We gave her some Motrin and her numbing ear drops before boarding the plane.

Unfortunately, this did not stop us from having a miserable flight. We had her carseat on the plane, but she didn’t spend as much time in it as we would have liked. She got very restless and wanted to move. Being confined in a small space for almost two hours is not a toddler’s idea of fun. She did a lot of screaming. This time, we were *those* people. We did everything we could to try to keep her happy, and we couldn’t have been more relieved when we finally arrived in Cincinnati.

We got in touch with Gabe’s dad and sister Jessica, and we arranged to meet them at a pizza place. This was the first time that I had met Gabe’s dad, sister, and his sister’s daughter, Ava. We had a nice lunch and then decided to head to the Cincinnati Children’s Museum.

The Children’s Museum was a lot of fun! The first exhibit that we encountered was a very cool area with tons of gadgets, catapults, pulleys, gears, blowers, and more all to manipulate the hundreds of balls in the room. Maddie looked through the mesh enclosure in awe and simply said, “ball!” She found the entrance quickly, and we spent some time playing with the balls. Maddie was in heaven.

Our next stop in the museum was the area for kids under 5. We’ve only taken Maddie to the local children’s museum, and this one is far more extensive. We were impressed! The toddler area had lots of places to climb, a slide, carts to push, things to build, and more. Maddie and Ava mostly played on the slide. Maddie spent some time pushing around a shopping cart.

We really thought Maddie would take a nap in her stroller at some point, but there was just too much for her to see. We explored some of the rest of the museum. Ava enjoyed the water play area, and we kept Maddie away from all the splashing. We didn’t want a wet toddler on our hands on that day!

We looked at the turtles and briefly explored another section of the museum with many play areas like a grocery store, restaurant, city bus, earth movers, various cultures around the world, and much more. We knew we wanted to come back to this museum again! I think we were most impressed with an area that Maddie won’t be able to take advantage of for a long time. It was an area for kids 8 and up and had all sorts of places to climb and slide with bridges and ladders in a big treehouse sort of setting. Very cool.

We left the museum and took some photos outside. The museum is inside of the old train station along with several other museums. It really was a neat place, and I hope we’ll be able to come back and see the other museums sometime.

Maddie fell asleep in the car, and we were actually able to transfer her from the carseat to the stroller without waking her up. We were SHOCKED. This has never happened for us. She continued to nap for a while. We checked into our hotel room where we discovered we had a really neat view of the river as well as both the football and baseball stadiums. We were happy with our hotel accommodations overall. It got a tad noisy at times since all of the rooms border a huge atrium in the middle of the hotel. We got some people returning from the bars and/or the baseball game causing a little bit of a disturbance for those of us trying to get toddlers to sleep!

After Maddie’s nap, we headed to dinner at a place across the street from the hotel. One of the bad things about the area we were staying is that it seemed like the restaurants nearby were a tad on the pricey side. Maddie did very well during dinner (we entertained her with crayons and stickers), and we headed back to our room for the evening.

We had a really tough time getting Maddie to bed. She did not want to sleep in the pack-n-play pretty much the entire weekend. I guess it’s tough when you’re not in a familiar place, and there’s so many exciting things happening around you.

Gabe tried to “watch” some of the baseball game as he couldn’t find it on TV. He saw some score updates here and there scrolling on the sports channels, but he could figure out when something good or bad happened for the Reds by watching across the river.

Later that evening, Maddie still wasn’t sleeping. We were all treated to a spectacular fireworks show which we enjoyed from the comfort of our room. It was great for Maddie since the booms weren’t loud enough to scare her. I think she enjoyed all the bright colors.

All in all, we had an excellent first day of our vacation in Cincinnati. We had a nice visit with Gabe’s dad, sister, and niece, and the three of us really enjoyed being together as a family.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that made me smile this week: We had a routine pregnancy appointment on Monday and heard the healthy heartbeat for the first time. After being so sick last week, it was a relief to hear that beautiful sound.

Something I’m thinking: I’m thinking about how crazy I was to take on this yard sale stuff. It’s taking over everything!!! Fortunately, the first one is pretty soon, so we’ll see how it goes.

Something I’m hoping: I am hoping that bedtime is going smoothly for Maddie. Gabe is putting her to bed. I’m not hearing much, so that might be a good sign.

Something happening around the house: Pretty much the big thing around the house for the next two weeks is the yard sale. Donations can be found in almost every corner of the house. It’s a tad crazy!!!

Something I’m reading: I’m still reading My Sister’s Keeper and should finish it this week. I’m on the library waiting list for our book club’s August book, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. I hope that it arrives on time!

Something tasty I ate this week: We had new muffins this morning that were not too shabby – I’m still looking for a replacement for my favorite blueberry streusel muffins that have apparently been discontinued. We tried a cinnamon streusel this morning. They aren’t nearly as tasty as the blueberry ones, but they are pretty good.

Something Maddie did this week: We went out to dinner as a family earlier this week. The food was awful, but the company was wonderful! The meal took longer than it should have, but Maddie was great the whole time. She also tasted several foods that we were surprised that she would even touch. Afterward, we went to the grocery store and she had the time of her life running around the aisles.

Something happening with the pregnancy: The news of my pregnancy became public this week! Sadly, I’ve already received two inappropriate and insensitive remarks. Amazing what people feel that they can say to a pregnant woman!!!

Something I struggled with this week: I struggled with putting Maddie to sleep last night when Gabe was out playing poker. Gabe definitely has far more patience than I do when it comes to putting her to bed. It finally worked, but she used every trick in her secret book.

Something I’m doing towards my goals: We bought and put together bookshelves, organized the games, donated quite a few to the National MS Society yard sale (over 50!), and updated the database list (it had been a while). We have a few more things to do before I can call this project done and check it off on my goals list. It looks great!!! We’ve also raised almost $500 for the National MS Society already, and the first yard sale is still about two weeks away.

Something I learned this week: I learned that “new baby” is about the size of a peach – so big already!

Something I’m looking forward to next week: For once, our activities last week didn’t get canceled! We’ve had a great weekend visiting with friends. This week, I’m excited about book club. We’re also going to a wedding next weekend.

Something random: When cooking, I absolutely hate cracking eggs and handling raw meat.

Something I captured: I figured it was time to post some of the chaos around the house. This photo just scratches the surface. I really should walk through the house with the video camera…

Clearly, the first pregnancy was all about Miss Maddie. Looking back, I cannot believe the enormous amounts of free time that we had but did not realize that we had. What a shame. Life for siblings isn’t fair, and I feel somewhat guilty that this pregnancy has been all about Maddie as well. Things are already stacked in the older sibling’s favor from the start.

We have given some thought on how to prepare her for big sisterhood. She’s so little and doesn’t really understand that “there’s a baby in Mommy’s belly” or “btw, your life is about to change drastically as we’re bringing another human being into the household that will have needs greater than yours for a while and oh, you won’t always be the center of attention.”

She is able to identify babies, so I guess that’s a start. I have been telling her that there’s a baby in my belly, but she looks at me as if I were an alien…and I suppose it’s a very alien sort of concept. She does look around a bit confused, “Baby, what baby? Where’s the baby?” I’m sure we’ll be doing more prepping as we near the due date and her second birthday.

We haven’t given too much thought to names…by now in the first pregnancy, we had been calling the baby, “Maddie” for over two months (aside from a few boys’ names thrown in and then there was that month that we were sure we were having a boy named Carson since the doc identified “boy” in our sneak peek ultrasound). Honestly, we don’t have time to think about every part of this pregnancy like we did the first time.

Some of our bigger concerns, aside from preparing Maddie as best as we can for the new sibling, include things like: Who is going to take care of Maddie when we’re in the hospital? What’s going to happen if I go into labor spontaneously in the middle of the night and we have to wait for said childcare? How the heck am I going to spend 2-3 nights away from my baby girl? How in the world are we going to care for a newborn and a toddler at the same time? Where will Maddie sleep and how are we going to transition a child younger than 2 to a “big girl bed?” We are so not ready for that! Will she regress and go back to spending large amounts of time in our bed? How will that work with the new baby?

I know we still have plenty of time, but we really don’t have as much time as it may seem. Several months have passed since we found out that I’m pregnant, and we haven’t accomplished much on the to do list. During the first pregnancy, time seemed to stand still. It felt like decades between doctors appointments. This time, I barely have time to take a breath and another few weeks have passed. Details of the pregnancy are very similar. Our mindset is completely different.

Our book club selected Picking Cotton: Our Memoir of Injustice and Redemption by Jennifer Thompson-Cannino and Ronald Cotton as our July reading. I was a bit apprehensive about this selection and I was worried it would be slow reading as a non-fiction (though I guess memoirs are typically “light” non-fiction). I thought it might take me a while to get through it. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. I was wrong on both accounts, zipping through the book in two or three days. Considering the amount of time I generally get to read these days, that is pretty impressive. The book was an interesting look at our justice system and some of its flaws. It gave me a different perspective on such cases. I’ll save the spoilers for below, but I will say that I recommend the book to others. If you were in North Carolina in the 80s and early to mid-90s, you may remember seeing some of this case on the news. You may not, so I’ll keep the details of the case below.

WARNING: POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW

The first chapter was enough to make me interested to find out how we got from point A to point B. Jennifer and Ronald, the authors of the memoir, are at a kids’ sporting event and appear to be friends. I don’t have the book since I returned it to the library a while ago, and my memory may be fuzzy on some details. It is then revealed that 20 years ago or so, Jennifer wrongfully accused Ronald of a horrible rape which sent him to prison for over 11 years. I was eager to find out how these two individuals became unlikely friends.

The story flips back and forth between Jennifer’s view point and Ronald’s. Hers starts with horrifying details of her attack and rape in her own home, and his starts with a misunderstanding where he is going down to the police station to clear up the mistake. I have sometimes seen on the news how someone was released from prison because they proved that they had convicted the wrong person, including a vague memory of this exact case.

I have never truly thought about how it must have been for that person to be in jail all these many years. Thoughts about how scary it is that you could be thrown in jail for crimes that you didn’t do have been in my head, but the situation seems unlikely for most people. The news stories made me think for a few seconds, but until I read this book it didn’t really sink in that these are real people with real lives and real feelings and experiences who have been dealt a really crappy hand.

The glimpses into the faults of our justice system and how one eye witness’s false memory and testimony can send someone to prison for life is a bit scary. Jennifer was presented with a stack of photographs of possible perpetrators which did not include the actual rapist. She identified the one that most closely matched her memory of his image (which she very consciously constructed at the time of the rape, knowing that she would have to identify him). This new image, Ronald, had now become superimposed in her memories. She was very confident beyond a shadow of a doubt that Ronald was her rapist. It is not her fault that she pointed the finger at him – the brain and its memory works in interesting ways. When later shown a line up that included Ronald but again not her rapist, she was quite sure that he was the man. A few years later, Ronald’s case went back to trial where she actually saw the man who was the real perpetrator, and she did not recognize him as such. Her memory had already been tainted by the process. The victim wants and believes that the police have presented them with a lineup that must include the guy who did it. The brain makes things fit. And when you look at the composite sketches, they do match well enough. I found all of this to be very intriguing and worrisome.

Ronald’s story was amazing. It really showed you the person behind the statistic. It showed you the rapist’s other victim in a real light. Even after reading his account, I cannot fully imagine what it must have been like for him. And I’m very impressed by his character and his perseverance and his ability to forgive Jennifer for her very large life altering mistake. He was in his early 20s with his whole life ahead of him and then had to throw away over a decade of his formative years. He left prison with no money, no job, no education, and no real marketable skills. His compensation for the justice system’s big oops? At the time, it was $5,000. TOTAL. He was eventually awarded around $110,000 – about $10,000 per year that he was wrongfully incarcerated. He had started to fight and advocate for increased compensation for himself and others who found themselves in similar shoes. Still a ridiculously small sum considering the loss of potential, both in wages, experience, and education.

All in all, I thought it was a great pick for book club, and I’m looking forward to discussing it at the end of the month!

If you haven’t heard the news, we’re having another baby! Here is the new baby’s first ultrasound at almost 9 weeks. I know the ultrasound is upside down, but the baby is right-side-up. Baby #2 has an estimated due date of January 29th, just about a month before Maddie’s 2nd birthday.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that made me smile this week: Yesterday evening, one of the girls from the neighborhood came by and knocked on our door to see if she could play with Maddie. So sweet! We’ll be keeping her in mind in a few years as a potential babysitter! She’s very good with Maddie.

Something I’m thinking: I really, really would like to get rid of this cough. I’m currently waiting to hear back from the doctor’s office to see if I can get a prescription for the cough.

Something I’m hoping: I am hoping that the rest of my family stays healthy.

Something happening around the house: We discovered ants again, this time in the pantry. We decided we needed to toss anything that had been opened. Ugh.

Something I’m reading: I actually bought a book for the first time in a while. I purchased My Sister’s Keeper, which I thought I already owned. We are reading it for book club, and I have started reading it this week. I read it about 4 years ago but don’t remember much. I went to see the movie recently, and I heard that the movie differs a bit from the book. I’ll be finding out how soon…

Something tasty I ate this week: I made my regular Stuffed Peppers recipe, but this time I used fresh tomatoes from our Produce Box (instead of canned) and one finely diced jalepeno for extra kick. It turned out great! Gabe loved it. Oh and last night, I threw together some more veggies from the box – squash, zucchini, and heirloom tomatoes. They were quite yummy in this recipe on the grill.

Something Maddie did this week: She played with her friends at daycare while Mommy was quite sick and rested at home. Times like these make me very thankful for the daycare!

Something I struggled with this week: Last week, I hoped that I wasn’t getting sick. So much for that! I have been sick all week with some virus or something with sore throat, fever, aches and pains, congestion, cough, etc. The first part seemed very flu-like, though I would have expected a higher fever. Then the cough has gotten worse and worse. I haven’t been able to sleep more than 2 hours at a time before I have to get up and get some hot tea with honey or something to try to make the cough better. I’m struggling to get rid of this bronchitis…plus, I still don’t have my voice back. It’s been missing since Wednesday afternoon. This has not been a good week!

Something I’m doing towards my goals: Well, earlier this week, I started Maddie’s Christmas stocking. I see no way that this is going to be finished by this Christmas. I spent about 8 hours on the stocking, and I think I completed 1%. So….according to my calculations, it will take me 800 hours to do it. Um, yeah. How am I going to get 800 hours of “free” time?? Oh, and one of my goals was to organize my games…working on that and hope to have more to report next week.

Something I learned this week: I never realized that green, orange, and red bell peppers are all from the same plant. The only difference is how long they stay on the vine. I guess that explains why red peppers are more expensive – it’s riskier to leave them on the vine longer as they remain more susceptible to pests. This week, we had two bell peppers in our Produce Box. They were an interesting mix of colors when we got them and had turned almost completely red only 24 hours later! Neat.

Something I’m looking forward to next week: I’m almost afraid to list things here as it seems like every time I am looking forward to something, it gets canceled or something happens. Last week, I looked forward to poker and play dates. All 3 play dates and the poker were canceled since I was sick. Bummer. We have some fun things next weekend, plus the cleaners are coming on Tuesday.

Something random: The Carolina Ale House is not a bad family place. We went there with Maddie yesterday for lunch after running some errands. Maddie LOVED the music (classic rock) and danced around in her high chair. She also ate a pretty good lunch. Their kid’s applesauce looked pretty tasty, and she seemed to agree.

Something I captured: On Friday, I put 3 pigtails in Maddie’s hair. Gabe said that was ridiculous; I thought it was adorable. I think Gabe changed his mind later in the day to agree with me. You can see two of them in this photo.

Others writing The Sunday Somethings: Audrey

Something that made me smile this week: We got back our framed family photo from Catherine Keene Photography. I love it! Now we just have to figure out where we want to hang it.

Something I’m thinking: I like watching the cake shows (lately, we’ve been watching Cake Boss and I recorded a few Ace of Cakes to try). I love fancy cakes!! It makes me so nervous when they transport the cakes. I’m always afraid they are going to drop it and ruin the whole thing (which actually happened on Cake Boss recently, so it does happen!). I do wonder if some of the “disasters” and drama on Cake Boss are real or orchestrated by the production crew.

Something I am hoping: I hope I’m not getting sick! I woke up with a bit of a cough/congestion in my chest, and I’m hoping it goes away. I haven’t felt too bad today though I know it’s “there.” Hopefully, I’ll be just fine in the morning.

Something happening around the house: Our house is still a bit of a wreck from the games day/night that we hosted on Saturday. We had a great time! Both Gabe and I were able to play some boardgames and get in some time playing with the little kids.

Something I’m reading: Other than a few articles here and there from Parenting magazines, I’m not reading much. I keep thinking about starting a new book, but I haven’t been motivated.

Something tasty I ate this week: We had some very tasty and healthy meals this week with some items from our produce box. We grilled chicken twice this week and had steaks on the grill another night. Along with our grilled meats, we had fresh green beans, fresh corn on the cob, and mashed red potatoes. All of the veggies came from The Produce Box. I didn’t realize how much that I liked fresh green beans and fresh corn (though I do like to cut it off the cob, but that’s another story).

Something Maddie did this week: She’s starting to get the hang of this sleeping thing. This week, she stayed in the crib asleep from bedtime until 6:40am (yes, pretty much precisely 6:40am) at least 3 times. For us, this is a miracle.

Something I struggled with this week: Maddie has started to become a bit of a bully when it comes to other pint-sized visitors to our house. She’s quite possessive of her toys, even the ones she normally doesn’t give a lick about. She’s even learned the word, “mine.” Where did she learn that? I’m pretty sure we don’t say it. We do say things like, “no, Maddie, that’s Mommy’s” but I don’t think we say “that’s mine” to her? Where did she learn “mine?”

Something I’m doing towards my goals: Hrm, nothing specific, really. I have thought about starting on Maddie’s Christmas stocking. The year is half over, and it’s going to take me a while to cross-stitch. I know I need to get started sooner than later. Gabe doesn’t think I can do it.

Something I learned this week: How to play the board game Maori. Earl and Michelle brought this one to games night, and Gabe and I were both able to play it (separately). The game is fairly quick, and I liked it. I’ll have to add it to my wish list…

Something I’m looking forward to next week: We have poker and a few play dates this week. Fun stuff!

Something random: I had a realization the other day that my mother may not have always been a morning person. I asked her to confirm. Yep. Before I was born, my mom was most certainly NOT a morning person. So weird. I just assumed my whole life that she was a morning person naturally. I had no idea that she was a morning person out of necessity…and now here I am, waking up before 7am every day and actually functioning.

Something I captured: Gabe got out his guitar and played a few songs for Maddie. As soon as he sat down on the floor with the guitar, Maddie sat down in front of him just like she does at music class at school. It was so cute!!!

Some of the photos in these albums have already been posted on the blog (but not all of them). The Mother’s Day Tea, Maddie’s Hives, and May 2009 albums have been posted.

I didn’t take too many photos on our trip to Davidson last month, but I posted the ones we took on the website. We did a little better this past weekend…but I’ll have to write up that trip report later.

We took a quick little trip to Davidson about a month ago to visit with my parents and Bill and Dawn. We left Saturday after lunch with the hopes that Maddie would take a nap the majority of the trip. We were in luck! She fell asleep about the time that we hit the interstate, and she didn’t wake up until we got to my parents’ house. Wow! We were thankful that she took such a good nap.

We arrived not too long before Bill and Dawn, my mom’s cousin and wife. We hadn’t seen them in a little while, so this was the first time that they met Maddie. We spent some time visiting and catching up and then had a nice dinner together. Maddie was very taken with Dawn, which is pretty rare! She doesn’t usually warm up to strangers very quickly. Maddie showed off several of her baby tricks, and everyone enjoyed watching and interacting with her. She was interested in our shoes and tried to put on Daddy’s shoes. She played with her bugs and learned how to put them into her pockets after Dawn showed her. Maddie was in a pretty good mood.

After Bill and Dawn left, Maddie went to bed not too long afterward. Once she was snoozing, the four of us played Tichu. We had a great game! If we had just played to 1000, then my mom and Gabe would have won. We just kept playing as long as we could, knowing Maddie would wake up eventually to end our game. We got in a very good game and ended up with my dad and I winning by about 30 points. Fun!

In the morning, we took a walk around the neighborhood and found a nice park that has TONS of toddler toys. We didn’t have any sunscreen for Maddie, so we couldn’t take advantage of the park for too long. We’ll have to remember this for next time!

After lunch, we headed back home. Maddie only slept about 45 minutes, but she was quiet and happy the rest of the ride. We were amazed (but did not complain!). She’s been great on car trips lately! Our theory of getting her used to it early and often seems to be working so far…