Quick Takes- And now we wait.

1. I made a valiant effort earlier this week to "get things going" naturally for labor. I had everyone out the door every evening to walk around and was quite confident that I would exercise this baby into the world! Ah, how we plan and plan and God laughs.... Around Wednesday I got very tired. And the thought of walking, oh, across the living room takes me 15 minutes to deliberate whether the trip is so very worth it or not. I am a semi-permanent fixture on the couch. Luckily, my children are forgiving and have made me their semi-permanent pillow. Plus, my tummy is a great place to rest a Sippy Cup!

2. Remember my labor playlist I needed suggestions for? I finally downloaded and compiled the whole thing! Too bad my mp3 player is missing, right? I had to dig out a DISCMAN and burn the songs onto TWO SEPARATE CD's. Oh, the horror! What is this, 2002?! (P.S. Thanks for all the suggestions, by the way! I've been rocking the CD so much that I'll probably be sick of it by the time I really do go into labor :)

3. Another thing to keep my mind occupied while on Baby #3 Patrol: The Twilight books. I swore I wouldn't but here I am, devouring close to 2,000 pages of vampirey drama and romance and loving every paragraph of it. When we walk by a display of Robert Pattinson at the mall, I've been mock-swooning and saying, "Oh, Edwaaaaard!" My husband rolls his eyes.

4. I am quite content singing in the shower, jamming in the kitchen while I make dinner, belting it out in the car while I head somewhere solo... You get the picture. Yesterday, my youngest proved he is not quite as independent-minded when it comes to musical entertainment. I glanced back at him while idling at a red light and he was very perturbed that his older brother had gone and fallen asleep on him. Limited vocabulary that he has at only 18 months old, he grunted and yelled at older brother for several minutes before scrunching up his face and eeking out, "DANCE!" (more like "DASSSSSSS!") Then he shook his little shoulders encouragingly, as if to demonstrate to his dozing sibling how to properly dass in the car. It didn't work, but it made me laugh for the next few miles.

5. Over the holiday weekend, my family and I cruised over to the closest drive-in movies to catch a showing of UP. I hurriedly waddled to the bathroom before the movie started and promptly ran into my doctor in the tiny building that houses the concession stand and the restrooms. Weird. He was very polite and introduced his fiancee (who looked like a supermodel... "Very pregnant patient who feels like a whale, meet the breathtakingly gorgeous woman I will be spending the rest of my life with....") Anyhoo, crossing paths with him was odd the way it was when you were a kid and you bumped into your teacher at the grocery store. It just felt strange. I guess that just as I did when I was 8 years old, I half-expected that he never left the hospital and was always, well, doctoring it up.

6. A few nights ago, we went out to dinner at Outback Steakhouse. Normally we reserve such a restaurant for date nights, but we have a gift card we've been waiting to use and haven't been able to lock down a babysitter. So off we went. The asterisk that had been hovering by Outback's name in my mind -the one that distinguished it as a possible place to go as a family- has been erased. Youngest squirmed like Houdini and was very angry that we wouldn't permit him to eat crayons. And Oldest looked very pleased when he unwrapped his silverware and found the biggest knife I think they could fit in a napkin other than a machete. Ben and I looked at each other over the hubbub and laughed, thinking the same thing I'm sure- "And soon, we'll have THREE!" Bring it.

7. Since I am a semi-permanent fixture on the couch, I will be perusing all your fabulous quick takes and others' found at Conversion Diary! Have a great weekend, and be sending labor-vibes my way! :D