The Mother of Geese

Since my mellow yellow boy needs to be retested tomorrow morning we decided to take full advantage of my 4 day vacation from the insurance company rather than leave and go home today. (Which I really feel fine enough to do.) Abbie came and spent the morning with me. Here are a few of her conversations that I want to always remember. "Mom, did your milk "arrive" yet?" Yes, it did last night. "Oh, where did the guys put it?" Babe its right here, I say gesturing "giggle, oh yeah, they put it in your chest" On noticing my freakishly swollen feet and legs "Mom, your legs look like Joseph Smith's legs (?!) "Mom, let's watch Shark Week because boys like sharks, right?"

I love that I caught Brad reading about US Weekly's Sexy Dads. On so many levels, I love it.

The week before Max was born I ate a lot of candy. Although its not proven, I'm wondering if that's what has led to Max's coloring today. Good ol' Yellow No. 5. In any event he is sunning himself on the couch.

Here is Max at his first 0 birthday party. Yum to Trader Joe's chocolate ganache cake.

Dear Max, Thanks for coming to the world yesterday. I have been really wanting to get a housecoat because I am super cool like that but your daddy doesn't want me to go down "that path". Your daddy must not have known it would look so chic. Mom

Now that I have 2 men, men, men, men, menly men men in my house I am amazed at the similarities between them. Raise your hand if you have ever heard Brad sneeze...Its sharp, piercing, and totally performed in his falsetto voice. If you are lucky afterwards, you can catch him saying "Excuse me" in a really really deep Barry White type voice to compensate for the woman that just sneezed out of his body. Always surprising but quite amusing nonetheless. When Max cries you are expecting this deep little baby man voice to cry. But when he cries it sounds like Mariah Carey singing. When he cries really hard I just say, "wait a minute Mariah, Mommy's coming". Does that make me a bad mom? Or is it some freak soprano DNA accident?

Maxwell Winston 8lbs 1oz. 22in Mother and baby are doing well...no complications (posted by: brad, the dad)

Eating cantelope and drinking water. Why? Because I can't eat or drink anything after midnight. Why? Because my good Dr. is scooping the baby out at 8:00 am tomorrow. Why? Because isn't it funsies to be donesies with pregnancy?

ACCIO BRAD!!! I was perusing a blog this morning and found the GREATEST tool ever to be employed by man and wife. I finished book #7 this morning. Brad is a good 300 pages behind me. Now if I want something from him I can say, "Brad, take out the garbage or I will tell you who dies." or "Brad I'm going to be out all day at the spa and this shouldn't be a problem because if it is I will tell you what happens the last 10 pages." Who's wielding the wand now? MWAH, MWAH, ah...

SO you think I can complain? (Sha, na, na, na, na, na) I am tempted to go back and delete all the whining that has been going on in my life this last month. My blog has turned into sort of a cry baby fest and I would be quite sick of me if I was reading it...so here is my news flash...No more whining. except for this one little thing. I've sort of resigned myself that this child will be here on Sunday which is GREAT because I've realized I kind of have a lot to do still. FACT: I planned on having all of my 80 summer hours completed before the baby comes. I'm half way there. FACT: Its much easier to control and occupy 3 kids when one is housed in my body. (or so my sister in Orlando can attest). FACT: People in general are much nicer to pregnant women than just plain ol' fat women. FACT: I love having an excuse to be growl-ey at everyone. FACT: Brad will be traveling for 3 out of 4 weeks 5 days after the baby comes. Fabulous. FACT: Most importantly, I cannot have this b...

Mess with the bull, you git the horns... Bring it little sista.

Yes I know I have a scheduled C-Section for next Sunday but for some reason knowing the end date is really making it a lot longer. So I am desperate to try anything to go into labor to make that date come sooner rather than later. I have tried all the "conventional methods" including eating a jalapeno sandwich (Can't wait to kiss that baby with a mouth full of cold sores)and carrying Abbie up the stairs. Last night I got a call from Julie my fabulous sister-in-law who told me about the spleen 6 acupressure method. She's gone from 0 to baby in 24 hours 2 times and has had had similar results from other friends. I told Brad about it. He sort of laughed. Called it the eject button. He said he would be happy to press the "eject button" as much as I want. (Eventhough I secretly think he doesn't believe in the eject button I am glad he is willing to bruise me in order to get this party started.)

And YOU must run to see this film now. Its the greatest.

In the above featured photo you will find 2 of my favorite Danielsons in the world. 1 has been my dentist for the last 17 years and the other has been my husband for the past 8. I am quite fond of both of them. During the annual Danielson/Talbert camping trip my dentist noticed some tightness in his chest. Understand that this man is freakishly strong, solid, and very well held together. I observed to Brad that it was the first time I have EVER seen his dad and thought that he looked a little tired. He decided to make an appointment to get it checked out. He is having a quadruple bypass surgery as we speak. The last time he had a health "crisis" was during the week that Amelia was born. He beat the cancer and has been great ever since. Max will be making his entrance any time in the next 9 days. Hey Gary, I have an idea. How about I stop having babies and you stop having health scares. Deal?

I suppose I am just getting ready for baby Harry (which I've decided I will name the baby if he comes on Saturday in honor of Mr. Potter. Just kidding Brad. Your 1/8 Japanese ancestry does not lend itself to that name). I have been re-reading book 5 and getting brushed up on book 6 all the while keeping the house clean so I can ignore it and probably my family when book 7 is released. I am a dork. In the meantime, enjoy this. (Thank you Anne for introducing me to this gem.)

So a few months ago Abbie and I went to Grandma's house up the street to plant some of the viney vegetables for the summer. My job was to prep the soil and make the rows, and Abbie was in charge of putting in the seeds and making the little markers. We planted tomatoes, yellow zucchini, zucchini, beans, and some other summer squash. I showed Abbie how deep the seeds needed to be and how far apart they needed to be planted. What I never did say was how many seed plants should be planted. Abbie planted 14. 14 zucchini plants. Well like our wise Grannie says "You know you ain't got no friends if nobody gives you zucchini's in the summer." So friends if you are in the area, please come and grab at least 9 that are producing daily. And the funny part is all the other squash haven't started to come in yet.

The girls and I were in desperate need of a sweet fix and the dried apricots just weren't cutting it. Abbie and I whipped up a simple vanilla custard then added some leftover oreos from the camping trip. (thanks Grandpa Gary). Just like Tom Petty said, "Waitin' is the hardest part." (did anyone catch that ridiculous Spelling Bee show last night? I would so win the $50,000 dollars because I knew like ALL the songs and the correct lyrics.) It smelled SOOOO good!

No Anne , you know I must be confident to post this picture. Conversation with Husband of the Year Brad... Me: Does this shirt make me look like I'm a circus tent? Brad: (making double gun-like-pointed fingers at me) YEEEEEESSSSitdoes. Me: thanks

So I kind of had my heart set on having this baby on 07/07/07 so that not only would it be easy to remember but so I could also share the date with Eva Longoria and her wedding aniversary (not really). Because my doctor is a lettle leery on malpractice suits, he will not scoop this baby out until the end of the month (boo) unless I go into labor (yay!). In an effort to get such movement ahem moving along yesterday I: vacuumed all 3 floors, did 6 loads of laundry, scrubbed the kitchen and mopped the floors, carried 3 boxes of Granpa's slides up the stairs, helped Brad unload the camping gear, weeded my side yard, carried Amelia everywhere and cleaned my shower (Which didn't really even need it) This morning I: weeded the farm at my mom's for 1 1/2 hours. At 12:00 pm, I decided that 07/07/07 was a really stupid and lousy day to have a baby because I can hardly move. I've been in bed for 3 hours. Watch out 07/17/07....i'm inventing projects to do as we speak.

For those who have been wondering, no "The Great Maximo" has yet to make his appearance, but we are looking forward to his debut in the next few weeks. Things at Danielson Fam have been a little crazy and busy but I thought I would announce that "Abbie Passed Level 1!!!" There was much reason to celebrate. (Thanks DuckCow for the pictures BTW).