Jack dropped Clara off at the usual time (8am) but this time Clara was spending the night at Beth's, which freed all of our evening.
In the morning and early afternoon Jack and I went to Starbucks and he studied and I worked. It was pretty pleasant. I listened to my "Discover Weekly" Spotify playlist, which had a lot of new songs I enjoyed. I helped Sarah proctor tests for a new Charter applicant and I put a few more odds and ends together for the tenants move in date (April 1). I also enjoyed a chicken quinoa salad courtesy of my Starbucks rewards.
Not long after we got home I took a nap, which felt luxurious. Then we went to the movie theater and used our phones to get our tickets (pre-purchased with reserve seats) and a coupon off our large popcorn and Diet Coke. It's the future!
This theater has all reclining seats and they are very comfortable. I started my 24 hours off calorie counting about 15 minutes before the movie started and ate as much popcorn as I liked. Every time I first walk into a movie theater the popcorn smells so amazing and I associate the scent with happiness because we're at the movies. I love going to the movies. So it was nice to be able to indulge.
We ate most of the popcorn and drank most of the soda before the previews had even started, so Jack went and got our refills before the movie. While he was gone they showed a preview for the absolutely ridiculous looking eighth Fast & Furious movie, so he didn't really miss anything.
The movie itself was pretty good. A lot of gritty realism I enjoyed, like when Logan tries to ram through a chain link fence and it doesn't work. It also just seems more natural for Wolverine to drop F bombs and kill people in a very harsh way, so the fact that the movie was rated R made sense.
Jane was kicking and moving a lot the whole time, almost to the point of distraction. Made me wonder if I should risk trying to see Guardians of the Galaxy 2 a few days before her due date. ...I probably will.
After we got home Jack studied some more and I talked to Neil on my drive to and while I was getting groceries to prep spinach sausage loaf for Tichu day the next day. I cooked the sausage and thawed the spinach and put the loaves out to rise all while watching Guardians of the Galaxy on my laptop. It's the first time I've watched it since seeing Parks & Rec, which made me enjoy it even more.
Our dishwasher is broken (probably getting fixed Monday), so while I washed dishes Jack dried them and put them away and we both enjoyed the movie together. That was nice. When I got too tired to keep standing there, I sat on the couch and watched the movie while enjoying some chocolate ice cream with fudge swirls too (since I had already started my 24 hours off calorie counting).
I'm more likely to add Joy Inventory posts for special occasions, like Clara's birthday or Christmas. So I try to remember from time to time to count the joys of my average life.
For example, I recently started editing work for a department at UC Davis, and so far I really enjoy it, and the pay is pretty good. I hope the work continues or even expands. We'll see.
Earlier this week I was feeling down: exhausted and restless, and really tired of my third trimester pregnant body. So I went ahead and bought some new maternity tops and I've been wearing them all week, and they've been brightening my days.
Clara is adorable as ever. She likes to climb into my lap, count to ten, and then wait expectantly for me to tickle and kiss and zerbert her once she reaches 10. She also likes to stand behind me when I'm sitting on the couch and wait for me to slowly turn around and look at her, which she finds hilarious for some reason.
I have long since stopped picking her up and putting her in my lap to read her books. Instead I sit in the middle of the living room and just start reading one of her books, and usually she stops what she's doing and comes over to sit in my lap and listen. At the end of every book I say "the end," close it, and hand it to her. Usually she then reopens it, pretends to read each page out loud, and finishes by saying "Eee Eh!" ("The end!") and shutting it herself. Then we go to the next book.
Blurry selfie
Jack has been great. He's very busy with his nursing program but still supports me wherever he can, mostly through trying to help with domestic things like cleaning, grocery shopping, dropping & picking up Clara, etc. For example, just today I went to Starbucks to do some paid work and he finished cleaning the whole apartment for later when we have company.
That's another joy for today - Erin is coming over for a crafting visit, and later Andrew is coming to visit too! Haven't seen him in person in over a year, so that's pretty nice.
And much as I don't enjoy pregnancy, I do love how often and how intensely I can feel Jane move. It's much more obvious than it was with Clara; Jack and I think that's because Clara was breech for a long time and we didn't know it. In any case I can often feel Jane push against me and I can push back and even move her around a bit, it's amazing. I notice she never hiccups whereas Clara seemed to hiccup often. Either way, it's great to have some kind of interaction with her.
I've been trying to read Clara her "I'm a big sister" book more often, only instead of saying "baby" I replace it with "Jane." I don't think that will make much sense to her now but I hope once Jane arrives she can start to put it together.
First of all, I loved Clara's outfit. Merlene got her a really adorable dress, and this seemed like the perfect occasion to wear it.
After Jack got off work (around 11:30a) he went over to Cupcake Craving and used a Groupon to get the gourmet cupcakes for the picnic. I had sent him a list of flavors: the chocolate (Black Forest, Chocolate Fix, German Chocolate Wish, Irish Creme, S'more Galore, Caramel Comfort) and the rest (Funfetti, Koo Koo for Macaroons, Lemon Moost, Monkey Mania, Raspberry Reward, Strawberry Dream, Vanilla Bliss, and Red Velvet).
Terrisa's Instagram of the cupcakes.
I had thought about getting two dozen just plain chocolate and vanilla smaller cupcakes from Walmart (less expensive), but between a Groupon we had for this place and a birthday check Grandma Wiseman sent for Clara, these seemed reasonable enough for the fun of it. Jack also picked up milk at Costco before heading home.
Despite the fact we were only supplying the cupcakes and milk (the rest was a potluck), we had a lot to pack in the car: blankets, umbrella (just in case), plates, forks, cups, paper towels, coats, all Clara's gifts (from Beth and the grandparents), etc. We still managed to leave on time, which means a lot to me.
I had tried to get Clara to take a nap before we left but it didn't work. She had just played in her nursery by herself for about 30-40 minutes and then fussed to come out. Of course she fell asleep in the car almost immediately and slept all the way to Davis, but that's only about a 25 minute nap compared to the 2 hours or so she usually gets. Oh well.
We arrived at the park at the same time as Henry, Kale, and Terrisa. Clara just stayed very cuddly with me for quite a while. It was windy and a bit chilly (though no raining!) and I kept her bundled in her tiger stripe blanket, but eventually we put her jacket on and that made her more mobile. As more people arrived, Clara noticed the cupcakes, and she kept casually opening the lid to get a closer look.
[cupcake lid pic]
We had a candle shaped like the number two that Beth had given us after Hunter's birthday. It was much too windy to light the candle (despite Henry's and Jack's efforts), but we put it in a cupcake anyway. Dyl was kind enough to videotape while everyone sang "Happy Birthday."
Blurry screencap of guests singing "Happy Birthday."
Here is Clara's reaction:
After that I cut most of the cupcakes into fourths so people could try different flavors. Dyl and Sarah's daughters, Cassidy and Eva, split the Funfetti one, which is part of the reason I picked it (kids usually love sprinkles).
I think Jack is offering Clara the cupcake again.
Then they started playing in the park field and Clara joined them.
She saw the playground in the distance and tried to make a break for it. I am much too large and tired to run now, but fortunately she tripped so I caught up to her and brought her back. Then Sarah and I took all three girls to the fenced in playground much closer to our picnic tables. Clara loved that. She was super excited about running up and down the ramps and watching the bigger kids on the swings. I'm so glad it didn't rain because I was banking on her getting to be on the playground for a long time.
I watched her for a while as Jack, Henry, Kale, and Dyl tossed a baseball around, Terrisa went to buy her cat a new toy, and Debbie, Erin, Braden, Rachel, and Shannon chatted by the picnic tables. I did want to visit more, though, so I walked over and asked Jack to take over with Clara, and then I went and talked for awhile with everyone. I think the best part was telling funny stories about Dad and how he handles political debates.
It was too windy to try and open presents and too chilly to stay a whole lot longer, so people started packing up and heading out. Happily, Henry, Kale, and Terrisa (who carpooled from the bay area) decided to come over to our place for more visiting and Tichu. I played a game to 500 with Kale as my partner against Jack and Henry while Terrisa and I visited. Clara was pretty content to go back and forth from sitting in the office chair watching her videos to reaching up to the dining room table to pick off more of Kale's chocolate chip banana bread. Henry and Jack stomped us, with Henry going out first in most rounds, but Kale did score style points by calling Tichu on the very last round and having TWO bombs. He bombed once and Henry beat it, which we all shouted about, and then Kale waited a bit longer and BOMBED AGAIN. It was AWESOME. So we lost but it kinda felt like a victory in that sense.
They still had a long drive home so they headed out. I tried to get Clara interested in her many birthday gifts. I was hoping to at least help her draw the connection between tearing wrapping paper open and fun things inside. But I guess she's still too young, because she didn't show much interest in anything other than Kale's banana bread until we opened the finger puppets from Mom. Those she liked a whole lot.
