Waiting...

I'm not sure if this baby is super stubborn and not wanting to be born or just being uber-polite and giving us plenty of family time before the big arrival. Either way, it's been a waiting game in the Schwartz household as baby continues to incubate past his or her due date.

Right after I finished up work, I went into hyperdrive trying to get all the loose ends tied up. I'd spent the majority of my pregnancy focused on living a busy life and not preparing for the new one, so the week of preparation was much needed. I finished up the nursery, finished up Jack's new room, transitioned Jack to his

new room, finished up craft projects, completed and handed off nonprofit work, packed for the hospital, baked goodies, and tried to keep the house immaculate.

I found time to do small things I'd been meaning to do... small things like super-glue a bit of trim back on a curtain, clean off the top of the dryer, and finish Jack's one year photo book. I decided to weed every flower bed in the yard....something that hasn't been done since early July and weeds were so tall in places they'd smothered one small tomato plant. But baby didn't come and the doctor told us to stay active.

So we did. We cleaned out the basement. We cleaned out the garden shed. We cleaned up the foyer. We cleaned out toolboxes and our tool closet. In-between projects, we tackled area parks and hiking trails sometimes trekking three to five miles a day in two separate walks. We took Jack to the park, to the apple orchard, and on his first trip to the zoo. We've watched our share of TV and played a few games of Scrabble. I'm eyeing cleaning out the garage for another project; Dave...not so much.

We also bought into the old wives tale that eating spicy food helps induce labor. I made supreme nachos that had no less than a half-jar of my grandmother's hot sauce and a half-jar of home-canned hot jalapenos. Our noses and eyes watered even more the next day when Dave made his father's spicy buffalo wings more spicy than normal. I made a dynamite Shrimp Etouffee, but I decided to double the amount of cayenne pepper. It was good, but it was definitely too hot to truly enjoy like we wanted.

Our baby-induced stay-cation has been so far a productive and enjoyable one where we've completed household projects and enjoyed some pre-expansion family time. But like all good vacations, we're somewhat ready for this one to come to an end so we can adjust to a new normal that always seems just a few days?....hours?....away.