Being unprepared would not be so bad if I saw some plans for becoming prepared (or motivation for same) in the near future. If this baby came today, I'd go out and get a box of little diapers and consider it done.

I can tell you that it will not have a cute little nursery all ready and waiting for it. This is one issue that is going to be COMPLETELY played by ear. We have a bed in the spare bedroom, and the mattress will eventually become Liam's when we convert his bed into a full-size bed. The bed itself has a head and foot "board," which I love, and will be perfect for a girl one day and can be stored in the garage. If we don't have a girl, it'll go into a future guest room in a future house. For now, we'll be down a guest room (perfect for discouraging guests!).

So how does this work? Liam will be 2 years and 4 months old when the baby comes. We will NOT be ready for him to be in a regular bed - We really enjoy the sanity of containing him in a crib. This means that the bed will stay in its current form in the guest room. The baby will be in our room in the Pack N Play for a couple months before transitioning into the nursery (assuming we follow the same script as we did with Liam). Will the three of us be ready to convert Liam to a regular bed by then? I don't know...Will we end up having two cribs in use at once? I really have no idea. I'm fine with that - we'll just roll with the punches.

Here's what I envision the nursery to look like when the baby is born: Liam's cousins' never-used crib thrown in some corner, hopefully a changing table, maybe the dresser and nightstand that's in there now, or maybe we'll have gotten motivated at some point to empty it, sell it, and replace it, and then a bed frame and some full-size mattresses leaning up against one wall or another.

Designing the cute little nursery was fun the first time. I toyed with the idea of getting new bedding and all that this time, but then, above predicament aside, I figured that by the time you get everything out that needs to be out, you're left with, well...a bed sheet. If Liam had had a bumper, he'd have suffocated pretty early in his life for as many times as I found that he'd migrated with his little nose and mouth sticking out the rails and no way to rectify the situation. The dust ruffle is super cute when the mattress is at the highest level and the middle level, but once your child starts pulling up and you have to put it at the lowest level, it doesn't work anymore. I suppose it lasted 8-9 months, then? I can't remember how long the mobile stuck around. So yes...the crib is merely a sheet by now.

I really like our Australian theme and can definitely live with it again. Besides, I'd be limited to sets that match the green fabric covering the glider. Really, the nursery is at its absolute cutest for as long as it is ready prior to the baby's arrival...after that, it's just a bunch of cuteness completely covered in chaos - clothes, diapers, powder, toys...Fun, nonetheless, but most fun the first time around.

As far as names go, our goal is to have the baby named by the time the new year rolls around. I think we are pretty much set on the girl's first name, but Andy just wants to make sure he's not overlooking anything else. That would still leave the middle name, which had been set since the first summer we were married; however, if we go with this particular first name, it might not work so well. As for boys...no clue. I've gone through the SSA top 500 list a dozen times, and nothing is popping out that screams "I would LOVE to name my child this!" I even expanded to the top 1000 to no avail. Andy hasn't come across anything either. It'll be interesting to see what we come up with.

I am absolutely in love with the girl's name that we are about settled on. If we have a boy, I will never, ever be disappointed about loving another boy baby, but I will be disappointed that we'll never get to use this name. Kind of like with Liam - we were pretty sure about his first name even before we found out he was a boy. Once we had it in our minds, I really wanted to use it.

We are up to our ears now in choo-choo trains. Oh my goodness. What we have realized recently, though, is that, despite the fact that he still loves Thomas and Friends, he mostly loves stories and videos about real-life trains. I cannot tell you how many times we have watched "There Goes a Train," which is a kids' documentary about trains. While Thomas usually keeps his attention for a couple minutes and then stays on in the background, we can sit on the couch together and watch There Goes a Train for a long time. Perfect for days when I just don't have it in me to be pregnant and chase around a toddler all at the same time.

Today I was pulling out of a shopping center to turn left onto Buford Highway. As I was coming up to assume my place in line, I saw that the one car ahead of me, also turning left, was waiting pretty far to the right, to the point where no one could go around it and make a right turn. No biggie for me, but as we deal with this coming out of my neighborhood a lot (people wanting to go right around the people waiting to go left), I pulled up as far to the left as I could go. I'm sitting there waiting for the car in front of me to turn, no hurry for me - just enjoying the Bubble Tea I'd waited 2 days for. All of a sudden the driver behind me absolutely lays on her horn. I'm like, "WHAT?" I could pull up and sit on the bumper of the car ahead of me all day long to let her by me, but she wouldn't have been able to get between that car and the curb anyway. The car ahead of me finally went, and the girl behind me, a homely, angst-ridden teenager, looks back at me and completely cussed me out (I could only tell by her red face and her flailing head).

I'm just thinking, you know, I have never seen you in my life, and I will hopefully never see you again, so the only impression of you I will ever have is of you, looking pretty ugly at that moment inside and out, actually, with your face absolutely contorted in unfounded rage. It was one of those "it's not my problem - it's your problem" moments.

It was all good, though, because I was on my way home to satisfy my 2-day-old craving for Pho noodles and Bubble Tea. That's the difference between regular cravings and pregnancy cravings - you can't wait out a pregnancy craving. It will persist until you satisfy it, regardless of how long it takes...like my craving for a nice pom-razz saketini, my little creation I came up with sometime this past year. So I guess it will persist until June. I think I'll have it pre-made, though, waiting for me when I get home!