Happy New Year!  Hooray!  I was going to make this The Last Post of 2011, but knowing me, I won’t get it written and posted before midnight, so let’s call it The First Post of 2012 instead.  WOO HOO!  (And then let’s all politely ignore the fact that I’m spending my New Year’s Eve writing a blog.  It could be worse; my husband is spending HIS New Year’s Eve looking at kitchen floor tiles online.  More on THAT below!  And lest you think our entire holiday was lame, you should know that actually we had a thrilling afternoon of taking the toddler to Lowe’s (“kitchens? kitchens? carpet! Daddy looking at tiles! NO NO LOOK AT TILES DON’T LIKE DAT!  Kitchens?”) and then TGIFriday’s (“Restaurant!  Crayons!  Uh-oh, broke the crayons.  Uh-oh, dropped the milk!  Milk on the shirt!  Milk on the table!  CHICKEN FIIIIIIIINGERS WAAAAAAAANT DAAAAAAT nom nom nom nom [first time he’s been quiet all day] nom nom”) . . . so, clearly we are actually very cool people, and we just hide it well.)  😉

Or maybe I just love you, my blog readers, soooo much that I’m willing to spend my New Year’s on you.  :-)  That must be it!  Nothing to do with the guilt or nothing.  OK, I know, I’ve been woefully neglecting this blog – and you know what’s weird?  A lot of my favorite authors have been neglecting their blogs too!  Even the ones who usually post all the time, like Meg Cabot.  Maybe there’s something in the Inter-air.

Although I’m sure not all of them can possibly have the same iron-clad sympathetic excuse I do, and it is certainly high time that I told you all about it (especially since I have an ominous feeling I’ve forgotten to tell all my friends), SOOOO (drumroll please) . . .

. . . WE ARE HAVING ANOTHER BABY! 

Ack!

Also!  We are moving!  (Not far, but still.)  And renovating!  And therefore preparing for packing and unpacking! 

Also!  I have a book due in March, another in July, and another in September!

YAAAARRRRGH.  WHAT ARE WE DOING???

Here are my very scientific observations about second pregnancy:

(1) Certain symptoms of the original third trimester IMMEDIATELY RETURNED upon encountering a positive pregnancy test result.  Like, I found out I was pregnant again, and almost instantly (a) nothing fit, (b) I needed to sleep 17 hours a day (guess what the toddler’s not putting up with), and (c) I DON’T CARE that this baby is THE SIZE OF A GRAPE right now, there is still NO ROOM FOR ANYONE ELSE IN THIS BED so WHAT IS THIS HUSBAND DOING IN IT OUT I SAY OUT!  Poor Adam.  He puts up with so much.  And by so much, I mean me and my seven pillows (<—literally not an exaggeration).

(2) On the other hand, this time around I keep forgetting I’m pregnant for hours at a time, mostly because there is another far more insistent little person demanding all that attention for himself.  So it begins!  Poor second child.  So neglected!  No attention for you!  At least, that’s what I hear (from, for instance, my younger sister).  As a first child myself, I have no idea what she’s talking about because HEY LOOK AT ME OVER HERE!  🙂

(3) The upside is, I have much less time to notice all my physical ailments (other than wanting to sleep 17 hours a day, which I am quite well aware of) . . . but the downside is, for some reason, I am ridiculously anxious ALL THE TIME.  My brain keeps hollering:  Things will never get finished!  This is completely impossible!  I have a million things to do and if I don’t finish them all right now right now right now then April will arrive and I will NEVER GET ANYTHING DONE EVER AGAIN!

(P.S. The baby is due in April.)  🙂

What I should probably do is start stalking the moms-of-two (or more) that I know to reassure myself that somehow they actually DO do things . . . BUT WHEN AM I GOING TO FIND TIME FOR THAT????

Hmm.  This blog seems yellier than usual.  I’m sorry!  It’s my brain.  My brain on pregnancy.  My brain on I-wish-I-were-sleeping-17-hours-a-day-but-my-toddler-and-my-book-deadlines-apparently-have-a-problem-with-that.

So perhaps you can see why the blog hasn’t been quiiiiiiite as much of a priority as usual in the last few months.  :-)  I WOULD say that being a better blogger is my New Year’s resolution, but I’m preeeeetty sure that was one of last year’s resolutions, and look how that turned out, AND who am I kidding?  2012 is going to be MADNESS IN THIS HOUSE.  And in the other house.  The one we have to finish renovating and then move into quick before the baby arrives!  Does anyone remember the last time we dealt with house renovations?  It was THE WORST.  Adam and I get along wonderfully about everything EXCEPT, apparently, bathroom floor tiles.  Bathroom floor tile discussions turn us both into CRANKY STUBBORN MONSTERS.  And you know what’s awesome?  A PREGNANT CRANKY STUBBORN MONSTER.  (<—redundant, at least in the case of me)

And yet for some reason Adam has decided now is a good time to make me look at floor tiles again.  WHAT.  This man has no memory (of either Renovation #1 or Pregnancy #1, evidently).

OK, enough grumbling!  Let’s look on the bright side!  This time we are not living in the same house as the renovations!  This time I can work over here in marvelous peace and quiet while magical kitchen-making happens somewhere far away!  And if anyone wants to know about towel racks at 8 o’clock in the flim-flamming morning, they can jolly well call Adam about it instead of waking me up. 

Best of all, someday soon we will have a glorious new kitchen in a glorious new house all ready for two tiny toddler boys to wreck with glorious joy!

(P.P.S. Oh, yes, the baby is a boy.)

So that’s what I’ve been up to.  You?  :-)  Hey, you know what I realized I never posted?  Adorable toddler Halloween photos!  Tsk tsk, bad wicked me.

I . . . don’t want to know what this is, do I?

It’s a MONSTER!

Oh!  You mean, like, RAWR?

Well, “monster” is what the label said.  But come on, this?

Is clearly a dragon.  A DRAGON!  Just like in the books I’m writing!  What a WEIRD coincidence!  :-)  Aw, magnificent little blue dragon.  I should probably have him wear this every day to keep me inspired, don’t you think?

Most excellent plan.  Most excellent dragon!  Hooray!

OK, perhaps I’ll go work on some of the things I am so ridiculously anxious about.  OR perhaps I’ll make my husband watch some excellent TV with me as we count down into the new year.  Yay!  Thank goodness we will soon have Project Runway: All Stars and the return of Downton Abbey and Pretty Little Liars to get us back into the swing of TV after the holiday lull.