it's getting messy over here

I only show you these pictures to help you feel better about yourselves today. I took them for my own sake, lest in a few months my sleep deprivation caused by a newborn makes me wish for a return to the days of pregnancy, I can look at these photos and remember.

Remember that in my pregnant state I do the very minimum to get by.

Remember that in my pregnant state I haven't cleaned up, or made the kids clean up, the toy room for weeks. I wish that were an exaggeration, but it's not.

Some of you have nice basements or hidden away spaces for your kids to play so you don't see the mess daily. I do not have that. I have a room directly across the hall from my room, and right next door to my kids room, that is viewed often. I see it when I wake up in the morning. I see it after breakfast when I go back upstairs to get ready. I see at night when I put my kids to bed. And I see it as though it's burned into my eyelids when I go to sleep.

Ready for it? Here is what our toy room/everything else room currently looks like:


And don't forget the closet:

It's pathetic really, and at this point I think I've given up on organizing those toys.

In order for our house to be baby ready we have to do some major purging. And I'm just waiting for a time when I can go through all those toys and get rid of half of them without the kids around.

Have I mentioned Alexis is a pack rat? So for her, parting with things (this includes garbage) is akin to a normal person parting with a necessary limb. It is traumatic to say the least.

I, however, have never considered myself a pack rat and try to not keep unnecessary things around. So I realized that I needed to go through all the old girl clothes I've been saving and get rid of most of them. I did that last week and now I understand Alexis a little more! It was kind of hard and a little emotional. And really ridiculous how many clothes I'd been hanging onto. Seriously, can one little girl really wear that many clothes??

But as I went through them those clothes brought back a lot of memories. It's funny how you can associate such a material thing with moments that matter. So I kept all the stuff that really held sentimental value or that I really loved, but the rest of it I'm passing on. I kept thinking that most of the memories I have from those clothes are associated with photos I've seen over and over, but I just looked through old pictures and most of the clothes aren't in them. So I guess they are actual memories. But here's a few photos I do have:

Purple velour pants, ridiculous purple shoes, flower onesie. This was a favorite outfit.

First time swimming
First time she attempted to take off her clothes (while she was supposed to be napping!)

Though I don't really care for Winnie the Pooh, she had a set of three different onesies that she wore a lot, and they were some of the hardest to part with. (p.s. what's up with her hair?)
I just really like this picture! And she wore that sweatshirt a lot!

And this dress was a favorite! I can still picture her crawling around church in it.

Loved this coat! I'm keeping it.

Her first Easter dress. This has been passed on to my niece that will be born in August.

That's enough of that. To sum up:

1. My house is a gigantic mess!
2. Jeremy and I are in the process of organizing and de-junking our entire house so the baby doesn't have to sleep outside.
3. This all needs to be done by June 2nd at the very latest (my induction date!!!!)
4. Alexis has had way too many clothes in her short life span of 5 1/2 years.
5. I am apparently having a hard time accepting the fact that my oldest is growing up.

And along the lines of #5, would it be weird to keep a pair of her first set of underwear in the memory box that I have for her?

6. Sometimes I ask really weird questions.