Birthdays!

Alayna turns three on Monday. General Motors turns 100 on Tuesday. Alayna's sister keeps kicking me to remind me she's in there. Life is busy.

We will have a princess cake of some sort for Alayna's party. She helped me bake it last night and I'll decorate it tonight after she goes to bed.

Alayna has requested a pink princess party, with "a parade of pink balloons." When I asked her if other colors were OK, she said: "As long as they're pink, mama." I learned about many of the requirements for this party when she told my Mom what I was supposedly planning.

Party hats, balloons, princess cake, presents and a parade were among the items mentioned.

Alayna has now finished two weeks of preschool. She goes twice a week for two hours at a time and is loving it. They do arts and crafts, play inside and out, listen to stories and have a snack. Life is good.

At the beginning and end of class each day, the children are asked to sit on a picture on a circle rug (to quiet down and pay attention to the teacher). Each day so far, Alayna always walks around as if she's considering all the pictures, but inevitably sits on the Queen, which I think she thinks is a Princess.

On Thursday, she was very excited when she first sat down and raised her hand to tell her teacher "My baby's going to sleep in my room." I don't think the teacher knew what she was talking about.

I found it very sweet. I hope the reality of a sister isn't too jarringly different from what Alayna's is hoping for. ... but I have my concerns.

We've moved the guest room into the office and I've given up my home office space so we can turn the old guest room into Alayna's new big-girl room. I've been painting it and talking to Alayna about it so she's ready for a move. I have a piece of wainscotting and some trim to finish this weekend, then we should be able to move Alayna in. The new baby will go in the smaller nursery where Alayna has been.

Once we get Alayna moved into the big-girl room (which has peachy-cream colored walls), i can touch up the paint in there, set up the crib and move the glider Paul got into place. Alayna will keep her rocker. ... We still need it for cuddling, stories and the occasional nightime wakeup.

The other thing I'm hoping to get done this weekend is finish building my new Ikea secretary. It's smaller than my older desk (which will become Alayna's) and will fit in the sunroom. As an added bonus, the whole think closes up when not in use to hide the computer and files.

Then the only other thing we need to do before Alayna's sister comes is find a dresser for Alayna. The old dresser matches the crib and has a changing-table style top.

I'm anxious to get the house in order fast, since I'm 19 weeks pregnant now. During the pregnancy with Alayna, I ended up on bedrest at 26 weeks. This time around that would be the first week of November, so the clocks ticking.

I fully expect to have a healthy pregnancy this time, but don't want to leave any preparations to chance.

We're looking forward to a wonderful birthday party tomorrow. I'll try to get a picture or two up before too long ... of Alayna in her party hat.