Musings...

Just for kicks I decided I would measure my waist tonight. We are up to 41 inches and still have 9 weeks to go! So, on Sunday I was getting changed to take Jacob out to his kiddie pool and he came wandering in and after a moment of observation he said to me in this very mournful voice "You losted your belly button, Mama?" and all I could do was respond gravely- "Yes, Jacob, I losted it."

On a totally unrelated note, I was surfing the web and came across a really cool quote and thought I would share it: "I am a man, and men are animals who tell stories. This is a gift from God, who spoke our species into being, but left the end of our story untold. That mystery is troubling to us. How could it be otherwise? Without the final part, we think, how are we to make sense of all that went before: which is to say, our lives?So we make stories of our own, in fevered and envious imitation of our Maker, hoping that we'll tell, by chance, what God left untold. And finishing our tale, come to understand why we were born." - Clive Barker.

Showers of Blessings...

What a great weekend we have had!

It began on Friday when we picked up Jacob from his school to learn the excellent news that he was "accident" free ALL DAY! This is a major accomplishment and we are so proud! It was our first evening in a while where Jacob did not leave school with a pile of laundry and gave us some much needed encouragement on the potty training front.

The major great thing that happened this weekend was my baby shower. I spent a great deal of time in my youth being either a nerd or somewhat of a social butterfly. In high school I read books, studied hard and dated. In college I read more books, studied even harder and.. well, dated. End result, I still love to read, I have a decent job and I'm married to an awesome guy. The other result, though, is that I've never really had a close circle of girl friends before. I was just never a girly-girl kind of girl! Well, I'm still not so much of a girly-girl but I'm definitely a Mommy-Mom and I'm really blessed to have a circle of women in my life now.

Wow, that was a really long-winded introduction to say that my girlfriends from our home bible study group threw me the best shower EVER, not only was there great food, and decorations and an abundance of really thoughtful gifts, but it was a scrap booking surprise party! Each lady made pages for a scrapbook for the new baby so it is all set and ready to go! AND they gave me a set of all kinds of supplies and doo-hickies for scrap booking so I never have to feel guilty again about having piles of pictures and mementos in an old box in my closet! It was all so nice that I actually cried on the way home! I was just overwhelmed by how thoughtful everyone was (silly pregnancy hormones!!!) I will post up some pictures in the next day or two but for now I am way too tired to do much more than head off to bed with a grateful heart!

Shocked and amazed...

Some things in life you just can't imagine would happen until they actually do. For instance, when the the electrical design was laid out for our home, I'm fairly sure that no one anticipated that a small boy seated precariously on the toilet in the master WC could possibly "lose control" and spray a perfect arc of urine across the room and directly into an electrical outlet, thereby causing the outlet to buzz ominously for several seconds and then make a loud popping sound. After I got over being scared and upset, this whole thing sort of gave me the giggles. Will pointed out that Jacob could have been shocked and for some reason the only reply I had was "Oh, man, that really would have set us back on the potty training!" Everyone was just fine and the outlet was a GFC one, so it is fine too. The only lasting damage was to poor Dr. Sears - I had a copy of The Pregnancy Book and am sad to report that, due to the above incident, Chapters 9 and 10 were completely soaked and the book has been retired. I'm a bit put out, since I really do need to refresh myself on Months 8 and 9, as well as the chapters on child birth itself, breastfeeding etc. So, if anyone has a copy of this book I can borrow for a few months, please let me know!

In other news, we went to Austin this weekend to see Mom's new house and help with some painting. We were very lucky to get to visit with my own grandparents (Mammy & Grandad) and My Aunt Shirley and Uncle Lyle, in addition to Mom and Randy. Plus we saw Will's brother Robert and his wife Leigh and then on Sunday we went to Trudy's (fantastic Mexican food) for breakfast with my Dad and my brother Paul. On the way home this afternoon we stopped in Conroe for a few hours to visit Will's folks. What a whirlwind but we had a great time!

It's Potty Time...

This week Jacob began serious potty training. This involves a lot of patience and time spent sitting on the edge of the bathtub on my part. It involves a lot of playing with toilet paper and extraneous flushing on Jacob's part. I thought maybe I should give him some privacy so I went to a nearby room to wait and I heard him say "Mommy! Mommy! I need some toilet paper!" Thinking this was a good sign I rushed to the bathroom "Did you go?" "No, Mommy I don't did it yet", "Oh, well, then why do you need toilet paper?" " I put my foot in there. Dry my foot please!" Yes. Well.

In other news, I passed my glucose test but my blood work did show up as anemic, which may explain the extra sluggishness I've been experiencing. No worries, I'm taking extra iron now so hopefully that will do the trick. Today is officially the 29th week of my pregnancy - we've scheduled our child birth refresher class. We prefer to take Christian child birthing classes and are planning and hoping for another drug free, low intervention, delivery. To learn more about this check out this website http://www.firstbirthministries.com

This weekend we are headed to Austin to see my parents. We are really excited to see my Mom's new house for the first time and Will is going to lend a hand with some painting. Saturday night we'll celebrate Randy's birthday and then on Sunday we'll take my Dad to have breakfast for Father's Day. I love Austin, it is my favorite place to be and I am always a little homesick whenever we leave.

First Swim of the Summer...

So it has gotten really hot here. And we've had Popsicles on the back porch (last weekend) and switched to shorts PJ's (in May), but nothing marks the true beginning of summer for a kid like going to the pool. Our neighborhood pool has a separate baby pool and this year it is just perfect for Jacob. He is able to get in and out on his own, he can sit on the bottom and the water level is chest high and he's still young enough to find it ample & exciting. Here are some pictures I took to mark the occasion.

Four tantrums and a wedding

OK, so is there a cheesier movie out there than Seven Brides for Seven Brothers? Probably not, but it's a great film none-the-less. There's just something reassuring about the overall notion that there's someone out there that is meant for each of us. Will and I attended a wedding this past weekend, and weddings always make us a bit sappy. Jacob was at my in-laws and so the occasion almost qualified as a date and it was a lovely wedding with good food and we were able to visit with folks we hadn't seen for a while. The bride was an Aggie and the groom was a Longhorn so of course they played both school songs - what IS it with the ATM song anyway? It is about 15 minutes long and seems to involve a lot of swaying - by comparison the Eyes of Texas is much shorter, even with the addition of the Texas Fight! chanting part at the end ... Anyways, we had a really great time.

In other news, Jacob has started a new classroom at school "Sweet 300" (yes, I can spell, it's just a cutsie day-care thing). By all accounts he is doing well, and at the end of the day he doesn't want to leave. But the beginning of the day, that's another story. He has been at this school since he was three months old and in all that time I could count on one hand the number of times he has cried or held onto my leg, etc. Until now. For the last four school days he has had a complete toddler meltdown each morning, today he begged me not to leave him in the "big big class" but to please let him go back to the "lilly (little) class". I had to pry his fingers out of my shirt and leave him in a ball on the floor. As soon as we hit the lobby I started bawling! The teacher promises me that within 2 minutes of our departure he is just fine, but it is so hard. I'm really hoping it will get better soon.

Tomorrow I have my blood glucose test at the midwives. With Jacob I flunked the first one and had to go back and do the three hour one. I'm hoping this time I will pass the first one - the stuff you have to drink is really awful, like carbonated Tang or maybe if you melted down about 700 of those pale peach colored jelly beans and had to drink it. Nasty! I've avoided sugar all day and I'm being a good girl and drinking my tea and trying to ignore the Popsicles in the freezer calling my name. It's OK, really, I like tea. In fact, I think that I maybe have a thing when it comes to tea. I was sort of noticing lately that I really do have a lot of tea in my cabinet. Here's what's in there: Cran-Aide, Female Toner (don't ask), Throat Coat, Everyday Detox (This is for my liver), Pregnancy Tea, Echinacea, Madagascar Vanilla. General Foods International Chai Latte (so I can celebrate the moments of my life), Sugar Plum Spice, Tummy Mint, Ginseng, Peppermint, Mandarin Orange Spice, Peach Apricot Honey Bush, Travelers Tea, Hill Country Fare Family Size Iced Tea Bags and Mood Mender. I'm not sure that all this tea is really necessary, I think I just like having choices.

It's after 9 and I'm turning into a pumpkin! For some reason by the end of the day my belly is gigantic, the midwife says it is just fluid retention (perhaps from all the tea?) but it leaves me feeling large, not-in-charge and sleepy, so I'm off to bed...zzzzzz...zzzzzzz.

Finding Nemo...

I tell you, it has been a really long week, the jet lag has been terrible and I find myself completely wiped out tonight. I am officially entering my third trimester and so I know the energy and glow of the second trimester will begin to fade. Tonight we just stayed in and watched a movie. Suddenly, tragedy struck.... About 15 minutes before the end, the sound on our copy of Finding Nemo gave out. Despite Jacob's ardent requests to "Get the demote and FIX IT Daddy!", I think our copy has had it. This movie has been watched and watched and watched. I think all of us know every line by heart, I imagine that our daughter's first words will be "Shark Bait Ooh Hah hah" just because of the number if times she's heard the movie from the womb. I can't tell you how much my son loves this movie. In addition to the countless times we have watched it at home, it has also been viewed in Conroe, Austin, Galveston, in the car, on an airplane, in the homes of a number of our friends, it has even been watched in Paris, France. Even as I type this, I can hardly keep my eyes open. It gets harder to find a comfortable position at night, and previously simple things like getting Jacob out of the tub (heck - getting myself out of the tub for that matter) are beginning to be a challenge. I am hot, uncomfortable and grouchy and I have three more months to go! As I start to slow down I know I'll need to remember Dory's advice myself, just keep swimming, just keep swimming......