How honest are you?

You Are 8% Brutally Honest

You're not very honest - even with yourself sometimes. While it's good to be diplomatic, all your little lies are turning you into a pathological liar!

How Brutally Honest Are You?

Just another one of those things to add to my "things that make you go . . . hmmmmmm" list. Pathological liar, huh? Harsh!

Weekly dose of cuteness

First a story . . . yesterday I was printing off some pictures for my mom. Alyssa has an intense love for our printer (hence the sucker I found wedged up in it ~ she was sharing with her bud, I think) and for all things that come out of it, so I told her as she was reaching for the photo paper coming out to "leave it be and we'll go play in your room". She looked at me in a slightly perplexed way, pulled her "b" (binky) out of her mouth, put it next to the printer, and toddled out of the room. Just doing what her mommy asked!

We missed bathtime last night, so I told Alyssa she could take a bath in the BIG tub. I have a hard time getting down to give her a bath in her bathtub, but since our jacuzzi tub is bigger, its not as big of a deal. And she loves the bubbles that come out of the jets, so its a win/win situation. Just for fun I decided to go a bit bubble crazy and add some bubble bath . . . and what fun we had!

Most recent addiction

African Webcam

One of the moms on my October '04 board posted a link to this webcam and I think it is just the coolest thing. I've actually seen quite a few animals, but warning ~ its addicted! I've had the most luck seeing animals between 8 and 9 AM, but the other moms have had a lot of luck around 11PM/Midnight for those of you who are nightowls. We in the K house are well on our way through our sleep cycle by then. :)

I just wish I had a list of possible animals so that I could identify them more clearly. I think I've seen rhinos, buffalo, and a hyena so far. And you can hear lots of insects and birds, especially when its night time over there.

Wish I had x-ray vision . . .

I told Adam many months ago that next time we have a baby I want a video monitor because I'm SOOOO tired of the stupid regular baby monitors that we've been through. I'm tired of messing with static and tempermental dials and all that junk. And I also thought it would be nice to see if that's really "OMG, I need you RIGHT NOW" cry, or if its a "Okay, I'm going to scream bloodly murder for 15 seconds, but then drop right back to sleep unless you make the mistake of coming in here; then I'll be up for another hour" kind of cries.

And seeing as I keep hearing these funny thumps and "whoop! whoop!" noises coming from Alyssa's room I would really love to be able to see what she's actually doing.

*updated!* Our baby . . .

has a PENIS!

Ultrasound pictures and more details to follow as soon as possible! :)

**updated 10/17**



So, the news that we are having a boy was not what I was really expecting to hear, but I think it was what I "needed" to hear. I'm feeling so much more relaxed about bringing another baby into the family because I know that the mommy/daughter bond that I share with Alyssa will still be fully intact. I truly feel now that we're adding on to our family instead of trying to make another child fit in somewhere, if that makes any sense.

And I think its kind of cool that things will be "even" now. Not only will we have 2 boys and 2 girls (at least human-count-wise), but Adam can have his daddy's girl and I can have my momma's boy. And come wedding time Adam gets to do the daddy/daughter dance and I get to do the mother/son dance.

It just all around feels perfect. Not sure if this little guy will complete our family or not (Adam seems to think so because I think he's already making plans for a little "snip-snip"), but I think he will absolutely be a very positive addition. And now Adam doesn't have to worry about me going out and buying our kids matching outfits. But darn it, my kids WILL have coordinating outfits for special occasions and I better not get any crap for it. ;)

And for those who care, my 20 week appointment went pretty well. I did have a pretty big weight jump this time, but considering up until now I'd only gained 1 pound, that's not too bad. (My midwife said that considering that she wasn't going to give me a hard time about it ~ yay!). I do think some of it was water retention because I have been loading up on the sodium and down on the water lately. I talked to Jenda about my back/tailbone/hip pain and she said that I have a joint at the bottom of my spine that is basically slipping out of place. Good news is that it goes right back in. Its fairly common, but does suck. But if it were to slip out and not go back in, all I would just have to see a physical therapist or chiropracter to fix me up. Much better than the "neurological defects/damage" that I had been reading about. Damn babycenter.com anyway! Oh, and once again I was complimented on my cervix length ~ last time my cervix was a "fortress"; this time its "Fort Knox". No preterm labor for this lady, I guess. Heartbeat was steady at 136 during the u/s and 140 during my appointment, blood pressure was good, and I broke down/got bullied into getting one of those damn flu shots. And I haven't been able to lay on my left side because my arm STILL hurts.

And the festivies wind down . . .

Today marked the end of Alyssa's "birthday week festivities". Thank goodness! Mama is pooped!
We had a really great party today. Unfortunately we had some last minute cancellations, but thank you to everyone who did come and for all the WONDERFUL gifts. Our friends really love to spoil our little peanut . . . she's such a lucky girl. I'm starting to think that maybe we should have looked for a bigger house. ;)

Special thanks to my handsome hubby who stuck with me this weekend even through my massive breakdown this morning. I bit off a bit more (okay, waaay more) than I could chew this year and I was a totally mess about 11:30 this morning. I was in such pain that I wanted to cry, I was crampy and knew that I needed to sit down and chill out for the baby, but things weren't nearly ready enough for company, so I kept plugging away. I kept thinking that I had to make this birthday special for Alyssa because its the last one she'll have where I'm completely 100% devoted to her. I want to her look back at pictures of this day and know how much her mommy loves her and thinks that she's the most special thing in the world. I know in my heart that she'll know that anyway because of plain old every day things, not just the big "special" days, but for some reason throwing her the biggest bestest party I could think of made me feel a little better. I know its perfectly normal to have these "issues" with being pregnant with a 2nd child, but man, I wish I wasn't so freakin' crazy all the time!

Anyway, pictures to follow soon (hopefully) since most of the pictures today were taken with my mom's camera. I was too lazy to find someone to take pictures of Alyssa's opening presents with my camera and since my mom was taking lots, I figured I may as well just put all the party pictures on there.

I'm ready for bed.

Starting to panic a little . . .

about "bringing home baby". I was talking to Dr. K (our pediatrician) today about what I should be/could be doing to prepare Alyssa for a new baby. He told me that there isn't really a whole lot I can be doing to full prepare her because she's just too young to comprehend/understand. The analogy he gave me was to imagine that one day Adam comes home from work and says, "Honey, this is my new wife. I still love you and you're still my wife, but she's going to live here and be my wife, too". I keep repeating that over and over in my head and its just bringing up all these fears and horrible feelings I had when I first found out I was pregnant. The night I got my positive test I could barely look at Alyssa without bursting into tears and feeling like I had totally just ruined her life. I know that in the end I am giving her an amazing gift in a sibling, I just hope and pray that when the time comes I'll be strong enough/loving enough to make the transition as smooth as possible so that she never feels like she is being replaced, instead she feels blessed to have someone new and very special in her life to look up to her and love her.

2 years ago today . . .

Happy "Alyssa's birthday eve" day . . .

I had lunch with my mom at Golden Palace (Chicken Chow Mein) ~ Yum!
Mom and I went to Target.
I "registered" via phone with one of the nurses at the hospital since I was going to be induced the next night (Alyssa had other plans).
I went to Mark and Janna's to pick up hand me downs from Camdyn for the baby.
I made meatloaf for Adam for dinner ~ the first time I ever made meatloaf for him because I don't like it ~ as a "thanks for being such a supportive husband during my pregnancy" present.
I spent 30 minutes on the elliptical machine while Adam talked to his Aunt Nancy on the phone ~ once hearing what I was doing, she predicted that I would go into labor that night.
My water broke at 11:15 PM. It feels like it was just yesterday!

My heart hurts. :(

I took Alyssa to her 2 year appointment today. She did a lot better than I expected, but the shots were pretty traumatic for both of us. They use grape flavored tongue depressors to check out the kids' mouths and then let them keep them and chew on them, which she usually thinks is pretty cool. Especially today since she's working on her upper 2 year molars. Until she jammed the thing into the back of her throat. While we were waiting for the nurse to come back and do shots. So unfortunately she was pretty hysterical before the shots even happened. I did get her calmed down in between "beatings", so at least I didn't have to hold down a screaming child for her 2 shots. She kept touching her legs ever so gently and then she would say "ouch mommy" and start crying again on the way home. It made it extra worse for me that I was so on the fence about getting her the flu shot and if I had just held my ground and refused it she wouldn't have been in quite so much pain. It all happened so quickly and they didn't even ask if I wanted to do a flu shot. I feel like its just expected and that I'm a bad mom if I say I don't want it. I gave her a sucker on the way home and I think I need to go find myself some serious comfort food, too.

She's growing perfectly, though ~ 29 lbs 6 oz (up 21 lbs and 2.5 oz since birth and about 10 lbs since 1 year) and 34 inches (up 13 inches since birth). Right around 70/80th percentile for both.

I think I'll make some birthday cupcakes this afternoon for tomorrow and let her eat as many as she wants to make up for the bad morning. Plus we got to the doctor's office at 11:20 (appt was at 11:30). It was almost noon before we got in to a room and 12:50 before we left. Dr. K. did spend quite a bit of time with us and gave me some great advice about preparing Alyssa for the new baby, but that's a LOT of wait time. Especially when it runs right through lunch/nap time.)

Tuesday night blahs . . .

Alyssa and I had the pleasure of dining with the Dwight family tonight! It has been waaaay too long since we've hung out. Since Adam is on his "treck across Nebraska via UP train", Alyssa and I were bacheloretting it tonight, so Angie invited us to go to Pepperjax with them. Its "DINE OUT" night in O-town. (Part of the sales for participating restaurants from today are donated to a local food bank or something like that). We hadn't been there in a long time, so it was good to get out of the house (no cooking for me tonight!) and see the D-fam.

Now I'm waiting for my sheets to finish drying in the dryer so that I can head to bed. I've got about 2 1/2 hours of TiVoed shows calling my name. I decided to put our matress pad warmer (best invention EVER!!!!!) on today since its sooo chilly and decided since I had to strip the bed anyway, I may as well wash sheets. Probably something that should have been done earlier in the day, but oh well.

We had Alyssa's 2 year pictures done today and they turned out FANTASTIC! She did such a good job. It was really cute ~ she kept saying "more!" after she would have a picture taken. And she loved seeing herself on the computer screen/tv monitor. After Adam gets the pictures put up on our website, I'll post some here to share.

Oh! I think I heard the dryer buzzer! HOORAY!

Teamwork

I meant to blog about this last weekend, but it slipped my mind until today.

I have a confession. Adam and I don't work well together most of the time. :) We're both stubborn, we want to do things OUR way, etc. That's what we get for marrying Tauruses! Anyway, a few weeks ago we sat down and managed to agree on a box of flower bulbs that we wanted to plant out front. It arrived last Thursday, so I was going to just take control of the situation and start planting on Saturday (another thing about us ~ we don't always work well together and we BOTH are famous for starting projects and not finishing them. See yesterday's entry about Alyssa's scrapbook and quilt). It turned into both of us working on the flower bed; I was pulling up mulch/dirt and he was transplanting 2 of the 3 rose bushes. And then it turned into "pregnant Christi sits on her arse instructing big, strong Adam on where to put the bulbs". We got all 100 bulbs planted without an argument, bloodshed, or talk of divorce. I was REALLY proud of us! I think that maybe Adam was willing to give in; or maybe he just took the time to listen to what I had to say. ;) But either way, it was really nice being able to work on a project together.

One small step towards maybe, someday, being able to talk about what we want to do to finish the basement. Because I'm sure we've both got layouts already set in stone in our minds. At least I do.

I'm bored.

Warning ~ bored ramblings ahead!

I don't want to clean ~ the house only gets messed up 10 minutes later, anyway. And why put all my energy into cleaning early in the week when I have to clean for Alyssa's b-day party this weekend anyway? It used to be that I could power clean a week before an event and then keep on top of things until said event . . . not possible these days with a child, a husband, and 2 dogs.

I don't even have anything on TiVo to watch, how sad is that? Must mean that I need to get addicted to some more shows. HA!

I don't want to go take a nap even though I'm tired . . . I would feel like I was wasting the afternoon (because surfing the internet is SOOO much more productive).

I could work on Alyssa's quilt, but I can't find my pins and I don't think I should attempt piecing it together without straight pins. Or crooked ones for that matter. ;)

I could get out my scrapbooking stuff since I'm sooooooooo far behind on Alyssa's book. But then I would just have to clean it up again. Bah.

Maybe I should start with a shower. Haven't done that yet today since I did go to jazzercise this morning.

I made Alyssa a "real" lunch consisting of fish sticks, oranges, and pears. And "cheeps" (chips) of course. Because when she said chips all cute in her little toddler accent I just can't help myself. And I baked oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. And jazzercised my pregnant bootay as previously mentioned. But that's about all I've accomplished in the 6+ hours I've been up. Seems kind of lame. Oh! I found a new insurance agent! But I didn't call them . . . I did set up an appointment with our "old" agent that I have no intention of keeping.

I have to figure something out for supper. I hate that.

HOORAY!!! My Julai just called and saved me from my boredom! She's good like that and I "big bowl love" her times infinity!!!!

Favorite Commercial . . .

currently I LOVE the Ford (I think its Ford) commerical where the girl is in the drive through picking up her dry cleaning and she gives the lady money to pay for part of the hot guy behind her's dry cleaning and asks her to give him her card.

I want RMP to pick up the story line and run with it. I want to know what happens!!! There's too much possibility to just stop with a 30 second commercial. How about it, guys? Are you up to the challenge?

Pregnancy complaints

The past few days I've been REALLY craving wings from Wing Stop (reminds you of the good old days, doesn't it, Eric and Angie?). Today I finally broke down and picked some up. BIG mistake!

Pregnant Christi + Wings = NO WAY JOSE!!! My stomach is soooooo upset. Come to think of it, I think wings bothered Angie during her pregnancy, too. Maybe its a "girl" thing? (I'm so wishy washy about predicting the sex of this kid; a week from Monday can't come soon enough. How on earth did we wait with Alyssa?!?)

Baby Bun is "half baked" tomorrow. I can't believe I'm at that 1/2 way point already. Its going so fast, yet so slow. My one and only REAL complaint is that I'm soooo tired of feeling like someone has hit me in the arse with a sledge hammer. I hate all this tailbone pain. It can go away any time now. I feel bad complaining because I know it'll only get worse before it gets better, but its really, really, really, really annoying.

The good 'ol days . . .

I used to love my mood ring . . . brings back fun memories. :)

Your Mood Ring is Yellow

Imaginative Wondering Thoughts Peaceful

Mood Ring Generator

Sad

I can't ever actually remember my mom bringing treats to any of my classes when I was in preschool/elementary school, but I had this "fairy tale" fantasy of being super mom who showed up on their child's birthday with these incredibly decorated, awe-inspiring treats for my children's classmates. I was shopping yesterday with my friend Staci and stumbled across this SUPER CUTE container of really unique Halloween sprinkles. It had your usual pumpkins, ect, but it also had head stones, witches hats, black cats, etc. As I was showing it to her she asked if I was going to buy it and I said something along the lines of "I would in a heartbeat if I had a whole bunch of kids to make cupcakes or cookies for. Like a preschool class". She then informed me that in the public school system here, you can't bring any homemade treats to your kids classes. They all have to be store bought AND individually packaged. So you can't even buy a dozen cookies/cupcakes from the bakery. How freaking sad is it that I'm raising my children in a world where moms can't "bake a little love" for their kids and their classmates?! I guess I should be thankful that schools are taking precautions, but I hate that it has to be so extreme.

My parents have new next door neighbors that moved in a few weeks ago. Kind of a weird situation, the new neighbors actually live full time in California, but want a "summer home" in Iowa. They'll probably only be around about 3 months out of the year; a couple weeks here and a couple weeks there because their daughter and grandchildren live in my hometown. When the neighbors found out that my parents were flying to Colorado last week they offered to drive them to and from the airport (about an hour each way) EVEN THOUGHT THEY JUST MET THEM! They actually had to leave at 7 AM to catch their flight out to Colorado and the neighbors were in the driveway 15 minutes early offering to load suitcases into the back of their car. My parents were blown away by their generosity, but my dad was telling me today, you almost have to wonder what their "deal" is. They've offered the use of their extra garage stalls to my parents during the winter since they're only keeping 1 car at the house and my parents have two vehicles and only one garage. They've given my parents a key to the house, permission to move their car if they need to . . . its an amazing situation, one that gives me hope, but also one that makes me wonder if they are for real.

I hate how jaded the world has become.

This makes me happy!

No matter how big/deep of a funk I'm in, seeing this makes me smile. :)