&*$(*&#$%(&*$&(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just spent well over an hour working on the event calendars that I'm making as Christmas presents for some family/friends this year only to realize that my layout for the top of the calendar was too big. Two months (times 4 calendars) down the toilet. Crud. (I'm trying to cut down on my "naughty language", so crud will have to do) I was sooo happy with the way they turned out and now I'm not sure things will fit as well (if at all) when I make it smaller.

Crud. Crud. Crud.

Thanksgiving Photos

I'm such a slacker when it comes to Thanksgiving pictures or maybe my family just isn't Thanksgivingly photogenic. There usually isn't a whole lot that I can find to take pictures of, but I did want to share my favorite from this year of Alyssa with her Uncle Chris. I love how it looks like she just absolutely adores him (and how he looks absolutely perplexed by the puzzle . . . would you believe he's a doctor?!) . . .



and a family one, just for fun . .


and one of Alyssa and my Thanksgiving art project . . .

What a great start to the week!

Normally when I'm woken up by an early morning phone call it makes me crabby, but this morning's phone call was a welcome one! It came from my very good friend Christy's mom announcing that Christy was at the hospital in labor. I had the supreme honor of being in the delivery room as her family welcomed their 3rd baby boy, Samuel John, at 11:24 this morning. The "little" guy came into the world at 9 lbs 13 oz and 21 1/2 inches long ~ After spending a few hours with him, I predict he's going to be the mellow one in the family.

Welcome to the world, Sam,

and huge congrats to Jeff and Christy and
big brothers Evan and Charlie!!!

And a special shout out to my wonderful husband who stayed home from work today to watch Alyssa(I don't think he really was TOO upset at staying home, though). And bonus points to him for doing lots 'o dishes while I was gone!!!

What tarot card are YOU?

You are The Star

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Star is one of the great cards of faith, dreams realised

The Star is a card that looks to the future. It does not predict any immediate or powerful change, but it does predict hope and healing. This card suggests clarity of vision, spiritual insight. And, most importantly, that unexpected help will be coming, with water to quench your thirst, with a guiding light to the future. They might say you're a dreamer, but you're not the only one.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Where, oh where, have my Tums gone?!

Unfortunately, I know, they're still at my parents house.

The entire family (dogs included) headed to my parents house for the weekend, mostly to celebrate the first of 3 Thanksgivings at Kikki and Charlie's house today. I ran home after we ate to pack up everything as quickly as possible so that we could get back on the road and stop to chop down a Christmas tree on our way home. I packed so quickly that I forgot my bottle of Tums.

My sweet, wonderful, can't-live-without-them-because-I-have-constant-pregnancy- induced-heartburn Tums. And then the damn tree farm wasn't even open!

Maybe ice cream will have the same soothing effect as Tums. Its all about the calcium, right?

And before I wrap up, a little "audience participation" portion . . . in your opinion, is the singular of Tums still a Tums or is it a Tum? Things that Adam and I get to ponder before bed.

Ahhh . . . the ladies!

They did not disappoint!!! :)

We had a great time at the concert last night. One of the highlights of the evening included getting to eat all my own croutons at dinner instead of having to share/give them all to Alyssa! Our seats were really good, no annoying distracting neighbors (although the people in front of us were tossing back the beers pretty quickly and I was annoyed because I could have gone for a beer or two!), they played lots of good "oldies", and did lots of fun "improv" songs. I think Adam enjoyed it more because they played some older songs that he knew. I'm not completely in love with the new album, so I was kind of glad to see them stick to the "classics", but I was bummed they didn't sing the "Nun" song that's my current fave from the new album.

I called my Dad (my parents were at the house watching Alyssa) when we were got out of the concert to let him know that we were on our way home and he told me that Alyssa was still "up and kicking". I didn't really believe him . . . I couldn't believe that she could still be awake at 11PM at night and not having a breakdown, but sure enough at almost 11:30 when we got home she was sitting on the floor happy as a clam playing with blocks. My parents bring out the night owl in her! On the up side, both of us can be sleepy/lazy together tomorrow.

Bun had a great time at the concert, too. He definitely had some faves . . . I swear during "Million Dollars" he had his little head up under my rib cage and was head banging his heart out. As Julai said . . . he's going to be a "Ladies man". She's punny!

Eric ~ Hope you got to hear "Old Apartment" either via voicemail or home phone.
Angie ~ Sorry for harassing you if Eric wasn't around ~ please forgive me!

Gimme CAKE!!!!

I was on the phone with Julai this afternoon talking about/finalizing plans for tomorrow night (BARENAKED LADIES, BABY! And date night with my handsome hubby ~ and my beautiful Julai and BradD). We were talking about how our weekends went and she mentioned that last weekend was Brad's parents birthdays, so she bought a TRIPLE CHOCOLATE birthday cake for them. Now, I'm not at all a chocolate cake person. I love white cake, I love marble cake, I love many kinds of cake, but chocolate is not too high on my list. But I decided that I. Must. Have. Chocolate. Cake. ASAP. I was going to buy one at the grocery store when Alyssa and I make our run, but I'm being thrifty lately and did notice that I had a chocolate cake mix downstairs. Yummy! And I have some funfetti frosting with sprinkles to put on it, too (who cares that the sprinkles are actually 4th of July ones, right?).

Damn, she's handy!

Here's what happens when I ask Adam to vacuum for me . . .

I told him having kids would be beneficial! ;)

Christmas is coming 'round the corner!?

I feel like I'm behind on my Christmas shopping.

Its November 11th.

This is so wrong.

I blame stores/merchants/malls for putting out decorations and advertisements 3 months before Christmas since my body/psyche is still used to the holiday season being approximately a month long. Adam blames me because I bought a decorative sled in October. But it was only $5 and I wanted to get one before they ran out or only had crappy, scuffed up ones left!!!

Regardless I'm starting to feel panicked about getting my shopping done. And then I start panicking and thinking I'll have everything bought by December 1st and I won't get to enjoy any TRUE holiday shopping. I actually love shopping during December. Not with a kid on the weekends, mind you ~ I either have to go during the week with child (good time to get the Santa photo opportunity in) or on the weekend sans child, but I love the crowds and the bustle and the lights and the decorations and the chill in the air. I love the holiday season!

Ahhh motherhood . . .

I'm sitting at the computer catching up on blogs and listening to Alyssa rummage through the closet behind me. All of the sudden she comes running over to me screaming "Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!" and she proudly holds out her hand to show me 4 raisins. My reply "Where did you get those?" as I'm trying to think back to the last time I gave her raisins . . . and then I proceed to let her eat them because, hey, they're fruit!

If I could go back and tell my "first time pregnant self" these type of stories, I think I would make my toes curl.

Bun update

I had my 24 week appointment with one of my midwives today. Not that I think anyone REALLY cares about my appointments, but I wanted to blog some of the details just to keep track. So if/when we have a 3rd baby I can go back and remember what is "normal" for me.

*Total weight gain so far is about 8 lbs, which CeCe complimented me on. Not too often that someone compliments your weight GAIN. lol
*Blood pressure was normal
*Heart rate was in 150s (I would still swear he was a girl if going by the heart rate; Alyssa's was always slower, but girls are supposed to be faster)
*I'm measuring 27 weeks. CeCe told me not to be concerned about that, and I'm not because I was consistently measuring 4-6 weeks farther with Alyssa and she turned out just fine.
*He's breech right now, but again I'm not too concerned. Plenty of time for the little guy to flip flop many, many times.

I have my glucose test next appointment (keep your fingers crossed that I pass it so that I don't have to give up sweets and goodies for Christmas!!!!). After my next appointment I start going every two weeks. Where has the time gone?!?!

You know what I hate?

When my pregnant/mommy brain forgets to the run the dishwasher for a day or so, even if its completely loaded with soap in it, then I finally get around to running it/unloading clean dishes only to find that I've filled it again with the dirty dishes in the sink/on the counter that have been waiting for their turn in the dishwasher. It seems like such a wasted effort. Although the kitchen does look a heck of a lot better once I get everything sorted out and put where in belongs.

*big sigh*

MyGym

I took Alyssa to try out a MyGym class this morning and it went REALLY well. She had a HUGE smile on her face probably 95% of the time and as soon as I saw that it totally justified spending the money. There were 4 teachers in her class, two men and two women. They were all absolutely wonderful with the kids and really good at getting Alyssa to let them help her on some of the equipment rather than sticking to me like glue, which is what usually happens when we got to parks, etc. And they got bonus points for putting a teacher next to me during circle time that would take over if some of the movements got to "out of hand" for a pregnant mommy to do. My only complaint is that while it is really fun for the kids, the pace moves a little quickly at times. They start off letting the kids just run around for a few minutes and then move to circle time where they do a song and "muscle warm-up". Then comes probably 20 - 30 minutes of more free play, but within that time there are "centers" set up. One group of centers was walking on a balance beam, swinging from a rope, and practicing front rolls/somersaults; the next center was swings (some double with two kids and some single with just one, which was kind of cool) and "bucking horse" which consisted of riding a plastic rocking horse (supervised) down a slide and then the teacher would rock the horse around in the circle. With the centers it was like they could have exactly so many minutes to do the activity and then WHOOSH ~ they had to wisk it away to move on to the next thing even if kids were still playing. I would have been more inclined to leave something out until the kid gets bored with it and then move on, but I suppose they do know what they are doing! They also had about 5 minutes of "alone play" where all the parents left the play area to leave the kids alone with the 4 teachers and some musical toys, trucks, sorting blocks kind of toys. Alyssa could still see me, but I guess they try to get them to play on their own. Maybe it was just that it was her first time there, but Alyssa kept walking around to see what all was out to play with and then as soon as she decided what she wanted to play with WHOOSH; everything is wisked away again. Which was what led to a bit of a melt down the last couple minutes of class, but overall she did really great and I think she had a good time.

I didn't get a great vibe from any of the moms, so I'm not sure that this will be nearly as great of a mommy-mommy bonding experience for me, but its really fun to get out and do something different with Alyssa, especially since it gives us some special time before the baby comes. And she can go to 2 "free plays" during the week, so hopefully Adam will be able to take her to play every once in a while, too, and they can have some daddy/daughter time.

PS ~ Out of the 4 girls in the class, two are named Alyssa . . . guess we weren't nearly as creative as we thought!

Halloween ~ then and now

Some of the moms on my "Born In October" board posted "then and now" pictures of their little ones at Halloween. I couldn't get pictures to upload there, so thought I would put it on my blog.

Halloween 2004 (approximately 2 weeks old)


Halloween 2005

Halloween 2006

I'm a believer . . .

I have a confession . . . I don't really believe that caffeine and sugar can "pump you up" as much as some people do.

Or at least I didn't before last night.

Before my beautiful sweet child ate 3 smarties, 2 fruity/frootie tootsie rolls, and part of a sucker. Before my beautiful sweet child ran laps around the inside of her crib, twirling her diaper over her head, and squealing like a crazy woman. And this was an hour after her normal bedtime.

Okay, so maybe sugar does have an impact on kids.

I blame the whole experience on Aunt Julai for giving her the smarties, btw. See her pushing her devil candy on my poor innocent baby?!? The horror!!!!!