Anniversaries, Poop, and Some Other Stuff

This week (April 7th to be exact) marked four years since Hubby and I have been together! I started writing a post about “us” but… decided it was better left for a ‘page’ so I’ll get that (“Our Story”) up when I find the time to finish it! 🙂

***************************************************************

Magnolia. Miss Magnolia. *sigh* Magnolia has (three times in the last two weeks) taken poop out of her diaper and smeared on things. I know this is something she’ll outgrow (she better outgrow this &%$#) but it’s pretty frustrating. She first did it in her room after waking up in the morning – Hubby cleaned it up and let me sleep through it (what a doll!). Then it happened again at Grandma’s house on Wednesday. She allegedly smeared it ALL OVER the pack n’ play – like, ALL OVER the netting on all sides. Poor Grandma had to clean it up. We told her to take it outside and use the power washer. ICK. And then yesterday HRH Magnolia QP (Her Royal Highness, Magnolia, the Queen of Poop) striked again. This time it was a handful of poop smeared onto the baby swing and the baby playmat. Needless to say we got very upset and she got a very long time out on “the step”.

It hasn’t happened since that last time (knock on wood… hell, I’ll knock twice for that!) and she’s since said a few times “I put poop all over place”. And then we go through the “Poop only belongs in your diaper” speech.

She’s been very good with the baby – she loves the baby, she really does. But part of me thinks this might be stemming from feeling left out or that we don’t have time for her anymore… it makes sense. So I took Mags with me to the market this past weekend. She seemed to really enjoy the only-her time with Mommy. We had slacked off on taking them out recently because they had gotten that cold and then RSV. Now that the weather is getting nicer and they’re not sick anymore we can start taking them out again. Hopefully this one-on-one time will remedy the poop situation.

UPDATE: This post has been a draft now for a couple days. After I wrote about Starbucks (see below), I saved this draft intending to finish it later.  In the meantime, HRH Magnolia QP struck again!!!!!!!!! ARGHHHHH! This time it wasn’t a ton of poop all over, just a little smeared on the baby’s jumperoo thingy. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger – but Lord! Please no more POOP ON OUR HOUSE!!!!! To make matters slightly worse, she has now said “I love poop!” more than twice. WTF. My kids are so weird.

Anyone have experience with this? How did you curb the love of poop?

***********************************************************

I’m drinking my first Starbucks since… December 2009. Early December. It’s delicious. I swear there’s something about Starbucks that makes me feel so… normal and like myself again. I’d say that it’s the caffeine except that today I got 2/3 decaf 1/3 not decaf. I drink an Iced Triple Tall Carmel Machiatto in the warm weather (sometimes in the winter, too) – and I have them put it in a grande cup to prevent from triple shot spillage. I must be a pain in the ass, especially since today I ordered 2 decaf shots and one regular shot. I’m still nursing so… I didn’t want to overload the baby with caffeine.

Anyways, my drink was delicious and if I could get a free minute, I’m sure I could whip through all this cleaning and preparation for this weekend. Snowdrop is getting Baptized this weekend (YAY! She’ll finally be free of Original Sin!!! Whoohoo!!! Devil be GONE! Haha!) ANYWAYS… so we’re having a lunch/brunch/food here after the ceremony on Sunday afternoon. We decided to go the easy route and order food. So we’ve got Mostaccioli, Toasted Ravioli’s on order. I’m going to pick up some bread/rolls this week as well as fruit to make a fruit salad. And some fine cheeses to throw together a cheese board. I love cheese boards and styling them. It’s the little things in life, you know? 🙂 My parents are bringing down a cake from the bakery I used to work at. I’m very excited about that. I’m a bakery snob and there’s nothing like my “own” bakery back home. Nothing like it anywhere! So since we’re having people over to our house (like official company!), we need to clean up. Big time. Well not big time… well, sort of. We’ve got a lot of “stuff” to put away and clutter to… de-clutter. 🙂

It’s been a crazy week so far, yesterday Hubby had Baseball Opening Day to attend (we’re season ticket holders and big baseball fans) and then he had a Softball game to play in (he plays during the summer with his buddies). SO yesterday we got like nothing done. And today, Hubby went grocery shopping (we had no milk for TWO DAYS, wtf!) and grabbed some things like fruit and crackers that we’ll need for Sunday. Then he was off to golf league. Oh yes, Tuesdays are golf league. Monday Softball. Tuesday Golf League. By Wednesday, Mommy has lost her mind so it’s a good thing the big girls go to Grandma’s house for the day. Wednesday night this week, Hubby wants us to have date night and go to the baseball game. I’d love to do this but really – we have so much to do and if Grandma is willing to take all three kids for five hours so we can have “date night”, I’d really rather spend this week’s date night cleaning my house. I know, so lame, right? But seriously – I can’t get anything done when all three are home. So we’re kind of stuck with Thursday to do stuff. *sigh*…. It’s going to be a long week. Or maybe it will be short because we’re going to be so busy. I just don’t know.

On Thursday the bug guy is coming to spray for ants. We get them every summer. I really hate ants.

The End.

My Irish Pride & The Shamrock Tattoo

*For the sake of simplicity and to eliminate confusion in this post, “Mom” refers to the mother I grew up with; “Dad” refers to the father I grew up with; “Birthmother” and “Birthfather” refer to my biological parents, whom I’ve never met in person.

I’m adopted. And back in 1982, adoptions were closed – mostly all of the time. My parents never got to meet my birthparents. All communication was done from their attorney to the birthparents’ attorney. My mom received information about my birthfamily simply because she thought to ask some information about them. Growing up, I knew that my birthmother had brown hair and brown eyes; and my birthfather had blonde hair and blue eyes. I knew how old they were: 16 and 19, respectively. I knew that my birthmother was 5’2″ and my birthfather 5’4″ (people of small stature). I knew that my birthmother’s father was a Mounted Policeman (rode a horse). I knew that my birthmother’s mother was adopted, too. I knew they were Catholic and wanted me to be raised the same. The only other piece of information that I knew were my nationalities: Irish, Scottish, and Italian.

Growing up, there was no confusion that I was of Irish or Scottish decent. I’m redheaded. “You must be Irish”, strangers would exclaim upon meeting me or seeing my red hair. I’d say back “You bet!” I was very proud to be Irish. It wasn’t until later on in my life that I found out that more redheads are in Scotland… but whatever, I still loved being Irish.

Fast forward to my college years. My roommate, junior year, wanted to get her ear pierced again (on that little flap part that covers the ear hole…this gives me the heeby-geebies just thinking about it) so we (me, her, and our other roommate) went to a tattoo/piercing parlor to get it done. My other roommate decided when we got there that she did want to get a tattoo – she had been vocally contemplating it all day. So she decided to get a star tattoo on her butt. We laughed and laughed. While we were waiting for the tattoo artist, I was looking through the pages of the tattoo book. What did I see but a shamrock! It was so cute! So green! So IRISH!!!! My Irish Pride took over me and I decided to get another tattoo. (I have a butterfly on my hip. I know, how original. Not.) I got the shamrock tattooed on my butt, ala Xavier Roberts and the Cabbage Patch Kids. It’s small. Probably no more than an inch wide and I’m lucky it hasn’t stretched one bit from being pregnant twice. (Unlike my butterfly. Insert sadface here.)

Fast forward about a month. (In another post, I’ll detail my search for my birthfamily. It didn’t take me long AT ALL which was very unexpected.) The first time I spoke to my birthmother… it was really strange. Good, but strange. She had been told I was born at 12:12am but I had grown up being told I was born at 12:24am. Other slight inconsistancies occured. Such as my nationalities. According to my birthmother, I was indeed Irish, Scottish, and Italian – although not in that order and not simply those three. I was more Scottish than Irish. And my nationality background includes the following: Scottish, Scotch-Irish (? is this really any different than Irish or Scottish?), Italian, English, German, Dutch, Blackfoot American Indian, and JEWISH. Apparently, my birthmother’s mother had been able to trace her biological roots and find her birthfamily or information about them- quite unheard of in the days in which she had been adopted. Turns out, they’re Jewish. (This is not a bad thing, of course, simply funny considering I was raised Catholic and by blood, then, am Jewish. Weird and also slightly explains my lifelong fascination with the Jewish religion…)

Okay, so back to the Irish thing. So here I am, with my lifelong pride of being Irish and a freshly inked Shamrock Tattoo to show it – and I’m not even Irish! Well, I am… but I’m a whole lot of other things besides Irish and not nearly as Irish as I once thought.

I LOVE my shamrock tattoo. And I love that I have a good story to tell about it. 🙂 I’ll never regret getting it because although I’m a real MUTT in terms of nationalities – I’m the most proud to be Irish. 🙂

Lost Intentions & Naughty Boys & Random Thoughts…

So I intended to write all about Thanksgiving. And about, oh, a hundred other things. And I haven’t yet. I honestly haven’t had the energy. So I’ll just stick to the randoms…

Thanksgiving was… fun! The girls ate all their turkey and pumpkin pie but could have cared less for green bean casserole and stuffing. I can’t believe they’re my kids and they don’t like GB Casserole and Stuffing. Who are they?

(Skip to the Bottom of the Post for the Random Thoughts if you don’t want to read about the Naughty Boys… cause it’s lengthy, and obviously a rant.) 🙂

Hubby’s cousins also came to dinner. And they brought their three boys with them. They are ages 3, 2, and 3 weeks. The 3-week-old was very well behaved (haha). I cannot say the same for the 3 and 2 year olds. The 2 year old is actually just a day younger than Juniper & Magnolia… anyways, so… So the boys were so… I don’t know the word. They were the worst behaved children I’ve ever seen. O. M. G. They wouldn’t sit in chairs at the dinner table and spent most of our “pleasant” Thanksgiving dinner, running around the kitchen, SCREAMING their heads off, refusing to eat food, and basically just causing minor troubles and annoyances. According to their parents (Hubby’s cousins) the boys “won’t sit in a highchair” which is why they were given chairs at the table on which to sit. Now. Here’s my problem with this. What do you mean “they won’t sit in a highchair”? They’re 3 and 2 years old. Put them in the highchair, strap them in, and VOILA! They’re sitting in a highchair. Have your children no respect for a rule? I mean, really? I know they’re young, but I don’t believe they’re too young at this point.  And sure there are times when Junie & Mags misbehave. There are times when they don’t want to eat their dinner. But those are also the times when we discipline, when we say “NO.”, when we tell them “Okay. You don’t have to eat dinner, but you do have to sit in your chair until everyone else is done.” My children don’t scream obnoxiously during dinner time. They eat their dinner.

At one point, the 3 year old climbed into my MIL’s chair while she was fixing herself seconds… so the kids parents say “Hey, get out of Aunt C’s chair” and the kid? He goes “NO.” And so the parents, instead of insisting he get out or receive a Time Out (or whatever else would have been appropriate in terms of disciplining a 3 year old), start LAUGHING. So your child talks back to you, and you laugh – good. That’ll teach him! I was taken aback. Of course, that response would never fly in our home – and you can bet our girls know better than to respond that way.

I had mentioned this next part in my post about Top 5 Memorable Moments with the Girls – Junie kept saying “Naughty Boy, Naughty Boy” at dinnertime. It was hysterical. My MIL and myself were laughing so hard under our breaths… it was too funny. See, even my 2 year old noticed what a naughty boy he was being.

So after dinner, we played downstairs and the boys were screaming, not sharing with each other, or with the girls very well… it was so nerve-wracking. So then it was time to clean up and go home. Now, our girls often need a little poking & prodding to start cleaning up but they can manage putting all the “little toys into the basket” and “helping pick up the animals”, etc… but Hubby’s Cousin’s kids? Nada. All they did was scream their blessed little heads off – and I mean tantrum screaming. It wasn’t just refusing to pick up. We’d take toys away from them – well, attempt – and they’d hold it tighter until we had to literally peel their fingers off of the toys – all of course, amidst a ridiculous tantrum. My girls were visibly shaken by all the screaming – and continued to pick up toys all the same.

I’m not trying to say “Oh, my kids are so well behaved, they’re so obedient, they’re better than thou…” but frankly – I’m just shocked that these boys were SO out of control. I mean, GEEZ – get control of your kids. That kind of behavior would never be tolerated in our house. EVER. That’s behavior that warrants a swift smack on the bottom and a minute in Time Out (although, now that my girls are 2 years old, we do 2 minutes… they’ll get 3 when they are 3, etc…).

(Disclaimer: We don’t hit our kids but there are appropriate times for a small spanking. I used to get a belt or a wooden spoon when I was a kid – so my girls are lucky we don’t think that’s appropriate. But I will say, get smacked on the bottom a few times with a belt or a spoon… and I never did whatever I had done to get that smack ever again. :))

ARGH!!!! Sorry for the rant but… it really bothers me about those boys. I just… it bothers me. I’m glad we insist on good behavior from our girls. I don’t expect them to chew with their mouths closed and have a napkin in their laps. I expect them to behave like domesticated beings and not like they’ve been raised by wolves. And that their actions will have consequences. At age two, this is limited to what a two year old will understand. Example: Pushed your sister down? You get a Time Out and if you’re not sorry when your two minutes are up – back to Time Out until you’re sorry. Mom & Dad say “Time to Clean Up or You only get ONE book before bed?” If you don’t help to clean up, you don’t get three to five books before bed – you get one.

I guess I sound like a hardass but I’m really just insistent on being consistent with teaching them how to be good girls. Sure, they’re going to be teenagers someday and slam the door in my face, and tell me they hate me – but at least I will know they had a good foundation.

Okay. Ranting done… now for the nice thoughts! 🙂

Happy, Random Thoughts…

I’m 36 weeks 2 days pregnant. I’ve never been THIS pregnant before – so this is quite new territory for me. I’m excited. And ready to meet my little Snowdrop. I had some intense false labor on Tuesday night – the night of the Full Moon. It got so bad, I had called my doctor! It didn’t intensify but for a while I was nervous that it would. Hubby threw up because he got so nervous! Haha.

The Full Moon also made us realize that we really need to pick a name for this baby – or Snowdrop will be official on the birth certificate! Our “short list” is now longer than our original short list. I think we have eight (?) names we’re contemplating. It’s such a hard decision… I’d like to at least have it narrowed down to three names before she is born – otherwise, I’m really going to have a hard time picking a name at the hospital.

Any thoughts on a 3-syllable, not very popular, preferably old-fashioned of sorts, girls name?

Yeah. I’m having trouble coming up with that one, too. 🙂

Hubby surprised me with a visit from two of my very best friends on Friday night! They drove all the way down from the Big City just to see ME for the night. And they brought the girls a few presents, which was really nice. I KNEW something was going on because Hubby kept insisting that he needed to clean the house even though he kept complaining about being so sore from Thanksgiving Football with his fraternity brothers… And he did all the guest bedsheets and towels… and kept cleaning and cleaning. He tried to tell me that nothing was going on, he just “wanted to clean” but I knew better. I’m glad my friends came down – it was nice to see them.

The day after Thanksgiving marked the two year anniversary since the last time I saw my friend, S, before she died. I know, this is not a nice happy random thought. It’s very sad. I miss her very much and I’ll always remember driving away from her, after lunch, looking in my rearview mirror, crying and trying to figure out why I had a nagging feeling I’d never see her again… I never did see her again. (She died in January, 2007. Her heart was broken. Some birth defect that was unknown because when we were babies – they didn’t have the kind of ultrasounds and tests they do now…) I should have stayed that day at the bakery and hung out. The girls were so young, they probably would have just slept in their pumpkin seats and not known the difference. If I could go back in time and stay, I would.

So it was nice to see my other bakery girls the day after Thanksgiving. It definitely brightened my day.

Hm… what else. This is turning into a long post.

I’ve been doing Sodoku every night in bed before settling in for the night. I have found it really relaxes me and helps me to fall asleep faster. I used to do Sodoku ALL the time – and got out of it for a bit. But I found an old book that wasn’t filled in recently so I started up again and am loving it.

I’m ready for this baby to come. Our roof still isn’t fixed but it will be soon. And I’m getting close to being done shopping for Christmas presents. I want to have them bought & wrapped before I go into labor. That’s a goal.

I also need to ribbon the Christmas Cards. I have no energy to do that tonight. In fact, I’m going upstairs now to do some Sodoku.

Hope everyone had a fabulous Thanksgiving. 🙂

Today’s Activities AND the First Recipient of the SuperFab Customer Service Award!!!

Today, I covered one lampshade. I still need to put the trim on it and of course, do the other lampshade but I’m proud I actually got my act together and FINALLY got started on the project.

When my Papa died almost two years ago (or is it one year? I’m sorry, I sound like a terrible person. I lost three people within ten days that January and it’s really all a big big blur to me)… anyways when he died, I was lucky to “inherit” some of his things. Like the dining room table and buffet – the buffet we use now to hold our table linens (that never get used), photo albums, and is our diaper changing station, I think my Nana would be proud – and we also inherited their bedroom furniture (including two lamps, I’m getting to that part), and the very FIRST coffee table that he and my Nana had when they got married! I think it’s really special that my Hubby & I get to share that coffee table as OUR first coffee table, too.

So these lamps, are awesome. There is one for each side of the bed. One is a bust of a boy and the other is a bust of a girl. They are gold (probably painted? and I’m not a huge fan of gold really… but these are spectacular) and have a squarish bottom. If I can remember to do it I will TRY to post a picture of them, cause they really are awesome. Anyways, so the lampshades were pretty ancient by terms of lampshade years. The fabric was starting to run and there were a couple slashes in them where they had just worn through. I figured I’d re-cover them when I wasn’t able to find lampshades that were big enough for a cheap enough price.

So I found this great fabric in the remnant section and wouldn’t you believe it, just enough to cover two lampshades. AND it went really well with the gold and our bedroom stuff. I saved the trim from the old lampshades so I could cover the tops and bottoms and seams of the new lampshade covers. Everything matches! I’m so excited.

So today, I finally got around to it. I used hot-glue to stick the fabric on and the first lampshade looks pretty great! I’ve still got to add the trim to it but other than that it’s ready to go. Pretty soon we’ll actually have lampshades to sit on top of our boy and girl. I’m so excited. 🙂

In Carpet Installation News: The carpet people have pretty much been saying “We’ll call you back” for about a week now regarding scheduling our installation. The gal kept saying she had to talk to the main guy about it… So, when I called today to inquire the gal informed us that they were booked through 2010 for installations. Wait…a….second…. no one said that when we ordered our carpet! WTF. So I more or less implied (via phone) that we wouldn’t have ordered carpet from them had we known it would take this long to get it installed. The carpets already in their warehouse! Anyways, so she said she’d “have to call me back”… Hubby told me that if they didn’t call by tomorrow at 5, we were going to the local home improvement store and having them do our carpet. Well, the in-charge guy called me around 5:30 today to say that they had rearranged their schedule and could install our carpet next Wednesday at the earliest! Right on! Funny how life works out, doesn’t it, when call someone out on their sly ways? So next Wednesday it is. The girls already go to grandma’s house to give me a break on Wednesdays so it’s really nice that Hubby will be here (I’m not staying ALONE with carpet installers, no offense) and we can more or less spend the day together at home. We hardly get to do that. Actually, I don’t think we EVER get to do that… unless we’re meeting at home to go pick up the girls at grandma’s. 🙂

Anyways, so the carpet is coming in Wednesday and then I can start setting up the nursery!!! I’M SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!

CUSTOMER SERVICE NEWS!!!! A GREAT STORY! I’m not being sarcastic even! Seriously, I received GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE today from Pottery Barn Kids and I’m really happy about it. If you read my blog, you know that I freely vocalize my discontent with different companies or stores I come in contact with, whose customer service is well… less than worthy. (If you don’t always follow my blog, you can search my archives for Expedia or Babies-R-Us… both of which I’ve been extremely displeased by their lack of customer service and regard for customer satisfaction.) Anyways, so in light of the fact that I will voice my discontents, it’s of course only fair to voice my experiences with excellent customer service. I intend this to be a “regular” topic on my blog (as regular as I receive good service, that is…) and I’m happy to share with you, the First Recipient of the SuperFab Customer Service Award: Pottery Barn Kids.

Their return policy clearly states that final sale/clearance items cannot be returned. This is fair, I agree with it. However, when I ordered three silver-leaf frames last week (for $8.99 a piece, down from $29.00 each!) and they arrived, I was less than pleased with how they looked. One frame was fine, but the other two… were so not. The silver-leaf dots around the outside were missing on parts of one of them, and the on the other, it was missing along one whole side!

“Oh shit.” I thought. Now I’m going to have to deal with customer service who is probably just going to tell me I can’t return them, blah blah blah. I just really wasn’t looking forward to explaining what was wrong and that although the merchandise was final sale, I should be able to return it because it was really less than fabulous as far as workmanship. I really, really, really HATE having to ask for a supervisor. I really do.

SO I avoided calling for a day and a half. Then I was like “Whatever. I’m calling. Maybe I’ll be able to return it. And if I don’t call, and keep these, it will bother me forever that they look crummy.” So I called. And I explained how they looked to the gal, and she was like “oh, so they’re defective then…” So she asked me to hold so she could see what she could do about it since they were final-sale items… and when she came back (less than five minutes later, I’ll note) she goes, “Ok. Have them boxed up and UPS will be at your house tomorrow morning around 9am to pick it up. They’ll have a shipping label for the box. And I’ve already sent two new frames to you, they should be arriving in 2-3 days.” I hardly knew what to say! UPS WILL BE ARRIVING AT MY HOUSE?!?!?! WITH their own shipping label?!??!?! TWO NEW FRAMES ALREADY ON THEIR WAY?!?!?!

Really, I was astounded. Astounded. I’ve always received great customer service when ordering something from PBK over the phone (I had some internet trouble with my 10% code one time – when ordering Snowdrop’s bedding actually – and the gal then was really nice & helpful.) But to be helped with such a cheerful, can-do, glad-to-help attitude in less than eight minutes and not to have to ask for a supervisor… I’m just pleased. If I knew some sort of Internet coding I’d make an award symbol.

That being said, I’d like to award Pottery Barn Kids as the first recipiant of the SuperFab Customer Service Award. Congratulations! You rock and are SuperFab!! 🙂

I’m so excited to introduce this new “award” and I REALLY HOPE I can distribute more of them in the future.

 

Heading to bed now… 🙂

 

Random 31 Week Thoughts

Random Thoughts in my 31st Week of Pregnancy….

– Her feet are in my ribs. That’s what it is. That’s what’s causing this horrendous pain in my ribcage. On the right side. No biggie. Last time it was a head in my ribcage. That was worse.

– According to Dr., she is head down – so it’s her head that’s pushing down on my pubic bone making me feel like I’m going to burst open at the seams (literally, as I had a c-section last pregnancy! haha)… so head down is good but I know she could still turn around before 40 weeks.

– Hubby printed out pumpkin carving stencils from the Internet tonight. I’m of the old school carving: triangle eyes, triangle nose, mouth with teeth, etc… He’s already carved one of our three pumpkins with some scary face. He was so excited, it was cute. He even lit a candle and turned out the lights so we (he & I) could witness his masterpiece.

– He printed out a picture of a sleeping cat to carve on the pumpkin, I could only think it looked like a dead cat. Seriously, it looks like a dead cat. I should know, we just buried the 2nd of two cats I mothered. One of our cats is still alive. (YAY!)

– We still have two pumpkins to carve. Hubby informed me he had left one of them outside by our front door. I told him that was stupid and didn’t he remember what happened to our last pumpkin? So when he went to change the cat litter (he takes it directly from the basement, up the cellar stairs, and out to the dumpster), I went outside and brought the pumpkin inside our house. He came knocking at the side door and asked “Did you take the pumpkin?” So I said all serious and with a furrowed brow, “Are you serious? I told you that was going to happen.” And out he went to the street to look for his beloved pumpkin…. I chuckled and shut the door. He came back and was like “It’s gone.” SO then I told him that it was inside our house, and I laughed some more. Teehee. And the Oscar goes to… ME!

– I think we’re going to make an appearance on Halloween at my friend’s house. I don’t totally want to ditch them, and I guess if I get sick & die then at least we had a fun Halloween?

– We just found out friends of ours are having their second baby. It’s really really really exciting. AND their babies are only going to be 16 months apart! And we thought WE were fertile. God Bless them, babies are so wonderful. 🙂

– We had a three name list for Snowdrop. We had really wittled it all down to three names. Hubby suggested a name two days ago… and I had to add it to the list because frankly, it’s a great name and I love it! We’ve had a lot of name changes around here… so it’s funny we are now up to four names on our “list”. This newest name just might be IT.

– I’m really feeling the crunch of nine weeks. NINE WEEKS. Anything could happen in these nine weeks. I pray to God everything turns out okay and our little girl is healthy. I know life would move on if something terrible happened and that we wouldn’t be the first to experience heartache… but I hope we don’t.

– The carpet people were supposed to call me back today to schedule an appointment. So NOW, I’ve got to call them tomorrow (AGAIN, cause I called on Tuesday to inquire) to figure out what the EF is going on. They keep saying they need to talk to the guy in charge before scheduling our installation… but I’m not sure why they need to talk to him, can’t we just get a date set? Even MIL was curious as to why we couldn’t just schedule an appointment. Boo.

– I weigh 138 pounds. Today. I believe the last time I was weighed before I gave birth (to Junie & Mags) I weighed 137… so this could officially be the most I’ve ever weighed in my LIFE. This frightens me. It does. I know, I should be grateful I’m not a “heavyweight” (haha) but… yikes. Prior to being pregnant (the first time), I weighed approximately 87 pounds. Too small, perhaps. But 138 seems like A LOT to me. I’m 5’1″.

– VENT: I’m annoyed that although my MIL agreed that I could get her waffles, fish sticks, and chicken nuggets to “store” at her house for our girls when the new baby is born (they’ve got three fridges/freezers – certainly enough space for supplies), when we were taking our frozen stuff home after dinner (we had come straight from Whole Foods with our goods so we stored them in the freezer/fridge during dinner) she said “Well, we’ve got another month at least, right?” and gave us back all our frozen food. With all due respect, I’m not God, lady. I don’t know when I’m birthing this baby. I think it’s sooner than later, that’s for sure. And frankly, I’d like to know that you guys have the girls’ food so that when I DO go into labor, I don’t need to rush around my house packing up food and worrying whether or not I remembered to bring frozen organic waffles to your house. Just trying to make it easier on everyone…

– I’m really excited to meet our third daughter. I hope she has red hair (I think I’ve written this before…).

– I haven’t had many dreams about the baby. However, the baby has always been a boy. What does this mean?

– Hubby is begging me to come to bed and I will oblige… with a small bowl of potato chips to munch on while he reads The Best Birth (I totally recommend this book to everyone preparing for giving birth).

17 Week Reflections

I thought it might be fun to write down some random thoughts I’m having this week. My 17th week of my second pregnancy….

1. Second Pregnancy, Third Child. Wow. I would never have imagined this life for myself. Okay, I guess I did – I just didn’t think it would come true!!
2. I’m still surprised that this has been such a difficult pregnancy, I really thought that carrying one child would be a BREEZE. Boy, was I wrong.
3. I’ve fixed five typos so far. Spelling mistakes, grammar mistakes (example: i just wrote “exampel” and I was actually going to give my example as that I wrote “right” instead of “write” at the beginning of this post.) I’m reflecting on this fixing of typos because I’m having massive massive massive pregnant brain this time around. I can’t spell for shit. And I’m the type who prides herself on her spelling powers. I often drool through my speech and slur words. I’m dropping things out of my hands left & right. I switch the first letters of words and screw up phrases (example: “phone conversation” once became “cone phonversation”. No, I’m not kidding.) While filing a police report (long story that I’m NOT getting into) I gave my social security number to the cop who then asked me “What state were you born in?” I said “Illinois.” Then I had to correct myself and say “No, sorry, I wasn’t born in Illinois. I was born in Pennsylvania.” Really, it happened. I appear to be the town drunk/idiot/crazy lady. What’s with the pregnant brain this time around? For reals, yo.
4. People keep saying it’s a boy and my husband refuses to even discuss girl names. It really bothers me (just the husband part, not the friends thinking it must be a boy part). It almost makes me feel like if this IS a girl…. he’s going to be so upset. I know it’s the sperm that determines that child’s sex and all but… I’ll still feel bad. Growl.
5. One of the girls is starting to potty train, the other doesn’t seem to quite get it. I’m okay with that. At least I won’t have THREE in diapers.
6. I’m glad I’ll be too pregnant to attend Thanksgiving with my family in the Big City. The thought of seeing my mom… too stressful. Thank you Baby for giving me the perfect excuse not to travel at 35 weeks. (I delivered last time at 35 weeks 5 days so I’m not taking chances. Even though there’s just one in there… I could still have the kind of body that doesn’t tolerate more than 35 weeks. I’m also okay with this.)
7. I wish I owned a Doppler. I think this would satisfy my worrying. Satisfy wasn’t the word I wanted to use… but pregnant brain is keeping me from remembering the right words.
8. I really like my doctor but she & her husband have been trying for a baby for a “long time” she says. I feel bad complaining to her about my pregnant stuff. I really like her, I’m obviously not switching OBs & I won’t switch after the baby is born but…. it makes me feel weird. Like, I should be grateful I’m suffering from all-day sickness and my boobs hurt.

9. Boobs. Jugs. Titties. Sweater Puppets. Love Muffins. Gazongas. Zeppelins. Call them whatever you will. I LOVE MY NEW KNOCKERS!!!!!!!!!!!! They might hurt like a bitch most days but I’m so happy to finally fill an A-cup. In fact, I might already be onto a B-cup. I normally, in my non-pregnant state of being, hardly half fill an A-cup. Pregnant Boobs. One of my favorite things about being pregnant. I mean, geez, boobs aren’t everything – take that advice from a girl who can’t fill an A-cup. Boobs don’t make you happy. But having boobs for a while – is a load of fun. I feel super womanly and the power they have on my husband … let’s just say that if I want something done, all I have to do is take my shirt off. Putty in my hands. He is putty. My boobs are voluptuous, gorgeous, and I seriously have a nice looking pair of ’em. BOOBIES!!!!

10. That brings me to my top three pregnancy loves:

a.) feeling the baby kick – seriously the greatest thing about pregnancy, i’m making a person. WOW!

b.) BOOBIES!!! (duh, that had to be number B)

and c.) eating mainly whatever i want and not being concerned about my ever-bulging belly. it’s so cute when it’s full of baby.

11. Top Three Pregnancy Woes:

a.) Morning Sickness. Because it’s all friggin’ day, and all friggin’ night. And it blows. BIG TIME.

b.) Hormones. I’m a lifelong redhead so I’ve always been one to blow my top easily & during my life, I’ve perfected the stomp, the door slam, and the eye rolling. Pregnant Redhead? Watch the F out if something goes wrong.

c.) Not being able to talk to my mom about it. I’m adopted. She’s never been pregnant. And my birthmom has no interest in a relationship with me (no hard feelings towards her for this, I totally get it. Seriously.) so I can’t, like, call her up and be like “Hey Birthmom, what’s up? Okay, so when you were pregnant…” etc etc. It really sucks sometimes. Cause I think she’d understand a lot of what I go through.

12. I wish my friends lived closer. I’m getting to be better friends with Hubby’s friends, which is GREAT. It’s just taking time and I’ll be patient. But I miss my sisters & my friends from back home. It would be great if they could pop on over for milk & cookies one afternoon. Or go shopping another afternoon. I miss them greatly.

(sidenote: it’s really bothering me that wordpress isn’t recognizing that i’ve put spaces between the beginning thoughts… why won’t you save those changes? growl.)

13. We’ve taken this baby to SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO many concerts, shows, etc. We listen to music all of the time. I don’t expect Baby to LOVE music as a result of all this. But… I sure hope it does. 🙂

14. I feel more tired this pregnancy than the last one. Funny, because the last time I had two babies inside of me. I’m so tired now and struggling to finish this.

15. I’m craving more crap food than good food these days. And I’m eating a LOT of baked potatos (with butter and salt, of course). And potstickers (the kind from Sam’s). And candy from my childhood – but that happened with the last pregnancy, too. Mike and Ike’s, Good N’ Plenty’s, Lifesavers, Red Licorice, Flavored Tootsie Rolls…. peanut M&M’s…. yum.

16. I love this baby. I love all my babies. The love I have for my children is overflowing. Any parent can relate to this, I’m sure.

17. It’s so easy to say “so long” to people who think they come before my children. They don’t, never will, couldn’t ever if they tried. My spawn are much cooler and more amazing than they will ever be. Insipid little you-know-whats. (And I will be posting more about that topic, in the future.)

Ni-Ni for Mommy. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.

Father’s Day, Pregnant Thoughts, Jon & Kate…..

Father’s Day was lots of fun! I ended up not having to film any scenes for the movie so I had the whole day off!! When we first arranged the schedule we were supposed to be filming on Saturday but they called me back five minutes later and said “Would Sunday be okay?” And since our family doesn’t normally do much other than Mass on Sunday…. well, I said “sure!” without checking to make sure nothing was going on. Oops. 🙂 So, I had called my director earlier in the week to see if we could cut the day in half but never heard back from him… cut to Saturday and I call up our video guy and he informs me that “we” pushed back my (my, as in me) filming dates until the next Sunday… leave it to men to be in charge and forget to share the details with everyone else. LOL. Whatever – I was just happy that I didn’t have to leave Hubby at home babysitting on his Big Day. So, we got to go out to brunch at one of our favorite local restaurants. It’s the same place where we went for lunch the day we found out we were having twins… Anyways, I was glad I didn’t have to cook that morning as I wasn’t feeling snazzy AND I got to have eggs benedict. Win Win for me. 🙂 Haha. We had to bring our own high chairs because the restaurant only has two of their own… and we’re totally okay with bringing our own – with twins, you’ve got to be able to accommodate to a situation. And gosh darnit, we weren’t letting anything stand in our way of going to brunch. HAHAHA. 🙂
After brunch, we went to the In-Laws for swimming & barbequing. I did a great job at hiding my belly. It’s still not totally noticeable but… I spent lots of the day doing my best at holding it in! 🙂 Dinner was awesome – ribs and all the fixings – and I ate, and ate, and ate. By that time, I was so hungry I didn’t care if people noticed how much I ate. Plus, I had been psyching myself up for ribs all weekend – I was ready for a slab.

Pregnant Thoughts. My next appointment with the doctor is not until July 8th. I’m really stressing about this pregnancy:

1. I feel really badly because I’ve been eating so many processed foods (ex. Fresh garlic has been a big turnoff but I have no problem with garlic powder…) – like, what’s the deal with that? My first pregnancy I was totally turned off by processed foods. I couldn’t eat much that wasn’t fresh fresh fresh! This pregnancy: I’ve eaten McDonald’s once, Wendy’s once, AND there was a late night Taco Bell run – I can’t even BELIEVE I’m admitting that. Not to mention the condensed Campbell’s Homestyle Chicken Noodle soup that I can’t get enough of. What gives??? I can’t even choke down my Flintstone vitamins most days. I feel like such a bad mom. AND I’m not drinking enough milk, or eating enough calcium rich foods. FAIL.

2. No heartbeat yet. We don’t own a doppler so I can’t check for one myself. And since my doc couldn’t find one at the last appointment… I’m still freaking out. Is this why I don’t FEEL pregnant? Because I haven’t heard the heartbeat?

3. Not sure how far I am. Again, is this why I don’t FEEL pregnant? Since the baby was measuring so small for how far along we thought I was…. we’re still not sure how far along I actually am. I could be past the first trimester, in which case – there should be a heartbeat, and we could finally tell people I’m pregnant. But with no heartbeat, and not knowing for sure how far along I am… it’s a like a double-doozie-can’t-tell-anyone kind of situation. BLAH. WTF! I’m just in a really weird place these days with all the… unsure-ity (yes, not the word I’m looking for but I have massive pregnant brain this time around) as to the progression of this pregnancy.

4. I think because it was twins last time and I had so many doctors appointments that I didn’t have too much time between them to be worried & think up the worst & overthink everything. I wish I wasn’t one of those needy patients. I totally am though. 😦

5. Pregnant Brain. Seriously, people think I’ve been drinking midday. I said “Cone Phon-versation” to my cousin on Father’s Day, not to mention the forgetfulness of complete conversations with my husband, and saying things like “Let’s go play in the yard, kids…. I mean, the hou- no, the pool.” Seriously, I sound like the town drunk. It was not this bad last time around. Not even close to this bad. Maybe, if there IS a baby in there, it will be a genius since it seems to be sucking the brain out of me.

6. This secret-keeping, lie-telling, etc that’s been going on because of the no heartbeat-small measuring, etc……….. ahhhhhhhhhhh! It’s so hard to do. It’s just building up inside of me more and more every day. I have no one to lean on, to discuss my feelings – except for you dear readers so thanks for reading! 🙂 But you know, I can’t talk to my girlfriends about this. I can’t talk to my MIL about this… boo. My friends keep inviting me to come visit them in their respective cities and I keep having to make up bogus excuses (the web of lies continues) why I can’t come. I feel like such a bitch and I’m afraid they’re getting mad… or maybe they realize something is up with me. Hopefully, the latter.

Third order of business: Jon & Kate. I was NOT expecting this. I kind of thought they were going to announce they were taking a break… from the show! And then as the date got closer, I thought that oh maybe they were going to have a separation from each other – but I still clung to that hope that they weren’t headed for divorce. Well. I was wrong. I’m really sad. Hubby & I totally looked up to them as parents of multiples. There were many days we’d be like “Jon & Kate made it, so can we!” And they just renewed their vows, what, last season? I’m sad for them, I’m sad for the kids – and we’re both upset with Jon. Yes, Kate appears to be snippy at times (but I’ll back her up forever – I can be snippy too, and sometimes snippiness is the only way things get done; besides, who doesn’t joke that their husband is lousy in the kitchen? okay, I don’t totally because he’s a pretty great cook but he doesn’t actually know WHERE anything is in the kitchen… I’m getting off-track…) but apartment hunting in NYC (a 1-bedroom no less)? Being spotted multiple times with a woman ten years your junior? It really appears that Jon is just running away from his responsibilities. Kate said that she has tried to talk to him and he never wants to talk it out. We always thought they were pretty religious. Even if they’re not going to Church every weekend, wouldn’t you think they’d try some sort of counseling – I mean, just throwing in the towel doesn’t sound right. And that’s kind of what we feel Jon is doing. Of course, my opinions are solely based on what we see on the show, what I read in the gossips, etc…. but ah, it just stinks. The newest thing I read said Kate was actually the one who filed and there are reasons that she won’t discuss at this time. I’m wondering if she actually caught him cheating or something terrible like that….. it’s all so sad. I wish this wasn’t happening in their lives. I’m totally bummed.