Junk Drawer 3/27/2013

Belly Pic & Lilly Update

I need to tell you and future me that I'm really not as "big" as I look in the Week 26 picture.  I'm not really talking about my belly either but about my whole middle area.  In Week 25 I'm wearing a black, more form fitting shirt and in Week 26 the front of the shirt is more form fitting but the back is kind of gathered and makes it look like I gained a lot or something.  I didn't.  Don't forget future Faith.

In Baby Lilly news she's growing and poking her feet out at me and flopping around in there, kind of like Jimmy flipped and flopped around.  I have a feeling Jimmy and Lilly are going to give Joey fits.  You should see some of the looks Joey gives Jimmy now even at almost 10 months.  He thinks Jimmy is hilarious but sometimes he's like "what on earth are you doing??"  And in further predictions I think Jimmy will be uber protective of Lilly and an amazing big brother but will butt heads with her big time.  I have a feeling all three will be stubborn and strong willed but while Joey is quieter about his obstinacy I think Jimmy and Lilly will be all out there and in your face with their stubbornness.  I got all of that out of fetal movements…so take it however you will.

That wasn't really much about Lilly was it?  I realized last night that I'm only 11 weeks from the point I gave birth the last two times.  And 7 paychecks away from my due date.  I've already spent all 7 so that will probably fly.

Yeast Infections Crack Me Up

This is more of a stupid musing than a real question.  I'm a shower pee-er, especially when I'm pregnant.  But really just in general.  I usually pee before getting in the shower but if I get in and then have to pee I'm NOT getting out just to pee.  I had this random thought while showering this morning.  If you pee on your feet when you have a yeast infection is it possible to give yourself Athletes Foot?

Someone will probably tell me how while they are both fungal infections they are two different types or that your pee doesn't actually contain the yeast infection so it's impossible but I don't really want an answer…I just cracked myself up this morning imagining getting "pregnancy induced athletes foot" because I got a pregnancy induced yeast infection and peed on my feet in the shower because I pee so much because I'm pregnant.

List of Things/Events Coming up…in Chronological Order

Easter

Trip to KS (at long last)

6 Week Campaign At Work (aka "the busy season")

Diaper Party

My Birthday

Mother's Day

Joey's 1st Birthday

Daddy's Birthday

Our 6 Year Anniversary

Out of Town Visitors

Due Date

List of Things/Events Without Dates (Yet)

Selling My Truck

Buying a Larger Vehicle (to fit all the chilldrens)

Midwife Appointments

Pediatrician Appointments

Organizing and Reorganizing the Nursery (to accommodate clothes for three young'uns)

There is probably a lot more but that's all I can remember right now.

ACV

When I get on a bandwagon I'm all on, even if I'm not on it in practice, I'm 100% on it in spirit.  Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV) is my newest bandwagon.  It's pretty awesome.  I think it could cure the world of pretty much whatever ails them plus clean their windows to a sparkling shine.  In my heart I faithfully take my ACV three times a day and am becoming healthier than I've ever been.  In real life I forget to take in 95% of the time.

I'm exaggerating a little about curing the world of whatever and forgetting 95% of the time.  But without exaggeration it's pretty amazing stuff.  If you don't know much about it I encourage you to use Google and research it – it's pretty impressive.  This is the results we've seen as a family just in the few short months we've been using it:

Eczema treatment – clears up flare ups within 24-48 hours

Brighter Skin

Less Bloating

More Energy

Lower Blood Pressure

More Stamina

And that's not even using it as a tonic consistently.

I don't know what Joey's problem is.  I hate taking him to the Dr every other week and paying the co-pay just to find out he's teething.  Ohh, THAT'S why he's getting more teeth in his mouth!  But now his appetite is gone, he hasn't eaten much since the weekend, he's fussy, he's mucus-y, he's got a cough and adding it all up I think it's possible he has another dadgum ear infection.  So I'm going to try an ACV ear infection remedy tonight and try to figure out a way to get some down his throat the next couple of days and see if it makes a difference.  Either way – it can't hurt him.

Allergies + I’m Pregnant = Mouth Breather

Allergies + I'm Pregnant = Mouth Breather

 

I can't decide which one I'm really suffering from though.  I mean my normal allergy symptoms are headaches, watery/scratchy eyes, runny nose and even sinus pressure.  I'm not really experiencing any of that right now.  So it has to be a pregnancy symptom right?

 

This is gross – booger variety gross – but…sometimes I blow my nose and one long stringy mucus-y, sometimes crunchy booger will come out of each nostril and I'll be able to breathe through my nose again for approximately 5 minutes.  More often though I blow and blow and blow and I can feel there is something in the way and nothing comes out so I have to PICK it out.  Like way way in the back, close to my brain.  I cut my nails the other day and I was desperately picking at them and basically just petting the boogies back there because I couldn't grab onto them.  So gross and frustrating!

 

I don't seem to notice it AS much during the day as I do at night.  It definitely still bothers me but night time is the worst.  I think it's because it's already harder to breathe while laying down but on top of it I can't get a good breath through my nose so I breathe through my mouth and annoy the crap outta myself, plus my mouth gets so dry.  But then I drool puddles on my pillow.  How can I be drooling THAT much and still have a dry mouth?  Beats me!  Pregnancy twilight zone.

 

Grannie's Are Amazing

 

Where would we be without Grannie's?  Realistically speaking, without one we probably wouldn't be.  But that's a little deeper than what I was thinking of for this particular post.  My kids grannie is pretty special.  She carries around bananas and lets little boys rummage in her purse for whatever goodies they can find. She also gives them a bath without fail when they stay with her.  I try to send them at least once a week just for that reason alone.

 

This last weekend she was a real lifesaver though.  She watched both boys for us most of the day Saturday while we ran an important errand that was going to take up most of the day.  The she offered to keep the boys overnight so I could get a full nights sleep!  I've complained a little here and other places about how bad it's been with Joey's teething and how little sleep I'm getting.  This has been going on for weeks and now I'm not convinced that it's just teething.  I think he's developing bad sleeping habits that started with teething. 

 

I made a deal with her though that she could take Joey and I'd keep Jimmy.  This would kill lots of birds with one stone.  I'd get more sleep, Grannie & Grandpa would get some one on one time with Joey, Mamma and Daddy would get some semi-one on one time with Jimmy…plus I'd get more sleep.

 

I almost forgot what it felt like to sleep all night.  I didn't even sleep all night because Jimmy woke up coughing and with a little fever but that was a minor disturbance compared to the circus Joey puts on at night.  I woke up on my own and then went back to sleep and didn't even get out of bed until almost 10!  It was amazing.

 

Then I got lots of cleaning and laundry done before she brought him home.  When she dropped him off she picked up another grandkid and took her shopping for an Easter dress!

 

Then last night it was back to the real world.  Up every 1-2 hours.  Little booger.

 

Scooter

I'm not sure Joey will crawl.  I said the same thing about Jimmy and he did end up crawling but he didn't crawl long before he learned to walk.  Joey scoots though.  He sits on his little hiney and scoots wherever he wants and he's perfectly happy with his way of getting around.  He's starting to cruise the furniture a little and trying to pull up.  It's still possible that he will crawl but he seems pretty okay with not crawling.

 

Now before you get concerned about his mental health let me reassure you that I did a little investigating and some minor research and found that there is no solid proof for the theory that says kids that don't learn to crawl will have learning disabilities.  I hope he does learn to crawl because it's really good for hand-eye coordination and developing depth perception but I'm pretty sure running into walls a few times is also good for developing depth perception.  Some people just have to learn the hard way.

 

The point is he's moving and he's finally showing interest in going places on his own!  This is how it started with Jimmy so maybe he'll be walking by his 1^st birthday too!

Girl = Pink?

We all know that Pink = Girl.  But does Girl = Pink?

I grew up saying that I hated pink because I was so tired of it.  I was the first child and first grandchild on one side of the family.  I also happened to be a girl so not only was I spoiled rotten *ahem, like Jimmy* but I was also wrapped in a cotton candy-esque cloud of pink.  At least that's how I felt about pink when I started noticing ALL THE PINK.

Then it just became a thing, to hate pink.  I didn't really hate it but I said I did and held other girls in contempt for wearing or loving pink.  Soooo unoriginal!  I slowly but surely matured and hating pink became a thing that immature children do. Then came the day I bought a pink purse and then a denim skirt with a scarf that had pink in it and I realized you can do pink without being baptized in it.  This is the way pink was meant to be experienced.

I always figured I'd have a daughter and I was never going to ever (never, never, never) use pink on or around her.  Then I figured some pink wouldn't be too bad.  Then I had two boys and that was going to be the end of that.  My life would be blue, orange and green for the rest of my days.  Which I was completely happy with because I like blue, orange and green and that would save me from explaining my childhood aversion to pink to everyone that wanted to bathe her in pink.

And then BONUS BABY!  Baby Lilly.  The baby that would change the color scheme of our lives.  The question remains though, just because she's a girl does that mean she has to wear, live, sleep in and breathe pink?  Will all of her accessories and toys and tights be pink or some variation of pink?  Will I wrap Joey in a pink blanket one night because that's the only clean one available?   Yeah probably for that last one.  But no, we've come a long way baby and pink is not the only girly color out there.  They've even made girly versions of blue, orange and green. 

 

These are just a sampling of the girly things they have to offer now.

What's bound to happen though is that I will protest so much about pink that no one will dare offer up anything with a hint of pink and then I'll be forced to go on a pink rampage to make up for the pink anemia in Lilly's life and closet.  So now I face the realization that I do want pink in my daughter's life, I do!  I'll probably dress her in the most obnoxious frilly clothes and the hugest bows I can find – all the while declaring my repugnance of pink frilly things.  I guess what I'm trying to express here is that when all of her laundry – clean or dirty – is piled up I want it to be a nice mixture of colors, not a sea of pink. 

And please don't get me started on pink camo.  Seriously.  What the heck are you blending in with when you wear pink camo??  Not the woods that's for darn sure!

And Her Name Shall Be...

You should all know by now that Bonus Baby is a…..GIRL!  How many of you were surprised?  Some of you said "girl" with every pregnancy and you were finally right.  Some of you said girl for the first two and then finally said boy and were wrong…again! 

 

The Chinese Calendar predicted girls for my first two and a boy for the last one going to show it only has a 50% chance of being right.  In my case it was wrong 100% of the time.

 

The needle on a string test was right…three times!  We did the test over my palm and it swung in a very definite circle, stopped, then swung in a pendulum pattern, stopped and then a pendulum again!  Going backwards that's the order of my children.  Girl, Boy, Boy!  It worked the same way on my mom. 

 

So what you all don't know yet is the name we've picked for our daughter.  This name has been on the backburner of my mind for years now.  When it was time to actually pull out the girl names I tried to be creative and find something new but none of them jived with us as much as the name I've loved forever.  Within 3 hours of knowing it was a girl we settled on…

 

~Lillianna Grace~

 

She'll be "Lilly" for short and we've begun trying to introduce Jimmy to the idea that Mamma's big belly has a name.  He's successfully said 'Little Seester' but still doesn't really get that it doesn't mean his other 'Seester'. 

 

It still hasn't really sunk in that another girl will be joining this rambunctious bunch.  It's sure to be a completely different experience but I just can't imagine it all yet.  Maybe once I start stocking up on girl things it will sink in a little more.

 

 

Pictures

In collage form:

 

Joey - 9 months!

 

Naptime - Jimmy and Joey

 

Belly Belly

 

 

 

 

Just Rambling

I have this big, time consuming, tedious spreadsheet project I'm supposed to be working on.  I'm about halfway through the first part and that's taken me about 12 hours spread across a couple of weekends and on top of my normal daily work.  I still have the second half of the first part and then the second part. And it's supposed to be done before Friday if possible. 

 

But I'm writing a blog instead.

 

I unconsciously put myself on a blog strike these last few weeks.  Partly because it's annoying to not be able to work on my blog at work, partly because I didn't have a lot of inspiration but mostly because I needed to keep my mouth shut.  I know how you all are – analyzing everything I say or don't say, the tone I said it in and any other variables you can add to the equation, in a valiant attempt to determine the gender of Bonus Baby before I'm ready to reveal.  I'm ready to reveal!  In fact I've already revealed to the people closest to me, geographically speaking and a few not so close geographically speaking.  I've mailed out the cute gender reveal cards to those far and away and am waiting not so patiently to hear that they've all been received.  When that happens I can publicly announce the gender and name of our last child.  See!  I couldn't even add an adjective to describe our last child for fear you'd all read into that too!

 

I'm mostly posting this out of impatience and a desire to not work on that gigantic spreadsheet – not cause I have any real thing to say.  So if you're reading this and you've already received your card in the mail (which would be a miracle since it's been less than 24 hours since I put it in the mailbox) and you HAVEN'T called to congratulate or commiserate or just out of pure courtesy….well, how dare you!  I'm waiting anxiously by my text inbox for your comments.  I'm about to draft an announcement post with the dashingly beautiful name of our next and final child. 

 

*I only said "dashing" and "beautiful" to throw you off.

 

I'll stop rambling for now.  Look for my next post in approximately 20 minutes full of new pictures.